Mario Piperni dot Com

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Like many others, I’ve been guilty of mocking the newest Republican Senator, Scott Brown.  Sure, he does appear to be nothing more than a Sarah Palin with testicles…and yes he did say he’d vote against the proposed health care bill even though it is remarkably similar to the one he voted for in Massachusetts.  And then there’s that Cosmo nude spread…not quite becoming of a United States Senator.  But…he’s won me over with the interview he gave Barbara Walters. If the following exchange does not convince you that Scott Brown is every bit the charismatic leader, nothing will.

WALTERS: You’re a Lieutenant-Colonel. On Wednesday the President announced that he wants to work with Congress to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. What’s your view?

BROWN: I think it’s important, because as you know we’re fighting two wars right now. And the most — the first priority is to — is to — is to finish the job, and win those wars. I’d like to hear from the generals in the field — in the field — the people that actually work with these soldiers to make sure that, you know, the social change is not going to disrupt our ability to finish the job and complete the wars.

WALTERS: But Senator, your own view.

BROWN: That’s my view.

WALTERS: So you can’t say whether you’re for or against it?

BROWN: No. I’m going to wait to speak to the generals on the ground.

See?  Leadership doesn’t get better than that. A man of conviction. I like that.

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If you missed ABC’s This Week, you might want to catch the Roundtable segment. It is noteworthy because in attendance was Fox News CEO of Propaganda Roger Ailes.

My favorite part.

AILES: FOX News is fair and balanced. We had Geraldine Ferraro on for 10 years as the only woman the Democrats ever nominated. Now we have the only woman that the Republicans nominated. I’m not in politics, I’m in ratings. We’re winning.

ARIANNA HUFFINGTON: Roger, you clearly are in ratings, but if you are in ratings, can you explain to me why FOX went away from the meeting the president was having in — why did you go away, 20 minutes before the end?

AILES: Because we’re the most trusted name in news.

Do you ever get the feeling that a lot of this stuff is made up by a team of comedy writers from the Daily Show?

You can catch the full segment here.

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In case you didn’t know…

…James O’Keefe never actually wore his ridiculous pimp costume into those ACORN offices on those doctored and illegally recorded video tapes, right? But, rather, he was filmed outside of the offices wearing his get-up, while appearing as the conservatively dressed boyfriend of a hooker trying to escape an abusive pimp when the cameras were rolling inside the offices. That’s just one of many deceptions O’Keefe carried out.

As one of two independent investigations of the incidents which clear ACORN of wrong-doing noted, this one by former MA Attorney General Scott Harshbarger [PDF]:

Although Mr. O’Keefe appeared in all videos dressed as a pimp, in fact, when he appeared at each and every office, he was dressed like a college student – in slacks and a button down shirt.

Typical behavior by a crack conservative “investigative journalist”.

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Radical conservative jerkoff James O’Keefe attempts to explain his actions at Sen. Mary Landrieu’s offices.

“As an investigative journalist, my goal is to expose corruption and lack of concern for citizens by government and other institutions, as I did last year when our investigations revealed the massive corruption and fraud perpetrated by ACORN. For decades, investigative journalists have used a variety of tactics to try to dig out and reveal the truth.”

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“I learned from a number of sources that many of Senator Landrieu’s constituents were having trouble getting through to her office to tell her that they didn’t want her taking millions of federal dollars in exchange for her vote on the healthcare bill. When asked about this, Senator Landrieu’s explanation was that, “Our lines have been jammed for weeks.” I decided to investigate why a representative of the people would be out of touch with her constituents for “weeks” because her phones were broken. In investigating this matter, we decided to visit Senator Landrieu’s district office – the people’s office – to ask the staff if their phones were working.”

Investigative journalist?  Funny. This twerp attempted to tamper with phones in a federal building.  The sooner his fifteen minutes is up and he’s sitting behind bars, the better off society will be.

And here’s a further thought…

But just imagine the years of outrage and endless repetition of the charges from the Rightwing media and their acolytes — folks like Crazy Andy — that would accompany four operatives allied with the Democratic Party, perpetrating a scheme to dress up as phony telephone company employees in order to access and manipulate the phone system in the office of a sitting Republican U.S. Senator.

Of course, it would be the Crime of the Century to the wingnuts, likely led by Breitbart, accompanied by cries of “What did Obama, Pelosi, Reid, ACORN, SEIU and Saul Alinsky know and when they did they know it?!” along with calls for resignations in disgrace because of it.

But when the “Liberal MSM” report on a very serious federal felony offense allegedly committed by four Republicans disguising themselves and attempting to interfere with the the phone system of a sitting Democratic U.S. Senator, well, that’s just another example of the outrageously “Liberal MSM,” at least according to Breitbart and O’Keefe’s latest attempted gambit.

