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Sarah Palin's very proud of her idiotic "cojones" jibe at President Obama last Sunday, and went on Sean Hannity to crow about it some more last night:

HANNITY: Yes, it's amazing to me. I wonder -- and tell me this is separate and apart. I think on national security issues and some other issues like immigration a willingness to really take on a controversial issue, do you think over time the narrative that the president is wimpy is going to take place?

PALIN: I think he's quite complacent and I think he's over -- in over his head and I think he has poor advisors surround him and I think he's really influx kind of when it comes to what his governing philosophy actually is. Some of this though is a result of he not having much experience and then a complicit media, and maybe some voters who chose not to allow him to be vetted very closely.

It's a combination of things that's resulting in a president who's not taking a strong stand on those things that are the will of the people. Obviously the will of the people is to enforce the laws that we have on the books.

HANNITY: Yes, but you know, Governor, I've tried to make this observation as many times as I can. It seems that -- you know, I know we are supposed to have government of, by, and for the people. That's what I -- that's what I always understood.

But this administration -- Democrats in particular -- right now seeing it's government by and of and for Obama. And by that I mean, you know, look at where the American people are on immigration. Look at where they are on health care.

Look at where they are on deficit spending. And then look at the Obama administration's positions. They seem at odds and a willingness to be at odds with the American people so often.

Is it ideology? Is it a lack of sophisticated political knowledge? What do you think it is?

PALIN: It's ideology and it's a commitment to what he had set out to do as a candidate. Barack Obama. And that was to fundamentally transform country.

So wait, which is it? Is Barack Obama a lousy president because he's a wishy-washy leader who doesn't really know which way to go? Or is it because he's a hardcore radical ideologue who refuses to budge or compromise or try to work with Republicans?

These nabobs seize on any straw in a windstorm to bash Obama. It's pretty pathetic, really -- except, of course, that one of them is about 90 percent likely to be a major Republican candidate for the presidency in 2012.

Washington's (and the complicit media) obsession with the Christmas Day underpants bomber and the need to not only find blame, but to demand reactions to "make us safe" made me realize that we collectively have become the five year old who needs his parents to scare away the monsters from under his bed at night. How else can you explain the fear behind the Fox poll showing a majority of respondees wanting to waterboard Abdulmutallab?

It's ludicrous to think that there is any system that could offer us *perfect* security. Forcing us to stay seated for the last hour of a flight? What's to say the next bombing attempt won't be during take-off, or even in a crowded terminal prior to boarding? Richard Reed forced us to remove our shoes; will we now have to strip naked, thanks to Abdulmutallab? And how do we enforce this from foreign airports, since Abdulmutallab boarded a flight in Amsterdam? Or maybe it won't be airline-related at all. Lex at Scholars & Rogues:

What i don’t understand is the idea that Americans are entitled to perfect security. Here we are (and for the record, all the troops stationed everywhere in the world are you and i) crashing around the globe and blowing shit up, yet those of us in God’s country should face no threat. And for the most part, we don’t face any threat. Nobody’s bombed any of the weddings i’ve been to over the last few years. I’ve never thought, “I don’t think i should go downtown, because somebody might suicide bomb where i shop.” I’m convinced that the Canadians will launch their plan for world domination any day, by invading the social and evolutionary cul-de-sac of America where i live. But as of yet i have not had to contend with RCAF close air support in the neighborhood.

Still here we are, gripped by fear and willing to submit to whatever the organs say is necessary to protect us.[..]

I’m not being glib nor am i underplaying all those “very real dangers” that we face in the post-9/11 world. I’m saying that if we don’t want to live with the dangers then we might want to stop provoking them. I’m saying that there is no such thing as perfect safety and security; you are going to die someday and you probably won’t go to heaven. And i’m saying that our government consistently overplays any actual threats (and their probability) in order to control us through fear.

The intent of terrorism is, by definition, to terrorize. If we have reached the point where we can no longer have anything on our laps or use the restroom during the last hour of a flight, then the terrorists have succeeded in doing just what they had hoped.

I still have to--on occasion--chase out the scary monsters from under my little one's bed. I do this by mocking them: I've told her that they can't stand the smell of my perfume, because they know I am a ferociously protective mama and much scarier than any of them could hope to be. So I spray a little bit of my cologne around her room and she feels better, knowing that familiar scent will keep the monsters away. I acknowledge the fear, but minimize its importance. I would much rather not have my government be the parent who focuses on the scary monster so much that it becomes bigger and scarier than anything that could fight it.

Is it so difficult to not be treated like a five year old?

