Judy Miller the Diva

Judy was on Larry King Thursday night, and gave a virtuoso performance in denial. With a sophomoric grin and a delusional account of what happened to her at the NY Times, Judy was a talking point of the battered soul. The victim in all of this.

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She was stunned and saddened over her perceived attacks by Maureen Dowd and Arianna Huffington against her great character. After all, it was only a few stories that were slightly off in her mind after twenty-eight years of reporting. The WMD reports were a mere blip on the screen based on slightly faulty intelligence. It could happen to anyone right-Judy? Miller was particularly annoyed at that pesky word " entanglement," Bill Keller used.

Let's clear that up, after all what's more important- a war that you helped promote, helping your pal Scooter Libby who's involved in outing a CIA agent or a single expression? She refused to answer any questions about Scooter's upcoming case even though she is legally allowed to. So how are the Aspens this time of year?

Arianna Huffington -- who represents the "professional left" about as well as anyone -- says the president is "not all that into" the middle class. I don't think she's being very original or very funny. Worse, I put that sort of rhetoric in the firebagger category, as it isn't useful. There is nothing anyone can do about the president until 2012 at the earliest -- and as I have said consistently throughout the body of my work, Congress is where most of the blame lies for any progressive disappointment.

Sorry if you're turned off by the music in the video; it's loud and angry because I want the righteous anger of the just focused where it belongs, which is not on the man least responsible for legislative reform. Much more after the jump...

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John Amato and I frequently Monday morning quarterback the news shows and the pundits invited on to represent the "left" side of the conversation. Most of the time, I'll admit, we're puzzled by how that particular person is considered on the left (Joke Line, I'm looking at you). John has done some media training and I'm just dipping my toes into the media appearances (you can hear my segment discussing the Sunday shows on The Nicole Sandler Show live every Monday at www.radioornot.com or check out the podcasts) because we both feel so passionately that we need strong, unapologetic liberal voices out there to pierce through the right wing noise.

So I'm thrilled that we're seeing high visibility liberals like Arianna Huffington and Markos Moulitsas on This Week on a semi-regular basis. For years, it wouldn't have happened.

But after watching this clip, the substance of which Heather discussed on Sunday, I want to speak to a fatal flaw in appearances like Arianna's and Markos's.

As I expected, both of them did their homework and were armed with facts to support their side. That's what we do: we present facts and hope that the other side will observe the rules of debate. But look who they were debating. Do you honestly think that Liz Cheney is going to argue fairly? Of course not. She lies right in the faces of Markos and Arianna (and more importantly, the viewer who may not have those facts in hand) when she says it's absolutely not true that Halliburton was fined millions of dollars for defrauding the federal government. Note how Arianna laughingly says she can't wait for Politifact (a supposedly non-partisan fact-check organization through the St Petersburg Times) for their verdict on her factual accuracy. As of this writing, more than 36 hours from the broadcast, and Politifact has remained suspiciously silent on Liz Cheney, but only too happy to go after Markos for a slip of the tongue that he immediately acknowledged afterward.

So clearly, having the grasp of the facts and/or counting on the anchor/fact check organization to expect truthfulness from their guests doesn't work. Nor does expecting Liz Cheney and George Will to be fair, and not dismissive, as they trot out the strawman that liberals even blame the demise of the Gore marriage on Bush, something Liz Cheney thinks she read on Daily Kos. All snide insinuations to dismiss, belittle and render non-credible everything else they say.

Well, liberals, let me tell you right now: It's time to put away those Marquess of Queensbury rules. Stop smiling as they lie to your face. But don't get caught in some distraction (the last vestige of a Republican scoundrel: focus on some picayune aspect and steer the conversation away from anything of substance for which they have no defense). Keep hold of your head, your calm and your facts and cut them off at the knees, rhetorically speaking.

There's no reason, for example, why Liz "Spawn of Satan" Cheney should have any credibility to appear on these shows. She is a veteran of an administration widely considered the worst in modern history and of the department that pushed a foreign policy that has failed us, at the cost of thousands of American deaths, tens of thousands of devastating injuries and one trillion dollars of American taxpayer money. Her latest gig is at the head of a think tank formed with another neo-conservative (Bill "I'm always wrong" Kristol) to push a failed foreign policy that has been soundly rejected by the American people and to throw as much crap at our current president to see what sticks. That's it: she is on TV to push for more destruction. Why the hell aren't we impeaching her credibility by pointing out this FACTUAL information?

C'mon, Markos and Arianna, she's done nothing to earn your (or the audience's) respect. She feels no compunction about belittling you on air. Stop being polite. Be honest. And make that torture-apologist, war-mongering shrew and her partisan-motivated propaganda talking points radioactive on these shows.

h/t the ever fabulous BlueGal for the graphic

Why oh why oh why? Can anyone give one good reason why Liz Cheney's pundit career should even exist in the realm of reality? How on earth can anyone who says that waterboarding isn't torture and that Obama can't simply say something to make it so (especially coming from the one administration--and family--that made that practice an art form) and whose latest gig is simply to keep pushing the Bush Doctrine, a policy that the country overwhelmingly voted against. I'm sorry, but the woman's credibility is less than zero. Shame on ABC for booking her yet again to pollute their round table. Will fellow participants Markos Moulitsas and Arianna Huffington have the huevos to call her out on her lies? Stay tuned...

