The Old Gray Lady takes a Mulligan (or three)

It's obvious to anyone of even marginal intellect that the New York Times bowed to the pressure of the Clinton political machine in walking back a story from last week suggesting Hillary was the possible target of a criminal inquiry into her email debacle.

So yes, conservatives were ticked, mainly because nothing like that ever happens to them after a NY Times bombshell. When a former Bush White House press secretary confirms it then it's not just a bunch of squawking from partisan yahoos.

Now enter another yahoo doing what leftists do--spinning the legitimate response into something sinister in an attempt to make the response--not the original action--the story:

The point here being that the New York Times wasn’t buckling under to the Clinton campaign. It was undertaking a long and painful walk-back.

Eric fargin Wemple, spending a column bashing conservatives for reacting to the Times reversing a blockbuster story before it was even through the news cycle, done at the behest of the Clinton campaign, based on the same kind of anonymous sourcing they claim was behind the original story.  Wow, it's not like the Times doesn't have editors.  Or reporters.  Or maybe they enacted this FUBAR on purpose?

On Friday afternoon, the Erik Wemple Blog asked Clinton campaign spokesman Nick Merrill what he thought of complaints that the New York Times was doing the bidding of the Clinton campaign in making those initial, stealth changes. His answer: “You’re not serious are you?”

Ahhhhh. Yes. A Clinton hack says the mainstream media is tough on Hils, so it's true, right Eric? Maybe he doesn't realize how stupid that sounds.

Maybe he doesn't realize David Petraeus was brought up on charges for handing classified info to a fellow member of the military (with a clearance) and had his career ruined. 

It's really getting hard to put fingers to keyboard anymore.   This stuff never changes.  The Alinsky press continues focusing on GOP division, heralding every Trump quote about Mexicans as they put a GOP sign around his neck, while ignoring the fact he never bashes Hillary, which makes his entire stunt suspect.  But not worth investigating.  They don't even know Fiorina exists.  And the surgeon is invisible.  They simply never tire of trying to shape the campaign rather than just reporting on it.

And don't even start on the GOP itself, who deserve all the incoming ridicule.  Way to pull defeat from the jaws of victory, McBoner.    

Meanwhile the president has become nothing but a shallow Democratic message board troll, flitting around here and there on Air Force One to scold half the nation (when not scolding foreign leaders not involved in terrorism), actually saying he's concerned about who HE hands the keys to the White House in 2017?  Excuse me sir, but YOU are not handing them to anyone WE don't elect.  You get one vote just like the rest of us.

Amazing.   Frustrating.  Ridiculous.   America, 2015.  

NEED MORE?   7/28/15

Here's a screen grab of the Washington Post headlines on their front page, around 4pm Central Time...

Translations...

News
1.  Huckabee's an idiot
2.  Paul:  engaging in war on women with poor pun
3.  Huckabee pandering to blacks
Opinion
1.  Ted Cruz is bullying his own party--they are tired of it but found out he's a pansy
2.  Trump didn't say anything wrong but his advisor did, same thing
3.  The far right:  spree killers just like the Lafayette theater nut
4.  Bush (it could be any of them) hints GOP primary voters are extremists
5.  Hillary Clinton is a 'wounded queen', poor gal
6.  Some idiocy about white women
7.  Wow, they attack Hillary but it's about the Keystone Pipeline
8.  Jon Stewart: progressive hero figure
More Headlines:
1.  Pollard freed by Obama!   No actually, he just got parole by magic.  No politics here! 
2, 3, 4, actual real news
5.  Evil hunter killed the Lion King 

 You're welcome. 

Stupidest Criminals of the Year

Hey, let's go a robbery spree targeting...... doughnut shops?   Yeah.

Two men arrested at a Dunkin' Donuts they allegedly intended to rob have been charged in a string of holdups at gas stations and doughnut shops across Long Island over the past two weeks, officials say.

Good Lord, have they never actually heard of the cop+doughnut thing? Don't they know cops are almost always within surveillance range of a doughnut shop?  Yes, it's early in the year but these goofballs have to be pretty high on the list.

Confederate Flag Update

The Land of Fruits and Nuts.  That's what they used to call California before that term became politically incorrect.  But when they do nutty things they deserve it..

