Such thigh-slapping hilarity!  On the Washington Times radio show former Bush Attorney General Michael Mukasey was asked to respond to Virginia Congressman Jim Moran’s statement about Republicans attacking the decision to hold terrorist trials in New York. Moran had said, “They will seize on any opportunity to [demagogue], and that means they’ll even take a stand that’s un-American. It’s un-American to hold anyone indefinitely without trial. It’s against our principles as a nation.” (h/t Think Progress).

Q: Congressman Jim Moran of Virginia says anybody that questions KSM coming to New York City for a civilian trial — that they’re un-American. What is your reaction to that?

MUKASEY: I think he’s lost touch with reality. He ought to get professional help, perhaps from Maj. Nidal.

The hosts seem to think this is high humor.

According to Washington Times Editor Emeritus Wes Pruden you can’t blame President Obama for not understanding America because his father was Kenyan and his mother “was attracted to men of third world (h/t Think Progress). Pruden believes that Obama “on the loose in a foreign land is enough to frighten protocol officers and embarrass the rest of us.”  And Pruden doesn’t miss a shot at Bill Clinton:

It took Bill Clinton months to learn how to return a military salute worthy of a commander in chief; like any draft dodger, he kept poking a thumb in his eye until he finally got it.

But Obama’s foreign roots can excuse him, says Pruden:

It’s no fault of the president that he has no natural instinct or blood impulse for what the America of “the 57 states” is about.

A poll conducted by the Associated Press in association with Stanford University and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation shows that the majority of Americans favor taxing the rich to pay for health care.

The House bill would impose a 5.4 percent income tax surcharge on individuals making more than $500,000 a year and households making more than $1 million.

The poll tested views on an even more punitive taxation scheme that was under consideration earlier, when the tax would have hit people making more than $250,000 a year. Even at that level the poll showed majority support, with 57 percent in favor and 36 percent opposed.

While President Obama comes under fire for bowing to Japan’s Emperor Akihito, conservatives are ignoring the history of American presidents showing deference to, in come cases, questionable world leaders.

Richard Nixon embraced Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.

Nixon had a romantic moment staring into the eyes of Chairman Mao.

President Eisenhower bowed before French President Charles DeGaulle.

And Ronald Reagan went to Bitburg where 49 SS soldiers were buried, so as not to offend West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl.

On “Inside Washington,” columnist and commentator Mark Shields said he’s been bitten by the nostalgia bug (h/t Think Progress).

SHIELDS: We have a president of real intellectual horse power who is cool, detached and analytical and if anything you can watch the emotional side of him emerge in this whole process. … There’s an emotional aspect, the comforter in chief as well as the commander in chief. Both roles. And I think it makes me nostalgic for those days when we had a manly man in the White House who could say, “Let’s kick some tail and ask questions afterwards” you know? That’s what we really need instead of any reflection.

Jed Lewison had a little fun with Rudy Giuliani’s appearance over the weekend on Fox News Sunday. Remember, it was Joe Biden who famously said, “There’s only three things he mentions in a sentence: a noun, a verb, and 9/11.”

Vivid Entertainment says it has possession of sex tapes made by former Miss California USA Carrie Prejean and would like to be able to offer them to the public.  TMZ has the letter Vivid head Steve Hirsch sent to Prejean’s attorney, Charles Lemandri, looking to make a deal to distribute “erotic footage that Carrie Prejean, former Miss California, produced for her boyfriend following their four (4) day rendezvous in February 2007.”

TMZ has the same video (eight in all, along with 30 photos), “but has not posted [it] because it’s just too racy.”  There seems to be some dispute as to when the videos were shot.

Carrie claims she was underage when the videos were shot, but her ex-boyfriend to whom she sent the videos begs to differ.

But Carrie may have another plan to score some loot. We’re told she may sue the Miss Cali pageant, along with its officials, because she believes they leaked the settlement to TMZ.

