The Red Scare (also known as McCarthyism) is officially revived.
First, U.S. Rep. Allen West (D-Fla.) confirmed (at a town hall meeting on April 10) that "there’s about 78 to 81 members of the Democratic Party (specifically the Congressional Progressive Caucus) that are members of the Communist Party."
Florida Congressman Allen West tries to gin up a modern-day red scare. Democratic strategist Bob Shrum tries to make sense of West's comments.
Then a week later, on April 17, West implied that U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat who served as commander-in-chief during World War I, was also a communist.
"I think that if you would take the time to study the political spectrum of ideologies, you’d understand that at the turn of the [20th] century, American Communists renamed themselves as progressives," West said. "If you study the Woodrow Wilson administration, people referred to the Woodrow Wilson administration as a progressive administration."
Mr. West, the folks at Mother Jones did take the time to study Wilson and his times. And they found that Wilson had not only thrown communists and socialists in prison, he also sent American soldiers to support Czarist forces against Bolshevik revolutionaries during the Russian civil war!
These preposterous assertions forced an embarrassed (Martin County, Florida) NAACP to cancel Tuesday's Freedom Fund Banquet in which West was suppose to be the keynote speaker (The Freedom Fund Banquet was re-scheduled for Sept. 15 with a new, to be determined, keynote speaker).
Now, comes more preposterous assertions.
On Friday, Fox News host Bill O'Reilly and Fox Business host Lou Dobbs turned their fanatical defense of the 1% against former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, who had the audacity to say ( during Wednesday's The Daily Show) that we can't expect big multi-national corporations to invest in things like education, research and development and infrastructure, so the government has to do it.
Reich "is a communist" who "secretly adores Karl Marx," O'Reilly flatly declared on his show Friday. Dobbs, sucking up to the big man, agreed that Reich is a "communist-slash-socialist. (He's) confused."
It is O'Reilly and Dobbs, of course, who are deeply confused.
Mr. Reich himself will join Ed Schultz tonight on The Ed Show at 8pET on MSNBC to refute O'Reilly-Dobbs' ludicrous claims.
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It has been said that the GOP wants to repeal the 20th century. I think this largely proves it. Did these guys not get the memo that the only communist countries left in the world today are a) isolated and inconsequential (N. Korea & Cuba) or U.S. "allies!" (China) To quote Bugs Bunny "What a maroon!"
These people are fear mongers and should be ignored for the ignoramuses they are..anything to defeat Obama..just makes our resolve to reelect Obama stronger..
If caring about my fellow citizens, hoping for a better future for my grandchildren and wishing only the best for the next generation for this country is Communisum, then I guess I'm leaning Communistic also. I am so tired of the right wing slandering good people who's only thought is for the betterment of this country and not the back pocket of the rich. You would think that Bill O'Reily would know better than to start this line, after all he is old enough to have learned in school that statements like this can only cause more division. Or maybe that is his and FOX's aim!
This is insanity on steroids. The Republican party are so out of control they have to have Riley and Dobs spread there Communists propaganda. Millions of people died and they are making fool hearty talk about it. They have No moral Compass and If a Russian Is hearing them talk they have to think they are crazy !!!! This is disgusting and needs to STOP!!!!! You want Communists, go to North Korea, China, Cuba and any other country who have NO FREEDOM !!!!
Those who scream the loudness are the will ones who are the real Communists like West, O'Reilly and Dobbs and etc.
so that must put Ed Schultz as Stalin and MSNBC as The Kremlin..it all fits in...idiot fear conspiracies. That is all Schultz and MSNBC know. this must be the weekly WAR on anyone who disagrees with the left's Philosophies
And you watch THIS crap?
Fox News' Steve Doocy Draws Criticism For Misquoting Obama 'Silver Spoon' Remark
Posted: 04/23/2012 4:02 pm Updated: 04/24/2012 12:56 am
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Video, Steve Doocy, Steve Doocy Misquoted Obama, Steve Doocy Obama, Steve Doocy Obama Quote, Steve Doocy Romney, Media News
Fox News' Steve Doocy is drawing increasing criticism for misquoting President Obama in a recent interview with Mitt Romney.
On Thursday, Doocy presented Obama's remark about not being born with a silver spoon in his mouth as an attack on Romney. The Fox News host asked Romney to respond to Obama allegedly saying: "Unlike some people, I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth." In reality, the president had said, "Somebody gave me an education. I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth."
The Washington Post, along with numerous other outlets, picked the story up, using the false quote and later correcting it. On Monday, the Post's Erik Wemple hit out at Doocy for the error.
He recommended that Doocy "[retract] the smirk that accompanies his false question."
He also took aim at Fox News, alleging that Doocy's remark was in line with the network's agenda. "Whatever your suspicions on the president’s motives, there was no mistaking the suspicions of Fox News," he wrote.
Doocy is expected to clarify the remark on Tuesday's "Fox and Friends," according to a network spokesperson.
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Bill I'd like to know just which things that have been said are baseless fear mongering? The GOP wants to make it harder for women to receive equal pay and they wish to take reproductive rights. No one forced to pass all these state not medically mandated procedures before an abortion. So that all actually happend.
"fox and friends first" is another great example of how fox news exploits their female "reporters".
I wonder if all these people realize it is not illegal to be a communist. If folks want to be communists or advocate for communism that's there right.
What about the facist traits of the GOP? If you look at their modus opperandi they share many things in common
the right has lost their moral compass and their voters are being bambozzled the only interests their concerned with are big oil,the 1%and large corps the rest are just lambs to them..sad very sad.
O'Reilly, Dobbs and West have no conception of what Communism is! As far as they are concerned, government has one, and only one, function - to support the military... Anything else is branded Progressive/Socialist/Communist... Teachers, cops, firefighters, social workers are all Communists eating out of the Public Trough paid for by Their Tax Dollars... Schools, hospitals, police forces should all be Privatised so the Rich Men who control them can make bigger profits off the American slave class...
Before they start branding everyone as Communists, they should find out what Fascism is...
http://davidmjohnston.newsvine.com/_news/2012/02/13/10393841-14-defining-characteristics-of-fascism
great article David.
union labor has a postcard with "early warning signs of FASCISM". i keep it on my bulletin board above my computer desk.
powerful and continuing nationalism
disdain for human rights
identification of enemies as a unifying cause
supremacy of the military
rampant sexism
controlled mass media
obsession with national security
RELIGION AND GOV'T INTERTWINED
CORPORATE POWER PROTECTED
LABOR POWER SUPPRESSED
disdain for intellectuals and the arts
obsession with crime and punishment
rampant cronyism and corruption
FRAUDULENT ELECTIONS
how can repubs read this and not see themselves?
these are the very things they deny about their party, but the rest of us see so clearly.
Suzette...
It sounds like your labor union leader read the same article I did... I just elaborated more on it... Then again, I wasn't worried about fitting it on a postcard...
The Democrats should demand that the Republican leadershipp should have West up before the body of Congress and put names too these people he thinnks are commies. Shouldn't the voters have the right to know we are voting for Communist. If he can't prove his claims then he should be expelled from Congress.
I used to think Lou Dobbs was a halfway decent guy. (some years ago) What happened? O'reilly always was a nutcase. Robert Reich is correct in his position. Corporations have no regard for anything except to increase their bottom line. They will do whatever they can do legally or what they can get away with illegally to that end. Corporations have no concern for the greater good or vision for the well being of the country. There must be a higher authority in the form of law to keep them reigned in.
Allen West lives in the bottom of a slime bucket and he crawls up once in awhile to spew that slime on good people so he can feel better about himself. Fox's water cooler must have some mind deteriorating drug in it, because they all get more insane everyday.
MJB--Allen West fell off the last watermelon truck to leave Russia back when there were watermelons. How in the heck did this Congressman get from the US Army, Turn crazy, than lie to everyone he knows to elect him to congress so he can do his agenda, Chief Communist on the republican side of the aisle. Bill O'Reilly is his buddy. You know what a buddy is??? Two of the biggest Racist in the news. (Not Fox). They are both CLOWNS.
He was crazy when he was IN the Army. That's why they kicked him out. I don't know how crazy he was before the Army, but I'm betting it didn't start there!
Allen West has probably been wacky tacky in the skull for some time. As I understand it he released from military service after some incident in Iraq where he was he was interragating someone and shot a gun in his ear or something like that.....basically completely losing his temper and going way over the top. This is the same behavior that he seems to exhibit in congress. Remember when Debbie Wasserman-Schultz said she found in unbelievable he would vote to kill medicare as a florida congressperson(fl is the promised land for elderly retirees) and he had that ridiculous. West called her whole myriad of different things including "not a lady" and "coward" and other things for this. So really when you shoot back with that much venom because someone says they diapproved of your vote, especially in our political process, that's something.
He also said something in his campaign about religious tolerance being antithetical to american values. Go on youtube.com and search "coexist bumper sticker rant".
He is cookoo for cocoa puffs for sure
If democrats are communists then republicans are WHITE SUPREMISTS. How would they like being called that?
They just posted my tweet on the show.
Finally someone out there sees the connections between some of the GOP's rhetoric and the white nationalist movement
they need to prove that as helter skelter believer glenn beck said that the half white president has a virulent hatred for white people thus because he is president, because he is in a place of power that this means whites are oppressed. Fox news seems to enjoy this narrative since they know they will not get anyone who isn't already a racial animosity believer to think that...this will not help their side in any real way
the constant need to find a new black panther to everything....people with half a brain are not surprised that self professed racists say racist things or their fictional obama is one of them and gives them special breaks....never let context and reality get in the way of a good story
white nationalist peter bremilow speaks at CPAC...I don't think I have to elaborate on that
why do so many not see these connections
as a general rule, 47, we don't hear the name calling from democrats as we do from the repubs.
democrats are inclusive, they want to include everyone in the democratic party. it is the repubs who think like white supremacist's, excluding gays, women and minorities. repubs do have token gays, women and minoirities in their party, but as a general rule, these are people who know their place, and stay there out of respect for the republican white man.
Cynical, I really don't think that they are able to understand it on a multitude of levels. They like things simple, easy to understand. They don't think beyond the repeated rhetoric they are fed on a daily basis at Fox. They are not self reflective. It's why they can't apologize for anything.
Suzette, I totally agree about the name calling. It's childish. And destructive. A few months ago I was at a local place helping with a registration drive. We had a picture of president Obama on the side of the table. A car drove by us and someone yelled out, "COMMIES!" And I live in Massachusetts! It was a first for me. I also know that we are the inclusive party. I was a prekindergarten teacher for many years before retiring, and the most beautiful part of my job was that we were in an area that housed many different cultures of people. I had Korean, Chinese, Indian, Pakistanis, Japanese, and more children in my classes. It's truly an age where you can see that children are children no matter what their culture and no matter where they were born. Some didn't speak English, but learned the language quickly to interact with the Caucasian children. I wish I could teach some of these people that we all bleed the same color.
As I'm typing this, an Elizabeth Warren commercial came on! I've caucused for her, too!
America is going crazy and our enemies are laughing as we go backwards....and they sit back and watch the crazy show....
allen west? just like the rest of the extreme right wing, is of no consequence in the greater scheme of American politics. Just children seeking attention.
These Clowns are Unbelievable, they must have a huge wheel like Wheel of Fortune with different categories on it that they choose from! VOTE DEM ALL THE WAY 2012!!