As a native Hoosier, the Quayle family has a special place in my heart. The same way that red meat has a special place in my colon.

From what I've found, it's tough to determine exactly what ol' Ben Quayle has been doing for a living up till now. There's been some sweet financial industry gigs, and something involving a site called "TheDirty.com," which apparently involved scantily clad women, a porn pseudonym, and more scantily clad women. All that sounds fine, and now that he's to be a super-serious congressman candidate guy, I'll take his gig instead. If that's cool.

It's hard to even know what's going on with that campaign. Is it a birthday present from a generous relative? A vanity piece, like Glamour Shots for the ultra-wealthy? A nationwide fever dream? Whatever it is, it is a Beautiful Thing To Behold, and it should be treasured. You don't get to see a young douchebag flame out often--not this hard, not this fast. Let's enjoy the weirdness till November.

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Newt Gingrich got to continue his Fox News Book Promotion Tour last night on Sean Hannity's show, pitching his new book, To Save America: Why Liberals Want to Eat Your Children, picking up where he left off on Sunday's gig with Chris Wallace.

Let's just say that Gingrich without the restraints of Wallace's, ah, probing questions is kind of like root-canal work without the benefit of anesthetics.

Unlike Wallace, Hannity was openly promoting Gingrich's story line, to wit, that President Obama and the evil liberals are going to destroy America by instituting a "secular socialist" state. Hannity could scarcely contain himself as they contemplated Obama's supposed deep-seated radicalism.

Hannity, you see, believes with Gingrich that "we are in a battle for the heart and soul of America -- in fact, the greatest battle since the Civil War."

Just in case there was anyone out there wondering when right-wingers were going to get around to declaring civil war on liberals.

There were lots of prime bon mots, but perhaps my favorite was this one:

Gingrich: By the early 1990s, I thought, you know, we've proven all the major tenets of modern American conservatism. And it never occurred to me that the hard left would just dig in, bury themselves -- in the academic world, in the news media, in the labor unions -- and now have come back more left-wing, more radical, more determined than ever.

See, this is what we call "projection". Because as we all know, and are still experiencing, the "major tenets of modern conservatism" have just been exposed as a complete sham, a mockery of modern governance, by the eight years of the Bush administration -- eight years in which conservatives destroyed the economy, destroyed America's standing in the world, and horribly impacted the global environment.

And yes, you'd think after that experience, conservatives would stand back in shock at the recognition of what they've done to the economy and mend their ways. Probably no one (except those of us who know them too well) would imagine that they would just bury themselves in the work of denying heatedly that they just brought the nation to its knees and become more determined than ever to seize the reins of power by any means necessary. Including trying to invoke a civil war.

But then, some of us know them better than that.

Howie and I have been on the phones asking musicians to cancel any gig they have in Arizona. Some are contractually stuck, but some aren't, and this revenue will sorely be missed. (We didn't have anything to do with this cancellation) The outrage is slowly building, and in the end, money talks for these xenophobes.

BIG h/t to Cypress Hill for stepping up to the plate.

Rap veterans Cypress Hill have cancelled an upcoming concert in Arizona in protest of a new state immigration law.

Arizona lawmakers recently passed the SB1070 immigration bill, allowing officials to detain anyone they suspect to be an illegal alien.

The new ruling has infuriated a string of stars including Black Eyed Peas frontman will.i.am, and Cypress Hill have pledged their support to immigrants by scrapping their planned gig in Tucson on May 21st.

Explaining the move in a statement, the California-based Latin group says, "This decision was made in an effort to show support and solidarity with those, undocumented and otherwise, being directly affected by this unconstitutional law. Cypress Hill recognizes those living in the struggle for their basic civil rights."

Please support Cypress Hill, dog.

I'm a twittering fool too: JohnAmato

Dear Sam Feist, CNN Political Director Jim Walton, President CNN Worldwide:

I have to ask, where's my CNN gig?

I mean, you've made the decision to hire Erick Erickson of RedState, so clearly, you've understood that bloggers reach out to many politically engaged Americans and tap into a market for an cable outlet that is struggling to compete.

Smart move. Bloggers are outside the Beltway cocktail circuit. We're informed, we can get to the heart of the issue quickly and we're not afraid to be confrontational at times, which makes for good television.

But Erick Erickson? With all due respect, why?

Because I don't know if you've watched the news in the last few years, but there are few less in touch with the pulse of America than Erickson. We have a Democratic president, Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress and overwhelming support for Democratic--nay, for liberal solutions. The country isn't center-right, no matter how many times Rush Limbaugh or Lou Dobbs tells you it is (oh wait, is that a sore spot for you? Sorry.). Americans have pretty much told Washington that we tried the conservative way and we didn't like the results. It's disheartening that so few in the media seemed to have picked up on that message, and it's clear you didn't, since you hired a reactionary conservative like Erickson.

So I come back to where's my gig? I think I'm as likely a choice as Erick Erickson and in many ways, a better business choice. I'm educated, articulate, snarky, and unafraid to defend my political stances, all traits you need and want in a television commentator. Moreover, I'm committed to facts and context and I'm capable of having a discussion with someone with whom I disagree without pulling facts from my posterior region, insulting them or wishing them harm or death, something you'll NEVER see from Erickson (did you even read his blog before hiring him?).

So unlike Erick, I actually can speak for a large majority of Americans--instead of a waning, increasingly irrelevant bunch of fringe players easily manipulated by astroturf organizations seeking to benefit corporations over Americans and I can do it in a civilized manner, something this country has also said they'd like to see more of.

I'd say that I'm cuter than Erick Erickson (television is a visual medium, after all), but I recognize that's a pretty subjective statement. Maybe you feel that conservative, puffy, middle-aged, bloviating, angry, privileged white men are underrepresented on your channel. I come from a website with at least as much traffic and influence as RedState (not to put too fine a point on it, but RedState isn't even on the list), if not more (Erick keeps his traffic stats close to the vest--the easier to puff up your counts that way), and we've managed to achieve that without corporate funding, unlike RedState, so I do bring an audience share with me as well.

But most importantly, I've been on the right correct side of issues far more often than Erickson. Hell, I've been correct more often than ALL of your conservative commentators put together. Go ahead. Line up my posts next to Erickson's and let's see who really reports facts and who just catapults the propaganda.

Wait a second, Messrs. Feist and Walton, let's look at your statement about Erickson's hire:

"Erick's a perfect fit for John King, USA, because not only is he an agenda-setter whose words are closely watched in Washington, but as a person who still lives in small-town America, Erick is in touch with the very people John hopes to reach," said Sam Feist, CNN political director and vice president of Washington-based programming. "With Erick's exceptional knowledge of politics, as well as his role as a conservative opinion leader, he will add an important voice to CNN's ideologically diverse group of political contributors." [CNN's Political Ticker, 3/16/10]

So by your own admission, you WANT to reach crazy, factually-challenged, threatening conservatives in a country that is struggling with some of the nastiest, most bigoted and most violent rhetoric seen in decades. Interesting.

Well, actually, if that's the kind of audience you're seeking, maybe I'm not the right person for the job.

However, if you ever get serious about actually wanting a fact-based and ideologically diverse group of contributors--rather than the lip-service you pay it now, you can always reach me through this site.

Sincerely,

Nicole Belle

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Gosh. Looks like we won't have Lou Dobbs to kick around anymore. Except, of course, for when he lands that fat Fox Business Channel gig.

In the meantime, some congratulations are in order -- and, as Greg Sargent suggests, the left blogosphere in general deserves a great deal of credit in finally forcing one of the nation's leading hatemongers -- and disinformation specialists -- out the door.

That's especially the case with Media Matters, which really led the way. (MM has great retrospective of their own.) And the campaigns that organized to compel his ouster at CNN -- including Basta Dobbs, Drop Dobbs, and America's Voice -- should take a bow as well.

While we wait for the right-wing violins to cue their usual "Mean Liberals Went On a Witch Hunt" number, we should also take special note of what this means: It means that liberal activism to force our media to act responsibly works.

I know that a lot of time it feels like we're just shouting into the wind. It's that feeling of utter helplessness that ordinary citizens always get when they pit themselves against the power of big money and big corporations. Sure, we can document all the media misbehavior we like, but it's becoming so voluminous and steady now that it's hard to keep up, and it's even harder to spark outrage over it.

But eventually, if we keep pounding and pounding and working, it works.

The biggest job of all lies ahead, of course: Confronting Fox News, whose daily deluge of disinformation and fearmongering is so immense now that it makes Dobbs' contributions shrink to insignificance.

But it's true: Yes, we can do this. And we must.