Former Half-Governor Sarah Palin's current half-truths

By GottaLaff

Once again, Halfy McNotVP is mangling the truth to make Elected by a Wide Margin President Obama look like a weak, America-hating doody head (that's a political term I picked up on the street).

It's also rather contradictory to suggest Obama is reluctant to accept superpower status when one remembers how Halfy's crowd revels in accusations that he is an evil dictator who wants to control us, our pets, and the entire world:

Her ghost writers said the following in a Facebook post:

Asked this week about his faltering efforts to advance the Middle East peace process, President Obama did something remarkable. In front of some 47 foreign leaders and hundreds of reporters from all over the world, President Obama said that “whether we like it or not, we remain a dominant military superpower.”

Whether we like it or not? Most Americans do like it.

Here’s what the President actually said:

But what we can make sure of is, is that we are constantly present, constantly engaged, and setting out very clearly to both sides our belief that not only is it in the interests of each party to resolve these conflicts but it’s also in the interest of the United States. It is a vital national security interest of the United States to reduce these conflicts because whether we like it or not, we remain a dominant military superpower, and when conflicts break out, one way or another we get pulled into them. And that ends up costing us significantly in terms of both blood and treasure.

The corporate media has already picked up her side of the story, which means the punditiots will be pushing this misleading meme instead of, you know, the truth.

Which is exactly how Halfy takes control of the message and stirs up her wacky groupies.

Phony indignation = news

By GottaLaff

This is one of my pet topics. What was once hard news has gradually morphed into tabloid gossip, shouting matches, and bi-polar self-righteousness that is passed off as fair and balanced reporting.

The news dee jays and spokesmodels are like permissive, self-serving parents who enable rapt children who plug into frothy politics like they were narcotic iPods.

And so the viewing audience is hooked on manufactured drama the way Boss Limpdong is addicted to Oxycontin:

It's appropriate that a book about the 2008 campaign -- Mark Halperin and John Heilemann's newly published "Game Change" -- has given us yet another example in which phony outrage over an out-of-context sound bite captivates the media all out of proportion to the offensiveness of the remark. The statement was Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's 2008 comment that he expected Obama to fare better electorally than previous black presidential aspirants partly because of his lighter skin tone and lack of "Negro dialect" -- a term, incidentally, that the "Google Books" search engine finds in 3,780 publications, all before this year, none apparently racist. [...]

The most obvious reason is that it's a political game perfectly suited for our new news cycle. Episodes like the Reid comment provide "catnip for the news media," as Obama said, because of the new rhythms of cable TV and blogging, which intensify the old talk-radio pattern: polarized and combative, with guest experts and pundits chosen to parrot each side's arguments with requisite rage. Verbal missteps work well for cable because they require little explanation (so the fight can begin quickly); they lend themselves to simple partisan battles; and viewers can readily align their own emotions with one side or the other.

The media, of course, reflect our politics, and a second reason these flaps are so common lately is that they fit well with our divided and mutually suspicious condition. [...]

Then there's a third, less obvious reason that the outrage game is thriving: its connection to the politics of race. [...]

Ultimately, explaining all the subtleties of a linguistic concept like "Negro dialect" -- or any other touchy subjects that could trigger such an episode -- demands more time, patience and intellectual precision than the leading producers and avid consumers of our breakneck political discussions wish to indulge.

David Greenberg is a professor of history and journalism and media studies at Rutgers University and the author of "Nixon's Shadow: The History of an Image" and other books.

Much more here.

The AP DESTROYS the Phony Climategate Scandal

By GottaLaff

Neener. Nanner. NeenernannerNeenernannerNeenernanner. And yes, I'm being immature and childish because I am sick to death of wingy memes monopolizing the media and accepted as truth:

This is significant because it sweeps away any quasi-legitimacy the Global Warming deniers have had in isolating or trumpeting certain doubts that individual scientists may have had.

The 1,073 e-mails examined by the AP show that scientists harbored private doubts, however slight and fleeting, even as they told the world they were certain about climate change. However, the exchanges don't undercut the vast body of evidence showing the world is warming because of man-made greenhouse gas emissions.

There is more fun over at Kos. Go visit, then dance in circles, point and laugh at the Deniers, and call everyone you know.

I will resume adulthood after I post this. So there. Pfft.

Video- New Wingnut Meme Fail: Russians Snubbed Obama-- Refused to Shake His Hand!

They're going to try and work this one up, so expect to see it on Hannity tonight. The funny thing is, I saw this on MSNBC while I was talking to Gotta and I thought the same thing at first viewing (I looked for, but couldn't find the vid). Watch it a couple times and see if you see what I (and some commenters at YouTube) saw. Winger Meme Fail.

A Winger So Stupid, Not Even Jonah Goldberg Will Play Along

And that's pretty damn bad.

Within days of my going public last September with the speculation that terrorist emeritus Bill Ayers helped Barack Obama write his acclaimed memoir, Dreams From My Father, I learned that I was not alone in that intuition.

Oh, there's more. Tortured logic, twisted rationalizations more.