Drudge, Fox News just making shit up.
Fox and Friends, committed to covering the issues of the day, had a report Thursday morning on “Talk Like a Pirate Day,” an international holiday held on Sept. 19. The Obama campaign even celebrated the swashbuckling occasion by tweeting a picture of the president posing in the Oval Office with a pirate. “Arrr you in?” the campaign asked in its tweet.
And, cue the conservative headlines. “BUT NO TIME FOR NETANYAHU…” the Drudge Report bannered Wednesday night…
“TOO BUSY FOR ISRAEL / PRESIDENT FINDS TIME FOR PIRATE, LETTERMAN,” Fox and Friends’ screen read Thursday. “This pirate got a sit-down in the Oval Office yesterday,” Fox and Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade said on-air. “So much for the Middle East peace. The White House doesn’t even have time to meet with Israel, but the president got a private sit-down with a pirate yesterday in the Oval Office. Sorry, Bibi,” Steeve Doocy added.
One small problem: the photo was taken in May 2009 for use as a joke during the White House Correspondents’ dinner.
After being caught in a lie, Fox has not issued a retraction or correction. It’s false, they know it’s false, and they don’t care. Try to act surprised.
Stories to Watch: 9/9/11
Dana Milbank found the reception of Republicans to President Obama’s job speech insulting. Hard to take issue with that.
Meanwhile, the White House trying to head off the entirely predictable cherrypicking approach to passage of his jobs bill.
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is a shameless liar — which makes sense, since she’s a ‘bagger.
How badly does the State of Wisconsin want state employees to keep the existence of free voter IDs a secret? So badly that one state employee was fired for emailing that info. Anyone who thinks this isn’t about voter suppression is an idiot.
Rep. Paul Ryan is a jackass.
Newt Gingrich doesn’t seem to understand that his campaign for the GOP nomination died weeks — if not months — ago.
If John Boehner’s scheduling pissiness was meant to keep people from watching Obama’s jobs speech, he failed.
Oh for fuck’s sake… “Astrotweeting?” Can’t we have just one thing that shameless liars, soulless political ops, and lobbyists don’t try to screw up?
Finally, Matt Drudge is a racist jerk. Don’t read Drudge Report. Ever.
Stories to Watch: 8/28/11
Hurricane Irene downgrades to a tropical storm. The American death toll at this moment seems to be ten. Flooding, power outages, downed trees widespread. Just because it’s been downgraded, don’t think you’re out of the woods if you’re in the path. It’s still a very dangerous storm. Stay inside until authorities tell you it’s safe to come out. Lots of live power lines laying around out there. Now here’s [the rest of] the news…
The most brainless headline of the day: “Do We Really Need a National Weather Service?” — from Fox News, of course. The money shot: “It issues severe weather advisories and hijacks local radio and television stations to get the message out. It presumes that citizens do not pay attention to the weather and so it must force important, perhaps lifesaving, information upon them.”
Steve Benen feels the need to clarify, “This is not, by the way, a parody.”
It’s come to this; the right is now criticizing President Obama for competently handling Hurricane Irene. We also learn that Vice President Joe Biden was out golfing when he should’ve been stopping the hurricane. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
Rick Perry is quickly learning how difficult it is to have things both ways.
What would Martin Luther King jr. think of Republican voter ID/disenfranchisement laws? I think we all know the answer to that. But just in case you can’t guess, civil rights hero Rep. John Lewis verifies that he’d be against it — strongly.
American Family Association’s Bryan Fischer was a dumbass again.
Finally, never, ever, ever, ever visit Drudge Report. I never do and I’m able to find news stories just fine. In the latest example of worthlessness, DR puts up a headline decrying Hurricane Irene as a “phony hurricane.” If you want to make yourself stupid, just drink. It’s more fun.
Stories to Watch: 4/25/11
Got new banners at two of my blogs. Pretty nifty, huh? That guy’s Fighting Bob La Follette, a Wisconsin political hero. I’m not sure those versions are final, though — the worn paint effect looks too digital to me. I think I’ll blow up the text layer, add the lettering and the “grunge” mask, then shrink it down again to let the anti-aliasing soften it out a bit. No rush though, these’ll do fine for the time being.
Next project: getting some sort of design on this Tumblr blog. Seriously, it’s like an unpainted wall. Even Drudge Report and craigslist are prettier to look at. That’s going to be a bit more work. Now here’s the news…
Haley Barbour announces that he won’t run for the GOP presidential nomination. Steve Benen points out that this isn’t so much a case of deciding against running, as it is the first instance of an actual candidate dropping out of the race.
Leaked documents show us what’s inside Gitmo. It’s not pretty.
The Supreme Court is in no hurry to look at “Obamacare.” They’ve decided to let it wind its way up through the appeals process normally, despite “a call Monday from Virginia’s attorney general to depart from its usual practice and put review of the health care law on a fast track.”
“Less than half of GOP voters in Georgia, North Carolina, and Mississippi” think the good guys won the Civil War.
Republican presidential campaign procrastination has Karl Rove nervous.
The latest “Donald Trump’s a commie” news: he gave big to Rahm Emanuel’s mayoral campaign.
Finally, high oil prices are really, really, really good for Exxon — and so are all the oil subsidies this “struggling industry” is getting.
Stories to Watch: 4/21/11
Wisconsin voters are split on recalling Gov. Scott Walker. For a guy who won easily, this is bad news. Here’s hoping he hasn’t bottomed out yet. Now here’s the (rest of the) news…
Amazon’s network problems continue, bringing down major internet sites and no doubt improving worker productivity for the day.
President Obama approves the use of predator drones in Libya. Expect plenty of stories about innocent people being killed by drones, because that seems to be what they’re best at. If it were up to me, they’d be listed as “technology that doesn’t quite work yet” and they’d be back on the drawing board, not out in the field.
Another town hall event goes off the rails over GOP plans to replace Medicare.
Obama takes a shot at global warming deniers in congress.
Scandal-plague Republican Sen. John Ensign will retire in 2012.
The Onion gets it right on Mittens Romney and Republican voters.No, really.
Reason no. 7,346,627,403 why I don’t bother with the Drudge Report.