Elsewhere around the dial, Coast Guard Commander Thad Allen is making some serious rounds to discuss the Gulf oil spill. He'll be on ABC’s “This Week,” CBS’s “Face the Nation,” CNN’s “State of the Union” and “Fox News Sunday.” Also worth noting is the head-to-head of Arkansas runoff candidates Blanche "DINO" Lincoln and Bill Halter on CNN's "State of the Union". And if you're a real glutton for spin, the Israeli ambassador to the US will be on "Fox News Sunday", no doubt to try to justify the shootings of the humanitarian flotilla. Luckily, we're spared our normal Sunday David Gregory hackery. "Meet the Press" is pre-empted for the French Open.

ABC's "This Week" - Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the government's point man for the Gulf oil disaster; Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and John Cornyn, R-Texas.

CBS' "Face the Nation" - Allen; Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla.

NBC's "The Chris Matthews Show" - Panel: Howard Fineman, Michele Norris, Andrea Mitchell, Bill Plante. Topics: A Look Back At The Moments in TV and Politics Which Changed American History; The Good, The Bad and The Unforgettable

CNN's "State of the Union" - Allen; Gov. Charlie Crist, I-Fla., Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, D-Ark.; Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark.

CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" - Israel; the man who came in second in the recent Afghan elections tells Fareed what he really thinks about the man who beat him - Hamid Karzai...and offers his advice on what the US should be doing to fix his embattled nation.

"Fox News Sunday" - Allen; Gov. Haley Barbour, R-Miss.; Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren.

So what's catching your eye this morning?

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It's been amusing watching Glenn Beck twist and squirm and try to explain what he meant last October when he proclaimed that President Obama was flying the American airplane right into the trees, "taking you to a place to be slaughtered."

After Arianna Huffington raised the matter with Fox Chief Roger Ailes this weekend -- and then explored it in some detail with Keith Olbermann -- Beck has been scurrying about coming up with a variety of shifting rationales for what he was saying.

First, he said, "I don't know if I've ever used the word 'slaughtered'." Then, upon discovering that he had indeed used it, still tried to claim he "had never used it on the air," but was only referring to SEIU's Andy Stern. Finally, he settled on the claim that he wasn't speaking "literally" about "slaughter," he was talking about, um, the economy! Yeah, that's the ticket!

That was the rationale he followed yesterday on his Fox News show, smirking and acting as though his rationale would reveal his critics for the fools they were. Of course, what you can really see is what a fool anyone who believes Glenn Beck is.

Here is what he actually said in October:

Beck: I told you yesterday, buckle up your seatbelt, America. Find the exit -- there's one here, here, and here. Find the exit closest to you and prepare for a crash landing. Because this plane is coming down, because the pilot is intentionally steering it into the trees!

Most likely, it'll happen sometime after Christmas. You're gonna see this economy come up -- we're already seeing it, and now it's gonna start coming back down again. And when you see the effects of what they're doing to the economy, remember these words: We will survive. No -- we'll do better than survive, we will thrive. As long as these people are not in control. They are taking you to a place to be slaughtered!

As Arianna noted in her response:

No, Beck contended again and again and again, the whole time he was just talking about "the economy." Barack Obama is going to slaughter the economy. Even though he clearly said "taking you" not "taking the economy."

So, to review the ever-changing explanations: Beck never used the word "slaughter" -- until it was proven that he did. Then he only used it in reference to Mao, Stalin, or Hitler -- until it was proven that this wasn't the case. Then, when he used it, he wasn't referring to the Obama administration, he was referring to Andy Stern. Then he was referring to Obama -- but didn't mean it literally.

Got it? You might need to use Beck's trademark chalkboard to keep track.

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Every time we run a Glenn Beck post, someone trolls into the comments and asks, "Why bother with this guy? We should just ignore him! Post more videos on [insert name of preferred progressive figure here]!"

We'd like to refer them to this week's special report from the ADL on the rise of populist anti-government rage, the one that officially dubbed Beck our national "Fearmonger in Chief".

Keith Olbermann invited Arianna Huffington onto Countdown to discuss the report last night:

OLBERMANN: It would be nice to think of Glenn Beck just as a joke, as fodder for this show and the “Daily Show” and others that point out how stupid some of this stuff is. But this report, you know, suggests something else, this is—fearmonger-in-chief term is frightening.

HUFFINGTON: It is frightening. Well, I would say the fearmonger-in-chief title should still be reserved for Dick Cheney, even in retirement. But barring that, there is something that we need to really pay attention to with Glenn Beck. We cannot just dismiss him. Because the truth of the matter is that there is a good reason why we have an exemption to the free speech protection by the first amendment when we say you cannot shout fire in a crowded theater.

And he's doing that every night. He's basically using images of violence to bring together with all that he's accusing the Obama administration of, which varies from racism to communism, Nazism and everything else in between. So, all that has definitely an impact. I believe words matter, language matters and he's using it in incredibly irresponsible ways night after night.

OLBERMANN: What do you say to the argument that this country has always self corrected, that whether Father Coughlin on the radio in the ‘30s or Bo Carter (ph) who was a newscaster who presented literally stuff that was made up on the hour in CBS News in the ‘30s or the columnist Westbook Pegler or Senator Joe McCarthy? All these people a finale in which they exited the stage and suddenly. What is to say that that‘s not going to happen here?

HUFFINGTON: Well, I hope it's going to happen, but it's not going to happen without people pointing out what Glenn Beck is doing.

Indeed, since the report was issued, Beck seems to have turned up the Wingnuttery Dial all the way 11.

We put together a compendium of Beck's finest fearmongering of just the past year on Fox, inspired largely by the instances cited by the ADL -- with a few of our own favorite moments thrown in for good measure.

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As Arianna says, confronting the Becks is vital to keeping our discourse healthy -- because he is polluting it daily with the toxic garbage of disinformation, paranoia, and scapegoating.

We discussed this recently in the matter of Lou Dobbs:

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The Wrap:

Frank Luntz, the arch-conservative pollster known as the research hammer by which the Gingrich revolution came down hard on President Bill Clinton, wants to take over research for the entertainment industry. And you thought Arianna Huffington did a quick-switch job? “I want to replace Joe Farrell,” said Luntz, wandering the halls of the Milken Institute conference on Monday in Beverly Hills, where he was a featured speaker. Luntz clearly has a lot to learn in Hollywood -- including the fact that Farrell of National Research Group retired a number of years ago. But the pollster and Fox News analyst is serious about making his play. He's bought a home in Santa Monica and is already doing survey work for Universal’s marketing chief Adam Fogelson and speaking to producers about other projects.

Why would he give up pollstering in American politics -- where he has been so successful -- for the movies? Luntz, who sold his company, Luntz Research, to Omnicon in 2005, said he’s had enough of politics. “I’m tired of selling reality,” he said. “Reality sucks. It’s mean. Divisive. Negative. What Hollywood offers is a chance to create a new reality, in two hours time.”

Reality? Ha! Luntz wouldn't know reality if it hit him with a two-by-four. All Luntz has done in his pathetic sell-out, dumbed-down career is create a new reality for the sheep who watch Fox News to buy into.

Hollywood is a PERFECT location for Luntz. All fake, all surface and no substance behind the glitter.

It was only a few years ago that Arnold Schwarzenegger recalled a sitting governor, promising the end of massive budget deficits. Guess what we have in California this year? Oh, just a measly $20 billion deficit.

Our schools are closing and social services have already been slashed to the bone. And it is just the start of budget season in California. Unfortunately, because Democrats do not hold a two-thirds majority in the state legislature, a small minority of Republicans are able to hold Californians hostage, refusing to raise taxes, no matter how ridiculous the loopholes.

Even, get this... a sales tax loophole for purchasers of yachts and private jets. The Republicans have very much earned the moniker bestowed on them by the Calitics crew: The Yacht Party.

The Courage Campaign has teamed up with the California Nurses Association to create "Yacht Party 2", the second in a series of TV ads designed to re-brand the California Republican Party. This spot is not your traditional political ad. In fact, it's quite non-traditional. And it's got a lot of people talking. In fact, the response to Arianna Huffington's message announcing the ad to Courage Campaign members was so strong, we have already authorized an ad buy in Sacramento. See what you think....

To increase the pressure on Republicans in Sacramento to close this yacht tax loophole, we need to make this "Yacht Party" brand stick. If you like the ad, please contribute to help us expand our buy across California.

Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington appeared on The Colbert Report to promote her latest book, The Right is Wrong and speak to the particular metamorphosis of John McCain’s candidacy.

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Colbert: So (McCain) changed his opinions from 2000 to 2008. People do that.

Huffington: He has not changed his opinions. He has replaced his mind with George Bush’s mind. I wouldn’t be surprised if right now, he’s somewhere at the Texas ranch, clearing brush, like George Bush.

Colbert: Perhaps he knows that that’s what he has to do to get elected. He was ”The Maverick” in 2000; that did not get him elected. But if he toes the party line in 2008, maybe that…he’s just doing what he needs to do to get elected. What’s so wrong with that?

Huffington: You mean selling his soul in order to get elected?

Huffington: He was a real reformer. And now, he’s basically completely surrendered on everything. He wants us all to stay in Iraq of course indefinitely. And here’s the one little problem: that he has this kind of passion for Iraq. [..] Because he has this passion for Iraq, that’s his Viagra.

Colbert: He has…I guess the warning on that should be, if your erection last more than a hundred years, pull out.