Bill Maher Defends Bill O’Reilly’s Statement That Muslims Attacked Us On 9/11

Mediaite.com:

One might expect Bill Maher to rush to the defense of Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg who walked out on Bill O’Reilly when he claimed that Muslims attacked us on 9/11. But no, one would be wrong, as one can see in the following clip from HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher.


Bill Maher is nothing if not an iconoclast. During the Clinton-era Politically Incorrect he was considered somewhat right-of-center; during the Bush administration he was definitely left-of-center; and now during the Obama administration…well, he just seems angry and frustrated for a variety of reasons. But that doesn’t mean that he can’t still swim upstream, as he does in the following clip.


Maher first brought up the subject of the kerfuffle on The View (as pop culture history books are certain to refer to it) while speaking with guest Al Sharpton. He later readdressed the issue while speaking to his panel of guests, which included John Legend, Markos Moulitsas, and Dana Loesch.. Maher asked “Why is there an outrage? Muslims did attack us on 9/11.”

Actually this isn't too shocking because it's hard to argue with facts and I haven't seen anyone, even on the Left, defend Behar and Goldberg walking off their own show the way they did..

UCLA Study: Most Tea Party Signs Not Racist

WaPo.com:

A new analysis of political signs displayed at a tea party rally in Washington last month reveals that the vast majority of activists expressed narrow concerns about the government's economic and spending policies and steered clear of the racially charged anti-Obama messages that have helped define some media coverage of such events. 

Emily Ekins, a graduate student at UCLA, conducted the survey at the 9/12 Taxpayer March on Washington last month by scouring the crowd, row by row and hour by hour, and taking a picture of every sign she passed. 

Ekins photographed about 250 signs, and more than half of those she saw reflected a "limited government ethos," she found - touching on such topics as the role of government, liberty, taxes, spending, deficit and concern about socialism. Examples ranged from the simple message "$top the $pending" scrawled in black-marker block letters to more elaborate drawings of bar charts, stop signs and one poster with the slogan "Socialism is Legal Theft" and a stick-figure socialist pointing a gun at the head of a taxpayer. 

There were uglier messages, too - including "Obama Bin Lyin' - Impeach Now" and "Somewhere in Kenya a Village is Missing its Idiot." But Ekins's analysis showed that only about a quarter of all signs reflected direct anger with Obama. Only 5 percent of the total mentioned the president's race or religion, and slightly more than 1 percent questioned his American citizenship. 

Ekins's conclusion is not that the racially charged messages are unimportant but that media coverage of tea party rallies over the past year have focused so heavily on the more controversial signs that it has contributed to the perception that such content dominates the tea party movement more than it actually does. 

"Really this is an issue of salience," Ekins said. "Just because a couple of percentage points of signs have those messages doesn't mean the other people don't share those views, but it doesn't mean they do, either. But when 25 percent of the coverage is devoted to those signs, it suggests that this is the issue that 25 percent of people think is so important that they're going to put it on a sign, when it's actually only a couple of people." 

Facts: It's what conservatives beat liberals with all the time.

Joy Behar And Whoopi Goldberg Walk Off "The View" After Sparring With Bill O’Reilly

Mediaite.com:

Bill O’Reilly was a guest on The View today to promote his new Pinheads and Patriots book and the discussion got really, really heated over the so-called “Ground Zero Mosque” debate. At one point co-host Whoopi Goldberg exclaimed to O’Reilly “that is such bullsh*t” before she and Joy Behar walked off the set in protest, before coming back to finish the show.

Granted, Behar and Goldberg looked like pouty children who didn't get their way by walking off, but O'Reilly should've added "extremists" too in the first place.

Obama Administration Expected To Appeal 'Don't Ask' Ruling

Seriously, SCOTUS needs to just step in and settle this thing once and for all, some of these activist judges are really getting out of control and more importantly lives are at stake:

The effort to repeal the law barring gay men and lesbians from serving openly in the U.S. military is nearing a chaotic endgame involving fast-moving courts, a slow-moving military, a lame-duck Congress and an administration increasingly caught in the middle.

When the dust settles by the end of the year, the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy could be history - or it could remain on the books, with a new right-leaning Congress disinclined to do anything about it. 

The Obama administration, which is seeking a repeal of the law, nevertheless is expected to appeal a ruling by a California federal judge who declared the policy unconstitutional. The administration is also expected to seek a stay of the judge's injunction Tuesday ordering the military to immediately stop enforcing the ban worldwide. 

The Justice Department is generally required to uphold existing law and is expected to appeal rulings even when the president might agree with them. But Walter Dellinger, who was solicitor general in the Clinton administration, said an appeal could make clear that the president believes the law is unconstitutional, an approach President Bill Clinton took in 1996 concerning a law that would have required the discharge of HIV-positive service members from the military. 

"I think this is the answer," Dellinger said, noting that it would be politically untenable to allow a single district judge to set law for the country in a case that the Supreme Court has not heard. "Let the courts decide, but tell them what you think."

Applications For Jobless Benefits Rise To 462K

Yahoo.com:

More people applied for unemployment benefits last week, the first rise in three weeks and evidence that companies are reluctant to hire in a slow economy.


Initial claims for unemployment aid rose by 13,000 to a seasonally adjusted 462,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. It was only the second rise in two months.


Jobless claims have been stuck near 450,000 all year. Few employers see much reason to create many jobs, and some are still laying off workers. Rail operator CSX Corp., for example, said Wednesday that it can lengthen its trains to handle rising shipments, reducing its need to hire more employees.


"The labor market is kind of frozen right now," said Zach Pandl, an economist at Nomura Securities. "There's not a lot of hiring going on, not a lot of quitting, not a lot of layoffs."

Change the American people are no longer believing in.

Chris Matthews Smears Tea Party: Chilean Miners Would Be Dead If They Followed Tea Party's 'Every Man For Himself' Philosophy

HotAir.com:

Via the ‘Busters, this is one of those clips that’s so immensely stupid, it’s actually confounding. Where to begin? Is he suggesting that tea partiers are so committed to the “every man for himself” ethos of individualism that they oppose on principle any form of mutually beneficial cooperation — especially between desperate miners or, say, U.S. troops trapped in a survival situation? Does he not get that the reason most conservatives want less government is because they believe that people’s lives will improve that way — i.e. that liberty is a means to the end of maximizing welfare, which sort of cuts against the “tea-party miners killing each other” scenario? Does he at least understand that small government does allow for some government, and that fiscal conservatism fully allows for charity for people in need — like, say, a few dozen men trapped in a hole half a mile down? What the hell is he talking about here?


The punchline: Given his past rhetoric about scabs, if there’s anyone you wouldn’t want to be trapped in a mine with, it’s Richard Trumka. Refuse to play by his rules and you might just get your head cracked open. As a corrective to this insanity, read this new op-ed from Daniel Henninger at the Journal. Exit quotation: “The rescue of the Chilean miners is a smashing victory for free-market capitalism.”

Carl Paladino Isn't "Homophobic", He's Just Totally Inept

It's whats gotten lost in this recent theater over his supposed "anti-gay" comments the other day. What with New York state politics being in a state of total disarray for the last few years, thanks to corrupt Democrats from Eliot Spitzer to Charles Rangel to Alan Hevesi to the Democrat-controlled Congress that has shut government down numerous times, Carl Paladino was given a clear path to step in and use his pulpit as reformer promising to bring about major change. But no, instead he's screwed himself and any chance of winning the governor's race with a temper that he can't seem to control and bold, powerful statements that he ends up running away from because he can't handle the heat.

When Paladino spoke out about the Left's attempts to "brainwash" kids into normalizing homosexuality he was speaking from his heart and to his conservative base. Of course the gay lobby and all their minions in the press were going to try to twist his words and attempt to smear him, it's what they do all the time. But Paladino could've (and should've) withstood the storm and exposed the smear merchants for who they are--partisan scum who continue to turn a blind eye to how much damage Democrats have done to the state of New York lately.

