She Needs To Write On Both Hands For This

Not only that, The Wasilla Whiz Kid is going to have to dip her hands in ink barrels, if she thinks she's going to stand up and argue with President Obama over Nuclear Policy.



Palin Says Obama's Nuke Stance Is Like a Kid Who Says 'Punch Me in the Face'

"It's unbelievable. Unbelievable," said Palin on Wednesday evening while appearing on Sean Hannity's Fox News program. "No administration in America's history would, I think, ever have considered such a step that we just found out President Obama is supporting today. It's kinda like getting out there on a playground, a bunch of kids, getting ready to fight, and one of the kids saying, 'Go ahead, punch me in the face and I'm not going to retaliate. Go ahead and do what you want to with me.'

"No, it's unacceptable," she continued. "This is another thing that the American public, the more that they find out, what is a part of this agenda, they are going to rise up and they are going to say 'no more.' National security, national defense is the No. 1 job of the federal government."

But wait, the President had the last word on this;

President Obama questions Sarah Palin's nuclear acumen

"I really have no response to that. The last I checked, Sarah Palin is not much of an expert on nuclear issues," Obama said in an interview with ABC News.

Pressed further on Republican criticism that his strategy restricts the use of nuclear weapons too much, Obama added:

"What I would say to them is, is that if the secretary of defense and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff are comfortable with it, I'm probably going to take my advice from them and not from Sarah Palin."

We're working on another post regarding this, which we'll get up later today, or tomorrow, as the Mommy Moose-President Obama slugfest is breaking out into a full-fledged conflagration.


Bonus Mommy Moose Riffs

"I'll Try To Find You Some, and Bring'em To Ya ..."

She's Not A Hockey Mom with Lipstick ... She's Clothes Horse!

Don't Wink At Me, Sarah Palin

My God Can Do Anything

Could it have been anymore lopsided?

First to mind, how do you think The Commander Guy would have fared in something like what went down today?

It would have crashed YouTube, for days, weeks.

Maybe, Wilt Chamberlain, one-on-one, against Willie Shoemaker?



A Mantle-Maris Yankee team, versus the Bad News Bears?

We talk, of course, about THE EVENT, today, in Baltimore, with President Barack Obama taking on the PartyofNoicans, at the GOP House Issues Conference.

Unprecedented, in this country (and how many time did we have to hear about the free-for-alls they have over in England), for a President, to take on the opposition party, in public, on television (which the PartyofNoicans are surely flagellating themselves, like the Pope, for that one), freestyle, question-and-answers, no holds barred.

It's virtually unanimous that Obama cleaned their clocks, holding court, taking their PartyofNoican talking-point-barbs-and-smears-questions and swatting them away, as easily as he would shoo a fly.

Afterall, he was dealing with the dwarfs, finks, phonies and frauds that don't know whether to piss, or wind their watches.



We'll have links below, in case you missed it.

But one thing.

There are calls, all over the board, for this to be done again, make it a regular thing.

Fat Chance.

For, one, Obama put the PartyofNoicans in a box, in the spotlight, called them out, on national television, for their morphing into the PartyofNoicans, so that is going to make things very uncomfortable, moving forward, remaining the obstructionists.

The emperor has no clothes thing.

But, it's an election year, so they will adhere to being the PartyofNoicans, lest they do anything to endanger their thin hopes of vaunting back to their Permanent Majority fantasy.

While it was great theatre today, the PartyofNoicans, egged on by the Flying Monkeys of the Right Wing Freak Show, and growing army of Teabaggers, have a firm, four-year plan to do anything, and everything, to tear down Obama, and the Democrats.

They'll take up Obama, on his Bipartisanship Love-In, but will remain the PartyofNoicans, insisting Obama, and the Dems, accept any and all PartyofNocian proposals, no matter how poorly written, how cheap and ridiculous they may be, and, when Obama and the Dems balk, push back, it's back to the lies and smears on how they want to destroy the country, having the government enslave the planet.

So enjoy the buzz for a day, or two, and then it's back to the SOS.

In the meantime, we'll let Luther Barnes, and the Red Budd Gospel Choir (and, yes, we've used this tune before), sum up the day;

My God Can Do Anything

Bonus Obama Clock-Cleaning Links

Marc Ambinder: Obama's Question Time: An Amazing Moment

Sam Stein: Obama Goes To GOP Lions' Den -- And Mauls The Lions

Steve Benen: MUST SEE TV...

David Corn: Obama and House GOP Bring Question Time to US

Steve M: TIMELY AS YESTERDAY'S HEADLINES

Amanda Terkel: Republicans dismayed by Obama’s strong performance, say it was a ‘mistake’ to let cameras roll

Breaking! ... Super Bowl In Doubt, As Obama Considers Bailout For Jets

Sources tell The Garlic that, in his State-on-the-Union address Wednesday evening, President Barack Obama will lay out steps to a program that will delay the Super Bowl, scheduled for February 7th, so that a bailout plan for the New York Jets can be worked out.



Obama will cite that the "hopes and dreams" of New York Jets fans are "too big to fail", and that it is imperative for the government to step in, a prevent a complete meltdown.