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Bill O'Reilly must really being feeling guilty subconsciously over the death of Dr. Tiller. But he's also looking to blame somebody else for his behavior and that somebody is NBC news. He is one sick person. He has the audacity to use the murder of our military recruiter named Private Long to his own advantage -- as did Malkin -- to try and convince his audience that he did nothing wrong in his vile behavior towards the late Dr. Tiller. The old faux comparison if I ever saw one. Has he no shame?

Last night on The Factor, BillO took up half his show trying to defend himself and used his favorite conservative professor, Brian Russell, to do so, as well as his favorite stooge, Juan Williams.

In his talking points he was upset that NBC was blaming him for Tiller's death so now tried to fake out the audience by saying that since NBC covers torture and the debate over closing Gitmo, they helped drive Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad over the edge to commit this atrocity.

O'Reilly: ..so here's my question. Is NBC complicit in the murder of Private Long? After all, that network has relentlessly branded America a torture nation. A nation run by human rights's violators. Didn't NBC news incite Mr. Muhammad to kill the soldier? The answer is no. The killer is a loon. The media had nothing to do with it. That is the truth. However, Private Long's situation will not be heavily debated on NBC News Because they're not much interested in the truth. Brian Williams is a big problem here. Last night as managing editor of the Nightly News, he allowed a correspondent to highlight me as a villain in the Tiller situation. Williams takes his orders directly from NBC President Jeff Zucker, who is a committed liberal, who has completely ruined the news operation, turning it into the most far left outfit in the history of broadcasting....

Psych out. He didn't mean it. Hey, Bill. NBC, CBS, CNN, ABC, MSNBC and most every other legitimate news organizations never called America "Iraqi baby killers", and never called America mass murderers time and time again over the invasion of two Middle Eastern countries, but that's how you portrayed Dr. Tiller. The media in general did almost no reporting on the run-up to the war that was counter to any of the propaganda the Bush Administration put out. They've been covering the news, Bill, even if they've done it badly.

And by the way ... General Petraeus, your hero, believes that America made many, many mistakes, which includes torture, the breaking of the Geneva Convention, and creating an extralegal prison at Guantanamo Bay in his criticism of America's behavior after 9/11. So is he to blame for Mr. Mohammad's actions too?

Billie Boy continued on his anti-choice rant about Dr. Tiller and then said that the government has the goods that GE is doing business with Iran. And he's going to be looking into to it very, very closely. I feel bad for Pvt. Long's family, their grief must run deep, but now they also have to withstand Bill O'Reilly using his death in a crass, cheaply sensational way for his own self-serving justification for the inexcusable.

Oh noes! If you can't hold on to your basic, "queer"-hatin', low-information, unlicensed plumber not really named Joe that you hold up for WAAAAYYYY past his fifteen minutes as the epitome of the Republican Party, who can you hold on to?

Samuel Wurzelbacher, better known as Joe the Plumber, tells TIME he's so outraged by GOP overspending, he's quitting the party — and he's the bull's-eye of its target audience. But he also said he wouldn't support any cuts in defense, Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid — which, along with debt payments, would put more than two-thirds of the budget off limits. It's no coincidence that many Republicans who voted against the stimulus have claimed credit for stimulus projects in their district — or that Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal stopped ridiculing volcano-monitoring programs after a volcano erupted in Alaska. "We can't be the antigovernment party," Snowe says. "That's not what people want."

All this while the Republicans back-pedal off their "listening tour" to find out how real Republicans want their party to move towards because they can't bear the thought of upsetting Rush Limbaugh. Tellingly, the enabling and complicit Time Magazine completely buries the lede deep within the article--fourteen paragraphs down--that the man who owes his entire fame to the Republican Party is now taking his ball and going home.

Newshoggers: Swiftboating John Kerry was just fine with Rethuglicans and our craven press, but don't ask 'em why getting shot down in an airplane qualifies McCain for the presidency. For that matter, don't mention it to the increasingly complicit Obama, either. Now might be a good time to thank General Clark for his "straight talk".

pandagon: Ignorance may be bliss but it's bad for democracy

The Pump Handle: DoD defies EPA on military site cleanups

Faithful Progressive: But...but... Condi said they weren't involved. Was she lying?

Progressive Blog Digest: All roundup, all the time. Nick Burbules is providing a public service.

HOLY CRAP: Tell congress to investigate cronyism in the Office of Faith-Based Initiatives...Bipartisan creationism in Louisiana...A pastor problem worse than Hagee...Christ Shot Down, missle shield a success...Obama says Dobson is 'making stuff up'...More religious disputes at the Service Academies...22 states are refusing Bush's abstinence-only sex-ed...Craig & Vitter take "New Stance" to affirm marriage...The E. Coli and the Creationist...The FundamentaList... Faith healer boasts of raising the dead, meeting saints, and even being told by God to heal a woman by kicking her in the face!

We love The General. Frank Schaeffer at Huffpo, h/t Mike:

Every Sunday thousands of right wing white preachers (following in my father's footsteps) rail against America's sins from tens of thousands of pulpits. They tell us that America is complicit in the "murder of the unborn," has become "Sodom" by coddling gays, and that our public schools are sinful places full of evolutionists and sex educators hell-bent on corrupting children. They say, as my dad often did, that we are, "under the judgment of God." They call America evil and warn of immanent destruction. By comparison Obama's minister's shouted "controversial" comments were mild.

...Was any conservative political leader associated with Dad running for cover? Far from it. Dad was a frequent guest of the Kemps, had lunch with the Fords, stayed in the White House as their guest, he met with Reagan, [and]...became a hero to the evangelical community and a leading political instigator.

Read more...

Associated Press:

Omar Osama bin Laden bears a striking resemblance to his notorious father — except for the dreadlocks that dangle halfway down his back. Then there's the black leather biker jacket.

The 26-year-old does not renounce his father, al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, but in an interview with The Associated Press, he said there is better way to defend Islam than militancy: Omar wants to be an "ambassador for peace" between Muslims and the West.

"It's about changing the ideas of the Western mind. A lot of people think Arabs — especially the bin Ladens, especially the sons of Osama — are all terrorists. This is not the truth," Omar told the AP last week at a cafe in a Cairo shopping mall. Read on...

(Nicole:) One of the things that has always annoyed me about the current demonization of Muslims by many in the press and GOP as silently complicit with the "Islamofascists" (a word that makes no sense) is that they are not silent. But rarely does the press give air time to someone who believes in peace.

Steve Benen noticed the same article as Will Bunch did, but Will took exception to the NY Times' coverage.   AttyTood:

Earlier tonight, I posted Dan Froomkin's piece on I.F. Stone that said, in part, that today's journalists "are encouraged to write in a way that subjugates not only their personality but their judgment." What would be an example? Check out this story set to run in tomorrow's New York Times, with the hard-hitting headline: "Bush Distorts Qaeda Links, Critics Assert":

[..]But his references to Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, and his assertions that it is the same group that attacked the United States in 2001, have greatly oversimplified the nature of the insurgency in Iraq and its relationship with the Qaeda leadership.

Greatly oversimplified?

The truth is this: What George W. Bush said to the nation yesterday was a lie, and an easily provable one.

Five years, two unwinnable wars, hundreds of thousands of deaths and life altering injuries and the NY Times STILL gives Bush the benefit of the doubt. You can ask NYT Public Editor Clark Hoyt** why by contacting him at public@nytimes.com or (212) 556-7652. Tempting as it might be to direct some rage over the complicit media at Mr. Hoyt, please remember that you have far more credibility and are much more persuasive if you avoid the nasty-gram tactic.

**Changed to reflect current Public Editor

While it's certainly a shame for the family (and frankly, I'd rather not examine stupid choices made by 20 year olds, because truly, how many of us would hold up to the scrutiny?), the thing that will be more interesting to me is how much airtime the complicit media will give to this story that they didn't give to Noelle Bush or Jenna and Barbara's antics.  Not in a Republican "...they did it too" kind of way, but just why Gore's son would be any more newsworthy than a Bush daughter.

Guardian UK:

The good news for Al Gore was that when his son was stopped by the police yesterday morning he was driving an environmentally friendly car, a hybrid Toyota Prius. The bad news was that Al Gore Jr was arrested on suspicion of possessing cannabis and drugs for which he apparently had no prescription.

The Blotter: Rove's investigator is facing allegations of similar behavior

The Carpetbagger Report: OK, let's talk about 'treason'. 

AfterDowningStreet: "I HOPE IT'S YOUR FAMILY MEMBERS THAT DIE" said US Representative Dana Rohrabacher to American citizens who questioned the Bush Administration’s unlawful extraordinary rendition policies

Shadow-Media: FEMA acknowledged it would not have a plan in place for responding to emergencies before the approaching hurricane season.  Oh, and it has emerged that FEMA's Katrina-Related Waste May Have Been Illegal. 

The Democratic Daily: Bleakest housing sales since Bush 1

MoxieGrrrl wrote to remind me about Bill Moyers Journal: "Buying the War" on PBS, tonight at 9:00 p.m. (check local listings - www.pbs.org/moyers). Moyers and his team piece together the reporting that shows how the media were complicit in shaping the "public mind" toward the war, and ask what's happened to the press's role as skeptical "watchdog" over government power.  Until then, soak up The Wisdom of Rush Limbaugh