A bill that would prohibit California from displaying or selling merchandise with the Confederate flag is headed to Gov. Jerry Brown's desk, after getting final legislative approval in the Assembly on Thursday.

The measure by Assemblyman Isadore Hall III (D-Compton) would prohibit the state from displaying or selling merchandise emblazoned with the Confederate flag. The ban would not apply to images of the flag found in books, digital media or state museums if displayed for educational or historical purposes.

Speaking of nuts, a lot of people are going nuts on talk radio around here because they think the bill outright prohibits the flag, even private possession (or things like tattoos), but notice the explanation--the bill only applies to sales or display by the State of California.

How many rebel flags were being sold by the state in the first place? How many state offices were flying the flag?  The bill doesn't apply to books or digital media or other displays deemed 'educational'. And it's not clear whether it applies to the "Stars and Bars" or the "Battle Flag", which are different, but it really doesn't make a difference on the ignorance/idiocy scale. 

So there seems to be no point, other than maybe causing a national stir. Throw up a meaningless bill about banning the Confederate Flag and hope it causes a north versus south, civil war wasn't about slavery yes it was racial brouhaha in the press.  The Dems know they need black turnout in November. 

At any rate, if Governor Brown signs the bill into law that will mean he's banned a flag in the same week he welcomed illegal aliens into his state with open arms.  Pretty nutty, overall.   

PDS Strikes Again

PDS- Palin Derangement Syndrome.  Some publisher is suing her for using the iconic flag picture from the 9/11 rubble on her Facebook page.   It's like suing someone for using the Iwo Jima flag picture.

More than likely that photo has been used in some form millions of times on the web since 9/11 thanks in large part to.... Google.

So why don't they sue Google?   Yeah, you know why.

   

Uh, CBS (and others), Got Some Science News for You....

Here's a breathless headline on CBS.com this afternoon...

Melting ice forms lake in the North Pole

The obvious implication:  oh noes, Santa and the Elves have drowned thanks to that evil heat Mizer guy!   And global warming, of course.   Chris Hayes on his MSNBC show tonight added some hysteria and the internets are full of liberal joy over the confirmation about their doomsday projections, which signals the coming world socialism solution.    

One problem--it's happened before.  Many times.  And it's been reported on before, many times.

Only a few examples. Now, which party is anti-science again? 


If challenged, and that's a big if, CBS will defend itself by saying they never blamed it on anything.  They merely reported that the meltwater was there and that temperatures had been above normal. That's true.  Nobody will be blaming the Arctic Oscillation and its negative phase, which likely caused the cooler than normal Spring and so far the near-normal summer over parts of middle America.   But that doesn't make a good sound bite.

Newtown: Give the Media Another Award

Is there any news story in modern history that has been as hacked up by the press as the Sandy Hook school shooting?  Not even the Trayon Martin case, although some elements of that one come close, oddly also involving a gun.

Within the past 24 hours the Connecticut State Police has released details about the case, which amazingly just happen to coincide with Obama's media speechifying on gun control (the timing is questionable, but it's hard to say which side was orchestrating things--probably Obama's, knowing the release was coming).

Many stories today characterized the guns found in the home as an 'arsenal'.  Our local paper calls it a 'huge weapons cache".  These nitwits just can't help themselves.  Joe Biden's gun collection would probably qualify.  Or Harry Reid's.  When someone says arsenal people tend to think of David Koresh's compound or the local National Guard depot.   

And no, the NRA isn't denying any evidence.  Lanza was not a member.  Having an NRA 'certificate' doesn't mean one is a dues-paying member. Even if he was, so what?  Unless they've recently put out guides on how to mass murder school children it's irrelevant and the worse kind of guilt by association.

It's almost as if America is in the process of being taken over by a band of ignorant, drooling commies.  

Maybe the Worst Op-Ed Ever Written

..and the award goes to someone named Blain Roberts for her New York Times article
entitled, "The Ugly Side of the Southern Belle" (via Althouse).

