UPDATE: View video here via HotAir.

I tuned in to watch "Hardball," and the Miller Beer catfight commercial broke out, right down to the cleavage . . .

There was an epic dust-up on this afternoon's show between feminist Naomi Wolf and conservative radio talk show host Melanie Morgan.

At the risk of burying the lead a bit, I can't resist observing that Naomi Wolf might just be the most passively aggressive woman in America. She has an amazing, infuriating, ability to keep a smile plastered on her face while saying the nastiest of things. It took her no more than a few seconds to get into it with guest host Mike Barnicle on this evening's Hardball. Barnicle invited Wolf to comment on the WaPo story about Hillary showing cleavage on the floor of the Senate, introducing her as a Democratic consultant and former advisor to Al Gore who had advised him to wear earth tones. But before responding, Naomi had some correctin' to do.

NAOMI WOLF: Mike, let me just stop you right there. You basically have not done your homework, no offense [right]. First of all, I'm not a Democratic consultant, I'm a writer. Second of all, I was advising Gore 2000 on women's issues that I've been talking about for 15 years . . . so you've just been, the Republican National Committee came up with a bunch of urban legends, and I'm afraid they pulled the wool over your eyes.

Pretty aggressive. Yet Wolf managed to maintain a brilliant, nay, beatific smile throughout. But when it came to aggression, Wolf was just clearing her throat.

Al Gore was recently quoted
saying, “There's an African proverb that says, ‘If you want to go
quick, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.’ We have to go far
quickly.” Well, by now the African people are thinking that Al Gore and his environmentalist lunatics can “Go f&%$ themselves.”

When most people think about mass genocide, they usually envision brutal dictators intentionally killing their own citizens. Few people, however, consider indirect causes of genocide, but these indirect causes are no less abominable. Without a doubt, the greatest indirect link to mass genocide is Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring.

In last night’s CNN special on their upcoming YouTube debate, Paula Zahn previewed some of the video questions that had been sent in. The topics up for debate last night included faith and values, the environment and gay rights. Zahn led the segment on faith and values with the comment, “we are seeing an amazing variety of questions about faith and values for next Monday’s debate.” Unfortunately the four YouTube questions that followed were anything but a “variety.” The transcript of the questions follows below.

Using disparaging comments to stoke class warfare, Newsweek called for higher taxes on the “super rich” in the July 23 issue.

The magazine called private-equity partners “Masters of the Universe,” “the true aristocrats” and remarked snidely that “even their secretaries, it seems, have English accents.”

Al Gore has single-handedly
destroyed a necessary facet of Science: the zealous questioning of
scientific hypotheses. Not only does questioning assure accuracy, but
it also elevates science itself to a field from which public policy can
be based. However, Gore, comedian’s wives, singers, and Leonardo
DiCaprio publicly state that the debate is over regarding man-made
global warming. As such, we should now make drastic changes that will
undoubtedly place an insurmountable economic burden on us all.

As NewsBusters reported Wednesday, this Sunday the Spike TV cable channel will start a mini-series, The Kill Point, centered around Iraq war veterans who rob a bank and end up with hostages in a standoff. A review in Friday's USA Today related how the leader of the robbers, Iraq vet “Mr. Wolf” played by John Leguizamo, “plays for sympathy before the news cameras, stripping down to show war wounds as he talks about how combat soldiers were poorly served.” USA Today's Bill Keveney also relayed how “Leguizamo says Kill Point isn't trying to stereotype returning soldiers or their behavior. 'They're good guys but they made a bad call, and they happen to have (post-traumatic stress disorder) and they happen to be against the war.'” When will we see a TV movie with Iraq vets doing good things who “just happen” to be for the war?

As NewsBusters reported Tuesday, Fox News's Bill O'Reilly went on a mission this week to get JetBlue to renounce its sponsorship of the upcoming convention held by the liberal website Daily Kos.

Depending on which side you believe, O'Reilly has either been extremely or moderately successful.

Here's what O'Reilly had to say about the subject Friday at the Fox News website (emphasis added):

CNN correspondent Tom Foreman's examination of the role of faith in the 2008 presidential race on Thursday night's "Anderson Cooper 360" featured the standard left-wing labeling of Christian conservatives. The segment, an  examination of the so-called "separation of church and state," featured extensive soundbites from Pastor Rod Parsley of the World Harvest Church in Ohio, characterized Parsley as "no agent of tolerance," due to his stance against homosexuality and criticism of Islam.

Foreman opened his segment with a line that is eerily reminiscent of the creation account in the biblical Book of Genesis, and reflects the Left's view of the First Amendment.

TOM FOREMAN: In the beginning, there was a wall, a mighty barrier built by the Founding Fathers to separate church and state, block one from meddling in the affairs of the other. In school, we are taught that's what makes our country special. But what if that wall never existed? What if it's a myth conjured up in our lifetime to mask a greater truth, that America was conceived as a Christian nation?

Michael Moore is having trouble maintaining his own hyperbole. The filmmaker who claimed in “SiCKO” that “nearly 50 million Americans” are without health insurance, has been dropping the number.

I doubt it’s because he read Business & Media Institute's expose on uninsured statistics that proves his number to be absolutely wrong.

If someone tries to say the left-wing radio shows aren't fringy, check out this exchange from Wednesday's Stephanie Miller show. Jim Ward, the show's impressionist (and a pretty good one), is mocked by the other regulars as a conspiracy theorist, but he just throws them in without comment from the others On Wednesday, he suggested Osama bin Laden is on the U.S government payroll, and Miller just rolled along with it. The context was mocking Fran Townsend as she talked about where Osama is:

MILLER: "That would have been good to, what's the word, Fran - kill him, wouldn't it? - that would have been good. If we would have - "

JIM WARD: "Except he's on the payroll."

MILLER: -smoked him out, or maybe even got him, oh, I don't know, I'm going to make an old expression, ‘dead or alive,' that would have been great if we'd done that, wouldn't it?

On Friday’s Good Morning America, reporter David Wright (pictured at right) turned a story about Senator Barack Obama’s far-left views on sex education for kindergartners into an attack piece on Republican candidate Mitt Romney. Rather than focus on the Democrat’s controversial stance, ABC cast Romney as the villain, painting the Republican as an opportunist and a flip-flopper for daring to criticize Obama’s comments.

As Wright pointed out, "Massachusetts has one of the most progressive sex education curriculums in the country. It starts during pre-school and not only requires that elementary schools teach kids the basics about sex but encourages them to teach about sexual orientation too." In a glib tone of voice Wright explained, "Of course you’d never know that from hearing Romney on the campaign trail now."

CNN congressional correspondent Joe Johns apparently couldn't resist inserting some sarcastic remarks about Republican presidential candidates Fred Thompson and Rudy Giuliani in his "Raw Politics" segment on Thursday night's "Anderson Cooper 360." [Video (1:46): Real (1.29 MB) Windows (1.09 MB) MP3 (806 kB).]

JOE JOHNS: Ever heard the phrase all about the Benjamins? In this town, when you want to monetize power, you go to K Street, lobbying, where top lobbyists make 500 bucks an hour or more. The problem is, you can end up lobbying for some politically awkward clients, like Fred Thompson did for an abortion-rights group, which takes some explaining in front of an anti-abortion audience. "The New York Times" and "Raw Politics" dug up his billing records. Mr. Conservative "Law & Order" got paid $5,000 for 20 hours of work. Heavy political baggage, a hand full of Benjamins. Hope it was worth it, Senator.

 

Original caption:

U.S. Senate Majority leader Harry Reid (D-NV) faces the media at the Capitol building in Washington July 17, 2007. U.S. Senate Democrats, hoping to raise pressure on President George W. Bush and his fellow Republicans to pull troops from Iraq, have scheduled an around-the-clock war debate starting on Tuesday which is expected to last overnight.

The Media Research Center and NewsBusters staff was saddened to learn Friday that David Thibault, Editor-in-Chief of the MRC's CNSNews.com news site, passed away this morning after a long struggle with cancer. He will be greatly missed by all those who knew him, especially his MRC family.

The text of a tribute by CNSNews.com Senior Editor Susan Jones:

David Thibault, RIP: Farewell to a Friend

"I feel great -- much better than before I got sick," wrote CNSNews.com Editor-in-Chief Dave Thibault ten months ago. "Don't worry about me being tired...I sense a miracle in the making. The power of prayer? Oh yeah, baby!"

When Dave wrote those words, he was several months into his second battle with cancer. But this time it was leukemia, and this time it wasn't the disease but the valiant efforts to cure him that killed him at age 49. Dave breathed his last at 6:55 AM, July 20, at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.

As Congress debates an expeditious and possibly capricious withdrawal of American troops from Iraq, with sickeningly predictable cheerleading for such an eventuality from the media, the Baghdad bureau chief for the New York Times claimed Tuesday that this would lead to "all-out civil war" with "levels of violence [that] would eclipse by quite a long way the bloodshed we`ve seen to date."

Appearing on PBS' "Charlie Rose," John F. Burns also said "the United States armed forces are a very important inhibitor against violence."

Rather contrary from the views expressed by the left and their media minions that the American presence in Iraq is what is responsible for the violence, wouldn't you agree?

With that in mind, here are some extraordinary highlights of this interview with a full transcript to follow (video available here, interview begins at minute 3:50). Please prepare yourself for an alternate reality:

ABC’s Good Morning America interviewed Bill Clinton on Thursday morning, and while he made the news for saying Iraq is hopeless ("There is no military victory here"), the interview was also notable as another opportunity for ABC to honor Clinton as a global statesman and ask him softball questions for almost nine minutes. Co-host Diane Sawyer reported he was in Africa to see Nelson Mandela and do his AIDS work: "And President Bill Clinton weighs in, speaking out on the war, his work to save a continent and Senator Hillary Clinton’s campaign. An exclusive interview."

When the interview began nine minutes into the show, Sawyer lauded his humanitarian foundation work again, saving hundreds of thousands of people: "And we turn now to an exclusive interview with former President Bill Clinton, who is in Johannesburg South Africa this week as part of his life’s work with his foundation which has provided life saving treatment for nearly 800,000 children and adults with AIDS in Africa and also simple solutions like fertilizer to revolutionize agricultural production."

Over the last week CNN has been airing hour-long specials to promote their upcoming YouTube presidential debates. CNN has been asking viewers to submit videos to YouTube.com for a chance to have their questions answered by presidential candidates. Of the videos aired so far, those with a leftist slant have greatly outnumbered those from a conservative viewpoint. Of the videos aired on Monday night MRC concluded that distinctly liberal video submissions outnumbered conservative ones by a margin of 8 to 1 (though a slim majority of total videos shown were neutral or non-partisan).

Video (2:07): Real (1.56 MB) or Windows (1.28 MB), plus MP3 audio (971 kB).

CNN has been particularly adamant in their use of video submissions calling for universal or socialized health care. On Wednesday night CNN recycled a video that had already aired on Monday, despite that fact that some 1,400 videos had been posted on YouTube at that point. The video was submitted by Kim of Long Island, New York who is battling cancer.