While the GOP right wing deny that there is a GOP "war on women," in 2011, a record number (1100) of anti-choice measures were introduced by mostly Republicans in state legislatures. The 2011 GOP led House of Representatives' first major task was an attempt to defund Planned Parenthood. The controversial Virginia law, mandating that non-consensual transvaginal ultrasounds be done before an abortion, was a GOP brainchild. It gets better. The enlightened GOP led Arizona state senate just passed a bill that allows employers to deny birth control coverage, on moral grounds, to its female employees unless they provide a note from their doctor stating that they are not taking the pills to prevent birth but for medical reasons. (Seriously, what century are we living in?)  MoveOn.org has a new ad about the GOP war on women's reproductive rights.  It features several women who repeat controversial statements, made by GOP personalities, regarding choice. Everything they say is correct. But Bill O'Reilly, an accused sexual harasser, whose crusade against Dr. Tiller and Planned Parenthood make him a general in the "war on women," echoes the sentiment of his anti-choice gal pal, Laura Ingraham, when he scoffs at the notion of a GOP "war on women" and suggests the ad is bogus. Methinks he doth protest too much? Or dare I say, lie?

Despite the ridiculing and panning of his last big video “exposé,” Sean Hannity presented his second Breitbart-originated “scoop” last night. This one, like the other one, was designed to “expose” President Obama’s radical ties. This one was also just about as persuasive as the last. Here, instead of President Obama hugging a “radical” tenured Harvard Law professor 22 years ago, we had President Obama attending a play about the radical Fox News boogeyman, Saul Alinsky, 14 years ago. Not only that, but Obama sat on a panel after the play! But wait a minute… doesn’t this sound an awful lot like the big revelation on Fox Nation more than a week ago?

The right wing world is full of dualities that are painted in stark contrasts. Part of the genius of its media mouthpiece, Fox "News," is its ability to morph the "us vs. them" motif with "good vs. evil" and create a finished product in which the "good" conservative "us" is seen as being in a constant state of battle with the "evil" liberal "them." In an effort to further divide (and conquer?), Fox "News" is very adept at creating social wedge issues with which to further divide the country and further poison the debate. What are essentially unimportant local issues are made into national issues thanks to the propaganda that seems to have its genesis with Fox's Todd Starnes, an intrepid culture warrior who is always on the lookout for threats to our American way of life. The "news" then travels to the Fox website and the Fox hate blog, Fox Nation. If it really needs reinforcement, it ends up on Fox TV. The most recent "outrage" is a flap over an American flag, with President Obama's face where the stars should be, flown at a small Democratic party headquarters in Florida. The flag is down but the issue isn't as seen by coverage on the Fox website, Fox Nation, and - wait for it - Fox TV where alleged news anchor, Megyn Kelly, covered it on her alleged news show.

As Sean Hannity continues to attack President Obama for his “radical association” with Harvard Law Professor Derrick Bell, I did a little more digging into Hannity’s far more radical and far closer associate, Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson. It turns out that Peterson, a guy who thanks God for slavery and compares slave ships to flying coach on airplanes, is quite a shocking misogynist who thinks “America is gone” because women have too much power, including the right to vote. He also agrees with Limbaugh that Sandra Fluke is a whore and a slut. In fact, Peterson thinks most women have "turned into little whores." And that’s only the half of it. If you think Bill Maher’s comments about women are so disturbing that Obama should return Maher’s $1 million donation (as Fox keeps screeching), then I’m sure you’ll want to know why Hannity continues to sit on the advisory board of a charity run by Peterson.

This is becoming a regular routine for us. Does somebody have to get killed before Fox News moderates its comments?

The widely-discussed PPP poll that found a lot of Mississippi and Alabama Republicans think President Obama is a Muslim, are against interracial marriage and don’t believe in evolution, e.g. was a topic on Hannity last night. But, as usual, rather than spend much time discussing the poll, Special Victim – and multimillionaire - Hannity used it as yet another excuse to whine about how unfair life is for conservatives. Hannity tried to “prove” the unfairness of it all by insisting that “no one doubts that (Obama’s) a professed Christian on the program.” Well, nobody but Donald Trump, Frank Luntz’ focus group and Hannity, himself.

We can add Greg Gutfeld to the roster of Fox News hosts who suggest feminists are sluts and then think they are whitewashing their smears by attacking Bill Maher. 

Leave it to Jon Stewart, and the writers of the Daily Show, to put the Rush Limbaugh 3-week national brouhaha into its proper perspective.  While he starts with “Radio shock blob Rush Limbaugh” and his “daily noon to 3 afternoon mouth dump,” it’s not very long before he’s onto one of his (and our) favorite topics: Fox “News” Channel.  Stewart was clearly having fun with this segment until one point where it appeared he allowed some real life anger to show through. 

Rick Santorum made some news earlier yesterday when he declared that he thought Fox News has been shilling for Mitt Romney. Later in the evening – after he won the Alabama and Mississippi primaries – he appeared on On The Record and explained to host Greta Van Susteren that she and Sean Hannity are “fair and balanced” but Fox’s news coverage is not. That’s pretty funny because according to Fox, it’s the news coverage that’s objective and the evening opinion shows such as Van Susteren’s and Hannity’s are likened to an editorial page. 

Sean Hannity is still using the widely-ridiculed Professor Derrick Bell video to paint President Obama as a racist. Never mind that Hannity sits on the advisory board of a charity run by “Thank God for slavery” and “slave ships are like flying coach” Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson. Obama hugged tenured Harvard Law Professor Bell in 1990 during a student protest so he must be a closeted racist! To assist with the attacks (and inoculate himself from looking like a bigot), Hannity trotted out two of his like-minded African American pals – David Webb and Michael Meyers. Each overlooked Hannity’s own very disturbing record on race in order to use this flimsy pretext to accuse Obama of racial demagoguery.