My calendar is running backwards and I am somehow being transported back to the 1960’s. Or so it seems. I think New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd got it right when she wrote this week that the nation is suffering “a nervous breakdown.”

Even worse, is an outbreak of national paranoia—a condition that is being exploited by politicians, preachers, and talk show characters like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, Glenn Beck and the Republican Propaganda Network—also known as Fox “News.”

Indeed, the country is being exposed to a sick joke this week by the planned Glenn Beck rally at the Lincoln Memorial on the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Beck personifies all that the Reverend King opposed. Instead of unifying people as civil rights leader dreamed, Beck’s rhetoric is designed to divide the country.

He claims that the selection of August 28th for his rally is a benevolent accident—a date orchestrated by God. If this is truly God’s plan, I have hunch that a lightning storm will hit Washington on Saturday. If that comes to pass, Glenn should avoid standing beneath trees. And that probably goes for many other people attending the rally.

If some of the past Tea Party demonstrations are an indication, Glenn’s soiree will be exploited by far-right fringe groups. And although the Ku Klux Klan has been reduced to double digit numbers in most parts of the country, there are still enough racists around to fill a lot of sheets. They will show up, invited or not, to spread their brand of hatred—often in the name God.

The “God told me so” syndrome is nothing new. My old pal, Jimmy Swaggart, has regularly used quotation marks in relating instructions given him by the Lord. Unfortunately, Brother Jimmy’s hearing must have been failing when he heard God say, ”Go forth and save prostitutes.” Jimmy thought he heard, “Go forth and pay prostitutes.”

As someone who has worn a hearing aid for years, I know the problems of  misunderstanding words. And I’m guessing this is what happened to the Pastor of the Dove World Church in Gainesville, Florida. He believes God wants him to promote ”Burn the Koran Day” on the 9/11 anniversary.

But who am I to judge the hearing of other folks—Pat Robertson being the exception. The TV mogul and religious broadcaster has been wrong so many times in relaying God’s word that he must be deaf. Undeterred by his hearing loss, Robertson continues to interject himself in ongoing controversies. Most recently, he weighed-in on construction of the proposed Islamic mosque and cultural center in lower Manhattan. Earlier his month, an organization he heads filed a lawsuit to block the project. For me, the very fact that Robertson opposes the mosque suggests that it is worthwhile.

Although I am sympathetic to the protests of families of World Trade Center victims, they represent only a small percentage of the people opposing the project. In fact, there are families of victims who support the center, which is being constructed as a symbol of Islamic moderation. 

But sadly, Muslims are the victims of a wave of the mass hysteria sweeping the nation because of an economic downturn and fear of the future. In bad times, the population can easily be manipulated by morally corrupt politicians and others with selfish motives. Watching the confrontations between groups of demonstrators at the mosque site this past weekend was reminiscent of covering civil rights more than forty years ago.

The sheets and hoods of the sixties were missing. Still, I fear they may return if the characters exploiting the hysteria don’t butt out.

My memoir, Odyssey of a Derelict Gunslinger, is available at amazon.com and independent bookstores. It offers much more than $19.99 worth of laughs. The book is an account of my illustrious (I choose the adjectives) career.

More often than not in television, smart producers save on-air personalities from stupid gaffes. Such was not the case this week on the Greta Van Sustern show. The Fox “News” talk show host is an attorney smart enough to realize that a facelift was required for her to succeed on TV. I’m not saying she was ugly. Just ordinary—a condition that plagued me, especially in the latter years of my CNN career when droopy jowls began getting in the way of my shoulders. Unfortunately, my facelift failed to bring me fame and fortune.

But enough about me. Let’s cut to the chase and Fox’s monumental goof of mistaking Shirley Sherrod for U.S. Representative Maxine Waters, the California Congresswoman under investigation for an ethics violation. 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/03/greta-van-susteren-sick-o_n_668829.html

The inability of Fox “News” to distinguish between Sherrod and Waters seems symbolic. It is a symptom of the networks underlying attitude toward African-Americans, and President Obama in particular. Time and again, Fox anchors, talk show personalities and pundits have been guilty of subtle racism. And in some instances—hello, Glenn Beck—not so subtle racist comments. During lulls in parroting Republican propaganda, the network acts as an outlet for misinformation spread by right-wing blogger Andrew Breitbart, the source of the out-of-context video that set off a storm surrounding Shirley Sherrod.

