Republican State Representative Gives A Heartfelt Speech On Marriage Equality

No, the title of this post is not a typo. Even though I rip on Republicans (deservedly so) either with family and friends or in the blogosphere on a regular basis, I have no issue praising them when I think it's warranted. On February 8, 2012, the Washington House of Representatives debated on the legalization of same-sex marriage. During this, Republican State Representative Maureen Walsh made an emotional appeal to the legislators. This is one of the best political speeches I've heard in a long time. Ironically, what I loved about the speech is that it wasn't the typical political speech you hear these days. You could tell that Rep. Walsh was speaking from the heart. Judge for yourself:



By the way, the House voted 55-43 in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage!!

The Book Fox "News" Doesn't Want You to Read...

On Tuesday February 21, Random House is scheduled to release the book The Fox Effect: How Roger Ailes Turned a Network into a Propaganda Machine. Written by Media Matters for America founder David Brock and the progressive media watchdog group's VP Ari Rabin-Havt, this exposé has already got people of all political stripes talking.

From the "About the Book" section of the RH page for The Fox Effect:

Based on the meticulous research of the news watchdog organization Media Matters for America, David Brock and Ari Rabin-Havt show how Fox News, under its president Roger Ailes, changed from a right-leaning news network into a partisan advocate for the Republican Party.
The Fox Effect follows the career of Ailes from his early work as a television producer and media consultant for Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George H.W. Bush. Consequently, when he was hired in 1996 as the president of Rupert Murdoch’s flagship conservative cable news network, Ailes had little journalism experience, but brought to the job the mindset of a political operative. As Brock and Rabin-Havt demonstrate through numerous examples, Ailes used his extraordinary power and influence to spread a partisan political agenda that is at odds with long-established, widely held standards of fairness and objectivity in news reporting.

Featuring transcripts of leaked audio and memos from Fox News reporters and executives, The Fox Effect is a damning indictment of how the network’s news coverage and commentators have biased reporting, drummed up marginal stories, and even consciously manipulated established facts in their efforts to attack the Obama administration. 


To pre-order the book, click here.  

Fox already appears to be in damage control mode because on at least two of its programs (The O'Reilly Factor and Fox & Friends) there have been negative segments on MMFA. Expect Fox to step up its attacks against MMFA once the book comes out.  

The following clip is the book trailer for The Fox Effect: How Roger Ailes Turned a Network into a Propaganda Machine:

Please Take A Moment To Vote In the Clint Eastwood "Halftime in America" Ad... Thank You

Please note that this post is "future dated" because it's poll-related. For posts which were written after this one, but have their actual date attached to them, please scroll down. Thank you.

During the halftime of Super Bowl XLV, Clint Eastwood appeared in a Chrysler ad titled "Halftime in America". Feelings on the ad seem to be divided along party lines. While David Axelrod (President Obama’s campaign manager) and Dan Pfeiffer (the White House communications director) praised the ad, Fox News contributors Karl Rove and Michelle Malkin weren't so enthused.

I thought the ad was both positive and powerful in its "we may be down, but we're not out" message about America. Since when did promoting the spirit of America become a bad thing in the collective eyes of some on the right?! You can show how you felt about the Chrysler ad by voting thumbs up or down in the poll in the upper portion of the sidebar on the right.

Below is the ad followed by the Hardball segment in which Chris Matthews discusses the ad with political consultant Mark McKinnon.

Speaking of controversial Super Bowl ads, please see the post dated February 7th below.  

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Racist Incident Ruins A High School Basketball Game in Pittsburgh

From Yahoo! Sports

By Cameron Smith

Vile racism raised its ugly head during a boys basketball game near Pittsburgh on Friday when fans of a nearly all-white suburban school ran on the court in banana suits and made monkey noises to taunt the players for their rivals, who play for a school which is predominantly African-American.

As reported by a variety of Pittsburgh media outlets, the Monessen Valley Independent and WPXI prominent among them, the annual basketball rivalry game between Pittsburgh (Pa.) Brentwood High and Monessen (Pa.) High turned extremely ugly when the two teams tried to head to their respective locker rooms for halftime. Before the players could leave the floor, three fans from the visiting Brentwood student section ran onto the court in full-body banana suits.


The fans surrounded the Monessen players and allegedly began making monkey noises and hurling racial epithets at the Monessen players, with no one entering the fray to stop the horribly inappropriate catcalls.

"I was appalled and shocked," Monessen parent Terri Payne told WPXI. "I was like, 'I can't believe they're doing that, and they didn't do anything about it.'"

Disturbingly, other Monessen parents claim that the Brentwood players hurled similar racist epithets themselves, calling the Greyhounds "monkeys and cotton pickers," as one Monessen fan told WPXI.
Meanwhile, Valley Independent staff writer Jeremy Sellew claimed that Brentwood Director of Security Joseph Kozarian, who was on duty at the game, refused to intervene, instead sitting back and at one point smiling and laughing with the Brentwood fans in the stands.


As more media attention has swirled around the disgusting incident, Brentwood officials have scrambled to try and alleviate pressure on the school and district as a whole. As of Tuesday the three students involved had been identified and disciplined, though their punishment was not disclosed to the media. Similarly, officials claimed they were "reviewing school policy to make sure a similar incident doesn't happen again."

Clearly, that's not strong enough. If the banana suit incident and subsequent racist abuse from Brentwood players occurred as numerous witnesses claim it did, the entire Brentwood season should be put under much deeper inspection before moving forward.

This is legitimate hate speech, after all, and the teenagers who were responsible need to realize just how damaging that is, both to their victims, themselves and society as a whole. At the very least, any players who made racist comments during the game itself should be punished significantly.

Despite being a cynic, I'm still amazed this disgusting incident went down in 2012. Then again, it sounds like some of the folks in Brentwood have a 1952 mentality.  I can just imagine them listening to their Patti Page records while waiting to catch that week's episode of "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet".

For the news story which aired on WTAE in Pittsburgh, click here.

In a side note, Monessen defeated Brentwood by a score of 59-45.

Roland Martin Ousted From CNN

Roland Martin has been suspended from CNN due to the Tweets he made regarding the David Beckham Superbowl commercial. Apparently Martin tweeted, "If a dude at your Super Bowl party is hyped about David Beckham's H&M underwear ad," he wrote, "smack the ish out of him!" Martin apologized, stating that his comments were not meant to bash the gay and lesbian community, but rather a dig at the sport of soccer.

The Gay Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) called for the immediate removal of Martin and CNN obliged, making a statement which read, "Language that demeans is inconsistent with the values and culture of our organization, and is not tolerated. We have been giving careful consideration to this matter, and Roland will not be appearing on our air for the time being."

Did CNN rush to judgment or are they justified in suspending Martin? Do you think Martin will return to the air like Imus or is he done at CNN for good?