In bizarre interviews, Sarah Palin talks to Ted Cruz and Jeb Bush and praises both of them, while appearing like a parody of herself

By Patrick

Kathleen and I needed to take a little "time-out" from this madhouse that is American politics in 2015, but the people who are mad are not going away, unfortunately. OK, when I talk about politics, I mean "Republican" politics, but this really goes without saying. The Democrats seem to be the only ones who are not completely losing their mind, and hopefully this won't change.

Well, I know that we are "privileged" over here in Europe, as we do not have to see the faces of all these mad and stupid people on TV all the time. I can barely imagine what all of you are going through right now, with insanity being broadcast on a daily basis.

So let's see what the crazy people are doing these days.

It's interesting, because now people who at first appeared less crazy are now jumping on the crazy train as well. Take Jeb Bush, for example. He is apparently a "moderate", but that was yesterday, because now he is sucking up to the teabaggers, big time!

Jeb Bush has no hesitation to "go on air" with Sarah Palin at her new home, the new conservative libertarian cable news channel "One America News Network", and there he enthusiastically professes his love for Sarah Palin, the Tea Party and the bible. Sarah "Talibunny" Palin then returns the favor and praises Jeb Bush, as if she had never done anything else. If haven't checked, but I am pretty sure that the heads of the Palinbots were exploding. "RINO" Sarah strikes again.

Watch:

Sarah makes the impression of a deranged crazy-person during her new appearances on "OAN" and clearly is not helping the cause. If anyone can bring down the right-wing, it is Sarah Palin. At this point in time, she really should be funded by Democrats, as there is nothing more helpful for Democrats than good old Sarah. She simply is the personification of a crazed, uneducated and ignorant teabagger, and she is universally disliked.

Who started this "One America News Network" anyway? It turns out that some rich "libertarians" had too much money and were under the impression that all TV-networks are "left", apart from Fox News. The Wall Street Journal reported in March 2013:

Fox News may soon have some company on the cable news dial.

The San Diego family behind niche cable channel WealthTV is partnering with the Washington Times to launch a 24-hour conservative-leaning cable news network. To be called One America News network, the channel will be a combination of straight news reporting and conservative political talk shows, according to Charles Herring, president of One America News.

It plans to launch on July 1, with expected distribution between 10 million and 15 million homes, Mr. Herring said, well short of full distribution of more than 90 million homes.

Mr. Herring said that his family's company, Herring Broadcasting, is investing "hundreds of millions" of dollars into the new channel, which he says will provide a much-needed alternative in the current news landscape.

"If you take a typical channel on any of the leading video providers, and you try to determine which ones are providing credible news, you get about eight or nine news channels that skew to the left—for example, MSNBC skews left, and some argue that CNN skews left," Mr. Herring said. "There is only one that skews right on political talk shows, and that's Fox. We are going to open up another front and give independents, libertarians and all kind of different voices under the conservative umbrella an opportunity to express themselves."

Therefore all the people who might think that Fox News is too liberal now have a home where the crazy runs free.

Just before this memorable conversation with Jeb Bush, Zombie-Sarah interviewed Ted Cruz, who promised to turn the USA into a fundamentalist Christian nation, where you are free to hate anyone, as long as your God demands it. Unfortunately, Ted Cruz does not go into more detail, as it would be quite interesting to know whether the "Cruz-style religious freedom" will also be apply for Muslims and other religions. Also, Planned Parenthood is the root of all evil. Another very memorable interview.

Watch:

Crazy Sarah also interviewed "The Donald", and according to Donald Trump, the USA is a shitty hellhole full of collapsing bridges and raping immigrants, but don't worry, he will make America great again - with spending hundreds of billions of dollars for new wars and a wall to Mexico.

"Yahoo Politics" published a good summary about this interview.

Watch:

I find this truly fascinating. Jeb, Ted and Donald all suck up to Sarah, one of the most despised "politicians" in America, and world-famous idiot. Well, now she is apparently not a politician any more, but found a new medium to prove her ignorance. I mean, you simply cannot make it up!

All while her super-Christian daughter Bristol is expecting her "second" child out of wedlock, and with an unknown father. As I said in the comments several times in the past, we can say with great confidence that Dakota Meyer is not the father of the baby. However, the Palins now have many years of experience in covering up private secrets and scandals, therefore they surely will figure something out, although this might be a tough one even for their standards!

