Oh, it exists, all right.  It is very, very real.  But it is the exact opposite of what the whining republicans and their enablers claim.  The bias actually works in favor of Republicans.

That is the finding of two Indiana University professors who analyzed network coverage of the 1992-2004 presidential campaigns.  

Maria Elizabeth Grabe and Erik Bucy, both associate professors in the Department of Telecommunications of IU’s College of Arts and Sciences, report their findings in their book, Image Bite Politics: News and the Visual Framing of Elections (Oxford University Press).

“We don’t think this is journalists conspiring to favor Republicans. We think they’re just so beat up and tired of being accused of a liberal bias that they unknowingly give Republicans the benefit in coverage,” said Grabe, who also is a research associate in political science at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. “It’s self-censorship that journalists might be imposing on themselves.”

Wow.  Lenin and Goebbels were right.  Lies are mighty powerful things, and if you repeat them often enough they become true, or at least are accepted as so – with the added benefit of making those who don’t believe the CW suspect.  

Those are some damned fine role models you have decided to emulate, GOP.  Fine roll models indeed.

What is one to do after calling on the freezing of federal spending.. well, if you’re Roy Blunt, you become one of 24 Representatives to oppose freezing your salary. Seriously.

Now, the whole process of how our Congress handles pay raises is not exactly enthralling (since they don’t directly vote on the pay raises for obvious reasons). But in the passage of H. Res. 184, the freezing of the 2010 pay raise was attached to HR 1185 somehow. The AP isn’t particularly clear on this point. And The Hill seems to be reporting the vote total for the previous question vote (393-25) instead of the resolution vote (398-24).

But amongst the 24 who voted no on H. Res. 184 was Roy Blunt. On a vote where Republicans acknowledged it was a huge trap that could be used against them later.. Roy Blunt may have wandered right into that trap. Smooth. Even Todd Akin voted aye there.

You’ve probably heard of the anti-recovery-plan “Tea Party” under the Arch this Friday advertised for free by our local corporate media. Turns out this event is being spearheaded by a vast network of right-wing organizations in support of CNBC’s big-investor and mortgage-trader “revolt” launched by Wall Street apologist and former financial executive Rick Santelli last week:

“Official Sponsors for this [nationwide] event are:

United Republican Fund (tag line: “Rebuilding the Republican Party”) http://www.unitedrepublican.com/

Top Conservatives on Twitter (TCOT) ~ http://www.topconservativesont…

Smart Girl Politics ~ http://smartgirlpolitics.ning….

Don’tGo Movement ~ http://www.dontgomovement.com/

American Spectator Magazine ~ http://spectator.org/

Americans for Tax Reform ~ http://www.atr.org/

The Heartland Institute ~ http://www.heartland.org/ ”

– from http://www.officialchicagoteaparty.com

The St. Louis event

(Facebook group here: http://www.facebook.com/event…. ) features prominent anti-Obama pictures, along with photos from last year’s McCain/Palin rally in St. Charles. The page’s administrators are the leader of a right-wing blog affiliated with the Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter Fan Clubs, and the employee of a major media company, both of whom happen to be “friends” with GOP operative Ed Martin, former chief of staff to Gov. Matt Blunt. In its talking points, the group’s mission states that “We are determined to protect our Republican form of Government” (note the capital “R”), and urges participants to “support a conservative candidate”, many of whom are expected to attend these so-called “grassroots” events around the country.

It’s interesting that our local corporate media has eagerly rushed to cover this event as a spontaneous, “grassroots” gathering of concerned citizens, when the facts clearly show otherwise. In fact, the St. Louis group’s administrator encourages people (on his blog) to “Please say “thanks” to Matt [Sczesny] and KMOV [channel 4 news] for a fair report [on the planned tea party].” Why don’t we tell Channel 4 and Matt Sczesny what we think of their shameless promotion of a clearly partisan political event with no investigation of the true source? Here is a list of contact numbers for KMOV and its owner Belo Corp. (based in Dallas):

Phone:

KMOV News: (314) 444-6333

News 4 Investigates: (314) 444-3344

KMOV Main: (314) 621-4444

Fax:

News: 314-621-4775

Main: 314-444-3367

E-mail:

news@kmov.com

investigate@kmov.com

http://www.kmov.com/contact/in…

http://www.beloblog.com/KMOV_B…

Belo Corp (Dallas):

214-977-6606

214-977-6603 (fax)

R. Paul Fry

Vice President/Investor Relations & Corporate Communications, Belo Corp.

214-977-6835

214-977-7051 (fax)

invest@belo.com

Jill Matthews

Director/Corporate Communications, Belo Corp.

214-977-6825

214-977-7051 (fax)

jmatthews@belo.com

It’s time to say loud and clear to this corrupt corporate media, “We’re mad as hell, and we’re not going to take your misrepresentations and lies anymore”!  And while we’re at it, let’s write to our representatives at the FCC, and demand an end to the use of news time to promote partisan political organizations and agendas, with a lack of due diligence to uncover the source of the story:

http://www.fcc.gov/contacts.html

House committee rejects expansion of children’s health care. Looks like we can narrow the list of what Republicans are giving up for the next 40 days. They obviously haven’t given up “blocking ways to help people out”.

It appears that Rick Santelli’s nasty little exercise in misdirected begrudgery is inspiring like minded folks here in St. Louis.  Some St. Louisians, who are worried that the undeserving may get to fritter away their hard-earned tax dollars, are organizing a tea party (as in Boston Tea Party) at the arch on Friday.  They expect all of a hundred people to turn out.

The organizer, “popular blogger” Dana Loesch, seems unable to get her mind around the fact that what is funded by the stimulus is not the main goal of the funding — which is to create jobs. And if something useful is built, of course that is even better.  Among her targets:

Things such as $250,000 to put blue shutters on historic buildings, $650,000 for a camping site and $5 million for a dog park.

Not bad projects in themselves, but, I can see why Loesch chooses to emphasize these specific expenditues.  Apart from their intrinsic virtues, however, they are the type of project that can be ready to go right away, which is the main criteria for the first wave of stimulus spending as I understand it.  

Somebody explain to Loesch, please, that real people, probably drawn from the currently large number of area unemployed, have to do the work to put up those blue shutters, and build the camping site and dog park.  And these people get paid.  Then they go out and spend the money. Spending cranks up demand and creates jobs.  Heck, the factory orders for the shutters and other building materials mean jobs. We all benefit.  Or, at least that’s the theory — and, all things considered, it seems to be the only viable theory in town right now.

It will indeed be interesting to see how many people in St. Louis and environs get caught up in the Boston Tea Party furor and turn out to demand that we cut off our noses to spite our faces.

UPDATE.  Okay, maybe the inspiration for this little gathering is not exactly a spontaneous epiphany on the part of Ms. Loesch; take a look at this diary for more information.

Since the House Journal entry for 2/24 wasn’t working last night (and is working now).. we can see a roll call on Margo McNeil’s amendment to the Four-Day School Week bill.

Representative McNeil offered House Amendment No. 3.

House Amendment No. 3: AMEND House Committee Substitute for House Bill No. 242, Page 3, Section 171.029, Line 1, by inserting immediately after the word “state” the following:

“that has qualified for the “distinction in performance” award in the previous school year”; and

Further amend said bill by amending the title, enacting clause, and intersectional references accordingly.

In the debate between allowing opting-in for distinguished districts, and just letting anybody do it (provided they don’t fall off after the switch, then they would be forced back to five-day weeks, as per an amendment to the bill in committee)

So, who crossed the aisle on this amendment?  

Republicans voting aye: Jason Brown (R-Platte City), Gary Dusenberg (R-Blue Springs), Will Kraus (R-Raytown), Marilyn Ruestman (R-Joplin), Dennis Wood (R-Kimberling City), and Brian Yates (R-Lee’s Summit).

Basically there’s a crossover of Suburban Republicans on this matter. Now, that wasn’t enough to pass this amendment. But there is a crossover. Plus, it serves as a sign of which suburban Reps (or Reps who have to cozy up to education to get re-elected) didn’t vote against their leadership.

As for the perfection.. the only Republicans voting no were Wayne Cooper (R-Camdenton), Dusenberg, Doug Ervin (R-Kearney), Tim Flook (R-Liberty), Will Kraus, Joe Smith (R-St. Charles), Bryan Pratt (R-Blue Springs), and Brian Yates. So there were some interesting flips from no on the amendment to no on the perfection.