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THE SO-CALLED "PARENTS TELEVISION COUNCIL," FOR REASONS AS WILL BE OBVIOUS SHORTLY, should probably be considered as "none of these."

And should more accurately be considered as "racketeer-influenced" or otherwise weird and unwholesome, even with significant financial and/or moral support from "the Four Hundred" and the movers and shakers of Die Bransoner Muzikschaukultur such as cultural conservatives want to epitomise as the "acid test," so to speak, of their ideal for Amerikanischer Realkultur--which, on closer inspection, has overtures of Nazi Germany and apartheid South Africa.

OK, cut to the chase--as in what Right Wing Watch reported recently:

The Parents Television Council, the right-wing television watchdog group founded by Brent Bozell, is dedicated to “documenting the dramatic increase in sex, violence and profanity in entertainment.”  With that as its mission, it was not much of a surprise when they released a new report saying that they don’t like what they see:

Today’s prime-time television programming is not merely indifferent to the institution of marriage and the stabilizing role it plays in our society, it seems to be actively seeking to undermine marriage by consistently painting it in a negative light. Nowhere is this more readily apparent than in the treatment of sex on television. Sex in the context of marriage is either non-existent on prime-time broadcast television, or is depicted as a burdensome rather than as an expression of love and commitment. By contrast, extra-marital or adulterous sexual relationships are depicted with greater frequency and overwhelmingly, as a positive experience. Across the broadcast networks, verbal references to non-marital sex outnumbered references to sex in the context of marriage by nearly 3 to 1; and scenes depicting or implying sex between non-married partners outnumbered scenes depicting or implying sex between married partners by a ratio of nearly 4 to 1.

How exactly does the PTC quantify such things, you ask?  Good question:

But, our personal fave is the Sept. 24 episode of NBC's "Journeyman," in which time-traveling journalist Dan has traveled back to a time when his now-presumed-dead wife, Olivia, was still, um, alive:

Olivia comes home and begins to change clothes. She is shown in her underwear. Dan and Olivia lie down on the bed and begin to kiss. Dan, who travels through time, notices his wedding band, apparently considering the fact that he is married to another woman in the future.

Parents Television Council has it filed under "Infidelity/Adultery."

Yet, for some reason, this new PTC report is generating all sorts of press coverage.  Apparently nobody in the media is concerned about PTC’s obvious right-wing agenda or, for that matter, bothered by the fact that, according to the FCC’s own estimates, the PTC has been responsible for nearly every indecency complaint filed in recent years:

In an appearance before Congress in February, when the controversy over Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl moment was at its height, Federal Communications Commission chairman Michael Powell laid some startling statistics on U.S. senators.

The number of indecency complaints had soared dramatically to more than 240,000 in the previous year, Powell said. The figure was up from roughly 14,000 in 2002, and from fewer than 350 in each of the two previous years. There was, Powell said, “a dramatic rise in public concern and outrage about what is being broadcast into their homes.”

What Powell did not reveal—apparently because he was unaware—was the source of the complaints. According to a new FCC estimate obtained by Mediaweek, nearly all indecency complaints in 2003—99.8 percent—were filed by the Parents Television Council, an activist group.

This year, the trend has continued, and perhaps intensified.

Through early October, 99.9 percent of indecency complaints—aside from those concerning the Janet Jackson “wardrobe malfunction” during the Super Bowl halftime show broadcast on CBS— were brought by the PTC, according to the FCC analysis dated Oct. 1. (The agency last week estimated it had received 1,068,767 complaints about broadcast indecency so far this year; the Super Bowl broadcast accounted for over 540,000, according to commissioners’ statements.)

The prominent role played by the PTC has raised concerns among critics of the FCC’s crackdown on indecency. “It means that really a tiny minority with a very focused political agenda is trying to censor American television and radio,” said Jonathan Rintels, president and executive director of the Center for Creative Voices in Media, an artists’ advocacy group.

Which ought to raise alarm bells galore, even with the FCC now cracking down on identically-phrased and heavily-nuanced "cookie-cutter" complaints about "obscenity and indecency" lacking anything remotely resembling sincerity, let alone evidence that the complainant actually saw the programme in question and controversy.

Come to think of it, the FCC ought to pay more attention to the likelihood of remarks such as these from Chris Krok (filling in for John Gibson on Fox News Radio) on Thursday last crossing the line into indecency (as transcribed by Media Matters for America):

This whole thing, you know what it is? It is Christmas morning and you wake up and there is a beautiful present beneath the tree. And it looks so beautiful it is awesome. It's like you're so excited and you're so everything, you know, "Obama, Obama, Obama, Obama, Obama." You're cheering, you're cheering, you're cheering, "Obama, Obama, Obama." And then you open up the present and you go, "Oooh, I can't wait." Your mouth is salivating, and watering, and you're getting so -- "Ooooh." And you get the present, and you get your hands -- "Oh yeah." And you're going to rip it up. You open it up, and then what is inside is a sandwich. And you get excited, "Oh, a sandwhich." And you take a big bite of that sandwich. But what is it? What's inside of that sandwich? It is a stinking -- stinky, hot, steamy crap sandwich. It is a stinky, hot -- it is a steaming, hot pile of crap wedged between two pieces of bread. That is what Barack Obama is. He is a steamy crap sandwich. He is a fraud.

[***]

You've made up your mind and because you lost your job, you'll be just like Obama, growing up African-American and biracial. And so you let that stuff take you -- take the negativity, take you negative, and you go negative. And so you're going to vote not for something, you're voting against something. See, and you lost your job, so you're going to vote against McCain. Not because -- you're not voting for Obama, you're voting against McCain because something bad happened to you. Let me tell you something, Obama is that stinking crap sandwich. He is a fraud.

