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It's not exactly clear why the folks at Tea Party Express are buying up so much ad space on Fox News these days. They could save themselves a whole lot of money by just waiting for Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity to their inevitable "reports" on the event and do the publicity for free.

Of course, said reportage will emphasize the current Fox narrative -- that these teabaggers are just a bunch of "ordinary Americans" who happen to be easily inspired by hysterical right-wing propaganda. What could be more "grassroots" than that?

Incidentally, this "Tea Party Express" event is being sponsored by the "Our Country Deserves Better" PAC, an offshoot of Move America Forward. It's chaired by Howard Kaloogian, the erstwhile Republican congressional candidate from California.

You may remember the "Our Country Deserves Better" folks. A little while back, they ran a series of ads comparing Obama to Adolf Hitler.

This PAC was organized specifically to oppose Barack Obama while he was still in the Democratic primaries, and its entire website is devoted to opposing all things Obama.

So much for the claims that these "tea parties" are all about "ordinary Americans" who aren't just compulsive Obama-haters prone to comparing his presidency to the Nazis.

Right on cue, Rush Limbaugh attacks Al Franken's victory in Minnesota.

LIMBAUGH: Look at this. From Iran's press television, the state-run media in Iran: Ahmadinejad gains votes in recount, just like in our country! It had -- just like in our country. Norm Coleman wins in Minnesota in a recount, and they keep having recounts, and Al Franken wins. So they had the recount in Iran, and shazzam! Ahmadinejad gained votes!

Hmmm, what to say, what to say. Are we all living in Iran now?

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I don't know what to say. Isn't rioting in the streets the appropriate reaction when your country is taken over through election fraud? What's the alternative, to reward theft? We've already seen what that did here!

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has defended his "completely free" re-election as Iran's president, amid violent clashes on the streets over claims of election fraud.

Mr Ahmadinejad condemned the outside world for "psychological warfare" against Iranians during the election.

Thousands have protested against the result, burning barricades on the streets of Tehran and clashing with police, who responded with tear gas.

Reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi urged his supporters to avoid violence.

Speaking on national television, Mr Ahmadinejad praised the Iranian people for choosing to "look toward the future" rather than returning to the past.

"This is a great victory at a time and condition when the whole material, political and propaganda facilities outside of Iran and sometimes... inside Iran, were total mobilised against our people," he said.

He blamed "foreign media" for instigating a "full-fledged fight against our people".

"Nearly 40 million people took part in a totally free election," he said.

However, the official result, which gave Mr Ahmadinejad a resounding victory - 63% of the vote against 34% for Mr Mousavi - brought the worst violence seen in Tehran for a decade, correspondents said.

The BBC's John Simpson saw secret policemen being attacked and chased away by protesters, which he says is extremely rare.

Some of the protesters in Tehran wore Mr Mousavi's campaign colour of green and chanted "Down with the dictator", news agencies report.

In an apparent attempt at cuteness, the NYT’s Thomas Friedman wrote a column written as if it were an “Iranian National Intelligence Estimate of America” to Ahmadinejad from the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence

It included this bizarre assertion:

True, thanks to Nancy Pelosi, the U.S. Congress decided to increase the miles per gallon required of U.S. car fleets by the year 2020 — which took us by surprise — but we nevertheless “strongly believe” this will not lead to any definitive breaking of America’s oil addiction, since none of the leading presidential candidates has offered an energy policy that would include a tax on oil or carbon that could trigger a truly transformational shift in America away from fossil fuels.

Therefore, it is “very likely” that Iran’s current level of high oil revenues will last for decades and insulate our regime from any decisive pressures from abroad or from our own people.

Except, as Kevin Drum explained, Friedman has it backwards.

All three of the leading Democratic candidates have proposed cap-and-trade plans that auction 100% of their CO2 permits. This is, economically speaking, the same thing as a carbon tax.

If Friedman is aware of this, he should say so. If he’s not, he should get his facts straight.

Just an example of how we're winning hearts and minds...

  The Daily Star (Lebanon):

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice insisted on Friday that Washington is not preparing for war against Iran, but rather is pursuing "a diplomatic course," a policy that she claimed "is supported by all the members of [US President George W. Bush's] Cabinet and by the vice president." But Rice's reassurances do little to offset the bellicose words of the lunatics who are still working in the White House and still peddling the same confused analysis to support the same flawed doctrine of "pre-emptive war" that led to the current mess in Iraq.

Iran, too, has its share of irrationality in governance. On Sunday, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that the clock was ticking toward the destruction of Israel, the same sort of refrain that has allowed the Western media to demonize the Islamic Republic and so to prepare the ground for possible assaults by the Americans and/or the Israelis.  Read full article

Media Matters:

On the February 16 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Michael Savage asserted that ABC News correspondent Diane Sawyer was "aiding and abetting" Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during a February 13 interview in which, Savage claimed, Sawyer had refused to challenge Ahmadinejad's statements denying the existence of the Holocaust. Savage said: "Here Diane Sawyer goes to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and does not once say to him, 'How could you deny the Holocaust? Here are the pictures of the 6 or 7 million Jews that Hitler killed. How dare you do this to the world?' " Savage added: "So Diane Sawyer, in essence, is agreeing that the Holocaust didn't occur."

There's a logic leap worthy of a C-level right-wing pundit. Only problem, Mr. Weiner Savage, is that it's a complete and total lie. Sawyer DID ask about Ahmadinejad's statements and even offered to show him take him and show him records from Auschwitz. But why truth and facts get in the way of a nice little hate on?

While discussing this interview, Savage said Sawyer was "disgusting" and "full of crap" and repeatedly called her a "lying whore," a "prostitute," and a "witch." He added, "I stand by those words, and if you don't like it, sue me. Take me to a court of law for calling you a whore, because you are an intellectual prostitute for what you have done for ratings."

Um, yeah. That glass house looks a little shaky there, Mr. Weiner Savage.

Confined Space: The final post at what has been one of the most consistently informative sites in the blogosphere. Good luck, Jordan, we'll miss you

War and Piece: Iran hysteria begins in earnest, but there're indications that Iranian President Ahmadinejad is already in trouble

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Islamic scholar Gudrun Krämer discusses tolerance and freedom of religion among Muslims, the role of the Crusades and colonialism in today's conflicts

Hot Johnny and All of His Pants: A blow by blow account of Cheney's various acts of boredom during the SOTU address

The BRAD BLOG: Two Ohio election officials convicted of rigging the 2004 presidential recount

House of the Rising sons: A cartoon breakdown for the Bushbots

CNN is the latest to jump on Obama's name. As Eric says: "It makes you wonder if the ad man for GOP Senator Saxby Chambliss — who unseated Max Cleland with ads linking him to the two — is working for CNN now."

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They also put him in a picture with Saddam as well.

CNN did include my Ed Rogers post about his slimy entry into the name game. (without credit of course) Meanwhile, Jeff Greenfield is playing the Fashon game with Obama:

Jeff Greenfield protests that his comparison of Barack Obama's fashion sense to that of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was just a joke.