bubble boy

"aw c'mon, it was just a routine inspection!"

[wonkette] bill barr says trump just regular bunker baby, not inspector bunker baby :(

bill barr is basically calling donald trump a liar right now.

remember when trump claimed hilariously to fox news's brian kilmeade that he didn't go in the bunker and hide because he was scared of the american people outside, but rather because it was time for a BUNKER INSPECTION, because of how he's the official white house INSPECTOR BUNKER BABY?

yeah, bill barr says that is not it, in a monday interview with fox news's bret baier.

... "things were so bad that the secret service recommended the president go down to the bunker," mr. barr said in an interview with fox news. "we can't have that in our country."

... bill barr's lies are conflicting with donald trump's lies right now, oh how sad.

... he needs the lie narrative out there that there was some major violence happening in the streets, when all impartial accounts say otherwise.

... meanwhile, donald trump is scared of looking like a weenus, so he needs it to be true that he was simply performing his normal daytime INSPECTOR BUNKER BABY duties, instead of being rushed down to the bunker by the secret service for his own protection.

... two men. two different stories they are telling themselves. both stories bullshit.

ya gotta kill some pigs

if FOX news were a liberal outfit ...

At Iowa's "Freedom Summit", Mike Huckabee declared war on the police

des moines, iowa — folksy former arkansas governor and faux news commentator and current 2016 presidential potential mike huckabee dropped a bombshell during the closeout speech of saturday's republican party "freedom summit" in iowa. outlining the principles of his radical agenda for the country, huckabee exhorted his talibangelical legions everywhere to massacre law-enforcement officials in washington and beyond.

"we need to do some pig-killing!" huckabee declared, pumping his fists in a gang-salute to a boisterous crowd, where nevada cattle rancher cliven bundy was overhead saying: "we're about ready to take the country over with force!"

however, not everyone at the summit agreed with huckabee. fellow speaker, new jersey governor, rival contender and perennial porcine punchline chris christie nervously called the plan "a solution in search of a problem."

police officers quickly voiced their displeasure with huckabee. "what police officers felt yesterday after that speech is that they were thrown under the bus," said new york police union president patrick lynch. "that they were out there doing a difficult job in the middle of the night, protecting the rights of those to stump, protecting romney's sons and dollars, and huckabee was behind microphones like this throwing them under the bus."

despite some resistance among traditional conservative ranks, huckabee remained committed to pushing the GOP down a new and militant path. "ya gotta kill some pigs," he said. "and folks, there are a lotta people ... that don't wanna kill any pigs."

this is the song of cliven bundy

cliven bundy
deadbeat on monday
rebel on tuesday
fox news hero on wednesday
racist on thursday
doubled down on friday
cast out on saturday
forgotten by sunday
and here ends the song
of cliven bundy

romney unplugged

(original artwork by alex ross)

fox news:

bill o'reilly: i don't understand what the controversy is. i think mr. romney should campaign on this point. if i'm governor romney, i run with this all day long.

sean hannity: it is romney unplugged as the GOP presidential nominee delivers one of his sharpest critiques yet of president obama and the entitlement society that he enables.

stuart varney: i think this will be seen as a win for romney.

pollster nate silver @ fivethirtyeight:

after a secretly recorded videotape was released on sept. 17 showing mitt romney making unflattering comments about the "47 percent" of americans who he said had become dependent on government benefits, i suggested on twitter that the political impact of the comments could easily be overstated.

"ninety percent of 'game-changing' gaffes are less important in retrospect than they seem in the moment," i wrote.

... since then, however, mr. obama has gained further ground in the polls. as of thursday, he led in the popular vote by 5.7 percentage points in the "now-cast," a gain of 1.6 percentage points since mr. romney's remarks became known to the public.

it's hard to tell whether this recent gain for mr. obama reflects the effect of the "47 percent" comments specifically. but the most typical pattern after a party convention is that a candidate who gains ground in the polls cedes at least some of it back.

instead, the more pertinent question seems not whether mr. obama is losing ground, but whether he is still gaining it.

... what we can say with more confidence is that mr. romney is now in a rather poor position in the polls.

... the overall story line, however, is fairly clear: mr. romney is at best holding ground in the polls, and quite possibly losing some, at a time when he needs to be gaining it instead. further, it's increasingly implausible for mr. romney to attribute the numbers to temporary effects from the democratic convention. mr. obama's probability of winning the electoral college advanced to 83.9 percent in the nov. 6 forecast, up from 81.9 percent on wednesday.

predictions

a mere twenty-four hours ago:

guess what is up for today?

first on the news will be: O-BOMB-A-CARE!

next on the news will be: holder won't be holding his job!

what a beautiful day this will be!!!:)

by seekthetruth

the whole law will get tossed because there is not enough pretzel logic on earth to find the mandate constitutional. and there is no severability clause. and there is no way in hell the court is going to wade through a 3000 page bill to try and create one.

the result will be much wailing, crying, and stamping of feet, culminating in a long-range leftist plan to undermine the supreme court (an FDR court packing scheme or something similar). it will become the bush v gore bloody shirt of the next decade.

