Bad Deeds for 7-25-2011

 

Fox News Host Falsely Blames Muslims for Norway Attacks – [Last] Friday night on The O’Reilly Factor, guest host Laura Ingraham did a brief report on the terrorist attacks that killed dozens of people in Norway. She began by saying, “In the ‘Back of the Book’ segment tonight, two deadly terror attacks in Norway, in what appears to be the work, once again, of Muslim extremists.” Several news outlets were already reporting at the time the show aired that the suspect in the attacks was not linked to any Islamist groups, Fox News viewers were left with that impression anyway.

The attacks were actually carried out by a 32-year-old conservative Christian who was strongly opposed to multiculturalism and Islam.

 

Fox News Uses Norway Attack To Say Islamic, Muslim, Al Qaeda 15 Times in Five Minutes – Fox News used the domestic terror attack in Oslo, Norway to say the words “Muslim,” “Islamic,” and “Al Qaeda” a total of 15 times in this five- minute news segment, which was loaded with falsehoods, including that Norway was unprepared — a rather hypocritical comment coming from the speaker, former Bush administration State Department official Christian Whiton. The Bush administration up until 9/ 11 had no interest in terrorism.

For the record, the Oslo, Norway attack was allegedly by Norwegian right- wing “Christian fundamentalist” Anders Breivik, whose actions even prior to the bombing and shooting that left over 90 people dead, could be described as similar to America’s Tea Party, even calling for the formation of a “cultural Euro- Tea Party.“

 

A Few Rich People Still Don’t Want to Pay Their Fair Share – President Franklin Roosevelt: “In 1776 the fight was for Democracy in Taxation. In 1936 there is still the fight. Mister Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once said ‘taxes are the prices we pay for civilized society’. One sure way to determine the social conscience of a government is to examine the way taxes are collected and how they are spent. And one sure way to determine the social conscience of an individual is to get his tax reaction. Taxes, after all are the dues we pay for the privilege of membership in an organized society. And as society becomes more civilized government, national and state and local, is called on to assume more obligations to its citizens. The privileges of membership in a civilized society are vastly increased in modern times. But I am afraid we still have many who still do not recognize their advantages and want to avoid paying their dues.

To divide fairly among the people the obligation to pay for these benefits has been a major part of our struggle to maintain Democracy in America. Ever since 1776, that struggle has been between two forces; on the one hand there has been a vast majority of citizens who believe the benefits of democracy should be extended and who are willing to pay their fair share to extend them. And on the other hand, there has been a small but powerful group which has fought the extension of these benefits because they did not want to pay a fair share of their cost. That was the lineup in seventeen hundred and seventy-six and it’s the lineup today. And I am confident that once more, in nineteen thirty-six democracy in taxation will win. Here is my principle, and I think it’s yours too; Taxes shall be levied according to ability to pay. That is the only American principle.”

 

Donald Trump Reveals He’s Let America Default Just So Obama Would Not Get Re-Elected – Donald Trump told Fox News Monday that Republicans should make sure President Barack Obama isn’t re-elected by refusing any comprehensive deal to raise the debt ceiling, even going so far as to suggest that the country should be allowed to default on its debts.

“Obama doesn’t want the six-month extension because that almost ensures he doesn’t get re-elected,” Trump told Fox & Friends hosts Steve Doocy, Gretchen Carlson and Brian Kilmeade. “I think, frankly, the Republicans would be crazy, unless they get 100 percent of the deal that they want right now, to make any deal.”

“The fact is that unless Republicans get 100 percent of what they want — and that may include getting rid of Obamacare which is a total disaster — they should not make a deal other than a minor extension which would take you before the elections which would ensure that Obama doesn’t get elected, which would be a great thing.”

 

Boehner Can’t Get His Story Straight About the Debt Ceiling Negotions – It appears that John Boehner is suffering from multiple personality disorder over the debt ceiling stand-off, that’s because he is. Torn between his duty to the national interest as Speaker of the House and to the Tea Party caucus that put him there, for months Boehner has ping-ponged between truth and lies on the debt ceiling. Long before he breached faith with the President on Friday, John Boehner tried to have it both ways on virtually every aspect of the debt ceiling crisis manufactured by the Republican Party he struggles to lead.

As Jed Lewison documented, Speaker Sybil couldn’t get his story straight on Friday’s walkout. While he insisted during his press conference afterward that “we had an agreement on a revenue number,” in a letter that same day to House Republicans Boehner insisted that “A deal was never reached, and was never really close.”

Regards,

Jim