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There are so many things wrong with this clip, it's hard to know where to begin, but it's fairly obvious that conservatives completely fail when it comes to their attempts at "humor" and Steven Crowder isn't worried about making an ass out of himself on television. But of course, the Fox-bots loved it.

Here's more from Raw Story but there's a problem with their headline. Crowder isn't wearing a bear costume. He admits it's a monkey costume during this follow up interview on Fox Thursday morning.

Fox contributor in bear suit steals kids’ Halloween candy to make ‘point’ about Obama:

In a video published to YouTube on Tuesday, Crowder — whose strange attempts at conservative-styled satire have made the pages of The Raw Story before — does exactly that in an effort to make a point about progressive tax policies couched in something President Barack Obama said 14 years ago about how he favors “redistribution” of government resources “to make sure that everybody’s got a shot.” Video of the comment was widely circulated by Republicans in September, although most of the focus was on the word “redistribution” (a stand-in for “taxes”), and not the portion where Obama praised “competition” and market-driven “innovation.”

Despite numerous law enforcement outfits warning that children and parents should be wary of strangers wearing bear costumes in public, Crowder somehow managed to get flocks of kids to come up to his camera-rigged car. “You just stole my candy!” one of the kids in the video yells. Another one threatens to call the police.

“Is that your costume? You didn’t make that shirt, you didn’t build that,” Crowder told a group of visibly angry children, referencing the misleading Obama quote that Republicans built their nominating convention around. He went on to inform his unsuspecting victims that he’s going to “redistribute” their candy so that everyone’s the same, which was somehow supposed to teach the children a lesson about why they should vote for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Voting age in the U.S., however, is 18. Read on...



Daily Show: Barack Obama is the Luckiest Dude on the Planet

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After opening up this segment with something I could have done without, which is carrying a bit of water for the Fox/Romney theme that President Obama is somehow not doing his job or spending enough time talking to world leaders because he didn't have any one on one meetings while the United Nations was in town and heaven forbid he spent a part of his day appearing on The View, therefore he should be losing this election, he manged to get some good jabs in on Mittens and the GOP clown show he ran against in the primaries.

After calling President Obama "the luckiest dude on the planet" because of the constant string of gaffs and flip flops from Mitt Romney on everything from saying Americans have adequate health care because of access to emergency rooms -- to his claiming he has an economic plan and then telling a group of wealthy fundraisers that electing him alone will satisfy that confidence fairy and magically revive the economy -- to his saying he shouldn't be elected president if he over paid his taxes-- to his double-talk on income redistribution -- Stewart reminded the viewers of just why President Obama is not losing this race given the terrible economy and turmoil across the Middle East and Africa.

Stewart wrapped things up by reminding viewers just how Romney managed to get the nomination to begin with, showing highlights from the Republican primary race. As Stewart noted, "That concludes our segment, Mitt Romney is the 2nd luckiest dude on the planet." I'd have a hard time disagreeing with that sentiment.



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As Media Matters reported, Fox's John Stossell went on Fox & Friends to discuss his special Rich Man, Poor Man which aired on both of their networks, and made some dubious claims about what's happened to income growth for those who are living in poverty:

Fox Mangles Data To Claim "The Poor" Are Getting "Richer":

Fox's John Stossel claimed that it's a "myth" that "the poor are getting poorer" and that they are actually getting "richer." In fact, incomes for the bottom fifth have shown almost no growth in recent decades, and the numbers Stossel used to support his argument were cherry-picked.

Incomes At The Bottom Have Shown Almost No Growth In Decades; Stossel Calls It "Getting Richer"

Stossel: "The Rich Have Gotten Richer, But So Have The Poor." From Fox News' Fox & Friends:

STOSSEL: There are just two myths. One is that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. And the truth is yes, over time the rich have gotten richer, but so have the poor -- 20 percent richer since I was in college. [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 5/24/12]

CBPP: "The Era Of Shared Prosperity Ended In The 1970s." From the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities report:

Census family income data show that the era of shared prosperity ended in the 1970s and illustrate the divergence in income that has emerged since that time. CBO data allow us to look at what has happened to comprehensive income since 1979 -- both before and after taxes -- and offer a better view of what has happened at the top of the distribution.

As Figure 2 shows, between 1979 and 2007, average income after taxes in the top 1 percent of the distribution rose 277 percent, meaning that it nearly quadrupled. That compares with increases of about 40 percent in the middle 60 percent of the distribution and 18 percent in the bottom fifth.

The report included this graph:

20120524-distribution.jpg

[Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 3/5/12]

Media Matters has a lot more charts and information in their post along with debunking more of what Stossel said on the air.

Here's the promo for Stossel's special which you can watch the very beginning of in the clip above from Fox Business Channel where it originally aired this week: Rich Man, Poor Man:

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