Ben Shapiro: Political Hack of the Day

Via Joe. My. God. Ben Shapiro has come out with a book making the case to arrest President Barack Obama. Shapiro has a rather dubious journalistic history. Shapiro wrote an article on Breitbart.com claiming a terrorist group called "Friends of Hamas" gave campaign contributions to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.

On Thursday, Senate sources told Breitbart News exclusively that they have been informed that one of the reasons that President Barack Obama’s nominee for Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel, has not turned over requested documents on his sources of foreign funding is that one of the names listed is a group purportedly called “Friends of Hamas.”

The problem with Shapiro's story is "Friends of Hamas" does not exist. David Weigel looked into "Friends of Hamas" and could find no proof of its existence.

Here's the problem: There's no proof that "Friends of Hamas" actually exists. At best, it's an organization so secret that nobody in government has thought to mention its existence. At worst, it's as fake as Manti Te'o's girlfriend. The Treasury Department, which designates sponsors of terror, has done so to many charities tied to Hamas. "Friends of Hamas" is not among them. The State Department doesn't designate it, either. And a bit less holistically, a Lexis search for the group reveals absolutely nothing.

Weigel contacted Shapiro. Pressed on his sources, Shapiro ducked the question.

But the "Friends" accusation goes further than that. It supposes that a pro-terror group exists, and further supposes that the non-existent group would back Hagel somehow. This morning I wrote Shapiro to clear up the accusation. "Have you found any more proof that this group exists?" I asked. "Is it just shorthand for some people who might support Hagel, or a real group?"

"The original story is the entirety of the information I have," he said.

Shapiro went on Thom Hartmann's show to accuse Sesame Street of spieling anti-liberal propaganda. Hilarity ensues.

What Was Alex Sink Thinking? (Updated)

I bet Alex Sink really wishes she could take this quote back.

"We have a lot of employers over on the beaches that rely upon workers and especially in this high-growth environment, where are you going to get people to work to clean our hotel rooms or do our landscaping?"

Alex Sink sees Hispanic people as cleaning maids and landscapers. How about future corporate executives or political leaders. Sink doesn't dream big.

Update: Dave Weigel provides context and the entire quote of Alex Sink's statement. Turns out the outrage over Sink's statement is much ado about nothing. Sink stressed the need for immigrants to have better opportunities. Sink told the story of the child of illegal immigrants who became a high school valedictorian and is now an attorney.

Immigration reform is important in our country. It's one of the main agenda items of the beaches' chamber of commerce, for obvious reasons, because we have a lot of employers over on the beaches that rely upon workers, and especially in this high-growth environment, where are you going to get people to work to clean our hotel rooms or do our landscaping? And we don’t need to put those employers in a position of hiring undocumented and illegal workers.

I believe that the Senate came together in a bipartisan way to forge a solution. It was a very tough negotiation, and Sen. Marco Rubio was a participant in that, and one of the leaders, and members of his own party has even come against him. For every example that you hear, I think about the high school valedictorian -- I believe he lives in this district now. High school valedictorian.

He was brought here when he was a young man, 9 or 10 years old. He didn’t choose to come here. His parents brought him. He was undocumented. And what does he do? How does he get an education? He did everything right. He became an incredible student. He even eventually ended up going to law school and becoming a lawyer. But right now he can't practice law because of his undocumented status. That’s not right. We need to bring these people out the shadows so that they're paying into Social Security, paying into Medicare, paying federal income taxes, so that they're not security issues. But they have to earn their way. So we need immigration reform and I would definitely join with Democrats and Republicans in the House and pass immigration reform as soon as possible.

I'm not the world's biggest Alex Sink fan but I do owe her an apology for not properly fact-checking her statement. Dave Jolly and the Republican Party of Florida should stop accusing Sink of racism.

Drudge Promotes Fearmongering Post Zimmerman Trial

Leave it to Matt Drudge to falsely claim that race riots are breaking out across America. The image above was taken from the homepage of The Drudge Report by Dave Weigel. Weigel checked the links posted by Drudge and found out that we are not experiencing racial violence in America.

Instead, there are links to a white guy in Portland saying that "every cop is a target," another link to the Oakland protests from Saturday, and a headline from the Daily Mail that doesn't really jibe with the story:

Like Glenn Reynolds of InstaPundit, Drudge plays up to xenophobia. These guys are without shame.

Romney, Ohio, & Trump

The media has declared President Obama the winner. The Mitt Romney campaign is contesting the vote in Ohio. Romney has other problems. Obama just pulled into the lead in Virginia. The college electoral map is so bad for Romney that Ohio will not likely help him.

If Romney is going to start contesting votes then Donald Trump is going to have to hold off on his calls for armed revolution against President Obama.

He lost the popular vote by a lot and won the election. We should have a revolution in this country!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 7, 2012

It is amazing that Trump is taken seriously in Republican circles.

Update: Dave Weigel tweets this bad news for Team Romney.

Nobody tell Rove, but the Ohio GOP has conceded and gone home.

