That Liberal Media….

Living in the south is a challenge. You have beautiful Tennessee mountains and lakes, wonderful food, usually pleasant weather, and people are super friendly. So many things to do….just be careful to keep your politics to yourself……and be able to quote the Bible.

The news channel of choice in homes and restaurants, banks and bars (when it's NOT football season) is FOX news…..or MSNBC for the stock market crawl along the bottom while "contributors" are spewing nonsense.( We do live in West Knox.) The Knox News Sentinel, like all papers these days, prints day-old stories and opinions usually taken from somewhere else. Just lifted and never background checked as is the preferred method of journalism these days.

Today, for example the Why Clinton's Email Trouble Matters, a page long opinion piece was taken from a several day-old Los Angeles Times article. The author, John R Schindler, bills himself as a security consultant and former NSA officer. He forgot to mention this:
http://gawker.com/nsa-spook-turned-twitter-pundit-goes-dark-after-dick-pi-1594848048

Then there is the third-of-a-page long Liberals Hypocritical On The Subject Of Constitutional Tinkering by Jonah Goldberg….of the National Review and the American Enterprise Institute, two of the most influential conservative outlets….next to the Heritage Foundation. (Think school vouchers, government censorship of the arts, welfare reform, prayer in schools, lower taxes on business, anti-Obamacare and conservative corporation CEOS on its board of trustees.)

Of course, there was the expected 8 Thumbs Down For The Iran Deal article from the GOP legislators this state is so proud of. And you don't want to forget the "Take America Back" Tump-the-Bombastic Tour in Nashville that had Tea Partiers from all over the state in a tizzy.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatches/2015/08/30/the-classiest-political-ad-ever-made/

Letters to The Editor make you want to tear your hair out…..can people REALLY believe what they are spewing?
"I will never support a politician who promotes gun control or patronize any business that discriminates against the Second Amendment. When seconds count, help is minutes away." 
or

"The world is indeed getting better because of liberty and freedom, but it does not come from the left. In the future when the world celebrates its freedoms, the left will be left out."

Guess the writer forgot about the Right's views on women's reproductive rights, freedom from fundamentalist religious views, voting rights, a living wage, economic inequality, gun control, social contracts…..and a livable planet. But hey, you can "study it all out" in your daily newspaper.

Hmmmm, This Will Be Interesting

For those of us who try to get to the truth of a matter, and do our background research, having to wade through "conspiracy" theories, RWNJ websites, gossip and other MSM misinformation takes up most of our time. Usually the Newsmax, Breitbart, or anything with patriot, freedom, or christian in the moniker gives it away…

"Google could launch an effort to keep trolls and bad information at bay, with a program that would rank websites according to veracity, and sort results according to those rankings. Currently, the search engine ranks pages according to popularity, which means that pages containing unsubstantiated celebrity gossip or conspiracy theories, for example, show up very high."

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/page/315476_Anti-Science_Advocates_Are_Fre

"By checking pages against that database, and cross-referencing related facts, the research team believes the algorithm could assign each page a truth score. Pages with a high proportion of false claims would be bumped down in the search results."      http://www.wcvb.com/money/the-truth-according-to-google/31602880

It would be a help to be able to cross check facts, numbers, authors and their political relationships, and the history behind the current debates. And to "follow the money…." Only then are you able to form an intelligent opinion on any subject.

Of course there are certain portions of the citizenry who are opposed to such a thing…

“I worry about this issue greatly… My site gets a significant portion of its daily traffic from Google,” Anthony Watts, who runs a popular blog for climate change deniers, told FoxNews.com.

But in the end…

"it's not really true that the facts have a liberal bias. Or a conservative one. That line was a joke……... The truth is that facts don't have any bias at all; they just sit there and exist. It's we who have the biases."
http://tinyurl.com/lkesaru

UPDATE:

Aside from mostly ignoring the GOP-led Beghazi report findings,  here's their idea of "fair and balanced" coverage:

How, exactly, did Fox News cover the House Benghazi report? Fox's headline is "CIA gathered intelligence on weapons to Syria: Benghazi report." What the hell does that even mean? That's not burying the lede. That's changing the lede into a word salad. Here are the first three paragraphs from the Fox News article online:

http://tinyurl.com/ngjpndf

The headline on our Sunday television section in the Knoxville News read as follows: NEW LEVEL OF FOX NEWS DOMINANCE DEMANDS ANALYSIS, NOT DISMISSAL

I was of course intrigued because there is not enough money in the world for us to have this network on in our home..…and disgruntled because this area of the country needs NO encouragement to hate everything or anybody that does not subscribe to their conservative point of view. 

