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From Nicole Sandler's Radio or Not, here's our own Nicole Belle's weekly segment called Fools on the Hill. If you try to catch the show live she's moved to a new time, 10am ET. You can listen to the entire podcast here.

Here's more from Nicole Sandler's blog:

And we’ll continue our Monday tradition of getting together with Crooks & Liars‘ Nicole Belle to dissect the Sunday talking head shows, in a segment we call “Fools on the Hill.”

Here’s what she sent me for today’s show, complete with links to all the clips we’ll comment on today so you can play along at home:

I guess since this weekend marked the 9th anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy, our relationship to the Muslim community was a large theme of the day.

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the chairman behind the Cordoba House, was on This Week and called the attacks now on the Park51 center—especially by partisans like Palin—are “disingenuous”:

http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/david/imam-rauf-palin-attacks-islamic-center-are-0

Reza Aslan did the imam one better. During a roundtable of Meet the Press, Aslan cut down to the essence what many of us who are trying to make a distinction between terrorism and Muslims in general:

http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/reza-aslan-if-you-are-painting-15-billion-

The answer is kind of simple, actually: Islam. But let’s call a spade a spade for a moment. If you are painting 1.5 billion people with the same brush of violence and, and, and extremism, you’re a bigot. And I think what’s, what’s disturbing is the way that that’s become part of the, the, the natural discourse now.

To punctuate this point, Dave Neiwert did a post on 9/11 that noted that the Bipartisan Policy Center just recently released a report titled “Assessing the Terrorist Threat”, and did not note a single homegrown terrorist of a radical, right wing or Christian background, like the guy who wanted to shoot up the Tides Foundation, or Dr. Tiller’s assassination, or the shooters at the Holocaust Museum, the Universalist Unitarian Church, or the Hutaree militia.

http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/assessing-threat-despite-rise-right-

Then we have the same old lies to the people on taxes. I think that this is being calculated as a the biggest arrow in the Republican quiver. I mean, when you have tea party types saying they’ve been taxed enough already (and they’ve already gotten a tax cut by Obama and would not be included in the expiration of the Bush tax cuts) and yet, we’re still having partisans telling us that repealing Bush tax cuts will affect small businesses:

http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/peter-morici-repeats-lie-repealing-bush-ta

Chris Wallace tries to do it too, and new chair of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers Austen Goolsbee sets him straight:

http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/austan-goolsbee-calls-out-chris-wallace-sm

And then finally, Howard Kurtz calls out Hannity for his “deceptive” editing of Obama’s Labor Day speech, ignoring that this is a standard operating procedure for Fox News:

http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/kurtz-calls-out-hannity-his-deceptiv

It’s an exciting time for me. Thanks for bearing with the changes…. radio or not!

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In case you missed it like I did, here's our own Nicole Belle with Nicole Sandler with their Fools on the Hill Sunday talking heads show roundup from past Monday. Nicole Sandler has more here: Grayson & Tudor – Florida Progressives!

And in hour two, Nicole Belle of Crooks & Liars returns for our weekly Fools on the Hill segment, discussing the Sunday talking head shows. Here’s her take on the Sunday shows:

So I think today’s theme is cluelessness:

Chris Matthews asks his panel if the Tea Party will have veto power over the 2012 GOP nominee. First and foremost, they are using Sarah Palin as some benchmark of influence, which is ludicrous. Her endorsement is by no means a shoo-in for any candidate right now, and there’s nothing that says her influence will strengthen in the intervening years. If anything, if she opts to pursue a national candidacy herself, I suspect that the media scrutiny will result in her having even less credibility.

http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/node/39178

It also gives the tea party itself far more credit than they deserve. I think we’ve seen middling electoral success from them in primary races, but they have yet to show themselves successful in full elections and given the polls for Angle, Paul and others, I don’t think they should crow just yet.

