Marc Lamont Hill, the liberal counterweight against the conservative line-up at Fox News was given his walking papers.

While both Fox and Hill have been quiet about the situation, but Huffington Post reports FOX was under pressure to remove Hill due to his “sympathies” for Mumia Abu-Jamal and Assata Shakur.

Hill is a professor at Columbia University.

Fair and balanced, eh.

 The national Republican Party has mailed a fundraising appeal suggesting Democrats might use an overhaul of the health care system to deny medical treatment to Republicans, The Associated Press reports. A questionnaire accompanying the appeal says the government could check voting registration records, “prompting fears that GOP voters might be discriminated against for medical treatment in a Democrat-imposed health care rationing system.” It asks, “Does this possibility concern you?” Katie Wright, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, said the question was “inartfully worded.” But she said people should worry because government officials would have access to personal financial and medical data. “The RNC doesn’t try to scare people,” said Wright. “We’re just trying to get the facts out on health care. And that’s what we do every day.” Jon Vogel, executive director of the Democratic House campaign organization, called the GOP letter “shameless fear-mongering.” In a fundraising e-mail of his own seeking to raise $100,000 by Aug. 31, Vogel wrote the Republican accusation was “just a preview of the falsehoods, fabrications and outright lies Republicans will be pushing when Congress returns in September.” The allegation is the latest instance in which some critics of the health care effort have made inflammatory unfounded claims — such as conservatives who claimed the legislation would create “death panels” that they said could lead to euthanizing elderly people. The suggestion that Republicans might not receive care is included in a “Future of American Health Care Survey” containing 13 questions, most of which are critical of the Democratic health care effort. The technique, referred to as a “push poll,” is used often in political campaigns by both parties and is designed to spread negative information, not to sample public opinion. Another question asks, “Do you believe it is justified to ration health care regardless of whether an individual has contributed to the cost of the treatment?” The survey is accompanied by a two-page letter signed by Michael Steele, chairman of the national Republican party. The letter accuses Democrats of “moving swiftly to bring European-style socialized medicine here,” but makes no mention of the possibility that Republicans might be denied coverage.

Black lawmakers are skeptical about GOP efforts to force Michelle Obama and future first ladies to do more of their policy work publicly and with congressional oversight.

The feud between Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele and talk-show radio host Rush Limbaugh isn’t really a fight at all. After all, they’re as cozy as two bugs in a rose bud when it comes to conservative issues. But all the snuggling stops when the issue shifts to whom the party should crown as the official message deliverer. Read on.

 Ex-convict-Ku Klux Klansman David Duke, the former Republican member of the Louisiana House of Representatives, says the new African-American chief of the GOP is a “racist” and an “Obama Jr.,” who will run “rank-and-file” Republicans out of the party. Michael Steele, who formerly served as the lieutenant governor of Maryland, is the first Black person chosen to head the Republican Party, of which Duke was a longtime member. Read about what Duke said about Steele here.

Obama Tells Republicans to Get on Board President Obama has issued a warning to   members of the Republican Party: Get on board or stand powerless on the sidelines. Speaking to Republican leaders, whom he had invited to the White House to discuss his $825 billion stimulus package, Obama took a shot at acid-tongued conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh and his followers, saying, “You can’t just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done.” Last Wednesday, Limbaugh said in a televised interview that “I want [Obama] to fail,” and he added that American had been duped into voting for Obama for fear that they’d be called “racists” if they rejected him. Read more here.

Steele: My Party Don’t Care About Blacks One of the candidates hoping to lead the Republican Party says that the GOP “don’t give a damn” about Blacks, according to a report in the conservative newspaper The Washington Times. Republican Michael Steele, the former lieutenant governor of Maryland, accused his party of “rolling out” token Black members as a way to lure African Americans into the GOP. “We’ve had this conversation for 15 years,” Steele said after the debate, “about bringing Black folks out. Well, do it. Don’t just talk about it. Do it.” The argument is ironic coming from Steele, because for the past several years he has been the loudest voice in conservative politics warning Blacks that the Democratic Party had systematically taken advantage of them. Speaking on FOX News in 2004, Steele said, “African-Americans are doing something that the Republican Party has asked them to do. …Don’t give your vote over to the Al Sharptons and the Reverend Jacksons and all the other folks who are advocating on behalf of Kerry just because.” Now, just two weeks before the Republican National Committee picks its next chief, Steele is looking like a realistic choice. But, since the Democrats have now elected an African-American president, the taken-for-granted contention is finding little traction.

 Peter Yarrow, whose “Puff the Magic Dragon” children’s song was commandeered by a Republican honcho and retooled to mock President-elect Barack Obama, called the insults “vulgar,” “mean-spirited,” racist and full of “outright disrespect.” Tennessee Republican Chip Saltsman, who’s hoping to be the next head of the Republican National Committee, included “Barack the Magic Negro” tune on a CD he sent to fellow Republicans for Christmas. The song was introduced to the public by the acid-tongued conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh last year.  Saltsman dismissed his actions as lighthearted humor and “political satire.” Yarrow sees it differently. “The sending of a Christmas greeting by Chip Saltsman to the members of the Republican National Committee that includes a recording of the so-called parody, ‘Barack the Magic Negro’ is not only offensive; it is shocking and saddening in the extreme. It flies in the face of America’s deeply held hope for a new era in which common ground and mutual respect characterize the exchanges between our national leaders,” Yarrow wrote in a statement. Read what else he had to say here.

McCain tells his party to get off Obama’s back. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said it’s high time the Republican Party get behind President-elect Barack Obama and get off his back. When asked by ABC “This Week” host George Stephanopoulos whether he thought Obama was being less than forthright about his staff’s contact with embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, McCain shot back: “I think that the Obama campaign should and will give all information necessary. You know, in all due respect to the Republican National Committee and anybody – right now, I think we should try to be working constructively together, not only on an issue such as this, but on the economic stimulus package, reforms that are necessary…” Read what else McCain said here.

Gen. Colin Powell says Republicans must stop “shouting at the world.” If rappers can squash their beefs, so can Republicans. So says former secretary of state Gen. Colin Powell, who broke ranks with his party this year by endorsing Barack Obama as the next president. “I think the party has to take a hard look at itself,” Powell tells CNN in an interview that airs tomorrow at 1 p.m. “There is nothing wrong with being conservative. There is nothing wrong with having socially conservative views. I don’t object to that. But if the party wants to have a future in this country, it has to face some realities. In another 20 years, the majority in this country will be the minority.” Powell adds: “I think the party has to stop shouting at the world and at the country.”