wednesday night

The White House today announced that President Obama will deliver his much anticipated jobs speech before a joint session of Congress next Thursday. That date also happens to be the next GOP debate and John Boehner doesn’t like that:

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has asked President Obama to address a joint-session of Congress on Thursday, Sept. 8, when it wouldn't conflict with the Republican presidential debate.

Citing logistical difficulties, Boehner requested that Obama hold his jobs address, which Obama wants to deliver next Wednesday, one day later.

The Speaker's letter made no mention of the more obvious conflict: between the president's speech, and a Republican presidential debate scheduled on Wednesday night at 8 p.m. EST. That debate is the first of the post-Labor Day political season, and the first one in which Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) is set to participate.

Why can’t both happen at the same time? John Boehner had no problem giving a speech the same time as the President a few months back, so what’s the problem now?

The debate is scheduled to appear on MSNBC only, so I don’t see why MSNBC can’t run the debate and everyone else carry the address. Also there are only two members of Congress who are to appear in the debate. Is John Boehner saying he wants to shut the House down for this debate, especially after the totally ineffective Congress he has been running just gets off a 5-week taxpayer funded vacation? Who does he think he is fooling?

This has to be one of the worst smears in the history of smears:

In one of the most cynical displays in recent memory, following the lead of Gateway Pundit Jim Hoft, several  conservative websites - including Fox Nation and MRC arm CNS News - suggested that President Obama lied last night when he said that Rep. Giffords had opened her eyes for the first time shortly after his Wednesday night visit to the hospital.

In a recently-completed press conference, Giffords' doctor Peter Rhee explained that what Obama said last night about Giffords opening her eyes was "true."

In response to a question from a reporter about previous statements that Giffords could open her eyes, Rhee and Dr. B Michael Lemole, Section Chief of Neurosurgery at University Medical Center in Tuscon, explained the important distinction. Namely, Giffords previously opened her eyes in response to "stimulus," and yesterday she opened them spontaneously, which represented a "major milestone" in her recovery.

This week we have heard repeatedly from the right that the left has been “politicizing” the tragedy in Tucson. While some on the left have, the right has also engaged in this. Right here is a perfect example of that and also one of the most vile. For the doctors to have to address this when they should be caring for patients shows just how hot this issue became – an issue based on lies and hatred towards our President.

From ABC:

Federal air marshals subdued a man who authorities say attempted to "light his shoes on fire" on a United flight from Washington Reagan to Denver Wednesday night, federal law enforcement officials told ABC News.

Authorities say an explosive team is on the way to the airport, and that while the presence of explosives has not yet been confirmed, they believe it was an attempted "shoe bomb."

The suspect was identified by authorities as a diplomat in the Qatar embassy in Washington, Mohammed al Modadi. The FBI said the man had full diplomat immunity as the 3rd secretary and vice-consul.

Authorities said two jet fighters were scrambled from Buckley Air Force Base to accompany United flight 663, a Boeing 757, as it flew the final 40 miles to Denver where it landed safely.

Authorities said the man, identified as from Qatar, was restrained by the air marshals who were on the flight.

Coming up tomorrow – nonstop interviews with Dick Cheney.

UPDATE (10:40):

Per Pete Williams on MSNBC there is no shoe bomb. Apparently the suspect spent an extra long time in the bathroom. When he finally came out an air marshal said he smelled smoke and asked the suspect what he was doing. The suspect responded “trying to light my shoes on fire”. They now believe he was smoking a cigarette in the bathroom.

This headline:

Gun-toting soccer mom is shot dead

A very sad story indeed, but so ironic none the less:

Meleanie Hain, the pistol-carrying Lebanon mom who received national attention for taking a loaded gun to her daughter’s soccer game, was shot to death Wednesday night with her husband in an apparent murder-suicide, police said.

Hain, 31, and her husband, Scott, 33, were pronounced dead by Lebanon County Coroner Dr. Jeffrey Yocum shortly after 8:30 p.m. at their home at Second Avenue and East Grant Street, police said.

The couple’s three children were home at the time and were not injured, and are staying with relatives and friends, police said.

Thankfully the children were not victims of a crime that is becoming all to common. Given the legal fights Hain was in, I wonder if her battle for gun rights wasn’t a contributing factor to her untimely demise.

Day 4 of being President and the media is already crying foul:

A growing media frustration with Barack Obama’s team spilled into the open at Thursday’s briefing, with reporters accusing the White House of stifling access to his oath re-do and giving Obama’s first interview as president to a multi-million dollar inauguration sponsor.

Veteran CBS newsman Bill Plante was one of the most vocal critics, questioning the White House’s handling of Wednesday night’s second swearing in – which was covered by just a four-reporter print pool that didn’t include a news photographer or TV correspondent.

I guess the days of openness in government we had with Bush have come to an end.  </snark>

UPDATE:

And as I posted this, David Gregory popped up on Morning Joe to say how the Obama White House was trying to model the Bush White House when it comes to dealing with the media. Does that mean the Obama White House will try and prosecute journalists for doing their job? Yeah – I doubt that. I guess the media has forgotten about the Obama campaign. They were one of the most structured and disciplined teams in the history of politics. It’s a safe bet that the same will carry over into the White House.

True I got a feeling the media is still growling over the fact the White House has a blog. Ewww those dirty little pajama wearing, latte sipping, basement dwellers. How dare they!

On Wednesday night McCain issued a statement saying this:

"No representative of Paxson or Alcalde & Fay personally asked Senator McCain to send a letter to the FCC," the campaign said in a statement e-mailed to reporters.

However 5 years ago in a sworn deposition:

But that flat claim seems to be contradicted by an impeccable source: McCain himself. "I was contacted by Mr. Paxson on this issue," McCain said in the Sept. 25, 2002, deposition obtained by NEWSWEEK. "He wanted their approval very bad for purposes of his business. I believe that Mr. Paxson had a legitimate complaint."

So did McCain's campaign lie or did McCain perjure himself?

Check out the full article at Newsweek.

John has a video up of Olbermann tonight where he calls out O'Reilly again. This is a well deserved calling out (they all are) and proves that O'Reilly could care less about the memory of our fallen soldiers when it comes to proving a point or trying to win an argument:

Olbermann: The bodies at Malmedy were not found until a month later. There were 84 of them, all, American soldiers. More than half showed gunshot wounds to their heads. Six had received fatal **blows** to the head. Nine were found with their arms still raised **above** their heads.

The fact that O'Reilly got these horrible facts completely backwards -- twice -- offended even his own usually compliant viewers. From his program **Wednesday** night...Wrong answer.

When you're **that** wrong -- when you're defending Nazi War Criminals and pinning their crimes on Americans, and you get **caught** doing so -- **twice** -- you're supposed to say 'I'm sorry, I was wrong'... and then you should shut up for a long time. Instead, Fox **washed** its transcript of O'Reilly's remarks Tuesday -- its website claims O'Reilly said "In **Normandy**..." when in fact he said "In **Malmedy**..."

O'Reilly has done this twice now and it is nothing but a pure insult to the memory of those who died on that bloody day during World War 2. This is unforgivable and to make matters worse, FOX has tried to cover it up by changing the transcript on their site. It doesn't matter if you are a Democrat or Republican - it matters that you are an American who do care what our troops have done for our country in the past and present. This shows that a pussy like Bill O'Reilly has zero respect at all for them and it is time for him to be taken off the air permanently.