Speaking at the Take Back America conference on June 3, American Progress CEO John Podesta said, "I think when you get so distant from the facts as -- as guys like Limbaugh and Sean Hannity do, yeah, I think that tends to -- it kind of -- it tends to corrupt the dialogue." Apparently he struck a nerve with Fox News' Sean Hannity. Hannity challenged Podesta to "defend and explain one example where I -- where I said something that was so false." Since choosing just one of Hannity's distortions is too difficult, here are some examples:
HANNITY: "You're not listening, Susan. You've got to learn something. He had weapons of mass destruction. He promised to disclose them. And he didn't do it. You would have let him go free; we decided to hold him accountable." (4/13/04)
FACT: Hannity's assertion comes more than six months after Bush Administration weapons inspector David Kay testified his inspection team had "not uncovered evidence that Iraq undertook significant post-1998 steps to actually build nuclear weapons or produce fissile material" and had not discovered any chemical or biological weapons. (Bush Administration Weapons Inspector David Kay, 10/2/03)
HANNITY: "[After 9-11], liberal Democrats at first showed little interest in the investigation of the roots of this massive intelligence failure...[Bush and his team] made it clear that determining the causes of America's security failures and finding and remedying its weak points would be central to their mission." (Let Freedom Ring, by Sean Hannity)
TRUTH: Bush Opposed the creation of a special commission to probe the causes of 9/11 for over a year. On 5/23/02 CBS News Reported "President Bush took a few minutes during his trip to Europe Thursday to voice his opposition to establishing a special commission to probe how the government dealt with terror warnings before Sept. 11." Bush didn't relent to pressure to create a commission, mostly from those Hannity would consider "liberal" until September 2002. (CBS News, 5/23/02)
HANNITY: "Now here's where we are. The inherited Clinton/Gore recession. That's a fact." (5/6/03)
HANNITY: "The president inherited a recession." (7/10/03)
HANNITY: "He got us out of the Clinton-Gore recession." (10/23/03)
HANNITY: "They did inherit the recession. They did inherit the recession. We got out of the recession." (12/12/03)
HANNITY: "And this is the whole point behind this ad, because the president did inherit a recession." (1/6/04)
HANNITY: "Historically in every recovery, because the president rightly did inherit a recession. But historically, the lagging indicator always deals with employment." (1/15/04)
HANNITY: "Congressman Deutsch, maybe you forgot but I'll be glad to remind you, the president did inherit that recession." (1/20/04)
HANNITY: "He did inherit a recession, and we're out of the recession." (2/2/04)
HANNITY: "The president inherited a recession." (2/23/04)
HANNITY: "The president inherited a recession." (3/3/04)
HANNITY: "Clearly, we're out of the recession that President Bush inherited." (4/2/04)
HANNITY: "Stop me where I'm wrong. The president inherited a recession, the economic impact of 9/11 was tremendous on the economy, correct?" (4/6/04)
HANNITY: "[President George W. Bush] did inherit a recession." (5/3/04)
HANNITY: "[W]e got [the weak U.S. economy] out of the Clinton-Gore recession." (5/18/04)
HANNITY: "We got out of the Clinton-Gore recession." (5/27/04)
HANNITY: "We got out of the Clinton-Gore recession." (6/4/04)
FACT: "The recession officially began in March of 2001 -- two months after Bush was sworn in -- according to the universally acknowledged arbiter of such things, the National Bureau of Economic Research. And the president, at other times, has said so himself." (Washington Post, 7/1/03)
HANNITY: "It doesn't say anywhere in the Constitution this idea of the separation of church and state." (8/25/03)
FACT: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." (1st Amendment)
"The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States." (Article VI)
His idiocy was made more apparent watching him interview Ed Smart about his daughter Elizabeth who, we discovered, is doing just super duper despite being raped by a greasy homeless pedophile for 9 months.
