Joel Osteen: ‘The Scripture Says That Being Gay Is A Sin’ |
Mega church leader Joel Osteen reiterated his belief that “the scripture says that being gay is a sin,” telling Fox News’ Chris Wallace Sunday morning, “my faith is based on what I believe the scripture says and that’s the way I read the scripture.” Asked if gay people are entitled to equal rights, Osteen insisted “I don’t think we should discriminate against anybody” before adding, “I am not for gay marriage.” Watch it:
During an appearance on Fox News Sunday this morning, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) couldn’t explain why the public rejects large parts of the Republican legislative agenda and instead blamed Democrats for opposing it.
Asked why a recent New York Times/CBS News poll showed that 67 percent of Americans favor raising taxes on millionaires to reduce the deficit, and that 80 percent oppose cutting Medicare, Cantor could only say, “It is unfair that these individuals who want a better life and want more jobs and higher pay are not getting it.”
“What is not fair is that we are holding back the economy to grow because you are having Barack Obama working with the Democrats in the Senate, Reid and others, who are saying no to every time we want to grow the economy,” he added, without ever actually addressing the question. Watch it:
During today’s Fox News Sunday panel, Juan Williams and Chris Wallace had a significant disagreement about the influence of the 99 Percent Movement, with Wallace using his power as moderator to cut Williams off from defending the protesters. When Williams pointed out that Occupy Wall Street makes the Republican presidential candidates look like the “protectors of the super rich,” Wallace suggested the movement can’t be seen “as a plus” anymore because people are “fed up” with the “violence in the streets”:
WILLIAMS: The Republicans, in this time of Occupy Wall Street, are the protectors of the super rich.
WALLACE: I’m not sure if we should talk about Occupy Wall Street as a plus anymore…
WILLIAMS: Yeah, I think we should!
WALLACE: Really? With all the violence in the streets? You really think that most of the American people—
WILLIAMS: You know what? You are getting distracted, and you’re getting distracted by people who are crazy—
WALLACE: I think I’m in touch with what most people are thinking, which is they’re getting fed up with it.
Wallace then prevented Williams from finishing his point that most Americans identify with the problems of economic inequality that the 99 Percent Movement represents. Watch it:
Isolated incidents of violence by fringe elements should not obscure the legitimate and salient messages raised by the 99 Percent Movement about income inequality and corporate money’s influence in politics. Moreover, Wallace’s dismissal of the movement completely ignore the countless instances of unprovoked police violence against protesters, which has been far more prevalent.
Fox has doggedly smeared the Occupy protests, even attempting to connect the movement to a man recently charged with attempting to assassinate President Obama.
This morning, radio host Don Imus urged Fox News’ Chris Wallace to stop inviting “bigoted idiots like Rick Santorum” on his Sunday political talk show, saying that Santorum “diminishes your program” by suggesting that openly gay and lesbian soldiers “cause problems for people living in close quarters.” Imus’ remarks come after Santorum appeared on Fox News Sunday and doubled down on his claim that the recent repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell inserts “sexual activity” into the military. Watch the exchange:
Wallace also hit back against criticism from Ann Coulter, who said that “Juan Williams should have punched Chris Wallace in the face” for likening Santorum’s rhetoric about gay people to the arguments deployed by opponents of racially integrating the military during the 1940s. “You know, ever since Ms. Coulter attacked the 9/11 widows and said they were self-promoters, who were enjoying their husband’s death on 9/11, I stopped paying attention to her,” he said. [HT: Mediaite]
Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), chairman of the House Budget Committee, and GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain agreed that the federal loan to now-bankrupt solar company Solyndra involved corruption. Prompted by Chris Wallace, Cain claimed that President Obama “was trying to help one his political supporters” when the Department of Energy approved the $528 million loan guarantee to Solyndra, because one of the private investors in the company is a foundation started by a top Obama supporter. Ryan accused the administration of “crony capitalism at its worst,” predicting “billions more” in loan defaults:
RYAN: There are billions more of this exact kind of spending that came out of the stimulus that will produce these results we fear. This is industrial policy and crony capitalism at its worst. It’s exhibit A for how this kind of economic policy doesn’t work. We shouldn’t be picking winners or losers in Washington. We should be setting the conditions for economic growth so that the private sector can create jobs. Washington is not good at picking winners and losers, so we shouldn’t try.
Watch it:
Cain repeated Ryan’s assertion that the Solyndra case shows the danger of the government being “in the business of picking winners and losers.”
