Mike Huckabee has blown the birther dogwhistle again. Oh, he cleverly avoided saying anything about a birth certificate but he suggested that Mitt Romney respond to demands for his tax returns with a demand for President Obama to release his college transcript “and the copy of his admission records to show whether or not he got any loans as a foreign student.”

Fox Newsies are falling all over themselves defending Mitt Romney’s 1%-ness. Either they argue that it’s great that he’s so wealthy or they attack those with differing opinions are both. But in no case do they ever seem to really understand that what’s wrong with Romney is that everything about him says privileged and wealthy and nothing about him says he feels or understands or will work on behalf of those who are not.

Neil Cavuto opened a segment on Wednesday's Your World (1/18/12) about Mitt Romney paying a 15% tax rate instead of the top tax rate of 35% by celebrating it. "Maybe this sounds sacrilegious, but what am I missing here? Why be defensive about it? What's wrong with paying 15%?"

If Debbie Wasserman Schultz’ appearance on Fox & Friends this morning is any indication of how an Obama vs. Romney campaign would go, it’s looking good for Obama! As DWS bonus points, she gets in quite a few good digs at Fox, too!

News Corp. has settled 37 cases of phone hacking at a cost of possibly £10m, The Guardian has reported. As part of the process, the media conglomerate made what a high court called an “admission of sorts” that it covered up evidence of phone hacking by its British tabloid newspapers.

Sean Hannity was so eager to defend his pal Newt Gingrich on last night’s Hannity, you’d think Gingrich was in trouble for saying something racist rather than because his ex-wife dropped a bombshell on ABC News - that Gingrich had wanted an “open marriage” while he was married to her and having an affair with the woman who is his current wife.

The first part of Saturday's (1/14/12) Bulls and Bears focused on EU downgrades. Sudddenly, the topic turned to cutting corporate taxes in order to create jobs. Predictably, cutting taxes was presented as a panacea that two of the five panelists argued against.

If a new Public Policy Polling report is to be believed, most Americans probably do not believe Fox News’ “fair and balanced” mantra is accurate. In a survey asking which news source is the most trusted, conservatives overwhelmingly choose Fox but moderates, independents and liberals rate it the least trustworthy. For the second year, PBS is the most trusted source.  Sadly, the poll notes “Television news has become just as polarizing as the politicians themselves,” said Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling. “Democrats trust everything except Fox News, while Republicans trust nothing except Fox News.”

Dennis Miller mocked those who thought racial politics were played against Fox’s Juan Williams at Monday night’s Republican debate. Kicking off what was supposed to be an O'Reilly Factor discussion last night about President Obama’s trip to Disney World, Miller said to Bill O'Reilly, “Billy, Billy, heck of a show tonight. Tell Jew-Ann Williams he was great.” A few days ago, O’Reilly complained, “I don’t like this race business” when a Democrat said he thought the Republican candidates had been insensitive to South Carolina’s African Americans. But now, O’Reilly chuckled heartily. Oh, and Funny-Man Miller also had a message for the captain of the capsized ship in Italy: "Open up a wrist in a bathtub pal and do the right thing!" He also hoped the guy would get raped in prison. Classy as ever.

In Fox's latest ridiculous effort to pretend Donald Trump is a serious pundit, Greta Van Susteren hosted him last night (1/18/12) for a double session in which she treated Trump – whose only real business experience is in real estate – as an expert on the Keystone pipeline, the related environmental issues, the 2012 presidential election, Snooki and - my personal favorite – Iran.