Tag: Fox News

Source: Fox News Chief Roger Ailes Was Exec Who Asked Judith Regan to Lie to Protect Giuliani

Jon Ponder

And Asking Her to Lie to Federal Investigators May Well Have Been Illegal

Yesterday, I posted a story over at The BRAD BLOG (where I’m a guest contributor while Brad Friedman is traveling) about Judith Regan’s allegation in a lawsuit that an executive with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation urged her to lie about her affair with former New York police commissioner Bernard Kerik in order to protect Kerik’s BFF Rudolph Giuliani’s presidential aspirations.

“Roger Ailes is so clearly part from page one of this complaint. He is clearly the person she is referring to as this senior executive who made all these suggestions to her that she not come clean on Bernie.”
— Wayne Barrett

(If you haven’t read about this brewing scandal, check it out. In the annals of GOP adultery, it is a doozy. Kerik was seeing another woman while he and Regan were “dating” — and while all this was going on, his wife was pregnant.)

But until last night on MSNBC’s “Countdown,” no one had gone public with the identity of the NewsCorp executive who tried to convince Regan to keep quiet. The name was revealed in an interview Keith Olbermann did with Wayne Barrett, the author of a biography of Giuliani titled “Grand Illusion.”

According to Barrett, it wasn’t just any NewsCorp exec. It was the head honcho at Fox News, Roger Ailes:

BARRETT: The funny thing about Judith Regan‘s complaint is that she doesn‘t refer to Roger Ailes by name for the first 16 pages, right? She refers to the senior executive of the company who insisted that she not come clean on things that might affect Bernie Kerik and Rudy Giuliani. And she doesn‘t refer to him by name but when she first refers to him, she doesn‘t even give him a title. She just says Roger Ailes, whereas when she first introduces Rupert Murdock it‘s CEO of News Corporation. But Roger Ailes is so clearly part from page one of this complaint. He is clearly the person she is referring to as this senior executive who made all these suggestions to her that she not come clean on Bernie.

OLBERMANN: All right. So that secret‘s out.

And here’s the clincher, since Ailes was asking Regan to lie about her relationship with Kerik to federal investigators vetting Kerik for the post of secretary of Homeland Defense, the request was quite probably illegal.

‘Clean Coal’ Movement Seeks to Cast Itself as ‘Green’

Buck Banks

I occasionally sign one of those form letters battling some big issue. I rarely edit the form letter and usually forget about it about a nanosecond after I hit the “send” button. But recently the recipients of these form letters have been responding. Here’s an e-mail I received out of the blue today from a guy named Vic Svec shilling for Peabody Energy, the world’s biggest producer of coal:

We appreciate the concern expressed by your recent form letter, and we wish to clear up some obvious misinformation. Peabody strongly supports new clean coal electricity generation to ease energy prices, improve energy security and provide affordable electricity to help people live better and longer. Coal use for electricity generation has more than tripled since 1970, even as emissions have been reduced by more than one-third and this trend will continue. Approximately 135 new coal-fueled plants have been announced around the United States to bring about needed energy. New, clean coal-fueled generating plants will continue to provide environmental improvements, toward an ultimate goal of near-zero emissions from coal. That’s the vision of projects like FutureGen, which enjoys enormous public support and represents a coal-fueled power plant that would capture carbon dioxide emissions and produce hydrogen. Coal use will also grow through Btu Conversion technologies that turn coal into natural gas and transportation fuels.

Business will solve our environmental problems because it’ll be profitable and government should be smaller and less intrusive and we can’t expect it to fix every little problem and the president knows what he’s doing.

Then Vic invited me to learn more at http://CoalCanDoThat.com. So I did. Here’s what I learned:

Peabody Energy is the world’s largest provider of coal to fuel 21st Century energy solutions. St. Louis-based Peabody Energy fuels more than 10 percent of U.S. electricity and 3 percent of the world’s electricity. Peabody ships 7 tons of coal every second of every day — more than 250 million tons per year — to customers in 16 countries on six continents.

Peabody Energy’s mission is to be a world-wide supplier of low-cost energy, which contributes to economic prosperity and a better quality of life. A Fortune 500 company, Peabody is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the appropriate ticker symbol Btu.

In addition to leading the world in safe, low-cost, environmentally friendly coal mining and marketing, Peabody is a forceful advocate of greater coal use to provide 21st Century energy solutions. Here at CoalCanDoThat.com, you will see that current technologies can transform coal into clean electricity, natural gas, transportation fuels and hydrogen. We call it “Btu Conversion”.