Seems like the main gist of the article was based on the premise:
"I think one of the reasons for this latest evolution of ratings dominance might be that Fox was a far better watchdog on the Obama White House than any other TV news organization. It took the heat and the blowback from an administration that showed an enmity for the press not seen on Pennsylvania Avenue since the dark days of Richard Nixon, but it stayed the course. And now with viewers seeing the contempt this administration had for them and the truth, they respect what Fox did the last six years."      http://tinyurl.com/mq6vx2f 

Hmmmm…in another article by Mr. Zurawik he notes that his faith in the media (namely "60 Minutes" and CNN) began slipping after the 2008 election. Coincidence, I'm sure.   http://tinyurl.com/qftmvwb

I hate to bring this to Mr. Zurawik's attention…but FOX News always lies and is proud of it. They even endured six different hearings to get to this conclusion.

"The attorneys for Fox, owned by media baron Rupert Murdoch, argued the First Amendment gives broadcasters the right to lie or deliberately distort news reports on the public airwaves.

In its six-page written decision, the Court of Appeals held that the Federal Communications Commission position against news distortion is only a “policy,” not a promulgated law, rule, or regulation. Fox aired a report after the ruling saying it was “totally vindicated” by the verdict."

http://foxnewsboycott.com/resources/fox-can-lie-lawsuit/

Or perhaps it's this:  "Or maybe, it's what some critics of Fox say: That those who watch the channel only want to hear one side of the story, and that's all that Fox gives them."

I am so glad we live in a democratic nation….with liberty and justice for all. A land where a person's race, color, religion or creed has no bearing on how they are treated. A place where thoughtful discourse is conducted in the pursuit of rightful actions…….

Thanks to Michael Luciano at The Daily Banter:

http://tinyurl.com/n6p4we2

And of course, the police and other officials are going to get to the bottom of the Micheal Brown shooting ( http://tinyurl.com/qbrt8x5  ) any day now. I am sure shooting and killing an unarmed black teenager walking in the middle of the street was obviously called for…..they just have to dig deep enough to "find the facts" and also discredit the friend who saw it all happen. (Good thing this young man obtained a lawyer early in to the investigation….unusual events have been known to happen in such cases…)

Beaverceek, Ohio where we moved from a few years ago, also had a shooing....this time in Walmart. Again there are questions as to why a black man who was holding a BB gun sold in the store was shot by police. Alerted by an ex-Marine in the store with his wife, who followed him around, a rush of people to the exits also caused the death of a woman with a medical condition. Of course, a store video of all this would probably simplify things...http://tinyurl.com/qj4e2ds . Silly me! 

If we could just keep all those brown-skinned, poor little disease ridden immigrant children from our borders….. 

If we could just keep those "other" families in their place, in their own failing schools, taking low wage jobs, blaming them for all our troubles…

If we could just get everyone believing the Bible is the ruling concept of our country, that no religion besides fundamentalism is even worth considering, and that guns are the answer to a peaceful coexistence…

….then this truly would be a caucasian conservative Christian paradise.

Worth Thinking About…...

“The prevention of conception is not in itself forbidden or sinful providing the reasons for it are in harmony with the total revelation of God for married life” and that the “method of preventing pregnancy is not so much a religious as a scientific and medical question to be determined in consultation with one’s physician.”  

http://tinyurl.com/lcpg576

(Thanks, Jamelle Bouie)

Today's Conservative Party keeps on in it's glorious tradition of tying itself in knots………or what I'd call marching on it's highway of hypocrisy. I realize time can change someone's point of view; life itself sometimes forces intellectual growth. But the Republican Party of today is on a mission……backwards. Citizens United. Voter suppression. Stalling on sensible immigration reform…not the "stay here pay taxes but no healthcare, education, or citizenship" route. Profits on oil and gas production for corporations, but lousy water and air for you. Making women the chattel of their husbands, starting with reproductive rights then moving on to education and voting privileges. You get my drift.

All it takes is a chip here, a crack there. A school voucher here, a revised textbook there. Remove a voting place here, pass an ALEC bill there.

WAKE UP, PEOPLE.

Respect For Governing, Southern Style

An article from one of the esteemed (?) columnists in the Knoxville News this morning. (Hope you have your Mimosa ready to gulp....):

A couple of Tennessee Republican congressmen this week questioned officials involved in the Gestapo-esque targeting of groups disloyal to the Fuehrer, er, president, by the Internal Revenue Service. 

Rep. Scott DesJarlais, remembered high school government classes. “We were told what a great country we are because of the freedom we have — the freedom of the First Amendment, the freedom of speech, the right to hold elections without the fear of tyranny or being oppressed,” DesJarlais said. 

 Besides the stonewalling, Obama’s IRS Heroes, like the leader they’re protecting, project a smug, self-righteous disdain for conservative members of Congress,.....http://tinyurl.com/pddayao

You all may remember Scott DesJarlais: a Tea Party member, Family Values conservative who is also a doctor. (You with me so far? ) He also had a little problem with bullying his ex-mistress and forcing her to have an abortion. That last part isn't true he said, because she really wasn't even pregnant.....but he forced his soon-to-be-ex-wife to have two.

Then another mistress told of how he would write prescriptions for recreational pharmaceuticals for whomever he was dating...

Yes, I know....it all caught up with him: he was fined 500 dollars.

"Tennessee authorities apparently believe sexual exploitation of women is less serious than speeding." 

http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/other/301685-gop-rep-desjarlais-fined-for-affairs-with-patients

For those of you who have never been intimately acquainted with the old South..this is how it's done. Of course there are LOTS of us doing our best to change that. And CONGRESS these days isn't helping....

Oh, and that bit about the IRS...they are really just pissed about the attention it's drawing TO them. Probably afraid the rest of us will find out about Karl Rove's groups, the Koch Brothers, and.........

Does This Look Like A Fish To You???

This graph, lifted from the report (on the x-axis, -1 is liberal and 1 is conservative), shows the damage the wrong messaging can do: With no messaging, roughly 60 percent of all participants picked the CFL; a pro-environment message boosted support in liberals but cut it sharply in conservatives.@Grist.org

"In other words, in “territorial defense” of their climate change denying political agenda, conservatives are less likely to use a product if it’s labeled as energy-saving, making the perverse point that, either “we don’t need no stinking energy-saving stuff because we’ve got our denial party-line to rely on,” OR “our stance is right, yours is wrong; we’re definitely NOT buying into yours, so we will not be buying these damn efficiency light bulbs, thank you.”

Read more at Addicting Info: http://tinyurl.com/k9ker7v

 Too bad it has to be one way or the other:

"But This Country Was Founded On The Bible..."

We've all heard: 

"This nation, without reasonable doubt, was established on the firm foundation of Scripture. Our forefathers, brilliant as they were, openly acknowledged the true genius behind the new system to be the eternal principles of God's Word. The most fundamental concepts of the republic find their roots in the Bible. From the beginning, the basis for law and government in American society was decidedly biblical. What's more, the new land was forged through the energy of the Judeo-Christian work ethic."

http://patrioticnation.blogspot.com/2007/10/was-usa-built-on-christian-principles.html

Really?? There seems to have been a "lost in translation" moment somewhere during the last 300 or 400 years. This was in evidence last week when the Farm Bill was being debated in Congress by several lawmakers, including Juan Vargas and Doug LaMalfa. Included in the bill, which increased farm subsidies, was a cut to food stamps. The Repubs hate food stamps. Several "Christians" defended the cuts by saying "the Bible encourages people to help each other but doesn't dictate what the federal government should do. We should be doing this as individuals, helping the poor."  (But...the Constitution....)

http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2013/05/house_panel_debates_cutting_fo.html

Yep, this is a Christian nation...no Muslims, no Jews, no Pagans, no Buddhists...at least in THEIR minds.  And remember the Bible is your FRIEND...when you want to find a reason for mans basic egotism and selfishness.

In that same Bible that the Conservative Right wants to use to point out THEIR standing, in the eyes of the Lord, you will also find: 

Matthew 25:35-40 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

James 2:14-17 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

Romans 15:1 We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves.

Luke 3:10-11 And the crowds asked him, “What then shall we do?” And he answered them, “Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise.”

Yes, there have to be checks and balances in all programs. No, big oil companies or those such as Apple, Exxon, GE, and Microsoft do NOT need any government subsidies. But the people who actually produce for those companies do, at this time.

Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-Calif.) cited Ephesians 2:8-9, which says, "for by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast."  This quote, I'm afraid to tell him, has NOTHING to do with caring for the poor. Jesus is talking about being saved by grace, but not by "good works." Your faith will be what saves you...not just pretending that you are doing good things, or keeping account of all the "good " that you think you are doing. Which, by the way, leads me to this verse:

Matthew 7:20 - Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

Compassionate Conservative Christian Counseling

 According to the Tennessean, the Tennessee chapter of Christian group Family Action Council drafted a measure designed to “bar schools from disciplining students if they decline to treat clients with “goals, outcomes or behaviors that conflict with a sincerely held religious belief of the student.”
 Basically, the bill gives these counselors the right to deny help to any student they deem unworthy based on religious grounds.

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/03/13/republicans-at-it-again-new-tennessee-bill-allows-religious-counselors-to-reject-lgbt-students/

If this country HAD been founded entirely on Christian Principles, as the Right would have us believe....we, as a nation, are to be ashamed of ourselves. The Republicans, who seem to claim they LOVE the Bible and it's teachings and who leave no stone unturned to make sure EVERYBODY in this country believes only as they do, apparently have skipped over parts of the New Testament.

Matthew 25:31-46

King James Version (KJV)

³⁴ Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
³⁵ For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
³⁶ Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
³⁷ Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?
³⁸ When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?
³⁹ Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
⁴⁰ And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
⁴¹ Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
⁴² For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:
⁴³ I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.
⁴⁴ Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
⁴⁵ Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.

Where does it mention that cutting social services, eliminating a safety net for those seniors who have worked all their lives, taking food out of the mouths of poor children, denigrating those whose jobs have been taken away but who are looking for ANY kind of work, seeing that only the wealthy have access to affordable health insurance or higher education, gutting our public school system, deciding that contraception is not necessary, making sure that the votes of nonwhite folks are not counted, and humiliating God's people who were born with a different sexual orientation than theirs?

“With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil—that takes religion”

Steve Weinberg.

I Don't Even Know Where To Begin...

"What will religion look like in the year 2060?

Conservative Christians will be treated as second class citizens, much like African Americans were prior to civil rights legislation in the 1960s.

Family as we know it will be drastically changed with the state taking charge of the children beginning at birth.

Marriage will include two, three, four or any number of participants. Marriage will not be important, with individuals moving in and out of a “family” group at will.

Churchbuildings will be little used, with many sold to secular buyers and the money received going to the government.

Churches will not be allowed to discuss any political issues, even if it affects the church directly.

Tax credit given to churches and non-profit organizations will cease.

Christian broadcasting will be declared illegal based on the separation of church and state. The airwaves belong to the government, therefore they cannot be used for any religious purpose.

We will have, or have had, a Muslim president.

Cities with a name from the Bible such as St. Petersburg, Bethlehem, etc. will be forced to change their name due to separation of church and state.

Groups connected to any religious affiliation will be forced out of health care. Health centers get tax money from the state, making it a violation of church and state.

                             Get involved! Sign THE STATEMENT."

                                              Sincerely,

                                       Donald E. Wildmon

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2013/01/02/1386001/afa-christians-2060/ 

This little gem was mailed out recently by the AFA to it's members. Darn...I was SOOOOO looking forward to receiving mine in the mail. I needed more paper to go into the recycling bin.

And they wonder why people are distancing themselves from Conservatism and their brand of Christianity.......

