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Michele Bachmann

Bachmann To Speak At National Tea Party Convention


Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN)

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), will be speaking at the upcoming National Tea Party Convention in February, the group announced.

Bachmann has been a big supporter of the Tea Party movement, and was recently a key organizer of the Capitol Tea Party. At this upcoming event, she will speak at a breakfast.

The keynote speaker at the event will be another female conservative icon: Sarah Palin. It should be interesting to see the two of them with prominent speaking roles at the same event.

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Topics: Michele Bachmann, National Tea Party Convention, Sarah Palin, Tea Parties

Going Rogue

Palin Goes Rogue on Greta Van Susteren, Part 1

No, we're not just re-posting the same Sarah Palin interview highlight reel again and again. She's just been on a lot of shows. She's burned through Oprah Winfrey, Barbara Walters, Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly (Part 1, Part 2). But she's not done yet. Last night it was Greta Van Susteren.

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Topics: Going Rogue, Greta Van Susteren, Sarah Palin

President or Jihad?

Owner Of 'President Or Jihad' Billboard: Obama Is An 'Anti-Christian'

Last night, the man responsible for a billboard in Colorado that asks "President or Jihad?" appeared on MSNBC and explained his definition of "jihad."

"To me it means, it's an extreme element of a struggle to overcome somebody ... It's certainly not one of us. It's certainly not what an American is," said Phil Wolf, the owner of an auto dealership in Wheat Ridge, Colo., where he's posted the billboard.

"Do you think Obama wants a religious war?" asked host Ed Schultz.

"I think he is an anti-Christian," Wolf responded. When pressed, he said, "My statement up there on the sign has got a question mark behind it. And the question has to be answered."

Video after the jump.

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Topics: Barack Obama, Birthers, Fort Hood Shootings, President or Jihad?

America's Next Great Pundit

WaPo Announces The Winner Of 'America's Next Great Pundit'


America Next Great Pundit's Winner Kevin Huffman

The Washington Post has announced the winner of its "America's Next Great Pundit" contest. The winner of a three-month stint as an opinion columnist for the paper is Kevin Huffman, a Teach for America executive and Ohio native.

The two-month-long contest whittled 4,800 entries down to 10 contestants. Those finalists then had to compete in "challenges" designed to "test the skills a modern pundit must possess." They had to write columns, blog on deadline, answer reader questions and participate in a videotaped discussion.

In a format familiar to the world of reality shows, the winner of each round, determined by the judges, automatically moved to the next round. Reader votes then determined who would be cut.

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Topics: America's Next Great Pundit, Washington Post

Google

Google Buys Ad To Explain Offensive Michelle Obama Image

Google is using a house ad to explain why an offensive image of First Lady Michelle Obama is the first result in an image search.

Search Engine Land reports that complaints about the image appeared in a Google help forum last week. A Google employee responded to the complaints on Wednesday, explaining that Google does not remove results "simply because the content is in very poor taste or because we receive complaints concerning it."

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Topics: Google, Michelle Obama, Racism

Afghanistan

Obama: I Will Explain My Afghan Decision To America 'Shortly'


President Barack Obama

During a joint press conference with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today, President Obama addressed his upcoming announcement on his Afghanistan troops decision.

"I will be making an announcement to the American people about how we intend to move forward," the president said. "I will be doing so shortly."

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Topics: Afghanistan, Barack Obama

Tim Pawlenty

Pawlenty Slams Obama For His 'Dangerous Liberal Agenda'


Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN) and President Barack Obama

Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN) appeared on Sean Hannity's Fox News show last night, attacking President Obama for his "dangerous liberal agenda" that represents "one of the biggest bait-and-switch schemes in modern American political history."

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Topics: Barack Obama, Liberal Agenda, Right-wingers, Tim Pawlenty

Window Media

Shuttered Gay Weekly Gets $12,000 Grant To Launch Anew


The Southern Voice

Staff of the Southern Voice, a gay weekly in Atlanta and one of the handful of publications shut down abruptly by parent company Window Media last week, have received a $12,000 matching grant to start a new publication.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that the Lloyd E. Russell Foundation, which provides grants to organizations in the LGBQT and leather communities, will provide the matching grant to the Voice's founder and former owner, Chris Cash, and its erstwhile editor, Laura Douglas-Brown.

Cash and Douglas-Brown have been raising money through a new web site, SaveSoVo.com. Their yet-to-be-named publication will have both print and online editions.

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Topics: Newspapers, Southern Voice, Washington Blade, Window Media

Washington Times

Source: Men Take Boxes From John Solomon's Old Office At Wash Times


John Solomon (inset)

Over the weekend, Washington Times employees wondered what was going on when a group of men began hauling boxes out of the large executive office that was used by former Executive Editor John Solomon, a newsroom source tells TPM.

The four middle-aged men closed the blinds in the office and stayed in it for at least two hours, the source says. They left carrying a small box and some other items, in plain view of staffers on weekend duty. Then a pair of men went into the office suite used by Solomon and his assistant, on the mezzanine level of the paper, and carried out several moving boxes on a cart, according to the source.

