The President’s Winning Streak

Eugene Robinson in the Washington Post makes a good case that President Obama has been much more successful than the media and the Blue Dogs are willing to admit. After 19 months, much has been done, yet there will always be naysayers:

If Obama had done back flips across the Potomac River, when he reached the other side he’d have faced probing questions about why it was taking him so long to cure cancer, solve the Arab-Israeli conflict and usher in an age of universal peace and prosperity.

Among the accomplishments:

Iraq War Vet Kills Dogs, Self, Daughter, And Pregnant Wife

When the statistics come out revealing the devastation of the Iraq (or any) war, the metrics don’t begin to tell the story of personal tragedy.  Pfc. Matthew Magdzas was a 23-year-old Wisconsin National Guard soldier who shot and killed his pregnant wife, their 13-month-old daughter, and their three dogs before killing himself.

Magdzas enlisted in the National Guard during the summer of 2004, between his junior and senior years in high school, Guthrie said. He had completed his training by October 2005 and was assigned to the Superior-based 950th Engineer Company.

He volunteered to deploy overseas with the Milwaukee-based …

On Thursday’s Radio Show…

Guest host Barry Weintraub fills in for Alan.…

Shot Fired Into Al Franken’s Home

A shot was fired into the condo belonging to MN Senator Al Franken and his wife.

Nobody was home at the time of the incident, which was not reported until after the senator and his wife returned home to Minneapolis after a two-day trip out of town on Tuesday and discovered the damage to their window facing the street.

…

“Right now it’s under investigation by the Minneapolis Police and the Capitol Hill Police,” Franken spokesman Marc Kimball told POLITICO.

Kimball said that “there was some damage to one of the window panes” in a double-paned window.

Kimball added that …

MO GOP Senate Candidate Pulls Video Showing Smoldering Remains Of 9/11

Roy Blunt’s campaign for U.S. Senate removed a video from its website showing the smoldering remains of the World Trade Center alongside audio of opponent Robin Carnahan saying she doesn’t want to tell New Yorkers what to do about the lower Manhattan Islamic Center (via Greg Sargent). Blunt says he didn’t know about it, and a campaign spokesperson blamed it on an unnamed staffer. (One can only imagine what they would be saying if Carnahan came out strongly in favor of the proposed structure).

This comes the same week that New York gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio is using 9/11 …

White House Responds To Poll Showing 1 In 5 Think Obama Is Muslim

It’s odd to see a headline that reads, “White House says Obama is Christian, prays daily.”  However, in an environment rife with anti-Islamic sentiment and an ignorant electorate that can’t accept that the president of the United States is a Christian, the White House felt it necessary to make this statement.

White House spokesman Bill Burton made the remarks hours after a poll showed that nearly one in five people, or 18 percent, said they think Obama is Muslim. That was up from 11 percent who said so in March 2009. The survey also showed that just 34 percent …

We’re All Worked Up Over… Nothing?

By James Frye

Ah, that proposed NYC community center that includes a mosque that’s “going to stand at Ground Zero” even though it’s going to be two blocks away and out of the line of sight of any visitors to the 9/11 site.  We’ve been arguing fiercely over it – some say building it is being insensitive to the families of the victims of 9/11.  Some plain don’t want any mosques built anywhere, ever.  Others defend it as a religious freedom issue, including the president.   Political types are sounding off as some are deafeningly quiet about it. 

It’s turning out that all of …

Gainesville Church To Burn Koran, Even Though Permit Is Denied

The Dove World Church has been denied a burn permit, but that isn’t going to stop them from conducting “International Burn A Quran Day” (via Think Progress).

The Gainesville church, the Dove World Outreach Center, has a history of inflammatory comments and campaigns against Islam and remained defiant despite the burn permit denial.

In an e-mail sent out Wednesday, the church said, “City of Gainesville denies burn permit – BUT WE WILL STILL BURN KORANS.”

The church will be fined for its infraction. Good thing they capitalized those letters or we might not have understood what they’re …

Sarah Palin Supports N-Word-Using Dr. Laura, Thinks She Lost First Amendment Rights

Sarah Palin thought Rahm Emanuel should have been fired for alleged use of the R-word (while giving Rush Limbaugh a pass), but believes that Dr. Laura should  ”reload” after using the N-Word, according to her favorite 140-character medium: (h/t Mediaite)

Dr.Laura:don’t retreat…reload! (Steps aside bc her 1st Amend.rights ceased 2exist thx 2activists trying 2silence”isn’t American,not fair”)

Dr.Laura=even more powerful & effective w/out the shackles, so watch out Constitutional obstructionists. And b thankful 4 her voice,America!

The Bill of Rights, something about which Palin fashions herself an expert and defender, is a document protecting the people from the …

Why Does Our Remaining Iraq Security Contingent Cost So Much And Where Is The Missing $8.7 Billion?

One thing is surely striking about our remaining non-combat presence in Iraq:

By October 2011, the State Department will assume responsibility for training the Iraqi police, a task that will largely be carried out by contractors. With no American soldiers to defuse sectarian tensions in northern Iraq, it will be up to American diplomats in two new $100 million outposts to head off potential confrontations between the Iraqi Army and Kurdish pesh merga forces.

“Two new $100 million outposts”?  Would one $100 million structure be enough? What is it that costs $200 million? Saddam Hussein’s palaces probably didn’t cost …

1 In 5 Americans Think Obama Is A Muslim

Believe it or not, this is not a joke.

The Washington Post reports on a new Pew Research Center survey.

The number of Americans who believe — wrongly — that President Obama is a Muslim has increased significantly since his inauguration and now account for nearly 20 percent of the nation’s population… The number of people who now correctly identify Obama as a Christian has dropped to 34 percent, down from nearly half when he took office.

Perhaps not surprisingly, right-wingers are the most likely to believe false information about the president’s faith.

More than a third of conservative Republicans …