electorally though it will actually help obama, as it will remove a huge unpopular albatross from around his neck. it will also get the catholic church to shut up about the mandate and many catholics will go back to voting democrat.

by buckeye mcfrog

SCOTUS will strike it down, POTUS will ignore the ruling.

by kosciusko51

by hotlanta mike

obama's responses usually have the flavor of vindictiveness, as in the arizona case. whatever his response, it will have to be an executive order, because most dems in congress just want this thing to go away.

of course, he will lash out verbally at both the republican party and the supreme court, but as to politically effective actions he could take, he may be boxed in. the most politically effective thing he could do would be to graciously accept the supremes' decision, but he won't do that. i hope he tries something, because it's just going to make it worse for his election chances.

by wayoverontheright

i predict there will be much sadness...

by vrwcArea51

me too, but not for us or this grand nation

by bornToBeAmerican

a constitutional crisis is about to be created, and obama, i hope, will be clapped in irons.

by candor7

and the rest, as they say, is history ...

celebrity psychology

1) pro•jec•tion |prō'jek SH ən|
a psychological defense mechanism where a person unconsciously denies his or her own attributes, thoughts, and emotions, which are then ascribed to the outside world, such as to other people. Thus, projection involves imagining or projecting the belief that others have those feelings.

2) ex•ag•ger•a•tion |ig'zajərā SH ən|
the grandiose sense of self-importance observed in narcissists also uses exaggeration to thwart any recognition of fallibility ...

3) vic•tim•i•za•tion |viktəmə'zā SH ən|
a way of dealing with the cognitive dissonance that results from inconsistencies between the way they treat others and what they believe about themselves; a way of escaping harsh judgment or condemnation they may fear from others.

the (com)passion of the donald?

"when it comes to racism and racists i am the least racist person there is. and i think most people that know me would tell you that. i am the least racist. i've had great relationships. in fact, randal pinkett won on the apprentice a little while ago, a couple years ago, and randal's been outstanding in every way. so i mean i am the least racist person. but [van jones] is a guy trying to get some publicity for himself by attacking donald trump. but that's OK 'cause a lotta people do that."

send off the clown

somebody haz a sad ...

the negotiations that led glenn beck to announce his departure from the fox news channel on wednesday ended with an expression of "let's part as friends," according to several people with knowledge of the talks. but behind that moment was a torrent of acrimony that underscored just how fractious the relationship between mr. beck and the network had become during his three-year run on fox.

... from fox's perspective, the facts about mr. beck's run on the network have been public and indisputable. among those were the refusal of hundreds of fox advertisers to allow their commercials to be placed on mr. beck's program, and a history of incendiary comments that attracted harsh backlash, including one where the host called president obama a racist and another where he compared reform judaism to radical islam. (he later apologized for both comments.)

everybody's biatch

the problem with RNC chairman michael "i'm the de facto leader of the republican party" steele's brand of baldfaced b.s. is that it only works if his fellow republicans go along with it.

however ... when even conservative sanctuary fox news won't take you seriously ...

steele says he doesn't know who the republican 'establishment' is; cavuto responds: 'you, you, you!'
citing rand paul's victory in the GOP kentucky senate primary against establishment choice trey grayson last night, neil cavuto asked RNC chairman michael steele today about "dysfunction in the republican party" as the GOP establishment clashes with the tea party. steele denied tension, saying he told the tea party in kentucky that "if we have a situation where your guy prevails, we're backing that candidate, we're very much looking to supporting rand and if our guy prevails, we'd like the same support."
cavuto responded that tea partiers had told him that they view the GOP establishment negatively, leading steele to reply, "i'm telling you as the national chairman of the party there's no bad blood between the republican national committee and the tea parties." cavuto persisted, however, in claiming that there was tension between the "establishment" and the tea party. steele responded by saying that he didn't even know who the republican establishment is, leading cavuto to note that steele is the establishment:
cavuto:	michael, the tea partiers didn't like senator bennett.
steele:	that's fine.
cavuto:	fairly or not, they didn't like him. the established republican party did.
steele:	ok, that may be ... but wait a minute —
cavuto:	i'm just saying that for you to say there is no angst between the two ...
steele:	neil, don't mix. please stop.
cavuto:	there clearly is.
steele:	[exasperated laughter] please do not mix the republican party establishment — i don't know who that is, by the way —
cavuto:	you! you! you! you —
steele:	— with activists, i, no ...
cavuto:	— you! you! you! you! you!
steele:	neil, have you been reading my press lately? i don't think, the last thing you could say about me is that i'm part of the establishment.
cavuto:	well, that's true because everybody hates you. but, i'm kidding ...

heh, that neil ... such a kidder ...

