How low will the new American president go for the world's royalty?

Such was marvelously asked by the Los Angeles Times' Andrew Malcolm Saturday after news broke that President Obama was once again bowing to a foreign dignitary.

This time it was Japanese Emperor Akihito (larger version of picture below the fold):

The Los Angeles Times Calendar section on Thursday accidentally listed MTV's hit series "Jackass" as airing on MSNBC at 7 and 10PM.

7 and 10PM just so happen to be when "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" replays on the West Coast.

Innocent mistake or Freudian slip?

You decide as you read what Andrew Malcolm deliciously reported Friday:

OK, this story has GOT to have been written by that satirical website The Onion! Barack Obama is about to be crowned "Newsmaker of the Year" by the National Newspaper Publishers Assn. The ceremony is to take place this afternoon,March 20, at the White House.

And here is the kicker... it's CLOSED to the press!

Seriously! This dude is getting an award from the press and he's closed the ceremony to the press. Where is the outrage? Where is the screaming about how Obama is the most "secretive president" since Bush? Where are comments about the lack of "transparency"? More to the point where are the guffaws about just how ridiculous this move is?

The L.A.Times's Andrew Malcolm is so over come by Obamamania that he sees connections to his messiah everywhere, even in hospitals separated by hundreds of miles, from patients admitted days apart, with maladies and injuries that are completely dissimilar. And not just with ordinary everyday patients in those hospitals, but with two star studded actors who ended up in hospitals, one in Chicago and one in Tennessee. And guess what? They are both... gasp... OBAMA SUPPORTERS. Yes, I know how shocking it is that two actors can be admitted to hospitals after donating money to the Barack Obama campaign. After all, the mere fact that they gave the messiah money should have been enough of a talisman to have protected them at least until the elections, wouldn't ya think? I mean, isn't their messiah letting them down here?

Malcolm's tenuous connections between these two actors and Obama only serves to highlight his own obsession because the hospital stays of the two actors have absolutely no relation to each other. Actor Morgan Freeman was admitted to a Memphis, Tennessee hospital on August 4 suffering injuries from a car accident near his Mississippi home. Actor and comedian Bernie Mac was admitted to a Chicago, Illinois hospital on August 2 suffering from pneumonia.