........Style or Manners ?

       

One of the definitions of the word conservative, after the obvious political, religious and philosophical explanations to consider, was this:

a : tending or disposed to maintain existing views, conditions, or institutions :

b : marked by moderation or caution: conservative 

estimate

c : marked by or relating to traditional norms of taste, elegance, style, or manners

Somewhere, somehow, sometime in the last four years those words were erased from the book. From The Tea Party Town Halls to "You lie" being shouted out on the floor Congress. From anonymous tweets to those posted by political officials and pundits. From Fox "news people" to preachers in pulpits.

The Speaker of the House doesn't want to have his picture taken with the President...

http://www.politico.com/click/stories/1101/boehner_declines_state_dinner_invite.html

This has happened before:

A Boehner aide confirmed that the House speaker was invited to the dinner but will not be attending. Boehner also turned down invitations to the previous two state dinners held during Obama’s presidency, one honoring Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in November 2009, and the most recent state dinner honoring Mexican President Felipe Calderon in May 2010, the aide said.

Now that the elections are done and sleeves are rolled up to begin the hard work again, this pettiness is over, right? NO! Those on the Right are pouting, throwing out 

conspiracy theories, blaming a now-nonexistant organization (which was cleared of wrong doing the FIRST time),  talking secession, and shouting voter fraud to the high heavens. Basically sticking their tongues out at those of us who made our voices heard. The problem is: we knew what THEY were saying was going to ruin this country and take us backwards. We'd already GONE through all of that. 

How much longer can the childishness, self-serving, narrow mindedness go on? When are grown men (and some women, I'm sorry to say....) going to figure out that THEY are paid by US, and that they are in THEIR positions at OUR election? A government of the people, by the people, for the people......

We went to see Lincoln yesterday.............nothing much has changed since the 1860's.....I swear I saw John Boehner and Mitch McConnell in there.......

The President's Apology Tour

This isn't going to end well....

I'm sure you remember this from a couple years ago:

The President's Apology Tour

By KARL ROVE

President Barack Obama has finished the second leg of his international confession tour. In less than 100 days, he has apologized on three continents for what he views as the sins of America and his predecessors.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124044156269345357.html

Well, we've come a long way, baby. The Republican presumed-candidate for President of the United States is making his European grand tour...and from the impression he's making, he should be apologizing ALREADY:

Diplomacy Romney style: casts doubt on Britain's Olympic preparations; says last thing he wants is for US to be like Europe. Way to go Mitt!
— @jameschappers

Another Romney triumph as he forgets Ed Miliband's name: 'Like you, Mr Leader, I look forward to our conversation here this morning'.
— @jameschappers

Romney blunders again by revealing he's had (supposedly) top secret briefing by John Sawers, MI6 boss. Do we have a new Dubya on our hands?
— @jameschappers

Serious dismay in Whitehall at Romney debut. 'Worse than Sarah Palin.' 'Total car crash'. Two of the kinder verdicts #romneyshambles
— @jameschappers

Can this get any worse for Romney? Boris is now mocking him in front of 60,000 people in Hyde Park #romneyshambles
— @jameschappers

Another verdict from one Romney meeting: 'Apparently devoid of charm, warmth, humour or sincerity' #romneyshambles  #mitthitsthefan
— @jameschappers

James Chapman is a conservative and the editor of the Daily Mail

This isn't "news" to us. We've seen Romney insult NASCAR fans about wearing their ponchos (but he has friends that OWN NASCAR teams....) and make fun of cookies presented to him from a local bakery. We have seen him express profound rage and bewilderment over the President's comments in speeches..and proceed to use the same ones himself within the next week. We've heard him blast the President over supposedly saying "people don't build these companies by themselves" and to back up his speech...use supporters whose main sources of investment & business were government entities. 
http://tinyurl.com/dxcojhs
We've seen and heard from his wife.......

UPDATE:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lnhVWtT0YQ&feature=youtu.be

But I really do feel sorry for the rest of the world having to endure this.
So on behalf of the saner citizens United States: I apologize!


P.S. Britain: If you think THIS is bad......you should have seen the OTHER candidates.....