A Tea Party Media Operative and Performer Challenged Via Facts

Rick Santelli, open mouth yell the lies

One month after Barack Obama’s inauguration as the 44th President of the United States, Rick Santelli CBNC floor reporter on the Chicago Board of Trade, performed the Mother of conservative rants on the CBT trading floor. His performance was possibly the first visual manifestation of what was to come via the Koch brothers Americans for Prosperity tea party movement.

If you have never seen the rant, spend five minutes or skip through the performance. 

 I have read headlines with a moniker of “Rant of the Year (2009).”  

The New York Times published a piece the day after the Santeilli rant. The piece included conservative support for the rant and comment from people who earn a living via media scrutiny and posit about our financial markets.

The New York Times, February 20, 2009

Yesterday Rick Santelli, who reports from the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade the for CNBC, unleashed a rant against Obama’s newly announced housing bailout plan, intended to help some homeowners refinance mortgages and avoid foreclosure. The clip was quickly linked to and embedded in Web sites everywhere, and provoked intense reaction that pretty much broke along partisan lines.

Read more including the aforementioned comments

Santelli’s rant was an awfully well crafted display of emotion against Obama Administration plan to assist people who were victims of the Bush sub-prime crash and the 2008 collapse of the US economy. Crooks and Liars editors must also have felt Santelli’s 2009 rant was staged to provide impetus for the Koch tea party movement; linked here.

The well crafted visual,  replete with staged carnival barking, led to a movement that inspired high-end baby boomers to protest. Sales of the American flag surely quadrupled. Lawn chair sales sky-rocketed.  It is possible the mobile restroom company revenues went over the top to accommodate aging prostrates, bladders and urinary tracts.

Never before had America experienced protests from its high-end baby Boomers. It was a movement of movements for the early 21st Century and it was a major facade. “No Taxes” was the mantra; winning the US House and Senate was the underlying mission.

It was a movement that provided energy and inertia for conservative victories in the 2010 mid-term elections. The tea party capture and infestation of the US House of Representatives has become a major contributor to the current do nothing Congress, credit rating downgrades, government shutdowns and the (so-called) “Sequester.” President Obama referred to the 2010 tea party victory as a “shellacking” for the Democrats. It was an existential “shellacking” for the nation, we simply had no idea at the time.

Apparently, Santelli embarked on another rant this week. Santell’s target this week: Federal reserve policy. He was met head-on with a panel who placed credibility over rhetoric and performance.

Steve Liesman Destroys Rick Santelli 

A final question, because we need not comment beyond the video above.

Why do people on the Right (media in particular) to the person deploy wide-open mouth yelling and screaming when challenged or cornered? 

Chris Revisits On His Over-talking and Uncivil Right-Wing Guests. "Learn From Them?

Chris Hayes came back to the airways on Monday (April 21, 2014) and addressed a discussion that took place the previous Friday. During a segment on Friday the MSNBC show host took part in what as supposed to be a discussion of the Cliven Bundy tax evasion conflict: linked.  The Bundy conflict that has become a cause celeb for Fox News and many on the conservative Right.  In fact, Sean Hannity has gone complete revolutionary while touching his toes into sedition very much unbecoming of an alleged news network. 

If you viewed and listened to the linked segment, you should understand why many on the Left an Right took exception to the interaction, although from different perspectives.

Conservatives seem to find the Hayes show fertile ground for spewing mantra, and angst filled comment.  Their indecency and lack of civility seems to flow during some show segments. Some on the Left feel Hayes invites conservatives to his show, while ill-prepared when they “full-rant” and Gish Gallop*.

Chris Hayes’s Monday segment.  

http://video.msnbc.msn.com.…

  Key comment from Chris.

“I think people know where I stand on these issues…..”   

“…politics is about having those arguments….”   

“…actually learning by hearing what the other side has to say…”  

“…it is important to understand how they are thinking about….how they see the world”  

“…the point is not to bring them on an thoroughly humility them on national television…”  

“…I want to hear from them…” 

“…and I think I have a better understanding of American politics because of it…”  

 “…so we are gong to keep doing this…”  

“I think people know where I stand on these issues…..”	So, Chris are you saying it is your position to simply provide people like Stefano a platform?
“…politics is about having those arguments….”	Two of the three cited guests, Chris, did not argue a point, the guest Gish Galloped you to the point of smug-face sitting as a stifled show host. No arguments ensued
“…actually learning by hearing what the other side has to say…”	Learning what they have to say is admirable and humane, two points. First, they are not civil nor considerate in their treatment the show host (you). More important providing a seven minute segment is not sufficient to accomplish your stated goal of “learning.”
“…it is important to understand how they are thinking about….how they see the world”	Debatable actually. Why do so many conservatives refuse to appear on The Ed Show, TRMS, and The Last Word.  I have heard each host appeal for certain conservatives to appear on their shows. “NO TAKERS.”  Also, if they “know how you think,” Chris as you stated, then you actually also know how they think. So the booking is to fulfill the dynamics of the political television show. A vastly different dynamic than a lecture in which learning theoretical happens. Or, better yet a social gathering where length dialog ensues with no real mind-change in either party.