Then too, most Americans don't care about what people want to do in the privacy of their homes. Most Americans are against bigotry of any kind. It's just that there's an overbearing minority in this country that doesn't care about morals or values, that try to falsify or ignore gender differences, that want to recognize and give public benefits to people that have made an alternative lifestyle choice all the while corrupting and confusing our children. That's what Carl Paladino was speaking to when he made that statement about gays, but now Paladino looks like a fool for allowing the Left to not only backtrack from his speech, but apologize for it and change the message from the issues that are really concerning New Yorkers. Paladino has every right to speak his mind and cater to his base, but if he can't handle the backlash that comes with speaking on social issues then he should keep his mouth shit on them and concentrate on a party that has long taken its supporters for granted, has used gov't for their own selfish needs, done little to nothing about unemployment and turned our state into a laughingstock. Yet the idiot that is Carl Paladino can't even do that right, despite the road being laid out just for him.

Meg Whitman And Jerry Brown Debate Proper Use Of The Word ‘Whore’

Mediaite.com:

Meg Whitman took some time off from defending herself against (questionable) charges of mistreatment from former housekeeper Nicky Diaz to educate opponent Jerry Brown on the proper time and place to use the word ‘whore.’


During last night’s gubernatorial debate Jerry Brown apologized again for getting caught on an answering machine in a conversation with an aide who to referred to Meg Whitman as a “whore.” At the time Brown responded: “Well, I’m going to use that…It proves you’ve cut a secret deal to protect the pensions.”

Meg Whitman was not interested in his apology, however, saying the citizens of California deserved better! “I think every Californian and especially women know exactly what’s going on here, and that is a deeply offensive term to women.” 

Oh yeah? Well, inquired Brown, what about Whitman’s chairman Pete Wilson who “called the Congress whores?” Shouldn’t he be admonished? Brown was greeted with an eye roll. Said Whitman: “You know better than that, Jerry, that’s a completely different thing.” Boooo, says the audience (in response to Whitman). This year’s election season, brought to you by witches, ‘brainwashing’ homophobes and now, apparently, whores.

Yeah, that response from Whitman was pretty lame.Using "whore" is wrong is all cases, unless....you're really a whore.

Mutilated Afghan Girl Aisha (TIME Cover Story) Gets New Nose

Good for her. I still remember getting that issue in the mail and being taken aback by the cover. How could one not be?

The Afghan girl featured on a controversial Time magazine cover in the US has been given a new prosthetic nose. 

Aisha told Time her nose and ears had been cut off - with the approval of a Taliban commander - by her abusive husband as punishment for running away.

The front cover generated debate over the headline "What Happens if We Leave Afghanistan" and over the use of the photo itself. 

Her surgery was done in California.

'Blood debt' The Grossman Burn Foundation, which carried out the work, campaigns on the issue of violence against women, as well as doing free plastic surgery work.

Foundation surgeon Peter Grossman carried out the reconstruction surgery.

Aisha was widely photographed and filmed earlier this week receiving the Enduring Heart award at a benefit ceremony staged by the foundation.

Robert Gibbs Once Took Part In Group That Refused To Disclose Donors

Before they make noise about certain things they outta look at themselves in the mirror first:

The White House plans to continue attacking groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other conservative organizations for not disclosing the names of donors behind political ads. But during the 2004 Democratic primary

campaign, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was involved with a political advocacy group that refused to reveal its own donors until the law required it.

During a press conference Tuesday, Gibbs scolded groups that would not disclose, and has said that Americans have a right to know who is behind “largely negative campaign attack ads.”

“Simply tell us who you are,” Gibbs said.

In a speech last week in Maryland, President Obama even called the practice “a threat to our democracy.”
“The American people deserve to know who’s trying to sway their elections,” Obama said.

Under campaign finance law, the Chamber is not required to release the names of its donors. When pressed by reporters as to why groups not mandated by law should disclose their donors, Gibbs said they should do it in “the spirit of political disclosure.”

During the 2003-2004 presidential primary season, however, Gibbs worked as the spokesman for a liberal  advocacy group that ran attack ads against then-Democratic candidate Howard Dean. The “secretive” group, called Americans for Jobs, Health Care & Progressive Values, spent months organizing scathing ads without disclosing who was paying for them.

One particularly damaging  TV spot that aired in December 2003 showed a photograph of Osama Bin Laden while an ominous voice declared, “Americans want a president that can face the dangers ahead. But Howard Dean has no military or foreign policy experience. And Howard Dean just cannot compete with George Bush on foreign policy. It’s time for Democrats to think about that. And think about it now.” The ad, part of a series of anti-Dean spots, crippled the Dean campaign.

The Dean camp was furious, and called on the group to disclose who had funded the ad.

Ron Christie Reminds Chris Matthews That Sarah Palin Has More Experience That Barack Obama

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Ron Christie is another conservative pundit who never withers when faced with Barry's friends in the lamestream media:

Have you noticed that it's suddenly become chic for commentators to ask their Republican guests whether or not Sarah Palin is qualified to be president?


As a number of GOP candidates of late have sidestepped the issue, Chris Matthews must have expected GOP strategist Ron Christie to do the same on Tuesday's "Hardball."


Much to the MSNBC host's surprise, Christie not only said she was, but also pointed out, "She's certainly had a whole heck of a lot more experience than a particular junior senator from Illinois"

Despite Doing Nothing For Blacks, Come Election Time Obama Reaches Out To Black Community

Who said Barry was any different from his white, liberal predecessors who come election time stop in at a black church or two with the goal of getting black votes and pretend to care about issues facing blacks while pimping the black church for a photo op and then disappearing? And black liberals fall for it every time:

“Not if I had to make a special trip,” she said.

The question is whether that sentiment will keep black voters home on Nov. 2.

Obama’s renewed outreach to the African American voters hasn’t gone unnoticed among his target audience.

“We haven’t heard from you in a while,” radio host Tom Joyner said to the president at the start of his interview last month. 

“You know, I don’t get a chance to do much radio these days,” Obama replied. “But one of the things I mentioned to my team was we’ve got to make sure that we’re not only talking to television, and especially in the African-American community, Tom Joyner and black radio is what people listen to.” 

“The president of the United States has called home,” Joyner said before cutting to a commercial break, “and he’s got a deal on how to turn this whole economy around in this country, especially for African-Americans 'cause that’s who he’s talking to this morning.” 

Obama insists he's not focused on 2012, but when asked on the Doug Banks show if he thinks he can win again, the president said, "My chances of winning re-election would be much higher than my chances of me winning the presidency the first time around, so I’m somebody who tends to be pretty confident that when I take the message directly to the American people that we can succeed.” 

But, he added: “Don’t assume because I’m not on the ballot that this election is less important." 

Obama’s personal connection with black voters as the first African-American president often gets lost amid the high-profile disagreements he’s had with the Congressional Black Caucus or the NAACP over the past 20 months. 

In July the NAACP, along with a handful of other civil rights groups, wrote a blueprint for education policy that criticized the Obama administration's competitive Race to the Top program as an antiquated and highly politicized frame for distributing education funds. That same day, those civil rights leaders were invited to the White House to meet with Education Secretary Arne Duncan and White House senior advisor Valerie Jarrett to smooth over tensions. 

The tension with black lawmakers stirred up last December when the CBC wrote a letter to Obama asking him to pay attention to the disproportionately high unemployment rate among African Americans. The CBC was back March with harsh words for the administration before attending a meeting at the White House on the economy and jobs, and black lawmakers had refused to support Obama’s financial regulatory reform package until it included relief for struggling homeowners.

I tell ya it's Stockholm Syndrome..

Bernie Goldberg Assesses Media Relations With Obama Administration: ‘The Magic Is Gone’

Mediaite.com:

O’Reilly Factor resident media critic Bernie Goldberg noticed something strange this weekend: traditionally “liberal” media outlets are beginning to lash out at other liberals. Take, for example, SNL’s skewering of liberal Gloria Allred, or CBS’ Bob Schieffer going after David Axelrod this Sunday. Are these incidents a sign of a trend?, asks Bill O’Reilly. No, Goldberg declares, it’s not the beginning of a trend, but the end of one: “The slobbering has ended because the magic is gone.”


That “magic,” he explains, is the charm of the Obama administration that constituted the core of his thesis in his latest book, A Slobbering Love Affair. It was the driving force behind the extreme positive coverage the president seemed to consistently receive in the media, for example:

“On Christmas morning, about a month after Barack Obama was elected president, page 1 of the Washington Post, they did a story about Obama’s exercise regimen, and they actually talked about how he had– the sun glistened off of his pectorals and he had a well-toned body because he played basketball. That kind of embarrassing garbage isn’t going to happen anymore because, as I said, the magic is gone and he isn’t as popular as he once was.”

O’Reilly agrees that something has happened to the relationship between the President and the media, but he disagrees that the relationship is definitively broken. “NBC continues to be very active in supporting the president,” he counters, “and their two big franchises are down, but not that down.” On the other hand, CBS, which “has a vested interest” in defending the president, has attacked him. O’Reilly seems to have trouble reconciling the two behaviors. Goldberg finds it predictable, as “it’s not just easier– it’s safer now to go after Barack Obama,” thus networks will go ahead and take some stabs.

Goldberg seemed ultimately optimistic about President Obama’s chances with the media in 2012, concluding that once Republican opposition solidified during a presidential race, the “slobbering” would begin again.

Karl Rove Calls Obama A "Hypocrite"

When a weak and desperate Obama tries to hit you below the belt, you go straight for the guts. It's the only way conservatives can fight back against the evil Obama/Pelosi/Reid regime:

The ongoing battle between the White House and Karl Rove continued Tuesday morning, with the former Bush aide accusing President Obama of outright hypocrisy when it comes to campaign finance transparency.


"For the president to say a legal and lawful action by private groups, which has been upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States, when he himself is relying on political groups….the president is being hypocritical about this," Rove said on ABC's Good Morning America in response to recent attacks from Obama and Vice President Joe Biden over the fact that a group Rove has raised money for – Crossroads GPS – does not disclose its donors.

Crossroads GPS has spent millions on political advertising this election season but does not have to reveal the names of their donors to the Federal Elections Commission because it is structured as a tax-exempt "social welfare" 501(c)(4) organization. The group has faced allegations it is bending campaign finance laws because of its involvement in political activity despite claiming to be a so-called "social welfare" group.

"[Obama] had no problem at all with this when groups were spending money on his behalf in 2008 and not disclosing donors," Rove also said. "He had no problem not disclosing his own donors - tens of millions of dollars to his campaign whose donor names were not revealed. And now he turns around and takes up because Republicans are doing the same thing Democrats have been doing for years."

George Soros Sees 'Republican Avalanche' Coming

Only a blind man can't see the inevitable, but I'm still surprised that King Soros would be willing to show his cards so early:

Billionaire financier George Soros says he’s sitting out the 2010 midterms because he’s convinced the GOP tide cannot be slowed with more of the money he used to help Democrats like Barack Obama get elected in 2008, The New York Times reported.


“I made an exception getting involved in 2004,” Soros told the Times in a brief interview Friday at a forum sponsored by the Bretton Woods Committee, which promotes understanding of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.


“And since I didn’t succeed in 2004, I remained engaged in 2006 and 2008. But I’m basically not a party man. I’d just been forced into that situation by what I considered the excesses of the Bush administration.”


Asked if the prospect of Republican control of one or both houses of Congress concerned him, Soros told the Times: “It does, because I think they are pushing the wrong policies, but I’m not in a position to stop it. I don’t believe in standing in the way of an avalanche.”

Book Hurled At Obama In Philadelphia

CNN.com:

The Secret Service is now shedding some more light on the circumstances surrounding a man who threw a book at President Obama at an event in Pennsylvania Sunday. And they're not throwing the book at him.
According to Secret Service spokesperson, Ed Donovan, the person involved was an overzealous author who just wanted to toss his book into the president's reading list.

"He was an over exuberant person who wrote a book that he wanted the president to read," Donovan told CNN. 

President Obama did not appear to notice the book being hurled on stage, which was caught on video, as he was concluding his remarks to a Democratic National Committee rally in Philadelphia. But Vice President Biden, who was standing behind the president, apparently noticed the incident. 

After Secret Service agents saw the man throw the book, they detained and interviewed him and determined he was not a threat. Because he was not charged, the Secret Service is not releasing any information about the individual.

Politiks As Usual: In The News 10/11/10

NY GOP Candidate Carl Paladino: Homosexuality Not 'Valid'

Desperate Obama Urges Crowd To Show Him The Energy Of '08

Karl Rove To Obama: How Dare You?

US Physics Professor: Global Warming Is The Most Successful Fraud....

NBC Flees From Lefty MSNBC Cable Network

Obama's Huge New Tax

Blogger Blames Christians For Gay Suicides

Conservatives Now Outnumber Liberals, Moderates & Republicans

Report: Democrats Planted NJ Tea Party House Candidate

George Will Exposes Paul Krugman Hypocrisy On Political Ads

Megyn Kelly Reports On Duke Sex List Story, Urges Females: "Don't Sleep Around"

Rick Santorum: ACLU Attacking Religious Hospitals

From Cronkite To Katrina: Why The MSM Keeps Getting It Wrong

SNL Spoofs Gloria Allred: ‘Will There Be A Special Level Of Hell Just For You?’

Not only on point, but too funny:

Be careful what you wish for? Gloria Allred, who has been making (courting) national headlines recently by representing California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman’s former housekeeper Nicky Diaz in a questionable case against Whitman (Greta Van Susteren accused her of political blackmail), was brutally spoofed on SNLlast night.


In a sketch called Ask Gloria Allred, Allred (played by Nasim Pedrad) takes questions from viewers…who apparently pretty much agree with Susteren’s take on things. To wit:


‘When you die, Gloria, and you go instantly to Hell, which I think we can all agree will absolutely happen — will you just burn with all the other ambulance-chasers who spent their lives bringing misery into the world, or will there be a special ring or level of Hell just for you?’


Oh my, Denise, that is such a profound question! Who knows? All I can say is I sincerely hope so. That would be nice.

Mike Huckabee Confronts Ann Coulter Over Her Claim He’s A ‘Liberal Christian’

Mediaite.com:

Last night on his show Mike Huckabee called on (a seemingly unprepared) Ann Coulter to explain last month’s claim that “all liberals are atheists. Only the ones who have to stand for election even bother pretending to believe in God…There’s only one true Christian liberal in the country and that’s Mike Huckabee.” Indeed.


Coulter, who protested “this was not our topic, Governor!” defended the quote by saying it was not an insult to Huckabee, but an insult to all of Obama’s so-called Christian advisers (“they are such fake, phony frauds”) whom Coulter thinks do not spend enough time protesting abortion in the President’s presence. 

“So I started thinking, what if you were a genuine Christian but you had some crazy liberal views on things that are not directly Christian, what would that look like? And I thought of you Governor.”

The crux of Coulter’s ‘Huckabee is a liberal’ argument is that she thinks he was soft on illegal immigration during his 2008 run — specifically he once compared it to slavery — and moreover “everyone wants to be black in this country…everyone wants to claim the mantle of victimhood” and it’s neither acceptable nor a fair comparison. Coulter additionally asserts that Huckabee’s position that you shouldn’t punish the children of illegal aliens is the modern day equivalent of the government supporting illegitimacy in the African American community 30 years ago (presumably she is referring to welfare here) and when you subsidize something you get more of it. 

Huckabee, perhaps not surprisingly, appeared more upset at the idea of being called a liberal than he did at any of Coulter’s typically unhinged analogies, though it should be noted amidst all his protestations he held his ground and refused to “judge” anyone else’s Christianity. Watch below. If this midterm election season is anything to judge by, it’s probably just a matter of time before Coulter is asked to moderate an upcoming presidential debate.

I've seen Huckabee allow liberals to get him to back off a bit on his Christian views so Coulter may have a point in one context, but calling any conservative a "liberal Christian" has to rile them.