Fox denies using the video prior to her resignation as the top USDA official in her native state of Georgia. The edited video distorted an inspirational story she told of helping a white farmer. It was changed to a story of revenge. Displaying a level of stupidty equal to that of Glenn Beck, a Department of Agriculture official in Washington demanded Sherrod’s resignation.

Fox’s denial of jumping the gun on the story is almost true. The video did not air before the resignation, although its existence was disclosed on Fox.com and aired on the Bill O’Reilly show, which was taped earlier in the day. In effect, the over-reaction of the Obama Adminstration saved Fox from itself.

The good fortune of the network in escaping Andrew Breitbart’s racism does not change the past. Breitbart is the same guy who produced altered video that pushed the black activist organization, ACORN, into bankruptcy. And a crazy woman who hosts an afternoon talk show on Fox has been obsessed with the failure of the U.S. Department of Justice to collect a judgment against dirt poor Black Panthers in an uncontested civil case involving voter intimidation.

President Obama’s former pastor in Chicago, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, and an obscure administration ”czar” named Van Jones have also been on the Fox hit list. Jones quit his enviromental czaring job after a couple of minor indiscretions in the 1990’s caused Glenn Beck several weeks of insane wild-eyed drooling. The Reverand Wright got the Fox “News” treatment because of irrational sermons that suggested he was slipping into dementia.

With Fox’s history, its too bad that Greta Van Sustern is victimized by people who can’t tell one African American from another. I could understand Sarah Palin making such a mistake. In Wasilla, Alaska, she rarely saw a black face. Although I only encountered Van Sustern a couple of times when she worked for CNN, my impression was she did not make stupid mistakes.

And speaking of stupidity, I can’t pass up the opportunity to mention Sharron Angle—the Nevada Tea Party heroine, who was supposed to send U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid into retirement. Instead, she seems determined to get him re-elected. Reid’s rescue is aided by Angle’s mouth. Everytime she opens it near a TV camera, he is assured of more votes. 

For example, Angle claims that people collecting unemployment are “spoiled,” supports phasing out Social Security and recently refused to answer questions at a news conference she called. But the topper came during a friendly Fox interview when Angle stated that reporters should only ask questions she wanted to answer and report news that she endorsed.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/03/angle-the-press-should-as_n_668521.html

Unlike Greta Van Sustern, Angle can’t blame  blunders on technicians, stupid aides or advisors. All by herself, she has mastered dumbness.

My memoir, Odyssey of a Derelict Gunslinger, is available at amazon.com and independent bookstores. It offers much more than $19.99 worth of laughs. The book is an account of my illustrious (I choose the adjectives) career.

I don’t mean to abuse the 12-Step analogy, but CNN needs some sort of treatment for its obsessive coverage of “Breaking News.” The network’s reporting of the Shirley Sharrod scandal is a classic example of overkill. By the time the weekend rolled around, CNN viewers began losing interest in Sherrod. This is unfortunate because there are facets of the story that extend beyond her heroic personal story.

Although the Sharrod debacle is largely about race and racism, the humiliation heaped on the USDA official is also about journalism. Before I take cheap shots at Fox “News,” let me point out the shortcomings of my former place of employment. CNN exploited Sherrod for more sinister reasons than taking up the banner of a wronged person. And I’m referring to something more than its hope for increasing ratings. For the people who underwrote my IRA, it was an opportunity to dump on Fox by pointing the finger of blame to the people who gave the story momentum.

The real blame, of course, falls on the shoulders of Andrew Breitbart, the right-wing rumor-monger whose fantasies are published on his Internet news sites and repeated by the lunatic fringe ad nauseam. He distributed out-of-context remarks made by in a speech to an NAACP gathering in Sherrod’s native Georgia. The African American agriculture official— daughter of a farmer murdered by white men, who were never prosecuted—told the story of how years before a poor, elderly white couple on the verge of losing their farm helped her deal with underlying racial prejudice she harbored since childhood. The Breitbart video only showed the part of her speech about Sharrod’s early attitudes toward whites.

Libel litigation is a pet peeve of mine—mainly because I had to defend myself in eight cases that I can recall. The only one settled in favor of the plaintiff was the most trivial. The Boston TV station I worked for was in the process of being sold and lawyers recommended a few thousand dollars be paid to dispose of the case. But no matter how frivolous, defending against libel is a time-consuming distraction. In Breitbart’s instance, I hope Sharrod carves a big chunk out of his derriere. Thes distribution of the video clip was clearly done maliciously without regard for truth. And he will have a hard time defending the story as being opinion, which has broader protections under libel and defamation laws.

That brings me to the subject of stupid tricks by anchors. Unfortunately, technology has not been developed to stop the lips of news anchors from flapping when they deviate from the teleprompter. In the course of CNN’s saturation coverage of Sharrod, the two most enthusiastic supporters of the Agriculture Department bureaucrat—Kyra Phillips and John Roberts—agreed that it might be time for the government to consider a crackdown on irresponsible bloggers who spread hatred.

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/alana-goodman/2010/07/23/cnn-host-calls-crackdown-bloggers-wake-sherrod-incident-something-s-g 

I’m reasonably certain that Phillips and Roberts have both heard of the First Amendment. It even protects people I don’t agree with. And like everyone else, I receive an abundance of viral e-mails filled with misinformation and/or varying levels of hate. It’s sad commentary on a segment of our society, although it is sometimes entertaining to be exposed to the ignorance of people responsible for spreading Internet rumors and speculation. But what the hell? Everybody is entitled to believe what they want to believe. And I know from talking to right-wing family members and friends that my blog posts and opinions are perceived as left-wing ranting. But writing about my version of the world is an American privilege I enjoy exercising.

It is the same privilege exercised by Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and other escapees from the nation’s asylums. However, the line is crossed when malicious viral video is presented as legitimate news. The Breitbart segment aired on Fox “News” in the context of legitimacy (if that is even possible on the Republican Propaganda Network). Instead, the story was a personal attack on an obscure federal official in the Obama Administration.

I doubt that Fox will lose viewers because of the gaffe. Most people watching the network don’t really care about facts. The truth only confuses them. Nonetheless, the Sherrod story further revealed the close relationship between Fox and Breitbart—a marriage that had already exposed many times before.

Since Shirley Sharrod’s office is located in close proximity to CNN’s Atlanta headquarters, it was a chance to bring her into the studios and engage in crusading journalism by defending an injustice—especially her idiotic treatment by Department of Agriculture officials who asked for her resignation based on a Fox “News” story. It doesn’t get any more stupid than believing Fox. 

Anyway, I admired CNN for taking up a crusade for justice. At least until I realized that instead of restoring the kind of reporting missing from contemporary television, the network was simply using Sherrod as a way to criticize the competition.

My memoir, Odyssey of a Derelict Gunslinger, is available at amazon.com and independent bookstores. It offers much more than $19.99 worth of laughs. The book is an account of my illustrious (I choose the adjectives) career.

I’m a half-full glass kind of guy. And when bad things happen to good people (or even bad people, for that matter), I look for the positives. In the case of fired Department of Agriculture official Shirley Sherrod much has been gained this week.

Foremost is exposing low-life Andrew Breitbart’s as right-wing scum. Prior to releasing an out-of-context video segment of a speech Sherrod made to an NAACP gathering in Georgia, Breitbart’s Internet site was the source of much of the racist propaganda on Fox “News.” Most notorious was heavily edited undercover video of a Breitbart operative posing as a pimp while seeking financial help from ACORN to open new whorehouse. Fox repeatedly ran the video and it flooded the Internet. Although, the black activist political organization claimed the video failed to reflect what really happened, Breitbart refused to release the raw tape. ACORN has since disbanded, in large part because of the publicity given the right-wing manufactured scandal.