“…the point is not to  bring them on an  thoroughly  humility them  on national television…”	Yes, but there is such a thing as controlling the process as the show host via knowledge of techniques to stop “Gish Gallop.”
“…I want to hear from them…”	Of course, and it is your show Chris, but it is not a show in a vacuum. You have viewers. Viewers who may not come to your show to hear Fox News like rants and effective use of Gish Gallop.
“…and I think I have a better understanding of American politics because of it…”	……. and you have every right to get that “…better understanding of American politics” offered via the Stefano Clip above.  I suppose we viewers are just items spread across the nation with no vested interested in such guests.
“…so we are gong to keep doing this…”	Well, I will have to be much more mindful of your guest, to facilitate television remote unit options to flick off the guest.  I can see Right-wing angst via visiting Fox News. The fact that you revisited the Friday state legislator, indicates thought (by someone)  contrary to your statement about seeking leaning experiences from such people. Or, at least that is how it seemed to me.

Hayes offered two examples in the segment above. You may not have a need to view the following excerpts again, but the two examples (from Hayes) show very different host/Right-wing interaction.  

Clip 1. Stefano (paid Americans for Prosperity Anti-democrat, anti-progressive, anti-American democracy mouth-piece…armed to smother with Gish Gallup noise and a gotcha affront while occupying Hayes segment air-time.)

  

Clip 2. Wolfowitz (Iraq War architect)

Wolfowitz made his point and we can assume the segment passed to finish in a civility and between host and guest in a shared manner. The Stefano clip was a perfect example of a guest using a form of Gish Gallop to tie the interaction into a knot. A knot from which the host failed to break and return the segment to an intellectual exchange.  The abuser knows the segment will end just about the time,  her rant ends and she knows there is no opportunity to run the segment for a longer period. 

*Rational Wiki 

The Gish Gallop is the debating technique of drowning the opponent in such a torrent of small arguments that their opponent cannot possibly answer or address each one in real time. More often than not, these myriad arguments are full of half-truths, lies, and straw-man arguments – the only condition is that there be many of them, not that they be particularly compelling on their own. They may be escape hatches or “gotcha” arguments that are specifically designed to be brief, but take a long time to unravel. 

Make now mistake, liberal America needs more advocates like Chris Hayes, I watch his show on the daily, and often use video segments from his show as adjunct embeds to articles published on the TPI. 

Our, concern, which is not shared by Chris Hayes, relates to the uselessness of booking tea party (Koch operative) talking-heads machine gun mouths, if the segment ends with Chris sitting as if shocked his Boy Scout exhibit did not win a prize. When the host ends a segment as was the case last Friday: “…please don’t put words in my mouth.” Well, that is not effective current event exploration nor is it an effective point-counter-point learning experience. 

Hayes, referred to point counter-point as not “high school wrestling.” I thought that analogy was somewhat condescending, but hey it is Chris Hayes’ show. He can use whatever analogy he chooses. 

With due respect to Chris Hayes, I observed an MSNBC segment this evening with a host who effectively handled a tea-party talking head. She accomplished host control just as the talking head was launching into his Gish Gallop-like soliloquy. Joy Ann-Reid… (The salient portion of the segment starts at the 4:44 minute mark. The segment relates to Tea Party impact on the GOP and the fall elections.)

http://on.msnbc.com/1tzoTBm

Inviting guest on a show “….to learn perspectives and better understand US politics” is admirable. Admirable, but I question the choice of forum and the use of critical interaction with the few conservatives who accept discussion on liberal media. No one knows the seriousness of ‘the message’ better than Chris Hayes.  The viewer loses out, when the message is diluted with strategic manipulation of limited time, via yelling and Gish Galloping issues out of the blue (to cloudy and render the segment and arguments indiscernible). 

