Obama, while visiting China, talks to imposter-news "reporter" Major Garrett of FOX….

Obama warned the United States' climbing national debt could drag the country into a "double-dip recession," though he said he's still considering additional tax incentives for businesses to reverse the rising unemployment rate.

"There may be some tax provisions that can encourage businesses to hire sooner rather than sitting on the sidelines. So we're taking a look at those," Obama told Fox News' Major Garrett.

"I think it is important, though, to recognize if we keep on adding to the debt, even in the midst of this recovery, that at some point, people could lose confidence in the U.S. economy in a way that could actually lead to a double-dip recession."

Digby has it right, when she says that she hopes imposter-news mischaracterized what Obama was getting at….because the national debt has very little, if anything, to do with our current economic situation.

American "news" has been spinning phony yarns for so long now that I wouldn't be the least surprised to see Village Knee Pad streetwalkers successfully convince enough Americans into believing yet another lie.

Our current recession has absoluetly NOTHING to do with the national debt doubling under the last administration. While huge national debt increases under Bush, and now Obama, are, indeed, a concern…..that debt should not be blamed in any way for our current conditions. In fact, the current near-depression conditions were created ENTIRELY by the gambling-house industries of finance, insurance and real estate. Free market greed gone wild.

If Obama actually told imposter-news "reporter" Major Garrett that a "climbing national debt could drag the country into a 'double-dip recession'"…..he's being dishonest. Obama knows better. The debt and the current recession have nothing to do with one another…..and even implying otherwise in front of imposter-news representatives is a huge political mistake.

What the country needs right now, not late next year but now, is MORE government spending to directly create jobs. Another trillion dollars is needed right now, with every dollar going to job creation instead of like the watered-down-to-mollify-dumbass-conservatives-stimulus-bill provisions passed back in February. The way to pay for that trillion is blindingly clear as well…..tax Wall Street transactions.

Wall Street is where the recession began. The recession didn't begin because the dollar crashed or China quit buying our debt. The recession began because unscrupulous money scheme connivers lost their reckless and unregulated bets to such an extent……that they all ran out of money and came to tax payers for bailouts.

As a result of banksters running out of money because they lost their reckless and unregulated bets…..money, almost overnight, became unavailable for lending to Americans in order to buy stuff…like cars, houses, etc. Massive layoffs followed. The downward cycle began. To add insult to injury…now the recession-causers are punishing consumers through reduced credit and higher interest rates and fees.

If President Obama is so foolish or "centrist" to believe that he can co-opt the TeaBagger insanity over government spending, even giving one inch by agreeing that government spending is the problem right now….then he is only setting himself up for political defeat and setting Americans up for a TeaBagger-led government in the future. I shutter at the thought.

Palin, FOX, and the TeaBaggers don't have a point when it comes to government spending……and they don't even care that they don't. The year-long wingnut nonsense about government spending, socialism, 'I want my country back', yada, yada…..is not to be taken seriously. The sole purpose of the Baggers and Co. is to return bankster-favoring Republicans back into majority government power…. the very people who helped banksters bring our country to it's knees in the first place.

Obama shouldn't attempt to triangulate with incoherent economic idiots or imposter-news "reporters"…..ever.

Why would major "news" outfits, like ABC, CNN or FOX, invite Rudy Giuliani to come to their Sunday shows, yesterday, and answer questions about the Obama administration's decision to try five 9-11 conspirators in New York City?

What possible information, what opinions, could Giuliani hold in his freaky little head that might justify ABC, CNN and FOX's invite? Rudy holds no office, hasn't been mayor of New York for quite some time, and made a national embarassment out of himself with his "noun, verb and 9-11" presidential primary campaign in 2008….the campaign he strategized so brilliantly by running in only one state, Florida.

Giuliani's appearance as some kind of "expert opinionator" about 9-11, of course, is laughable. Rudy Giuliani, on 9-11, was shrewd enough to get himself in front of the cameras,…but that's the extent of his knowledge or expertise on terrorism.

Rudy's recommendation to George W. Bush of Bernard Kerik to be Homeland Security Director is all one needs to know about Rudy's judgment. Kerik was convicted of a felony just a few days ago and sentenced to prison.

But there he was….Mr. 9-11….on ABC, CNN and FOX yesterday…..the slumped-back freak, in all his freakish glory, criticizing President Obama's decision to hold trials of terrorists in New York City.

"It's an unnecessary advantage to give to the terrorists," Giuliani said on CNN's State of the Union. "I don't know why you want to give terrorists advantages. And secondly, it's an unnecessary risk to the city of New York, which already has any number of risks."

The same guy who said that…also said this in 2006 about trying 20th hijacker, Zacarias Moussauoi in federal court .

Several news show hosts called Giuliani out on some apparent hypocrisy — in 2006, he praised the civilian trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, saying he was "in awe of our system" and that we "are a nation of law."

For federal court trials until he was against them.

But think about what Mr. Noun & Verb & 9-11 said yesterday on CNN. If we bring the five 9-11 conspirators to trial in New York City, we are giving the "terrorists" an "unnecessary advantage." Trying those five in New York City federal court is putting New York under "unnecessary risk."

Bringing international anarchist criminals to justice following the template of American law, is giving "unnecessary advantage" to Islamic radicals. In other words,….according to Giuliani…we must forsake our own laws and history of following those laws, because if we follow American law and order, we will give extremists the "advantage."

WTF?

Suicide bombers carry out violent acts which kill civilians in order to scare the host country's government into CHANGING the way they live and carry out their system of government.

Rudy Giuliani says the U.S. must not rely on the U.S. legal system to try the five conspirators, the same system Rudy praised in the trial of Moussauoi,…..because if we follow our own legal system and precedence…..we'll be giving the extremists, "unnecessary advantage."

Rudy is now too scared of the U.S. justice system to trust it. That's no small detail.

Not only has Giuliani given up on the U.S. justice system's ability to adjudicate crimes and lock away criminals…he's, apparently, given up on New York City's ability to protect it's citizens too. Trying suspects of a horrific crime in one of our cities is now putting that city's residents under "unnecessary risk."

I guess that means that from now on if a significantly horrible enough crime is committed inside the U.S….we can no longer trust our court system to deal with it. Rudy, by making these statements, is announcing his agreement with Osama Bin Laden. Bin Laden has said America needs to change it's system of government and that Americans have become "soft." Rudy Giuliani agrees.

Giuliani, as I mentioned, is a freak. The question naturally arises….why would what Rudy has to say be significant to Americans? I can't answer that question. I keep coming up with, "it isn't." CNN, ABC and FOX believe otherwise. The Villagers, don't forget, are very, very Serious.

One last backhand……if we try criminals in federal courts, find them guilty and execute or imprison them…..then, according to Rudy, we're playing Aladdin to those who wage "Islamic war against us"……

"Since when are we in the business of granting the wishes of terrorists?"

You know what I'm thinking?…..I'm thinking that Rudy Giuliani is full of sh*t.

Virginia Democratic Senator Jim Webb on AG Eric Holder's announcement that five of the 9-11 plotters will be tried in New York federal court…..

Those who have committed acts of international terrorism are enemy combatants, just as certainly as the Japanese pilots who killed thousands of Americans at Pearl Harbor. It will be disruptive, costly, and potentially counterproductive to try them as criminals in our civilian courts.

..[..]..

And we must be especially careful with any decisions to bring onto American soil any of those prisoners who remain a threat to our country but whose cases have been adjudged as inappropriate for trial at all. They do not belong in our country, they do not belong in our courts, and they do not belong in our prisons.

House representative Jim Moran (D-Va)….has a different take….

"They (Republicans, neo-cons, wingnuts) see this as an opportunity to demagogue," he said. "They will seize on any opportunity to do that, and that means they'll even take a stand that's un-American."

"It's un-American to hold anyone indefinitely without trial," Moran added. "It's against our principles as a nation."

"Opportunity to demagogue? Yep…like this….

Of all the mindless memes that non-reality-based adherents blare out like zombie pod people…..this one about "American soil" is the most ignorant. That's saying something….because the extreme right TeaBagger-FOX-Beck-Rush Group LLC….says a whole bunch of ignorant stuff on an hourly basis.

Giuliani is a discredited authoritarian moron, so it's easy to dismiss his grandstanding gibberish. But Rudy represents the FOX-BeckerHead position…so it will be the most prominent, because whatever FOX-Beckerheads spout is to be taken very Seriously by the Village. And, as the 9-12'ers and Rupert Murdoch have made clear, all wingnut-media decisions are for the purpose of "destroying Obama."

Remember, the only Job One there is for Republicans, Teabaggers, Drug Addicts on the Radio and myriad Wingnut Zoo Animals….is to bring about, as South Carolina cracker-senator Jim DeMint said…."Obama's Waterloo."

Now the analysis.

Senator Jim Webb is mistaken when he compares Japanese pilots during WW2 with 9-11 hijackers. Japanese pilots were operating under the authority of the Japanese Emperor. Japanese pilots during WW2 represented a country, a nation of people who declared war against America with the Pearl Harbor attack. WW2 was a war of nations. The militaries of the Axis powers were ordered by their nation's leaders to wage war on Allied nations.

9-11 Islamic hijackers represented who, exactly? A tiny international band of stateless anarchist criminals. No state or country sponsored the 9-11 hijackers. 9-11 hijackers did not act on the orders of a state dictator, politician, leader, or representative. Bin Laden's al-Qaeda carried out acts of violence for THEMSELVES….no one else.

Islamic extremists are seeking to make a symbolic "political statement" with their acts of violence. The entire point of killing others while killing yourself is to shock others into believing they are not safe. Japanese pilots who dropped bombs on Pearl Harbor were not making a "political statement"……they were beginning a monumental war of one nation against another. Japanese pilots were seeking to defeat the U.S. military, and thus America, the nation. Japanese pilots were not just trying to shock U.S citizens…..there was nothing symbolic about Pearl Harbor.

The second bit of "demagogic" nonsense-hype by American wingnuts only seeking Obama's demise by foolishly arguing we can't try 9-11 masterminds on "American soil"….is the, "they're too dangerous" to be housed in New York prisons…nonsense. There's no question the 9-11 plot was sinister and evil, but the five radical Islamic masterminds to be tried in New York federal court ain't squat compared to the most vicious, brutal, bloodthirsty deviants we currently have safely locked away in federal prisons, including, by the way, over 100 Islamic "terrorists."

To take the position that these five are too dangerous to bring onto "American soil" is, at best, a wingnut admission that America is weak, vulnerable, unsure of it's power and that the Constitution and set of laws which guide us are, somehow, deficient.

The final point I want to make is over the stupid claim that if we try 9-11 conspirators in New York…then New York will automatically become the focus of new terrorist attacks. Besides being another admission that America is just too weak or vulnerable to protect itself….this ignorant meme, meant only to diminish Obama's leadership, ignores the fact that America currently occupies two Muslim countries with some 200,000 U.S. soldiers. Daily, we are killing Afghani citizens. Also ignored is the fact that the American military has killed, at the very minimum, some 128,000 Iraqi citizens in our war of imperialistic aggression. 4 million Iraqis were displaced.

What more incentive would a Muslim crazy need to "focus" their extremist bile on the U.S.?

Here are the facts. George W. Bush, though he did not act on it, stated clearly that he would like to see Guantanomo closed. But Bush was a Republican president with very low approval ratings. In comes a popular Democratic President Obama who agrees with Bush's view of closing Guantanomo. If Obama succeeds in closing Guantanomo…..well, you know the wingnut drill….then America "fails."

The ignorant and disingenuous blatherings about not trying 9-11 conspirators on "American soil" is for the sole purpose of seeing Obama "fail."

Not that complicated.

First it was Rev. Wright…then Bill Ayers….with all the accompanying non-biased, and Pulitzer-Prize-caliber reporting. Then came the "Hillary Clinton was cheated," narrative suggesting (wrongly) that she had more primary votes than Barak Obama. All this was followed by "Obama's only a celebrity like Paris." Then came the "how can Obama overcome his problem with white voters?" question.

Sarah Palin's entry brought with it the "palling around with terrorists", "Obama is a Marxist", "real Americans in real America", and "Obama is not sufficiently patriotic." All accusations that had to be deeply plumbed for there wingnut wisdom.

Immediately following Obama's election, it became full metal jacket Blago. Obama is from Illinois, (via Kenya) Emmanuel is from Illinois, Blagojevich was governor of Illinois….ipso facto, weeks and weeks were spent "informing" us about an Illinois governor who did what every American elected official does….traded on his influence.

In January came Rush's "hope he fails" comedy routine….and a Serious search to unpack the deep profundity in that statement. The stimulus "discussion" gave opportunity for corporate-whore media to entertain (on a 2-1 basis over Democrats) the thoughts and demagoguing of Republicans and conservatives on the Sunday morning "news" programs. Despite having his electoral ass kicked, and despite the fact that McCain now plays an insignificant role in a 40 GOP'er Senate, John McCain recorded his 14th appearance on the Sunday morning "news" shows recently.

Ordering that Guantanomo would be closed brought with it such an unhinged response from dishonest neo-conservatives and their obedient knee-jerk children that the thought of dangerous criminals being held on "American soil" became the most imminent national threat. Terrorists in American prisons?….How can we ever be safe?

And then it really started to get crazy. March brought with it the TeaParty Blitz….and the long awaited return of Dick Cheney to national corporate-whore media…..this time with mini-me-Dick, daughter Liz, out spreading the "torture love" doctrine of Father Dick. Neither holds public office, Father Dick is hated by most Americans….but there they were, "news" program after "news" program, telling us to be very, very afraid if America stops torturing. You see, the Dicks are Serious.

Don't forget the marvelously patriotic and sensible "birther" movement still championed by over half of Republicans and the recently released CNN xenophobe, Lou Dobbs….and naturally, all of the AM radio talkers and FOX.