Ryan and Cain are dangerously wrong. The economic stimulus package — now hitting the end of its two-year time limit — reversed America’s economic tailspin. The clean-energy loan guarantee program, even accounting for the Solyndra bankruptcy, has been an astounding success, fueling billions of dollars of economic activity, and driving a recovery in American manufacturing. The American auto industry, supported by the Advanced Vehicle Technology loan program, has recovered and is now making some of the most efficient and popular cars in the world. The American solar industry had a positive trade flow of $1.9 billion in 2010, was a net exporter to China by more than $240 million, and added or expanded almost 60 factories in Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, and other rust-belt states.
The track record of the federal government under President Obama — with a selection process by career civil servants — has not been one of doing a bad job of “picking winners and losers” but helping create the conditions that allow private investors and entrepreneurs to create winners.
As ThinkProgress’s Marie Diamond pointed out, the only thing conservatives seem to dislike about “crony capitalism” is when their cronies in the fossil fuel and nuclear industry don’t get all the subsidies. Ryan is treading on thin ice when he accuses others of “crony capitalism” — his family benefits from the oil subsidies he has repeatedly voted to preserve.
At the New Republic, Timothy Noah notes that Republicans — the party of Big Business — don’t actually dislike “crony capitalism“:
But of course, “crony capitalism” was a liberal phrase long before it was a conservative phrase. Paul Krugman, for example, used it to cuff President George W. Bush about his pal Ken Lay in 2002. The term came into vogue during the 1980s. It makes much more sense as a liberal phrase because Republicans cozy up to business far more than Democrats do. (That’s why Perry is vulnerable to the accusation.)
If congressional Republicans really disliked crony capitalism they would back off from their support for Medicare Advantage, the money-losing, government-funded private sector alternative to Medicare, and for-profit colleges, which they want to shield from default limits on student loans. They would also stop trying to interfere with the implementation of the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill.
Fox News has been under increasing scrutiny this week after Daily Show host Jon Stewart appeared on Fox News Sunday last weekend where he came prepared with research to tear into the network as an “ideological organization” that “gets marching orders” to promote conservative ideology.
Today, Wallace devoted the end of his show to wagging his finger back at Stewart, laying out a lengthy defense of his employer. But within moments, Wallace demonstrated the very bias he was trying to disprove when he used the term “Obamacare” — a derisive term for the Affordable Care Act used reliably by conservative media, politicians, and activists. The rest of his argument was not much better. Wallace took particular issue with a poll Stewart cited that found that Fox has the most misinformed viewers. Wallace said the poll was junk because it labeled respondents as “misinformed” if they didn’t believe scientists and acknowledge that climate change is real, or didn’t trust the Congressional Budget Office that the Affordable Care Act lowers the deficit.
In other words, Wallace thinks someone who doesn’t believe facts shouldn’t be considered “misinformed”:
The fact checking website PolitiFact called into question some of Stewart’s statements, but as ThinkProgress and others have pointed out, their conclusions are wrong. Every poll that has tested factual knowledge on politically controversial issues has found Fox News viewers to be the most misinformed.
Republican presidential contender and former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty may have been expecting a friendly reception when he sat down for an interview this morning with Fox News’ Chris Wallace. But he didn’t get one. The Fox host hammered Pawlenty on his recently released — and fantastically unrealistic — economic plan, which slashes taxes for corporations and millionaires while assuming unrealistic growth estimates.
Pawlenty’s plan would cost $7.8 trillion, or triple the size of the Bush tax cuts, and explode the deficit. Furthermore, his plan’s incredulously assumes 5 percent growth for 10 years in a row while eliminating revenue. As Wallace pointed out, there have only been two times in recent history when the U.S. has achieved 5 percent growth — and they both came after tax increases. Pawlenty seemed stumped by how to respond to this ugly truth about his so-called “pro-growth” plan:
PAWLENTY: We have achieved 5 percent growth twice in the recent history of this country. Once under Reagan, once under Clinton. Now was it sustained for 10 years in those circumstances? [...]
WALLACE: But governor, is it declinist to doubt the 5 percent number or is it just a realist to doubt the 5 percent number? You talk about the fact that for a few years in the 80s and a few years in the 90s that we did have average 5 percent growth – or close to it, it was 4 point something. But the fact is, the difference is, in both of those occasions that was coming directly out of a recession, not after a year, a year into a weak recovery. And actually, in both of those cases, it came after a tax increase, not a tax cut.
PAWLENTY: But Chris, as I said — this is an aspirational goal.
Watch it:
The former governor kept hedging by admitting his plan is “aspirational.” “Unrealistic” would be the more accurate qualifier. As Ezra Klein noted at the Washington Post, “This plan isn’t optimistic. It isn’t a bit vague. It’s a joke.” And as Wallace pointed out, it’s not just liberals and moderates who are dismissing this plan as a pipe dream – Pawlenty’s fellow conservatives think it’s foolhardy too. Conservative blogger Jennifer Rubin wrote, “I love tax cuts as much as the next conservative, but…[this plan] is not a very serious budget policy.” Just this morning, conservative columnist George Will added his voice to the chorus of dissent, saying sustained 5% growth “will not happen.”
Right-wing activist James O’Keefe recently released a video showing how he deceived NPR fundraisers into thinking they were having a discussion with members of a Muslim non-profit organization. One of the fundraisers was caught criticizing Republicans and the Tea Party and NPR CEO Vivian Schiller subsequently resigned.
Apart from the fact that O’Keefe’s past work suggests the media shouldn’t take his work too seriously, some, including Glenn Beck’s website The Blaze, have recently pointed out “questionable editing and tactics” in O’Keefe’s latest NPR video. Nevertheless, on Fox News Sunday today, host Chris Wallace, once again, made O’Keefe his “Power Player of the Week.” And in this segment, Wallace completely glossed over O’Keefe’s lack of credibility. The Fox host only mentioned one of his “problems” — having pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for trying to break in to Sen. Mary Landrieu’s (D-LA) office:
WALLACE: There’s no debating that undercover activist James O’Keefe has taken on some big targets and come up with some stunning results. Once again, he’s our power player of the week. […]
O’Keefe has had problems. Last May he pleaded guilty to a misdameanor for posing as a phone repairman to get into Sen. Mary Landrieu’s office. But now he has a new scalp. The head of NPR was forced out in this latest scandal.
Media Matters has the clip:
Wallace even highlighted O’Keefe’s deceptive video work that eventually brought down ACORN, but he didn’t note that ACORN has been cleared of any criminal wrongdoing as a result from O’Keefe’s tapes. Moreover, as Media Matters notes, “a 2009 report by the Congressional Research Service stated that O’Keefe’s surreptitious videotaping may have broken laws in California and Maryland.”
And of course Wallace omitted O’Keefe’s plan to “seduce” and publicly humiliate CNN reporter Abbie Bourdeau aboard a boat full of sex toys. Bourdeau caught on to the scam and reported that “O’Keefe planned to lure her aboard a boat where he would secretly record his attempts to ‘hit on her’ using ‘strawberries and champagne.’ Boudreau reported that a document she obtained suggested O’Keefe would also use props including a ‘condom jar,’ Viagra, pornography, a ceiling mirror, and ‘fuzzy handcuffs.’”
Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) recently defended his union busting efforts, claiming that no one should be surprised because it’s what he campaigned on (Walker actually didn’t campaign on busting unions). Walker’s defenders on the right such as Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich, have picked up on this meme. “He’s actually doing what he campaigned on,” Gingrich said.
Now the false talking point has made its way up the usual right-wing echo chamber chain to Fox News’ “straight news” anchor Chris Wallace. Yesterday on Fox News Sunday’s online discussion “Panel Plus,” Juan Williams noted that a majority of Americans support the public unions’ right to collectively bargain “when it comes to the governor in his bullying way is trying to take away their negotiating rights.” But Wallace interrupted:
WALLACE: Why is it a bullying way? … The question is, he ran on this issue, he was elected, you got a Republican majority. I mean, you know, with Barack Obama you kept saying elections have consequences, why is it bullying to say, “I was elected, I want to enact my agenda”? [...]
WILLIAMS: Well no but this is bullying when you won’t even sit down and negotiate and talk with people talk with the Democrats –
WALLACE: Aren’t the Democrats over there in Illinois?
WILLIAMS: Because they had to flee because this guy was just going to ram it through. But let me just say, it’s that kind of tactic –
WALLACE: Which they never did on health care.
Watch it (starting at 2:50):
Politifact Wisconsin took a look at this talking point last week and determined that it’s not true:
But Walker, who offered many specific proposals during the campaign, did not go public with even the bare-bones of his multi-faceted plans to sharply curb collective bargaining rights. He could not point to any statements where he did. We could find none either.
While Walker often talked about employees paying more for pensions and health care, in his budget-repair bill he connected it to collective bargaining changes that were far different from his campaign rhetoric in terms of how far his plan goes and the way it would be accomplished. We rate his statement False.
And contrary to Wallace’s suggestion, President Obama actually did campaign on reforming the health care system and he didn’t get everything that he originally wanted, including a public option.
During an appearance on Fox News Sunday this morning, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) couldn’t explain why the public rejects large parts of the Republican legislative agenda and instead blamed Democrats for opposing it. 
Republican presidential contender and former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty may have been expecting a friendly reception when he sat down for an interview this morning with Fox News’ Chris Wallace. But he didn’t get one. The Fox host hammered Pawlenty on his recently released — and fantastically unrealistic — economic plan, which slashes taxes for corporations and millionaires while assuming unrealistic growth estimates. 
