Again, sorry, It sounds like a word salad. I should of put all these thoughts on paper, then re-arranged them to make sense of it all.

Kevin wrote: “Frankly, I’m completely puzzled by his entire response. Of course, that assumes that he was being serious with these statements.”

I share your puzzlement and suspect that Tom may be raiding the liquor cabinet. There are times when he makes no sense at all.

I would, however, argue that he is deadly serious. It’s awfully hard to fake that quality of writing. That sort of training is given to people tasked with the responsibility for pursuing and capturing child molesters on the Internet. BTW, those people are doing a fantastic job keeping our kids safe.

Sorry for the incomplete thoughts. I had to leave work and I was interrupted many times. My apologies.

Tom is not seeing that the point about Sterling’s party affiliation is that it’s irrelevant, and Fox News got it completely wrong in their attempt to throw mud. He’s a right wing guy and he gives money to right wing politicians, whether they are GOP or Democrat. He votes GOP. Fox News and Limbaugh thought they had a “gotcha!” moment when they found that he had donated to Dem campaigns. But they didn’t take the minute to do the research and see that he was actually a GOP voter. Just shows that they weren’t interested in the actual facts – only how they could try to use this situation for a quick smear job.

Tom is also saying some very odd things for a Democrat who works in education. Among other things, his assertions about income inequality aren’t researched and sound like they’re being echoed from right wing websites. Further, the whole paragraph about these issues is loaded with spelling and grammatical errors that make it extremely difficult to read or understand.

I’m sure there are plenty of Democrats who have issues with President Obama, but what I’m trying to decipher from Tom’s remarks makes very little sense. He seems to want President Obama to walk a picket line about the ACA. Why? He seems to be upset that the ACA has had hiccups in starting up, as any government program has. (And I’d argue that things would have gone a lot smoother had President Obama and the Dems kept the public option, but that’s an argument from four years ago. We’ll get Single Payer, but it will be another few years before the country can accept it.) He seems upset about jobs being outsourced overseas – I agree that this is a problem. I don’t know that President Obama himself can do anything about companies choosing to do that. I know that he has repeatedly urged US companies to keep their work here in the US and to hire US workers. If those companies are repeatedly choosing to lay off their US workers and run offshore, I don’t know how this is President Obama’s fault. He certainly isn’t encouraging them to do so, as was the case with George W. Bush’s cabinet.

Regarding Tom’s issue about undocumented workers and unscrupulous contractors, that’s a local issue that can be addressed by whatever state the contractor works. If someone is deliberately breaking the law to underbid another man’s contract, that can be dealt with at the local level. Not sure how this is a Presidential issue that needs to be fixed from the White House – we already have laws on the books to cover this.

Tom’s final paragraph indicates that he seems to enjoy the more conservative programs President Obama has maintained during his administration. I’m not sure what his point is with “I think it’s great that he can take out american terrorist with drones”. Besides the obvious syntax error, I have no idea what he means here. I’m also not certain what he means by saying that President Obama has somehow “donated billions of dollars” to “jack up the rates” of coal plants. This assertion is both incoherent and bizarre. He mentions a right wing meme about President Obama giving some appointments to people who supported his campaigns, but forgets to mention that all presidents do this – particularly George W. Bush just a few short years ago. He makes a bizarre statement about written tests being given to police and firefighters and then goes on to talk about the TSA and how he wants low income families to own their own homes. Frankly, I’m completely puzzled by his entire response. Of course, that assumes that he was being serious with these statements.

@kevin, sorry did not know he was a registered republican. So what is he, this does not make sense. He gives money to the democrats, yet registered republican, i’m confused. Whatever affiliation, a racist is a racist.

