Welcome to “In Case You Missed It – Week in Review” for Sept 26 – Oct 1.
I share a lot of news & commentary through my various social media networks (Facebook, Google+, and Twitter), but sometimes things get lost in the sea of everyone’s content. Plus, I’m hoping this will reach an even larger audience! Here’s what I shared last week.
Voice of Choice: Peaceful counter-protests to Anti-abortion harassment and intimidation.
It is a phenomenal organization that is long overdue. vofchoice.org
“Voice of Choice was established as a calm, measured response to anti-abortion activists who engage in misguided, raging protest tactics that are often ill-informed and only serve to victimize women, pro-choice professionals, law-abiding businesses and unaligned bystanders.”
Debunktion Junction: $16 Muffin = FALSE. Bill O’Reilly is a lying idiot = true.
STALE REPORTING: Breaking Down The ‘Muffingate’ Myth (Huffington Post)
If you were unfortunate enough to watch FOX’s Bill O’Reilly on The Daily Show this week, you saw him literally yell at Jon Stewart for not knowing that the government “wasted” money on 250 muffins for $16 each at a recent conference. Stewart responded with a great point (“Have you heard of Wall Street? They had a little problem that added up to a little more than – what’s $16 times 250 muffins?”), but didn’t address how completely wrong O’Reilly was.
Bill O’Reilly is the ‘pinhead’ here (what else is new?), because Hilton Hotels clarified that the $16 was for a full continental breakfast + tax. But instead of a detailed invoice, the hotel just listed the charge as “muffins.” FOX viewers will never know the truth, but now you do.
(from Harley Quinzy on Facebook)
Debunktion Junction: Obama wants to take away your guns = FALSE.
“It’s just so crazy, it’s f***ing crazy.”
Another topic introduced on the Daily Show this week, but this time the debunktion happened right there. From news video clips:
“Since the President took office, he has actually signed bills loosening gun control, including allowing guns to be carried inside national parks and in luggage in Amtrak trains. … The President’s record on guns has earned him straight F’s from the Brady Gun Violence Prevention campaign.”
That’s still not enough for the crazy NRA crowd, who think Obama not taking their guns away is just a conspiracy to take their guns away.
“We’ve tried conservatism, and we’ve tried centrism, but the one thing we haven’t tried is liberalism. Maybe that works” –Seth MacFarlane
“Liberals have got to get out and vote, and give Obama a Congress he can work with.” –Jennifer Granholm
While giving a speech this week, a heckler called Obama the anti-Christ.
49% of Americans believe in the anti-Christ, and that he’ll arrive sometime in the future.
“I think it’s good he’s [supposedly] here – it’s about time we have an antidote to all this crazy Christ shit.” -Salman Rushdie
Mr. Boehner, where are the jobs?
“House Republicans yesterday released their draft budget proposal for labor, health, and human service, which in one fell swoop revives the assault on all their favorite bugaboos, including Planned Parenthood, NPR, the National Labor Relations Board, and President Obama’s health care reform law.”
“Perhaps most surprisingly for a party that claims to be focused on job creation, the GOP budget reduces funding for job training programs that give the unemployed the skills they need to find work in an ailing economy”
Breaking Their Promise To Focus On Job Creation, House GOP Proposes Slashing Job Training Programs
“While the goals behind No Child Left Behind were admirable… teachers are being forced to teach to the test, while subjects like history and science are being squeezed out. And in order to avoid having their schools labeled as failures, some states lowered their standards in a race to the bottom. … For years Congress has failed to fix [these problems], so now I will.”
President Obama’s Weekly Address: Strengthening the American Education System
“Republicans sometimes win elections by suppressing voter turnout, and it’s really un-American.” -Senator Sherrod Brown
But don’t worry, because people like Glenn Beck ‘know’ their food is safe without the pesky government enacting all their ‘needless’ regulations, simply because *he* is the one who goes to the store to buy the cantaloupes.
How Corporations and Special Interest Groups Can Influence Citizens Through Astroturfing
“We are drowning in propaganda. It’s making real democracy all but impossible. People are very much unaware of front groups – unaware of how their thoughts are being manipulated… this is deception on a massive scale.”
Wait, I See Something 