Scott Brown: Pretty boy, father of the year wins in Mass

 The news that Republican Scott Brown beat Democrat Martha Coakley last night in the race for the long-held Democratic seat for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts doesn’t upset me.

 One has to expect little bumps in the road here and there. Plus, the fact that it was Brown — who once posed nude in Cosmopolitan — as victor makes the story even better. Brown even managed to thoroughly embarrass his two college-age daughters in his acceptance speech by telling the world his girls “were available.” I mean that is just plain wrong! That even disgusts me.

 Such comments and Brown’s past has even given right-wing cable freak Glenn Beck the willies. Beck said he didn’t trust Brown and that the new senator’s tenure “could end with a dead intern.”

 The reality was Coakley ran her campaign initially as if she was the chosen one, meaning she didn’t do diddley squat. Even if she was running against a corpse for the U.S. Senate she should have been out their campaigning her heart out.

 As for all the dire predictions by the pundits and GOP talking heads and cable news constantly jonesing for political conflict, this might not be as big as everyone makes it. It might not stop health care reform. The Democrats still have a majority in Congress and they’d like to have a super majority, but because of Brown they don’t. Congress could pass health care through reconciliation — passing a budget bill in the Senate without fillibuster — or perhaps they could piecemeal it. They may drop it altogether, but I can’t really see that as Obama has so much invested in passing health care reform.

O bitch-slaps Beck and Fox once again

  For quite awhile now the loonies of right-wing punditry land have had a pretty free hand in telling lies on their opponents with little consequence. But no less than the president of the United States is now challenging the veracity of Glenn Beck and Fox News and friends.

 The White House responded Wednesday on its blog to charges Beck and others have made regarding Obama’s attempts to gain an Olympic bid for Chicago. White House blogger Jessie Lee wrote on a post titled “Reality Check: Trying to Turn a Point of Pride Into a Moment of Shame” that the Olympics were once a point of pride and unity for the country but …

 ” … once again Fox News’ Glenn Beck program has shown that nothing is worthy of respect if it can be used as part of a partisan attack to boost ratings.”

 In the words of some long forgotten barfly who sat in the bar stool next to me in Jim’s Lounge back during my Navy days in Gulfport, Miss.: “You got that right!”

 Obama’s folks are no longer playing nice and letting completely absurd untruths to slide by. The White House Blog post noted:

  “RHETORIC:    BECK SAID VANCOUVER LOST $1 BILLION WHEN IT “HAD THE OLYMPICS.”   Glenn Beck said, Vancouver lost, how much was it? they lost a billion dollars when they had the Olympics.”  [Transcript, Glenn Beck Show, 9/29/09]

 “REALITY:   VANCOUVER’S OLYMPICS WILL NOT TAKE PLACE UNTIL 2010.   Vancouver will host the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games from February 12 – 28, 2010 and March 12-21, 2010, respectively. [Vancouver2010.com, accessed 9/29/09]”

 You can read the rest for yourself and see how the Obama administration has a whole new ballgame under way in dealing with even its most powerful critics.

 Obama has snubbed Fox more than once lately and his avoidance has been nothing if not matter-of-fact.

 More thoughtful pundits say Obama is making a mistake not talking to the large audience watching Fox News. But the fact is, his electoral base is not the typical Glenn Beck watcher. Plus, Fox has become increasingly even in its overall news coverage — forget talk shows like Beck, O’Reilly and Hannity — more biased toward the right. The ads Fox took out falsely claiming other news outlets avoided covering the events of the recent Tea Partyista’s march on Washington are just some of the more blatant examples of the cable channel heading toward a dominant role as a right-wing propaganda tool.

 I am happy for this boldness towards Fox and demagogues such as Beck. Their lies do nothing but obscure information the people need about their government. Likewise, it becomes more difficult to govern and to be governed.

Advertisers just say no to Glenn Beck

 It is nice to see that some large corporations still respond to the wishes of the consumer.

 Several sponsors of the Fox News show “Glenn Beck” have announced they are pulling their advertisements in the wake of the host’s remarks that President Obama is racist.

 Beck, not to be confused with the one-named singer Beck, said on another Fox show that Obama is a “racist” and has a “deep-seated hatred for white people.” Obama, not be confused with an Irish bartender, replied that Beck was a “horrible basketball player” and “can’t dance for diddly.”  

  The advertisers which include Geico, Sargento, Proctor and Gamble, the Phizer pharmaceutical company, Kraft Foods and Progressive Insurance did not remove their commercials from the Fox News network. Thus the Rupert Murdoch Republican Party’s Right Wing Hate Machine network as it is also known stands to lose no money from sponsors.

 A black political coalition, ColorofChange.org, launched the drive for sponsors yanking their ads from Beck’s show. The linked “The New York Times” article describes Beck also as a “conservative radio host and comedian.” That description is itself funny because Beck has all the humor of Heinrich Himmler on a bad day.

 Speaking of concentration camps, Beck said in recent months that FEMA was building concentration camps for Republicans and other Obama opponents. The rumor was later debunked on his own show. Too bad the same can’t be done for Sarah Palin’s “Death Panels.”