The lesson the Barack Obama presidency should teach Democrats is the Republican Party has only a glancing relationship to the truth and they will continue to lie on camera as often as possible until their lies become conventional wisdom. That's why so many conservatives believe that President Obama has raised taxes, wants to take away their guns (by pretending he doesn't) and initiated the bank bailout.

It works incredibly well. But you have to know your audience.

If you spout off factually untrue slams against Obama on Fox News, no one will argue with you. In fact, it conforms with their agenda of misinforming their audience.

But you don't want to try that on a show like Real Time with Bill Maher, because the audience and sometimes the other panel guests will call you out. Case in point: Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) who chuckles like it's common knowledge that Obama wants to "gut" the military. But fellow guests Kennedy (no liberal, she, although she's clearly not grown out of her annoying MTV schtick), Martin Bashir and host Bill Maher quickly demanded some badly needed fact-checking. Not that it made an impact on Rohrabacher:

Maher, co-panelests Kennedy from Reason TV, MSNBC’s Martin Bashir and even the audience joined in to collectively chastise the California Republican for his blatantly false claim. “That’s absolutely not true,” Kennedy said, later adding, “I love the military. I like my SEALs groomed and ready to go but you have to tell the truth.” “Can I give you the facts?” Maher asked Rohrabacher. “So far every budget Obama has had has increased military spending,” he said. “This year they’re asking a reduction from $531 billion to $525 billion, 1.6 percent. You mean our freedom is in trouble because of that 1.6 percent?” Maher later added, “How paranoid do you have to be to say that this guy is gutting our military?”

Does it surprise you to know that the truth (which is clearly kryptonite to the conservative mind) is that military spending has increased every year of the Obama presidency and all they've done is ask to reduce the rate of growth of spending? And to put not too fine a point on it, but those mandated cuts to defense that allegedly will happen because of the failure of the super committee to put together a deal, which in and of itself was a cowardly avoidance of the larger Congress (of which Rohrabacher is a member) to DO THEIR JOBS.

Open Left: The corroded corruption at the heart of 'moving to the center.'

cab drollery: Folksier Than Thou

Bark Bark Woof Woof: The genesis of an email smear campaign.

Publius Endures: Religious Right = a 'Leave Us Alone" coalition?

Firedoglake: The Conservative "civility" scam.

The Opinion Mill's Sunday Bookchat reveals: How Iraq descended into chaos, how a plane crash laid for foundations for the national security state, how Oliver Stone poisoned the well of truth about John F. Kennedy and how the Confederacy set out to win the war by other means

Download | play Download | play (h/t Heather)

ABC:

Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., said today he will undergo surgery this morning at Duke University Medical Center in Durham N.C., as part of his treatment for a cancerous brain tumor.

Kennedy, 76, was diagnosed last month with a malignant glioma, an often lethal type of brain tumor.[..]

After consulting with his doctors and his wife, Vicki, Kennedy "decided the best course of action for my brain tumor is targeted surgery followed by chemotherapy and radiation," he said.[..]

When his treatment ends, Kennedy said, "I look forward to returning to the United States Senate and to doing everything I can to help elect Barack Obama as our next president."

UPDATE: NY Times:

"I am pleased to report that Senator Kennedy's surgery was successful and accomplished our goals," Dr. Allan Friedman, chief of the division of neurosurgery in the surgical department at Duke in Durham, N.C., said in a statement about 2 p.m.

Dr. Friedman said after the procedure that Mr. Kennedy should "experience no permanent neurological affects from the surgery."

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

Mark Madden, who made his reputation with bold, outlandish attacks on famous people, has been permanently removed from the air by ESPN.

His dismissal, which came down from ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Conn., came five days after he made a scurrilous remark about U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy on his 1250 ESPN talk show, which ran from 3 to 7 p.m. weekdays.

"I'm very disappointed to hear that Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts is near death because of a brain tumor. I always hoped Senator Kennedy would live long enough to be assassinated.

"I wonder if he got a card from the Kopechnes." Read on...

It took five days to make this call? That's pretty sick, but at least they took this buffoon off the air.

The Art of the Possible: Let's look at the question of Vice-Presidentialism on the Democratic side.

Once Upon a Time: Arthur continues to demonstrate why he's considered by many of us to be one the best.

The Moderate Voice: ESPN fires Mark Madden for Kennedy assassination remarks. Apparently sports fans are more discerning than the pea-brained dittoheads who listen to wingmutt radio. Rush Limbaugh got that message in a hurry a few years ago.

skippy the bush kangaroo: Time to stop buying donuts - an action alert

Best wishes to Libby Spencer

HOLY CRAP: Pentagon-connected ministry is electioneering and Obama-bashing...Who profits from "Biblical Capitalism"?...A traditional news outlet finally notices the religious elephant in our political living room...The real impact of the Hagee-McCain divorce...Faith Factor Factbox...The General's Ride...Louisiana dragging science ed. back into the swamp...Beyond Belief...Clinging to the Crucifix...Bible study for atheists

AP:

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy say he has a malignant brain tumor.

Doctors for the Massachusetts Democrat say tests conducted after Kennedy suffered a seizure this weekend show a tumor in his left parietal lobe. His treatment will be decided after more tests but the usual course includes combinations of radiation and chemotherapy.

The 76-year-old senator has been hospitalized in Boston since Saturday, when he was airlifted from Cape Cod after a seizure at his home.

His wife and children have been with him each day but have made no public statements.

His doctors said in a statement released to The Associated Press that he has had no further seizures, is in good spirits and is resting comfortably.

Update: Senator Kennedy's staff has set up a space on the Senator's website where you may wish him well.

Enter Jeopardy Think Music:
Wikipedia: "on November 22, 1963, independent sources began reporting that three shots had been fired at the President’s motorcade. At 12:34 p.m., approximately four minutes after the shots were fired, the first wire story flashed around the world..."

Answer: Arlen Specter!

The Single Bullet Theory, called the magic bullet theory by critics, was introduced by the Warren Commission to explain how three shots made by Lee Harvey Oswald resulted in the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy.

The theory, generally credited to Warren Commission staffer Arlen Specter (now a U.S. Senator.), posits that a single bullet, known as "Warren Commission Exhibit 399" (also known as "CE399"), caused all of the non-fatal wounds in both President Kennedy and Texas Governor John Connally.

44 years ago tomorrow...

Video courtesy of FamiliesUSA.org

Not at all unexpected...but I like Pastor Dan's take on it:

Apparently, there are no depths to which Pres. Bush cannot sink. This morning, he chose the health of health care executives over that of poor children. There is no reason to veto the SCHIP legislation other than blind ideology. If you weren't convinced yet that Bush lacks the milk of human kindness, you should be now.

The man has made himself lower than a jackal.

Bill Scher's got the right idea: don't let this veto be quiet. The only thing I'd add is, pray for these bastards' souls. They're going to need it.

President Bush got a much less warm welcome in Pennsylvania than I think he anticipated. Senators Reid, Leahy, Dodd, Kennedy also have their say.

There were quite a few offensive Supreme Court rulings this year, but one of the more surprising decisions was in Ledbetter v. Goodyear, in which the court ruled 5 to 4 (natch) that workers who face wage discrimination only have 180 days to challenge the initial discrimination in court. (Slate’s Richard Thompson Ford explained the case quite well a couple of months ago.)

Goodyear Tire intentionally shortchanged Lilly Ledbetter, a female employee, for two decades. The court majority (Justices Roberts, Alito, Scalia, Thomas, and Kennedy) said if Ledbetter wanted to challenge the discrimination, she needed to sue within 180 days of her first unfair paycheck — even though she continued to receive unfair paychecks for 20 years.

Today, the House took up legislation — the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act — that would put into law a clarification — wage disparity based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, and disability is not a one-time occurrence. Every discriminatory paycheck represents an ongoing violation. Employees would still have 180 days to challenge the discrimination, but from the last check, not the first.

The good news is the House passed the measure. The bad news is Bush plans to veto.

We've discussed this before, but PfAW wants to energize the campaign as Sen. Kennedy is introducing legislation this week.

The decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear involved the interpretation of a federal statute-not the Constitution. That's why Congress has the authority, and the responsibility, to correct the Court's error and strengthen Americans' ability to recover wages that they have been unfairly denied. Will you join the petition calling on congressional leaders to support legislation to correct Ledbetter v. Goodyear?

The Ledbetter legislation, the "Fair Pay Restoration Act," will be introduced in the Senate as early as tomorrow by Sen. Kennedy. The House legislation, the "Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act," was passed by the Education and Labor committee at the end of June.