Prejean’s ex says she wanted him to lie and claims the photos were taken when she was 17, according to TMZ. The boyfriend, who has not yet been identified, says they were done when she was 20, and that she sent him “numerous explicit videos.”  Here is TMZ’s interview with the ex:

John McCain’s campaign manager Steve Schmidt (right), told Politico that charges about him in Sarah Palin’s new book are “made up.”

Schmidt, Palin writes, was “grim-faced” and “cool,” and tried to pin the campaign’s troubles on what he claimed was Palin’s post-partum depression, and even went to so far as to try and dictate her diet.

According to excerpts…, Palin “took in his rotund physique and noted that he used nicotine to keep his own cognitive connections humming along.”

“I’m a forty-four year old, healthy, athletic woman raising five kids and governing a large state, I thought as his words faded into a background buzz. Sir, I really don’t know you yet. But you’ve told me how to dress, what to say, who to talk to, a lot of people not to talk to, who my heroes are supposed to be and we’re still losing. Now you’re going to tell me what to eat?”

Palin complains in the book about McCain’s aides smoking,  about Schmidt using “the f-bomb” in front of her child, Piper, and about being kept from talking to the press aboard the campaign plane.

“Aboard the campaign plane I was within twenty-five feet of reporters for hours on end. Headquarters’ strategy was that I should not go to the back of the aircraft and talk to the press,” Palin wrote, according to an excerpt that appeared Friday on the Drudge Report website. “At first this was subtle, but as the campaign wore on, [campaign aides] Tracey [Schmitt] or Tucker [Eskew] would call headquarters to request permission, and someone in DC would respond, ‘No! Absolutely not—block her if she tries to go back.’”

Funny that at the same time she complains about being kept from the press she says she was “pushed” to do the Katie Couric interview. Palin says campaign adviser Nicole Wallace (right) “pushed for Katie Couric and the CBS Evening News” because “Katie really needed a career boost.” Former campaign strategist John Weaver disputes this characterization.

“Sarah Palin reminds me of Jimmy Stewart in the movie ‘Harvey,’ complete with imaginary conversations. All books like these are revisionist and self-serving, by definition,” Weaver wrote in an email to POLITICO. “But the score-settling by someone who wants to be considered a serious national player is petty and pathetic.”

Palin’s account is also disputed by former McCain campaign manager Mark Salter (right).

Reflecting on the first set of interviews Palin did as the GOP vice presidential nominee, Salter said that the sit downs were “discussed and agreed to by senior members of the campaign staff in consultation with the candidate” and that Wallace did not choose either the journalists or the outlets Palin spoke to.

“Nicolle Wallace, along with others, was tasked with helping the Governor prepare for some of her interviews. She did not decide which interview requests the candidates would accept. Nor was she tasked with securing the candidates’ agreement,” Salter said.

Sarah Palin says she doesn’t believe in evolution, as pointed out in the New York Times review of her book.

Elsewhere in this volume she talks about creationism, saying she “didn’t believe in the theory that human beings — thinking, loving beings — originated from fish that sprouted legs and crawled out of the sea” or from “monkeys who eventually swung down from the trees.” In everything that happens to her, from meeting Todd to her selection by Mr. McCain for the Republican ticket, she sees the hand of God: “My life is in His hands. I encourage readers to do what I did many years ago, invite Him in to take over.”

During the 2008 presidential campaign she was at odds with McCain adviser Steve Schmidt on the issue:

“But your dad’s a science teacher,” Schmidt objected. “Yes.” “Then you know that science proves evolution,” added Schmidt. “Parts of evolution,” I said. “But I believe that God created us and also that He can create an evolutionary process that allows species to change and adapt.” Schmidt winced and raised his eyebrows. In the dim light, his sunglasses shifted atop his hear. I had just dared to mention the C-word: creationism. But I felt I was on solid factual ground.

However, in 2006, Palin said both evolution and creationism should be taught in schools.

Karl Rove believes President Obama bowing to the Japanese emperor is “inappropriate,” saying the bow is part of the president’s “world-wide apology tour.”

George W. Bush, however, seemed a bit more intimate with the world leaders with whom he consorted: