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Where do you think Judy Miller thought she might be working in 2011 back in 2002, when she won her Pulitzer Prize while working for the New York Times? Maybe she figured she'd still be at the Times while releasing a new book? How about a show on CNN? She could have moved over to a magazine like Time, \the New Yorker or the Washington Post. If times got tough she might have ended up at the Weekly Standard or, in today's world, something like The Daily Beast. Well, if that's what she figured, she'd be oh so wrong.

Can you imagine how much I laughed my ass off when I learned that she took a job with Newsmax?

Judith Miller, the former New York Times reporter, current Fox News contributor and featured player in the Valerie Plame scandal, is back in print journalism. Miller has been hired by NewsMax, the conservative news magazine, as a contributing writer.

NewsMax, which loves their Birthers, also posts articles that hope for the U.S. military to overthrow President Obama. Really, they're another version of WorldNutDaily.

The only difference is that, as they did with the military-coup piece, NewsMax often later takes down its wingnuttery and scrubs the pieces from their site, as if to cover the trail. But we have them still in our personal archives. Here are some headlines from NewsMaxes past, only some of which still exist in the NewsMax archives:

Turning the Y2K Glitch Into Global Prosperity" (Oct. 28, 1998). Excerpt: "How can any sheriff's department serve and protect the citizenry if hordes of thirsty and hungry people are in near panic while waiting for the return of electricity to the power grid? No sheriff's department can keep law and order under these conditions."

"Analysis: Internet Buzzes with Theories Surrounding Y2K Problem" (Christopher Ruddy, June 15, 1998). Excerpt: "[Gary] North's appearance led me to his home page, and from there to other Y2K sites. What I found was scary."

"Waco Linked To Foster's Death: Widow," August 30, 1999. {Version available here.]

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Straight from the Cold War, former ambassador John Bolton attacks Russia's decision to provide low-enriched uranium fuel to Iran's Bushehr nuclear reactor. Unsurprisingly, he uses the situation to suggest that Israel (or the United States) should attack Iran's nuclear energy infrastructure prior to the insertion of the fuel rods into the reactor. The fact that Iran has agreed to turn over the spent fuel rods back to Russia after their use doesn't appear to be a part of the discussion. The Faux News anchor helpfully feeds Bolton the lines needed to sensationalize the story and slam the United Nations as a bonus. From Newsmax:

Bolton made it clear that it is widely assumed that any Israeli attack on the Bushehr reactor must take place before the reactor is loaded with fuel rods.

"If they're going to do it that's the window that they have," Bolton declared. "Otherwise as I said before, once the rods are in the reactor, if you attack the reactor you're going to open it up and radiation will escape at least into the atmosphere and possibly into the waters of the Persian Gulf.

"So most people think that neither Israel nor the United States, come to that, would attack the reactor after it's been fueled."
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The failure to demand it be shut down began in the Bush years, he said, and continues with the Obama administration "under what I believe is the mistaken theory that Iran is entitled to the peaceful use of nuclear energy."

"I don't think Iran is entitled to that, or I don't think we ought to allow it to happen, because they're manifestly violating any number of obligations under the non-proliferation treaty not to seek nuclear weapons. But this has been a hole in American policy for some number of years, and Iran and Russia are obviously exploiting it," Bolton said.

The attitude that Iran isn't entitled "the peaceful use of nuclear energy" is not one shared by the many non-aligned nations who are signatories of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. It's also interesting that pundits like John Bolton and his Faux News cheerleaders always forget that it was the United States government that first encouraged Iran to develop nuclear energy.

No, this is just another opportunity for The Mustached One to get on his high horse and repeat his mantra on how Israel would be justified in attacking Iran, how Iran's threat is at least equal to the 9/11 highjackers, that containment and deterrence won't work on Iran and that only a pre-emptive attack will stop other Middle East countries from seeking nuclear weapons. He's quite mad, but the right wing still loves him.

As a side note, one might suggest to the Obama administration that it might consider abandoning the Bush administration's policy of not negotiating with Iran until it promises to abandon its nuclear weapons program and allow IAEA inspectors back into the country. Isolation tactics don't seem to work when countries with economic problems need to make deals with anyone willing to pay cash. A more nuanced (and sane) discussion of Russia's deal with Iran can be found at the Washington Post.

Ross Douthat tries a new approach to attack gay marriage. He dressed it up in some intellectual conservative costume, but it's still the same old bullshit in new clothes.

Glenn Greenwald then destroys his argument from the legal perspective.

In the end it all comes down to intellectual dishonesty by conservatives. It doesn't matter if it's in Newsmax or the pages of the NY Times. People like Douthat just want to rob the gay community of basic human rights afforded to the rest of our society.

(h/t Balloon Juice)

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.

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Good old Joe. He's doing what he does best. Throw as much dirt as he can on the left. While giving an interview with the conspiracy theory-wingnut site known as Newsmax, he says he's really happy that the Republicans might have the momentum in the 2010 election. Praise the Lord and all that jazz.

Raw Story:

But in a Newsmax interview published Monday, he took himself one step further toward the party he once campaigned to defeat.

There were a lot of people, particularly Democrats, who were declaring after the 2008 election that we were beginning a period of Democratic dominance that would go on for decades," Lieberman told Newsmax. "Now, all of a sudden, the momentum is with the Republicans. And that's — thank God — that's the way people have spoken, you know? That's our democracy."

The senator also said that "everybody should listen" to former Alaska governor Sarah Palin.

“I think Sarah Palin for a lot of people has become a spokesperson," Lieberman said. "People worried that government has forgotten them, has grown too big, that the deficit is growing too large, and in some sense that we’re not being as strong as we should be in the world — Governor Palin has spoken to those concerns as much as anyone.

We should listen to Sarah Palin because she speaks nonsense, right Joe? Palin supports every policy that led to the anger that permeates our nation and would have continued with the same policies that caused a Global Financial meltdown even if she doesn't understand what they all mean.

She's the one that beat him out of being the VP poster boy for his BFF, 'I'm No Maverick' McCain.

Lieberman runs on bitterness and hate for anything that is to the left of his "Bomb Iran" wet dreams. We can all thank Al Gore for Holy Joe.

I think my irony meter just redlined:

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) remains something of a powerhouse in Republican circles, so it seemed noteworthy that he doesn't seem to have much respect for a certain former half-term governor of Alaska.

In a recent interview with Newsmax, Bush was asked whether he thought Palin was a viable candidate for president. Though he had some nice things to say about her "charisma," it was clear that Bush thinks Palin doesn't have the intellectual heft to occupy the oval office. He said that Palin's success depends on her willingness to add a "depth of understanding of the complexity of life we're living in today" to her rhetoric.

"That's up to her," he said. "I mean, I don't know what her deal is, but my belief is in 2010 and 2012, public leaders need to have intellectual curiosity."

Seriously? The need for "intellectual curiosity" wasn't necessary in 2000 or 2004, was it, Jeb? The mind boggles.

We posted a story on Tuesday about John Perry's over-the-top article at Newsmax, in which he makes the totally baseless claim that a military coup to overthrow President Obama was a real possibility.

Some C&L readers noticed Wednesday morning that the link to the original Newsmax article went to the main page instead of the article and sure enough, it appears Newsmax scrubbed the article.

Luckily, the amazing Jamie found the cached article and took the above screen grab. You can read the full, original article here.

Did the powers that be at Newsmax realize that maybe, just maybe, they had finally crossed the line? I'm curious to know why such staunch defenders of the constitution decided to cut and run on this one. They can't put the genie back in the bottle. They published an article suggesting a military coup was a real possibility and now they've scrubbed it. Do they agree with Perry, or not? They need to explain publicly why the article was pulled.

You can write Newsmax directly and ask them why they scrubbed the article -- click here.

From John L. Perry at Newsmax:

There is a remote, although gaining, possibility America's military will intervene as a last resort to resolve the Obama problem. Don't dismiss it as unrealistic.

America isn't the Third World. If a military coup does occur here it will be civilized. That it has never happened doesn't mean it wont. Describing what may be afoot is not to advocate it. So, view the following through military eyes:

Did you get that? Perry doesn't advocate a military overthrow of the Obama administration, he's...just sayin'. Does anyone doubt that we'll see "military coup" signs at the next tea party? Mr. Perry believes he has the pulse of our military, but his assumptions go beyond the pale, straining the limits of credulity:

Top military officers can see the Constitution they are sworn to defend being trampled as American institutions and enterprises are nationalized.

They can see that Americans are increasingly alarmed that this nation, under President Barack Obama, may not even be recognizable as America by the 2012 election, in which he will surely seek continuation in office.

They can see that the economy ravaged by deficits, taxes, unemployment, and impending inflation is financially reliant on foreign lender governments. Read on...

There are so many flaws in this clown's logic, I don't know where to begin. What he's actually describing is George Bush's presidency, not Barack Obama's. If you can stand to click through to Perry's article, I would be most interested to hear your thoughts on his assumptions. As Jamie asked -- can you say treason?

Also worth remembering: Rush Limbaugh actually promoted this idea a few months ago.

ABC's The Blotter :

Respected Russian journalist Ivan Safronov, who reported on military affairs, mysteriously plunged to his death from the 5th floor of his apartment building Friday, making him the 14th journalist to die under questionable circumstances in Putin's Russia, according to statistics compiled by the Committee to Protect Journalists. [..]

Polikovskaya's killing, the 13th since Putin took office, led the Committee to Protect Journalists to declare Russia "the third deadliest country in the world for journalists" after Iraq and Algeria in their recent report, "Deadly News." All of the cases remain unsolved.

According to a report in this morning's Moscow Times, Safronov, who wrote for the Russian business newspaper "Kommersant," fell head first and fully clothed from a 5th floor window although he lived in an apartment on the 3rd floor of the building.

The Times reported the FSB -- the Federal Security Bureau, which is the successor agency to the KGB -- was unhappy with Safronov's reporting on sensitive weapons systems.

Safronov's death adds to the list of critics of the Putin regime and the FSB, who have died or been injured in strange circumstances in just the past six months

Investor's Business Daily thinks Putin couldn't be this thick, but even NewsMax (hardly a liberal publication) finds it hard to believe that all these people connected to critics of Putin's are meeting their end under strange circumstances.

I'm fully supporting Michael Weiner's bid for the White House if he makes that most difficult choice.

Michael Savage, the nation's third-most listened to radio talk-show host, says he may leave his top rated show to make a bid for the GOP nomination for president.

"I know it sounds bizarre but when you consider the people running for the presidency, none . . . seems to be qualified," Savage told NewsMax in an exclusive interview