AMONG THE RELIGIOPOLITICAL RIGHT, EXPECT UNSWERVING BELIEF IN FREE-MARKET CAPITALISM AS THE GREAT WHITE FATHER to be a given among their articles of faith--just so long as they supported Traditional Moral and Familial Values per 1950's models (as noted previously by Your Correspondent).

And perhaps the most pathetic example of this in action would have to be the so-called "American Family Association," whose articles of faith extend to a "healthy" and "patriotic" homophobia in defence of G-d, Country and Family--and is infamous for using boycotts to kowtow American capitalism (or try to) into accepting homophobia as one with Good Business Practice.

Witness what People For the American Way's Right Wing Watch had to say the other day:

Just three weeks after the American Family Association declared victory in its boycott against Ford Motor Company, the anti-gay group has a new target: General Motors. From an e-mail alert titled "General Motors Supports The Gay Agenda":

General Motors has made a decision to help promote the homosexual agenda. The automaker supports the gay agenda with advertising in homosexual publications and on the gay TV cable channel LOGO.

GM's Cadillac regularly places full-page ads in The Advocate, a magazine dedicated to pushing the homosexual agenda. The LOGO TV network carries programs promoting the lifestyle.

AFA is urging its activists to sign a petition that GM should "not involved in promoting an aberrant, anti-family lifestyle," but that may be just the beginning for the boycott-happy group.

Which also raises some further interesting issues:

• Since the vast majority of the AFA's membership base tends to be as much auto-dependent as poor, undereducated or homeschooled and easily-influenced, how do we know that the AFA isn't about to recommend that its members, otherwise supposedly united pro Deo, patria et familia, start driving foreign-made cars, especially so cheaper Japanese- or Korean-manufacture nameplates, in defence of "Traditional Morals and Decency"? And what steps will they resort to to avoid attracting suspicions of hypocrisy and doublethink from the blogosphere?
• How do we know that the AFA isn't secretly allied with such groups supporting producerism based on isolationist self-sufficency within free-market capitalist models and paradigms?
• How do we know that the AFA and some of their droogs in that same vein aren't secretly subsidising so-called "Christian mortgage lenders" to buy up foreclosed properties wholesale and resell them to "right-thinking Christian families" on what amounts to "sub-prime" mortgages "to prevent homosexuals from further diluting property values" in "once-proud White Christian working-class communities"?
• How do we know that the AFA isn't really some class of a blackmailing organisation, or otherwise has connexions to elements weird and/or unwholesome (howbeit keeping such suspicions sub rosa to avoid attracting "unwelcome attention [from] those meddling bloggers")?
• How much longer before such entities as are targets of AFA-sponsored boycotts start getting wise and turn the tables on them by charging them with the likes of Racketeering, Blackmailing and Related Conspiracies?
• What percentage of the AFA's membership, let alone their mailing lists, have:
  • postal addresses in ZIP+4 codes with substantial populations of lower-income persons, or are otherwise "culturally-deprived environments" with little or no real possibility for socioeconomic empowerment?
  • e-mail addresses with free online e-mail services (e.g., MSN Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, Excite and Mail.com) as can be accessed through public Internet termini such as are found @ libraries and community centres absent affordable Internet access among the Lower Classes?
  • limited or no realistically marketable job and/or life skills, essentially limiting such to an increasingly limited and limiting number of unskilled, labour-intensive positions?
  • limited and limiting consumer purchasing power, complicated by marginal or nonexistant credit histories?
  • histories of alcoholism, drug dependency, dysfunctional upbringing (including abuse and maltreatment), "broken home" scenarios, mental and/or emotional disorders and unstable employment histories?

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IN WHAT COULD BE AN EXAMPLE WHICH WE "MORALLY SUPERIOR" AMERICANS WILL WANT TO EMULATE COME INDECISION 2008, the Zimbabwe Election Commission (ZEC) has announced that longtime dictator Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party has lost significant and measurable numbers of Parliamentary seats in Saturday's elections to Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

More specifically, of 207 contested seats, the vast majority announced to the moment I write this (106, including one independent) went to opposition parties cf. the 94 won by ZANU-PF candidates. And as if that weren't enough, since neither Mugabe nor Tsvangirai won a clear majority of votes (50.1% of ballots cast), whispers in certain circles have it that a special runoff election for the presidential seat may have to be called within measurable distance.

Equally noteworthy is the likelihood of goon squads comprised of troops loyal to Mugabe and/or ZANU-PF spontaneously provoking tolchocking and rozzrezzing and other examples of the old ultraviolence against an otherwise innocent populace if the final results confirm essentially as above, in turn prompting calls with the United Nations for an international peacekeeping mission to prevent further disorder and ensure a peaceful transfer of power in Harare.

All it takes is just one false step.

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AND TELL ME THIS ISN'T QUITE DOUBLETHINK IN A MOST HILARIOUS DEGREE: Russia is airlifting humanitarian supplies to Serbia for distribution (via the Serbian Red Cross) to Kosavar Serbs in a series of three airlifts between Moscow and Belgrade.

Said supplies include canned meats, baby food, powdered milk and bread.

After all, Russia is as dissed as Serbia over Kosovo's recent Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI), still insisting that Kosovo is only a province within Greater Serbia and, hence, subject to the control of Belgrade.

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THE PRICE OF OUR HARD-WIRED AIR-MINDEDNESS IN AN OTHERWISE "MORALLY SUPERIOR" SOCIETY: Over recent days, the likes of such airlines as Southwest, American, Delta and United have had to suspend flights by the score because of safety inspections on their fleets as forced reduced capacity numbers across the board.

As if that weren't enough, Hawaiian inter-island air carrier Aloha Airlines would up operations yesterday after 61 years, citing Unfair Competition from upstart go airlines and high jet fuel prices.

And, blaming high jet fuel prices, Delta announced surcharges of:

• $25 for buying tickets over the telephone (officially excused as being one to encourage online bookings);
• $100 for allowing unaccompanied minors to travel on Delta flights;
• $100 for checking oversized baggage; and
• $150 for checking pets.

Meanwhile, the Air Force is looking to develop a jet engine as would use coal-derived jet fuel (yeah, right--but then again, airport tarmacs are going to start smelling rather awful, what with coal-derived fuels generally having telltale odours).

No wonder we've become too complacent in our air-mindedness, and then some.... 

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ALTERNET RECENTLY REVEALED AN UNLIKELY, AND @ ONCE SINISTER, BYPRODUCT OF HIS FRAUDULENCY'S UR-RAHOWA IN IRAQ that he and His Great Within would rather you not know about--but is evident when you read on (hence, the following is not for the squeamish):

George Bush has been tied to a prostitution ring involving as many as 50,000 women and girls. The prostitutes, some as young as 13, are among the 1.2 million desperate Iraqis who fled to Syria after Bush's invasion of Iraq in 2003, according to the U.K. Independent.

Bush's invasion destroyed the Iraqi government and unleashed a wave of political and sectarian violence that has killed over 1 million Iraqis and forced 4 million to become refugees, according to the UN.

Facing starvation, as many as 50,000 women and girls have been forced into prostitution in Syria alone, according to Hana Ibrahim of the Women's Will Association.

"70 percent to 80 percent of the girls working this business in Damascus today are Iraqis," 23-year-old Abeer told the New York Times. "The rents here in Syria are too expensive for their families. If they go back to Iraq they'll be slaughtered, and this is the only work available."

According to the Times, "inexpensive Iraqi prostitutes have helped to make Syria a popular destination for sex tourists from wealthier countries in the Middle East. In the club's parking lot, nearly half of the cars had Saudi license plates."

Driving women and girls into prostitution violates numerous human rights agreements, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, and the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children. George Bush himself denounced sex trafficking at the United Nations in 2003.

Bush's invasion of a country that posed no threat to the U.S. was illegal under both U.S. and international law, according to legal experts. Bush has been convicted of war crimes by citizen tribunals around the world, including New York, Paris, Tokyo, and Istanbul. Just last week, the towns of Brattleboro and Marlboro, Vermont voted to indict and arrest Bush and Cheney.

In 2002 and 2003, Bush led a propaganda campaign to defraud Congress, the American people, and key allies into believing Iraq was a threat. Bush claimed Iraq had stockpiles of chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons to use against the U.S., and was sharing them with Al Qaeda.

Speaking near Rochester, NY, Bush later admitted, "See in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda."

According to a recent study by the Center for Public Integrity, top Bush Administration officials told at least 935 lies about Iraq on 532 separate occasions. These included 259 lies by Bush, 254 lies by Secretary of State Colin Powell, 109 lies by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, 109 lies by Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, 56 lies by National Security Advisor Condi Rice, and 48 lies by Vice President Cheney.

The lies about Iraqi WMD's were manufactured by the White House Iraq Group (WHIG), which included the most senior White House staff: White House Chief of Staff Andy Card, Condi Rice, Stephen Hadley, Karen Hughes, Mary Matalin, Jim Wilkinson, Nick Calio, Michael Gerson, and Vice President Cheney's Chief of Staff, Scooter Libby.

After the invasion, 1,400 experts in the Iraq Survey Group scoured Iraq for WMD's but found none. Charles Duelfer wrote the ISG's final report in September 2004 and concluded Iraq ended its WMD program in 1991.

This publicly confirmed what the CIA had privately known since 1995, when Saddam Hussein's son-in-law, Gen. Hussein Kamel, defected to Jordan and told the CIA he had personally overseen the complete destruction of Iraq's WMD after 1991 Gulf War.

In May 2005, the Times of London published the "Downing Street Memo " which revealed Bush's pre-war intelligence was a deliberate fraud, according to Sir Richard Dearlove, head of Britain's MI6 spy agency, who met with George Tenet in July 2002. "The intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy" of invading Iraq, Dearlove told a secret meeting of Tony Blair's war cabinet on July 23, 2002, eight months before Bush invaded Iraq.

This publication of the "Downing Street Memo" led to widespread calls for the impeachment of Bush and Cheney. John Conyers and other Democrats held preliminary impeachment hearings in the basement of the Capitol on June 16, 2005. In 2006, Conyers published his explosive findings in "George W. Bush Versus the U.S. Constitution: The Downing Street Memos and Deception, Manipulation, Torture, Retribution, Coverups in the Iraq War and Illegal Domestic Spying."

In 2007, Rep. Dennis Kucinich introduced three Articles of Impeachment against Dick Cheney for his role in the Iraq War lies. Kucinich's bill, H.Res. 333, has 26 co-sponsors.

The bill was debated on the House floor last November the House voted 251-162 to refer it to the Judiciary Committee for further action, rather than kill the bill. (The bill was renamed to H.Res. 799.)

Last December, Rep. Robert Wexler and two other members of the House Judiciary Committee urged Conyers to begin hearings on the impeachment of Vice President Cheney. Wexler posted an online petition and collected over 230,000 signatures.

Rep. Kucinich ran for President in 2007 and his calls for impeachment were enthusiastically received by voters. Last week, Kucinich fended off a primary challenge in his Congressional district and is expected to introduce the first Articles of Impeachment against George Bush.

The latest polls by Newsweek and AP-Ipsos put Bush's approval rating at 30%, a record low. His disapproval rating is over 60%, a record high, and suggests more Americans now favor Bush's impeachment than in earlier polls which showed strong support for impeachment.

So what sort of defence will His Fraudulency resort to in explaining why so many Iraqi women and girls made homeless by his ur-RAHOWA and ensuing misadventures wound up in Mrs. Warren's Profession, let alone Fox Prolefeed (if ever they heard about it)?

And how much longer will it be before the likes of young girls from "chronic and habitual" welfare families are "advised" to sell their bodies for the sake of "self-reliance" away from welfare by their family's Vocational Guidance Counsellors?

SINCE AROUND THE GREAT DEPRESSION ERA OF THE 1930'S, MERCHANDISE WHEELS HAVE BEEN A MIDWAY STAPLE @ the Minnesota State Fair (a/k/a TGMnGT), offering visitors an opportunity to win merchandise or groceries for a nominal cost per chance.

WELLLLLL--!!!

