The Quick Brown is a Fox News headline tracker that visually displays deltas (additions and edits) in a quick-to-grok manner. It’s actually possible to watch the sensationalizing in slow-motion, which is as sickening as it is fascinating.

For example, the headline “Obama: Tax cut by April 1″ becomes “Obama gearing up for fight.”

The text of the article shifts from:
“President says he’ll fight to change health care, energy and education — even if lobbyists don’t like it”
to
“President says he’ll fight to change health care, energy and education — as GOP objects to budget’s cost.”

It’s almost like the news is being corroded before our eyes, where a perfectly reasonable story about taxes is tailored into a standoffish piece about Obama targeting the party of Fox News.

RTFA: http://www.thequickbrown.com/

What?
The Quick Brown tracks changes in Fox News headlines.

Legend
Styles used to show edits:

Red with strikethrough
Text that has been removed.

Black inverted:
Text or story that has been added.

Red
The story was removed from the headlines list.

Light grey
A headline that stayed the same.

Statistics
Stories: 7231
Total amount of edits: 10193
Running for: 550 days

I hold here, in my formerly nicotine-stained fingers, that singular strategy which may be Republicans’ last and only hope of maintaining relevance in post-Bush American politics. As a registered Republican, I speak for the majority of Republicans, and I speak to that majority, as an act of identity-preservation. Radical extremists have formed a splinter cell within the party. Because the extremist element is in the minority, it must be isolated and disenfranchised. Lest their malignancy poison the entire body, amputation is preferable to systemic failure and eventual death.

The Palestinians are in a parallel situation, where the Fatah majority have constructed a functioning, internationally recognized organization, while simultaneously shedding their associations with the most violent elements of their society. Take note: this strategy has survived the recent test, in which Israel isolated Hamas without involving the Palestinians as a whole. Rush Limbaugh is Hamas. The Republicans are now being tested.

Everyone is served by the Hamas/Fatah split. Those individuals who become extremists now have a well-defined destination. As a result, the healthy, functioning majority can use the political process to advance their cause without the liability imposed by extremists. Make no mistake: the Limbaughs (and there are several) do attract a certain audience, but that audience consists of political invalids, with radical and ineffective beliefs that do not agree with mainstream Republicanism. This particular audience does not want to be Republican, any more than Republicans can afford to accommodate these radical extremists.

Quite simply, it is time for both parties (Republicans and Republinots) to recognize that they have fundamentally different tactics, and that they will get farther without the other.

For Limbaugh, mainstream Republicans are just another target of his criticism, and he’s been seeking to break apart, whether consciously recognizing it or not. Admit it, Republicans: Limbaugh is an unconvicted serial drug addict; a man at war with himself, with society at large, and with Republicans in particular.

More than anything, it is critical for both parties to recognize that, so long as they are considered part of the same group, they are doomed to be blamed for the others’ shortcomings. The division is mutual, complete, and beneficial.

RTFA: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/12/opinion/12mon4.h…

On Christmas Eve, the conservative pundit Monica Crowley argued on Fox News that instead of rescuing America from the Great Depression, Franklin Roosevelt’s spending on public works made it worse. She insisted that this bizarre claim was confirmed by “all kinds of studies and academic work.”

The show’s host backed her up. “Yes,” said Gregg Jarrett, “I think historians pretty much agree on that.” In the same vein, a recent Wall Street Journal opinion piece said F.D.R. helped turn “a panic into the worst depression of modern times.” Now, as Congress begins to debate President-elect Barack Obama’s ambitious economic stimulus plan, this anti-New Deal talking point is popping up all over.

Conservatives have railed against the New Deal from the start. In 1934, H. L. Mencken was already decrying it as “a saturnalia of expropriation and waste.” When F.D.R. ran for re-election in 1936, a headline in William Randolph Hearst’s newspapers insisted that “Moscow Backs Roosevelt.”

But Americans were not fooled. They knew F.D.R. was on their side in a way that Herbert Hoover and his fellow free-marketers hadn’t been. They could see first-hand the good that Roosevelt’s jobs programs were doing for the Depression’s victims and the slow but unmistakable improvements in the economy.

…

Congressional Republicans say Mr. Obama’s stimulus will cost too much, and that over time the economy will cure itself. When critics raised the same objections to F.D.R.’s programs, his relief administrator, Harry Hopkins, had a ready answer: “People don’t eat in the long run. They eat every day.”

What, Americans should go to work? I thought they should sit at home and collect unemployment or welfare checks. The best thing for the rocketing unemployment rate right now is to make sure we don’t create new jobs. Jobs are bad. Jobs make Americans think they shouldn’t be lazy. Screw American industriousness; that was a myth of the 50s.

But, wait -> The Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Mr. Benjamin Bernanke, disagrees with this rhetoric:

RTFA: http://business.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/…

U.S. Federal Reserve Board chairman Ben Bernanke said Tuesday the stimulus package being crafted by President-elect Barack Obama and Congress could provide a significant boost to the sinking economy. But he warned that such a recovery won t last unless other steps are taken to stabilize the shaky financial system.

Although Mr. Bernanke has previously endorsed the notion for a fresh round of government stimulus to lift the country out of a recession, it marked the first time the Fed chief has referenced the roughly $800-billion U.S. recovery plan now being worked on by Mr. Obama, who takes office next week. Mr. Obama envisions a blend of tax cuts and increased government spending, including on big public works projects, to make up the stimulus plan.

Mr. Bernanke, who didn t weigh in on the details of the evolving package, made clear that such a recovery plan was needed as part of a broader, multi-pronged government response to combat the worst financial crisis to hit the U.S. and the global economy since the 1930s.

The incoming administration and the Congress are currently discussing a substantial fiscal package that, if enacted, could provide a significant boost to economic activity, Mr. Bernanke said in a speech to the London School of Economics.

At least someone has some sense!

RTFA: http://wjbk.4wmt.com/cmm/

Welcome to the MyFox Candidate Matchmaker. Compare your position on key political issues with those of the current presidential candidates.

Here you can:

* Play 20 questions to find your closest political match
* Dig deeper into the candidates’ answers, stances and news coverage
* Download a cool political bobble head widget
* Embed this quiz on your blog or site

So, what are you waiting for? Take the Candidate Matchmaker challenge today.

I heard that WJBK, a Detroit-area Fox station, was providing weird results with its “Candidate Matchmaker” so I decided to test it out. The answers below would probably be moderately irritating to a “social conservative” – and they’re definitely not my personal views – but let’s see who this Fox affiliate recommends…

Either McCain is suddenly hip to abortion, pulling out of Iraq, and boosting alternative fuel sources, or I missed something here. Maybe it was the part about the Drugs, Social Security, or the Patriot Act? …er, that’s probably not it either.

According to this Fox affiliate, McCain is exactly tied (33%-to-33%) with Obama on these “progressive” issues… and we are left to choose between a few competing interpretations:

* McCain is a decent match for “social progressives” and a letdown for “social conservatives”
* National Fox News is selling a different McCain than local Fox News
* Obama and McCain are more similar than different
* the WJBK algorithm simply has some programming errors

What’s your take?

RTFA covered a variety of Candidate Matching services a few days ago. Read on for more detailed analysis.