Or, for that matter, these remarks from Rush Limbaugh in conversation with a caller to his June 23rd broadcast (emphasis added), again raising questions (@ least on my part) about borderline indecency:

LIMBAUGH: Kathy in Fort Worth, Texas, you are next.

CALLER: Hello. I want to know how the Republicans don't need Christians and conservatives, and they think we're 30 percent. Twelve percent black people in the population. Ten percent--they claim--homosexuals in the population. Rush, honey, when did 30 percent get to be a small number?

LIMBAUGH: I don't--I think it's actually larger than 30 percent. But let me see if I can get your question right. You want to know why the Republicans are willing to say, "Screw you," to 30 percent or more of their voters and yet Democrats will bend over, grab the ankles, and say, "Have your way with me," for 10 percent and 2 percent of the population?

CALLER: Delicately, yes.

LIMBAUGH: Well, I--nothing delicate about me on these matters. These are just innocent figures of speech--

CALLER: I understand.

LIMBAUGH: -- that I was using. There is an answer to your--basic question is, "Why don't the Democrats say, 'To hell with you, you wacko nuts in the base,' like Republicans do?"

CALLER: Mm-hmm.

LIMBAUGH: The--there's a complicated answer to this and I'm going to have answer some of it in the monologue in the next hour, but one of the simple answers that will require some elaboration is that a lot of money is coming from these kooks--and I'm not talking about just the blacks--I'm talking about a whole kook-fringe base because George Soros is running it--

CALLER: It's true.

LIMBAUGH: --and they need the money. We'll be back after this. Stay with us.

(The issue I have with "bend[ing] over and grab[bing] the ankles," methinks, is that such tends to negative stereotypes about homosexuals and homosexual behaviour, as ought raise questions with the FCC about indecent references. And from a conservative propagandist, no less.)

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IN ANY CASE, CONSIDERING THE RECENT COURT DECISION AS ESSENTIALLY CANCELLED THE FCC'S FORFEITURE AGAINST CBS FOR THE "WARDROBE MALFUNCTION," perhaps the FCC ought to consign any and all "indecency" or "obscenity" complaints of sound-alike predictability, with attendant waste of time and resources on the FCC's part having to read basically the same pathetic and insincere drivel over and over again, to File 13.

As in having the so-called "Parents Television Council" placed under Rule 13 sanctions (i.e., requiring court permission and posting with same a $500 indemnity bond before filing any complaints in future) for a "reckless and habitual" pattern of filing "frivolous, vexatious or otherwise tortius complaints***resulting in needless waste and diversion of time and resources" on the FCC's part and parcel.

And what would likewise preclude the Justice Department from opening enquiries into the "Council" under the RICO Act?

(MEMO TO READERS: Pass this along to your friends and e-mail circle ... but don't "spam" recklessly; it can only hurt the cause.)  

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RIGHT WING WATCH HATH SOME FRESH AND INTERESTING NEW REVELATIONS into the mind and mindset of bioweapons researcher Bruce Ivins, who took The Other Way Out nearly a fortnight ago rather than face disgrace for the late-2001 anthrax attacks and the ensuing panic--especially if he were to play the Nuremburg card (as in "I was only following orders"):

The virulently anti-gay American Family Association generates buzz and media attention year after year by launching outlandish boycott campaigns–McDonald’s is the latest target. It also doesn’t hurt that their flamboyant founder and chairman, Don Wildmon, more than lives up to his name.

PR is the lifeblood of a group like AFA, so you might think that they’d be thrilled when a longtime supporter of the group rocketed to the top of the media charts. Maybe so, but not when that supporter happens to be the FBI’s only suspect in the 2001 anthrax attacks–Bruce Ivins.

Indeed, the nation learned today that Ivins and his wife–who served as president of a local anti-abortion group–were strongly committed to the AFA:

Donations were made to AFA in the name of Mr. and Mrs. Bruce Ivins 11 times between 1993 and 1997. Another donation by the couple was recorded one month after an article about the Greendale incident appeared in the AFA Journal. The Ivins subscribed to the Journal until March 2005.

And his support for the AFA actually helped the FBI catch him:

Bureau investigators also connected the fictitious return address on the second round of anthrax letters–the "Greendale School" of Franklin Park, N.J.–to a charity well-known to Ivins. He had donated numerous times to a group called the American Family Association, which in 1999 had filed a lawsuit on behalf of parents at the Greendale Baptist Academy in Wisconsin in a dispute involving corporal punishment.

Here’s a scanned image of one of the envelopes:

Knowing more about Ivins’ background may help explain a great deal about the attacks, especially the targets. The anthrax letters were sent almost exclusively to prominent Democrats–Senator Pat Leahy and then-Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle–and large, New York media outlets. Interestingly, Senators Leahy and Daschle and the mainstream media have consistently served as punching bags for the AFA.

Sooo ... given these new-found interconnexions between Bruce Ivins and the so-called "American Family Association" vis-a-vis the anthrax attack campaign, what will be Mr. Wildmon's response?

Is he going to distract attention from the likelihood of scandal by attempting the Pilate act of (symbolically) washing his hands in denying any liability or interconnexion to the same?

Is he going to cook up some cheap attempt @ the sammy act to save face, only to realise it's too late now?

Suffice it to say, though, with the revelations of interconnexions between Bruce Ivins and the "American Family Association," it's not going to be very pleasant for the latter over the coming days. And for the Wildmon family, expect there to be some sleepless nights beyond the help of even hot malted milk. Or, for that matter, Ambien, Lunesta and Rozerem.

Maybe even Soma.

Especially if the FBI starts asking questions that have the Wildmons replying "I refuse to answer the question" over and over, forcing resort to "stronger means" such as waterboarding.

In the meantime, though, if you're already sympathetic to the AFA, you may want to disavow the connexions you have now and henceforth--especially before the freefall turns into a fireball destroying itself from within.  