(hat tip to think progress)

and the winner is ...

it's only wednesday but i feel pretty safe in bestowing this week's "look who's oozed out from under its rock" award and "feces flinger of the week" trophy to disgraced former FEMA head michael "heckuvajob" brown for his transparently self-serving efforts to wipe the stink of katrina onto obama:

brown:	and i think the delay was this: it's pure politics. this president has never supported big oil. he's never supported offshore drilling. and now he has an excuse to shut it back down. you've already heard bill nelson, senator from florida, saying offshore drilling is DOA. they played politics with this crisis and left the coast guard out there doing what they're supposed to do.
cavuto:	so michael, you don't take him at face value when he says a temporary halt in offshore drilling is just that — a temporary halt.
brown:	no, no. look bill nelson — and you know, they don't say these things without it being coordinated — and so now you're looking at this oil slick approaching the louisiana shore, according to certain NOAA and other places, if the winds are right it'll go up the east coast. this is exactly what they want. because now he can pander to the environmentalists and say, 'i'm going to shut it down because it's too dangerous.' while mexico and china and everybody else drills in the gulf, we're going to get shut down.

brown:	hey, hey, chris, i think there's two things. i think, one, we're seeing the rahm emanuel rule number one, ah, taking effect. and that is, "let no crisis go unused". so, this is an opportunity for a president who wants to bankrupt the coal industry and basically get rid of the oil and gas industry to shut down offshore drilling in the gulf of mexico.
	[snip]
matthews:	why would somebody sabotage something that would cause this kind of damage to our planet, really?
brown:	oh well, because i think there are terrorists in the world who would like to do that sort of thing. terrorists don't give a rat's butt about the ecology or anything else. all they care about is hurting america.
	[snip]
matthews:	... but he just came out for offshore oil drilling.
brown:	oh, chris, ah, i'm glad you asked that. he came out and said, look, i'm going to approve oil and gas drilling. and all you guys went, look what a great guy he is, trying to reach out to everybody else. chris, all he did was he approved two existing leases on the northeast coast, and shut down all the other proposed leases on the west coast and the southeast coast. there was nothing new in what he did.
matthews:	but don't you know what you're saying to a third party, not somebody like myself or somebody like yourself, listening to you, thinks that you're sounding insane. you're saying that the president of the united states went into slow-mo here, somehow — or for somehow seemed to be working faster than he really was, but was really quite slow to get there, because he saw an opportunity to exploit a disaster so that he could reap discredit on to the coal industry. and by the way, a couple of weeks ago —
brown:	no, no, no, not just the coal ...
matthews:	— he came down for offshore drilling so that he could discredit it when this thing occurred. are you suggesting he somehow knew this would happen and that's why he came out for offshore drilling?
brown:	no, no ...
matthews:	it sounds like that's what you're saying —
brown:	no, no, chris, hang on ...
matthews:	— and it sounds crazy. crazy!
brown:	well, and the way you just put it, chris, the way you just put it, it sounds crazy to me, too.

stir of ethics

every once in a while, even faux news remembers what the rules are:

angry fox news executives ordered host sean hannity to abandon plans to broadcast his nightly show as part of a tea party rally in cincinnati on thursday after top executives learned that he was set to headline the event, proceeds from which would benefit the local tea party organization. rally organizers had listed hannity, who is on a book tour, as the headliner of the four-hour tax day event at the university of cincinnati. the rally, expected to draw as many as 13,000 people, was set feature speakers such as "liberal facism" author jonah goldberg and local tea party leaders. participants were being charged a minimum of $5, with seats near hannity's set going for $20, according to the cincinnati enquirer, which reported that any profits would go to future tea party events. media matters for america noted that hannity's personal website directed supporters to a link to buy tickets for the cincinnati rally. but senior fox news executives said they were not aware hannity was being billed as the centerpiece of the event or that tea party organizers were charging for admission to hannity's show as part of the rally. they first learned of it thursday morning from john finley, hannity's executive producer, who was in cincinnati to produce hannity's show. furious, top officials recalled hannity back to new york to do his show in his regular studio. the network plans to do an extensive post-mortem about the incident with finley and hannity's staff. "fox news never agreed to allow the cincinnati tea party organizers to use sean hannity's television program to profit from broadcasting his show from the event," said bill shine, the network's executive vice president of programming. "when senior executives in new york were made aware of this, we changed our plans for tonight's show." critics of fox news have accused the network of promoting tea party even as it covers the political movement as a news story. a spokeswoman for the network said that neil cavuto was the only host other than hannity at a tea party event thursday, stressing that cavuto was covering the atlanta event for both fox news and fox business channel, not attending as a participant. carl cameron provided news coverage of the tea party events around the country out of washington.