By the way, this will be the "First Lady" of the new "great" America with bible-lover Donald Trump as King Donald I:

These are not even the fully nude photos! These can be found by googling as well.

In a hilarious example of right-wing infighting, Glenn Beck accused Melania Trump of being a "lesbian porn star", which officially has to be called an "unconfirmed rumor", I guess...but if you want to get it confirmed, well, you just will have to find the clip on the internet, LOL!

Some right-wing websites were really angry, haha:

But don't worry, it all will be GREAT with Donald King of America.

I think Sarah Palin should keep on talking. Nobody else does a bigger disservice to Republicans than the woman from Wasilla who simply does not know when to stop.

Especially the interview with Jeb Bush is a keeper.

By the way, if you have any right-wing relatives or friends and would like to present them with some hard facts in order to counter their ignorance, look at this new article at Mother Jones:

Kevin Drum helpfully explains a few things. It is doubtful however that Sarah will listen, as "reality" and "truth" was never her strong suit:

Huh. I almost forgot about the Palin-Trump lollapalooza. But it's all on YouTube, and it was pretty boring. Palin's word salad was subpar and it was just the same-old-same-old from Trump. My favorite part was this bit from Palin:

So you get hit with these gotchas, like most conservatives do. For instance, asking what's your favorite Bible verse. And I listen to that going, what? Do they ask Hillary that?

Indeed they do! On August 27, 2007, in a nationally televised debate, Tim Russert asked every Democrat on the stage to share their favorite Bible verse: (...)

In conclusion, I cannot wait for the GOP-primaries to finally begin, but unfortunately, they only start on February 1, 2016. Therefore, it will be a long wait.

Also, there is more time for Sarah to mess things up. The "Palin-curse" is still alive and kicking.

In the meantime, the GOP can think about more strategies in order to appease the crazies. They might just start to embrace them, if nothing else works. When Glenn Beck is the voice of reason, you know the GOP is trouble.

+++

UPDATE:

Already an update, because I just saw that Jimmy Kimmel presented the ultimate Trump TV-advert:

A Mole on Patrol: 'An Atheist in the FOXhole'

by Sunnyjane

There's tremendous power in television news. With a well-positioned negative word ... you can make the most powerful people on earth tremble.         

Bill O'Reilly, from his 2004 novel Those Who Trespass

At twenty-two years old, Joe Muto found himself working at Fox News for the most time-honored reason: he desperately needed a job.  Having beer-kegged his way through the University of Notre Dame via its Department of Film, Television, and Theatre, he graduated with a less than stellar grade point average of 2.8.  It's not terribly surprising then, that his applications to the TV and print media organizations in New York with which he would have been proud to be associated went unanswered.

Muto's book is interesting for its inside look at how television news is produced.  Briefly, the talking head of each show holds a daily pitch meeting with his or her staff of producers whose job it is to suggest stories that are breaking or continuing to be talked about, so long as Fox can report it with their own conservative slant.  

Fox News is not really into breaking news, per se; they leave that up to MSNBC and CNN, their chief ratings rivals.  Since this is Joe Muto's story, I won't bother to provide much commentary, except where I simply cannot help myself!  

The real story to most readers, of course, is likely to be... 

The On-Air Hosts and Other, um, Fox Talent

Absurdly blessed with a $20,000,000 annual salary, the top dog at Fox News is Bill O'Reilly, the moody and ill-tempered host of the 8:00 PM The O'Reilly Factor.  It took less than three years for the liberal-thinking mole to be offered a job on the staff of Papa Bear's now-defunct radio show -- a job Muto took because it was a promotion.  In early 2009, it was back to television as a Factor producer.

Muto shares some of the lessons he learned on how to successfully pitch a story to O'Reilly, including:  Make sure to demonstrate how the host can stoke the fires of outrage in his viewers; establish a villain; and where possible, show him how he can make it about sex.  And so on.

The author writes several examples of funny parodies on how he would have pitched historical and Biblical stories to O'Reilly.  On the Civil Rights Movement of the sixties:  Bill, radical black activists in the South are carrying out a campaign to damage the teeth of police dogs.  Or this on Adam and Eve: Bill, a liberal feminist extremist tricked her husband into consuming drugs, and then told authorities that a talking snake told her to do it.

The most notorious story about holier-than-thou Bill O'Reilly is the sexual harassment suit brought against him in October 2004 by one of his female producers, Andrea Mackris.  In the $60,000,000 law suit, Mackris alleged that Papa Bear had made unwanted sexually explicit phone calls to her, even describing his, um, family jewels to her (big!).  Further, he suggested that she should use a vibrator and told her the sexual fantasies he was having about her.  At one point he must have gotten really hot and bothered by his own words, because in an ignominious twist of the tongue, he began calling the loofah he wanted to rub between her legs falafel.  (Think about it...ewww!)

The suit was settled in less than two weeks.  O'Reilly paid her some money, but the terms of the settlement remain confidential.  The word falafel was never to be used at Fox News headquarters thereafter. 

That Hack, Hannity

Leading the pack as Fox lost its fucking mind after the election of Barack Obama in 2008 was none other than Sean Hannity.  Having rid himself of his liberal partner, Alan Colmes, and getting the prime 9:00 PM slot all to himself, the Hack jumped the new president at every opportunity.  When President Obama went to a burger restaurant in Washington several months into his first term and asked for spicy brown mustard, something like that, or a Dijon mustard, Hannity sneered, I hope you enjoyed that fancy burger, Mr. President!  From that point forward, everything from teleprompters to foreign policy were fodder for Sean Hannity's twisted concept of what constitutes news.

Joe Muto says in his book that he once overheard a discussion between a very conservative producer and a tech: Goddamn, Hannity is completely unwatchable lately while the other responded, You're acting like it was ever watchable in the first place.

 
As Sirius Left host Richard Bey said recently, I worked at ABC Radio with Sean. He doesn't know anything about history. He knows what they give him on the talking points.  

And, according to Muto, Bill O'Reilly can't stand Hannity, the feeling is mutual, and the two do not speak.

Just Plain Greta

Neither as bombastic as O'Reilly nor as professionally untalented as Hannity, Greta Van Susteren appears almost boring.  Not only does she not fit the good-looks mold as a Fox News female personality, but her On the Record segment at 10:00 PM deals primarily with legal and crime issues.  

Describing what I assume is the unofficial criteria for female talking heads, Muto provides a handy list:*

     -Hotness
     -Ability to string two words together
     -Ability to summon outrage and berate a guest at length
     -Blondness
     -Conservative views (or the ability to convincingly fake them)
     -Journalistic credentials


While Greta could hardly be thought of as hot and her conservative views might be suspect, she's very intelligent and her's is rated the third most-watched show on Fox News, behind Hannity at #2 and O'Reilly at #1.  Muto actually had little interesting to say about her.

*See She's Hot and She Gets Good Ratings, below.  (Heh)

There's Gotta be a Conspiracy in Here Somewhere!

Even given what Fox News usually considers the dead-zone time slot of 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM, it didn't take Glenn Beck long to start reaching -- and in many cases overtaking -- the ratings of the Big Three, O'Reilly, Hannity, and van Susteren.  O'Reilly decided the best way to handle this was to give Beck a small segment on the Factor.   Van Susteren and Hannity wanted nothing to do with him.  It didn't take long for O'Reilly to get tired of Beck's craziness and he gave up on the idea.

The problem with Beck was that in the beginning, they all thought he was performing on his show.  When they finally realized that he actually believed all that shit he was spouting, alarm bells went off everywhere, even at the Ailes' level.

While there have been differing theories as to why Beck departed Fox News after little more than two years into his three-year contract, Muto contends it was because advertisers were leaving in droves.  If so, that was it: Ratings are good, but advertising makes the news business go round, and Roger Ailes does not endure losing money.

She's Hot and She Gets Good Ratings
 

Ith Othma...Oblama...Obama sthill the prethident?

Such was the excitement surrounding the entrance of Sarah Palin onto the Fox News stage in January 2010 that the Big Three were falling all over themselves trying to be THE ONE to score the first interview with her.   (Naturally, #1 was awarded that honor and in my opinion, this first interview set the stage for things to come between O'Reilly and Palin.)

She was a perfect fit for the network, writes Muto, beautiful, feisty, and controversial, inspiring utter devotion from her fans and blind outrage from her critics, and, hopefully, the theory went, high ratings for the network.  