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AS IF ANYBODY DIDN'T NOTICE, TODAY IS 8/8/08--A NUMERIC COMBI WHICH THE CHINESE IN PARTICULAR REGARD AS AUSPICIOUS from the standpoint of good fortune.

So much so, in fact, that the Registry Office in Sydney recorded no less than 90 civil marriages across the day, mostly among Chinese couples who saw marriage on 8/8/08 as being especially fortunate; expect plenty more across the day today.

As if that weren't enough, organisers of the Beijing Olympic Games, notwithstanding official Chinese Government opposition to "superstition" such as numerology, decided to schedule the Opening Ceremonies therefor on--you guessed it--8/8/08. In any case, let's just hope for the best for all the athletes in the face of potentially serious problems with air pollution and other byproducts of "developing socialism with Chinese characteristics" (to use an official ur-bumper sticker slogan of the regime) @ the cost of some US$40 billion in toto.

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TALK ABOUT INAUSPICIOUS BEGINNINGS: Yesterday, the opening day of the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines included among its events an attempt to set the record for the most corn dogs eaten @ one time and in one place (in this case, the Iowa State Fair Grandstand).

As it turned out, some 15,000 people showed up ... with only 8,400 corn dogs to be consumed. Talk about your logistical headaches!

In any case, such brings to mind something Your Correspondent read some while back about a onetime Minnesota State Fair concessionaire explaining some "tricks of the trade" in selling lemonade to crowds as were watching the afternoon Grandstand programme:

• For starters, get the crowd's palate dry and salty by selling popcorn galore.
• After awhile, switch to ice cream to get the palate conditioned with something cool and creamy.
• Finally, for the piece d'resistance, break out the lemonade (made in advance, no doubt, and poured out of one-gallon glass jugs on the shoulders of the hawkers)--but in this case, restrict the sales to the box seats up front (essentially ignoring the cheap seats), what with the quantity thereof being rather limited in the first place by deliberate design. (Which, IIBC, would be an Illegal Sales Practice contrary to public interest.)

In short, "make 'em thirsty first!"

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SPEAKING OF LEMONADE, WHAT WOULD A STATE FAIR OR CIRCUS BE WITHOUT PINK LEMONADE, never mind where the same was more than likely (@ least early in the last century) to be a compound of croton oil and tartaric acid (for that bitter flavour), colouring being provided by coal-tar dyes?

(That, and attempts by the sellers to evade health inspectors as would be suspicious of the whole concept all along, some extending to outright hilarity @ times.)

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PLANNED PARENTHOOD HATH IT THAT HIS FRAUDULENCY'S GREAT WITHIN IS LABOURING UNDER THE MISGUIDED DELUSION that contraception (a/k/a birth control) is somehow in the same class as abortion, and wants such presented as fact in the health-education syllabus @ middle- and high-school levels.

Or, put another way, having impressionable school-age girls coming into the menarche being fed the Religiopolitical Right's long-standing propaganda line that Life Begins At Conception, No Ifs, Ands or Buts.

Which, in effect, amounts to nothing more than a rehashing of the same sort of misguided and perverted agenda which Romanian Communist leader Nicolæ Ceauçescu decreed soon after coming into power in 1966, and continuing until his overthrow towards the end of 1989 in the wake of the Berlin Wall's collapse--only this time, instead of seeking to hasten the Final Onset of Pure Socialism (as per Marx and Engels), seeking to maintain a labour-intensive, Luddite socioeconomic model and paradigm based on an idealised "pure" free-market capitalism (per Ayn Rand) by forcing the married to hav children all the more.

And expect them to excuse such as one with National and Christian Duty and Honour, all being educated on tuition vouchers giving preference to so-called "Christian Academies" or, alternately, Christian Homeschooling curriculæ placing undue emphasis upon idealised Traditional Values through brainwashing-stylee drills amounting to little more than parroting out bumper-sticker slogans on command in a rather nauseating, even robotic, stylee of tone and delivery, over Core Skills.

Besides: How would training our children with fanaticism crossing into the potentially dangerous ensure socioeconomic success and stability, and especially so based on free-market models and paradigms? (Let alone the prospect of a values-based educational syllabus regarding deliberate and willful poverty, fecundity and stupidity as "virtuous" and "patriotic." Not to mention the difficulty of having to create jobs for such deliberately large families without resorting to the fraudulent or dangerous brand of "make-work/fake-work" opportunities as include Ponzi or pyramid schemes, Australian "one-up" games, and "multi-level marketing" selling only an endless-belt distribution system rather than a viable product or service having value for money.)

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WHY THE TERRIBLE-TEMPERED MR. BANG IS UNWORTHY OF YOUR VOTE IN INDECISION 2008: Iraqi and United States negotiators are said to be within measurable distance on a final agreement over United States troop withdrawals to the point where the last such could return home in two years' time.

And still, TTMB's remarks about a "100-year" presence of American Occupational Troops in Iraq reeks of nothing less than colonialism @ its crudest and most pathetic.

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METHINKS SUCH "ACTIVISTS" AS TOOK ISSUE EARLIER IN THE WEEK TO THE KIDS' MENU ITEMS OF FAST-FOOD CHAINS AS BEING "UNHEALTHY" from the standpoint of calories, fats and sodium are of that ilk seeing flatulence as a Badge of Honour--the louder and smellier, the better.

Especially in the corridors of elementary schools, what with their general age group being the core "kids' meal" target audience, IIBC; they would just love(!!!) the concentrated aroma of fumigation chamber in form of hyperjuvenile flatus--as well as flatulence jokes and humour in the Eric Cartman stylee galore.