In addition to providing leadership in advancing the dialogue and public support for this project, Peabody has 9.6 billion tons of coal reserves to apply to existing and emerging markets. Our coal reserves alone are equivalent of more than 240 trillion cubic feet of natural gas — or more than 10 years worth of current U.S. natural gas demand.

The main problem with the proponents of “clean coal” technology is that they focus almost solely on the conversion of coal into energy part of the equation, which, through technological innovation is not quite as nasty as it used to be. They ignore (because they really have to) the coal extraction process. Peabody is able to extract that seven tons of coal per second because the Bush administration has lifted, undermined (as it were) or blocked any environmental regulation that would have slowed the demountainification of Ohio, West Virginia and parts of Appalachia (see photo above), while “enshrining” the practice of mountaintop mining.

In 2006, Peabody, which has been shucking coal in America since 1926, had sales in excess of $5.2 billion over net income of $600 million — a 13 percent increase for the year. That’s a lot of mountaintops.

But the big coal growth market is China, and U.S. firms are rushing to get in on the coal rush. Firms like Fidelity Investments, OppenheimerFunds, Merrill Lynch, even the Teachers Retirement System of Texas.

The Big Energy machine gins up support for its politics and practices through pseudo-policy groups like the Heartland Institute and the Competitive Enterprise Institute that pooh-pooh the idea that we’re facing catastrophic climate change — NOW.

They would have you believe that Al Gore is a quack and coal means jobs (it doesn’t as it’s largely automated) and we’ve got plenty of mountains anyway and business will solve our environmental problems because it’ll be profitable and government should be smaller and less intrusive and we can’t expect it to fix every little problem and the president knows what he’s doing and that’s why government scientists rewrite and redact scientific reports that don’t jibe with the Bush admin’s version of reality.

Yep, we’re all screwed.

Addicted to Fear – Cowardice Has Become the Source of Republican Power

Jon Ponder

The Republican Party’s macho bluster and apparently endless appetite for war makes it seem counter-intuitive to think of them as cowards. And yet, seven years into the Bush regime, it is clear that the GOP has become dependent on fear to keep itself in power — and to support this addiction the party leadership has converted its rank and file members into America’s first generation of bona fide yellow-bellied chickens.

After the GOP took over the government in 2000 and ran all three branches for six years, the truth about the conservative movement was finally revealed. After years of unctuous claims that they were for family values and lower spending and against corruption, Republicans demonstrated that the exact opposite is true. They were caught engaging in a wide range of sleazy activities, both personal and financial, and Bush and the GOP Congress ran the Treasury into the ground, racking up more debt than all the presidents since Washington, combined. Now, with that record fresh in voters’ minds, all they have left to run on is the politics of fear.

Nearly every day, a subtle or not-so-subtle message of fear — about terrorists, Moslems, Iran, whatever works — is transmitted from the bully pulpit of the White House press room podium out to the public via the seemingly unwitting mainstream media, Fox News and rightwing talk radio. The government’s fear propaganda is mostly just noise in the background to normal people, but rank and file conservatives gobble it up like ravenous dogs.

9/11 Did Not “Change Everything”

The Republican culture of fear was born out of the 9/11 attacks — which we are told “changed everything” because they were an “attack on America.” But when the World Trade Center was bombed in February 1993 by rightwing Islamic terrorists very like the ones who would take the towers down eight years years later, no one suggested that our response to this “attack on America” should be invading and occupying Iraq.

[…]

Is Bush’s Penchant for Torture Tied to a Secret Sado-Masochistic Past?

Jon Ponder

In her book, “Lustful Utterances: Cohn to Bush 1981-1986,” Leola McConnell, a retired “muscle dominatrice,” claims to have participated in BDSM sex with George W. Bush back in the day when he was just a superannuated fratboy and son of the vice president. Here’s a quote from the book’s online promotional material:

Through “Lustful Utterances,” the reader can take a safe journey into the world of BDSM and into the very disturbed psyche of Alfred Bloomingdale, Roy Cohn and George Bush. Through Leola’s keen observations regarding BDSM, readers will look into the twisted psyche of these three men from a vantage point never before revealed by a dominatrice.

Her lean muscular, but feminine physique established her in the 1980’s as the go-to dominatrice for those in need of the real thing when severe punishment of the flesh was required.

While their professions differed, all three men were (and one still is) men of power that liked taking and/or giving pain in sexual scenarios involving domination and submission.

Both Bloomingdale and Cohn were very influential players in the New York/Washington D.C political scenes throughout their lives, while in 1984, George Bush was [then] the simple minded bisexual son of the seated Vice President of the United States, George H W. Bush.

