White House Out Of Control: In Targeting Woodward, Team Obama Reeks Of Desperation

When a senior White House official resorts to threatening such a respected figure in journalism like Bob Woodward, all members of the journalism community'right/left/center'should find it unsettling.

Why?

If he or anyone in media can't do his or her job without attempting to be intimidated by a government official, we're in deep trouble.

Sure, the 'threat' isn't something out of the Paulie Walnuts playbook, but what appears to be a disagreement between two longtime major players inside the Beltway. The 'regret' comment followed senior White House aide Gene Sperling's petulant 30-minute temper tantrum to Woodward about getting it wrong on the President coming up with the idea of sequester.

Of course, the reporter spent months compiling material for his unflappable best-selling book, The Price of Politics, which includes in-depth interviews with everyone from John Boehner to President Obama to every major player involved in the failed 2011 Fiscal Cliff negotiations, but no matter. Woodward won't have to take the bus to work to avoid ever starting his car again. And unless he decides to take a trip to Yemen and happens to land on a certain kill list, the 69-year-old icon should be physically fine.

So with the hyperbolic stuff out of the way, in the case of the President's word vs. Woodward's notes on the sequester, I'm still going with the guy Bob Schieffer called 'the best reporter of our time.' No one has been trusted enough to be granted the level of access he's been afforded. According the New York Times book review, 'No reporter has more talent for getting Washington's inside story and telling it cogently.'

Woodward is unlike, say, his Washington Post counterpart Ezra Klein, who moonlights as an MSNBC host when he isn't challenging Mr. Woodward on the very facts he compiled from interviews and minutes for his book.

Klein is being used here as an example in an effort to highlight the differences between a writer/cable news host, who presides over programming that largely depends on myopic opinion, noise and presenting an argument that fits a general narrative of a network, and a seasoned reporter not looking to become a TV star on an ideological program.

Klein is a rising star at MSNBC'was once even rumored to be getting his own show'because he follows the rules of advocacy journalism without fail. Woodward, conversely, is a reporter without an agenda to advance or narrative to conform to. He has no cable show. He's isn't even a contributor on any network. He can be found on CNN, Fox or MSNBC with centrist, conservative or liberal hosts at any time, but only as a guest. Never raises his voice, never makes blind guesses on what may be going on with a particular situation.

Instead, he reports based on meticulous detail around the topic at hand via interviews he's done with people closest to the situation and recordings of meetings behind closed doors. It's what used to be called reporting. And he gains access to such sensitive discussions because he's trusted by members of both sides of the aisle.

Twelve #1 Best-Sellers and multiple Pulitzers back up all of these accolades.

So when Woodward challenges the President on 'moving the goal posts' on the sequester by adding tax increases to the conversation when revenue was never part of the original agreement with Republicans that focused strictly on spending cuts, or when he says the sequester was Mr. Obama's idea after the President says it wasn't, logical people'those without blind allegiances or aren't willing to debate without attacking the messenger'believe Woodward. They believe based on a lifetime record of telling nothing but the truth based on what he witnessed, wrote and recorded via extraordinary access.

Being publicly contradicted by Woodward is unfamiliar territory for some members of the Obama Administration, who aren't used to getting the kind of retort they received from him this week. They're also not used to not being able to simply demonize the opposition via its friends in the media, some of whom are now former senior officials.

That's because Woodward is unlike any target they've tried to knock down before. This isn't Sean Hannity going on a daily anti-Obama rant, it isn't Rush Limbaugh doing the same. It isn't Trump or a Breitbart writer or anyone else where the messenger could be dismissed a teabagging wingnut.

So apparently the only option left is to threaten the 69-year-old in an oh-so-2013 way: via email! It's amazing how brave allegedly mature adults can act behind a keyboard.

The threat to Mr. Woodward by a senior Obama Administration official for contradicting the President read this way:

'But I do truly believe you should rethink your comment about saying saying that Potus asking for revenues is moving the goal post. I know you may not believe this, but as a friend, I think you will regret staking out that claim.'

Woodward's reaction on CNN:

'It makes me very uncomfortable to have the White House telling reporters, you're going to regret doing something you believe in, even though we don't look at it that way, you do look at it that way.'

The response from some on the left has been either to cast doubt that such a threatening email even exists (it has since been released) or laughing at Woodward for being too sensitive. The former makes perfect sense, because, you know, Woodward has been caught fabricating documents since that whole Watergate thing. Of course he'll lie in this situation and in the process, put 40 years of being Washington's most respected figures just to align himself with a party (that he's hardly been a friend to) on the sequester. As for being too sensitive, the same people makng that claim would be in full hysteria if a very senior official from a Republican administration had sent the kind of 'regret' email to, say, Rachel Maddow. It's the usual hypocrisy.

For the first time since the President's first debate with Mitt Romney, the Team Obama PR offensive is on the defensive because (without the usual filter) they can't control the message. They sound desperate, look foolish, and simply can't process that any member of the press who isn't considered right wing would actually have the brass to refute them, particularly on such an important topic such as the sequester.

In the end, Woodward dismissed the threat'called it cartoon stuff.

But thanks to one of last honest men of the Fourth Estate, it's now one of the President's men who is looks like Wile E. Coyote chasing a Road Runner he'll never catch.

Follow Joe Concha on Twitter @ConchSports

'The Devil May Have Worn Prada, But Not This Pope': CNN Admits Benedict's Red Shoes Are Not Designer

During CNN's wall-to-wall coverage of Pope Benedict XVI's final day as the head of the Catholic Church, Christiane Amanpour was forced to make a major correction: contrary to what CNN, and other news sources, have been reporting for years, Benedict's signature red shoes were not made by Prada.

As the CNN team, including potential morning show co-hosts Erin Burnett and Chris Cuomo, watched Benedict's helicopter descend into his new residence at Castel Gandolfo, Amanpour broke the news with some help from her guest, New York's Monsignor Kevin Irwin.

'We have said for years,' Amanpour said, 'ever since we watched this Pope be elected in 2005, that he was wearing red Prada shoes. I'm afraid we have been wrong.'

Monsignor Irwin gave the CNN audience the real story. 'They are red shoes given to him because Constantine gave him the privileges of being an emperor and he allowed him to wear red shoes and a red cape,' he said. 'Frankly the Papal shoemaker is up the block. And it's not Prada. So the devil may have worn Prada but not this Pope.'

That last line elicited an audible guffaw from Burnett, who perhaps couldn't believe such a prominent Catholic leader so casually mentioned the devil and the Pope in the same sentence.

Watch video below, via CNN:

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>> Follow Matt Wilstein (@TheMattWilstein) on Twitter

John Cusack's Scathing, Profanity-Laced Opinion Piece Asks If Obama Is 'Just Another Ivy League A**hole?'

In an article published Wednesday on TruthOut.org, actor John Cusack lamented President Barack Obama's lackluster record on civil liberties and his administration's use of drones to conduct strikes against militants overseas. 'Is the President just another Ivy League Asshole?' Cusack asked.

RELATED: Jon Stewart Eviscerates Obama For Withholding Drone Memos: What Happened To 'Promise Of Transparency'?

'I wrote this a while back after Romney got the nom. In light of the blizzard of bullshit coming at us in the next few months I thought I would put it out now,' Cusack began in the opinion piece slash interview with a constitutional law professor he wrote for TruthOut.org.

'One is forced to asked the question: Is the President just another Ivy League Asshole shredding civil liberties and due process and sending people to die in some shithole for purely political reasons?' Cusack wrote

Cusack went on to lament Obama's disregard for history's lessons for great powers that seek to pacify Afghanistan. He wrote that Obama is 'the Christian president with the Muslim-sounding name, would heed the admonitions of neither religion's prophets about making war and do what no empire or leader, including Alexander the Great, could do: he would, he assured us 'get the job done in Afghanistan.''

'Change we can believe in' is not using the other guys' mob to clean up your own tracks while continuing to feed at the trough,' Cusack added.

'The chickens haven't come home to roost for the majority but the foundation has been set and the Constitution gutted,' he concluded.

h/t The Washington Examiner

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RedState's Erick Erickson Hits Conservative Media For 'Failing To Advance Ideas,' Constant Outrage

The 'conservative media is failing to advance ideas and stories,' RedState editor Erick Erickson asserted on Wednesday. Noting that the echo in the chamber has gotten too loud, Erickson urged conservatives to step away from the outrage and focus instead on integrity in reporting.

'Conservatives are trying so hard to highlight controversies, no matter how trivial, we have forgotten the basics of reporting: W5 + H as I learned in grade school, also known as who, what, where, when, why, and how,' he wrote. 'We need to establish a baseline for integrity in reporting that then allows us to highlight the truly outrageous.'

Erickson cited the 'Obamaphone' story as an example, explaining that while some conservatives aim for basic facts, they end up getting stuck on talking points. They 'seem to covet access to the Speaker, Senate Minority Leader, and Leadership,' reporting their side 'without question and turn conservatives in Congress into the butt of jokes.'

But this does nothing except undercut their own agenda. There is no reason to be outraged without first having all the facts, he said ' and furthermore, no use being outraged over everything.

'Conservatives must start telling stories, not just producing white papers and peddling daily outrage,' which means they must have a foundation of facts. With that he laid out RedState's own mission: 'educate conservative activists, motivate them to engage, and provide tools for easy activation and empowerment.'

'The echo in the chamber has gotten so loud'It translates only as anger and noise, neither of which are conducive to the art of persuasion.'

Erickson previously made a similar argument, calling out conservatives for becoming 'outrage pimps' and 'professional victims.' It's ineffective to be the humorless, angry opposition, he contended.

Read the full post here.

Piers Morgan Lays Into 'Idiotic' Pizzeria Owner For Gun Promotion: 'I Hope It Fails Miserably'

A pizzeria owner from Virginia Beach recently injected himself into the national conversation on guns by offering a 15% discount to anyone who entered his shop carrying a gun. Tuesday night, that young man, Jay Laze, found himself on the wrong side of Piers Morgan's outrage on CNN.

Morgan explained the story before his via-satellite interview with Laze, saying, 'not surprisingly, I'm not a huge fan of this idea' and asking the man behind it to 'explain to me why this is not as dumb as I think it is.'

Laze proceeded to explain to Morgan that having so many people with guns in his store, and given the apparent success of the promotion there are a lot them, makes him feel safer in the event that a criminal tries to 'do anything funny.' Asked how he knows the people taking advantage of his discount aren't mentally ill or criminals, Laze simply said 'because they can walk in on their own two feet and drove here.'

Morgan had trouble seeing eye-to-eye with Laze on a variety of gun-related issues. Laze argued that President Obama is trying to force Americans to register their guns so the government can take them away but couldn't point to any specific examples of people he knows whose guns have been confiscated. He also argued that the United Nations posed the biggest threat to American citizens who must be properly armed to prevent against an attack from that organization.

Realizing that they weren't going to agree on the gun issues, Morgan turned to 'the profits you're making from this extremely cynical commercial exercise involving armed people who you have no idea who they are coming to your restaurant,' asking, 'that's why you're doing it, to make money, isn't it?'

After Laze admitted that he is using the promotion to make money so he can dedicate his work 'to society' later in life, Morgan began to tear into him for actively making his restaurant, and by extension the country, a more dangerous place by encouraging more people to carry guns. He closed the segment with a searing monologue against everything that he felt is wrong with Laze's plan:

'You're encouraging all these people who may or may not be criminals or mentally insane people armed to the teeth with weapons, the likelihood of there being an accident in your place or somebody doing something stupid has massively increased. Instead of making your restaurant safer going from zero shootings, you've increased the risk of a shooting. That's why I called you an idiot the other night. It's an idiotic premise to work off' That's exactly the kind of attitude that is unfortunately causing America, the most hideous gun violence problems. Mr Laze, good luck with your promotion. I hope it fails spectacularly.'

In the end, the inexperienced debater Laze was no match for a fired-up Piers Morgan, who's had ample practice on this subject over the last few months, taking on gun rights enthusiasts like Alex Jones and Ted Nugent.

But Laze has evidently tapped into something in his Virginia Beach community, where his customers are eager to get some reward for flaunting the privileges their Second Amendment right still affords them, even if it is just 15% off a pizza.

Watch video below, via CNN:

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>> Follow Matt Wilstein (@TheMattWilstein) on Twitter

Someone Finally Fixed the Worst Tattoo in the World, Actually Made It Rather Stunning

As folks that browse the Internet on a regular basis, chances are you've seen what's often called 'the worst tattoo in the world.' It features a photo of a beautiful woman in a wedding dress with a big smile juxtaposed against a man's arm that has what's supposed to be a portrait tattoo of the woman. Well, let's just say something went horribly awry, and the terrifying visage you see above was the result. Five years later, someone's actually fixed the horrifying tattoo, and it actually looks really good.

On the one-year anniversary of his wife's death, Chad Stahl went and got himself a tattoo. This was 2007. Unfortunately, he received a shamefully bad tattoo that what would eventually become an Internet meme. I'm sure inking a tattoo is a difficult job, but there are some results that are just unforgivable, and the one that graced Stahl's arm is a fine example.

He's had this monstrosity for for at least five years ' six if he got it in January of 2007. Let that sink in a bit. The whole reason he got the tattoo was to celebrate the life of his wife, who died in a house fire and left him with three children, and this was the result. It boggles the mind. Luckily, he finally has a tattoo of his wife of which to be proud.

Stahl went to Empire Ink in Akron, Ohio and had tattoo artist Scott Versago fix the botched tattoo. After the recounting of Stahl's story, Versago actually did the job for free. Well, free, but the publicity alone was probably worth the effort. Check out what Stahl ended up with after his session at Empire Ink:

Yeah. That's' about a million times better. It's a pretty uncanny resemblance to the woman in the photo. A happy ending for Stahl, and what's sure to be a moderate increase in attention for Versago. This might just be the most uplifting story you read on the Internet this weekend.

(Facebook via Yahoo!, image courtesy of Scott Versago)

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Nikki Finke Bashes Her Boss Jay Penske In Rant Against His 'Failing Trade,' Variety

In relaying Tuesday's news about Variety's new editors-in-chief, and move to drop their daily edition, Deadline Hollywood's Nikki Finke directed criticism toward her company's owner, Jay Penske, who she said lied to her ' while also questioning whether the 'failing trade' can be saved.

For starters: Penske, CEO of Penske Media Corporation, purchased Variety last year. Today, we learned he named Claudia Eller, Cynthia Littleton, and Andrew Wallenstein as the three editors-in-chief, overseeing coverage of television, digital content, and film respectively. Variety will also be moving to a once-a-week edition.

Penske (who also owns Deadline Hollywood), Finke said, 'tried to hire 5 to 6 other editors-in-chief for Variety but had no luck.' Hitting Variety's 'disastrous paywall' and general struggle, she then turned to the rumor mill:

Rumors that Eller was heading to Variety began surfacing in January. As recently as February 9th, I asked Penske and Eller to respond to them as soon as Eller began telling Hollywood openly that she was 'seriously considering' Penske's job offer. (Penske lied to me. Eller declined to comment.)

Finke went on to offer some details about Eller's time at the LA Times before moving on to the gloomy forecast of the aforementioned 'failing trade.' As a whole, she concluded, 'editorial morale at the entertainment trade is at its lowest ebb' ' and Penske's 'idea is to transform Variety into a thumb-sucking weekly about the entertainment business.'

Read the full story here.

Feigned Outrage 101: First Lady Oscar Hysteria Shows Cons Of 24/7 Advocacy 'Journalism'

The recent attacks from both conservatives and liberals on the First Lady's Oscar appearance and the President's golf weekend are perfect examples of a growing need for the media to create something out of nothing.

Michelle Obama performing an act as benign as announcing the winner of an award few will remember (quick, what movie won Best Picture last year? 94.6 percent of you can't answer that question without looking it up'even I had to) or the President playing a round of golf without allowing the press access are battles 'journalists' shouldn't bother wasting any calories on. Because when there's actually a story that's meaningful and tangible that justifies an adult conversation and/or actually could have an effect on people's lives, those living outside the bubble will only see it as more noise coming from a columnist, blog, publication or network with an agenda.

So why do attacks like this happen? Is it a matter of certain aspects of the media opposing everything the Obamas do because of ideology, racism or a combination of both?

In terms of racism, that dog don't hunt when applying unambiguous numbers to the debate: For the first time since FDR, Mr. Obama is the only Democrat to receive a majority vote in consecutive presidential elections. If racism is as rampant as some at, say, MSNBC claims it is via dog whistles and the like, it's hard to imagine the President even sniffing a second term'particularly when there were no economic tailwinds (high unemployment, minimal GDP growth, spiraling debt/deficits, unsustainable entitlements, etc.,) to allow for the relatively easy victories he scored against John McCain and Mitt Romney.

That leaves ideology, but what is ideological about an Oscar appearance or a weekend visit to the links? For the former, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush both also 'intruded' on the Oscars via taped appearances. Dwight Eisenhower played more golf than Obama could dream of. So what is driving this kind of hysterical behavior right out of the Seinfeld playbook, a show about nothing?

The answer, of course, is money. Blogs, opinion journalism and polarized cable networks are all in business to supply its audience something to get angry about. And some days, there just isn't enough raw material to fill 18-19 hours of programming.

Consequently, a need for controversy to be manufactured has emerged. In order to do so, cable news producers resort to a standard checklist of advocacy blogs and publications in an effort to find ideas for programming. In fact, they religiously depend on everything from Drudge to The Daily Caller to Daily Kos to Think Progress (depending on network) to assist in creating segments they see as (for lack of a better word) the sexiest.

For example, Michelle Obama at the Oscars is sexy because of the large audience watching the original program (viewers can relate) and the obvious name recognition. The President playing golf isn't all that attractive, but when adding in some Tiger Woods and a media bias angle into the mix (Obama will give an exclusive interview to Al Sharpton a few days after the Tiger trip, but can't bother with the White House Press Corps in any capacity), you've got some meat to chew on.

From there, producers will book the usual (tediously predictable) guests to 'battle' over the topic, and that producer can scratch one more segment off the laundry list.

Cable news in 2013 is no different from a McDonald's drive-thru: Demand is always strong and the orders just keep coming. It's a volume business. Cheap grub, instant gratification'but work can be long hours with lots of food (segments) to prepare.

So if you find the hyperbolic coverage of Michelle Obama at the Oscars as puerile as Marco Rubio taking a swig of water'

Congratulations!

You're either an objective, sane, logical person'

Or'you don't work for a media outlet that needs to cry wolf on an hourly basis just to satisfy a business model that depends on feeding its audience something, anything to keep the polarized fires burning.

Follow Joe Concha on Twitter @ConchSports

Michael Moore Goes Off On BuzzFeed For 'Lame' And 'Shoddy' Story On Detained Palestinian Oscar Nominee

Filmmaker Michael Moore has been lashing out at BuzzFeed on Twitter over the last 24 hours after the site published an article Monday accusing Moore of over-hyping a situation that occurred last week at Los Angeles International Airport.

Last Wednesday, Moore sent out a series of tweets discussing the apparent detention of Emad Burnat, the Palestinian director of the Oscar-nominated documentary 5 Broken Cameras. Burnat allegedly reached out to Moore from the airport after Homeland Security refused to let him enter the country. Moore chronicled the saga over dozens of tweets, a few of which can be found below:

Several days later, BuzzFeed's Tessa Stuart wrote that 'sources' (plural) at LAX 'challenged Moore's account of the events, calling the allegations that Burnat was detained 'baloney' and asserting the whole thing was an elaborate publicity stunt for the film.'

When Moore saw the article, he set off on another Twitter tear, this time with his anger directed squarely at BuzzFeed:

Stuart responded to Moore fairly quickly on Twitter, in further attempts to get an official response from him. In lieu of a formal interview, the site posted his tweets on the matter at the bottom of the story.

The site also added a single correction, saying 'An earlier version of this article referred in its deck and first sentence to 'sources' at LAX; in fact, as the body of the story made clear, the criticism of Moore's account came from a single airport official.'

For his part, BuzzFeed Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith offered in own response on Twitter after The Guardian's Glenn Greenwald accused the site of 'siding with government officials.'

In the end, the story appears to boil down to Michael Moore's word against that of a single airport security official. Perhaps Moore was using his fellow filmmaker's situation to draw attention to the struggles of Palestinians, as Burnat's film itself does. But that doesn't mean the situation at the airport wasn't as he described it. And, it seems equally likely that the source at LAX had his own incentive to play down the incident as to not embarrass the city of Los Angeles for unjustly detaining an Oscar nominee.

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>> Follow Matt Wilstein (@TheMattWilstein) on Twitter

In Meeting With Governors, Obama Lashes Out At Congressional GOP Who 'Oppose Any Idea I Put Forward'

During a news conference on Monday, President Barack Obama addressed a gathering of the nation's governors and warned about the impact that sequestration cuts could have on their states. He advocated for increased spending on infrastructure projects around the nation, and lashed out at Congressional Republicans who 'reflexively oppose any idea that I put forward, even if it's an idea that they once supported.'

RELATED: Obama Claims GOP Opposition To Fiscal Cliff Deal Is Personal: 'They Have To Take Me Out Of It'

Obama advocated for new infrastructure spending as a way to put unemployed Americans back to work, as well as to repair up the nation's failing roads and bridges. He said that the burden of this cost would not be imposed on taxpayers alone and a private partnership program would help fund those projects.

'I know that some people in Congress reflexively oppose any idea that I put forward, even if it's an idea that they once supported,' Obama said. 'But rebuilding infrastructure is not my idea. It's everybody's idea. It's what built this country.'

He praised governors from both parties who are actively improving their local infrastructure projects.

'Folks who think spending is our biggest concern should be more concerned than anybody about improving our infrastructure right now,' Obama concluded. 'We're talking about differed maintenance here. We know we have to spend the money.'

Watch the clip below via C-SPAN2:

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The Onion Apologizes For 'Crude And Offensive' Tweet About 9-Year-Old Oscar Nominee Quvenzhané Wallis

On Sunday night, The Onion's tweet about nine-year-old Oscar nominee Quvenzhané Wallis. The tweet was then deleted after an hour ' but the criticism online persisted. In response, on Monday morning, CEO Steve Hannah apologized for the 'crude and offensive' comment.

RELATED: Following Backlash, The Onion Deletes Tweet Calling 9-Year-Old Oscar Nominee A 'C**t'

Shortly after their tweet ' which read: 'Everyone else seems afraid to say it, but that Quvenzhané Wallis is kind of a cunt, right? #Oscars2013' ' there was no shortage of criticism, with many deeming the attempt at satire to be tasteless and inappropriate.

Hannah posted the following apology on The Onion's Facebook page, noting that Wallis deserves better:

On behalf of The Onion, I offer my personal apology to Quvenzhané Wallis and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the tweet that was circulated last night during the Oscars. It was crude and offensive'not to mention inconsistent with The Onion's commitment to parody and satire, however biting.

No person should be subjected to such a senseless, humorless comment masquerading as satire.

The tweet was taken down within an hour of publication. We have instituted new and tighter Twitter procedures to ensure that this kind of mistake does not occur again.

In addition, we are taking immediate steps to discipline those individuals responsible.

Miss Wallis, you are young and talented and deserve better. All of us at The Onion are deeply sorry.

Wallis was nominated for her role in Beasts of the Southern Wild.

MSNBC Contributor: Beyond Defense, All That's Left To Cut Are Seniors' Heating And Milk For Children

MSNBC contributor Joy-Ann Reid said on Monday's Now that the sequester cuts aimed at the Defense Department are the only effective way to cut wasteful government spending. She said that the Pentagon is 'where the money is.' Beyond defense, Reid said, the only aspects of the budget that can be cut are 'old peoples' lights and heating,' food stamps, or milk for children.

RELATED: MSNBC's Martin Bashir Compares Mitt Romney Unfavorably With Brutal Dictator Idi Amin

Both host Alex Wagner and former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele remarked at the novelty of Congressional Republicans' openly saying that sequester cuts to the defense department are welcome. They were surprised that the GOP's instinct to protect defense spending has been trumped by the need to cut the federal budget.

Reid said that this was simply the effect of 'reality setting in.'

'The reality ' when you look at the federal budget ' people say there is so much to cut, there is so much waste. There really, actually isn't that much,' Reid said.

'The big, giant pot of money is in defense and people have been loath to touch it for the reasons you said: the Republicans have stood in the way of ever touching the defense department,' Reid continued. 'But there really aren't other big, huge pots of money.'

'You can go ahead and cut all of the, you know, old peoples' home lighting and heating. And, you know, they want to cut food stamps and, you know, take away kids', you know, milk or whatever it is they think they want to cut,' Reid continued. 'You're not going to get a whole lot from that.'

In 2012, the federal government spent $3.7 trillion. Of that, approximately $716 billion ' less than one fifth ' of outlays were directed towards national defense.

Watch the clip below via MNBC

> >Follow Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) on Twitter

WATCH LIVE STREAM: Red Carpet Oscars 2013 Live Stream

The 85th annual Academy Awards are set for Sunday, February 24th and you can watch all of the red carpet action right here. Coverage will begin as early as 1:30pm ET and continue until the big show begins at 8:30pm.

And if you haven't already, vote for your Oscar picks in our Mediaite readers poll where you can see if your predictions are better than ours.

Watch the live stream below, via AP:

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>> Follow Matt Wilstein (@TheMattWilstein) on Twitter

Fmr. Press Secretary Gibbs Admits He Was Told 'Not To Acknowledge' That Drone Warfare 'Exists'

Joining MSNBC's Chris Hayes on Sunday morning's Up, former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs admitted that he was told by members of Barack Obama's administration 'not to admit' that a drone warfare program exists. Gibbs shocked MSNBC's panel guests by the admission that Obama was already focused on hiding the drone program from the press even before he took office in 2009.

RELATED: NY Times Buries The Lede: Anderson Cooper's Ratings Surge At 8PM

Hayes asked if the White House was 'sufficiently forthcoming' with information about the drone warfare program.

Gibbs replied that President Obama has acknowledged the need for the White House to be more forthcoming than they already have been with information about the drone warfare program overseas. However, he said that there are some aspects of the program that must remain classified.

'When I went through the process of becoming press secretary, one of the first things they told me was 'you're not even to acknowledge the drone program,' Gibbs said. 'You're not even to discuss that it exists.'

'Here's what's inherently crazy about that proposition: you're being asked a question based on reporting of a program that exists, right? So, you're the official government spokesperson acting as if the entire program ' pay no attention to the man behind the curtain,' Gibbs added. He said that the continued denials that the program existed when it had become undeniable undermined voters' confidence in the administration.

The MSNBC panel guests were surprised by Gibbs' admission. Columnist for the U.K. Guardian, Ana Marie Cox, said that it was surprising that the Obama transition team in 2008 was already focused on obscuring the details of the drone warfare program. 'An interesting statement about what the priorities were for the administration,' Cox said.

Center for American Progress President and CEO, Neera Tanden, said that the White House was in a tough position regarding drone warfare. She concluded, however, that Gibbs had a good point about how not being forthcoming could make voters cynical about the nature of transparency in the government.

Watch the clip below via MSNBC:

h/t Jordan Chariton

> >Follow Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) on Twitter

Candy Crowley Goes Off On McCain: If Sequester So Bad, Why Is Congress On Recess And Obama Golfing?

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) joined CNN anchor Candy Crowley on Sunday morning where he was asked about the ongoing Congressional fight over the mandatory cuts in the sequester slated to take effect next week. Crowley admonished McCain, Congress and the president for a seeming lack of urgency about the need to avoid the coming sequester cuts. All, she says, are saying that these cuts are unacceptable, but at the same time 'Congress goes on recess and the president [Barack Obama] goes golfing.'

RELATED: John McCain Defends Anti-Immigration GOP Heckler He Battled With At Town Hall Meeting

'Everyone thinks bad things are going to happen when these forced cuts go into effect,' Crowley began. 'If it is this dire ' and everyone agrees it is this dire ' what happens? Congress goes on recess and the president goes golfing.'

Crowley asked why there is not much more urgency among lawmakers about the need to avoid the sequester.

'I won't put all the blame on the President of the United States, but the president leads,' McCain said. 'The president should be calling us over somewhere ' Camp David, the White House ' somewhere.'

He added that the military has been the subject of too many budget cuts recently, and that is disproportional given the lack of impact that defense spending has on the debt.

'Shouldn't somebody somewhere be in a bundling somewhere trying got figure this out?' Crowley asked.

McCain said that his Republican colleagues in the Senate have been focused on attempting to avert the sequester for a year to no avail. He also warned the GOP in Congress against giving the president flexibility in how these cuts are implemented.

Watch the clip below via CNN:

> >Follow Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) on Twitter

MSNBC's Chris Hayes Was Invited To Speak At CPAC' And He Was Going To Attend'

MSNBC's Chris Hayes found himself to be the subject of his 'Story of the Week' Saturday when he discussed a recent invitation he received from the Conservative Political Action Conference. Hayes said he was 'surprised and oddly delighted' by the invitation and he initially thought 'of course I'll go.' But then, he thought better of it.

Hayes discussed receiving a form letter calling him 'one of America's leading conservative voices' and thought it could be enlightening, both for Republicans in attendance and himself, to share the stage with the likes of Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin. He changed his mind after being reminded of a 'pretty gross episode' from 2011.

That year, the board of the American Conservative Union (ACU), which sponsors CPAC, voted to ban the pro-gay rights group GOProud from signing on as a sponsor of the conference. Hayes stressed that he does not have any special affinity for GOProud, but 'the point is the principle.' He explained, 'it's not OK to ban organizations for reasons of pure bigotry. But the ACU does this because there's a powerful constituency within conservatism that won't have it any other way.'

Hayes found this policy, which according to GOProud is still in effect, to be particularly ironic since so much of this year's CPAC will be dedicated to figuring out how to make the Republican party more 'inclusive' in an effort to appeal to the current majority in America.

Ultimately, Hayes indicated that he would be turning down the invitation, unless the ACU decided to allow GOProud to participate in the annual event. He closed his segment with a question, asking, 'In the last few months there has been an absolute avalanche of articles and blog posts and essays and magazine cover stories and TV segments about How to Save the Republican Party, but is the Republican party worth saving?'

Watch video below, via MSNBC

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WWE's 'Real American' Tea Party Villains Break Character, Respond To 'Stupid Political Commentator' Glenn Beck

The WWE's Jack Swagger® and Zeb Colter® have hit back hard at Glenn Beck after Beck referred to them as 'stupid wrestling people' on his show. In a video posted online Friday, the two men perform a promo as their over-the-top Tea Party-inspired personae, before breaking character to address Beck's comments directly.

