Category: Media Watch
Saturday Morning Cartoon – Benghazi Edition
It’s time for another Saturday Morning Cartoon! This week, Ramirez drew this brilliant cartoon criticizing Hillary Clinton for her wording during the Benghazi testimony the other day. The names on the gravestones are, of course, those killed in Benghazi, and he’s trying his hardest to imply that she’s saying their lives don’t matter. She’s dismissing them as she sits atop their dead bodies. Not only that, though, but the bottom line implies that it was directly responsible for their death, that their lives could have been saved if there had not been confusion over what happened.
Instead, if you just see or hear the full context of that quote, it brings things into a completely different light. “We were misled that there were supposedly protests and something sprang out of that, an assault sprang out of that” Ron Johnson (a man who didn’t even go to the Benghazi briefing) had accused her at the hearing, “and that was easily ascertained that that was not the fact.”
This was her full response to that:
With all due respect, the fact is we had four dead Americans. Was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night decided they’d go kill some Americans? What difference, at this point, does it make? It is our job to figure out what happened and do everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again, senator. (Video 2 on this page)
As you can see, she very much believes that those four dead Americans matter. You can hear her voice crack as she speaks of their funerals and talking with their families. They do matter to her, and the heart of the real fight right now, for her, is making sure that it doesn’t happen again.
The Problem With Republican Policies: Abortion Edition
On Tuesday, Chris Matthews had on his program Marjorie Dannenfelser, of the anti-abortion Susan B. Anthony Foundation. During the interview, there was one portion that really stuck out to me (Can’t Embed the Video at the moment, sadly),
So Matthews spends the last few minutes of the show to try and get an answer from Dannenfelser on what law she would like to have in place regarding abortion. Matthews asks her roughly thirteen times, and Dannenfelser either ignores, deflects, or offers nonsensical, meaningless answers (she kept yammering on about achieving “common ground”, whatever that means).
This exchange reminded me of a line from the always brilliant LOLGOP, roughly paraphrased as: The secret to Republicans winning elections is to pray that the voters have no idea they’re actually voting for Republicans.
(Sadly, I can’t find the actual quote, as it was said it a much more elegant fashion than my somewhat mangled recollection.)
The point being is that Republican ideas are generally horrific when actually clarified and elaborated. This is why they’re always vague, and rarely offer any specific policy proposals (ex. “Cut spending! But we won’t tell you where we want to cut!”). Matthews repeatedly asked Dannenfelser what the punishment should be for someone who commits an abortion, offering suggestions like prison sentences, which Dannenfelser insisted she didn’t support.
Look, I realize abortion is a very serious topic. While I personally am pro-choice, I can totally respect a pro-life person’s opinion that they feel there’s no difference between a fetus and a baby. However, we have to also realize that by accepting that line of thought, it leads to some very uncomfortable, and very dangerous roads. Things like, as Matthews said, imprisoning women who have an abortion, or forcing raped women and girls to have their rapists’ child.
Also, I know most of my fellow lefties aren’t big fans of Chris Matthews, but I always love it when he has moments like this.
Multimillionaire Professional Golfer Wants to Take His (Golf) Ball And Go Home Cause Of Mean Old Taxes
I don’t generally pay attention to professional golf (or unprofessional golf either), but this story caught my eye. Seems some guy named Phil Mickenson, is a little bit unhappy at all the new taxes he might have to pay thanks to Obama and California:
“There are going to be some drastic changes for me because I happen to be in that zone that has been targeted both federally and by the state and it doesn’t work for me right now,” Mickelson said.
While Mickelson didn’t state specifics, increases in federal taxes under the deal to avoid the fiscal cliff in Washington D.C. and the passage of Prop. 30 in California in November to raise money for school funding have all increased taxes on the wealthy class.
“If you add up all the federal and you look at the disability and the unemployment and the Social Security and the state, my tax rate’s 62, 63 percent. So I’ve got to make some decisions on what I’m going to do.”
So what might those possible decisions be?
The 42-year-old golfer said he would talk in more detail about his plans – possibly moving away from California or even retiring from golf – before his hometown Farmers Insurance Open, the San Diego-area event that starts Thursday at Torrey Pines.
Whoa. Sounds kind of drastic to quit your career entirely, but I guess if the government is confiscating that much of your hard earned money, then there’s probably really little incentive to continue, right?
Neil Cavuto Thinks People On Food Stamps Aren’t Being Shamed ENOUGH
Fox News’ Neil Cavuto did a typically Neil Cavuto-esque piece on his show lamenting once again how the filthy poors have it sooo easy:
Cavuto starts off by pointing out that spending for food stamps is currently at $78 billion and that due to things like rising costs of food, some people have the audacity to suggest spending should be even higher!
He then brings on Michelle Malkin to provide some obvious “common sense” commentary. Malkin mentions a report conducted by the National Academy of Science requested by the USDA, whose conclusion was that stipends need to be higher because in certain places, like urban areas, it’s more difficult to afford healthier food. Malkin says that these “federal bureaucrats” don’t seem to understand that we need the stigma associated with food stamps, “otherwise people will buy crappy foods.” (This part’s a bit confusing because I thought the whole point of buying “crappy food” with food stamps is cause it’s usually “crappy food” that people on food stamps can afford?)
Cavuto follows up with this brilliant line:
“Well, we put a sheen or gloss to it now where we actually make it like a Norman Rockwell type of benefit where we glorify food stamps.”
You have got to be kidding me. Who the hell is “glorifying” the idea of being on food stamps? It’s reasonable to say that the vast, vast majority of people who are on food stamps are on them not because it’s a great way to build up prestige, but because they need them. I grew up on food stamps, and believe me, Neil, I’ve never bragged about that fact to any of my friends.
Saturday Morning Cartoon – Obama’s Cabinet Diversity
Who doesn’t love Saturday Morning Cartoons? No one, that’s who! Well, as adults we’ve grown out of what we’d normally be watching Saturday Mornings (Recess, anyone? … anyone?), but that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy a nice political cartoon!
I chose this one, because it seems to be the prevailing critique of the day from both the media and the right, partially in response to this picture. Obama has nominated a few white guys as of late. He’s put forward Chuck Hagel, a nice white Nebraskan man, and the boring New England politician caricature John Kerry for Secretary of State. Pretty white there, too. There’s also the squiggly signatured Jack Lew, put forward as Treasury Secretary.
DEAD HEAT POLITICS 