My family is mostly democrat, boy did my dad get mad when i voted for Obama. Bush screwed up big time and I voted for Obama hoping for some change. I feel that Obama let me down. My family is considered middle class and we are hurting financially, Obama said "he would cut taxes for the middle class families, and he did not. My mom is a medical transcriptionist and her job (her profession) is getting shipped over seas, and Obama has done nothing to address this issue. I believe in income equality, but I cant rap my head around, is that the top five states of have the highest rates of income inequality are democrat states. I thought the democrats are are for income equality. I have 2 older sister and I believe they should get the same pay as a man. I work for a High school and i belong to SEIU. Obama said that "he would promise to walk the picket line if workers are denied the right to bargain. My friends in california are pissed because they lost there health care and now have ACA, they can’t use the doctors they had before and have tried to sign up for doctors that are on the list and are told they don’t accept ACA. Luckily Obama exempted the unions from ACA, woohoo. My brother in law operates a cement company and had to close shop because he can’t compete against companies that hire undocumented workers to do the job. He gets out bid a lot. He had to lay off 33 people. That is not fair. Obama is not doing anything about undocumented workers taking jobs that Americans do want to do.

I don’t think everything Obama has done is bad. He has done good things too. He expanded faith based programs, i like that he supports the patriot act. I think it’s great that he can take out american terrorist with drones. Hey a terrorist is a terrorist, i don’t care who you are. I am also for green energy, Obama has done a lot in the area, he has donated billions of dollars toward this. We need the EPA to close those coal plants and jack up the rates to make green energy more affordable. I like that he takes care of his own people, he gave federal jobs to over 40 of his fundraisers, he didn’t have to do that. I think that written tests are a form of racism, the ones given to police and fire fighters, minorities have rights too. I think Obama supports the TSA and so do I, they have every right to search anyone. You have to keep people safe. Obama believes that low income families should own homes, it’s the american dream, why can’t low income families get that dream. There is more but you know how it is.

Tom, seems to be very confused about these issues, which is again quite strange for a Democrat who voted for President Obama.

And he’s misquoted my earlier statement:
“Tom should be aware that Fox News’ approach here (“Hey, the Dems are racist too!”) does not speak so much to a general concern about racism as to Fox News’ refusal to acknowledge their own problem. It’s a response along the lines of “I know you are, but what am I?” and you’d think people would leave that kind of nonsense in the third grade.” That’s a statement about Fox News’ repeated racist statements by their pundits and by their fans at Fox Nation. They don’t get to project their issues onto other people and other networks. What is needed for these people to humbly acknowledge what they’ve been doing, publicly apologize, and to dedicate themselves to improving this situation. I’m still waiting for this to happen. Conflating statements to smear other networks is an action that indicates that the person either does not understand the issue or does not wish to understand it. And frankly, that’s a sad statement to have to make in the 21st Century.

At the same time, Tom may not be aware that he just acknowledged that Fox News is not a part of the mainstream media. I would agree with that statement.

Regarding Kermit Gosnell, Tom could run a Google search of that name along with “Katha Politt”, or with “2011 coverage” and could pull up plenty of material. He could also search this site for the extensive conversation we had about this matter a year ago, during which the Fox News punditry was completely debunked.

I’m not sure that I proved any right wing points about Donald Sterling to anyone. I would go farther to note that this site has another article right above this one, showing that Sterling is actually a registered GOP member, regardless of whose campaigns he made donations to support at different times. This would seem to completely obviate the “gotcha!” point that Fox News pundits and Rush Limbaugh thought they were scoring. And it also goes to show that careful thought and reasoning tend to be a more fruitful approach than the quick emotional fast food of a pundit’s rants. One can only hope that the Fox News pundits will learn from these mistakes, but they don’t seem to be showing much of an inclination to do so.

Tom also neglected to acknowledge the cogent points I made about other political scandals involving prominent Democrats. Had he read a little farther, he might have been able to get a lot more out of this exchange.

Finally, his confusion about “what the big deal is about fox making sure sterling was a democrat” is puzzling. Again, if he’d looked at the article above this one, he’d see that Donald Sterling is a GOP voter, not a Democrat. Which should have told him “what the big deal is.” It’s that Fox News and right wing pundits like Rush Limbaugh are deliberately clouding a simple matter of Donald Sterling’s racist statements by trying to make the discussion about who he donated campaign funds to support and thus smear whatever party that was. Except that they’ve ignored Sterling’s actual party affiliation and failed to address the actual point of the story. So they’ve based their story on a false statement, and they’ve wasted their viewers’ time on a non-existent issue. This is typical behavior for Fox News pundits and for Rush Limbaugh, and a major reason for this website’s existence has been to note these actions for the historical record.

