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Isn’t it funny how news stories only reach critical mass when they are bestowed with catchy neologisms? In this case, coverage of the overlapping series of conspiracy theories relating to Barack Obama’s birth certificate, and therefore his citizenship and eligibility for the Presidency, was diffuse and fringy until the blogosphere could settle on calling proponents of theories “Birthers”.

According to noted psychopath Glenn Beck, Barack Obama has a “deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture” (which, presumably, doesn’t include all the white people who raised him).

Glenn Beck has been having a lot of success–and, it seems, quite a bit of fun–seeing how far he can push things. I’ve always figured that one day he’ll push them too far. If Don Imus could be sacked for “nappy headed hoes”, it was only a matter of time before some bit of Beck’s paranoid babbling got him canned. Apparently, not this bit though.

Just when I think I’ll never be able to stop writing about health care, I’m gifted with a wonderful story like this. Taking the President up on his offer of a beer with himself and Henry Louis “Skip” Gates Jr., Cambridge police sergeant James Crowley isn’t going to settle for a Miller High Life. This from the WSJ’s Washington Wire:
“White House spokesman Robert Gibbs is hopeful that President Barack Obama will make good this week on that promised beer … But first, he has to find the Blue Moon.

The burly cop has requested not the most macho of beers for the White House get-together, Gibbs divulged. He favors a Golden, Colo., Belgian-style wheat beer. No word yet whether the White House will embellish the request with Blue Moon’s Harvest Moon Pumpkin or its Rising Moon Spring Ale. We …

President Obama has been publicly firm in his position that Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), must halt before the peace process can move forward. The settlements are probably illegal (though, see this op-ed for a contrary view), but some Israeli officials claim they had an unofficial understanding that the Bush administration would look the other way. No such deal apperars to be in place with Obama, setting up a possible rift between the United States and Israel. One member of the right-wing Israeli Likud party says bring it on:
“JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel stands ready to risk a protracted rift with Washington over U.S. demands to stop construction in East Jerusalem and other settlements, a key right-wing Israeli lawmaker said in an interview on Monday.

Tzipi Hotovely of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party said the …

Booze, it turns out, according to this thoroughly-unneccesary-if-marginally-interesting article from Politico:
“To be sure, Obama is anything but a lush. But unlike his predecessor, former President George W. Bush, who refrained from cracking open a cold one in or out of the White House, Obama has enjoyed a tasty beverage or two since moving into the Executive Mansion.

But rather than sticking to one signature drink, Obama’s choices are varied: beer, wine, martinis, sparkling wine, margaritas.

On a date night with the first lady in New York at Blue Hill, a West Village eatery, Obama opted for a wine that accompanied the five-course tasting menu, while Michelle sipped on two martinis.”
DEAR SWEET GOD OF THE MOON AND STARS TELL …

I heartily agreed with David Brooks earlier this month, when at the end of an op-ed about public dignity, he praised the President for exemplifying “reticence, dispassion and the other traits associated with dignity.” The President has the well-deserved reputation for being the coolest-headed (and plain coolest) guy in the room, and usually conducts himself with a kind of sobriety and reserve that is in short supply in American politics.

But there’s an exception to this, and a huge one, that Brooks misses completely: those times when, as with the lead-up to the passage of the stimulus bill, Obama takes to the stump and revives his “perpetual campaign“, traveling to a series of town halls and rallies, rolling up his sleeves, loosening his tie, and essentially mortgaging his personal popularity for support on key policy issues.

He’s doing it …

Seriously, the President can’t get a pair of Luckys or something?

Conservative Democrat Dan Boren, who already has a reputation as a “maverick” (lord I’m sick of that word) within his party, said some not-so-nice things about President Obama in an interview with a local paper:
“Barack Obama is very unpopular,” said Boren, who represents Oklahoma’s 2nd Congressional District. “He got 34 percent of the vote statewide, and less in our district. If he were to run for re-election today, I bet it would be even worse.”

Boren points out that he does support some of Obama’s initiatives, like the economic stimulus package. He has voted for Obama-supported bills 81 percent of the time, according to a recent Congressional Quarterly study. But despite this, he said the president is too liberal.

“It would be a lot nicer if we had someone who was in the middle,” he said. “Bill Clinton won …

President Obama has ordered “national security officials” to investigate allegations that the Bush administration blocked an investigation into the killing of about a thousand Taliban prisoners in 2001. The prisoners were supposedly killed while in the custody of an ex-communist Afghan warlord backed by the CIA. From CNN:

“The indications that this had not been properly investigated just recently was brought to my attention,” Obama told CNN’s Anderson Cooper in an exclusive interview during the president’s visit to Ghana. The full interview will air 10 p.m. Monday.

“So what I’ve asked my national security team to do is to collect the facts for me that are known, and we’ll probably make a decision in terms of how to approach it once we have all of the facts gathered up,” Obama said.
Notice that the inquiry will …

Editor’s Note: From our right-wing buddies at College Politico (oh, left-wing college bloggers, won’t you come to us and restore the balance in the force?)

Back before the election, President Obama made promises about what he would do as President. Since his Inauguration, the President has broken many of these pledges. Who could have seen this coming? Remember the promise of no lobbyists in the Obama Administration? He broke that, as seen in the list of lobbyists in top jobs.

Then there was the promise of no earmarks. When he addressed Congress in February after the “Stimulus Bill”, President Obama said that “we passed the recovery plan free of earmarks”. However, even Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was popping up behind the President with thunderous applause, received $30M for her district …

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