Fox News made him do it

Byron Williams is a 45-year old deranged felon. Last summer, he tried (and thankfully failed) to kill a lot of police officers.

Why did he do this? The Media Matters website is reporting that — you guessed it — we can blame Fox News and Glenn Beck! The article is entitled “Progressive Hunter” and carries the byline “How the right-wing media and Glenn Beck’s chalkboard drove Byron Williams to plot assassination.”

Well, gee, everyone who’s politically to the right of the staff at Media Matters must be a deranged, dangerous right-wing zealot.

I suppose this works in reverse. Remember Amy Bishop, the rabid leftist would-be professor who killed her colleagues? She was a dyed-in-the-wool Obama supporter. Did MSNBC make her kill her colleagues? What about Omar Thornton, the racist who killed people at his former workplace and blamed “discrimination.” Did Al Sharpton drive him to do this?

I guess everyone who’s politically to the left of Rush Limbaugh must be a depraved, dangerous leftist lunatic

Dems cancel ads for candidate who opposes Pelosi

You expected them to crack the whip a little sooner, what with so many Democrats running as fast as they can away from Obama, Pelosi, and their entire wretched agenda:

A Democratic candidate for Congress accused the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) of pulling its support for his campaign because he said he wouldn’t support Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) as House Speaker.

State Sen. Roy Herron (D), who’s running for the opening seat held by retiring Rep. John Tanner (D) in Tennessee’s 8th congressional district, suggested the DCCC’s decision to cancel ad buys in the race was tied to his refusal to back Pelosi.
“This morning The Jackson Sun reported for the first time what I’ve repeatedly told citizens: I will not vote for Nancy Pelosi for House Speaker,” Herron said in a statement. “If the DCCC pulling ads is the price of independence and following my conscience, so be it. That’s the kind of congressman I’ll be.”

Herron’s locked in a tough race against Republican Stephen Fincher for a seat that the GOP needs to win if it hopes to pick up the 39 or more seats they need to win back control of the House. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates the contest as a “lean Republican” race, with only three weeks to go until the election.

Note that Herron doesn’t say he will vote for a Republican for speaker, only that he won’t vote for Pelosi. In either party, there’s always a cost to being independent minded and Mr. Herron just discovered the price tag.

Defiant chamber vows to spend more on election

U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Thomas Donohue vowed Tuesday to “ramp up” political advertising in the final weeks before the Nov. 2 election and accused the Obama administration of conducting a smear campaign against the chamber.

In a defiant letter to the chamber’s board of directors, Donohue denied White House and Democratic claims that the chamber has used foreign money to pay for its political ads this election campaign.

“It’s sad to watch the White House stoop to these depths and try to salvage an election,” Donohue wrote.

The chamber has run a wave of ads, most supporting Republicans. Last week it pumped more than $10 million into key battleground states. Democrats sought to discredit the chamber by questioning its sources of funding but have offered no proof to back up their claims. Federal law prohibits foreign money in U.S. elections.

Other organizations that participate in elections receive foreign money. They are required to isolate those funds so they don’t get used for political purposes. Foreign companies with U.S. divisions also can create political action committees that accept donations from their U.S. employees.

But the administration and its Democratic allies have focused on the chamber and on GOP-allied groups. On Monday Vice President Joe Biden said, “I challenge the Chamber of Commerce to tell us how much of the money they’re investing is from foreign sources. I challenge them. If I’m wrong I will stand corrected. But show me, show me.”

In his letter, Donohue said the money the chamber receives from overseas business councils and non-U.S. firms is a small fraction of its total revenues of $200 million. He said the chamber employs “strict financial controls” to ensure that foreign money is segregated from political spending.

“Let me be clear,” he wrote. “The chamber does not use any foreign money to fund voter education activities — period.”

Read more here.

MTV Denies That Obama Telecast Is Political

Viacom networks MTV, BET and CMT are giving an hour of free air time to President Obama less than three weeks before the midterm elections.

The so-called “A Conversation with President Obama” will be live and commercial-free on six Viacom networks at 4 p.m. on Thursday. The networks will not give equal time to a Republican before the election, according to a spokeswoman.

MTV denies that the Obama hour of TV is political, despite the timing, weeks before the midterm elections.

“We’re not giving an hour of free time to the president to freely express his views. We’re hosting a town hall with 250 young people to ask questions of the president,”Viacom spokeswoman Kelly McAndrew said to HUMAN EVENTS.

“This is not a campaign appearance. This is a town hall discussion.”

The White House conceived of the concept and asked for the commercial-free TV time, according to Viacom.

Read more here.

Calif. Gov Debate Overshadowed by ‘Whore’ Remark

Coming into their final debate of the California governor’s race, Democrat Jerry Brown and Republican Meg Whitman had a chance to persuade a statewide audience they could turn around the economically troubled state.

Instead, their third face-to-face exchange resorted to many of the personal attacks that have dominated the last few weeks of the campaign.

Neither candidate presented any new ideas in a contest that is virtually tied just three weeks before Election Day and in which a fifth of voters remain undecided. A poll released two weeks ago found about half the respondents were dissatisfied with both candidates.

Before Brown and Whitman walked on stage, moderator and former NBC anchor Tom Brokaw told the audience at Dominican University that he planned to address not just the critical economic woes facing the nation’s most populous state but the tone of the campaign.

The debate followed several weeks of personal attacks that had both candidates on the defensive — Whitman over revelations that her housekeeper was an illegal immigrant and Brown over an audio tape in which a female campaign aide called Whitman a “whore” for pandering to a Los Angeles police union.

While the first few minutes of the debate were civil, with Brown and Whitman touting California’s potential and the tough decisions ahead, much of the hour-long face-off was dominated with rehashed verbal jousting on nearly every issue.

Read more here.

Don’t-Ask Policy Is Halted By Judge

A federal judge ordered the military to stop enforcing the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law that has been used to discharge gay service members, putting at least a temporary halt to the 17-year-old policy.

Tuesday’s order by U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips in Riverside, Calif., applies across the U.S. and would halt proceedings against service members suspected of violating the policy, which aims to bar openly gay people from the military.

Protesters, in favour of repealing the U.S. military’s “Dont Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, line the motorcade route of President Barack Obama in Los Angeles April 19, 2010.

The order poses a dilemma for the Obama administration and Democratic leaders in Congress. They want to undo the 1993 law, but Senate Republicans blocked an effort last month to vote on a repeal.

The administration now must decide whether to appeal Judge Phillips’s ruling, which establishes by judicial fiat the result Democrats were seeking through legislative action. The Justice Department is generally obligated to defend laws passed by Congress, and an appeal is likely.

Congress is now in recess until after the midterm elections. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.), who favors repealing don’t ask, don’t tell, has said he wants to bring the issue up during the lame-duck session of Congress after the elections.

Judge Phillips ruled last month that the law violated the constitutional rights of service members. The case was brought by the Log Cabin Republicans, a group that supports gay rights.

A federal judge in California this afternoon issued a broad injunction barring the military from enforcing its “don’t ask don’t tell” policy, aimed at prohibiting openly gay people from serving in the military. Ashby Jones explains.

The military has continued to discharge gay and lesbian service members this year—administrative procedures that the injunction will now halt. The military has resisted earlier attempts by Democrats in Congress to pass a temporary moratorium on discharges while a repeal is being considered.

The Justice Department and the Pentagon said they were studying the ruling.

Read more here.