Video- Attention Kelly O'Donnell & Media: A Naturalized Citizen IS THE SAME As A Natural Born Citizen

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Pertinent part starts about 2:50.

Mitchell- And the chairman of the committee, Joe Lieberman, Kelly, also suggested that he thinks it's time to strip someone who's under such a watch list of their citizenship.* Strip them of their citizenship, we heard Senator John McCain saying earlier today that there should not have been any Mirandizing so there's going to be a lot of focus on what some critics of the administration are going to be saying, republicans are raising a whole lot of issues.**

O'Donnell- All about how you would then proceed, if someone is, especially a naturalized citizen as was the case in the Times Square incident, could you pull away the citizenship to deny them some of the rights that we as American citizens would have. That's part of what is prompting Lieberman's comments. And if you were even a natural born*** citizen and commit what they said could be an act of treason would you then forfeit your citizenship benefits. And there was a discussion today that went into the fact that a citizen could be determined to be an enemy combatant, a classification that gives the government some different avenues to go through prosecution. So, these are really tough issues because they go right to the heart of the constitution, and right to current day events that have everyone on edge.

Ms O'Donnell, I see that you graduated from Northwestern, so you really can't be this stupid. Are my parents and sister less American than you****? Or is the fact that they've been "naturalized" longer a factor? Craig Ferguson's only been naturalized about as long as Shahzad, so maybe Craig should be careful not to be accused of anything? How long do you have to be naturalized for it to really stick? Can you make me a graph showing the different levels of American? Is it like the wedding anniversary thingie? I mean, if I've been naturalized for 5 years I get Free Speech, 10 years the Right to Bear Arms? I'll be waiting for your reply.

* Mitchell stumbles around too much for me to type every damn word she says, I tightened it up.

** Is there ANYONE that is paid to be on television that cooks up a bigger word soup that Mitchell? It's bloody painful.

***Note the emphasis on "born".

**** I dare you to say that to her U.S. General husband.

Front page of Yahoo right now

TODAY - May 02, 2010

Obama visits gulf ecological disaster

--->The president reassures crews as he tries to prevent the oil spill from turning into his Katrina.<--- 'All hands on deck'

The arrows are added to get you right to the point. No, No, No, No, NO! Ugh.

Note to Punditiots: Gulf oil disaster is NOT "Obama's Katrina"

By GottaLaff

In an earlier post, I mentioned how some in the media (Gee, guess who?) are pushing the meme that the Gulf oil catastrophe is "Obama's Katrina". Wrong. It's a memorable catch phrase, but it's inaccurate, to say the least. But that won't stop them from perpetuating the lies. It never has, it never will.

While BP was the first responder, the Coast Guard reacted right away to the situation and deployed 70 vessels and 1 million feet of boom for possible service, Napolitano said.

Salazar noted that the Obama administration has ordered inspections of "blowout preventers" on other Gulf rigs. The government's job was to "keep the boot on the neck" of BP to ensure it meets its obligations in stopping the spill, dealing with the oil slick and paying for all costs and damages.

President Obama is on his way:

President Obama headed to Louisiana on Sunday to see for himself the growing oil slick from a damaged offshore well that threatens the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Compare that to this memory jogger, "A Tale of Two Photos":

As for the meme, maybe this will help, Via Greg Sargent:

Michael Shear counts the ways that the Gulf oil spill isn’t Katrina:

The gulf oil spill is no Katrina, in which 1,836 people died amid the near total devastation of one of America’s great cities…

Unlike Katrina, there has been no obvious failures of government, no images to compare to the Superdome or the flooded streets of St. Bernard Parish. And unlike Katrina, there is an easy target for blame in the current oil spill: the oil giant BP, which by law is the “responsible party” and must pay for all of the costs of the cleanup.

However, if you are a Rushpublic, it's all Obama's fault. So is that paper cut I just got, according to them.... And that flat tire that caused gridlock on the 101 freeway, along with global warming, terrorism, locusts, Vanilla Ice's career, and Trump's hair.

National Enquirer retracts claim of Obama sex scandal

By GottaLaff

I knew this was coming. But first, before that all-important retraction, make sure the word got out there, right?

The National Enquirer, which published a report this morning that “investigators are attempting to obtain a tape” that proved an illicit rendezvous between President Barack Obama and former US Senate campaign staffer Vera Baker, has updated their story this afternoon to retract the claim that there is video evidence of the affair with the alleged testimony of an anonymous chauffeur.

Looks like the National Enquirer Obama sex scandal is unraveling rather quickly.

How perfectly timed to go with the bogus "Catastrophic oil slick is Obama's Katrina" meme. That librul press, always siding with the dictator!

