Fox News’s Todd Starnes is sick and tired of ‘South Park’ and Hollywood getting a free pass. The Fox News commentator participated in the Values Voter Summit panel on “Religious Hostility in America” over the weekend.

We have the seen the administration come out and say, "we condemn anyone who denigrates religious faith." And they come out in regards to this anti-Muslim film.

 

Well, that's well and good, but my question is, when has the administration condemned the anti-Christian films that are coming out of Hollywood? Where are the federal investigations into shows like ‘South Park,’ which has denigrated all faiths?

 

Where is the outrage when people of the Christian faith are subjected to this humiliation that is coming out of Hollywood?

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[H/t Heather]

Mark Steyn is one if the bigger non-American wankers Fox News employs. He may not get to vote, and he may not have to pay any American taxes, but he sure knows what poor Americans should have to do if they earn a meager ten grand a year:

STEYN: I think if you're gonna have an income tax, and if you earn more than, let's say ten thousand dollars a year, you ought to make a contribution to the federal treasury. 'Cause if you don't, then there's something wrong with the system. It's more redistributionist than Scandinavia!

For Steyn, I guess making ten grand is living high on the hog. But now that you mention it: Aren't conservatives against anyone paying any kind of tax? If so, then why doesn't he say they should not have to pay a penny?

And then there's Steyn's fright (and Neil Cavuto's too) at the very thought of living in a socialist nightmare like they have in Scandinavia. Oh, the horror. The horror.

This is as critical a election as we'll see in our lifetimes, and these heels only remind us why: When they natter on about their phony 47 percent who "don't pay taxes," they make clear that there's no room for the elderly and the poor and the needy and, most of all, the compassionate on their political boat.

For what it's worth, the minimum annual income level for paying federal taxes is about $16,000. Steyn wants to lower that to $10,000 -- and at the same time, hang on to those massive tax cuts for millionaires. Funny how that works.

Steyn: We have healthy people in their early fifties going on permanent social security disability because they’ve given up hope of finding employment. Is that America?

I'll let you guys dissect that bit of hackery.

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The Romney campaign needs to get themselves some better spokespeople if they're going to continue to say things like this: Mary Matalin: Thanks To Romney, We Can Single Out ‘Parasites’:

Conservative commentator Mary Matalin hailed Mitt Romney's "47 percent" line on CNN as good news for Republicans.

"There are makers and takers, there are producers and there are parasites," she said. "Americans can distinguish between those who have produced and paid in through no fault of their own and because of Obama's horrible polices who cannot get a job or are underemployed. That's what the campaign is about."

Matalin really needs to put down the Ayn Rand novels and find somewhere else to get her talking points if she wants to stop alienating everyone in the country other than the extreme right-wing, libertarian leaning Republican base. Most people don't believe poor are causing our problems in the United States, or that they don't pay enough in taxes. Quite the opposite, in fact. But if you listen to Lady McCheney here, it's those lazy, mooching, welfare recipients that refuse to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps that are destroying America.

As Hilary Rosen reminded her, it's not the 1960's any more.

Full transcript below the fold.

(John Amato: This reminds me of the time that Glenn Beck called me a parasite.)

Continue reading »

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As Media Matters noted, if Mitt Romney was hoping to find some friendly territory after the previous day with the leaked tapes of his "47 percent" rant and the disastrous press conference that followed later that evening, he wasn't going to find any friendlier territory than Neil Cavuto's show on Fox.

Romney Turns To Fox News' Chief "47 Percent" Antagonist: Neil Cavuto:

Mitt Romney, taking a considerable amount of heat over leaked videos showing him bashing 47 percent of voters as incorrigible moochers, will reportedly sit down with Fox News' Neil Cavuto this afternoon for an interview. From a damage control perspective, that move makes a lot of sense. You'd be hard-pressed to find a media figure more antagonistic toward the poor, more contemptuous of recipients of government benefits, and more sympathetic to Romney's line of attack than Neil Cavuto.

To recap, Mother Jones published a surreptitiously filmed video of Romney at a fundraiser telling donors that "there are 47 percent who are with [President Obama], who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims ... These are people who pay no income tax." Romney added: "My job is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives."

It's an argument tailor-made for Cavuto's sensibilities.

Lots more there with Cavuto trashing the poor as moochers and bemoaning the rich being asked to pay more in taxes with lots of video to boot. And as TPM noted, Mittens decided to play the "I know you are, but what am I?" game again during the interview as well -- Mitt Romney To Obama: No, You Have A Hidden Video Problem:

Continue reading »

Chicago teachers have voted to suspend their strike and will return to school this morning. The full contract won't be revealed until after the membership ratifies it:

The vote, with 98 percent in support of suspension, was not a final vote on the union contract but rather an agreement to suspend the strike pending a final vote on the agreement hammered out between Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the Chicago school board and the teacher’s union over the weekend.

What remains unclear is which side, if either, emerges from the walkout victorious.

With details of the contract yet to be revealed, we have little to go on beyond the statement of Chicago Teacher’s Union president Karen Lewis who noted, “We said that we couldn’t solve all the problems of the world with one contract and it was time to end the strike.”

Lewis’ remark would suggest that the union failed to get everything it hoped to achieve.

Bilingual elementary school language teacher America Olmeda added, “I think this contract was better than what they offered. They tried to take everything away.”

