Actor Sean Penn was at it again on Saturday.

This time, as he spoke to a town hall, antiwar meeting in Oakland, California, he made some truly despicable statements, including declaring that President George W. Bush has “become our country’s and our Constitution’s most devastating enemy.”

Those that are interested can read excerpts of his disgraceful speech here, or listen to some of his choice epithets on MP3 here.

Penn also declared to the President:

There is no more consistent stack of baloney in the national media than Newsweek's "Conventional Wisdom Watch" manufacturers claiming they represent what all of Washington is thinking -- instead of the liberal fraction of Washington. This week's edition (called the "Executive Privilege Edition") begins with a typical down arrow for President Bush: "Conditions for aides to meet Congress: No oath or transcripts. Sounds like one of Cheney's covert ops." They compare Bush to Nixon, but not to Bill Clinton, who also tried to block congressional ans special-prosecutor investigations with executive privilege claims. But there are three "Up" arrows for Democrats:

Following this NewsBusters post on Wednesday (3/21/07), the Los Angeles Times has admitted it "oversimplified the eugenics views of Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger."

On Wednesday, we took issue with this article by Stephanie Simon in the Los Angeles Times that stated that Sanger "did not support coerced birth control." Simon also wrote that Sanger had merely "associate[d] with proponents of eugenics, the philosophy that only the most worthy should be allowed to reproduce"

In our article, we demonstrated that Sanger's own words suggested the opposite. In her 1922 book, The Pivot of Civilization, Sanger wrote, "Every feeble-minded girl or woman of the hereditary type, especially of the moron class, should be segregated during the reproductive period." For men, Sanger recommended the "policy of immediate sterilization." In other writings, Sanger referred to some members of humanity as "human weeds."

One of the nice things about having a television and newsletter archive at MRC is being able to bring up the old newscasts and recall how very different the tone and approach of the news was when a Democrat was in the White House. The U.S. Attorney-firing scandal is a strong example of how the network news can on one hand, sell a scandal as incredibly damaging for a political party it does not support, but downplays scandal as damaging to democracy and the people when it affects the political party it favors. Our latest Media Reality Check reminds readers of how different the news sounded ten years ago, when a Republican Congress investigated illegal foreign donations, mostly to national Democratic Party accounts. Take NBC:

NBC theorized that the media were too Clinton-scandal obsessed in 1997. On June 17, 1997, Today co-host Katie Couric asked reporter Bob Woodward: “But are members of the media, do you think, Bob, too scandal-obsessed, looking for something at every corner?”

On Friday morning, news broke that 15 British servicemen (eights sailors and seven Royal Marines) were seized by Iran. Not the regular naval forces of that country, mind you, but the Revolutionary Guard naval corps, a wing of the military closely controlled by the country's extremist Islamic clerics.

Happening as it did one day before the UN voted on new sanctions on the nuclear power-hungry, terrorist-funding Islamist regime, you'd think the story would be worthy of front-page coverage in the largest broadsheet in Washington, D.C., right?

Wrong.The story earned page A11 real estate in the Saturday Post and a follow-up story was buried below the fold on page A12 in the March 25 edition. [continued...]

The New London Development Corp. (NLDC) is the government agency charged with redeveloping that Connecticut city's Fort Trumbull neighborhood. Its actions in the mid-1990s gave rise to the now-infamous Kelo vs. New London eminent domain case, which resulted a 5-4 US Supreme Court decision that overturned two centuries of interpretation of the Fifth Amendment's definition of "public use." That decision enabled the NLDC to complete the process of evicting the neighborhood's former homeowners.

Having spent over $75 million so far, with, as far as I can tell, not a single new brick in a single new structure to show for its efforts, the NLDC has just told the state of Connecticut it needs more money (New London Day articles require registration after a short while, and a paid subscription after a week; HT New London Calling).

A second New London Day article notes that "The state's investment in the Fort Trumbull area in the past decade totals roughly $125 million, including the Fort Trumbull redevelopment effort and funding that brought Pfizer to the city."

Going back to the first article -- The state is, on balance, not pleased:

HBO’s Bill Maher may have hit a new low on Friday’s installment of “Real Time.” During this episode, which was really just one long Bush bash, the host actually suggested that President Bush and Vice President Cheney are traitors.

As Maher used a lot of vulgarity in his final “New Rule” segment entitled “Treasonable Doubt,” I will post the details after the break for those who are uncomfortable with profanity addressed specifically at the most powerful man in the world.

However, I must caution the reader ahead of time to move forward at your own risk. This was Maher at his most hateful self, and his vitriol was turned all the way up to eleven for those who understand the Spinal Tap reference (video available here):

In discussing this controversy, it's important for the sake of perspective to remember what Henry Kissinger said:

"University politics are vicious precisely because the stakes are so small."

While the University of Florida Faculty Senate's decision to deny former Governor Jeb Bush an honorary degree is, in the big picture, an unimportant kerfuffle, it is nonetheless a cheap and gratuitous insult by a group of malcontented profs who clearly don't appreciate what an objectively outstanding governor the President's younger brother was (previous posts on Jeb Bush's tenure are here, here, and here).

The linked Associated Press story about the honorary degree denial, and others I've seen, fail to mention how low Florida university tuitions are compared to much of the rest of the country. A quick look at that unreported part of the story indicates that what Jeb Bush may really deserve is a statue in his honor from Florida's taxpayers and parents.

Just one example: Business Week rated the top undergraduate business schools a few weeks ago (link appears to be free). Here are the rankings of the Ohio and Florida public universities on the list, followed by their respective annual tuition bills:

Sunday March 25, 2007...

SARASOTA, FL. (NS) -

First let me say that I talk to Military personnel every day of the week via email and telephone stationed all over the World...

The one thing I hear all of them saying is they "want to finish their mission" in the War on Terror...

Now, why is their message going on 'blinded ears' of the Democrats who say that they "support the Troops?"...

There's only one reason, "POLITICS." Yes indeed, Politic's has once again reared its ugly head and entered into the War on Terror...

The recent vote in Congress on a Bill that would have all of our Troops out of Iraq with in '1 year' has passed the House of Representatives by a mere 6 votes...

This vote was not a vote in support of our Troops or their mission, it was a passage of a measure of 'defeat' that could and will result in the death's of thousands of Iraqi citizens, if not vetoed by President Bush...