Jim Lampley (a political genius, from HBO BOXING- stick to boxing, pal) posted today on Huffington's loony site that there is a growign fascism in America thanks to the Republicans.
[The Emerging Democratic Majority]
He also claims a coming democratic majority (clearly this guy doesn't realize that the US is MORE than the left and right coasts!), and then he goes and gets his facts wrong on a number of items:
"The public demonstrated in opinion polling that it was overwhelmingly opposed [pdf] to Congressional and judicial intervention in the Terri Schiavo right-to-die case, but the Tom Delays and Bill Frists of the world ignored that feedback.
Actually, CLEAR QUESTIONED polls showed the majority of Americans supported government action into what most of us saw as a court denying a woman her rights. He uses the already proven biased polls that showed the exact opposite of what other CLEAR QUESTIONED polls showed, which was that Americans didn't agree with the action of the court and approve Congressional intervention. The problem with the ABC poll Lampley refers to and many others like it was- they asked if the poll taker supported removal of a feeding tube of a woman who was brain dead, and Terri was NEVER brain dead. When polls asked the question right and explained that Shiavo was NOT brain dead, those polled supported keeping her feeding tube in and Congress acting to save her life. Of course, Lampley never mentions any of this, and he basically uses bogus polls to prove his bogus point.
He goes on to accuse Republicans of acting in the Shiavo case, but, once again, we have to be reminded that the law passed by Congress was overwhelmingly BIPARTISAN, so his attack is an invalid point to begin with. It wasn't the Republicans in Congress who voted yes on this bill, it was CONGRESS PERIOD.
Lampley continues his lunacy by claiming that Conservatives are taking over the media and using
LAMPLEY: Sure there are still disquieting signs in a country where real democracy lies momentarily dormant. Dormant due to right-wing ownership of the national political machinery and the widespread election fraud that has engendered. Dormant due to the capitulation of mainstream media in the face of neoconservative intimidation tactics (see Bill Moyer's post today about the corruption of editorial independence at PBS).
There he goes again with his unfounded claims of election fraud! Fraud that not even John Kerry says took place! Lampley, tho, is one of the few that know the truth...Bush and co. brainwashed Kerry into accepting the obvious election fraud, and they implanted a chip in his brain, so he wouldn't "expose" the fraud. Lampley, however, never got the brain implant chip, so he's free to expose the lies and fraud himself! Thank God for boxing announcers!!
His other claim that the conservatives are using intimidation tactics to transform the media is absurd. A new poll came out today that showed reporters are self described democrats and liberals by 60 something % to somewhere around 25%!! Yes, the intimidation is working SO well...so well that Newsweek reports bogus stories they're forced to retract. Clearly these Republican goons Lampley is exposing to the world aren't doing a very good job.
As for his PBS claim- that's nonsense and just plain dumb. The Republican CPB Chairman made it quiet clear he thought PBS should KEEP NOW (which holds a blatant liberal bias!), and that he simply wanted PBS to show more diversity and carry other, more right-leaning shows to balance out NOW and other PBS shows! How is that an intimidation tactic? Lampley's source on this conspiracy is the nutjob, Bill Moyers himself, who says:
MOYERS: "As you know, CPB was established almost 40 years ago to set broad policy for public broadcasting and to be a firewall between political influence and program content. What some on its board are doing today, led by its chairman, Kenneth Tomlinson, is too important, too disturbing and, yes, even dangerous for a gathering like this not to address it."
Tomlinson's actions (to simply show more BALANCE!) is "disturbing" and "dangerous"?? Wanting to balance PBS programming with a conservative show to counteract the sway of the FAR LEFT leaning NOW is "dangerous" and "disturbing"? Moyers wants a liberal monopoly at PBS, but he's too much a coward to say it.
Just for the record, here are a few of the insane comments from Lampley's solid source (Moyers-- just to show you how nuts he is):
"I think if Kerry were to win this in a tight race, I think there would be an effort to mount a coup, quite frankly." "America's corporate and political elites now form a regime of their own and they're privatizing democracy. All the benefits - the tax cuts, policies and rewards flow in one direction: up." "I decided to put on my flag pin tonight – first time. Until now I haven’t thought it necessary to display a little metallic icon of patriotism for everyone to see....I put it on to take it back. The flag’s been hijacked and turned into a logo – the trademark of a monopoly on patriotism.... When I see flags sprouting on official lapels, I think of the time in China when I saw Mao’s Little Red Book on every official’s desk, omnipresent and unread. “But more galling than anything are all those moralistic ideologues in Washington sporting the flag in their lapels while writing books and running Web sites and publishing magazines attacking dissenters as un-American....I put this on as a modest riposte to men with flags in their lapels who shoot missiles from the safety of Washington think tanks, or argue that sacrifice is good as long as they don’t have to make it....I put it on to remind myself that not every patriot thinks we should do to the people of Baghdad what bin Laden did to us."
Those are some of his TAME quotes, and they show just how radical he is. The US removing the MURDEROUS Hussein regime was the same thing as what terrorists did to 3, 000 innocent people on Sept 11? And Moyers is going to have the audacity to claim he and his show (when he hosted he) isn't bias? That HE of all people has a right to speak out on the subject at all?
Lampley might need to find some sources that aren't as nutty as he is, it might help his lame attacks.
Lampley is a sick man with no hold on reality, that much is becoming clearer each time he decides to make an insane rant on Huffinton's loony site. Sadly, Lampley is unaware of the fact that large numbers of people will no longer watch HBO sports thanks to him, nor will they ever listen to a thing he says period.
Outrageous claims are just that- outrageous claims. They only mean something when you back them up with at least ONE fact, stop spewing conspiracy theories for nutballs, and for once in your life- speak the truth. Lampley will continue to ignore all of those points, and Americans who have any reason will continue to shun him.