The woman starts by calling Brooklyn "the epicenter of all things ironic and progressive", meaning she's never been there, then ends with "still, we would do well to remember the troubling historical links between Southern beauty queens and racial politics, even when the winner lives in Brooklyn".  All in an effort to somehow tie the current Miss America to slavery and racism because she's originally from the south.  Apparently.  


Really, does she think Mallory Hagen represents some kind of evil cheating shrew hiding behind the progressive New York image to cloak her sordid Alabama heritage and its conjured visions of Jim Crow and shouldn't be getting away with it?   As a history professor she should know that New York once allowed slaves.  Yet she lectures readers by saying "we would do well to remember", blah, blah, racism, ie, don't be fooled by her New York banner--this girl might be the same kind of southern scum as Lynda Mead, who once refused to apologize for Mississippi.  And ask her about the swimming pools!      

Such weird hatred.  One has to wonder if she herself didn't win some contest years ago, losing out to a fellow southern gal whom she still hates and therefore projects bitter feelings onto all southern beauty contest winners, especially those craven enough to move north and win as pretend-Yankees?   Maybe her doctor should ask about access to guns in the house.. hey, just following the president's orders.       

Whatever the case, if her analysis represents the typical content of modern university history professors then far too many American parents and students are getting ripped off on tuition.  We already know what it says about the NY Times.

If Bush was Warned...

...so was Obama:

Concerned about the reaction to an anti-Muslim film that was gaining attention online, the U.S. intelligence community sent a cable to the embassy in Cairo, Egypt, warning of the concern, a U.S. official told CNN. The intelligence cable was sent 48 hours before the protests in Cairo and in Benghazi, Libya, the U.S. official said. The cable did not warn of any specific threat, the official said

Is this 20/20 hindsight?  Mostly.  Just as it was with Bush.  Similar to the Bush reaction, Jay Carney explained there was no 'actionable' intelligence provided, ie, they weren't told that radicals mobbing over an incendiary movie might get out of control, even if the mob included the brother of Ayman Zawahiri.  Even the attack on the Libyan consulate was out of the blue. 

Oddly, on the very same day of the attack--Tuesday 9/11--the NY Times published a hit piece on Bush suggesting that the Presidential Daily Brief (the same one Obama makes only half the time) of August 6, 2001 was enough warning for the Bush folks to have possibly prevented 9/11.  No full alert and such.  Ironically it was the NY Times who published the picture of Bill Ayers stomping on a flag on the actual 9/11. He said he didn't do enough, too.  

But OK, we have this vague warning despite the CIA initially saying there was no warning.  Were our embassies on full alert on the anniversary of the attack and after the warning?  We already know the answer as we await the Times expose explaining how it's totally different this time.

Meanwhile--perhaps the bigger story was the administration strongly pressuring You Tube owner Google to review the hoaky Islam film's presence on their site as per terms of use, ie, you might want to get rid of it, thanks.  Wow, such dictatorial strong-arming during the Bush administration usually got someone a Pulitzer!  To their credit Google said no, it stays, then restricted the video in Libya and Egypt and expressed condolences.  But the White House got what they wanted in keeping the story about the film and not AQ flags flying over our embassies or people yelling about 1 billion bin Ladens.

MORE  9/15/12 

The administration and their Chihuahuas in the media can continue to focus on Romney or some silly movie trailer on the web, but the genesis of the Cairo riots--on September 11--can more likely be found in stories like this issued on September 10 (via Jihad Watch):

According to El Fagr, they are calling for the immediate release of the Islamic jihadis who are imprisonment and in detention centers in the U.S. including Guantanamo Bay: "The group, which consists of many members from al-Qaeda, called [especially] for the quick release of the jihadi [mujahid] sheikh, Omar Abdul Rahman [the "Blind Sheikh"], whom they described as a scholar and jihadi who sacrificed his life for the Egyptian Umma, who was ignored by the Mubarak regime, and [President] Morsi is refusing to intervene on his behalf and release him, despite promising that he would. The Islamic Group has threatened to burn the U.S. Embassy in Cairo with those in it, and taking hostage those who remain [alive], unless the Blind Sheikh is immediately released."

And if that was released publicly imagine what they had privately.  But hey, look over there--it's Princess Kate topless! And Romney wants to kill sick children. 

Nobody should be fooled.  Obama knows exactly what's going on here. He's hoping things calm down because continued disruption puts a kink in his foreign policy chops, which almost entirely center around his successful drone assassination program against al Qaeda and the removal of Gaddafi.  What else has he accomplished?   He knows this event threatens both, and he can't be weak on both foreign policy and the economy and still hope to win.

Then again he probably knows that few in the lapdog media will want to do any in-depth investigations about this warning and the so-called Blind Sheikh it mentions because they know any such thing would invariably entail the mention of convention savior Bill Clinton and his track record on terrorism.  Notice the Egyptian jihadies demanded ALL Muslim prisoners in America be released, including the likes of Ramzi Yousef, the first bomber of the WTC, and his uncle KSM, who planned jihad on 11 airplanes in the 90s before he planned 9/11 (oops, did it again).  Having their little flag burning party on 9/11 was not about a present-day movie, it was about the past. 

House "Recalcitrant"?

CNN is breaking news of a possible deal for the payroll tax cut by referring to the House as "recalcitrant".  Hmm.  Wasn't the House begging for someone to negotiate with over this deal?  Wasn't the House saying two months was putting a burden on the pencil necks?  Weren't they asking Obama to bring his dog up for a talk and asking Reid to invite his members to leave the bar early and come back to town to join a House-Senate conference?  Begging them to do business the way Congress has always done it?   And isn't the deal now better than it was a few hours ago?   

No, Boehner isn't the best Speaker ever and the House played their game.  But to suggest they and only they were players is to wax silly.  Only a person who just flew in from Neptune would be surprised by any of this back-and-forth because divided Congresses always fight like children, and we've got a fairly juvenile leader leading the playroom.   After the deal passes they'll all engage in a circular finger-pointing contest, with the media off to the side all pointing at Boehner with the exception of "Faux News", who will be pointing to Obama or at Bo the Dog's possible AF One trip back from Hawaii for prop duty.   In two months they'll all play musical chairs again without anyone leaving their chairs.    

MORE  12/22/11

The general consensus seems to be that Boehner just committed the biggest boo-boo in political history.  At least at the WaPo:

The agreement represented a remarkable capitulation on the part of House Republicans, who had two days earlier rejected such a deal with Democrats as the kind of half-measure that their new majority was elected to thwart. And it amounts to a Christmas gift for President Obama, who attempted to paint his Republican opponents as willing to raise taxes for millions of Americans. Such an image could have cost the party politically just as it is gearing up to try to take back the White House and Senate in 2012.

That's the brutal truth, whether it's the truth or not.  The WaPo bashes Boehner by admitting that Obama was prepared to go to the mat to save a 2 month tax cut when in reality he's spent his entire presidency trying to raise taxes on a certain class of people he thinks have made enough money already, who will NOT be getting an increase to pay for this tax cut.  It was so crucial he was willing to use democrat operatives disguised as people, pizza, and even his own dog to get it done!   What did the American people win again?

The Dems now get two months to smear the Keystone pipeline so Obama can deny it, or alternatively Obama gets two more months of campaign contributions from both evil capitalists and nutty environmental wackos trying to affect policy before he approves it, or maybe uses a magic trick to delay it again.  Meanwhile the payroll tax cut can be framed not as gutting Social Security, but as the only moral way to fund it, which will require more taxes from rich people who've made enough already.

Why McConnell felt the need to take Reid's deal then embarrass Boehner is the real mystery here. Scuttlebutt says he was afraid of losing seats or somesuch, but it sounds more like a pissing match or a backdoor way to bring down the hated Tea Party.  Or maybe it just all came down to a bunch of congressfolks and a president who were willing to go to any length to save their 3 week vacation. 

The Spirit of Tuscon

After years of calling right wingers neocon warmongers over the GWoT, with a few even questioning whether bin Laden was being animated by Rove out of the White House basement or Langley, seems to be a bit of primal screaming coming from the port side of late. And it ain't all about bin Laden. The exuberance seems to be spilling over like a Cairo freedom riot into that age-old pastime involving Bush, Hilter, and death.

