Eye On The Left: Shh! 'SNL' now a conservative tool

Will Ferrell plays President George W. Bush.
Will Ferrell plays President George W. Bush.

Show swung election to Bush

From the you-must-be-kidding department, former "Saturday Night Live" cast member Horatio Sanz recently complained in a podcast interview about the 40-year-old show's "conservative b-------" and criticized it for getting away from "leftist politics." Sanz, though, who left the show in 2006, could not have been watching the same broadcasts as the rest of America.

"SNL," which once skewered politicians left and right on its skits and its "Weekend Update" news segment, has bashed conservatives almost exclusively for the last 15 years. Indeed, it became so biased that its refusal to make fun of President Obama was common knowledge and the subject of several national blog posts.

Sanz went so far as to say cast member Will Ferrell's beer-drinking "bro" impression of George W. Bush helped swing the election to the then-Texas governor over Vice President Al Gore and, concerning a recent impression of Hillary Clinton, admitted "they don't usually go after Democrats like that."

Nope. Wouldn't be prudent.

The fingers of government

Don't touch that Cheeto. The first lady is watching.

Part of the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act Michelle Obama pushed toward passage in 2010 can assess what your child is eating in the home day care he or she attends, how much exercise your child gets while there and may force your child to be weighed and measured. A notice in the Federal Register last week proposed the data collection, which was a little known requirement of the law that implemented new standards for school lunches.

The study is expected to collect data on the "nutritional quality of foods offered, physical activity, sedentary activity and barriers to" healthy food and exercise in both child care centers and family day care homes.

More than 30 million U.S. children are in day care, but the study is estimated to involve 12,472 participants, including 3,000 children in child care centers, family day care homes and after-school programs that receive funding from the Child and Adult Care Food Program.

Ho hum. Just another scandal

Just before the kerfuffle involving Hillary Clinton deleting thousands of emails from her four-year tenure as secretary of state under President Barack Obama, she had been dodging questions about the suspect donations to the Clinton Foundation from foreign countries and the conflicts of interest inherent in those donations.

But don't look to the big three networks of ABC, CBS and NBC to fill in the gaps. The Media Research Center reported late last week that the three had given the controversy a total of 11 minutes, 13 seconds of airtime on their morning and evening news shows in 2015. ABC didn't mention the scandal at all, and NBC devoted one minute and eight seconds to it.

CBS was responsible for the lion's share of the slight coverage, reporting most recently that the Foundation has raised at least $42 million from foreign government and at least $170 million from foreign individuals, organizations and companies. Some of that came while she was secretary of state, an act which two of the networks reported was a violation of an ethics agreement she made with the Obama administration.

Imagine if such foreign donations were related to Republicans Jeb Bush or Scott Walker, two potential 2016 nominees currently in the crosshairs of ABC, CBS and NBC scrutiny. There's be no end to the coverage.

Death and taxes

U.S. Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., unspooled a rather odd, apples and oranges comparison last week in a hearing on the burden the death tax sometimes has on family farms and businesses, according to The Daily Caller.

Since people receiving food stamps sometimes have to pass drug tests or sometimes meet work requirements to access taxpayer dollars, she reasoned, it's only fair other people "lucky" enough to inherit wealth should have do something to earn it. That something, of course, would be to pay tax -- on money that's already been taxed.

Say what?

"Why is that [a single mother] should be drug tested, which is an unrelated requirement to receive food assistance, to make sure that her family has enough to eat," Sanchez asked. "And people who are lucky enough to inherit millions of dollars are literally required to do nothing to get the federal tax benefit with their inheritance?"

Somehow, people not having to pay tax on money that's already been taxed is a "tax benefit." Perhaps, she should track down the inheritors of family farms and businesses who are forced to liquidate their assets in order to pay the death taxes for a comment.

Upcoming Events