Also unknown is the impact the hearing set for tomorrow in a Chicago courtroom had on the teachers’ decision to go back to their classrooms. Mayor Rahm Emanuel had brought the court action in reliance on a state law that prohibits teacher walkouts when they are “strikes of choice” rather than a strike designed to address an economic issue.

While it appears that the parties had agreed on a 16 percent hike in salaries over the next four years, the strike was called over the failure of the parties to come to terms on how teacher performance is to be evaluated along with disagreement over union’s demand that teachers who have been laid-off get the first crack at open positions.

Teachers aren't completely happy with the offer, according to the Chicago Tribune:

The voice vote was taken after some 800 delegates convened at a union meeting hall near Chinatown to discuss and debate a tentative contract. Union leaders had already signed off on the agreement with Chicago Public Schools.

"We said we couldn't solve all the problems. . .and it was time to suspend the strike," CTU President Karen Lewis said at a news conference after the vote.

“The issue is, we cannot get a perfect contract. There’s no such thing as a contract that will make all of us” happy, Lewis said.

But “do we stay on strike forever until every little thing we want can be gotten?” she said.

“I’m so thrilled that people are going back, all of our members are glad to be back with their kids. It’s a hard decision to make to go out, and for some people it's hard to make the decision to go back in,” Lewis said.

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If this is the Romney campaign's idea of damage control, they're in trouble -- Romney campaign releases video titled: "Mitt Doesn't Disdain the Poor" (seriously):

This is for real. (Click then scroll down, the video is still there - the first version was pulled by the Romney campaign, Buzzfeed has a second version they got from the TV station and it's still live.)

Wow, it sounds like an Onion piece. Titling it "Mitt doesn't disdain the poor." What's next? "Mitt doesn't rip the heads off bunnies?"

If you have to say it, you've already lost.

And using Mrs. Romney again! She's like the red-shirted characters on Star Trek. When they show up in a scene you know something bad is about to happen, though in her case it means it's already happened. To bring her out every single time the campaign makes a disastrous mistake. At this point she's not fixing the problem anymore, she's telegraphing it.

Buzzfeed reports that the Romney campaign has pulled the video (someone figured out that "I'm really not a monster" (or a witch) videos don't tend to go over terribly well with the voters).

Mitt doesn't really hate poor people. Just ask queen Ann if you don't believe him.

Mitt Romney is having a bad week. And so is Rupert Murdoch. Hump days don't get much better than this.

Squashed: Earning minimum wage but think you should have some "skin in the game?" All you need to do is work 24 hours a day.

Paul Bibeau: The Middle East exists, even when we aren't thinking about it.

Scary Lawyer Guy (well worth following on twitter, btw): Mitt Romney is bad at running for President.

And then there's this, Wally. Lapham's Quarterly: Campaign Promises from Mark Twain, 1879.

Round-up by Bill Wolfrum of William K. Wolfrum Chronicles. Send tips to mbru AT crooksandliars DOT com

An entirely appropriate response to The 47% Speech. h/t Lapham's Quarterly, "It Tolls For Thee, Mitt."

Open Thread below...

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A woman who said she had graduated from Harvard began crying on Tuesday as she told Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan that "educated people" were "telling me what to do."

At a town hall event in Dover, New Hampshire, the woman, who said she was a first-generation American with parents from Yugoslavia and Romania, explained that she had moved from Los Angeles to Massachusetts to go to Harvard medical and dental school.

"What I saw there is something that I've never seen on TV or in real life, that was people who had an amazing education," the woman said as she choked up. "I gave them the benefit of the doubt that they knew more than me."

She continued: "I graduated in '93 and I've been living in Massachusetts with very educated people, only to find out that it's been really great but not the secret ingredient. They've been telling me what to do. I've been helping people, but they haven't become my friends. It's been really tough."

"I've found my values again and that's why I'm voting for you. When [Democratic Senate candidate] Elizabeth Warren shows me that those roads were not just built for a businessman ... they were built for everybody, but it is me who got my education. I went to Harvard!"

The woman, who appeared to be white, added that “because of the color of my skin,” she was the “single most disadvantaged student” at Harvard.

"I did not get extra help," she pointed out. "And that was OK by me. My father taught me, life isn't fair. Not one time did I say, 'That's not fair.' And after giving $1.5 million to people in need, I have only helped one person, and that's the person who's not in debt today, who's still not asking for more and said thank you. That's all."

After a polite round of applause, Ryan explained that his campaign was about promoting "equality of opportunity," instead of equalizing "the results of people's lives."

"The philosophy that you're identifying is a troubling one in my opinion because it speaks to people as if they're stuck in their station in life," the vice presidential candidate told the woman. "You know, victim of circumstances beyond their control and that the government is there to help them cope with it."

"Your success should not be based on who you know, it should not be based on political contributions or connections, it should be based on merit. And that's the system that's draining right now, the free enterprise system, economic growth, opportunity, job creation. It's stalling. We've got to fix that so we're not looking at other people, like you say, in this country."

Earlier at the same event, Ryan had slipped and called his campaign platform the "Ryan-Romney plan" while talking about treating the root causes of poverty.

"That's what the Ryan-Romney -- excuse me," he said. "Mitt and I talk about this stuff a lot. That's what the Ryan -- Romney-Ryan plan for a stronger middle class is all about."

The woman who spoke at Tuesday's event seemed to be echoing comments that former Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum had made about "smart people" during Values Voter Summit on Saturday.

“We will never have the media on our side, ever, in this country,” Santorum told the conservative crowd. “We will never have the elite, smart people on our side.”