Someone Please Tell Wolf Blitzer What Lawyers Do

This clip made me pretty mad. Wolf acts like no lawyer has ever represented someone accused of a horrible crime before. It's called being a lawyer.

Check it out:

**Updated**Faux News is Really Smart

The Daily Show catches Fox News using old footage to make the Tea Party organized by crazy lady...I mean Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann look much bigger than it actually was.

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The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Sean Hannity Uses Glenn Beck's Protest Footage
http://www.thedailyshow.com/
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UPDATE: Hannity admits getting PWNED

Glenn Beck "was right" about Obama?? Seriously??

Murdoch: Make a choice

Rupert Murdoch, chairman of Fox News Channel's parent company News Corp, said he agrees with Glenn Beck's statement that President Obama is "a racist" -- a clear sign that Fox's problems with race start at the very top.

Now that he's been called out and the spotlight is squarely on him, Murdoch says he doesn't agree with Beck, but he won't denounce Beck's rhetoric either.

It's time to force the conversation, publicly. Murdoch can stand by the fact that he supports Glenn Beck's race-baiting; or he can tell us why he doesn't and what he's going to do about it.

We can hold Beck, Fox, and News Corp accountable. It starts by demanding Murdoch answer a few simple questions. Please add your voice now.

Today in Wingnut Land: Fort Hood is Obama's Fault

It was only a matter of time before the wingnuts were going to begin blaming last week's tragic massacre at Fort Hood on Obama.

I feel like we need to start a countdown clock to measure the amount of time between a bad event anywhere in the world and when it gets blamed on Obama. You know like how they have one on Talking Point's Memo to measure the time between when someone in the GOP criticizes Rush Limbaugh and when they crawl back on their knees to apologize.

Seriously, though I'm unclear as to how you logically conclude that, if the FBI drops an investigation of someone in 2008, it's Obama's fault? Oh wait did I say logical conclusion?

Via Media Matters:



From the November 9 edition of Fox News' Hannity:

HANNITY: This Fort Hood situation is really beginning to disturb me and should disturb everybody. And that is that there is a chance our government knew all about this guy Hasan and did nothing because nobody wanted to be called an Islamophobe. We're not talking about Islam, we're talking about radical Islam. You know, this guy going in there, god is great, etc., etc., and all the things he's saying. But everybody hat worked with him, Bob, knew ahead of time, our government apparently knew and did nothing. Now, this is a terrorist act, if in fact this was motivated in such a way. What does it say about Barack Obama and our government?

I realize that at a certain point we have to ignore all the Faux News blather, but we do not want the narrative to be created that the tragedy at Fort Hood was a terrorist attack that President Obama allowed to happen.

Update: Obama's speech at the Fort Hood memorial service earlier today.

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The Rihanna Effect: Women Stand Up or Sit Down For Each Other?

This weekend, pop star Rihanna had her first interview since the infamous incident with her ex-boyfriend and hip-hop star Chris Brown. We've blogged about this before here and here.

What was notable about this interview, in addition to the fact that Rihanna spoke out for the first time about the details of what happened that night, is that she stated that she realized that her initial decision to return to Chris Brown after the incident sent the wrong message to millions of women across the country and around the world. Fortunately for Rihanna, this was a decision that she quickly corrected by ending her relationship with Brown shortly after the incident occurred (as discussed in video Part 4 below), but for so many other women out there, this proves to be a decision easier said than done.

Nevertheless, now that it is all said and done between the couple, what is most troubling about this incident are the multitudes of women, particularly within the black community, who are calling or writing in to talk shows and magazines to speak out against Rihanna. And no that's not a typo, I said against Rihanna.

This morning on the Steve Harvey Morning Show, a representative from Essence magazine told a rather stunned and aggravated Steve and the morning crew that female after female after female, ranging from young to old in age, had written in to place the blame on Rihanna for "provoking Chris Brown" in some way. Similarly, on the Ed Lover morning show, many female callers lit up the phone lines to voice the same sentiment - that they didn't believe Rihanna's interview and that somehow this is Rihanna's fault.

I pose the same question that was posed by more than one talk show or radio show this morning: Ladies, why are you not standing up in greater numbers for Rihanna and women like Rihanna when it comes to domestic violence situations like these?


See the Diana Sawyer interview below:

PART 1

PART 2


PART 3


PART 4


PART 5

Ted Kennedy Is Somewhere Smiling

I'm sure there are those out there who feel like yesterday's historic passage of the health care reform bill in the House of Representatives is no big deal or maybe even with all the back and forth and tea party drama, in the end it was still a bit predictable.

Josh Marshall has a great post talking about this sentiment:

There are many events in life that, while more or less predictable in themselves (House passage of the health care bill), turn out to have an impact and significance that is only truly apparent after they occur. The passage of the House health care reform bill last night strikes me as one of them.

The precise contours of the post-conference legislation remains uncertain in a number of key respects, especially in regards to the public option. But having watched the events leading up to the House vote and the politicking in the senate, I have little doubt that a broadly similar bill will pass the senate, be reconciled with the House bill in a conference report and bill that will be signed by the president in relatively short order.

The reason these sorts of events happen so infrequently is that they are like colossal ships or vast armies, very difficult to build or assemble and get on their way but also extremely difficult to stop or turn once they are under way.

As Bill Kristol noted in his famous 1993 GOP strategy memo on the Clinton health care reform initiative, the key danger Republicans face from health care reform is precisely that the public will like it. And I suspect that the more forward thinking and perspicacious of his partisan colleagues today see it the same way.

If a health care reform bill passes, it's greatest point of vulnerability will be in the 2010 election. That's not only because of the on-going fall-out of the 2008 financial crisis, which sets the Democrats up for a tough midterm election. It's also because a lot of the key reforms in the legislation don't kick in for a few years. But even if you assume the worst possible outcome for the Democrats in 2010, loss of both houses of Congress, Republican majorities still wouldn't be able to overturn the law because President Obama would veto their repeal.

Last night's vote makes me think this will happen and it will be a genuinely historic development.

Don't get it twisted or listen to the naysayers, the House made HISTORY last night.

I think it's very important to put it all in perspective. If it were easy, Congress would've been able to do this in the last 100 years. The NY Times has a great synopsis of the history of healthcare reform that is a must see.

So what now?

There are already those in the Senate who are saying the bill from the House is DOA in the other chamber, but as these things go and I think like with a lot of things in politics, once you get enough momentum in one direction it's very difficult to stop it or turn it in the other direction.

So what do we think? Are the democrats going to get it the rest of the way or am I still being too optimistic?

P.S. There are some things very wrong with the legislation that was passed.

#1 being the HORRIBLE anti-abortion amendment which pretty much sold out women's rights in order to get some conservative democrats on board.

Lastly, here's TPM's collection of the must see clips from the debate yesterday (Trust me it's so entertaining it had me watching C-SPAN for most of my Saturday although the small caveat there is that I'm a super dork who finds this kind of spectacle funny). As someone tweeted yesterday, watching this floor debate was like watching some Hollywood satirical depiction of a dysfunctional government SMH.

Here's another one of my favorite clips from yesterday's floor debate of Rep. John Shadegg (R-AZ) using a poor innocent infant as a prop.



And then there was Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) and her stupid lei.

Watch the House of Representatives Debate HCR Live

The amount of Republican lie telling is astronomical and apparently what I've learned is that Healthcare Reform is really a plot for elected Democrats to take away our freedom.

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Vote expected to be at around 8pm EST. Let's get it done!