Bill Maher responds to right wingers who are attacking Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move program as part of their attitude of attacking everything.
Sarah Palin is trying to trademark her name. I imagine this is to prevent “Sarah Palin” from being used generically for all idiots the way Kleenex is used generically for all facial tissue.
For now her application to trademark her name and Bristol’s name was rejected because the forms were submitted unsigned. She must have washed that portion of her hand.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5v1SkpUqYj0
Bill O’Reilly proves the existence of God, and Stephen Colbert responds.
While CNN had a banner running quoting the Egyptian Prime Minister claiming they had no restrictions on the press, two detained New York Times reporters demonstrated why Mubarak should be overthrown:
We had been detained by Egyptian authorities, handed over to the country’s dreaded Mukhabarat, the secret police, and interrogated. They left us all night in a cold room, on hard orange plastic stools, under fluorescent lights.
But our discomfort paled in comparison to the dull whacks and the screams of pain by Egyptian people that broke the stillness of the night. In one instance, between the cries of suffering, an officer said in Arabic, “You are talking to journalists? You are talking badly about your country?”
A voice, also in Arabic, answered: “You are committing a sin. You are committing a sin.”
We — Souad Mekhennet, Nicholas Kulish and a driver, who is not a journalist and was not involved in the demonstrations — were detained Thursday afternoon while driving into Cairo. We were stopped at a checkpoint and thus began a 24-hour journey through Egyptian detention, ending with — we were told by the soldiers who delivered us there — the secret police. When asked, they declined to identify themselves.
Captivity was terrible. We felt powerless — uncertain about where and how long we would be held. But the worst part had nothing to do with our treatment. It was seeing — and in particular hearing through the walls of this dreadful facility — the abuse of Egyptians at the hands of their own government.
For one day, we were trapped in the brutal maze where Egyptians are lost for months or even years. Our detainment threw into haunting relief the abuses of security services, the police, the secret police and the intelligence service, and explained why they were at the forefront of complaints made by the protesters.
Many journalists shared this experience, and many were kept in worse conditions — some suffering from injuries as well.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, over the period we were held there were 30 detentions of journalists, 26 assaults and 8 instances of equipment being seized. We saw a journalist with his head bandaged and others brought in with jackets thrown over their heads as they were led by armed men.
“While in Egypt, CNN’s Anderson Cooper was attacked and beaten, which raises two questions. Is it safe to send our media into these places? And how do we get Glenn Beck over there?” –Conan O’Brien
In follow up of yesterday’s story, The Note reports that John Kerry is not interested in being Secretary of State and is happy in his current position as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Of course the position of Secretary of State is not currently available. We shall see what happens should the position open ut. Timing might also be important as he’d have to have the position for a meaningful amount of time for it to be worth giving up his Senate seat and current Chairmanship.