Sean Hannity, Master Word Manipulator

Jed Lewison over at DailyKos punches holes in Hannity's arguments about what Barack Obama did not say before they even began. It wasn't hard though, all you have to do is see what the President said, then compare it to what Hannity thought he heard.

Ryan Tells Hannity GOP Tax Plan Is Progressive

More comedy from one of the new leaders of the GOP:



By the way Hannity, those "mantras" about Republicans not caring about the poor? They're effective because they're true.

Dear Hannity...Love Deepak

Sean Hannity, never one to twist a situation to his advantage while ripping his opponent with false characterizations, did exactly that to the ever spiritual Deepak Chopra last week. It was about the Mumbai attacks and from Deepak's message of love, Hannity misconstrued it as "blaming America." So Deepak did the brave thing and responded on his own show and over at the Huffington Post.

From The Huffington Post:

Dear Sean,

I saw a report about last night's show that quotes you as follows:

"Hannity continued by saying, "We had Deepak Chopra on last night and he's blaming America! ...He was blaming America for the attacks in Mumbai and I challenged him on it and I'm like, 'Wait a minute. You've done so well in America. Why are you blaming us?' We protect 100% of the world's population. We're 4% of it."

I am really disappointed in you. Do you not remember your other guest when I was on, former Defense Secretary Bill Cohen? He made the same point I did about America's policy toward the jihadists: "Are we creating more terrorists than killing them?" Ironically, this question is attributed to Donald Rumsfeld.

It really doesn't matter to me personally whether you agree with me or not. Leaving our debate aside, your habit of taking statements out of context and playing the blaming game is sad. You have a powerful platform that influences many people. Why do you use your influence to monger fear, militancy, divisiveness, and jingoism?

I was hoping to come back on your show and have a reflective, intelligent dialogue, but perhaps the attack mode is the only way you know to make a living. The best excuse for your dishonest accusations against me is that you don't believe what you're saying. The far right has deflated, so you are there to pump it up with hot air. If you stop blowing, you'll be out of a job. I empathize.

Love,
Deepak

All Sean really knows is to monger fear, militancy, divisiveness, and jingoism. He prefers hate to love, war to peace, destruction to reconstruction, disease to cures and on and on. I am really proud to see Colmes leave his show finally. He must have had enough after twelve years of being continually bashed by Sean and liberals for giving Hannity an illusion of balance on his show.

I agree with Deepak one hundred percent on his analysis of Mr. Hannity. He is a sad sight and I....well, I try to empathize. I'd much rather just see him off the air.

Newt Is Still An Idiot

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich must think that Sean Hannity's audience is pretty damn stupid. Do they really believe all the lies that Hannity and his guests tell them? Well probably, but some things are just too hard to swallow. One of those untruthful stones was force-fed last night on the Fox News show.

From ThinkProgress:

Last night on Fox News, host Sean Hannity and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) returned (as they often do) to Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-IL) recent suggestion that Americans inflate their tires properly in order to save energy costs.

Seeming to outdo his previous false attacks on this issue, Gingrich claimed that Obama’s idea is actually encouraging Americans to “enrich Big Oil” because selling air has “a higher profit margin than selling gasoline”:

GINGRICH: Well, I got a very funny e-mail from a retired military officer in Tampa who pointed out that most tire inflation is done at service stations and you pay for it. And it’s actually a higher profit margin than selling gasoline. So Sen. Obama was urging you to go out and enrich Big Oil by inflating your tires instead of buying gas.

Um, since when do gas stations buy air from oil companies? Why would oil companies sell air? The fact of the matter is, the only profits go to the service station owners, not big oil...that is if the station in question charges for air at all. Also, people can go out and buy an air pump or pressure tank and do it themselves. Of course, Newt probably never deals with the maintenance of his car(s), so what the hell would he know anyways?

Violent Right Wing Rhetoric Becomes Tragically Real

Since September 11th, the right wing echo chamber has become increasingly violent in regards to their rhetoric. The hatred shown by pundits such as O'Reilly, Coulter, Hannity and Michael Savage has been vicious towards liberals and those that oppose their way of seeing a black and white, good versus evil world. Well people out there listen to their foaming-at-the-mouth rhetoric and unfortunately we will see tragic events like this happen more frequently.

