Justin's Political Corner
(via Crooks and Liars: Fox News Tells Striking Workers to Get Two Jobs and ‘Expect to Get Paid the Minimum Wage’)
The hosts of Fox & Friends on Friday suggested that fast food workers should stop striking for higher pay and get a second job because the minimum wage “was never meant to be a career wage.”
On Thursday, hundreds of restaurant workers in New York City went on strike to demand a wage of at least $15 an hour. The current median wage of $9 an hour puts workers at about $4,500 lower that the poverty threshold of $23,000 for a family of four. The current minimum wage in New York City is $7.25.
“Here’s the deal, you’re a minimum wage worker, that’s an entry-level salary,” Fox News host Brian Kilmeade opined on Friday. “If you’re good, you’ll get a raise.”
“Minimum wage was never meant to be a career wage. If you work hard you will get higher — you will get more money. Here’s the other thing, as hard as it is in some cases, because you are a single mom or a single dad, you’ve got to get another job. You’ve got to get another job on top of that so you have two incomes.”
“Brian you hit on the nose, I think, the key thing,” co-host Steve Doocy remarked. “If it is a minimum wage job, expect to get paid the minimum wage.”
Fox News hosts absurdly claimed that the opportunity to register to vote while applying for food stamps entrenches voters in a “cycle of dependency.” But most food stamp participants remain on the program for limited periods of time, and the voter registration inclusion is a national policy that has been in place for decades.
On March 22, Fox hosts Stuart Varney and Steve Doocy used a discussion of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), previously known as food stamps, to forward the Republican myth that the program generates a culture of dependency that locks liberal governments into positions of power. Discussing the use of SNAP benefits in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, both hosts mocked the voter registration option on SNAP applications, ignoring the fact that it has been national policy since 1993 to allow the opportunity to register to vote at state offices that handle public benefits.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, however, the SNAP program has proven successful at stabilizing families during tough times, and helps facilitate the transition to self-sufficiency. The USDA also reported that half of all new participants leave the program in under nine months.
Fox’s fearmongering over supposed “dependency” in Rhode Island is a shot in the dark at best. The option to register to vote while applying for SNAP benefits was implemented as part of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, also known as the motor-voter law, which required all states to allow voter registration at offices that manage federal benefits, in addition to DMV offices.
(via Fixed Noise: Obama Proposed ‘Free’ Preschool To Toddlers So They Can Vote For Him ‘In The Future’)
In his State of the Union address, President Obama made the case for universal early childhood education — an idea that isn’t sitting well with conservatives.
On Friday, Fox Business host Stuart Varney and Fox News host Steve Doocy attacked preschool access as a government handoutintended to extend “literally, the nanny state.” Varney echoed an argument used by former presidential candidate Mitt Romney that Obama won the election by giving “gifts” to women and minorities. Even though Obama cannot run for office a third time, the host warned the president is using preschool to entice a whole new generation of toddlers to support him when they’re eligible in 15 years:
VARNEY: Look what the president is doing here, it’s a repeat performance of his campaign, which is you raise taxes on the rich and you offer all kinds of free stuff to people who will vote for you in the future. Free preschool education for 4-year-olds, it’s free, here it is. Hand out the goodies.
In fact, preschool substantially reduces the likelihood that a child will later drop out of high school, become a teen parent, or be arrested for a violent crime. Studies have determined universal preschool programs generate roughly $7 in savings per child and increases human capital.
(via Think Progress: RNCTV’s Latest Sexist Attack Against Hillary: ‘Face Lift, Perhaps?’)
Fox and Friends host Steve Doocy took a shot at outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday morning, speculating that she underwent a face lift in the last two weeks. In a quick headline roundup, Doocy quipped that Clinton’s new website featured her “glamorous new face,” while Fox showed a side-by-side comparison of her website photo and a photo from Clinton’s exasperated testimony at the Senate’s hearing on the Benghazi attacks.