Your Correspondent, ever the fan of TGMnGT, was thinking the other day in his rather whimsical way what it would be like if we saw among the "merchandise wheels" in the Mighty Midway area one offering cell phones, PDA's and Bluetooth units.

Not cheap toy versions, which in an earlier time on the Midway were known as "slum"--cheap knockoffs as could be purchased wholesale on the cheap and flogged off to the unsuspecting @ incredibly amazing prices; I'm talking the real McCoy here.

Howbeit "unlocked" (as in requiring you to purchase a SIM card from the network of your choosing to access mobile telephony services), yet still raising questions as to whether these cell phones on offer through the "merchandise wheel" route are legit.

Or, for that matter, "clones" from offshore networks.

Such, no doubt, would be worth watching from 21 August until Labour Day on the Mighty Midway alongside other old-reliable Midway games of chance like ring-the-cane, shoot-the-hoop and flip-a-chick.

WITH WHAT AMOUNTS TO A SNAIL'S PACE APPROACH ENSUING IN THE OVERALL COUNT OF ELECTION RESULTS from Zimbabwe @ the weekend--as I write this, an estimated two-thirds of the vote has been officially counted--it appears likely that incumbent President Robert Mugabe may be waiting until the last minute to pull a fast one (as in ensuring that the vote is rigged and manipulate).

As for the results, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has 67 Parliamentary seats (including five from a dissident faction) against ZANU-PF's 62; 79 constitutencies have yet to confirm final results, hence the suspicions that ZANU-PF may try pulling a "boner" as final numbers come in.

The closeness of the tally has some wondering if a Presidential runoff between incumbent Robert Mugabe and the MDC's Morgan Tsvangirai is likely within measurable distance ... or if Mugabe will realise the folly of his ways and step down, seeking exile in some Third World regime known to be friendly to the weird and unwholesome before extreme ultraviolence ensues.

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IT'S NOT JUST THE "MORALLY SUPERIOR" UNITED STATES AS IS SEEING BANKERS facing serious losses from investments in "sub-prime" and "Alt-A" mortgage lending, let alone syndication and factoring thereof:

UBS, one of the banking giants along Zurich's Bahnhofstrasse, has announced a loss on its balance sheets to the tune of US$37 billion from "sub-prime" mortgage loan investments and syndication.

Nedt thing you know, let's just hope it turns out that a few of the super-secretive "brassplate banks" in offshore financial centres catering to the weird and unwholesome in particular were themselves major investors in "sub-prime" and "Alt-A" mortgage loan syndication and factoring as much as investments.

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STAYING WITH THE BANKING AND FINANCE INDUSTRY FOR A MOMENT, FOLKSIES, YOUR CORRESPONDENT took note of some rather animated conversation @ the motel in Winona where he works this morning suggesting that theft of credit-card information was more than likely to be the work of "insiders" within credit-card issuers having connexions to criminal syndicates, terrorist organisations and others weird and unwholesome seeking cheap and cheerful ways to raise money by dishonest means.

Making things all the easier for these "insiders" are the emergence of cell-phone cameras which can take "screen grabs" of the issuers' intranet termini @ their Cardholder Services Centres which contain sensitive information, especially so cardholders' account numbers; said "grabs" being sent along as e-mails to their contacts who, after purchasing such information, can then use same for:

• creating "cloned" credit cards which can be used to make fraudulent charges on legitimate accounts, without the knowledge of the true accountholders; and/or
• "phishing" and "spoofing" scams designed primarily for blackmailing purposes in the guise of "account verification," among other common patsies in the circumstances.

Especially if these "insiders" are expected to act incognito and avoid attracting "unnecessary attention" which could "raise suspicions" of espionage or sale of industry secrets on the part of supervisors @ the major credit-card issuers.

In any case, such is something which the likes of credit-card issuers may want to watch as much as the FBI and the Secret Service--the former in particular, inasmuch as Cardholder Service Centres are likely to be the, shall we say, "front lines" for such information theft. And especially so if employees with corporate intranet access have camera cell phones which could serve nefarious purposes.

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AND STAYING WITH THE SUBJECT OF CELL PHONES BEING USED FOR NEFARIOUS ENDS, it's emerged that Finnish Foreign Minister Ilkka Kanerva of the ruling Conservative Party has been asked to step down after it emerged that he sent sexually-suggestive text messages on his mobile phone to an exotic dancer.

But then again, it's rather ironic that the world's preeminent manufacturer of mobile telephones, Nokia, happens to be Finnish-based.

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SOMETHING FOR THE GOP AND THEIR DROOGS ON THE RELIGIOPOLITICAL RIGHT TO PONDER, even if I mention this for the sake of insight:

Turkey's ruling AK (Justice and Development) Party is facing a legal challenge from the Constitutional Court which could be the current government's downfall: The State Prosecutors' Office has prepared an indictment running to 162 pages which claims that the AK Party's agenda and articles of faith are really (and secretly) Islamist, contrary to the Secular-Progressive intent of the Turkish Constitution.

Among the issues raised was the recent ruling reversing a constitutional ban on Muslim women wearing traditional headscarves in university campuses.

(It may be interesting to note that the AK Party is itself the reincarnation of another banned political movement--by name, the Welfare Party, itself banned in 2001 for promoting an Islamist agenda.)

Could it be that Machiavelli on steroids and amphetamines is drooling in envy when he sees the news?    

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MAY I CALL YOUR ATTENTION TO A RECENT RULING BY THE BRITISH BROADCASTING REGULATOR OFCOM as dismissed complaints against a recent documentary by British freecaster Channel 4 entitled "Dispatches: Undercover Mosques" which were seen to be inciting Islamophobic feelings and tendencies.

(Details of which can be found right here; you may have to scroll down the page a ways to read the full report.)

In dismissing the complaints as Not Upheld, Ofcom had this rather worthwhile point to make about investigative journalism, perversions thereof in service to an agenda (WorldNetDaily, e.g.) notwithstanding:

Investigative journalism plays an essential role in public service broadcasting and is clearly in the public interest. Ofcom considers it of paramount importance that broadcasters...continue to explore controversial subject matter. While such programmes can make for uncomfortable viewing, they are essential to our understanding of the world around us.

A point which we "morally superior" Americans somehow being made mentally numb by Fox Prolefeed in particular may want to take heed of.

IF THERE'S A GOOD REASON FOR FOX PROLEFEED TO BE DESERVING OF THE UNEXPECTED PRESENCE OF THE SHADOW (HEARD, BUT NOT SEEN, REMEMBER?), it would have to be the fact of Fox Prolefeed host Sean Hannity having weird and unwholesome associations himself that he doesn't want his loyal droogs in Podunk Center and Doo Wah Diddy to know about, just as The Shadow's true identity being that of wealthy playboy Lamont Cranston is known only to his close girlfriend and confidant Margot Lane.

Or, for that matter, the fact that The Green Hornet and Daily Sentinel publisher Britt Reid are one and the same is known only to Mr. Reid's faithful Japanese/Filipino valet Kato.

In any case, NewsHounds had an interesting item recently (mit Video) as reveals the extent of doublethink Sean Hannity seeks to resort to to avoid "attracting suspicions" of past associations with far-right radio basket case Hal Turner (heard currently only on shortwave and online radio):

Another night, another high tech lynching of Barack Obama on Hannity & Colmes. It was the usual attacks on Obama over those with whom he associates. But last night (3/19/08), Sean Hannity was confronted about his own past association with white supremacist Hal Turner. First Hannity denied knowing Turner, then he said he had long ago banned Turner from his show. While it's probably true that Hannity banned Turner, what Hannity didn't mention is that before Turner got banned, he was regularly welcomed on Hannity's show, even after saying on the air that if it weren't for the graciousness of white people, "black people would still be swinging on trees in Africa." Updated with video.

Malik Shabazz, of the New Black Panther Party, was the guest. FOX News frequently hosts members of that organization, usually as objects of derision. Last night, Shabazz was there because his organization had endorsed Barack Obama. It was an endorsement that Obama specifically rejected but FOX News deliberately trumped up the endorsement by inviting Shabazz on the program (See, look what kind of extremists Obama associates with), playing a clip from one of Shabazz' more incendiary confrontations with Hannity (Jews knew about 9/11 and got out of the way), and repeatedly running the "news" on the crawl that the Obama campaign had rejected the endorsement because the New Black Panther Party is considered to be an organization that advocates violence.

