#MittsMissingReturns (Part Eleven) -- Fox & CNN are ready to move on already

Watch (courtesy of Media Matters for America) a video showing how two of the major cable news channels are willing to ignore the fact that the Republican Presidential candidate is obviously hiding something seriously wrong in his financial history:

Why the business and financial history of someone whose main qualification for President is his self-proclaimed (but unverifiable) business and financial acumen should be considered tangential or a distraction is beyond me. His tax returns seem central to understanding who this candidate is. The demand for more than the two partial returns from 2010 and 2011 is not a case of Birtherism Redux, though that is certainly the way the GOP, Fox, and (maybe) CNN, would like to portray it, and us.
We'll keep up the call for 10-12 years of Mitt Romney's tax returns here on TrueBlueLiberal.org and with the #MittsMissingReturns hashtag on Twitter, but the media won't necessarily be working with us. I'm not looking forward to Candy Crowley's role as the impartial moderator for the single debate between Joe Biden and Paul Ryan.

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Catch up with the lengthening list of installments in the #MittsMissingReturns saga by clicking on any of these links:

• #MittsMissingReturns [part one], July 3 
• #MittsMissingReturns (Part Two), July 6 
• #MittsMissingReturns (Part Three),  July 10
• #MittsMissingReturns (Part Four) -- In a Nutshell, July 14 
• #MittsMissingReturns (Part Five) -- In Which Mitt Romney Gives a Typically Squirrelly Response, July 16
• #MittsMissingReturns (Part Six) -- Herman Cain Weighs In, July 25
• #MittsMissingReturns (Part Seven) -- Romney Finds One Issue on Which He's 100% Consistent, July 26
• #MittsMissingReturns (Part Eight) -- Another Lesson in Mitt's Lying Laugh, July 31
• #MittsMissingReturns (Part Nine) -- Mitt Romney vs. Harry Reid, August 4
• #MittsMissingReturns (Part Ten) -- In which Paul Ryan makes Mitt Romney throw up in his mouth a little, August 13

And keep tweeting with #MittsMissingReturns on Twitter.

Wedge Issue Update: "Liberal Hollywood Using Class Warfare to Brainwash Our Kids!"

In an election year in which the right does not have the high ground on any issue that really affect Americans, winning a majority of voters will require the GOP to peel off enough voters from President Obama and his party with a combination of wedge issues. Here's one that I didn't include in my original list, but it's an old chestnut in the right-wing arsenal, since the pre-cable conservatives railed against the unfair Liberal Hollywood portrayals Mr. Henry Potter and the 1% of Bedford Falls in "It's a Wonderful Life." Liberal Hollywood is at it again with the Muppets' nemesis, oilman Tex Richman. And Fox Business News (courtesy of Media Matters for America) is all over Liberal Hollywood's crime.



Speaking about (or should I say "screeching" in honor of the tone of this video?) brainwashing, someone needs to talk about the constant brainwashing in which we've been bathed since birth in America. We have every mainstream voice telling us about nothing but the wonders of capitalist consumerism supported by patriotic militarism. And this time of year we expect the non-stop cries of "buy..buy..buy" to reach a crescendo (with a subtext that if you don't buy..buy..buy, you obviously don't love..love..love your family). But if I start complaining about that, I'm into another wedge issue, The Liberal War On Christmas.

I still think that the current front-running issue in the GOP Wedge-Issue Race is "Dirty Filthy Hippies", but there's no reason to think that the race between Republican wedge issues will be any less volatile than the one between their stellar cast of candidates (which is being led at this moment by Newt Gingrich?).

You Need Another Reason to Kill Your TV? How about people who mistake their psychoses for "God's Voice"?

... and blame the devil and the Haitians who fought for their freedom for the earthquake that devastated that nation last night:

Media Matters for America also has the Pat Robertson transcript for the segment up above on their website, but here's the important bit: " ...They were under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon III and whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, "We will serve you if you will get us free from the French." True story. And so, the devil said, "OK, it's a deal." And they kicked the French out. You know, the Haitians revolted and got themselves free. But ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after the other.... "

Hey, maybe they just should have remained slaves. Right Pat?

As an example of the complete intellectual (if not financial) bankruptcy of these money-grubbing TV preachers, the Revolution in Haiti at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries was fought against the French revolutionary government and THE Napoleon -- Napoleon Bonaparte -- not "Napoleon III and whatever" who ruled fifty years later. I'm also not sure where Pat Robertson got his "facts" about and direct quote from "the devil," but I'm pretty sure that's a mythological creature incapable of speaking directly to non-psychotic humans, and I haven't seen his (its) name mentioned in any history books as being a key player in the events of 1791-1804.

Despite the ridiculousness of these claims though, the reanimated zombie that used to be Jerry Falwell rose from its grave today and said of Pat Robertson's attempt to link earthquakes to pacts with the devil, "I totally concur!"

Prominent Bush supporter jokes about murdering Michael Moore with his bare hands. Idiots listen to him on the radio and think he's sane.

Radio host Glenn Beck "Thinking About Killing Michael Moore" [Media Matters for America]

BECK: "Hang on, let me just tell you what I'm thinking. I'm thinking about killing Michael Moore, and I'm wondering if I could kill him myself, or if I would need to hire somebody to do it. No, I think I could. I think he could be looking me in the eye, you know, and I could just be choking the life out -- is this wrong? ..."
TBL: Yes!

What's really scary is that these rightwingnut radio and television "personalities" have supporters and listeners who are even stupider and more violent than they are, and most of them are also armed. What if this jerk were expressing this same murderous fantasy about an "activist judge" or Bill or Hillary Clinton?

"Proverbs for Paranoids, 3"

Proverbs for Paranoids, 3: If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers.

--Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow

Thank you [Mr. President]. Senate Democratic leaders have painted a very bleak picture of the U.S. economy. Harry Reid was talking about soup lines. And Hillary Clinton was talking about the economy being on the verge of collapse. Yet in the same breath they say that Social Security is rock solid and there's no crisis there. How are you going to work -- you've said you are going to reach out to these people -- how are you going to work with people who seem to have divorced themselves from reality.

--"Reporter" Jeff Gannon asks George Bush a tough question at a news conference on 26 Jan 2005 [click for more details at Media Matters for America]

How much, to continue the entry from a couple of days ago, is HE being paid to help keep us all in the dark?

-- True Blue Liberal