Is this the face of presidential ambition? Days after retiring as Secretary of State, somebody has launched a website for her, showing off this glamorous new face. Face lift, perhaps? Well, that’s fueling rumors about a run for president in 2016, but her aides say it’s simply a way for fans and the media to reach her.
Typical FNC.
Fox News attacks Gore for selling to ‘anti-American’ Al Jazeera instead of Beck (via Raw Story )
The hosts of Fox & Friends on Friday slammed former Democratic Vice President Al Gore for being a “great American businessman” and selling his Current TV network to the “clearly anti-American” Al Jazeera network instead of former Fox News host Glenn Beck. On Thursday, The Wall Street Journal…
Fox News host Steve Doocy misrepresented President Obama’s proposal to avoid the possibility of a federal government default on its financial obligations in order to claim that the president has proposed changing the Constitution.
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner proposed that Congress should pass a law giving the president authority to avoid default by raising the ceiling on how much the federal government can borrow. Under the proposal, the president’s authority would be subject to a vote of disapproval by Congress. Geithner’s proposal was based on an idea originally put forward by Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell.
Geithner’s proposal is urgent because the federal government is expected to reach the debt ceiling early in 2013, meaning that if Congress does not act, the federal government will begin defaulting on some of its obligations for the first time in history.
On the December 7 edition of Fox News’ Fox & Friends, Doocy interviewed Republican Sen. John Thune (SD) and opined that it was “good news for the Republicans” that there would soon be a fight between Obama and congressional Republicans over the federal debt ceiling because Republicans would “obviously have the upper hand on that.” Thune responded in part by saying that “what we’re told is the president is even thinking about what he might be able to do to raise the debt ceiling without going through Congress, which would be a huge mistake and ought to be unconstitutional.”
Rather than amend the Constitution or change the way it has been interpreted, Obama has proposed legislation that would amend the current statute that puts a limit on the federal government’s borrowing.
The debt ceiling is merely a provision of law passed by Congress, which can be amended or repealed at any time through ordinary legislation without any change to the Constitution.
H/T: MMFA
Fox appears poised to manufacture a scandal involving the New Black Panther Party appearing at a polling station in Philadelphia.
On Election Day 2008, two members of the New Black Panther Party appeared outside a polling station in Philadelphia, with one of them carrying a club. The Department of Justice (DOJ) under then-President George W. Bush brought a civil voter intimidation lawsuit against the New Black Panther Party and several of its members over the incident. After President Obama took office, the DOJ decided to pursue the case against the defendant carrying the club but dropped the lawsuit against the other defendants.Fox and other right-wing media outlets obsessed about DOJ’s decision to drop some of the claims, saying that DOJ was corrupt and refused to pursue charges against African Americans. The story never added up and was dismissed by a broad and bipartisan group of media and political figures.
But Fox appears ready to go through the same cycle again, highlighting a reported member of the New Black Panther Party who reportedly showed up outside the doors of a polling station and was shown on video opening a door for someone going inside. Co-host Steve Doocy stated that “the organization claims they are monitoring the 2012 election, but some critics say that it looks like intimidation like in 2008.”
h/t: Adam Shah at MMFA
On October 30, Fox & Friends hosted game show host and Generation America spokesperson Chuck Woolery to slam AARP as a partisan organization that has lobbied in support of President Obama’s health care reform law. That Fox would host Woolery to slam the AARP as “partisan” simply isn’t credible, given that Generation America is itself a conservative advocacy group that lobbied stridently against the Affordable Care Act. Generation America also has a financial stake in attacking AARP, as both groups compete to offer the same services and discounts to senior citizens.
Host Steve Doocy began the interview by questioning AARP’s nonpartisan stance and introduced Woolery as a spokesperson for Generation America, the “largest conservative alternative to AARP.”
Woolery slammed AARP for engaging in the fight for health care reform, calling it “disgusting” for the organization to say it is nonpartisan. He claimed that AARP coordinated with Obama administration officials to orchestrate the passage of the bill, and said that health care reform “would not be a law today if it were not for AARP.”
