CNN reported, US Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice, just "loves" the reporters at the Fox Network.  Rice was overheard a couple of days ago on an open mic between television interviews saying of Fox News correspondents:

 My Fox guys, I love every single one of them.

 

Last March the Smoking Gun got a hold of a document from Dick Cheney’s travel entourage that demands all TV’s in his hotel room be tuned to Fox News.

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This from the Times Online:

Minuites after announcing the resignation of the White House press secretary, President Bush was the victim of another communications failure when his helicopter was prevented from taking off because of a broken radio.

Indeed, the sight of Marine One being grounded provided the type of vivid political symbolism that this US Administration has, in recent months, proved incapable of producing. Scott McClellan’s tormented, sweaty, pink-faced appearances in front of the White House press corps had, for some, become almost too painful to watch.

The living symbol of this White House’s profound and perhaps mortal problem with language and meaning,” was the verdict of the writer Michael Wolff in a recent Vanity Fair article. He’s Piggy in Lord of the Flies: a living victim, whose reason for being is, apparently, to shoulder public ridicule and pain . . . he’s the person would ever choose to be.”

A living victim, indeed.  McCelellan has spews so many lies for the administration and took so much heat….who was behind this?  Scott or George?  I think Scott is just cashing out and going on vacation.  If he narc’s, RW will be very surpised.

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Jay Bennish is a teacher at Overland High School in Aurora, Colorado.  After one many vanilla state of the Union Addresses was broadcast, Bennish told his class, in no uncertain terms what he thought of the Bush Administration. 

"Sounds a lot like the things that Adolf Hitler used to say," Bennish told students at the suburban high school. "We’re the only ones who are right, everyone else is backward, and our job is to conquer the world."

Bennish then qualified the statement saying he was not comparing Bush to Hitler, but that the administration’s rhetoric is “similar to the tones they use”. 

Little Sean Allen, rabid young Neocon, eager to gain recognition, taped the teacher saying these things then turned over the recording to a right wing radio show.  The rest is history, and the Southpark Episode is no doubt underway.

The school district put Bennish on unpaid leave causing over 150 students to walk out of class Thursday to protest freedom of speech violation.  They heckled Allen for being a narc and demonstrated outside the school with signs and by covering their mouths to show their freedom of speech had been violated.

The Neocon’s are not taking this lightly.  The backwards New York Post reported the story in an  article titled “The Case of the Commie Teacher” and encourages students to grab their tape recorders to nail other teachers.  The West Virgina Gazette thinks Bennish should be fired as well as whomever gave his his teaching certificate (Light up the Cross, Boys!).

Bennish’s lawyer, David Lane went on the Mike Rosen Show (that originally aired the recording) Friday and said, “Maybe it’s not mainstream, middle-American opinion, but the rest of the world agrees with him."

Lane added that if Bennish had spoken strongly in support of Bush, he would not be under investigation.  He also said he was looking forward to teaching the school district a lesson in Constitutional Law.

This brings us back to Red Scare of the 40’s and 50’s and McCarthyism.  The slogan “Better Dead than Red” ruled the planet and there was a witch hunt for teachers suspected of teaching the doctrine.  Read about it on the Learn History site, and watch out for it in your neighborhood.

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Since when do Republicans care about funerals? They create them on a daily basis for our poor boys in Iraq. Since when do they care about Black Civil Rights leaders?  There was no crying after the funeral of Rosa Parks last November. And Bush has even refused to personally address the NAACP.

But when King and Queen George Bush have to sit on stage through the Mother of all Snaps, they tend to get a little peeved.

Rev. Joseph Lowery, a co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference who worked for decades with the Kings, made the following remarks during Coretta King’s marathon, 6-hour funeral yesterday (as Bush Jr. and Laura sat on stage, trying to look interested):

"She (Coretta King) extended Martin’s message against poverty, racism and war. She deplored the terror inflicted by our smart bombs on missions way afar. We know now that there were no weapons of mass destruction over there (applause and cheering). But Coretta knew, and we know, that there are weapons of misdirection right down here. Millions without health insurance. Poverty abounds. For war, billions more, but no more for the poor."

This was no different that the remarks Lowery made at Rosa Park’s funeral last November:

50 million people in this country with no health insurance. That’s a weapon of mass destruction. Minimum wage is a weapon of mass destruction. And in the spirit of Rosa Parks, as I take my seat, we must sacramentally understand that drug addiction and drug selling is a weapon of mass self-destruction, and in the spirit of Rosa Parks, we must rise up and sacramentally share that addiction. Finally, we must understand in the spirit of Rosa Parks, in the spirit of saintly womanhood, we must teach our young people as children to stop having children; that’s a weapons of mass self-destruction.

Lowery receive much applause each time he invoked the "no weapons of mass destruction" phase. 

Even former President Jimmy Carter took hits from the defensive Right.  Regarding the slow and misguided response to Hurricane Katrina, Carter stated, "We only have to recall the color of the faces of those in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi who are most devastated by Katrina to know that there are not yet equal opportunities for all Americans."

Carter also brought up that the Kings were victims of "secret government wiretapping and surveillance" and that Coretta and Martin King has the "sanctities of their marriage interfered with" because of this "unlawful surveillance". 

Right on, Jimmy.  Republican commentators are spinning in their chairs over that one. Republican spinsters tossing around accusations of unappropriate behavior at a funeral probably all thought the Civil Rights movement was just a big pain in the pocketbook.

Finally, God bless Coretta King and Rosa Parks.  They were brave women of the Civil Rights movement whose peaceful actions made history - without money and without absolute power.  If I were lying in my casket and heard Lowery speaking so boldly about our situation today, I think I would be proud to have invoked such a debate. 

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Back in may we reported how Tomlinson ramped up his efforts to root out all liberalism at PBS. He fired the CEO, Cathleen Cox, and started tracking the polital leanings on broadcasted programs, specifically the Bill Moyers.

Turns out the entire nation is not asleep and this got the attention of the inspector general. The inspector general’s report is expected to say Tomlinson violated the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, which established the relationship between CPB and PBS, in trying to subvert the independence of public radio and TV.

The CPB is prohibited from producing, distributing or scheduling shows. It was set up by Congress to be a firewall between public broadcasting and the federal government, to protect public broadcasting from political interference as PBS and National Public Radio received federal funds.

So what is illegal about what Tomlinson was doing? He authorized funds for the Moyers’ content study without board approval. He also pimped $5 million in underwriting (from Republican buddies and/or corporations no doubt) to place a conservative public affairs show on the PBS airwaves. He required PBS stations to carry the show.

Reps. David Obey, D-Wis., and John Dingell, D-Mich., sparked the investigation when they called last May for corporation Inspector General Kenneth A. Konz to look into reports that Tomlinson used questionable tactics and corporation funds to exert political influence over public broadcasting.

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Bush Golden Boy, John Roberts, has been making the Democratic Senate circuit, trying to charm his way out of a filibuster. While he has impeccable legal credentials, his judicial record is non existent. Recently he has shown his Republican colors getting himself caught in a lie about being a member of the madly conservative group, the Federalist Society. When confronted by reporters of the Washington post, he denied the allegations. He just smiles and waves.

But make no mistake, when he gets his young self behind the bench of the highest court in the land, he will wreak judicial havoc for many years to come. To the very court his is nominated, Roberts argued to that Roe v Wade should be “overruled”. He won a case blocking doctors in many cases from even discussing reproductive options with their patients. He was one of the circuit court judges that ruled the US could make up their own military tribunals with Guantanamo prisoners.

Tony Perkins of the ultra-conservative Family Research Council said “The President … promised to nominate someone along the lines of a Scalia or a Thomas and that is exactly what he has done.” Pat Robertson said Roberts was “at the top” of his own list of candidates for the court vacancy. James Dobson of Focus on the Family called Roberts “unquestionably qualified”

Think little dancin’ Jake likes Sponge Bob? It is the Rublican way of late to have a gay scion.

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The FEC has let Sinclair Broadcasting off the hook by ruling the media mogul (which currently reaches one quarter of all televisions in the United States) did not violate federal election law by running portions of the politically-biased documentary, “Stolen Honor”, critical of John Kerry’s Vietnam-era anti-war activities.

