The G.O.P. Morphs Into The G.O.Tea

Posted by on February 7, 2010 at 11:36 pm. 2 Comments :

The National Tea Party Convention is over, but the battle for the soul of the so-called “movement” continues. Sarah Palin set the tone at her keynote speech to close the affair:

“The Republican Party would be really smart to start trying to absorb as much of the Tea Party movement as possible because this is the future of our country. The Tea Party movement is the future of politics.”

Sarah Palin's Crib NotesThe “future of politics” is typical Palin hyperbole. Clearly she doesn’t understand what she’s saying. This is a woman who just got through mocking President Obama for using a TelePrompter, while she has crib notes written on her hand for a Q and A to follow her speech; A woman who told her adoring audience not to be afraid of being God-fearing; A woman who told Chris Wallace that Obama could ace his reelection if he were to “play the war card” by attacking Iran. This is the same woman who thinks it would be smart for the GOP to absorb the Tea Baggers.

On that measure she is not alone. Despite protestations from ostensibly neutral players, leading figures in both the Tea Party and the Republican Party believe that they are made for each other. This contradicts those who say that Tea Baggers are non-partisan and are angry with both parties equally. The truth is that the Baggers were always more closely aligned with Republicans and the evidence is their own words:

John Boehner, House Minority Leader: There really is no difference between what Republicans believe in and what the tea party activists believe in.

Michael Steele, Republican Party Chairman: It’s important for our party to appreciate and understand that so we can move toward it, and embrace it.

Mark Skoda, Tea Party Leader: This movement is beginning to mature … not as a third party but a force to be reckoned with in the traditional party structure.

Carl Cameron, Fox News: They plan to establish separate spin off political action committees to fund raise for candidates who back Tea Party goals and the official Republican National Committee platform.

Newt Gingrich, Former GOP House Speaker: If the Republican Party offers a positive alternative in a way that Tea Party activists and independents join them, the tide could turn.

At this point it is inescapable that the Tea Party is a functional subsidiary of the GOP. Much of it’s original organizing muscle was provided by establishment Republican operatives like Dick Armey’s FreedomWorks and GOP PR firm Russo Marsh & Rogers. And now heavy-hitter Republicans like Palin are gripping the Baggers in a polar bear hug. All of this needs to be remembered when lazy or dishonest members of the press try to pretend that partisanship isn’t playing a part in this phony movement.

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The Tea Baggers Ball: Prom Night With Palin

Posted by on February 6, 2010 at 6:27 pm. 4 Comments :

Icantstandit-Icantstandit-Icantstandit. Sarah’s almost here. OMG!

Tonight’s the night that the Queen Tea Bagger, Sarah Palin, addresses the hive. News reports have indicated a high level of anticipation with some Baggers saying that they only came to see Palin and didn’t care about Tea. I’m a little skeptical because the convention’s web site still says there are tickets available. Maybe they just don’t know how to update their site.

Perhaps the anticipation is really for the potential Queen fight. The Queen of the Birthers, Orly Taitz, showed up in Nashville today and word has it that the media fled in mortal fear of being smothered by her. Those brave enough to stick around are hoping to get a front row seat as the rival Queens battle for camera angles.

This morning featured a stem-winding oratory by Drudge-spawn, Andrew Breitbart. His rabid rant, complete with frothing and spittle, was a non-stop harangue directed at the press – who were dutifully covering the whole thing from the back of the room. Breitbart delivered one contrived applause line after another, and the audience did their part like the good Pavlovians they are.

Outside the convention hall there were demonstrators who alleged that the convention organizers had hijacked the Tea Party movement for their own greedy purposes. It’s not likely they will be well received by the “establishment” Baggers. Especially after saying this:

“We don’t need Sarah Palin to be the face of our movement.”

Uh oh. Sacrilege never goes down easy. Even conservative icon David Frum is less than enamored with the Baggers. he penned a column today titled “Tea Party’s Fifteen Minutes Are Up, based on his visit to the ball.

Andrew Breitbart is introducing Palin. So far he has lauded her for being the first to talk about “death panels” and for referring to community organizers as thugs. Really? This is what she should be hailed for? Lies and insults?

