CNN reporter Don Lemon manhandled by Marcus Bachmann. NO it's not what you think.

Courtesy of CNN:

After talking for about three minutes, Bachmann waded into the crowd filled with adoring supporters.

Moments later, as she tried to exit the area back to a waiting drive cart, Bachmann found herself in the middle of a mob of people: among them many supporters and members of the press including this reporter and CNN anchor Don Lemon. 

As both CNN staffers tried to question Bachmann, Lemon said he was pushed by two members of Bachmann’s staff. Lemon also said that Marcus Bachmann, the congresswoman’s husband, pushed him. 

“She came out, after speaking for just a couple minutes,” Lemon said. “There were other reporters and cameras there. And I asked her very respectful questions: ‘How do you think you did in the debate last night?’ and ‘How do you think you’re going to end up in the Ames Straw Poll?’ And her two campaign aides started elbowing me.”Lemon continued: “I told them, asked them not to elbow me. And then her husband Marcus started doing the same thing. And then he elbowed me into the cart. And I said, ‘You just pushed me into the cart.’ And he goes, ‘No, you did it yourself.’ 

“It was just, I don’t know, why they would choose to do that. We weren’t asking any ‘gotcha’ questions,” Lemon added.

Gee I wonder what got the Bachmann campaign so "wee'd wee'd up?"

Perhaps a reporter from Des Moines Register can clear this up:

Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann was 30 minutes late to speak at her scheduled soapbox event and spoke for three of the 20 allotted minutes. 

She said she was going to shake hands, but left the makeshift stage quickly when 17-year-old Gabe Aderhold of Edina, Minn., loudly questioned her husband, Marcus, about counseling techniques at his clinic to “pray the gay away.” 

Uh oh, it looks like the unscientific, and potentially damaging, "therapy" sessions that the Bachmann's use in their "pray away the gay" clinics might be a sore spot for the campaign to deal with. Well gee if I were a reporter in Iowa I know exactly which question I would keep bringing up.  

It has been too long since Jack Cafferty has graced IM with his presence.

Cafferty asks "Are Sarah Palin and Donald Trump the answer to the country's problems?"

I think most of us could easily answer that question, but let's hear what Jack has to say about that.

My favorite portion was  as he referenced the poor performance of "The Undefeated."

"The popcorn stand at the theater took in more money."

Somehow despite Wolf Blitzer's involvement CNN manages to be exciting for once.

You can read more about this exchange here, including this rather interesting bit of information:

Morgan later used his show to press his point further. He also flashed the excerpt from his book in which he recounts how someone had warned him that his phones could be hacked.

"Apparently, if you don't change the standard security code that every phone comes with, then anyone can call your number and, if you don't answer, tap in the standard four-digit code to hear all your messages," he wrote. "I'll change mine just in case, but it makes me wonder how many public figures and celebrities are aware of this little trick.

One commentator on a British gossip website asked: "Why would he mention such a trick unless he was smugly hinting at what was taking place while he was an editor?" Another wondered if Mensch had "hit a nerve?"

Among the pair's Twitter messages, Morgan asked journalists to buy his book, saying it was a "good read."
Mensch Tweeted: "New American readers may wish to know the circumstances in which Morgan left the Mirror."

He was fired in 2004 after authorizing the publication of photographs allegedly showing British Army soldiers torturing Iraqis — but which were actually fakes.

I am not personally a fan of Piers Morgan, and have not bothered to watch the time slot that once belonged to Larry King, except for once when Bill Maher made an appearance on the program.  I liked Maher, but found Morgan insufferable.

Personally I do not find it much of a stretch to consider that Morgan might very well have been involved in the phone hacking, and it is my hope that law enforcement should investigate him to find out one way or the other.

Seems fair, right?

BTW I should admit that I AM a fan of MP Louise Mensch, and found her grilling of Rupert Murdoch while he was testifying before Parliament to be perhaps the most compelling part of what was a VERY entertaining piece of history.

Some chilling words from Bill Maher.

