ERRORS AND NO FACTS

Business as Usual at Fox News
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The Shirley Sherrod case further deepens Fox News Channel's credibility problem -- which is a good thing for the Obama Administration.
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I won't do it again. I promise!
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Trust me on this one. Just as soon as a Fox News Channel political commentator announces that the earth is flat – and one way or another, Fox will indeed “break” that story – the first thing anyone in America who swears by Fox will do is instruct their children not to stray too close to earth’s edge. Then immediately after, they’ll unleash an attack on the conservative-hating egg-heads of the liberal media for ignoring the flat earth story in favor of all that reporting on the “global warming hoax.”

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Hyperbole? No doubt. But only if we’re talking about the word some Fox News viewers would use to characterize any report that warns of climate change. After all, consider the following:

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Spook Juice for the Conspiracy-Minded

PERCEPTION IS REALITY

My perception of reality has been shaped, in part, by a near transcendent fascination with odd "coincidences," juicy cover-ups, furtive conspiracies, and mind-boggling mysteries. You know, the kind that stretch way beyond the often easy-to-debunk urban legends. I have vivid memories of being so thoroughly captivated, at age nine, by the mysterious and still-unexplained disappearance of Joan Risch that I established my own unofficial, one-kid search for the Lincoln, Massachusetts housewife. I spent a more than a week engaging Keystone Cops kind of search for clues to her disappearance -- in fields, back alleys and abandoned buildings of my Boston neighborhood over 25 miles away!

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Israel's Shame

Palestinians Suffer for the Sins of Others

Palestine's Future - Children of the Deheishe Refugee Camp, 1995

By Anthony Barnes / July 2010

"We enthusiastically chose to become a colonial society, ignoring international treaties, expropriating lands, transferring settlers from Israel to the occupied territories, engaging in theft and finding justification for all these activities. Passionately desiring to keep the occupied territories, we developed two judicial systems: one - progressive, liberal - in Israel; and the other - cruel, injurious - in the occupied territories. In effect, we established an apartheid regime in the occupied territories immediately following their capture. That oppressive regime exists to this day." -- Former Israeli Attorney General Michael Ben-Yair, 2002

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My boyhood occurred during an era when Jewish delicatessens, not McDonald's or Burger Kings, were the norm in many neighborhoods of Boston, particularly mine – Roxbury – which, until the late 1960’s, was a predominantly Jewish enclave. So, as it turned out, my earliest exposure to persons of the Jewish faith was largely a product of my fondness for the outstanding kosher hot dogs my friends and I regularly devoured at Max Andrews. “Max-Ann’s,” as we called it then, was a Jewish deli located on Blue Hill Avenue in close proximity to the Nation of Islam’s Temple No. 11, whose minister at one time, Louis Farrakhan, graduated from the school I later attended – Boston English, the nation’s oldest public high school.

At that time, even if out of sheer ignorance I accepted a crass, stereotypical description of what Jews looked like – white people with large noses – I was far more clueless as to what a Jew actually is. Perhaps not surprisingly, in that context, Jewish-ness, if you will, sort of flew under the radar. It held little, if any relevancy to me. That is, until Carl Zidel helped make it relevant. But more about that later.

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BIN LADEN'S FLUNKIES

Doesn't the GOP-backed Tea Party movement's "take back my country" crusade essentially make its followers defacto allies of Osama Bin Laden?

BY ANTHONY BARNES
When Republicans gripe about what they perceive as the Obama Administration's failures, for example, its inability in little over a year to completely revive the economy, Democrats often respond by citing the severity of the economic catastrophe left behind by the previous administration.

What generally follow is more Republican caterwaul about the Democrats' constant finger-pointing back to the bygone Bush era. Blaming Bush for the nation's present economic condition, insists Republicans, amounts to little more than a whiny cop-out -- something akin to a sour grapes attitude coming from within, of all places, the ranks of the winners. In dealing with similar matters, the Republicans' position is: "Let's not talk about the past; the Bush era is over," followed by charges that Democrats now controlling all branches of government would rather avoid responsibility for failing to resolve one of America's major problems by insisting that at least for now, the buck halts at the cowboy booted feet of George W. Bush.

Recently, amidst the uptick in acts of political terrorism linked to the Tea Party Patriots, a movement which has apparently discovered a way to be both anti-government and pro-GOP, many Democrats began complaining about the Republicans' tepidly-conveyed effort to encourage an end to these acts, some of them having occurred during March's anti-health care reform demonstrations on Capitol Hill, and which in general have included death threats; smashed windows; severed gas lines; brandishing nooses; threats of violence; spitting at members of Congress; racial epithets; and engaging in anti-gay behavior. Ultimately, Republicans simply brushed aside the Democrats' complaints by not surprisingly -- talking about the past.

"There was all kinds of very threatening tones and language used (against Bush during his terms)," equivocated Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele during a March interview with Sean Hannity. "So, you know, I think people just need to understand it and put it in context."

Steele's artless circumvention of the issue offers a great illustration of the GOP's prevaricatory modus operandi. It's the sustained practice of the politics of expediency by the GOP that for some, conjures thoughts about the potential for danger ahead, not just for the Republican Party, but for the nation as a whole. At issue is the Republicans' unwillingness, obviously out of sheer political expediency, to directly and forthrightly address important matters, combined with their willingness to shamelessly toggle between support for opposing legislative positions based on pure self-interest. It is a disposition that has helped generate from the GOP, a steady stream of knee-jerk reactions and approaches to virtually every issue of major importance going back to the Clinton Administration.

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TIGER'S FOLLY

Among Tiger Woods' failures was his inability to live up to standards set by others

by Anthony Barnes


Cult of Personality, or Master of Deceit?

"I've committed adultery in my heart many times. I've looked on a lot of women with lust," -- Jimmy Carter

Obviously, when it comes to women, had Tiger Woods mimicked the style of another man who carried the unforgiving burden of a saintly persona -- former President Jimmy Carter -- and simply committed adultery in his heart, the public reaction to Woods' "transgressions" would have been vastly less sanctimonious. Of course, we now know that the outwardly collected and seemingly well-centered Woods went ahead and tapped into his prodigious libido both before and during his marriage, an action that more closely mimicked the style of another former president -- Bill Clinton.

As a result of this revelation, occurring in this era of a web-connected universe, in the tweet of a Twitter, Woods morphed from likable living legend to lecherous lothario; from squeaky clean to creepy debaucher. In the eyes of many, it was lovable Ned Flanders who woke up next to Elin Woods this past Thanksgiving morning, and loathsome Glenn Quagmire who returned to bed alone that night.

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