I hope your Thanksgiving was peppered with happiness!

And I hope you didn’t have to eat at Megyn Kelly’s house.
Original painting (Freedom from Want by Norman Rockwell, to whom I offer my profound apology)

Ass Warfare

President Barack Obama:

Either we ask the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share in taxes, or we’re going to have to ask seniors to pay more for Medicare. Either we gut education and medical research, or we’ve got to reform the tax code so that the most profitable corporations have to give up tax loopholes that other companies don’t get. We can’t afford to do both. This is not class warfare. It’s math.

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Who says there are no manufacturing jobs left in America?

From Tim Dickinson at Rolling Stone:

How Roger Ailes Built the Fox News Fear Factory

The onetime Nixon operative has created the most profitable propaganda machine in history. Inside America’s Unfair and Imbalanced Network

The key to decoding Fox News isn’t Bill O’Reilly or Sean Hannity. It isn’t even News Corp. chief Rupert Murdoch. To understand what drives Fox News, and what its true purpose is, you must first understand Chairman [Roger] Ailes. “He is Fox News,” says Jane Hall, a decade-long Fox commentator who defected over Ailes’ embrace of the fear-mongering Glenn Beck. “It’s his vision. It’s a reflection of him.”

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Kenny Dodgers

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve undoubtedly heard that Chimpy’s 2004 campaign manager and former Republican National Committee chairman, Ken Mehlman, finally admitted what everyone already knew–he’s gay. The media was all abuzz. Here are some of what the luminaries at Fox News had to say:

Gretchen Carlson, Steve Doocy, and Brian I’m-the-one-who’s-not-Doocy Kilmeade:

“xxxxxxxxxxxxx”

Sean Hannity:

“xxxxxxxxxxxxx”

Bill O’Reilly:

“xxxxxxxxxxxxx”

Glenn Beck:

“xxxxxxxxxxxxx”

From The Wonk Room at THINK PROGRESS:

When Judge Vaughn Walker struck down Proposition 8, Fox News barely mentioned the story and its most prominent conservative commentators ignored it entirely.  Yesterday, after the Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder reported that former RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman — who had orchestrated President Bush’s gay-bating 2004 re-election campaign — was coming out as gay, Fox News Channel remained similarly mum and as of this posting has yet to run a single segment on the story.

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The Amazing Race-Baiter

From JOE CONASON at Salon:

Former USDA official Shirley Sherrod, a dedicated public servant innocent of the prejudice and misconduct falsely imputed to her, deserves justice. As soon as the White House and Tom Vilsack restore her job, with an appropriate apology, they will begin to remove a stain of cowardice from their administration. But while that may be all the government can do, it isn’t sufficient to close this case.

Real justice, as I suspect Sherrod would agree, also requires due process for Andrew Breitbart, the Internet impresario who framed her on his Big Government website. In these circumstances, that means a fair, thorough and tough examination of the media fraud that launched his operation last year: the ACORN tapes, whose misuse by Breitbart closely parallels his behavior in the Sherrod affair.

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Fraud Chicken

From THE BRAD BLOG:

Unreleased raw footage reviewed by AG Jerry Brown’s investigation was obtained from Rightwing activists O’Keefe and Giles in exchange for immunity from prosecution

Contradicting MSM coverage,  O’Keefe ‘never claimed he was a pimp,’ ‘did not act as a journalist’…

Echoing the recent report of the Kings County, NY, District Attorney who completed a five-month probe finding “no criminality” seen in video tapes secretly taken of low-level ACORN and ACORN Housing workers last year in New York, California’s Attorney General has now reached a similar conclusion regarding videos recorded in three different cities in the Golden State last Summer, according to a report released today which finds the workers “committed no violation of criminal law.”

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Schlub Scouts

My friend, Mark over at News Corpse (a/k/a KingOneEye over at the Big Orange), is my source for what goes on over at Faux News (go on over and browse a bit, I’ll wait). Last night, he posted about Roger Ailes (president of Fox News Channel and chairman of Fox Television Stations Group) being honored with the 2009 Good Scout Award from the Westchester-Putnam Council of the Boy Scouts. Rush Limbaugh introduced him. News Corpse has a video of the Fox & Friends imbecilic asswipes hosts all giddy over being allowed outside the studio and going on a field trip for the event. They were allowed to eat and everything! Of course, your intrepid reporter (that’s me, if you were wondering) did a little more digging. First, though, let me say to the parents of those Boy Scouts in Westchester and Putnam Counties: If it’s role models you want, you’re looking at…

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There’s No Business Like Faux Business!

Kids, I am distressed. Fox News is being accused of digitally altering photos of a journalist and an editor at The New York Times. From Media Matters:

On the July 2 edition of Fox News’ Fox & Friends, co-hosts Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade labeled New York Times reporter Jacques Steinberg and editor Steven Reddicliffe “attack dogs,” claiming that Steinberg’s June 28 article on the “ominous trend” in Fox News’ ratings was a “hit piece.” During the segment, however, Fox News featured photos of Steinberg and Reddicliffe that appeared to have been digitally altered — the journalists’ teeth had been yellowed, their facial features exaggerated, and portions of Reddicliffe’s hair moved further back on his head. Fox News gave no indication that the photos had been altered.

Now, I for one don’t believe a word of it! Doesn’t Media Matters know that Fox News is fair and balanced? It must be true; I heard it on the news…..on Fox! They would never do something so sophomoric as altering pictures! Anyway, you can read the hit piece over at Media Matters if you want. I am not going to copy any more of that nonsense over here. Instead, I thought I would post pictures of the journalists whose integrity Media Matters is impugning, as well as some of the rest of the gang at Fox News. First is one of the morning hosts of Fox and Friends, Steve Doocy.