After she finished screeching her red-meat propaganda to red-state rednecks at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday, Sarah Palin left the stage with a “Big Gulp” soft drink held high the way the Statue of Liberty holds her torch. It was the former Alaska Governor’s way of mocking Mayor ...
Open Mike
Blogger Profile: Joe Lapointe
Joe Lapointe has worked as a sports reporter with the New York Times and a segment producer for "Countdown With Keith Olbermann'' on Current TV
Joe Lapointe's Blogs
Cynicism and Sarcasm: Rating the Jeb Bush’s New Immigration Plan
Gaw-lee, Sgt. Carter, it seems like everyone’s got their britches twisted over former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and his latest immigration scheme. Shoot, ol’ Butch is smarter by half that Gee-Dubya and Gee-Dubya got to be President. Don’t you reckon Jeb’s gonna do him one better in 2016 by laying ...
Hannity Beatdown by Keith Ellison
Right-wing propagandist Sean Hannity often boasts that he grew up on Long Island but turned against his home hockey team, the Islanders. Instead, Hannity brags, he was a sports traitor who cheered for the Philadelphia Flyers in their “Broad Street Bullies” era. Back then, the Flyers were a hockey sub-culture ...
Hannity, Fox and the Crackpots: Now You See 'Em, Now You Don’t
The best way to watch Fox News – and Sean Hannity in particular – is to pay attention not to what they cover but to what they don’t cover. Consider, for instance, the stormy reception Republican Senator John McCain got this week during a “Town Hall” meeting with his voters ...
America's Gun Crackpots: Our Homegrown Al Qaeda?
We keep hearing that Wayne LaPierre, the fire-breathing mouthpiece for the National Rifle Association, is far more radical than most members of the N.R.A. and that most of them would support common-sense gun safety measures if they could. Really? How many have stepped up to challenge LaPierre? What are they ...
A Tipping Point Moment Against Guns
The truth-twisters of the right wing are already pushing back against the “anti-gun hysteria” that has followed the school massacre of 20 children and six educators last week in Connecticut. The Gun Guys are clever and subtly deceitful. The only “hysteria” evident is from the grief of the parents and ...
Guns Make an Ideal Christmas Gift
Still stumped about the perfect Christmas gift for that special someone in your life? Buy them a gun! The synergy of the idea became obvious Tuesday after the mass shooting in a shopping mall near Portland, Oregon, at the height of the holiday shopping season. If everyone in that mall ...
In Michigan, Obama Should Back Workers Against Sneak Attack
The sinister nature of the Republican Party was self-exposed again on Thursday in Michigan when Governor Rick Snyder and his right-wing allies pulled a dirty, sneaky trick against labor unions. Without committee hearings, without public discussion, without any fair warning, the lame-duck session of the Legislature rammed through in one ...
Monday Morning QB: Ndamukong's Bad Karma And Denard's Benching
For the second consecutive Thanksgiving, Ndamukong Suh of the Detroit Lions put the foot back in football while the sports world watched on national TV. This time Suh’s cleats clipped Houston quarterback Matt Schaub in the groin. Two days later, with a chance to salvage the national football image of ...
The Answer Is Blowing In The Wind
Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, famously bloviated two years ago “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.” Senator, now that you have failed miserably, what is your main goal for Mr. Obama’s second term? Could it switch to ...
The Price of a Different Kind of Gas
Sean Hannity is the right wing’s most annoying propagandist because he constantly repeats simplistic distortions of fact, when he isn’t just plain lying. One example is the price of gasoline. On syndicated radio and Fox News Channel, Hannity chants a daily mantra that “gasoline prices have doubled under (President Barack) ...
Let’s Shake Up the Presidential Debates
If the Major League Baseball playoffs can expand again, why not the same with the coming Presidential debates? It’s fine to have President Barack Obama debate Republican opponent Mitt Romney and for Vice-President Joe Biden to debate Republican opponent Paul Ryan. But why not add one more round in two brackets? Have ...
George W. Bush Did NOT Keep Us Safe
Like the assassination of President Kennedy, the 9-11 attack on the Twin Towers of New York’s World Trade Center will forever hold a sense of horror for those alive at the time of the crimes. As we again commemorate the memories of the victims of the 2001 terrorist attack this week, ...
It's wacky! It's zany! It's GOP-TV!
As might be expected, Comedy Central is best-suited to cover a television (sur)reality series like the Republican Convention, which aired this season’s final episode Thursday night. The Republicans tried to present Presidential candidate Mitt Romney in a script that could have been called “Ward Cleaver meets Dirty Harry.” It was ...
Fox News Channel and right-wing radio have formed a formidable propaganda factory to influence and intimidate the Republican Party, right wingers and conservatives. But the cracks in their coalition became evident this week when talk-show host Mark Levin attacked Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida.One immediate issue was the ...
Why don't Presidential candidates debate guns?
Earlier this week, while walking through Midtown Manhattan on the way to the theatre, I came across a cluster of New York police officers in heavy blue clothing on a hot day. They stood in the shadows of a building entrance, as inconspicuous as they could be while wearing helmets with ...
One of Homer Simpson's best lines came in an episode with Paul McCartney as the guest star."Rock stars," Homer said, awe in his voice. "Is there anything they don't know?"The joke was on those of us who too seriously cherish the opinions of people who sing and play instruments.The problem ...
Paul Ryan's scheme to attack Medicare is clever and insidious.Ryan, the Republican candidate for vice-president on Mitt Romney's ticket, tries to lure older voters by telling them that nothing will change about Medicare for those 55 years old or older. He did it again Saturday in Florida, double-talking senior citizens ...
Olympics: Now you see them, now you don’t
After treating its captive Olympic audience shabbily for more than two weeks, NBC saved its final sucker punch for the last hour Sunday night during its tape-delayed closing ceremonies. Instead of showing the festivities continuously from start to finish, NBC pulled a classic-bait-and switch with its audience – at ...
Better than Palin, but Ryan has major flaws
Perhaps Mitt Romney did not speak another “gaffe” Saturday when he introduced Paul Ryan as “the next President of the United States.” Maybe the Romney-Ryan Republican ticket will lose to President Obama and Vice-President Joe Biden in November. That might make Ryan a favorite choice for the Republican Presidential nomination in ...
Gov. Christie: Is it OK to talk about gun massacres now?
With crass cynicism last month, Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey led a chorus of belligerent, right-wing politicians in a particularly unsavory bleat. Christie and his conservative colleagues attacked progressive and liberal elected leaders for suggesting regulation of guns and ammunition This was right after 12 people died and dozens ...
The Romney Slogan: 'Kiss My A**!'
The best slogan ever in American politics was “I Like Ike.” You didn’t have to support Republican Dwight Eisenhower for President in 1952 and 1956 to acknowledge that “I Like Ike” offered rhyme, simplicity and a direct message in three, simple, one-syllable words. They fit neatly on a sign or ...
Paterno and the Larger Cover-Up
If Heaven and Hell are the real deal in the afterlife, as we were taught in Catholic school and church, where is Joe Paterno’s soul today? I ask this not in a mocking or facetious way. Like the late Penn State football coach, I am a “Latin Mass” Catholic. Although ...
About President Obama's Dramatic Statement
The impetus toward gay marriage – supported dramatically by President Obama Wednesday – is both conservative and Christian. It also could be a brilliant re-election strategy that hoists conservatives with their own petards by using a "culture war" wedge issue against them. Let's not be sarcastic or flippant here. Married ...
One of my first Ted Nugent experiences came at Detroit’s Eastown Theater more than 40 years ago when his concert encore assaulted the hearing of his rock audience. Instead of playing his guitar, Nugent placed it on a chair near the amplifiers and turned everything up so that feedback shrieked ...
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Open Mike
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March 19th, 2013
After she finished screeching her red-meat propaganda to red-state rednecks at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday, Sarah Palin left the stage with a ...
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March 5th, 2013
Cynicism and Sarcasm: Rating the Jeb Bush’s New Immigration Plan
Gaw-lee, Sgt. Carter, it seems like everyone’s got their britches twisted over former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and his latest immigration scheme. Shoot, ol’ Butch ...
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February 28th, 2013
Hannity Beatdown by Keith Ellison
Right-wing propagandist Sean Hannity often boasts that he grew up on Long Island but turned against his home hockey team, the Islanders. Instead, Hannity brags, ...
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February 23rd, 2013
Hannity, Fox and the Crackpots: Now You See 'Em, Now You Don’t
The best way to watch Fox News – and Sean Hannity in particular – is to pay attention not to what they cover but to ...
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January 18th, 2013
America's Gun Crackpots: Our Homegrown Al Qaeda?
We keep hearing that Wayne LaPierre, the fire-breathing mouthpiece for the National Rifle Association, is far more radical than most members of the N.R.A. and ...
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December 17th, 2012
A Tipping Point Moment Against Guns
The truth-twisters of the right wing are already pushing back against the “anti-gun hysteria” that has followed the school massacre of 20 children and six ...
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December 11th, 2012
Guns Make an Ideal Christmas Gift
Still stumped about the perfect Christmas gift for that special someone in your life? Buy them a gun! The synergy of the idea became obvious ...
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February 23rd, 2013
Hannity, Fox and the Crackpots: Now You See 'Em, Now You Don’t
The best way to watch Fox News – and Sean Hannity in particular – is to pay attention not to what they cover but to ...
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August 1st, 2012
The Romney Slogan: 'Kiss My A**!'
The best slogan ever in American politics was “I Like Ike.” You didn’t have to support Republican Dwight Eisenhower for President in 1952 and 1956 ...
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September 25th, 2012
Let’s Shake Up the Presidential Debates
If the Major League Baseball playoffs can expand again, why not the same with the coming Presidential debates? It’s fine to have President Barack Obama debate ...
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January 18th, 2013
America's Gun Crackpots: Our Homegrown Al Qaeda?
We keep hearing that Wayne LaPierre, the fire-breathing mouthpiece for the National Rifle Association, is far more radical than most members of the N.R.A. and ...
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December 8th, 2012
In Michigan, Obama Should Back Workers Against Sneak Attack
The sinister nature of the Republican Party was self-exposed again on Thursday in Michigan when Governor Rick Snyder and his right-wing allies pulled a dirty, ...
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August 31st, 2012
It's wacky! It's zany! It's GOP-TV!
As might be expected, Comedy Central is best-suited to cover a television (sur)reality series like the Republican Convention, which aired this season’s final episode Thursday ...
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March 27th, 2012
What Is Heartless and Who Has a Heart?
The hard-hearted mindset of the right wing comes through both in deeds done and words spoken. The latter was obvious again Monday night on Fox ...
