1.) Obama says words about other people’s money — Hey, how about that: Obama gave a press conference yesterday. Because there’s no problem he can’t worsen by opening his mouth. TheDC’s Amanda Carey reports on the Reprimander-in-Chief’s latest class war salvo: “President Barack Obama dug in his heels in support of eliminating certain tax breaks during a press conference Wednesday morning. In doing so, he put the spotlight on Republicans for defending what Democrats consider frivolous tax breaks. Obama hammered congressional Republicans for not being willing to give up their ‘sacred cow’ and agree to revenue increases when Democrats have expressed a willingness to make tough spending cuts in a deal to raise the debt ceiling. Several times throughout the press conference, the president referred to ‘corporate jet owners’ as a prime example of recipients of the tax breaks Republicans are defending.” National Journal’s headline sums it up: It’s Kids Versus Corporate Jets on Debt-Ceiling Talks. One slight problem: the tax break on corporate jets was part of Obama’s precious stimulus package. You know, the one that was passed without Republican support. Whoops! As usual, it’s difficult to tell whether Obama doesn’t know or doesn’t care that what he’s saying isn’t true. Either way, House Speaker John Boehner isn’t having it: “In a statement, Boehner said the president is ‘sorely mistaken’ if he thinks a deal with tax increases can pass the House. ‘The votes simply aren’t there – and they aren’t going to be there …’ Boehner said. ‘The new majority in the House is going to stand with the American people,’ he added.” Time Magazine’s Mark Halperin got right to the point about Obama’s press conference, telling Joe Scarborough: “I thought he was kind of a dick.”
2.) Glenn Beck vs. drunken libs — Tonight is Glenn Beck’s last show on Fox News, and he’s celebrating by… er… getting into a flamewar with some libs he encountered in Bryant Park. On Monday night, Beck took his family there to see an outdoor screening of Hitchcock’s “The 39 Steps,” and he says he was harangued by some of the other moviegoers and they spilled wine on his wife. His recounting of the incident got pretty Glennbeckish at one point: “I swear to you, I think if I would have suggested… ‘Wow, does anybody have a rope, because there’s a tree here, you could just lynch me.’ And I think there would have been a couple in the crowd that would have.” In response, a woman named Lindsey Piscitell wrote to New York Magazine, saying she was one of the moviegoers in question but that the wine-spilling was an accident and everyone was polite about it. But as Scott Baker at Beck’s news site The Blaze discovered, Piscitell’s tweets tell a different story. In one, she said “we were of course, VERY happy that it happened.” As for Piscitell’s opinion of Beck’s security detail: “TWO security guards. One of them yelled at me when I held up a sign that said ‘Fascist Douchebag’, pointed to him and took a picture. Some people are so touchy.” So maybe it wasn’t quite the goodnatured mishap she’d like everyone to believe. Baker has much more evidence of hostility from Piscitell and some of the other jerks in attendance, who are now locking up their Twitter accounts and trying to scrub the evidence. Is all this much ado about nothing, or Culture Wars 2011 in microcosm? Should a guy on TV be able to say stuff that you disagree with and still take his family out for a night at the movies? Whatever happened to “the New Civiity,” anyway? Where’s “the New Tone”?
3.) Mo Brooks shoots foot — Here’s one for the Dude, You Really Can’t Say That file. TheDC’s Jeff Poor reports: “Wednesday night following a town hall meeting in his northern Alabama district, Republican Congressman Mo Brooks told the CBS affiliate in Huntsville, WHNT, that he was serious about taking on the problems stemming from illegal immigration. ‘I wanted to ensure people that I have an intensity on this subject — that we have to address the illegal alien issue,’ Brooks said… ‘As your congressman on the House floor, I’ll do anything short of shooting them, anything that is lawful,’ Brooks said.” Ouch. Remember Inception? “Don’t think of an elephant.” Well, now when people think of Mo Brooks, they’ll think of “shooting illegal immigrants.” Because he brought it up. It doesn’t matter that he said he’s NOT going to. Rule of thumb: When in doubt, don’t talk about whether or not people should be shot.
4.) Do even Birthers have legal rights? — Guess we’ll find out. TheDC’s C.J. Ciaramella reports: “Joseph Farah, editor and CEO of the conservative Web site and publisher WordNetDaily, and Jerome Corsi, author of ‘Where’s the Birth Certificate?,’ are suing Esquire for upwards of $120 million after the magazine published a fake news article about Corsi’s book… The suit arose after Esquire published an article by Warren on May 18 claiming Farah was pulling copies of Corsi’s book from stores and would refund anyone who had pre-ordered it. ‘In a stunning development one day after the release of Where’s the Birth Certificate? The Case that Barack Obama is not Eligible to be President, by Dr. Jerome Corsi, WorldNetDaily Editor and Chief Executive Officer Joseph Farah has announced plans to recall and pulp the entire 200,000 first printing run of the book, as well as announcing an offer to refund the purchase price to anyone who has already bought either a hard copy or electronic download of the book,’ the article read. It included fake quotes from Farah saying he could not ‘in good conscience publish it and expect anyone to believe it’ because of ‘factual inaccuracies…’ Farah said the article led to some bookstores returning copies of the book, as well as a flood of calls from news organizations and confused readers.” No matter what you think about Birthers, how does this case compare to Hustler Magazine, Inc. v. Falwell? Could a reasonable person have been convinced that the Esquire piece contained factual claims? Did Esquire act with malice to harm Farah’s business? Stay tuned!
5.) Why don’t you sit down right here, Chris Hansen… — To Catch a Philanderer? The NY Post writes: “NBC News reporter Chris Hansen, who’s made a living nailing sexual deviants on his hidden-camera ‘To Catch a Predator’ series, was secretly filmed in a romantic extramarital tryst with his Florida TV-reporter girlfriend, according to an explosive report in The National Enquirer. Hansen, 52, the married father of two, has been carrying on with Kristyn Caddell, 30, for four months — and was recorded last Friday taking Caddell to the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Manalapan, Fla., for a ‘romantic dinner’ before the couple shacked up in Caddell’s Palm Beach apartment, according to the Enquirer.” Those pesky hidden cameras! Well, at least Hansen will have something to talk about if he ever runs into John Edwards.
6.) Today’s words of wisdom from Alec Baldwin’s Twitter feed — “Wind, magnified photo-voltaic, geo-thermal, ocean current could do it all.”
VIDEO: Time Magazine’s Mark Halperin addresses Obama
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