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AND ONE THING MORE, something worth pondering:

When the denizens and doyens of the Conservative Propaganda Masheen are whining and caterwauling on and on about the supposed "irresponsibility" of the Liberal Media Conspiracy, consider the likelihood of their engaging in projection to cover for their own reckless and utter disregard of, and contempt for, journalistic responsibility. That, and the prospect of such being part of a "cash-for-comments" racket.

For those needing further insight, read what ConWebWatch has to say about the so-called "Media Research Centre" using what may best be described as projection in their attempts @ emulating the Old Testament prophet Job in pathetic lamentation about "liberals" somehow "undermining responsible journalism."    

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NOTWITHSTANDING WHERE THE CURRENT BATMAN RELEASE, BY TITLE THE DARK KNIGHT, HAS A PG-13 RATING FOR what the motion-picture industry's ratings board calls "intense sequences of violence and some menace," to use the Consumer Advice Note therefor, certain specimens of Zealotry and True Belief in cultural conservatism @ its most pathetic are seeing parallels between the film's plot/storyline and the "law and order" mindset of His Fraudulency's Greater ur-RAHOWA on Terrorism for what may be perceived hagiographic intent--but in reality, is nothing short of pathetic.

Witness what CNN Headline News "stellar season" mouthpiece Glenn Beck had to say on his show the other night (thanks to Think Progress for the hat tip; emphasis in transcript supplied):

But Batman goes into another country and with a C-130 snatches a guy out, and then throws him back here into Gotham. So there's rendition. At one point the Morgan Freeman character says to Batman, wait a minute, hang on, you're eavesdropping on everyone in Gotham? And Batman says, yes, to stop this terrorist. Morgan Freeman says, I can't be a part of it. And yet Morgan Freeman does become a part of it, and they find the Joker. One of the ways they find the Joker is through eavesdropping. I mean the parallels here of what's going on is to me stunning.

In other words, to the cultural-conservative Weltanschauung, the use of violence in the name of Law and Order--especially so a sadisto, "blood-and-thunder" stylee thereof--is morally justifiable, so long as the ends justify the means. Never mind the clear and present danger of "copycat" incidents by the impressionable and easily-influenced, among them children and the mentally-unstable, with the likelihood that the film will be given credit for influencing such acts, deeds and exploits.

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MEANWHILE, IT MAY BE INTERESTING TO NOTE HOW SOME OTHER COUNTRIES VIEW THE DARK KNIGHT from the standpoint of film-review boards:

• In Canada, the Ontario Film Ratings Board has given The Dark Knight a 14A rating (under 14's require adult accompaiment) for what the OFRB calls "frightening scenes" and "violence;" for its part, the Régie du cinéma de Québec has given same (released in French as Le chevalier noir) 13 ans+ (for audiences 13 and upwards; younger audiences allowed with adult accompaiment) for "violence."
• Between Land's End and John O'Groats, The Dark Knight has a 12A certificate (audiences under 12 years must be accompanied by an adult), noting where the film "contains moderate violence and sustained threat."
• South Africa's Film and Publications Board (FPB) rates The Dark Knight 13-V (only for audiences 13 and up; violence).
• Australia's Classification Board has given The Dark Knight an M (mature) rating for "frequent action violence." (Down Under, an M-certificated film carries no legal age restriction, and is purely advisory.)
• New Zealand's Film and Video Labelling Body, for and on behalf of the Office of Film and Literature Classification, rates The Dark Knight M/V (Mature, for violent scenes); again, in New Zealand, an M rating is merely advisory, but parents are advised to use caution in the case of children under 16 years.

Take that, "culture warriors"!

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SERIOUSLY, THOUGH, WITH GAS PRICES THE WAY THEY ARE, PEOPLE ARE STARTING TO REALISE THAT THERE ARE ALTERNATIVES TO DRIVING as make more sensible use of fuels all alone.

Like bus travel.

And Amtrak, which is no doubt seeing capacity issues on a number of trains--not the least of which is the Empire Builder, currently the only train through Winona as serves Chicago, Milwaukee, the Twin Cities, Glacier National Park, Seattle and Portland. Even then, CHI-MKE-MSP traffic thereon is being stretched to the point where calls have been made by online communities to add another train as would operate only to the Twin Cities.

Best solution I can think of: Take one of the existing Hiawatha Service trains between Chicago and Milwaukee and extend same to the Twin Cities, with provision for a café car as would serve sandwiches, light meals and snacks along with the existing coach accomodation.

Otherwise, what stands in the way of breaking our bond-slavery to automotive dependency--arrogant delusions about "the defence of our antient and pecuilar soverignty and soverign identity" as a "morally superior" society?

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SO MUCH FOR THE IDEA OF IMPEACHING HIS FRAUDULENCY AND SUCH AMONG HIS GREAT WITHIN for all manner of high and infamous crimes and misdemeanors, and as close to Indecision 2008 as it stands now:

Pakistani legislators are now taking up motions to proceed with the impeachment of State President Perez Musharaf--the same Musharaf which His Fraudulency once boasted of as a dear and trusted droog in the ur-RAHOWA Against Terrorism, know--for abuse of power to the point of imposing Emergency Powers under questionable pretexts following the assaination of Benazhir Bhutto late last year, essentially suspending elections in the process.

If our Pakistani brethren can proceed with such a motion, what would prevent our "morally superior" society from doing likewise?

Or how about having the Great Within simply tender their resignations within measurable distance, thereby preempting the likelihood of a clear and present Constitutional Crisis which the weird, unwholesome and even dangerous could seek to exploit.

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AS IF MICHAEL "LIBERALISM IS A MENTAL DISORDER" SAVAGE WASN'T HAVING ENOUGH TROUBLE TRYING TO SPIN HIMSELF LOOSE from his rather tasteless and disingenous remarks dismissing autism and autism-spectrum disorders as a "fraud [and] racket" designed to maximise welfare benefits by trick or deception, he's trying to distract Kankerdom's attention by pandering to their crude, primitive and easily-influenced feelings of xenophobically racist and nativist "patriot love" in perhaps the crudest way known.

Witness these remarks on Mr. Savage's broadcast of the 4th, as transcribed faithfully by Media Matters for America (and, know, they are in context lest there be any whining and caterwauling about "misquotation" or "misinterpretation" on the part of Savage or his droogs of the worst sort):

Things are so bad in Europe that the Italians have put soldiers, military on their streets. Now, you have to understand what it means by "things are so bad." The illegal immigrants, mainly Muslims and Africans, are out of control. So they've done there what we need to do here. We need to get our troops out of Iraq and put them on the streets of America to protect us from the scourge of illegal immigrants who are running rampant across America, killing our police for sport, raping, murdering like a scythe across America while the liberal psychos are telling us they all come here to work.

The story says, "Soldiers on Italian streets--hundreds of soldiers have fanned across Italy to help police fight crime. The soldiers also guard detention centers, processing illegal immigrants blamed by the government for much of Italy's crime. But a group of immigrants used the deployment as an opportunity to protest and draw attention to their conditions and delays in asylum requests." They got the racket worked out pretty good, huh? First you break into a country, then you say "drop dead" if you don't give me citizenship. And then they spit in your face, then they beat up your police, and the police run away.

That's the country of Italy, the once-proud nation of Italy, the former Roman empire reduced to hiding behind the shuttered doors. And you're telling me you're going to Tuscany--yeah, drink your chianti, eat your mortadella, Schmi--Guido. Go eat your mortadella, Guido, tell me how wonderful Tuscany is. I hear these reports from people who come back. "Oh, I went to Tuscany, oh, I love Tuscany." You sat there like a fat drunk, you didn't know what was going on around you there. Go buy yourself a condo in Tuscany. You have no idea what's going on because like in this country, you don't want to know what's going on, you've got your head in the sand. When guys like me, the Paul Reveres of our time, have to take the whole burden on our own back. Go ahead, go stuff your face with mortadella and drink your chianti and think the world is fine because you become an old drunk in an undershirt--I'd like to say to them.

Why is it that the Italians called out the military? Why can't we call out the military and put 'em on the border with Mexico? Why can't we send the military into San Francisco to take control of the city before other innocent civilians are killed? Uh huh, why? You tell me why. You tell me why. San Jose, Dave, you're on The Savage Nation, go ahead, please, what's on your mind?

[...]

So there it is, Italy, they're calling out the military, they called them out already in the streets, but you didn't read that yet, huh? Didn't make it to your local comic book? The local comic books that nobody buys anymore called newspapers because they provide you nothing but trash, day and night? No truth, no reality, no stories -- you turn on the cable news, they're covering again a missing child. Not a missing country but a missing child, every day about a missing child but not a missing country, every day about a missing child but no missing country.

Every--about the rape of a woman, but not about the rape of the Statue of Liberty. The Statue of Liberty is crying, she's been raped and disheveled--raped and disheveled by illegal aliens, and our politicians do nothing except give themselves big fat checks and big fat jobs. The Statue of Liberty is disheveled and raped and she's crying, and she needs to be helped, but you turn on the cable news networks--missing children, rape, rape, missing children, missing children, rape, rape, missing children, rape, missing children, missing children, rape.

How about missing country and the rape of a nation? Why don't they cover the real story? Why don't they tell the rest of us to get ready for what's coming in this country? That we have to protect ourselves because everybody else is ducking and hiding? They're hiding under their desks in Washington, they're hiding under their desks in the state capitals, they're hiding under their desks in the city capitals. And we have to fend for ourself because the government is not protecting us, don't you get it?

So much for "the raping of the Statue of Liberty"--how about bringing in some "fairness and balance" with that immortal poem of Emma Lazarus @ the base of the aforementioned, entitled "The New Colossus," quoted in its entire:

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame
With conquering limbs astride from land to land,
Here at our sea-wash'd, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbour which twin cities frame.
"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore;
Send these the homeless, tempest-tost to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Fox Prolefeed, eat your heart out....

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HISTORICAL FOOTNOTE ABOUT THE ALLUSION REFERENCED IN THE POEM JUST QUOTED: The "Colossus" referenced is the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World as stood just outside the harbour there (not astride it, as widely believed) for 56 years until it was toppled in an earthquake in 292 BCE, all 70 cubits (about 105'/32 metres) of its height.

And I bet you didn't know that the Colossus of Rhodes was actually a statue of the city's patron, the Greek sun god Helios.

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TALK ABOUT FOOD FOR THOUGHT: Alongside all manner of deep-fried foods "on the stick" @ the just-opened Indiana State Fair in Indianapolis is a walk-through model of the human colon sponsored by a local cancer-treatment centre to raise awareness among visitors of the dangers the colon can face from things like poor diet (especially such as is lacking in bulk) and irregular habits.

How many will wind up blowing lunch after seeing this graphic, yet "educational," display is anybody's guess.

Come to think of such, such might want to be brought on a tour across the rather arrogant, hubris-laden South, where "Southern Heritage" is the preferred excuse and bromide for politically-incorrect dietary habits (as in liberal doses of high-fat/sugar/sodium foods, not to mention the preferred "teatime" snack among "white trash" being a Moon Pie and an RC Cola).

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IF EVER THERE WAS A POSTER CHILD FOR THE ARROGANT DEFENCE OF MALE CHAUVINISM BEING EXCUSED AS ONE FOR G-D, COUNTRY AND FAMILY (not unlike apartheid South Africa in its Luscious Glory of hubris), it would have to be the pseudoreligious evangel John Hagee.

In evidence, consider the following video from Right Wing Watch:

(Come to think of it: How many among the Religiopolitical Right, and their pseudoreligious base, could be considered closet apologists of the apartheid regime and its arrogant delusions of "preserving white male honour"?)

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WITH A FORTNIGHT TO GO NOW BEFORE THE 2008 EDITION OF THE GREAT MINNESOTA GET-TOGETHER (OTHERWISE KNOWN AS THE MINNESOTA STATE FAIR) THROWS OPEN its gates to the world, perhaps it was time to get you in the mood (so to speak) with the recipe for Swedish Egg Coffee, as served @ the Salem Lutheran Church Dining Hall since time immemorial (or so it seems among seasoned TGMnGT visitors)--especially suited for a large crowd:

• Bring one gallon of cold water to the boil in a tin splatterware pot.
• In the meantime, combine one egg, three pounds of ground coffee and enough water to just moisten the coffee (this will likely require some trial and error to get things just right).
• Once the water is boiled, add the coffee mixture and brew until well-boiled.
• Remove from the heat, filter and decant into an urn or Thermos bottle, and serve.

Now tell me if this isn't the sort of coffee even that coffee-swilling feline Garfield would love consistently....

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AND SPEAKING OF THE SALEM LUTHERAN CHURCH DINING HALL, they just so happen to be among the "last of a dying breed," as it were, @ TGMnGT--as in dining halls offering fairgoers a "just-like-home" meal as raises funds for church activities; high food, energy, concession and labour costs, not to mention changing tastes, have pretty much done in church dining halls over recent years.

Leaving only three such remaining for devotees of TGMnGT to consider among their dining options; in addition to that of Salem Lutheran, whose specialities are the aforementioned Swedish Egg Coffee and Swedish meatball platters, the only church dining halls still serving meals are the Epiphany Diner and that of Hamline United Methodist Church, whose speciality is baked ham loaf.

(If you'd like to consider your dining options for the Minnesota State Fair, then check out Fairborne's Fabulous Fair Food Finder on the TGMnGT website, which is a fully-searchable databank to help you find all the corn dog stands--and then some.) 

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AFTER THIS SUMMER SEEING LAKE DELTON IN THE WISCONSIN DELLS REGION AS NOTHING BUT LAKEBED thanks to its being drained in the wake of flooding on 9 June, much is being expected in the "water business" of the Wisconsin Dells/Lake Delton region for its return following remedial reconstruction over the fall and winter months.

Which will also include reconstruction of County Rd. A in the general vicinity of the channel carved out in said flooding, thereby draining Lake Delton in the process.

Meanwhile, before the serious work gets underway on Lake Delton's return to glory, as it were, let's just hope someone doesn't get any ideas in the vein of one Flink Touristberg; in the Johnny Test episode "Johnny and the Pork Ness Monster," an attempt to seek relief from a monster heatwave by way of an old rope swing in Pork Ness Lake (outside Porkbelly) turns into an encounter with the Pork Ness Monster--which Johnny's twin sisters, Mary and Susan, discover is nothing short of an audioanimatronic scam just to fleece the tourists.

(The giveaway: While diving to find cluedos, the twins find an underwater cavern with a sign reading "Monster Launching Station" and some railroad track.)

And which Johnny exposes even further by discovering remote-control consoles to control the "Pork Ness Monster" near a tacky-looking gift shop and excursion-boat dock cashing in on the phony "legend."

In any event, Flink Touristberg gets his desserts--even if Mary and Susan's diving suits, draped in weeds and mud, have them mistaken for "lake monsters" in science-fiction stylee.

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WELL, MAYBE NOT ON THE PART OF YOUR CORRESPONDENT; HOWEVER, TO THE MINDS OF CERTAIN ZEALOTS AND TRUE BELIEVERS in Neoconservatism tending to Fascism, "real Americans" are getting sick and tired of Barak Obama's suggesting where motorists checking their tyre pressure would go a long way towards saving gas, for one.

Now it's emerged that the idea is nothing new: Back in 1990, President Bush peré was urging Americans to check tyre pressure as one way to save fuel brought upon by his Middle Eastern misadventures, and there were Public Service Announcements being broadcast to that effect.

Said advice not sitting well with the hard-wired specimens of Zealotry and True Belief in Neoconseratism, as witness remarks by Newt Gingrich on Fox Prolefeed (hat tip to Think Progress) when the issue of proper tyre pressure vis-a-vis saving fuel recently surfaced anew, dismissing such as (in his exact words) "ludicrous" and "Loony Tunes."

Your Correspondent, for his part, feels maintaining proper tyre pressure is but one step "right-thinking American" motorists can take to help save fuel; others I know of include:

• Having tyres checked for wear, and replacing such as show signs thereof;
• Having tyres rotated on a regular basis;
• Having alignment systems checked on a regular basis;
• Having regular tune-ups as recommended in the Owner's Manual, including oil and transmission-fluid changes @ recommended intervals, radiator/cooling system flushing and refills (distilled water isn't really necessary, unless the owner's manual specifically recommends it), and replacing oil and air filters as recommended;
• Reducing highway speeds to reasonable levels, e.g., 60 mph on open highways and 55 mph on urban freeways; and
• Avoiding wasteful acceleration, "jackrabbit" starts and distractions, especially unnecessary cell-phone use or text-messaging (which, in some states, is now illegal while driving).

(And, in the case of longer drives, maintaining mental alertness by making brief rest stops every 2-3 hours of driving to stretch the muscles and sip something refreshing--and non-alcoholic.)

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AS IF PEOPLE ARE STILL TALKING ABOUT THE TERRIBLE-TEMPERED MR. BANG'S USING PARIS HILTON IN CAMPAIGN ADVERTISING, Ms. Hilton herself is taking a swipe herself with this online video from FunnyOrDie.com as is worth watching--and sharing.

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HARD TO SAY IF THE FOLLOWING NEWS WILL SCORE POINTS WITH HIS FRAUDULENCY'S GREAT WITHIN HOPING TO EXPAND THE UR-RAHOWA'S IRAQI FRONT into Iran to the point of backing down, especially as an "October Surprise" trick to benefit the McCain campaign:

Citing pressure from human-rights groups, Iran has announced that it has abolished the penalty of death by stoning, and will review the court sentences of those thus sentenced for such offences we "morally superior" Americans would dismiss as whimsical as possessing alcohol, "un-Islamic" dress or behaviours, "adultery" and suchlike.

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ADVICE FOR THE CSI CROWD IN RESPONSE TO RON SUSSKIND'S LATE CHARGES OF OUTRIGHT FORGERY BEING RESPONSIBLE FOR THE UR-RAHOWA IN IRAN, and said forgery being on the hands of His Fraudulency's Great Within all along:

With said Great Within spinning the story in unbelievable directions, may I suggest some forensic testing being conducted on the paper, ink, even stylee of handwriting used in the "memos" in question to conclusively confirm that forgery was involved.

Forgery of the Protocols of Zion stylee, come to think of it.

In due time, then, such should help connect the dots to the point of revealing that it was the Great Within and its "inside of the inside" as cooked up 9/11 for sinister and perverted ends and purposes.

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COINCIDENCE OF HISTORY AS MAY/MAY NOT BE ONE FOR RIP LI: The Unfortunate Events of 9/11/01 occured exactly 60 years to the day of Colonel Charles Lindbergh's infamous speech to an America First rally in Des Moines, blaming "effete British elites" for steering America all the closer to World War II, as would become the undoing of the "America First!" movement seeking to maintain American neutrality in the name of "our antient and pecuilar soverignty and soverign identity."

And would, in the end, turn the tide towards America supporting the Allied cause in World War II, with the Pearl Harbor attacks being the catalyst.

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WOULD YOU HAVE THESE WEIRD AND UNWHOLESOME TYPES IN YOUR BACK YARD?

Though the item following (as translated from the original Yiddish) appeared in the Jewish gazetta Forward 75 years ago this week (and is thus featured in their "Looking Back" column), the message still has its freshness for our own time, what with home-grown extremists posing as much a threat of terrorism as foreign-based such (though the Great Within of His Fraudulency and their propaganda droogs doesn't want you and me knowing as much):

Although German government officials deny it, their supporters are still distributing significant amounts of pro-Nazi propaganda throughout the United States. It was recently discovered that a Nazi front group, the German-American Commercial League, had set up shop in the pretty little town of Suffern, N.J., where the group maintains a kind of summer resort in which, it was noticed, members walk around naked a lot and hold pro-Nazi rallies. It was also noticed that every car in their parking lot has a swastika emblem. They also occasionally march through the town in rows of six, singing Nazi songs and cursing Jews. Suffern's residents have had enough of this behavior and are taking measures to put a stop to it. The German-American Commercial League was not available for comment. Two things that are known are that the group claims 380,000 members in the United States and Canada and that its headquarters is at 12 West 77th Street in Manhattan.

"Hoe meer dinge verander ..." 

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Mr. Keith Rupert Murdoch
Fox News Channel
1211 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10036

Dear Mr. Murdoch:

First, my apologies for invoking your sacred and yet profane full name for the purposes of this Open Letter.

In any event, I would like to address @ this time the interconnexion between what you would regard as "fair and balanced" journalism and these remarks as appeared in the founding editorial of your Britannic "red top" Sunday franchise, by name and stylee of News of the World, on 1 October 1843:

Our motto is truth. Our practice is the fearless advocacy of the truth.

Which you may regard as fine and well for a motto ... but in actual practice, regardless of where News Corporation hangs out its editorial or entertainment shingles throughout the known world, well-documented evidence reveals that your "fearless advocacy of the truth" is nothing but a farce.

As in countless press-council investigations of your newspapers in Australia and Great Britain for such issues as Invasion of Privacy, Pandering to Latent Prejudices, Sensationalism, Racism, Bigotry, Appeals to Xenophobic Nationalism, Naming of Children Involved in Notorious Criminal Cases, Misrepresentation, Use of Fraud or Trick in Procuring the News, Unnecessary Sexual Titillation (as in Page Three) and Causing Mental or Emotional Harm, among other issues.

As in showing reckless and utter disregard for Truth to the point where your gazettas in Great Britain especially have had to publish apologies and pay out substantial cash compensation when it emerged that celebrity reportage was false, misleading or inaccurate, or otherwise showed reckless and utter contempt or disregard for truth.

As in offering substantial sums of money for big-big stories without checking on the credibility of sources beforehand; there's always the likelihood that someone sending your news organisations news tips motivated by promise of big-big money may really be some class of an alcoholic, a drug addict, a sex fiend or maniac, a chronic and habitual debtor, a psychopathic or otherwise habitual liar and/or boaster, a known and notorious criminal on the run from John Law or otherwise wanting to settle an old score in the worst way possible.

As in fabricating or staging news stories out of whole cloth if and when considered necessary, and with reckless and utter disregard all the while for journalistic ethics, propriety and integrity--especially when such faking or manipulation of the news is overdone to the point of sensationalised or otherwise attracting unnecessary attention, let alone justified as one with "winning of hearts and minds."

As in failing to recognise the inherent consequences of your numerous "campaigns" backfiring upon you and your journalistic products (as witness several instances where your "For Sarah Campaign" in the News of the World led to vigilante marches against named pedophilia suspects as turned out to be harmless and blameless all along, or otherwise shared the same name to the point of confusion ensuing--I believe there was @ least one suicide ensuing).

As in failing to justify the unhealthy and unnecessary use of soft-core pornography in the Page Three stylee from time to time on Fox News Channel save for the sake of distractionary titillation on the part of an audience tending mostly to the poor, undereducated or homeschooled, lower-working-class (and unlikely to see much real job/career advancement opportunities) and marginalised of Society.

As in excusing the maintenance and perpetuation of xenophobic, nativist, narcisstic, racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic and suchlike other tendencies and feelings, exploiting such among the same vulnerable audiences I just made note of, and expecting them to accept such as "healthy, nutritious and patriotic" all @ once, not to mention being necessary to the defence of American soverignty and soverign identity, as well as that of free-market capitalism with American characteristics.

As in showing nothing short of contempt for an audience who you regard as easily willing to accept what your media outlets regard as Truth without question or reservation, any challenges to such reportage to be looked upon as nothing less than "betrayal" as could harm "our antient and pecuilar soverignty and soverign identity."

In any case:

What exactly will it take to see the errors of your ways in perverting the integrity and credibility of the Fourth Estate?

How many lawsuits charging Invasion of Privacy, Undue Emotional Harm and Distress, Defamation, Libel or Related Conspiracies, to take some plum examples as could cause your organisations serious trouble in the right circumstances?

How many investigations into the likelihood of Racketeering or otherwise being in the pay of weird and unwholesome elements, including hostile foreign regimes secretly holding substantial financial interests in News Corporation or its affiliates for the sake of peddling influence?

How many suicides, emotional breakdowns or alcoholic jags from the targeted?

How many court actions not unlike that which bankrupted Confidential magazine in 1957, notwithstanding their claiming that they "Tell the Facts and Name the Names"?

How many instances where it's been discovered that you're using subliminal messages for fraudulent or otherwise deceptive purposes?

What exactly will it take to realise Facts?

But don't come crying to me, or otherwise pontificate on what Nietzsche said about "that which does not kill us makes us stronger," let alone that Mickey Mouse about "the ends justifying the means," corrupt, weird and unwholesome though they be. You alone brought on your own problem.

And Another Thing:

Have you considered the possibility of your being an alcoholic, drug addict, sex maniac or even emotionally disturbed? Get some counselling.

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MEMO TO READERS: As per usual with these Open Letters, you are strongly urged to share these with your friends and e-mail circles, the better to ensure some serious pressure is applied and public outrage so maximised.

However, please avoid the use of "spam" in so doing; "spam" only makes these efforts ineffective.

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YOU MAY RECALL WHERE, YESTERDAY, IT WAS NOTED IN PASSING WHERE REV. FRED "WESTBORO BAPTIST CHURCH" PHELPS WAS MAKING A CIVIL RIGHTS CASE out of the fire therein on Saturday evening, causing some US$10,000 damage (which Rev. Phelps' spin machine exaggerateth by a factor of three) and claiming (if we are to believe this excuse for a hatemonger) that said fire was motivated by opposition to the Traditional Christian Teachings held dear by Westboro Baptist.

I, for one, would not accept that as reasonable grounds for a civil-rights enquiry; methinks, as I said, such is nothing but a distraction serving only to distract arson investigators "off the scent" of suspicion that the Phelps family set the whole thing up as a way to make quick money in the face of current and serious financial problems on their part.

Let alone the prospect of their assets being, in significant measure, "judgement-proof" by way of offshore banks and "pure trusts" serving only their own sefish desires--and claiming that the Greater Glory of G-d justifies such actions, along with the usual about "the ends justifying the means."

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"THERE BUT FOR THE GRACE OF G-D GO I" DEPARTMENT: UNICEF, the United Nations childrens' aid agency, has come out with a new report taking the developing economies of China and India to task for not doing enough to provide decent and adequate health care for children as their economies develop full-on, with obvious risks for worsening disparities between rich and poor.

Of particular note is where India is faulted for having 1.6 million infant deaths in 2006 for want of adequate medical care in especially poor or undeveloped areas; over the same period, China reported some 400,000 cases of infant deaths.

Still, though, one needs to consider where, in China's case, much of the socioeconomic throughput was diverted towards the Beijing Olympic Games and construction of related venues and infrastructure while many millions in rural areas remain in direst (and, perhaps, deliberate) poverty and ignorance socioeconomically.

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HAS CNN HEADLINE NEWS CRIME REPORTER NANCY GRACE BEEN TOO AGGRESSIVE IN "STATING HER CASE" on her nightly programme?

@ least one suspect's estate thinks so: A suspect in a rather infamous child-abduction case a few years back is suing Ms. Grace and CNN Headline News for aggravated emotional harm and distress through her stylee of questioning as caused the suspect to eventually take The Other Way Out.

Not bad for the same network as has conservative blatherskite Glenn Beck preceding Nancy Grace's show during "stellar season" (otherwise known as their prime-time selection), and yet Mr. Beck shares much the same appeal among the Lower Classes as Bill O'Reilly on Fox Prolefeed.

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IT LOOKS AS THOUGH THE TERRIBLE-TEMPERED MR. BANG MAY HAVE THE LAST LAUGH WHEN IT COMES TO EQUATING DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL WANNABE BARACK OBAMA with heiress and "media distractionary" Paris Hilton in that rather laughable farce of a "winning of hearts and minds" TV ad:

Ms. Hilton's mother has taken John McCain's campaign team to task for what she sees as "improper exploitation" of her daughter's image and repute to the point of causing psychoemotional embarrassment and humiliation just to win over votes among trailer-park trash and suchlike others watching Fox Prolefeed to the point of dependency, (un)consciously (un)aware all along of Fox Prolefeed's unhealthy tendencies galore.

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AND DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THAT ESCALATOR IN JAPAN AS WOUND UP RUNNING BACKASSWARDS THANKS TO OVERCROWDING ON THE OVERNIGHT, with ten people injured in the process?

If you don't believe me, see the video for yourself:

(On the other hand, I wouldn't recommend this as one for Rip Li.)