From RawStory:

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - An out-of-work truck driver accused of opening fire at a Unitarian church, killing two people, left behind a note suggesting that he targeted the congregation out of hatred for its liberal policies, including its acceptance of gays, authorities said Monday.

A four-page letter found in Jim D. Adkisson's small SUV indicated he intentionally targeted the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church because, the police chief said, "he hated the liberal movement" and was upset with "liberals in general as well as gays."[...]

The attack Sunday morning lasted only minutes. But the anger behind it may have been building for months, if not years.

"It appears that what brought him to this horrible event was his lack of being able to obtain a job, his frustration over that, and his stated hatred for the liberal movement," Police Chief Sterling Owen said.

Adkisson was a loner who hates "blacks, gays and anyone different from him," longtime acquaintance Carol Smallwood of Alice, Texas, told the Knoxville News Sentinel.

These pathetic individuals are exactly the type that right-wing commentators go after. They seek out those that hate the world for their situation, without opening their eyes to realize that so many are in the same boat with them. Instead, it is a "me against the world" attitude that breeds hate and violence when a strong dose of ignorance is involved. Every once in a while our society is exposed to the culmination of one individual's hate. Yet it would be wrong to write this off as one loon that killed innocent people, because that loon is getting his information from somewhere.

Stephanopolous Took Notes For Debate From Hannity

Anyone watching last night's debacle on ABC might have wondered to themselves about the ridiculousness of the questions directed at Barack Obama. One of them even sounded like it came out of the mouth of the reviled Sean Hannity. When George Stephanopolous asked Senator Obama about his relationship with ex-Weather Underground member Bill Ayers I almost flipped out, but now we know that he was taking notes straight from right-wing scion Sean Hannity.

From ThinkProgress:

Hannity, who for months has been aggressively pushing a story about Barack Obama’s connections to a former member of a radical anti-Vietnam 1970s organization called the Weather Underground, interviewed Stephanopoulos on his radio show on Tuesday, where he pressed the ABC host to ask Obama about this:

HANNITY: There are two questions that I don’t think anybody has asked Barack Obama, and I don’t know if this is going to be on your list tomorrow. One is – the only time he’s ever been asked about his association with Bill Ayers, the unrepentant terrorist from the Weather Underground who on 9/11 of all days in the New York Times was saying “I don’t regret setting bombs. I don’t think we did enough.” When asked about it by the Politico, David Axelrod said that they have a friendly relationship, and that they had done a number of speeches together and that they sat on a board together. Is that a question you might ask?

STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, I’m taking notes right now.

Well he could have just been facetious when talking to Hannity, being an ex-Clinton staffer and all, right?

In the debate last night, Stephanopoulos asked a question that mirrored almost word-for-word what Hannity pressed him to ask:

STEPHANOPOULOS: A gentleman named William Ayers, he was part of the Weather Underground in the 1970s. They bombed the Pentagon, the Capitol and other buildings. He’s never apologized for that. And in fact, on 9/11 he was quoted in The New York Times saying, “I don’t regret setting bombs; I feel we didn’t do enough.”

An early organizing meeting for your state senate campaign was held at his house, and your campaign has said you are friendly. Can you explain that relationship for the voters, and explain to Democrats why it won’t be a problem?

I guess not. To Stephanopolous, Sean Hannity's trafe is relevant political discourse. That must be one thick bubble Mr. Stephanopolous lives in to honestly believe that, otherwise he was just performing a hit job on Barack Obama. You take your pick.

This Guy Makes Me Sick

You can clearly see why down below, as bigot Sean Hannity plays the race card with abandon:

Hannity Flees Chanting Ron Paulites

There's nothing quite like watching Sean Hannity on the run. I've met the man before at a radio industry convention and I must say he was as disgusting in person as he is on television. He had nothing but insults for my employer at the time (I'm sure you can guess what radio station I'm talking about). Now that his network tried to throw out Ron Paul from the debate, while Giuliani can't even match his numbers, they are getting their due. Watch out cliff, here comes Sean!