The summer of 2009 may just be referred to in the history books as the "Summer of Incoherence"….as BeckerHeads, TeaBaggers, and Townhall Buster-Uppers, some carrying loaded weapons, saturated the "news" with their sour grapes of discontent with a black Democratic president intent on destroying America and replacing it with (take your pick)….socialism, communism Maoism, Stalinism, or Nazism……all conveniently interchangeable at a moment's notice. Desperate cries of, "I want my country back", echoed repeatedly through the TeaBags.

ACORN became, overnight, one of America's most dangerous domestic enemies. Amateur wingnut videographers, working with FOX, stung those primarily-black-employee-run Acorn offices in a daring and patriotic commando raid to save us all…..I guess from signing up more black voters. "Breaking News" ensued.

"Killing grandma", "death panels", (another 1/2 term Governor Palin gem), "death books for veterans", "Obama will take away your Medicare",…filled the late summer and early fall, with yet more incoherent TeaParties and 9-12'er events, led by America's brilliant new Paul Revere, Glenn Beck…and of course, FOX. No one is sure how many Baggers turned out on Beckerhead day. Somewhere between 60,000…..and 2 million. No way to know.

Now we're being flooded with "Obama and the Democrats are sneaking in tax-payer abortions", "Obama is 'dithering' on Afghanistan", and the recent election (which added a new Democrat to the House) is a "sign that Americans are rejecting Obama's leadership," "Obama and the Democrats (after 10 months) are in deep trouble."

This past week has brought with it the "Ft. Hood massacre is the first terrorist attack in the U.S. since 9-11," proving, I'm sure, that without the Dick's torture, we are all doomed. Calls for renewing "investigations" into American Muslims and Muslim groups are rampant.

Obama left today on an Asian-countries tour….and dollars to donuts….I bet we'll get to hear all about how Obama had to get out of D.C. to avoid all the "controversies" he's created. Just more "dithering."

Now….it could just be me….but it sure as hell seems like corporate-whore media has joined with conservative and GOP wingnuts in "creating reality" for the last year and a half. An anti-Obama-and-the-Democrats narrative template has been placed overtop of ALL events since the beginning of last year.

Or maybe not. Like I said….it could just be me.

I suppose the reason Tea Party-Party (now official !) members, FOX, and the usual wingnut suspects have become so energized over the Ft. Hood mass murder story is because they think this story is another way to smear, slander and weaken President Obama and bash those 'politically correct' liberals…..in order to patriotically strengthen the nation, I'm sure.

Immediately, wingers began blaming Obama for the Muslim shooter being in the Army….and resorted to unhinged accusations of political correctness to explain why the killing took place.

Here's material from the Washington Post piece that King linked to, mocked, and then, distorted beyond recognition in his most recent post about the Ft. Hood mass killer, Hasan…

Aulaqi (former Falls Church, VA, imam) responded to Hasan at least twice, according to Rep. Peter Hoekstra (Mich.), the ranking Republican on the House intelligence committee.

"For me, the number of times that this guy tried to reach out to the imam was significant," Hoekstra said. "Al-Qaeda and radical jihadists use the Internet to spread radical jihadism. . . . So how much of [Hasan's] lashing out is a result of . . . his access to radical messages on the Internet and the ability to interact?

"I believe that the responses from Aulaqi were maybe pretty innocent," Hoekstra continued. "But the very fact that he's sent e-mail . . . to this guy and got responses would be quite a concern to me."

The FBI determined that the e-mails did not warrant an investigation, according to the law enforcement official. Investigators said Hasan's e-mails were consistent with the topic of his academic research and involved some social chatter and religious discourse.

Hoekstra and others are raising questions about whether government agencies paid sufficient attention to warning signs about Hasan.

Hoekstra (R-MI) is a well-known nut, but even he said the imam's two e-mail responses to Hasan, "were maybe pretty innocent."

About the Falls Church mosque and it's former imam….

At Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, where Aulaqi was an imam, mosque leaders denounced his statements.

"This was a really disgraceful statement from a blog of our former short-lived Imam Aulaqi," the mosque's outreach director, Johari Abdul-Malik, said Monday. "Aulaqi wasn't angry like that when he was here with us. He changed after he left, after 9/11. He became a different imam."

King uses this misleading ABC line….

U.S. intelligence agencies were aware months ago that Army Major Nidal Hasan was attempting to make contact with people associated with al Qaeda,

…which King distorts into this…

According to ABC News, the FBI knew Nidal M. Hasan, the Fort Hood terrorist jihadist cuddly bunny had been trying to contact Al Qaeda several months ago

…and this…

I assume it's not standard operating procedure for a U.S. Army Major, a psychiatrist, to be trying to contact Al Qaeda, even if he is merely a cuddly bunny.