It is also not unusual for the AARP to be actively involved in legislation. The group routinely spends millions per year on lobbying efforts.
Meanwhile, Doocy failed to note that Generation America is a direct competitor to AARP, offering much of the same benefits to seniors, such as insurance, credit cards, and travel discounts.
On Fox & Friends, Woolery claimed that Generation America wants to ”inform seniors more than anything else.” But the group has been a vocal opponent of the Affordable Care Act, promoting a petition on its website to repeal it. In a December 2010 op-ed in The Washington Times, Generation America founder Michael Young wrote, “Americans reject Obamacare by overwhelming — and growing — majorities because it was shoved down our throats with none of the transparency Mr. Obama repeatedly promised, using the kind of partisan politics he assured us would by now be a thing of the past.”
As previously reported by Media Matters, Generation America has also sponsored Glenn Beck, who called the group “your conservative voice in the government” and the answer to the “sham” that is AARP.
From the 10.30.2012 edition of FNC’s Fox and Friends:
h/t: MMFA
Fox News remembers 9/11 by attacking President Obama for not mentioning God in his presidential proclamation.
Fox Co-Host Gretchen Carlson noted that Obama has “called for a moment of silence, but has not called for the word God.” Fox News’ Steve Doocy added: “On this most somber of days, get this. Does the President of the United States call on people to pray for those lives lost? No.”
For starters, Fox News’ claim is blatantly false…a lie, if you will: Obama’s proclamation actually calls on “God’s grace.”
And, to add a bit of hypocrisy to this latest Fox News lie: George W. Bush didn’t include the word “God” in his 2006, 2007 and 2008 presidential proclamations on 9/11. But, you didn’t hear Fox attacking him for ‘ignoring God.’
(via reallyfoxnews)
MMFA: Fixed Noise’s Fox and Friends Mocks US Olympic Team For Sporting “French” Headgear
Fox & Friends contributed several minutes of their Wednesday program to mocking the United States Olympic team uniform which includes a “French beret.” While suggesting that the wearing of berets is unpatriotic, the co-hosts seemed to forget that most of the United States military wear berets until receiving emails from their viewers pointing out this fact.
On NBC’s Today, American company Ralph Lauren unveiled the design for the United States Olympic team opening ceremony uniforms, which are topped off with a navy blue beret with red and white stripes. Fox mocked the decision to top the uniform off with a “French” hat.
Not only did they fail to mention that the United States military wear berets as part of their uniforms, but that the 2002 Olympic uniforms for the Salt Lake City Olympics also featured powder blue berets.
Transcript:
KILMEADE: Women are everywhere. We’re letting them play golf and tennis now. It’s out of control.
CARLSON: You know what? You know what.
KILMEADE: She’s out.
CARLSON: You read the headlines. Since men are so great. Go ahead. Take them away.
KILMEADE: All right. Finally.
CARLSON: Take them away.
KILMEADE: OK.
CARLSON: Go ahead.
KILMEADE: Leaving an all male crew.
CARLSON: In all your glory, go for it.
From the 06.14.2012 edition of FNC’s Fox and Friends: =
Fox & Friends Drops The Veil, Produces Four-Minute Anti-Obama Attack Ad
Fixed Noise = GOP Subsidiary.
While Fox & Friends has long been a home for some of the most vicious, misleading, petty, anddishonest attacks on President Obama, they crossed a new ethical line today by producing and airing what is essentially a four-minute anti-Obama attack ad.
The video - opening with the text “Fox & Friends Presents” — played lines from Obama’s past speeches mixed with commentary from unidentified speakers and graphics purporting to show that Obama has broken the promises he’s made since his 2008 campaign. The graphics were accompanied by loud, epic, scary music played over grainy video footage.
The show (and both FBN and FNC) regularly acts as the communications arm of the GOP, attacking Democrats, promoting Republicans, and broadcasting GOP talking points, sometimes word for word. Co-host Gretchen Carlson has repeatedly advised GOP candidates how to promote their ideas in order to defeat their Democrat opponents.
