Tuesday, October 09, 2007
(2:11 PM) | Stephen:
Dangerous, Hateful, Amoral Scumbags: Right Wing Bloggers and Radio Hosts
So a couple of weeks ago 12 year old Graeme Frost delivered the weekly Democratic radio address, talking about Bush's reprehensible veto of the SCHIP bill - a bill with the overwhelming support of states' Governors and Congressional members of both parties.
The Right Wing Hate Machine, sensing a vulnerability, has kicked into gear, harassing people at the Frost's home and business, digging up their tax returns, investigating where their kids go to school, etc. They've come to the predictable conclusion that the Frosts are scam artists, that their children are pampered little rich kids living large off the government.
The Frosts, of course, have never made more than $50,000/year. They bought their house in Baltimore for $55,000. I don't know much about Baltimore, but in Kansas City a $55,000 house means either no indoor plumbing or that it's in between two crack houses - or both. The family was in a horrible car accident a few years ago, which left their daughter with severe brain damage and their son, Graeme, has had to fight for a couple of years now to get back to health. They do attend private school, but as recipients of scholarships. The family pays about $500/yr for each kid.
George Bush has used "snowflake babies" - extraneous fertilized eggs from fertility treatments that were adopted ahead of already-living kids that need a home, but hey, these kids are all white - to make his stem cell policies unassailable, during the Social Security debacle a while back there was a 9 year old who traveled the country speaking at events to try and convince people to destroy the program, etc. Not one blogger - NOT ONE! - "visited" that kid's family at home, or looked into their finances. Not one blogger has searched out these "snowflake babies" to see what lives they're living.
In fact, I've been surprised at the restraint the media has had regarding George Bush's kids. Chelsea Clinton was never spared any insult the Right Wing Hate Machine could spew out. If the Bush twins could have just behaved themselves a bit a few years ago, we would have never heard anything about them.
Why? Because there is simply no organization, no group, no ethos on the American Left which considers its political philosophy so important and inherently moral that this nation's laws and normal ethics don't apply. There is no such thing as a Left-wing radio host with a program based upon insults and hatred. There are no Left-wing TV show hosts who get on every night and lie lie lie like Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck, Scarborough, Matthews, Russert and all the other hacks and flacks on TV.
I'm not trying to say that all liberals are super-good and moral people, nor can every conservative be characterized as the opposite. But the movements are entirely different.
Moveon.org puts an ad in the New York Times using a nickname from General Petraeus' own career - General Betrayus - and the Right goes nuts. Rush Limbaugh had used that smear against Chuck Schumer months ago, calling him Senator Betrayus in counterpoint to Gen. Petraeus' then-upcoming testimony. Nothing was done.
The above example is just par for the course. The Left in this country is routinely portrayed as being angry, bitter, unhinged. But what proof is there of that? Just like with the fabricated spitting on Vietnam vets incidents, proof of a rabid, angry and deranged Left in this country simply isn't around. But there is an entire media industry that garners a majority of its profits from the perpetuation of that very myth while ignoring the quite real examples of extreme Right-wing fanatics who do commit violence. Violence such as bombing women's health clinics (they usually aren't the clinics that offer abortions) and shooting doctors who perform abortions, like posting journalists' personal information and calling on people to teach their children - there's the children as targets again - a lesson for publishing photos of Dick Cheney's and Donald Rumsfeld's vacation homes, never mind that they had permission. Invasions of privacy, smears, lies, all piped into the homes of millions of Americans simply because someone got on their bad side, or happened to be around when the GOP desperately needed a distraction from the corruption and incompetence that has so taken hold of the party structure and leadership.
I can tell you this: If Michelle Malkin - or anyone else - trespassed on my property in order to harass my family about stuff that's none of her business, I'd smack the hell out of her and be fully within my rights. This is one liberal who, when it comes to his kids, makes the proverbial she-bear protecting her cubs look like an arthritic toy poodle.
The Right Wing Hate Machine, sensing a vulnerability, has kicked into gear, harassing people at the Frost's home and business, digging up their tax returns, investigating where their kids go to school, etc. They've come to the predictable conclusion that the Frosts are scam artists, that their children are pampered little rich kids living large off the government.
The Frosts, of course, have never made more than $50,000/year. They bought their house in Baltimore for $55,000. I don't know much about Baltimore, but in Kansas City a $55,000 house means either no indoor plumbing or that it's in between two crack houses - or both. The family was in a horrible car accident a few years ago, which left their daughter with severe brain damage and their son, Graeme, has had to fight for a couple of years now to get back to health. They do attend private school, but as recipients of scholarships. The family pays about $500/yr for each kid.
George Bush has used "snowflake babies" - extraneous fertilized eggs from fertility treatments that were adopted ahead of already-living kids that need a home, but hey, these kids are all white - to make his stem cell policies unassailable, during the Social Security debacle a while back there was a 9 year old who traveled the country speaking at events to try and convince people to destroy the program, etc. Not one blogger - NOT ONE! - "visited" that kid's family at home, or looked into their finances. Not one blogger has searched out these "snowflake babies" to see what lives they're living.
In fact, I've been surprised at the restraint the media has had regarding George Bush's kids. Chelsea Clinton was never spared any insult the Right Wing Hate Machine could spew out. If the Bush twins could have just behaved themselves a bit a few years ago, we would have never heard anything about them.
Why? Because there is simply no organization, no group, no ethos on the American Left which considers its political philosophy so important and inherently moral that this nation's laws and normal ethics don't apply. There is no such thing as a Left-wing radio host with a program based upon insults and hatred. There are no Left-wing TV show hosts who get on every night and lie lie lie like Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck, Scarborough, Matthews, Russert and all the other hacks and flacks on TV.
I'm not trying to say that all liberals are super-good and moral people, nor can every conservative be characterized as the opposite. But the movements are entirely different.
Moveon.org puts an ad in the New York Times using a nickname from General Petraeus' own career - General Betrayus - and the Right goes nuts. Rush Limbaugh had used that smear against Chuck Schumer months ago, calling him Senator Betrayus in counterpoint to Gen. Petraeus' then-upcoming testimony. Nothing was done.
The above example is just par for the course. The Left in this country is routinely portrayed as being angry, bitter, unhinged. But what proof is there of that? Just like with the fabricated spitting on Vietnam vets incidents, proof of a rabid, angry and deranged Left in this country simply isn't around. But there is an entire media industry that garners a majority of its profits from the perpetuation of that very myth while ignoring the quite real examples of extreme Right-wing fanatics who do commit violence. Violence such as bombing women's health clinics (they usually aren't the clinics that offer abortions) and shooting doctors who perform abortions, like posting journalists' personal information and calling on people to teach their children - there's the children as targets again - a lesson for publishing photos of Dick Cheney's and Donald Rumsfeld's vacation homes, never mind that they had permission. Invasions of privacy, smears, lies, all piped into the homes of millions of Americans simply because someone got on their bad side, or happened to be around when the GOP desperately needed a distraction from the corruption and incompetence that has so taken hold of the party structure and leadership.
I can tell you this: If Michelle Malkin - or anyone else - trespassed on my property in order to harass my family about stuff that's none of her business, I'd smack the hell out of her and be fully within my rights. This is one liberal who, when it comes to his kids, makes the proverbial she-bear protecting her cubs look like an arthritic toy poodle.
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