Tuesday, November 25, 2008

So-called "Free Press" wants to silence talk radio and Fox News


Some idiot named Josh Silver over at the ill-named FreePress is complaining about Limbaugh, Hannity and Fox News. The irony is not just that the guy works for an organization called "Free Press" but that he's the executive director and also advocates muzzling opinions that he doesn't like.

I'll submit into evidence this particularly noxious secretion:

Obama-the-candidate commented several times that voters' false views of him -- that he's a Muslim, a socialist and unpatriotic -- were fed and spread by Fox News and their cohorts like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham in the far-right media. Obama understands that they are the special sauce in Karl Rove's toxic recipe to discredit progressive policies and politicians, and divide Americans with wedge issues.

...The Washington Post ombudsman and others claim that the media was too kind to Obama and hard on John McCain. This superficial analysis is both wrong and misleading. Wrong because you had a candidate that was forcefully embracing the policies of George W. Bush while the nation spiraled into one of its darkest moments in its history. The idea that the press should not exert sharp criticism of such a candidate reflects the kind of tepid pandering that has become the hallmark of mainstream corporate media.

Get it? The press was right to "exert sharp criticism" of McSame, but Limbaugh and his ilk are tools of Rove who have no right to speak out because they "divide Americans"! Glad we're clear on that!

Take a walk through rural Ohio as I did this Election Day, and working-class voters are watching Fox, reading empty newspapers running on a bare-bones staff, and listening to radio's right-wing hate-fest... Dramatically increasing funding for public media: for PBS and NPR, as well as community radio and television, and other noncommercial outlets. This includes policies that better protect public media from undue political pressures.

Translated: these Ohio crackers are too stupid to pick the right channels... so let's instead enforce "local programming" content rules so that "community organizers" and liberal, government-funded public radio are the only choices.

Tell you what, Joshie: I'll back your proposal when there are an equal number of conservative voices on NPR morning, noon and night.

As an aside, I do like Tim Karr (also of FreePress) and support the net neutrality aims of SaveTheInternet.com. But I can't tolerate a guy like Silver who claims to espouse freedom of expression on the one hand while he aims to shut down a tiny trickle of conservative opinion on the other.

Go pound sand, Silver. Or should I just call you Josh Hitler, what with your totalitarian goals and all?

Just say no: tell the EPA Carbon Dioxide ain't a pollutant


The time for public comment regarding the EPA's proposed carbon emissions regulations is drawing to a close. Friday, December 28th marks the end of the comment period and it's imperative that you, your friends and family tell the EPA no to more regulatory regimes that are categorically insane.

In a spate of sheer lunacy, the EPA is proposing immense new regulations aimed at suppressing carbon dioxide. You know, the gas that we exhale and that plants inhale. The key to photosynthesis. And the gas that humans are responsible for -- at the very high end of the most liberal estimate -- 3% globally.

The EPA wants to label Carbon Dioxide a pollutant. Visit http://stopEPA.com and send the EPA a message.

That is, unless you want to slap huge taxes on energy, kill hundreds of thousands of more jobs, and expend billions in taxpayer dough fighting a non-existent threat called "global warming" (I thought they were calling it "climate change", by the way, since we just had one of the coldest snaps in history).

Related Reading:

Linked by: Ace o' Spades and Fausta. Thanks! Hat tips: STACLU and Larwyn.

Monday, November 24, 2008

Diamond in the rough


Back in the seventies, when I was a kid, my Dad used to take my brother and I on baseball trips. We would visit Cincinnati, the closest big league city to our tiny town. It was about a three hour drive, but worth every minute.

At that time the Reds were the dominant team, as powerful as any club that ever donned uniforms. The Big Red Machine, as they were known, won a couple of World Championships in a row including a sweep of Billy Martin's Yankees in '76. The '75 team had a streak where they went 41 and 9, which could be the best 50 game record in history.

If time permitted, we'd take side-trips to baseball shows. Now, back in the seventies, the baseball show business wasn't nearly the production it is today. In those days a bunch of card-sellers would rent out a Holiday Inn banquet room, set up some tables, and sell whatever memorabilia they could get their hands on. There weren't any celebrities or former athletes at these venues. It was just for collectors and, at that, mostly card collectors.

My brother and I were paper boys at the time and and we took the 30 or 40 bucks we'd saved up to find some gems. Because the good cards were too expensive for us -- even then a nice Mantle card probably cost a hundred bucks -- we'd find other stuff to buy.

For that reason we gravitated toward baseball books. The old Who's Who in Baseball, which listed all of the active players each year. The Baseball Record Books, published by the Sporting News. And the (now) humorously named Baseball Dope Books, which had all sorts of information on every club in professional baseball, even the minor leagues.

In those days I might spend as much as seven bucks on a book, although that was rare. I think one of my seven dollar purchases went to secure a 1934 Record Book, a tiny little pocket-sized thing in excellent condition.

I also found some interesting old books from the early twentieth century like the Baseball Cyclopedia (the first encyclopedia of baseball, supposedly). The oldest one of those I have is from 1909.


Hall-of-Famer Joe Medwick

Anyhow, we found the gem of all gems in maybe '73. My Dad liked the old Who's Who editions from the thirties and forties. If I recall, he needed a 1937 to round out his collection. We finally located one at a show held at the Holiday Inn in Sharonville, Ohio. I think I actually found it. It was crammed into a pile of musty programs, scorecards, guides and such in a godforsaken corner of the "show".


Hall-of-Famer Gabby Hartnett

My Dad offered three bucks for it. The dealer asked for seven. He said that if you opened up the book to the first -- inside cover -- page, there were a couple of no-name autographs in it. Sure enough, a couple of guys I'd never heard of had scrawled their names on the inside cover. I think they finally settled on five bucks and we threw the book into a bag with the rest of our purchases.


World Series Hero Pepper Martin

At some point later we were lolling around the hotel room, my Dad snoring with his fingers laced and the TV droning. I grabbed the '37 Who's Who and started flipping through the pages.


Hall-of-Famer Carl "The Meal Ticket" Hubbell

Hey, there was another autograph on one of the inside pages. And another! Then a couple of more. Three and four on some pages. They were scattered throughout the book like pebbles kicked onto a sidewalk. In random places with Hall of Famers and scrubs alike.


Hall-of-Famer Joe Cronin

All told there were roughly 110 autographs including a couple that are, to this day, unrecognizable.

Near as we could tell, the book was owned by a kid -- we think in Chicago -- who took it to a bunch of home games. He would stand by the visitor dugout and yell for autographs before the game. Players and managers alike would oblige, sometimes in the right place (over their picture), sometimes anywhere in the book.

It's a veritable treasure trove of National League autographs from that era.

What's it worth? No idea, but the story is priceless.


Hall-of-Famer Mickey Cochrane

My Dad's bringing the book into town for his visit this Thanksgiving and we'll check it out, reminisce and then toss it into the fireplace, kinda like Rose throwing the Heart of the Ocean away in Titanic.

Just kidding. We won't be throwing it into the fireplace. It's a keeper.

I've included some crappy scans that were faxed to me a while back. When my Dad comes up I'll try to get some better copies. In the meantime, imagine the musty smell and the joy of a little kid finding a book with history literally etched into its yellowing pages.

A typed list of autographs found in the book



And then the fight started


Papa B sent this one in.

My wife sat down on the couch next to me as I was flipping channels. She asked, 'What's on TV?'

I said, 'Dust.'

And then the fight started.



My wife was hinting about what she wanted for our upcoming anniversary. She said, 'I want something shiny that goes from 0 to 150 in about 3 seconds..'

I bought her a scale.

And then the fight started.



When I got home last night, my wife demanded that I take her someplace expensive.

So, I took her to a gas station.

And then the fight started.



After retiring, I went to the Social Security office to apply for Social Security. The woman behind the counter asked me for my driver's license to verify my age. I looked in my pockets and realized I had left my wallet at home.

I told the woman that I was very sorry, but I would have to go home and come back later.

The woman said, 'Unbutton your shirt'. So I opened my shirt revealing my curly silver hair.

She said, 'That silver hair on your chest is proof enough for me' and she processed my Social Security application.

When I got home, I excitedly told my wife about my experience at the Social Security office.

She said, 'you should have dropped your pants. You might have gotten disability, too.'

And then the fight started.



My wife and I were sitting at a table at my high school reunion, and I kept staring at a drunken lady swigging her drink as she sat alone at a nearby table.

My wife asked, 'Do you know her?'

'Yes,' I sighed, 'She's my old girlfriend. I understand she took to drinking right after we split up those many years ago, and I hear she hasn't been sober since.'

'My God!' says my wife, 'who would think a person could go on celebrating that long?'

And then the fight started.



I rear-ended a car this morning. So, there we were alongside the road and slowly the other driver got out of his car. You know how sometimes you just get soooo stressed and little things just seem funny?

Yeah, well I couldn't believe it... he was a DWARF!!!

He stormed over to my car, looked up at me, and shouted, 'I AM NOT HAPPY!'

So, I looked down at him and said, 'Well, then which one are you?'

And then the fight started.

Well, no one ever said Papa B was politically correct.

Amazing true animal story


Bernie says this is a true story.

In 1986, Peter Davies was on holiday in Kenya after graduating from Northwestern University .

On a hike through the bush, he came across a young bull elephant standing with one leg raised in the air. The elephant seemed distressed, so Peter approached it very carefully. He got down on one knee, inspected the elephants foot, and found a large piece of wood deeply embedded in it. As carefully and as gently as he could, Peter worked the wood out with his knife, after which the elephant gingerly put down its foot.

The elephant turned to face the man, and with a rather curious look on its face, stared at him for several tense moments. Peter stood frozen, thinking of nothing else but being trampled.

Eventually the elephant trumpeted loudly, turned, and walked away. Peter never forgot that elephant or the events of that day.

Twenty years later, Peter was walking through the Chicago Zoo with his teenage son. As they approached the elephant enclosure, one of the creatures turned and walked over to near where Peter and his son Cameron were standing. The large bull elephant stared at Peter, lifted its front foot off the ground, then put it down. The elephant did that several times then trumpeted loudly, all the while staring at the man.

Remembering the encounter in 1986, Peter could not help wondering if this was the same elephant. Peter summoned up his courage, climbed over the railing, and made his way into the enclosure. He walked right up to the elephant and stared back in wonder.

The elephant trumpeted again, wrapped its trunk around one of Peter legs and slammed him against the railing, killing him instantly.

Probably wasn't the same elephant.

I think Bernie was lying.

Line o' the Day: Surbian Wisdom


Don Surber's the winner for this snippy closer from Still in bed with Barack (hat tip: Larwyn):

Reading the New York Times is like reading Obama's campaign web site.

Except without the faux presidential logos.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Red Alert: Confidential witness ready to blow up Clinton and Holder confirmations with dirt on the Marc Rich pardon!


Well, this could certainly start the confirmation hearings off with a bang! Doug C. alerts us to an interesting development in the case of Eric Holder, prospective Attorney General.

I received today via email, the scan of a sworn declaration from a confidential witness. The hard copy will be in my possession in a few days. Neither the name nor sex of the witness will be revealed at this time. The witness is prepared to testify and should testify in the confirmation hearings of Hillary Clinton and Eric Holder.



A statement by the witness will be on YouTube in a few days with a voice that is disguised. The witness is willing to submit to a polygraph.

Senator Arlen Specter has indicated that confirmation hearings will involve a serious look at the pardon of Marc Rich. Denise Rich and several others who may have knowledge of the pardon fund must be called to testify.

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune offers the 60-second recap for those unfamiliar with Bill Clinton's egregious abuse of the Presidential pardon.

...Holder was No. 2 at the Justice Department when President Bill Clinton pardoned fugitive financier Marc Rich, whose ex-wife was a major Clinton contributor. Although Mr. Holder oversaw the lawyers responsible for evaluating pardon requests, he did not insist that his department formally evaluate the legal merits of the claim after Mr. Rich applied directly to the White House for his pardon. He told the White House on President Clinton's last night in office that he was "neutral, leaning toward favorable" on the pardon. Mr. Holder has since said he would have opposed the pardon had he had more information.

Mr. Holder testified before Congress in 2001 about the Rich affair. But Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., was right to say that, if nominated, Mr. Holder must be questioned again about his failure to block that unconscionable pardon. Ultimately, the call was President Clinton's, but why did Mr. Holder not object to the pardon of a fugitive millionaire politically connected to the president? ...

Gee, I wonder.

The declarant asserts that Denise Rich established a $225 million fund in order to facilitate (purchase?) a Bill Clinton pardon for her ex-husband.

Pass the popcorn, Nahanni.

Related: Counterpunch: Bill Clinton and the Rich Women -- Fixers Indicated That Hillary Was a Key Player in the Marc Rich Pardon Deal; WSJ: The Clintons' Terror Pardons; Gateway Pundit: Eric Holder defended the FALN Terrorist Pardons. Linked by: Gateway Pundit, STACLU, D equals S and Dogfight at Bankstown. Thanks!

Bail out the UAW for the bargain price of only $500 billion!


The average American worker makes $25 an hour in wages and benefits or roughly $45K per year.

The average American worker employed by Honda, Nissan and Toyota makes $45 an hour in wages and benefits, which translates to $80K a year.

But each UAW worker earns $75 an hour in wages and benefits, or roughly $130K a year.

Health care costs are far higher for GM, Ford and Chrysler than for other companies. For example, full medical, hospital, surgical, and prescription drug coverage (including even Lasik eye surgery) costs GM workers and retirees $10 a month ($21 a month for families).

The UAW's platinum health benefits add $1,200 to the cost of each GM, Ford and Chrysler vehicle produced in the U.S.

Japanese automakers, however, provide standard health benefits to American workers, which cost approximately $215 per vehicle.

Thus, every vehicle made in Detroit carries a $700 to $1,000 UAW healthcare tax for benefits far, far beyond what most Americans receive.

Other benefits include 7 weeks of paid vacation for tenured workers.

And when a plant closes, UAW workers are not laid off. Once they exhaust unemployment benefits, they are transferred to company-funded "Jobs Banks" and paid 95% of normal wages not to work.

To make matters worse, the three automakers must also come up with $60 billion in cash by 2010 to fund a revamped healthcare program that will be managed by -- wait for it -- the UAW.

Given that the three Detroit automakers are essentially penniless, it's certain that any bailout won't stop with $25 or even $50 billion. You can be absolutely sure that taxpayers will be stuck with the entire $60 billion UAW healthcare bill, which will provide medical benefits far richer than those provided by the woefully underfunded Medicare program.

In 2006 the Harbour Report -- a benchmarking study comparing domestic auto manufacturers with their foreign counterparts -- estimated that GM lost $2,500 on every vehicle sold in the U.S..

I don't care if Washington redistributes $500 billion of the taxpayers money and "gives" it to the auto companies.

It won't work. These companies are fundamentally broken. The only answer is bankruptcy and reorganization. Any other approach simply delays the inevitable and wastes hard-earned taxpayer dollars.

Source: Auto Bailout Ignores Excessive Labor Costs by James Sherk.

Linked by: Memeorandum. Thanks!

Finally! A comic book hero for Pres. Obama's 'Age of Plenty'





Related: Hank Paulson's DNA.

For auto buyers, credit crunch has a silver lining


Eric Dash at the Times describes the upside of tight economic times for car buyers. By the way, you may want to hurry and read the article before Pinch folds his cards.

...for consumers, the credit crunch may have a silver lining.

“Dealerships are desperate to sell cars,” said William Ryan, who follows the auto finance industry for Portales Partners, an independent research firm in Manhattan. “The reality is, you are probably going to get a pretty good deal if you can afford it. There is a lot of heavy discounting going on.”

On average, automakers are doling out incentives worth more than $2,675, up 23 percent from a year ago, according to the auto information site Edmunds.com (which lists rebates on its site). Some dealers are discounting S.U.V.’s by more than $10,000.

...“It’s a buyer’s market right now,” said Adam J. Renie, sales manager at Gray Auto, an independent used-car dealership in Greenfield, Ind. “Anybody who is an able buyer, you are making sure they end up in your vehicle.”

Dash offers a good overview of financing choices and ways to minimize the costs associated with a purchase.

Larwyn's Link Kerplosion: Vanishing Sunspots


The American Thinker's Gregory Young: Global Warming? Bring it on!: The argument propounded by the dubious United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report on Anthropogenic (human-induced) Global Warming (AGW) is willfully fraudulent. The report has been vigorously and critically undermined, scientifically denounced and found wanting from both notable scientists here and abroad...

Mark Steyn: Stop them before they kill again!

Ace of Spades: Heroic Climate Scientist Saves Ice-Trapped Whales With Statistics: The sea was angry that day... Lulled into a false sense of safety by global warming alarmists, over 200 narwhal whales were smugly lounging in the Jacuzzi-like waters of the remote Canadian Arctic. Vanquished by the carbon habits of man, the Arctic ice made an unfortunately ill-timed return...

Fausta: GM to invest one billion dollars of bailout money... in Brazil.

Jammie: 'It Was Extreme Bias, Extreme Pro-Obama Coverage': Media bias was more intense in the 2008 election than in any other national campaign in recent history, Time magazine's Mark Halperin said Friday... "It's the most disgusting failure of people in our business since the Iraq war," Halperin said at a panel of media analysts. "It was extreme bias, extreme pro-Obama coverage."

Daily Galaxy: The Vanishing Sunspot Mystery: What Does it Mean for Earth's Climate?: Dark spots, some as large as 50,000 miles in diameter, typically move across the surface of the sun, contracting and expanding as they go. These strange and powerful phenomena are known as sunspots, but now they are all gone. Not even solar physicists know why it’s happening and what this odd solar silence might be indicating for our future. The last time this happened was 400 years ago -- and it signaled a solar event known as a "Maunder Minimum," along with the start of what we now call the "Little Ice Age."...

Breitbart: Nude phone pics lost at McDonald's: If you have nude photos of your wife on your cell phone, hang onto it... Phillip Sherman of Arkansas learned that lesson after he left his phone behind at a McDonald's restaurant and the photos ended up online. Now he and his wife, Tina, are suing the McDonald's Corp., the franchise owner and the store manager... The suit was filed Friday and seeks a jury trial and $3 million in damages for suffering, embarrassment and the cost of having to move to a new home...

Thomas Lifson: Would you protest a statue in Central Park honoring Adolf Eichmann?

John J. Miller: Obama's kids get their own school vouchers.

Media Fairness: The Ultimate Oxymoron.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Vid o' the day: Kimmel surveys the barbershop


Jimmy Kimmel vets late night Obama jokes.

"Can I make jokes about him appointing Dr. Dre a certain General?"

Innovative new breakthrough created with help from the Best! Congress! Ever!


Add it all up: ACORN... plus the Community Reinvestment Act... plus subprime mortgages subsidized and packaged by Fannie and Freddie... plus "Friends of Angelo" loan deals to Christopher Dodd equals...

The amazing, new Midnight Gardener!

Find security and peace of mind in an unstable economy... Please consider the safety of your lifestyle, security of your assets in the event of a bank failure or even worse if the FDIC is unable to cover all the claims. Safe deposit boxes do not have 24 hours access to your money. The Stock Market, CDs and Money Markets may be at risk. Please use due diligence with all your investments. And remember- investing in gold has been "The Gold Standard" for thousands of years...

This amazing watertight tube has a 12" x 4" interior dimension. In this photo, it holds over $4000 in gold, silver and paper money and has an enormous amount of space remaining. Using a conservative estimate, we believe that $192,000 in gold coins will easily fit... This product is made with high quality plastic resin to maintain superior impact and load resistance. Our product is engineered to withstand the most extreme outdoor environments.


Need to bury valuables in the backyard, what with WaMu and Lehman falling to pieces? Worried about your safe-deposit box getting seized by the authorities? Well, friends, the Midnight Gardener can help! Act now, PayPal operators are standing by... patiently awaiting your call!

Now that I think about it, there's a much better name for the product.

The Frank-n-Dodd 9000.

Line o' the Day: Dave's not here


Bob Woodward, opining on Obama's pick as Secretary of State, is today's weiner.

Being president is about control, and tell me who ever controlled Bill or Hillary Clinton. They can't control each other...

I think people are ... smoking something if they think Joe Biden's going to call Hillary Clinton up and say, 'This is what we want you to do.'

Let's hope the President-Elect's transition team isn't passing the kutchie on the left-hand side.

Hat tip for the lingo: WickedPinto.

A brief postscript to this week's Wisdom of Crowds post


A quick followup to Barack Obama and the Wisdom of Crowds:

Using Intrade's US Election 2008 Tool and Yahoo! Finance Interactive Charts, we can track the daily prices for Obama versus McCain as well as the daily closing prices of the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA).

Date   Intrade Futures   DJIA
09/21 50.8 to 48.0 Obama 11388 Sunday
09/22 52.0 to 46.8 Obama 11015
09/23 52.7 to 47.2 Obama 10854
09/24 55.3 to 44.5 Obama 10825 Obama rises from 51 to 55, market drops 550
09/25 55.8 to 43.8 Obama 11022
09/26 56.3 to 43.6 Obama 11143
09/27 56.4 to 42.6 Obama 11143 Saturday
09/28 57.0 to 41.7 Obama 11143 Sunday
09/29 61.0 to 38.1 Obama 10365 Obama rises from 55 to 61, market drops 450
...
10/10 79.0 to 21.5 Obama 8451 Obama rises from 61 to 79, market drops 850

Some commenters posit that the market drop caused Obama's chances to increase. I assert that the opposite actually happened.

Consider that on June 5, the market stood at 12,604. Despite a 1,200 point drop over the summer, Obama and McCain's election chances were virtually even into late September. But once Obama began to truly separate himself from McCain, the market responded with a precipitous drop.

Related: Barack Obama and the Wisdom of Crowds.

Start your day off right with a New York Times investors digest!


Here's something to start your day off right: all of the news at our beloved New York Times is bad news.

On a day the market surged nearly 500 points (or 6.5%) the Times shed 7.7% of its already dramatically reduced value.

And the five-year NYT stock chart looks like something only a cliff-diver would love.

The Wall Street Journal is aggressively pursuing the Times' advertisers; the Times was forced to reduce its dividend, and the only son of publisher Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. was just recalled from his Portland, OR reporting job.

I give 'em three to six months before we get the inevitable "we're exploring all options" line.

Ahhh... doesn't that feel better?

Friday, November 21, 2008

BlackBerry Storm: The reviews are in


Fortune has the recap.

Verizon turned off the WiFi, so I'll have to take a pass.

Rewind seven years...


On 9/12/2001 if someone had told you that by the end of 2008:

• There'd have been nary a single terrorist attack inside the U.S...

• A man with the middle name of Hussein would have been elected President of the United States...

• Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would be bankrupt; and Citibank would be trading at $3 a share...

• An undersea earthquake would kill nearly a quarter of a million people...

• The Clinton administration would be back in power...

• The Saudi Arabian Navy would have joined forces with NATO...

• The entire planet would be suffering through a catastrophic cooling cycle...

• An SNL comedian would be just a few dead voters away from winning a U.S. Senate seat...

• Saddam Hussein would have been hung by the neck until dead by a new and Democratic Iraqi government...

• The New York Times would be both a laughingstock and a penny stock...

• Gas prices would have swung from $5 a gallon to $1.50 in just a handful of months...

Well, if someone had told you all of that, you'd seriously have that person committed. Seriously.

Well, this proves at least one point.

Science fiction ain't s**t.

One Minute Action News Headlines


SOMALI PIRATES TO BUY CITIGROUP (SeekingAlpha)

THE LEAKS WILL FLOW LIKE WINE (Hillary will accept Secretary of State post -- Ace o' Spades)

THE PET ROCK PRESIDENCY (Strata-Sphere)

AS INDIVIDUAL AS THE MAN WHO DRIVES IT -- The PELOSI GTxi SS/Rt Sport Edition from Congressional Motors (Iowahawk)

ADVISERS LOWERING EXPECTATIONS FOR PRESIDENT-IN-TRAINING (Jammie Wearing Fool)

CREATIVE DESTRUCTION -- the UAW as buggywhip (Denny)

GATEWAY PUNDIT: AS MANLY AS A SEWING BLOG (Gateway Pundit - but this site got a 91%, b***hes)

Some call it Fascism


Goebbels was in favour of free speech for views he liked. So was Stalin. If you’re in favour of free speech, then you’re in favour of freedom of speech precisely for views you despise.” — Noam Chomsky, in 1992, writing in Manufacturing Consent

Courtesy of Memeorandum I took a quick stroll over to the left side of the blogosphere this morning. I observed the leftoid pundits in full Atlantean regalia as Marin Cogan mocked conservative talk radio's concern over the ill-named "Fairness Doctrine".

Democrats may scratch their heads over why this has lately become a right-wing obsession, but the paranoia is not without precedent. The prospect of being in the opposition often brings out the worst in conservatives--paranoia and self-pity. Plus, when the conservative coalition seems threatened, there's no better way to unify the party than scaring up liberal bogeymen.

Following Cogan's lead, the echo chamber -- asserting unfounded wingnut paranoia -- popped heads up like a choral version of Whack-a-Mole.

Taylor Marsh, Human Events, PoliGazette, Midwest Voices, The Heretik, Newshoggers.com, Washington Monthly, Lawyers, Guns and Money, Matthew Yglesias and The Anonymous Liberal all joined in the fun.

Their diminution notwithstanding, certain facts are clear.

• On 11/4/08 Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) likened conservative talk radio to pornography stating, "I think we should all be fair and balanced, don’t you? ...The very same people who don’t want the Fairness Doctrine want the FCC [Federal Communications Commission] to limit pornography on the air. I am for that… But you can’t say government hands off in one area to a commercial enterprise but you are allowed to intervene in another..."

• In 2007 Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) told The Hill, "It’s time to reinstitute the Fairness Doctrine. I have this old-fashioned attitude that when Americans hear both sides of the story, they’re in a better position to make a decision."

• Also in 2007 Senate Rules Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) said, "I believe very strongly that the airwaves are public and people use these airwaves for profit. But there is a responsibility to see that both sides and not just one side of the big public questions of debate of the day are aired and are aired with some modicum of fairness."

• Louise Slaughter (D-NY) has fought for reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine for two decades. On PBS in 2004 she told Bill Moyers, "[Rush Limbaugh is] [d]ominating America and a waste of good broadcast time and a waste of our airwaves."

Furthermore, even in the event that the push for the Fairness Doctrine fails, Cogan neglects to mention other, more serious attacks on talk radio. The attacks, disguised as ownership diversity, "local control" of content and/or ownership caps, suborn the free market radio broadcasting landscape with social engineering.

You know, the kind of social engineering that worked so well with the Community Reinvestment Act, subprime mortgages and Fannie Mae.

In New York City there are currently 61 radio stations ranging from Air America to Zen Radio. Radio is simply a marketplace of ideas and one in which the ideas of the left have, for the most part, failed miserably to resonate with listeners.

The leftists behind this sort of censorship can call it "fairness", "ownership diversity", "local control", what have you.

I just call it fascism. Because that's what it is.