These people are lying assholes
The wingnuts are in full smear mode, claiming that during his speech at the Detroit rally today, Teamsters President James Hoffa, Jr. advocated for violence by saying “Let’s take these son of a bitches out and give America back to America where we belong!”
And, of course, these liars pivoted from that lie to the next lie: That by failing to condemn Hoffa’s statement, President Obama is “sanctioning violence against fellow Americans.” The wingnuts are having a field day with this because of course they are.
It’s the old “union thuggery two step,” right? We’ve seen it before. Dana Loesch and her Overdaddy Breitbart have already been busted for employing this very same scheme! Remember how they trotted out Some Black Guy who had purportedly been beaten by SEIU union thugs? Two years later, those “thugs” were found “NOT GUILTY.” (Check out Adam Shriver’s blog — St. Louis Activist Hub — for details on those shenanigans.)
As with BlackGuyGate, HoffaGate is a pile of horse shit, but that’s not stopping the wingnut bloggers from freaking the fuck out:
During the segment that the bloggers have latched onto, Fox edited out the bolded portion of Hoffa’s comments:
HOFFA: Everybody here’s got to vote. If we go back and keep the eye on the prize, let’s take these son of a bitches out and give America back to America where we belong! Thank you very much!
More from Media Matters:
But in a second segment that ran at roughly the same time as Henry’s tweet, Fox News dishonestly edited the speech in the manner seen above. Andrew Breitbart’s Big sites, Real Clear Politics, The Daily Caller, the Media Research Center, and the Drudge Report have all highlighted that footage, using it to condemn “the violence emanating from union thug bosses” and demand that Obama “denounce” the comments.
In the Fox News segment that included the dishonestly cropped video, Republican consultant Brad Blakeman decried the comments as “thuggery at its best” and “the kind of remarks you’d expect out of Tony Soprano,” and commented that “when a union president says ‘let’s take these sons of bitches out,’ that usually means someone’s legs are going to get broken, somebody’s going to disappear.” Meanwhile, anchor Megyn Kelly somehow did not mention Henry’s previous explanation that the comments were references to voting Republicans out of office.
Andrew Breitbart operative and CNN contributor Dana Loesch quickly followed up the attack on Twitter, claiming soon after the Fox segment and Henry tweet that Hoffa “threatens tea party voters” and that if Obama “doesn’t condemn then he is sanctioning violence against fellow Americans by silence”:
Breitbart’s websites also jumped onboard, circulating the cropped Fox News video of the Hoffa speech and describing it as a “threat of violence.” Other right-wing media outlets soon followed.
Loesch’s comments in particular were already way over the top. But they became truly embarrassing at around 3 p.m., when the whole story collapsed after Fox finally got around to airing what Henry had called the “full quote” of Hoffa’s “take these son of a bitches out” comment:
As Henry noted, Hoffa was actually referencing “what he thinks unions are going to do to take Republicans out of office.” We’ll see if that puts a stop to the ongoing right-wing freakout over the comments.
UPDATE: Hours after Fox News aired the full context of the “take these son of a bitches out” comment, the network reverted to form. In the first segment on The Five, Fox again aired a dishonestly edited version of Hoffa’s remarks that cropped out his references to voting. Watch:
This is the network that spoon-feeds garbage into the mouths of the unwashed masses. All Fox News does is lie.
They serve no purpose but to spread lies about Democrats, liberals, and President Obama.
[via Media Matters]
arguingwithsignposts
Hey, ABL – slow down, or you’ll burn out. Plus, Dana Loesch is about the creepiest person I’ve personally had to listen to.
namekarB
Its Labor Day. This is the day to beat up on Labor, right?
aisce
oh, and it’s jimmy hoffa jr. delivering those remarks?
well that’s just great. congratulations, fox news. you found tomorrow’s top story.
barack obama: mafia union thug. yippee.
Strandedvandal
Yep, and the teabaggers are eating this shit up with a spoon.
How soon before the “base” calls for President Obama’s head?
hildebrand
ABL – another great post. What you need to do now, though, is preempt the anti-ABL trolls. How will they spin this one into something nefarious? Bully pulpit!
SiubhanDuinne
I had been blissfully ignorant of Dana Loesch until now. Googled her. Wikipedia says she attended, get this, Fox High School!!
Love it.
Samara Morgan
here is what Patterico said.
see? we knew all along the republicans are teabaggers, and the teabaggers are republicans.
Odie Hugh Manatee
I hope to fuck that the Aussies and Brits rip Murdoch’s media empire a new asshole to replace the current worn-out one. You know that if Murdoch has been hiring private investigators to hack into the private lives of people over there, then he’s doing the same damned thing here.
Faux Nooz is a cancer on our society that needs to be cut out. They feed hate among fellow Americans, they thrive and profit from that hate and that is their whole reason for existing.
They’re the KKK in suits.
kay
The 2012 presidential campaign has officially begun!
With FOX playing their traditional role, as the Republican Party propaganda arm.
I keep wondering when other media professionals will distance themselves from these embarrassing Murdoch hucksters posing as “journalists”. Until they do, we’ll have to assume they’re all for this within their profession.
Sly
@SiubhanDuinne:
She’s actually worse in person, as this piece of video gold demonstrates.
arguingwithsignposts
@Sly: believe me, she’s even worse when she’s not in a studio. Ugh. I think I bit a hole through my tongue when I had to listen to her bullshit.
kay
When Jake Tapper asks Obama if he’ll denounce Hoffa, can Obama then ask Jake Tapper if Tapper will denounce FOX’s use of doctored video on television “news”?
That would be a genuinely interesting White House press briefing. For once.
jteeDC
I’m still waiting for FOX to air that Whitey tape…
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
As outraged as I am, as we all are, this of course falls under the heading of
water is wet: Labor Day edition.
Warren Terra
Bonus if you can find someone currently denouncing Hoffa for this doctored tape who defended Sarah Palin’s infamous page with crosshairs targeting Democratic Representatives for elimination, back around the time of the horrible Giffords shooting.
Southern Beale
I’m sorry but I simply don’t have the energy to get worked up over another right wing lie.
Calling for my Faux Umbrage Concern Kit (Extra Dosage) .. take two and call me in the morning.
Odie Hugh Manatee
OT:
Daily Anti-Obama operative Armando, aka Bloviating Tiresome Democrat, is going after John Cole and Jon Chait. Seems that they are living in a fantasy and ol’ BTD wants to shake them out of it. Or something. With over 1,100 comments and only 250+ recs, it’s the usual small BTD/emo-left mosh pit of anti-Obama bullshit. I do have to admit that BTD fits in with the direction Kos has been taking. Kos learned that outrage sells on the right and that’s what he’s peddling to the far left.
Kos wants a counter to the crazy right and it looks like he’s well on his way to making it happen in his little kingdom.
ppcli
ABL, perhaps you have misunderstood. Fox says that his talk about “taking out Republicans” is unacceptable thuggery, and you reply that he was actually clearly talking about *voting*, not physical violence. Very true. But it appears that for Fox and its viewers it is unacceptable and thuggish for union members to vote at all, let alone vote against Republicans. So maybe they’re not hypocrites, they’re just honestly evil.
elisabeth
Shorter Hoffa response to the brouhaha? “I said it, I meant it, and I’d say it again” per TPM.
Spaghetti Lee
“Sanctioning violence by silence”, eh? Hmmm…
I wonder why Dana Loesch supports the genocide in Darfur, child trafficking, slavery, use of violence against Middle Eastern protesters, etc? Her silence condemns her, people.
I also wonder how long it would take to read any Brietbart-owned site and find a reference to the need to “take Obama out” in 2012. I’d put the over-under at five minutes.
Anne
How is what Hoffa said any different from what gets shouted over and over at Tea Party rallies?
I know, I know, IOKIYAR…
SiubhanDuinne
@Sly:
Thanks.
Well, actually, not.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
It’s be great if the Texas fires get to the point that they need federal help.
Mr Stagger Lee
What and there was no palm trees in the background? Oh BTW anybody seeing the Maryland-Miami game check out the Md’s helmets?
lahru
when our side (D) has a message machine equal to the (R)’s you are all pissing into the wind
honus
These are the same people who talk about the “bullet box” and wore assault rifles and handguns to presidential speeches and healthcare debates, right?
Yutsano
@lahru: Huh?
Keith G
Thanks ABL, I will have this locked and loaded to send as a reply when the predictable anti union emails (from some family) hit my box tomorrow.
The Dangerman
OT:
I thought Georgia’s uni’s were atrocious; Maryland’s look like they were done by Jerry Garcia while, well, you know
eemom
hey ABL! is it ok with you if I laugh my ass off at you banning Cornered Stone in THIS thread?
Cuz then Brian “S is for Schmuck” might show up and challenge me to a debate, or something.
Spaghetti Lee
Some Tea Party grunt had this to say in response to Hoffa’s speech:
“Jimmy Hoffa is a has-been relic stuck in a former era. His idea of freedom and liberty involves forcibly extorting union dues from their membership, and applying them to whichever crooked politician has his hand out,” Russell told TPM. “These big union thugs are on the wrong side of history, which is why they lose every time they try to attack We the People.”
“Extracting” dues? Uh, when you sign up to work in the union, the dues are part of the contract, are they not? Aren’t these the same idiots think that every economic problem on earth can be solved by individual actors writing and signing contracts? And this moron thinks it’s “violent” to…pay dues as per a contract that you signed?
That’s why they use so many malleable, multi-use buzzwords, you know: to cover up the fact that they really don’t have a damn clue as to what they’re talking about.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@The Dangerman: If it had only been the uniforms.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
Shout out for Balloon Juice on Pat Lang’s blog!
Ira-NY
The Firebaggers are in full Obama Derangement Syndrome in the comment section of a post reviewing Obama’s Labor Day speech. They have to be read to be believed.
http://news.firedoglake.com/2011/09/05/obama-provides-jobs-preview-in-labor-day-address/#comments
The Dangerman
@Raven (formerly stuckinred):
Hmmm; excellent point. If Maryland gets beat, here’s hoping for a (ahem) joint uniform burning party.
Comrade Kevin
@eemom: What makes you think other people are interested in your courtship dance with Bruce S?
Baud
Lest we all get distracted by Fox’s reporting on Hoffa’s speech, let’s not forget the main point of Hoffa’s speech:
JPL
@Ira-NY: No thanks.
SiubhanDuinne
@The Dangerman:
Apparently somebody tweeted to the effect that the UGA players all looked like they were headed down to DragonCon. LOL.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@SiubhanDuinne: They played like those fruticakes too.
suzanne
@Anne:
Fuck, are you kidding me?! The GOP of Pima County, of which Tucson is the county seat, auctioned off a fucking Glock last week. The auction was such a success that they auctioned off a rifle, too.
People that do that shit are on such a different plane of existence than I am, my mind cannot wrap around it, aka, IOKIYAR.
Martin
@Spaghetti Lee:
Ahem. “2nd amendment remedies”.
SiubhanDuinne
@Raven (formerly stuckinred):
Wow, nice catch, Raven!
Keith G
@Comrade Kevin: A girl’s gotta have fun.
Alex S.
Conservatives have the message machine to counter every liberal initiative or event with some message or event of their own. There needs to be something like this on the other side, but parts of the liberal base are more concerned with fighting Obama instead of supporting him, as if the alternatives weren’t clear…
SiubhanDuinne
Totally O/T, but Braves are just depressing al all fuck tonight against the Sillies.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@SiubhanDuinne: I drive by there quite a bit, I don’t comment much because they are not crazy about left wing Nam vets.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
These are the people who like to dress up as historical figures? Maybe they should try dressing up as turn of the (last) century coal miners, or clothing factory workers, or Jurgis Rudkus at their next costume rally.
JPL
@Raven (formerly stuckinred): A friend said that the uniforms were not as bad in person. lol… See the TV really does make u fat… or so they say.
clayton
@Raven (formerly stuckinred): They already have. The feds are the ones fighting the fires from the air. You know, Texas doesn’t have any state owned blackhawks.
The Spy Who Loved Me
You don’t think what Hoffa said, even in the correct context, was the right thing to do in a speech preceding the President? One in which the President said that he hoped the Republicans would put country over politics? You truly don’t see the disconnect there?
I look at it this way: Everyone that took insult to this won’t even bother to watch the President’s speech on Thursday. And that will be a shame, because I am assuming that what he has to say will be important.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Raven (formerly stuckinred):
It probably speaks to my limited imagination that I’m always stunned to discover that there are any other kind of Vietnam vets.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@clayton: I’d like to see Obama do some tours like he did with Christie this weekend.
They are using choppers? Seems like they’d need the big tankers for this.
Kyle
Fux ‘News’ utilizing the O’Keefe method of deceptive quotation.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): Not imagination, experience. When I go back up to Illinois there are a lot more than here in Georgia. Not surprising I guess.
jwb
@Warren Terra: Clearly, “putting someone in the crosshairs” is approved language whereas “taking son of bitches out” is an irresponsible call to violence. Get with the game!
Frankensteinbeck
@Alex S.:
As much as I’m generally bugged by the self-styled ‘liberal base’, who are neither liberals nor the base, I don’t think they can be used as a comparison here. Yes, our blogs are crawling with extremist misinformation attacking our own side, but the GOP has the actual national television and newspaper industries wrapped up. There’s no liberal equivalent of FOX, and I’m not sure how we could get one. FOX is a very, very, very rich man’s pet ideological project. The vast majority of the rest of the national news service has merely completely abdicated their responsibilities and are running around going ‘Oh, my god! Did you see Governor Perry’s hair? Obama didn’t even notice my new shoes. He is SUCH A BITCH.’ This makes them easy prey for a political movement with no interest in the truth or good policy – IE, the current Republicans.
Yeah, the extreme left blogosphere is a problem, but they’re not really the reason we’ve got media issues.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
Check it out, Texas issue’s their own medals to troops!
jwb
@Raven (formerly stuckinred): We already have desperate calls for every available person with fire fighting training, so if this keeps up for another day, we’re pretty much going to have to call in for help.
clayton
@Raven (formerly stuckinred): Agreed on the Obama visit.
I heard earlier today that the fire was so hot they were dropping water from above — I just caught the blackhawk thing from Perry’s presser this evening — I’m trying to find a transcript of his remarks now. But the bottom line is that the feds have been here since the spring fighting the fires.
AA+ Bonds
Watch this video to see the big important people of the Wall Street Journal test out the lines for 2012.
The strategy in 2012 will be to present labor as an existential, terrifying threat to America for Republicans, and to present labor as a whiny, selfish constituency for Democrats.
Thus, Republicans and Republican-leaning independents turn out in order to keep the union thugs from strangling their children. Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents become disgruntled and argue among themselves about the relative value of labor in the party, and their turnout is depressed.
A possible effective strategy for Democrats to pursue right now would be to rally around labor and workers, and point out that not only do the Democrats want to create jobs, they want to create jobs that people want to work – and Republicans are too stubborn to let that happen. Hammer Republicans on working conditions in Republican states, workplace injuries in businesses they have links to, and their stated positions on workplace regulations.
Draw a link between good jobs and high standard of living – ask Americans, do you want to be America in ten years, or do you want to be China or Vietnam?
Southern Beale
Oh please. Are we really going through this exercise again? Sarah Palin puts Democrats in crosshairs and says “don’t retreat — reload!” but RW is having hissy fits over what Jimmy Hoffa said? Give me a beak.
How many times do I have to hear this same fucking song? CHANGE THE STATION!
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@clayton: Gotcha
Chris
@clayton:
My my, the useless bureaucrats overpaid by MAH TAX DOLLARS!!! doing the work the rugged Southern state governments can’t handle alone? UNPOSSIBLE!!!
Of course, I’m sure the reason some fires are still going is because it’s the feds, and IF they’d only get out of the way and let Walker, Texas Fireman handle it alone, the fires would’ve surrendered weeks ago…
Sorry. Too bitter?
AA+ Bonds
I think the unions should be putting the fear of God into the Republicans right now, with exactly this sort of phrase and its ambiguous connotations. Got somebody named Hoffa to deliver it? Even better.
Like it or not, this is how we talk about politics in America, when we are not actually shooting at each other. I don’t think it can be cured and I’m not sure I’d want it to be, given this world. To be a prick, the trick is to make sure the other party appears a little TOO angry, while matching them in resentment neck-and-neck.
I think Democrats might be pleasantly surprised by the reaction to presenting workers’ complaints as a real threat to their bosses.
Baud
@AA+ Bonds: @AA+ Bonds:
I support the Democratic Party supporting labor, but I don’t see how that is responsive to the GOP strategy, which seems to portray supporting labor as a bad thing.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
Check out the surfing Jack Russell!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Chris:
You’re asking me? I want a reporter to ask Perry if the fires got worse because his prayers just annoyed God.
Chris
@AA+ Bonds:
Giving our people the working conditions of communist countries is the American Way to support free markets.
clayton
@The Spy Who Loved Me: The way I look at it, it doesn’t matter. Whatever was said by anyone would be jumped on and distorted by the same people. Anyone whose mind was supposedly changed by this would have been changed by whatever these people cranked out.
No loss, except for theirs. They are going to lose out by not being part of the conversation, save for their fists shaking in the air.
Chris
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Point taken. I’d love to hear someone ask him that…
Of course, Perry would probably say God’s angry at the feds fighting his fires. Or that God’s angry because we didn’t sacrifice enough death row prisoners to appease his wrath.
Or something.
mk3872
It’s not just FOX and the Murdoch machine … ABC’s Tapper is making a deal about Hoffa’s misquote, too, blaming Obama for not putting out a statement condemning Hoffa.
This shows why the bully pulpit doesn’t work.
The MSM is obsessed with minutia, he said/she said and blaming everything on Dems.
When Repubs say such things, no problems.
JCT
Wait– what happened to Gov. Goodhair’s prayers? They seem to have gone unanswered!
Somehow this is Obama’s fault.
Oh and good for Jimmy Hoffa, nothing beats Republican pearl-clutching.
Ah, @Jim, Foolish Literalist beat me to it!
JPL
@Raven (formerly stuckinred): This was in the Austin Stateman today..
Heliopause
I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings but some mainstream outlets are reporting it the same way. Look for Jay Carney to condemn “Hoffa’s divisive rhetoric” tomorrow.
Chad N Freude
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Perry prayed for rain and The Lord answered with Federal Blackhawks.
Chris
@Southern Beale:
To be honest, I’d say the difference isn’t what people say so much as how their electorate react.
Yeah, sure, Democrats make ambiguously combative statements from time to time, like Hoffa just did about “taking out” political enemies (even if he made it clear it was via ballots only). And yeah, sure, Palin’s “crosshairs” thing can be seen as just overzealous but figurative imagery.
But it’s been decades since I’ve heard of a Democrat shooting up the Holocaust museum or killing cops in Pittsburgh or trying to assassinate the members of a foundation they disagreed with or blowing up an FBI building, or since I’ve heard of a Republican being targeted by a politically motivated gunman the way Giffords was in Arizona. One side of the aisle has a real problem with this – the other simply does not.
burnspbesq
@Strandedvandal:
How about “already?” You should see the email I got today from MoveOn about the ozone regs.
Keith G
@mk3872:
How exactly?
Warren Terra
@Chad N Freude:
I thought he prayed for rain, and prayed to win New Hampshire, and God got confused and flooded Vermont?
nancydarling
@clayton: I just got an update from my brother in Spicewood, TX. They evacuated last night but are back home today and okay if the wind doesn’t change. My nephew, his wife and two little girls were in Houston yesterday. The nephew left them there with a sister-in-law and went back to their home near Smithville to pack up papers and stuff PLUS 10 dogs ranging from a Great Dane to a litter of 4 three week old miniature doxies. To be fair, three of their dogs just showed up one day and recognized a good thing when they saw it. My nephew is a great raconteur, so I’m sure there will be some good stories about being on the road with 10 dogs. I can’t imagine their vet and dog food bill. I hope the sister-in-law has a big back yard.
And yes, the good hair guy is asking for more help according to my brother.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Chad N Freude: Heh, I like it. The Lord works in not very mysterious federal programmey ways.
And Jake Tapper is an absurd little douche.
clayton
@nancydarling: Here in Texas, we are just looking for the next fire.
This could have been taken care of after the last fire in 2006.
Back to the topic, it doesn’t matter what anyone does or says, Democrats will be bashed.
mk3872
@Keith G: Because the focus of the media coverage is not at all about what Obama’s message of such events is. Instead, it is all about petty baloney instead.
Keith G
@mk3872: I have heard it posited here and other places that reporters are relatively stupid, venal, and lazy critters. There is no way to take advantage of that? Isn’t that what marketing is all about.
My god even the Obama folks are using “clean coal” thanks to the efforts of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity. For fucksake.
It can be done.
The media hates dead air and they will fill that slot with whatever interesting message gets there first. The GOP just refuses to be out hussled.
rikyrah
ALL they do is lie.
it’s what they do.
different church-lady
I don’t get it: what’s so wrong with going out? Everyone likes to go out, right? And if Hoffa’s paying, then they should be happy.
Craig
Well so what if things were parsed wrong. Hoffa was still a fool to put the president in a tough position during a labor day rally. Thats why when my union calls me to show up at these things, I say “find another prop”.
Hoffa and and the other union bosses have plenty of opportunity to show fealty to their master…. oh I mean president. They can give it a rest for one day.
Caz
Hoffa declared war on the tea party and said “Let’s take these SOB’s out!” Sounds pretty incendiary to me. I thought we were supposed to be trying to be more civil since the Giffords shooting. I guess Hoffa didn’t get the memo. Whether he’s inciting violence or not, it’s still pretty vitriolic language that should not be applauded. But then, liberals are allowed to say anything they want. What a bunch of hypocrites.
Neither you nor Hoffa has any integrity.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Caz:
When it comes to opinion, I consider the source. Since you are a teahadist winger it’s clear that you are fucking insane.
Seek help. Hopefully your excellent insurance will cover it.
russell
“Threat of violence” is when you open-carry an assault weapon to a political meeting. Or shoot target, using your political opponent’s picture as the target.
Hoffa’s rhetoric, not so much.
brantl
Hey, Caz, on your third go-round in grade school, concentrate on reading comprehension, OK? Thanks, it will save your further embarassment.