Open Thread Friday

Tell us what's on your mind this Friday -- like the last space shuttle flight, or the budget talks.
NB Staff
July 8th, 2011 11:07 AM

WaPo's Robinson: Solve Deficit With Tax Hikes, Defense Cuts and Univer

Eugene Robinson's column in Thursday's Washington Post should have been placed in that paper's funnies section rather than the opinion page. His solution to our nation's deficit would be laughable if it wasn't so gosh darned scary:
Noel Sheppard
July 8th, 2011 11:01 AM

Media Mash: Republicans Smeared as Terrorists Edition

This week's boomlet of smearing Republicans as fiscal Wahhabis and budgetary suicide bombers was the top agenda item when MRC president Brent Bozell appeared on the Hannity show's "Media Mash" segment Thursday night. First, they discussed how Chris Matthews repeatedly called Republicans terrorists who want to "abolish" the federal government at the mere prospect that they're resisting tax hikes…
NB Staff
July 8th, 2011 10:51 AM

Fascism Is Not Conservatism

Someone recently emailed and asked me to rebut the claim that fascism is a right-wing system. I have given this question considerable thought over the years; even when I was in college, liberals routinely smeared conservatism as a fascist political ideology. Indeed, how many times have we heard the mantra that communism and Nazism represented the two extremes of the political spectrum, left…
David Limbaugh
July 8th, 2011 10:09 AM

NYT: Debt Ceiling Woes Caused By Bush Tax Cuts and GOP Refusal to Rais

The New York Times on Friday once again proved itself to have absolutely no clue how budgets work. In its editorial "Negotiating the Debt Ceiling on a Knife's Edge," the Times - like so many other math-challenged "news" organizations in America today - blamed the current debt ceiling woes on the Bush tax cuts and Republican refusal to raise revenues:
Noel Sheppard
July 8th, 2011 9:53 AM

Elizabeth Smart to Become ABC News Contributor

Nearly ten years ago, Elizabeth Smart became a household name when she was abducted from her family's home in Utah and sparked a nationwide media frenzy. As a 23-year-old, she has just inked a deal with ABC to cover missing person cases on a number of programs, including "Good Morning America" and "Nightline."
Aubrey Vaughan
July 8th, 2011 7:22 AM

Newsweek-Daily Beast Scare Story: 'White Supremacist Stampede' for Pub

James Taranto at The Wall Street Journal just demolished a scare piece by Newsweek reporter Eve Conant (posted on July 4) with the overwrought headline "White Supremacist Stampede: A startling number of white-power candidates are seeking public office." If we're being warned of dangerous new wave of white racist extremists, it naturally is another product of the leftist Southern Poverty Law…
Tim Graham
July 8th, 2011 7:05 AM

MSNBC’s Maddow Incorrectly Claims Texas Broke Law in Executing Murde

 On Thursday’s Rachel Maddow on MSNBC, host Maddow devoted a considerable chunk of her show to the story of convicted murderer Humbarto Leal Garcia's execution in Texas, and Republican Governor Rick Perry’s refusal to delay the execution to give Congress more time to pass legislation to address how the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations should be applied to such cases. Garcia, who in…
Brad Wilmouth
July 8th, 2011 5:17 AM

Flashback 2004: Chris Matthews and Andrea Mitchell Think Raising Debt

MSNBC's Chris Matthews and Andrea Mitchell have been telling viewers in recent days that Republicans considering blocking an increase in the debt ceiling could be creating a financial crisis. Seven years ago after George W. Bush was re-elected and the debt ceiling had been raised in November 2004, the perilously liberal couple felt Republicans should be "embarrassed" for having done so (…
Noel Sheppard
July 8th, 2011 12:20 AM

NAACP Slams CNN for Lacking Anchors of Color in New Lineup

The Wall Street Journal reports that CNN is too white for some. The NAACP condemned CNN for its new all-white prime time news lineup, calling the lack of diversity in its collection of news anchors a “glaring omission.” It apparently doesn't matter one iota that CNN's new executive vice president Mark Whitaker is a black man. “The NAACP is deeply concerned with the lack of African American…
Tim Graham
July 7th, 2011 11:41 PM

AP Acts As If Misunderstood 'Minnesota Nice' Is at Stake in State Govt

I had to do a double take when I looked over this afternoon's dispatch out of St. Paul, Minnesota from Patrick Condon of the Associated Press. Readers unfamiliar with the Gopher State budget impasse to this point would fail to learn from the AP report that the dispute is all about raising taxes. Democratic Governor Mark Dayton wants tax increases on "the wealthy" (which really means high…
Tom Blumer
July 7th, 2011 10:43 PM

Reuters.com Article Worries 'U.S., European Media' 'Worlds Apart' on C

Writer laments American media's 'balanced reporting,' despite their huge bias towards climate alarmism.
Julia A. Seymour
July 7th, 2011 8:44 PM

CNN Contributor: Catholics Don't Think Abortion is 'Much of a Sin

Stephen Prothero, a regular contributor to CNN.com's Belief Blog, bizarrely read the hearts of American Catholics, based on a recent poll which found that the majority of them believe abortion should stay legal. Prothero, writing in a Thursday item about 20th century leftist Catholic activist Dorothy Day and her self-admitted abortion, concluded that U.S. Catholics "will forgive Day's sin...…
Matthew Balan
July 7th, 2011 7:21 PM

Rush Limbaugh: MSNBC 'A Loony Bin Filled With People Overflowing With

Conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh doesn't like to comment about MSNBC because he fears it will help their dismal ratings. However, he made an exception on Thursday's program saying amongst other things, "That whole network is a loony bin filled with people who are overflowing with uncontrollable rage, anger, unhappiness, and misery, by design" (video courtesy Right Scoop follows with…
Noel Sheppard
July 7th, 2011 7:12 PM