The Jets lost yesterday, to the Indianapolis Colts, in the AFC Championship game, giving them the berth in the Super Bowl, against the New Orleans Saints, who beat the Minnesota Vikings, in the NFC Championship game.

Additionally, unnamed Administration officials were looking for a "Katrina-Sept 11th Super Bowl", to augment other metaphorical imagery the President will have in his SOTU speech;

"We need to build a bridge, from Namath, to New Orleans, so that the engine of passion, held so dearly by Jets and Saints fans, two cities badly scarred in our recent history, can continue to rumble, to resonate, and be a beacon to our continued economic growth.

Details of the Jets Bailout plan are sketchy, and it is not clear if it will contain oversight, or regulations, limiting bonuses of team executives.

A spokesperson for the NFL indicated the league is in discussions with the Obama White House, and, should the Super Bowl be delayed, the plans would be to continue with celebrity-filled parties, and television programs highlighting Super Bowl commercials.

I Hope This Doesn't Give The Commander Guy Any Ideas

A word, first, on that "rear-view mirror" thing, then, the hijinks

Why, on earth, would you, President Obama, bring in The Commander Guy, to the Haitian Relief Effort?

Is there a Convention Center in Port-au-Prince, filled with desperate people, that you can put him in charge of ignoring?

Will you have him just do a few "fly-overs"?

When Hurricane Katrina hit, I believe, he was delivering a birthday cake to Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain.

Did you dispatch him to Haiti to deliver cakes?



Did Harold Ford convince you, that it would be good to hear his voice
on this?

Maybe, Mr. President, you need to check out, and look into deeper, the interview of Amy Goodman, with Randall Robinson, to see how boneheaded it is to have him anywhere near this, and how insulting it is to the Haitians.

Heck of a job, there, Obama...

And, on another front, we'll put our bets on this kid, doing way more for Haiti, then Mr. Ek-A-Lec-Tic;

Boy, 7, raises $160,000 for Haiti appeal

He's no Wyclef Jean or George Clooney, but that hasn't stopped seven-year-old Charlie Simpson from raising more than £120,000 ($195,000) for the Haiti earthquake.

Simpson from Fulham, west London had hoped to raise just £500 for UNICEF's earthquake appeal by cycling eight kilometers (five miles)around a local park.

"My name is Charlie Simpson. I want to do a sponsored bike ride for Haiti because there was a big earthquake and loads of people have lost their lives," said Simpson on his JustGiving page, a fundraising site which launched his efforts.

"I want to make some money to buy food, water and tents for everyone in Haiti," he said.

Oh, no, bicycles ...

The Commander Guy might get in his head that "Hey, I can do something like that."

As history goes, no, no he can't

• Bush bruised after bicycle bang
• Bush collides with police officer during bike ride
• Bush bruised in bicycle crash

What's next Obama, have the former Shadow President Cheney take some Haitians out hunting?

Obama's Nobel Prize? ... I'm With Will Bunch ...

Much was made of President Obama's Nobel Prize speech last week, the World Wide Web was abuzz, with mostly pro reviews (See Glenn Greenwald's post - "The strange consensus on Obama's Nobel address")

And, let's face, it was Bizzareville, having a sitting president, who is conducting two wars, escalating one of them, up there, accepting a Peace Prize, for Peace that he hasn't actually accomplished (Yeah, I know, wait a few years, for after the escalation in Flintstonevilleastan).



Of all the megabytes and pixels, bloviating on it, there was one that stood out, cut to the chase, nailed it - Will Bunch, on his Attytood Blog;

Maybe U.S. presidents shouldn't get peace prizes

Hey, I didn't say which president. You know what? I hate to say it, but sitting American presidents are never a good choice for the Nobel Peace Prize, period. Since 1901, the honor has been bestowed on three White House occupants.

[snip]

The world needs uncompromising fighters for real peace and for meaningful justice -- people like a Martin Luther King -- who can go to Oslo and remind the world of what we must eternally strive to make it. Such worthy Nobel recepients are truth-tellers, and people they are telling that truth to are the world's kings and potentates and, yes, the American president -- a job that is engineered for compromise, and disappointments. If the world is to become a better place, we need more people who risk jail, risk pain, and risk death -- people like Dr. King or Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi -- have done, for the eternal ideals of peace that are uncompromising. The Nobel Peace Prize can be a valuable tool to remind us who these people are, and that you are going to find them in the streets, not in the White House.

Now, that, certainly, is something hopeful we can believe in.

Happy Veterans Day ... At Some Point

Wouldn't it have been major kick-ass today, Veterans Day, for President Obama to deal out a little of the "Change We Can Believe In" stuff, show some audacity, put a little shine on that Nobel Prize, and use the day to announce - not hedge, not double-talk - that he will not escalate troops in Flintstoneville (aka Afghanistan).



Maybe, even do it as a stake-in-the-ground, a benchmark, of the beginning of the dismantling, money-bag-by-money-bag, the Military Industrial Complex.

Now, that would be a Veterans Day to shoot off fireworks, one to celebrate, unabashedly.

And, hey, with two breaking stories tonight, a guy can dream;

U.S. ambassador dissents on Afghan troop increase ...Strongly worded cables urge a pause until Kabul government shifts course

AP: Obama Rejects All Afghanistan War Options

We'll have to wait, and see.

Or, we will have to come around again next year, and bemoan the sentiments of two gifted, exceptional writers (both you should bookmark, and/or, RSS follow), this year;

Juan Cole, over on Informed Comment;

The most patriotic way to honor future veterans of foreign wars is not to create any unnecessarily.

And, Barry Crimmins;

This country would rather create veterans than care for them

Crimmins also has a powerful essay up today - Drone Destroyed, Pentagon Dodges Bullet - on the execution of DC Sniper John Muhammad, a veteran;

Muhammad died reviled and despised, just as the USA itself is reviled and despised in so many lands where the murder of innocents seems to Americans, who even bother to consider such such things, as nothing more than a necessary byproduct of the efficient infliction of a long-range plan. Nevertheless, the plan is both crazy and doomed to failure. It drains our country of vital resources urgently needed to sustain life. It mass produces righteously indignant enemies all over the globe. It visits brutality upon our own people as we exist as, and among, those who have lived to almost never talk about it.

And so Mr. Muhammad was put to death as the perfectly secret embodiment of what Veterans Day is not allowed to represent. His soul rotted away after he had participated in the infliction of violence upon nearly defenseless people. When he came home, he saw no reason to abandon what he had learned as a soldier.

And, digressing for a moment, Joe Sudbay, on AmericaBlog, rings in on the Death Penalty;

As with any execution, there's been extensive discussion about the pros and cons of the death penalty. To me, that is not the act of a truly civilized society. An article in today's Washington Post looked at the death penalty's "'closure' myth":

Stanford University psychiatrist David Spiegel believes that the theory that executions provide closure is "naive, unfounded, pop-psychology." Contrary to expectations, Spiegel says, witnessing executions not only fails to provide closure but also often causes symptoms of acute stress. "Witnessing trauma," he says, "is not far removed from experiencing it."

Spiegel has concluded that "true closure is achieved only through extensive grief work." This process requires families to acknowledge and bear their loss as well as to put it into perspective. It necessitates a network of support systems: counselors who will sit with, listen to and work with survivors; work environments flexible enough to accommodate counseling sessions and the down time that is a natural result of grief and stress; and victim assistance programs that make sure those things happen.

It just seems craven for politicians to promise "closure" from the death penalty when it's not true. It also seems barbaric.

It was "craven" and "barbaric" for The Commander Guy to launch two wars like he didn't know whether to piss, or wind his wrist watch, thereby, producing hundreds-of-thousands of new veterans, to be used as props in jingoistic parades, and file footage to run in the background of two idiot-talking-heads, arguing about more war.

It sure would be nice for Obama to show some cojones with his upcoming decision.

Maybe, just maybe, we can next year, or, in the immediate future Veterans Days, count, and herald, the number of veterans (and Gold Star Mothers) we didn't produce.

Top Ten Cloves: What If Barack Obama Discovered America?

News Item: Happy Columbus Day?

10. Arugula would be as common as french fries today

9. There would be a buzz that he didn't wear any Lapel Pins

8. Obama's wife going sleeveless would intimidate the locals

7. No Minister Controversy- Nothing has happened yet to cause "Chickens coming home to roost"

6. Big public fight with one of his captains, who says that Obama needs to deploy an armada of ships for the mission

5. Exploring the New World would be delayed a few months, while Obama sought out getting a pet dog for his children

4. Obama would be telling the ships' crew that it was wrong to look backward

3. Early critics would huff-and-puff that he relies on the "Parchment Scroll" too much

2. Any Native Americans that were "birthers" would be right!

1. Before long, they will be saying that Obama is "Palling' around with Pirates"


Bonus Links

Wikipedia - Columbus Day

History of Columbus Day

Christopher Columbus

Top Ten Cloves: Things About If John McCain and Sarah Palin Discovered America

Top Ten Cloves: How History Would Be Different if Bush & Co. Were The Ones To First Discover America

Button Up Your Overcoat Today ... Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize

Better make that your rain slicker, for the Flying Monkeys of the Right Wing Freak Show will be in DefCon 5, full Warp speed overdrive, with flinging their feces around

The stunner news-of-the-day;

In Surprise, Nobel Peace Prize to Obama for Diplomacy

Of course, the NYT couldn't let it go by, with urging a little feces-flinging;

For Mr. Obama, the award could, in a strange way, prove a political liability. As he traveled overseas during his campaign for the presidency, he was subjected to criticism from Republicans who argued he was too much the international celebrity. Winning the Nobel at such an early stage in his presidency could further that kind of criticism, especially in Washington’s hyperpartisan political environment.

Here's the official statement from The Norwegian Nobel Committee



Yeah, maybe it was a bit slow-going on the Nobel Prize front this year, after all, peace hasn't exactly been breaking out all over the place.

Obama becomes only the third, sitting U.S. President to win the award, the first since Woodrow Wilson (the other, Teddy Roosevelt), and of the avalanche of posts (so far this morning), Josh Marshall, at TPM, seems to have the real deal on it;

This is an odd award. You'd expect it to come later in Obama's presidency and tied to some particular event or accomplishment. But the unmistakable message of the award is one of the consequences of a period in which the most powerful country in the world, the 'hyper-power' as the French have it, became the focus of destabilization and in real if limited ways lawlessness. A harsh judgment, yes. But a dark period. And Obama has begun, if fitfully and very imperfectly to many of his supporters, to steer the ship of state in a different direction. If that seems like a meager accomplishment to many of the usual Washington types it's a profound reflection of their own enablement of the Bush era and how compromised they are by it, how much they perpetuated the belief that it was 'normal history' rather than dark aberration.

Some other angles;

Nathan Hodge, at the Danger Room;

Finally, expect the Nobel Prize award to turn the spotlight on internal disagreements within the administration over the future of the nuclear weapons stockpile. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, for instance has said in the past that United States needs the Reliable Replacement Warhead, a new nuclear weapon design, if it is to maintain a moratorium on nuclear weapons testing while reducing stockpiles. It will be interesting to see if this prize changes the debate about re-sizing the nuclear arsenal.

Renard Sexton, on FiveThirtyEight.Com;

In the US realm, this is a great boost for the Obama foreign agenda - which certainly played into the decision by the Nobel folks. While the US political scene is often quite skeptical of the international community, the Peace Prize is a quite lauded affair. Even major Obama detractors will have a bit of hard time criticizing his win, especially after their poorly received revelry of Chicago's olympic demise. For Obama liberal supporters, it is a bittersweet moment --many have criticized the administration's foreign policy for moving to the center, particularly on war issues, and the Peace Prize designation takes a great deal of air out of that balloon.

Perhaps the happiest people in the US on this one will be the centrists - and those who wanted Obama to reshape the US image abroad. Whether the award is warranted (too soon? too uncertain?) or relevant (peace prize as we're discussing escalation in Afghanistan?, for the leader of the largest and most powerful military force in the world to be awarded a prize for peace and diplomacy is quite an interesting development.

Steve Clemons;

Forget the Chicago Olympics foul up. Barack Obama has just been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize -- the first sitting US President to win the Prize since Woodrow Wilson.

[snip]

But the reality is that this Prize puts some air back in the Obama Bubble -- and this is good for the country and world as the challenges in the international system are enormous today.

Obama's efforts to talk the world into a better place have indeed created opportunities that were hard to imagine during the Bush administration -- but now a lot of heavy lifting and deal-making are required, and the Nobel Prize will give Obama a boost in these efforts.

ABC reports that a few White House staffers thought they were being punked, when the news came in early this morning.

Line of the morning goes to Robert Farley, over on Lawyers, Guns and Money;

Next: Barack Obama, AL Cy Young winner?

And, those Flying Monkeys ...

From David Kurtz, at TPM;

A TPM commenter wonders if this isn't a bit premature:

Isn't it a little soon for this? Maybe after he brokers an Israeli-Palestinian agreement or something like that. It sounds like the, 'boy is the world relieved you guys didn't choose McCain' award

Bob Cesca has how Morning Joke was dissing it, and more;

When asked whether the Nobel Peace Prize will negate the Copenhagen thing, White House correspondent Savannah Guthrie replied, "Well. I don't know." I don't know? The Nobel Prize doesn't supersede a ridiculous story about the Olympics? Please. The last sitting president to be selected was Woodrow Wilson. The only prize George W. Bush received was yanked out of a box of Froot Loops.

Peter Friday, on Firedoglake - "I can almost hear the screaming from Dick Cheney and the neocons as they get the news."

Prairie Weather, with "Poisoned chalice";

NPR speculated that awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to President Obama is like handing him a poisoned chalice. The poison is the inevitable the reaction of the political opposition in this country to the prize. The Nobel committee is seen as heaving a great sigh of relief that Bush/Cheney are off the scene.

We all have to pitch in to get Ta-Nehisi Coates some television;

My Lord. I wish I had cable, so I could watch Fox News flip the fuck out over this one. Rush is gonna be all-world today, Glenn Beck is gonna be all-universe.

And the Big Cheese Flying Monkeys are locked-and-loaded with their feces.

Michelle "Staklin" Malkin harumps that it is an award for his symbolism, while Mona Charen, at the big Flying Monkey perch, wants to keep that "Pal'n around with terrorists" meme going;

Before they break out the champagne at the White House, they may want to pause over the fact that Obama now shares this honor with Mohammed el-Baradei, Yasser Arafat, and flagrant liar Rigoberta Menchu Tum.

Meredith Jessup, at Flying Monkey Perch Townhall has the headline "Apologies Apparently Accepted: President Obama Awarded Nobel Peace Prize";

So correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't this essentially mean Obama received this award for making some good speeches? Sure nothing he says has actually been accomplished, but it all sounds good!

Sure the Nobel Prize lost a lot of luster after they awarded one to Al Gore, but c'mon! This is just more evidence the "messiah" mentality has reached the world stage...

MediaMatters catches RedStates Eric Erickson ringing in the the racial meme for the Flying Monkeys, with "RedState's Erickson smears Obama's Nobel Peace Prize as "an affirmative action quota"

And, Flying Monkey Dan, at Riehl World View, at the end of his feces-flinging, predicts Obama winning the Nobel Prize will actually bring about his demise;

Unfortunately, this inexperienced, indecisive, ineffectual jerk doesn't seem to speak for America. And that's his real problem in the end. At this rate, the man is going to become reviled by a majority of the American people in four years.

I don't think Tweedledee and Tweedledum (Limbaugh and Beck) come to work until later in the day, so you can expect a second wave of Flying Monkey feces flinging well into the night.

Oh yeah, keep watch of the wire services today, to see when (if) Shadow President Dick Cheney is rushed to the hospital with heart trouble.

Top Ten Cloves: Possible Reasons Obama and Sarkozy Didn't Invite Queen Elizabeth To D-Day Ceremony

News Item: Left Out of D-Day Events, Queen Elizabeth Is Fuming

10. If she comes, that means all those crazy, drunken, British soccer fans would probably show up, as well

9. Worried that the Queen would host a dinner, and, ...Well ... The English food thing...

8. Sarkozy didn't want to hear another lecture about his wife

7. If she came, they would both be dragged back to the Queen's hotel, to play a game of cricket on her Golden Wii

6. They've already heard all her Dunkirk stories, and couldn't bear another "Spirit of Dunkirk" speech

5. Afraid the Queen will be expecting another gift- a bevy of iPhone Add-ons

4. They've already heard all her Winston Churchill stories

3. Rumors were Susan Boyle was going to come along, and sing 'La Marseillaise'

2. If the Queen brings her son, Prince Charles, then there's a major "ear" thing to deal with

1. Obama and Sarkozy wouldn't agree with Buckingham Palace, and promise not to tease Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh with the "Nudge, Nudge, Wink Wink" routine

Latin Lady

Sorry Garlic Fans, another light post this evening.

We continue to be pummeled by allergies, to the point, I fear, we would be creatively-challenged to write out a shopping list.



It has become a Sonia Sotomayorpalooza out there, with cable news settling into what will be their programming for the next number of weeks.

And, as we noted yesterday, the Flying Monkeys are running around today, with their hair on fire.

Judge Sotomayor has been attacked, and smeared, over;

Her education

Matt Corley - Rove: Attending top schools doesn’t mean that Sotomayor is smart, but it proves that Bush is

Joan Walsh - Buchanan on Sotomayor: "Not that intelligent"

How she handles her finances

Brad DeLong: "Most Unfair Attack on Sonia Sotomayor" Contest Entry: Greg Mankiw

And, what is the Headline-of-the-Day;

Nate Silver: Grandmother of World's 23rd Best Economist Posthumously Offended by Sonia Sotomayor's Spending Habits; Will Obama Withdraw Nomination?

Even, that she is pronouncing her own name wrong

Amanda Terkel: Krikorian: People should stop pronouncing Sotomayor’s name correctly

What she eats

Wonkette: Sotomayor’s Magical Bean Foods Make Her Hate White People More

David Kurtz: Parody?

And, not surprising, Paul Krugman has a good finger on the pulse of things (A note on identity politics);

The thing that is really driving conservatives crazy, I think, is that their identity politics just isn’t working like it used to. Their whole approach has been based on the belief that Americans vote as if they live in Mayberry, and fear and hate anyone who looks a bit different; now that the country just isn’t like that, they’ve gone mad.

We may need to, having thought we'd have to wait for the confirmation hearing, shout out a "Help Me Mr. Wizard!", to help us all get through this.

So, with that kind of garbage being thrown at her, we just have to throw out another musical treat, as nod to the pending first Latino Supreme Court Justice.

Carlos Santana & Gato Barbieri - Latin Lady

Ella Fue!

Azucar Sonia Sotomayor!



If you caught, even only, a fleeting glance at cable news today, you, no doubt, heard the anchors, or talking heads gushing over the historic nomination of Federal Appeals Judge Sonia Sotomayor, by President Barack Obama, to the Supreme Court.

This, from an email received today, from the President;

I am proud to announce my nominee for the next Justice of the United States Supreme Court: Judge Sonia Sotomayor.

This decision affects us all -- and so it must involve us all. I've recorded a special message to personally introduce Judge Sotomayor and explain why I'm so confident she will make an excellent Justice.

Judge Sotomayor has lived the America Dream. Born and raised in a South Bronx housing project, she distinguished herself in academia and then as a hard-charging New York District Attorney.

Judge Sotomayor has gone on to earn bipartisan acclaim as one of America's finest legal minds. As a Supreme Court Justice, she would bring more federal judicial experience to the Supreme Court than any Justice in 100 years. Judge Sotomayor would show fidelity to our Constitution and draw on a common-sense understanding of how the law affects our day-to-day lives.

A nomination for a lifetime appointment to the highest court in the land is one of the most important decisions a President can make. And the discussions that follow will be among the most important we have as a nation. You can begin the conversation today by watching this special message and then passing it on.

You should also read;

Al Giordano: From the Bronx to the Court

Jack Balkin: Why the Sotomayor Nomination Makes Sense

Jane Hamsher: Obama Ignores Smear Campaign, Nominates Sotomayor for High Court

Glenn Greenwald: Obama's choice of Sotomayor deserves praise

Of course, no matter who Obama nominated, the PartyofNoicans, and the Flying Monkeys of the Right Wing Freak Show would be lighting their hair on fire, shouting it's the end-of-the-world, and they, surely, hit their marks, on cue.

Alan Colmes: It Didn’t Take Long For the Right-Wing Mob To Attack Sotomayor

Joe Sudbay (DC): Get ready for an onslaught of right wing attacks on Sotomayor -- aided and abetted by the traditional media

Blue Texan: Conservatives Already Screwing Up Opposition to Sotomayor

David Corn: Will Sotomayor Split the Right?

Nate Silver, and Eric Kleefeld have the counts, from the past two times Sotomayor faced Senate confirmation

Want more?

Talk about serving up a big slice of the American Dream, Sonia Sotomayor saved baseball!

More Bonus Riffs

David Neiwert: Obama cites Sonia Sotomayor's life experience in naming her to Supreme Court

dday: Sotomayor

John Cole: The Sotomayor Pick

Steve Benen: RNC 'TALKING POINTS' ARE 'ACCIDENTALLY' LEAKED...

And, of course, we have a tune to go with the title, from the Fania All-Stars

It seemed quite appropriate, and fitting, for the day.

Ella Fue (She Was The One) - Fania All-Stars

Say It Ain't So, Big O!

On one hand, yes, the White House is an extremely busy place.

Not only the hot button issues of the day, but also the always-overloaded, perfunctory business of any given day.

But, really, with all the egghead geniuses they have working there, couldn't they have figured something out, so this wouldn't have happened;

Sobbing Kindergarteners Snubbed for Steelers? ...Kids locked out of White House; officials say they were too late

Thursday was supposed to be the highlight of the year for more than 100 kindergarteners from Stafford County, Va. They got up early and took a chartered bus to the White House for a school field trip. But when they arrived, all the 5-year-olds got was a lesson in disappointment.

The buses from Conway Elementary arrived at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue a little later than planned, and they were locked out.

[snip]

Parents say they were just 10 minutes late for their scheduled tour. School officials say White House staff said they needed to get ready for the president's event with the Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers, so they couldn't come in.

[snip]

A lot of preparing had gone into the trip. Conway Elementary teachers had been planning the trip for months, each child paid $20 for a seat on the chartered bus, and names were submitted to the White House for clearance.

Parents say they tried to make it on time, but their chartered buses hit heavy traffic that slowed them down substantially. They thought they were supposed to show up by 10:15, but they say they arrived at 10:25 instead, and couldn’t get in.

Adding to their shame, a White House spokesperson then threw the little tykes under-the-bus, claiming "the group was actually supposed to be there at 9:30, but they held the gates for the group until 10:30, 15 minutes longer than they told the group, but when they still hadn't arrived, they had to draw the line."

Yeah, that's the ticket, draw a hard-ass line on a bunch of kindergarteners ...You show them who's boss!

Think about, how, if the situation were reversed, and President Obama was going to be visiting these children at their school, and they are all packed into a hot auditorium, maybe, even, cutting into their lunch period, and the President's motorcade hits traffic, and arrives late, do you think the school would blow the President off?

I would speculate, heavily, that the Secret Service would have a SWAT Team ringing the place, with the school in the ever-growing ubiquitous state of "lock-down".

Here's a clue, Obama White House.

Maybe, just maybe, you could have let the kindergarteners go play on the Obama kids' much-publicized swing set, maybe bringing them some White House juice and cookies, and then the President, or First Lady, swing by for a 5-minute pit stop (well, in your lingo, that would be "photo-op").

That would have made for a much better headline, as opposed to getting tagged with making kindergartners cry.

C'mon there, get a glove, get in the game, will ya!

A Nothing Sandwich, With Everything On It

This is almost, nearly, worthy of Instant Ignorant Dolt designation.

Earlier this week, President Obama, and his VP Joe Biden, took a trip over to Virginia, to catch some lunch, at a place called Ray's Hell Burger, which the media, in particular, MSNBC, played up.



WOW!

A President eats lunch - STOP THE PRESSES!

And, he eats hamburgers!

OMG!

Well, William Jacobson, in the ranks of the Flying Monkeys, jumped all over this, at once, accusing MSNBC of "hiding" the fact that Obama prefers Dijon Mustard.

I mean, he is frothing-at-the-mouth of some nefarious conspiracy, posting multiple videos, noting the tape count of the exact moment that Obama says "Dijon Mustard", going to DefCon 7 with Updates, and, breathlessly boasting how "Dijongate" is spreading (among the Flying Monkeys, of course).

I wish I had graphic artists skills, so I could draw up a bottle of vodka, with the label "Absolutely Ridiculous!"

Ron Chusid, over on Liberal Values notes how "Barack Obama Has Great Taste In Mustard"

And, we will give the final word to Tbogg, from Firedoglake, which is hysterical;

Hawhawhaw. Dijon mustard! How metro! How gay!

Jesus. Between this and their obsession with arugula I sometimes wonder if we're actually talking about four year-old children who make "icky" faces when confronted with something new to the menu. What makes this worse is that Jacobson is Professor of Law at Cornell Law School and therefore, we assume, an adult or at least an adult-sized human. How embarrassing for his wife when they attend faculty dinners and she has to bring along chicken strips and ranch dressing so he'll have something to eat. Hopefully she has drawn the line, no matter how fussy he gets, over bringing a baggie of Cheerios for him to nibble on during cocktail hour.

Help Me Mr. Wizard!

What Would TouchDown Jesus Do?

Oh boy, we got ourselves a ripe one.

Consider the press release, sent March 20th, by the Office of the Press Secretary, The White House

President Barack Obama to Deliver Spring 2009 Commencement Addresses

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today at the White House daily press briefing, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs announced that President Obama will serve as commencement speaker at Arizona State University, the University of Notre Dame, and the United States Naval Academy this year. President Obama will address graduates, family members, and faculty at Arizona State University on Wednesday, May 13, 2009, the University of Notre Dame on Sunday, May 17, 2009, and the United States Naval Academy on Friday, May 22, 2009.

More details will be announced at a later date.

Rather perfunctory, no?

Ahhh, except that it carries the name of that heralded bastion of education (and football), the University of Notre Dame.

The Fighting Irish.

And there be some a'fightin', alright.

A cacophony of voices have their Catholic School knickers all bunched up over, not just Obama speaking, but also receiving an honorary degree from Notre Dame.

What's the beef?



One of the main perches of the Flying Monkeys, the National Review sees " his extreme stance on abortion, and his anti-choice actions in office so far — insofar as there is nothing pro-choice about forcing taxpayers to fund abortions abroad, or in compelling medical professionals to participate in them under pain of losing their jobs."

NRO also ran a dog-and-pony thing, a symposium - "A Moral Exemplar? Should the University of Notre Dame honor our most anti-life president?"

Another Flying Monkey biggie, Red State, is flinging their feces, advocating "Notre Dame Alumni and Supporters Should Stop Payment", for they cite "Well known are his recent decisions to force American taxpayers to subsidize both the destruction of embryos for stem cell research and the destruction of babies via abortion throughout the world ..."

Oh yeah, the big muckety-muck, Bishop John D'Arcy of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, is going to boycott the commencement.

The Roman Catholic bishop whose diocese includes the University of Notre Dame will boycott President Obama's May 17 commencement speech there because Obama's policies on stem cell research and abortion run counter to church teaching on the sanctity of human life.

Well, all this huffing-and-puffing, all this feces-throwing, the big, screaming website you put up, you think this will be canned?

Notre Dame President Rev. John Jenkins said Monday the university does not support all of Obama's policies. A school spokesman, Dennis Brown, said he saw no circumstances under which it would rescind the invitation.

The White House issued a statement Tuesday saying Obama welcomes the "spirit of debate and healthy disagreement on important issues."

Here's a big hint, dwarfs, finks, phonies and frauds.

If Obama didn't cave in, at Inauguration time, on having Rick "Cone of Silence" Warren on the program, keep huffing-and-puffing, keep a good supply of feces around, you can probably come up with some other off-the-shelf, or manufactured, outrage you can use it on.

And, since you're bringing this up, where's that "Love Thy Neighbor" business, and, hows about addressing Blue Texan, over on Firedoglake;

But where were they when faculty members of the theology department at Boston College protested the announcement that BC was awarding Condoleeza Rice an honorary degree?

[Snip]

So, to review: a Catholic university awarding an honorary degree to a pro-choice, pro-death penalty, pro-torture warmonger = totally fine.

A Catholic university inviting a sitting Democratic President to deliver a speech = total disgrace.

And, let's not forgot, what is behind all the dogma, how you really don't have a voice at the morals table.

Not after YOUR CHURCH, YOUR CARDINALS, YOUR BISHOPS, YOUR POPES turned their backs on the horrendous sexual abuse of young boys by YOUR PRIESTS.

And, more recently, THIS.

No, you're throwing rocks from your immorally-built glass house.

Go sit down.


Bonus What Would TouchDown Jesus Do? Riffs

CNN: Pro-life group calls on Notre Dame to rescind Obama invite

Carl: The Cult Of Personality

Holly Bailey: No Wonder They Are Called the Fighting Irish

Jamison Foser: Newt Gingrich, guardian of Catholic values

Steve Benen: OBAMA AND NOTRE DAME...

Alex Koppelman: Catholics protesting Obama speech at Notre Dame

Obama Spams The World

Boy, that had to turn some heads this morning.

And, you know, a few of them had to be thinking, was the Lincoln Group back in business, retained by the new administration?

Those, picking up Le Monde, or the Saudi Gazette, or about 30 other newspapers around the world, and seeing President Barack Obama on the Op-Ed page, "A time for global action."

In case their satellites went out, or they don't watch CNN International any longer (maybe in protest, after Zain Verjee couldn't stop from spouting "penis" during a broadcast), Obama wanted to be sure that they all knew our economy was in the tank, and Obama wanted to play "Tag", that they all have to pitch in as well

It was, kind of, an economic Knute Rockne thing, or Mickey Rooney/Andy Hardy "Hey gang, let's put on an economy!"

He didn't say so in the article, but I think he's going to hand out laminated, autographed copies at the G-20, just in case they missed it.

Maybe, they'll put a Gordon Brown-type package together, throw in some DVD's of his Tonight Show appearance, or his speeches.

Raw Story has a copy of it.

So does the Chicago Tribune.

No word yet, if Obama, just to piss off the Flying Monkeys of the Right Wing Freak Show, was chewing gum, or not, while writing the piece.

AEI/Bloomberg/McCain Hack Plays A Little Solitaire

Rush Limbaugh as Frank Sinatra/Major Bennett Marco?

No, I don't think so ...

Not in a million years, and all the CGI you can generate.

Kevin Hassett, on Bloomberg today, has a column calling President Obama "The Manchurian Candidate", because, after all, Obama has launched a War on Business and is out to totally destroy our economy.

I was immediately alarmed, until I got to the bottom of the post, and noted that was merely a one of the Right Wing Freak Show Flying Monkeys;

(Kevin Hassett, director of economic-policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, is a Bloomberg News columnist. He was an adviser to Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona in the 2008 presidential election. The opinions expressed are his own.)

Here's some of his drivel;

It is no wonder that markets are imploding around us. Obama is giving us the War on Business. 

Imagine that some hypothetical enemy state spent years preparing a “Manchurian Candidate” to destroy the U.S. economy once elected. What policies might that leader pursue? 

He might discourage private capital from entering the financial sector by instructing his Treasury secretary to repeatedly promise a brilliant rescue plan, but never actually have one. Private firms, spooked by the thought of what government might do, would shy away from transactions altogether. If the secretary were smooth and played rope-a-dope long enough, the whole financial sector would be gone before voters could demand action. 

Another diabolical idea would be to significantly increase taxes on whatever firms are still standing. That would require subterfuge, since increasing tax rates would be too obvious. Our Manchurian Candidate would have plenty of sophisticated ideas on changing the rules to get more revenue without increasing rates, such as auctioning off “permits.” 

These steps would create near-term distress. If our Manchurian Candidate leader really wanted to knock the country down for good, he would have to provide insurance against any long-run recovery.

[Snip]

It’s clear that President Obama wants the best for our country. That makes it all the more puzzling that he would legislate like a Manchurian Candidate.

Nate Silver, over on this FiveThirtyEight.com, has the lowdown on Hacket, who penned the book, "Dow 36,000";

To review, Dow 36,000 came out in October, 1999, within months of the tippy-top peak of the tech bubble ... this is when stocks were as overvalued as at literally any time in American history, including the Roaring 20's -- and Hassett was telling you to double -- nay, triple-down on them! It would be hard to identify an individual who better embodied the phrase "irrational exuberance" -- well, maybe the Pets.com sock puppet -- or who destroyed more wealth with charlatanic financial advice.

And this guy thinks it's all some big conspiracy against him. Literally.

Wikipedia notes, regarding Hassett's book, "Dow 36,000";

The Industrial Average reached a record high of 11,750.28 in January 2000, but after the bursting of the dot-com bubble, and the September 11 attacks of 2001, it steadily fell, reaching a low of 7,286.27 in October 2002. Although the Average recovered to a new record high of 14,164.53 in October 2007, it crashed back to the vicinity of 6,800 by the early months of 2009, amidst a global recession.

Also, Paul Krugman's assessment of McCain's campaign;

Controversy

In the course of the 2008 election campaign, Nobel-prize laureaute Paul Krugman criticised Hassett's position as an adviser to John McCain and implied that "Dow 36,000" was discredited

"We’ve known for a long time, of course, that Mr. McCain doesn’t know much about economics — he’s said so himself, although he’s also denied having said it. That wouldn’t matter too much if he had good taste in advisers — but he doesn’t. Remember, his chief mentor on economics is Phil Gramm, the arch-deregulator, who took special care in his Senate days to prevent oversight of financial derivatives — the very instruments that sank Lehman and A.I.G., and brought the credit markets to the edge of collapse... And last year, when the McCain campaign announced that the candidate had assembled “an impressive collection of economists, professors, and prominent conservative policy leaders” to advise him on economic policy, who was prominently featured? Kevin Hassett, the co-author of “Dow 36,000.” Enough said.[4]"

John Cole, over on Balloon Juice points out the irony of Hassett's use of "The Manchurian Candidate", in his "They Know the Title of the Book, But They Haven’t Read It".

Another irony is that, it is actually the hero/protagonist of 'The Manchurian Candidate' who defeats the Right Wing conservatives, and enemies, preserving and saving capitalism (yeah, that's a big hint, but I don't want to spoil it completely, for those that haven't seen the movie - the original, 1962 pic, with Sinatra, Laurence Harvey and Angela Lansbury)

Maybe, in his next column, Hassett will declare "There are exactly 57 card-carrying members of the Communist Party in the Obama Administration at this time!"