Democratic Senator Al Franken of Minnesota has been quite busy during the short time he has been in the United States Senate. It doesn’t seem as though his late start caused by Republican sore loser Norm Coleman, has slowed him down a bit.
The first bill that was his very own helped military vets get service dogs. After passage of that bill Senator Franken went on to speak passionately for the people of this country on the floor of the Senate. He has made Progressives stand up and cheer with his questioning of bankers and most recently his dismantling of BPs so called safety executive.
However, he may have topped himself when he spoke to last weeks meeting of Netroots Nation in Las Vegas, Nevada. His topic was our First Amendment rights under the Constitution of the United States and how they are being threatened by the media mergers now taking place. He lets us know how our Internet is in danger from what is happening and calls on all of us to stand up before it is too late to do anything. As Senator Franken says Net Neutrality is the First Amendment challenge of our lifetime. He also asks for us to help him in the fight.
The video below is of Senator Franken at Netroots Nation. Please listen carefully to what he has to say. We must keep abreast of this issue and work hard to stop any further erosion of our right to free speech.
I don’t know about you, but I will do all I can to help the Senator. Just tell me what to do and where. If it is within my power I will be there.
This happened a couple of weeks ago. I have been saving it, but I can’t say that I really know why. Perhaps because I am still shaking at the thought of what BP, with our willing consent, has done to the environment in the Gulf.
The reason I am bringing it out now is really very simple. After the latest storm the Gulf of Mexico looks a lot better. The sheen has dissipated in much of the area that was hit with oil and if you don’t look closely, you might just think everything is just A-OK.
That is a deception. We still don’t know about the long term impact on the environment, wildlife and the fragile eco-systems of the marshes and swamps. We also don’t have any idea about the health repercussions for the clean up crews and for Gulf residents. We have no idea what the dispersants BP pumped into the ocean will do and what they will kill.
However, I don’t intend to let it slip from the consciousness of the people I know and that includes readers of this blog. So I am putting this video up to remind you of how bad this environmental disaster is. It will continue to plague this country for many years to come. We must never forget this and we must not let BP off the hook. As citizens, our duty is to make sure the Obama administration stays vigilant and collects the money from BP that the Gulf residents are due.
President Obama made a video appearance at the Netroots Nation gathering of Progressive bloggers in Las Vegas, Nevada. I thought readers of this blog might be interested in what the president had to say.
Of course, Obama was as cool as always. But the video has a clip from Rachel Maddow explaining the achievements of his administration. He gets his point across without actually bragging or tooting his own horn. Yet, the gathering has been told about the economy recovering, strides forward for the environment , passage of health care and reduction of the military force in Iraq among other strides forward.
This Democratic President is really a smooth political operator. I don’t think the Republicans have ever had a leader as collected, cool and politically intelligent.
The writers here at LunaCanus are not, and have never claimed to be journalists. We try to look at the world and our nations issues from the standpoint of a common everyday person. Then we tell you what we think about what is happening and hope that you will agree. We try to present you with facts that back up what we say and never intentionally lie about a topic or a person.
That being said, I would like to ask all the wing nut, tea bagger, holy rolling, gun packing, right wing fringe followers out there why they are so loyal to FOX news? Is it that you like having lies told to you? Do you really want your news to come from the equivalent of a five year old child attempting to lie their way out of the last lie they told you?
On this topic I think we can all agree on one thing, when we look for news we are seeking some kernel of truth. Granted that different outlets will slant that truth in a wide variety of ways, but that same kernel of honesty should be at the core of the issue. This is not the case with FOX news, nor has it been the case for some time, if ever.
When you knowingly edit video tapes to forward your political agenda, when you knowingly lie about an issue, when you set out to destroy a persons reputation and career you are no longer a news network. You are a weapon in the hands of those you serve. Your credibility is reduced to nothing and your so called news stories are viewed as political hatchet jobs.
Then you commit the crime that any parent would skewer their child for. When caught in a lie, you tell an even bigger lie in a vain attempt to cover your ass. Of course, you have already done the damage you set out to do by telling the lie in the first place, so you are happy. In the meantime the entire neighborhood is left cleaning up after your dirty diapers.
FOX news is now more like a 24 hour a day infomercial. They no longer report the news, they just make it up. Just like the products you buy from the 3A.M. loudmouthed salesman on an infomercial, the product they sell never seems to be quite what they said it was.
So, as it is proven over and over and yet over again that FOX is a network of liars, I am forced to ask how long will you believe them?
Fox learned a valuable lesson from a TV show I watch. On it a character talks about the story of the boy that cried wolf and why by the end of the story people did not believe him. Upon hearing the tail the character named “Garek” says the problem was not that the boy lied, but that he told the same lie twice!
That is the level to which FOX news has sunk. Attempting to fill the airwaves 24 hours a day with lies, while never repeating a lie. They solved it by just hammering the same lie for a short period of time into the eyes of the viewers over and over and over and over and over again and again and again and again.
Shame on FOX. Shame on their lies. Shame on their cover ups. Shame on their lame ass excuses. Shame on the so called journalists that make up the news and do not report it. Shame on all those who have been lied to over and over and still believe the children at FOX when they lie to you yet again.
Your brain extends beyond emotions and bodily functions. Ir developed over a long time so that you can actually THINK! I know it may hurt some of the hardcore FOX news junkies to put their brains through that much work, but I would like to ask them to think once in a blue moon for themselves and not just let Billo, Beck and Hannity do all the thinking for them fill their minds with falsehoods.
Just to illustrate how deluded the typical FOX viewer is, watch while Rachel Maddow shows Bill O’Rielly lies as he tries to cover for the lies his network already told. They lie about their own lies folks!
There is good news and some good paying jobs heading to the small towns of central Nevada. Living in one of these towns I can say for a fact that we could use them. With a 14% unemployment rate in Nevada the entire state could use more jobs.
I am not sure if Tea Bag darling Sharron Angle will even bother to comment on this topic. If she deigns to give any statement on it whatsoever it will more than likely be just that, a statement made in front of the cameras and then she will do her usual sprint away from the reporters to the safety of her car. Many questions asked but not a single one answered.
You see Sharron is already on record saying that it would not be part of her job to protect or promote new jobs in our beautiful state. You would think though, she would like to see as many jobs as possible created here to get those “Spoiled” people who are unemployed off of state and federal aid.
There is another reason for darling Sharon to smile her deaths head grin and condemn these new jobs. Many of these jobs are being created through grants provided from the federal stimulus plan. Now, we all know how she feels about that pesky big government butting into the business of the state of Nevada.
There is one project in particular that would make her poor head just explode. It involves the stimulus plan, the green energy plan and creating jobs in the state for which she would like to become the Senator.
This plan revolves around a lithium mine in a small town called Silver Peak, Nevada and is getting headlines in our local paper,”‘The Tonopah Times-Bonanza”. A grant in the amount of $28.4 million dollars has been granted to the Chemetall Foote Corp. to expand their lithium mine in Silver Peak.
Chemetall is the only domestic provider of lithium our nation has. That lithium will be pivotal in creating the high capacity batteries needed for the next generation of electric cars and other high tech advancements. It seems to me that investing in our own production of lithium will reduce our need to buy it from other nations.
This project is already creating jobs in our area. Contractors doing the work to expand the Silver Peak mine are starting to hire workers. When finished, the estimates are that the on site staff at the mine will double what it was in 2009 before the Bush fiscal debacle. It is an investment not only in an area that needs jobs badly, but also an investment in the future of our nation.
Sadly, Angle will have no choice but to condemn this entire project that is investing millions of dollars into her state. She is against the stimulus plan, she is against the clean energy bill and is completely indifferent about creating new jobs in the state she wants to represent. Her tea baggers are against any form of government regulation or spending whatsoever.
The only win for Angle is that there will be fewer “spoiled unemployed people” sucking the resources out of her state. I guess that will save her the trouble of hunting all the “spoiled unempolyed people” down and exercising her “second amendment solutions” on them.
If she ends up saying anything at all on the subject she will claim that Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid somehow blackmailed somebody in some way to divert this money to our state.
How sad!
Watch the video. It shows the extremism of the tea baggers and Angle.
While the controversy over Fox News, Brietbart and the rest of the Shirley Sherrod scandal is still hot, we must continue to draw attention to it. Because Fox and pals deserve to be pilloried for their fake journalism and outright lies and also because this needs to stay sharp in our minds in case anyone, ever again tries to tell us Fox is a legitimate news source. We must make them understand character assassination is not journalism nor is it legitimate reporting on politics.
