Fox News is a place where religion (read conservative Christianity) and patriotism are defended with gusto. But when non conservative religiosity gets in the way of patriotism, Fox comes down (literally) on the side of patriotism and religious beliefs be damned. Such is the case involving Fox coverage of a PA politician who declined to lead fellow lawmakers in the Pledge of Allegiance because she feels that the words "under God" make it a prayer and she doesn't pray in public. Not surprisingly, the patriotic Christians on Fox & Friends covered it earlier this week in a snarky, mocking tone. And this morning, Roger Aisles' personal attorney, Knight of Malta, NY Catholic archdiocesan litigator, and occasional Fox "friend," Peter Johnson Jr. continued the attack by framing this Pledge refusal as downright unpatriotic. That Babette Josephs also invoked her First Amendment rights, was lost on Johnson who recently defended the First Amendment rights of the producer of the infamous anti-Islamic video. Go figure!

Jon Stewart really nailed Hannity on his bogus attempt to paint President Obama as a black racist via a 2007 video that Hannity "exposed" the night before Obama's debate with Mitt Romney last week. After noting that Hannity has repeatedly called Obama "the worst president ever," Stewart said, "On the eve of the first presidential debate, the best, most explosive critique that you could deliver of the worst president we have ever had in this country, is treating us to some reanimated bull**** video, already been seen, as though it were the Rodney King tape in reverse."

Just as Sean Hannity (and Fox News) repeatedly promoted Donald Trump’s birtherism, now Hannity (and Fox News) are helping to promote Jack Welch’s jobs report trutherism - a conspiracy theory that the Obama administration cooked the latest jobs report numbers to put unemployment under 8%. Fox gave itself cover for hyping this baseless accusation by presenting the subject as a discussion and, instead of offering up any real reporting that might support the theory, providing a supportive, anti-Obama guest and then boosting his “impartial” cred. This, ladies and gentlemen, is what passes for a “fair and balanced” discussion on Fox News.

As Fox News is America's Christian Newsroom, the celestial big man is a potent presence. In addition to hanging out on the curvy, Christian couch on Fox & Friends, he's a welcome guest on Megyn Kelly's alleged "news" program. Kelly has no problem invoking her Catholicism, such as when she and fellow conservative Catholic Michael Reagan cheered on the nuns and priests who would be, according to the divorced and remarried Kelly, fighting in the streets over the HHS birth control mandate. (Unreported by Kelly is that this never happened and the "Fortnight for Freedom" was a big, fat dud). Yesterday, Kelly cheered, literally, a group of Christian Texas cheerleaders who are suing their school over the prohibition of the use of prayer banners at public high school football games. Their cause was recently cheered by Fox & Friends. They won a temporary victory when a judge granted a two week extension for them to continue using their prayer banners until the next court hearing. But for Megyn Kelly this was a real victory worth cheering over!

Yesterday, the Labor Department reported the unemployment rate fell from 8.1% to 7.8% in September. Instead of being pleased, Fox News’ Your World hosted former GE CEO Jack Welch who had suggested the numbers were fraudulent, cooked up to help President Obama’s re-election – despite a lack of evidence to back it up, other than Welch’s belief that the numbers “don’t smell right.” Guest host Eric Bolling didn’t just give Welch a sympathetic platform from which to promote his conspiracy theory but helped to legitimize it.

Although Ann Coulter's brand of political rhetoric is well known, especially on Fox News, Fox & Friends nonetheless trotted her out yesterday morning as a serious analyst to discuss the presidential debate the night before. Sure enough, Coulter had a special "witticism" at the ready: "You could see at the end of that debate, (Obama) knew that, anniversary or not, Michelle wanted to go home with Mitt." As I noted in my post on the same subject at Crooks and Liars (where I post three times a week now), this is a perfect example of how inflammatory invective gets passed off as mainstream analysis on Fox.

Bill O'Reilly visited The Daily Show last night. As usual, the result was funny. As I've said before, O'Reilly can laugh at himself and dish it out pretty good, too. But my vote for the best line was from Stewart, right at the beginning, when Stewart suggested there might be a "Fox News Obama-debate baby boom" coming because of the delight over Romney's success during the debate the night before.

Sean Hannity spent – count ‘em! – three different segments on Hannity last night obsessing about the subject of President Obama and race. While it’s easy to dismiss this as a grasp at straws, when you consider this was the night after Mitt Romney’s decisive win in the first presidential debate and when you consider it in the context of Hannity’s own very disturbing history of palling around with bigots, a troubling picture emerges.

The person who coined the phrase about how when fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a bible, could have been describing Fox & Friends - the morning show that worships Jesus and the flag and woe be to those who try to impose their satanic beliefs on those who do the same. As such, the curvy, couch Christians have no problem "bearing false witness" or otherwise attacking those whose religious beliefs make them, in the small minds of the "friends," un-American. Such was the case on this morning's Fox & Friends when they mocked a PA state representative who declined to lead a group of lawmakers in the Pledge of Allegiance because she believes it's a prayer and she doesn't pray in public. But for the friends, this is downright un-American and they did their gosh darned best to ensure that this woman will probably get death threats from the Christian patriots who watch Fox & Friends!

I wonder, gentle reader, why the Screaming Right-Wing Brigade has cut the amount of saturation coverage they've been giving the “Benghazi-gate” story that they’ve been inflicting on us for weeks, in favor of a five-year-old video of Obama accusing the Bush government of shortchanging Katrina victims. I mean, the Libya story has murder and terrorists and threats to the free world; the Katrina video just has Obama praising Jeremiah Wright. Anyway, last night on On the Record Sarah Palin also brought up that 2007 Katrina video, and treated us to the spectacle of Palin accusing the President of playing chameleon and having no core convictions, while simultaneously cheerleading for Mitt Romney, the biggest chameleon in politics.