Popular opinion on the Second Floor was that all they had heard about Palin's being vacuous, ill-informed, and thin-skinned certainly had to be liberal slander ... How dumb could she be?

It didn't take long for Fox News to see that Palin's critics were right:  Her abilities as a pundit left much to be desired.  She conversed entirely in shallow, empty platitudes, as if she'd just memorized a list of talking points instead of actually boning up on whatever issue was on her plate.

Two more interviews with O'Reilly sealed the deal; he was done with her.  The first was on immigration, during which he kept asking her for opinions on different aspects of the issue and she continually responded with keep it simple and whatever it takes.   The interview on entitlement programs brought it to a screeching halt, where O'Reilly was concerned.  This is where, in an effort to actually have her give rational policy suggestions on entitlement reform, he interrupted her and Palin snapped back at him.

Recently asked by a Twitter follower for his opinion on Fox News rehiring Palin for another stint, Muto tweeted back:

I just can't believe they hired her back. I'd be LESS surprised if they hired ME back.

Author, Author!

By early 2012, Joe Muto had grown weary of Fox News.  Eight years with the network had given him enough experience and insight to understand what it would be like working there during the general election campaign, as the network tried to ensure that President Obama would not win a second term.  A prime example of the kind of crap he predicted was the attack ad against Obama that was so roundly denounced that Fox had to remove it from their website.

He began writing an anonymous column for Gawker as the liberal mole working for Fox News.  He may well have never been caught had he not also provided his handlers with video from the Fox News archives, one of which is an amusing look at Callista Gingrich styling Newt's hair before his on-air interview with Bill O'Reilly.

Muto was a lousy mole; the IT crew at Fox caught him within twenty-four hours.  A permanent job at Gawker did not materialize and he was charged with attempted unlawful duplication of computer material and attempted criminal possession of computer material, to which he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to community service.

His book is good, and it is not as mean-spirited as one might think.  Muto is as hard on himself as he is on the people at Fox News.

End Note

 

We all knew, from the liberals to the most conservative producer in the building, that 'Fair and Balanced' was a sham ... We used to call it 'stirring up the crazies,' because the angrier they were, the more they would watch.

Joe Muto, in an interview on June 14, 2013

R-E-S-P-E-C-T (All I’m asking for is just a little…)

By Ebbtide

Remember when it was imperative that we respect the office of the President, even if we weren’t totally wild about the occupant of that office? That seems to have been a constant theme/meme throughout the early 2000s. Ah, but that’s so “last decade” isn’t it. What could have changed? Hmmmm.

We’ll put aside the ugly cartoons, “jokes” and rabid exposés by total nutters like the “journalists” at such places as Wingut Daily and the Breitbart consortium of conspiracies. And we won’t even go into the ugly things that have been said and written about our charming First Lady and the innocent, polite Obama children.

Let’s just take a look at how Right Wing celebrities, and even elected officials have exhibited their utter disrespect for the office of the President since Barack Obama has assumed the office, and see what kinds of repercussions they have suffered as a result.

CELEBRATE GOOD TIMES, COME ON!

Right-wing celebrities, though as rare as hens’ teeth, do like to shoot their mouths off whenever possible, and no matter how vile their comments, seem to be welcomed back to the fold and nestled in wingnut warmth.

Motor City Madman? Wingnut Warrior? You decide.

That delightful creature, Ted Nugent began his charm offensive back in 2008 when, waving his guns, he said, "Hey, Obama, you mightwanna suck on one of these, you punk." He continued, "Hillary, you might wanna ride one of these into the sunset, you worthless bitch."

NOTE: When Nugent made these comments, Obama was not yet President. I have included them merely to provide background on what a respectful person Nugent has always been.)

“The Nuge” pretty much continued his charming commentary after Mr. Obama became President, comparing Obama and his administration to coyotes, called them criminals, etc. and was rabid enough to earn a visit from the Secret Service for his rhetoric.

The result? He was lauded by the Romney family when he endorsed Mitt, earning a tweet from fanboi, Tagg:

Donald Trump—where to begin. I’m not sure how to even classify him, as, in addition to being a “celebrity,” he was actually even considering a run for the presidency. Frankly, I consider him a giant hairball, but I digress…

So how did Trump exhibit his respect for the President of the United States? First, he received widespread media opportunities to spread his ugly birtherism nonsense and made such disrespectful comments as:

“Obamaand his attack dogs have nothing but hate and anger in their heartsand spew it whenever possible.”

