Speech

By Peter Dreier and Christopher Martin Andrew Breitbart has a job to do and he does it well. Breitbart’s job is to lie and distort the truth in order to advance a right-wing agenda, embarrass liberals, and undermine the Obama administration. Breitbart is not a journalist, researcher, or pundit. He is a propagandist. He operates several websites (BigGovernment, BigJournalism, and BigHollywood), where he and other right-wing bloggers spew their political pornography.

8:36 - Finally found the press area and am set up! Pretty low key so far with most people sitting and waiting and some milling around. Lines at the county register booths are very short. Only two groups handing out lit on the way in was a union group saying we should build more stuff and a Palestinian rights person. Also the Bennet campaign was giving away Krispy Kreme donuts - my decision yesterday cost me a donut! Romanoff & Bennet teams are both out in force. More Romanoff signs (by far) both outside and inside. A lot of people wearing Romanoff t-shirts.

EUGENE, Ore. — Sarah Palin praised Republicans at a fundraising dinner in a liberal-leaning Oregon town for having the boldness to invite her to speak Friday evening. The former governor of Alaska and vice presidential candidate was the headliner for the Lane County Republican Party’s Lincoln Day dinner in Eugene. She spoke as about 150 demonstrators gathered peacefully outside the fundraiser. Home to the University of Oregon, Eugene is a Democratic stronghold in a blue state, and Lane County registers nearly twice as many Democrats as Republicans.

WASHINGTON, Ill. — Sarah Palin criticized President Barack Obama on Saturday for saying America is a military superpower “whether we like it or not,” saying she was taken aback by his comment. “I would hope that our leaders in Washington, D.C., understand we like to be a dominant superpower,” the former Alaska governor said.

By Geoff Schumacher “This is the Woodstock you’ll remember!” a Tea Party leader shouted at the first in a series of rallies the upstart conservative movement is organizing in more than 40 cities across the country. But for me, and no doubt for many of the estimated 9,000 people in attendance, Saturday’s “Showdown in Searchlight” was better off forgotten. The event was staged roughly two miles outside the town of Searchlight, home of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

“I don’t know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot; but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose.” With these fighting words, Teddy Roosevelt shrugged off an assassination attempt by a deranged Milwaukee saloon owner and — bullet still lodged in his chest — launched into a ninety-minute address railing against the corporatism and corruption that dominated both parties in Washington. The year was 1912, a time of widespread discontent among both Democratic and Republican reformers.

My favorites of the Our Gang short films of 75 and 80 years ago (back when “gang” was an innocent term), were the ones where Spanky McFarland became a 9 year-old Ziegfeld, and staged big shows full of all-kid casts on make-shift stages.

Today, Feb. 27, is the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s speech at Cooper Union in New York City, which the eminent Lincoln historian Harold Holzer has called the speech that made him president. Why was his address that night so successful, and what does it mean for us today, including for President Obama? The answer is, a lot. On Feb. 27, 1860, the nation was in mortal crisis. A crucial issue of the day was whether the Federal government could forbid the extension of slavery into U.S. territories.

The blogosphere, the fiber optic cables, and the airwaves have been buzzing with stories about Sarah Palin who, during a television interview connected with her speech at the conservative Tea Party convention, used crib notes written on her palm. You can see the infamous moment on YouTube . To compound the moment, Ms. Palin, threw a stone at the White House from her glass house during her speech when she said, “This is about the people. And it’s bigger than any king or queen of a tea party.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (8 PM CST) Ahh sweet Earl Grey Revolution! Sarah Palin knew that speech like the back of her hand. The Q&A answers, however, were on the front of her hand. Or so it appeared. During the Q&A following her speech at the Tea Party Convention, Ms. Palin appeared to read from her hand in answering. The following image was caught by some sharp-eyed Twitter users, notably @jryanlaw -> Tweet Photo link UPDATE #2 : A high-quality video on youtube seems to prove that something was indeed on the palm of Palin’s hand. The question is what.