via Talk Left

If you had any doubt that evangelical leader James Dobson's grand plan is to for the radical right fringe to assume the leadership of this country, here's your final clue. In a radio address about the filibuster and nuclear option, James C. Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family, described the fight as the tipping point of the Bush presidency. "Nothing good took place last November, only the potential for something good," Dr. Dobson said.

DavidNYC has more: Praying for Holy War So Dobson is huffing and puffing quite a bit, but I don't see him having much leverage left. If he doesn't get what he wants, I think he's gonna just have to suck it up. fold.

Chuch Schumer says: Schumer Urges Bush to Rein in Judge Fight Sen. Charles Schumer, a leading Democrat in the fight over judicial nominees, urged President Bush to intervene and rein in the strongest conservative critics of Democratic opposition to some candidates.

You can see from this picture that President Bush,the First lady, Dobson, and his First lady shared a few prayers together. You can be sure Dobson won't back off quietly unless he has some sort of deal in the works.

Right-wing Massachusetts Governor and potential presidential hopeful Mitt Romney is in hot water. According to the Boston Globe, Romney may have used corporate cash to pay his top consultant Mike Murphy for political work, which is illegal under the state’s campaign finance law...read on

And so the list goes on.

-# 34

Fox News Reporter (hat tip Joe)

Fox's Cavuto calls Golda Meir a Cow
In what could best be described a Friday fluff piece gone awry, Neil Cavuto mananged to insult his guest, the mother of the Israeli State, and the mother of our current president. All in a one minute time span. Neil's victim/guest was a nearly pointless Meme Roth, an advocate for "weight appropriate" mothers. Some obligatory Mother's Day nod.

Download | play -QT

Read the full diary over at Kos

O'Reilly Hemorrhaging Viewers via
Hoffmania!

TVNewser spews forth the bare facts: Bill O'Reilly has lost 1/3 of his viewers since October. Ouch.

October: 3,166,000 / November: 3,080,000 / December: 2,610,000 / January: 2,478,000 / February: 2,391,000 / March: 2,320,000 / April: 2,178,000 / May-to-date: 2,096,000

FOX and Friends

I woke up this morning really early , and Fox and Friends was on. Don't ask me how. Anyway Jim Pinkerton had the funniest defense of Paula Abdul yet.

Host:...They do have all these phone messages..

Pinkerton:"You have to remember the memo-gate stuff. CBS news spent five years making up stuff about President Bush's National Guard service, so who knows what's real."

Congressman John Conyers Jr. leads the charge to try and get answers from the White House about The secret Downing Street memo .

Download | play -Real Player only (hat tip Dave for the video)

Read the press release.

Will the White House address this issue?

Montgomery Blindsided Over Sex-Ed

Maryland's largest school system has become a battleground over what students should be taught about sex and a symbol, some supporters of the new curriculum said, of the increasing influence the conservative movement is hoping to play in public school classrooms....read on

I heard Andrew Sullivan on Bill Maher tonight and he was pretty good. What he doesn't seem to grasp is THIS is his party now. This is not some fringe group. I need some help rounding up all these battles taking place around our country. Please send me stories of the court cases and legislation being introduced. This is the religious right wing elites shot at taking over the schools, the courts, the internets, what you can see on television, what you can listen to in music, what is science, what is analyzed, what is faith, what are values, what is sex, what is violence, what is cursing, where you can pray...and so on. I watched the big FOX three tonight and they won't touch the East Waynesville Baptist church story.

-# 33

DC Media Girl

Associated Press : After being criticized for quietly dropping support for a state gay rights bill, Microsoft Corp. chief executive Steve Ballmer told employees Friday that management would publicly back such legislation in the future.
Ballmer's commitment came two weeks after activists accused the company of caving to pressure from an evangelical pastor who had threatened to launch a nationwide boycott of the software company.

''After looking at the question from all sides, I've concluded that diversity in the workplace is such an important issue for our business that it should be included in our legislative agenda,'' Ballmer wrote in an e-mail.

I have a feeling that the video we posted with Microsoft accepting the Gay and Lesbian award played a small role in their decision. Probably not...

Joe in DC says: Microsoft's switch: what's it mean? Think about it. Microsoft, the corporate behemoth that doesn't take any crap from anyone, just had to publicly admit they screwed up. That doesn't happen every day.

Grisly game theory: can you avoid torture?

Marginal Revolution

Let us say that you have been captured and threatened with torture. You are, for whatever reason, entirely willing to betray the information you hold. Your primary goal is to avoid pain, and perhaps you positively want to squeal. How should you present what you know? I see a few options:

1. Break down immediately, beg for mercy, humiliate yourself, and spill the beans. (If you talk right away, will they torture you anyway? And since no further good information can be offered why should they stop?)

2. Go in acting tough, really tough. At the first sign of serious pain, start crying and switch to strategy #1.

3. Wait until they apply their "best shot" torture, and then talk. They will feel they have done their job and stop.

4. First offer (or make up) compromising information to show your disloyalty to the cause your torturers are fighting. Your confession will then be more credible.

5. Say you don't know anything, try to fight the torture, but break down when you can't stand it any more. You can't fool them, so the best you can do is to actually "go through the wringer." You are stuck in the pooling equilibrium, and trying to deviate only makes you worse off.

Which of these is the most credible signal that you have told all you know? Can you do any better than number five? And how does your best answer depend upon the hypothesized motives of the torturers? Is there anything you can say to the U.S. to avoid being sent out for rendition? I don't see any simple answer here, the question is which behavior your torturers will interpret as an unlikely tactic from a truly determined trickster.