He calledObama a foreign candidate.

He said Obama was a "terrible student" and therefore too dumb to have legitimately gotten through college and law school.

And on it went, with a new Trump crusade every week or so, culminating in his totally obnoxious “dare” to the President of the United States to release his college transcripts.

And during all of Trump’s shenanigans, he was a fundraiser for Romney, who never once disavowed any of Trump’s ugly talk.

Then, after the election was won by Obama, this miscreant actually calledfor revolution.

No disrespect there—nah. (Oh, and Donald, maybe you should wait for the results before getting your hair all in a tizzy, as Obama won the popular vote by quite a nice margin.)

So what’s next for the Donald? Well, the hairball is still bloviating, and his ridiculous television show will once again be aired on NBC later this year. (Payback is such a bitch.)

Clint Eastwood, despite everything in his career that came before, will long be remembered for his stellar madlib at the 2012 Republican convention, when, talking to an empty chair that was supposed to represent the President of the United States, he uttered suchrespectful phrases as

“What? What do you want me to tell Romney? I can't tell him to do that. Can't do that to himself. You're absolutely crazy.”

Repercussions? None that I’ve noticed. The wingers still think he’s the best thing going.

Hank Williams Jr. has quite a history of “respect” for the President.

(photo available, but too repulsive to post)

It began in 2008, when he was campaigning for John McCain, and said to an audience in Colorado, "Join me now in our national--you know, that song that, uh, Mr. Obama's not real crazy about, we're singing it right now."

(Again—this was before Mr. Obama became President, but is mentioned merely to set the stage.)

ESPN thought it would be a great idea to include him in their Monday night football coverage. Then, in October 2011, Williams Jr. was on Fox and Friends, saying about Obama playing golf with Boehner:

"That would be like Hitler playing golf with Netanyahu. Not hardly. In the shape this country is in?"

Even Brian Kilmeade didn’t understand what he was talking about, so Williams went on to explain (sic), "I'm glad you don't brother, because a lot of people do. They're the enemy... Obama! And Biden!” (He also referred to the two men as the Three Stooges, so apparently math is also not a strong suit.)

That, apparently was a bridge too far even for ESPN, which removed Williams from their football broadcast. But did it kill Williams career? Did country stations stop playing his music?

Of course not. Some comments at the time on Huffpo (apparently spelling and cogent thought are not strong suits of Williams’ fans):

Go Hank, I'm with ya. A country boy can survive. To celebrate, all my routy friends are comin ova tonight!

Hank williams is a real american who did nothing but express his oppinion. If you dont like it maybey your not a real american

And, just this past September, 2012, Hank Jr. was right back at it:

"We’ve got a Muslim for a President who hates cowboys, hates cowgirls, hates fishing, hates farming, loves gays, and we hate him," Williams Jr. bellowed. The Dallas Sun reported, “The crowd responded with a loud cheer.”

Victoria Jackson—OK, probably not fair to include her as a celebrity, because her career couldn’t be damaged by her idiocy since it pretty much ended years ago, but still…

Victoria says Obama is a communist and explains all that she has learned from Glenn Beck. (WARNING: Watching this video may cause a deterioration of brain cells.)

ALL THE NEWS THAT’S FIT TO…

How should we classify pundits or radio yakkers? Are they celebrities or newspeople? For our purposes, we’ll just think of them as public figures, OK?

If I went into all the bile that has been spewed about the President by right wing yakkers, you’d still be reading this when it was time to vote in the 2016 election. So just a brief recap:

Neil Bortz—. Boortz stated that "Barack Obama is a bigger disaster to this country than 9-11."

Bill O’Reilly interrupted the President 48 times during a 15 minute interview.

Neil Munro interrupted Obama mid-sentence to shout out an obnoxious question

MARK HALPERIN CALLED HIM A DICK ON LIVE TV!

(He was suspended, but was right back at it shortly thereafter.)

Fox “star” Eric Bolling compared Obama to a drug dealer who opens “Barry’sPot and Coke Emporium.” When Bob Beckel was discussing Allen West, he referred to West as…well, Allen West. Without any sense or irony (or shame) Bolling came back with:

“Can I just point something out? You're calling him Allen West. Either call him Representative Allen West or call him Lieutenant Colonel Allen West because he was in the Army -- a war hero.” (NOTE: West was charged with violating articles 128 (assault) and 134 (generalarticle) of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The charges were ultimately referred to an Article 15 proceeding rather than court-martial. Quite the hero.)

