Free Republic

The man who voices the puppet of Elmo on Sesame Street has taken leave amid allegations he had a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old boy. Kevin Clash, 52, has taken a leave of absence from the popular children's show after the programme's lawyers were contacted by a 23-year-old man who claims he had a sexual relationship with the puppeteer seven years ago, when he was aged 16. TMZ, who reported the allegations, said that Mr Clash had admitted he had a relationship with the man, but only after the accuser was an adult and said the accusations were both false...

Tourists in downtown Washington, D.C. may have been confused by a small, colorful gathering on the mall on Saturday, as a group of activists came together for the “Million Puppet March” with a message of government support for PBS. While the Count may have been disappointed – the assembled crowd for this million-strong march was a few hundred at most – the activists in their cobbled-together homemade costumes did their best. Big Bird, Grover and the Wild Things took pictures with fans in a sea of Obama/Biden signs and ‘Puppets Unite!’ posters. For anyone walking to the Smithsonian museums, they...

Bring your favorite puppet 11/3 to Lincoln Park, Washington DC at 10am ET with a march to Capitol Reflecting Pool by 1:00pm ET for rally.

In August, I blasted the Commission on Presidential Debate’s choices of three Beltway lib journo-tools — CNN’s Candy Crowley, PBS’s Jim Lehrer and CBS’s Bob Schieffer. So far, they’ve acted just as expected and predicted. As I noted: While the debate panel trumpeted the gender diversity of its picks, the chromosomal diversity is far outweighed by the political uniformity, class conformity and geographical homogeneity of the group. ... The presidential debates are the last bastion of “mainstream” media self-delusion in the 21st century. They are a ritual laughingstock for tens of millions of American viewers who have put up with...

When the evening began, one observation dominated the conversation: “If President Barack Obama has another debate like the last one, the election’s over.” When the evening ended, I was struck by a different thought: If Obama had performed this way at the first debate, the election would have been over. In every debate, whatever the format, whatever the questions, there is one and only one way to identify the winner: Who commands the room? Who drives the narrative? Who is in charge? More often than not on Tuesday night, I think, Obama had the better of it.

Here is a 90 second video that basically shuts down all argument about whether or not Big Bird (ie Sesame Street) needs Federal Funding. Watch the Video Here

Mitt Romney’s now infamous pledge to eliminate federal funding for PBS despite his affection for Big Bird and Jim Lehrer is getting still more pushback. Today a Los Angeles animation exec and an Idaho student are planning a 'Million Muppet March' for November 3rd at the National Mall in Washington DC three days before the election. Reuters reports Animax’s Michael Bellavia and student Chris Mecham came up with the idea separately during the October 3rd debate. Bellavia bought the Internet address www.millionmuppetmarch.com and discovered Mecham already had the Facebook page. The two fans of Sesame Street connected before the debate...

I’ve not heard so much talk about Big Bird and Sesame Street since I was six years old! Ever since the first presidential debate this year, when Mitt Romney mentioned Big Bird, with reference to his desire to pull funding for PBS, something about the big yellow bird has been in the news on a daily basis. Now it looks like some “bird brain” has come up with a wacky idea to march on Washington, D.C., in support of Big Bird, on November 3, just three days before the election. Though Romney’s call for stripping subsidizing of PBS only really...

Kid Rock: "You are a Communist" Sean Penn: "You are a red-neck" It gets better.......

Two pubcasting fans in different cities who separately conceived plans for a “Million Muppet March” in support of public broadcasting have teamed up to try to organize the event on Nov. 3 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Michael Bellavia, 42, of Los Angeles, and Chris Mecham, 46, of Boise, Idaho, were watching the presidential debate on Oct. 3 when Republican nominee Mitt Romney said that he would end subsidies to PBS if elected. Even before the debate ended, Bellavia had secured the URL millionmuppetmarch.com, and Mecham created the Million Muppet March Facebook page. “We just merged the two...

