Thank you all very much. Mr. Speaker, distinguished guests, foreign diplomats [bow], ladies and gentlemen. My fellow Americans,

We’re here tonight to talk about the state of the union. Not the red state of the union, or the blue state of the union, the United state of the union.

We are now in the midst of the single most inherited economy in our history. Times are tough. But we are saving or creating new jobs every day. Every minute. I just did one while we were talking [wave hand like wand].

Now, I know you all want health care. And I want to give it to you. Congress wants to give it to you. But Fox News.

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David Shuster on Nidal Hasan and the Fort Hood shootings:

Now you may be thinking to yourself, well, I’m sure he had more to say about Hasan than that. Well that’s true. He did have one more thing to add …

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Shorter Martha Coakley: Voting for me was Martin Luther King’s famous Dream. You don’t hate his dream … do you?*

You know, originally I was going to clip the best bits from Martha Coakley’s speech this morning at a Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast, but I realized there’s nothing to clip. You really have to drink the whole thing in.

“If Dr. King were here today, he’d be standing with us.”

Dude.

“We will act on the dream tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow” referring to election day. The dream referring to Martin Luther King Jr.’s iconic “I Have a Dream” speech. “We will act on” referring to voting for her tomorrow as the realization of Dr. King’s dream.

Dude.

“It’s important that tomorrow we act on that dream, and we make sure that we allow me to continue that work.”

Dude.

As posthumous endorsements go, Coakley sure seanced up some powerful ones. I want to make a few more snarky comments, but I’m just plain too stunned by this speech. I mean … wow.

Oh by the way. Scott Brown was in the audience. Yeah.

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Heh. h/t @collegepolitico

OPEN THREAD

The Clinton Bush Haiti fund website is running a little more smoothly today. If you had trouble donating yesterday, try again. Or if you prefer, please visit Billy Graham’s website for information, updates, and to donate.

I’m not going to go at length here. You’re hearing and seeing what I am. I don’t have to tell you about the suffering, the cries in the night, the bodies on the streets. I don’t have to ask you to imagine the families huddled together in pain, or worse, struggling to find a lost loved one. You watch the news. What’s happened, and is happening, in Haiti is a massive tragedy. It is pain and loss and suffering and horror … and it isn’t over. Most of us have already donated money. Maybe we used a txt donation. Maybe the Red Cross. Maybe even the White House website. But that’s not the end of it. It’s not over for the men, women and children in Haiti. The mothers and fathers and brothers and sisters and daughters and sons. It’s just begun.

Please, on this blessed Sunday, take a moment to thank God for the privilege of living in the United States of America. And then share some of our even yet magnificent bounty. Please take the time to help.

This week, I had the opportunity to attend he Reclaim American Liberty conference in New York. I’ll be writing about the conference as the video becomes available.

Recently, Helen Thomas had an exchange with counterterror czar John Brennan that produced some buzz, as well as criticism, in which she pressed him to explain what motivates Islamic terrorism.

In a subsequent interview (posted below the fold), she elaborates on her position, making it clear just who she considers to be the most guilty party in this war. At the Reclaim American Liberty conference, I asked the national security panel participants how they would respond to Thomas’ question of “why.” Lt. Col. Allen West’s answer was explosive and without fear.

Here is the audio of his response:
Click to open in your media player.

Read on for more examples of exactly what Helen Thomas thinks is the problem.

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The White House yesterday responded to Dick Cheney. From the White House blog (emphasis added):

“Second, the former Vice President makes the clearly untrue claim that the President – who is this nation’s Commander-in-Chief – needs to realize we are at War. I don’t think anyone realizes this very hard reality more than President Obama.“

Really? Not anyone?

On Twitter today, Jake Tapper points to a Michael Moore tweet, screencapped below:

Certainly there is some humor in the idea of a Michael Moore-led boycott of an entire state as being anything the state would notice, but it gets even funnier when you realize how ignorant the outrage industry on the left really can be. For example, take at look at this excerpt from document (embedded below the fold) titled “Recall of Legislators and the Removal of Members of Congress from Office,” which I originally found, delightfully, at Lieberman.Senate.Gov:

As to removal by recall, the United States Constitution does not provide for nor authorize the recall of United States officers such as Senators, Representatives, or the President or Vice President, and thus no Member of Congress has ever been recalled in the history of the United States.

Oh, but it gets better still. Read on …

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In the flurry of news this week, you may have missed another body tossed under the insatiable Obama bus: Internet Czar Susan Crawford.