For further proof that Bolling is a total tool, during another conversation between Bolling and Beckel, Bolling referred to Obama as "Barry." When Beckel objected, Bolling replied: "That's his name, right? Barack. Barry Soetoro. I think he called himself Barry Soetoro when he was a model in college."

At other times, Bolling has called the President Comrade Obama, The Socialist Spewing Policy Maker and accused him of chugging 40's" and hosting "a hoodlum in the Hizzouse."

So respectful of the Presidency, right? And Bolling’s still going strong as we speak.

Glenn Beck has of course, always showed total deference to the President, withsuch comments as "I don't know what the KGB handlers thought they were sending Barack Obama to do. ... Did I say that out loud?"

And calling our President “a racist with deep-seated hatred for whitepeople.”

Now, Glenn did lose his show on Fox, but there were so many reasons for his shedding advertisers that I don’t think we can necessarily attribute that to his disrespect of the President.

And then there’s Rush Limbaugh—where to start. From his “Barack the Magic Negro” song to “I want this president to fail” the hits just kept on coming. And, although Limbaugh continuously inspires fear and loathing (fear from right wingers that he’ll hurt their careers; loathing from sentient humans everywhere) it was his disrespect for Sandra Fluke that created far more backlash than any of the ugly things he’s said about the President.

OATH OF OFFICE OR OAFS IN OFFICE?

Are you thinking to yourself, “Well, those are just some big-mouthed yakkers. What can you expect?” (I don’t believe you ARE thinking that, but merely included it for conversation’s sake.)

Well then, let’s see what some of our fine elected and wishing-to-be-elected officials have had to say about our President.

We’ll begin with everybody’s hero, Addison Graves Wilson, Sr., better known as Joe Wilson, the South Carolina rep who infamously yelled, “You lie!” during an Obama 2009 address to Congress. What could possibly be more respectful than an actual member of Congress shouting at the President on live, prime-time television?

RESULT—Wilson used his obnoxious outburst as a fund-raising device and raised a ton of cash. In 2010, he won re-election with 53% of the vote and in 2012, he ran unopposed.

Allen West—without comment, some of Allen West’s words.

Always a hit at CPAC

“We need to let President Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and my dear friend the chairman of the Democrat National Committee, we need to let them know that Florida ain't on the table.

“Take your message of equality of achievement, take your message of economic dependency, take your message of enslaving the entrepreneurial will and spirit of the American people somewhere else. You can take it to Europe, you can take it to the bottom of the sea, you can take it to the North Pole, but get the hell out of the United States of America.”

Watch:

Hey, at least he called him PRESIDENT Obama when telling him to get the hell out of the country.

A few “outliers”:

KansasHouse Speaker Mike O’Neal publicly cited a Bible verse calling for President Obama to be killed, his wife to be widowed, and his children to be orphaned. (He’s also the swell guy who forwarded an email to state house Republicans referring to the First Lady as “Mrs. YoMamma.”)

Marilyn Davenport, Orange County, CA Republican Central Committee, forwardedan email of a doctored photo of the President and his parents asmonkeys.

ColoradoCongressman Doug Lamborn said during a radio interview that he didn’t “even want to have to be associated with … (President Obama). It’s like touching a tar baby …”

And on it goes.

Respect? How about John Boehner?

On August 31, 2011 Boehner became the first speaker in history to tell a sitting president that he would not be permitted to deliver an address to a joint session of Congress on the date specifically requested by the White House

As Rachel Maddow described it:

“Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner did something that has never before been done in the history of our nation: he said no. He said it would be inconvenient for the House, because, he said, there were votes scheduled in the House for Wednesday night.”

“This is unprecedented,” she added. “No speaker, no Congress, has ever said that to any president in U.S. history.”

The votes Boehner felt were so important: a roll call vote on letting the Special Olympics conduct a torch run in Washington, D.C., and speeches congratulating a girls’ softball team on reaching the world championships.

Even the lack of title used when they talk about PRESIDENT Obama is disrespectful, as Howard Fineman once pointed out:

“They don’t accept the President’s legitimacy in many ways. I have never heard Newt Gingrich call President Obama ‘President Obama.’ It’s usually just ‘Obama.’