Sarah opened with the courageous twofer that she is “proud to be an American” and a birthday wish for Ronald Reagan. Then she segued to a joke about Obama’s TelePrompter [insert rimshot here] that she read from her notecards.

Don’t wear yourselves out people. Chris Wallace has Sarah for the full hour tomorrow on Fox News Sunday.


Glenn Beck’s Common Cause With Al Qaeda

Posted by on February 6, 2010 at 11:46 am. 12 Comments :

This week Fox News discovered a videotape that they have been giving quite a bit of airtime. It features Yasir Qadhi, an American born Islamic scholar who once gave religious instruction to the accused underwear bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmuttalab. The video shows Qadhi expressing consternation that under democracy the law of man supersedes the law of God.

Qadhi: Can you believe it, a group of people coming together and voting and the majority vote will then be the law of the land? What gives you the right to prohibit something or allow something? Who gave you this right? Are you creators? Are you all-knowledgeable?

That, of course, is an untenable position that is contrary to the most cherished principles of our nation. It is also precisely the position held by the Christian extremists in this country. It is the philosophy of the American Taliban that is so perfectly articulated by Glenn Beck.

Beck: Endowed by their creator. Not endowed by their senator or their regulatory czar or their president. God is the grantor of rights. No one else. […] If God is somehow or other cut out of the rights process, you get all of your rights from government. That is in essence what our founders fought against. Government bestowing rights.

Beck has the same animus for democracy as Qadhi. They both discount the role of citizens to direct their society in favor of a social order mandated by religious doctrine. Contrary to Beck’s assertion, that is what our founders fought against. But as Fox News flaunts this video of a negligible Muslim teacher, it’s too bad they won’t provide the context for their audience to see that our country has people who hold similarly repugnant views; that dwelling on fringe characters like Qadhi is insulting to most Muslims; and that American theocrats with television shows are far more dangerous.


The Tea Party Nation Is [Still] Revolting

Posted by on February 5, 2010 at 3:24 pm. 4 Comments :

…Have you ever eaten with one?

The assembly of Tea Baggers kicked off with a surprising omission in their Patriopathic™ zeal to commence the festivities. They neglected to praise the Lord with an opening prayer. They also decided to forego the Pledge of Allegiance. In one fell swoop they dissed both God and country. And that’s not all. There were no American flags flying in the convention hall. The organizers blamed the hotel staff for the absence of flags. I wonder if the hotel staff also kept the prayer and the pledge from taking place. Those Opryland hospitality associates are well known socialist sympathizers.

And speaking of socialists, the convention’s opening keynote was delivered by former congressman Tom Tancredo who declared that…

President Obama was elected because “we do not have a civics, literacy test before people can vote in this country.” [And] “People who could not spell the word vote or say it in English put a committed socialist ideologue in the White House — name is Barack Hussein Obama”

The Bagger community regards itself as a movement of “regular” folks. Yet they received Tancredo enthusiastically despite his pronouncement that voters are stupid and shouldn’t be permitted to participate in the electoral process without passing an exam (that most Baggers would fail). And they may have missed a history lesson or two if they think it’s a good idea to advocate a return to Jim Crow-era policies.

Voter registration is a big issue with the Baggers. A recent poll showed that 52% of GOP voters think that ACORN stole the election in 2008. So the Baggers are preparing a counterattack. Bridget Geegan Blanton of Smart Girl Politics led a convention seminar on how to avoid registering Democrats. She said in her state of California, she’s required by law to give a voter registration form to anyone who asks, even a Democrat. But she added that she’s not obligated to mail it in for them. In her remarks she was careful to say that she would give the form back to the voter who could then mail it in on his own. But I wonder how many people in her audience left with the impression that Democratic registration forms collected during Tea Party voter drives need not be submitted?

David Weigel, of the Washington Independent reports that there are more than 150 credentialed reporters at the convention. Since there are about 600 registered attendees, that’s one reporter for every four Baggers. But the the most bizarre news about the news media is that Joseph Basel is one of the credentialed reporters. Basel, you may recall, is one of James O’Keefe’s accomplices arrested in the notorious Landrieu Sting fiasco. So Basel impersonated a telephone repairman in New Orleans, and is now impersonating a journalist in Nashville.