i am the tea party people

her voice is just the icing on the cake:

doocy:	... and joining us right now is former "saturday night live" star victoria jackson joining us from los angeles. good morning to you!
jackson:	[waves] good morning!
doocy:	so, are you ready to , ah, join the tea party people?
jackson:	i am the tea party people! we're, um, beginners at this political activism and it's all new to us and it's kind of cute 'cause we're shy, we hold up our signs like this, you know, despite what they say about us, i have never done anything like this, but we have to because the president is a communist!
doocy:	now, he is not a communist. but you just pointed out that you hold up signs and stuff like that and people make fun of you. what do you think about how some on the other political side have tried to diminish or, you know, or marginalize the tea party people?
jackson:	well, i guess they're afraid of, uh, the power of our passion and our numbers and, you know, you might not say communist, but i watch glenn beck and he's taught me well. progressive is the new word for communist, but it's the same goal as government control of everything and it's very obvious that obama is trying to do that and, um, i don't want to brag, but i sort of called it before he was elected and when i was on o'reilly and i said he was a communist and, uh, i got a lot of hate mail, but i got some that said i was a "prescient", which means a "prophet."
doocy:	yeah ... and i'm sure that was his "word of the day" one day. ah, victoria, what is going on in the country politically that you feel so, uh, motivated to go out to searchlight, nevada this weekend?
jackson:	well, for one thing, i am thrilled to get to meet sarah palin, 'cause she's my hero, and, y'know, we need, um, people who are not politicians in political office, people who don't want power, people who are honest, people who don't take bribes, people who don't lie and cheat and are tax-cheats — our government is all evil right now and someone's gotta do something! and i just can't sit at home and watch tv and bite my nails, so i think that's ...
doocy:	yeah ...
jackson:	... how all the other people feel. we gotta get out there and do something!
doocy:	i have heard a lot of that, where people say "i've never been political but now is the time to act." all right — ah, victoria jackson, who's gonna be in searchlight, nevada along with governor sarah palin this weekend. thank you very much for joining us live.
jackson:	[waves enthusiastically]
doocy:	[after an awkward, silent beat, waves back]

ow.

who, us?

faux fox news' bill o'reilly and bernie goldberg seem to be having a hard time understanding all the fingers pointing at their network:

o'reilly:

[time magazine's joe] klein writes, quote: "fox news peddles a fair amount of hateful crap. some of it borders on sedition. much of it is flat out untrue." unquote. but even though he has plenty of space, klein fails to illustrate his point, providing no examples of what he says is untrue ...

goldberg:

who exactly at fox news is inciting a rebellion against the government?

sigh.

this is just too easy.

keith? you wanna do the honors?

when another of the hannity faithful noted that armed insurrection and coups would be treason, someone else posted at hannity.com, quote: "only if the insurrection or coup fails." sean "you might want to check if this constitutes incitement to treason" hannity: today's "worst person in the world"!

bad americans

former leading member of the christian evangelical movement frank schaeffer says enough is enough! and he's pointing fingers and naming names.

maddow: do you think that calling the president a "nazi" ... calling the president "hitler" ... is an implicit call for politically motivated violence?

schaeffer: yes i do. in fact this rings a big bell with me because my dad who is a right wing evangelical leader wrote a book called a christian manifesto ... and in that book he compared anybody who was pro-abortion to the nazi germans; and he said that using violence or force to overthrow nazi germany would have been appropriate for christians including the assassination of hitler. he compared the supreme court's actions on abortion to that. and that has been a note that has been following the right wing movement that my father and i helped start ... so what's being said here is really two messages: there's the message to the predominatly white, middle-aged crowds of people screaming at these meetings trying to shut them down; but there's also a coded message to what i would call the "looney tunes" — the fruit loops on the side — that's really like playing russian roulette. you put a cartridge in the chamber and you spin and once in a while it goes off, and we saw that with dr. tiller, we've seen it happen numerous times in this country with the violence against political leaders whether it's martin luther king or whoever it might be. we have a history of being a well-armed violent country. and so, really, i think that these calls are incredibly irresponsible. but the good news is is that it shows a desperation. the far right knows they've lost. they've lost the hearts and minds of most american people ... but they also know that they have a large group of people who are not well-informed, who listen to their own sources, who buy the lies ... and these people can be energized to go out and do really dreadful things and we've seen it in front of abortion clinics — i'm afraid we're going to see it with some of our political leaders. and the glenn becks of this world literally are responsible for unleashing what i regard as an anti-democratic, anti-american movement in this country that is trying to shut down legitimate debate and replace it with straight out intimidation. ... these are very bad signs and i'm not at all optimistic about how this is all going to end in terms of violence although i do think that obama is going to win the day in terms of most americans. the problem is we're not talking about most americans. we're talking about a small angry group of white people who — to, y'know, paraphrase bart simpson, "the election broke their brains." they're angry and they're ready to do just about anything to stop the process at this point because they'd rather see us all lose than admit defeat. that's where they're at. ... you have a group of people who, like rush limbaugh, would rather see the president and the country fail, and their coded message to their own lunatic fringe is very sinful, and that is "go for broke". when you start comparing a democratically elected president who is not only our first black president but a moderate progressive to adolf hitler, you have arrived at a point where you are literally leaving a loaded gun on the table, saying "first person who wants to use this, go ahead, be our guest." now, all these people, when something bad happens, will raise their holy hands in horror and say "of course, we didn't mean that, we were just talking about being americans. it's american to protest ..." B.S.! they know exactly what's out there. there is a whole public there who went out and stocked up on ammunition and guns thinking obama would take away their weapons. one such person shot down three policemen in pittsburgh. i'd like to know exactly what glenn beck and fox news will say the morning after someone takes a shot at our president or kills a senator or congressman ... and if it's one of the people who we find a little note in their car or their literature or their television watching habits who's tied to these people who are stirring the pot, or tied to these foundations that people like dick armey are running, trying to use insurance company money to make look these fake grass roots movement, then we'll see what happens. but at that point we'll be in a new zone, and it'll be too late. so my warning to my old friends on the right ... without the work of my father, c. everett koop and myself, there'd be no pro-life movement, no religious right to be fomenting these things from, it's this same cast of characters. i came to a place in my life when i realized that i'd made a big mistake. now we've crossed a line into which hate and vitriol have gone to a point where it is anti-democratic and anti-american. these people do not want america to succeed. they'd rather see our system go down than have a black president, someone with different political views, someone appointing people like sotomayor, hispanic people, women and others, and we've arrived at a point where enough is enough! so these people are hate-mongers ... spreading this rhetoric, spreading these lies ... these are bad americans and they're putting us all at risk.

birther blitz

if any publicity is good publicity, then this week was an unabashed (though admittedly unrequited) love fest for our attention-starved birther buddies:

obama press secretary robert gibbs, press briefing, c-span (7/13):

keith olbermann, countdown, msnbc (7/14):

keith olbermann, countdown, msnbc (7/15):

brett baier, political grapevine, fox (7/17)

kitty pilgrim, lou dobbs tonight, cnn (7/17):

iokiyad*

alaska governor and former republican vice presidential political punchline nominee sarah palin abruptly flames out resigns.

while some question her wisdom:

resignation is a BIG mistake if she actually aspires to higher, national office. only three years as a governor in a very sparsely populated state will be a deal-breaker to a great number of americans, if not to all but the most ardent palin supporters.

... and others rattle her closet for skeletons:

maybe that really was her in "nailin' palin".

... others find new hope:

have heart my freeper friends....this is the best news i have heard in days......sarah is answering the call, and doing it the right way.... she will now be free to travel the country and speak to all comers....she cannot be accused of ignoring her job as govenor, which is totally fine for democrats but unacceptable to people with integrity.... have heart and say your prayers to protect sarah on her very dangerous journey.....

... which brings to mind this quite timely case in point:

---

* "it's ok if you're a democrat"

certifigate: newsmakers

first, the setup.

it must have eaten a hole in his gut, waiting all the way until the very end of wednesday's white house presser, before les kinsolving of worldnetdaily could ask his burning question ...

kinsolving:	just one question concerning what the president said in his speech on thursday, and i quote, 'i ran for president promising transparency, and i meant what i said. this is why, whenever possible, we will make information available to the american people so they can make informed judgments and hold us accountable.' end of quote. do you remember that statement?
gibbs:	i can confirm that he said that.
kinsolving:	good. in consideration of this very good promise of transparency, why can't the president respond to the petition to requests of 400,000 american citizens by releasing a certified copy of his long-form birth certificate listing hospital ... [audience laughter] ... 400,000! ...
gibbs:	are you looking for the president's birth certificate?
kinsolving:	yes.
gibbs:	it's on the internet, lester. [audience laughter]
kinsolving:	[also laughing] no, no, no — the long form listing his hospital and physician.
gibbs:	[chuckling] lester, this question in many ways continues to astound me. the state of hawaii provided a copy with the seal of the president's birth. i know there are apparently at least 400,000 people [audience laughter] that continue to doubt the existence of and the certification by the state of hawaii of the president's birth there, but it's on the internet because we put it on the internet for each of those 400,000 to download. i certainly hope by the fourth year of our administration that we'll have dealt with this burgeoning birth controversy.

and now for the handoff:

with the dam of silence on the whole of the media finally broken, fox news wasted no time running with this exclusive bombshell:

and four months into president obama's term, the controversy surrounding his original birth certificate continues to dog his administration. the obama campaign, you will remember, posted a copy of what it said was the document on its website to try to dispel rumors that he is not an american citizen. but an online petition, calling for the release of what it described as "the president's complete birth certificate" with the hospital name, has almost 400,000 signatures. today, the president's press secretary was incredulous that the issue just won't go away ...

anyone else notice that fox political grapevine anchor bret baier forgets to mention who's "dogging" the administration or who's behind the petition drive?

not that it really matters, since online petitions are one of the few things worth less than a subprime mortgage, but as long as you were asking, this one comes from ...

... wait for it ...

... you guessed it ...

fox news wannabee worldnetdaily!

yes, that online right-wing tabloid exclusively devoted to pimping news about its favorite subject — itself and its owner and ceo joe farah — a joke of a journal that's second only to the parody news site the onion in its gift for just making shit up.

being one of the few places that the birthers can still call a home, wnd continues to bravely flog the eligibility nontroversy when no one else will.

last week farah called for donations for his new billboard campaign:

the electoral system has failed to satisfy lingering questions about barack obama's eligibility to serve as president. ... that's how joseph farah, editor and chief executive officer of WND, explains the petition he initiated several months ago that has collected nearly 400,000 names of americans demanding answers as to obama's elidibility as well as the outpouring of financial support for his new campaign to erect billboards around the country asking the simple question: "where's the birth certificate?" ... the first such sign to be posted under the 5-day-old campaign, a digital, electronic one, is up and online on highway 165 in ball, la. – the result of a donation by the owner. ... "as obama transforms this country from self-governing constitutional republic to one governed by a central ruling elite, the simple fact remains that no controlling legal authority has established that he is indeed a 'natural born citizen' as the constitution requires," farah said. "obama's promises of transparency have become a bad joke as he continues to hide simple, innocuous documents like his birth certificate and his student records." the idea behind the billboard campaign is to make sure obama cannot avoid this question any longer. he must be asked to produce it at every turn, farah says.

funny how farah seems to have conveniently forgotten that back in august 2008 his little scandal sheet examined obama's certificate and declared it the real mccoy:

a separate WND investigation into obama's birth certificate utilizing forgery experts also found the document to be authentic.

i guess amnesia must be one of the convenient side effects of fleecing the pockets of birthers.

how to talk about torture

and no, it has nothing to do with nancy pelosi or hillary clinton ...

hasselback:	what is your mind — i know your mind is, ah, pretty made up about waterboarding, correct? you were waterboarded part of, part of your navy seal training, correct?
ventura:	no, it wasn't part of navy seal training; it was part of what they call SERE school: survival, escape, resistance, evasion. it's, it's a school that they required you to go to prior to the combat zone in vietnam. and yes, we were all waterboarded there, and yes, it is torture.
hasselback:	what do you think about nancy pelosi in terms of what she has been claiming with the cia lying to and misleading congress ... ?
ventura:	i, i, what's worse is this: the fact that it happened. if, if we hadn't waterboarded to begin with, none of this would be a controversy, would it?
hasselback:	if we hadn't waterboarded ...
ventura:	and torture, wait — torture is torture. if you're going to be a country that follows the rule of law, which we are, torture is illegal.
hasselback:	but these were specifically approved techniques with ksm, okay ... ?
ventura:	approved by who ... ?
hasselback:	khalid sheik mohammed, the information we extracted from him before waterboarding was zip. afterward, he released the information ...
unidentifed:	no ...
ventura:	no, we got all of that before waterboarding.
unidentifed:	yes.
hasselback:	this was the case that was used three times ...
ventura:	the question is this: alright, wait a minute — if waterboarding is okay, then —
hasselback:	[to unidentified] do you want me to put you in a triple nelson?
ventura:	wait, wait, if waterboarding's okay, then why don't we let our police do it to suspects so that they can learn what they know?
	[applause]
hasselback:	i understand that question, i understand that question ...
ventura:	if waterboarding's okay, why didn't we waterboard mcveigh and nichols, the oklahoma city bombers, to find out if there were more people involved?
behar:	well, what's your answer to that? why didn't we? why didn't we?
ventura:	well, i don't know, but we only seem to waterboard muslims.
goldberg:	hmm ...
audience:	oohh ...
	[crosstalk]
ventura:	haa-ha, ha-ha! have we waterboarded anyone else? name me someone else we've waterboarded!
behar:	well, one of the things that's coming out now is that they were waterboarding them to get a connection between iraq and al qaeda. and that the reason they waterboarded was to get information out so they could justify the invasion of iraq.
hasselback:	what do you think is gonna happen now —
behar:	so how does that work into your theory of how great it is?
hasselback:	look, i'm not saying it's great. i'm not saying, okay everybody, let's all go next door and get waterboarded. i'm, i'm concerned right now about nancy pelosi, who was supposedly briefed on this thing —
goldberg:	she lied —
ventura:	okay, they want her out now, right? because she lied? well, why didn't they ask for bush, bush and cheney to go out when they lied about why we went into iraq?
	[applause]
hasselback:	senator clinton! senator clinton, hillary clinton was right there with them, as were many democrats ...
ventura:	the point is, nothing is gonna happen cause they're all involved. the dems and repubs are both involved. that's why president obama's backing off from it, and they're not gonna do it now. it's a good thing i'm not the president. i'm an independent. because i would prosecute the people who did it, i would prosecute the people who ordered it, and they would all go to jail.
	[applause]
hasselback:	well, wouldn't they prosecute president obama in the future going backwards when he ordered the killing of the somali pirates? i mean, you have to think about —
ventura:	no, because the somali pirates —
goldberg:	there's a lot of differences ...
ventura:	that's apples and oranges. you're not talking about someone in custody who is supposedly under — okay, how would we feel, look how outraged we were when waterboarding was done to our vets in vietnam. where do you think we learned that? and we created the hanoi hilton right in guantanamo. that's our hanoi hilton. people have died there, people are tortured there — i'm ashamed of my country.
hasselback:	people aren't basing all those, extremists are not basing their behaviors on us, i can guarantee that, they are —
ventura:	because — should we stoop to their level?
hasselback:	look, we have —
ventura:	no. we should be above that.
hasselback:	absolutely —
ventura:	torture is wrong.
	[applause]
hasselback:	torture is wrong, but enhanced interrogation is —
ventura:	"enhanced interrogation" is dick cheney changing a word. dick cheney comes up with a new word to cover his ass.
	[crosstalk]
goldberg:	new question! new question!
ventura:	i've said it before: you give me a waterboard, one hour and dick cheney and i'll have him confessing to the sharon tate murders.
unidentified:	yeah baby!
	[applause]

smith:

our chief fox report correspondent jonathan hunt is live with us. johnathan, republicans seemed to keep the pressure on the speaker throughout the weekend and certainly continuing into today.

hunt:

yes, absolutely, this is the political gift that keeps on giving for the republicans. instead of this debate being about national security, what is and isn’t torture, what the bush administration should and shouldn’t have allowed and whether anybody in that administration should now be prosecuted, they are, they, the republicans are now able to frame this debate as to whether nancy pelosi is fit to continue as speaker. so shep, they are not about to let their foot off the gas in any way, shape, or form right now.

the handshake

what josh said:

they got issues we keep the chat shows running through the day at TPM HQ. and i've been listening to a constant stream — mainly but not only on fox — of talk through the day about whether we should feel weak or ashamed or tarnished or any other number of things because president obama had a friendly handshake with huge [sic] chavez of venezuela. the whole idea seems so deeply silly to me that it's hard to know how exactly to even comment on it. but i'm struck once again by the sort of psychologically arrested mentality and extreme emotional insecurity that seems at work in the minds of many foreign policy conservatives — or more specifically, so as not to paint with too broad a brush, those of the neo-conish flavor. sure, a lot of this is just political posturing — trying to sound the story out for possible political vulnerabilities on obama's part. throw a bunch of mud up against the wall and see what sticks. what's striking to me though is that a lot of it seems like a very genuine, gut-level emotional response. (a related example is what matt yglesias pointed out a few days ago — how many right-wingers seem to have convinced themselves that north korea, a borderline failed state on the possible brink of economic collapse somehow has the us over a barrel.) in the course of our normal lives, few of us have much difficulty identifying habits of defensiveness or a penchant for histrionic or petulant interactions as signs of weakness, not strength. really powerful people don't need stunts and usually signal their power by a certain graciousness and indifference in such interactions. they have nothing to prove. but american power, respect, command of public opinion — however you want to define it — must be in these people's minds an extremely brittle thing. they really do seem like extremely insecure people.

comical nonsense a bit of follow about on right-wing paranoia. i'm just watching andrea mitchell interview michael o'hanlon about whether president obama showed some sort of dangerous weakness in happily shaking hands with hugo chavez. mitchell played a clip of the always cartoonish newt gingrich and then noted that conservatives are drawing the analogy to john kennedy's famous meeting with nikita krushchev in the latter sized kennedy up as a lightweight and — so the argument goes — thus believed he could be pushed around during the cuban missile crisis. now, kruschev? really? i'm not sure i can imagine a better illustration of the sort of parodic paranoia i'm talking about. we do realize that the us has the most powerful military in the world and venezuela has little ability to project military power beyond its own borders. it's a non-entity militarily, even compared to iran and north korea. will he be emboldened into calling obama el diablo?

update:

the shocking truth fresh off our earlier national humiliation, we just received a note from TPM reader SR. and SR points out that in the second image of our obama at the summit of the americas slideshow we see president obama shaking hands with the dog of the president of mexico. he even seems a bit to be bowing to the dog.

losing ≠ tyranny

mark levin:	there is a road to tyranny, and i believe we're headed on that road ...
glenn beck:	fascism is coming!
unidentified:	intimidation is yet another part of the slow erosion of our liberties.
mark levin:	they want the population to surrender their liberties to the government ...
yaron brook:	you're in very dangerous water to the freedoms that exist in this country.
glenn beck:	and controlling your life ... !
michelle bachman:	i believe that there is a very strong chance that we will see that young people will be put into mandatory service ... and the real concern is that there are provisions for what i would call re-education camps for young people, where young people have to go and get trained in a philosophy that the government puts forward ...
sean hannity:	keep it up, congresswoman, you're doing a great job, and, uh, i have no doubt that they will keep attacking you 'cause you're so effective. thank you for being with us. we appreciate it.
michelle bachman:	thank you, we're gonna fight for our freedom!
sean hannity:	absolutely — against tyranny!

jon stewart:

yes, tyranny! a.k.a. our democratically elected president. it — y'know what, guys? meet — meet me at camera three very quickly ... ... i think you might be confusing tyranny ... with losing! and i feel for you because, uh ... i've been there. a few times in fact. and one of them was a bit of a nail-biter. but see, when the guy that you disagree with gets elected, he's probably going to do things you disagree with. he could cut taxes on the wealthy, remove government's oversight capability, uhh ... invade a country that you though should not be invaded, but ... that's not tyranny! that's democracy. see, now you're in the minority. it's supposed to taste like a shit taco! and by the way, if i remember correctly, when disagreement was expressed about that president's actions when y'all were in power, i believe the response was: "why do you hate america?!" "watch what you say!" "love it or leave it!" "suck on my truck nuts!"