Yep.

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MediaMatters just posted the following. Fits in perfectly with what I just wrote in my last post.

The O’Reilly Factor, Hannity, and Glenn Beck, Fox News’ three top-rated programs for 2009, combined to devote a total of four minutes and five seconds of coverage to President Obama’s address and question and answer session with House Republicans at their retreat in Baltimore.

With twenty minutes remaining in President Obama’s question and answer session with House Republicans at their retreat in Baltimore, Fox News cut to The Live Desk co-host Trace Gallagher who asserted that Obama was “at times being a little bit combative” and that “there was a little bit of lecturing there.” By contrast, MSNBC and CNN aired the event in its entirety.

Fox News subsequently aired all of the “Republican response” press conference held by House Minority Leader Rep. John Boehner (R-OH), Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), and Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) after the question and answer session with Obama.

The Pravda arm of the GOP never fails in demonstrating what they are. Shills.

On the postive side, even wingnuts can’t take away the brilliance of Obama…at least when it’s this obvious and in their face.

Michelle Malkin.

“…the session has been most compelling – the most transparency and openness we’ve seen since the start of his term. Good on the House Republicans for throwing the doors open. And, yes, I’m going to compliment the president: Good on him for taking part.”

“Do this every week.”

Stephen Hayes.

“Look, it was a nice event. It was a smart event. I think this worked for the White House and this worked for the House Republicans. I loved the exchange. I hope they do this once a month.”

Charles Krauthammer.

“I thought it brought out the best of Obama. It helped him a lot. It made Republicans looked good, but I think it was good for the country. Look, for Obama, he engaged in a fairly high level debate on policy with his antagonists and he showed his best qualities as a fine analytic mind. He was able to phrase and to frame his opponents’ arguments in a clear way. And I thought he held his own quite well. I do think it should be something we ought to consider institutionalizing.”

Yes, yes! Institutionalize it! PLEASE!

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We’ve all read and heard so much about the President’s performance in facing Republicans and debating them head on.  It was magnificent and fascinating to watch and it got me thinking…how wonderful if the entire political process was as it was yesterday – politicians making their statements and accusations right to the face of those best positioned to respond.

The current system allows politicians to get away with saying whatever they wish unchallenged. The lies are then filtered through the media where they’re either propagated or exposed depending on which media outlet we choose to obtain our information from.  Imagine some dope who gets his or her news exclusively from Fox and conservative talk radio.  Any Republican lie spreads like wildfire (think ‘death panels’) and is repeated by every hack on Fox as well as Limbaugh and the rest. The dope listening to this crap doesn’t know any better.  After hearing the lie repeated over and over and lacking the ability to critically think out an issue, they naturally come to see it as gospel truth.

What you’re left with is misinformation which manifests itself into anger and rebellion and gives birth to teabaggers and the like. The health care ‘debate’ has shown us how easy it is for lobbyists with vested interests to manipulate and distort the truth into an unrecognizable pile of nonsense.

Now imagine if the Fox-watching dope was given the opportunity to watch a politician confront his accusers in open debate as we witnessed yesterday. The dissemination of information and truth would be so much more simplified and clear.  But great as it might be, don’t hold your breath. It’s not about to happen. Fox News cut short their coverage of the event yesterday for a reason. Their entire existence is based on misinformation and keeping the dopes stupid.

In short, ignorance is what fuels and empowers Republicans. Without it, they have nothing.

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Here’s how it’s done.

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(Hat Tip: DailyDish)

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The state of fear lives on.

The Obama administration on Friday gave up on its plan to try the Sept. 11 plotters in Lower Manhattan, bowing to almost unanimous pressure from New York officials and business leaders to move the terrorism trial elsewhere.

The reversal on whether to try the alleged 9/11 terrorists blocks from the former World Trade Center site seemed to come suddenly this week, after Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg abandoned his strong support for the plan and said the cost and disruption would be too great.

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Mr. Bloomberg’s remarks on Wednesday set off a stampede of New York City officials, most of them Democrats well-disposed toward President Obama, who suddenly declared that a civilian trial for the 9/11 suspects was a great idea — as long as it didn’t happen in their city.

The argument being made is that it would cost a gazillion dollars to set up security in Lower Manhattan and that the disruption to the city would be untenable. I don’t know. I’m thinking that now that they’ve got the trial moved out of the city, the scaredy-cats will get it moved out of the state and eventually out of the country.  Another moral victory for the terrorists.

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Taking part in a 5 or 15K walk (not sure which) this morning to raise funds and awareness for the homeless.  I’m planning on completing the walk but I will be slipping a paperback into my backpack in the event we pass a Starbucks at the 3.5K mark and the caffeine urge kicks in.  I’m weak that way.

Happy Saturday.

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