For those wondering, the convention web site says there are still tickets available for Sarah Palin’s speech tomorrow night. The Queen Tea Bagger was not able to sell out the hall. If anyone thinks that 600 Baggers is an impressive showing, please note that two weeks from now the National Wild Turkey Federation is gathering at the same venue. They are expecting 40,000 attendees. And this isn’t a blowout of bourbon drinkers (Aside: Did I note that the Tea Bagger affair is “dry”?). It’s a national organization representing wild turkey conservationists and hunters. Do you wonder why Palin is so badly underperforming the turkey enthusiasts? Maybe it has something to do with this:

Or maybe they just think there are already enough turkeys in politics. The Tea Baggers are currently enjoying a significant over-representation in the public discussion. I wrote about Tea Party Delusion last December. An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll revealed that almost half (48%) of the country either never heard of the Baggers or had no opinion. A new CNN poll confirms those results, as does this one from CBS (pdf), and even this one from Fox (pdf).

Rest up Tea Baggers. Tomorrow is another busy day.

[Update] Joseph Farah of WorldNetDaily closed the day with his patented obsession over Obama’s birth certificate:

“The media, the politicians – all say, no, it’s all been settled. I say, if it’s been settled show us the birth certificate. Simple.”

Followed by a declaration of WAR!

“…take over not only the political institutions, but the cultural institutions, like the press, the entertainment industry, the universities, and yes the churches.”

“Are you ready to engage in a cultural war after we take back Congress?”

“Yes!” the crowd yelled back.


Fox Nation Still Rooting For Terrorist Attacks

Posted by on February 4, 2010 at 10:09 am. NO Comments :

Here’s more proof that Rupert Murdoch and his Fox News empire are anxiously awaiting a terrorist attack that they can celebrate. It has already been established that they are aiding and abetting terrorism by helping to spread the fear that terrorists rely on. Fox wants us to be just as afraid as Al Qaeda does. And in pursuit of that goal they publish lies like this one:

The article linked to by the Fox Nationalists appears in the Washington “Moonie” Times. And both so-called “news” enterprises falsely report the congressional testimony by the Directors of National Intelligence and the CIA. Here is the actual content of the testimony:

Sen. Diane Feinstein: What is the likelihood of another terrorist-attempted attack on the U.S homeland in the next three to six months? High or low?
DNI, Dennis Blair: An attempted attack, the priority is certain, I would say.”

Contrary to the sensationalist headlines on Fox Nation and the Washington Times, the administration never said that an attack is “certain.” The operative word is “attempted.” It is a rather obvious and foregone conclusion that terrorists are out there attempting to attack us and others. The question, and the answer, was hardly revealing. But Fox never misses an opportunity to fear monger. And they have a long history of politicizing terror and 9/11.


The Anatomy Of A Glenn Beck Lie

Posted by on February 3, 2010 at 7:02 pm. 16 Comments :

Glenn Beck Rodeo ClownGlenn Beck’s glassy-eyed followers are irredeemably mesmerized by him and would sooner hack off a limb then concede that he was less than honest about anything. They wail plaintively that he is unwaveringly truthful and that no one has ever proven that he has lied. For the record, I have proven it many times.

On today’s program Beck was generous enough to provide another example of his compulsive dishonesty. And it was packaged in a familiar form for Beck: the old out-of-context video clip gambit. On this occasion Beck presented this segment of President Obama discussing health care:

Obama: [W]e said from the start that it was going to be important for us to be consistent in saying to people if you can have your — if you want to keep the health insurance you got, you can keep it, that you’re not going to have anybody getting in between you and your doctor in your decision making. And I think that some of the provisions that got snuck in might have violated that pledge.

After playing the clip, Beck went into outrage overdrive, complaining first about the sentence fragment “…consistent in saying to people…” implying that Obama was only “saying” these things and that he didn’t mean them. Only an idiot would interpret these extemporaneous remarks in context that way. And that, of course, is Beck’s built-in excuse.

But the larger corruption of the truth was Beck’s reaction to the news that some provisions were “snuck” into the bill that violated the pledge that no one would get between you and your doctor. Beck was aghast that the President would tolerate such legislative misbehavior. He castigated the President for not immediately putting a halt to Congress’s covert attempt to countermand his promise and tarnish his honor. Beck went on to declare that if the President had spoken up about this, that he (Beck) would heartily approve:

Beck: Well let me tell you something. Not only would that be the right thing for any president to do, his approval ratings would go through the roof. People would actually say “Well OK now, wait a minute. If he’s gonna do that I might actually listen to him.”

Apparently Beck wasn’t listening because Obama did precisely what Beck was accusing him of not doing. Obama expressly stated that he had caught the errant provisions and set about eliminating them. And this information was in the very segment that Beck had just played on the air. Except that Beck cut out the parts where Obama talked about scrubbing the problem provisions. Here’s the quote again in full. Note that the bold section in the middle is the only part that Beck played:

Obama: If you look at the package that we’ve presented — and there’s some stray cats and dogs that got in there that we were eliminating, we were in the process of eliminating. For example…

…we said from the start that it was going to be important for us to be consistent in saying to people if you can have your — if you want to keep the health insurance you got, you can keep it, that you’re not going to have anybody getting in between you and your doctor in your decision making. And I think that some of the provisions that got snuck in might have violated that pledge.

And so we are in the process of scrubbing them and making sure that it’s tight.

The complete clip shows unequivocally that Obama is keeping his pledge regarding the doctor/patient relationship. In fact, he was merely giving an example of incidents where institutional kinks can waylay legislation and demonstrating that he wasn’t falling for it. But Beck’s audience won’t know that because Beck unscrupulously edited it out. Then he portrayed the President as negligent for not doing something that in reality he did. And he even went so far as to admit that the American people would reward the President for doing the things that Beck left on the cutting room floor. And, of course, that’s reason Beck did it.

Beck certainly knew the content of the whole speech. So it is inescapable that he deliberately misrepresented it to advance his deceit. He purposefully truncated it to prevent his audience from seeing anything about Obama that they might regard as positive. And in the process he hammered Obama for not doing what he actually did do.

It’s too bad that most of Beck’s disciples will never hear about this fraud. Although many are so thoroughly bewitched that they might not even grasp it if they did hear about it. But it is important to continue to document it. Open minded people who haven’t formed opinions about Beck need to have this kind of information to keep from being duped by him.

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The NeoCon Plan To Save Obama’s Presidency: Bomb Iran

Posted by on February 3, 2010 at 12:30 pm. 3 Comments :

If you weren’t already repulsed by the rampant cynicism and callousness of the uber-right in America, then an article just published in the National Review should do the trick.

Notorious NeoCon, Daniel Pipes, penned a column that purports to be offering President Obama advice on how to improve his favorability ratings: Bomb Iran!

The notion that any president should order military engagement for the purpose of shoring up polling numbers can only be acceptable to far-right vultures like Pipes. But Pipes is serious about this. The article is not titled “How to eliminate the Iranian Nuclear Threat.” It is titled “How to Save the Obama Presidency.” He even cited as an example the polling bump George W. Bush got after 9/11:

“Just as 9/11 caused voters to forget George W. Bush’s meandering early months, a strike on Iranian facilities would dispatch Obama’s feckless first year down the memory hole and transform the domestic political scene.”

This advice from Pipes could not be more wrong, both morally and strategically. On the moral scale, Pipes is suggesting that the President put the lives of American troops at risk for political gain. He argues that this would be “a dramatic gesture to change the public perception of him.” Why Pipes thinks that that is an appropriate justification for war, he never adequately explains.

But Pipes is also wrong from a strategic standpoint. He asserts that such an attack “would require few ‘boots on the ground’ and entail relatively few casualties.” This shallow assessment ignores the obvious lessons of past military debacles in the region. It is particularly surprising given that Pipes himself admitted that he had misread the risks associated with the war in Iraq. In his article in April of 2003, he belittled admonitions from regional experts that the invasion of Iraq would exacerbate tensions, escalate terrorism, and aid the recruiting efforts of Al Qaeda. He dismissed those warnings saying, “Actually, the precise opposite is more likely to happen.”

Pipes predicted few casualties in Iraq as well. He also bought in to the myth that the war would be short, would reduce terrorism, would produce stability, and that the Iraqis would greet us with candy and flowers. We all know now that the experts were right and Pipes was grievously wrong, as he himself admitted three years later in an update to his original article.

Will we have to wait another three years for Pipes to confess that his fatally flawed judgment failed him again? It certainly hasn’t stopped him from making a similarly erroneous assessment with regard to Iran. And this time he wraps it in a grotesquely political cloak to conceal his true intentions.

Pipes freely admits that he has no interest in seeing Obama’s popularity rise. So the suggestion to bomb Iran is not really a gesture of support for the Commander in Chief. It is more likely an expression of Pipes’ own obsession with hostility, and his thirst for blood. It is evidence of his antipathy for the people of the Middle East. And it is affirmation of his inability to form unbiased conclusions on serious matters like war.

For this he would sacrifice American and Iranian lives; he would promote the cause of jihadists; he would destroy the nascent democracy movement in Iran; and he would commit our nation to a third battlefront in a part of the world that is already unstable and distrustful of our motives. He is advising nothing less than a Crusade. And we know what happened the last time we had one of those.


Glenn Beck’s American Revival: It’s Gonna Blow Your Mind

Posted by on February 3, 2010 at 10:36 am. 13 Comments :

Pope Glenn BeckBack in November of 2009, Glenn Beck announced what he called his “100 Year Plan,” a series of sermons in which he would indoctrinate his disciples with his unique misunderstanding of “ethics, history, finance, community organizing and everything American’s need to know about how the government works.”

He said that his TV show would change as of the first of this year, but there’s been no evidence of that. In fact, he’s still replaying the same tired old out-of-context video clips of President Obama, Van Jones, etc., that he plastered his air with last year. But Yesterday he finally revealed that tickets for the first of his sermons will go on sale next week. The themes seem to have evolved from what Americans need to know about government to “Faith, Hope, and Charity.” In other words, he is fully embracing the mantle of the television evangelist that he clearly aspires to be. He is even calling the event “The American Revival,” and he promises that it will “blow your mind.”

Beck’s transformation from Morning Zoo DJ to Messianic Prophet is nearly complete. He isn’t even bothering to mask his ambitions anymore. Are you ready for Brother Beck’s Traveling Salvation Show?

“I want facts out there that you’ve never heard before, you’ve never learned. That you’ll sit in the audience and you’ll go ‘Oh my gosh. How did I not know that?’“

This should be easy for Beck. Since he makes up his own “facts” anyway, his parishioners won’t have heard any of them before.

“I’ve only done work on the first third so far and it will take your breath away…and make a case that is just dirt strong.”

One thing he is not lacking is ego. He is obviously convinced of his own inherent awesomeness and his ability to wow his audience, as if that takes much effort (keep a shiny object handy). And he has supreme confidence that he can make his case. But I’m not sure how strong dirt is.

“It comes with a workbook…It’s basically a survival guide, an American survival guide…You’re gonna be an American evangelist.”

Uh oh. This may be where he loses them. It may not be a good idea to start handing out homework assignments. Also, he’s mixing his metaphors. If you have an American survival guide it doesn’t make you an American evangelist. I makes you an American survivalist.

The survivalist model makes much more sense based on Beck’s history of predicting doom for the country. He is fixated on Armageddon. He routinely beseeches his flock to adopt his 3G’s: God, gold, and guns. And his rhetoric is dripping with nightmare scenarios of ruin and woe:

“If you’re here every night I don’t need to convince you that there are people intentionally destroying our country. Both on the right and the left. The rain is coming. I think you feel it in your gut. It is time to build an Ark. It is time to prepare yourself for some tough times.”

“You’re gonna see a black and white world, man, that is nothing but destruction and ugly. I don’t know why no one else will tell you the truth about these things. I don’t know and I don’t care.”

“I know what our country is headed towards. I know the struggles that are ahead in my life and I know the struggles that are ahead in your life. It’s not going to be pretty.”

The end times are upon us. Prepare yourself for a mighty fall. Then cower in your shelter and await the Rapture. But don’t forget to come out for the big Revival Show. Tickets go on sale next week. Be There!


Has It Really Come To This: Boob Bombs?