But last night, Shabazz wisely toned down his rhetoric and confronted Hannity on his own bias against Obama. "Why won't you acknowledge the brilliance of Barack Obama's speech? Why won't you accept his call to come out of the divisive throngs of racism?" Shabazz asked.

Hannity praised Obama as a very effective politician. Then Hannity added, "What I don't think you're understanding here, Malik, is that when you hear the minister of him for 20 years, when you hear the associations with Louis Farrakhan, one of the biggest racists and anti-Semites in the country, what you're not understanding is, America hears extremism at its worst."

Shabazz responded, "Let me ask you this. Are you to be judged by your promotion and association with Hal Turner?"

Hannity waved his arm around. "I don't know anybody named – this is nonsense. I don't…" Then Hannity changed his tune. "Sir, sir… That was a man that was banned from my radio show ten years ago, that ran a Senate campaign in New Jersey."

Then, as Shabazz refused to stop talking or back down, Hannity, in a tacit admission, said, "I'm not running for president."

"A neo Nazi, you backed his career," Shabazz said.

Hannity answered, "That is an absolute, positive, lie and you've been reading the wrong websites (presumably, he meant ours), my friend. Good try."

In fact, the information about Hannity's association with Turner comes from an article by Max Blumenthal in the online version of The Nation magazine, dated June 3, 2005. And while it may be a stretch to say that Hannity "backed Turner's career," there's little doubt that Hannity promoted Turner's views. To quote from the article:

Turner was once a prominent activist in New Jersey's Republican Party. To area conservatives, he was best known by his moniker for call-ins to the Sean Hannity Show, "Hal from North Bergen." For years, Hannity offered his top-rated radio show as a regular forum for Turner's occasionally racist, always over-the-top rants. Hannity also chatted with him off-air, allegedly offering encouragement to Turner as he struggled to overcome a cocaine habit and homosexual leanings. Turner has boasted that Hannity once invited Turner and his son on to the set of Fox News's Hannity and Colmes. Today, Turner lurks on the fringes of the far right, spouting hate-laced tirades on his webcast radio show. Hannity, meanwhile, remains mum about his former alliance with the neo-Nazi, homing in instead on the supposed racism of black and Latino Democrats.

…On WABC Hannity inherited (Bob) Grant's fan base of angry white males, who listened to his show in the New York City area. Hannity recognized his audience's thirst for red meat, racist rhetoric. However, he knew that if he wanted to avoid Grant's fate, he needed an air of deniability. When "Hal from North Bergen" began calling his show, Hannity found he could avoid the dangers of direct race-baiting by simply outsourcing it to Turner.

During an August 1998 episode of the show, Turner reminded Hannity that were it not for the graciousness of the white man, "black people would still be swinging on trees in Africa," according to Daryle Jenkins, co-founder of the New Jersey-based antiracism group One People's Project. Instead of rebuking Turner or cutting him off, Hannity continued to welcome his calls. On December 10 of the following year, Turner called Hannity's show to announce his campaign to run for a seat in the US House of Representatives from New Jersey, and to attack his presumptive opponent, Democratic Representative Robert Menendez, as a "left-wing nut."

By this time, according to Jenkins, Turner and Hannity had bonded off-air. In 1998 Hannity received an anonymous e-mail linking to an AOL discussion board on which Turner had allegedly confessed to a cocaine problem and alluded to past homosexual trysts. Turner (or someone claiming to be Turner) wrote in an August 4, 1998, Google discussion forum that Hannity called him to clear the air: "Just last week, Sean phoned me at home from his job at FOX News to continue a conversation we'd begun earlier while he was at WABC," Turner wrote. "Sean advised that one of you sensitive souls sent him an e-mail about 'revelations I had made' here on the internet. He told me it was obviously and [sic] attempt to 'poison the water.' " Turner continued, "I told him that I've done things I'm not proud of, and had dark times in my life; and those experiences helped shape the way I live today...the right way. He [Hannity] laughed and commented that he knew the feeling." Turner added that such chats with Hannity were "not unusual," often occurring while Hannity held his calls during commercial breaks.

But Turner and Hannity's relationship collapsed in 2000 after the Hudson County Republican Party endorsed Turner's primary challenger, Theresa De Leon, an accomplished businesswoman and dark-skinned Latina. "I had never judged people on their race, not prior to that point," Turner recalled in a February 23, 2003, article in the Bergen County Record. "And there I was, on the receiving end--in America--of a decision that I wasn't good enough because I was a white male." Turner finished last in the primary, just as Hannity was hitting his stride as a major Fox News personality. When WABC's screeners began blocking Turner's calls, he realized he was no longer of use to Hannity.

Co-host Kirsten Powers jumped into the fray for a fraction of the time with Shabazz that Hannity got. But, as we have come to expect from her, her advocacy on behalf of Obama (or any Democrat) took a back seat to cozying up to conservatives. It was her third day subbing for Alan Colmes, every day has been a full-out attack against Obama and, by extension, the Democrats' chances to win in November. Surely, Powers was politically savvy enough to understand why Shabazz had been invited. But instead of thinking of some way to advocate for her own side (She could have, for example, pointed out that while she rejects Shabazz' organization, that Obama's message that we have to work together to solve the serious problems facing the country is an important one they can both agree on, that it's more important to have a real dialogue about issues such as the war in Iraq, the economy and health care than to dwell on what Obama's pastor says and whether or not Obama denounced it soundly enough.) Instead, she used her portion of the interview to further fan the flames of divisiveness. "First of all, the Obama campaign says it doesn't want your endorsement… You were just saying to Sean how Barack Obama wants to move past all this racial divisiveness." Smiling scornfully, she continued, "I mean, I've read some of the stuff that you've said about white people and about Jews. Do you think that that's moving past racial division?"

At the end, she read the following teaser in a chirpy, upbeat voice (please forgive the video splicing): "Coming up, Barack Obama is starting to feel the political heat over the fall out of Jeremiah Wright. Wait until you see how the polls have moved since last week!" 

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WITH THE COAL INDUSTRY'S CONTINUED INSISTENCE, THROUGH "WINNING OF HEARTS AND MINDS" CAMPAIGNS, ON PUSHING AMERICAN COAL as one with energy self-reliance being one with National Cohesion and Identity, it may be worth recalling that there was a time when gas service in the United States involved coal.

Until natural gas gained widespread acceptance starting in the mid-1950's thanks to the development of pipeline systems ensuring more efficent transport and distribution thereof, virtually all the cooking and heating gas used in the United States was derived from coal.

As in the 1920's catchphrase "now you're cooking with gas," for one.

That's right--for a generation of Americans as used gas for cooking, lighting and heating, their gas was manufactured from coal. And quite often, it was rather smelly and unpredictable in terms of heat quality.

Not to mention whole neighbourhoods around the local gas works being rather smelly and decrepit, as well as the gas works being major producers of air pollution in less-environmentally-sensitive times.

(No doubt inspiring the famous moniker "the Gas House Gang" for the 1934 St. Louis Cardinals, although the source of the stench in question was more than likely the effects of perspiration--St. Louis summers can get to be rather humid--upon the heavy wool uniforms then fashionable in Major League Baseball. That, and the Great Depression's effects precluding regular laundering of team uniforms.)

As if that weren't enough, evidence of illictly-procured natural gas being used by the schools board in New London, Texas contributing to the 18 March 1937 school explosion there, killing 296 outright (subsequent discoveries of bodies would bring the final death toll to 311) was enough in the minds of some to question the safety of natural gas over manufactured such until laws were passed requiring the addition of an odouring agent to help detect leaks.

In any case, by the mid-1950's, natural gas gained such wide acceptance that manufactured gas became only a memory, requiring wholesale replacement of gas-powered appliances (especially stoves, ovens and furnaces) to properly use natural gas, doubtless inspiring plenty of episodes like the following Monty Python sketch (via YouTube):