“And I know that sounds like a trivial thing,” Fineman added, “but it’s not. It’s very important.”

AND THEN THERE’S JAN BREWER

TIME TRAVELING

Yes, I think we can all see how perilous and dangerous it has been for wingers to hurl invective after invective at our President. Oh, it’s true that Allen West lost re-election, and Rush lost some sponsors, but overall, they’ve gotten away with some heinous things and kept on going.

Compare them to a simple 16-word statement made by Natalie Maines in 2003 and then compare the repercussions.

After expressing that she was against the upcoming invasion of Iraq, the Dixie Chick had the audacity to say, “Just so you know, we're ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas.”

And what happened?

Dixie Chicks Boycotted on Country Radio

As WDAF-AM in Kansas City, Missouri, encouraged listeners to toss their Dixie Chicks CDs into garbage cans set up outside their studio. The Dixie Chicks were dropped from WTDR-FM in Talladega, Alabama.

In Shreveport, Louisiana, protestors used a tractor to smash CDs and other Dixie Chicks items. The local country station, KRMD-FM, subsequently dropped all Dixie Chicks songs. The same goes for KIZN-FM in Boise, Idaho - and that's just a small sampling.

Limbaugh called for a boycott, Free Republic set up a special page to coordinate boycotts. After Maines called Toby Keith’s “we’ll put a boot in your ass” song ignorant (truer words were never spoken), Keith began displaying a backdrop at his concerts showing a doctored photo of Maines and Saddam Hussein. (Aw, she hurt the big guy’s fee fees.) It was a groundswell of grassroots hate for the Chicks (think Tea Party.)

Paul Krugman had some other ideas about how the boycott tied in with the war cheerleading and got so HUGE.

One of the most striking (pro-war events) took place after Natalie Maines, lead singer for the Dixie Chicks, criticized President Bush: a crowd gathered in Louisiana to watch a 33,000-pound tractor smash a collection of Dixie Chicks CD's, tapes and other paraphernalia… (my note: This was a Cumulus radio station event.)

Who has been organizing those pro-war rallies? The answer, it turns out, is that they are being promoted by key players in the radio industry -- with close links to the Bush administration…

Most of the pro-war demonstrations around the country have, however, been organized by stations owned by Clear Channel Communications, a behemoth based in San Antonio that controls more than 1,200 stations and increasingly dominates the airwaves.

The boycott of the Chicks was even a main feature of the Congressional hearings about radio consolidation.

At times likening the embargo to Nazi book-burnings and McCarthy-era blacklists, lawmakers said Cumulus' action illustrated the potential danger of allowing corporations to amass nationwide broadcasting networks.

Back in 2003, when John McCain still had some of his marbles, he said:

"It's a strong argument about what media concentration has the possibility of doing," McCain told Cumulus Chairman Lewis W. Dickey Jr. "If someone else offends you, and you decide to censor those people, my friend, the erosion of our 1st Amendment is in progress."

The Chicks suffered greatly for those 16 words. Shut Up and Sing is a documentary about what happened to them before, during and after those words were spoken. Directed by Barbara Kopple and Cecila Peck (Gregory Peck’s daughter), I highly recommend it.

The Dixie Chicks Not Ready To Make Nice was their rebuttal/explanation of what happened, and it won three Grammy Awards-- Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal in 2007. But the climb back was certainly hard…

On Thursday, October 27, 2011, at 5:49 a.m., Kicks 101.5 played “Cowboy Take Me Away.” This is the first time in years the country trio has been heard on a regular basis on Atlanta radio.

Kicks’ move wouldn’t be so momentous without context…The Dixie Chicks were one of the top country acts from 1998 to 2003, with 14 top 10 country hits, from “Goodbye Earl” to “Ready to Run.” Prior to the boycott, from 1998 to 2003, Kicks played the Chicks a whopping 16,000 times. That’s almost two consecutive months of Chicks songs.

THE MORAL OF THE STORY?

If you’re a right-wing mouthpiece of the entertainment, talk-show or political ilk, you have pretty wide latitude to say and do whatever you like in disrespecting the President, but if you’re the number one selling female band of all time, you’d better watch your Ps, Qs (and Ws) at all times.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Find out what it means to me

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Take care, TCB