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Coming on the heels of last weekend's arrests of a group of a militiamen in the Midwest for plotting to kill law-enforcement officers, you'd think people in positions of responsibility would take seriously some of the rising threats from right-wing extremists. And, judging from the story in the Washington Post, it would seem at least the FBI is:

The FBI is warning police across the country that an anti-government group's call to remove governors from office could provoke violence.

The group called the Guardians of the free Republics wants to "restore America" by peacefully dismantling parts of the government, according to its Web site. It sent letters to governors demanding they leave office or be removed.

Investigators do not see threats of violence in the group's message, but fear the broad call for removal of top state officials could lead others to act out violently. At least two states beefed up security in response.

But over in the FoxNewsiverse -- which operates on separate plane in which everything up is down -- it's not really a big deal. Just about the only discussion of the story on Fox yesterday came in the "All Star Panel" section of Special Report with Bret Baier, and it mostly elicited a big yawn.

Stephen Hayes of the Weekly Standard didn't really know what to make of it, but at least there seemed to be some agreement that even if these were just "kooky people," sometimes "kooky people" can inflict serious harm. Except for Charles Krauthammer, who thought it was all a non-story -- because, of course, activity by right-wing extremists is always a non-story to conservatives:

Krauthammer: Oh, come on. I get e-mails like that every week, and I don't even hold any office. And they don't always include the legally remove you, either.

... And lastly, loony anarchists aren't new in America. We've had 'em since Sacco and Vanzetti. It didn't start with health care reform.

Except, Charles, that these aren't anarchists. These people call themselves "constitutionalists". Just like your Fox colleague, Glenn Beck.

And yes, they've been known to blow stuff up, too.

As Lee Fang at Think Progress explains, the group making the threats is in fact a classic right-wing extremist organization:

Continue reading »

Oh Jeez. If I had known you could do this, I would have had Jamie, our tech god, set up a page for me. My needs are pretty basic; I don't want or need a $150,000 car:

While Glenn Beck has meet with former Presidents, had dinners with Governors and played with dolls at a Super Bowl party - there is one thing he's never done, he's never been the owner of a a Mercedes S600. Now is your chance to real make a difference in someone's life.

One dollar at a time the Glenn Beck Program is working to fund the Glenn Beck New Car Fund. This event will not be funded by any corporations. This event will not be funded by radio stations. This event will be funded by YOU. Please, send $1 dollar only per each person in your home. We will not accept donations in excess of $1 per person in your home. Our goal is $147,625.

O.M.F.G. Does anyone think he was able to find 150,000 saps willing to buy the man the top of the line Mercedes he had the hubris to demand?

Wonder how all those idiots feel now that they funded this welfare queen with an estimated annual income of $23 million. Apparently, the "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" lesson is for others.

Curiouser and curiouser:

The whereabouts of Gov. Mark Sanford was unknown for nearly four days, and some state leaders question who was in charge of the executive office.[..]

Neither the governor’s office nor the State Law Enforcement Division, which provides security for governors, had been able to reach Sanford after he left the mansion Thursday in a black SLED Suburban SUV, said Sen. Jake Knotts and three others familiar with the situation but declined to be identified.

Sanford’s last known whereabouts had been near Atlanta because a mobile telephone tower picked up a signal from his phone, authorities said. His office now knows where he is, Adams said.

First lady Jenny Sanford told The Associated Press earlier Monday her husband has been gone for several days and she did not know where.

She said she was not concerned.

The governor’s state and personal phones had been turned off and he had not responded to phone or text messages since at least the weekend, a source familiar with the situation said.

Most mobile phones cannot be tracked if they are turned off.

Jenny Sanford said the governor said he needed time away from their children to write something.

The governor’s office issued a statement Monday afternoon: "Gov. Sanford is taking some time away from the office this week to recharge after the stimulus battle and the legislative session, and to work on a couple of projects that have fallen by the wayside. We are not going to discuss the specifics of his travel arrangements or his security arrangements."

One official familiar with the situation said there was no indication that foul play might have been involved because Sanford occasionally makes trips without his security detail.

Knotts, a longtime Sanford critic, said he contacted SLED Chief Reggie Lloyd Saturday after he heard reports the governor could not be reached.

"Chief Lloyd confirmed that my information is legitimate," Knotts said. "He shared my concerns" about succession of power in Sanford’s absence, the Lexington Republican said. Lloyd could not be reached immediately on Monday.

"I was recently made aware that Governor Sanford has frequently been eluding SLED agents and disappearing at odd times," Knotts said. Previously, Sanford has not been out of all contact - including with his own office - for this long before, a source, who insisted on anonymity, said.

Allegedly, Sanford has been located, or at least his whereabouts are known, but the story generally leaves more questions than answers.

(P)ulling a disappearing act like this -- whatever the reason -- is a decidedly odd move for someone who is seen as a likely presidential candidate in 2012.

Sanford prides himself on his willingness to do things differently in politics -- he spent the last seven years clashing with a Republican-led legislature -- and his iconoclast image is part of his appeal to voters.

But, disappearing for days on end is odd behavior even for Sanford.

This press conference is really kinda painful to watch in a squirm-inducing way. Kinda like a reality show where Republican celebrities get root canal work.

It seems that the long-suffering public aren't the only ones who want Sarah Palin to pack up and go home and fade nicely and quietly back into the obscurity she deserves: So are her fellow Republican governors.

When asked if Palin was the best choice McCain could have made for a running mate, no one jumped to answer.

Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, who started the race in former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's corner but later worked for McCain, chimed in: "What happened here is the party and John dropped Sarah into the ninth inning of the World Series three runs down."

Crist initially demurred when asked separately if Palin was a legitimate future possibility for the White House.

"I think that's up to her to decide. It's a little early," Crist laughed.

And apparently they really hated being used as props for Palin's press conference yesterday:

One called it awkward: “I’m sure you could see it on some of our faces.”

Another Republican governor eyeing a presidential run in 2012 told CNN the event was “odd” and “weird,” and said it “unfortunately sent a message that she was the de facto leader of the party."

There has been palpable tension among some GOP governors gathered in Miami that Palin has been sucking up all the media oxygen.

I know the timer is running out on Palin's little fame bubble. But as long as flaming-red Republicans (76 percent of them) want her up there, she's going to be the face of the party. And the guys who think they should be the face of the GOP are already getting out the long knives.

It's like dropping a big flopping goldfish into a roomful of cats. Pass the popcorn, wouldja? Just don't make me watch any more Palin pressers ...

image from here

Talk To Action:

Every year, there are controversies over the "National Day of Prayer," which has somehow become the exclusive province of the Dobson empire. This year it is being held on May first -- and the fireworks have already started. But lest you think that this is an obscure bit of Bush administration taxpayer financed pandering -- note that even Democratic governors in blue states -- such as the Democratic governor of my state, Massachussetts, Deval Patrick -- are issuing proclamations as drafted by Focus on the Family.

The problem, of course, is much larger than a single day of pandering by politicians to the Religious Right. Mother Jones points out there are even efforts to exclude non-Christians from the National Day of Prayer!

And our President thinks of the Constitution as providing an "important bridge between church and state." Um, Mister President? Thomas Jefferson said it was a wall, not a bridge, and as an architect of both Monticello and the nation, he ought to know the difference.

As First Freedom First co-director Barry Lynn points out in this video, the Religious Right and their battle against church-state separation impacts Americans in their everyday lives. More of this program is available here. (h/t Progressive Media):

The Gavel:

The House [debated] the override of the President’s veto of the revised bipartisan SCHIP (State Children’s Health Insurance Program) bill. The President’s veto on December 12 denied health care to children of hardworking families across America just as the country began experiencing an economic downturn, with families increasingly struggling with the costs of heat, food, gas and health care.

Unfortunately, the House Republicans sustained Bush's veto, by narrowly denying the two-thirds necessary to override the veto: 260 in favor of passage versus 152 against, despite the veto-proof margin in the Senate, meaning 42 Republicans voted with the Democrats. Rep. Charlie Rangel:

“I stand in support of overriding the President’s veto, not for the reasons given by Chairman Dingell — that it’s the right and moral position — because that has existed all of the time and yet we’ve been unsuccessful. But I would say to the gentleman from Texas that since the last time this has come up, the President has admitted we are going toward a recession and that economy may be jeopardized unless the Congress supported a stimulus package. It would just seem to me that if it’s recognized that our states are going to go into deficit, our governors are going to have serious problems, and that it is very possible if not likely that services for our kids will be further cut under Medicaid, it would seem to me that a legitimate argument could be made that by providing care for these 11 million children it allows the parents to know that they’ll be able to be more productive knowing that their kids are covered by health insurance. It’s sad that the poor now have to be used merely as a vehicle to stimulate our economy but had we taken care of these people… perhaps we’d be not going through this struggle. So it occurs to me that this is another opportunity that the minority would have, not just to do the moral thing but to do the economic thing, and to be of some assistance to the governors who are screaming out for the continuation of this program, indeed the expansion of it.”

Not only has the Bush White House strongly resisted a bipartisan congressional effort to expand the Children’s Health Insurance Plan to include 4 million uninsured American children, now our “compassionate conservative” president is forcing states to limit access for kids, too.

The Bush administration, continuing its fight to stop states from expanding the popular Children’s Health Insurance Program, has adopted new standards that would make it much more difficult for New York, California and others to extend coverage to children in middle-income families. [...]

After learning of the new policy, some state officials said yesterday that it could cripple their efforts to cover more children and would impose standards that could not be met.

“We are horrified at the new federal policy,” said Ann Clemency Kohler, deputy commissioner of human services in New Jersey. “It will cause havoc with our program and could jeopardize coverage for thousands of children.”

Apparently, that doesn’t matter. For Bush, it doesn’t matter that more U.S. children would go without healthcare; it doesn’t even matter that this latest effort would impose burdensome regulations from the federal government on states (some of which are run by Republican governors) who want to do more on their own to expand healthcare access. What matters is Bush’s philosophical resistance to a popular government program that offers uninsured children a chance.

Apparently, when you’re a failed, lame-duck president with a Nixon-like approval rating, rigid ideology is all you have left.

The Blotter:

Al Hurra television, the U.S. government's $63 million-a-year effort at public diplomacy broadcasting in the Middle East, is run by executives and officials who cannot speak Arabic, according to a senior official who oversees the program.

That might explain why critics say the service has recently been caught broadcasting terrorist messages, including an hour-long tirade on the importance of anti-Jewish violence, among other questionable pieces.

Facing tough questions before a congressional panel last week, Broadcasting Board of Governors member Joaquin Blaya admitted none of the senior news managers at the network spoke Arabic when the terrorist messages made it onto the air courtesy of U.S. taxpayer funds. Nor did Blaya himself or any of the other officials at the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees the network.

Is Kate O'Beirne's husband still in charge of hiring people? The sheer incompetence is mind boggling...OK, here's the White House on Blaya. I wonder how many people working at Al Hurra are from Regent and Liberty Universities...NPR has more on Larry Register...And more info on the network...

Turns out you need to make a "formal request" in order to get federal relief aid when a natural disaster strikes your state. Stephen lends a helping hand and provides some advice for Governors who may find themsleves in the same situation as Kathleen Sebelius.

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via FreePress.net:

Our nation's founders understood the First Amendment would be worth little without a postal system that encouraged broad public participation in America's "marketplace of ideas."[..]

Other founders soon came to understand that the press as a political institution needed to be supported through favorable postal rates. President George Washington spoke out for free postage for newspapers through the mail, and Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton -- no proponent of government deficit -- conceded that incentives were necessary to spawn a viable press.

The postal policies that resulted have lasted for more than 200 years, spurring a vibrant political culture in the United States. They have eased the entry of diverse political viewpoints into a national discourse often dominated by the largest media organizations.

All of this could change in 2007.

In an unprecedented move, the agency that oversees postal rates in the United States has quietly attempted to unravel much of what the founders accomplished. Earlier this year, the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) rejected a postal rate increase plan offered by the U.S. Postal Service. Instead they opted to implement a complicated plan submitted by media giant Time Warner. (Click here to read the decision and click here for a timeline)

Read full article here

FreePress has a letter to the Postal Board of Governors and your congresspeople asking them to fight against this. Please consider adding your name. Making it harder for smaller voices to be heard in the sea of giant conglomerations controlling multiple media outlets only hurts us as citizens and as a democracy.