[The description of Bush as “bisexual” refers at least in part to unsubstantiated gossip that Bush had an affair many years ago with Victor Ashe, a Tennessee Republican.]

Leola exposes them to the light of day, while explaining scientifically their psychological need for punishment, what it is rooted in and how the end result of those needs did and would result in a pathological predisposition for poor political polices, both in the US and abroad.

“Lustful Utterances” will leave many readers with knots in their stomachs but will provide clarity as to why the homoerotic-sado-masochism of Abu Ghraib prison could only have manifested itself on George Bush’s tenure as leader of the free world.

McConnell’s allegations against Bloomingdale, the husband of Nancy Reagan’s BFF and a member of Reagan’s kitchen cabinet, and Roy Cohn, the prototype self-hating Republican gay man, are in line with what is known about these fellows’ sex lives. But it’s hard to square kink with Bush’s history of fratboy loutishness and the absence of evidence that he possesses a functioning imagination. On the other hand, you never know. (See update below.)

What is evident is that McConnell has no hard copy evidence that she whipped the future president and called him bad names. Proof of this: She is not fabulously wealthy, nor is she dead.

All kidding aside, Bush may be into rough sex but the real reason he approved torturing prisoners is serious. He has a sociopathic indifference to the suffering of others.

Update: Interesting note from Mark at BuzzFlash, recalling a 2004 Associated Press article about “Doonesbury” cartoonist Gary Trudeau:

[…]

Lame Duck Bush Team Killing Time By Blogging

Trish

You know blogging has gone mainstream when two members of Bush’s cabinet start doing it.

Yes, I now have something in common with Michael Leavitt, Secretary of Health and Human Services, and Michael Chertoff, Secretary of Homeland Defense. Welcome to the internets tubes, guys!

The men take very different approaches with their blogs.

Leavitt says he writes every blog entry himself, often late at night in hotel rooms when he is traveling. He is concerned that his entries are too long; on Aug. 20, he wrote 2,444 words about his trip to an orphanage in South Africa.

…Chertoff comes up with an idea for a blog entry, then someone in the department writes it, and Chertoff heavily edits it, said Jeff Ostermayer, a department spokesman who oversees the blog.

Mercifully, Chertoff’s picture is not shown on his blog, “Leadership Journal,” which also calls upon guest contributors like W. Ralph Basham, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and Kip Hawley, Transportation Security Administration.

Leavitt, possibly a frustrated editor, features no guests but he does offer a confusing list of categories. I guess you have to spend some time on the site to understand the differences between “health” (capitalization Leavitt’s own), “Health Coverage,” “Health Diplomacy,” “Health IT,” and “Personalized Health Care.”

The blogs are not quite like, say, ours. Or most others for that matter.

The public can comment on Chertoff’s and Leavitt’s blogs, but both departments established ground rules that include a ban on personal attacks and vulgar language.

As all you Pensito Reviewers know, the three of us are on the receiving end of our share of personal attacks and vulgarity. And every once in awhile, we’re on the giving end too. But knowing how much time blogging takes the three of us, I have to agree with a comment on one of Chertoff’s posts.

Another comment said, “This is a serious question. How do you have time to blog? Don’t you have a 24-hour-a-day job with very important things to do?”

Not really.

Ann Coulter’s Web Site Hacked

Buck Banks


No sympathy: Right wing hell bitch Ann Coulter’s Web site was hacked yesterday by someone who doesn’t like her very much. Here’s what they wrote:

Dear Readers,

I’ve been participating in a charade for nearly eleven years, now. Quite frankly, I’m sick of it. You have all been a part of a sick joke that I began considering shortly after first getting on the air. At first, it was quite interesting to see how people would react when I would use twisted logic and poorly masked bigotry.

But eleven years is a long time to be living a fake life, and I can no longer tolerate this falsity. Even someone as fake as I tires out eventually.

Here’s the truth, I don’t care what people believe. Jews don’t need to be “made perfect” as I so arrogantly proclaimed to Editor & Publisher not a half week ago. I don’t even care if people are Muslim. Granted, I don’t know much about the religion or the people, but they are people. This is something that we cannot forget, they are in an abhorrent situation. These people are in need of education. Perhaps if we did not participate in causing them misery, they would not hate us so.

In fact, does it really matter whether we are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Atheist, or even Pagan? We are one nation. One. We should not let petty differences separate us, we are all American, and should act in that manner.

And with that, my precious viewers, I bid you adieu. My career as a media figurehead is over.

Signed,

Ann Coulter

Ah, would that it were true. You can see a screen shot of the hacked site here.

