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PATH: BS | Politics
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Election Dirty Tricks Get Even Nastier
Posted by Pile
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As if it weren't possible, some groups are not playing fair, intimidating voters, and deploying various dirty tricks to affect the vote. (This article is going to be continually updated with more news, so be sure to bookmark it.)- In an apparent violation of FCC rules, conservative talk radio station KFBK 1530 AM in Sacramento transmitted a paid political advertisement to an unknown number of other stations in the area using the Federal Emergency Alert System (EAS), thus automatically forcing the ad onto the stations' airwaves.
- Republican Senate candidate from Maryland Michael Steele and Republican Gubenatorial candidate Robert Erlich crank out a fake "democrat voting guide" with bogus endorsements to mislead the other party's voters into thinking they're democrats when they're really republicans.
- Tim Daly from Clarendon, Virginia got a call on his voicemail saying that if he votes Tuesday, he will be arrested. There are also widespread reports of calls from election "volunteers" telling VA voters that polling locations have changed that are completely bogus.
- "Phone Spam" by Republicans pretending to be Democrats: There are reports from at least seven states of voters being harassed by multiple phone calls with recorded messages--"robocalls"--that appear to be a devious manipulation of voter's pre-election advertisement overload. A typical example was described in Pennsylvania's hotly contested 6th Congressional District, in the Philadelphia suburbs, where incumbent Republican Jim Gerlach is locked in a statistical dead heat with challenger Lois Murphy. The calls begin by offering "important information about Lois Murphy," leading voters to assume the call is from her campaign. Most recipients slam down the phone before finding out otherwise--and then call to complain. A Philadelphia Inquirer columnist did some researching and found that in fact the calls were being paid for by the National Republican Congressional Committee, which spent over $21,000 in the past week alone on anti-Murphy phone bank expenses. NRCC spokesman Ed Petru readily admitted the scheme, noting that they wouldn't be spending money on robocalls if they weren't working. He added, no doubt with a straight face, "We don't think there's such a thing as an overinformed voter."
- The Democratic Voter Protection Hotline is being flooded by prank phone calls - a tactic, no doubt by a few mean-spirited activists who want to disrupt complaints of voter suppression reports.
Remember to vote Tuesday!
Bring a video camera if you can to catch what's going on. Preserve America's democracy!
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READ MORE | 1 comment since 2006-11-13 09:28:04 | Comment on this Article |
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Advertiser Blacklist Against Air America Revealed
Posted by Pile
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 An internal ABC Radio Networks memo obtained by Media Matters for America, originally from a listener to The Peter B. Collins Show, indicates that nearly 100 ABC advertisers insist that their commercials be blacked out on Air America Radio affiliates. According to the memo, the advertisers insist that "NONE of their commercials air during AIR AMERICA programming." Among the advertisers listed are Bank of America, Exxon Mobil, Federal Express, General Electric, McDonald's, Microsoft, Wal-Mart, and the U.S. Navy. |
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Chicago Bans Foie Gras
Posted by wizeGurl
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[Junk Food] |
 Because all crime has been eradicated, streets are clean and well-maintained, schools are top-notch, and politics are honorable and above-board, the Chicago City Council has banned the sale of foie gras by restaurants and retailers.
Foie gras is being banned because to make it, geese are cruelly force-fed until their livers swell up to 10 times their normal size. This is so much worse than penning baby cows up so that they can't move and making them anemic so they'll make the tenderest, most delicious veal, or cutting off chickens' beaks so they won't peck each other to death in their overcrowded conditions. Yep, the other factory farming processes (probably invented in Chicago, the meat-packing capitol of the country) are so kind and humane, we don't have to worry at all about eating what they produce. |
READ MORE | 1 comment since 2009-07-12 11:42:36 | Comment on this Article |
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Texas Gubenatorial Candidate Showcases Aborted Fetus On HomePage
Posted by Pile
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 Texas Republican candidate for Governor, songwriter, rancher, secret agent, Star Locke has some rather radical ideas for his state and the country: 100% tax on violent video games and toys, and a $10,000 charge per aborted fetus, take away money from schools and use it to take control of the Alcohol and Beverage Commission, and force all schools to serve high protein meals. He even has a program to save taxpayer dollars, whereupon anyone who comes up with an idea to save taxpayer dollars, gets 75% of those save dollars and the other 25% go back to the government. Huh?
Oh yea, there's also that bit on the web site about how he was hired by the government to assassinate Fidel Castro. |
READ MORE | 2 comments since 2006-01-29 11:05:22 | Comment on this Article |
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Cable Networks Pander To Partisian Brains Wired To Ignore Facts
Posted by Pile
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[Psychology]
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Director of Clinical Psychology at Emory University, Drew Westen studies the way that psychology and politics intersect, and he says the format of cable TV news -- throwing out a topic to two representatives of opposite sides -- capitalizes on a design flaw in the human brain. People believe what they want to believe, no matter what the facts are.
As a result, highly-polarized people, such as self-promoting Democrats, Republicans, liberals and conservatives tend to ignore facts that do not substantiate their side. And mainstream media propogates and panders to these flaws, especially via a method of creating "demon" icons like fundamentalist radicalists, Michael Moore, Rush Limbaugh, the ACLU or PETA. These references create such irrational contempt among certain polarized groups that they ignore facts on relevant issues to which they may not even be associated. In other words, you can tell a republican that Rush Limbaugh burned down his neighbor's house and he may suggest the neighbor deserved it, but if someone from PETA steps on his lawn, he might want them arrested for trespassing. |
READ MORE | 8 comments since 2012-11-14 01:45:30 | Comment on this Article |
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Steve Martin on O'Reilly's Liberal Leap Second Conspiracy
Posted by Pile
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[Humor]
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"This year's leap second is an assault on the American public," says commentator Bill O'Reilly. "The reason the leap second is even being proposed is because of America Haters, because of Iraqi hate mongers, and let's be honest, Shiites. Why would you add a second to the year unless you're an anti-American hate monger?
I remember liberals at a party saying, 'let's add a second to the year' and I was the only one who spoke up against it. Why would they want to add a second to the year? Because it gives them a second longer to hate Bush.
"Look, look, look, look. A leap second is a denial of everything American, of everything good, of everything moral. They're saying we need this second because the earth rotates on its axis and revolves around the earth, well this is the no spin zone. So we don't need a leap second. Though I would rather have a leap second than some of these hate-mongers who go around hating even their own ideas! They need to hate their own ideas so much that you have many liberals proposing the leap second, which is an idea that they hate, yet, they propose. |
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Bumper Sticker Store
The folks at DU have compiled an insightful guide for people who might not have made up their mind yet. Here's the festive top 10 reasons why you should vote Republican...
HBO has decided to make its controversial (actually, only controversial if you're a rich, republican owner of Diebold) movie "Hacking Democracy" - a comprehensive outline of voting technology, available online. Check it out!
Citing its policy barring ads dealing with "public controversy," the NBC network said on Friday it rejected a TV commercial for a new film documenting the furor over the Dixie Chicks' criticism of President George W. Bush.
Here's a transcript from Bill Maher's "Real Time" last week of his scathing diatribe about what's wrong with children today and who is really preying on them. The answer may surprise you! Video is here too.
Keith Olbermann reviews the so-called "devastating" book, "Tempting Faith" by conservative Christian, David Kuo which chronicles the "inside story of political seduction" by the republicans to manipulate and control the Christian right.
One of the GOP's most disappointing flip-floppers, John McCain, has suggested that it was President Clinton (but of COURSE) who did not do enough to stop North Korea's efforts to develop nuclear weapons. Never mind the fact that at least Clinton's administration TALKED to North Korea and made genuine headway on diplomatic relations with one of the most unstable regimes in the world. Upon taking office, Bush's administration dropped the framework developed by Clinton and negotiated by then-Secretary of State Albright (who made history by actually VISITING Pyongyang) and refused to negotiate with North Korea at all.
You can't make this stuff up, folks...it seems that the Foley story just keeps getting more and more icky. Now the investigative reporters at ABC News have discovered that Congressman Foley (R-Florida) was engaging in a little online sexual banter...including description of the extected payoff of such banter...while on the floor of the House of Representatives, awaiting a vote to increase funding for the Iraq war.
The next time you see some thread where out of the blue a right wing apologist appears and starts making waves, you might be right in thinking he's a paid operative. This is especially poignant as republicans launch campaigns designed to discredit all non-right-leaning online web sites as being radical leftist training grounds.
O'Reilly takes on Wesley Clark and lectures to him about the false military history of World War II, goofs up the facts twice, pisses on famous world events and atrocities and then when the truth comes out, Fox news rewrites transcripts and O'Reilly accuses people of not understanding what he said. This goes way beyond "insatiable hubris" -- you have to see it to believe it, as MSNBC's Keith Olbermann is totally fed up with Fox New's "reporting" that the Titanic sunk the iceberg...
Someone apparantely managed to scan a copy of the "Conservative Handbook" (although it's more like a pamphlet). Now copies of it are floating around on the net. If you ever wondered what was motivating your nutty brother-in-law, check this out.
Remember the last election campaign? Remember how it was a bit rough-and-tumble, with all kinds of accusations? Remember those Swift Boat ads that basically stated the opposite of the facts as the US government had recorded them?
What a concept--a bill has just been introduced to tie Congressional raises to the minimum wage. Think about it; in order to vote themselves a raise, Congress would have to give the same raise (percentage-wise) to every regular working stiff in the country. Certainly if they need a raise, Joe Schmo down at Burger King needs one, too.
So ends an era of unbridled corruption, as Tom DeLay decides 
To mark what it called the "1000 Days" of the Iraq war, the London daily The Independent offered extensive coverage today, featuring a by-the-numbers approach.
Last week, Republican Congressman, and former Majority Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives, Tom DeLay was arrested and booked on state conspiracy and money-laundering charges.
Notes by the New York Times' Judith Miller that were turned over in a criminal investigation contain the name of a covert CIA officer, but the reporter has told prosecutors she cannot recall who disclosed the name, the newspaper reported Saturday.
An email message which suggested the Bush Justice Department was looking to blame environmentalists for a break in the New Orleans levee and the ensuing flood has sparked vehement responses among the Democratic caucus in Congress.
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