mcjindal

the reviews are in — but haven't we seen this movie before?

keith olbermann, rachel maddow and chris matthews on msnbc:

josh marshall @ talkingpointsmemo:

jindal's comments and presentation was just weird and cringy and awful.

david brooks on pbs news hour:

... uh, not so well. you know, i think bobby jindal is a very promising politician, and i oppose the stimulus because i thought it was poorly drafted, but to come up at this moment in history with a stale "government is the problem," "we can't trust the federal government" — it's just a disaster for the republican party. the country is in a panic right now. they may not like the way the democrats have passed the stimulus bill, but that idea that we're just gonna — that government is going to have no role, the federal government has no role in this, that — in a moment when only the federal government is actually big enough to do stuff, to just ignore all that and just say "government is the problem, corruption, earmarks, wasteful spending," it's just a form of nihilism. it's just not where the country is, it's not where the future of the country is. there's an intra-republican debate. some people say the republican party lost its way because they got too moderate. some people say they got too weird or too conservative. he thinks they got too moderate, and so he's making that case. i think it's insane, and i just think it's a disaster for the party. i just think it's unfortunate right now.

andrew sullivan @ the atlantic:

close your eyes and think of kenneth from 30 rock. i can barely count the number of emails making that observation. i'm told olbermann's open mic got it right: jindal's entrance reminded one of mr. burns gamboling toward a table of ointments. ... there was, alas, a slightly high-school debate team feel to the beginning. and there was a patronizing feel to it as well — as if he were talking to kindergartners — that made obama's adult approach so much more striking. and i'm not sure that the best example for private enterprise is responding to a natural calamity that even ron paul believes is a responsibility for the federal government. and really: does a republican seriously want to bring up katrina? as for the biography, it felt like obama-lite. with far less political skill. ... but give him his due: he did in the end concede that the gop currently has a credibility problem on the fiscal issues they are now defining themselves with.... the rest was boilerplate. and tired, exhausted, boilerplate. if the gop believes tax cuts — more tax cuts — are the answer to every problem right now, they are officially out of steam and out of ideas. and remember: this guy is supposed to be the smart one.

kathryn jean lopez @ the national review:

e-mails i’m getting are from disappointed conservatives. they wanted a full-throated response to obama and expected and/or wanted more.

not even fox news is interested in rescuing poor bobby:

brit hume:	the speech read a lot better than it sounded. this was not bobby jindal's greatest oratorical moment.
nina easton:	the delivery was not exactly terrific.
charles krauthammer:	jindal didn't have a chance. he follows obama, who in making speeches, is in a league of his own. he's in a reagan-esque league. ... [jindal] tried the best he could.
juan williams:	it came off as amateurish, and even the tempo in which he spoke was sing-songy. he was telling stories that seemed very simplistic and almost childish.

okay, enough with the paid opinions — what are real patriotic god-fearing usurper-hating americans saying?:

back to the drawing board, GOP!!!!

someone needs to teach the GOP about youtube and other networking sites. from what i can tell, there's still no "official" GOP rebuttal video posted.

the first 10 minutes was a disaster. oh wait, the speech was only 10 mins long? well, i was hoping he would do well but did not impress. we need four things four years from now. personality, can give a speech, conservative, and can raise $500 million. i think the only person who can do all four is palin. i did not connect with jindal at all tonight and i don’t know if anyone else can raise %500 million.

jindal’s speech was a stinker. to begin with, i’m sick of hearing republicans going on and on about how the election of 0bama was so so historic. jindal’s delivery was poor, and his attempts at personalizing stories kind of fell flat. i’ve heard him speak before, he’s a smart guy, but he’s very dull. if he were to get the nomination in 2012 he’d draw mccain size crowds, maybe a bit bigger. bored, unenthusiastic crowds don’t volunteer, don’t donate, and sometimes don’t even vote. last i heard he’s only rejected $98 million of the stimulus for louisiana, which is just over ten percent. palin has rejected about 50 percent of the $1 billion offered her state. all she’s taking are for construction projects.

we have GREAT candidates but they keep being shown in an awful light. that’s the problem.

i've read about jindal for months now, but this is the first speech i've seen him make. an unmitigated disaster. ... jindal is off my list for potential 2012 nominee. which leaves...no one.

i heard jindal on the radio earlier today. sounded squishy. a republican should have gone on tonight and said: why have you spent over a million dollars keeping your birth certificate locked up? are you a natural-born citizen? are you even a citizen? since your grandfather, father, mother, and mentor, and all your associates since childhood have been communists—why aren’t you a communist? or are you? why have you seized control of the census? why have you given acorn $4 billion? isn’t there enough thuggery and vote fraud to satisfy you? of course the “stimulus bill” had no earmarks—it was 100% pork from beginning to end. earmarks are pork! if a bill is 100& pork, there’s no need for earmarks. why is the money supply shooting up like a moon rocket? and why have you spent over a million dollars keeping your birth certificate locked up? (i know—i want to see this question repeated.)