O, M, G -- Price Tag for One New LA K-12 Complex: $578 Mil

Call it "No Contractor Left Behind." The Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools in Los Angeles, apparently opening soon, will serve roughly 4,200 students in grades K-12. Its cost is coming in at $578 million, or almost $140,000 per student ($2.75 million per 20-student classroom). This is the LA Unified District's most flagrant example of its Taj Mahal obsession, and it is far from the only one.…
Tom Blumer
August 22nd, 2010 8:40 PM

Bob Schieffer Blames Internet For Americans Believing Obama Is Muslim

Bob Schieffer on Sunday blamed the internet for the growing number of Americans that think Barack Obama is a Muslim.Namelessly referring to last week's Pew Research Center poll finding that eighteen percent now believe this, the "Face the Nation" host concluded Sunday's program saying that "in the internet age, ignorance travels as rapidly as great ideas." He continued, "Now, not only great minds…
Noel Sheppard
August 22nd, 2010 7:54 PM

'Ground Zero' or 'ground zero'? AP, NYT Long Ago Opted for Lower Case

File this under "Fascinating Things You Learn When Researching Other Things." The Associated Press's infamous memo huffing and puffing about how it will henceforth describe the 13-story mosque/community center/kumbaya center that Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf would like to have built on a site two blocks away from where the World Trade Center Towers once stood opened with this sentence: We should…
Tom Blumer
August 22nd, 2010 6:41 PM

Meet the Press: Dick Armey Slams Alan Greenspan's View of Bush Tax Cut

David Gregory on Sunday finally got an answer to his question about extending the Bush tax cuts, but it certainly wasn't what he was expecting.For those that have been watching "Meet the Press" this month, the host has been grilling his conservative guests about this issue ever since former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told him on August 1 that tax cuts don't pay for themselves.Having…
Noel Sheppard
August 22nd, 2010 6:04 PM

CNN Compares Ground Zero Protestors to Nazi Sympathizers

Take a peek at this picture on CNN.com as of 2:30pm eastern time (fuller picture after break): 
Kathleen McKinley
August 22nd, 2010 4:39 PM

George Will Schools Robert Reich On Deficit Spending, FDR and Herbert

George Will on Sunday gave Robert Reich a much-needed history lesson about deficit spending and liberal myths concerning Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Herbert Hoover.As the Roundtable segment on ABC's "This Week" moved to the current state of the economy, Reich predictably called for another stimulus package. "You can't even talk about stimulus because people say, 'Oh, that would create a deficit…
Noel Sheppard
August 22nd, 2010 3:26 PM

Amanpour on One-Sided This Week: ‘Profound Questions About Religious

Not even feigning the pretense of balance, a week after her roundtable hailed President Obama’s initial endorsement of the Ground Zero mosque (GZM), on this Sunday’s This Week host Christiane Amanpour featured an “exclusive” with two GZM proponents as she declared “the controversy has raised profound questions about religious tolerance and prejudice in the United States. And the backlash against…
Brent Baker
August 22nd, 2010 2:29 PM

Robert Reich Falsely Accuses Newt Gingrich Of Saying 'Muslims Are Like

Robert Reich on Sunday falsely accused former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich of saying Muslims are like Nazis.As NewsBusters reported last Monday, Gingrich was quoted by the New York Times as saying that building a mosque at Ground Zero "would be like putting a Nazi sign next to the Holocaust Museum."Gingrich elaborated on "Fox & Friends" that very morning:Nazis don't have the right to…
Noel Sheppard
August 22nd, 2010 1:19 PM

NPR’s Michel Martin Links Timothy McVeigh to Catholicism: ‘Did Any

On Sunday’s Reliable Sources on CNN, during a discussion of the Ground Zero mosque controversy, after Bloomberg’s Margaret Carlson recommended that the mosque be moved as a compromise, NPR’s Michel Martin – formerly of ABC News – compared relocating the mosque to similarly treating a Catholic church after the Oklahoma City bombing.Even though McVeigh -- who described himself as "agnostic" despite…
Brad Wilmouth
August 22nd, 2010 11:55 AM

Gloria Borger Bashes Obama's Teleprompter

Gloria Borger this weekend ridiculed Barack Obama's dependence on his trusted teleprompter.During the opening segment of the syndicated "Chris Matthews Show," the host was comparing the current White House resident to the late John F. Kennedy.After Matthews showed video clips of JFK and Richard Nixon during the 1960 presidential campaign, guest Dan Rather remarked, "I noticed in the acceptance…
Noel Sheppard
August 22nd, 2010 11:54 AM

Report: Shirley Sherrod to Meet with Vilsack on Tuesday; Will the Pres

The Theater of the Sherrod(s) is apparently not over. At AL.com last night, Mike Tomberlin of the Birmingham News reported the following: Former USDA employee Shirley Sherrod says she will meet Tuesday with agriculture secretary Shirley Sherrod, the former USDA rural development director for Georgia, said today she plans to meet Tuesday with U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to discuss…
Tom Blumer
August 22nd, 2010 11:13 AM

Michelle Obama's Portrait Displayed At The Smithsonian

Michelle Obama's portrait was displayed at the Smithsonian on Friday: 
Noel Sheppard
August 22nd, 2010 10:12 AM

WaPo Writer: Twisting Facts in Political Movies Okay in Order to Tell

Imagine a movie about Abraham Lincoln's assassination that neglects to include the character of John Wilkes Booth. Ridiculous, right? Well, that is pretty much what has happened in the movie Fair Game in which the person who leaked the name of Valerie Plame to Robert Novak, Richard Armitage, never appears in the film. So how to excuse such an absurd situation? Simple. Just write off complaints…
P.J. Gladnick
August 22nd, 2010 9:44 AM

Open Thread: America Is Becoming The Soviet Union

NB Staff
August 22nd, 2010 9:37 AM