Why does John McCain wear red suspenders?

To keep his pants from falling down.

It's an old joke, and more on why it's stuck in my memory at the end of this post.


To suspend, or not to suspend. That's the question Fox News asked of John McCain. Of course, the first suspension of his campaign, was not really a suspension, and it wasn't suspended as long as he said he'd suspend.

So why not consider another suspension. Why keep us in suspense?

As for the red suspender joke, it was sprung on me by a New Britain fireman when we were on a kindergarten field trip at old No. 6 firehouse on Kensington Avenue. The fireman found out I was the son of a fire lieutenant, and said, "So you must know why firemen wear red suspenders."

Of course I didn't, and because I didn't know, I was the center of derision. My classmates laughed. The fireman laughed. I didn't think it was funny. Still don't, some 51 years later.

A poetic, alliterative convention - "recreate 68" and "Fuck Fox News"

Some Fox reporter tried to mix it up with protestors in Denver recentlty. But, as far as I can remember, Fox News wasn't around in 68, so their chants of "fuck Fox News," is a creative innovation.

The smear machine called Fox News

Anyone with half a brain would have suspected this a long time ago.

Fox News acts like a bully. And now the New York Times's David Carr risks his own neck to point out the truth.

Fox outs themselves as propagandists

(photos via Huffington Post)

In their disgusting, childish and ridiculous retouching of photos of NY Times reporter and editor Steven Redicliffe and Jacques Steinberg, Fox News has descended to new lows - to the level of the National Enquirer, in fact. They've demonstrated their alignment with racist, anti-Semitic, xenophobic propagandists of the past.

There is a well-documented tradition of portraying your enemies as monsters, or as buffoons, while portraying yourself heroically. It is a sure sign of propaganda. It is the proof, as if we needed it, that Fox News is so biased that their "news" is not news, but simply right-wing, paranoid public relations for a hate-filled philosophy.

It is, of course, a logical extension of the lies and innuendo Fox "News" spreads as a replacement for fact.



(Lights! Makeup! Cameras! Lies!)

Hannity gets caught with his hood on

Seems like it's wrong to be associated with a racist if you're a black man running for president. That doesn't seem to be the case with white candidates (McCain is associated with racist hate mongers Hagee and Parsley).

And it certainly doesn't seem to apply to right-wing talk show hosts like Sean Hannity (whose hate comes your way locally on WTIC-AM). Seems like he had a very close relationship with avowed white supremacist Hal Turner.

For you mystified conservatives

Thanks to Crooks and Liars for pointing us to this editorial cartoon originally printed in Illinois' Springfield Journal-Registar.

I'm just a simple president.

Yes, he said it. And we're pretty sure he wasn't lying.

But then again, when it comes to the ways in which waterboarding has protected America, he also said this.

And for those who criticize what we did in the past, I ask them, which attack would they rather have not permitted — stopped?

And, a lot, about civil liberties:

I would say that they want to be very careful that we don't overstep our bounds from protecting the civil liberties of Americans. And I understand that, a lot.

And he said this about the economy, though while it could be applied to the US economy, it's really his thoughts on Iran:

We respect you as a people but it's your government that has made the decisions that are causing you the economic pain that you're now having inside your country.

And this about, future history?

It's very hard to write the future history of America before the current history hasn't been fully written.

This all from an interview with Chris Wallace on Fox News, proving once again that Bush doesn't have the courage to face a real reporter, nor the sense to keep his mouth shut when he doesn't know what he's talking about.

Here's a video of his comments on the legality of waterboarding.

Bloviator O'Reilly risks physical harm to save the Constitution

Robert Greenwald, in an edit of the now-famous web video of Bill O'Reilly shoving an Obama staffer at a rally, demonstrates exactly why Obama might not show favor to the Fox News Network. You can visit the Greenwald website to encourage Obama to continue the cold shoulder to the Fox News 'correspondents."