CONSERVATIVES WANT PAY-BY-CHANNEL CABLE — EXCEPT THE TV PREACHERS

In recent years, the idea of pay-by-channel cable television has caught on with a broad audience, but conservatives have been particularly keen on the idea. By selecting only those channels they want to pay for, conservative families could stop subsidizing networks they find morally offensive, and save some money on their cable bill in the process.

But not everyone on the right is pleased to see the idea, sometimes called "a la carte cable," catching on. In particular, TV preachers have grown quite dependent on the current system and will fight to keep it in place.

The idea of paying for only the cable channels they want might have strong appeal for consumers, but to religious programmers, the prospect seems just short of apocalyptic.

Pay-per-channel pricing "would have a devastating effect on the inspirational programming we currently provide" and "decimate both the audience and financial support for religious broadcasting," according to the Faith and Family Broadcasting Coalition. The group includes Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network, which is based in Virginia Beach.

The FCC says that the average household watches only 17 channels — and apparently, evangelical right-wingers aren't pulling in the viewers. To help lobby against the per-channel pricing, CBN, Jerry Falwell, Benny Hinn Ministries, Trinity Broadcasting Network, Robertson's American Center for Law and Justice, and FamilyNet TV — a motley crew, to be sure — have teamed up to save the costly and impractical cable system that helps keep them on the air.

Their panic is palpable.

@@@@@

From TPM …

Helluva job! No really!

The Hattiesburg American reports that The Feds are prosecuting Forrest County, Mississippi Sheriff Billy McGee for commandeering two FEMA ice trucks and giving their contents to locals in the midst of the Katrina disaster, when FEMA was too bolloxed up to order it themselves.

A National Guard trooper tried to stop McGee; the sheriff handcuffed him. Perhaps that was a bit of an over-reaction. But, as one fire chief told the paper, "We had diabetic people who hadn't been able to put their insulin on ice for three days."

Who would you want serving your community after its next disaster, McGee or the guardsman?

@@@@@

The lies keep getting exposed….

Among the warnings, Knight Ridder has learned, was a major study, called a National Intelligence Estimate, completed in October 2003 that concluded that the insurgency was fueled by local conditions — not foreign terrorists — and drew strength from deep grievances, including the presence of U.S. troops.

.... Robert Hutchings, the chairman of the National Intelligence Council from 2003 to 2005, said the October 2003 study was part of a "steady stream" of dozens of intelligence reports warning Bush and his top lieutenants that the insurgency was intensifying and expanding.

"Frankly, senior officials simply weren't ready to pay attention to analysis that didn't conform to their own optimistic scenarios," Hutchings said in a telephone interview.

@@@@@

Will Durst at Working for Change hands out awards today (excerpt here) …

THE FOR CRUM'S SAKE, COME ON, GIVE HER THE MONEY, SHE SLEPT WITH A 90 YEAR OLD GUY FOR A YEAR AND A HALF AWARD: Anna Nicole Smith.

THE MAKING A BAD SITUATION WORSE AWARD: In a crowded field, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin.

BEST PERFORMANCE BY STRANGE BEDFELLOWS: George Herbert Walker Bush and William Jefferson Clinton.

THE CLOCK IS FINALLY WINDING DOWN ON YOUR 15 MINUTES AWARD: Paris Hilton.

BEST IMPRESSION OF A SLEEPY LIZARD IN SEARCH OF A WARM ROCK AWARD: Once again, Dick Cheney narrowly edging out Robert Novack and Sam Donaldson.

THE UNCLEAR ON ALL THE WORDS IN THEIR NAME AWARD: The Federal Emergency Management Administration.

THE MOST IMPORTANT MAN IN AMERICA AWARD: For the 6th year in a row, Supreme Court Justice John Paul Steven's doctor.

THE LURKING LIKE A TICKING TIME BOMB AWARD: Patrick Fitzgerald.

MOST LIKEY TO FIND GOD REAL SOON AWARD: Scooter Libby.

THE UNCLEAR ON THE CONCEPT AWARD: Former head of FEMA, Michael Brown, for announcing he's opening a new Crisis Management Consultancy.

MISDIRECTION AWARD: Dick Cheney.