The DNC filed the FEC complaint on October 12, 2004, contending that showing the film would be an illegal in-kind contribution to President Bush’s campaign. Kerry’s campaign asked that each station carrying the program give a similar amount of time to Kerry supporters.

Most recently, the FEC has also taken up arms against bloggers, trying to regulate them as an asset to a political campaign, and trying to put a price on the exposure.

“One really good question that needs to be asked is, ‘How do you value this stuff?’ ” Weintraub, FEC commissioner said, referring to their investigation on the value of blogger exposure.

How can they come after a blogger that pays 5 bucks a month to throw up a site when the Republican Party practically owns FOX news?

Here is the strategy next election, just contribute money to the corrupt broadcasting companies to have them air fake documentaries about your opponent. Better yet, just have the President produce more fake news on the American tax payer’s bill thereby saving you the cost and expense.

That way, technically, you haven’t spent a dime.

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There’s more to Edward Klein than meets the eye. In his book about Hilary, Edward Klein reveals nothing about Hillary and volumes about Edward Klein. The majority of his book writing career has focused on Jackie-O. His novels about her go on about what a love story romance John and Jackie Kennedy had. Jackie stood by her man during his infidelities

In a 2003 interview about his new book on the Kennedy’s, he defended the infidelity of Kennedy by saying he had a cool and rejecting mother, and that caused them to reach out to women. Klein surmised that Kennedy “hated” committing the infidelity because it made them “feel weak as men”.

Enter Hillary. She is a strong and politically powerful woman, just as Jackie-O was. So why the hatred? Hilary has direct power where Jackie had indirect power. Jackie makes Klein feel like he can ride in like a white knight and save the day, whereas Hillary does not need his help. Therefore she is a tyrant. Brush up on your Jungian philosophy.

In an interview with the National Review on June 20, Klein states about Hillary “How can she stand his (Bill Clinton’s) chronic infidelity?”. Probability the same way Jackie-O could, but he just can’t make himself admit it. In his book he even implies Chelsea is a child of rape. He obviously holds different standard for these two great women.

When asked if he was worried about presenting so many anonymous sources in the book, he responded, referring to himself in third person, that the author has impeccable credentials. He also compares himself to Woodward and Bernstein of Watergate fame, citing that they, too, had anonymous credentials. Illusions of grandeur are also present in Klein’s psyche.

You, Edward Klein, need a shrink before you hurt someone.

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According to the New York Times, the Republican chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is aggressively pressing public television to correct what he and other conservatives at PBS consider liberal bias. Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, said Republican, is mistakenly confusing a liberal bias with conservative malfeasance.

Without the knowledge of his board, chairman Tomlinson contracted last year with an outside consultant to keep track of the guests’ political leanings on one program, “Now With Bill Moyers.” The exact tracking criteria was not released, but they did investigate the bias of the bumperstickers and t-shirts owned by each guest.

Mr. Tomlinson fired PBS president and CEO, Cathleen Cox, in order to replace her with Patrician Harrison. Although there is a national search firm looking into her replacement, Tomlinson has made clear to the board that his choice is Harrison, a former co-chairwoman of the Republican National Committee who is now an assistant secretary of state.

Tomlinson has repeatedly criticized public television programs as too liberal overall, and said in a NYTimes interview, “I frankly feel at PBS headquarters there is a tone deafness to issues of tone and balance.” Perhaps it is all the gunfire over in Iraq that has deadened his ear drums.

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Who: One of five FCC Board Commissioners (appointed during 2nd Bush Regime)

What: Voted for the deregulation of the media in June 2003.

Detail: Abernathy is another Bush appointee from 2001. Defending her decision to vote for deregulation, Abernathy said, "Any restraint placed on broadcasters’ free speech rights must be a reasonable means to further our public interest goals. The federal court opinions specifically tell me that any restrictions we place on ownership must be based on concrete evidence - not on fear and speculation about hypothetical media monopolies intent on exercising some type of Vulcan mind control over the American people." Since that decision we have seen Clear Channel put up billboards praising "Our Leader". What next? Perhaps a statue of Bush on the White House lawn with his hand raised the sky, blessing America as only God can. Scary.

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