Scott Lemieux has a good piece at the American Prospect today, summing up the reasons why the right wing’s huge fake outrage over Kermit Gosnell is hypocritical and deceptive, and why the case demonstrates the exact opposite of the right wing’s hysterical narrative: Five Lessons From the Gosnell Abortion-Clinic Controversy.

Far from being an argument against abortion, Kermit Gosnell’s atrocities are an object example of the incredible harm being done to women’s rights by the anti-choice movement. If the social conservative agenda prevails, we will see many more back alley abortionists like Gosnell flourishing in the brave new right wing world.

The Gosnell case is an illustration of a deeper problem with abortion politics in the United States. A number of pundits—most notably Slate’s William Saletan and The Daily Beast’s Megan McArdle—have argued that even though it’s best that abortion remain formally legal, pro-choicers should concede that abortion is an icky, immoral procedure that should be discouraged. But the stigmatization of abortion, as it functions in the United States, greatly harms women. In most other liberal democracies, the Gosnell clinic wouldn’t be an issue because even poor women could obtain safe abortions in a public hospital. In the United States, even where abortion is legal the constant stigma attached to the procedure—up to and including acts of violence against abortion providers and clinics—contributes to a making safe abortions less accessible. The best way to prevent future Gosnells is to treat pre-viability abortions like the ordinary, safe medical procedures they in fact are, not to engage in sexist moralizing.

The Gosnell case certainly represents a failure by the state of Pennsylvania to protect women. Enacting more regulations that make safe, pre-viability abortions more scarce would be precisely the wrong lesson to take from it, and would mean more Gosnells, not fewer. Making abortion safe, legal, and accessible for all women is more important than ever.

Also see:
VIEWPOINT: How the Conservative Media Freakout Over Gosnell Reinforces the Right’s Worst Biases
No Liberal Coverup in Gosnell Coverage - baltimoresun.com

The Daily Caller’s hit piece on Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez is blowing up in their faces, as more evidence emerges that their big exposé was a fraud: Dominican Official Links Daily Caller to Alleged Lies About Menendez.

A top Dominican law enforcement official said Friday that a local lawyer has reported being paid by someone claiming to work for the conservative Web site the Daily Caller to find prostitutes who would lie and say they had sex for money with Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.).

The local lawyer told Dominican investigators that a foreign man, who identified himself as “Carlos,” had offered him $5,000 to find and pay women in the Caribbean nation willing to make the claims about Menendez, according to Jose Antonio Polanco, district attorney for the La Romana region, where the investigation is being conducted.

The videotaped claims of two women, made with their faces obscured, were posted last fall on the Daily Caller. The site reported that “the two women said they met Menendez around Easter at Casa de Campo, an expensive 7,000-acre resort in the Dominican Republic. . . . They claimed Menendez agreed to pay them $500 for sex acts, but in the end they each received only $100.”

The Daily Caller issued a statement Friday saying that the information allegedly provided by the Dominican lawyer, Melanio Figueroa, was false.

The Daily Caller said: “At no point did any money change hands between The Daily Caller and any sources or individuals connected with this investigation, nor did anyone named Carlos travel to the Dominican Republic on behalf of The Daily Caller. As recently as two weeks ago, Figueroa was on record with another news outlet as saying the women he represented were telling the truth about their initial allegations against Senator Mendendez.”

You’ve probably heard that RNC chairman Reince Preibus announced a new report today, identifying ways that the Republican Party needs to reform.

Call me a cynic, but my reading of the report reveals the same old same old: lots of angst about “messaging” and “reaching out to minorities,” and absolutely no awareness that it’s Republican policies that are the problem, not the way they’re “framing” them. Bottom line: the RNC report is a set of recommendations on how to better trick voters into supporting the GOP, even as the GOP continues to work against their interests.

What I found much more revealing was this exchange between Reince Priebus and a reporter who asked about that disgusting outbreak of white supremacism at last weekend’s CPAC: RNC Chair Asked About Chaotic CPAC Race Panel.

“Question about CPAC last week, where a panel on African American voters dissolved into a shouting match with at least one activist saying that — sorry, hard to read the question — talking about voters being systematically disenfranchised. How, given that sort of backdrop in the party, do you plan to overcome those challenges in your role at the RNC?” National Press Club President Angela Greiling Keane asked Priebus at an event on the RNC’s roadmap ahead after the 2012 elections.

Priebus responded to the question by saying the RNC plans to hire hundreds of paid staffers to reach out to minority communities across the country.

“For one thing, you have to show up, right?” he said. “I mean, if you’re going to get the order, you have to ask for the sale. I mean, that’s just sort of basic. Which is why we’re launching this unprecedented effort to bring in — I’m not talking about hiring two or three people down the hallway at the RNC — what we’re talking about is hiring hundreds of paid people across the country this year to make the case in minority communities across America.”

Priebus seems to think the only response needed is to pay people to go out and promote the GOP to “minority communities” — but he completely ignored the question. And there you have the GOP’s problem in a nutshell. They believe they can fix things by just hiring more PR shills, but can’t even be bothered to address a real incident of very real, very ugly racism, at the premier right wing conference.

ON CBS today, Priebus said, “We’ve done a really lousy job of branding and marketing who we are.”

I have to disagree. With “death panels” and “self-deportation” and forced vaginal ultrasounds and insane comments about “legitimate rape” and creationism and climate change denial, the Republican Party has done an absolutely smashing job of demonstrating exactly who they are. The best marketing in the world isn’t going to help you if your product sucks.

For reference, here’s the report they want you to believe is a sincere effort to promote reform:

Remember when right wing pseudo-comedian Steven Crowder provoked and insulted and shoved union demonstrators at the Michigan Capitol until someone took a swing at him? Remember how he used a blatantly edited video to try to push this phony story of “union thuggery,” and Sean Hannity and Fox News and Breitbart.com and the whole right wing blogosphere hyped it like crazy?

Well, after reviewing unedited video of the incident, the prosecutor has decided there’s no case.

The prosecutor in this case has determined that there’ll be no charges against anyone who popped Crowder on that December day. Ingham County Prosecutor Stuart Dunnings III “will not be authorizing criminal charges in this case,” Shanon Banner, a spokeswoman for the Michigan State Police, wrote in an e-mail to the Erik Wemple Blog this morning.

Dunnings said in an interview that the video his office originally reviewed on the matter “appeared to have been edited.” A subsequent review of what the prosecutor termed “unedited” video helped the office reach its decision not to proceed with a case.

“A look at the unedited video, taken in conjunction with the statements of the alleged victim and the alleged assailant, led me to the conclusion that I would not authorize issuance of the warrant,” Dunnings said.

Creationist GOP governor Bobby Jindal, who is obviously considering a run for the presidency in 2016, says any Republican considering a run for the presidency in 2016 “needs to get their head examined.”

He said this in an appearance on the dumbest, craziest right wing show on Fox News, Fox and Friends. His point is that the GOP first needs to get their deceptive “messages” plotted out before they can expect to win an election.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) said Monday that Republicans already thinking about the 2016 presidential race need “to get their head examined” because the party is just beginning to recalibrate its messaging in the aftermath of President Obama’s reelection.

“Anybody on the Republican side even thinking or talking about running for president in 2016, I’ve said, needs to get their head examined,” Jindal told “Fox and Friends.” “And the reason I say that is, we’ve lost two presidential elections in a row, we need to be winning the debate of ideas, then we’ll win elections.”

Jindal has arguably been more successful than any other Republican politician at legitimizing the teaching of creationism and other forms of right wing pseudo-science in Louisiana, through his voucher program that funnels state money to private religious schools. That must be what he means by “winning the debate of ideas.”

Birther loon Donald Trump says, “No, YOU’RE stupid.”

The heirs to Andrew at Breitbart.com just continue to lie about Prof. Charles Ogletree, in a pitiful attempt to shore up their failed BOMBSHELL revelation. They’re still claiming that Ogletree “admitted” hiding the dreaded Harvard video — even though: 1) it wasn’t hidden at all; it was posted on YouTube in October 2008, and also on the PBS website, and 2) Prof. Ogletree did not “admit” to anything; he was joking, as LGF author “Tundra Boy” pointed out yesterday in a great LGF Page with video proof.

Today, in response to this absurd and wholly dishonest smear, Prof. Ogletree tells the Boston Herald what’s already obvious to anyone who watches more than the deceptive excerpt posted by Breitbart.com: Ogletree: I Was Joking About Obama Video Clip.

Harvard Law Professor Charles Ogletree told the Herald he was just kidding when he suggested that a decades-old clip of a young Barack Obama praising and embracing controversial Professor Derrick Bell was kept hidden from voters during the 2008 campaign.

“It was a big joke,” Ogletree said. “If you watch the tape, the audience is laughing when I’m laughing.”

Conservative website Breitbart.com, a week after the death of its founder Andrew Breitbart, posted the video online yesterday, offering it as proof of Obama’s radicalism, arguing Bell had close ties to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Breitbart.com also claimed Obama taught Bell’s writings at the University of Chicago. Breitbart.com called it “the latest in a pattern of Barack Obama’s associations with individuals who promoted a racially divisive America.”

“It’s much to do about nothing,” said Ogletree, who insisted the clip has been public for years. “It’s not the breaking story that some who want to criticize the president claim it is.”

This truly has been a week of monumental failures for the mini-Breitbarts. About now, they might be needing a hug.

Has Fox News become my unwitting ally in trying to convince Erick Erickson that many Americans do indeed believe in a literal creationism as outlined in the Bible?

Today Fox News released part of a survey (of 911 Americans), the part dealing with religious implications (prayer, creationism):

Fox News Poll: Most Believe Prayer Heals, 45 Percent Believe in Creationism

Some 45 percent of voters accept the Biblical account of creation as the explanation for the origin of human life on Earth, while 21 percent say the theory of evolution as outlined by Darwin and other scientists is correct. Another 27 percent say both explanations are true.

Most of the Fox write-up isn’t done very well (no surprise), not really tackling the sticky issues of polling.

Here is the summarized polling data for the released section, which contains more details of both the prayer and creationism questions, with answers profiled by the declared status of the questioned.

Looking at the details of the polling results, among self declared as “Tea Party” only 11% accept science. “Republicans” don’t do much better, at 13%.

The Fox questions are ambiguous, intentionally so, I can only conclude. The three options given are:

The theory of evolution as outlined by Darwin and other scientists

The Biblical account of creation as told in the Bible

Are both true

The last one is the curve ball in classic obfuscationist fashion. The category is a catch all, probably intended for everyone from theistic evolutionists (i.e., Biologos folk) to the Old Earth Creationists (e.g., Hugh Ross, and probably Erick Erickson.) Yet it also functions as a “maybe” type of answer, without forcing people to choose the (perhaps shameful in the minds of the questioned) “I don’t know” (which was a possible answer on the poll.)

However, even accepting that, fully half of the “Tea Party” and “Republican” chose the “Bible” category, not the “both”!! That is, half of all the Tea Partying/GOP folk totally reject that science has any part in informing us of origins!

NCSE also has a brief summary about this poll: A new Fox News poll on evolution.

Personally, I wonder about the polling method. For example, the poll says that the under 35 y.o. crowd accepts the Bible-only story at 50% (!!), while the over 65 y.o. is only 43% in that category. This is contrary to every other polling result and counter-intuitive as well.

Overall, I suspect this poll is more of an attempt to legitimize the GOP candidates’ atavism as somehow being mainstream. The reason the partially released survey picked only two questions is that they relate to hot button issues for the Tea Partying atavists:

1. prayer in schools and public places;
2. use of the Bible in schools and public meetings.

After all, if the majority of Americans believe in prayer and the Bible, who are the activist liberal judges who are trying to ban prayer and the Bible? Eh?

As I alluded, the details of the creationism question lead me to wonder about the polling method. About the method, all we get from Fox is this:

The Fox News poll is based on landline and cell phone interviews with 911 randomly chosen registered voters nationwide and was conducted under the joint direction of Anderson Robbins Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R) from August 29 to August 31. For the total sample, it has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

“Registered Voters” implies some sort of selection process, and since the youngest adults are less likely to vote than older adults, and since older people are more likely to be at home and willing to have the time to spend in answering a poll, I suspect that the polling results were skewed somewhat more towards the Fox viewing audience.

I expect more details about this poll, and more discussion about its results, will come about later as people start to wonder how 50% of the under 35 crowd could have picked “The Bible” under the origins question.

I can hardly believe it, but right wing radio, blogs and politicians are still whining about James Hoffa’s speech in Michigan, crying and complaining and demanding apologies. What the hell is wrong with these people?

And to make matters worse, even non-Fox News sources are running the Fox-edited quotes of Hoffa’s remarks: Like Fox News, Washington Post , USA Today  And CNN All Run Hoffa Comments Out Of Context.

This is definitely not the media’s finest hour. Don’t any of these journalists care that Fox News deceptively edited Hoffa’s speech?

Meanwhile, Hoffa appeared on the Ed Schultz show to talk about this ridiculous manufactured outrage:

It’s amazing how quickly these bogus outrages propagate in the right wing media and blogosphere these days: Timeline Of A Right-Wing Media Smear: Hoffa’s Call To Vote Became ‘A Call For Violence’.

Starting with Fox News’s doctored videos, the story quickly spread throughout the online wingnut community. And not a single one of these bloggers or pundits or “news sites” took any notice of the blatant, in-yer-face editing, or bothered to Google up an unedited video (which wasn’t hard), before enthusiastically parroting a completely false Fox News-induced right wing talking point.

Bad craziness, my friends.

Does anyone still remember when blogs were supposed to be about *cough* … fact-checking? Or are all of these bloggers now just devoted to blind, bovine shilling for bankrupt political ideologies?

Dana Loesch: Hoffa Issued A “Call Of Violence Against Americans.” Minutes after the doctored video of Hoffa’s speech aired on Fox News, CNN contributor and editor of Andrew Breitbart’s Big Journalism site Dana Loesch characterized Hoffa’s comments as “the call of violence against Americans by union thugs.” [Media Matters, 9/5/11]

Real Clear Politics Used Doctored Fox Video To Claim: “Hoffa Threatens GOP At Obama Event.” The website Real Clear Politics posted Fox’s doctored video of Hoffa’s comments with the headline: “Hoffa Threatens GOP At Obama Event: ‘Take These Son Of Bitches Out’.” [RealClearPolitics, 9/5/11]

Drudge Report Linked To Doctored Fox Video. The Drudge Report later added a link to its initial headline, which directed readers to the Real Clear Politics post that included Fox’s doctored video. [Drudge Report, 9/5/11]

Big Government Posted Altered Video, Criticized Obama. At 11:08 a.m. (presumably Pacific Time as Breitbart sites are based in Los Angeles), Big Government posted the edited Fox News video under the headline: “Obama Declares He’s ‘Proud’ of Hoffa — After Hoffa Declares ‘War’ on Tea Party ‘Sons-Of-Bitches’.” [Big Government, 9/5/11]

Big Journalism Posted Doctored Video, Claimed Hoffa “Threatens Tea Party.” At 11:09 a.m. PT, Big Journalism also posted the doctored Fox News video with the headline: “Union Boss Intros Obama in Detroit, Threatens Tea Party ‘Let’s Take These Sons of Bitches Out’.” [Big Journalism, 9/5/11]