Kevin, can you give me more info on the Gosnell thing? Thanks

@kevin koster, Your right about the Gosnell trial, my bad (btw, thanks for the info on that, I can use this against my friends argument). “The NBA doesn’t care” was bad choice of words, I should of said, they really did nothing. Then the donate thing to Obama was far fetched, I admit that, the reason I inserted that, I was trying prove a point to someone else about saying far fetched things on this site, and you proved my point to them, thanks. The spitzer-Sanford thing was just to show how many times the MSM inserted their party affiliation. Then you say “You ignore the fact that both politicians had their parties mentioned in stories about their scandals and downfalls”. That’s not true. Spitzer 20% of the time and Sanford 100% of the time. I brought that up because of the title of this story “fox nation want to make sure you know that Donald sterling is a democrat. The MSM wanted to make sure that Sanford was a republican. I don’t understand what the big deal is about fox making sure sterling was a democrat, and you agree that it doesn’t matter how exactly how many times a person’s party affiliation was mentioned.

Now, can this go both ways? The MSM pointed out that bundy is racist (which he is) and I could reply well the MSM’s approach here (“Hey, the republicans are racist too!”) does not speak so much to a general concern about racism as to MSM’s refusal to acknowledge their own problem. It’s a response along the lines of “I know you are, but what am I?” and you’d think people would leave that kind of nonsense in the third grade.

Kevin Koster,

Great comment. I love Aria but I don’t think a civil, reasoned and factual reply is feeding a troll.

Trolls need to eat too…

Seriously, I just wanted to make sure that any new reader would understand the actual facts and not be fooled.

Tom, your comments are quite strange, given that you’ve said in other threads that you’re a Democrat who voted for President Obama and now feels that he didn’t live up to your expectations. But your comments here indicate a right wing perspective inconsistent with your earlier statements.

You mention that the NBA didn’t care about Donald Sterling’s history of racism before this moment. I don’t know that this is true. I would say that there have been various incidents over time, including ones that the NBA looked into. Keep in mind that the NBA cannot throw an owner out of the organization. They can limit his privileges and encourage him to leave, but they can’t just dump the team because they don’t like the owner. Nor can they force him to sell. So making comments like “the NBA doesn’t care” is a bit silly, isn’t it?

You then try to imply that Sterling is only being taken to task for his behavior because he didn’t donate to President Obama’s campaigns. I suppose you want us to believe that Donald Sterling would have been given a pass on his racism if he’d just thrown some money into Obama’s election coffers. Frankly, that’s a ridiculous statement on its face.

You then bring up the Spitzer and Sanford scandals as though it mattered exactly how many times a person’s party affiliation was mentioned. You ignore the fact that both politicians had their parties mentioned in stories about their scandals and downfalls. You also forget that there are plenty of other politicians who have gotten themselves into hot water and had their party affiliation become part of the story – like Rod Blagojevitch and Bob Filner. In the case of Filner, as in the case of Sanford, the party affiliation was a runner in the story.

Then, for some reason, you bring up the right wing canard about the Kermit Gosnell trial. We debunked multiple right wing posters at this website on this whole matter last year. You’re citing talking points that have been completely discredited. You should look up the earlier threads or just try to do a little research on that matter. You’ll find that the Gosnell matter was actually heavily covered when it first came to people’s attention, long before the trial. The point of the story was that poorer women in Gosnell’s area had almost no access to abortion services, so someone like Gosnell could easily take advantage of them. Left wing outlets like The Nation covered this extensively at that time. Fox News, at that time, barely covered it. Once the matter finally went to trial, the judge issued a gag order to keep the matter from being litigated n the press. Somewhere in the middle of all this, Fox News decided to turn the story into an account of the horrors of abortion. The Fox News focus was clearly to paint Gosnell as a typical abortion provider and to use the story as a scare tactic to wave at women And you’ve fallen for exactly that tactic. Thankfully, we have the record of this website to show the multiple debunkings of your statements, along with the actual record of the events you’ve misreprestented here.

