If you thought Chris Wallace’s infomercial about the Romneys was a puff piece, wait until you see Megyn Kelly’s two-segment gush-fest with Mitt Romney’s five sons. I wouldn’t have thought it possible but she managed to make Wallace look positively hard hitting.

According to the head honchos at Fox News, their official "news" programs are fair & balanced and not dedicated to pushing propaganda. So if that's the case (LOL), why did Bret Baier use the non-scientific term "partial birth abortion," a term coined in the late 90's by a consortium of anti-choice groups and the Catholic bishops, to describe a late term abortion procedure other than to underscore their pro-life creds and make the Obama bashing even more fun. Words mean something and in this case the wording was clearly an articulation of anti-choice propaganda which was part of the opposition to Obama in 2008 and, like those movie zombies, keeps coming back. "Fair & Balanced?"  Not so much!

Bill O'Reilly made a big point of telling us during his Talking Points commentary last night that unlike some people on Fox, he's not a political ideologue. Referring to his upcoming convention coverage, he said, "It will not be The Republicans are good, the Democratics are bad or vice versa. We are not in the business of promoting any political party." No, he just happened to conclude that The Republicans are sane and responsible while the Democrats are kowtowing to extremists and radicals.

So much for Sarah Palin’s plan to “step back” and “let some new voices, new faces, new energy out there to really engage with the base.” That’s what she said two weeks ago when it was clear she was persona non grata at both the Republican convention and the Romney campaign. But now that the convention is here she just can’t seem to be able to resist trying to butt in and grab some attention away from others. Again. You might say she quit her quitting.

It was bad enough that Karl Rove had the chutzpah to “defend” Mitt Romney’s birther joke by attacking President Obama as “ungracious” for not thanking Romney for acknowledging Obama was born in the U.S. I mean, what’s next? Rove attacking Obama for not being grateful that nobody on Fox has called him the n-word? But within the same spiel, Rove admitted that it was to Romney’s advantage not to be “so self discrediting” by going birther.

Fox News Sunday hosted Mike Huckabee on its panel yesterday where Chris Wallace asked him about his support for Rep. Todd Akin. Huckabee proceeded to “defend” Akin by smearing President Obama with the long-ago debunked attack on his “born alive” votes in the Illinois senate, and outlandishly calling Obama a “radical” on abortion. Even worse, nobody challenged Huckabee for such outrageous rhetoric.

Fox & Friends starts its segment with a group of cute young guys who are sitting at a table with Steve Doocy while the awesome "It's Raining Men"  is playing as background music. So you might be thinking that Steve is getting ready to interview a group of Log Cabin Republicans or some guys from GoProud. But as soon as the music stops, you learn that these fellows are Mitt Romney's strapping young sons. For the uninitiated, "It's Raining Men" has taken on an iconic status in gay circles where it is often heard in gay bars and other gay venues. So - ah - what was the Fox & Friends producer really trying to tell us? And BTW, if it's going to rain men, let it be the NY City Firefighters and not Mitt Romney's sons and Steve Doocy!

 H/T Raw Story

Admittedly, my years of Catholic school indoctrination were long ago, in a galaxy far, far away so maybe Catholic priorities have changed. Along with being constantly warned about "impure thoughts," we were taught that the second greatest commandment was to love ones neighbor as oneself. So either "devout Catholic" Eric Bolling was absent during that Catechism lesson or that commandment, when Bolling was a Catholic school boy, had gone the way of meatless Friday's because it's apparent that Bolling doesn't love his neighbor if that neighbor is an atheist. Without going all Ablow, it does appear that Bolling, who informs his Twitter followers whenever he attends Mass, has some serious, I mean serious issues with those who don't believe in the spirit in the sky. Last week, during a discussion about the "Ground Zero Cross," an issue in which Fox "news" has taken the side of the angels, Bolling added to his collection of not so neighborly comments about atheists. It's strange.

One of the ongoing tropes of the anti-choice movement and the Catholic Church is that human "life" begins at the moment of conception and therefore must be accorded all rights given to those who are already born. This notion of "personhood," effectively banning all abortions as well as some types of birth control and IVF, has been rejected by voters. But those who oppose reproductive rights maintain that "science" says that "life" begins at conception while in reality, the mainstream scientific community doesn't weigh in on whether zygotes are "humans" in the legal or metaphysical sense which is really the domain of philosophy and religion within which there is disagreement. But when candidate Obama told Rev. Rick Warren that this issue was "above his pay-grade," he was, as he told George Stephanopoulos, reflecting that he couldn't answer this theological question. But that didn't stop the anti-choice zealots from attacking him. Yesterday, in case the Fox audience had forgotten, Fr. Jonathan Morris sweetly reminded them of Obama's sin.

In the second part of Fox News Sunday's Romney infomercial today, host Chris Wallace visited the entire Romney family in their home in New Hampshire (not the one in La Jolla with the $55,000 car elevator). Wallace seemed to really, really want us to think of them as regular folks: No maids! They love to shop at Costco! And Mitt Romney cooks!