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Check out this video, via Peter Daou, of one of the protesters outside the Obama town-hall meeting in New Hampshire:

Protester: [Unintelligible] illegals ... we send on the first bus one way back to wherever they came from. We don't need illegals.

Send 'em home on a bus, send 'em home with a bullet in the head the second time.

Nothing like a little eliminationism with your tea, is there?

Then he adds:

Read what Jefferson said about the Tree of Liberty -- it’s coming baby.

As Daou notes: Jefferson said "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

Indeed, Tim McVeigh was arrested wearing a T-shirt with that very quotation.

Yep, just another "Patriot" fomenting civil war.

A fellow teabagger then proclaims that Obama is becoming "a dictator," and warns that opposing him will lead to people being imprisoned.

Hoo boy. These people speak volumes about what's happening with these protests. As we noted earlier.

UPDATE: Be sure also to check out the complementary video from the same YouTuber, of a ranting "Patriot" verbally assaulting ACORN volunteers, while his scary-looking militiaman buddy hovers nearby.

It's becoming increasingly painful to watch this man's slow descent into insanity, but hey, it's my job...

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Never one to let go of a bone, Billo continues his ridiculous gnawing on DailyKos, and its offshoot convention, YearlyKos. O'Reilly's "memo" for the night counsels all the Democratic presidential candidates against attending YearlyKos, lest they be tainted by association of a site that "traffics in hate." Hillary Clinton's Communication Director Howard Wolfson does a yeoman's job of trying to pierce through Bill's insanity and attempt to inject a little rationality in the subject, but you know Bill is not going to let Howard have the last word.

WOLFSON: "The days where you can dictate where Senator Clinton and other Democrats go, who we talk to, are over."

Did we have those days to begin with?

Peter Daou responds (at DailyKos, *gasp!*) as well..

UPDATE: Cenk of The Young Turks thinks that it's time to label Fox News what it actually is: Fox Opinion...and he has a poll up in which he invites you all to participate:

Should institutions like Yearly Kos, the Democratic National Convention, and Democratic presidential campaigns give Fox "opinion media" credentials instead of the classic media credentials?

 Go vote and let's get honest about what Fox really is.

 On Scarborough Country, the panel of pundits talked about the possible Armageddon in Iraq with al-Sadr in the middle of everything.

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I wonder if the right wing punditry class will look to lock up the NY Times because they leaked info that could cause a regional war in the Middle East? Oh wait, I forgot. The Bush administration were the leakers that made al-Maliki look weak to the Times---which caused him to diss Bush--so that's not really a problem. But they did agree not to divide Iraq into three parts...Beejesus,

Great job by the FBI to grab these lunatics.

Peter Daou hits on a point that is important though:

"The notion that "we're fighting them there so we don't have to fight them here" has been nullified by the news that "a federal indictment against seven men revealed Friday details of what the government said was a plan to "kill all the devils we can" by blowing up Chicago's Sears Tower."...read on"

Anybody who watched Ann Coulter's June 14th appearance on the Tonight Show had to realize that it was a watershed moment in the war between the establishment media and the progressive netroots, a community fresh off the successful YearlyKos convention. It was also a signal to Democrats that liberal ideology can be denigrated with impunity. Had the words "Jew" or "Christian" or "Conservative" been substituted for "Liberal" we'd be waking up to a national scandal.

Never mind that Jay Leno and George Carlin sat like trembling lambs while Coulter spewed gutter-level invective at millions of Americans - we've already seen the same obsequiousness from Larry King, Matt Lauer (who ended his faux-debate with Coulter by saying "always fun to have you") and others. The larger issue here is that despite an uproar from the progressive netroots, NBC saw fit to give Coulter a platform to continue her liberal-scapegoating and to slander women who lost their husbands on 9/11. (For the record, many rightwing bloggers denounced Coulter and several Democrats attacked her, but their focus was the substance of Coulter's words, not a criticism of the media outlets who continue to provide her a national forum.)

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I don' t understand why the media lets themselves get destroyed by ideologues and then happily welcomes them on their shows-acting as if nothing happened. Where I grew up-you would be labeled a coward. The whole journalistic community should stand up and fight like Lara Logan, only go the full twelve rounds.

Peter Daou:

"This kind of assault on the free press is par for the course on the right. And unlike Democrats, Republicans at the highest levels willingly go after the media. For once, I'd like to see journalists rise in indignation and fury. For once, I'd like to know if the targets of this abuse have the pride and dignity to reject it, to stand up for their profession and their personal integrity. If the same attacks were directed toward any other profession or professional, the response would be overwhelming. Why do reporters take it lying down? I challenge establishment journalists to stand up to the rightwing smear machine and condemn the maligning of their patriotism and of their values...read on"

Peter Daou touched on this yesterday, but it gets worse...

New BBC video report on the possibility of more civilian deaths

BBC: "The video appears to challenge the US military's account of events that took place in the town of Ishaqi in March. The US said at the time four people died during a military operation, but Iraqi police claimed that US troops had deliberately shot the 11 people. A spokesman for US forces in Iraq told the BBC an inquiry was under way...read on"

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Peter Daou: As I wrote earlier, rightwing bloggers have come unhinged over Haditha:

"Michelle Malkin posts an LGF photo of Palestinian children carrying weapons - the implication being? That shooting children is justified?

Glenn Reynolds links to a comment threatening civil war in the US.

At RCP, Jed Babbin writes, "If it were up to Cong. John Murtha, Duke University rape case prosecutor Mike Nifong would be transferred to the Haditha case."

If this BBC report is accurate, expect more extreme rhetoric from these rightwing bloggers as they cling to the tattered remnants of their fictional moral justification for this misadventure."

(h/t David Edwards)

Bush Apologizes

With Bush's poll numbers in the sewer, it's not surprising that he took a track of contrition tonight. Abu Ghraib was a top down decision that led to our people torturing prisoners. He's sorry. Which consultant came up with these answers? How many of us in the blogosphere have been saying this for a long time to only be rebuked by his followers?

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AP: Bush said he regretted his cowboy rhetoric after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks such as his "wanted dead or alive" description of Osama bin Laden and his taunting "bring 'em on" challenge to Iraqi insurgents. "In certain parts of the world, it was misinterpreted." He also cited the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners at the U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad. "We've been paying for that for a long time," Bush said

Peter Daou as usual nails it.

      "A jaw-dropping moment occurred in Bush and Blair's presser: Bush said he regretted saying "bring it on" and "wanted dead or alive." He admitted he should have been more sophisticated in his use of language. The significance of this shouldn't go unnoticed. Bush has now admitted what the progressive blog community has said all along: Bush's tough talk was wrongheaded and cost lives....read on"

Patrick Healy

Peter: It seems Pat Healy, the king of Kerry-bashing, has set his sights on Hillary Clinton. And it also appears Mr. Healy has decided to enter the world of blogging. Please extend a friendly welcome and let him know what you think about his new home and his new mission.

Arthur: "Patrick Healy and the editors of the NY Times are getting an eminently well-deserved roasting in the comments at the Times' new blog for this piece of irrelevant swill....read on"

Sound familiar?

Drudge Has To Print Retraction/Smears Gore

Matt Drudge smears Al Gore and then is forced to print a retraction about Howard Dean. Will Howard Kurtz write a story about Drudge tomorrow and ask if he is a credible news source? He certainly couldn't wait to jump on the Leopold story about Rove. The least he can do is print a fair representation of the liberal bloggers reaction to it. 

Peter Daou says it best:

"Kurtz may get some satisfaction from airing Leopold's dirty laundry and painting Rove's team as innocent victims of a hoax, but if he wants to get things straight, he should at least let his readers know that the story behind the story is not that so many bloggers ran with it, but that the vast majority of influential bloggers didn't...read on"

Why did we go to Iraq again?

Peter Daou catches Condi Rice not being candid with us on Meet the Press. I thought we went because Saddam's mushroom clouds would be painting our skies:

"We hear a lot about "angry" bloggers, but very little about the disturbingly lobotomized demeanor of certain administration officials (and ex-officials) -- Cheney, Powell, Gonzales, and Rice come to mind. There's something exceedingly peculiar about their ultracalm delivery and Mona Lisa-like permasmirk, especially when discussing issues like the Iraq war, a bloodbath they helped instigate."

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RICE: I understand that Americans see on their screens violence. They continue to see Americans killed, and we mourn every death. These are very hard things to do. But I would ask that people remember why we are there. We are there because we are trying to--having overthrown a brutal dictator who was a destabilizing force in the Middle East, we're trying to help the Iraqis create a stable foundation for democracy and a stable foundation for peace."

I seem to recall a different rationale for why we're there:

"Citing Bush administration officials, The New York Times reported Sunday that Iraq tried to buy thousands of high-strength aluminum tubes. The tubes, Rice said, "are only really suited for nuclear weapons programs, centrifuge programs." [CNN, 9/8/2002]

Greatest moments in Presidential History

Rubber Hose has a funny take.

Peter Daou: Very Fishy Bush Story Gets Lost in Translation.

Peter Daou:

"The AP's first stab at it and pieces from Reuters and the Chicago Tribune tell us everything we need to know: Colbert's performance is sidestepped and marginalized while Bush is treated as light-hearted, humble, and funny. Expect nothing less from the cowardly American media. The story could just as well have been Bush and Laura's discomfort and the crowd's semi-hostile reaction to Colbert's razor-sharp barbs. In fact, I would guess that from the perspective of newsworthiness and public interest, Bush-the-playful-president is far less compelling than a comedy sketch gone awry, a pissed-off prez, and a shell-shocked audience.

This is the power of the media to choose the news, to decide when and how to shield Bush from negative publicity. Sins of omission can be just as bad as sins of commission...read on