Has Chris Matthews watched one too many episodes of "Oz," the hyper-graphic HBO original series about prison life?

Discussing the Scooter Libby trial on the 7 PM ET edition of this evening's Hardball, Chris spun a sanguine scenario in which Libby, facing the prospect of a long prison sentence in a vulnerable environment, might turn on Vice-President Cheney.

Matthews: "If Scooter's convicted, if you're looking at the number of counts facing him. If that jury really does go to town -- and I hope they're not watching -- and hits him with four or five counts, they add up to big time in some federal penitentiary, not necessarily Allenwood [known as the country club of federal prisons]. Someplace where a guy like Scooter Libby would not be very protected from the fellow prisoners. If he faces 20 years somewhere in maximum security, he's going to think again about his situation, isn't he?"

View video here.

Former President Jimmy Carter has gotten himself into more hot water, although it seems quite unlikely that any in the media will pay much attention to this recent faux pas (h/t LGF).

In a seemingly absurd response to a call by The Simon Wiesenthal Center for members and supporters to send letters to Carter concerning his book “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid,” the former president penned a handwritten note to the organization’s well-respected founder and Dean.

In it, Carter suggested that the Center lied about him and his book in order to raise money.

Think I'm kidding? Well, put this in your Middle East peace pipe and smoke it:

Since I mentioned Helen Thomas's honors in Washington last night, I should add she was hailed as a celebrity at the radical-left National Conference for Media Reform in Memphis a couple of weeks ago. One of her interviews there was with the radical Pacifica Radio show "Democracy Now." She lamented that there aren't enough protesters hitting the street against the war in Iraq like in the glory days of the Vietnam War. But she also praised Jimmy Carter's book condemning Israel for "Apartheid" against the Palestinians. First, the Vietnam talk:

AMY GOODMAN: But how does this compare? Does it bring back any memories of other wars?

HELEN THOMAS: It's deja-vu all over again with Vietnam, except the difference is our passive society. At least during Vietnam, they hit the streets. The people hit the streets finally, when they realized there had been deception, and it was a no-go. Too many -- we were killing people 10,000 miles away, and the reason could not be explained, except the domino theory, which was fading.

How much value do people put in a liberal radio network? Well, judging from the top bid garnered by Air America Radio during bankruptcy proceedings, the answer is clearly “Not very much!”

As reported by The Smoking Gun (emphasis mine throughout, h/t Drudge):

Bankrupt and about to lose Al Franken, its marquee star, Air America Radio is set to change hands for the bargain price of $4.25 million, according to new court documents. The sales figure was disclosed in a purchase agreement filed yesterday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York.

Forgive me, but there are a lot of houses in my small town that go for more than this. This is way too funny, and marvelously gets better:

White House, Karl Rove to procure 1000 black helicopters from Bell Helicopter

 (h/t libertyordeath)

 Underground Extra

 An unnamed source inside the White House has released a leak to the blogsite Kookburger.com that Karl Rove was seen playing golf with the COO of Bell Helicopter Sunday morning.  While it was intended to appear as casual round of country club revelry between two rich guys, the White House source insists he overheard Rove place the order under the guise of “national security” and that the Bell line comes highly recommended by Ross Perot.

On Sunday’s "Late Edition," CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer conducted a syrupy interview with consumer advocate and frequent presidential candidate Ralph Nader. Blitzer allowed the former Green Party standard-bearer to once again promote left-wing PBS host Bill Moyers for President in 2008. The CNN anchor also gushed over Nader’s new work of non-fiction, "The 17 Traditions," a liberal tome about rasing families. Blitzer described it as a "beautiful book with a lot of emotion." But first, he prompted Nader to plug the Moyers for President campaign:

Wolf Blitzer: "Here's what you wrote back in October on Bill Moyers, the PBS commentator: ‘Moyers brings impressive credentials beyond his knowledge of the White House, congressional complexes. As millions of viewers and readers over the decades know, Bill Moyers is unusually articulate and authentic in evaluating the unmet necessities and framing the ignored solutions in our country.’ You'd like him to run for president?"