The legitimate, hard working media and press has been responding to the Fox , Brietbart scandal by airing a whole lot of truth about this matter. I will bring you two videos of popular newsmen responding to the Fox embarrassment.
First up, CNN’s Anderson Cooper;
This time, I must say Anderson Cooper tells it like it is. Except I do want him to know, some people on the Internet do have standards and care very much about the truth.
Next, MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann;
Keith even came away from his vacation to tape this. Now that is dedication. Somehow I cannot see Bill O’Reilly doing that. I think he would put his pleasure before anything else, no matter how important it was.
Does anyone out there remember when Hillary Clinton said there was “a vast right wing conspiracy” and the way she was drug over the coals for even suggesting such a thing?
If events in the press over the last few days prove anything, it is that Hillary was most likely right. Fox invented the tea baggers, or at the very least pushed them along for Dick Armey and his conservative Republican gang. Fox accepts video and stories from right wing nut bloggers like Drudge and BrietBart at face value. Fox never even slows down to check out any facts or ask any questions, they just rush the information onto national television.
But perhaps their latest foray into the land of the real journalists is going to finally show them and their accomplices up for what they are-frauds and pretenders without an iota of journalistic integrity.
Of course, I am referring to Shirley Sherrod, the NAACP and all the rest who have been unfairly caught in the Fox and Accomplices web of lies over the last few days. As this whole thing plays out, we must be sure that Fox, Brietbart and the rest do not escape the truth this time. They must suffer at least as much from legitimate media reporting as Ms. Sherrod suffered from their illegitimate media reporting. Actually, if there is really justice, they will suffer far more and deservedly so.
I know you have most likely seen the video of Shirley Sherrod that was viciously edited to make it seem she was espousing racist views when in reality it was exactly the opposite. I will not show it but for anyone that may have missed it, you can probably see it on You Tube. I hope never to see it again and I am sure you feel the same. I mean, how many times do you want to watch lies?
What I will do is show you a video of Rachel Maddow doing her normal good press work and taking the perpetrators of this lie apart…piece by evil, rotting flesh piece.
There is a rule in the Senate that says the minority can hold up a vote on a bill for thirty hours after a filibuster is broken. No one expected Republican Senators to pull this out of the hat and use it to delay unemployment benefits for just one more day. What would be the point?
No matter what logic says and no matter that they lost the vote, Republicans decided to use this rule just , I guess, because they could. So a few thousand kids go hungry for another day. So a few more hard working Americans get ejected from their homes. No skin off the Republican Senators noses. They are living high on the hog with their corporation executive buddies and could care less about the lazy, too dumb to get a job lower class.
As Bugs Bunny would say, “What a bunch of maroons.”
As I would say, “What a bunch of heartless, self centered, crooked, unpatriotic bastards.”
I mean really, the truth is they helped create this mess. The economic destruction of this country was brought about by Bush, Cheney,Republican Senators and Congresspeople, Banks and Wall Street. Now they are so desperate to shift the blame to the Democratic side and Obama. they have lost all reason whatsoever.
We have simply got to get these Neanderthals out of our government and our economy. They want a rules free government without any regulations at all……thinking……thinking……got it, let’s send them to Somalia, they don’t have any regulations.
Press release from the White House;
THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary ___________________________
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 21, 2010
Statement by the Press Secretary on Continued Delay on Unemployment Insurance Extension
A day after the Senate moved forward to pass the unemployment insurance extension to help millions of Americans fighting to get back on their feet and find work, the partisan minority in the Senate is yet again obstructing passage of this bill. After blocking this aid three separate times over the past weeks, Republicans have once again refused to reach an agreement and allow this bill to come to the floor for a vote quickly so these benefits can be restored. Republican obstruction has already cost 2.5 million Americans essential aid they need to pay their rent, put food on the table, and take care of their kids. By the end of this week, roughly 350,000 more Americans could be added to that number. The livelihoods of nearly 3 million Americans shouldn’t hinge on partisan game playing in Washington. This latest move gives the partisan minority thirty more hours to stall in the Senate, but that means thirty more hours of suffering for these hardworking families trying to get by.
That seems to sum it up quite nicely. But just to put a cherry on the cake the unemployed can’t afford to bake, here is a video with our favorite House member Alan Grayson (D-FL) on the Ed Show.
Are we in for a repeat of these signs from the Great Depression? It sure looks like it if Republicans get their way.
