Open Thread: How Far Does the 11th Commandment Go

As the GOP presidential primary continues to heat up with another debate tonight at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, it is worth considering Reagan's famous "11th Commandment" in the context of this campaign. With such a large and diverse field of candidates, though, it is proving to be difficult to stand out from the crowd in any other way. Do you think any of the candidates will be…
NB Staff
September 7th, 2011 10:48 AM

Tom Friedman: The World Would Be a Better Place If Bush Had Raised Tax

America was in a post-stock market bubble bursting recession, had just suffered its worst mainland attack in its history, and New York Times columnist Tom Friedman believes ten years later all would have been made right if the President of the United States on September 12, 2001, had raised taxes. This is what Friedman, in his most recent blame all the troubles of the world on George W. Bush…
Noel Sheppard
September 7th, 2011 10:03 AM

With Job Growth at Zero, NY Times's Calmes Still Insists Obama's 'Stim

President Obama’s reaction to the latest lousy employment figures was framed by New York Times reporter Jackie Calmes on Saturday’s front page as “New Urgency in the Battle for Stimulus.” Calmes has long insisted Obama’s first multi-billion dollar economic “stimulus” was a success and did so again: Nonpartisan analysts and the Congressional Budget Office have credited the first stimulus…
Clay Waters
September 7th, 2011 9:33 AM

Barnicle, Brown Defend Hoffa: Suddenly Opposed To 'Sanitizing' Speech

Is there no double-standard depths to which the liberal media won't sink when it comes to provocative political speech? No—judging by the pitiful performance of two MSMers on today's Morning Joe in defending James "Take 'Em Out" Hoffa.   Newsweek editor Tina Brown brayed that we must not "sanitize" political speech or take the "juice" out of it--all the while condemning Michele Bachmann and…
Mark Finkelstein
September 7th, 2011 8:01 AM

GOP Debate Moderator Brian Williams Loves to Badger Republicans from t

Tonight Brian Williams will moderate, along with Politico's John F. Harris, the GOP presidential candidate debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. If recent performances by the NBC Nightly News anchor are an indication, candidates (particularly those favored by the Tea Party) should recognize his hostility to their agenda and be prepared for a number of topics and questions from the…
Geoffrey Dickens
September 7th, 2011 8:00 AM

Matt Damon: Obama Isn't 'Someone Like FDR

Time's Ten Questions to Matt Damon beat around the bush about Damon's disappointment with President Obama as he's failed to deliver for the teachers' unions, but when asked what kind of leader America needs, Damon suggested "someone like FDR," and not like Obama. They didn't discuss the Education Secretary offering to meet the celebrity at the airport. This has to be especially embarrassing…
Tim Graham
September 7th, 2011 6:57 AM

Daily Kos: 9/11 TV Specials Will Drive Right-wingers to Murder

George W. Bush may no longer be president, but leftists still hate remembrances of 9/11, since they perceive the "faux patriotism" it inspires to be too militaristic and pro-Bush. For an added layer of fervor, there's the Daily Kos leftists. The aptly named "Agnostic" of the "Church of Ineffable Stupidity" has decided that not only will the tenth anniversary media remembrances be a sickening…
Tim Graham
September 7th, 2011 6:08 AM

Ed Schultz Asks Hoffa 'Do You Think The Republicans Are Sons of B---he

Not surprisingly, MSNBC’s Ed Schultz was practically orgasmic with joy Tuesday over Teamsters president James Hoffa’s Labor Day declaration of war against the Tea Party. After telling his “Ed Show” audience that Obama’s poll numbers have been declining because he hasn’t spoken to the American people like the union boss, Schultz actually asked Hoffa, “Do you think the Republicans are sons of b…
Noel Sheppard
September 7th, 2011 12:14 AM

Biden's 'Barbarians' Blast Barely a Media Blip

Yesterday, at organized labor's traditional Labor Day picnic at Cincinnati's Coney Island amusement park, Vice President Joe Biden gave the keynote address. His key lines, as reported by Carl Weiser at the Cincinnati Enquirer's Politics Extra blog (video is here at MRC-TV): "... this is a different kind of fight. This is a fight for the heart and soul of the labor movement. This is a fight for…
Tom Blumer
September 6th, 2011 11:48 PM

Bozell Column: Skipping Violent Talk on the Left

After the mass shooting in Tucson of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, a federal judge, and other bystanders, President Obama gave one of those unite-the-divide speeches that give journalists leg thrills. We need to “sharpen our instincts for empathy,” he said. He lamented political finger-pointing: “It's important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we are talking with each other in a way…
Brent Bozell
September 6th, 2011 10:38 PM

Jonah Goldberg on Hoffa: There'd Be No Controversy If We Didn't Have

National Review's Jonah Goldberg on Tuesday, appearing on Fox News's "Special Report," put James Hoffa's Labor Day attack on the Tea Party in proper perspective. "We would not be in this mess, we would not have this controversy, if we did not have this bonfire of asininity that came out of the Tucson shootings where all of a sudden Sarah Palin’s Facebook Congressional map was somehow to blame…
Noel Sheppard
September 6th, 2011 10:34 PM

Tapper Pushes, But Carney Won't Put Distance Between Hoffa and Obama o

While ABC didn't find time for the James Hoffa outburst this morning, ABC reporter Jake Tapper repeatedly engaged White House press secretary Jay Carney on Tuesday on the question of whether Obama felt Hoffa was in the spirit of Obama's January speech in Tucson about the need for civility. Carney repeatedly backed away from the opportunity to distance the president from Obama (other than…
Tim Graham
September 6th, 2011 8:17 PM

NBC's Chuck Todd: 'Our Pollsters Are Concerned' About Obama's Poll Num

Is NBC News employing Democrat pollsters? Consider Chuck Todd's revealing statement about the most recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll made to Brian Williams on Tuesday's "Nightly News" (video follows with transcript and commentary):
Noel Sheppard
September 6th, 2011 7:59 PM

Feds Still Enable Terrorists 10 Years After

Ten years ago, after 9/11, Americans chanted, "We will never forget." Today the White House is chanting that it is not "just about us." Terrorism has been tempered and transformed ever since 2009, when President Barack Obama took office and turned the global war on terror into an "overseas contingency operation" and coddled the global Muslim community from Cairo by saying that part of his "…
Chuck Norris
September 6th, 2011 6:19 PM