H/t: RWRenfrew, JamieHarbor

Video- Robert Gibbs on press corps, tv show briefings

Yes Robert, that's a dead giveaway.

Video- Wallace calls Obama tea party comments "height of condescension," cites dubious GOP stats to call his comments "not true"

This is their straight news guy, reading off the GOP Talking Points Memo. Yeah.

Sarah Palin's Real Base

The media totally inventing a story and manipulating the narrative? Imagine that.

Despite several high profile speeches in recent weeks, Sarah Palin seems to be much more influential with the media than she is with Republicans.

First Read: "For example, she placed third at the SRLC straw poll (a disappointing finish when you consider that the winner, Mitt Romney, didn't show up and that Ron Paul was second). In addition, a New York Times/CBS poll finds that a plurality of self-identified Tea Party members don't think she's qualified to be president. And now Kentucky Senate candidate Trey Grayson (R) says Palin isn't qualified for the White House. No doubt that she's a political celebrity, but that isn't necessarily translating into GOP support. There is growing evidence that she is not the political force some would like to believe (indeed, if she were actually pondering a big for 2012, this last month would be seen as a disappointment)."

CNN Fails to Stop Fall in Ratings

By GottaLaff

Let's see now... CNN gets desperate and hires Erick Erickson. If you don't know who that is, here is a reminder from a previous post:

That was then.

This is now:

Health Care Suicide Bombers — Open Thread

Posted by Erick Erickson (Profile)

Saturday, March 13th at 7:34PM EST

33 Comments

Precisely.

Some things never change.

Yes, that's who CNN hired to prop up their sagging ratings.

They might want to rethink their strategy:

CNN continued what has become a precipitous decline in ratings for its prime-time programs in the first quarter of 2010, with its main hosts losing almost half their viewers in a year. [...]

[Larry] King, whose show has been regularly eclipsed by Rachel Maddow’s on MSNBC (and is almost quadrupled by Sean Hannity’s show on Fox), is now threatened by a new host, Joy Behar on HLN (formerly Headline News.)

If by inviting RedState to the family, they're trying to compete with Fox, that won't end well either:

At the same time, Fox News, which had its biggest year in 2009, continues to add viewers. Greta Van Susteren’s show was up 25 percent from a year earlier. Bill O’Reilly, whose show commands the biggest audience in prime time with 3.65 million viewers, was up 28 percent, and Glenn Beck was up 50 percent from a year earlier.

Maybe if hotels, restaurants, etc. would carry MSNBC, we might see some real competition.

Sorry state of affairs all around.

(Fox News) Headline of the Day

10 Celebrity Porn Star Lookalikes

Which stars have virtual twins in adult films?

Via Newshounds.

Quote of the Day

Too true. Via Taegan-

"I guess we'll be considered smart again for at least another four weeks."

-- President Obama, quoted by ABC News.

Perpetuating lies must stop or real democracy ceases to exist

By GottaLaff

I'm watching MSNBC as I type this. Forgive the stream-of-consciousness, but sometimes it's easier to communicate that way:

The GOP is reacting to the health care bill bill signing. What an accomplishment that was, and how proud we should be. The Democrats faced so many obstacles that attaining their goal was in real doubt.

But as Vice President Biden said to the president at the signing, "this is a big f'ing deal."

But back to the Rushpublic reaction on the Tee Vee Machine:

Jon Cornyn reiterated the GOP meme that the Democrats were determined "to shove this down the throat of American people". Those would be the very same American people who voted in a guy named Barack Hussein Obama by a landslide, and gave the Democrats the majorities in Congress, because they wanted this bill, or one very much like it. Yeah, Cornyn, those people.

He then cited a CNN poll, perpetuating even more lies. Here is the poll he cited, along with the factual breakdown. Ed Schultz gets kudos for immediately correcting the record, which was refreshing and admirable.

But you know who didn't do that? Chris Matthews.

Earlier today, one of his guests (I was in the other room, so I can't identify her) cited the same poll, repeated the same misleading information, and Matthews said nothing. No. Thing.

I started screaming obscenities. If the media refuse to report news accurately, we get a dumbed-down electorate, and real democracy ceases to exist. Think about that.

And this is exactly what the GOP wants: A dumbed-down electorate. That way, more and more voters believe what they're told by the careless, lazy, bought-and-paid-for corporate media, and more and more elections reflect a badly uninformed and misinformed population.

There you have it: one more thing to fight tooth and nail. We need to educate America, starting right now... Or else, this happens.

I hope this post is a start.

MythInformation: "Deem and Pass" Is NOT "Without A Vote"

By GottaLaff

Bill Scher clarifies something about the health care reform process that the corporate media won't. It's all that pesky"self-executing rule" or "deem and pass," that we've been hearing about.

Yes, the Big Ol' Right Wing Talking Point media outlets claim that it will be passing the Senate health care vote "without a vote."

Wrong:

MSNBC's First Read succinctly explains the process, in case any other professional journalists care to do their jobs.

...the health-care bill would be voted on INDIRECTLY, tucked into what's known as "the rule." The rule essentially outlines the rules for an upcoming vote -- in this case, it would be the vote on the package of reconciliation fixes.

By passing "the rule," the House also would "deem" the Senate bill passed (with a "hereby" statement. "We hereby deem..."). The House would then vote on the package of reconciliation fixes. But the Senate health-care bill would be considered passed even if they never vote on the reconciliation fixes [and] the bill must be signed by the president before the Senate takes up the reconciliation.

So there is a vote by the full House on whether it chooses to pass the Senate health care bill.

If any members of the House do not want to deem the Senate bill passed, they can vote no on the rule which would deem it passed.

Any members of the House who vote "Yes," would do so by recorded vote, so their constituents will be able to judge their actions.

Kinda sounds like democracy.

All that is accomplished here is the consolidation of a step.

Bill has much more, but that's the gist.

We're being fed misinformation and lies by the media again. And again.

This has to stop. How can democracy survive when an unsuspecting and/or low information electorate is not being given facts and context? Instead, we're shown car chases and Tiger Woods surrogates (coughAriFleischercough) after having faulty headlines jammed down our throats.

That's not educating viewers. That's not news. That's infotainment, a few sound bites, and an outhouse full of punditiocracy.

RedState's Erick Erickson joins CNN: TWPNTOTV!!!*

By GottaLaff

When CNN had its old Sunday line-up, I used to post a regular feature that mocked them just as regularly.

They call themselves "The Best Political Team on Television." I referred to them as TBPNTOTV!!!... with three exclamation points to emphasize their emphasis on emphasizing their over-emphasized self-importance and self-congratulatory smugness.

I also tried to expose their not-exactly-fair-and-balanced approach.

And I used lots of snarky !!!!!!!!!!!!! Lots.

Just when I thought they couldn't get any worse:

Prominent conservative commentator and RedState.com editor Erick Erickson will join CNN as a political contributor, appearing primarily on CNN's new show John King, USA¸ the network announced Tuesday. [...]

"Joining CNN is like coming home, and being in Atlanta makes the decision right for me and my family," Erickson said in a statement.

Erick the Red feels as if he's "coming home" to CNN. That pretty much says it all.

Under Erickson's leadership, RedState.com has become the preeminent right of center community online. [...]

"Erick's a perfect fit for John King, USA, because not only is he an agenda-setter whose words are closely watched in Washington, but as a person who still lives in small-town America, Erick is in touch with the very people John hopes to reach," said Sam Feist, CNN political director and vice president of Washington-based programming.

So he's "in touch". That's the definition of "in touch": Erick the Red Erickson. That's how CNN's political director feels, that Erick is the "in touch" go-to guy.

Erick.

RedState.

Erickson.

Sam Feist, you are woefully out of touch.

And CNN has now hit bottom. Officially. Out of touch, out of mind.

CNN: TWPNTOTV!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*



*The WORST Political News Team on Television, with unlimited exclamation points.

UPDATE: Joeyess reminds me of a post I did back in 2009. Here's a sample:

And this is the unit insignia of the RedState Army's Strike Force:

Like many chickenhawks who struggle with what it means to be a man in the modern era, Erickson and the "soldiers" in his budding "Strike Force" have again tried to imitate serving in the military without actually having to don a uniform, pick up a weapon, or sacrifice much of anything at all.

Could that be any more embarrassing? Or offensive? Or childish? Or presumptuous?

And here's a photo that should have been included, of a typical soldier:


There. Now you're all updated.

PhotOh! CNN Fail

By GottaLaff

Via socratic, who has provided wonderful visual enhancement to my Church of Tiger Woods post:

(click on image to enlarge)

H/t: DCPlod

VIDEO:The Church of Tiger Woods

By GottaLaff

UPDATE: Here's the video...

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This is big. Bigger than you. Bigger than me. Bigger than health care reform. Bigger than Afghan war deaths. Bigger than unemployment.

Bigger than god.

As I type this, 35 minutes of MSNBC's and CNN's "news"casts have been devoted to the genesis of the Redemption of Tiger Woods.

He boinked 4,000 women and now he's here to say how sorry he is... sorry, that is, that his career needs rehab:

I'm sorry. It's my fault. I had affairs. I cheated. For years. And years. Because I could.

Because, come on, they were so hottt.

I'm sorry.

