A North Palm Beach, Florida radio station has announced that they will be testing a new program to be hosted by congressional sexual predator, Mark Foley.
As a refresher, Foley was the Republican representative of the 16th district of Florida. He resigned his seat after it had been revealed that he had engaged in sexually explicit communications with Congressional pages, some of them underage.
Now WSVU is preparing for broadcast what may be the first episode of “Inside the Mind of Mark Foley.” Now there’s a place I surely would not want to go. The selection of that name suggests a certain tone deafness by the folks at WSVU. But the irony couldn’t be any worse than the station’s call letters themselves, which mirror the name of the television crime drama “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.” How appropriate is it that the station that presently airs Don Imus, and is seeking to put Foley on it’s roster has call letters that bring to mind sexual perversity and assault?
Joe Raineri, the show’s producer, when asked about the project being syndicated said “I don’t see anything stopping it.” Really? Not even the fact that the host is a sleazeball who was forced to resign from Congress in disgrace? I suppose that in the world of talk radio, that may not be an impediment to success. After all, convicted felons Ollie North and G. Gordon Liddy haven’t been hurt by their malfeasance. And the number one talk radio personality, Rush Limbaugh, is still riding high (pun intended) after getting caught in an Oxy-Contin scandal.
Here’s a taste of the program from a promotional snippet:
“So do you want to know what’s inside the mind of Mark Foley? A real insider’s view into the inner workings of Washington, D.C.”
No I don’t. And this is just what we need – more bloviating from Washington insiders. There certainly isn’t enough of that in the media.
Fox News is reporting its distinctly dishonest version of a story concerning voter registration fraud in Miami. The article on the Fox News home page features a blaring headline and photo that declares an “ACORN INSULT” has been made against the late Paul Newman in commission of voter fraud. Clicking the link to the full article delivers Fox’s story about eleven ACORN workers for whom warrants have issued in conjunction with an investigation. Only here does Fox reveal at least part of the truth with a headline that reads “ACORN Turns in Florida Workers on Voter Fraud Charges.”
That’s right, ACORN turned in the fraudulent registration forms and the employees responsible for them. How does that square with the sensationalistic rhetoric about “insults” that Fox attributed to ACORN?
But the gesture Fox made after clicking the false headline still did not repair the error. The case against the ACORN employees was not one of voter fraud. It was voter registration fraud. The distinction is significant because the former can produce an improperly cast ballot. However, in these cases of registration fraud, there was no possibility that fake votes could occur. What’s more, the actual victim of the crime is ACORN itself, as they were being duped by personnel attempting to receive payment for work they did not do.
Another problem with Fox’s reporting is that it took them until halfway through the story to address the fact that it was ACORN who turned in the false registrations and employees. In a terse, single sentence, Fox conceded that a spokesperson for the Florida state attorney’s office told Fox that it was ACORN who alerted the authorities to the crimes. Fox didn’t bother to go further and report that the state attorney’s office praised ACORN for their diligence, saying…
“We’ve been very aggressive about a lot of these cases. But we would not have known about these workers unless ACORN brought it to us.”
Finally, Fox closes their article with a reprise of insinuations against ACORN for fraudulent activity during last year’s presidential campaign. Once again, those accusations were brought to the attention of authorities by ACORN. But Fox merely reports that “ACORN’s activities were frequently questioned…” Fox does not report that it was Fox, and the conservative organizations they front for, who were doing the questioning.
This is just another in the endless stream of bias that is part and parcel of the “fair and balanced” pseudo-news enterprise that is best known for how it Fakes News.
That’s right, you heard me. Van Jones defeats Glenn Beck.
The big news of the night is that Van Jones, the President’s advisor on green jobs and the economy, has resigned under pressure from far-right brownshirts. On the surface this is disappointing, to say the least. Jones has proven himself to be a creative and effective advocate for environmental reform. His book, “The Green Collar Economy,” became a best-seller despite having little support from the conventional publishing circles. But after weeks of battling rightist slander and disinformation, Jones issued this statement:
I am resigning my post at the Council on Environmental Quality, effective today.
On the eve of historic fights for health care and clean energy, opponents of reform have mounted a vicious smear campaign against me. They are using lies and distortions to distract and divide.
I have been inundated with calls – from across the political spectrum – urging me to “stay and fight.”
But I came here to fight for others, not for myself. I cannot in good conscience ask my colleagues to expend precious time and energy defending or explaining my past. We need all hands on deck, fighting for the future.
