Hooray, it's Friday afternoon! And as you pop open that beer can, allow your humble servant to regale you with a selection of what the Fox Nation has been posting in the last few days.

I'm confused. I thought that Bill Hemmer anchors a'"fair & balanced" Fox "news" show. But his coverage of what Fox superstar Cardinal Timothy Dolan and his GOP apostles consider an "attack on religious freedom" doesn't seem to live up to the famous Fox logo. Wednesday, Hemmer interviewed GOP Senator Tom Coburn about the awesomeness of the lawsuits being filed, by a minority of Catholic entities, against the Obama administration. Hemmer quoted Dolan. Yesterday, former George W Bush HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt said the same thing albeit with more animosity directed towards the president. Hemmer quoted Dolan as saying that Obama is "strangling" the Catholic Church. Hemmer looked as reverential as a young altar boy as the all important Dolan/Fox cannon on "religious liberty" was discussed. And today, Hemmer did more cheerleading for Dolan during another biased discussion, with another right wing male, about how the evil, librul media is ignoring what, for Fox and Cardinal Dolan, is the biggest thing to hit the Church since Martin Luther nailed that paper on the Cathedral door! While nobody is expecting the Spanish Inquisition, we do have Fox News!

On The Record has been focusing on the Wisconsin recall election of Governor Scott Walker coming up on June 5^th. Last night, in an hour-long look at the contest, Fox News’ Griff Jenkins visited a factory where Walker spoke and asked the owner and employees how they feel about Walker and the recall. Predictably, they overwhelmingly supported Walker and rejected the recall. What Jenkins did not tell the “We report, you decide” network viewers? That the results skewed far away from the likely results of the recall election.

“Decency Takes a Beating” blared the headline over the transcription of Greta Van Susteren's interview last night with South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley. It was one of a number of rhetorical phrases Fox News used to describe a video of South Carolina union leader Donna Dewitt, at an AFL-CIO retreat, smashing a piñata with Haley’s photo pasted on it.

It's too bad that the early Christian apostles didn't have Fox News, as that would have made their job easier. But NY's Cardinal Dolan does have it and his disciples on the "fair & balanced" Fox "News" are doing their best to spread Dolan's gospel and make GOP disciples of all those in reach of the Fox broadcast signal. Yesterday, during a discussion about how, according to Bill Hemmer, a 1993 "religious freedom" law could "sink" the HHS mandate, Hemmer quoted Dolan's commentary on - you guessed it - religious freedom while showing Dolan in acts of Catholic worship. Today, blessed Bill brought in George W Bush's HHS Secretary, Mike Leavitt, in order to talk about how, in the Holy Ghost anointed words of Cardinal Dolan, the evil Obama administration is "strangling the church."  More video of a worshipping Dolan (or is it Dolan worship video?) was shown. Who needs missionaries when you have Fox News!

Bill O'Reilly was on David Letterman last night and there were some pretty funny moments, mostly at his expense. But I have to say one thing about Bill: He knows how to go on oppo shows with good humor. There are a lot of earnest Democratic pundits who could take a lesson from him. And if they don't understand that going on a Fox News show is very little different from going on, say, Late Night with David Letterman - well, you have no business going on Fox in the first place.

After a “Watters World” segment about Las Vegas on last night’s O’Reilly Factor, Bill O’Reilly hosted producer Jesse Watters in the studio for some follow up Q & A. As Watters discussed the high unemployment and lack of good jobs there, he suggested that most jobs created were menial jobs being done by “illegal immigrants.” Yet Watters gave no indication he had any actual knowledge about anyone’s immigration status and every indication that he had merely made an ethnically-based assumption. Or, as the dictionary might say, displayed his prejudice.

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the imam associated with the so-called Ground Zero Mosque, visited the Hannity show last night, where he attempted to promote his message of combating extremism on all sides. I'm not sure Imam Rauf did himself any favors with this appearance.

Now that Fox "News" seems to have become an arm of the Catholic arch-diocese of NY, they realize that if Catholic church prince Cardinal Timothy Dolan ain't happy ain't nobody happy. Even though the Obama administration tried to accommodate the concerns of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, Dolan (head of the group), ain't happy about the Obama administration's birth control mandate. And as such, Fox seems to be more than happy to reinforce Dolan's message about how this mandate is a "war" on Catholics - a message, that like the teaching of the Catholic catechism, is repeated in order to inculcate the one "true" piece of dogma which, for Fox, will hopefully result in bringing the Catholic sheep into the GOP fold. (Ailes as the "Good Shepherd?!) Yesterday alleged "news" anchor Bill Hemmer discussed how a 1993 "religious freedom" law, being cited in all the lawsuits being filed by a minority of Catholic organizations, could "sink" the HHS mandate. And in the process he also managed to reinforce Cardinal Dolan's Fox catechism lesson about "religious freedom." Gotta love the "fair & balanced" gospel of Fox "News."

On Monday’s Special Report, Bret Baier reported in the Grapevine segment that Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett, a Republican, threatened to remove President Obama from the Arizona ballot if Hawaii officials couldn’t prove the President was born there. Baier failed to mention that the President’s birth certificate has been produced and verified, that a newspaper announcement of his birth in a Hawaiian newspaper has also been produced and that there is no merit to the birther claims. This is not the first time Baier has slyly helped legitimize birtherism claims.