Watch: Conservative CPAC Speaker Praises Community Organizer

At the top of CPAC 2014's minority outreach panel, moderator Jason Roe seemed to forget that one of the reasons conservatives even need a minority outreach panel is that they've been such huge, ginormous fucking assholes about community organizing.

Instead, Roe filled his introduction of Robert Woodson, founder of the National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise, with the kind of fulsome praise that earned him a rousing golf clap from the tiny crowd. Now, Woodson does consistently espouse conservative buzzwords like "free market," but his organization's function is, most definitely, community organizing, and includes securing government assistance and funding for those communities.

Nowhere does Roe include terms like "lax-a-daisical," or intimations that community organizing is not real work. If conservatives can admit why that is, they might just solve some of their outreach problems.

Sometimes a Picture Is Worth Only One Word...

Overcompensating.

White Moderator Tells CPAC Minority Outreach Panel That It's the 'Goodies,' Stupid!

The good news is that this year's CPAC minority outreach panel went marginally better than last year's racism panel, but they failed to learn the important lesson of booking a smaller room for these things.

twitter.com/JohnJHudak

They also, apparently, have not learned that when one of your four panelists bails on you, you don't leave a giant empty chair onstage, and use it to buffer your moderator from the panel.

At this year's CPAC "Reaching Out: The Rest of the Story" minority outreach panel, moderator Jason Roe told the panel that Democrats "going into these communities have lots of goodies to offer, and our guys aren't exactly in the offering goodies business."

That trope, echoing the tone-deaf likes of Mitt Romney, the historically illiterate likes of Rand Paul, and the RAF™ likes of Newt Gingrich, was offensive enough to draw some pushback from Robert Woodson of the National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise.

"It's not goodies," Woodson said. "It bothers me that people assume that lower income respond to gifts - food stamps, or things that will be given to them. Nobody wants to be dependent."

He then went on to explain, however, that Republicans should be more like former LA Mayor Richard Riordan, and build community centers. That, as any Republican will tell you, is also a "goody," as is any government spending that doesn't benefit rich white people.

"What liberals do is, at least they express their concern," Woodson went on to say. "Whether what they do is helpful or harmful, they show up! If they show up, they win, if we don't show up, we lose."

What liberals also don't do is spend six years relentlessly deriding community organizers, then head up their minority outreach panel with a community organizer. It's the contempt, stupid. If you start by not viewing black people as plantation-bound criminal Food Stamp Pac Men, the policy solutions you formulate will start to make more sense to them.

Ari Fleischer on Morning Joe: Republicans Shouldn't Call the President Weak, But Obama is Weak as Fuck

I know, I'm supposed to be taking it easy and fielding offers, but like a vampire who gets seeds thrown at his feet, I can't help but spring into action when someone says some incredibly dumb shit on TV right in front of me. This is probably not the dumbest thing anyone's said about the crisis in Ukraine (that headline is a slight paraphrase), but there is a valuable lesson in this one.

On Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough was saying how people were mean to George W. Bush about Putin, and they shouldn't have been, and now, they should also shut the fuck up and let President Obama go to work. Actually, Scarborough connected Sen. Harry Reid's "loser" and "liar"comments to a President George W. Bush visit to Putin, but the "loser" comment was in reference to Iraq and the economy, while the "liar" comment was in reference to a local Nevada issue, the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump.

Whatever, the point stands, when there's a foreign policy crisis, people ought to take pains not to undermine the president, a point with which former Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer couldn't agree more. "I didn't appreciate when people treated President Bush like that," Fleischer said. "The person to blame here is Vladimir Putin. He's the one responsible, he's the one who did it."

 He then added "I think there is a case to be made that the President has, through weakness, changed the cost/benefit that Vladimir Putin would go through to decide whether to use force, that's a legitimate issue but it has to be discussed in the proper vein."

 Now, before you go telling Fleischer that you've got his "proper vein" right here, keep in mind, saying dumb shit is what Republicans do, it's like getting angry at the sun for shining, or the New England Patriots for cheating. Think Scarborough saying he wouldn't bring up Monica Lewinsky in "a gazillion years," but also, too, isn't it the solemn duty of the media to bring it up long, deep, and constantly?

No, the real lesson here is in how David Axelrod responded, by sarcastically complimenting Fleischer for his "panache," to which Fleischer essentially replied "Panache? Who the fuck says panache, you pussy?"

That's also a slight paraphrase, of course, but this is the problem with many liberals: they're so convinced of their self-evident cleverness that they don't bother to win any arguments. When a Republican shits on the rug, you need to rub their nose in it, not toss off a good-natured quip. Something like, "Well, gee, Ari, your guy must've been pussy of the year when Putin invaded Georgia, amiright?"