It has been a great honor to serve my country and my President in this capacity. I thank everyone who has offered support and encouragement. I am proud to have been able to make a contribution to the clean energy future. I will continue to do so, in the months and years ahead.
The near-term downside to this is that the residents of the Beck Asylum for Paranoid Thumb Suckers are going to be celebrating triumphantly for a while. That will be annoying but bearable. Beck himself will feel emboldened and anxious to take aim at a new target. He has already laid the ground work for post-Jones assaults on Valerie Jarrett and Mark Lloyd. (Do I need to point out that Jones, Jarrett and Lloyd are all African American members of the Obama administration?)
My personal regret is centered on what I consider to be a flaw in the administration’s strategy. I suspect that they view this matter as a distraction and want to focus on health care. That is a worthy goal. However, to the extent that this is a distraction, it will not be alleviated by jettisoning Jones. For the rightist bullies Jones was not really the issue. He was a symbol and, with him out of the way, they will just find another symbol to attack. Consequently, Obama will not be relieved of the so-called distraction. It will just have a new face attached to it. The question is, how will he respond to the next contrived controversy? How many qualified and capable advisors will be hung out to dry in a vain search for comity – an outcome for which Republicans have zero interest.
But Beck and his ilk may rue the day they set Jones free. As a private citizen he will not be constrained by diplomacy and the political fear of controversy. He will be able to speak with conviction and take aim at the real villains in our midst. The organization he co-founded, Color of Change, was largely responsible for Beck losing 57 advertisers (so far). And, let’s face, Beck’s obsession with Jones was driven by vengeance for that association, even though Jones has not been affiliated with the group for over two years. Clearly Beck is afraid of Jones, hence the incessant coverage. But Beck has made a serious strategic error, because Jones is a far bigger threat to Beck outside of government than inside of it.
The effectiveness of the advertiser boycott can now be expanded upon by an unfettered Jones, who can bring his skill, experience, and passion to a new field of battle. He will be joined by an invigorated community of reform-minded Americans who believe that aggressive advocacy will lead to social, political, and legislative victories. Beck has given Jones a gift of sorts, in the form of valuable and hard to procure media attention. If Sarah Palin and Joe the Plumber can parley their media notoriety into national prominence, despite their abundance of ignorance and deficit of charisma, just imagine what Jones can do. This fight has only just begun, and progressive activists are committed to principle, not President or party. We will not be cowed by demagogues and fear mongers.
If Glenn Beck is proud that he was able to demonize an honest and patriotic man like Van Jones, he may soon discover that he is not immune from the hardball tactics he employed to tarnish this man’s reputation. There is plenty of video evidence of Beck’s repulsive commentaries wherein he…
agreed that America’s only hope is for Bin Laden to blow us up.
accused Obama of having a deep seated hatred of white people (but isn’t a racist?).
Glenn Beck hates America. He has said so explicitly. He proves it everyday with his hate-filled screeds and his promotion of anti-American rhetoric. His show is a compendium of insults, provocations to violence, secession, and revolt. It is imperative that his treasonous ravings be exposed so that the people can make an informed judgment of him. And Fox News must be held accountable as well for their complicity in this abomination of truth and justice. Even though the inanity of Fox News has done more to hurt the Republican Party than anything the Democrats have done, they must still shoulder the responsibility for the harm they produce to civil discourse and honest journalism.
If you believe this country is great but it is suffering from a tiny but virulent infection of hatred and stupidity, then stand up and, come on, follow me.
Update: Beck responds to Van Jones resignation – and proves my point:
“The American people stood up and demanded answers. Instead of providing them, the Administration had Jones resign under cover of darkness. I continue to be amazed by the power of everyday Americans to initiate change in our government through honest questioning, and judging by the other radicals in the administration, I expect that questioning to continue for the foreseeable future.”
As I said above, this distraction will not be alleviated by Jones’ resignation. Beck will continue to make mischief for “the foreseeable future” regardless of what Obama does. Therefore, Obama should just Ignore Beck and Fox News altogether.
A little over two years ago I wrote an article titled, The Cult Of Foxonality™. It’s premise was that…
“Fox viewers appear to be more loyal to Fox than to Republicans or conservatism. This misdirected allegiance bestows a far more influential authority onto a media entity than ought ever to be considered. It suggests that the bombastic demagogues that Fox has shaped into celebrity anchors truly do weigh down their transfixed disciples.”
That piece employed an analysis of ratings and viewer habits at the time that confirmed that Fox News viewers were wedded to their cable hearth and would not be moved. Subsequent events reinforced the theory. For instance, prior to the election, a Rasmussen poll reported that nine out of ten Fox News viewers intended to vote for John McCain. That’s a higher percentage of McCain voters than amongst Republicans.
Recently, Fox News has been building on their ratings dominance. In an attempt to understand why Fox would be increasing their audience at a time when Republicans are reaching new lows, I revisited the cult hypothesis. No other model adequately explains the stark divergence of the fates of Fox News and the Republican Party.
Looking at the current cable news landscape, there is an obvious separation of the primary players. Fox News is far and away the leader. MSNBC is the spunky challenger that has recently overtaken the old master, CNN. It would be easy to assign labels that reflect the partisan programming philosophy of these networks. However, in truth, there is only one truly partisan network among them.
Fox News’ success is firmly rooted in its primetime lineup. With Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, and Greta Van Susteren all easily winning their time periods. Add to that Glenn Beck’s arrival that has put him in competition with perennial leader O’Reilly. But it doesn’t stop there.
Fox’s business anchor (and head of their business network) is Neil Cavuto, an aggressively conservative advocate for right-wing viewpoints. Fox’s Washington editor is the blatantly partisan Bill Sammon. The White House correspondent is the equally biased Major Garrett. The Fox morning program is an almost laughable cliche of wingnut dunces.
Compare that to MSNBC’s schedule that consists of only two reliable liberals. Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow. [Edit: Add Ed Schultz] Chris Matthews swings both ways and is close buddies with folks like Tom Delay and Rudy Giuliani. Their morning program is three hours hosted by the conservative Republican, former congressman, Joe Scarborough. (Can you imagine Fox News giving three daily hours of airtime to a liberal Democrat?) CNN has become devoid of any personality at all. Their leading figures are null types like Larry King and Anderson Cooper. Although Lou Dobbs does stand out a bit.
So here is the interesting part. Glenn Beck was on CNN just a few months ago with nowhere near the audience he has today on Fox. CNN’s Dobbs, and MSNBC’s Scarborough are as conservative as anyone on Fox, but they can’t duplicate those numbers. What this tells us is that cable news success has little to do with partisanship. If it did, Dobbs and Scarborough would be doing Fox-like business, and Beck would not have had to move to Fox to find an audience. But he did have to move. Because Fox viewers, despite their obvious idolization of him now, were not going to go to CNN to see him. And it wasn’t because they didn’t know who he was. He was already the third biggest star on talk radio.
Therefore, the key to the popularity of Fox is that it is Fox. Their viewers are not interested in programs that feature the same ideology if presented on other networks. CNN could hire Sarah Palin and she would flop. But not on Fox. In fact, I would wager that if Dobbs and/or Scarborough shifted to Fox, everyone would be astonished at their newfound popularity.
Fox is the home of the forlorn, conservative, tea bagging, town howler. They have found their happy place, and they have no intention of moving from it. It is what gives them solace in a time when liberals (or socialists/fascists) have taken over the House, the Senate, and even put a dark-skinned, Muslim, illegal alien in the White House. They need the camaraderie. They need the affirmation. They need the reassurance that the world isn’t crumbling beneath them (or in Beck’s case, that it is). They are even marketing the Fox Nation web site with the undisguised message of a promise of togetherness.
It’s just so sad. I think I’m gonna cry. But that would be Glenn Beck’s shtick.
In the 1982 film Blade Runner, Rutger Hauer plays a replicant (human clone) who returns to Earth from an extraterrestrial labor colony to find what all humans want – more life. In a climactic scene with Harrison Ford he tries to convey the depth of his passion for life saying that “I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe.” His character’s name is Roy Batty. And batty would certainly describe Glenn Beck’s latest hallucinatory escapade in pursuit of demonizing progressives. He too is seeing things, and yes, we don’t believe it. [See Beck’s previous Messianic Delusions]
“I’m trying to show you the things that seem to be hidden but they’re not. They are out in plain sight. Those with eyes will not see and those with ears will not hear. You’re awake. You need to see the things that are hidden in plain sight.”
Those with fingers will not touch and those with feet will not smell. If only some of those with tongues did not speak.
Beck has used his divine vision to reveal the evidence of Satan’s secret seeds. Planted amongst us are the vile devices of communists and fascists meant to steal our thoughts and sway our allegiances to the dark side. And what are these tricks of the netherworld’s master? They are paintings and sculptures and other works by history’s subversives – the artists! These mental traps were set decades ago by devious social perverts with a century long plot and an abundance of patience.
In this sermon (captured on YouTube), Beck associates the evil artists with their patron, Rockefeller. Unfortunately, he doesn’t specify which one. In fact, he jumps around to several of them without making any distinction. It’s as if they were all incarnations of the same demon spirit. Was Beck referring to John D. Rockefeller, Sr., the ultra-capitalist business maven who founded Standard Oil? Or was it his son, the real estate magnate who built Rockefeller Center? Or was it Nelson, who was the Republican Governor of New York and Vice President of the United States? Or was it Jay, the current Senator from West Virginia? No matter. In Beck’s mind, they were all socialist stooges.
Beck begins his unveiling with a denouncement of a relief at the entrance to Rockefeller Center. The work shows two men on either side of the doors. Beck tells us that one is holding a hammer, and the other a sickle. Ergo communism! It’s right there in plain sight. Except that the first man is actually holding a shovel according to the historians curating the Center’s artwork. The figures were meant to represent the strength of America’s industry and agriculture, which I’m sure Beck views as treasonous.
Then Beck focuses on a bas relief carving by Italian American sculptor Attilio Piccirilli called Youth Leading Industry. Beck’s interpretation of this work centers on his theory that the artist, and thus the work, were avowedly fascist. Beck asserts that a strong male figure in the piece is Mussolini. Whether or not that’s true, and there is some debate, it is illustrative of Beck’s dementia that he can jump from warnings about progressives being communists to progressives being fascists without taking a breath. In the real world, Mussolini was a bitter foe of Stalin and vice versa. And the artwork itself is simply heralding a young, creative, and prosperous America. Another subversive concept in Beck’s mind.
Turning to a more conventional subject matter for art, Beck finds fault with a biblical representation of the verse regarding turning swords into plowshares. I’m not even sure what Beck’s complaint is here, but he’s upset about something. Perhaps it just has to do with the fact that there is another swords/plowshares sculpture on the grounds of the United Nations. And the site for the U.N. was donated by – Rockefeller. Obviously there’s something sinister in there somewhere. I also like Beck’s explanation for why he keeps his own sculpture depicting the swords and plowshares. It isn’t because of the message of a peace delivered by God. It’s because it reminds him that something beautiful (the statue) can come from someplace ugly (Russia). Evidently he has never heard Tchaikovsky or seen Chagall or read Dostoyevsky.
The next piece for which Beck provides his striking analysis is a painting by renowned Mexican artist Diego Rivera. Beck is concerned by the presence of people like Stalin and Lenin in the artwork. The funny thing about this hypothesis is that the painting Beck is reviewing doesn’t exist at Rockefeller Center. Beck is reviewing a version of the painting that Rockefeller rejected because of his objection to the very iconography that Beck is pointing out. Rockefeller had commissioned a work from a draft that did not contain those elements. Yet Beck still blames him for the piece he had thrown out. And, of course, it is not one of those works of propaganda that Beck said is hidden in plain sight. Unless you’re walking around Mexico City.
For Glenn Beck to set himself up as an art critic/historian is funnier than anything Monty Python ever thought up. While his interpretations lack any knowledge of the subject, they are jam-packed with paranoid fantasies that would make David Berkowitz’ dog shudder. And Beck is the only one who can see any of it. He’s the only one who can see that Rockefeller (whichever one) was not a capitalist captain of industry at all, but a clandestine communist (or was it fascist) revolutionary. He is the only one who can see the coded symbols in the wicked artwork.
Beck has just recently recognized the malicious power of art as propaganda. He took on the National Endowment for the Arts for holding a tele-conference with artists for the purpose of promoting public service and volunteerism. Now I actually would have agreed with him that that may be outside the mandate of the NEA, but his manic distortions of reality make it impossible to even tangentially agree with anything that comes out of his warped brain. If he regards an initiative to boost the Peace Corps as a dangerous example of propaganda, how can he be taken seriously?
Rightist demagogues have long feared the power of artistic expression. In January of 2003, shortly before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Colin Powell assembled the media at the United Nations to comment on his presentation in support of war. But before the media arrived, the tapestry of Picasso’s masterpiece, Guernica, was covered by a blue drape. A press conference to discuss launching an unprecedented war of aggression could not be held in front of one of the twentieth century’s most moving anti-war statements. The symbolism of literally throwing a blanket over this representation of truth is unmistakable.