The Obama administration has faced a vocal and growing opposition to the radical so-called net neutrality advocated by folks like Crawford and FCC Chair Julius Genachowski. Bi-partisan opposition, I hasten to add. The radicals in the administration, whose views are shared by the President, in true czar fashion avoid honest debate on the issue at all costs. Even, it would seem, internally.

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As Moe foreshadowed on Tuesday, SENATOR Barbara Boxer decided to make an end-run around Republicans on the Senate Enviromental and Public Works Comittee by voting on cap-and-trade legislation with no republicans present. The Briefing room reports today on the SENATOR’s rule-breaking:

Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) today on Fox News said that committee rules dictate that at least two members of the minority must be present when meeting. Boxer held a vote on the legislation, which passed 10-1, but no Republicans were present for the vote.

Republican members of the committee have been boycotting the hearings all week because the legislation has not yet been scored by the Environmental Protection Agency.

“That was unprecendented, I think the bill is dead,” Inhofe told Fox.

Inhofe points out that SENATOR Boxer rammed this through despite objections from 6 ranking members of other committees. As Moe noted, there is virtually no chance Boxer’s bill will survive now. SENATOR Boxer may have torpedoed her own bill, so great was her lust to quash debate and mow over any republican objection, in keeping with this Congress’ current SOP.

All of which is pretty funny to have in the press day after the SENATOR’s office released the following statement on her website:

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USA Today this week ran a shocking story which revealed just how easy it was to buy one’s way into cherry appointments, reporting that 40% of his top bundlers have been awarded administration posts. Moe Lane highlights all the other perks and benefits being showered on “the money” as well.

Today Big Government highlights something worth reiterating.

USA Today goes on to report that one top-level fundraiser apparently awarded with a plum job is Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski.

The paper reports that Genachowski raised more than $500,000 for Obama—which critics charge may have helped him “buy” a position that now puts him at the center of one of Washington’s most heated policy debates, namely that regarding net neutrality.

Genachowski, a strong proponent of the policy and a darling of far left groups like Save The Internet, has recently garnered criticism for what some see as an effort to ram net neutrality through with little to no debate. The proposed policy has recently become the focus of criticism and concern from everyone from internet service providers to groups typically regarded as Obama administration-friendly, such as the Asian American Justice Center, National Council of La Raza, the League of United Latin American Citizens and the National Urban League. 72 House Democrats and three Democratic Governors have also raised concerns about the proposed policy.

And Genachowski isn’t the only net neutrality proponent buying in.

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Over the last few days there has been an explosion of stories regarding a Fox News report that claimed Fox was, initially, deliberately snubbed by the Treasury Department. Only after other networks in the press pool objected to the exclusion was Fox added to the list of participants, with Major Garrett eventually conducting the interview in question. From Fox:

The Obama administration on Thursday failed in its attempt to exclude Fox News from participating in an interview of an administration official, as Republicans on Capitol Hill stepped up their criticism of the hardball tactics employed by the White House.

Pushback on the story was immediate. The contrary narrative was that in no way was Fox ever deliberately excluded from anything, and by no means did the “real” networks ever defend Fox. From Talking Points Memo:

The network pool crew noticed Fox wasn’t on the list, was told that they hadn’t asked and the crew said they needed to be included. Treasury called the White House and asked top Obama adviser Anita Dunn. Dunn said yes and Fox’s Major Garrett was among the correspondents to interview Feinberg last night.

The story included a statement from the Treasury department that said there was “no plot to exclude Fox News, and they had the same interview that their competitors did. Much ado about absolutely nothing.”

After Talking Points Memo and other outlets began to question the details of Fox News’ initial report, the online left in blogs and on Twitter seized on this as an example of dishonesty on the part of Fox. Salon.com editor Joan Walsh went so far as to refer to it as a “hoax” on her twitter feed, a sentiment in common with some at DailyKos. Washington Monthly’s Political Animal blog declared “Fox News surely knows that this ‘controversy’ is not what it appears to be, but the network pushed it anyway, hoping to score some cheap points and desperate to position itself as a victim.”

The most popular quote, though, was from White House spokesman Josh Earnest, who told TPM that “this White House has demonstrated our willingness to exclude Fox News from newsmaking interviews, but yesterday we did not.”

“Simple as that,” said Talking Points Memo. Only it turns out, not quite.

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Earlier this year I outlined the phases of the evolution of the Obama “message.” Here they are again, with another update.

Throughout the campaign and on into January of this year:

February’s phase II:

March and April “World Apology Tour” theme:

.

So now we come to the latest stage in the evolution …

October’s “Fox isn’t news” love us or else media assault:

.

Consider this an OPEN THREAD.

Last night on Countdown, Keith Olbermann covered the WCPAC confrontation between John Ziegler and David Keene. Amid the obligatory and well-worn “chuckling about the end of conservatives as we know them” routine Keith likes to trot out 9 or 10 times per episode, he suggests that perhaps Ziegler is just “defending his own crush.” You get that? See Palin is a woman. So people who support must want to bed her. If you think that is an unusual or out of character point of view for Keith, well … think again.

Mediaite’s Tommy Christopher asked Ziegler for a comment on the segment. His response is priceless. Well, not exactly “priceless” … here’s an excerpt (emphasis added):

This may shock people, but my defense of her is not even politically based. It is motivated purely by the level of unfairness of the coverage of her. I honestly believe that I would have reacted the same way if she were ugly and a Democrat (not that it would have ever happened to her if that was the case), but I can understand why Olbermann couldn’t possibly understand such principled consistency or being motivated by something other than one’s own self interest and/or what they feel in their pants.

I will make this offer to Olbermann. If he has me on the show to debate Palin-related issues, live, for a full hour, I will pay his favorite charity $100,000, which is more than any profit I am ever likely to make from my film “Media Malpractice.” This offer is 100% real.

Will Keith man up? Doubtful. But I’ll tell you one thing if he does, I’m cooking popcorn, setting the DVR, and wearing my three-wolf moon shirt because THAT, sir, is what you call must-see TV.

There has been no small amount of buzz on the right the last few days in the wake of Western CPAC. There were two dramas this weekend, one decidedly more dramatic than the other, which are both symptomatic of some deep problems with the conference and, generally, with the state of activism on the right.

The less dramatic of the two involved my friend Ed Morrissey of Hot Air. While participating in a “New Media” panel, Ed was ambushed by another panel member who accused him of “rudeness” for disagreeing with an earlier presentation in an article published at Hot Air. More bizarrely, the “New Media’ panel member proceeded to belittle the importance of new media, urging people to “pick up the phone.” It is certainly worth noting that the panel member, Christopher Carmouche, is in the fax blasting business. Yes. Really. A number of bloggers and attendees speculate that Carmouche “donated” his way onto the panel.

Which is a pretty good segue to the much bigger drama to come out of this weekend: Ziegler vs. Keene.

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RRRAAAACCCCIIIIISSSSSSTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That’s what the MSM had to say in comments about Rush Limbaugh’s recent bid to purchase the St. Louis Rams. According to some guy I overheard at the mall, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs suggested that Limbaugh owning the Rams “is exactly the same as slavery, but fatter.” And then there’s what Helen Thomas probably said, “Rush to what window? With a ram? Where’s my sweater?”

So in honor of the controversy, I’ve compiled a top ten list of some completely ridiculous but totally true and not fake quotes of famous people who are not (or so they claim) Rush Limbaugh. These are, like, so teh true. For really real. Really. No … really.

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This is an open thread so you can talk about anything. And if you can’t think of anything, well … I’ll give you a topic: Obama was denied the Olympics, then he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Each is hilarious and terrible in different ways. Discuss.

Bring the funny, but keep it clean (cough speciallist cough). If you choose to post an image or photo, please properly attribute the source. I created the thread header.

OPEN THREAD

Over the course of the last year, the Obama administration has taken on an increasingly hostile tone towards critical press. During the campaign, of necessity, it was more muted (although not nonexistent, as conservative reporters discovered).

Since the inauguration, however, the practice has become more frequent and more sophisticated. Time reports that the White House has decided they are going to be a “player” in how the press is won.

So a new White House strategy has emerged: rather than just giving reporters ammunition to “fact-check” Obama’s many critics, the White House decided it would become a player, issuing biting attacks on those pundits, politicians and outlets that make what the White House believes to be misleading or simply false claims, like the assertion that health-care reform would establish new “sex clinics” in schools. Obama, fresh from his vacation on Martha’s Vineyard, cheered on the effort, telling his aides he wanted to “call ‘em out.”

Time calls it a “take no prisoners” stance; a war. And this war has a general: Anita Dunn. Dunn is the White House communications director and a longtime Obama advisor. She’s been a heavy-weight Democrat strategist since the 80s.

As with the citizen reporting system and many other such initiatives, censorship 2.0 is strongly internet focused. Mediaite characterizes Dunn’s new role as being the White House’s “own Glenn Beck.” She is aggressive, and is the brains behind using the White House blog as a vehicle for attacking Fox News. Dunn has crafted this adversarial pose, and stands by it. Something which would certainly disappoint a formerly vocal critic of such tactics: Anita Dunn.

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