When Satire Becomes Reality

Dave Weigel's article on the Herman Cain tea party event reads like an Onion article. That is not the fault of Weigel's prose. The tea party activists are buffoonish.

Weigel points out the absurdity of a Republican presidential candidate driven out of the race by a sex scandal and still holding rallies. Imagine progressives flocking to hear John Edwards speak in 2012. It isn't going to happen. In defense of Cain supporters, they are really fucking stupid. Check out their cheer if you don't believe me.

Chris Burgdon, Cain's cowboy-hatted videographer, boards another one of the six chariots and tells its occupants to get revved up.

"Gimme a 9-9-9!"

9-9-9

"Now say, we're not stupid!"

We're not stupid!

If the biggest PR goal of your movement is proving that you are not stupid than chances are no one in your group is going to discover the cure for cancer anytime in the near future.

Then there is William Temple. He is to the tea party movement what overweight 40 year-old guys that dress in green spandex Riddler costumes are to Comic Con. Temple has several different militia outfits he wears to tea party events. This moment Temple had with Weigel is surreal.

A waiter walks by, cradling a tray of crabcakes, each approximately the size of a gummy eraser.

"Ah, yes," says Temple, affecting his revolutionary-era accent. (Think of an extra from the John Adams mini-series.) "I'll have a full regiment."

Yes, there was nothing that George Washington's troops loved more at Valley Forge than mini-sized crabcakes.

You will not be shocked to learn that there were many empty seats at Cain's Renaissance Hotel event. As lame as this movement is, former DNC chair Tim Kaine lost the midterm elections to the tea party and RNC chair Michael Steele. The tea party may be a joke. Kaine is a bigger joke.

Pizzas & Protests

Dave Weigel took a photo of Wisconsin demonstrators making Ian's Pizza boxes into protest signs. Ian's Pizza has been delivering pizzas to the union protesters.

Quote of the Day

"Does the 'Charlie Crist 2012 merch go in the same landfill as the "Patriots 19-0" merch? Or a different landfill?"

Dave Weigel, on Twitter.

I look forward to the Charlie Crist and Ralph Nader debates in front of dozens of people.

Cindy Sheehan's Sad Swan Dive

Via Dave Weigel: Cindy Sheehan announces she is a 911 Truther. What has happened to this woman?

Rahm Emanuel Petition

Dave Weigel reports the Progressive Change Campaign Committee sent out a petition urging progressives to not contribute or do fundraising for Rahm Emanuel's campaign to become Chicago's next mayor.

I will not support Rahm Emanuel in any future election for Congress, Mayor of Chicago, Governor, or other office. He sold us out on the public option and is a weak Democrat who caves instead of fighting conservatives and corporate power. We won't forget the choices you've made, Rahm.

Weigel states the obvious about progressives hating Emanuel. What Weigel forgets is Emanuel called us "fucking retards." So, I would be more than happy to see Emanuel's campaign go down in flames.

Side note: I can't find the petition. Anyone have the link?

Update: Progressive Change Campaign Committee co-founder Adam Green made this statement to The Huffington Post.

"Rahm is unfit to represent Democrats in office," Progressive Change Campaign Committee co-founder Adam Green said. "He's a cancer on the Democratic Party. Democrats' current 2010 situation is due to a weak Rahm Emanuel mentality that says water down real reform at the urging of Republicans and corporations, thus making Democratic reform less popular with voters than the real deal would have been. If Democrats had passed the overwhelmingly-popular public option and broken up the big banks when they had the chance, they'd be cruising for a landslide victory right now."

Emanuel has offered Obama horrible political advice. The trouble is Obama thinks very much like Emanuel. Obama is govering like a state legislator and not a man who as the bully pulpit of the presidency. Jacob Weisberg eloquently made a point that I made several times on this blog. Obama refuses to fight for anything. Weisberg used Prop 8, Cordoba House, and the Arizona immigration ID bill. Can anyone remember delivering words that sounded passionate on any of those issues? John Edwards said that Obama's plans with Republicans and special interests to "nice them to death" would never work. Edwards is a deeply flawed man but was right about Obama. The Preident doesn't have a Plan B after the charisma wears off.

Worst Merchandise Idea Ever: Palin 'Refudiate' Shirts & Stickers

Via Dave Weigel: The Weekly Standard is currently running this ad for T-Shirts and bumper stickers they are selling.



Sarah Palin's famous "refudiate" disaster on Twitter is proudly used by the Weekly Standard. Somewhere in America right now an English teacher weeps.

Scott Leads McCollum by 35,000 Votes

Dave Weigel reports Rick Scott has a 35,000 vote lead over Bill McCollum in the Republican gubernatorial primary.

Rick Scott Heckled by Tea Bagger

We saw this at the townhall meeting last year. Can we officially say the obnoxious behavior by members of the Tea Party is an intentional campaign tactic. Dave Weigel posted a video of a tea bagger supporter of Bill McCollum being being disruptive. I am no fan of Scott but it does a disservice to voters if they spend more time ignore tea baggers.

Litbrit v. Dave Weigel

I have my own mixed feelings about the Sarah Palin/Trig story. I think Palin would be a horrible President regardless of whether of not Trig was her son. I do agree with Litbrit that Palin's explanations her Trig's birth do not make sense. Then again, nothing Palin says makes sense.

Litbrit takes Dave Weigal to task for his post defending Palin. Litbrit brings up the point that Palin's story of her airplane ride during a high-risk pregnancy sounds like bunk.

As you'll further recall, within a few days, various networks and newspapers reported on Sarah Palin's so-called "Wild Ride", a heroic tale of a woman in her eighth month of pregnancy (they're supposed to last nine months, Dave, or forty weeks if you want to be precise), who had ignored the customary warnings issued by obstetricians against air travel in the final trimester and was in Texas for an energy meeting with other Republican governors, and who despite waking up to leaking amniotic fluid and contractions (Palin's words, not mine, as told in interviews) did not go to the world-class hospital down the street, but rather, went to the luncheon, gave the speech (during which, she wrote, she experienced "big laughs; more contractions"), then boarded not one but two transcontinental flights, each of which took some four hours and had a layover in between, then bypassed the hospital in Anchorage--the one that had the NICU (that's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Dave) that any premature special-needs baby would require--and, she claims, delivered the baby at the Mat-Su Regional Hospital in Wasilla. The hospital that not only does not have the aforementioned facilities to care for special-needs babies, it does not even handle any high-risk births at all (high risk meaning, if the mother is over age 35. Or there are twins or triplets. You get the idea.)

The is Trig Palin's baby story makes me rather uncomfortable. I have stayed away from it. I do not believe Litbrit to be a conspiracy theorist. I would not be surprised if Palin embellished the Trig birth story to make herself seem more heroic. That doesn't mean Trig isn't her baby. That would mean Palin lied just like other candidates lie to make themselves look more favorable to voters. I won't go as far as to say Trig is not Palin's baby. If you wonder if I think Palin is a pathological liar then the answer is yes.

I do agree with Weigel that Palin's supporters would not care if Palin lied. Palin would just tell her fans that Trig is the Baby Jesus and all would be well in Alaska. Oliver North and G. Gordon Liddy can go on Fox News and be taken seriously by conservatives. Palin lying abourt Trig would be the fault of the evil liberal media.

Weigel made the mistake of defending Palin on Andrew Sullivan's blog. Weigel is entitled to his viewpoint but I can't believe he is surprised by the negative feedback from Sullivan's anti-Palin readership.

Yes, I am actually in Alaska and I am not writing about Levi/Bristol. Do. Not. Care. Leave her family alone.

Mr. Weigel, you recently got your ass chewed out for your posts on Journolist. I am not as well-known a blogger but i have been slammed by Free Republic, Auto Admit and a white supremist site. Weigel was forced to resign from the Washington Post and he is still surprised by the blowback of the blogosphere. Sigh.

Why Joe Barton Shouldn't Tweet

Rep. Joe Barton's Twitter account had the tweet "Joe Barton was right." The tweet linked to an American Spectator article. The tweet has since been deleted from Barton's account.. The Washington Post's Dave Weigel quoted a portion of the piece.

Rep. Joe Barton of Texas broke an iron law of Washington last week. He described the elephant in the room that no one was supposed to see. In this case, it was the strong-arming Obama & Co. applied to BP to get it to "voluntarily" set up a $20 billion fund to compensate Gulf citizens adversely affected by the oil spill. Barton used the inelegant term, "shakedown." He was promptly made to eat humble pie by his party's Congressional leaders, fearful that if they didn't clamp down, the Democrats would use it to tie the entire party to an unpopular company.

The op-ed Peter Hannaford goes on to blame Obama, Congressional Democrats and Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac for the housing crisis. Fannie and Freddie were horribly run companies but were too small to create the crisis. Banks were losing money off of credit default swaps. The banks couldn't cover mortgages so the institutions moved the mortgages to security accounts. The terrible irony was these security accounts were insured by credit default swaps. We can also take in rising unemployment and homes appraised at over their values as factors into the housing crisis. Fannie and Freddie were bad but not big enough to sink the entire housing market.

The rest of Hannaford's op-ed is how dare Obama pick on poor BP.

Mr. Obama's attorney general had already taken the unusual step of publicly announcing in advance a criminal investigation of the oil spill. This built pressure on BP, as did the concerted effort by everyone in the administration with access to a microphone to demonize it, as if it had deliberately caused the Deepwater Horizon rig to explode and unleash a flow of oil from the sea bed.

BP's attempted to drill for oil with cheap equipment. In 2005, 15 BP workers were killed in an explosion. The reason for the explosion was BP failing to follow safety guidelines. More recently, BP spilled oil into Alaska's North Slope. BP has other accidents and safety violations. Who does Hannaford think is to blame for this? Obama and pesky government regulations.

Michael 'Mo Money' Steele

Via Dave Weigel: A female student at Howard University told RNC Chairman Michael Steele she was going into Business law."

"Business law!" Steele exclaimed. "Mo money!"

Steele continues to his decades old catch phrases to portray himself as hip. It really is hysterical.