Yeah, it's an obvious point, but it sticks, and the next time one of these guys thinks about saying something stupid like that, they'll remember how it felt to have their own spew forcibly clogging their nostrils.

Chuck Todd Says Fox's Megyn Kelly Part of the 'Conservative Media Complex'

Update: I refused to keep my name on the edits, so the piece has been taken down. This is the original version of a post that has been significantly edited.

Chuck Todd Says Fox's Megyn Kelly Part of the 'Conservative Media Complex'

Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly has long been presented as the face of the network's "hard news" side that eschews the partisanship of the channel's opinion programming. On Thursday morning's The Daily Rundown, however, host and NBC News Political Director Chuck Todd casually tossed aside that distinction when he included Kelly's interview with 90s Bill Clinton accuser Kathleen Willey in a list of attempts by the "conservative media complex" to toxify the former President.

"It's been back to the '90s in politics these last few weeks," Todd said, joking "Get the old VCR out and watch Singles, right?"

He detailed the current spate of conservative attacks on Hillary Clinton involving former President Bill Clinton, including Sen. Rand Paul's revival of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, the publication of papers by confidante Diane Blair, and "on Tuesday, Fox News aired an interview with Kathleen Willey, who, back in 1998, alleged that Bill Clinton had sexually assaulted her."

Todd added that "The conservative media complex's intent appears to be to knock Hillary Clinton and feed the 'Clinton fatigue' narrative," but went on to theorize that the shorter-term intent may be to neutralize Bill Clinton as a campaign asset for Democrats in the midterm elections.

VIDEO HERE

Todd was referring to Kelly's interview of Willey earlier this week, in which Willey renewed a raft of accusations against Hillary Clinton, including the possible abduction and/or killing of Willey's cat. The bulk of the interview consisted of Willey repeating variations on the theme "Hillary is the War on Women," but toward the end of the nine-minute segment, Kelly did challenge Willey's credibility by pointing out significant lies that she had told to the FBI. Willey admitted to the "mistakes," but told Kelly that they paled in comparison to the allegations she expects people to believe about Hillary Clinton.

Kelly's premise for interviewing Kathleen Willey in the first place is that her name has come up recently in the reporting on the Diane Blair papers that Chuck Todd also mentioned. Those papers were made public in 2010, but were thrust into the current news cycle by The Washington Free Beacon's reporting on them.

Fox News Celebrates Black History Month For Five Seconds

February is Black History Month, which is a lot of territory to cover in just 28 days. Begun in 1926 as Negro History Week, Black History Month was first recognized by the U.S. government in 1976, and its purpose has always been to correct the under-representation of black Americans in mainstream historical narratives. Fox News is doing their part by airing a series of videos honoring important black figures in American history. Here are three of them:

 The 5-second spots honor "Frederick Douglass, Leader anti-slavery movement," "Condoleezza Rice, Former Secretary of State," and "Ray Charles, Winner of 17 Grammys."

TheBlaze’s Dana Loesch Now Giving Fox News’ Megyn Kelly Story Ideas - Original version

Original headline and text for this post.

When Fox News’ Megyn Kelly moved to 9pm, she promised the same hard news sensibility that she had brought to her afternoon show, and liberal media watchdog Media Matters fretted that Kelly was “more dangerous than Bill O’Reilly” because her more journalistic style might lend credibility to “partisan and misleading” stories. On Friday night’s The Kelly File, The Blaze‘s Dana Loesch helped Kelly allay Media Matters‘ fears.

Kelly told her audience that “We are drilling deeper tonight on a new proposal that would make psychological evaluations mandatory for all public school students in the state of New York.”

Kelly brought in conservative media star Dana Loesch to discuss the measure, which Loesch mentions is currently in committee, and that deeper drilling consisted of Loesch promoting false and misleading conservative media paranoia, and Megyn Kelly thanking her for it.

The New York measure actually is a bad idea, but not for the reasons Kelly and Loesch identify. Loesch complains that the psychological exam would be required ” twice in the elementary grades, twice in the secondary grades as well,” which is true, but adds that “they have to make their entire, complete health history evaluation to the school district, any time the school district wants it, it’s completely at the school’s discretion,” which she describes as “unbelievable overreach.”

That requirement, for a health history and/or exam at the school’s discretion, is already the law. The only change this bill makes to the law is to require a mental heath certification, and when Kelly asserts that the evaluation will be performed by “who knows who,” she ignores the fact that the bill say who. It’s a terrible idea because no doctor is going to assume the liability of signing off on a student who later becomes a huge problem, so the result would be an extremely small number of kids attending public schools.

