October 23, 2009, 0:00 a.m.

Fox Wars
The Obama administration wants to delegitimize any significant dissent.

By Charles Krauthammer

Rahm Emanuel once sent a dead fish to a live pollster. Now he’s put a horse’s head in Roger Ailes’s bed.

Not very subtle. And not very smart. Ailes doesn’t scare easily.

The White House has declared war on Fox News. White House communications director Anita Dunn said that Fox is “opinion journalism masquerading as news.” Patting rival networks on the head for their authenticity (read: docility), senior adviser David Axelrod declared Fox “not really a news station.” And Chief of Staff Emanuel told (warned?) the other networks not to “be led (by) and following Fox.”

Meaning? If Fox runs a story critical of the administration — from exposing White House czar Van Jones as a loony 9/11 “truther” to exhaustively examining the mathematical chicanery and hidden loopholes in proposed health-care legislation — the other news organizations should think twice before following the lead.

The signal to corporations is equally clear: You might have dealings with a federal behemoth that not only disburses more than $3 trillion every year but is extending its reach ever deeper into private industry — finance, autos, soon health care and energy. Think twice before you run an ad on Fox.

At first, there was little reaction from other media. Then on Thursday, the administration tried to make them complicit in an actual boycott of Fox. The Treasury Department made available Ken Feinberg, the executive pay czar, for interviews with the White House “pool” news organizations — except Fox. The other networks admirably refused, saying they would not interview Feinberg unless Fox was permitted to as well. The administration backed down.

This was an important defeat because there’s a principle at stake here. While government can and should debate and criticize opposition voices, the current White House goes beyond that. It wants to delegitimize any significant dissent. The objective is no secret. White House aides openly told Politico that they’re engaged in a deliberate campaign to marginalize and ostracize recalcitrants, from Fox to health insurers to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

There’s nothing illegal about such search-and-destroy tactics. Nor unconstitutional. But our politics are defined not just by limits of legality or constitutionality. We have norms, Madisonian norms.

Madison argued that the safety of a great republic, its defense against tyranny, requires the contest between factions or interests. His insight was to understand “the greater security afforded by a greater variety of parties.” They would help guarantee liberty by checking and balancing and restraining each other — and an otherwise imperious government.

Factions should compete, but also recognize the legitimacy of other factions and, indeed, their necessity for a vigorous self-regulating democracy. Seeking to deliberately undermine, delegitimize, and destroy is not Madisonian. It is Nixonian.

But didn’t Teddy Roosevelt try to destroy the trusts? Of course, but what he took down was monopoly power that was extinguishing smaller independent competing interests. Fox News is no monopoly. It is a singular minority in a sea of liberal media. ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, NPR, CNN, MSNBC vs. Fox. The lineup is so unbalanced as to be comical — and that doesn’t even include the other commanding heights of the culture that are firmly, flagrantly liberal: Hollywood, the foundations, the universities, the elite newspapers.

Fox and its viewers (numbering more than CNN’s and MSNBC’s combined) need no defense. Defend Fox compared to whom? To CNN — which recently unleashed its fact-checkers on a Saturday Night Live skit mildly critical of President Obama, but did no checking of a grotesquely racist remark CNN falsely attributed to Rush Limbaugh?

Defend Fox from whom? Fox’s flagship 6 o’clock evening news out of Washington (hosted by Bret Baier, formerly by Brit Hume) is, to my mind, the best hour of news on television. (Definitive evidence: My mother watches it even on the odd night when I’m not on.) Defend Fox from the likes of Anita Dunn? She’s been attacked for extolling Mao’s political philosophy in a speech at a high-school graduation. But the critics miss the surpassing stupidity of her larger point: She was invoking Mao as support and authority for her impassioned plea for individuality and trusting one’s own choices. Mao as champion of individuality? Mao, the greatest imposer of mass uniformity in modern history, creator of a slave society of a near-billion worker bees wearing Mao suits and waving the Little Red Book?

The White House communications director cannot be trusted to address high schoolers without uttering inanities. She and her cohorts are now to instruct the country on truth and objectivity?

— Charles Krauthammer is a nationally syndicated columnist. © 2009, The Washington Post Writers Group

and now one in my lower back is bothering me, too.  Seeing the chiropractor on Monday for a massage and an adjustment.  Until then, Icy Hot is my best friend. 

it’s been a rough 24 hours.  If any of you are connected to me on Facebook, you may have seen me comment that I was sad last night, and am slowly crawling out of it.  I had an encounter of the less than loving kind with one of my fellow homeschooling families.  Actually, it’s been going on for quite a while.  You know homeschooling families aren’t known for being “submissive” … I mean, homeschooling by nature is a rebellious act.  Refusing to go with the status quo, the “normality” of government schools.  Blah, blah, blah …

Hmmm … now there’s an idea.