….but ABC said cuddly bunny was trying to contact "people" in Al Qaeda, as in, more than one.

Setting aside the "cuddly bunny" nonsense……King, like other knee jerk responders to the Ft. Hood tragedy, and like mainstream media who couldn't even get the basic facts correct in the first 24 hours of the breaking story, doesn't want to hear what the FBI or military says about Hasan.

There is no evidence that Hasan was trying to contact al-Qaeda. Hasan did contact his former Virginia mosque imam.

This is what King said about those e-mails….

The FBI said it never delved into cuddly bunny's communiques with Al-Awlaki because there was no indication that cuddly bunny was planning any violence.

Here's what the Post article said about those e-mails….'

Investigators said Hasan's e-mails were consistent with the topic of his academic research and involved some social chatter and religious discourse.

The word "delved", I suppose, can mean whatever King wants it to mean. I'm not sure how the FBI could have determined those e-mails were "consistent with..academic research…social chatter and religious discourse"….if, you know, they hadn't "delved" into those e-mails.

King….

Not only did the military and FBI fail to connect the dots here, but judging from the comments to my last post, liberals don't even want to admit there are any dots to connect (unlike the runup to 9/11). Even President Obama said we shouldn't leap to any conclusions…

Which seems to mean that King thinks, we SHOULD jump to conclusions.

I guess King intutitively knows more than the FBI, liberals bearing the unvarnished facts, and President Obama. He must. He went on to issue his own final verdict….

"cuddly bunny is a jihadist terrorist,"

Tell me the truth…. how can you argue with that?

Liberal ideas…truly liberal ideas…..are rarely ever considered by Congress. The reason is that liberal ideas, somehow, are never worthy enough to be called American….even though the strength and character of America was built primarily on liberal ideas.

Take, for example, the liberal idea on health care reform. The liberal idea on health care reform is single-payer government run health care. Single-payer is the most cost efficient and most fair way to deal with health care for all Americans. Because that is the case, it can never be considered. The liberal idea of single-payer was NEVER entertained by any health care reform congressional committees. When citizen attendees at congressional health reform committee meetings stood and requested single-payer representation…..they were arrested.

Whenever this very apparent dynamic is raised in earshot of Villagers, however, Villagers only smirk and say that Obama and Congress are doing the right thing by not caving in to those liberal loons. To the mainstream media "thinkers"….and this has been true forever….the worst thing a Democratic president can do is consider truly liberal ideas, take them seriously. If a Democratic president seriously considers truly liberal ideas….then that president is caving to the lefty loons. For the Village, the very worstest action a Democratic president can take …..is to, god forbid, champion truly liberal ideas.

Out of that dyamic of total nonsense comes the often-repeated, 'the new Democratic president must move away from his "leftist" base'…..'the new Dem president must move towards the center to be effective…yada, yada'….'the president's biggest danger is in caving to his radical left.'

Having said all of that…..just think about how the Villagers would have responded if Democratic congressional leaders spoke in front of a far-leftist group of protesters favoring single-payer. What if Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer encouraged a group of far-left liberals to gather in front of the Capital steps? What if those Democratic leaders each stepped to the microphone and cheered the far-left, single-payer crowd on…telling them to be of good cheer because the far-left liberal cause of single-payer will win the day?

What if single payer protesters held big banners depicting the Republican plan for health care as comparable to Dachau, Germany concentration camps?

What if the Democratic National Committee chairman, Tim Kaine, told all non-single-payer favoring Democratic representatives that if they voted against single-payer, the DNC will "come after them?" What if the DNC chairman went on to tell the single-payer protesters, "we want to partner as much as possible with you?"

What if "far-leftist", Dennis Kucinich, had communist-interest groups bus in 4000 protesters to rally in front of the Capital steps for single-payer….AND Democratic leaders, Pelosi, Hoyer, etc. spoke to the tiny crowd in support of their cause?

Wouldn't the Villagers, mainstream media, be telling us today that the Democratic Party had gone over the far-left edge….that the Democratic Party had now become totally unhinged….that the Democratic Party had now been taken over by dangerous radicals?

Instead of reporting on the extremely radical nature of the players and the crazed message of yesterday's astro-turf-organized, Michelle Bachmann-led, protest in front of the Capital steps…the "liberal" N.Y.Times treated the event with respect and dignity.

Here's the best the Washington Post's Dana Milbank, ever the narcissistic wanker, could come up with….

"But this protest was unusual because it was an official House GOP event, and because some of the remarks on the stage were as outrageous as those in the crowd."

Ya' think…Dana?

In a non-dysfuntional free nation, main national media would, still today, be reporting on the insanity, the crazed hysteria of the current GOP-TeaPartier alliance. In a dysfunctional free nation, like the U.S., such a mindnumbingly, ignorant, and potentially dangerous union of extremists and political leaders is only worthy of microscopic analysis and disdain if that union is made up of Democrats.

MSNBC.com headline: Bachmann shines among grassroots conservatives

ABCnews.com….

"But if you need evidence of where the political energy and excitement has gone, one year since Grant Park, a lunchtime midday rally in Washington isn't a bad place to start.

(Try to imagine the old Obama campaign army pulling off something roughly comparable in as short a time, with as little formal planning — or even with spreadsheets and call lists and marching orders, for that matter.)"

4000 folks bussed in at the expense of Americans For Prosperity is "where the political energy and excitement has gone."

CBSnews.com headline: Anger Fuels Anti-Health Care Rally

Instead of pointing out the demented and potentially dangerous alliance, "outed" yesterday in a noontime wingnut-fest with GOP congressional leaders and the TeaBaggers…..the new offical alliance was either treated as a ho-hum story or an alliance worthy of serious respect and consideration.

The Republican Party is now, officially, the Party of the Wingnut TeaBaggers. Media response…."Yawn."

As it is now, the more extreme portion of the GOP has decided to go after any candidate who smells of moderation or practices the evil art of compromise.

The Palin, FreedomWorks-Dick Armey, crazed conservative media morons, and, of course, the Tea Partiers, themselves, decided that some goddamn nut, Doug Hoffman, should push the more moderate GOP candidate out of a reliable GOP New York district House seat.

Now the seat will be held by a Democrat, Bill Owens. Owens beat Hoffman. It's been over 100 years since that district was held by someone other than a Republican.

That brilliant political strategy is now going to be deployed in California and possibly, Florida. Tea Partiers are going to try to knock the more moderate, Carly Fiorina (Hewlett-Packard), out of contention for next year's challenge to Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer.

In Florida, the same Jim DeMint (R-SC) who is supporting the TeaParty-style candidate, Chuck DeVore, against Fiorina in California….is also supporting a far right candidate for senator in Florida, Marco Rubio…rather than supporting Florida Governor Charlie Crist, a moderate.

To the TeaPartiers out there….how did that purge strategy work for ya' up in New York's 23rd district? Not since the 1870's has a Democrat held the congressional seat of New York's 23rd district…..now a Democrat holds that seat.

Yet, Palin and DeMint and other extremist conservatives are steaming full speed ahead to implement the same TeaParty strategy across the country ahead of next November's midterm elections.

Next year we'll all be TeaPartied to death. Maybe that's the plan.

To what end? With all the manure slinging* about Tuesday's election, the news is that Democrats now have one more seat in the House. In our current health care reform frenzy, Democrats having one more vote in the House is only a good thing, you know, for Democrats.

What I'm saying is that TeaPartiers are wrecking any chances for the GOP to come back to majority-party status. While TeaPartiers are helping Palin and Dick Armey make a bunch of money, which was kinda', you know, the TeaParty plan from the beginning, conservatives are losing their voices of representation.

Republicans need to embrace the Charlie Crists and Carly Fiorinas out there, not reject them. Perceived ideological purity does not often work out pragmatically…..and it's not going to work this time for the TeaPartier brigade. Conservatives must face up to how America actually is, not what they think America should be…….and work out their politics accordingly.

Republicans don't need to move any further to the right…purging out all moderate thinkers……I mean, Jesus.

I don't like Ben Nelson, Blanche Lincoln, Mary Landrieu, Evan Byah (special dislike), and a few others wearing Democratic jerseys….but rejecting them all out of hand does not take into consideration the diversity in the population of our states. For example, Missouri is a more moderate-conservative voting state. Claire McCaskill, Democratic senator from Missouri, votes a bit too conservative for my liking…but she is trying to represent the people in her state.

Republicans, rather than purging along ridgid ideological lines, as the TeaParty-Palin bunch is doing and has promised to continue, should find BETTER candidates….not more wingnutty candidates.

This crash-and-burn of the GOP has been a long time in coming. It's overdue. I think it's fitting that after a very destructive 8 years of Republican governance at the federal level…..Republicans are now, apparently, self-destructing.

* Liz Sidoti from the AP has such a piece of garbage propaganda reprinted in the AB Journal today….it stands out like a sore thumb.

Headline: Elections unsettle moderate Democrats.

Under headline: Results don't bode well for Obama and party.

From the body of the piece of garbage: "Last year, hope and change tilted them toward Democrats. This year, anger and frustration tilted them to Republicans. They broke 2-1 for GOP victors Chris Christie in New Jersey and Bob McDonnell in Virginia."

The AP's Sidoti makes no allowances here for the New York 23rd district win by Democrat, Bill Owens….which gave Democrats more power in the House. Did "anger and frustration" tilt New York's 23rd district voters to pick a Democrat? If not, why not.

But this is extra special…

"Victories in both states have given Republicans a much-needed morale boost. And the wins proved that Republicans can find success if their candidates gravitate toward the middle and are responsive to the voters' mood. That approach allowed the GOP to successfully woo independents."

See, that's the thing Liz….the Palin, DeMint, Armey TeaParty movement have already announced they are working to place radical right candidates up in primaries to purge the GOP of any dreaded moderates.

Morale boost that.

I must say something about the congessional race in New York's 23rd district. There's something twisted about what's happening in that race, expected now to be won by the outside-the-district, conservative party guy, Doug Hoffman. Steve Benen brings up some interesting points about the amount of attention that is being given to the New York contest

California's 10th and New York's 23rd are worth the same thing: a single vote in the U.S. House. Same kind of election, on the same day, with same value. One lacks a cast of wacky characters, but neither is necessarily more important than the other.

Democrat, John Garamendi, is expected to win California's 10th district House race.

I'm typing this at about 5 PM. I would wager that tonight's MSNBC election coverage will be all about the new Palin Tea Party Party comeback. That TeaParty Palin Party is being vicariously channeled through the far-right Hoffman win in a reliably Republican district in New York. Palin is Facebooking her way to fortune and fame….and you betcha' doin' what she can to help elect an extreme conservative, you know, "a real American", to the 23rd New York district.

Because Palin endorsed Hoffman, and Hoffman is going to win….enormous mountains will be made tonight out of very little molehills…..Tweety and his bunch will have Palin outpolling Obama before the night is out.

All that the Hoffman win says to me is that the Tea Partiers have taken over the Republican Party. You know….what-the-hell-ever. I can't see how Republicans gain back voters' confidence by moving further towards the extreme….but, hey, could be wrong.

One gets the sense that a Doug Hoffman victory in New York's 23rd will signal a national shift of great importance, but a Garamendi victory in California's 10th is a small blip on the radar. That doesn't make sense.

Hell no it doesn't…but one race has Palin, Dick Armey and the Freedom Works Tea Partiers….the other one doesn't.

Benen's words…"signal a national shift of great importance"….will surely be proven out by the Village media coverage tonight. The Hoffman win, as interpreted by the Villagers premier KneePadders this evening, will be sold as historic, game-changing, the end of the Democrats, and the best thing that could have ever, ever, ever, ever happened to the Republican Party. Hoffman's win will rank right up there with our divine Father Ronnie's singlehanded dismantling of the Berlin Wall, brick by brick.

I just hope that David The Fluffster Gregory and Chuck Todd will have information tonight from special anonymous sources about how Palin's new takeover of the Republican Party, apparent now in a Hoffman win, will be such a swell takeover, and how Republicans will now grow there party really, really big, and how more and more dissatisfied Americans will most likely embrace Sarah and the TeaPartiers totally incoherent message.

It says something about a free nation when truth can only be told using comedy as a frame. Reminds me of how blacks were first introduced into television. While no major, mainstream, corporate-whore media members examined the 800 pound gorilla question in the room…."Is FOX a news organization?"…..Jon Stewart quickly went to work answering that, apparently, taboo question….

See how it's done? The, self-admitted, "non-news" players on FOX create the "stories" that the "real-news" FOX players, then, report on.

Hey, at least FOX keeps everything in house.

The Villagers simply had no time to examine whether one of their fellow KneePadded members was really only an opinion outlet and not a news organization….you know, like the White House suggested. Oh, no…..the "story" quickly became how stupid and wrongheaded Obama was for attacking FOX. Overnight, Obama became Nixon…because, I suppose, Villagers are "liberal."

Digby reflects…

"The Right Wing Noise Machine of the past 20 years has always laundered its dirt through foreign papers and Drudge, which would then filter into the mainstream press. But in the fast paced internet era they can't waste the time, so they simply launder it through Beck, to the Fox "news" people, then into the mainstream press. It's a much more efficient operation.

I think Obama was smart to pick the fight. It at least raises questions that will force the mainstream press to take a breath before they jump in. It won't stop them entirely, of course, but it might slow them down a little bit. This is probably the best we can hope for."

Yep.

UPDATE: Here's a Republican senator agreeing with Stewart and Digby…

"We don't need The Washington Post to cover things anymore," said staunch conservative Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.). "Something can get on a conservative blog, then on Fox News, then it's everywhere."

UPDATE 2: Just for fun…

UPDATE 3:

Ultra-conservative, Murdoch-owned, Wall Street Journal….Friday on the Obama stimulus…..

Headline: STIMULUS FUELED MUCH of EXPANSION

Think Wall Street Journal writers were drinking kool-aid at their corporate Halloween bash?

Remember back in May of this year when the tender and delicate feelings of some Republicans were bruised when Speaker Nancy Pelosi said this….

Pelosi said that she was explicitly told in her September 2002 briefing that waterboarding was not used. We've since learned that Abu Zubaydah had been waterboarded 83 times by then.

She accused the agency of "misleading the Congress of the United States."

“We were told explicitly that waterboarding was not being used,” she said at the May press conference. “They [the CIA] misled us all the time.”

Ignoring, or forgetting, their own previous derogatory statements about the CIA, some Republican leaders bashed away at Pelosi for daring to speak the truth in public.

Senator Kit Bond (R-MO)….

“Speaker Pelosi should apologize to the CIA for calling them liars to protect her own hide,” Bond told CNSNews.com in a written statement Tuesday. “It’s up to Speaker Pelosi to come clean and set the record straight.”

Ohio's own embarassment, John Boehner (R-OH)…..

House Minority Leader John A. Boehner said that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi "ought to either present the evidence or apologize" in the wake of her comments that CIA officials misled her about the use of controversial interrogation techniques on terrorist suspects.

The Mighty Newton, currently in open opposition to wingnut darling Sarah Palin over an upstate New York congressional race, went further in his criticism of the House Speaker's CIA comments….

"She really disqualified herself to be the speaker," Gingrich said on "Good Morning America" today. "She has a unique responsibility for national security. … She made this allegation that smears everyone who's trying to defend her."
Leaving her in her place would be "very dangerous for the country," Gingrich added.

I know that Gingrich has occasions when he loses total control of his freak. That May outburst of freak over Pelosi's words about a lying CIA, I think, should be placed in Gingrich's top five "losing my freak" moments….you know, right up there with closing down the federal government in 1995.

Weren't those great wingnutty times back in May? Back in May it was steroid-enhanced faux-shock and sanctimony over Nancy Pelosi stating the obvious about the CIA.

There are now preliminary findings in a congressional investigation into the CIA's practice of giving misleading intelligence briefings to congressional members.

Intelligence subcommittee Chairwomen Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) are leading an ongoing investigation into what they described as a practice of incomplete and often misleading intelligence briefings, which arose in the wake of CIA Director Leon Panetta’s June 24 admission that intelligence officials failed to notify Congress about a top-secret program to assassinate al Qaeda leaders.

..[..]..

In June, CIA Director Leon Panetta alerted the House Intelligence Committee about a top-secret program to assassinate top al Qaeda operatives that previously had not been disclosed to Congress. Later reports indicated that former Vice President Dick Cheney had ordered the CIA not to notify Congress of the program.

Panetta’s revelation appeared to bolster Pelosi’s statement from May, and Schakowsky and Eshoo identified “Director Panetta’s June 24 notification” as one of the…. instances linked to a complete communication breakdown between the intelligence community and Congress.

What are the other "instances" where the CIA misled Congress?

…the September 2002 briefing on enhanced interrogation techniques that became the basis for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) claim that the CIA lied to her.

A 2008 CIA Inspector General’s report determined that the agency withheld information from Congress relating to the shooting down of a plane carrying missionaries over Peru in 2001.

…the CIA may have failed to properly notify Congress about the 2005 destruction of videotapes recording the interrogation of al Qaeda operatives by intelligence officials…

So, what do we have here? Nancy Pelosi said that the CIA misleads Congress. Above are four prime examples from preliminary investigation findings that show the CIA….umm….misleading Congress. Pelosi spoke the truth back in May.

What of the over the top and obviously phony reaction of Republicans back in May to the true words of Pelosi? Those silly GOP'ers were just trying to protect The Dick from having his Willy-Wonka Torture Factory fully exposed. Those GOP torture defenders, faced with the existential threat that their former leaders, George and The Dick, could be charged with war crimes, immediately tried to change the subject, blur the story lines, "create reality", by manufacturing a faux-outrage narrative directing the Village attention away from Cheney and Bush, focusing on House Speaker Pelosi instead.

The Villagers, predictably, followed the lead of the "reality creators", the conventional wisdom, GOP narrative-builders,….helping GOP freaks smear a truth-telling Speaker Pelosi. GOP'ers raise freaky hell over some off-the-wall topic….and Knee Pad wearing Villagers instantly drop to their knees to replicate the freakdom, vicariously taking on the faux-outrage visage of the GOP freaks themselves.

And then we learn, also predictably, it was all a staged hoax.

Just as it's obvious that FOX "news" is not a news outlet, so too, the CIA routinely misleads Congress.