Now who will Sean Hannity walk all over?!

TVNewser:

FOX News Channel's (FNC) Alan Colmes will relinquish his role as co-host of Hannity & Colmes at the end of the year.

In announcing his decision, Colmes said, "I approached Bill Shine (FNC's Senior Vice President of Programming) earlier this year about wanting to move on after 12 years to develop new and challenging ways to contribute to the growth of the network. Although it's bittersweet to leave one of the longest marriages on cable news, I'm proud that both Sean (Hannity) and I remained unharmed after sitting side by side, night after night for so many years."

Colmes will continue to have a presence on FNC as he will serve as a liberal commentator on a variety of FOX News programming, including Foxnews.com's The Strategy Room and continue hosting his radio program, The Alan Colmes Show on FOX Talk, a division of FOX News Radio. He will also begin developing a weekend program.

In all seriousness, this is a sad development. Alan Colmes is a good guy, even if he did get overshadowed by the boorish Hannity, and was one of the only effective liberal voices in all of FOXland. Like Nicole, I never watched too much H&C due to blood pressure issues, but the show will be much worse off without him. Best of luck, Alan.

What a nice headline from FOX.

I wonder if they got a memo from Newt Gingrich?

GINGRICH: Look, I think there is a gay and secular fascism in this country that wants to impose its will on the rest of us, is prepared to use violence, to use harassment. I think it is prepared to use the government if it can get control of it. I think that it is a very dangerous threat to anybody who believes in traditional religion. And I think if you believe in historic Christianity, you have to confront the fact.

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See? They really do hate America.

In one of their first joint appearances as the new Fox wingnut tag-team event, Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck sputter in outrage about William Ayers' interview on Good Morning America:

O'Reilly: So here's my question. I know I made a big deal out of it, I know you talked about it on your radio program, got a lot of calls on it, people were angry. But when I go out on the street and I say, "William Ayers, does that bother you?" Just as many Americans say, "No, I don't care." What is that mentality when they don't care about a guy like this? What does that tell you?

Beck: Cakes and circuses and too many dumb people. I mean, we should thin out the herd, you know what I mean?

Um -- I can't -- I can't get my arms around the country that can listen to that and say, 'Oh, well he's saying it's not violent.' And he's on GMA promoting a book about non-violent acts, and comparing what we're going through now with the Vietnam War. He is pushing a book that is not only promoting this 'non-violent act' [air quotes] of blowing things up if you disagree with the government, and on top of that, the man is a university professor, he is a teacher! He is organizing people and telling them what we should teach our kids!

This is a total outrage, Bill. There is a disconnect in America. We are at the place where the Constitution hangs in the balance, and I think we're at a crossroads here. We're still about here [points to spot on hand], where the roads are just starting to split, but pretty soon, this side and this side are not gonna understand each other at all, because we're living in different universes.

Yes, we are indeed, Glenn. And yours is known as Planet Bizarro:

At any rate, if this is the quality of discourse we're going to get from these two, I think I'll just go rent the DVD:

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After listening to Joe Queenan chide him about the need to "let it go" with harping on Sarah Palin, Bill responds with his "clip" of how Fox News reacted to Obama's victory on election night. I'm still waiting for this to happen on Hannity's show before the next four years are over.

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Jon Stewart talks to Chris Wallace about how his cohorts at Fox are holding up now that their best efforts to keep Obama from getting elected didn't work.

Refusing to do any of the work to build up third party infrastructure nationally, Ralph Nader has a bit of sour grapes whine, and calls Obama an "Uncle Tom".

It's really bad when Fox News is classier than a national figure like Ralph Nader. Good on Shepard Smith.

It looks like FOX News and the wingnutosphere has made PA their battle ground. After the top video story turned out to be nothing at all, they went in this direction.

The Black Panthers are coming! Even though African Americans vote here 4-1...

We're all for fair elections. The right wingers suddenly got interested in it when John McCain got behind in the polls.

Greg Sargent has thoroughly debunked the story anyway:

Fox News and other conservatives on the Web are pushing hard on the story that two black panthers may be intimidating voters at a polling place in north Philadelphia. But an Obama campaign volunteer who's been on the scene since 6:30 AM this morning tells me in a phone interview that there's been absolutely no intimidation of voters at all today. And a Pennsylvania spokesperson for Obama said the two men aren't in any way affiliated with the campaign

"There was no fight, nothing," she says.

Fox News arrived on the scene at around that time and started interviewing people near the entrance. The building manager asked the Fox reporter to leave, she says, and he moved further from the entrance. That's where things now stand. "There has been no fighting, no voter intimidation at all," she said.

From Talking Points Memo:

Liberté, Egalité, Better Parking

Early voting forced a crabby Fred Barnes to come into contact with "all these poor old people" who were trying to cast their ballots in a crowded building with limited parking in that third world outpost known as Alexandria, Va. How dare they.

The Obama campaign has made their contempt for FOX News pretty clear lately and you can add Bill Burton's appearance on the network yesterday to the list. Burton squared off with Megyn Kelly after he released the following statement after the network ran with the Drudge-fueled smear of the day.

"This is a fake news controversy drummed up b the all too common alliance of Fox News, the Drudge Report and John McCain, who apparently decided to close out his campaign with the same false, desperate attacks that have failed for months. In this seven year old interview, Senator Obama did not say that the courts should get into the business of redistributing wealth at all. Americans know that the real choice in this election is between four more years of Bush-McCain policies that redistribute billions to billionaires and big corporations and Barack Obama's plan to help the middle class by giving tax relief to 95% of workers and companies that create new jobs here in America. That's the change we need, and no amount of eleventh-hour distractions from the McCain campaign will change that."

Like Oliver Willis says, if this is a prelude to how an Obama administration would handle FOX, it's gonna be a fun four years. I can't wait.

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But he's just one of the folks, right?

Bill O'Reilly has re-upped with Fox News Channel in a multiyear deal that pays him about $10 million a year to host his top-rated news program, "The O'Reilly Factor."

O'Reilly took a shot at his detractors, saying that if he retired, "I know my friends in the elite media would miss me greatly." Meanwhile, Fox News Channel has been locking up many of its key stars, including O'Reilly, Sean Hannity (who re-signed recently) and anchor Shepard Smith, as well as luring CNN Headline News host Glenn Beck to anchor a 5 p.m. program.

No wonder he hates Obama's economic plan. And no wonder he settled very quickly with Andrea Mackris.

O'Reilly: I have something very important to tell you. All litigation has ceased that has made me the object of media scorn from coast to coast. On a personal note, this matter has caused enormous pain, but I had to protect my family and I did....This brutal ordeal is now over and I will never speak of it again.

Senator Brown makes a funny.

“About quarter till 12 on election night, it’s gonna be Bill O’Reilly sitting there with Sean Hannity,” he said, drawing another cascade of jeers from the crowd at the mention of another popular conservative Fox host.

“No, no wait a sec, this is gonna be too much fun. You’re not gonna be booing ‘cause you know what’s coming next. So Hannity – they’re going through all these numbers and Barack’s won California, New York and Illinois and Michigan and Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and all these others. And, you know McCain wins Utah or something,” Brown said, drawing appreciative laughs and claps from the energized crowd.

“Then Hannity’s sitting there next to O’Reilly, and they’re looking at each other, and O’Reilly says, ‘You gonna do it?’ And Hannity says, ‘No.’ So O’Reilly – sweat’s coming, tears are coming down his cheeks – you can see ‘em on your flat screen. And O’Reilly says, ‘Well, Ohio went for Barack Obama. He’s gonna be president of the United States!”

John's already posted about the RNC's new ads using FOX News and Andy Martin. But they're not done with the fear-mongering and the blatant lies to scare away voters from Barack Obama. TPM reports that another robocall featuring failed Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani threatening potential voters with the idea that Obama opposes jailing murderers and rapists (audio courtesy of TPM at above link):

Giuliani has recorded a new McCain robocall in which he suggests, in effect, that Barack Obama doesn't think sex offenders, drug dealers and murders should have to go to jail, according to Jennifer Henderson, a stay-at-home mom in Maine who tells us she received the call.

Readers in Wisconsin, North Carolina, Ohio, and Colorado also report receiving the same call. [..]

Rudy claims Obama "opposes mandatory prison sentences" for rapists and murders, Rudy is actually referring to Obama's opposition to specific mandatory minimum sentences. By dropping the word "minimum," he's insinuating that Obama opposes mandatory prison sentences in general.

This just might be the sleaziest exercise in robo-slime yet. Congrats, Rudy!

It goes hand in hand nicely with the Terrorist/Obama direct mailer the RNC is sending out as well.

The level of hate is getting so bad that two call center employees quit rather than submit to saying the smears that the McCain campaign wanted them to disseminate. As Joe Biden said yesterday, McCain, stop these calls.

Huffington Post reports on three Republican senators who have condemned the tactics...and ask you to call your Senators to get them on the record too.

Continue reading »

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Winners for the night...Fixed News, Bill-O, and Diane Fideli.

(Transcripts below the fold.)

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I wonder if the media will ever do a cover story of the effects on our society that is produced by the right wing media. The hate is palpable with these people. But it doesn't stop in Bethlehem, PA.

As Glenn brilliantly documents, it is happening at many Republican events.

Just look at the videotapes of the angry, hateful hordes attending these rallies — screaming that Obama is a socialist; that he’s both a Muslim and a terrorist as proven by his “bloodline” and his name; that his supporters are “commie faggots”; that he’s guilty of treason; underscored by increasing racial invective and even punctuated in one case by a call from an audience member for someone to be killed. These aren’t just isolated individuals; these sentiments are common at these rallies and becoming increasingly virulent and enraged — at the rallies and otherwise:

A billboard in West Plains, Mo., showing a caricature of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama wearing a turban has caused quite a stir in town.

The sign, located south of West Plains on U.S. 63 across from the Dairy Queen, says: “Barack ‘Hussein’ Obama equals more abortions, same sex marriages, taxes, gun regulations.”

And worst of all, all of this rage and this innuendo is taking place in the most volatile climate of all — one of severe economic distress and anxiety — and these mobs are increasingly becoming convinced, because the Right and the McCain/Palin campaign is leading them to believe it, that this economic crisis is the fault of the black candidate — Obama — for making banks give mortgages to racial minorities.

And McCain's hands are soiled as well after his appearance with Sean Hannity where he joins in the Ayers mob. Since this reflects so badly for Republicans, look for plants at Obama events very soon because you never hear this kind of low brow commentary coming from them. And if a few people acted in kind to McCain, you know it would be looped 24/7 on cable.