Last night I was watching the O'Reilly Factor...

Yes, I know, I'm a masochist.

Anyway, I decided to tune in to Mr. O'Reilly's show upon hearing that he was calling for the resignation of House Speaker Dennis Hastert in the wake of the child exploitation charges rising up against Florida Congressman Mark Foley. Although Papa Bill proudly claims his independent status, most people with one active brain cell will notice that he may at times slant a little more to the right-wing than the left-wing, so hearing him call for the head of such a prominent conservative was at the least very interesting.

While watching Mr. O'Reilly's broadcast I noticed something... shall we say, a bit odd. Here's a screenshot from that very "news"cast, let's see if you can spot the error... an little brain teaser to start your morning.

See anything unusual there? Now, for a second, let's pretend that you didn't catch it (and perhaps some of you haven't). If that's an innocent mistake, I'll accept it and move along. Those things can happen and we certainly can't rely on a NEWS network to get ALL of the FACTS correct, now can we.

So, figuring that this was simply human error and not part of some sneaky, semi-subliminal effort to confuse the hell out of the voting public (it was only up for a few seconds), I went on my merry way. Unfortunately, this morning I came to learn that Fox News now seems to be making a practice of this "mistake," tossing it up there on yet another occasion. Once again, the image is quick, but isn't all great subliminal advertising?

In case you haven't determined what I'm talking about on here, Mark Foley is a REPUBLICAN! Fox News has decided, however, that Republicans just aren't capable of this type of thing... so surely he must have been a Democrat, right? These are, of course, the same people that are loudly screaming at Bill Clinton for trying to "rewrite history..." which I find to be far more palatable than Fox's attempts to rewrite the present.

Then, just when you thought that the madness surely wouldn't go any deeper, that this is as far as they'd go, take a look at this screenshot from a recent Osama Bin Laden video:

Have they no decency? The answer is, of course, no.

It's a scary time in America. The founding documents of our society are being rewritten, schools seem to be shot up every day, and the propaganda machines are running at such a pace that the former Soviet Union would have to sit back and watch with quiet awe. Of course the Osama picture is a joke, but the first two aren't. It seems completely absurd to consider someone confusing Bin Laden with Byrd or Rockefeller, but shouldn't it be equally absurd to confuse a Republican, especially one that is now so closely linked to high-ranking Republican leadership, with a Democrat?

At best it's shockingly sloppy journalism. However, at worst it's something far more sinister. I'll let you, and your level of cynicism decide that one.

"If the Party could thrust its hand into the past and say this or that even, it never happened—that, surely, was more terrifying than mere torture and death."