We as viewers may not share Hayes’s quest for learning from guest who are highly compensated (probably by the Kochs in some way)  demagogues and fulfilling a mission or guest focused on tearing apart a news segment.

Control the process Chris! You will find your guest more respectful of your positions and they will more often than not hear you points. 

AFP Ad Again Manipulates People

Nice UNI-demographic crowd, eh?

The Koch funded Americans for Prosperity continues to run anti-ACA ads that are not fully revealing while reaching into your psyche for pity. 

We are certain there are people who are being negatively impacted by the cancellation of policies some felt was “their cup of tea.”

Yesterday February 28, 2014, Steve Benen addressed the Lamb commercial, and her medical insurance experience, here. 

Benen’s article is particularly noteworthy in its probing of Lamb’s actual insurance experience. 

Here’s Lamb’s message:

“I was diagnosed with lupus when I was 27. Lupus is an autoimmune disorder. It’s dramatically affected my life. I voted for Barack Obama for president. I thought that Obamacare was going to be a good thing. Instead of helping me, Obamacare has made my life almost impossible.“Barack Obama told us we could keep our health insurance if we liked it. And we can’t. I got a letter in the mail saying that my health insurance was over, that it was gone. It was canceled because of Obamacare. My premiums went from $52 a month to $373 a month. I’m having to work a second job to pay for Obamacare. For somebody with lupus, that’s not an easy thing. “If I can’t afford to continue to pay for Obamacare, I don’t get my medicine; I don’t get to see my doctors. I am very disappointed in Barack Obama as a president. He made promises he didn’t keep. And that’s disheartening.”

Benen cogently and concisely address the Lamb’s insurance experience, thus showing the AFP ad for what is is worth: Propaganda. 

Lamb’s old insurance plan included low premiums because it was part of a Tennessee program that split the costs between consumers, their employers, and state funds. The plan, however, wasn’t very good – it included, among other things, a low annual cap, exactly the sort of thing the Affordable Care Act prohibits. So it’s true that those with bad insurance were required to make the transition to better insurance. But what about her high premiums? Glenn Kessler took a closer look. 

Once Lamb was required to go on Obamacare, she discovered she qualified for a $15-a-month subsidy, which could be applied to nearly 40 different options. She chose one of the more expensive options – a Platinum plan – because it limited out of pocket expenses to $1,500, as her doctor fees and blood tests would be higher under the Obamacare plans. She also considered a plan with a lower premium, but it would have meant higher out of pocket expenses. “Instead of paying $6,000 a year, I would have been paying $10,000 a year” with the plan with a lower premium, she said. […] In other words, AFP has managed to highlight a very unique case – someone with a chronic condition who did not face high annual costs. A very unique case, indeed. Kessler flagged a more typical experience for someone with Lupus. 

One Lupus sufferer, Erin Kotecki Vest, blogged that she was amazed at Lamb’s tale of woe after she researched the coverage provided by CoverTN. “Just ONE of my treatments ALONE wipes out everything CoverTN had to offer me,” she wrote. “I would hit CoverTN’s $25,000 annual limit the first week of January.” In contrast to Lamb, this Lupus sufferer is thrilled to be on Obamacare. Kotecki Vest gleefully wrote in November that her family ditched her husband’s employer-provided plan after they discovered they would save nearly $19,000 a year by switching to a plan offered on healthcare.gov. For some reason, Kotecki Vest was not asked to appear in an AFP ad. 

Imagine that.

Concerned Americans should know, the Kochs are would be plutocrats who would love nothing more than an American oligarchy with their faces emblazoned across the first 50 feet of the Washington Monument.   

Tea Party Fades..What About the Cancer Left in Congress? Southern Ideology Vs. The Ideal House

The only thing missing at the event attended by three senators? A big audience. | Jay Westcott/POLITICO

The Tea Party is fading like an Alka Seltzer in four ounces of tap water! However, the cancer has taken a toll on American society.

There are few in the United States who are unaware of the Koch brothers (Charles and David). Well, I should qualify my statement, “…the Koch brothers well-known among people who follow contemporary politics, current events, and the erosion of US politics for the people.”  The Kochs are two of the world’s richest men with family DNA including co-foundling the John Birch Society, have a stranglehold on the majority of conservative politicians. We posit there are few legislative initiatives, decisions or agreements from the GOP that are not in some way influenced by the Koch brothers. 

The Kochs have disavowed intimate involvement in creation of the Tea Party. Rest assured the position is a deep and straightforward a lie as any told from conservative America. The Koch Facts Dot Com page offers the following graphic for media inquires regarding the Kochs and Americans for Prosperity (AFP) and Americans for Prosperity Foundation. 

