The Station of The Cross

Amazing. James Wolcott reports on another CNN photo montage celebrating another one of its news personalities, Robert Novak:

The Capital Gang went full metal Catholic in this week's edition, using the Pope's death as an altar to celebrate Novak's Catholic conversion as the fellow panelists reminisced about the great day he received his first communion. The centerpiece of the show was a segment devoted to Novak's embrace of the cross, tracing his spiritual development through a visual montage that showed a young Jewish boy from the Midwest evolving into a political reporter aging into a smug man in a banker's vest staring thoughtfully at church statuary and appearing on Crossfire with ashes smudged on his angry brow. He was even interviewed by Judy Woodruff (Hunt's wife) about his newfound faith! It was bad enough when pundits started fancying themselves as political players, now we're supposed to take them seriously as religious pilgrims too. (The only portion of the show that rang metaphorically true were the glimpses of Novak walking down the aisle between rows of empty pews, because the arid, conservative, high-horse Catholicism that he and O'Beirne espouse is doomed to play to empty houses.)

I wonder which Bob Seger song this asshole flashback was set to.

The Free Market

According to The Nation, which is raising funds to advertise on cable:

$200 buys one overnight spot on MSNBC
$250 buys one overnight spot on CNN Headline News
$3,700 buys one primetime spot on MSNBC
$8,400 buys a national primetime spot on CNN
$30,745 buys a national spot on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

Imagine that. You can buy Maggie Gallagher for less than the cost of a 30-second spot on The Daily Show and still have enough money left for a down payment on Armstrong Williams.

The ad rates are approximately a fin for every 1000 viewers, according to The Nation. Just think what a great buy advertising on Roger Ailes would be -- 2,000 (or fewer) daily readers for a 10 spot, and they've all got disposable income out the wazoo.

Seriously, though, it's good to see most cable viewers getting their information from a source more reliable than Wolf Blitzer and Joe Scarborough combined.

Mazel Tov!

Ye of Little Faith

Speaking of the discredited Republican tool, John Hinderaker looks at a photograph of an American solider praying and sees a beaten, defeated, dispirited and demoralized man.

It's not too late to get help, John.

The World O'Crap Watch

Taking the case of Sandy Berger as an example, World O'Crap reports on how wingnuts -- those in the "mainstream media," those blogging in their soiled Y-fronts, and even the crackpot professors and dinosaurs of the movement -- continue to perpetuate lies even after they've been debunked.

S.Z. also breaks the news that the Powerline doofuses have dropped their clever screennames, Hindrocket, Four-Eyes and Dumbo, in favor of their given names. Hindrocket's avatar, an elephant grey-colored dildo, remains. Now all they have to do to be taken seriously is stop writing.

More importantly, yours truly won "Honorable Mention" in the World O'Crap name Mary Cheney's book contest, for the entry "Million Dollar Cry Baby."

Bonus Non-World O'Crap Item: Michelle Malkin discusses fingering on her blog. Shouldn't someone be regulating this smut on the internet?

The Culture Of Life: Choose Your Targets Wisely Edition

This bit of news from the Rudolph case is particularly interesting:

Rudolph was a follower of the white supremacist Christian Identity movement, but investigators have never ascribed a motive for the attacks to him.

A group calling itself the Army of God claimed responsibility for the Birmingham blast and the Atlanta bombings that followed the Centennial Olympic Park attack.

U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales defended the plea agreement, saying it served "the best interests of justice."

"The many victims of Eric Rudolph's terrorist attacks in Atlanta and Birmingham can rest assured that Rudolph will spend the rest of his life behind bars," Gonzales said in press release.

Two federal law enforcement sources told CNN the catalyst for the agreement was Gonzales' appointment as attorney general.

He reversed predecessor John Ashcroft's insistence that prosecutors seek the death penalty whenever possible.

Christian Identity Movement? Army of God? Gee, I can't imagine any motives for Rudolph's crimes.

But the news here is Alberto Gonzales' purported reversal of Ashcroft's death penalty policy. Gonzales has never showed much concern over application of the death penalty, let alone any interest in the facts of a particular case. Is there really a change of policy, or did Gonzales make an exception for this particular case? As Gonzales acknowledges, this man is a terrorist with the same criminal appetite and belief system as any Islamic terrorist. The only difference is Rudolph's targets.

Robert Sanderson and Alice Hawthorne will derive neither rest nor assurance from Gonzales's words, but I hope the resolution of the case will provide some relief to their surviving families and the other victims.

John Paul The Overrated

On Slate, Marc Fisher provides a much-needed corrective to the Pope-defeated-communism myth being perpetuated by the likes of Peggy Noonan.

In her latest column, Nooners evisions the pontiff as the Holy-Aquaman of an '80s anti-communism Superfriends:

We don't know everything, or even a lot, about the quiet diplomatic moves--what happened in private, what kind of communications the pope had with the other great lions of the 1980s, Reagan and Thatcher. And others, including Bill Casey, the tough old fox of the CIA, and Lech Walesa of Solidarity.

Nooners attributes the disintegration of the Eastern Bloc to a speech John Paul II gave in "the Old City of Warsaw" on July 2, 1979. She seems to be cribbing her entire column from a pro-Pope biography by George Wiegel, and I wouldn't be surprised if Peg has no independent recall of that supposedly historic event. Or much else of 1979.

Peggy also calls for the dismemberment of the papal corpse and distribution of the papal organs:

They say he asked that his heart be removed from his body and buried in Poland. That sounds right, and I hope it's true. They'd better get a big box.

I think FedEx has rules against that sort of thing.

The Party of Stalin

The base of the Republican Party embraces a fellow right-winger at a conference on "Remedies to Judicial Tyranny":

Not to be outdone, lawyer-author Edwin Vieira told the gathering that Kennedy should be impeached because his philosophy, evidenced in his opinion striking down an anti-sodomy statute, "upholds Marxist, Leninist, satanic principles drawn from foreign law."

Ominously, Vieira continued by saying his "bottom line" for dealing with the Supreme Court comes from Joseph Stalin. "He had a slogan, and it worked very well for him, whenever he ran into difficulty: 'no man, no problem,' " Vieira said.

Sic Semper Tyrannis.

Judicial tyranny. Making judges pay. Where have I heard that before? Oh, yeah. From the tiny Texan Bug Chaser.

This was no collection of fringe characters. The two-day program listed two House members; aides to two senators; representatives from the Family Research Council and Concerned Women for America; conservative activists Alan Keyes and Morton C. Blackwell; the lawyer for Terri Schiavo's parents; Alabama's "Ten Commandments" judge, Roy Moore; and DeLay, who canceled to attend the pope's funeral.

Vieira is also one of the income tax is illegal nuts.

Albom Cover Up

From ERIC DEGGANS, columnist/editorial writer, [Poynter's] St. Petersburg Times: So..let's see. A columnist writes a piece on Friday about an event that is to happen Saturday. Because the column will run Sunday, he writes it as if he saw it happen or reported the facts after they happened, both of which are baldfaced lies.

Here is a line from that column: "They sat in the stands, in their MSU clothing, and rooted on their alma mater." How would Albom know on Friday what these guys were planning to wear Saturday?

More importantly, what editor in their right mind would let a columnist write like this? Albom tries to pretend in an "apology" column that all he did was misstate that these guys would be at the game. "It wasn't thorough journalism," he writes.

The truth is, Albom did far more than that.

Here's another quote: "And both made it a point to fly in from wherever they were in their professional schedule just to sit together Saturday. Richardson, who earns millions, flew by private plane. Cleaves, who's on his fourth team in five years, bought a ticket and flew commercial."

Now we see that Albom didn't just lie about the men being there and what they wore, he also cited details about their travel arrangements that turned out not to be true because they never showed up.

Here's the last graph on that column: "You looked around the stands Saturday, and you realized the truth: that you never know how right they are until you're the one saying it."

When Albom wrote that graph he couldn't look around the stands, because the game hadn't happened yet. And in its correction, the Free Press admits that Albom's column ran in a section printed BEFORE THE GAME.

Morrie was/will be rolling over in his grave.