Pensito Review’s site was down for a while this morning and buzzflash is offline this afternoon. Wonder if it’s Coulter’s revenge ….

Blackwater Parasite: Contractor Recruits US Troops On Duty in War Zone

Jon Ponder

In addition to receiving an estimated $1 billion in fees from the U.S. government since the Iraq war began, Blackwater is also ripping off U.S. taxpayers by recruiting U.S. soldiers while they are on duty:

Blackwater contractors are allowed to recruit uniformed personnel while they are on duty in Iraq, and they have a powerful recruitment tool: Salaries that are six times what the military pays.

Astonishingly, contractors are free to approach those in uniform, offer them generous salaries to leave their service in wartime, then profit from the skills your tax dollars taught them.

This isn’t just about Navy SEALS or other special operators. In intelligence, for example, we train young soldiers for complex missions and expensively process their security clearances – then contractors bribe them to leave the military, raking in big bucks from your investment in their new employee.

Blackwater contractor salaries are six times military pay:

Blackwater charges the government $1,222 per day per guard, “equivalent to $445,000 per year, or six times more than the cost of an equivalent U.S. soldier,” [according to a congressional report].

And the $445,000 figure probably doesn’t include benefits, perks or bonuses to be awarded upon completion of service.

If the salary of a military security officer is $74,000 (one-sixth of $445,000), the government would save $371,000 in pay for each of the estimated 1,000 Blackwater contractors deployed in Iraq — a total savings of $371 million per year.

Blackwater CEO Erik Prince is a major donor to the GOP and comes from a wealthy family that is highly connected in the Michigan Republican Party. It is unlikely Blackwater’s contracts will be terminated while the Bush regime is in power, but Congress should curtail the company’s practice of recruiting U.S. troops in the war zone.

New GOP Logo Features Blue (Not Red?) Elephant

Jon Ponder

The GOP has unveiled a new logo for its convention in Minneapolis next year. One striking thing about it is that the elephant in the center is rendered in Democratic blue instead of Republican red.

Is this a subconscious admission that Republicans fear that America will turn from red to blue next year?

Another thing: Are those prison stripes?

Finally, as Keith Olbermann pointed out last night, experts say that when elephants are usually only up on their hind legs when they’re copulating, so perhaps there’s a bit of an homage to the sex lives of prominent Republicans, including Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana, whose family values include consorting with prostitutes and Sen. Larry Craig who has pleaded guilty for trolling for sex in a men’s room.

Ron Paul Raises $5 Mil – in Range of Frontrunner Rudy’s $11 Mil

Jon Ponder

Quarterly fundraising reports from the presidential campaigns are in, and Rep. Ron Paul — the only Republican candidate who opposes the war — made a little news:

[Paul] surprised observers when his campaign said it had raised about $5.1 million from July through September, more than doubling his contributions from the second quarter and bringing total donations to more than $8 million for the year. The Paul campaign said it had $5.3 million in cash on hand.

Frontrunner Rudolph Giuliani raised $11 million, Mitt Romney $10 million, John McCain $6 million and Fred Thompson $8 million. Ron Paul has an intense grassroots following but polls under 5 percent in national surveys. The fact that the renegade candidate raised donations within range of the top tier is interesting. He bears watching.

Paul opposes the war, as noted, and some of his libertarian views would appeal to liberals. He opposed the Patriot Act, for example, and favors habeas corpus. He is for legalizing drugs, especially medical marijuana.

In one significant area, however, the libertarian supports government intervention, and it is a deal killer for the left. He opposes a woman’s right to abortion.

UPDATE: Here are Paul’s own words on abortion:

In my medical career, I’ve delivered more than 4,000 babies, so naturally my professional experience has influenced my views on abortion. It’s my strong belief that life begins at conception, and that children in the womb are entitled to inheritance rights. More broadly, libertarians, like most Americans, respectfully come to different views on the issue based on their different personal feelings about when human life begins … I think we ought to return the issue to the states so that local opinions could better determine the specific regulations concerning this deeply personal issue.

And on gay marriage:

Just like with abortion, I believe that marriage is an issue best decided by the states, not the federal government. I’m opposed to a federal ban on gay marriage, but it also goes both ways: I’m against the courts at the federal level pressuring the states into accepting same-sex marriage licenses. What we’re talking about in both cases is the redefinition of an ancient social institution by the federal government that’s best left to the people to decide at the local level.

—

Democratic frontrunners Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama raised a combined $47 million, more than the combined totals of all the Republicans mentioned above. Clinton raised $27 million, and Obama raised $20 million.

Newt Gingrich is Such a Loser

Buck Banks

When Newt Gingrich announced last weekend that he would not be running for president, I wasn’t too surprised. See, for the past several weeks, I have subscribed to Newt’s e-newsletter, Winning the Future Through Human Events.

Now I know I’m going to catch it from co-editor Trish for that confession, but I just wanted to know what Newt was up to. Call it research.

Two weeks ago, he announced in his newsletter (which carries really pathetic adverts, but more on that in a minute) that he would be announcing his American Solutions for the Future agenda in Second Life on Thursday, Sept. 27. I signed up, mainly because I wanted to see what kind of avatar Newt would choose (my guess: tall, dark, slender, handsome — after all, you can be who you want to be in Second Life, and why would he choose to be a short, chunky Georgian?).

This Free Report Reveals How You Can Reverse 50 Years of Artery Plaque With Just Four Tiny Capsules a Day!

Didn’t happen. I was supposed to get a notice about where in Second Life Newt would be ‘splaining his solutions for the future, but didn’t get one. I went to Second Life at the appointed time, but could get nothing from the virtual child molesters, pickpockets and perverts that I encountered there. And I didn’t want to spend any Linden dollars tracking the Newt down.

Then, last weekend, Newt announced that he would not run for president because he couldn’t do that and run American Solutions, due to it being a 527 organization. In other words, Newt would be prevented from running for prez while heading up his cash cow that falls into that gray area outside election finance laws:

According to the IRS, a Section 527 (§527) organization is an organization that is created to receive and disburse funds to influence or attempt to influence the nomination, election, appointment or defeat of candidates for public office.

On the face of the above definition, a §527 Organization sounds like a PAC. In effect that is what a §527 organization is—a PAC by another name. However, there is one key difference, a §527 organization does not fall within the regulator realm of the Federal Election Commission and therefore it is not subject to the same limits as FEC-regulated PACs.

Often called “soft money” PACs or organizations, a §527 organization is permitted to accept contributions in any amount from any source. However, the organization is required to make regular reports to the Internal Revenue Service of its funding and expenditures.

Except not all 527s are required to report to the IRS. Is American Solutions? Who knows?

I received an e-mail yesterday in which Newt tries to explain why he simply can’t run for president. His explanation? Those Blue Meanies, McCain-Feingold, the campaign finance reform legislation, which rightly draws a line between shadow organizations like American Solutions and political action committees and legitimate campaign organizations.

Co-Editor Jon nailed it Sunday when he said Newt is just too damn unpopular to win the presidency and that the Newtster is more interested in maintaining a cushy source of revenue than doing the hard work of campaigning and governing.

And, man, the dough must be rolling in, given the kinds of adverts Newt is running in his newsletter. There’s this snake-oil pitch:

FREE Report
THE 23-CENT LIFE-SAVER Heart Surgeons NEVER TELL YOU ABOUT!

This Free Report Reveals How You Can Reverse 50 Years of Artery
Plaque With Just Four Tiny Capsules a Day!

Scientific studies have proven this one nutrient is up to 82%
effective at eliminating rogue calcium from plaque, causing
clogs to soften, and be flushed away. As plaque is flushed away,
healthy blood flow is restored to the heart, brain, muscles, and
every organ in your body.

This report reveals the astonishing health miracle 1.5 million
grateful patients swear by. So safe, it’s FDA-APPROVED for use
in baby food. So effective, you can actually SEE it working. So
Cheap, it’s JUST 23 cents per capsule.

I wonder how you can see it working INSIDE YOUR ARTERIES!

And this one:

NEVADA WATER DEAL SET TO PAY 381%

The fight for water in the Southwest is heating up faster than a
blow torch. The Arizona Republic calls it “a classic Western
showdown.” And right now one small company is about to turn this vicious demand into millions of dollars on one of the most
important water deals in decades — at near record prices.

This company is about turn its holdings into a 102,000% gain.
Investors have only a short time to get in on this deal before
the hedge funds or private equity gobble it up …

Wow! A 102,000 percent gain! I wonder if Fed Chair Ben Bernanke knows about that.

And then there’s this gem:

IF DEMOCRATS HAD ANY BRAINS, THEY’D BE REPUBLICANS

Ann Coulter at her funniest and most outrageous

Who knew Ann Coulter was funny?

So, not only is Newt getting dough from the 1,200 misguided individuals who actually showed up at the the Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta, Ga., Saturday — so many more than the Newt expected, they had to “expand the ballroom we were in by removing a wall and setting up more chairs” — he’s raking it in off Web ads for Ann Coulter books. Ew!

No wonder a run for president seemed like too much work. “Winning the Future” indeed — one click at a time.