Which Is Worse, Hannity Singing Or Giuliani Lying On 9/11

Rudy is at least known as an exaggerator and Sean is definitely known as a right wing blowhard. Now how would one go about tying to the two together on the same day? Well September 11th makes it easy, especially when so many on the right are eager to wrap the flag around themselves to make it seem like they love freedom. Where better to do that then attending a "Freedom Concert" in New Jersey?

Plenty of people attended this event, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, Newt Gingrich, Joe Lieberman, Oliver North, a bunch of WABC's other conservative talkers (anyone noticing a common thread here?) and our dear friend Rudy. Giuliani looked somber on TV in the morning at Ground Zero and then he headed to a concert in the afternoon? Sounds a little suspicious to me.

But Joshing you say, why can't the man have a little fun with his right wing friends down at Great Adventure? So what if he closed his campaign office to make it look like he was serious about honoring the victims of 9/11 wasn't playing politics on this day? It's just a rabble-rousing event for those that pick blind 'patriotism' over anything else (like common sense debating).

Or was it? Everything is politics to Rudolph. He used 9/11 to hog the national spotlight six years ago. After his term as mayor was up he used the image yet again to open a firm that has netted him millions. Now he is running for President and it is all based on looking tough under fire when he was mayor on that one day. The truth is, Rudy has no leadership ability, only the unrelenting political will to do whatever it takes regardless of who gets hurt, even if it is a ceremony for the friends and family that lost loved ones on 9/11.

Oh and by the way, Sean Hannity ended up singing country songs with his country pals Montgomery Gentry. I am still not sure what is making me more nauseous, hearing Sean wail or more of the same bullshit from America's Mayor Failure.

Hannity Hearts Giuliani

From the world of fair and balancedness, Sean Hannity came out to help Rudy Giuliani raise some cash this month in Cincinnati a couple of weeks ago. Of course any pundit/commentator is free to do whatever they like for any candidate under the sun, but spare me the bullshit about Sean being even-keeled on the issues. He is a certified winger that is loved by his wingnut followers. Even Rudy Giuliani likes to swim in the same mud that Hannity cooks up.

From The Daily News:

In a little noticed event this month, Hannity - co-host of Fox News' "Hannity & Colmes" and host of a popular WABC radio show - introduced the Republican front-runner at a closed-door, $250-per-head fund-raiser Aug. 9 in Cincinnati, campaign officials acknowledge.

In so doing, some believe that Hannity - while clearly a commentator paid to express his opinions - crossed the line from punditry into financial rainmaking for a presidential candidate whose bottom line is now better for it.

"Fox's in-kind contribution to Republican politicians in the form of softball coverage is one thing," said Steve Rendall, senior analyst at Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, a left-leaning media watchdog group. "But this is the first time they have crossed this line into fund-raising."

Fox News' Bill Shine, Fox's senior vice president of programming says that Hannity is not a journalist (thanks Sherlock!) so he can do whatever he pleases. But when the shoe is on the other foot (as in the case of Dan Rather attending a Dem fundraiser in 2001), others at Fox News have cried out in agony, like one of my favorites over there, the Loofah King himself:

"Now Rather gave a speech at a fund-raiser, so money changed hands. I mean, I wouldn't do that," O'Reilly said on his own Fox show, "The O'Reilly Factor."

Hannity's leanings for Giuliani have been well-documented. The Hotline, a political journal, has noted that through July 15, Giuliani had enjoyed 115 minutes of free face time on Fox - more than half of that on "Hannity & Colmes." His airtime on Fox was 25% higher than any other Republican candidate, data show.

The Aug. 9 fund-raiser where Hannity worked the crowd for Giuliani, held at Jeff Ruby's Steakhouse in downtown Cincinnati, was closed to the press. No known recording of his comments exist.

Seems like another typical day for Fox News and its many personalities. Is there really anyone out there that still thinks this network offers real journalism?

WingerLand!

Thanks to Anominousone on YouTube for creating this brilliant clip of rightwing radio and television nuts with all the evidence that goes along with it.

Hitchens Takes On Hannity And Religion

Usually I can't stand Hannity interviews because he likes to bully his guests that do not agree with everything that he says. Hitchens however completely owned Sean on Sunday night. Hannity conceded points to Christopher and was talked down to repeatedly. Now this is the way to put that right wing gas bag in his place.

Now That Imus Is Gone...

Congratulations is in order to the corporate bigwigs who caved to the pressure of many groups demanding Don Imus be off the air. Yet there is still a widespread problem of hate being spewed on the radio and on television. The list of names is long indeed, including Bill O'Reilly, Neil Boortz, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage, Rush Limbaugh and many others. So as long as we are clearing the air and making progress towards more civilized debate in talk radio, why not make efforts to getting rid of these goons?

Catherine Crier discussed this on CourtTV last night (via Crooks and Liars):

Court TV's Catherine Crier doesn't think this scandal should end with the firing of Don Imus. During last night's "Crier Wire," she quickly ran through a small handful of the hateful things uttered by the likes of FOX News, Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter, and makes the obvious point that they should also be held accountable.

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"Let's tell hate spewing radio and TV hosts, and misogynist rappers that this divisiveness is unacceptable."

I am certainly no fan of censorship but the names on the list above can spew their hate-mongering in safer places, such as their living rooms. Reasoned debate is one thing, shouting and screaming ideology and bigotry is another. If I remember correctly, the FCC granted the networks space on the public airwaves for loftier purposes than the insanity that exists today.

Hannity's House Of Insanity

When trying to increase the volume of the Right Wing Echo Chamber, Sean Hannity has some serious trouble keeping the message straight when others disagree with him, like his Ret. Colonel and Democratic Congressman that were guests on the show:

Hannity Is No Match For A Preacher

Sean Hannity gets schooled in theology by Barack Obama's pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr.

Speaking Of Fox News

I am still pissed about the Nevada Democratic Party's move and justification to allow Fox News to corrupt one of our Presidential debates. Fox News continually gives us examples on why they are the most unbalanced news network of all time. Last night right-wing radio talk show host Neal Boortz went on HANNITY.....and Colmes to spout off his vitriolic views. His latest gripe was about teachers' unions. The unions that represent the men and women who have one of the most important jobs in the country and get paid a paltry sum for their contribution to society.

From Crooks and Liars (Links to the video provided here):

On Hannity and Colmes last night, Neal Boortz told an agreeable Sean Hannity that teachers unions are more dangerous to America than terrorists armed with nuclear weapons because a nuke could only wipe out 100,000 people but public schools are "destroying a generation."

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“Look, Al Qaeda, they could bring in a nuke into this country and kill 100,000 people with a well-placed nuke somewhere. Ok. We would recover from that. It would be a terrible tragedy, but the teachers unions in this country can destroy a generation.”

Imagine for a second if a "liberal" (read: non-reality-denying) guest had said this to Hannity instead:

“Look, Al Qaeda, they could bring in a nuke into this country and kill 100,000 people with a well-placed nuke somewhere. Ok. We would recover from that. It would be a terrible tragedy, but President Bush's war in Iraq is, according to the NIE, radicalizing a whole new generation of Islamists that will hate America for at least 40 years.”

Just another example of how Fox News reports the talking points of the right. The only way the viewer can decide to make a balanced, thoughtful opinion is to turn the noise off.

Hannity And A Hate Crime

Sean Hannity is a well known gasbag, full of lies, deceit and betrayal to the constitution itself. He frequently makes outrageous statements and outlandish remarks that can make the most stoic of figures blush. Here is another segment from the delusions of Hannity (with real world facts interjected).

On New Year's Eve, Yale University's famous 'Baker's Dozen' a capella group was tragically beaten by a group of people who shouted 'fags' and 'homos' at them as they committed assualt and it seems a hate crime as well. This happened after they sung the Star Spangled Banner at a private home and were leaving the party at the time.

Sean Hannity heard the patriotic song they were singing and jumped into the deep end.

From WTNH New Haven, CT last month:

The trouble started at midnight after the Baker's Dozen sang the Star Spangled Banner. Witnesses say a few local young men didn't appreciate the attention the Yale students were getting, made fun of their conservative dress and began taunting them and making threats.

Witnesses say Richard Aicardi, 19, and dressed in a Santa hat, was the most aggressive.

"Very, I would say juvenile," Sharyar said. "Taunting to the point where it was just unnecessary."

Aicardi took out his cell phone and called in reinforcements.

"He said I'm 20 deep, my boys are coming," Rapagnani said.

As the Baker's Dozen left the house they were ambushed. Five, six, seven assailants attacking each member. Their injuries ranged from scrapes, black eyes, a badly sprained ankle to concussions.

Hannity invited the man who was injured most severely,Sharyar Aziz onto his show. When Aziz recounted the facts, Hannity went in a different direction. Sean wanted to attack those unpatriotic bastards who obviously did not like to hear our Star Spangled banner. What else it could it be? He was so confident it was an evil liberal Pelosi loving, America-hater, he offered a $10,000 reward on his show to bring the felons to justice.

Newshounds has the transcript:

"Truth be told, I couldn't tell you what was going through their minds, what it was that made them feel, you know, that a call needed to be made," Aziz answered. " ... I couldn't tell you what was the trigger, the initial trigger, what it was ..."

(snip)

When it became clear that Aziz was struggling, Hannity spoke up to compliment him. Then the FOX News pundit surprised everyone when he said "And you know, I want to get these people that did this to you, and I hope - working with your attorney and the detectives out there that we're able to find them. I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to offer a $10,000 reward for anybody that will come and testify that as a witness to this, to help get these people - you know, America is still a country where you can sing the national anthem and not be attacked viciously like this, and cruelly like this."

Hannity seems intent on catching these criminals, oddly leaving out the fact that some of the assailants were already known AND that the police did not charge them, only detaining four of the perps momentarily.

As WTNH mentioned:

San Francisco police spokesman Neville Gittens defends the handling of the case. "What you want to do is you want to have a complete, thorough investigation. The officers responded, the fight was abated, and now an investigation is on-going."

San Francisco police say their investigation continues. They are identifying and interviewing victims, suspects and witnesses, and will present their case to the district attorney's office.

The first thing that comes to my mind is why would the police just let them go like that and why does Hannity try and go after the 'alleged' criminals with the charge that they hate the Star Spangled Banner?

Here is where this gets interesting, it turns out the criminals have fled the country. No, not out of fear of prosecution, but for serving their country. Yeah, thats right, they were U.S. Marines on shore leave.

From the SF Gate yesterday:

(02-13) 17:33 PST -- As many as three U.S. Marines were involved in the alleged New Year's attack on the Baker's Dozen singing group, an attorney for two singers is claiming in a letter that asks for the head of the Marine Corps' help in the investigation.

(snip)

In a Feb. 9 letter to Lt. General Robert R. Blackman, Jr., the head of the corps, attorney James Hammer named only one of the Marines allegedly involved, saying that he "was one of the men at the center of the attacks and we believe (he) personally participated in the brutal attack on both students.''

The article describes in detail how the Aziz family has had to pay for Sharyar's medical bills while the prosecuters and police department have seem to have dragged their feet in the matter. Doctors that treated Aziz saw that his broken jaw was attributed to a seasoned fighter. In fact, that fighter took pictures of his wounded knuckles on his cellphone, then tried to erase his tracks.

So for now the Marines have gotten away and Hannity....well, it seems that the $10,000 dollar award will vanish into thin air, unless of course he wants to send it to the Marines to get them to come back from their tour of duty in Japan.

(h/t to First-Draft)

Hannity Picks On Jane Fonda: Big Surprise

This week's installment of 'Enemy of the State' recently re-named as 'Enemy of the Week' chose Jane Fonda to be called out for her un-American activities by Mr. America Sean Hannity (yeah right!). Apparently protesting against the government is frowned upon in the eyes of the douchebag from Fox News (my apologies to douchebags).

I would link you to his commentary, but then I'd be giving traffic to Fox News and that is just not cool. If you need to hear the vile putrid garbage that spews from his mouth, then go right ahead and listen. All I needed to do was hear about it second-hand.