Beck had taken offense to the WWE characters, who he said were out to 'demonize' the Tea Party. 'Maybe that's the way WWE people view the Tea Party,' Beck said on his show. 'Maybe they love to hate the Tea Party.'

Pulling back to reveal the green-screen artifice of what they do, Wayne Keown (Colter) and Jake Hager (Swagger) explained to Beck that they are merely entertainers, with no larger political agenda.

'We aren't in the political business, or the immigration business. We are in the entertainment business,' Keown said. He went on to attack Beck directly for failing to give his audience credit when it comes to the general understanding that pro-wrestling is fake. 'Many of your followers are WWE fans and they understand the difference between reality and entertainment,' he added. 'Are you out of touch with your audience Glenn? Or are you just a 'stupid political commentator?''

Keown once again extended the invitation for Beck to appear on Monday Night RAW this coming week, offering him five minutes of unedited air-time to offer a rebuttal. Beck has already rejected the offer once, saying, 'Unfortunately I am currently booked doing anything else.' Will Beck's desire for self-promotion over-take his reluctance to degrade himself by appearing with the 'stupid' WWE? We'll have to wait until Monday to find out.

Watch video below, via WWE:

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With Current TV On Its Way Out, Could Joy Behar Be Headed To CNN?

Now that Current TV is on its way off the air after Al Gore sold the channel to Al Jazeera, one of the network's most prominent personalities may be looking for a new job. Joy Behar brought her hour-long talk show to Current in 2012 after three years on HLN. Now The View co-host may be headed to CNN.

The New York Post is reporting that Behar met with new CNN head Jeff Zucker this week, sparking speculation that she is in talks to be a major part of that network's revamped line-up.

Behar was an occasional guest host on CNN's Larry King Live starting in 2007 before launching The Joy Behar Show on CNN's sister network HLN in 2009.

She began to more openly share her left leaning politics once she moved to Current last year, recently attacking Fox News directly for having 'no shortage of dicks' even after the departure of Dick Morris. If Behar does join the CNN team, it could be a good indicator that the network is moving in a more partisan, opinionated direction to better compete with MSNBC and Fox.

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White House's Jay Carney: It Would Be A 'Welcomed Development If The President Were Able To Legislate'

With all of the wrangling over the latest doomsday device set in motion by Republican hostage politics, the upcoming sequester deadline, sometimes the simplest solutions are the easiest to overlook. Rachel Maddow wondered, Wednesday night, why Congress doesn't just repeal the Budget Control Act. At Thursday's White House press briefing, Audio-Video News' Connie Lawn asked Press Secretary Jay Carney about an even simpler solution: 'Isn't there anything (the President) can do by executive order at this point to stop sequester?'

'With all the President's powers,' Lawn asked, 'isn't there anything he can do by executive order at this point to stop sequester?'

'It would certainly be a welcomed development if the President were able to legislate,' Carney replied. 'Unfortunately ' at least in this case ' unfortunately, that is not a power that the President has, and it is up to Congress to act.'

'Congress chose to write the sequester into law with overwhelming support from Republicans because it felt that the sequester would be so onerous as an outcome that it would never come to pass. Congress is responsible for making sure it does not come to pass,' he added.

'The President has provided, again, a series of proposals for how to eliminate the sequester; ensure that its effects are never felt by middle-class families across the country; and that those proposals represent real compromise, they represent the balance that, as we see again and again in surveys of public opinion, the American people strongly support. Unfortunately, thus far, we have seen from the Republicans intransigence and a seeming desire to flout the American people's will here and to allow the sequester to take effect, and that's unfortunate,' concluded Carney.

'He can't legislate,' Lawn said, 'but can't he mandate at this point?'

'It's, unfortunately, in this case, not in his power to eliminate the sequester,' Carney said. 'Congress needs to pass a law.'

What's funny about this exchange is that Congress, particularly Republicans in Congress, have chosen to give this President powers that make stopping the sequester look like Aquaman stuff. Even as they complain and second-guess the counter-terrorism drone program, Congress has shown little inclination to actually do anything about it. I love it when Republicans cry 'Tyranny!' about light bulbs, but show no inclination to repeal the Authorization for the Use of Military force.

Maybe the answer is to declare that there's a 'war on sequesters.'

Here's the clip, from The White House:

Follow Tommy Christopher (@TommyXtopher) on Twitter.

Rand Paul Warns Of Potential For Obama 'Raining A Hellfire Missile' On 'Someone Eating At Café In Boston'

Appearing on Fox's Happening Now this morning, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) blasted the Obama administration's use of drone strikes against American citizens suspected of plotting against the United States, and lamented the fact that the leaked DOJ 'white paper,' which he said essentially authorizes the president to assassinate American citizens without due process, could lead to targeted killings of American citizens on U.S. soil.

'The idea that you get a trial before a jury and a judge if you're accused of a crime is something that we've had in our history through English history, as well as through U.S. history, for 800 years,' the outspoken senator said. 'It's a very important part of the Bill of Rights: due process.'

Paul explained that he has submitted a letter to John Brennan, Obama's pick to head up the CIA, threatening to filibuster his nomination because of lack of answers on whether he'd view killing American citizens via drones as a legal act by the government.

'What we're talking about is not killing someone with a grenade launcher on their shoulder,' Paul explained. 'We're talking about someone eating at a café in Boston or New York and a hellfire missile comes raining in on them. There should be an easy answer from the administration on this. They should say absolutely no, we will not kill Americans in America without an accusation, a trial and a jury.'

He continued: 'And i'm not talking about people engaged in lethal force. I'm talking about people sitting in a café having coffee. People like this are being killed around the world. We should not do this in America and it's inexcusable that the administration will not answer, 'Absolutely, no, we will not do this.''

To Paul's point, people have been killed by American drone strikes abroad while at funerals, weddings, and eating roadside. The two well-known examples of American citizens being assassinated by a strike were Anwar Al-Awlaki and his Colorado-born 16-year-old son (each in separate strikes).

Host Jenna Lee asked why it is that Brennan has yet to answer his letter. 'I've gotten zero response, and that is sort of the way this administration is treating Congress,' Paul explained.

'The president says he has no intention but that is sort of like saying, well, he doesn't like the Second Amendment either but he doesn't intend to overturn it at this time. That is what he is saying,' the senator went on. 'He has no intention of dropping a drone or dropping a bomb from a drone on an American right now. He should say he has no right to do so without a trial. We're not talking about someone engaged in a lethal action or imminent violence; we're talking about people they're targeting who are sitting and potentially conspiring.'

Watch below, via Fox News:

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Colbert Tells Fallon He Hopes His 'Ridiculous' Profession 'Doesn't Sully' His Sister's 'Good Character'

Stephen Colbert has been fairly quiet thus far about his sister Elizabeth Colbert-Busch's run for Congress in South Carolina, only mentioning it once on The Colbert Report since she announced last month. But last night, Colbert made his first serious comments about his sister's campaign to Jimmy Fallon, and revealed he will be hosting a fundraiser for her this weekend.

Colbert explained his relative silence on the matter by saying he doesn't want his 'ridiculous' profession to 'sully her good character.' He said, 'It's natural for her to run because she has the skills and something to offer society' and offered some more background details about her life. 'She's an incredible person. She raised three kids by herself on a salary of like $14,000 a year, then she went to college, made something of herself and now she's going to be the Democratic nominee from South Carolina. Isn't that incredible?'

He announced that he will be hosting a fundraiser for Colbert-Busch Saturday at a bowling alley in South Carolina. 'We're going to raise money in the bowling alley because we're of the people,' Colbert said, adding that bowling is one of his favorite sports because drinking while playing is encouraged.

Fallon mentioned Colbert-Busch's website where you can get more information and donate, which Colbert said he's already done, 'because you gots to do for your older sister.'

Of course, Colbert and Fallon's late night conversation wasn't all serious. Later in the show, the two hosts settled their long-standing friendly rivalry by singing a duet of of the classic song 'Ivory and Ivory.'

Watch video below, via NBC:

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Trump Twitter Hacked? The Donald Quotes Lil Wayne Lyric About 'Hoes' Before Quickly Deleting It

According to Donald Trump, his Twitter account was 'seriously hacked' this morning. Trump tweeted out the Lil Wayne lyric, 'These hoes think they classy, well that's the class I'm skippen' to his more than 2 million followers and it was retweeted hundreds of times before he decided to delete it.

Twenty minutes later, Trump had apparently regained control of his account, tweeting an ominous warning to the hacking perpetrators.

If a group like the one that recently turned Burger King's Twitter feed into a McDonald's ad and turned Jeep's into one for Cadillac actually did hack Trump's account, it seems like they would have done more damage than one relatively tame rap lyric. Was this really a malicious hacking incident? Or just a careless mistake by whoever Trump has running his Twitter account? Or maybe Trump's just using the current Twitter hacking craze to drum up more publicity for himself now that his lawsuit feud with Bill Maher seems to have died down. What do you think?

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15 GOP Senators Sign Letter Urging Obama To Withdraw Chuck Hagel's Nomination

It's been a bumpy road for Chuck Hagel ever since President Obama nominated him to be the next defense secretary. And his critics don't appear to be letting up. On Thursday, a group of 15 senators signed a letter urging Obama to withdraw Hagel's nomination.

'While we respect Senator Hagel's honorable military service, in the interest of national security, we respectfully request that you withdraw his nomination,' the letter notes.

Senators who signed the letter are: John Cornyn (R-TX), Jim Inhofe (R-OK), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Roger Wicker (R-MS), David Vitter (R-LA), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Mike Lee (R-UT), Pat Toomey (R-PA), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Dan Coats (R-IN), Ron Johnson (R ' WI), Jim Risch (R-ID), John Barrasso (R-WY), Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Tim Scott (R-SC)

It goes on to point to precedent, explaining that 'over the last half-century, no Secretary of Defense has been confirmed and taken office with more than three Senators voting against him' ' and none have been confirmed with more than 11 opposing votes.

Contrasting Hagel with outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta's 'huge success,' the letter eventually looks to Hagel's confirmation hearings, during which his performance was 'deeply concerning.' The senators denounced Hagel's 'erratic record and myriad conversions on key national security issues,' adding that his 'ambivalence' on how to approach Iran is a significant concern.

Another especially vocal critic of Hagel, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) did not sign the letter.

Read it in full below:

Letter to President Obama on Hagel Nomination by

Ted Nugent: 'I Honor Blacks' While Obama And Democrats 'Engineer The Destruction Of Black America'

In his latest WorldNetDaily column, conservative rocker and gun enthusiast Ted Nugent asserted that 'I honor blacks' while President Obama and the Democratic Party are engineering the destruction of black America.

In honor of February's Black History Month, Nugent took to describing how, despite receiving 93-percent of the black vote, President Obama is 'the clear and present engineer of the destruction of black America.'

'The economic and social policies he endorses are destroying what is left of a once proud and strong black America,' he explained. 'As a MotorCity Motown guy whose gravity-defying career pivots on my intense adulation for my black musical heroes, it pains me deeply to witness this self-inflicted destructo derby. The destruction of blacks has been engineered by President Obama's party for at least the last 50 years.'

Nugent cites several statistics as his proof that black America has been harmed by the left's social welfare policies: the disparity between black and white unemployment rates; high dropout rates among black Americans in certain inner-cities; an 'epidemic' of black-on-black crime in Democratic-controlled cities with 'gun free zones'; and a large amount of black children raised in single-parent households.

'With all this unbelievable negative information, what is more unbelievable is that black Americans continue to support Democratic politicians who have raped and plundered black America forever,' Nugent wrote, adding that blacks seem to be the only ones unaware of how the Democrats have 'engineered' the destruction of 'black America.'

'I don't celebrate Black History Month. I celebrate it every day, as my very black-inspired musical dreams could not have been successful were it not for black Americans,' the musician added, citing Bo Diddly, James Brown, BB King, and others as some of his biggest influences in life and music.

As such, he concluded, he plans to name his 2013 tour: Ted Nugent Black Power 2013. 'Say it loud: my music is black and I'm proud!'

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Secret Hagel Donor?: White House Ducks Questions On 'Fox And Friends Of Hamas'

One of the great mysteries of former Senator Chuck Hagel's (R-NE) contentious pending confirmation as Secretary of Defense has been solved. A 'Breitbart News' story published two weeks ago, entitled 'Secret Hagel Donor (question mark) (colon) White House Spox Ducks Question On 'Friends Of Hamas,'' raised questions about the gullibility of Republicans like former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee and current Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), but no one could quite figure out the imaginary group 'Friends of Hamas'' origin story. The New York Daily News' Dan Friedman has now revealed that he accidentally invented them.

As it turns out, the source of the rumor was a joke, and I'm not referring to Breitbart News' Ben Shapiro, whose Feb. 6 report cited 'Senate sources' (an attribution looser than your average Ex-Lax binge) alleging that the reason for Sen. Hagel's refusal to comply with a deep-sea fishing request for financial disclosures 'is that one of the names listed is a group purportedly called 'Friends of Hamas.''

Shapiro's post concluded with a breathless tick-tock of White House press aide Eric Schultz's shocking decision to hang up on 'Breitbart News,' followed by dramatic reachings of Schultz's voicemail. Hence, the 'ducking.'

In the real world, that would have been the end of it, because most people would greet that report the same way Schultz did, with a spit-take, a guffaw, and a resumption of their daily activities. However, in the land of Republicanistan, this kind of 'reporting' catches fire, and is given serious consideration by the likes of Mike Huckabee, Rand Paul, The National Review's Andrew McCarthy, and Fox Business' Lou Dobbs. Normal people pointed and laughed, and thanked Shapiro for exposing just a little bit more Republican clownishness.

Still, the question remained: where did this imaginary group come from? Shapiro obviously wasn't making it up, or he would have also made up a decent attribution, and maybe a quote from Schultz, to boot. Slate's Dave Weigel reached out to Shapiro:

This morning I wrote Shapiro to clear up the accusation. 'Have you found any more proof that this group exists?' I asked. 'Is it just shorthand for some people who might support Hagel, or a real group?'

'The original story is the entirety of the information I have,' he said.

Then, The New York Daily News' Dan Friedman remembered calling a Republican aide, and asking, jokingly, about Sen. Hagel's past associations:

On Feb. 6, I called a Republican aide on Capitol Hill with a question: Did Hagel's Senate critics know of controversial groups that he had addressed?

Hagel was in hot water for alleged hostility to Israel. So, I asked my source, had Hagel given a speech to, say, the 'Junior League of Hezbollah, in France'? And: What about 'Friends of Hamas'?

The names were so over-the-top, so linked to terrorism in the Middle East, that it was clear I was talking hypothetically and hyperbolically. No one could take seriously the idea that organizations with those names existed ' let alone that a former senator would speak to them.

Perhaps complicating matters, Friedman sent a followup email calling back to the joke, asking ''Did he get $25K speaking fee from Friends of Hamas?'

The following day, Shapiro's item ran, and once he caught wind of it, Friedman contacted his source, and Shapiro:

On Monday, I reached my source. The person denied sharing my query with Breitbart but admitted the chance of having mentioned it to others. Since the source knew we spoke under a standard that my questions weren't for sharing, that's a problem.

But there was another fail-safe. Since the 'Friends of Hamas' speech was imaginary, it was not like another reporter could confirm it, right?

Not quite. Reached Tuesday, Shapiro acknowledged 'Friends of Hamas' might not exist. But he said his story used 'very, very specific language' to avoid flatly claiming it did.

'The story as reported is correct. Whether the information I was given by the source is correct I am not sure,' he said.

Of course Shapiro didn't bother to check (nor has he updated his story to indicate that the group 'might not exist'), because that's what a squirrel does; it tries to get a nut. That's not really the problem. The problem is that half of the people governing our country don't know the difference.

Shapiro, at least, has a point: there's no proof that 'Friends of Hamas' exists, but there's also no proof it doesn't. On a hunch, I decided to see if the White House was also covering for Hagel's involvement with 'Fox and Friends of Hamas,' which also might not exist, but is also a string of words containing the name 'Hamas.' So far, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney and White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest have refused to deny the connection, or the group's existence. Watch this space.

Update: Still no word from the White House on 'Fox and Friends of Hamas,' but Wonkette's Rebecca Schoenkopf notes that Shapiro has totally contradicted Friedman's account by not contradicting any of it, and revealed, in the process, that gullible Senate scrubs travel in packs of at least three. If you must read it, please note that Friedman says, above, that his source did not speak to Shapiro, but maybe did share the question with the dumbass who did.

Colbert Demands Answers About Obama's Secret 'Water-Hazard-Gate' Golf Vacation

Despite President Obama's claim that his is the 'most transparent presidency' in history, Stephen Colbert claimed Tuesday night that it's actually one of the 'most secretive.' Colbert pointed to recent gripes from the mainstream media that they were unable to access Obama's weekend of golf with Tiger Woods and others in Florida.

Colbert was just as outraged as the rest of the media voices, arguing, 'It's one thing to keep us in the dark about a fleet of flying robo-assassins, but a round of golf on your day off? Where's the judicial oversight?' He added, 'There are a lot of holes in this story. Specifically 18 of them,' before demanding more answers on 'water-hazard-gate.'

But as Colbert says, this weekend was just the 'tip of the secret-berg.' He then went on to describe what is arguably the president's most private activity of all, when multiple times a day Obama 'locks himself alone in a small tiled room.' Colbert demanded to know what the president is doing while he's in there, saying 'it does not pass the smell test.'

While White House Correspondents Association president Ed Henry is insisting that the media's outrage over this past weekend is 'not about golf ' it's about transparency,' Colbert is using his platform to mock how desperately the press want to invade the president's every move. Can't the media demand transparency on drones but let Obama play golf in piece?

Watch video below, via Comedy Central:

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Troubled CBS Anchor Resigns, Infidelity Allegations Emerge

WCBS-TV anchor Rob Morrison has resigned from his job three days after he was arrested for choking and threatening his wife.

Morrison was arrested at his Connecticut home this past weekend and charged with second-degree strangulation and threatening of his wife, CBS co-worker Ashley Morrison. While being processed for his charges, Morrison reportedly promised that he would 'kill' his wife when released.

And as details of the couple's seemingly tempestuous relationship come to light, the Daily News's sources allege that Morrison lost his previous job at NBC because of a 2008 affair with a co-worker.

Speaking exclusively with the paper Tuesday night, Morrison blamed his arrest on his mother-in-law who had phoned the police from her home in Indiana. 'Don't piss off your mother-in-law is the moral of the story,' he said, describing how he initially called her to see if she could end the dispute.

'I reached out to her mother in good faith looking for a level head in what was a chaotic situation and that's what I got in return,' he told the Daily News.

Morrison also denied ever making a threat against his wife's life, calling it an 'absolute fabrication.'

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WWE Demonizes Tea Party With Racist 'Real American' Villainous Character, Generates Outrage

The WWE has entered the Tea Party mockery game with character Jack Swagger and his villainous 'Real American' manager Zeb Colter, generating outcry from conservative fans of the pro-wrestling organization.

Appearing on Monday Night Raw last week, Swagger and Colter were booed by the crowd as they overzealously talked about the Constitution, the scourge of illegal immigration, and 'true patriotism.' Other promotional videos of the two show them talking about freeloading immigrants and welfare recipients in front of the Gadsden flag, which has become symbolic of the Tea Party movement.

Swagger is set to battle for the WWE Championship (or whatever it's called) against Mexican wrestler Alberto Del Rio ' clearly a play on the stereotypical tension between anti-immigration types and Mexicans.

Further hyping the 'Tea Party' gimmick, during one match ringside commentators Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler continually referred to Colter as Swagger's 'nutjob' manager, and said that the pair had received 'fan mail' from controversial conservatives like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Alex Jones.

Conservative blog Twitchy hit back at the WWE with a clever swipe at pro-'wrestling' itself: 'WWE's racist Tea Party villain as realistic as pro wrestling.'

(Speaking of which: Remember when my former boss called the 'sport' fake to a wrestler's face? That didn't pan out so well.)

Some reactions from conservative viewers on Twitter:

But of course, liberals like Media Matters fellow Oliver Willis seem to enjoy the new character:

Watch the video of Colter's 'real patriot' speech from last week's Monday Night Raw below:

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>> Follow Andrew Kirell (@AndrewKirell) on Twitter

Columbia Professor Strips Down To Underwear, Shows 9/11 Footage During Bizarre Physics Lecture

A freshmen Frontiers of Science class at Columbia University got more than they had bargained for on Monday during what has to be one of the strangest lecture introductions ever captured on video. Physics professor Emlyn Hughes, who lists research at the Large Hadron Collider as his primary area of study, treated the unsuspecting first years to a display they're not likely to forget anytime soon.

The Columbia Spectator describes the scene as students entered the class as follows:

As students filed into the lecture hall, all of the lights were off, except for two spotlights on stage where Hughes was sitting. With Lil Wayne's 'Drop It Like It's Hot' playing in the background, Hughes stripped down to his underwear, then proceeded to change into a black T-shirt and pants. Afterwards, he sat down on the chair, hugging his knees in a fetal position.

Then, as a jumbled video that included footage of the planes crashing into the Twin Towers on 9/11 continued to play on the screen, two figures dressed in black came on stage with long swords. One of them proceeded to chop a stuffed animal in half on a stool.

When Hughes' presentation was over, he attempted to quell the nervous laughter with an explanation: 'In order to learn quantum mechanics, you have to strip to your raw, erase all the garbage from your brain and start over again.'

The Spectator quoted several students who were offended by the World War II and 9/11 imagery, including Maura Barry-Garland, who said. 'It was very disturbing, and I don't think anyone in the audience got what he was doing. He didn't explain it or provide a context, and that's why it was offensive to me and to other people.'

Whatever Professor Emlyn Hughes was trying to get across to his young students, thanks to one intrepid freshmen with an iPhone, far more people than those inside the classroom are now able to receive his message.

Watch video below, via BWOG:

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>> Follow Matt Wilstein (@TheMattWilstein) on Twitter

Chilling Phone Calls Behind Foiled Justin Bieber Murder Plot Released

A couple months ago, we learned Justin Bieber was the apparent target of a foiled murder plot. In an update to that story, the audio, at times graphic, shows convict Dana Martin discussing the details of the strategy with Tanner Ruane, who would have carried it out.

RELATED: Justin Bieber Murder Plot Foiled By Convicted Killer Who Planned It

During the calls, which originated from the New Mexico prison where Martin is jailed, the pair talk about using 'hedge clippers' ' with Martin saying, 'He was going to kill the pitbulls and you're going to castrate them.' Pitbulls evidently referred to Bieber.

He also discussed, in detail, suffocating Bieber with his paisley scarf.

Martin is currently in prison for raping and murdering a teenage girl.

Audio of the calls included in the report below:

Obama's Blacked Out Vacation Inspires Shrugs From Howard Kurtz While Bush's Blacked Out Baghdad Trip An Outrage

'There is the small but inconvenient fact that the White House lied to the press,' said Howard Kurtz. No, he was not talking about any infraction committed by the Barack Obama's administration, nor was he discussing the President George W. Bush's oft-maligned justification for the war in Iraq. No, Kurtz was expressing his dismay that President Bush would obscure from the press his plans to visit the troops serving in Baghdad on Thanksgiving in 2003. On Monday, however, with the White House press corps expressing frustration that Obama has sequestered himself during his trip to Florida for golfing lessons with Tiger Woods, Kurtz advised the press to 'give the guy a break.'