(Reuters) - Plans to save Big Bird, the fuzzy yellow character on U.S. public television's "Sesame Street," from possible extinction are taking shape in the form of a puppet-based protest next month dubbed the "Million Muppet March." The demonstration is planned for November 3 at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., three days before the general election. Before the presidential debate between Democratic President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney had concluded on October 3, two men who had never met each floated the Million Muppet March idea on social media. They immediately united to defend public broadcasting. Romney...

Dennis Miller joins Bill O'Reilly to lend his perspective on the upcoming Vice Presidential debate between Paul Ryan and Joe Biden along with comments on the big bird controversy

The rambling incoherence of the people who write editorials for the Virginian Pilot has broken through the bounds of time and space to finally arrive in a completely new universe. A universe where the $430 million government subsidy to PBS is actually nothing, nada, zero. A universe where NOT SPENDING $430 million that we don’t have will have NO EFFECT on the federal deficit! Don’t believe me? Allow me to quote two lines from this editorial that is so mind-blowingly stupid that reading it will make destroy your brain cells: "Public broadcasting has nothing to do with the federal deficit....

As prominent Democrat Dick Harpootlian put it, "Big Bird is iconic. He — or it — she — I don’t know what it is — is an icon with a whole generation or two of Americans." Well said. If Mitt Romney won't stand up for giant muppets, who will he stand up for?If we're destined for heartbreak on election night, my friends, let these words be our solace: A lawyer for Sesame Workshop has requested that the campaign take down the spot, which was slated to run on national cable outlets.“We have received that request,” [Obama spokesman Jen] Psaki told...

Put this another way. When your campaign strategy loses Matt Lauer, Chris Matthews Bob Shrum, and earns four Pinocchios from the Washington Post, where exactly does that leave you? In a fine, feathered mess, that’s where. Lauer interviewed Obama campaign adviser Robert Gibbs this morning on Today, and asked, “Is that the kind of political ad that a campaign releases when it feels that it has ideas and solutions on its side, or is that the kind of political ad a campaign releases when it simply wants to get attention?” As if on cue, Gibbs insists that Mitt Romney declared...

The Obama campaign apparently is being run by a humor-deficient would-be Jon Stewart: On Tuesday, it launched an ill-advised attempt at snark in an advertisement featuring Big Bird. How bad was the ad? Even the yellow fellow himself was embarrassed, and Sesame Workshop, the multimillion-dollar enterprise with the $1 million–a–year president behind Sesame Street, asked that the ad be taken down. Even President Obama’s amen corner in the media was aghast: ABC News’ Terry Moran pronounced it the work of a campaign “in panic mode.” Somebody should remind Barack Obama that he is, for the moment, president of the United...

Try and stick to the issues, LOSER! ___________________________________________ RNC   h/t American Thinker

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: This is Dennis, Covington, Louisiana. Great to have you on the program, sir. Hi. CALLER: Hey, Rush. I guess the new narrative is that conservatives want to kill Big Bird. Well, we have witnessed decades of toy, merchandising, movie theater revenues that have to amount to the hundreds of millions, which would put Big Bird up there with Bill Gates. So to subsidize Big Bird, isn't that the epitome of tax cuts for the rich? RUSH: Try this. Sesame Street received a million-dollar grant from the stimulus bill, and they reported that it created 1.47 jobs. This...

-snip- According to financial statements for the year ended June 30, 2011, Sesame Workshop and its nonprofit and for-profit subsidiaries had total operating revenue of more than $134 million. They receive about $8 million a year in direct government grants and more indirectly via PBS subsidies. Big Bird and friends also receive corporate and foundation support, and donations amount to about a third of revenue. Distribution fees and royalties comprise another third and licensing revenue makes up the rest. At the end of fiscal 2011, Sesame Workshop and its subsidiaries had total assets of $289 million. About $29 million was...

I see Frontline is doing "an in-depth analysis that goes far beyond headlines and catchphrases, correspondents take a look at presidential candidates Barack Obama and Mitt Romney in order to highlight what drives them and to reveal their true natures." If they trash Romney people will shrug their shoulders and say 'what do you expect from a bunch of leftist a-holes.' If they come short of trashing Romney people will accuse them of pandering to Romney to preserve their subsidy. In short they can't win. If the good folks at PBS had an ounce of integrity they wouldn't take another...