Which segues nicely into Howard Dean. He points out to Candy Crowley that although the conventional wisdom is that the party in power suffers electorally in mid-terms, when your alternative is the Party of No, conventional wisdom may be wrong.

http://crooksandliars.com/nicole-belle/howard-dean-name-one-thing-republican

And then we have Dick Armey, the corporate head of the Tea Party, spouting off some truly unbelievable stuff:

http://crooksandliars.com/karoli/dick-armey-medicare-trashes-constitution

He says that Medicare trashes the Constitution. Huh? What does he think those lazy, entitled senior citizens should do? Work to pay for their Alzheimer’s treatment? For proof, he brings up the example of “the” Christian Scientist, whom we apparently should feel bad is being forced to sign up for a doctor to get Social Security. Of course, no one says he has to GO to the doctors, just sign up for Medicare. But again, David Gregory falls down on the job of calling out this crap, and lets Armey filibuster through the segment and not allow Granholm to respond.

And then, in light of the protests on the Cordoba House in NYC over the weekend, Fareed Zakaria wants to remind Americans that we are not in a war with Islam and that al Qaeda hates factions of Islam as bad as they hate us.

http://crooksandliars.com/nicole-belle/fareed-zakaria-gps-al-qaeda-vs-islam

By the way, a commenter made this video of the NYC protests when the haters went after a passerby, who happened to be a construction worker at Ground Zero and not a Muslim.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwaNRWMN-F4&feature=player_embedded

George Will thinks that the Mideast peace process is the biggest obstacle to Mideast peace.

http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/node/39185

Amazingly, I actually agree with him if only for this story:

http://crooksandliars.com/ian-welsh/israeli-pm-natanyahu-america-easily-move

I think if we really want to see Mideast peace, then the US needs to come to grips with the dichotomy between what Israel officially tells us and what they say behind closed doors.

And then Fox chooses to use Judith Miller of all people to discuss the study that American people have lost faith in broadcast news

http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/node/39175

Really, what can you say about them using the person the Bush White House used to feed propaganda about invading Iraq to?

Our own Howie Klein and Rep. Alan Grayson joined the show this week as well. Go over to Nicole's site to listen to the whole show.

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Following President Obama's big speech this Thursday on national security and counterterrorism, The Daily Show's Jon Stewart took the opportunity to go after the Obama administration and the DOJ for their willingness to go after whistleblowers, journalists, potheads, hackers and even people who just lied on their mortgage applications, while refusing to prosecute a single Wall Street banker.

While I agree with Stewart on majority of his criticisms here, I'd use the term "journalist" lightly when it comes to anyone from Fox and as Tommy Christopher over at Mediaite pointed out, James Rosen was not just simply reporting that North Korea wanted to do more nuclear tests to draw the government scrutiny he did, as Stewart asserted here.

I'd also like to hear more about that AP story and what was going on there before rushing to judgement as well, although I think the bigger argument ought to be over all of our privacy rights and just how much of that has been thrown out the window.

In an age following the hysteria right after 9-11 and the Patriot Act and with the NSA pretty well out of control along with most corporations who aren't kept in check with protecting our private information, I'm glad to see there is at long at last some attention being drawn to the subject.

It's pitiful that it took some members of our corporate media finally being subjected to what sadly is potentially perfectly legal overreach for them to care at all about what's been happening to a whole bunch of our citizens for years on end now, and well before Barack Obama was elected president. Maybe they could do something constructive like calling for members of Congress and President Obama to roll back some of the horrid legislation that was passed during the Bush administration. But then, who am I kidding... right? They'd rather just use this as an excuse to pile on with the scandal-mongering we've seen over the last half a year or so.

But back to The Daily Show segment above, when it comes to criticism about these Wall Street bankers run amok and the fact that not a one of them has ever gone to jail, while they're aggressively going after things like medical marijuana dispensaries, or someone who lied about their income on their mortgage papers, or whistleblowers who are actually trying to uncover government malfeasance, and not the Benghazi/IRS Tourette syndrome scandal-mongering we've been subjected to -- by all means, have at them Jon Stewart.

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A host of the Fox News show The Five was so angry that the Justice Department had investigated one of the network's reporters that she told her viewers on Thursday to find anyone who voted for President Barack Obama and "punch them in the face."

"Fox said, we're targets, clearly Media Matters and others have put us on a target list," Fox News host Andrea Tantaros explained on the Thursday edition of her radio show. "And they said, 'Oh, Fox is just crazy! They're just paranoid!' Really? Are we?"

"This is what is happening to our press! This is Obama's America! It's like the Soviet Union," she continued. "He said he would change the country. He said it. And a lot of people voted for him."

"And if you see any of those people today, do me a favor, punch them in the face."

After a commercial break, a caller from South Carolina told Tantaros that he hated Obama, but worried that telling people to punch Obama voters in the face was sending the wrong message.

"To be clear, I didn't say punch Obama in the face," the Fox News host pointed out. "You're going to get me arrested with this type of government."

"If someone voted for him!" she insisted to the caller. "If anyone that you know who voted for President Obama, smack 'em down."

(h/t: Media Matters)

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Hey what do you know -- someone on Morning Joe got to call out a Republican for pulling factoids out of their posterior without Scarborough there screaming over them and interrupting. I guess he was taking a break during this segment. Don't worry though, his co-host Mika Brzezinski did her best to keep up scandal-mongering in his absence.

As a rule, you may as well turn on just Fox and be done with it than to sit through any of this show on MSNBC, but you do have some rare occasions where something like this happens: MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe’ Slams GOP Chair For Insinuating Obama Is Involved In IRS Scandal:

On MSNBC’s Morning Joe Thursday morning, panelist John Heilemann got into a heated argument with GOP Chairman Reince Priebus over President Obama’s role in the targeting of conservative groups applying for 501(c)4 status. Priebus offered a series of comments trying to tie Obama to the scandal — which Republicans have attempted to frame the IRS scandal as Obama’s ‘Watergate’ moment — leading Heilemann to shout “that’s an assertion that’s not actually borne out by any of the facts”:

HEILEMANN: Okay. You used two phrases just now saying we have to wait for the facts but I’m entitled to my opinion and before we have the facts just wait. You then said it’s lawlessness and guerrilla warfare and Obama is in the middle of. You say we need to have all of the facts before we can determine whether President Obama is in the middle of it and now you’re asserting the fact he’s in the middle of it. That is your public tweet.

PRIEBUS: I would say it is consistent. When I start out an investigation and say it’s low level employees in Cincinnati and then you find out there are senior level people in Washington. Then Pfeiffer goes on five Sunday morning shows and says the White House didn’t know anything about this and two days later you figure out that the chief of staff actually knew about it. You have a hundred and, what? 15 visits from Shulman to the White House and 132 Democratic senators pleading with the IRS to investigate this. And the Chief of Staff of the White House is now involved or at least knew about it when — two days earlier Pfeiffer said they didn’t know about it.

HEILEMANN: I thought you said you have the facts you need. If you don’t have the facts you need why are you saying he’s in the middle of it?

Never mind as they noted that the IG's report found nothing of the kind, and as Lawrence O'Donnell has been pointing out over and over again, the real scandal here is that any of these organizations doing political activities have been given tax exempt status as "social welfare" groups.

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Conservative columnist Michelle Malkin on Wednesday asserted that the British people "brought it on themselves" after an apparent terrorist used a meat cleaver to hack a soldier to death in London.

Following Wednesday's horrific slaying, Fox News host Sean Hannity speculated that President Barack Obama would have refused to call the incident a "terrorist attack."

"What do you need to have? Neon lights that say, 'Islamic jihad,' 'Islamic jihad?' I mean, duh," Malkin agreed. "They were screaming at the top of their lungs, 'Allahu Akbar,' and repeatedly swore in the name of Allah that they would continue to fight against us."

"And in large part, unfortunately, in British culture, among the progressives there, they brought it on themselves in some ways because of lax deportation policies, and an unwillingness to screen out and profile Islamic militants who are now doing this in a homegrown manner on British soil," she added. "It's tragic."

Continue reading »

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Conan O'Brien very helpfully produced this ad for conservatives who feel terrorized by Obama's IRS. As the dude in the tricorner hat says:

TEA PARTY GUY: "Filing your taxes can be a little scary, especially if you’re a God-fearing, gun-owning, freedom-loving Republican like myself. The fact is, Obama’s IRS is after us. Luckily, there’s ConservoTax, the only tax software made for conservative taxpayers.”

The segment would have been funnier if the intended targets of this would not be trying to find the 1-800 number for this product.

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The Daily Show's Jon Stewart ripped former Reagan speech writer and fan girl Peggy Noonan for her selective memory on Meet the Press this past Sunday where she seemed to forget all about her former boss St. Ronnie and his problem called Iran-Contra.

STEWART: Now, think hard Peggy Noonan. Never in your lifetime have you seen a scandal this bad? What if the president secretely sold weapons to Iran in return for American hostages and then used the proceeds to illegally fund a bunch of coked up right-wing jungle rapists in Nicaragua? Ring a bell? Here's a hint. You worked in his White House as a high profile speech writer.

Stewart followed up by playing some old footage of her from back in 2001, where she was making excuses for The Gipper and claiming that he "wanted to help the hostages" "but it spun out of control and Reagan by the end was surprised at some of the things that had happened." And of course it was also just "bad luck."

STEWART: Bad luck! Reagan was just on the wrong place at the wrong time. Specifically the White House during his own administration. This Iran-Contra wasn't a ahhmmm... it wasn't a scandal.

NOONAN from 2002: It was a mistake. It wasn't a disaster, but it was a mistake.

STEWART: Mistake! It's like writing the wrong date on a check... or writing the wrong address on a box marked weapons. Oops...

So how about Obama? Is he off the hook then for his mistakes?

Of course it goes without saying that those two aren't held the same standard in Noonan-world. After reading some of her book about her imaginary boyfriend, Stewart wrapped things up by noting:

STEWART: But here's the deal. You can't really get so upset about Obama if you've written the book, Fifty Shades of Greygan.

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Senator Ted Cruz continues to endear himself to his fellow Republicans, saying he doesn't trust either party on the budget. His remarks were particulary pointed towards John McCain as well.

Text via Raw Story:

“Madame President,” Cruz said to Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), who was presiding over the Senate session, “the senior senator from Arizona urged this body to trust the Republicans. Let me be clear, I don’t trust the Republicans.”

“And I don’t trust the Democrats,” he continued after a beat. “And I think a whole lot of Americans likewise don’t trust the Republicans and the Democrats because it is leadership in both parties that has gotten us into this mess.”

Considering that Cruz is expected to run in 2016 for his party's nomination one wonders how he'll get any support, beyond the right wing fringe. He certainly won't win any popularity contests among his peers, but that's not really the point with someone like Cruz.

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Conservative radio host Glenn Beck on Wednesday compared the U.S. government to "rapists" over recent so-called scandals, from the Internal Revenue Service's practice of scrutinizing conservative groups to last year's terrorist attacks in Benghazi.

In a bizarre rant on his radio show, Beck said that he didn't know why Congress was bothering with an investigation into the scandals because the federal government had been building a massive spying database in Utah.

"What is being built in Utah is the largest storage facility ever known to mankind," he explained. "They are storing all of the information. They have already admitted during the Boston bombings that they collect all emails and file it. Why are you asking the White House for the emails? Who is this security system for? Is it to protect the American people?"

"What the hell are we doing? What's wrong with us, America?" he continued. "You paid for it. You own it. You're the boss or are they? Why ask for it? Just go into the system that we paid for and you built for for our -- quote -- protection. You want to find it? Why are you waiting? The more you wait, the more time they have to delete. Go in and get it. You have it."

"Or is that security system you built for our protection not really for our protection?"

Beck added: "The American people have just been raped. Why are you asking rapists to hurry up with the swab test?"

(h/t: Right Wing Watch)