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Topics: John Solomon, Tom McDevitt, Unification Church, Washington Times

Barack Obama

Obama: India State Visit 'Reflects The Abiding Bonds Of Respect' Between Two Countries


Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Barack Obama

The White House issued the following transcript of President Obama's remarks welcoming Indian Prime Minister Singh at the arrival ceremony. Here's the full text:

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Topics: Barack Obama, India, State Dinner, White House

John Ashcroft

Ashcroft: 9/11 Trials 'Less Than Optimal' If Your Priority Is 'Liberty And Life' Of Americans

At a fundraising event in Kansas, former Attorney General John Ashcroft joined in the criticisms of the Department of Justice for its plans to hold the civilian trials of five suspected terrorists in New York City, saying that this decision shows that "the administration doesn't appear to believe that we are in a war on terror."

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Topics: Department of Justice, John Ashcroft, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, New York City, Terrorists

Sarapocalypse

SNL Imagines Palin's 2012 Presidential Win: The End Of The World

SNL has a pretty devastating fake film trailer merging the world-destroying special effects of the new disaster movie 2012 with a Palin '12 election win.

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Topics: 2012, SNL, Sarah Palin, Sarapocalypse

Glenn Beck

Glenn Beck Announces He's Forming A '100-Year Plan'


Fox News personality Glenn Beck

In a post on his web site this weekend, Glenn Beck revealed that he is working on a "100-year plan" to "restore our nation to the maximum freedoms we were supposed to have been protecting" in what he calls the "Refounding."

Salon reports that Beck announced "The Plan" at a speech Saturday in The Villages, a massive retirement community in Florida.

"I've done a lot of reading on history in the last few years. And I was amazed to find that what we're experiencing now is really a ticking time bomb that they designed about a hundred years ago, at the beginning of the Progressive Movement," Beck said.

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Topics: Fox News, Glenn Beck, Right-wingers

Ari Fleischer

BCS Hires Ari Fleischer To Improve Image


Fmr. Bush Press Sec. Ari Fleischer

College football's Bowl Championship Series, the system for selecting which two teams will compete in the national championship game, has hired former Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer to improve its tarnished image among football fans.

Opponents of the BCS argue that its system of using polls and computer data to select teams should be replaced by playoffs, and some have even formed a PAC to lobby against the BCS.

"Playoff advocates have had an easy ride where they have never been called on to explain exactly how they would create an alternative. There is tremendous division among playoff advocates," Fleischer told Politico. "While the BCS has its share of critics, once people see both sides of the issue, they will see why the system has its great support."

Fleischer's firm specializes in media training for sports organizations, offering interview prep, crisis management training and other services. He's worked for Major League Baseball and Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association, among others, according to his firm's web site.

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Topics: Ari Fleischer, George W. Bush

Dick Cheney

Cheney: Obama Bow 'Very Upsetting' And 'Fundamentally Harmful'

Former Vice President Dick Cheney gave an interview to conservative talk radio host Scott Hennen today, in which he slammed President Obama's "fundamentally harmful" bow to the Japanese Emperor during his trip to Asia.

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Topics: Bowing, Dick Cheney, George H.W. Bush, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Richard Nixon

Going Rogue

Sarah Palin Goes Rogue on Bill O'Reilly, Part 2

As promised, here is our highlight reel of the second part of Sarah Palin's extended sit-down with Bill O'Reilly on The O'Reilly Factor:

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Topics: Bill O'Reilly, Fox News, Going Rogue, Sarah Palin

Department of Justice

DOJ Unseals Terror Charges In Minneapolis Against Eight Men

The Department of Justice issued the following statement on terror charges that have been unsealed in Minneapolis against eight men. Here's the full text:

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Topics: Department of Justice, Terrorism, Terrorists

John Barrasso

Barrasso: Mammogram Panel Would Have Killed My Wife


Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY)

Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) told Fox News today that a government task force that controversially recommended new guidelines for mammograms last week could kill women like his wife, a breast cancer survivor, if the health care reform bill passes.

The new guidelines are the "first step of rationing of health care in the country," he said. His wife was diagnosed with a mammogram, he said, and the cancer had already spread.

"The mammogram has saved her life. But yet this preventive panel, which the health care bill says, 'Oh no, they're the ones who get to decide what the prevention measures are paid for or not.' That panel would have not allowed her to have this care," Barrasso said.

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Topics: Death panels, Health care, John Barrasso, John McCain, Rationing

Lou Dobbs

Lou Dobbs Says He's Considering A Run For President


Lou Dobbs

In an appearance on Fred Thompson's radio show, Lou Dobbs responded to question about whether he'd consider a run for President by saying, "yes is the answer."

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Topics: 2012, Fred Thompson, Lou Dobbs, Radio

Fox News

Fox News Threatens Pink Slips For On-Screen Errors


Fox News Anchors

After a rash of mistakes and apologies over the past weeks, Fox News has sent a memo to employees announcing a new "zero tolerance" policy for on-screen errors.

FishBowlDC
obtained the memo, sent last Friday, which warns mistakes could lead to written warnings, suspensions and termination.

"Please know that jobs are on the line here. I can not stress that enough," the memo reads.

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Topics: Fox News, Going Rogue, Sarah Palin, Sean Hannity

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