I tend not to agree that Palin has a chance to become President, and I am always taken aback by the fact that there are many well educated people who believe it is not an impossibility.

I will say that if there was a devastating terrorist attack, and Obama was perceived to have not reacted adequately, that all bets are off as to how terrified and stupid the American people would suddenly become in response.

In THAT climate even an idiot like Sarah Palin, who did nothing but talk about God and American exceptional-ism, might actually have a shot.

However I have great confidence that Obama WOULD react appropriately, so this scenario is unlikely to present itself.

Anybody of a different opinion?

Math hates Rick Santorum.

The other day GOP Presidential candidate, and mathematical wizard, Rick Santorum had the following back and forth with CNN's Ali Velshi:

SANTORUM: [Obama] passed a huge stimulus package that now we know, over the past two quarters, has actually cost American jobs, and that’s from the report of his own administration. They claimed in December that, uh, by the end of last year that they created 280 million jobs, and now they’re saying that they created only 240 million jobs. So look, in this, you’re talking about huge increases in spending.

ALI VELSHI: Senator, I’m going to ask you to restate that, I’ve never heard that in my life. Tell me again, what you just said.

SANTORUM: If you look at the report that came out on Friday, the President’s own economic advisers said that the jobs stimulus package actually created fewer jobs over the period of time, since the uh, since the stimulus package went in place than it did when they reported back in December. In other words, there’s 30 million less jobs as a result of the stimulus package.

VELSHI: That’s not a loss of jobs, Senator, that’s a smaller aggregation of jobs. You can’t go on a campaign, a national campaign with this kind of math Senator. It’s just incorrect…I know you’ve got a lot of interviews to do. You might want to check that math.

Here is the video of the exchange.



As ridiculous as Santorum appears during this argument with Velshi, Think Progress points out that Santorum just gave the Obama administration credit for completely solving the jobs crisis and is too ignorant to realize it.

Velshi is absolutely correct that Santorum needs to check his math, but he missed the huge problem with Santorum’s numbers. The entire American civilian labor force is about 153 million people. There are currently 13.9 million people unemployed. If the Obama administration had created 240 to 280 million jobs, the unemployment crisis would have been solved several times over, and America would have so many jobs that it would need to start employing workers from all over the world just to fill all the available positions.

So either Barack Obama is the greatest President in American history, and can solve economic problems with a wave of his hand, or Rick Santorum is an under educated douchebag.

Sadly it appears the latter is more likely.

(Though to be fair, if we give him a second term in office Obama just might prove to be the former as well. I still have hope.)

Bill Maher: "Republicanism has become a religion." I have to say that makes perfect sense to me.

Courtesy of Raw Story:

HBO’s Bill Maher told CNN’s Anderson Cooper Tuesday that “as a sane person,” it was tough to watch the Republican presidential candidates debate.

“Republicanism has — it’s really become a religion,” he noted. “And when I say religion, I mean they just have a series of baseless assertions that they cleave to, you know, and it’s like, if there was just one sane person in that room to give perspective, but there wasn’t.”

You know thinking about the Republican party in this way suddenly makes every crazy thing they do make sense.

This is why the Republicans are constantly talking about faith and values.  They are not talking about Christian faith and values, they are talking about the Church of Republicanism's faith and values.

Which apparently simply refers to an ability to suspend intellectual thought, ignore the suffering of the less fortunate, put the needs of the unborn before the needs of the living, and embrace a level of hypocrisy that would make Jesus weep.

I would imagine that the deity they worship is no longer the God of the Old Testament, but rather a mythologized version of Ronald Reagan.

After a day like today with so much Sarah Palin and Sean Hannity overload, you just need to take a shot of Cafferty. Jack Cafferty that is.

Ahh, that's the stuff!

And did you hear what Jack said?  Geoffrey Dunn's book "ought to be required reading for anybody considering supporting a Presidential run by this woman."

I agree, because if you had even half of a brain, reading what is in that book should send you screaming into the arms of ANY other Republican candidate.