O’Reilly’s Ratings Continue to Slide

Read through to the “Update” and see how the spokesman from Fox pulls the classic conservative ploy – smear the messenger who reveals the bad news.

“O’Reilly’s May numbers dipped below 2 million for the first time in a year,” the Washingtonian’s Harry Jaffe notes. “In October, during the election season, more than 3-million people were tuning in to O’Reilly’s diatribes.” TVNewser first reported this trend last month. CNN says O’Reilly has lost 1,181,000 viewers since October:

October: 3,166,000 / November: 3,080,000 / December: 2,610,000 / January: 2,478,000 / February: 2,391,000 / March: 2,320,000 / April: 2,178,000 / May-to-date: 1,985,000

O’Reilly has also consistently lost viewers each month in the 25-54 demographic, from 951,000 in October to 420,000 in May, a decrease of 531,000 viewers.

But, Jaffe adds, “a Fox flack said his numbers were up from last May.” And, as a Fox insider said last month, “who do you think CNN would rather have at 8pm?”

> Update: 10:14pm: A Fox News spokesperson responds to Jaffe’s story: “Once again Harry proves he’s a CNN toady in using their tired revenue spin which is better known as loser’s lament and by misrepresenting O’Reilly’s ratings…he begrudges everyone’s success, including that of the highest rated show in cable news… as everyone in the Beltway knows, Harry is understandably bitter but we wish him well in overcoming his personal demons.”

Fat Cat Donors Have Hotline to Das Guber

Gov. Schwarzenegger’s polling has deflated since he took on popular groups in California, like teachers, nurses, and firefighters, whom he has labelled “special interests.” Now we learn in a scoop from the Los Angeles Times that Das Guber is laying the groundwork for a scorched-earth campaign to create a “phenomenon of anger” against these popular groups and others.

That fact comes as a result of the scoop. The big news here is that Schwarzenegger’s biggest donors are treated to regular phone conferences where they listen to the governor’s schemes and plots, and are invited to join in.

When wealthy contributors write checks to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, they often get a few canapes and a drink — and a secret telephone number that grants them access to his closest advisors and even the governor himself.

Twice a month, donors can become insiders’ insiders — invited to participate in conference calls featuring information about Schwarzenegger campaign strategy that his political enemies would love to have. In turn, donors who dial in can give the governor advice.

In the latest such call, a few days ago, Schwarzenegger’s media expert, Don Sipple, outlined a strategy “based on a lot of polling” to create a “phenomenon of anger” among voters toward public employee unions. Firefighters, police officers, teachers and other state-paid workers have become the governor’s harshest critics this year.

“The process is like peeling an onion,” Sipple said, describing a multi-step plan for persuading voters that public-worker unions are “motivated by economic self-interest” instead of “doing the best job for the state…”

The governor has dubbed 2005 the “year for reform,” and he needs millions of dollars for support, mainly for TV ads. The Times was given access to Thursday’s half-hour call through a participant.

“It’s a good way to keep in touch with you, our most important supporters, about the latest developments in the campaign,” Schwarzenegger’s chief fundraiser, Marty Wilson, told the contributors…

Contributors to Schwarzenegger’s causes are first invited to join the discussions in e-mails, which tell them how to get — for each call — a phone number and a password. The campaign staff decides which significant donors will be included each time. The discussions feature a “special guest,” such as Sipple, talking about the governor’s plans, as well as information about fundraisers and a question-and-answer session.

In the latest call, the advisors said Schwarzenegger had spent $8 million so far on television ads defending and promoting his agenda. He launched another TV ad campaign the same day that will cost $2.5 million for a few weeks of air time, and he wants to collect $31 million to $32 million to run his initiative campaign through the fall, the advisors said.

Ismail Merchant No Longer Gay in Obits

Turns out there is a cure for being gay – death. Washington Blade has a great story on how the late Ismail Merchant’s gayness was deleted in his obituaries:

Merchant Ivory Productions is synonymous with films that are rooted in ornate and authentic history. With the death of film producer Ismail Merchant on Wednesday, May 25, however, some major news organizations are rewriting history, or at least omitting some of it.

It is well known that the 44-year relationship between Merchant and James Ivory — who was the director of the duo’s films like Oscar-nominated “Howard’s End,” “Room with a View,” and “Remains of the Day” — was romantic as well as creative.

Of the mainstream news accounts reviewed for this article, only the Los Angeles Times explicitly states that the two were a gay couple.

“In a business where professional marriages last hardly any longer than personal ones,” the L.A. Times writes, “Merchant’s association with the German-born [screenwriter Rita Rawer] Jhabvala and the American Ivory, who was also Merchant’s life partner, spanned more than 40 years and yielded as many movies.”

The New York Times, Associated Press, Reuters and the Washington Post all omitted the fact that Merchant and Ivory were life partners.

The Post obit writer, who included a very old quote in which Merchant said he had a “crush” on an actress, defended omitting Merchant’s relationship with Ivory because he said he could not find definitive proof that they were a couple.

“I feel uncomfortable writing about someone’s personal life unless it’s something they talked about extensively in print,” the Post’s obit writer Adam Bernstein told The Blade. Bernstein pointed out that the Post routinely lists gay partners as survivors in obituaries if the relationship can be proved.

The Blade’s Brian Moylan also points out that a similar “de-gaying” happened recently when Susan Sontag died. Many obituaries glossed over her relationships with women, including famed photographer Annie Liebowitz.

Jeb Tried to Save Schiavo from Aromatherapy Abuse

Excellent coverage of Jeb’s delusions of grandeur and delusions in general at Florida Politics. Now that we’ve all had some time to look into the hysterical claims made during the Schiavo fiasco, it appears just barely possible Jeb was…bluffing? Exaggerating? Um…lying? Yes, that’s it — Jeb was lying.

Will the media ask “Jeb!” to explain whether he was lying about “new and compelling allegations of abuse” in advance of the aborted Schiavo snatch and grab mission? After all, “Jeb!” specifically,

“claimed there were new and compelling allegations of abuse or neglect that the state Department of Children and Families had to investigate.”

“…the only allegation in the batch not heard before: A March 7 complaint that accused a nursing assistant at Schiavo’s Pinellas Park hospice of using an “air freshener substance” in her bath water in July, which caused a rash. DCF investigators learned the substance was an aromatherapy oil that the assistant placed in a spray bottle, not in Schiavo’s bath.”

… “Jeb!” better have had something more than “air freshener” complaints when he claimed there was “new and compelling allegations of abuse” as justification for nearly causing a constitutional crisis; recall that, as a result of the need to “save” Schiavo, “‘There were two sets of law enforcement officers facing off, waiting for the other to blink,’ said one official with knowledge of Thursday morning’s activities.”

A note to folks outside Florida. Jeb’s campaign materials consist of red signage with “Jeb!” reversed out in white. That’s all, just “Jeb” with an exclamation point. Seeing this year after year, those of us who live here tend to think of him as “Jeb!” all the time.

“The Majority” is a Belligerent, Obnoxious Loudmouth

Fabulous letter to the editor recently in Florida’s Gainesville Sun in defense of our Constitution and judicial review.

Who would be willing to allow the police to beat confessions out of us or allow us to be tried for crimes without the benefit of legal counsel? Who would vote to return to a day when people of different races could not intermarry, were forced to go to different schools, drink from different fountains and sit separately in public arenas?

The change in such practices has usually come from court decisions before the majority of our country fell in line. Times change and values change, or we would still have slavery.

Our Constitution was adopted to protect the minority because the majority has never needed protection. To the extent that the court system may be considered activist because it does not always vote with the majority of our population as represented by Congress or state legislatures, it is in fact carrying out its mandate from the spirit, if not the precise letter of the Constitution.

The letter was signed by George L. Barnett of Micanopy, which, everyone knows, is the town where the Michael J. Fox film “Doc Hollywood” was filmed. Good going, George!

CA Republican Activist Arrested for Terrorism, Media Snores

Yasith Chhun, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Cambodia, was arrested on June 1, 2005, in California on charges related to the activities of the antigovernment group he heads, the Cambodian Freedom Fighters. In 2001, the U.S. State Dept. declared the group to be a terrorist organization.

He was taken into custody Wednesday without incident at his residence in Long Beach… [He] was arrested pursuant to two indictments. The first charges him with conspiracy to kill in a foreign country, conspiracy to damage or destroy property in a foreign country, and engaging in a military expedition against a friendly nation. The second indictment charges him with running a fraudulent tax-preparation business.