RELATED: Howard Kurtz Trashes The Press for Frustration Over Access To Vacationing Obama: 'Give The Guy A Break'

'A lot of the journalists I've talked to today are upset that this kind of deception was engaged in, not for military secrecy ' although clearly there was a security aspect ' but to set up this grand turkey photo-op for the president,' Kurtz said admonishing President Bush on a CNN panel in 2003.

Apparently, Kurtz is selective about which of the press corps outrages he finds legitimate. His advice to the press corps in 2013 when being shut out by the White House is to accept that Obama's on vacation and back off. 'It's not him, it's you,' Kurtz wrote.

Kurtz's esteem for the operational necessity of keeping a president's trip to an active warzone a secret has evolved in the years that followed the Iraq war. In May, 2012, when Obama took a stealth trip to Afghanistan, Kurtz regarded it as a deft maneuver that ran rings around his Republican opponent, Mitt Romney.

In that piece, Kurtz recalled how Bush's 2003 expedition to Baghdad 'dominated the news for a couple of days,' though he made no mention of how he had scolded Bush for his administration's pre-trip mendacity with the press.

All that Kurtz observed about Obama's trip to Afghanistan was that the 44th President of the United States had scored a powerful symbolic victory which Romney could not match.

'[T]he image of the president who got Osama, surrounded by cheering soldiers in the country where the terrorist plotted the 9/11 attacks, is a statement in and of itself,' Kurtz wrote. 'Despite the leak, Obama's meticulously planned visit dramatically drove home the demise of bin Laden'and on that score, at least, it was mission accomplished.'

Apparently the advance of the calendar, and the changing of the guard in the White House, has a way of refining one's opinion about the necessity of transparent presidency.

> >Follow Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) on Twitter

Howard Kurtz Trashes The Press for Frustration Over Access To Vacationing Obama: 'Give The Guy A Break'

Members of the White House press corps have been openly critical of President Barack Obama's decision to restrict the media's access to him while he is vacationing in Florida. The president is taking some time off to partake in some golfing lessons from Tiger Woods while in the Sunshine State ' the media has been permitted 'absolutely no access' to the president. Media critic and columnist for The Daily Beast, Howard Kurtz, dismissed the press corps' frustrations on Monday saying that the media should 'give the guy a break.'

RELATED: White House Press Corps Expresses 'Extreme Frustration' With 'Absolutely No Access' To Obama During Vacation

'The grumbling reporters went public on Sunday evening,' Kurtz wrote.

He quoted Fox News Channel's Chief White House correspondent and current president of the White House Correspondents Association, Ed Henry, who released a statement in which he lamented Obama's decision to eschew transparency on his trip to Florida.

Kurtz conceded that he understands the press' frustration with being shut out by the president ' notably stating that it costs media outlets significant amounts of money to ship their reporters around the world to cover the president every minute of the day just to get shut out. However, Kurtz noted that, when the president is making no news, he is entitled to privacy.

'Why accompany the president on vacation?' Kurtz asked. 'The real reason is the body watch'in case anything happens to him, major news outlets want their person nearby. If a crisis erupts, the president might go to the microphones.'

'But sometimes, like this weekend, he's just playing with Tiger,' added Kurtz.

Still, while the press corps merely wants to be able to do its job, I have to say:

The president's on vacation.

He's entitled to a few days off.

He's not making any news.

It's not him, it's you.

'Give the guy a break,' Kurtz wrote. 'You'll see more of him soon enough. Or at least your designated poolers will during the next photo op.'

> >Follow Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) on Twitter

Kansas Brothers Celebrate Lottery Win With Meth, Accidentally Blow Up'

'We won the lottery! Let's celebrate' with meth.'

That is a best guess at the conversation that went down between two Kansas brothers who won a $75,000 scratch lottery and decided to spend part of their winnings on marijuana and meth.

And then they blew up their house on Friday while trying to do the drugs. According to Wichita police, the explosion occurred after one of the brothers refueled the butane torch they planned to use for lighting a bong. While emptying cans of lighter fluid, the butane leaked into the air and eventually reached the pilot light in the furnace.

And then the bong brothers' house went 'boom.'

One brother suffered second-degree burns on his hands, arms and chest. The 27-year-old man remains in serious but stable condition. The other brother is now in jail after admitting to possessing the narcotics.

[h/t CBS Local / image via Shutterstock]

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Dr. Ben Carson For President? 'I'll Leave That Up To God' He Tells This Week

Dr. Ben Carson made quite a splash with his remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast ' even recently eliciting a 'Ben Carson for President' editorial from the Wall Street Journal. On Sunday, Carson paid a visit to This Week to react to the paper's statement as well as the 'overwhelming' response he's received.

'Before I gave that talk, I prayed and asked God to give me wisdom ' what to say, what would resonate what would be important,' Carson said, asked about the response to his remarks. Adding that he didn't feel it was 'particularly political,' he went on to note that he's 'diagnosed' issues that resonate with many people. Hence the overwhelming response.

Zoning in on the actual discourse, Carson cited a need to 'tone down' the rhetoric and be able to have a reasonable discussion. 'I have never heard somebody talking about a flat tax at a prayer breakfast,' Karl remarked. It comes from the concept of tithing, Carson replied.

With that, they moved on to President Obama specifically. 'He's a very talented politician,' Carson remarked, but several of his policies simply aren't helping us. 'I don't want to sit here and say all his policies are bad. But what I would like to see more often is this nation is an open and intelligent conversation ' not just people casting aspersions at each other.'

People 'act like third graders,' he said.

Finally, Karl couldn't let him go without asking him about the WSJ editorial and whether Carson has interest in pursuing politics. 'It's not my intention,' he replied, 'but as I always say in every part of my life, I'll leave that up to God.'

'That sounded far from ruling it out,' Karl remarked.

Take a look, via ABC:

Karl Rove Dismisses Tea Party Backlash: We Need 'Fewer Christine O'Donnells And More Rand Pauls'

Through his new Conservative Victory Project, aimed at backing conservative candidates who will actually win elections, Karl Rove has upset some conservatives and Tea Partiers. This weekend, he paid a visit to Fox News Sunday, where Wallace confronted him with some of that backlash.

Rove said his favorite reaction was that of Mark Levin, who called him 'queen for a day.' They did spent $30 million on Tea Party candidates, Rove said, specifically citing Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL).

'Look, Todd Akin was not a Tea Party candidate,' he added. Their objective, he said, 'is to avoid having stupid candidates who can't win general elections. Who are undisciplined, can't raise money, aren't putting together the support necessary to win the general election campaign ' because this money is too difficult to raise to be spending it on the behalf of candidates who have little chance winning in the general election.'

Wallace interjected to play devil's advocate, pointing to critics' argument that there were plenty of poor establishment candidates as well. That's right, Rove replied, calling out Richard Mourdock but also placing blame on Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN).

'What does it say about the Republican Party,' Wallace asked, when someone like Rove steps in to essentially try to 'police' the types of candidates who emerge from primaries' and moreover, when Tea Party favorite Rubio gives the GOP response to the State of the Union but the Tea Party still feels the need to give their own response.

Rove 'never goes away,' Bob Woodward replied. The party's problem is with messaging and connecting to voters, he added, yet the focus here seems to be on money, which he said isn't the issue.

Woodward's right, Rove said, elaborating on the need to research and examine candidates thoroughly. 'The whole theory of Republicanism is to let the local state or district decide,' Woodward countered.

We believe in markets, Rove said, but further examination 'means fewer Christine O'Donnells and more Rand Pauls.'

Take a look, via Fox News: