Hosted by Julianna Forlano, The Ironic News Report is a satirical news parody that skewers politics and current events. This week's edition covers Herman Cain, The Vatican, and Occupy Wall Street and a few other yummy tidbits!

"Conflict of interest poster child Mayor Micheal Bloomberg..." Hilarious.

Arianna Huffington squared off against John Stossel on "20/20" this past Friday to promote and discuss the main theme of her new book, Right is Wrong: How the Lunatic Fringe Hijacked America, Shredded the Constitution, and Made Us All Less Safe.

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ABC News:

Huffington's politics lean left, but that wasn't the case in the mid-'90s when she was a friend to Newt Gingrich and a card-carrying member of the Republican Party.

Now she's written a new book called "Right Is Wrong," in which she argues that the "lunatic fringe" of American conservatives have "hijacked" the country.

You can read an excerpt from the book here.

John Amato: The book is really, really good. There are so many outrageous stories constantly coming our way that I almost forgot about the Utah mining disaster. She covers it in detail.

From Strange Tales:

Mary Wohlford, 80, of Decorah, Iowa, had the words “DO NOT RESUSCITATE” tattooed on her chest [last year, tattoo shown above] to make her medical wishes clear, but at least one doctor thinks that isn’t enough to stop medical personnel. Dr. Mark Purtle of the Iowa Methodist Medical Center in Des Moines told the Des Moines Register that state law defines when caregivers are permitted to end life-sustaining measures, and a tattoo isn’t enough. Wohlford noted that she also has a living will hanging on the side of her refrigerator.

Update: Zennurse wrote a comment and added to it in a separate email:

"I'm concerned about the limits of the post; she has a living will on her fridge and that is where the EMT's will look for it if needed. As a retired nurse, she decided to have the tattoo done after seeing what happened to Terri Schiavo, but she has family who know about her living will and she is apparently aware that it will cover her in an emergency. As a nurse myself, I feel certain she knows the tattoo will not. I think what I'm concerned with is that after reading through the comments, I find no mention of the fact that

having a living will or advance directive is the best way to exercise freedom of choice, in fact that is where such protections came from.

(Kind of like the labor party bringing you vacations) I see this woman's choice as more of a snarky statement of despair at the state of healthcare in this country and the pretty rational fear of overtreatment out of fear of litigation should she be "found down", or have a medical event outside her home which renders her unable to make choices for herself.

I'm glad you were prompted to post the petition link and have signed it. I just wish there had been a little more research into who she

was, why she did what she did and what the implications of it might be beyond a knee-jerk reaction that it was government out of control. I just don't think that's the case here.

I'm a hospice nurse and understand all too well the risks involved. I have stood over patients to prevent CPR while waiting for family to deliver the correct paperwork and have also, in earlier days, done CPR on patients who had no hope of surviving because the family insisted on taking the chance. The basic premise of the post is correct, it is about choice, but it says more about the disaster that is healthcare in the country than some underhanded effort by the government to limit our freedoms."

This story just came to my attention today, and it seems timely to run this video from last year. The whole thing is good, but particularly the story from Lucy at 2:02.

An 80-year-old woman should not need a tattoo on her chest in order to protect her right to refuse resuscitation if she has made the choice of sound mind. There is a petition online that covers this and other issues at the First Freedom First website.

We must never forget.

First Draft: 

The second annual Rising Tide conference will be held August 24-26, 2007, at the New Orleans Yacht Club. This is a NOLA blogger-organized and supported conference featuring speakers, panels, breakout sessions, and other dialogs on the future of the city of New Orleans. This year's emphasis is on ground-level, grass-roots efforts. It has become clear to those of us in south Louisiana that we will have to watch the watchmen, as well as take the upper hand is setting the city back on track. To that end, there will be presentations on local politics and how to influence them, making civics sexy, sustainability, levee engineering, and media outreach...read on

Christy has a great post up that covers a lot of ground....As is my tradition---and a sad one it is---I will be posting videos when Katrina hit---the White House slept---thousands suffered and are still suffering...Here's another Youtube on Katrina...

You know I've been hard on the LA Times, but this piece is excellent: "The Washington press corps is too busy cozying up to the people it covers to get at the truth." Ken Silverstein went undercover to expose some DC lobbyists. When he did they complained that he was...undercover...

Now, in a fabulous bit of irony, my article about the unethical behavior of lobbying firms has become, for some in the media, a story about my ethics in reporting the story. The lobbyists have attacked the story and me personally, saying that it was unethical of me to misrepresent myself when I went to speak to them.

That kind of reaction is to be expected from the lobbyists exposed in my article. But what I found more disappointing is that their concerns were then mirrored by Washington Post media columnist Howard Kurtz, who was apparently far less concerned by the lobbyists' ability to manipulate public and political opinion than by my use of undercover journalism.

"No matter how good the story," he wrote, "lying to get it raises as many questions about journalists as their subjects." 

Even Howard Kurtz plays the attack the messenger game. How are journalists supposed to actually report on these types of stories, Howard?

Chuck Lewis, a former "60 Minutes" producer and founder of the Center for Public Integrity, once told me: "The values of the news media are the same as those of the elite, and they badly want to be viewed by the elites as acceptable."

Read the full article. Thank you, Ken.

Rock Strongo at DKos has a diary from a week old story, but it's a revealing peek into the damage caused by the right wing haters in this country.

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Reuters:

When radio host Jerry Klein suggested that all Muslims in the United States should be identified with a crescent-shape tattoo or a distinctive arm band, the phone lines jammed instantly.

Another said that tattoos, armbands and other identifying markers such as crescent marks on driver's licenses, passports and birth certificates did not go far enough. "What good is identifying them?" he asked. "You have to set up encampments like during World War Two with the Japanese and Germans."

Continue reading »

Now, Foley is checking into a rehab...

Nancy Pelosi wrote a letter. MyDD: Shimkus and Foley's BMW farewell.

Pam: The video covers the feeble damage control re: the "family values" party and the lame attempt to handle "the situation" of the sexual predator in their midst.

h/t to John for posting the video with more info on Foley too...

Greenwald on Hinderaker's ridiculous defense of Foley. The Bush Cultists are falling all over themselves..

There are numerous intellectually honest conservatives who are viciously criticizing Denny Hastert and even demanding his resignation for his role in covering-up Mark Foley's predatory conduct and then lying about it once the story broke. And there are also some generally rational though deeply misguided defenses of Hastert being mounted elsewhere by some Bush followers. And then -- in a category of its own -- there is this defense of Hastert, promoted by Instapundit, and authored by John Hinderaker...read on

Washington Post Does First Hit Piece On Rice

In an unusually pointed critique of Rice's failings as a NSA and her management shortcomings, check out this story in Tuesday's Washington Post by Glenn Kessler and Thomas Ricks. What is interesting here is that Ricks covers the Pentagon, while Kessler gets stuff from Bob Woodward, who is close to Powell. And note that George Tenet may be trashing Rice in his upcoming memoirs.

Broder's World

Atrios covers the Dean of the liberal media and Hillary.

Matt guest blogs at FDL and uncovers some interesting information about LGF. He really does his research. Read the piece and then come back here.
A reader went over and tested the filter LGF has in place that Matt discovered. Check out the results.

graphic by LGF Watch