“In May 2013, he was convicted on three of the murder charges, 21 felony counts of illegal late-term abortion, and 211 counts of violating the 24-hour informed consent law. After his conviction, Kermit Gosnell waived his right of appeal in exchange for an agreement not to seek the death penalty. He was sentenced instead to life in prison without the possibility of parole.”

May of 2013? Gee, ‘Tom’, do you have a link to any of the Fox coverage of this trial during that time period? Or were they too involved in the horrors of Benghazi or the Zimmerman trial? Maybe the IRS scandals?
Where the hell do you get your facts? Oh….I think we know the answer to that one: from your ass.

For 56 days, the same networks conducted a blackout on the grisly abortion trial of Kermit Gosnell.

Within the first week of Eliot Spitzer’s prostitute scandal, he was only identified as a Democrat 20 percent of the time. Yet, during the first 24 hours of Mark Sanford’s confession over an affair, he was labeled a Repubican 100 percent of the time.

Both sides do it.

I think truman got it right. He is getting hammered because there is "No record that Stirling ever contributed a dime to President Obama.

Just a thought please don’t take this as fact.

This is old news, he has been doing this for 10-15 years. he was sued back in 2006 because he ‘allegedly’ refused to rent apartments to Hispanics and blacks and to families with children. The lawsuit was settled in 2009 when Sterling agreed to pay $2.73 million to settle that case. Of course, the NBA didn’t care about Sterling then. Now, all of a sudden the NBA is ‘looking into’ Sterling’s alleged comments about bring blacks to Clippers games. Sterling was also sued by former Clippers General Managers and Lakers great Elgin Baylor for age discrimination in 2011. Again, the nBA didn’t seem to care then.

What blows me away, with all this history, The NAACP was going to give this racist Democrat Donald Sterling a lifetime achievement award. Goes to show you know what a left wing farce the NAACP is.

Fox News and Limbaugh are simply trying to draw a false equivalence to distract from the actual point of the story.

If they actually wanted to explore this, they would note that Sterling has donated to Democrats, but pointedly did NOT do so for President Obama. Meaning that his racism outweighs his party affiliation. Which undoes their intention – to tar the Democrats with the brush that the GOP and their pundits have applied to themselves.

Tom should be aware that Fox News’ approach here (“Hey, the Dems are racist too!”) does not speak so much to a general concern about racism as to Fox News’ refusal to acknowledge their own problem. It’s a response along the lines of “I know you are, but what am I?” and you’d think people would leave that kind of nonsense in the third grade.

Who in hell cares about dude’s political party affiliation? Dude’s an asshat who got caught on tape being an asshat. And his words are costing his team sponsors as I type.

No record that Stirling ever contributed a dime to President Obama. This " news story "was just another way for Butt Boy Jesse Watters to stir up the Fux Nation cesspool of hate against African-Americans (most NBA players are black) and Democrats.

So, MSNBC and many other crappy news stations are pretending he is a Republican. Even tho Democrats are classless, racist and lazy people.

Thanks for the correction, owner, not coach. Whats with all the generalities? What i find conflicting, is you are doing the same thing Fox is doing, yet you condemn it. I don’t get that.

Yep, each side has there bad potatoes, like bundy and this coach. I doesn’t matter which side your on, a racist is a racist. I think fox points out this guys a democrat because the left always says fox is racist. I find this odd because the NBA is a “black mans game”.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=1818396

Based on Sterling’s racist rants, we doubt he donated to President Obama’s campaign.

Given the recent fallout of Cliven Bundy’s racist remarks, Hannocchio may be too afraid to address this hot potato.

You have to read the fine print to find out Sterling never donated to Obama, though.