The proliferation of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), receives major support from the Kochs, thus providing a Mixed Martial Arts “rear-naked choke hold” on state legislatures.

As John McCain and Sarah Palin fizzled-out of the 2008 General Election, Koch money and their conservative/libertarian support structure led to development of a movement with a singular purpose. Conservative America needed a strategic hold on US Federal government via control of both Houses of the US Congress. What better way to excite a movement than an opportunity to leverage the election of a Democrat president and an African-American in the Oval Office.  The 2010 Elections for conservative plutocrats offered tantalizing prospects. 


Linked

A Koch public relations statement from the page.

Koch and Americans for Prosperity

Among the hundreds of organizations that have received monetary support from Koch companies, Charles Koch, David Koch, and/or the Koch foundations are Americans for Prosperity and Americans for Prosperity Foundation. 

AFP and AFP Foundation’s overall mission of promoting sound economic thinking is one in which we firmly believe. In addition, they stand for ideals that are critical to our nation’s future and the well-being of all people: limited government as set forth in the Constitution; fiscal responsibility; removing unnecessary barriers to entrepreneurship; and restoring fairness to our judicial system. 

AFP and AFP Foundation operate independently of Koch Industries. We are not involved in their day-to-day operations and we do not direct the activities of either organization.

As a matter of fact, the Kochs contribute to organizations numbering in the hundreds. They are reported to be contributors to the arts, but they also provide significant support for a cancer that is now eating away at the US House of Representatives. The cancer is the aforementioned Tea Party. 

Within the week, the National Journal has accessed previously (and published) non-public IRS documents that clearly show Koch involvement in organizations that have and continue to provide bed-rock financial support for the tea party movement. AFP (and Freedom Works) provided the money seeding for the tea party. The document you are about to view, lists the Kochs as top donors for the  2003 (then) newly formed AFP.

Americans for Prosperity Foundation Schedule B (2003) by Alex Seitz-Wald

The National Journal also links to the following 2001 documents.

 Citizens for a Sound Economy Educational Fund Schedule B (2001) by Alex Seitz-Wald

The National Journal article illustrates conservative plutocrat financial foundation for the state of US politics. A foundation that many years later has the US House is in (Saturday evening) session crafting a Continuing Resolution (CR) to fund the Federal Government.  A CR that will be so full of Koch brothers idioms and efforts to supportive big business, it will be comical once released. The Journal September 24 article is a must read: linked.

The day after Donald Trump pull out of this fake primary  campaign! Some people are seriously bull-headed. Most  would have seen this action and simply left the scene.

Time has passed and the movement has changed, but the tea party served its purpose. The GOP won enough seats in the House of Representatives to claim a majority and shepherded John Boehner, Eric Cantor and their tea party cancer into the leadership role.  

Koch money to Freedom Works and publicity from Fox News impressively swelled the predominately white and older American tea party rally crowds.  It is amazing the number of protesters and rally attendees from a generation that (I personally know) had nothing, but contempt for minorities who protested for civil rights throughout recent US History. A quick peep at tea party rally crowds of old (excuse the pun) yields a picture of America that is not as diverse as the nation the picture also reflect demographics of the GOP.

         

We are fortunate a political majority in the nation does not reflect the look nor views (social, economic) of people pictured in the early tea party rallies. Yet, these people and voter apathy/turnout resulted in the current House majority  A majority that includes representatives who claim the tea party, as follows.

Party Breakdown (August 2013)

Description	English: Breakdown of political party representation in the United  States House of Representatives during the 113th Congress.      Republican (233)      Democratic (200)      vacant (2)
Date	8 January 2013, 20:28:24
Source	Own work, using Slashme’s Parliament diagram tool. Text taken from 112USHouseStructure.svg. Edited in Inkscape.
Author	LightSoup

Nate Silvers Tea Party breakdown

December 2012 Salon Dot Com’s Tea Party Breakdown (numbers and geographic regions. Salon’s numbers differ from Nate Silver’s numbers.  Possible reasons, House seat losses in 2012 general Election, also and Tea Party members do not carry ID cards nor tea party badges). One can be tea party when one desires or when it is politically expedient.

August 2011

http://www.salon.com/2011/08/02/lind_tea_party/

Tea Party protesters (Credit: Reuters)

Problem!  What is it about our social and political state of mind facilitates governance via the American South?  The Atlantic Cities published an set of five (5) maps that clearly show the outcomes of federal and state governance on regions of the nation.  “5 Maps That Show How Divided America Really Is” (June 2013).  We ask that as you review the maps,you consider this map.