I'm so sorry...

... that I got caught.

That will never happen again.

Please look me in the eyes, because I trained for weeks to look into the camera, to exude sincerity and contrition. I even threw in Buddhism, and now I need unequivocal validation that I gave an Oscar-winning performance.

I hit all the keywords, I stayed on message... and now I want my role model status back.

No, seriously. Like you wouldn't believe.

You in the back, your head's not bowed.

I stood in front of a stark blue background, at a starkly plain podium, looking down at starkly humiliated, teeth-gnashing Mom, looked into the stark camera lens, and delivered the hell out of a somber, polished speech.

An then, in hushed, reverent tones, cameth the Panel.

Even High Priest Armstrong Williams was summoned to preach to the congregation.

Yes, flock, The Church of Tiger Woods assembled, the prayer service was underway, and The Panel glanced heavenward, and then proceeded to look to the gods of emotional analysis, solemn parsing, Very Serious Boffo Reviews... and invoke a silent prayer that sponsors will once again release torrents of cash that will once again bring peace and prosperity to the media and the PGA.

We're at 57 minutes now.

Nike has forgiven him.

All rise.

Tiger, The Holy Panel of Newsotainment Punditiots and Nike hath shown mercy, and hath calleth upon us to doeth the same.

After all, Tiger said he was sorry really, really well.

Amen.

Cartoon of the Day

Click to enlarge, via.

Sunday Talk alert: Rachel Maddow on Meet the Press

By GottaLaff


Notice the other guests are all, well, the usual Not Progressives. Meet the Press should be renamed Meet the Right.

Rachel will wipe the floor with them, as usual... if they give her more than 30 seconds to, you know, speak.

So which is it? Does MTP need ratings? Or does Rachel? Or both? I haven't been keeping track.

When Fake News Goes Viral

By GottaLaff

If only fake news were the Jon Stewart kind:

The New York Observer notes that 13 different news organizations ran unsourced stories about the supposed blockbuster New York Times story about New York Gov. David Paterson -- even before the governor issued his now famous denial.

Walter Shapiro: "Sadly, this is what happens when the old-media arrogance of The New York Times -- a newspaper that will do things its own way on its own schedule -- collides with the sex sells, rumors-are-reality sleaziness of the new media. Isn't the 21st century great?"

This reminds me of Keith Olbermann's explanation of how a ClusterFox meme gets started. One of their punditiots opines, it's picked up as a "some say" by their "news" [sic] team, and that in turn gets reported as "news" by the rest of the media.

Then, the more often the story is repeated, the more credibility it is given, which makes about as much sense as ... well, a 2010 vote for Michele Bachmann.

Blame the Republicans

By GottaLaff

First of all, allow me to rant about this headline that just popped up on MSNBC:

With 59 votes, Dems must seek Republican input

Excuse me, but I need to scream now. Stay where you are for just a second, if you wouldn't mind.

SFX: Fading footsteps....

GAAAAAAAA!!!

SFX: Crescendoing footsteps.

Thanks for waiting.

Dear MSNBC: A 60 Democrat super majority was never synonymous with 60 votes. Blue Dogs are not "real" Democrats. We always needed Republican "input" (translation: votes). Why is that so hard for so many to grasp?

So, yes, Dems need "input", but from both Democrats and Rushpublics. This has always been the case. Had it not been the case, we'd have passed health care reform by now, because all 60 Democrats would have been on board.

Clear? Clear.

Rant over.

The above tantrum, however, does not let the Party of Obstruction off the hook, and President Obama knows it:

"Over the past week, President Obama and his senior aides have repeatedly cited Republicans' filibuster threats as the primary reason for the lack of progress on big ticket legislative items, an early sign that Democrats will seek to use this bit of legislative arcana against the GOP in the coming midterm election," The Fix observes.

"By making the filibuster a political issue, the White House may be hoping to turn the base's anger at the way things are being done in Washington away from an inward focus on the party's unwillingness to change the rules and toward Republicans for their legislative blocking."

I am Laffy and I approve that message.

Al Franken: 'I don't trust promises' of Comcast, NBC given past experience

By GottaLaff

I trust Al Franken, who doesn't trust Comcast and NBC:

Franken (D-Minn.), a member of the Senate antitrust subcommittee, said his previous career "has given me reason to be very concerned about this potential merger."

So much for all those "he's just a comedian" slams.

"It matters who runs our media companies," he said. "The media are our source of entertainment. They're also how we get information about the world."

"So when the same company that produces those programs runs the pipes, we have reason to be nervous," he said. [...]

"It's completely opposite of what NBC said they would do," he said. "You'll have to excuse me if I don't trust these promises."

There's more here.

And I'm already nervous.