Today's edition of quick hits:
* Less than two hours after President Obama left Afghanistan airspace, a suicide bomber killed seven people in Kabul. The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack, which killed Afghan civilians.
* Diplomatic drama: "Chen Guangcheng, the blind Chinese dissident who fled house arrest and came under American protection, left the American Embassy in Beijing on Wednesday and immediately ignited a new controversy over the way his case was handled by the United States and China."
* It's a good thing we didn't let Detroit go bankrupt: "Chrysler Group is working through the summer -- forgoing its seasonal maintenance shutdown -- in order to keep up with booming demand, the automaker said on Wednesday."
* Manufacturing activity "picked up steam on several fronts in April, easing concerns that a key engine of the economy was beginning to falter."
* Though Arianna Huffington was outraged by the Obama campaign's recent message on the U.S. strike against Osama bin Laden, I found Frank Rich's take on "what is truly despicable" more persuasive.
* Remember Judge Jerry Smith on the 5th Circuit? Last month he threw an odd, partisan tantrum. This month, he blocked a ruling in Planned Parenthood's favor, just after the decision was issued by a federal district court.
* On a related note, public support for the U.S. Supreme Court has reached a quarter-century low.
* Why did former regional EPA administrator Al Armendariz feel the need to resign? Because Fox News thought an analogy he made two years ago was incredibly important.
* Drudge and Politico really thought they had some kind of scoop about the president's college girlfriend. Not only was it not news, but they screwed up the story in important ways.
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
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If Obama had failed in his attempt to get OBL, it would be the campaign slogan for Mitts and any other tealiban running for President for the next 30 years. Just as Carter.
As for Arianna, I read that piece and also read the comments. She was blasted by her readers for making that statement. We had to listen to 9/11, WMDs and terrorists from the tealiban for almost 8 years and in some cases, if Rudy is around, still do.
OMG, the daily updates on the color of the terror threat alert?? Red! Yellow! Orange! Never green or blue; we were conditioned to be in a heightened state of fear from terrorist threat for years! We were abused by the bush administration from day one!
Yeah, pretty much Arianna can kiss my a$$. By the way, did she ever apologize for being a right wing f@g-hag in the 80's and 90's? (I can say that, I'm gay!) I think the President should apologize immediately after she does!
Speaking of Obama and college? I found this disgusting, vomit-inducing post from some link on someone's facebook page that led to a link on another page... that led me to the pits of Hell.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/spread-the-wealth-blogger-offers-10000-bounty-for-obamas-college-transcripts/
I was dumbfounded (but trying not to be, reminding myself that a lot of people think this way, I can't change everyone's mind) as I was reading this. I was thinking "well maybe it's because Bush did loads of drugs and got arrested on multiple times!" I was trying to make sense out of a non-sensical blog post.
Then, I got to the comments. First, I was seething at reading how he NEVER EVEN got accepted to Harvard, and his entire Harvard, college, and law careers were fabricated. THEN it gets worse. Not only did he not enroll at Harvard, if he did enroll at ALL it was as a foreign exchange student and that's (SOMEHOW?) the way that he had his way paid for.. and we should all be DEMANDING a birth certification along with the transcripts (REALLY?!?!?!!! STILL!!?)
After reading about how OBVIOUSLY even the transcripts wouldn't tell us anything because "Harvard grades on a curve for “protected classes” of citizens." *commence vomitting* Apparently, Obama is now not only a foreigner and a dictator (HOW? HE WAS ELECTED? WE ELECTED HIM???) but Bill Ayers paid his way through school back when he was "Barry" someone or another. Because THAT MAKES SENSE. Because someone would want to pretend to be someone with a "Muslim sounding" name. It's much better to run as Barack Obama rather than Barry Jones or whomever.
I think that the Republicans are trying to get Obama to show his "GRADE TRANSCRIPTS" because he's laid everything else out on the line. Romney? He can't even show us his taxes. I'm fairly sure it can be proven that he has bank accounts in the Caymen islands, Barry Schmoe taking over as illegal president of the US with a fake Harvard Law degree? Yeah... ok...
Hopefully someone on MSNBC calls this bored blogger with cash to spare out on his ridicilousness. Seriously. Better yet.. keep calling the Republicans out on it. They can hate the "liberals" all that they want. At least we still have our sanity... unless Mitt Romney is really Romi Neytt of Bulgaria, NO, France?! and we've all been fooled...
*runs to make a blog post!!!*
Well, all he can do is release the records. C'mon, 20-30 years after the fact what is more relevant, your recent accomplishments (and tax records) or grades when you were still young and impressionable?
Obama's response that he assumed Romney meant what he said was amusing, as well as a devastating parry. Meanwhile, Ms. Huffington is essentially helping Romney to shake the Etch-A-Sketch.
Her site continues to grow in exposure and influence, yet here she is saying we should not hold Romney to his stated views. What better example of how corrupt the media has become, when titans of the industry assume that a candidate's words are mere posturing and that it is "despicable" to think they are more. Despicable, indeed.
Pretty typical that the more mainstream a media outlet becomes, the less likely it is to participate in good investigative journalism and the more likely it is to ignore (or finesse away) the kinds of stories we really need to hear about.
Here's a riddle:
Who will go to Hell first..? The polytheist-polygamist-heretic-false prophet who doesn't even believe in Hell..? or the homosexual...?
ANSWER: Neither....it will be the hypocrite...!!!!
Assuming, of course, one believes in hell...
"Look to the right and what do you see.." A bunch of tea partiers and Rush going crazy.
It is not that Obama actually went after Osama but that he did so without bombing Pakistan and Iran and Syria and Yemen and...(you get the picture).
Idea-Broadcast roller derby and wrestling 24 hours a day so the wing nuts can stay home with their beer and their fear, while the rest of us try to work things out peacefully.
What is really "despicable" is the 24/7/365 slandering of the President of The United States orchestrated by the Republicans and their corporate owners. (Think "Koch") What is equally despicable is the dutiful repetition and dissemination of this slander by the lap-dog media, a group Ms. Huffington has obviously joined.
We already have an Orly Taitz!
Hey Peanut
Did you see that Orly Taitz is on the California Primary Ballot as a nominee for U.S. Senate? No really! Check your Official Voter Information Guide p.21.
omg noooooooooooo!
How many whack-jobs do we have to be responsible for???