These guys pride themselves on being the vanguards of tolerance and understanding. They have been awarded by no less than GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) for their positive and outstanding representations of gays and lesbians in the media. They have been in the forefront of breaking down stereotypes and educating Americans on the dangers of intolerance against groups who don’t fit into the cookie-cutter molds that society would force them into.

So imagine my surprise when they did exactly the opposite to conservative Tea Party activists:

—–

Kathy Griffin, (herself a GLAAD “Vanguard” award winner for her outstanding contribution to the depiction of gays and lesbians in the media), played a “Tea Party Candidate” who was judging a glee club competition. Dressed all in red and with Palin-esque glasses, her character bursts onto the scene by proclaiming “I am not a witch!” [Insert pause for laughter here].

It’s more than just disappointing, it’s intolerance and bigotry in the name of tolerance and understanding.

The initial reviews of this episode are pretty lousy, even from the show’s fans. And they all seem to single out the Kathy Griffin character as a “dud”. But, none of them understand the real reason why her character was a dud. I’ll explain it for them: Because it was a two-dimensional depiction of a conservative that was not based in any kind of reality or truth. The character was a cartoon image of a “Tea Partier” drawn by a group of writers who probably have never had a real conversation with one of us.

So in this episode of ‘Glee’ the writers have pretty much come full circle in their bigotry and intolerance. They did to us exactly what they feel has been done to gay people on television for years: provided a false and stereotypical character meant to convey a negative image and message to the viewer. There’s a word for that: Defamation (for those of you paying attention, Defamation is what the “D” in GLAAD stands for).

Series creator Ryan Murphy has allowed his franchise to get sloppy and careless. In their desire to promote positive images of gay people, they have fallen back to the lazy and mean-spirited trick of painting the perceived “enemies” of gays in the same way they would hate to be portrayed, as caricatures of themselves.

Look at Mr. Murphy’s speech when accepting the GLAAD Award for Outstanding Comedy:

“(This show) is about education, it is about inclusion and we are using this show, I think, in a great way.”

He then goes on to describe all of the positive and heroic depictions they are planning for the gay teen character on their show. Which is worthy of applause and recognition. The problem is the writers have not figured out a way to promote positive images for their gay characters without showing insulting and false images of conservatives at the same time.

These guys can’t have it both ways. They can’t decry the depiction of gay characters on television while at the same time forcing a false image of conservatives into the homes of Americans every week. Where is the sympathetic religious character? Where is the honest portrayal of a Tea Party member? Where is the honest depiction of someone who respects and loves a gay friend or child, yet also wants to maintain the traditional definition of marriage?

I have a better question: Where is the conservative writer in the room who voices his opinion when he sees the direction the script is going? I’ll give you the answer: They don’t have one. And that, my friends, is the problem.

If ‘Glee’ really wants to be cutting edge and really wants to be inclusive, they’ll hire a conservative writer to help flesh out some of the characters the current staff seems to have trouble with.

What’s that Mr. Murphy? You don’t know any conservative writers? Hmm… Maybe that’s the problem. You sir, need to be a little more open minded.

—–

I’m about to celebrate a very important birthday myself, Matt. On November 13th, I turn 41 ! I know, I can’t believe it either.

If there’s something you want to give me for my birthday that’s going to really cheer me up, please tell the recently departing Working Families Party co-chair Bertha Lewis to stop referring to constitutional conservatism as “McCarthyism”. And while you’re at it, could you please ask your friend, President Obama not to call American citizens “enemies” simply for not belonging to his political party?

I think maybe it’s time to step away from Soroswood and start paying attention to the real world.

Perhaps we need to remind folks about the Working Families Party.

Originally founded by ACORN, the United Auto Workers (UAW), and the Communication Workers of America (CWA), the Working Families Party serves as a coalition of organizers and activists for what it claims are social and economic justice causes. In states where it is legally permitted, WFP also sponsors candidates via what’s called “fusion voting“. Instead of splitting the vote with a third-party, fusion voting allows groups to endorse a candidate under a different banner.

So, in reality, WFP enables their coalition’s endorsed candidates to get listed on the ballot – twice. I’m sure that’s not intentionally misleading for voters at all (eye roll).

While WFP lobbies for a “free public education for all”, its interests are really focused more on those of the militant labor unions with which they are allied, not the genuine interests of working families. Simply watch the documentary, “The Lottery,” and you’ll see members of the Working Families Party at their finest. As successful charter schools are lifting minorities and low-income families up to a whole new educational level that never would have existed through “free public school” in their communities otherwise, WFP and its union allies like the United Federation of Teachers instead shout them down and threaten them. WFP’s allies of course vehemently oppose both private and public charter schools, because those facilities don’t submit to the commands of labor unions. The charter school featured in the film is of course focused on the well-being of the children, not of the labor unions. Union bosses don’t take well to that.

Former Working Families Party co-chair and NY state co-chair Bertha Lewis was also once the CEO and Chief Organizer of the mighty ACORN, before it disbanded from its national brand name to a multitude of local and statewide affiliates under different names (thanks to those infamous prostitution tapes).

Ms. Lewis departed from the WFP organization in February this year, in the wake of the federal investigation of its for-profit company, Data and Field Services over claims it was using their company to skirt around the city’s stringent campaign finance laws. In the end, the feds decided not to file any charges against WFP; however, the investigation resulted in the organization’s restructuring to create firewalls between the for-profit company from the rest of WFP.

Let’s also not forget the sordid story behind real estate mogul Bruce Ratner of Forest City Ratner. The infamous Atlantic Yards project in NY is a multi-year long story of buyoffs, intimidation and corruption, not to mention the audacity of a massive land grab. Bertha Lewis and the WFP, initially opposed to the land grab because of their concerns about the “gentrification” of Brooklyn, quickly turncoated on their Brooklyn neighbors as soon as Ratner offered Lewis a $1.5 million bailout and a 50/50 deal on housing in his future high-end condos. (The Atlantic Yards Report is the go-to source on this never-ending saga).

Also a notable personality associated with the Working Families party you may recognize – White House Political Director Patrick Gaspard. While the liberal media once did all it could to deny that Gaspard ever had any relation whatsoever to the corrupt WFP or ACORN, the truth is, the evidence says otherwise.

Harassment, intimidation, corruption, race baiting, union pandering, back-room deals. That’s progressive, all right.

And so, Matt Damon, as we remember one of the voices of the Working Families Party, I leave you with this final word. Brought to you by none other than Client Number Nine.

“Progressive values. That’s what the Working Families Party is all about: Progressive values.”

Yeah, Matt. Let’s keep that change alive.

Here’s the deeply offensive picture:

I know. Sickens you, doesn’t it? Of course PETA, weighed in:

Kim Kardashian isn’t the only person who mistakenly thinks that because a mother cat picks up her kittens by the scruff of the neck that a supportive hand under the rump isn’t needed.

Right. However, the other animal group, SPCA says the hold is pretty much fine – and that’s where I get all my advice when I potty-trained Bill.

But then they add, “the manner in which Ms. Kardashian is holding the kitten could lead others to mishandle animals.”

Which makes no sense. If the way she’s holding the furball is fine, how could it cause others to hurt other cats? Weird. It’s like the media’s take on the tea parties. Sure, their protests are peaceful, but it could lead others to extremist violence!

Hopefully not against kittens.

Anyway, this little tale shows you how much animal rights activists really know about animals. It’s slightly less than their knowledge about humanity, which is nil. Fact is, they got into animal rights because people can’t stand them. So they find comfort in this activism, thinking they’re doing something for animals, when they’re just doing something for their egos.

In fact, Kim’s kitten clutch is the natural, correct way to hold a kitten. Sorry PETA: Mommy cats can’t cradle the kitten’s bottom in its “supportive hand.” Because it doesn’t have a hand. It has paws. Hence they carry the kitten by the teeth – which is also how Andy Levy transports Pixel and Stormy when he’s moving apartments.

And if you disagree with me, you’re a racist homophobe who heckles during sex.
Tonight we’ve got comedian Jim Florentine, gossip maven Tara Palmeri, and FBN’s Sandra Smith!

Plus, other stuff.

and…i’ll be on Hannity later tonight!

The idea came to me when I attended the rally against the health insurance bill in March in Washington, DC. I did not see any of the racism or homophobia later alleged by the left, but I did sense a lot of frustration that needed some kind of positive expression.

Every great protest movement has had a musical accompaniment. The civil rights movement, for example, had gospel and folk. Rock-and-roll was the soundtrack to the anti-war movement in the U.S. and the anti-communist underground in Eastern Europe.

It struck me that day, standing on the lawn of the Capitol, that the Tea Party might be more effective if it had a song–not an official anthem, but a singable ballad that could convey the spirit of the Tea Party and what it stood for in a fun, humorous way.

A few days later, I began to tinker on my cheap acoustic guitar. I revived a little melody I had started writing as an undergraduate at Harvard. I had composed it at a time when I was exploring both the Boston folk scene, and my disenchantment with the left. It went:

Well, our mothers and fathers protested the war
But there ain’t no more fighting that we’re drafted for…

I never got much further than that. The debate among fellow lefties on campus at the time was about whether, and why, our generation of students was less politicized than our parents’ generation. Rather boring, and rather thin material to write a song around.

Now, the melody came back to me with sudden urgency, and the words came almost as quickly. I decided to tell the story of the original Tea Party, leaving contemporary politics to the end, so that the song might have broader appeal and relevance beyond Tax Day.

Last, I had to write a catchy chorus–and to practice. Playing live music is always hard, but it’s also huge risk to take as a political candidate. I warmed up on the bus on the way down to the rally, teaching the song to everyone on board. They dug it.

At the rally, when it was my turn to speak, I introduced the song: “This is not a country song–it’s more of a backwards country song. You know what happens when you play a country song backwards? You get your wife back, you get your job back, you get your house back… You know, I think you could run on that platform and win!”

And with that, I was strumming. It went just as I had practiced, with a few minor slips. The crowd sang along at the chorus, and everyone seemed to have a good time.

A friend came up to me afterward and said, “You took the negativity right out of this thing.” And that, basically, was the goal–to put the party in the Tea Party. The issues America faces today are serious, but we shouldn’t let our frustrations overwhelm us. There’s nothing wrong with America that can’t be fixed by what’s right in America.

So Bill Clinton had an op-ed in the New York Times yesterday in which he used the anniversary of the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah building Oklahoma City as a platform to make a political, rather than a compassionate, point. It took him a while to get there, but there it was, the very last line of his carefully articulated piece:

Fifteen years ago, the line was crossed in Oklahoma City. In the current climate, with so many threats against the president, members of Congress and other public servants, we owe it to the victims of Oklahoma City, and those who survived and responded so bravely, not to cross it again.

Now, there’s a lot wrong with that quote–but let’s start with who this message is for. He says, “we owe it to victims,” not to cross this line again. We? It’s as if he’s asking all of us not to blow up buildings. Generally, people who would agree to that weren’t planning on it anyway.

And later when he mentions “contentious” and “partisan” types, it only makes me think of… Clinton. When his face wasn’t red with embarrassment, it was red with anger. And sometimes, ketchup.

But more important, is the whole “current climate” thing. Fact is, this time is no more violent than any time before, and most likely less. Look at the vast tea parties from last week. I’ve seen scarier office picnics.

So when Captain Busyhands talks about the “vast echo chamber,” he’s really talking about people like him who constantly smear their intellectual adversaries as violent racists.

It’s happening so much, it’s starting to make me really, really angry!

Maybe that’s the point.

And if you disagree with me, you’re probably a racist homophobe who hates tofu.

Tonight we’ve got Pat Monahan from Train performing live! Also, the great comedian Joe DeRosa, and the delightfully delicious Diana Falzone!

***

After 14 months of committing 100% to health care reform, the day after the signing of the Health Care bill was to mark the Democratic Party’s new primary concern: destroy the uprising, annihilate by all means necessary, the Tea Party movement.

The first sign that a plan was in place was the ham-fisted, high-camp posturing of the most controversial members of the Democratic caucus walking through the peaceful but animated “Tea Party” demonstrators on Capitol Hill. There is no reason for these elected officials to walk above ground through the media circus amid their ideological foes. The natural route is the tunnels between the House office buildings and the Capitol. By crafting a highly symbolic walk of the Congressional Black Caucus through the majority white crowd, the Democratic Party was looking to provoke a negative reaction. They didn’t get it. So they made it up.

The proof that the N-word wasn’t said once, let alone 15 times, as Rep. Andre Carson claimed, is that soon thereafter — even though the press dutifully reported it as truth — Nancy Pelosi followed the alleged hate fest, which allegedly included someone spitting, by walking through the crowd with a gavel in hand and a shit-eating grin on her face. Had the incidents reported by the Congressional Black Caucus actually occurred the Capitol Police would have been negligent to allow the least popular person to that crowd – the Speaker – to put herself in harm’s way.

That crowd was a sea of new-media equipment. Not only were tens of thousands people armed with handicams, BlackBerrys and iPods, so also was the mainstream media there, covering every inch of the event. Why did not one mainstream media outlet raise the specter that perhaps a video would exist to prove the events occurred? I am still dealing with the same press telling me we didn’t prove that ACORN was aiding and abetting criminal activity because we “did not provide enough audio and video evidence.” (Insert laugh track.) Is there not a blatant double standard at play here? Nancy Pelosi tipped her hand that race was a central part of her strategy. She invoked the Civil Rights Act and compared it with the universally reviled health care bill. Her caucus is doubling down on the civil-rights rhetoric. There are no coincidences.

Linking the health-care bill, which has nothing to do with black and white, to the divisive civil-rights period, while simultaneously accusing its opponents of being racist, is an evil strategy — literally. Charles Manson would approve.

The Democratic Party is trying to signal to the black community and to progressive media types that the way to push back against the Tea Party and Republicans is to use the reliable race card by provoking a racial incident. The ensuing rhetoric about the bill and about the nature of the Tea Party is based upon repeated talking points. Propaganda. Everyone is on message that Republicans and Tea Partiers are racist — a divisive and dangerous argument, so lacking in any shred of evidence save for the fact that the majority in the Tea Party, as in America itself, is white. This is Duke lacrosse politics at its worst.

Those in the movement who are Hispanic or black are given the Clarence Thomas treatment: mocked, ridiculed and marginalized. The Democratic party cannot afford for minority groups to break from the pack, so they show that apostasy is met with high-grade ridicule. Those willing to withstand vile and hateful un-American taunts are some of America’s greatest patriots.

The press went straight to petrified Republican leaders like John Boehner and Michael Steele over the falsified “N-word” allegations, who dutifully offered apologies that they were not qualified to give. It was a set-up.

I smelled a rat so I offered at first $10k five days after the highly publicized alleged incidents happened. How could we be five full news cycles into this major controversy and not have any evidence? In fact, the existing footage showed the Congressional Black Caucus walking and never once moving their heads toward any “racist outbursts.” Is it conceivable that all of them stoically walked by the N-word as it was hurled 15 times — as they were holding up cameras to convey they were suspicious of the crowd to begin with?

We are now two weeks since the bill was signed and the $10k reward jumped to $20k in a day after it was mentioned on both Hannity and O’Reilly. At the Searchlight Tea Party event last weekend I upped the ante to $100k. So where’s the evidence? Ken Vogel of Politico covered this story and said calls to Rep. John Lewis — one of the originator’s of the N-word storyline – were never returned.

Nancy Pelosi did a great disservice to a great civil rights icon by thrusting him out there to perform this mischievous task. His reputation is now on the line as a result of her desperation to take down the Tea Party movement.

We’ve called their bluff. And they have tried to back off. They realize that this race warfare can backfire, just as it did with the railroaded Duke lacrosse players, as it did with professor Madonna Constantine and her faked noose incident at Columbia and the Sergeant Crowley boner by Barack Obama who stupidly said the white police officer had behaved “stupidly” in handcuffing Skip Gates.

The first Alinsky president is now using surrogates to split this nation into two hostile parties so he can puppeteer the have-nots against the perceived haves. The non-response to my $100k challenge is a tacit acknowledgement that the Congressional Black Caucus and Barack Obama don’t have the stomach for doubling down.

The other part of the strategy that is built into the N-Word Capitol Hill Walk is the strategy to incite. The media is doing their job for them by speaking of an unhinged white Tea Party mob. Absent any evidence other than creatively selected hand-crafted signs from the fringe of the audience that are presented to represent the whole, the media is simply repeating assumptions that Democrats and media elites have against fly-over types. What we have here is hardcore media elitism mixed with politically correct class warfare.

The Searchlight Nevada Tea Party is the Rosetta Stone of the Democratic Party strategy. Tea Party protesters were not going to Sen. Harry Reid’s office building to threaten individuals, Democratic-style: “No Justice, No Peace!” They went to the middle of nowhere, a place akin to the moon landing site, to talk up the constitution, the founding documents and to express their dismay with the current political class. The real astroturf, the bought-and-paid-for, union-thug support network that does the heavy lifting and the bone breaking, traveled to Searchlight to incite a fight. Video captured by my film crew caught Harry-Reid-placard-holding, t-shirt-wearing appartchiks, not just misdirecting traffic down the wrong highway but also, when confronted over that hostile act, throwing a dozen eggs at the passing Tea Party Express bus.

The usual suspects of Democratic Party apologists, like John Podesta’s Media Matters, were quick to diminish the events. Eric Boehlert dubbed my report “the Phantom Egg,” calling into question my veracity. But on tape a day later we were able to prove that the Harry Reid supporters were not just the ones who’d misdirected traffic, they were also the ones who threw the eggs, just as they were also the ones who called the police to report that I was the egg thrower and the instigator. Classic Alinsky. Accuse those of the acts that you are doing. It usually works. But in this day and age of new media and hyper-media, the tape, or lack thereof, usually tells the tale.

The race baiting of the Tea Party crowd on the Capitol front was caught by calling the Democrats out — and they didn’t deliver the goods. The attempt to incite a reaction from the Nevada Tea Party was even worse. They were the violent ones, who traveled out of their way to provoke an incident — and when they didn’t get it, they blamed the victim.

IT’S ON TAPE. And the person lying on camera to the police is the field director of the Nevada Democratic Party.

Over at Media Matters, Podesta’s den of deceit, the phantom egg has turned into Breitbart mockery over easter eggs. Change the subject, misdirection, their side caught with their pants around their ankles, don’t look there media, there’s nothing to see here.

Alinsky.

The Democrats need to kill the Tea Party movement. They need to marginalize and demonize those who would stand up to their hardball, toxic and anti-democratic tactics. Their strategy is to bait and incite the Tea Party and to use whatever they can get to silence the awakening giant. They have failed, epically, and the American people now see these tactics for what they are. At long last, new people every day are beginning to understand the kinds of people we are dealing with here.

Will the media keep falling into the trap? Their business model continues to fail each and every time they are suckered – unless, of course, they are doing it on purpose. The Republican Party failed in its attempt to make good with the Tea Party when its leaders apologized for it. When will the GOP stop playing Charlie Brown to the media’s Lucy? The Democratic party has been exposed as trying to create a Kristallnacht to save the Obama presidency along the fault line of race and the essence of the First Amendment. If the GOP does not have the intestinal fortitude to fight back, a growing number of disenchanted and disenfrachised Tea Party participants will have to do it themselves.

Who is calling the shots here? Is it the White House, by way of Chicago? Or is it Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid? The press refused to tell you the truth about this president. It refused to tell you of his proud adherence to the teachings of the original Chicago “community organizer” Saul Alinsky. We have now entered the first full-fledged Alinsky presidency. The only way to beat Alinsky is with Alinsky. The Democrats and President Obama will not give up this tack. Do you think the GOP will win the day in November and in 2012 if its strategy is to apologize for every manufactured “right wing fringe” outrage?

With President Obama over the last week calling attention to the Tea Parties and their “heated” rhetoric, he has officially connected himself to the civil war his minions have flailingly attempted to inflame. The only good thing to come of this is that we can now officially put to rest the laughable notion that Obama was going to be the first post-racial president.

Today’s Los Angeles Times:

Andrew Breitbart, publisher of several influential conservative blogs including Big Hollywood, defends Ebert the new-media user while attacking Ebert the political thinker. Breitbart says that Ebert’s Twitter posts reveal a patronizing view of tea party adherents that serves as a “caricature of the liberal mind-set” and that the critic brims with “raw contempt for Middle America.”

What especially irked some conservatives was that Ebert used a nickname for tea party followers that has also long been slang for a sexual act. When Ebert tweeted that he was unaware of the term’s pornographic connotation, Big Hollywood countered that he had referred to such a context in past movie reviews.

But Breitbart adds that the current fracas ultimately proves how much power has tilted to new media and away from mainstream outlets such as newspapers, where Ebert has reviewed movies for more than 40 years.

“I am a proponent of Roger Ebert using Twitter to express his point of view,” Breitbart said. “It’s a testament to the new media. Where is he having a bigger impact, in the Twitterverse or doing his reviews of movies?”

Read the full piece here.