Under our constitution, since 1865, it is the Federal government, not the states, that have to power to guarantee and enforce the Bill of Rights. Prior to that, back when the states had the power to enforce and guarantee individual rights, they could enforce or ignore the Bill of Rights as they wished. Under the color of law, they allowed their inhabitants to be enslaved, whipped, tortured, raped and murdered. They denied the right to vote to those who did not own property, or were members of undesirable races. They left a sad and brutal history of repression until they were finally forced to rule justly as a result of the Civil War.

A person is born with three inalienable rights, not rights "given" to him by the states, rights which are naturally born to any human: the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. In other words, a person who follows the law, has a right to choose their own destiny without state interference. The state has no right to force women to bear children they do not want. A woman has a right to decide her own destiny, and no religious fascist has a right to use the powers of the state to force her to follow their religious tenets in regards to child bearing. Thank God we have a Federal government that protects those rights from the easily manipulated and special interest stooges of local state governments.

You are kidding, I'm sure! Colmes took Hannity to task at every turn! I think your view is another perfect example of people's view of individuals as being left or right is influenced more by their OWN position on the airplane than it is that of the person being evaluated.

BTW, if I'm not to point my "nasty political finger" at you, then maybe you can ask some of your other left leaning friends to refrain from doing the same at me. I'm highly out numbered you know and lefties are notorious at screaming loudly when they think things are "unfair."

:rolleyes::rolleyes: Do you ever read your own posts and think about what they say Larry? This opinion on Colmes and the show is widely supported.

Just googling "Hannity & Colmes", the very first hit is wikipedia and oddly enough it states,

"The show was both praised and criticized by viewers and organizations for the concept and production of the show. Ratings-wise, it was long the second highest-rated program in U.S. cable news behind The O'Reilly Factor and averaged 3.3 million viewers nightly for the Nielsen month prior to the 2008 presidential election.[4] Alan Colmes was touted by Fox as "a hard-hitting liberal", but stated to USA Today that "I'm quite moderate".[5] He sometimes took more conservative positions than other prominent liberals, such as supporting Rudy Giuliani for mayor of New York City and agreeing with the use of torture techniques by the government of the United States. He was characterized by several newspapers as being Hannity's "sidekick".[6] Liberal commentator Al Franken lambasted Colmes in his book, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, accusing him of refusing to ask tough questions during debates and neglecting to challenge erroneous claims made by Hannity or his guests.[6] Franken also claimed that Colmes did not speak as much as Hannity during the show. Some critics also questioned whether or not both hosts receive equal time to interview guests.[6] Some of Colmes' liberal critics, notably commentators at Media Matters for America, praised him toward the end of the show's run, however. He then began citing their reports in his confrontations with some of his conservative guests on the program.[7][8]

A study by Media Matters conducted through January and February 2006 found that the number of conservatives and Republicans brought on as guests outnumbered the number of liberals and Democrats by margins of 72%–28% in January, and 67%–33% in February. Of the solo interviews that were conducted on the show, 80% of the interviews are conducted with conservatives and Republicans.[9]"


Quoted from Hannity & Colmes - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Lead by example. I don't do it to you. I also don't care what "my left leaning friends" do. I don't even know who my "left leaning friends" would be since I don't even lean left very much.

He would have been better advised to hold a funeral for the fetus. :P

This assessment might very well be correct. I do hope, however, that you are not among those who think that a democrat could NEVER do something or say something simply for political expediency.

You and wiki have your opinion of Colmes political views and I have mine.

Well the wiki quotes (at least of Colmes and his portrayal by FNC) are facts rather than opinion. Wikipedia is simply the easiest place to go for sourced quotes and generally unbiased information. Facts are a good thing to have on your side if you're a media critic. I know you will not change your mind though. I simply maintain that the show had the potential for proper political discourse and unfortunately it didn't quite reach its full ability due to the reasons I (and those sourced in wiki) mentioned above. Given its high ratings, I hope that they will bring back the format at some point in the future and do it right, but I doubt that would be the case.

Again, your perspective as a viewer might be showing through.

If you really want to go down that road...my perspective is as a media researcher and analyst, repeatedly backed up with facts ;)

Colmes was the ideal liberal for FOX as he has a sort of wussie persona mixed with equal portions snark. He's not a complete idiot but I don't think I would have taken this approach. The baby incident is a bit odd but then again not wanting to even deal with a dead infant's body, just let someone else do that, is part of our current culture's dysfunction IMO. People used to bury their dead, in person. Now we treat it like opening the lavatory door and seeing someone on the pot: '(shudder,) I didn't see this.'