Fox News then Showed Video Of Hoffa Urging People To Vote. At approximately 3 p.m. ET — after the edited Fox News video had been promoted by right-wing blogs — Fox News finally aired Hoffa’s comments urging people to vote. The full context verified what Henry had reported via Twitter hours earlier — that Hoffa was simply emphasizing the need to vote:

HOFFA: Everybody here’s got to vote. If we go back and we keep the eye on the prize, let’s take these son of a bitches out and give America back to America where we belong! Thank you very much! [Fox News, Fox Report, 9/5/11]

Hot Air Also Used Doctored Video Of Hoffa. Hot Air blogger Allahpundit posted the doctored Fox video of Hoffa’s speech and wrote that Hoffa was “threatening his political enemies while a union-stooge Democratic leader sits by and smiles.” [Hot Air, 9/5/11]

Gateway Pundit Used Doctored Hoffa Speech. Right-wing blogger Jim Hoft posted Fox News’ edited video and wrote: “Jimmy Hoffa took his attacks on the tea party to a whole new level today during his Labor Day speech.” [Gateway Pundit, 9/5/11]

The Five Doctored Speech And Said Hoffa “Essentially Declared War On The Tea Party.” At 5 p.m. ET — two hours after Fox News aired Hoffa’s full statement urging people to vote — Fox News’ The Five again broadcast a clearly edited video of Hoffa’s speech that did not include his comment that “everybody here’s got to vote.” Co-host Kimberly Guilfoyle said that Hoffa “essentially declared war on the Tea Party.” [Fox News, The Five, 9/5/11]

Fox’s Palin Called Hoffa’s Speech “Thuggery.” In a Facebook message posted at 2:50 a.m. on September 6, Fox News contributor Sarah Palin urged union members to not be “taken in by union bosses’ thuggery like Jim Hoffa represented yesterday.” [Facebook, 9/6/11]

Glenn Beck Claimed Hoffa Was “Inciting Violence” During Speech. Glenn Beck aired a doctored audio version of Hoffa’s speech but left out his call to vote out Republicans and forwarded the fabrication that Hoffa was “inciting violence” against conservatives. [Premiere Radio Networks, The Glenn Beck Program, 9/6/11]

RedState: Hoffa “All But Called For” Tea Party Leaders To Be Killed. Citing the doctored Fox News video posted by Real Clear Politics, a RedState blogger wrote that “on Labor Day, James Hoffa all but called for the leadership of The Tea Party Movement to take a nice, refreshing dirt nap in The Meadowlands End Zone.” [RedState, 9/6/11]

And at the bottom, as always, Rush Limbaugh.

Rush Limbaugh On Hoffa’s Speech: “That’s A Call For Violence, Folks.” After playing a doctored clip of Hoffa’s speech, Rush Limbaugh said: “That’s a declaration of war. I mean, that is a come on to violence. That’s a call for violence, folks. From Don Hoffa to Barack Obama.” [Premiere Radio Networks, The Rush Limbaugh Show, 9/6/11]

Read the whole thing…

As the petulant high-pitched whining of the right wing blogosphere reaches fever pitch, Teamsters president James Hoffa is not retreating: Teamsters President: ‘No Regrets’ After Fiery Speech Draws Right-Wing Criticism.

Hoffa riled up Fox News and the right wing Monday with a Labor Day speech in Detroit in which he called Republican members of Congress “sons of bitches” and said union workers are ready to “go to war” with the tea party next year and “take out” Republicans at the ballot box.

Hoffa said he’d say the exact same words all over again.

“I would because I believe it,” he said. “They’ve declared war on us. We didn’t declare war on them, they declared war on us. We’re fighting back. The question is, who started the war?”

Here’s a reminder to all the right wingers who blindly followed the lies of Fox News and started screaming your fool heads off: Hoffa’s remarks absolutely pale in comparison to the deranged racism and threatening rhetoric at Tea Party demonstrations and websites.

Just a few examples out of many: