It is with deep sorrow that we share the news of the passing of Kim, PbD, a beloved original member of the NewsHounds community. Kim lost her protracted battle with cancer on April 8, 2012 at the age of 37. She is remembered fondly by all of us here but especially by the members of the Newshounds Off-Topic Forum, where her infectious enthusiasm for life, her impish sense of humor and her generous personality shone through every word she typed – and where she first encountered the man who would become her husband.

Today President Obama was in Fort Stewart, Georgia, speaking to a crowd of soldiers. He was announcing an executive order he'd just signed, to crack down on fraudulent "diploma mills" that market to veterans.  Fox Nation barely mentioned that fact; instead it zeroed in on some remarks the President made at the end of his speech about the importance of public investment in universities and research, and made these the subject of a post titled "Obama Goes on Collectivist Rant In Front of Troops." (In front of the troops? Horrors!)

Earlier this week, Sandra Fluke announced she's engaged. So how did classy Monica Crowley react? By tweeting, "To a man?" UPDATE: Crowley has issued a BS apology "to Sandra & anyone else I offended."

Yesterday, I reported on the Fox & Friends chucklefest over Piers Morgan's interview with the Dalia Lama. Never wasting an opportunity to smear the president, the resident chuckleheads insinuated that the Dalai Lama was dissed by President Obama. Steve Doocy stated that the Buddhist holy man was "hustled out the back door" of the White House, thus suggesting that the administration wanted to quickly and secretly dispose of the Dalai Lama's presence. As Doocy said that, Brian Kilmeade interjected that "China tried to intimidate this administration" which seemed to imply cause and effect between the Dalai Lama's exit and Chinese pressure on the White House. But here's the thing, the asses on the curvy couch misspoke. Whether it's bad research on the part of their production crew or just an outright lie, I can't say. But what I can say is that the scenario presented wasn't entirely true.

On yesterday’s Your World, Ben Quayle (R-AZ), after ripping Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on a hearing on SB 1070 in Arizona, was then asked by Neil Cavuto about a pending vote in the House on Friday extending low interest-rate loans to students. Quayle said that was “the first time hearing about that.” Cavuto then went on to repeatedly suggest that Quayle ought to stand with Mitt Romney and support the bill.

"Liberal" Greta Van Susteren seems to be taking a page from the Fox News Sunday show and avoiding Democrats. Last night's On The Record show included six Republicans one Washington Post reporter. There wasn't a single Democratic guest.

When multimillionaire Sean Hannity isn't boasting about his insider status with the elites, he loves to play up his "regular guy" bona fides. Lately, he's been in regular guy mode as he argues that poverty in America isn't that big a deal. A few days ago, Hannity lectured poor people that all they need to do to combat hunger is to eat rice and beans. Yesterday, after coming under quite a bit of scrutiny and ridicule for his out-of-touch arrogance, Hannity offered some more shopping tips for those not fortunate enough to earn hundreds of millions of dollars like he does.

Underscoring the close (but strictly chaste and very heterosexual) relationship that the Fox News network has with Brent Bozell's right wing media watchdog group, "Newsbusters," Steve Doocy, on yesterday's Fox & Friends, promoted a Newsbusters video that, according to a Newsbusters headline, "will make liberals heads explode." (Doocy committed the most mortal of Newsbusters sins and didn't identify the political leaning of the website!) A portion of the Newsbusters clip was shown from the Piers Morgan interview with the Buddhist holy man. But the thing is that what wasn't shown was actually something with which liberals might agree. And what wasn't shown wasn't detailed except in the context of dissing Morgan and revising past history. Once again, Fox & Friends lives up to its reputation as "the morning happy-talk show that Ailes uses as one of his primary vehicles to inject his venom into the media bloodstream."

We haven't posted about this previously but there's been a bit of a to-do between UC Berkeley professor and former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich and Bill O'Reilly. Recently, O'Reilly called Reich a communist who "secretly adores Karl Marx." Reich took exception to the accusation, saying, “Ordinarily I don’t bother repeating anything Bill O’Reilly says... But this particular whopper is significant because it represents what O’Reilly and Fox News, among others, are doing to the national dialogue. They’re burying it in doo-doo.” O'Reilly now claims he was joking when he said it. Reich has challenged O'Reilly to a debate and, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, has yet to receive a response. (h/t Jim T.)

While Fox News has made a cottage industry of the so called, "war on Christmas," they are engaging in their very own war against atheists. Given that the Christian right hates atheism, it's not surprising that Jesus' very own "news" network's utilizes Jesus' very own BFF's on Jesus' very own morning show,Fox & Friends, to reinforce the message that evil atheists are out to destroy Jesus' very own nation. The patented fear of atheist card is trump in the Fox & Friends deck. We've been told that atheists could take over Christian groups at Vanderbilt U. We've been warned that atheist highway and bus signs are "a war on God." And when atheist groups go after Christian crosses on public lands, the morning Christian soldiers unsheathe their vorpal swords. This morning, Steve Doocy spoke with the homophobic, disgraced former military chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt about how atheists have forced the Air Force to remove bibles from the checklist of hospitality requirements for Air Force Inn lodging suites. I was hoping that Klingenschmitt would talk about his exorcism of a gay woman soldier who was raped. He didn't. Bummer.