At least I assume so, since I never read that book.

For The Love of God, Please Go Back to Covering The Pope's Death

My fifteen seconds of lame:

CAL CHAMBERLAIN, CNN BLOG REPORTER: So, if you want to find out a little bit more about who Brian Darling is, you can go over to Roger Ailes blog at rogerailes.blogspot.com. Under the title, "Who Is Brian Darling?" he asks, is Brian Darling the designated fall guy for Senator Martinez? And then there's a brief resume for Brian Darling, and he goes on to say at the bottom, "my guess is that Brian Darling will be very, very quiet about his role in circulating the GOP memo and will find himself again in a comfortable position in the right wing lobbying machine very, very soon, if he knows what's good for him."

And then, just under that he has a link back to the "Mel Martinez Wants Your Feedback" site where, if you click it, you can send your comment and concern and give Mel your feedback on exactly how you feel about this.

My parents are just relieved my appearance on CNN didn't involve killing my wife or banging Mary Kay LeTourneau.

Who Is Brian Darling?

Is Brian Darling the designated fall guy for Senator Mel Martinez? Martinez "resigned" his chief counsel, Brian Darling, for authoring the G.O.P. talking points memo on Terri Schiavo that somehow found its way into Martinez's hands without Martinez's knowledge. (Who said miracles don't happen?)

Darling graduated from the New England School of Law in 1996. He was formerly employed as counsel for New Hampshire Senator Bob Smith, the senator who thought the G.O.P. wasn't far enough to the right.

In 2000, Bri and Bob visited little Elian. Bri also worked for the Bush-Cheney recount team.

In 2004, he was a partner in the lobbying firm the Alexander Strategy Group. (See also here and here.)

The Alexander Strategy Group founded by the Texan Bug Chaser's spiritual advisor, Ed Buckham.

This Alexander Strategy Group and this Ed Buckham:

Enron was ASG's biggest client; they received at least $411,000 from Enron between 1999 and 2001. Ed Buckham and ASG were involved with a "secret 'grassroots' campaign -- spearheaded by Enron -- to deregulate energy markets... An outline for the plan was faxed to Tom DeLay's Washington office. It was printed on Alexander Strategy letterhead complete with Ed Buckham's name in print. The only problem was that Alexander Strategy's CEO was still in the employ of the federal government at the time... Alexander Strategy Group was, as Enron promised, awarded the $750,000 contract to drum up support for electric power deregulation -- a goal that Enron believed would open the $300 billion a year electric markets to Enron. The stealth campaign would operate out of an energy consortium dubbed, 'Americans for Affordable Electricity' -- a name that Californians would find bitterly ironic just three years later."

According to Time magazine, Buckham was DeLay's Jack Abramoff connection.

My guess is that Brian Darling will be very, very quiet about his role in the circulating the G.O.P. memo, and will find himself again in a comfortable position in the right-wing lobbying machine very, very soon. If he knows what's good for him.

Mel Martinez Wants Your Feedback

"Please use the following form to contact Senator Mel Martinez with your comments and concerns."

Well, if you insist.

Not only has Dick Morris' wife forgiven Dick his fondness for prostitutes and their bunions, she writes his frickin' columns for him. (Scroll down to the end.) In this case, it's a piece of pure speculation, as Eileen admits.

He must be the envy of his fellow Republicans.

Mel Martinez, Fraud

From the Moonie Times:

Mr. Nelson's fellow Florida senator, Mel Martinez, a Republican, also has been the focus of some scrutiny in press accounts because passages of the disputed memo appear to have been lifted from a press release posted on his Senate Web site.

He denied any involvement.

"Senator Martinez has never seen the memo and condemns its sentiments," spokeswoman Kerry Feehery said. "No one in our office has seen it, nor had anything to do with its creation."

Who's Been Lying To You, Part I

Big Pharma's dumber brother:

Anklebiters on the Bogus GOP Schiavo Memo

Check out Anklebitingpundits latest post on the "Name That Scandal" contest, in which they pointedly expose the fraud behind the bogus memo allegations.

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:55 PM |TrackBack (0)

Update: Americablog already has a long list of G.O.P. fraudsters. A rather pathetic bunch.

BREAKING: MALKIN, HEINELICKER, KAUS, MR. ED DINE ON STEAMING FECES. DEMANDS FOR MEL MARTINEZ'S RESIGNATION MOUNT

The Washington Post reports:

The legal counsel to Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) admitted yesterday that he was the author of a memo citing the political advantage to Republicans of intervening in the case of Terri Schiavo, the senator said in an interview last night.

Brian Darling, a former lobbyist for the Alexander Strategy Group on gun rights and other issues, offered his resignation and it was immediately accepted, Martinez said.

Martinez said he earlier had been assured by aides that his office had nothing to do with producing the memo. "I never did an investigation, as such," he said. "I just took it for granted that we wouldn't be that stupid. It was never my intention to in any way politicize this issue."

Martinez, a freshman who was secretary of housing and urban development for most of President Bush's first term, said he had not read the one-page memo. He said he inadvertently passed it to Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), who had worked with him on the issue. After that, other Senate aides gave the memo to reporters for ABC News and The Washington Post.

Harkin said in an interview that Martinez handed him the memo on the Senate floor, in hopes of gaining his support for the bill giving federal courts jurisdiction in the Florida case in an effort to restore the Florida woman's feeding tube. "He said these were talking points -- something that we're working on here," Harkin said.

There's an important lesson to be learned here: Wingnut bloggers are tools with no credibility.

How To Tell A Professional Blogger From An Amateur, Part 1

Exhibit A:

"Dahlia!

"Ms. Lithwick brains hairless troll doll Mark Levin:

"I use the word 'book' with some hesitation: Certainly it possesses chapters and words and other book-like accoutrements. But Men in Black is 208 large-print pages of mostly block quotes (from court decisions or other legal thinkers) padded with a forward by the eminent legal scholar Rush Limbaugh, and a blurry 10-page 'Appendix' of internal memos to and from congressional Democrats -- stolen during Memogate. The reason it may take you only slightly longer to read Men in Black than it took Levin to write it is that you'll experience an overwhelming urge to shower between chapters."

Exhibit B:

"MEN IN BLACK....This is why I love Dahlia Lithwick. Here is her review of the latest in bird cage liner from Regnery Publishing, Mark Levin's Men in Black:

"I use the word 'book' with some hesitation: Certainly it possesses chapters and words and other book-like accoutrements. But Men in Black is 208 large-print pages of mostly block quotes (from court decisions or other legal thinkers) padded with a forward by the eminent legal scholar Rush Limbaugh, and a blurry 10-page 'Appendix' of internal memos to and from congressional Democrats -- stolen during Memogate. The reason it may take you only slightly longer to read Men in Black than it took Levin to write it is that you'll experience an overwhelming urge to shower between chapters.

"What can you add to that?"

The Putzpuller Prize

For bad writing once again goes to tiny Mickey Kaus, for this literate entry:

"Alert and anguished L.A. reader 'G'--not me! And not Brady Westwater neither! -- writes:"

Well done, Mickey. You can't even reproduce a moronic e-mail without displaying your incompetence.

Dirty Sean-Chez: A Man of Filth and Hate

You've probably already heard the audio clip of Fox News' Sean Hannity demonstrating his deeply-held Christian principles, captured for posterity by Harry Shearer. Here's the transcript:

"Congressman's next. This is the one negative guy. I'm going to pound him too, like this other guy. You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Congressman. Jerk. Jim Moran. I forget where he's from. Where's he from, Finley? He, he wanted to talk about Medicare. Good God. What a jerk. Did you hear that, Frank? Asshole. God I hate these people, you have no idea. It's unbelievable to me. How pissed was Moran? Not that I give a shit. The ... I've ... I always couldn't stand this guy."

My dear friend and life coach Nikita Demosthenes has already e-mailed Sean, pointing out that Hannity's all-consuming hatred is not good for him, and rarely persuasive.

Let's hope for the sake of his family that Sean doesn't bring his poorly-concealed obsessions into the marital bedroom.

Anyone looking for Disability Rights Advocates for Terri Schiavo should click this link.