Loesch then explains that this New York measure, which has not received a single vote, is all part of a broader strategy that includes “an effort to require parents to report any firearm ownership to their respective school district, and we know that with Common Core, and with all the data mining, there’s been a lot of questions not only into the political beliefs of each student’s parents, but also their religious believes and their extracurricular activities, that all has to be reported as a result of Common Core.”

The “effort” that Loesch describes is a bill by a Democratic State Senator named Maria Chappelle-Nadal (D-MO), a bill that is stuck in committee in a state senate in which Republicans outnumber Democrats 24-9. This “effort” is roughly the equivalent of the push for the Mandatory Snowball Storage Act of 2013, as drafted and sponsored by Assemblyman Satan (R-Hell). Loesch’s claim that “political beliefs of each student’s parents, …their religious believes and their extracurricular activities” all have “to be reported as a result of Common Core” is a complete falsehood.

For a conservative media firecracker like Dana Loesch, of course, this is pretty normal, ginning up panic by drawing tenuous connections between dubious claims. In fact, this segment demonstrates the power and resilience of Dana Loesch. After a bitter separation from Breitbart.com and a quasi-blackball by CNN, she has more than landed on her feet. Loesch now has the run of Glenn Beck‘s website TheBlaze, and a much larger cable audience. As Kelly reveals in the final seconds of the segment, Loesch now also has a hand in influencing the editorial direction of a major hard news program.

“Dana, thanks for being here,” Kelly said, adding “Thanks for bringing it to our attention.”

Seconded.

Here’s the clip, from The Kelly File:

When Fox News’ Megyn Kelly moved to 9pm,she promised the same hard news sensibility that she had brought to her afternoon show, and liberal media watchdog Media Matters fretted that Kelly was “more dangerous than Bill O’Reilly” because her more journalistic style might lend credibility to “partisan and misleading” stories. On Friday night’s The Kelly File, The Blaze‘s Dana Loesch helped Kelly allay Media Matters‘ fears.

Kelly told her audience that “We are drilling deeper tonight on a new proposal that would make psychological evaluations mandatory for all public school students in the state of New York.”

Kelly brought in conservative media star Dana Loesch to discuss the measure, which Loesch mentions is currently in committee, and that deeper drilling consisted of Loesch promoting false and misleading conservative media paranoia, and Megyn Kelly thanking her for it.

The New York measure actually is a bad idea, but not for the reasons Kelly and Loesch identify. Loesch complains that the psychological exam would be required ” twice in the elementary grades, twice in the secondary grades as well,” which is true, but adds that “they have to make their entire, complete health history evaluation to the school district, any time the school district wants it, it’s completely at the school’s discretion,” which she describes as “unbelievable overreach.”

That requirement, for a health history and/or exam at the school’s discretion, is already the law. The only change this bill makes to the law is to require a mental heath certification, and when Kelly asserts that the evaluation will be performed by “who knows who,” she ignores the fact that the bill say who. It’s a terrible idea because no doctor is going to assume the liability of signing off on a student who later becomes a huge problem, so the result would be an extremely small number of kids attending public schools.

Loesch then explains that this New York measure, which has not received a single vote, is all part of a broader strategy that includes “an effort to require parents to report any firearm ownership to their respective school district, and we know that with Common Core, and with all the data mining, there’s been a lot of questions not only into the political beliefs of each student’s parents, but also their religious believes and their extracurricular activities, that all has to be reported as a result of Common Core.”

The “effort” that Loesch describes is a bill by a Democratic State Senator named Maria Chappelle-Nadal (D-MO), a bill that is stuck in committee in a state senate in which Republicans outnumberDemocrats 24-9. This “effort” is roughly the equivalent of the push for the Mandatory Snowball Storage Act of 2013, as drafted and sponsored by Assemblyman Satan (R-Hell). Loesch’s claim that “political beliefs of each student’s parents, …their religious believes and their extracurricular activities” all have “to be reported as a result of Common Core” is a complete falsehood.

For a conservative media firecracker like Dana Loesch, of course, this is pretty normal, ginning up panic by drawing tenuous connections between dubious claims. In fact, this segment demonstrates the power and resilience of Dana Loesch. After a bitter separation from Breitbart.com and a quasi-blackball by CNN, she has more than landed on her feet. Loesch now has the run of Glenn Beck‘s website TheBlaze, and a much larger cable audience. As Kelly reveals in the final seconds of the segment, Loesch now also has a hand in influencing the editorial direction of a major hard news program.

“Dana, thanks for being here,” Kelly said, adding “Thanks for bringing it to our attention.”

Seconded.

Here’s the clip, from The Kelly File: