After Mocking Rick Perry for Calling Twitter 'Tweeter' Chris Matthews

John Lennon in the '70s sang about instant karma getting you. On Wednesday's "Hardball," two weeks after mocking Texas governor Rick Perry for calling Twitter "Tweeter," the pathetically pompous Chris Matthews made the same mistake not once, but twice (video follows with transcript and commentary):
Noel Sheppard
July 6th, 2011 6:57 PM

Fareed Zakaria Praises Obama's Mideast Foreign Policy 'Restraint

CNN foreign affairs analyst Fareed Zakaria – who has recently had off-the-record conversations with President Obama on foreign issues – noted the president's "restraint" in his dealing with the "Arab Spring" and the conflict in Libya Wednesday. Zakaria previously gave a thumbs-up for Obama's Mideast speech in May and later defended the president's plan for removing American troops from…
Matt Hadro
July 6th, 2011 6:02 PM

UN Claims Going Green to Cost $76 Trillion

New survey calls for global governance and possible national energy caps.
Dan Gainor
July 6th, 2011 4:54 PM

Obama’s State Dept. Nominee: North Korea's Kim Jong-il ‘Smart, Cap

President Obama’s nominee to a top State Department post is one of the few American diplomats to have met North Korea’s Kim Jong-il, whom she later described as “smart, capable and supremely confident.” Wendy Sherman traveled to Pyongyang in 2000 in her capacity as counselor to then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Visiting South Korea four years later – when she was no longer in…
Patrick Goodenough
July 6th, 2011 4:49 PM

MSNBC's Religious Expert Excoriates 'Radical,' 'Theocratic' Christians

In a segment on the religiosity of Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry, MSNBC's Richard Lui on Wednesday looked to an author who has smeared conservative Christians as "radical," weird individuals who "hate" America. The guest host for Martin Bashir interviewed Frank Schaeffer, a blogger on the liberal Huffington Post website and also a constant critic of the religious right. Schaeffer, the son…
Scott Whitlock
July 6th, 2011 4:48 PM

Schieffer Bemoans 'Draconian' Cuts From Both Parties to Education, Poo

CBS's Bob Schieffer took on the role of a left-wing activist on Sunday's Face the Nation, as he pressed all four of his guests from both parties about cuts in state and local spending. Schieffer bewailed how both Republican Governors John Kasich and Scott Walker "cut deeply into education" and asked Democratic Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa if he felt good about making "draconian cuts" [audio clips…
Matthew Balan
July 6th, 2011 4:36 PM

Calm Morning Joe? Newsweek Boss Tina Brown Says GOP Are 'Suicide Bombe

Newsweek's Tina Brown compared congressional Republicans to suicide bombers on Wednesday's Morning Joe after lamenting their refusal to agree to the tax hikes demanded by Democrats. "I think they’re the suicide bombers in all of this," said Brown. Will Tina Brown be banned indefinitely from Morning Joe? Sounds harsher than a crotch reference. [VIDEO BELOW THE FOLD]
Eric Ames
July 6th, 2011 4:03 PM

CNN Anchor Uses David Brooks to Press Jim DeMint on Debt Ceiling Stand

American Morning co-host Christine Romans used David Brooks' words to press Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) Wednesday on the stubbornness of conservative Republicans in the debt ceiling debate. Brooks, the faux "conservative" writer for the New York Times, wrote a scathing column Monday hitting Republicans for their refusal to accept Democrat "compromises" in the debt ceiling debate. Romans twice…
Matt Hadro
July 6th, 2011 3:53 PM

Sen. Majority Whip: ‘I Don’t Disagree With Paul Ryan’‘Reduce C

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin praised Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) willingness to work on entitlement reform while on the Senate floor Wednesday stating, “I don’t disagree with Paul Ryan saying we have got to look honestly at Medicare.”
Eric Scheiner
July 6th, 2011 3:13 PM

White House Uses Progressive Media Director to Bully Conservatives on

Friday afternoon, the White House quietly released its annual report to Congress on White House staff salaries. Among the employees is the infamous director of progressive media and online response, Jesse Lee, who is paid $72,500 a year to provide White House sanctioned responses to any negative press it receives. The position, which was previously part of the privately-funded DNC's rapid…
Aubrey Vaughan
July 6th, 2011 3:10 PM

CNN Cancels Program of Former Democratic Governor Eliot Spitzer

After letting it wither on the vine for a while, CNN has canceled the nightly television program hosted by disgraced former New York governor Eliot Spitzer. The show, known as "In the Arena," had initially paired Spitzer with moderate conservative Kathleen Parker who proved no match for her much more vociferous liberal counterpart. AP reports on the lineup shuffle:
Matthew Sheffield
July 6th, 2011 2:35 PM

NY Times Magazine Cover Story Lauds Notorious Sex Columnist Dan Savage

A defense of infidelity, put forward by gay-rights activist and explicit sex-advice columnist Dan Savage and penned by Mark Oppenheimer, “Married, With Infidelities,” served as the cover of the latest New York Times Sunday Magazine. The subhead to the banner headline in the print edition described Savage as a “devoted husband, proud father, sex columnist.” Left off the resume: Doorknob licker…
Clay Waters
July 6th, 2011 12:57 PM

Pope Grover? CNN's Zakaria Sneers at Norquist's Tax Pledge: It's Like

CNN host Fareed Zakaria wasn't just on NPR last week dismissing Fox News as a CNN competitor. He spent most of an hour on Fresh Air with Terry Gross on June 30 sharing his liberal "wisdom" and promoting his book on "The Post-American World."  He may have encouraged the Chris Matthews 'fiscal Wahhabi" jag by comparing Grover Norquist's tax pledge to a "Vatican pronouncement." Pope Grover I? It…
Tim Graham
July 6th, 2011 11:53 AM

Open Thread: Obama's Twitter Town Hall

In another effort to engage the online community once bubbling with support for President Barack Obama, Obama will participate in a Twitter town hall today at 2 pm EDT to answer questions on jobs and the economy posed by Twitter users with the hashtag #askobama. The questions Obama answers will be handpicked by Twitter staffers and pre-selected Twitter users, who will be tracking the…
NB Staff
July 6th, 2011 10:10 AM