A few recent examples:

• Some gloating over the takeout (keeping score);
• Condi Rice getting hectored for 10 minutes by Lawrence O'Donnell about her Iraq war criminality;
• Former congressman Alan Grayson telling us that George W. Bush didn't accept Obama's invitation to Ground Zero because he was probably "passed out drunk";
• Will Ferrell represents Big Hollywood's response;
  
• Noam Chomsky imagining Bush being assassinated by an Iraqi hit squad and dumped in the Atlantic as a parallel to our raid to kill UBL;
• Mike Malloy fantasizing about the same thing, only with Navy Seals;
  

Yes, these are the usual suspects. The broader question is how our victory might be used politically going forward as domestic showdowns loom over the budget and Obamacare. Grayson mentioned the bin Laden raid was on the very same day Bush gave the infamous "Mission Accomplished" speech on the carrier, something derided ad nauseum by the bulk of the left since it occurred in 2003. Coincidence? Or is it racist to ask?

Whatever the case it's nice to know that as Americans we don't spike the football after big victories over dangerous foreign enemies--no sir--we treat the vanquished with respect even if they don't deserve it. As for domestic enemies? Sounds like a little end zone dancing.

As to the trove, more later on bin Laden's plan to use converted black American Muslims to stage terror attacks here in the homeland to sow racial division. First off, it's already happened. Second, it seems to be a reach-out to the white supremacists, something that also might have already happened.

Finally, the newly released bin Laden outtakes seem to leave America's former most trusted newsman Mr. Cronkite as the real fake behind the camera, don't they? Scream out.

Sad

This is sad:

The White House reacted to charges that the president's signing statement on Friday was a campaign contradiction, saying that the president wasn't against all signing statements, but just felt President George W. Bush over-used them.

"His concern was with what he saw as an abuse of the signing statement by the previous administration. So that the positions he took in the signing statements on the budget bill are entirely consistent with that position," Carney said at Monday's White House briefing.

Sad because his original statement is on tape and unambiguous. Sad because Americans would like to think of their president as above such flagrant and transparent prevarication, distortion, fact-bending and ass-covering when it comes to personal dignity, especially in regards to those thing he used (and is still using) against his predecessor to gain victory.

It's also sad because the GOP trusted this guy, and sad because right now there's nobody in the Republican field who can displace the dude next year.

Take the Highway

As the budget house burns down the president leaves for a fundraiser at Al Sharpton's National Action Network while scolding Congress on his way out of town:

"At a time when you are struggling to pay your bills and meet your responsibilities, the least we can do to meet our responsibilities is produce a budget. That is not too much to ask for. That is what the American people expect of us, that's what they deserve. You want everybody to act like adults, quit playing games and realize it is not my way or the highway," President Obama said in Pennsylvania before he is set to hold a fundraiser tonight.

Does anyone really think he's talking about the actual 2011 budget? Because that would be a condemnation of Nancy Pelosi for never bringing it to a vote before the November election (despite having the supermajority). Funny time for pointing out the foot-dragging if one is sincerely condemning the politics.

But we've come to expect it from the only "adult" in the room, who is once again floating above the political fray while feverishly playing his part in the Democratic floor dance to either 1) shame the GOP into capitulation, which Wasserman-Schultz will immediately spin as victory while pointing out how upset it will make the Tea Party, or 2) goading them into actually closing the government, which will immediately be called 'extremism' by every liberal mouth within media range.

Is there a win for the GOP in shutting things down? Doesn't seem an easy one, if so. But it certainly appears easy to explain why Obama filed his reelection papers this week--fond memories of Clinton/Gingrich dancing through his head. The only wild card this time is whether the public is childish enough to fall for it or gets madder than hell over a bunch of children who can't manage their credit card debt. We shall see.

Peter King, Terrorist Lover!

T-minus one til Rep King's Islamic terrorist hearings in Congress and that means it's time for a Times character slam!

For Representative Peter T. King, as he seizes the national spotlight this week with a hearing on the radicalization of American Muslims, it is the most awkward of résumé entries. Long before he became an outspoken voice in Congress about the threat from terrorism, he was a fervent supporter of a terrorist group, the Irish Republican Army.

Let's see...so he's now a hypocrite for investigating al Qaeda connections in the USA in support of their quest to destroy the West because he once sided with the IRA during their quest for independence from Britain? That sort of leaves the Times as defending domestic Islamic terrorists in order to tear down Mr. King, unless they are simply saying he's not the best choice for committee chairman. It's hard to tell for sure.

As to the hearing, still hoping King takes my advice and investigates the redneck connection. We may actually learn something new.

EPILOGUE 3/10/11

Crying Keith's mission was successful--he stole all the headlines. The story should have been about Dr. Jasser's message and that of Melvin Bledsoe, and the dangers of radicalization to become the enemy of America--the same enemy we are fighting in Afghanistan. Good grief, Carlos Bledsoe was so radicalized he took down the picture of MLK off his bedroom wall. Yet Sheila Jackson Lee later proclaimed that Mr. Bledsoe's telling of that story amounted to inciting al Qaeda. Is nothing sacred to the left anymore?

Instead it's about the emotional division between those who think there's a problem and those who think King or anyone who brings this to light are the problem. So we got Keith Ellison. It's doubtful there will be many more of these hearings.

Inflaming Vitriol?

Why is Keith Olbermann anchoring MSNBC coverage of the Giffords shooting? He's not a newsman, he's a biased commentator. Could it be they suddenly realized a huge opportunity to ride a "right wing nut" meme for all it's worth? Head of the Southern Poverty Law Center describing shooter's right wing beliefs; Olbermann posting Sarah Palin's target map. Guess he missed the left wing version of that map.

By any objective measure the 'shooter' is flat nuts, pure loony tunes. Such folks are not serious ideologues or partisans, they are nuts. He sounds a lot like the flake who flew into the IRS building in Austin, a confused person who's probably an atheist, something not at all akin to Palin.

As I type this, Olbermann has Eugene Robinson on the air to focus the vitriol where they think it belongs--the right wing. Oh they're being coy about it--Robinson mentioned that the left held the domestic terrorist mantle during the past, even mentioning washed up terrorist Bill Ayers, but moved on to say it's now almost exclusively on the right. This despite absolutely no evidence of increasing violence from the right; actually the evidence shows that the most violent protesters of our day are socialist anarchists.

They're using the Pima County Sheriff's idiotic speculation during his news conference regards TV and radio personalities inflaming the loonies (apparently no speculation is allowed about the shooter but the Sheriff can speculate wildly about who motivated him) to move their political points. Olbermann is right now giving us a "special comment" about how everyone needs to shut the hell up, and that means Sarah Palin, who he says is responsible. Meanwhile Fox has been running basic news coverage with Shep Smith and Bret Baier and their other news team members and trying to paint a fair picture of the suspect.

Mad as hell, Sheriff Dupnik? You bet. As a person leaning right I'm mad that a nut took out his frustrations on a decent and honorable congresswoman and killed others in the process, including a little girl who in attendance to see the political process because she was serving in student council. Mad that said nut is still alive. Mad that said nut is apparently exercising his constitutional rights, using the same constitution he evidently derided in his online activity.

I'm also mad that the very thing that he so passionately interjected--stoking the vitriol--is being practiced at this very minute by opportunistic left wing ideologues on TV who are trying to frame this event as an image of the modern right wing to score cheap political points.

This is NOT to say that we shouldn't all take a step back and think before we post or speak and understand the meaning and impact of our words. We should. We live in turbulent times. I'm troubled about what seems to be a crumbling of our society and a loss of basic feelings for our fellow man; the crushing debt; illegal immigration leading to a breakdown in the rule of law; wars that don't seem winable and corrupt and mindless politicians forcing their will on the public.

But Olbermann's outrageous and shameless vitriolic attempt to blame this on Palin, or Glenn Beck or Bill O'Reilly--before all the facts are known--and even if he threw himself in the pot as well with a mock apology, is just as dangerous as anything the sheriff was talking about. MSNBC should be ashamed of itself and it's so-called news department.

MORE 1/8/11

Speaking of using the word "target". And that's not a condemnation of Kos, either. It's a condemnation of Olbermann and anyone else trying to make hay with maps and words in an effort to score points off murder.

MORE 1/9/11

The narrative is being set all around the MSM-- Repubs need to denounce their hate mongers. Here's MSNBC channeling the NY Times:

Not since the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 has an event generated as much attention as to whether extremism, antigovernment sentiment and even simple political passion at both ends of the ideological spectrum have created a climate promoting violence. The fallout seemed to hold the potential to upend the effort by Republicans to keep their agenda front and center in the new Congress and to alter the political narrative in other ways.

So wow, with hardly any facts as to motive the Times is already proclaiming this to be Oklahoma City redux while coyly including the left to make it seem fair. There's even a John Doe Number Two figure running around on the loose.

If this story really is about right wing extremism why is the left-leaning mainstream press trying to fan the flames? Some couldn't wait to bring up Clinton and McVeigh, harkening back to how Bubba's response to the tragedy saved his presidency (he blamed it indirectly on Rush Limbaugh at the time) and fantasizing about how Obama could do the same. Mark Penn even mentioned this before the fact--after the mid-term election shellacking, so clearly it was on some minds. Meanwhile nobody was ever curious about where Terry Nichols got his bomb training. It didn't matter.

More nuanced writers like Matt Bai of the Times are getting the message across in a sneakier way. His column today indicts both sides of the political food fight but contains this:

The problem here doesn’t lie with the activists like most of those who populate the Tea Parties, ordinary citizens who are doing what citizens are supposed to do — engaging in a conversation about the direction of the country. Rather, the problem would seem to rest with the political leaders who pander to the margins of the margins, employing whatever words seem likely to win them contributions or TV time, with little regard for the consequences.

That's not Olbermann he's talking about. He's talking about Beck, O'Reilly, Limbaugh, Hannity, et al., and we know this because he mentioned Tea Parties in the preceding sentence.

Funny, when Major Hasan ripped off multiple rounds amongst his fellow soldiers at Ft. Hood some of these same folks bent over backwards to keep him out of the jihadist ranks (even though he yelled for Allah while shooting), with the president even urging Americans not to "jump to conclusions".

There was nothing much written by the mainstreamers about how free speech had contributed to Hasan's rage, just ruminations about PTSD or basic workplace violence. And when a Muslim convert from Memphis shot two soldiers in Little Rock several months prior it wasn't a huge story at all, despite his connection to Yemen and Awlaki. In recent interviews Carlos Bledsoe, aka Abdulhakim, keeps insisting he was a jihadist and they keep sending him back for mental examinations. Holder didn't even charge him with federal crimes--he's being tried on state charges in Arkansas (by the same prosecutor who excoriated Mike Huckabee for letting the convict out who pulled the police shooting in Oregon). There seems to be a lot of hypocrisy in this blame game. And how does that help to calm the discourse?

MORE 1/9/11

More thoughts here. Also, the fact that Giffords is Jewish is yet another reason to wait for all the facts to come out, since her religion isn't exactly beloved by either Muslim terrorists or those on the far right in the US. The video where he burned the flag wearing a weird hoodie and a hefty bag could be interpreted as jihadi-sympathetic, or right wing sympathetic, or left wing lunacy ala Ayers, but perhaps the only way to understand this guy is to be on acid or peyote.

FINAL 1/9/11

This is what a professional interview looks like: Megan Kelly on Fox interviews Pima Sheriff Dupnik, who admits he has no factual basis for linking this crime to radio/TV vitriol or rhetoric. Well, how nice of him to share his political views with the nation in a time of crisis.

This Man..

...sounds like a dumbass:

“She’s a f#!king raghead,” Knotts said.

He later clarified his statement. He did not mean to use the F-word.

Knotts says he believed Haley has been set up by a network of Sikhs and was programmed to run for governor of South Carolina by outside influences in foreign countries. He claims she is hiding her religion and he wants the voters to know about it.

“We got a raghead in Washington; we don’t need one in South Carolina,” Knotts said more than once. “She’s a raghead that’s ashamed of her religion trying to hide it behind being Methodist for political reasons.”

Ole tiny is not only giving the south, South Carolina, and the GOP a bad name, he's giving the Knotts name a bad name. Too bad somebody like Deputy Fife couldn't haul him in to see Andy for an attitude adjustment--but then again, Andy and Barney were from the good Carolina--the northern one.

Wow, it's as if the South Carolina GOP is actually an arm for the Democrats operating under deep cover. That's about the only hope for Republicans there it would seem, aside from Haley.

ht Hot Air

First Annual Roseanne Award

Let me be the first to congratulate the distinguished Speaker for winning this prestigious award.

Third in line for the presidency. Well done, tool. Madame Speaker.

Bleep them!

You'll read a lot more elsewhere, just wanted to make a few comments here as the Blagojevich "Senate Seat Sale" story unfolds:

On Obama:

I found it interesting he said he had no knowledge of this, then later said he couldn't comment on the ongoing investigation.

Politico is making some hay with Axelrod's new denial, which might suggest Obama is on tape somewhere, but Fitz has already said he's not involved.

It's hard to imagine a smart guy like the One putting himself in jeopardy by getting too close to this guy but it's also hard to imagine him playing the game without getting his uniform dirty. Maybe he's clean, maybe somebody else paid his toll. I'm still intrigued as to what actually transpired during his Senate battle with Jack Ryan in 2004, but one would think that ground was thoroughly plowed by now--by Hillary if nobody else.

On Jesse, Jr:

His comments Monday were certainly awkward and ill-timed in retrospect. Wonder whose junk pop Jackson wants to snip this time?

On Blago:

Is there one more deal in his future? Can he get away with turning states' evidence? BTW, his campaign slogan was

..a reformer promising to clean up former Gov. George Ryan's mess.

Change he can believe in!

On Paddy Fitz:

I tried hard not to bash him too hard during the Plamegate affair because of his previous work with Andy McCarthy in the Southern District of NY going after terrorists. I think it's clear he's a prosecutor in the vein of Elliott Ness, and really really doesn't like corruption. Now-- can Obama afford to fire him along with the rest of the US Attorneys next year?

On this type of corruption in general:

Fitz should come down to Memphis some time.


MORE 12/09/08

Wonder how today's events will affect his order for Illinois to stop doing business with Bank of America over the Republic Windows and Doors shutdown? In hindsight it looks like he could have been grandstanding the story to gain some political cover/absolute moral authority hoping the story would grow as a push-back on Fitz. Wonder if it had any impact on Fitz's decision to pull out the cuffs when he did?

THAT WAS FAST 12/09/08

Bank of America caved, but only to provide funding to allow the exit payments owed the workers on their way out the door. Nevertheless, a victory for the new international workers 'movement' mentioned by Jan Schakowsky, oddly enough herself one of the listed possibilities for Obama's old job.

Speaking of Ms. Schakowsky, here's a little history about her and husband Robert Creamer, including this:

Creamer taught at “Camp Obama,” a week-long summer camp last month held at the presidential candidate’s office in Chicago for campaign interns and volunteers–just a few blocks away from the federal court where on August 31, 2005 he pleaded guilty to charges of bank fraud and failure to pay federal taxes…on charges brought by U. S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald.

Small world.

Bush heckler

Same ole same old, except the protesters appear clueless that they disrupted a swearing-in ceremony, not a Bush event. According to the LA Times report Bush responded to the crowd by saying, "we believe in free speech in the United States of America."

The Times then felt compelled to explain more about one of the protesters:

"one of the protesters, David Swanson, has gone online to explain his behavior, saying"

And of course, they felt compelled to hyperlink his URL, to which I felt compelled to click.

Shockingly, David Swansen is a Democrat activist, affiliated with sites like AfterDowningStreet, impeachCheney, MeetwithCindy, etc. The Times description makes it sound rather innocuous, like perhaps the protester popped up a Blogspot site to explain his antics while in reality they knew he was the purveyor of those sites and the Washington director of Democrats.com. They knew because they linked the site.

Can we imagine the Times quietly linking to any similar right wing site without prior warning to the reader? No we can't!

Brave souls venturing deeper into his array of sites will come across his personal blog, whereupon he triumphantly explains his heroic stunt and promises video, etc. But for those wanting to exercise their own free speech rights and heckle Mr. Swansen online for his boorish behavior they must first register. Yeah, freedom baby.