These days, in the quest for ratings and money, some news programs cease to be factual.

The FCC should look into this. Fox News is a misnomer. It should be called Fox Entertainment or The Republican Channel or Fox Rumors, but it does not qualify as a news channel.

The slog through the bog of misinformation can get dreadfully. . . swampy. . . when I'm attempting the near-impossible: Talking with Republican friends (I have a few) about Barack Obama.

Yes, yes, he's a Muslim. A Commie. A black-liberation radical.

And now this: He's a Marxist! His Marxist economic policies are going to destroy our country!

This LTE is but a small drop in the bucket towards addressing the issue of American ignorance.

But I live in a small conservative ski town in the Rockies.  If I can open up the thinking of just one of the closed-minded generation-indoctrinated rethugs that populate this county, then I will have done something.  Just a drop of something, but something:

One of the first things the Bush administration accomplished when they took office was to implement sweeping tax cuts, mainly for the wealthy.

Their reasoning behind this is "trickle-down" economics - the theory being that this money poured into the upper echelon of the economy would eventually trickle-down to the working class.

We have had 7 years to see if this is working.  So, what is the result?

Some of my family are avid Bush supporters... STILL...
ANd when I tell them that the Iraq War was all Bush's idea, and a REpublican war that we got into because of fabricated artificial facts (Lies!), they immediately want to share the blame with Democrats by bringing up these comments from the left?
So what do you say to explain these comments from pre- 9-11 and pre- bush?
ANd how do you explain the ones that are the result of BUsh's witholding of facts and misinformation propaganda?

From NPR Radio, All Things Consider

The presidential candidates Sunday took every opportunity they could to reach voters on Super Bowl Sunday, appearing on TV talk shows and holding rallies right up until game time.

On the Democratic side the news was New Mexico's Gov. Bill Richardson's endorsement of Hillary Clinton. Having been the first Hispanic American presidential candidate, RIchardson had the potential to help Barack Obama with a constituency that has been slow to warm up to him.

But Richardson, who will watch the game with Bill Clinton Sunday night, stuck with the family that elevated him to two Cabinet-level positions in the 1990s.

Yes, Bush is the winner....in the number of lies told after 9/11 leading up to the Iraq War

Bush led with 259 false statements, 231 about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and 28 about Iraq's links to al-Qaida, the study found. That was second only to Powell's 244 false statements about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and 10 about Iraq and al-Qaida.

http://news.yahoo.com/...

"The cumulative effect of these false statements — amplified by thousands of news stories and broadcasts — was massive, with the media coverage creating an almost impenetrable din for several critical months in the run-up to war," the study concluded.

And as we all know...the American people and Iraqi people are the ones losing in this war.

In the secrecy obsessed Bush administration, nothing gets revealed unless it helps bush or can't be stopped. This could have been stopped, ergo, it helps Busch, at least it was intended to. Once again the boy wonder has orchestrated a flop.

Well he blew that dogwhistle today didn't he folks!  And to think we nearly voted for that racist scumbag in 2004.

here he is being mean to Barack Obama. And to think, he was nearly President.

Here is the text.

It's probably not something that appeals to him, but I like the fact that his name is Barack Hussein Obama, and that his father was a Muslim and that his paternal grandmother is a Muslim. There's a billion people on the planet that are Muslims, and I think that experience is a big deal.

grrrr! I hate Kerry and he should have stood up or that kid who got tazered too!  Don't be a Racist Bro!

Are Americans who are skeptical about global warming "misinformed"? If we gave them more information -- and if the media did a better job -- would it have much impact?

Here I make the case that the "misinformation" paradigm misunderstands the public opinion challenge -- and the human mind itself. Worse, the paradigm gets in the way of creating a more effective politics, for one need not be motivated centrally by global warming at all to support policy action on clean energy and energy independence.

This diary is written as a letter to Arthur Smith.

Over a meal of some of the most delicious Mexican food available in my little corner of Oklahoma, my Dad gave me what I'm calling the greatest early Christmas present that I've ever gotten.

But before you can truly understand the value of this gift, you have to understand how my Dad used to view the world. Be patient. It'll make the gift almost as rewarding as it was for me.

To begin with, my Dad is a loyal Fox News viewer. Let's go back to 2003.

Hi, I live in a small mountain town in Colorado.  Our newspaper just was purchased by a larger company, and since that change, the newspaper's "editorials" have become increasingly disturbing.

The latest "editorial" which I've seen in the paper was also posted front-page on the "editorialists" blog.  Here are some excerpts:

Among the radical Islamists who were arrested before their plot to blow up ten airliners could eventuate, was a Muslim couple who intended to use their six-month-old baby as a means of hiding explosives in the child’s milk bottle. That raises the question: How do we deal with people so consumed with hatred for us that they would sacrifice their baby in that manner?

There's more, much more, and you can read if for yourself.  If you are anything like me, you will be dismayed at the hyberbole being printed as "fact" in this publication.

I wrote a letter in response, and I would greatly appreciate any advice from my fellow Kossacks to fine tune my response, which is below the fold.