Posted by on February 2, 2010 at 3:39 pm. 3 Comments :

Boob BombsThe Fox family of propagandists has long been a partner of the world’s terrorists. They vigorously strive to exacerbate anxieties about security, mostly sensationalized and irrational, via their many media platforms. This promotion of dread is the stuff upon which terrorism relies to be effective. Al Qaeda owes Fox News a debt.

Today on Fox Nation, the war to produce evermore trepidation escalated with a featured link to an article on WorldNetDaily warning that the British spy agency, MI5 is “Hunting Breast Implants of Death.”

“Agents for Britain’s MI5 intelligence service have discovered that Muslim doctors trained at some of Britain’s leading teaching hospitals have returned to their own countries to fit surgical implants filled with explosives. […] Women suicide bombers recruited by al-Qaida are known to have had the explosives inserted in their breasts under techniques similar to breast enhancing surgery.”

WND is not reporting this as hypothetical, but as a plot already in progress with armed breasts at the ready. And all of this is according to…well, the subscription-only bulletin of WND’s own editor, Joseph Farah. In fact, there are five solicitations for his $10.00/month G2 bulletin in the brief excerpt posted on WND.

Were we to take these warnings seriously, it would require some adjustment to our transportation security procedures. We would need to start including Scarlett Johansson in our profiling criteria. And because the same explosive devices could be inserted in the buttocks, Jennifer Lopez would have to be added to the no-fly list. New guidelines will have to be written for airport screeners. If you look anything like Johansson or Lopez, you better allow extra time for boarding (and groping).

I, for one, am pretty upset about this. It’s one thing to be nervous about young Middle-Eastern guy with a long beard in the seat next to me. But if I have to be afraid of sitting next to a hot chick with an awesome rack, I don’t think I want to fly anymore. And who’s to say these well-endowed suicide bombers won’t also show up in shopping malls or sporting events? I think I may have spotted more than a few potential terrorists at the Grammys a couple of days ago.

The consequences of this new threat will weigh heavily on the bosom of the national security infrastructure. What new measures will they need to bust the terror plotters who embrace this tactic? And as we jiggle with our defense strategies, will the terrorists just play a game of tit-for-tat? The whole scenario is udderly unpredictable. There will be those who will attempt to knock down these warnings, but the knockers must not be allowed to cleave our resolve. The only way to respond may be to nip it in the bud. But one thing is for sure, we will need keep abreast of the new developments.

Thanks to Fox Nation for opening our eyes to the naked truth (and my apologies for the foregoing).


Fox News And Breitbart Smear O’Keefe Prosecutor

Posted by on February 2, 2010 at 10:53 am. 2 Comments :

In a report that is jam-packed with falsehoods, Fox News casts sinister aspersions on the motives of the U.S. Attorney who brought the case against pimp/journalist James O’Keefe for his alleged felonious activities in the office of Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu.

The first paragraph of the article, titled “U.S. Attorney Steps Down From O’Keefe Case,” has nothing whatsoever to do with the story as headlined. Instead, it appears to be no more than an attempt to set up an allegation that the U.S. Attorney’s office deliberately filed false charges against O’Keefe and his accomplices.

“James O’Keefe, accused of trying to tamper with the phones of Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu, was ‘framed’ by the media and the U.S. attorney’s office, Andrew Breitbart, publisher of BigGovernment.com, told Fox News Monday.”

The second paragraph of the article eventually gets around to the point of the story, but only after asserting a series of additional falsehoods dispensed by ultra-conservative propagandist, Andrew Breitbart.

“The same day the man who first published James O’Keefe’s explosive videos exposing wrongdoing at community organizer ACORN came to his defense Monday, claiming the conservative filmmaker ‘sat in jail for 28 hours without access to an attorney’ while the prosecutor made his case to the media, the U.S. attorney involved stepped down.”

Let’s just set aside the fact that no wrongdoing on the part of ACORN has ever been proven; and that there is no evidence that O’Keefe was denied or delayed access to an attorney, or even an allegation of that by O’Keefe; and that the prosecutor did not make a case to the media while O’Keefe was being held. The first reports in the press didn’t come out until after he was released. Now we can deal with the real issue.

In this article, ostensibly about U.S. Attorney Jim Letten recusing himself from the O’Keefe case, Fox News went to great lengths to juxtapose that news with allegations of wrongdoing from Breitbart. Those allegations were featured in the lede and repeated in the following paragraph that explicitly tied Breitbart’s charges to the recusal. The Fox News version of events was that Letten stepped down the same day Breitbart issued his defense of O’Keefe. The clear implication being that those two events had something to do with one another. Fox News is plainly and irresponsibly insinuating that Letton stepped aside because of some impropriety.

The same implied correlation occurred in the very next paragraph wherein the charge that O’Keefe was framed was repeated, followed by Fox News again connecting that to Letten’s recusal by saying that it took place “hours later.” For the record, the New Orleans Times-Picayune (in an act of actual journalism) has confirmed that Letten asked to be recused a week ago, long before the smear by Breitbart and Fox. The remainder of the article was a virtually uninterrupted platform for Breitbart’s wholly unsupported defense of O’Keefe. Breitbart was quoted extensively making allegations for which he had no foundation.

“James O’Keefe sat in jail for 28 hours without access to an attorney, while the U.S. attorney leaked the information about his arrest, helping the media frame it as ‘Watergate Junior.'”

“The panty bomber on Christmas was given — you know, this guy’s from Al Qaeda, and he’s not even an American citizen, and he’s given access to an attorney right away. I believe that this was a concerted effort, this is just my opinion, to allow for the media to frame the issue to put James O’Keefe in a very bad position.”

“It [O’Keefe’s arrest] is tied to the Justice Department. And we’ve been very aggressive in asking Eric Holder to investigate what’s seen on these ACORN tapes and he’s ignored it.”

Fox News made no attempt to verify any of these remarks, nor did they attempt to interview anyone who might have rebutted them. They let them stand unchallenged as if they were settled facts. However, they did reprint O’Keefe’s prior statement in defense of himself. A statement that had already been demonstrated to be untrue.

“The sole intent of our investigation was to determine whether or not Sen. Landrieu was purposely trying to avoid constituents who were calling to register their views to her as their senator.”

Of course, were that the case, why did he leave Landrieu’s office and try to gain access to the telephone wiring closet at another location? Fox News didn’t ask that question. Sean Hannity didn’t get an answer to that either in his exclusive fluffing interview with O’Keefe yesterday. In fact the whole interview was staged to permit O’Keefe to declare his innocence while refusing to answer substantive queries.

So who is U.S. Attorney Jim Letten whom Breitbart has accused of framing O’Keefe; of manipulating the press; of participating in a DOJ revenge plot against Breitbart?

Letten was a George W. Bush appointee who has served as U.S. Attorney since April of 2001. He is well known for his successful prosecution of former Democratic Louisiana Governor, Edwin Edwards. He has bipartisan support as a federal prosecutor with both Landrieu (a Democrat) and Sen. David Vitter (a Republican) backing his reappointment to the post by the Obama administration. In fact, Vitter was so determined to see Letten reappointed that he held up the nominations of other prosecutors until he had an assurance from Attorney General Holder that Letten would remain on the job.

Is that the profile of a man that would engage in the mischief that Breitbart alleges? Is that someone whom Fox News ought to be insinuating recused himself from a case due to some malfeasance?

To make matters worse, Fox News exploits the confidential nature of recusals to bolster their innuendos about Letten. While they tie the recusal to Breitbart’s attacks, they never entertain the notion that Letten stepped aside for legitimate reasons. For instance, he may know one of the suspects, or his family, personally. One of O’Keefe’s accomplices, Robert Flanagan, is the son of Letten’s fellow Louisiana federal prosecutor, William Flanagan.

This illustrates the lengths to which Breitbart, and his patron Fox News, will go to defame anyone they deem to be obstructing their mission to dispense disinformation and to contribute to the ignorance of their audience. The article from Fox News is so transparently biased as to be bordering on libel. It is without question knowingly malicious and false. And it is a product of Fox’s “news” division, not the primetime TV opinion mongers upon whom Fox usually likes to blame their deliberately deficient reporting.

For Fox, there is no escaping the reality that this is inexcusably unprofessional and prejudicial. And sadly, it is business as usual at Fox.