The interview centered on both men's relief that Elizabeth had escaped from her captors ensuring she would get back to a proper brainwashing at home with her family. Sean's smarmy religious posturing and moral high road superiority was especially amusing in this interview precisely because he was interviewing a Mormon (Ed Smart - fully owning the part with his aggressively serene demeanor).
Since Sean is a Catholic, it was obvious during the interview that both of these "Christians" think that the others' brand of faith is inappropriate, however they both strove to maintain a forced air of brotherhood, with limited (but funny) results.
In addition to listening to himself go on and on every day on radio and televsision, Sean has written a number of useless books, which blow about as hard as you might expect. With none of the deft humor that used to be the Hallmark of Rush Limbaugh (and is arguably carried on today by naughty conservative spinster Ann Coulter), Sean's latest book belies him to be an actual egotist blowhard asshole, and not a sly, "I'm saying things this way on purpose to piss off those of you who don't understand it's all a big joke" blowhard asshole.
Sean, like most modern Neo-con pundits (the ones who can actually bring themselves to perform as apologists for the obvious stupidity of George W. Bush) mistakenly posits that because some issues are black and white, all issues are black and white, and the grey areas loved by liberals in matters of morality and social policy are nonexistent. Sean also mistakenly thinks that all conservatives agree with him and his fellow right-wing nutjob talking heads, and this absolute conviction of bluster is what makes him all but unwatchable among the South Park Conservatives.
The night after Sean Hannity is caught by Jon Stewart on “The Daily Show” using tape of the “9/12 Rally” in Washington, mixed in with footage of the Congress protest in Washington on November 5, Hannity tells Jon Stewart: “You were right.”:
SO busted. And Hannity tries to play it off like it was a simple mistake.
Let us not forget Mr. Hannity's affiliation with known Neo-Nazi's:
Now before any of my right-wing readers get their collective panties in a bunch, understand that I am NOT a supporter of Malik Shabazz, who is quite possibly a bigger racist than Hannity.
Neo-Nazi broadcaster and Sean Hannity's fascist homeboy Hal Turner was convicted Friday of threatening three federal judges who ruled to uphold handgun bans in Chicago and Oak Park, Illinois last year, earning him a sentence of up to 10 years during which Misplaced hopes this monstrous freak is stomped to death by authentic Neo-Nazi murderers.
Two trials were scrubbed last year due to, first, a deadlocked jury and then a mistrial declaration by a judge. Prosecutors accused this freak of writing on his website in June 2009, “Let me be the first to say this plainly: These Judges deserve to be killed.” Accompanying this recommendation for his fans who could read were photographs, phone numbers and work addresses for the judges, clearly targeting data for psychopaths.
A righteously resolute jury took just two hours to convict this monstrous piece of shit of threatening to kill three federal judges. His mommy complained the first amendment had been destroyed by the conviction and his kid had the good fortune of seeing his dad dragged off and will hopefully never have to endure this Nazi’s twisted presence again.
During the trial, Turner tried to pass off his threats as inspired prose vetted and approved of by the FBI who hired this piece of shit as a snitch to inform on the Neo-Nazi and white supremacist movements, a consulting contract that should make Turner very popular in the federal penitentiary. Mid-trial, this fucking idiot also tried to extort an FBI agent, threatening to expose him as a perjurer and destroy his law enforcement career.
It may be true that the agents tutored him on boundaries of protected speech but, as taxpayers, we at Misplaced In The Midwest hope the FBI made sure he went clearly and unambiguously over the line so this piece of shit could be fitted for a wedding gown and be shipped off to a federal penitentiary for inmate entertainment. Any asshole who would take a federal agent at face value and think he is not being gamed twice sideways deserves to be stomped to death by Neo-Nazi murderers in a federal penitentiary.
The unindicted co-conspirator Sean Hannity is still, however, at large. Hannity used his radio talk show in the late 1990s to propagate Turner’s psychonazi ravings, raise his profile and to spew the kind of psychopathic Nazi rage and hatred that Hannity wanted to cultivate. By the time Hannity’s brand began maturing, in the early naughts, and Hannity’s TV show, Hannity and Colmes (with pathetic stage-liberal posing as battered wife Alan Colmes) began establishing itself as a ratings leader, according to a 2005 report by The Nation, even crypto-nazi Hannity had to distance himself from Turner and stopped taking his calls on the radio program.
By that time, though, Turner had been emboldened apparently by his brush with a ratings icon like Hannity, to start his own shortwave hatecast, according to The Nation’s 2005 report on Hannity and Turner’s courtship. Who knows what kind of inspiration Hannity provided for a small-town Nazi like Turner? Good question for the FBI to ask Hannity, if they haven’t already.
That's enough for today. More Anti-Right venom tomorrow.
Hal Turner's first two trials were deadlocked, most siding with the defense. "Deserved to die" is an opinion, the same phrases you expressed on how Mr. Turner "deserves" to be treated in prison, which is your right. The addresses he posted were links to public sites, as the first two juries got it. However, with the deep pockets, the U.S. attorneys double jepped him twice, cleaning out his bank account, throwing him at the mercy of a mostly female jury -- who likely went with 'feelings' of his racist views rather than facts -- and assigned him a third-rate public defender. The attorney you claim he 'extorted', AUSA William Hogan, apparently had a shaky past and allegedly been previously fired for misconduct. In fact, at one point in the second trial, the judge ordered him to sit down and shut up, causing a skeptical jury to laugh, who saw this trial as nothing more than a dog-and-pony show.
ReplyDeleteSo you're a Hal Turner supporter... yet you read a Black Man's blog... Interesting.
ReplyDeleteYou've obviously never heard Hal Turner speak... I have. I used to listen to his show online to see what he was saying.
The man started one show by saying "We need another Kristallnacht".
I also used to comment on his discussion board... if you have been a follower of his, then you'll remember me from that board. My screen name was One Black Voice. I attempted to debate Mr. Turner in that forum, and he told me he wouldn't debate me unless I called his show.
I did.
Several times.
Mr. Turner NEVER took my calls, let alone put me on the air. This is because he knew he with me, he'd be biting off more than he could chew. I am not in the least bit surprised that Mr. Turner didn't want to take the chance of me making him look like the ignorant, narrow-minded racist he is.
Also, I was the General Manager of a law firm in New York before I relocated to the Midwest.
I know a thing or two about the law.
There was no double-jeopardy with Mr. Turner. If you knew anything at all about U.S. law, you would understand that... Obviously you don't, or you've gleaned what limited knowledge you have of the situation from Mr. Turner's side
The guy is bad news. He openly threatened the lives of Federal judges. What did he think was going to happen?
If you wish to defend the notorious racist Hal Turner, you're in the wrong place, as I stated above, I've had numerous personal contacts with Mr. Turner myself.
Thanks for reading, though... ALL commentary is welcome here... even opinions I do not agree with.
If the government had such a solid case against Mr. Turner on the initial charges, then why did they bother throwing out the race card? Moreover, you need to ask yourself why most of the jurors sided with the defense, the one hold-out in the second trial voting guilty because of a particular racist comment he made about President Obama.
ReplyDeleteWhile it wasn't *technically* double-jeopardy, it's almost unheard of to go three times, especially when most agreed with the defense.
In 2009, Turner claimed to have inside information that most of the nation’s largest banks were insolvent and would not pass a “stress test“. The Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund, an exchange-traded fund tracking banks, brokerages and insurers, fell to $10.62 from $10.75 in six minutes after FlyOnTheWall.com cited Turner’s blog post at 8:14 a.m. in New York. Obviously, he made a lot of people in the financial sector unhappy. Just follow the money.
Yep. The guy commenting above is obviously someone who agrees with Turner's poison way of thinking.
ReplyDelete