NYTimes:

LOS ANGELES, May 11 - Before Hillary Rodham Clinton's former chief fund-raiser went on trial here for underreporting donations to her Senate campaign, political speculation has revolved around what if anything Mrs. Clinton knew about his alleged transgressions, as well as what if anything the trial would do to her presidential aspirations (assuming she has them)

A federal prosecutor tried to answer at least one of those questions in his opening statement on Wednesday in Federal District Court, when he told the jury, "You will hear no evidence that Hillary Clinton was involved in any way, shape or form." ....read on

Let's see how our 24/7 does with this news. They are looking to hang this case around her neck, so don't be surprised to hear the talking heads make all sorts of allegations contrary to this report.

" Mr. Fitton said he did not find the prosecutor's statement about Mrs. Clinton's lack of involvement very credible. Furthermore, he added, "The idea that David Rosen pulled a fast one on the campaign is baloney."

Thomas J. Fitton, is the president of Judicial Watch and will be all over this trial and the 24/7 toones as well.

Uptdate: Daily Howler has more: On Hardball, they strung her up anyway

God Bless This Mess

Ezra Klein talks about a new ABC pilot that has Drudge (and the Drudgekateers) up in arms. Commander-in-Chief, starring Democrat activist Geena Davis as the President of the United States, for the fall schedule.

Jesse Taylor talks about it here: You do, however, have to love the unironic link to the Newsmax summary of the Joe Klein article in which Klein points out that it might be a bad idea for Hillary to run because publications like Newsmax will go batshit crazy.

From the forward:

"Gold Star Mothers is an organization made up of women who sons were killed in military combat during service in the United States armed forces. Recently a delegation of New York Gold Star Mothers made a trip to Washington, DC to discuss various concerns with their elected representatives. According to NewsMax.com there was only one politician in DC who refused to meet with these ladies. . .

. . . You got it! None other than the Queen herself, The Hildebeast, Hillary Clinton. She refused repeated requests to meet with the Gold Star Mothers."

It's a timely claim, in a way, since the right is outraged that she might be running for president. It's also completely false. Here's what the Gold Star Mothers themselves had to say about the "incident" on their official site:

"With regard to the NewsMax article concerning our organization, the American Gold Star Mothers, Inc., deeply regret the misunderstanding about Senator Hillary Clinton. The two mothers who visited Washington did not have an appointment with the Senator and she was not in her office on that day. We would appreciate it if the e-mails and negative comments about Senator Clinton would cease."

Case closed. Sadly, the rabid righties aren't the type to let the proverbial facts get in the way of a story.

Making Up Stories Rox Populi

Now that the gang at Powerline and Michelle Malkin have been proven again to be the the lying tools that they are (uh, and blaming Tom Harkin or looking for another scapegoat sorta goes against the whole Republican "personal responsibility" thing, doesn't it?), they'll need to find, as Atrios and Hilzoy suggest, a new scandalous untruth to spread to their drooling minions.

In the interest of bi-partisanship, I think we should help them brainstorm some ideas.

What shall it be, then? Illegal immigrants sneak into San Diego homes to drink the blood of unsuspecting white babies? Jimmy Carter performed a human sacrifice in the Lincoln Bedroom back in '78 and that's why he's not going to the Pope's funeral? Hillary Clinton conspired to have a guy murdered and then covered it up? John Kerry shot his entire squad in Vietnam and replaced them with hippie look-a-likes he found partying with Hanoi Jane in Ho Chi Min City?
Obviously, I'm not in my best "creative zone" this morning. So, help me out by leaving your suggestions in comments below.
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Obviously, I'm not in my best "creative zone" this morning. So, help me out by leaving your suggestions in comments below.

Video clip O' Humor

Usually we reserve this spot for The Daily Show, but Bill O'Reilly had me falling off my couch.

He wants to nominate Bill Clinton to take Colin Powell's job!

Video

I mean O'Reilly has written chapter after chapter in his virtually unreadable books about how evil Bill and Hillary are. I watched carefully and didn't see him wink into the camera. Who is he trying to impress? Does he think this will somehow fake out the liberals into thinking that he really is an independent?

Bill Clinton and George W. Bush were guests on "Meet the Press" today to talk about Haiti relief, and I was struck once again by the contrast between the two. As always, Clinton has a grasp of all the logistical and political factors in play, and Bush speaks in emotional but general terms. I can't imagine the basis for this friendship:

DAVID GREGORY: Let me start by asking you both, President Bush, what's your biggest concern right now?

FORMER PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: My biggest concern is the-- the Haitian people have security, water, and food.

DAVID GREGORY: And those are big ifs right now.

FORMER PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Well they are. But-- the President briefed us-- about-- military efforts to get-- food and water to the people. And surging a lot of material. And it's gonna take a little bit of time to get it there. But-- I came away from the briefing confident it's gonna happen.

DAVID GREGORY: President Clinton, the basics are so important right now.

