Steve Smith wrote:

And just yesterday I received a petition forwarded by Dave Douglas that indicated local authorities here in New York, at Rumsfeld's behest, are trying to avoid granting a permit for a massive anti-war demonstration scheduled for Saturday...

Organizers were denied a permit to march past the UN, but a stationary protest at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza is still planned. New Yorkers, please go. I'll look for you on C-Span: http://wsws.org/articles/2003/feb2003/nyc-f11.shtml http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0210-08.htm

That's the subject of Alterman's new book. I thumbed through it at a bookstore a few days ago, and it looked interesting. Sure, I wanted it to fan my own personal ire at the rising ubiquity and popularity of the Sean Hannitys and Ann Coulters out there, and it does that. But it was pretty edifying to see some hard figures that point out Fox News blowhard Bill O'Reilly's distortions of fact and outright untruths. Saturday Night Live's parody of him wasn't far removed from truth, it seems.

My vote for worst pundit has to be radio host Michael Savage. His radio show is extremely racist, misogynistic, and (hetero)sexist. Upon hearing that a New England college voted in a referendum to come out against the war in Afghanistan, he said, "Go back to your bathhouse, we know what your agenda is." He'd rather spend his time ranting against homosexuals, "towelheads", social programs, and immigrants. There's also a nasty show in Mass/NH run by a former GOP campaign chief that is especially anti-immigrant. He wouldn't want his kids to learn Spanish because only the poor and criminal elements in America speak Spanish; better that they learn to speak German. Peace, Ben _________________________________________________________________ STOP MORE SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail