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Is there ever a time where Howard Kurtz frames things in a realistic fashion? He sets up this exchange between Stephanie Miller and Michael Medved about Rush Limbaugh with the ongoing false equivalence of the right wing.

Kurtz jumps right out with this question: "Rush Limbaugh apologized, so why is this escalating?"

Gosh, I don't know. Maybe because he didn't apologize and then spent the entire week blaming his predicament on liberals?

Medved jumps out with the claim that the pressure on advertisers will not work. Clearly he has already forgotten about Glenn Beck's exit from Fox News, after he became a money-loser when sponsors were pressured to pull their ads from his show. He also must not have heard about the advertisers' edict that they no longer want to be associated with hate radio.

Through this whole back and forth, Kurtz functions as a Rush apologist. It's utterly disgusting. I hate that Bill Maher called Sarah Palin what he did, but there is a huge difference between tossing that epithet at a public figure once and spending three days excoriating a private citizen. Here's a snippet of that exchange. After pointing out what Maher said, he goes to the clip of President Obama saying he didn't want his daughters treated the way Sandra Fluke was, at which point Medved jumps right on the false equivalence bandwagon:

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Pharyngula:

Did someone declare this National Flaming Racist Idiot week, and I just didn't notice until now? You have got to read Michael Medved's latest foray into pseudoscience: he has declared American superiority to be genetic, encoded in our good old American DNA. Because our ancestors were immigrants, who were risk-takers, who were selected for their energy and aggressiveness. Oh, except for those who are descended from slaves.

The idea of a distinctive, unifying, risk-taking American DNA might also help to explain our most persistent and painful racial divide - between the progeny of every immigrant nationality that chose to come here, and the one significant group that exercised no choice in making their journey to the U.S. Nothing in the horrific ordeal of African slaves, seized from their homes against their will, reflected a genetic predisposition to risk-taking, or any sort of self-selection based on personality traits.

But, he hastens to add, modern African-American genetics have been leavened with the genes of recent, self-selected immigrants from the Caribbean and Africa, so their unfortunate stay-at-home genes have a "less decisive influence".

Okay, I realize that being a conservative pundit means never having to say anything factual, but how can anyone be so unafraid to show his utterly bigoted ignorance? Does any brave soul want to listen to his program and get a list of sponsors so we can ask them if this is the kind of idiocy that they want their businesses associated with?

Once again, today's Blog Roundup is brought to you by Steven and the alert uniformed attendants at The Opinion Mill. Keep those digital cards and letters coming to steve[dot]theopinionmill[at]gmail[dot]com. Excelsior, y'all.

Turns out that at Columbia University they just loves them some dictators. Considering who else was being greeted with open arms, it makes you wonder why Lee Bollinger was so eager to harsh out the vibe for Iranian President Unpronounceable.

Children's health? It's all just politics to this "moderate" Rethuglican.

Mark McDonald visits Wikipedia and finds yet another battle line in the endless conservative war against reality.

John Holbo tries to parse Michael Medved's views on slavery and ends up scratching his head. Field Negro cuts to the chase and reaches the conclusion that Medved is a racist winger hack with entirely too much company in the mainstream.

If you don't mind stepping away from political issues for a moment, here's one of the most poignant blog posts you'll ever read -- about a very human moment between a store employee and a customer with a very personal question.

THE BOOK NOOK: Unfortunately for Clarence Thomas, his whiny, petulant, foot-stamping tantrum of a memoir is coming out the same time as Jeff Toobin's Supreme Court book The Nine, in which we learn that even Antonin "Evil Genius" Scalia considers Thomas more than a bit of a flake. How long before the Thomas book turns up as a $1 giveaway from NewsMax?

HOLY CRAP: Rudy and Jesus, not so perfect together. Neocons and Christianist nutters, perfect together. Here's a Garden State winger who has his own ideas about other people's families (gays, needless to say, are not invited). And the Dominionists threw themselves a party in Salt Lake City -- are you wondering why you weren't invited?

So Michael Medved, semi-famous movie reviewer and radio host, who has of late morphed into a weird "Hollywood vs. America" right-wing concern troll, has published an op-ed at Townhall that says that slavery in America just wasn't as bad as all that. No, seriously.

The entire op-ed is too long to cut and paste here, and a snippet would do it no justice. So for your amusement (or if you read the whole thing, as I did--stay away from sharp objects--revulsion), here are the bullet points upon which Medved makes his case, ironically entitled Six Inconvenient Truths:

1. Slavery was an ancient and universal institution, not a distinctively American innovation.

2. Slavery existed only briefly, and in limited locales, in the history of the republic - involving only a tiny percentage of the ancestors of today's Americans.

3. Though brutal, slavery wasn't genocidal: live slaves were valuable but dead captives brought no profit.

4. It's not true that the U.S. became a wealthy nation through the abuse of slave labor: the most prosperous states in the country were those that first freed their slaves.

5. While America deserves no unique blame for the existence of slavery, the United States merits special credit for its rapid abolition.

6. There is no reason to believe that today's African Americans would be better off if their ancestors had remained behind in Africa.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the logic of a 29%er. And they wonder why the GOP doesn't get the African American vote.

Mahablog has more...

As most of you are blissfully unaware, I'm William K. Wolfrum from Williamkwolfrum.com, Shakesville.com, WorldGolf.com, and millions and millions of other Web sites, highway underpasses, granite slabs and little notes tied to the legs of carrier pigeons around the globe.

Anyway, feel free to call me Bill. Now I'm going to link you up a little. Oh yes I am. And you're gonna like it.

Atlantic Review: Who said "It's a quagmire if you go that far and invade Iraq"? That was Dick Cheney in 1994. And he was as right then as he is wrong now.

Brilliant at Breakfast: In a nation of George Bush, accepted corruption, unfettered eavesdropping, congressional racism, etc., there's just no place for a Captain America.

Digby: Making sure the emergency response center was placed in the WTC so it would be close to his personal love nest? If  Rudy Giuliani were a democrat, profits at tar and feather companies would rival oil companies.

Calle Vienna: Lindsey Graham is the latest to celebrate the classy Obama/Clinton sign made infamous by Mitt Romney.

Constant State of Flux: When Kurt Loder did a hatchet job on Michael Moore's "Sicko" it was made official, he was no longer an "American Journalist" but instead, a "film critic." You know, like Michael Medved.

Dvorak Uncensored: Want to win an election in Lebanon? Just make sure George Bush supports your opponent.

Trolling down the river:

Right-wing trolls starting a labor union? Well that's interesting, if I do say so myself.  Meanwhile, Teh Portly Dyke learns that you're just asking for trouble by even mentioning said trolls. Just remember one thing about trolls, however - deep down, they must be miserable.

Guest blogged by Bill Wolfrum. Send links to Bill at wkw (at) williamkwolfrum (dot) com.

Oliver Willis noted, "Bush surrounds himself with this echo chamber in order to hear good things about himself, and not hear a single critical word about his failed presidency."

We've seen plenty of examples of this, but yesterday was a stark reminder. From Hugh Hewitt:

President Bush invited ten talk hosts into the Oval Office for an hour of conversation today --Glenn Beck, Bill Bennett, Neal Boortz, Scott Hennon, Laura Ingraham, Lars Larson, Mark Levin, Michael Medved, Janet Parshall and me.

It's quite a motley crew, isn't it?

And Democratic presidential candidates are supposed to avoid YearlyKos? While Bush is inviting these far-right voices into the White House for a chat?

Right Wing Talk radio had been chock full of vile for a long time now...(Read the full post)....Digby:

The discourse that everyone is so shocked to see is now uncivil and "nasty" was polluted decades ago by a bunch of rich, white businessmen who saw that they could make a very nice profit at exploiting the lizard brain of the American rightwing and help their political cause at the same time. The media thought it was all in good fun (and good for their bosses) just as they do today.

read on

I almost forgot about the laughable Hugh Hewitt's claim with Blitzer:

HEWITT: "No, that's not right, because talk radio, when you look at Rush, at Sean, at myself, at Laura Ingraham, Michael Medved, Dennis Prager, we all conduct ourselves appropriately on the air, or the FCC will smack -- smite -- smack us down.---So, I think what we have got is basically a monopoly on responsible new media on the center-right side, and talk radio is responsible new media, even though that fever swamp on the left, the Michael Moore-disease-ridden Democrats on the left, they don't want to admit that, so they won't. But, in fact, talk radio is quite responsible."

War and Piece: Terry Gross's interview with an End Times fundie is extraordinary...go listen!

Talk To Action: The World Order according to Tim Lehaye--the age old conspiracy. This is part of a series of excellent posts on the subject...and over at Slate.com, David Plotz continues his project of blogging the Bible. His goal: "to find out what happens when an ignorant person actually reads the book on which his religion is based." Well, he's still at it and his most recent entry is " Deuteronomy's Gory Finish." (h/t The Revealer)

The Satirical Political Report: Disney announces grand opening of water-boarding theme park

Tristram Shandy: G-Dub's selective memory: He remembers meeting Michael Medved -- a hack film critic -- 11 years ago, but not Jack Abramoff.

The Osterley Times: Canadian citizen seized by the FBI, spirited to Syria, tortured, and released....makes ya proud, don't it?

Today is International Talk Like A Pirate Day!

This is what he said on The Situation Room:

HEWITT: "No, that's not right, because talk radio, when you look at Rush, at Sean, at myself, at Laura Ingraham, Michael Medved, Dennis Prager, we all conduct ourselves appropriately on the air, or the FCC will smack -- smite -- smack us down.---So, I think what we have got is basically a monopoly on responsible new media on the center-right side, and talk radio is responsible new media, even though that fever swamp on the left, the Michael Moore-disease-ridden Democrats on the left, they don't want to admit that, so they won't. But, in fact, talk radio is quite responsible."

He's quite selective in his reporting which is nothing new. The fact that he says he starts from "the center" is laughable. Here's a quick example of the fine, responsible right wing talk radio:

Boortz: I saw Cynthia McKinney's hairdo yesterday -- saw it on TV. I don't blame that cop for stopping her. It looked like a welfare drag queen was trying to sneak into the Longworth House Office Building. That hairdo is ghetto trash. I don't blame them for stopping her...

Michael Savage wants people to burn the Mexican flag.

Glenn Beck called hurricane survivors in New Orleans "scumbags," said he "hates" 9-11 families.

James Wolcott:

"Anyway, the 'Hollywood doesn't reflect mainstream America' argument is one of the oldest and phoniest in the playbook, with Michael Medved making the same case that Catholic organizers did in the 30's to push for a decency code---The heartland issue is such a crock, especially when it's taken up by pseudo-populist pundits who cling to both coasts and wouldn't move to the middle of the country unless the name of that middle was Chicago....read on"

(via FireDogLake)