The five maps and the election map above show without question how tea party politics shaped our political climate. The five maps also show the futility of GOP southern politics. One would think the party would work to better the life experience of people who vote Right with each election. 

A quick peep at a few who have openly identified with the tea party. 

A WiKi writer’s representative images of Tea Party Politicians. 

                       

                         Ding-bat Idiot                 Racist                    Anti-Semite 

Wow, the author of the piece, must have been either consuming one of Ron Paul’s political platform items (“legalize heroin”) or is zany enough to find Sarah Palin anything more than window dressing for a window that needs major Windexing (TM) and a paint job.  

Alas, and without additional verbiage about the horrors of the tea party, we are reading support for the Koch (tea party) machine is fading fast. MSNBC’s Jane Timm recently published a “must read” piece about the diminishing tea party. The Gallup graphic linked in Timm article also linked here.  If you decide to read the piece remember the tea party served well for the Kochs. The GOP has a lock on the House via gerrymandering through 2021. Mitt Romney garnered votes from 47% of eligible voters in the 2012 Elections.

The Tea party fading?

The false movement cannot fade fast enough. Insertion of tea party politicians into both houses of Congress has literally stifled progress towards full economic recovery from the Bush Years. We have seen only one (quasi jobs bill) from the tea party House. Tragically, we have a House and Senate with a record like this…

If the tea party is fading, we can only hope support for a Congress that legislates as indicated in the meme above, will be relegated to a GOP/GOTP House minority.

What is it about our social paradigms and politics supports continuation of a Congress as that of the 112th and 113th Congress?

Would you like a quick look at an ideal House of Representatives? A House actually based on a true representation of the nation (demographically) without regard for the many in Congress who are millionaires. 

Stumbleupon Dot Com

America is getting more and more diverse—for instance, our Hispanic population grew by 43 percent in the past decade alone—but you’d never be able to tell it by looking at our Congress. Here’s what the House and Senate look like today, and what they would look like if they were demographically representative of our nation. F

One thing not noted on this infographic is that, besides being nothing like America in terms of race, sex, or religion, our senators and representatives are also wholly different from most Americans in terms of wealth. We’ve said this before, but it bears repeating: The average American’s net worth is $96,000. But the average Senator’s net worth? $13.4 million. For House members that sum drops to “just” $5 million.

Does this represent your community?

If the GOP has not raised the life experience of people in “locked-down” districts, what do you think that means for you and me? The tea party is fading as a movement and hopefully fading as a mindset. Isn’t it logical we should leverage that erosion via removing the tea party cancer from the House?

The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) Under Attack By Plutocrats

Americans for Prosperity (AFP)

The Americans for Property Ad campaigns are overflowing with Koch Brothers ad money.

Media JSonline

According to Streve Benen of the Maddow Blog AFP spent $1 million last month of an ad campaign that is so full of feces (to keep it clean) it is an insult.   The ad was so obviously produced for people who suffer from the new coined “low information” syndrome.  You know them. The visit Fox News each day for constant anti-Obama bombardment, and I am certain dream of life past without an African-American in the White House. 

You might spot them from time to time as they go spasmodic when they hear information that has escaped their grey matter.  Politifact found out just what it is like to hear from one with the “low information” syndrome. 

Politifact Dot Com

A reader asked us to check a dramatic statistic on income inequality from President Barack Obama’s recent speech on the economy in Galesburg, Ill. 

“The income of the top 1 percent nearly quadrupled from 1979 to 2007, but the typical family’s incomes barely budged,” Obama said in the July 24, 2013, speech. 

When we asked the White House for supporting evidence, a spokesman pointed us to a study published in late 2011 by the Congressional Budget Office, the nonpartisan budget-analysis arm of Congress. 

The study looked at income trends between 1979 and 2007 for various income levels, including the top 1 percent.  

CBO found that over that period, the top 1 percent’s inflation-adjusted, after-tax income rose by a cumulative 275 percent. Over 28 years, that averages to almost a 10 percent increase each year. 

Or, they can be spotted as sheeple who believe every utterance from the mouths of these GOP politicians.

Rand Paul

It’s somewhere between 28 percent and 38 percent

Of the roughly 15 percent of Americans who don’t have health insurance, “half of them made more than $50,000 a year.”

Ted Cruz

Lawmakers will use new marketplaces

Says President Obama just granted all of Congress an exception” to Obamacare.