Ralph Nader: "Very much. I got a great response to that column."

Blitzer: "What -- What response did you get from Bill Moyers?"

Court-martial judge forbids law experts

Honolulu Advertiser | February 7, 2007

FORT LEWIS, Wash. — The judge trying the first U.S. officer court-martialed for refusing to ship out for Iraq barred several experts in international and constitutional law from testifying about the legality of the war.

First Lt. Ehren Watada, 28, of Honolulu, is charged with missing movement for refusing to ship out with his unit. He also faces charges of conduct unbecoming an officer for accusing the Army of war crimes and denouncing the administration for conducting an "illegal war" founded on "lies."

As his court-martial began, military judge Lt. Col. John Head refused to allow almost all defense witnesses to take the stand. Head previously ruled that Watada's attorney, Eric Seitz, could not debate the legality of the Iraq war in court.

Raw Story | February 6, 2007  
David Edwards

A special investigation on the effects of depleted uranium reveals the Army made a tape warning of the effects of depleted uranium which was never shown to troops despite the fact the Pentagon knew the agent to be potentially deadly, CNN reports Tuesday.

Depleted uranium -- or DU -- was used in the Gulf War as a projectile that could penetrate tank armor. A group of soldiers are suing the US government because they are sick from exposure; despite the unshown video, the Army denies that depleted uranium represents a serious health risk.

CNN reporter Greg Hunter explains. The soldiers "report similar ailments. Painful urination, headaches and joint pain. They say Army doctors blame their symptoms on post traumatic stress. We showed them a tape the Army made in 1995, a tape the Army never distributed. It warned of potential D.U. hazards. The army's expert on D.U. training concedes some information contained on the tape is true. For instance, radioactive particles can be harmful."

Top globalist warns Congress of provocation or terrorist attack inside U.S.

Prison Planet | February 6, 2007
Paul Joseph Watson

Former National Security Advisor and founding member of the Trilateral Commission Zbigniew Brzezinski tacitly warned a Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week that an attack on Iran could be launched following a staged provocation in Iraq or a false flag terror attack within the U.S.

Brzezinski alluded to the potential for the Bush administration to manufacture a false flag Gulf of Tonkin type incident in describing a "plausible scenario for a military collision with Iran," which would revolve around "some provocation in Iraq or a terrorist act in the US blamed on Iran, culminating in a ‘defensive' US military action against Iran that plunges a lonely America into a spreading and deepening quagmire eventually ranging across Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan.”

As previously reported on Newsbusters, the mainstream media overlooks fringe groups at anti-war rallies, pro-illegal immigrant rallies, or even extreme anti-American hatred at anti-Bush rallies overseas. However, when it comes to opposition against illegal immigration, the mainstream media tries to connect it to fringe hate groups where ever they can find it.

On Tuesday’s Paula Zahn Now, host Paula Zahn described the "frightening new trend" that the very small Ku Klux Klan has increased recruitment. This increased recruitment is largely, of course, to blame from alleged immigrant baiting from some Republicans. Zahn was giving free, unquestioning publicity to a new report from the Anti-Defamation League. Reporter Deborah Feyerick asserted that the increase in recruitment is "which some believe is the result of the heated debate on immigration, which at times uses hateful language."

CBS’s Bob Schieffer utilized Democratic Party spin in discussing Monday evening’s procedural vote in the Senate that blocked a vote on a non-binding Iraq resolution. Schieffer, appearing in his weekly "Capitol Bob" segment on Wednesday’s "Early Show," blamed Republicans for blocking the vote and dismissed their arguments:

"...So they did the only thing that they could do, they used the Senate rules to block the vote. Now that group will give you another version of all this, but basically that's what happened."

Schieffer failed to mention the reason Republicans blocked the vote and that is because Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will not allow votes on two Republican alternatives. As the Washington Times noted on Wednesday:

Sometimes media bias can be found in what the networks don’t say. On Tuesday, Wal-Mart suffered a major blow when the liberal 9th Circuit Court in California ruled that a class action lawsuit claiming sex discrimination could proceed against the company. All three evening newscasts reported the story, with ABC and CBS noting that a "federal appeals court" had sided with the female plaintiffs. Over on NBC, "Nightly News" anchor Brian Williams simply used the phrase "federal court."

However, the 9th circuit isn’t just any court. This is the group of judges that ruled the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional. And, according to a report by the Center for Individual Freedoms, 32 percent of the reversals by the United States Supreme Court in 2003 came from the 9th Circuit. And yet, none of the network anchors thought this a pertinent point. "World News" anchor Charlie Gibson instead chose to hype the enormity of the case:

Charles Gibson: "It is a lawsuit so large in scope and size, that it staggers the imagination. A federal appeals court ruled today that a gender bias suit against Wal-Mart can proceed in what is known as a class-action suit. That means a million and a half to two million women would-be plaintiffs arguing, as a group or class, that Wal-Mart discriminated against them in providing promotions and in paying them less than male employees. Here's our senior law and justice correspondent, Jim Avila."

Jose Antonio Vargas covered the Washington Press Club Foundation dinner in the capital last night for The Washington Post, and the liberals were handing over the highest compliments to one honoree, long-standing leftist UPI reporter Helen Thomas, now a Hearst columnist and author of a book scolding the rest of the press corps for being Bush tools: 

On behalf of the House of Representatives, we salute Helen Thomas," said Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. "You could have gotten [this award] over and over again, Helen."

"One of the greatest reporters in the history of the republic," Kennedy called her.

Despite some notable blockbusters, it’s been a pretty bad twelve months for movie studios.

To find some answers, Zogby International recently did a poll of viewing habits (h/t Instapundit). Here are some of the more interesting results:

Theaters may offer massive screens and superior surround sound systems to movie-goers, but most would rather stay in their comfy confines home and watch DVDs, the survey showed. The majority (63%) said they would rather have free unlimited DVD rentals with no late fees for a year than a year’s worth of free unlimited movie passes (30%).

You can certainly count me in on that. Why might this be? You’ll never guess:

Any time a Republican does something stupid or advocates a dumb idea, the media invariably point out that the politician in question happens to be a Republican.

When it's a Democrat doing or saying something stupid, however, all bets are off as to whether or not they'll be outed as a Democrat (since such information is now immaterial in the minds of liberal reporters). Such is the case in this NBC affiliate story currently being highlighted on the Drudge Report:

A state senator from Brooklyn said on Tuesday he plans to introduce legislation that would ban people from using an MP3 player, cell phone, Blackberry or any other electronic device while crossing the street in either New York City or Buffalo.

NewsChannel 4 reported that Sen. Carl Kruger is proposing the ban in response to two recent pedestrian deaths in his district, including a 23-year-old man who was struck and killed last month while listening to his iPod on Avenue T and East 71st Street In Bergen Beach.

"While people are tuning into their iPods and cell phones, they're tuning out the world around them," Kruger said. The proposed law would make talking on cell phones while crossing the street a comparable offense to jaywalking.

Carl Kruger is a Democrat as anyone can see by looking at his entry in the New York State Senate Democrats web site. (H/t: pow)

Dana Milbank is mad at Democrats for somehow letting Former Iraq Chief Paul Bremer off the hook today in the Washington Post’s ”Rusty Democrats Unable to Pin Anything on Bremer”.

I guess to show he is a real meterosexual, Milbank starts his piece off with an observation on Bremer’s choice of footwear and draws the wild conclusion that it must say something about his mental state.

Jerry Bremer wore black dress shoes instead of his trademark combat boots yesterday as he testified before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. But except for that concession, the former American viceroy of Iraq had lost none of his swagger.

Discuss amongst yourselves...

"Hardball" host Chris Matthews lurched even further off the deep end on Wednesday’s "Imus in the Morning." After praising the “great job” Rudy Giuliani did in cleaning up New York City — which Matthews again suggested was done with just “a pinch” of "fascism" — the MSNBC star went on a rant declaring how he’s “sick of southern guys with ranches running this country.”

Losing control, Matthews dropped the F-bomb on national television: “I want a guy to run for President who doesn’t have a fucking — I’m sorry, a ranch.” As host Don Imus began to snicker, Matthews plowed ahead with his Democratic talking points: “Wouldn’t that be good, Don, a guy who wasn’t on the ranch during Katrina, he was on the street corner answering questions?”

Video clip (1:25): Real (2.32 MB) or Windows Media (5.39 MB), plus MP3 audio (409 KB)

Our brother in arms gives it back once again and vocalizes what we're all thinking and saying over here in the box........enjoy

HT BLK5

B5:

 

Some get it, some don’t, some never will.  I accept that I am a pariah among some of my countrymen, and a quaint anachronism to others.   I will not hold ignorance against them.

 

And the answer Lefties is “no,” I don’t work for the Heritage Foundation in any sort of cubicle (as was claimed by “Waiting” in the comments section of the post), National Review Online, the Limbaugh Letter, nor am I Ann Coulters’ personal bodyguard (but what a cool job that would be, and if she is looking for someone, I will be available soon), an intern for Scooter Libby, the web master for a conservative website in my mom’s basement, or a GOP Fundraiser.

Books, not bombs? Like a golden oldie from the Reagan Eighties, CNN’s Tom Foreman forwarded the classic liberal claim on Monday’s (noon Eastern) "Your World Today" show that the Iraq war is so costly that it could have been better spent on hundreds of grade schools or millions of new teachers, new cargo inspectors, and new cops -- or "every American driver could get free gasoline for a year."

Anchor Jim Clancy began by lamenting all the money "poured down the hole" on Iraq:

"Turning back to Iraq now, it is a loaded question, for sure, Hala, and it's this -- do you have any idea at all how much money in U.S. taxes have poured down the hole, so to speak, in Iraq?"

Anchor Hala Gorani: "Well, I have a general idea, but it's a safe assumption to say that few people do, at least in terms of how much each individual is paying, but some are following the spiraling costs very closely. Tom Foreman is one of them."

Serious, all you folks who have the privilege of still living in a Red state, you better fight to keep it that way...you do not want your state to turn blue. You do not want the cycle of turning (slouching/descending are better words) blue, and then having those idiot "swing voters" aka people who can't differentiate their principles from their politics--easily manipulated-- who elected all these "blue" politicians, then vote in Republican governors after their states are on the verge of collapse. (NY, Mass, CA)

The California legislature is seriously trying to ban parents spanking their children....real freedom huh.

When I retire to Colorado or Idaho or Montana, I do not want to have to live in a blue state.

It's too late for California....whether the "Golden" state drags other states down the same miserable path it has gone...

Lets "Bust" the crappy, liberal, media establishment one newspaper, magazine, AOL subscription and GE stock certificate at a time.

Start getting friends and family to stop buying all the garbage out there, and start supporting the growing ranks of quality alternative media sources:

National Review

Newsmax

Hoover Digest

Cancel your AOL subscription (save some money to boot), sell your GE stock, get that crazy aunt and sister-in-law to stop buying People magazine and watching CNN.

We must accelerate the death of this biased media monster.

Send the links to 5 family and friends of MRC and Newsbusters websites.

The curse of the wiseman who stays out of politics, is to be governed by fools. Plato

Click here for instructions on running Gaggle daily on your own site. There's also an archive of previous toons available here.

Can your job really be at risk if you don’t buy into the junk science of anthropogenic global warming? Well, that certainly seems to be the case in Oregon.

As reported by the Beaver State’s KGW.com (h/t Drudge):

In the face of evidence agreed upon by hundreds of climate scientists, George Taylor holds firm. He does not believe human activities are the main cause of global climate change. 

Like a George Romero movie, the article eerily continued: