Shed the Fred! Shed the Fred!

Actor Fred Thompson's name has been mentioned as a possible GOP candidate and some Repubbots are touting the motto, "Dread the Fred" to keep his name out there. But we have exclusive news of another Fred in the entertainment world who is thinking of throwing his hat (er, stone) into the ring.

Sources tell us that veteran TV star Fred Flintstone is considering running for the 2008 GOP nomination. We think this is awful news and that Republicans should rise up and put an end to this nonsense.

Say it over and over: Shed the Fred! Shed the Fred!

Bill O'Reilly's whining again??

Conservative attack dog Michelle Malkin targets Bill Moyers

Another day, another rant for Bill O'Reilly.
This week's it's Bill Moyers who's in his radar. O'Reilly's hopping mad because, in his latest PBS special, Moyers uses video from O'Reilly's show that O'Reilly says was taken out of context and "misrepresented" him.
So just out of curiosity, we went over to the Fox News site and watched the 4/24 and 4/26 Talking Points. What O'Reilly is harping about as misrepresentations by Moyers are hardly that. He didn't play the whole quote, O'Reilly says. But really, O'Reilly's ticked that he didn't get as much air time on Moyers' show as he would have liked. The two quotes O'Reilly complains about were accurately quoted. What was left out was hardly substantive qualifying material. Example: Moyers used "You will be spotlighted." What was left out, "We don't want to demonize anyone, but ...", which really is contradictory. The point is O'Reilly said he was spotlighting people in an effort to demonize them, as he usually does. He similarly said he would call people "bad Americans" who deserved it. O'Reilly complained that what was left out was that he said it was his Constitutional right to do so and that opponents could call him a "bad American." Again, Moyers got to the meat of the quote. O'Reilly was hardly misquoted.
Then there's the part about Moyers not coming on "The Factor." (Notice, it's never referred to as "the show," but always "The Factor." It's called branding strategy to make sure you, the lowly viewer, doesn't forget the show's name.) O'Reilly wanted control of the interview. Moyers said no. Why should Moyers agree to let O'Reilly do it as O'Reilly wants? As usual, again, it's all about O'Reilly.)
We also found it interesting that O'Reilly used the term "radical left propagandist," among others, to characterize Moyers.
So you call yourself credible, O'Reilly? You have no credibility whatsoever, expect among your adoring fans who can't see through your bull. Not all of us are so blind.
And one other off-topic note: Is Fox News.com obsessed with Rosie O'Donnell or what? Good grief, she's all over their website. I'm sure she just loves the publicity.

O'Reilly wrong (again)

In his latest Talking Points on the Fox News website, Bill O'Reilly in his "Most Ridiculous Item," says,

Senator John McCain was in South Carolina campaigning when he broke into song after a question about how to deal with Iran.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: That old — that old Beach Boys song, "Bomb Iran".

(singing) Bomb, bomb, bomb. Bomb...

(speaking) But anyway...

All right. The song was "Barbara Ann" by the Beach Boys, but the senator changed the lyrics to "Bomb Iran".

That parody originated with Rush Limbaugh, we believe.

Well, two things. First, is there any doubt McCain doesn't belong in the White House? Oh and, uh, Bill. You're wrong again. That wasn't composed by Rush Limbaugh. A little Internet research shows Vince Vance and the Valiants were responsible.

But that's our Bill O'Wrongly.

Free speech works when it works for me?

One of the most amusing things about the Imus affair is seeing conservatives tumble over each other defending what he said. "Al Sharpton's said it." "Blacks say it in rap music all the time. It's not derogatory to them!"
Of course, there's an ulterior motive -- the inherent racism that would allow them to use the words Imus used. All in the name of free speech.
But just don't criticize the war.

Imus gets the ax

It's over.
After MSNBC gave him the word Wednesday, CBS Radio axed Imus Thursday. His show is cancelled.
Don't blame Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson. Blame that idiot Imus. He never should have said what he did.
He's gotten away with it in the past, but not this time.
So shock jocks like Stern, Bubba the Love Sponge and Opie and Anthony watch out. Play time is over.

MSNBC drops Imus

MSNBC, presumably under pressure after several advertisers announced they were pulling their sponsorships from the Don Imus show, announced they will no longer simulcast it.

In a statement, NBC News announced,

Effective immediately, MSNBC will no longer simulcast the "Imus in the Morning" radio program. This decision comes as a result of an ongoing review process, which initially included the announcement of a suspension. It also takes into account many conversations with our own employees. What matters to us most is that the men and women of NBC Universal have confidence in the values we have set for this company. This is the only decision that makes that possible. Once again, we apologize to the women of the Rutgers basketball team and to our viewers. We deeply regret the pain this incident has caused.

One down, one to go.

Imus in trouble in the morning?

The current controversy about Don Imus isn't new. What's new, though, is that his critics aren't apparently going to let this one pass.
We have mixed feelings. While Imus looks at himself as a comedian and somewhat justifies his conduct from that (see his interview on the "Today" show with Matt Lauer on the MSNBC page), Michael Richards learned the hard way comedy does not give anyone license to say anything they want. Imus needs to learn that, too. At this point in time, though, I don't think there's that much pressure on him personally to do so. It depends on what happens down the road from this. His critics are apparently not gonna let him forget this. That's probably a good thing.

Imus is not a liberal, though the right would conveniently like to pin him as one. Remember his speech at the Radio-TV Correspondents dinner (a regular place for controversy, it seems) in 1996 when he criticized both Hillary and Bill Clinton, who were both in attendance? Check out the text of the speech here: http://imonthe.net/imus/ispeech.htm . He's had both Republicans and Democrats on his show, including Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Ed Koch, Bill Bradley, Rick Lazio, Mary Matalin, John Lieberman and John McCain.

Imus is a free spirit who needs to check his emotions. Will he? His employment future will depend on it.

What about Nancy?

Right-wing wingnuts are howling at the moon over Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's trip to Syria. Members of Sean Hannity's board on his official website are even holding a mock trial charging the Speaker with, we assume, treason, a word the right wing seems to use freely and often without really knowing what the word means.
Ridiculous.
Pelosi, as leader of the House of Representives, had the right to go, no matter what the President, Vice President or anyone else says. And heck, a little diplomacy couldn't hurt.
It's a word conservative loudmouths could learn to use more often.

Critical jackasses

If you live in San Francisco or several big cities around the country, you're probably familiar with Critical Mass, the once-a-month demonstration of bicycle anarchy in which bicylists act like they deserve to own the streets of urban America, running through intersections without regard to traffic laws and otherwise arrogantly harassing motorists and pedestrians all in the name of proclaiming bicylists have a right to be on the streets.
Sorry, bikees, but so do motor vehicles and pedestrians, both of whom have had to deal with this bicycle terrorism for 15 years since 1992.
It came to a head last Friday in San Francisco when a women driving a minivan was basically attacked by a group of bicylists, one of whom smashed her back window with a bike. Oh, did I mention there were children in the van?
We're all for using bicycles over cars to preserve the environment, but it's about time these terrorists on wheels were curbed. Either obey the traffic laws and respect motorists or your rides will stop.
Enough is enough.
The latest from the San Francisco Chronicle on this story.

Rosie must go??

Do a Google search and you'll find several sites with petitions to get Rosie O'Donnell off of ABC's "The View." Seems like Rosie irritates conservatives with comments like the one above. (And by the way, the audience seemed to agree with her.)

Awwww.

Right now, Rosie is one of the biggest assets "The View" has. They haven't had this much publicity since Star Jones left. (Also, if you believe the Hollywood gossip, because of Rosie.)

Face it. Rosie is there to stay, at least while she's an asset to the show. And right now, Rosie is.

Anyone that can tell Donald Trump he's got lousy hair is OK with us.

Oh my, Senator Di!

The right-wing blog storm troopers are up in arms. The March 21 issue of San Jose Metroactive, a weekly distributed free in San Jose area stores, ran an article by one Peter Byrne titled Feinstein resigns.
It opened with the following:

SEN. Dianne Feinstein has resigned from the Military Construction Appropriations subcommittee. As previously and extensively reviewed in these pages, Feinstein was chairperson and ranking member of MILCON for six years, during which time she had a conflict of interest due to her husband Richard C. Blum's ownership of two major defense contractors, who were awarded billions of dollars for military construction projects approved by Feinstein.
As MILCON leader, Feinstein relished the details of military construction, even micromanaging one project at the level of its sewer design. She regularly took junkets to military bases around the world to inspect construction projects, some of which were contracted to her husband's companies, Perini Corp. and URS Corp.

Well, there's at least one big problem with this story: There's no public record of her resignation. The fact is she wasn't on the subcommittee roster at the start of the session in January. See 01/07/2007: Byrd Cochran Announce Subcommittee Rosters 110th Congress at http://appropriations.senate.gov/pressroom.cfm.
Oh, one other inaccuracy: Author Peter Byrne's "extensive" investigation consists of one article: Senator Feinstein's Iraq Conflict, which ran Jan. 24, 2007.
Also noteworthy: Byrne has no comment from Feinstein in his resignation story. So apparently the writer made no effort to get the other side of this story. (A side note: We emailed Byrne about the lack of comment from Feinstein in his story. We've yet to receive a response.)
Right-wing dittobrains, however, are up in arms since it's become a talking point with Hannity, Limbaugh and other radio big mouths.
How come the "left wing" mainstream media is hushing this up, they ask? (They seem not to have noticed that neither Fox News NOR Drudge has reported this either.)
That said, the fact is a story like this will not stay down if it's true.
Do we think it is? We'll admit it bears looking into. However, Feinstein was on the subcommittee when the Republicans were in power. Why didn't they see it?