It’s absolutely gorgeous outside right now.  The temp got down in the 50’s last night – my favorite kind of weather.  A high in the 70’s today … a slight warming trend for a couple of days, but then I think we’ll be experiencing more of the nice weather of the last 48 hours.  I hope so, anyway.  I am a much more pleasant person when I’m not hot!

Will be running up to Houston shortly – we had a cellular shade installation on Saturday and two of the twelve shades were damaged in shipping.  One had a dented headrail and another had a cracked end-cap, so I’ll have to return them for either repair or replacement.  It’s a bit of an inconvenience having to drive up to Houston, and also because the client lives south of us in Matagorda, which is NOT around the corner. 

I’m having another quality control challenge with a different job, too.  I recently installed 14 blinds in a house down in Bay City.  Everything looked good, but not three days after we left, one of the tilters on a blind broke.  We went down, looked at the situation and realized that the gear in the tilter had cracked.  It was made of plastic – not metal, as we have been used to in the past.  We happened to have a blind at the house that we thought we could harvest the part from – easy fix, no?  Before we could make arrangements to go back to switch out the parts, ANOTHER one of their blinds broke.

So I contacted the manufacturer and told them that obviously it was a quality issue with this part and they needed to go down and switch out the tilters on all 14 blinds, because that should be covered by their warranty.  They’ve agreed to do so, but at THEIR convenience.  Which annoys me like nobody’s business because my client paid good money for those blinds and they should work!  And they should not have to wait weeks for it to be “convenient” for the manufacturer.  My most recent communication with the manufacturer is that they will handle the repairs in a timely manner.  If they do not, I will order quality parts from another source and go do it myself.  Because I’m not a trained blind tech, it’s going to take me a lot longer.  And I told them that I will deduct the cost of the replacement parts, plus a reasonable amount for my travel, time and labor from the balance I still owe on the blinds.  You see, I’ve not paid the balance due (about $500) because as far as I’m concerned, they haven’t finished the job (making sure the blinds are in acceptable working condition).

One thing you can be sure of – I will not be ordering any additional products from this company.

When we were down Matagorda/Bay City way on Saturday, we discovered that Bay City does a “Market Days” event the third Saturday of each month.  It is so awesome – all around the courthouse square, the city has set up booths for vendors to sell their wares.  There are the usual “junky junk” hawkers with stuff straight off the boat from China, and the direct sales folks with their BeautiControl and Tupperware … and then the craftsmen selling their own imaginative creations.  Several individuals sold beautiful beaded jewelry, and another lady had fantastic soaps that she packaged in strips of vintage chenille.  We visited with a young woman who sells “recycled” furniture — she finds the odd bit here and there that needs a little sprucing up and then offers it at the show … she also had some interesting retro bits like cannister sets from, I’d venture to guess, the 40’s or 50’s.  Do you remember the metal cake carriers that looked like anodized copper?

We’re thinking we may have to see about getting a booth ourselves.  A regular booth is $30 and one with electricity is $40.  Jami makes her beaded jewelry and AJ has made some lovely decorative wood pieces.  I am not sure what I could contribute to the venture, but I think it might be fun.  Maybe handcrafted cards?  Hmmm ….

Right now my biggest challenge is making our $ go as far as they possibly can.  It’s not been a good year for us financially, and in great part due to my poor business sense.  I sold more blinds than I probably ever had, but because I don’t manage the books part of it well, we got hit with that huge tax bill.  So I’m trying to reform my ways and not waste $ on convenience foods, take-out, eat-out, etc.  Using up the last of the toothpaste in the tube, even though it’s a flavor I don’t really care for and emphasizing to my guy and my girl that we need to make meals S-T-R-E-T-C-H … when we cook, we need to reduce our serving sizes so that we can get two meals from a recipe, rather than one.  No second servings, and the added bonus is we lose weight! 

Well, I’d best go take care of my Houston business and get back.  I think I’m going to get the girl to ride with me and we’ll work on math as we drive up the highway.  Have a good day.

Well, isn’t that an interest and, dare I say it, logical take on things?

I managed to get our income tax return and payment mailed via certified mail earlier this afternoon, so that’s not worrying me any longer.  I also dropped the fabric and instructions off at the drapery workroom for a special project I’m working on for a client.  She owns a condo on the beach near San Luis Pass and the sunlight is INTENSE in the mornings.  She has nice custom blinds in her windows, but needs something to help minimize the glare.  Fortunately her windows are FIVE inches deep, which is going to allow us to move the blind to the front of the window and install sun control shades behind the blinds.  The “special project” is basically a stretched canvas made of a wooden frame covered with the sun control fabric.  We are going to screw this to the door in the master bedroom and the two inch blinds will hang in front of it.  Our hope is that these treatments will still allow some sunlight to softly filter through, but reduce the intensity and glare.  I think it will work.

Tomorrow will be busy – I have yearbook work to attend to, school work with my girl, and appointments to schedule with clients.  It’s all good, though.

Still trying to come up with additional means of income when the blind thing is slow.  Hmmmm ?????

I’m off to the bank to finalize the loan and then the post office to mail our return and payment to the IRS.  Then I have to take some fabric to a drapery workroom to have something made for a client.  After that, I’ll be doing something else, even though I’m not quite sure what it is.  There’s so much to do!  Just have to wade through my list.

I’m making the effort to write something here every day, even if it’s just a little blip about what I’m doing.  To get back in the habit.  Hopefully, as the days go by, I’ll have the inspiration to write something more creative.  🙂

If nothing else, it’s a return to the journal-keeping of my younger days.  A nice record of our life.

We will be heading out the door in about an hour to go to the County Fair.  Each year, on Wednesday of Fair Week, our homeschool group helps serve lunch to the “Special Needs Kids” from around the county.  Buses bring the kids to the fairgrounds where they are entertained during the mid-day hours.  They are given tours of the fairgrounds, get to watch some of the rodeo events, and enjoy hot dogs, chips, and soda while being entertained by clowns making balloon animals.  It’s really sweet and this will be our fifth year to serve lunch.  Afterwards, we’ll walk the exhibits, see if we won any ribbons and enjoy a fried oreo with a Coke.  Yum!

Now if the weather will just cooperate! ….

Just checked it.  Blasted weather.  High of 91, with a heat index of 105.  So not fair…………..

I’m going to just lay it out there … I’ve really be struggling with my relationship with God.  Because of a lot of garbage in my life concerning my mother and my husband’s father, I’ve been giving into bitterness and resentment.  Yes, yes … I know.  It never hurts the other person, it only hurts you.  And heavens, how it has hurt me.  My soul feels cold as ice and it’s very difficult for me to get too terribly excited about anything of a spiritual nature.  I feel like these people are sucking the life out of me and my immediate family due to their demands, and the truth is I am letting them do it by giving into the bitterness and resentment.  As they say, the first step to solving any problem is recognizing that it’s there … and so I hope that this is the first baby step toward getting myself back on track with God, trusting Him to see us through these difficult relationships, regardless of what may happen around me.

As we enter a season of thanksgiving, I want to start with this:  so far my immediate family of three has remained healthy, in spite of the frequent news we hear of friends and family coming down with various flu-like bugs.  There have been several young people in our homeschooling circle that have had stomach ailments of some sort or another – two young ladies were diagnosed with hiatal hernias, another young man is having intestinal issues of such intensity that he has lost about 30 lbs. since school started.  A series of test results at the renowned Texas Children’s Hospital still have doctors scratching their heads on that one.  A positive diagnosis of one case of swine flu, and so it goes.

And so, while I may struggle with my walk, I’m taking a step of faith in saying “thank you, Lord, for keeping me, my husband, and our daughter healthy in the midst of such illness”. 

went to the bank with the extra stuff and discovered that it was a “stipulated” approval … meaning it’s approved, but not quite?  Anyway, our banker told us that she is not worried about us getting the loan – apparently our bank (Wells Fargo) has always been VERY picky about loan approvals (one of the reasons it is still fairly stable compared with the other banks that have gone down the tubes during the recent financial tribulations) and now they are pickier than they’ve ever been.  She said that if we weren’t going to get the loan, it would have said “denied” as soon as she hit the “submit” button.  So … hopefully she knows what she’s talking about and we will be able to pick up the check tomorrow.

Just watched “The International” with my husband.  An action flick with Clive Owen and Naomi Watts … it was pretty good.  There was one line in it that rang SO TRUE with me, especially in light of everything that’s happened in the last 48 hours.  The gist of the story line has to do with an international bank getting involved in selling missile guidance systems … originally Watts’ character says, “So the entity that controls the conflict, has the power.”  And the individual she is speaking with says, “No, the entity that controls the DEBT has the power.”

As Proverbs 22:7 (NIV) states:  “The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.”

Because of the poor decisions I’ve made in my business, I do not have the freedom to just close the doors and do something different.  Being the servant of those I owe, I must continue to work to fulfill the obligations that I have created.  It’s a bitter pill to swallow, but a medicine I cannot avoid any longer.