FORMER PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON: This is about water, food, medical supplies and care, and-- and shelter, secure shelter. We-- I have some protection concerns. But-- we were just told in the briefing that 40 percent of the Haitian police forces signed back in, volunteered for duty. A lot of them don't have uniforms or weapons or anything anymore. But-- the American military's working closely with the U.N. troops that are there. And-- they'll get this organized. They're doing a good job. We just need more help. We literally don't have enough food to feed them now. We don't have-- and-- and there are two issues. One is buying it. And the second is getting it in and distributing it. But that's what everybody's working on now.

Midwest Voices: Bob Dole outs naysayer Mitch McConnell

TalkLeft: Sully: It's Hillary's Fault

Blue Gal: Halliburton Rape

evilslutopia: Getting to the point of #nestlefamily

Wall St. Cheat Sheet: The Treasury Department endorses lying to the public

William K. Wolfrum Chronicles: I'm heterosexual - and wow, do I have a lot of rights

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Greta Van Susteren, FOX News' serial stalker of Sarah Palin, was in shock over the announcement that Palin quit her job. When asked about what this means, she said...

Greta:...It's hard to tell if she's giving up or gearing up and that I don't know...

Greta whined about all the ethics complaints that were filed against Sarah Palin and said that she could get disheartened. Really? She QUIT her job and quit on the people of Alaska. She's proved that she's unfit for duty. And it's not only me saying it.

Some Republican strategists expressed skepticism about Palin's decision. "I'm not smart enough to see the strategy in this," said John Weaver, a senior party strategist. "Good point guards don't quit and walk off the court."

If she can't handle criticism from bloggers, then how could she handle al-Qaeda? And conservatives like Greta should stop complaining about attacks on her and her family because they started the trend by holding her family out as public political props, and have never stopped. I'm not condoning the personal attacks in any way -- we avoided them at C&L and kept our criticism focused on her abilities (or lack thereof) and her public behavior as a candidate and a public official. It's up to you to decide how she's been treated.

But conservatives are total hypocrites on this issue and the media allows them to get away with it. They've made their living out of smearing anyone on the left. The Clintons have been subjected to the lowest attacks possible. I haven't seen anyone write widely published books that calls her a lesbian, or have I missed that one? Or that she murdered someone like, oh...Vince Foster.

On the September 19 and 20 broadcasts of his nationally syndicated radio show, Rush Limbaugh resurrected his scurrilous suggestion that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) had then-deputy White House counsel Vincent Foster murdered while she was first lady.

That's just the tip of the iceberg. And then we can talk about the scurrilous and wingnutty "birther" attacks on President Obama, but you get my point.

Even Villagers are wondering what she's doing.

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Michael Ozanian, a Forbes national editor who I've posted about before. (FOX's Ozanian compares Hillary to Goebbels ) has a ludicrous view of what the middle class is in America, but why wouldn't he---he's a Saturday FOX Stock regular on Forbes on FOX and they never can tell the truth. The segment was from a couple of weeks ago that focused on VP Biden saying that Unions help the middle class and I just had to get this up. These rich Wall Streeters hate unions so they come up with bogus info to lie through the show. One idiot on the panel says benefits are robust in the private sector. Another says union member shouldn't be so antagonistic to their employers. For who? But Ozanian is the worst of the bunch and he gets rewarded with another show. Right Wingers take care of each other.

Ozanian: In general Unions have never worked. They have been detriment to the economy as Jack pointed out.

Asman: What about a hundred years ago, they weren't a detriment to the economy a hundred years ago.

Ozanian: You wanna go back to the way we were a hundred years ago?

There was a time when Unions did some good.

Ozanian: If you're in the middle class int this country, you have two cars, you have a house, you have some investment portfolio, you have very high standards for your food that you eat. That, you don't get in any to the other countries with high unions so you can take your safety net and stick it.

Asman: Give Neil a chance.

Neil Weinberg: As a Forbes editor you can say that that is average, two cars and a big house. 50,000 a year. I'm sorry, the average American worker does not feel wealthy, does not feel comfortable

Asman: It's still better than China where middle class income is at 3000dollars a year.

So now the standard we have to judge ourselves, the richest country in the world is China, who have no human rights? We're lucky we don't make 3K a year. OMG. David Asman sure makes an ass out of himself. I'm so glad we all eat like pigs and don't need any security to fall back on. I think all these Stock show pricks should have their salaries posted directly under their names whenever they go on these shows if they are going to lie with abandon like this.

Ozanian also is part of a new show called "Sports Money." Please leave him some comments.

By the way, Quentin Hardy is quite good on these telecasts even though I cut him out of this one. Here's his Facebook if you want to leave him a nice message.

Politics in the Zeros: Spread the meme. Republicans are the party that wrecked America. John McCain's long history with bank failures and financial scandals makes him uniquely 'qualified' to speak to the current crisis.

AlterNet: Yet again, the United States appears to be siding with violent right-wing elements to undermine a Latin American democracy.

Mugsy's Rap Sheet: If you think Hillary is doing a great job of supporting the democratic ticket, don't read this post

BAGnewsNotes: The Picture of Deception

Connecting.the.Dots: The Palin attackers' crystal ball

Our friend, Alicia Morgan of Last Left Turn Before Hooterville has a new book, The Price Of Right, about what conservatism is costing America. It's available for pre-order on Amazon.