Peter Preston writes in the Guardian: "Who exactly will Osama bin Laden be voting for this November? Is he (whisper it gently) a closet Republican? Take almost any current terror scenario and put it to public opinion. Suppose that the 9/11 commission is right. Suppose that the obvious risk of another al-Qaeda attack turns to bloody reality sometime over the next four months. Who gains? Why, the sitting President, the Commander in Chief...Anything that keeps in the public eye library pictures of masked Muslims training somewhere in the Hindu Kush, and so-called terrorism 'experts' peddling their TV wares, must be good politics for Bush. Come in Abu al-Hindi, this is your moment...More activity, more arrests, more bloodcurdling claims, more headlines. The frenzy called Fox News grows almost of its own volition..."

When it comes to rightwing talk show hosts, there seems to be a direct correlation between the size of the mouth and the degree of confidence in one's...er, masculinity. The bigger the mouth, the smaller the confidence. So it is no wonder that Teresa Heinz Kerry, glowingly confident in her own sense of self, should bring out the worst in the likes of Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Chris Wallace and Brit Hume. They have ganged up on Teresa like a pack of seventh grade bullies beating up a girl to try to prove they have cahoonies. In fact, the content of most of their defense of their embarrassingly infantile attacks is roughly at a seventh-grade level (behaviorally challenged seventh graders, anyway). Check out this summary from Media Matters! What a hoot! How can anyone take these "talk show clowns" seriously?

We've never seen a more outrageous display of paranoiac hysteria directed at a candidate's wife than what the Bushie media has been doing of late. After the attacks Hillary sustained in the 1990s, then the persecution of Martha Stewart, a clear pattern has emerged: the rightwingers, including their media minions, are terrified of powerful women. Even this announcement of Heinz's speech tonight is laden with passive-aggressive venom. She wrote her speech out on paper - so that becomes "carefully scripted." She is going to use teleprompters, so suddenly, she's the only person in history to appear on national TV and use a teleprompter. And, of course, the story leads in with the six-millionth rehash of the "shove it" story. Well, ya know what our mamma used to say: those who bash strong women are just scared little men or jealous women!

Of course the AP (A.merican P.ropaganda) version of this story being widely disseminated by the corporate media leaves out HALF of this story in order to spin it as negatively as possible. But the Patriotnews - based in the city where the incident actually occurred reveals the whole story. "Citing negative ads Bush's campaign is airing about her husband, she said, 'We need to turn back some of the creeping un-Pennsylvanian and sometimes un-American traits that are coming into some of our politics.' Pittsburgh Tribune-Review editorial page editor Colin McNickle then proceeded to harass Kerry, twisting her words around. But there's more to it than that - Kerry has had a longstanding feud with the Tribune-Review and its publisher, the fanatical rightwing NeoCon Richard Mellon Scaife. It is obvious McNickle was sent to harass Kerry and she knew it. Thus, after an interchange, Heinz finally exploded and said: 'Shut up. Shove it.' "

Arianna Huffington writes, "Teresa Heinz Kerry is a breath of fresh air, so why are the media choking on it? Almost every story about her these days includes at least one snarky remark - usually attacking her for her refusal to endlessly regurgitate the same preapproved talking points. According to the chattering class, Heinz Kerry is - and I quote - 'too outspoken,' 'too opinionated,' 'slightly zany,' 'eccentric and unpredictable,' 'the queen of direct' and - cover your ears, kids - 'says what she thinks, when she thinks it.' In other words, she's an unconventional straight shooter. The horror! Even Maureen Dowd, no slouch herself in the independent-thinking department, felt compelled to write not one but two columns in the course of 10 days slamming Teresa for, among other things, being 'flaky.'"

"How stupid are [David] Halbfinger and his editors [at the NY Times]? Read this profile if you're curious. Poor David! He's back in a tizzy about Heinz Kerry, who 'has a reputation as being offbeat if not a little odd,' and who sometimes 'curs[es] in one of her five languages or mus[es] aloud in accented English.' Indeed, Heinz 'was born in Mozambique to European parents,' the Times scribe reports, and is therefore 'half Portuguese.' As he listens to her 'accented' speech, it has him upset to this day. But then, the addled fellow is only repeating what others just like him have already said. After all, what did 'America learn about [Heinz Kerry] when she first stepped into the political limelight a year ago?' Simple! 'At the time, there were juicy details about her Botox treatments and her prenuptial agreement, her Chanel shoes and her cashmere scarves,' Halbfinger lovingly recalls. Because other half-wits typed it up then, the empty scribe types it up now."