The reason the government might backpedal from the terrorism label in this case is that some powerful Republicans, notably Rep. Dana Rohrabacher from California’s Orange County, support Chhun’s group in its resistance to Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, who is accused of using strongarm tactics to stay in power. There is a complication, however. Hun Sen is democratically elected. He heads the Cambodian People’s Party, which controls the National Assembly in coalition with the royalist FUNCINPEC party.

Like a lot of Cambodian Americans, Chhun has been an active supporter of the GOP. In 2004, he attended the annual meeting of the Business Advisory Council of the National Republican Congressional Committee in Washington, DC. A spokesman for the group claims they didn’t know Chhun was a terrorist.

“At this point, the gentleman hasn’t been convicted of anything,” [NRCC spokesman Carl] Forti said. If he is a terrorist, “it’s something we need to look at. Clearly, we wouldn’t want any leader of a terrorist organization being members of our business advisory council.”

[But] Chhun… has never made a secret of his role in the 2000 attack on several government buildings in the capital, Phnom Penh. He spoke openly about it to newspapers and magazines, where he was portrayed as a would-be revolutionary who ran his resistance movement out of his tax office in Long Beach.

This case proves the lie of the whole ginned-up, GOP “War on Terror” marketing scheme. We are no more “at war” with the Cambodian Freedom Fighters than we are with the Irish Republican Army or the Shining Path. Our conflict is with radical fundamentalists in Islam. If we are to prevail, Job One is to understand who our enemies are and why they oppose us. Bush and his party have deliberately fuzzied up both the nature of the conflict and the identities of our enemies in order to rally their simple-minded base.

This fuzziness ought to render the GOP vulnerable when one of their own gets nabbed. But with the news media super-busy covering this crucial juncture in the Michael Jackson trial, the Republicans needn’t worry about blowback from the arrest of a terrorist member of their party.

Imagine the media circus that would have erupted if the names Clinton or Kennedy, rather than Rohrabacher, had been associated with a known terrorist. The Jackson trial would become a mere sideshow.

This brings to mind another non-story in which a Republican activist was arrested here in Calfiornia for spying. Katrina Leung was charged with “illegally obtaining secret documents to the advantage of a foreign power,” namely Communist Red China. She was arrested along with her boyfriend, who happened to be married – and also happened to be an FBI agent. He was charged with making false statements to federal agents by concealing his “improper intimate relationship with an FBI asset” who he was charged with handling.

Ohio Republican Political Scandal Update

As you may have read below, we learned today that Tom Noe, the Republican moneyman at the center of the missing-millions scandal in Ohio, has put his luxurious Key West home on the market for $4.6 million.

Now comes word that a top advisor to two Ohio Republican governors has admitted he participated in the money laundering scheme Noe orchestrated in order to funnel illegal contributions to President Bush and other Republican candidates last year.

H. Douglas Talbott, a former top aide to two Ohio governors, told federal authorities that Republican coin dealer Tom Noe persuaded him to contribute $2,000 to President Bush’s re- election campaign – then reim bursed him for the donation, The Plain Dealer has learned.

Talbott appeared Wednesday before a federal grand jury in Toledo that is investigating whether Noe illegally reimbursed as many as two dozen contributors to a Bush fund- raiser in October 2003. The grand jury is looking into whether Noe made the reimbursements to circumvent campaign finance laws, which limit individual contributions to $2,000.

His appearance before the grand jury marked the first time a former top aide to Gov. Bob Taft and former Gov. George Voinovich has been linked to the federal investigation of possible laundering of Bush campaign money.

Repeated attempts to reach Talbott were unsuccessful.

(Thanks Julie!)

Late on Friday, Pentagon Admits Koran Abuse Including Urination Incident

Late today after the East Coast media had gone home for the evening, the Pentagon released a report in which it admitted multiple incidents of U.S. interrogators abusing the Koran in order to incite Moslem detainees:

The Pentagon on Friday released new details about mishandling of the Koran at the Guantanamo Bay prison for terror suspects, confirming that a soldier deliberately kicked the Muslim holy book and that an interrogator stepped on a Koran and was later fired for “a pattern of unacceptable behavior.”

In other confirmed incidents, water balloons thrown by prison guards caused an unspecified number of Korans to get wet; a guard’s urine came through an air vent and splashed on a detainee and his Koran; and in a confirmed but ambiguous case, a two-word obscenity was written in English on the inside cover of a Koran.

The findings, released after normal business hours Friday evening, are among the results of an investigation last month by Brig. Gen. Jay Hood, the commander of the detention center in Cuba, that was triggered by a Newsweek magazine report — later retracted — that a U.S. soldier had flushed one Guantanamo Bay detainee’s Koran down a toilet.

It’s going to be interesting to learn how “a guard’s urine came through an air vent and splashed on a detainee and his Koran.”

The Smoking Memo Ignites Calls for Impeachment

Today the Bangor News in Maine has joined the PR’s call for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

Even as support trickles in, the odds are slim that Bush and Cheney will ever be impeached for lying to the public in the run-up to the Iraq War. Still, here’s a fun scenario to consider: If the Dems were to take the House in November ’06, Impeachment could move forward. If the Senate were to rule against Bush and Cheney, the big office would go to the third in line, House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi, right.

The Presidency of Nancy Pelosi may seem like pie in the sky but – and here’s something I thought I’d never say – let’s look at the shining example of former Talibani congressman Bob Barr whose cock-eyed optimism and black-hearted loathing of President Clinton paid off in the late 1990’s. More than a year before the world was introduced to Monica Lewinsky and her blue Gap dress, Barr ignored Clinton’s high poll numbers and filed impeachment proceedings against him :

In November [1997], long before Monica, Barr introduced a resolution to open a congressional impeachment inquiry: Clinton, reads its text, “has engaged in a systemic effort to obstruct, undermine, and compromise … the executive branch.” And since Clinterngate broke, Barr has been in a state of high gloat. He’s now preparing articles of impeachment and happily adding obstruction of justice and perjury to his list of Clintonian high crimes.

Of course, Barr made a fatal error in ignoring President Clinton’s high polling. As the impeachment played out, Clinton’s poll numbers stayed high, and it was his popularity that finally scared a few Senate Republicans into ruling in his favor.

Today, we’re faced with malfeasance in the White House far graver than a sex lie. But is there even a remote chance these men will be impeached? Norm Solomon lays it out, at TomPaine.com:

Five months into 2005, the movement to impeach Bush is very small. And three enormous factors weigh against it: 1) Republicans control Congress. 2) Most congressional Democrats are routinely gutless. 3) Big media outlets shun the idea that the president might really be a war criminal.

For now, we can’t end the GOP’s majority. But we could proceed to light a fire under congressional Democrats. And during the next several weeks, it’s possible to have major impacts on news media by launching a massive educational and “agitational” campaign—spotlighting the newly leaked Downing Street Memo and explaining why its significance must be pursued as a grave constitutional issue.

The leak of the memo weeks ago, providing minutes from a high-level meeting that Prime Minister Tony Blair held with aides in July 2002, may be the strongest evidence yet that Bush is guilty of an impeachable offense. As Rep. John Conyers, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, wrote in late May:

  • “First, the memo appears to directly contradict the administration’s assertions to Congress and the American people that it would exhaust all options before going to war. According to the minutes, in July 2002, the administration had already decided to go to war against Iraq.”
  • “Second, a debate has raged in the United States over the last year and one half about whether the obviously flawed intelligence that falsely stated that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction was a mere ‘failure’ or the result of intentional manipulation to reach foreordained conclusions supporting the case for war. The memo appears to close the case on that issue stating that in the United States the intelligence and facts were being ‘fixed’ around the decision to go to war.”

Update: Rep. Conyers has 86,000 signatures on his letter demanding an explanation of the contents of the memo from President Bush. Even you’re lukewarm on impeachment, you’d still like to hear an explanation – right? It only takes a minute. Do it!

Noe’s Key West Home Is on the Market for $4.6 mil

Tom Noe, the Ohio Republican fundraiser who is under investigation for, er, misplacing over $10 million in state funds, is also making news in the Florida Keys. A friend who is knowledgable about goings-on down in Margaritaville writes:

Tom Noe’s name keeps popping up in the news in Florida for two reasons — he rented his house in the Keys to prominent Ohio politicians for less than market rate, and now he’s trying (secretly at first, but now he’s busted and it’s public) to sell the place quickly for $4.6 mill.

Speculation is, Noe will need the money for legal fees.

This just in: The bigger story right now is the rush of GOPers to return Noe’s contributions. Sounds like they’re tripping over each other to do it.