Britain’s Metropolitan Police have acknowledged that they failed to properly investigate and warn the victims of News Corp. phone hacking when it was originally discovered in 2006. Gross incompetence or a cover up? I report, you decide.

The Christian right is on a crusade to ban abortions and destroy Planned Parenthood. But because they haven't been successful in their endeavors, they're going after emergency contraception commonly known as the "morning after pill." During the Bush administration, they tried to keep it off the over the counter market but were ultimately unsuccessful. They have supported pharmacists who refuse to sell it and now are focusing their ire at Shippensberg University's new vending machine, in the student health center, which dispenses Plan B for a cost of 25$. Interestingly, Fox News is quite interested in this issue. This topic was a Fox News website secondary lede for a good part of the day. And alleged "straight news" anchor, Martha MacCallum, hosted a discussion about it. While the talk was "fair & balanced," it was apparent that Ms. MacCallum's views dovetail nicely with those in the anti-choice movement.  

Chalk up Herman Cain as the latest faux expert on Fox News. It’s not as though Cain had any kind of distinguished political career before he decided to run for president. And once he did run, he pretty much had to drop out in disgrace after a series of policy gaffes and allegations of sexual misconduct. But on Fox News, that’s so two months ago! Last night, Sean Hannity pronounced Cain a “great American” and trotted him out as a political pundit with all the cred and gravitas they’d give to Karl Rove.

Earlier this week, Bill O'Reilly claimed that there is bigotry against those who are pro-choice. Yet, during last week's "Culture Warrior" segment,  Bill reported on a Providence RI Right to Life Rally, at the RI State House, during which tempers flared between those who were protesting the pro-life group and those who conducted the rally. Some of those who were on the pro-choice side were also members of a local "Occupy" group. Bill was outraged about the treatment of his fellow anti-choicers and used the incident to vilify all those the entire "Occupy" movement. Once again, Bill's hypocrisy is remarkable given that he seems to ignore bad behavior on the part of those who support his positions. But beyond the hypocrisy, his basic bigotry, in broad brushing a movement with which he disagrees, was front and center. The funny thing is that the accusations of condom throwing, on the part of those who were protesting the anti-choicers, might not be what Bill and his pals in the right wing blogosphere made them out to be. Wonder if Bill will issue a correction? Nah, that might cut the bigotry buzz...

Was Clint Eastwood’s “halftime in America” Super Bowl ad for Chrysler really an ad for Obama? Was the straight-shootin’ conservative cowboy seducing you into supporting that evil taxpayer-funded bailout of the auto industry? Eastwood denied there was any “spin” in the ad. “It was meant to be a message just about job growth and the spirit of America.” But Fox News gave Karl Rove a podium to attack the ad as offensive and accuse it of being a thank-you to Obama for the billion-dollar bailout that so many conservatives hate so much. “It is a sign of what happens when you have Chicago style politics and the President of the United States and his political minions are in essence using our tax dollars to buy corporate advertising,” Rove said.

The old saying "damned if you do and damned if you don't" is so applicable to how President Obama can't satisfy the religious litmus test of the Christian right who believe that Obama, a secret Muslim, does not fit their definition of a "true" Christian. While Obama professes to be a Christian, Jesus' BFF's in the Christian right aren't buying it and use every opportunity to paint the president as an emissary of Satan who is waging war against Christian Merka. So when the president recently spoke at a prayer breakfast and said that this Christian faith guides his policies, you'd think he'd get some props. Think again. The right wing trashed him because he used Scripture to support his call for fairness in the tax code and them's fighting words for those who believe in Supply Side Jesus. Not surprisingly, Fox's one true house priest for the 1%, Fr. Jonathan Morris, instructed his TV flock that Obama was wrong about Jesus. Funny, just last November, the little padre had his Catholic panties in a wad because Obama didn't mention "God" in his Thanksgiving address. Sometimes ya just can't win

Regular readers know that Fox News' “Democratic pollster” Doug Schoen is hardly a muscular voice for progressive values. He’s more often a muscular voice for Republican memes – and has even penned editorials calling on President Obama not to run for re-election. So imagine my shock when Schoen appeared on Hannity last night and took a strong stand on behalf of the Obama administration’s new rule requiring employers (including Catholic institutions, though not churches) to offer reproductive-health benefits at no additional cost as part of their health coverage. As Hannity hammed it up over Obama’s “war against our Constitution,” Schoen told him that this Republican hissy fit was going to cost “more votes.” So you know the polling has to be squarely on President Obama’s side.

Don’t forget this is the same Eric Bolling who last week attacked colleague Bob Beckel for not being respectful enough to hate monger Allen West because Beckel refused to call him “Representative” or  “Lieutenant Colonel.” Proof – again – that no smear is too low on Fox News so long as it’s a Republican doing the smearing and a Democrat and/or liberal on the receiving end. And why didn’t Beckel confront this disgusting, hypocritical smear with outrage?

Bill O'Reilly, who regularly channels "Tailgunner" Joe McCarthy, thinks that the "One Million Moms" campaign to get JC Penny to fire Ellen DeGeneres as its spokesperson, because she is gay, is akin to McCarthyism. Oh, the irony!

Sarah Palin has pretty much shown herself to be a big nothing in 2012 politics. She hasn’t exactly endeared herself to Mitt Romney who will almost certainly be the Republican nominee. Recently, she urged Republican primary voters to vote for Newt Gingrich in Florida and Nevada and, well, it’s plain to see how that one worked out for her. Plus there was her ridiculous tease about a potential candidacy of her own that nobody with an ounce of intelligence could have possibly fallen for. But somehow Fox News has not gotten the message. They keep trotting her out for her so-called insights into the race.