But Beck is not demystifying art, he is attacking it. He is assigning false intentions to the artists and their work. He is denigrating these long-respected icons of free expression and celebrations of American prosperity and spirit. And worst of all, Beck is virtually inviting his disciples to do harm to these works, or any others in which they imagine horrors lurking. He is no better than the Taliban mullahs who destroyed the Buddhas of Bamyan, giant statues in Afghanistan that were over 1,500 years old.
If Mullah Omar had a show on the Taliban Fox Network he would have been making the same sort of claims about the Buddhas that Beck is making about this art. Hopefully Americans are more tolerant than the Afghans that allowed Omar to blow up the Buddhas. And hopefully they are smarter than Beck and his congregation of glassy-eyed followers who wouldn’t know art if it was right in front of them everyday – like the over 100 works commissioned for Rockefeller Center.
The faux patriots at Fox Nation are continuing to make a habit of exploiting the image of 9/11 and contriving false and negative associations with Democrats. This time Rupert Murdoch and Co. have outdone themselves by accusing President Obama of politicizing the anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Center and other targets.
It takes a pretty hefty portion of chutzpah for the Fox Nationalists to sell this falsehood. Particularly in light of how brazenly they themselves have been politicizing 9/11:
In this latest episode, Fox Nation links to an article at RedState, the blog of the uber-rightist magazine, Human Events. The RedState column credits the equally right-wing Heritage Foundation for discovering what they characterize as a despicable act of political exploitation.
What these stalwart detectives found was a notice on the website of Organizing for America (OFA), the Democratic National Committee’s social networking site for Democratic activists. Note: This is NOT a site that is affiliated with the White House or the President.
The offending notice was posted by a user seeking participants for a health care reform event. The notice itself could reasonably be regarded as offensive and inappropriate, but no more so than what Fox Nation has published itself.
“Sep 11, is Patriot Day, designated in memory of the nearly three thousand who died in the 9/11 attacks.
“All 50 States are coordinating in this – as we fight back against our own Right-Wing Domestic Terrorists who are subverting the American Democratic Process, whipped to a frenzy by their Fox Propaganda Network ceaselessly re-seizing power for their treacherous leaders.”
I can’t say that I disagree with the assessment of Fox News, but the reference to right-wing domestic terrorists was unnecessarily contentious. However, the response by Heritage/RedState/Fox Nation is ludicrous beyond imagination.
First of all, the OFA web site is a user driven site. That means that anyone can post comments, blogs and even announcements of upcoming events, as is the case here. So those responsible for the site’s administration (the DNC) cannot be blamed for inappropriate material that they did not produce or authorize. The site’s administrator did become aware of the posting and promptly removed it. Now you would think that the martinets of manners at RedState would be assuaged, even encouraged, by this behavior, but no. They quickly leaped to a new accusation that the web site had “scrubbed” the embarrassing content. How can OFA win? If they leave the posting up, they are guilty of denigrating the memory of 9/11. If they take it down, they are alleged to be hiding something.
Remember, this is the same organization that permitted Michael Scheuer to appear with Glenn Beck and openly root for another terrorist attack on America:
“…the only chance we have as a country right now is for Osama bin Laden to deploy and detonate a major weapon in the United States.”
So, does Murdoch’s organization want another 9/11? That sounds much more plausible than the assertion that Obama’s organization is politicizing 9/11. This is nothing more than the routine disingenuous outrage from people who only know how to stir up mischief, even when none occurs. And for the Fox Nationalists to raise the ante by publishing gut wrenching photos of the 9/11 attack, with a completely dishonest headline, is the height of cynical and grotesque politicization. Especially after all of the examples above of obvious and intentional politicization on the part of Fox.
But don’t get comfortable yet. Fox News has been running promos today for tonight’s O’Reilly Factor that promise to blow the lid off of this fake scandal. So this nonsense is going from a bunch of ignorant think tankers and bloggers, to the number one cable news program in America.
Posted by Mark NC on September 2, 2009 at 9:58 am.
NOComments :
When Charlie Gibson approached ABC News president David Westin to advise him of his intention to step down as anchor of ABC’s World News Tonight, I have to wonder if Westin asked, “In what respect, Charlie?”
Gibson hardly distinguished himself as an anchor or an editor. The moist prominent role he played was as a pitifully poor moderator for a Democratic presidential primary debate in Philadelphia, where he was universally panned.
Diane Sawyer has been announced as Gibson’s replacement. She is presently the host of ABC’s morning show, Good Morning America. But it is notable that she was once Richard Nixon’s press aide and was on the team that prepped him for the Nixon/Frost interviews.
Despite Sawyer’s political past, I think she’s marginally an improvement over Gibson. Plus, it will mean that two of the Big Three networks have female news anchors. That is a profound advancement in a business that is notoriously male-dominated, and has been for decades. It could bring some new perspectives to television news. These broadcast news programs have twice the viewership of the highest rated cable news programs, so her exposure will be significant.
The rate at which the wheels are coming off of Glenn Beck’s crazy train is dizzying. He must surely be disturbed by the success of the campaign that has resulted in forty-six advertisers (so far) ditching his program. It shows in his obsession over Van Jones, whom Beck still neglects to inform his audience was a co-founder of Color of Change, the group spearheading the advertiser boycott (although Jones has had no affiliation with the group in over two years).
Beck is continuing his practice of taking things out of context and twisting them into ghastly conspiracies. For instance, he played a clip from a speech Jones gave wherein Jones sought to inform people that the environmental movement is not just about solar panels and hybrid cars. It has to be considered more fully to include the broad spectrum of eco-issues, i.e. water safety and availability, endangered species, agricultural reform, etc. Beck played a clipped (three times) of Jones saying…
“This movement is deeper than a solar panel! Deeper than a solar panel! Don’t stop there! Don’t stop there! We’re gonna change the whole system! We’re gonna change the whole thing!”
Beck then contorted that to mean that Jones was advocating changing the whole government, presumably to some sort of Muslim Socialist dictatorship. But then, Beck can’t be blamed for the hallucinatory fantasies that crowd his diseased brain. On his show today he exhibits more of the messianic delusions that have made his train-wreck of show so popular:
“You know… I… I’d really like to share with you a personal story from today, but I can’t, because it puts my family in danger.” [Because everybody is after you, aren’t they?]
“Do you think I want to get on the air every night and tell you this stuff?” [Of course not. God is commanding that you do it.]
“Do you know who I am?” [We know who you are, Glenn. And we’re watching you right now.]
“The media will say ‘he’s just a clown.’ Well you know what, I am a clown. I am a guy who just…I just want to have laughs and fun, I’m a capitalist, I want to make money, all that stuff.” [Well then, mission accomplished, you fun-loving rascal.]
“I want to live my life with my family. I don’t want to have to live with security, and walls, and gates, and everything else. Do you think I want to live that way? Maybe there are some people like that. That ain’t me. That is not me.” [If only there was some way that you could retire and enjoy your life and family and money.]
“I don’t want to believe these things, but unfortunately I find them true.” [The voices compel you to believe. You can’t resist.]
“They can take my job and they can take my wealth but that’s okay….even if the powers to be, right now, succeed in making me poor, drum me out, and I’m just a worthless loser… which I’m just about that much above that now… I will only be stronger for it. “I will use American ingenuity and my ingenuity to pull myself up, and I will find another way to get my message out on a platform that will be a thousand times more powerful! Because of my faith, I know how this story ends. The truth will set you free! America, you prepare to witness mighty and powerful miracles in your lifetime!”
~~~
“Many people will ask you, ‘Well, if these things are so true, why is that only Glenn Beck is saying them?’ Believe me, I have asked myself that question many, many nights. Usually about 2:00am when I couldn’t sleep. Why is no one else asking these questions?”
~~~
“You ever see those movies where they say, ‘I gave a note to my attorney, and if I’m found dead, open the note.’ I kind of feel like you’re my attorney. If I show up, you know, in Thailand, dead from auto-erotic asphyxiation, don’t believe it.”
~~~
“If I’m ever in a weird car accident, or I commit suicide or something, after the media stops celebrating my death, could they check into it? Because I’m not suicidal. And I’m a pretty good driver.”
~~~
“I fear that there will come a time when I cannot say things that I am currently saying. I fear that it will come to television and to radio, and I will stop saying these things. Understand me clearly. Hear me now. If I ever stop saying these things, you will know why. Because I will have made a choice that I can only say certain things, and I haven’t lost all of the rights. But know that these things are true. And if you hear me stop saying these things, it’s because I can no longer say them to you. But hear them between the sentences. Hear them, please. I will be screaming them to you.”
Fox News is reporting its distinctly dishonest version of a story concerning voter registration fraud in Miami. The article on the Fox News home page features a blaring headline and photo that declares an “ACORN INSULT” has been made against the late Paul Newman in commission of voter fraud. Clicking the link to 
Recently, Fox News has been building on their ratings dominance. In an attempt to understand why Fox would be increasing their audience at a time when Republicans are 
