Calitics: The connection between austerity and privilege

Politibits: Artur Davis and the perfect political science experiment

Mad Kane’s Political Madness: Kirk's "factual" quirks

Stephen M. Walt: How to defend the indefensible (and get away with it)

Max Blumenthal: IDF admits it doctored flotilla audio clip, WaPo's Kessler must retract

Dispatches from the Culture Wars: Dumbass quote of the day

More sad news about the flotilla attack today, via ABC News. Confirmation that a US citizen is among the dead:

A U.S. citizen who lived in Turkey is among the nine people killed when Israeli commandos stormed a Turkish aid ship heading for the Gaza Strip, officials said today. The victim was identified as Furkan Dogan, 19, a Turkish-American. A forensic report said he was shot at close range, with four bullets in his head and one in his chest, according to the Anatolian news agency.

May he rest in peace. I am so sad for his family and our countries. This just didn't have to happen this way.

In other news, Max Blumenthal reports that the IDF is walking back their initial claim of an Al Qaeda connection:

Today, the Israeli Army’s press office changed the headline of its press release (see below), basically retracting its claim about the flotilla’s Al Qaeda links. The new headline reads: “Attackers of the IDF Soldiers Found Without Identification Papers” (the top of the browser screen still contains the original headline about Al Qaeda). The more Israel’s claims about the flotilla’s terrorist links are challenged, the more they fall apart.

Voice of America has video of the expelled Turkish activists returning:

From their report:

Nine activists died during the operation. Their bodies also arrived in Turkey and autopsies of the dead said all died of gunshot wounds.

Israel says its troops only used their pistols after they were attacked, and released a video showing soldiers in riot gear descending from a helicopter into a crowd of men with sticks and clubs. Three or four activists overpowered each soldier as he landed, beating each one to the deck.

One of the main organizers of the relief effort was the Turkish charity the Foundation for Humanitarian Relief, which has Islamic roots. Israel accuses the charity of having links to terrorism, a charge it denies.

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Max Blumenthal just posted his video from his weekend at CPAC. Max used to be able to go to these things and post some great guerrilla videos, but nowadays they all know what he looks like and he attracts a crowd of camera-carrying wingers.

He also manages anyway to elicit some prime goofiness when Hannah Giles, the woman who posed as a prostitute in James O'Keefe's ACORN videos, defends O'Keefe when Blumenthal asks why O'Keefe and Breitbart falsely pretended that he had worn an outlandish "pimp" outfit into those ACORN sessions (he hadn't). Blumenthal wonders why O'Keefe was putting on this "minstrel show", and Giles responded:

Giles: But James is a man. He couldn't have a menstrual cycle.

Then a right-wing kook tried to argue that the Black Congressional Caucus was an innately racist organization since it excludes whites. Nevermind that the difference between minority civil-rights organizations and white supremacists is that one is about defending people's civil rights, the other is about taking them away. Minority caucuses, unlike white-supremacist organization, are not about demonizing and belittling and disenfranchising other people. Equating minority caucuses with hate groups is the height of wingnuttery.

But the best was reserved for Breitbart, who wouldn't even deign to engage Blumenthal in a reasoned debate over the facts of the matter involving Max's on-point reportage about O'Keefe's dalliance with white supremacist Jared Taylor.

All Breitbart could manage was rage and spittle:

Breitbart: You're ridiculous. You are a joke. You are a despicable human being -- the lowest life form that I have ever seen. Your entire job is trying to destroy people with Alinsky tactics.

Explain to me what your political philosophy that you have, other than this nihilist --

Blumenthal: Did you want me to finish what I was gonna say, which is that --?

Breitbart: Not particularly, you've already said it.

Blumenthal: Well, then, do you have anything -- do you have any more insults?

Breitbart: You try to destroy people. I don't care -- yes, absolutely. I could go on for a year. You're disgusting.

I cannot believe that you're fighting your father's battles. I can't believe what you did to Christopher Hitchens, you are -- you have been programmed by some ungodly creature to be this character of hatred.

Blumenthal: So the --

Breitbart: Accusing a person of racism is the worst thing that you can do to someone.

Blumenthal: So you're defending Jared Taylor?

Breitbart: I'm not at all! Of course I'm not!

Blumenthal: Sounds like you're defending Jared Taylor.

Breitbart: No it isn't! No, you --

Blumenthal: John Derbyshire?

Breitbart: What do you mean? -- What are you talking about?

Blumenthal: I don't know. I mean, this is an event with two people who believe that whites are genetically superior. And Marcus Epstein planned it --

Breitbart: Kevin Martin was there debating at the Georgetown Law Center! You think -- this smearing tactic --

Blumenthal: Kevin Martin ended the event with his arm around Jared Taylor. He's from a total -- a front, a front group, he's from a front group that defends white nationalists.

Breitbart: Make your case. Make your case.

Blumenthal: I made my case.

Breitbart: This isn't a case, that's guilt by association, you punk.

Blumenthal: Why are you so angry?

Breitbart: Because you're a punk you destroy people.

Blumenthal: Your face is trembling.

Breitbart: Because you try to destroy people's lives through innuendo!

Blumenthal: I'm not calling any names.

Breitbart: Innuendo! We're done with you! Innuendo! Innuendo! In order to destroy people's lives! You're the most despicable life form I've ever seen!

[Applause]

Yeah, that's right: Andrew Breitbart has the chutzpah to accuse someone else of indulging in "innuendo" in order to "destroy people."

And what Blumenthal reported wasn't "guilt by association", which by definition involves irrelevant associations; whereas these associations are entirely relevant, since they speak directly to O'Keefe's motives and his ideology. Guys like Breitbart love to shout "guilt by association!" whenever they're called out for playing footsie with white supremacists, but they have no idea what it really means.

All in all, it's quite the hilarious spectacle. Somehow, Jonah Goldberg's description of Breitbart as a "crack addict on ten espressos" sounds about right, if understated.

Max Blumenthal: Palin's Literary Klavern

Newsbroke: Has Sarah Palin become the 'community organizer' she once disdained?

The Washington Note: Not Supposed to Happen in Obama Land: Intrigue behind Gregory Craig's resignation

43-Ideas-Per-Minute: Their intellectual honesty has bowed out again

Submitted to a Candid World: National Review: Where the Supreme Court is an afterthought

Economist's View: The Fed "refused to use its considerable leverage"

Our friend Max Blumenthal recently participated in the Independent Film Channel's Media Project (you might have noticed the ads on the site). Max's segment on "Fear" -- a look at the Tea Party movement and its discontents -- airs tonight at 8 p.m. EDT.

The video above looks great. The Denver Post's reviewer liked it:

As a mainstream media type myself, I'm always suspicious of projects that purport to "take on" the mainstream media (or MSM).

But "The IFC Media Project" succeeds to the extent that it lets idealistic journalists express themselves in a conversational and sometimes dramatic way, being informative and media-like while bashing The Media.

The series returns for a four-part documentary, "Fear, War, Greed and Disaster," in half-hour episodes airing at 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday next week on IFC, Comcast Channel 503.

Four award-winning journalists — some more on the fringe than others — tackle projects that "aim to uncover what the mainstream media often misses," according to the series creator Meghan O'Hara (who worked under Michael Moore on "Bowling for Columbine" and "Fahrenheit 9/11" ). O'Hara learned from collaborations with Moore that a fast pace, music, candid and down-to-earth interviews, judicious use of animation, a cynical take on capitalist impulses and bobbing hand-held cameras help tell the "alternative" story in a captivating way.

In this case, author and journalist Max Blumenthal's episode, "Fear," examines the Tea Party movement and the use of fear tactics by the right-wing as orchestrated by the Republican Party. He charts the shift from inflammatory to violent language, says Fox News is "reveling in what they created," and interviews rally-going wackos who think President Barack Obama is the foreign- born anti-Christ. He's smart, doing more than making fun of easy targets.

Be sure to check it out.

Max Blumenthal thought he'd ask David Horowitz a couple of questions during an appearance for Horowitz's own "Islamofascist Awareness Week".

Unbelievable. I'd say Horowitz is bat-sh*t crazy, but that's really insulting to bat excrement.

Max Blumenthal looks at the "reliable" sources that the Weekly Standard used to try to besmirch Scott Beauchamp: Matt Sanchez and Throbert McGee.

And yet they still get a national platform.

Max Blumenthal

Cunningham is no ordinary Hollywood journeyman. He is in fact the son of Loren Cunningham, founder of the right-wing evangelical group Youth With A Mission (YWAM). The young Cunningham helped found an auxiliary of his father's group called The Film Institute (TFI), which, according to its mission statement, is "dedicated to a Godly transformation and revolution TO and THROUGH the Film and Televisionindustry." As part of TFI's long-term strategy, Cunningham helped place interns from Youth With A Mission's in film industry jobs "so that they can begin to impact and transform Hollywood from the inside out," according to a YWAM report.

read on

Max Blumenthal
"I have just returned from the largest, most energized demonstration I have ever witnessed in my life. Over 500,000 people filled the streets of downtown Los Angeles to march against HR 4437, a bill authored by Republican Rep. James Sensenbrenner (heir to the Kotex fortune) which would turn 11 million undocumented immigrants into felons, punish anyone guilty of providing them assistance, and construct an iron wall between the US and Mexico....read on"

Digby has more

Ann Coulter at CPAC on "Ragheads" and Assassinating Bill Clinton (and Dr. Bill Frist's Diagnosis)

And they call us grubby-angry leftist bloggers.

Max Blumenthal infiltrated CPAC and here's what she said to an adoring audience. Frist of course instead of denouncing her- tosses the "no comment" line:

"I think our motto should be post-9-11, 'raghead talks tough, raghead faces consequences.'" (This declaration prompted a boisterous ovation.)

"Coulter on killing Bill Clinton: (Responding to a question from a Catholic University student about her biggest moral or ethical dilemna) "There was one time I had a shot at Clinton. I thought 'Ann, that's not going to help your career.'"

"Coulter on moderate Republicans: "There is more dissent on a slave plantation then amongst moderates in the Republican party."

After Coulter's speech, I approached Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist in the CPAC exhibitor's hall. I asked him what he thought of Coulter's characterization 15 minutes earlier of Muslims as "ragheads." HIs reply? "I wasn't there so I better not comment."