MSNBC is carrying the live feed of the funeral. [Top photo credit: CJ Gunther/Getty Images]

The nice thing about this photo? Ted Kennedy would've made a great joke about it. [Nice work, Brian Snyder of Getty Images]

Widow Victoria Kennedy, mourning. [Photo credit: Brian Snyder/Getty Images]

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, married to Kennedy's niece, Maria Shriver. He used the same face at the end of Junior. [Photo credit: Brian Snyder/Getty Images]

Jack Nicholson doesn't need your stinkin' fashionably late arrival. He's pictured here wondering if this is as good as it gets. [Photo credit: Brian Snyder/Getty Images]

Nancy Pelosi continues the Democratic powerhouse parade through the funeral. She's pictured here hugging Angela Menino, the wife of Boston's mayor, Thomas Menino. [Photo Credit: Brian Snyder/Getty Images.]

Obama just eulogized Kennedy as the "soul of the democratic party." His complete remarks can be read at Daily Kos. A highlight, after Obama called him the "Greatest Legislator Of Our Time":

Teddy walked into a meeting with a plain manila envelope, and showed only the Chairman that it was filled with the Texan's favorite cigars. When the negotiations were going well, he would inch the envelope closer to the Chairman. When they weren't, he would pull it back. Before long, the deal was done.

Ted Kennedy Jr. spoke about sailing with his father. "My father taught me that even our profound losses are survivable," is going to be the pullquote line from his eulogy. [Photo Credit Jewel Samad / AFP / Getty]

The classy commenters are Free Republic are comparing the Kennedys to the Ku Klux Klan, naturally.

John McCain doesn't seem too upset to be at a funeral. It's his birthday! [Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images]

Speaking of which, "Columnist for TheDailyBeast.com/Writer," one Meghan McCain, is in a celebratory mood.

Mediaite noted that coverage is dominating the airwaves. Well, yes.

This is the face of a man who has nothing better to do these days than suppress farts, as he's pictured doing now. [Credit: Brian Snyder/Getty Images]

Good thing there's someone to scold him. [Credit: Brian Snyder/Getty Images]

Kennedy was described as a lover of music. Yo Yo Ma performed, CNN has video.

Oh, and meanwhile: some other crazies are planning a violent revolution! This is the best comment, from that Free Republic post about how one million of them will march on Washington and repeal the 17th Amendment:

First thing it would do is scare the crap of all the politicians. Could you imagine a speaker whipping the crowd into a frenzy? "They are not our rulers, they're our servants! We shouldn't fear them, they should fear us!"

Crowd stomps and chants "Fear us! Fear Us!"

Windows rattle. Chandeleirs sway. Bureaucrats huddle in basements in fear, aides cry in the corner.

"They do not own us. We will no longer remain silent. We shall be heard!"

It would be glorious. I expect the politicians would all be taking the day off. It would have to be on a weekday, the media would be able to ignore us completely on weekends.

It must be a very long event, a short rally will not cut it.

Forget the park or the mall, we will pack the entire federal district if we had millions. For one day, at least, we would own DC.

and *sigh* MSNBC anchors making sexual jokes.
and a paragraph about it would appear in the NY Times on page B-7.

IMO.

Don't be so down on yourself, little Freeper! If the overthrowing the government thing doesn't work out at least you have a rich career ahead of you as Glenn Beck.

Chris Parry of The Vancouver Sun highlighted some of the comments on the mainstream, hard right-wing blog/news aggregator Free Republic. Among them, a picture of Michelle talking to Malia Obama with the caption: "To entertain her daughter, Michelle Obama loves to make monkey sounds." Classy. These mouthbreathing, borderline morons then kept piled on:

"A typical street whore." "A bunch of ghetto thugs." "Ghetto street trash." "Wonder when she will get her first abortion. "Could you imagine what world leaders must be thinking seeing this kind of street trash and that we paid for this kind of street ghetto trash to go over there?" wrote one commenter.
"They make me sick .... The whole family... mammy, pappy, the free loadin' mammy-in-law, the misguided chillin', and especially 'lil cuz... This is not the America I want representin' my peeps," wrote another. Such was the onslaught of derision on the site that the person who originally complained about the slurs, a Kristin N., claims only one comment in the first hundred posted actually criticized the remarks as inappropriate.

FreeRepublic claims to be a site that "does not advocate or condone racism, violence, rebellion, secession, or an overthrow of the government." Yet, the thread went down, and back up with the original comments in tact, and then some, notes Chris Parry, the story's writer. Parry was careful and kind enough to - maybe unnecessarily - note the few reasonable voices in the crowd who were conservative, on Free Republic, and not racist. But there're always going to be a few exceptions to the rule, which, as far as you should be concerned, are absolute swamp creatures. Pardon any political incorrectness, but I think you'll agree if you happen to go over and dip your toe in what's mostly a bog of contagiously slimy invective and general retardation.

It gets worse, though. Chris Parry, it appears, has advocated on his Daily Kos blog any number of egregious offenses, among them: posting hate speech on sites like Free Republic and blaming it on conservatives. Parry posted under the name "hollywoodoz" on Daily Kos, where his signature was "Fool me once, I'll punch you in the fucking head." Parry outed himself as hollywoodoz here, where he discloses the company he helped start. In essence: Parry, the journalist, found his story right where he'd been circling it for a very long time, and reported it as news. Sigh.

Bottom line: Parry's noble intentions are paving him a road to hell, by taking the same one the slimeball majority at Free Republic employs. They're probably going to cheer a "mainstream," centrist blog pointing out the offenses of a liberal reporter trying to expose hate speech, but they shouldn't get it mixed up. A quick glance at Free Republic and you'll probably see the same thing I did: some of the most egregious examples that lend credence to the idea that some people just shouldn't be allowed near a keyboard, or to open their mouths, no matter what their political affiliation. Or, as some would have it: STFU.

Conservative Free Republic blog in free speech flap after racial slurs directed at Obama children [Vancouver Sun]

Update: Since this post was penned, we heard from Chris Parry. "You accuse me of advocating the planting of hate speech on right wing websites, but you don't link to any such thing, and I'm unaware of having ever said such a comment in my many years at dKos. If you could point me to any evidence of same, I'd appreciate it. If you can't, can I ask you add a note stating as much?" The off-putting issue was Parry's signature, and the acronyms he posted at DailyKos. Both of these places can be rabbit holes of liberal/conservative baiting, and Parry - a journalist at a newspaper - clearly had something against the posters at Free Republic from the get-go (rightfully so, I should add: they're generally terrible people, as evidenced by what I've seen). These were first indicators that something was arguably off: someone employed in a traditional news outlet who also was a commenter on a far-left liberal blog. The acronyms - however facetious, which is the context I've now seen after spending time in said rabbit hole - were a (mild) advocacy, in my eyes: the "truth to every joke" idiom goes in, here. That being said, there's nothing to prove he actually planted anything. The headline was the only inaccurate part of this post, and it's now been changed from Hate Speech Against Malia Obama On Conservative Blogs Reported By Hate Speech Planting Journalist to Hate Speech Against Malia Obama On Conservative Blogs. Because, at the end of the day, who reported it isn't nearly as interesting as what's being reported, and the trend it's evidence of: respectively, a bunch of racist mouthbreathers calling this little girl a whore, and whatever the opposite of human evolution is.

Various Fox News executives, clearly reading from the same Roger Ailes-issued talking points, described the site in the press today as Huffington Post + Drudge Report (see Washington Post, AP)

How does Fox Nation stack up to those and other aggregator sites?

Paucity of original content: Check. Rather than complain about online aggregators like other traditional media brands, Fox seems to have jumped into the game with both feet. The top five stories listed on Fox Nation right now are produced by KTAR TV, ABC News, Politico, the Porterville Recorder and the New York Post.

(The site's operators are promising to eventually recruit volunteer writers like those who contribute to the Huffington Post.)

Hysterical headlines: Check. E.g.: "Scary! Obama nominee wants one world order;" "Bill Maher smears U.S. troops;" and "GOP vows WWII over Stuart Smalley," where "Stuart Smalley" refers to would-be Minnesota senator Al Franken, depicted for some reason (see picture above) as a rabbit (the image rollover seems to be broken).

Jeff Bercovici at Portfolio found this gem: "Affirmative Action for Muslims in the White House?" Fox already yanked that one.

Brilliantly insane comments section: Check. Particularly fun was the populist story "GM CEO drives off with $22 million," which split the right-wing commenters into people who blamed the mess on recently-ousted General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner; those who blamed GM's main union, the United Auto Workers; and those who blamed Barack Hussein Obama, aka Hilter:

As you can see, the future of right-wing attack journalism is being born before our very eyes, right there on FoxNation.com. It's enough to make you choke up a little bit. Or just, you know, choke.