The simpleton Breitbart “investigative reporter” playing the pimp role subsequently stumbled over his idiocy when he tried to entrap Louisiana U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu by tampering with telephone lines in her New Orleans office. Accompanied by two equally moronic “undercover agents” dressed as telephone repairmen, the trio was arrested and ultimately cut a deal with federal prosecutors to plead guilty to misdemeanor charges.

Brietbart has also been involved in other unsavory schemes designed to embarrass the Obama Administration, Democrats and anyone else on his enemies list. What makes him dangerous is the fact that Fox “News” will spread any rumor he passes along. Breitbart receives frequent French kisses from Bill O’Reilly, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh. They in turn spread the germs to fans. The good news is that the Sherrod incident might cause a few people to use mouthwash after being exposed to the Republican Propaganda Network.

Actually, there was a minor miracle on Fox. Glenn Beck came to the defense of Sherrod. It is the first time to my knowledge that he has ever told the truth about anything dealing with the Obama Administration.

Before reporting other positives from the Sherrod incident, I need to explain what happened for the benefit of readers who may have been trapped in remote parts of the world during the the past 72 hours, or failed to pass within 100 yards of a television set carrying CNN. The network went wall-to-wall on coverage, trapping Sherrod in its Atlanta studios and refusing to allow her to leave until Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack dropped to his knees, begged forgiveness and offered her a big promotion to compensate for his stupid decision seeking the Georgia official’s resignation before viewing the full video of Sherrod’s inspiring speech about her transformation from judging farmers by the color of their skin. She told the audience that a white farm couple in south Georgia helped her realize that poverty was color blind. The elderly couple were the first to come to Sherrod’s defense, telling reporters that the Agriculture Department official went far beyond the call of duty to help them save their farm. The Breitbart video only showed a few seconds of Sherrod’s speech in which she gave background of her epiphany about race.

Another possible bright spot in the debacle is the embarrassment it caused the Obama Administration in what is tantamount to an admission that officials actually watched Fox “News” and give a shit about its distortions. Maybe they accidentally switched to Fox to get away from Rick Sanchez. If that is the case, Fox could pick-up Administration viewers in August when Sanchez temporarily replaces Campbell Brown in the 8:00 p.m. slot. That is like replacing a healthy diet with junk food. Brown was one of CNN’s better anchors and reporters. On the other hand, Sanchez only acts like he knows what he is talking about. He was in top form yesterday, treating the Sherrod story like it was a state funeral. Overreaction to overreaction is the best way to describe his reporting.

Despite going overboard yesterday in its Sherrod coverage, I was happy to see CNN mount a strong defense of the woman. Objectivity was cast aside, which is sometimes appropriate in journalism—though not to the extent of Sanchez’s often uninformed reporting. Fortunately, the Sherrod issue was so clearcut that CNN avoided an outbreak of shrinking testicles—a virus that has regularly swept the network in the past when dealing with controversy. Believe me, I know. Read all about it in my book. Can’t resist the chance for a quick plug.

Back to the half-full glass. The biggest positive to emerge in recent days is Shirley Sherrod. The daughter of a farmer murdered by white men never brought to justice, she has become a hero of millions of people this week. Instead of going quietly after being publicly humiliated by her bosses and the NAACP, she defended herself with the kind of dignity that exposed Andrew Breitbart, Fox “News” and right-wing hate-mongers as people devoid of moral consciences.

If Sherrod can resist exploiting the scandal and/or being exploited, not only will her glass be half-full, it will overflow.

My memoir, Odyssey of a Derelict Gunslinger, is available at amazon.com and independent bookstores. It offers much more than $19.99 worth of laughs. The book is an account of my illustrious (I choose the adjectives) career.

Since the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous 75 years ago and the beginning of Alanon for spouses and families of alcoholics shortly thereafter, the “anonymous” label has been attached to a multitude of 12-step recovery programs. Spin-offs are designed to deal with an array chemical, physical and emotional problems—gambling, sex, eating disorders, addictions to illegal and/or prescription drugs, and an array of struggles that part of the human condition.

Regardless of the ailments, the underlying principles of all the different 12-step programs are pretty much the same. The steps put into practice a value system that is unknown to many—the basics of which include universal tenets of faith, trust, honesty, courage and humility. In AA lingo, incorporating the principles in one’s life leads to a “spiritual awakening.” Not to be confused with a sudden epiphany that is often described as a ”spiritual experience.” Twelve step programs gradually bring about a level of self-honesty. That is why so-called tea partiers need to form a recovery program called, ”Deniers Anonymous.”

From inception, Tea Party members and its candidates have been in a state of denial in responding to any and all criticism. The most recent instance of self-deception is the refusal to acknowledge the NAACP’s claim that the loosely formed organization have been invaded by racists, bigots and hate groups. The denials must be coming from blind and deaf spokespersons. How could they miss an inflammatory road sign in Iowa comparing the President to Hitler and Lenin, or fail to see placards at rallies that are clearly racist, or not accept the word of credible sources that epithets were directed at black congressmen as they walked through a crowd of Tea Party demonstrators? That is the equivalent of my years of denial that alcoholism caused my drunken episodes, delirum tremens, nights in jail, an emotionally abused broken family and eventually led me a failed skid-row audition. 

Vice President Biden refused yesterday to label the Tea Party as racist. And I agree. However, that does not mean the absence of racism among many of its members—a subtle form of which is sometimes more sinister than outward bigotry. Indeed, it is often difficult for people—me included—to detect underlying prejudices. Our failure to see deep-rooted personal bias is troublesome for African Americans. At least they know where they stand with the Klan mentality.

Deniers Anonymous would be particularly helpful for Tea Party candidates, some of whom have denied saying or believing they made statements in radio, television and newspaper interviews. Sharron Angle is an exception. The Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in Nevada simply avoids mainstream media interviews. She answers only to God, Fox “News” and right-wing reporters in her home state. God apparently is not satisfied with her answers. Senate Majority leader Harry Reid has been resurrected from the graveyard of politically dead incumbents.

Meantime, God has smiled down on Democrats in Kentucky by delivering a Tea Party-supported candidate whose mouth has gotten him in so much trouble that he is no longer a a sure-fire Republican successor to slightly deranged incumbent Jim Bunning. Dr. Rand Paul stumbled in the race coming out of the gate by making 1960’s era comments about civil rights. Like Sharron Angle, he now avoids interviews that could expose him as under-qualified to occupy Bunning’s Senate seat—a level of incompetence that is probably impossible to achieve. Nonetheless, Dr. Paul’s gaffes have made the Kentucky race competitive. Given his explanations that previous statements are not a real reflection of his position on civil rights, Deniers Anonymous would be helpful in allowing Paul to get in touch with his true views.

Former Presidential candidate Ross Perot is the best example of my own experience of encountering political candidates living in a state of denial. Odyssey of a Derelict Gunslinger provides all of the gritty details. If interested, buy the book and be entertained by my journey to a vast fantasy land. In short, my one hour in-depth confrontation with Perot during the 1992 Presidential campaign was his final sit-down interview with an investigative reporter .

I had flashbacks of the Perot debacle sixteen years later while watching Katie Couric interview Sarah Palin—another political figure who defines accountability as being a personal attack. She has become a role model for refusing to do interviews with anyone but the Fox “News” bunch and their ilk. She and all her cohorts at the Republican propaganda networks are excellent candidates for Deniers Anonymous. Especially Glenn Beck.

In AA, we sometimes classify a category of alcoholics as “low bottom drunks.” Having spent time with my feet planted in a gutter, I fit the label. Glenn Beck is a low bottom denier. In the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, he consistently denies his racially charged and anti-semitic rants. Washington Post poltical reporter Dana Milbank wrote a column last week that provided astonishing statistics about Beck’s hate-filled lunacy and his influence as a self-proclaimed leader of the Tea Party movement.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/16/AR2010071602855.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

If the day comes that someone decides to start a Deniers Anonymous program, Glenn Beck should be among the first recruits. He should have some vague knowledge of recovery based on his past disclosure that he joined AA many years ago. I presume he is still sober today. Outwardly, though, he does not fulfill AA’s promise of restoring its members to sanity. 

That is not surprising. Anyone listening to Beck can easily discern that he knows nothing about the principles that form the basis of 12-step recovery.

My memoir, Odyssey of a Derelict Gunslinger, is available at amazon.com and independent bookstores. It offers much more than $19.99 worth of laughs. The book is an account of my illustrious (I choose the adjectives) career.

After the NCAAP adopted a resolution this week calling on the so-called Tea Party to quit giving aid and comfort to racists and hate groups, Sarah Palin immediately came to the defense of the movement. Bigots? What bigots?

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2010/07/naacp-tea-party-sarah-palin.html

I am not surprised by Palin’s reaction. As Mayor of a town in which only one resident in 50 was a person of color and serving as Governor of a state with an African American population of less than four percent, she probably believes that a single black face in a crowd of a thousand represents diversity. 

The former Vice Presidential candidate obviously closes her eyes when racially charged placards are displayed. And since her reading is limited to glamour magazines and comic strips, she failed to see the Iowa tea partiers hate filled billboard showing President Obama flanked by Hitler and Lenin. But give the woman credit. She has pyschic powers. Although Palin was not present at the Washington rally when racial epithets were hurled at Congressman John Lewis, she labeled him a liar for making such a claim. Given Lewis standing as one of the most respected civil rights leaders in the nation’s history, I will take his word over the denials of a bunch of redneck bigots.

Anyway, today something new. Following the lead of television, I will occasionally post reruns of previous missives that remain relevant to recent events. I begin with a slightly edited February post titled, The Tea Party Klan…Oops, I Mean Clan.  

I apologize for the gaffe. My slip was intentional. Just wanted to piss off some of my right-wing relatives. I realize that Tea Partiers don’t dress in sheets and pillow cases, although a few wear the garb depicted in accounts of  the original Tea Party in  1773, when colonists in Boston revolted against British imposed taxes. Also let me quickly clarify that Tea Partiers don’t hang people. They only hang signs portraying President Obama as a modern day Hitler, complete with a mustache. 

Fortunately, the placards were not on display during a Tea Party convention at Opryland in Nashville, Tennessee. Nor were any black faces on display. At least as far as I could tell from watching CNN (I know, my former employer is supposed to be a liberal media outlet and would not show African-Americans, even if they were in attendance). It seems, however, that GOP National Chairman Michael Steele would have agreed to be a token black in a sea of white voters, who generally pull the Republican lever. But he had a “conflict.”

I recognize that most tea partiers are not blatant racists. But the movement has attracted a fringe element that undermines civility. Protest groups are a vital part of our nation’s history. They most often gain momentum when the country is in the throes of change and hard times. Indeed, the Ku Klux Klan was founded in 1865 in Pulaski, Tennessee by a small group of defeated Confederate soldiers, and subsequently became a force to deal with politically. Membership peaked at five-million. And despite a murderous and dispicable history, it had sufficient influence to force the 1924 Democratic Presidential Convention to abandon a party plank outlawing the KKK. Today, there are still hate-filled Klan lunatics who wrap themselves in sheets and scream epithets at blacks and other minorities. But the violence has subsided and the Klan’s main role is wearing regalia that amuses those of us with perverted senses of humor. 

More enduring from the standpoint of historial impact on the country is the Share Our Wealth Society, which was founded in 1934 during the depression era by the “Kingfish”—Huey P. Long. Prior to his assassination in 1935, he simultaneously served as U.S. Senator and Louisiana Governor. Relying on national radio broadcasts and a motto, Every Man a King, Long developed a following so large that historians credit him with forcing FDR to expand New Deal proposals out of fear that the Kingfish would  become a third-party candidate in 1936 Presidential election, thus handing over the White House to the GOP. In more contemporary times, off-brand populist movements have also played a role in shaping politics.