THE SHUT MY MOUTH AWARD: Another tie! Pat Robertson and Harriet Miers.

THE SELF CONTROL AWARD: To George Bush for visiting India and not asking where all the teepees were.

@@@@@

Via Firedoglake, …

Hoping to counteract the damage of the story, the White House leaked Newsweek transcripts from daily noon FEMA conference calls during and after Katrina to show how engaged and concerned Dubya was. Trouble is, these are transcripts that they had initially refused to provide to congressional investigators:

[T]he administration initially told Congress that the transcript for the Aug. 29 call -- the call congressional investigators were most curious about, given that it occurred as the hurricane was actually battering the Gulf Coast -- did not exist, with officials initially telling Capitol Hill that someone at FEMA or Homeland Security forgot to push the button on a tape recorder.

@@@@@

THOUSANDS TO PROTECT BUSH ON FIRST INDIA VISIT

NEW DELHI, Feb 27 (Reuters) - About 5,000 personnel including snipers, commandos and U.S. marines using helicopters, bomb detectors and electronic jammers will protect President George W. Bush during his visit to India this week, officials said on Monday.

@@@@@

Phrases and Quotes …

Here’s my little translator’s key to this emerging talking point: Republicans attach incredible importance to media criticism of the war, because they genuinely believe that the war is won and lost IN THE MEDIA. The American media, that is. Their partisan selves are so thoroughly embedded in the culture-jamming electioneering of the Rovist personality cult the GOP has become that they genuinely don’t recognize the difference between actually achieving peace and a non-doomed secular democracy in Iraq, and just being able to plausibly claim that peace on American TV. -- Sifu Tweety

So it has come to this. After two stolen elections, a secret energy task force, Enron and assorted other corporate scandals, massive tax cuts for the rich, the largest federal debts and trade deficits in world history, blowing up the ABM treaty, killing stem cell research, laughing off global warming, allowing 9-11 to happen, stonewalling its (and every other) investigation, failing to catch Osama bin Laden, the PATRIOT Act, still-unsolved anthrax attacks, launching a secret prison system, denying due process to both foreigners and Americans, engaging in torture, monitoring Americans' phone calls, e-mails, and faxes without a warrant, launching unprecedented foreign and domestic propaganda campaigns, blurring the line between church and state, trying to overthrow Hugo Chavez, using lies to launch an illegal invasion of Iraq, badly mishandling both the occupation of Iraq and the resulting insurgency, outing Valerie Wilson (and lying about it), grandstanding on Terri Schiavo, pushing through a miserable Medicare prescription drug law, privatizing public lands, trying to privatize Social Security, securing CAFTA, appointing two reactionaries to the U.S. Supreme Court, the Abramoff scandals, and botching Katrina's aftermath as well as its rebuilding, among many, many other things -- after all that -- the tipping points that bring Cheney and Bush to this abysmal public standing are shooting a lawyer and defending an ordinary transnational corporate deal. – Geov Parrish

Bush and his wife, Laura, then visited a memorial to India’s independence leader, M.K. Gandhi, standing in stocking feet for a moment of silence and wreath-laying at the site where he was cremated in 1948. Following tradition, the Bushes tossed flower petals on the cremation platform — repeating the gesture several times to make sure photographers could get the shot. --- MSNBC

there is film footage documenting the President receiving this information and the film shows quite clearly that the President is paying attention and not, say, coloring on his placemat while waiting for Andy Card to bring him his chicken fingers and a juice box. -- tbogg

Anna Nicole Smith made an appearance at the Supreme Court today to hear her case. There was some discussion about Clarence Thomas failing to recuse himself based on the fact that he has had sex with Smith. However, since she wasn't in the room at the time of the act, it was considered a moot point... -- tbogg

Never did anybody’s thought process about how to protect America (sic) did we ever think that the evildoers would fly not one, but four commercial aircraft into precious US targets – never. – Bush

Finally forced to accept the reality of their failure, war proponents have only two choices left: (a) admit their error and accept personal responsibility for their horrendous lack of judgment and foresight, or (b) blame others for their failure while insisting, in the face of a tidal wave of evidence, that they were right all along. Guess which option these Shining Beacons of Personal Responsibility are embracing? – Glen Greenwald