Alana Goodman's blog

In a new video out today, Sarah Palin sent a warning message to big-government liberals: "You thought pitbulls were tough? Well, you don't wanna mess with the Mama Grizzlies!"

The video, which celebrates conservative women's activism, was released this morning by Palin's political action committee, SarahPAC.

"It seems like it's kind of a mom awakening in the last year and a half," says Palin, as clips of women activists at political speeches and Tea Party rallies flash over the screen. "Where women are rising up and saying 'No -- we've had enough, already.' Because moms kind of just know when something's wrong."

Jimmy Buffett, a singer famed for his laid-back island tunes, had some harsh words for the people he claims are responsible for the BP oil spill - the administration of former President George W. Bush.

The Obama-supporting musician told the Associated Press on Tuesday that he believed the Bush administration was responsible for the crisis, due to its alleged ties to oil companies.

"To me it was more about eight years of bad policy before [Obama] got there that let this happen," said Buffett. "It was Dracula running the blood bank in terms of oil and leases."

While celebrities from Larry King to James Cameron have already lined up to offer aid to people impacted by the oil spill, Buffett says he also hopes that his sea-side concert next Sunday in Gulf Shores, Alabama will soothe people's anger over the crisis.

Apparently the "rockets' red glare" isn't "green" enough for some environmentalists.

Fourth of July fireworks displays have been deemed "ecologically hazardous" by some eco-warriors, who are urging environmentally-conscious Americans to shun the tradition.

[F]ireworks shows spray out a toxic concoction that rains down quietly into lakes, rivers and bays throughout the country," wrote the Mother Nature Network's Russell McLendon on June 30. "Many of the chemicals in fireworks are also persistent in the environment, meaning they stubbornly sit there instead of breaking down."

McLendon suggested avoiding fireworks and finding other ways to celebrate Independence Day. "The most eco-friendly alternative to fireworks is to forgo explosions altogether - go to a parade, go fishing, grill out, or help out," he wrote.

According to the writer, those stubborn traditionalists who insist on seeing "the sky festively illuminated" can always "try a laser light show" - which McLendon says is the eco-friendly - albeit, lame - way to celebrate the Fourth.

Pop-star and courageous anti-toilet-paper crusader Sheryl Crow apparently has a new political concern: Tea Partiers.

The country crooner told CBS journalist Katie Couric that Tea Party members are uneducated, angry and potentially dangerous in an interview with Glamour magazine this June.

After Crow complained in the interview that Americans have become too blasé about politics, and that nobody has taken to the streets to cause "a riot or a revolution," Couric correctly pointed to the Tea Party as an example of modern day activism.

"What do you think of the Tea Party movement? Because that is the specific sort of group of people who would say we're out there, we're getting involved in the process...," asked Couric.

"I appreciate the fact that those people are out there and that they are fired up," responded Crow, before adding that Tea Partiers "haven't educated themselves...they're just pissed off."

Liberals may like to boast of fighting the establishment and taking on the status quo, but it's conservative laws that are 30 times more likely to be deemed "controversial" - at least by the mainstream media.

In the past five years, when ABC, CBS, or NBC news reporters claimed a law was "controversial," they were most likely referring to legislation backed by the right.

This analysis looked at 110 news transcripts dating back to 2005 where the term "controversial" fell within three words of the term "law." Of these transcripts, 62 referred to policies that were clearly liberal or conservative. Of the 62 ideologically identifiable "controversial" laws, 60 were conservative and only two were liberal.

Whether it was NBC's "Today" on Jan. 2, 2008, referring to the "controversial new law in Arizona [where] businesses can be shut down if they intentionally hire illegal immigrants," or ABC's "Good Morning America" on Dec. 23, 2005, discussing the "extension of the Patriot Act just days before the controversial law was set to expire," conservative policies seemed to be more hot-button issues for the media than liberal policies.

Some Tea Party leaders are calling for conservatives to boycott MSNBC's advertisers, after the network ran a documentary on June 16 that they say unfairly slandered the movement.

Two of the Tea Party leaders interviewed in the Chris Matthews-narrated documentary are asking supporters to write, call and fax the offices of Dawn and its parent company Proctor and Gamble and request that they cease giving advertising dollars to Matthews' "Hardball" program on MSNBC. FreedomWorks chairman Dick Armey and Kitchen Table Patriots member Ana Puig jointly called the documentary a "propaganda piece" and urged Tea Party groups around the country to boycott Dawn products.

"The program ‘Rise of the New Right' was low-ball journalism at its worst," said the Kitchen Table Patriots in a statement released today. "Chris Matthews and his Hardball program slandered the Tea Party movement, and misled the American people by distorting facts about the Tea Party movement, its motivations and its history." (Videos at the bottom of post.)

ABC has pulled its ads from gossip blogger Perez Hilton's Web site, PerezHilton.com, after he caught legal flack for posting upskirt photos of 17-year-old Disney star Miley Cyrus. However, several big-name companies still have ads running on the snarky blogger's site.

Amid speculation that Hilton may be slapped with kiddie-porn charges over the lurid photos, ABC has removed its ads for "The View" from the popular gossip site. But other advertisers appear to be sticking by Hilton. TV Land still had a full-page background promotion and two smaller ads on PerezHilton.com, and Apple iTunes and Microsoft's search engine Bing still had advertisements up as of Wednesday afternoon.

The drama started Monday, when Hilton posted a link to a photo of Cyrus getting out of a car in a tight white dress - and apparently, no underwear. Outrage erupted over the photo, with some calling the image "child pornography" since Cyrus is legally a minor. Hilton quickly removed the picture, but has brushed off the incident as a "fake" controversy.

It's odd that Microsoft, which owns Bing, would opt to keep advertising. It has recently been touting its own crusade against kiddie-porn.

A speaker leads students in a creepy chant of "I am an Obama Scholar!" at Lincoln Bassett Middle School in New Haven, Connecticut. The chant is part of an educational program called the "Obama Initiative."

(h/t Cassy Fiano; video below fold):

Parents who assume the Nickelodeon website is kid-friendly should think again - its homepage links to a sister website called AddictingGames.com that features racy, sex-focused video games like "Naughty Babysitter," "Booty Rider," and "You da Sperm!"

AddictingGames.com is owned by Nickelodeon's parent company, Viacom, but can be accessed directly from the Nick.com homepage. On AddictingGames.com, the "Nickelodeon" logo is featured prominently on the upper right corner of the screen - suggesting that the site is appropriate for a young demographic.

Nick.com describes itself as "THE place for kids to play games online!" There will even be an entire show devoted to promoting an AddictingGames.com contest airing on Nickelodeon's TV station on June 19.

But with videogames starring busty, panty-clad cartoon characters, AddictingGames.com seems more suitable for the MTV crowd than Nickelodeon's gradeschool-aged fans.

 A journalist hired by The New York Times to report on a controversial mosque at 9/11's Ground Zero and the failed Christmas Day bomb plot previously held a government lobbying position at the Council on American Islamic Relations.

The Associated Press and ABC News also enlisted former CAIR workers to cover stories involving the Muslim community, raising concerns over whether it's ethical for objective media outlets to hire ex-advocacy group employees to report on the issues they previously championed.

Sharaf Mowjood, who helped pen the Islam-focused articles for The New York Times and the Times' world-affairs paper the International Herald Tribune in December of 2009, worked as a government relations coordinator for CAIR up until at least March of 2008.

Mowjood's gushing, 1,200-word article on the controversial mosque planned for construction near the former site of the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks was titled "Muslim Prayers and Renewal Near Ground Zero." All eight of the sources cited in the piece said they approved of the project or lauded its advocate Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf.

What do you do when you're a radical Hamas sympathizer who wants to wage a public relations campaign against Israel? You arm yourself with knives and attack Israel Defense Force officers who stop your boat at an Israeli maritime blockade - but don't worry, as long as you call yourself a "peace activist," the network news stations will take your word for it!

Watch the "Flotilla Choir" sing about how they conned the mainstream media into "abandoning reason" in a hilarious video put together by Caroline Glick's media satire website Latma:

Full lyrics: