Latest Blogs

Open Thread: Does the Environmental Agenda Have Parallels to Communism
Global warming, aka climate change, is the scapegoat for everything from record snowfalls to disastrous tornadoes. As such, it is also the perfect route for governments to closely control their citizens by regulating the smallest of details, like which lightbulbs they are allowed to use, to supposedly fix the problem.
Czech President Vaclav Klaus, who grew up under totalitarian rule, is…
July 28th, 2011 10:14 AM

NYT's David Leonhardt: All True 'Fiscal Conservatives' Support Tax Inc
Wednesday’s “Lessons From The Malaise” is David Leonhardt’s last economics column before becoming the New York Times's Washington bureau chief. It pretty much encapsulates his liberal worldview, while assuming his premises are universally shared.
One of the tricky things about the subject is that almost nothing is certain in the way that, say, two plus two equals four. Economics -- which is…
July 28th, 2011 9:22 AM

Attention Chris Matthews: 'Slim' Pickens Rode the Bomb in 'Dr. Strange
Just how totally out of touch is MSNBC's Chris Matthews?
At the beginning of Wednesday's "Hardball," he said the actor who famously rode the bomb at the end of the classic film "Dr. Strangelove" was "Sam" Pickens (video follows with transcript and commentary):
July 28th, 2011 1:07 AM

AP's Abrams, Quoting No One, Claims That 'Some Legal Scholars' Believe
Gosh, isn't it convenient that Associated Press reporter Jim Abrams, in a Wednesday evening dispatch ("Democrats say Obama should invoke 14th Amendment"), was able to find "some legal scholars" who believe that President Obama can invoke Section 4 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution to ignore the nation's current debt ceiling and have the government go out and borrow more money, but "…
July 27th, 2011 10:18 PM
Government by Coup de Theatre or the Constitution
How have we arrived at this place where the fate of our federal budget — our economy, indeed our capacity to have a functioning federal government — seems to depend on what two men (the speaker of the House and the president) may or may not be secretly talking about in an interior room in the White House?
Meanwhile, elected representatives and senators, kept ignorant of those life-and-death…
July 27th, 2011 6:26 PM

Martin Bashir All But Tells John Boehner to 'Go the F*** to Sleep
MSNBC's Martin Bashir not-so-subtly suggested Wednesday that House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is a "baby" who should "go the f*** to sleep" and let Democrats deal with the debt ceiling issue.
Anchoring the afternoon program that bears his name, Bashir excoriated Boehner's latest deficit-reduction proposal, which he dubbed a "ludicrous lullaby," blaming the Ohio Republican for "this…
July 27th, 2011 5:55 PM

Dem. Lawmaker: ‘We Don’t Have a Deficit Problem Right Now
Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) argued at a news conference with the Congressional Out of Poverty Caucus that the United States does not currently have a budget crisis.
July 27th, 2011 5:45 PM

Hoyer on Morning Joe Says GOP 'Want to Shoot Every Bullet they Have at
National Review's Jim Geraghty notes today that House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer hasn't gotten the memo on the new tone in Washington. “I think we’re playing Russian roulette with the nation’s credit-worthiness, and unfortunately, all the chambers seem to be loaded on the House side. They want to shoot every bullet they have at the President” said Hoyer on Wednesday's "Morning Joe."
July 27th, 2011 4:39 PM

Again? Another NY Times Columnist Compares Tea Party G.O.P. to Terrori
What is it with New York Times columnists likening Republicans to terrorist groups? On Sunday Nicholas Kristof compared Tea Party sympathizers in Congress to Al Qaeda. Now Thomas Friedman in his Wednesday column “Can’t We Do This Right?”, not content to argue that Tea Party Republicans are misguided, calls them the “Hezbollah faction” of the G.O.P.
July 27th, 2011 3:33 PM
Before Taking Fox News Gig, Ed Henry Backed Network in Face of Left-Wi
Ed Henry's heated exchange Tuesday with White House Press Secretary Jay Carney as Fox News' newly-minted senior White House correspondent reminded NewsBusters of times when Henry, as a CNN reporter, supported his old competitor against attacks by left-wing activists and a liberal colleague.
July 27th, 2011 3:16 PM
NBC's 'Today' Touts 'Big Setback' for Boehner Plan, Lauer Lobs Softbal
At the top of Wednesday's NBC Today, as co-host Ann Curry declared that "Americans are just fed up with the stalemate" over the debt ceiling, fellow co-host Matt Lauer announced: "The latest setback came last night when House Speaker Boehner was told by the Congressional Budget Office that his proposal would cut spending far less than advertised."
In the report that followed, correspondent…
July 27th, 2011 3:06 PM
Lowering the Bar: Reuters Sets 2.5% GDP Growth as Unemployment Rate-Lo
I guess at Reuters, when you see that an economy can't meet normal benchmarks for success, you simply lower them, and pretend that success will come anyway.
Over at the Associated Press a few weeks ago, in his write-up in the wake of the government's awful June employment report, Chris Rugaber correctly pegged the kind of economic growth it will take to get millions of currently unemployed…
July 27th, 2011 1:24 PM

11-0: Still No Liberals in the Debt Ceiling Debate at the New York Tim
Wednesday’s New York Times lead story on the debt ceiling standoff by Jennifer Steinhauer and Carl Hulse, “Facing Obstacles, G.O.P. Delays Vote On Plan For Debt – Conservatives Restive – Boehner’s Grip on His Caucus Is Put to the Test in Standoff,” is the second consecutive Times lead overloaded with “conservative” labels, as if only one side of the debate has an ideological motivation.…
July 27th, 2011 1:04 PM

White House Staffer Knew About Gun Running Operation Last Fall
At least one person in the White House knew about the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives gun-running operation three months before weapons from the botched sting were found at the murder scene of a U.S. Border Patrol agent.
That’s what a high-ranking ATF official told Congress on Tuesday.
July 27th, 2011 1:03 PM