Bad News, Everyone!

Fox News is in about a zillion homes in America, but not because it beat out its competition with superior programming. In truth, it's because Rupert Murdoch greased a lot of palms back in 1996 to the tune of $5.5 per palm or, in this case, $11 per cable subscriber.

Not charging $11. Paying $11. That's like 7-11 paying you $5 to come in and read the dirty magazines.

In case you were actually born yesterday cable operators normally pay for the media they offer, so you can just imagine how enthusiastically they lapped-up that deal for free news service like so much $11 honey.

Nowadays Fox News charges for their service. A lot. I'm told drug dealers work the same way.

Fox News has, for all intents and purposes, become the Grima Wormtongue of cable news, belching disinformation into the public's ear for the benefit of Sauron, I mean, the Republican party. Fox has become so brazen about their partisanship that they're now openly funding the campaigns of Republican governors. (Why governors? They have a great deal to say in how voting precincts are allocated once the census is in. Think, Texas, 2000. Yeah, there's good news.)

If you also think Fox News sucks then do something about it. You can vow to quit watching it, you can call your cable operator and complain about it, or you can get a free "Turn Off Fox" to slap anywhere you like. That's free as in "not even paying postage". Of course, you can buy more stickers if you like, and I hope you do. All you have to do is click on the "Turn Off Fox" image above.

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I think I'm the first person in the world to tell the following joke:

Q: Why don't vampires shop for clothes at JC Penney?

A: Because they prefer Sears sucker suits.

Thank you! Thank you! No, sit down, really!

(Man, the shit that goes through your mind at three in the morning.)

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The Bush Tax Cuts. Here's something you may not know.

The Republican Congress rammed the tax cuts through back in 2001 and 2003 using consolidation rules, meaning no Democratic filibuster could have stopped them.

The cuts are set to expire after just eight years, at the end of 2010, because any period longer than that meant the Republicans would have had to find some way to pay for them. Yes, the nearly one trillion dollars the wealthy received in the past eight years as a result of the cuts was paid right out of the Treasury, just like it was Daddy's money.

It was, in reality, your money. Don't think so? Check the National Debt.

If the cuts are made permanent, and it would require an act of Congress, they'd have to be paid for, and the first places Republicans are looking is Social Security and Medicare. And did I mention that these are permanent cuts? When you hear Republicans use the phrase "redistribution of wealth" this what they really mean.

Fortunately all the Congress need do is... nothing. The tax cuts will sunset on 12-31-10 and become nothing more than a very painful memory for everyone but the top 1%. In the meantime the Republican strategy is to wail and plead poverty and paint this as an enormous tax increase. It's not. In reality, it's more like shutting the barn door while there's still a little manure left.

=Lefty=