As CNN’s senior investigative correspondent in 1992, I was assigned to dig  into the background of Ross Perot—the declared, then undeclared and finally re-declared independent Presidential candidate. His rehearsed sound-bites garnered him eighteen percent of the vote. And according to many experts, cost George Herbert Bush a second term. The results of the election prompted Perot to create Reform Party USA. Its greatest success was electing Jesse Ventura as Governor of Minnesota in 1998.

By the time the party was formed, voters had already tired of Ross Perot’s repetitive blabbing. And I can understand why. In 1992, I spent a miserable hour with the little barking lap dog while gathering material for a segment that aired as part of  a CNN series titled, Democracy in America. In my on-camera interview with Perot, several questions deviated from his tightly scripted message. However, the questions were well-researched and considerably more substantive than Katie Couric asking Sara Palin what newspapers she read.

I thought Perot was going to throw me out of his office when I pointed out the many contradictions in his  manufactured myth of being horseback riding paperboy, who grew up to become a billionaire heroically rescuing his employees from an Iranian prison. Still, Perot was far more coherent than Sarah Palin. Ross could even put a noun, verb and object in a sentence.

Is Palin an inarticulate Perot? Darned if I know. Golly, gee, she just confuses the heck out of me. But there was a woman speaking at the Tea Party convention who claimed to be Sarah Palin. However, it could have been Tina Fey doing her dead-on Saturday Night Live impression.

Sarah Palin reportedly asked for $100,000 to appear at the convention. Goodness gracious alive, that sure is a lot of money. I worry, I mean really, really, really worry that maybe Tina Fey was sub-contracted for $75,000, allowing Ms. Palin to pocket the remainder and spend the weekend in Alaska shooting moose.

Bizarre speculation. But not as bizarre as some of things I hear coming out of the mouths of Tea Party folks—such as questions about President Obama’s birthplace. Aside from the lunatics, I hope the Tea Party anger is being directed at both sides of the aisle. There are plenty of targets in Congress, regardless of  political persuation. Everybody I know, left, right and in the middle agrees with Tea Partiers that partisan gridlock must end.

And I know for certain that tea partiers did not exclude blacks from its convention in Nashville. Reliable sources have told me that several African-Americans were allowed to serve food and clean-up after the meals.

My memoir, Odyssey of a Derelict Gunslinger, is available at amazon.com and independent bookstores. It offers much more than $19.99 worth of laughs. The book is an account of my illustrious (I choose the adjectives) career.

Against my better judgment many years ago, I signed off on hiring a relatively inexperienced wire service reporter to work with me in a television investigative reporting unit. It turned out to be a disaster, especially when I allowed her to conduct an important on-camera interview with a character vital to an ongoing exposé. She didn’t allow man a chance to complete a single sentence. Her constant confrontational interruptions rendered the interview useless. I don’t blame the reporter. It was my mistake in hiring her. She was simply trying to do a Mike Wallace imitation, not realizing that he allowed people to rattle on until their egos entrapped them. The Mike Wallace technique, by the way, won me a lot of journalism awards.

Anyway, watching the unbelieveable rudeness of Fox “News” anchor Megyn Kelly early this week reminded me of the long ago interview disaster that I facilitated. Kelly’s boorish interview of New York Post columnist and political commentator Kirsten Powers had all the class of a drunken honky-tonk brawl. Powers—a moderate voice regularly heard on the Republican propaganda network—was not allowed in this instance to express any opinion contradicting Kelly’s obvious racial prejudice.

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/fnc/megyn_kelly_to_kirsten_powers_with_respect_you_dont_seem_to_know_what_youre_talking_about_167499.asp

Megyn Kelly’s screech on her program, America Live, may explain why she gave up the practice of law to enter broadcasting. Had she displayed similar demeanor in a courtroom, Kelly would be spending time in a jail cell for contempt of court. 

The context of the interview was obviously Kelly’s belief that the U.S. Department of Justice engaged in a form of reverse racism by failing to pursue default judgments in lawsuits accusing members of the Black Panthers of imtimidating voters outside a precinct in Philadelphia during the November, 2008 Presidential election. A malcontent, who formerly worked in the Justice Department’s Civil Right’s Division, claims that the Obama Administration and African American Attorney General Eric Holder are going easy on black activist groups like the Panthers. Media Matters covered the issue pretty thoroughly this week.

In short, conservative media outlets have been aggressively promoting the charge by GOP activist J. Christian Adams that President Obama’s Justice Department engaged in racially charged “corruption” when it partially dismissed a case against members of the New Black Panther Party for allegedly engaging in voter intimidation outside of a Philadelphia polling center on Election Day in 2008.

As we have documented extensively, Adams should not be trusted. He is a long-time right-wing activist with extensive ties to the Bush-era politicization of the Justice Department. Adams himself has admitted that he lacks first-hand knowledge to support his accusations. Additionally, Adams’ charge that the DOJ’s action in the New Black Panther case shows unprecedented, racially motivated corruption is undermined by the fact that the Obama DOJ obtained judgment against one of the defendants, and that the Bush DOJ declined to pursue similar allegations against a group of Minutemen — one of whom was carrying a gun — in 2006.

Even the Republican vice chairwoman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights called the New Black Panthers case “very small potatoes” and said an investigation into the DOJ’s decision is full of “overheated rhetoric filled with insinuations and unsubstantiated charges.”

And yet again, the fact that this is a completely manufactured scandal didn’t stop conservative media figures from engaging in one of their time-honored traditions: attempting to obscure their own problems with race by accusing others of racism.

Radio host Jim Quinn — who once told “race-baiting” African-American “ingrates” to “get on your knees” and “kiss the American dirt” because slavery brought them to the U.S. — hyped the New Black Panther story by calling the civil rights community “race-baiting poverty pimps.”

Rush Limbaugh — who earlier this week announced that if Obama wasn’t black he’d be a “tour guide in Honolulu” and claimed Obama is using the office of the presidency to seek “payback” for the country’s history of racism — forwarded Adams’ charge that the case was dropped because of racially charged corruption.

Beck, who infamously called President Obama a “racist” with a “deep seated hatred for white people or the white culture,” declared that the Obama administration is “full” of “people that will excuse” the “hatred” of the New Black Panthers. He also relied on falsehoods to try to connect Obama to the New Black Panthers, and claimed today that the New Black Panthers are part of Obama’s “army of thugs.”

If the U.S. Justice Department has adopted a policy of not prosecuting black activists, word of the change has not reached Louisiana. On the west bank of the Mississippi River,African American mayors of Port Allen, New Roads and White Castle were indicted earlier this month, along with a black police chief. A fourth African American mayor is under investigation in the same case. Unless the Justice Department has changed its procedures, the Public Integrity Division in Washington reviews cases involving public officials prior to indictments. Regardless, the recent arrests tends to dispute claims of racial favortism.

Sadly, I sometimes get the feeling that our country is on the verge of returning to the bad old days of race divisions. The NAACP adopted a resolution this week condemning the tea party movement for providing aid and comfort to bigots. If some of the demonstrations are an indications, white hate groups have found a place to spew their hatred. Granted, they are a small minority. But their very presence undermines the legitimacy of the tea party.

I would hope the country had reached a point that resolutions such as the one adopted by the  NAACP were unnecessary. But the election of Barack Obama has triggered the worst in many people. And disgracefully, they are being cheered on by the Fox “News,” its pundits and anchors, and scores of right-wing characters polluting the nation’s airwaves.

Racism is still alive in America. If you don’t believe it, look up the definition of the word in your dictionary.

My memoir, Odyssey of a Derelict Gunslinger, is available at amazon.com and independent bookstores. It offers much more than $19.99 worth of laughs. The book is an account of my illustrious (I choose the adjectives) career.