Chain email

U.N. says document is a persuasive-looking fake

A United Nations working group has “adopted a proposed agenda” to enable member nations to “disarm civilians within their borders.”

Oops, it looks like I included a well known Right-wing piece of propaganda  One which I have directly heard a very “low information  idiot say directly to my face.  

Americans for Prosperity relies of on the “low information” syndrome as a vehicle to political obstruction and advancement of their desire to literally rule over the United States of America. Two (or three) brothers whose family lineage includes Fred Koch who worked for communist Joseph Stalin and who was an early member of the  John Birch Society. His strong support for the John Birch Society is reported to have been the result of hatred for communism born of his life with Joseph Stalin. An understandable belief system if it were not for other deplorable baggage (racist and anti-Semite) associated with the  society.  The Koch plutocrats may have family connections which are truly even more deplorable than common known to most Americans. 

 On July 8th, Steve Benen published a piece that included the following opening statement and included the following video.

Since the Affordable Care Act became law, its opponents on the right have spent about $400 million on television ads attacking it, while allies of “Obamacare” have invested about $75 million in support of the law.

Benen masterfully address the video as follows. In fact, anyone who wants to know answers to questions posed in the video can easily find such answers.

“And what am I getting in exchange for higher premiums and a smaller paycheck? Can I really trust the folks in Washington with my family’s health care? I think we all deserve some answers.” 

On that last point, I agree — answers are great. In fact, if the Koch brothers and the person in this spot are eager to learn more about federal health care law, then let’s fill in the gaps. 

* “If we can’t pick our own doctor….” Good news: the Affordable Care Act doesn’t stop you from picking your own doctor. There are private insurers that discourage use of “out-of-plan” physicians, but that’s not a part of “Obamacare.” For Americans For Prosperity to suggest otherwise is obviously dishonest. 

* “What am I getting in exchange for higher premiums….” The vast majority of Americans won’t see higher premiums, so the “question,” such as it is, misleads. But for those who will see an increase, as Sarah Kliff explained, they’ll get quite a bit: “So, what do consumers get in return? For one thing, insurance companies will have to accept their enrollment no matter what. An applicant with a preexisting condition, for example, gets to sign up for a plan that they might not currently qualify for. Older Americans get limits on how much insurers can charge them; women will no longer get charged a higher premium than men. There are certain benefits, too, that health insurance plans are required to cover.” 

* ” Can I really trust the folks in Washington with my family’s health care?” The implication is that federal officials will control families’ care, which isn’t true in 

the slightest.

This past Friday AFP floated another piece of propaganda developed to leverage confusion about the Affordable Care Act.

Questions Radio?  

According to Benen…

The problem, of course, is that the message of the ad is pure garbage. Salon called it the “stupidest anti-Obamacare campaign ever,” and given some of the advertising in recent years, that’s no small claim.

Benen used a Greg Sargent quote to show the extent to which the radio spot is focused on “low information” viewers an listeners.

Greg Sargent highlighted the other most obvious misleading claim.

[P]erhaps the most revealing thing of all is the ad’s warning of public confusion about the law. To buttress the impression that the ad is a catastrophe, the ad claims: “ABC News says confusion and doubt are prognosis for Obamcare.”

And it’s true: The ABC News article in question does bear that headline. But the article actually presents this not as a sign that the law itself is flawed, but as a sign that the public remains ignorant about what’s actually in it. The article is about how many Americans, even those who stand to gain from the law, are not yet aware of its benefits.

This neatly underscores the game plan behind ads like these: spread confusion about the law — in a deliberate effort to prevent folks from learning what’s actually in it — while simultaneously citing confusion about the law as evidence that it’s a disaster in hopes that folks will give up on it.

The Koch brothers via Americans for Prosperity’s ads have given the nation more opportunity to see how conservative plutocrats manipulate the minds of  “low information” viewers and listeners.  We used the word “manipulate.”  We tried to avoid reality for a moment as it is early on a Sunday morning. The Koch brothers and Americans for Prosperity clearly developed ads with intent to propagandize against healthcare reform.  

Americans have a right to believe what they wish. We have every right to avoid information which leads to living as a much less informed citizen. We certainly have the right to cast votes as we wish.

We do not have the right to have your chosen state of “low information” and “Stockholm Syndrome” affinity for all that is Right, negatively impact people who completely abhor the ideology that leads to ads, as embedded above, filled with outright lies.

Image: “Low Information Voter” linked via clicking image