Via the AP:

Twenty-seven people, including 18 children, have been killed in a shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in suburban Connecticut…

Via ABC:

One shooter is described as 24-years-old, armed with four weapons and wearing a bullet-proof vest, sources tell ABC News.

Clearly, something isn’t working. Perhaps it’s time we listen to the gun rights activists. To paraphrase Portland gun advocate Kirby Ellis’ words in response to the recent Portland-area mall shooting:

“By allowing kids to carry firearms it actually gives them a chance to protect themselves in ways…if the police are not available, or they could be moments away”

“In light of the recent school shooting in Connecticut, not allowing kids to carry weapons only puts our children more at risk.”

“With the policies in place that don’t allow students to carry firearms in school, the only thing they really could do is try to seek cover and wait for the police to get there.”

So it’s clear, then…it’s absolutely the only conceivable thing that could be done to stop these tragedies….

Please join us tonight for an evening of politics over a pint at the Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally.

We’ll begin the evening by giving all of our drinks, food and money the conservatives; and we’ll entrust ’em to share equally with us. It’s because, you know…we’re bipartisan. And handing over control to conservatives is just plain common sense bipartisanship! I mean, they’d do the same for us…right?

We meet every Tuesday at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Starting time is 8:00pm. Some people show up earlier for Dinner.

Can’t make it to Seattle tonight? Check out one of the other DL meetings over the next week. Tonight the Tri-Cities and Vancouver, WA chapters meet. On Wednesday, the Bellingham chapter meets. On Thursday Drinking Liberally Bremerton meets. And next Monday, the Yakima chapter meets.

With 230 chapters of Living Liberally, including fourteen in Washington state, four in Oregon, and three more in Idaho, chances are excellent there’s a chapter that meets near you.

Thom: The G.O.P.’s plans for the 2016 election.

SlateTV: Cory Booker starts his food stamp odyssey.

Former Sen. Alan Simpson goes all Gangnam style.

Maddow: FreedomWorks loses it’s Dick Armey.

The War On Xmas™:

• The War on Christmas totally explained:
• Young Turks: Bill-O’s freak-out over the War on Christmas™.
• White House: President Obama lights the National Holiday Christmas Tree

Sam Seder: Stoopid Republicans think the election was stolen by (the non-existent) ACORN.

Thom with The Good, The Bad and the Very Very Supercacaneously Ugly.

SlateTV: Hillary Clinton laughs off Presidential talk.

Red State Update: Romney and Obama have lunch.

Sam Seder: Teabaggers lose their Dick Armey.

Thom: The Good, The Bad, and The Very, Very Ugly.

Fiscal Cliff Notes:

• Ann Telnaes: Boehner talks about “fairness”.
• Mark Fiore: The Twelve Days of Cliffmas.
• Sam Seder: Mitch McConnell filibusters himself
• Mr. Burns with some political “common sense”:
• Ezra Klein: Republicans running out of room in budget debate.
• O’Donnell: Republican Senator Mitch McConnell filibusters his own bill!!
• Young Turks: McConnell self-filibusters.
• Fiscal cliff explained in pictures.
• Ann Telnaes: Republicans sink into a fiscal bog.
• O’Donnell: “Magic beans and fairy dust”

Thom with The Good, The Bad and the Very Very Potomaniacly Ugly.

Washington State Issuing marriage licenses for same-sex couples (via Crooks and Liars).

Jon does Gov. Chris Christie.

Truth in advertising: Exxon hates your children (via Slog).

FAUX News sidelines Rove and Morris:

• Sam Seder: Even FAUX News is freakin’ sick of Karl Rove and Dick Morris.
• Bill Press: Glee over Dick Morris and Karl Rove being sidelined at FAUX.
• Young Turks: FAUX News cuts Dick, Rove.
• Martin Bashir: Armey and Rove benched at FAUX News.

Thom and Pap: Teabaggers are the GOP’s “invasive species”.

Martin Bashir: Romney Surrogates using the same feckless & offensive talking points.

Lunatic Congressman Gohmert casts sole vote against striking “lunatic” from laws.

White House: West Wing Week.

Shitting upon the Disabled:

• Sam Seder: G.O.P. Senators kick Tiny Tim to the curb.
• Bill Press: G.O.P. Senators shake Bob Dole’s hand and then stab him in the back.
• Jon: It’s official—Republicans hate the U.N. more than they like helping people with disabilities (via Crooks and Liars).
• Ed: Republican Senators vote down treaty to protect people with disabilities worldwide.
• Martin Bashir: G.O.P.’s disgraceful circus act over U.N. Disabilities Treaty.
• Thom: One party flew over the cuckoo’s nest.
• Ed: Fiscal cliff and U.N. disability treaty demonstrates that Republicans are far removed from reality.
• Maddow: GOP Freakout…Part 1.
• Maddow: GOP Freakout…Part 2.
• O’Donnell: 38 Senate Republicans disgrace themselves and the U.S.

Ezra Klein: Republicans resume their War on Workers™.

Sharpton: Obama honors ‘living legends’ at the Kennedy Center.

SlateTV: Senator Ashley Judd?

O’Donnell: 51% of voters want Michelle Obama for Senator.

From Teabagger to Moneybagger:

• Young Turks: Teabagger DeMint quits.
• Ezra Klein: DeMint’s move stinks of ‘Party Purity’ enforcement strategy.
• Young Turks: The Heritage Foundation is not a think tank; it’s a money laundering operation.
• Sam Seder: Jim DeMint quits Senate for cha-ching!
• Young Turks: Colbert wants to replace DeMint.
• Stephen Colbert reaches for the Senate #SenatorColbert.

Jon: Republicans haven’t learned a damn thing (via Slog).

Young Turks: Ed Asner’s anti-trickle down video.

Pap: Cut the Tea Party cancer out of USA.

Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.

Dear Senators,

Congratulation, assholes, for blocking the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities yesterday. You done “real good!”

Let’s see…you further narrowed your alarmingly narrow base:

If you thought the Republican Party only tries to appeal to well-off, married, white suburban and rural Christian men, boy are you wrong. The Republican Party tried to appeal only to well-off, white, suburban and rural able-bodied Christian men.

Nice!

In rejecting the treaty, you spit in the face of both former Sen. Bob Dole and former President George H.W. Bush—you know, the guy who signed the American With Disabilities Act, that serves as model law for signatory states. Oh…and George W. Bush, whose administration negotiated the treaty in the first place, and who first signed the treaty.

Really, nice work!

Instead you cast your lot with the fringe extremists of your party—the American Taliban, if you will. And the American Taliban’s top General is Senator Rick Santorum, who convinced you to reject the treaty because:

…parents and caregivers care most deeply and are best equipped to care for the disabled. Not international bureaucrats.

Except that the treaty does not put “international bureaucrats” in charge of children with disabilities. The very idea completely contradicts the words and spirit of the treaty (try reading it, ya nutjobbers!), which is almost entirely about countries agreeing to pass laws ensuring people with disabilities receive the same opportunities that are enjoyed by persons without disabilities.

Santorum’s overt lie misinformation about the treaty is strikingly similar to, and as absurd as, Sarah Palin’s 2009 lie-of-the-year award winning, repeatedly debunked “Obama’s Death Panels” crazy talk.

Santorum also frets:

Another example of this U.N. overreach is the treaty’s “best interests of the child” standard, which states in full: “In all actions concerning children with disabilities, the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration.”

But here is what the treaty says:

Article 7 – Children with disabilities

• States Parties shall take all necessary measures to ensure the full enjoyment by children with disabilities of all human rights and fundamental freedoms on an equal basis with other children.
• In all actions concerning children with disabilities, the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration.

Wow…I can see how considering the best interests of the child in passing laws to ensure equality of “full human rights and fundamental freedoms” might threaten the fuck out of you. The little rugrats might try to vote!

And it isn’t just General Santorum. Some of you bought the bullshit of General Tony Perkins:

“The global community could force America to sanction sterilization or abortion for the disabled–at taxpayer expense,” said Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council.

Actually, what the treaty says is:

Article 23 – Respect for home and the family

1. States Parties shall take effective and appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against persons with disabilities in all matters relating to marriage, family, parenthood and relationships, on an equal basis with others, so as to ensure that:

a. The right of all persons with disabilities who are of marriageable age to marry and to found a family on the basis of free and full consent of the intending spouses is recognized;

b. The rights of persons with disabilities to decide freely and responsibly on the number and spacing of their children and to have access to age-appropriate information, reproductive and family planning education are recognized, and the means necessary to enable them to exercise these rights are provided;

c. Persons with disabilities, including children, retain their fertility on an equal basis with others.

Literally, the treaty encourages countries to provide the same reproductive options to persons with disabilities as are available to persons without disabilities. But Tony Perkins is a well known lying sack of shit uninformed dissembling nutjob. So…”good job” there.

And that’s not all. You:

…bought the bogus argument that to vote for the U.N. treaty would mean that the U.N. committee overseeing the ban on discrimination against the disabled, including children, could violate the rights of American parents who decide to home school their disabled children.

Nuh-huh. What the treaty does do is ensure that children with disabilities have the same rights to schooling, including home schooling that children without disabilities have.

This “home schooling” concern can only be considered the rantings of lunatics who have not read the fucking treaty. That likely includes YOU and up to 37 of your esteemed, lunatic colleagues!

That’s not the craziest thing of all. The stupefyingly crazy thing comes from a whole other collection of wackjobs: The “U.N. sovereignty over the U.S.” conspiracy theorists. Santorum, of course, hinted at this.

Since the treaty is really designed to get countries to pass laws essentially modeled after the American With Disabilities Act, ratification of the treaty by the U.S. would really only subject the U.S. to a quadrennial reporting requirement. So, thank you, Senators, for saving us from the tyranny of writing the Easiest. Report. Ever. every four years.

Now that you have saved us from the autocracy of U.N. bureaucrats performing abortions and forced sterilization on home-schooled babies with disabilities, it’s time to move on the other important things.

You know…like outing high ranking government officials who are members of the New World Order (or the Muslim Brotherhood). Or revealing the truth about aliens and Area 51. And, for Pete’s sake, finally nailing Bill and Hillary Clinton for the death of Vince Foster!

Get to it!

Verily,
Darryl
Horsesass.org

Please join us tonight for an evening of politics over a pint at the Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally.

We meet every Tuesday at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Starting time is 8:00pm. Some people show up earlier for Dinner.

Can’t make it to Seattle tonight? Check out one of the other DL meetings over the next week. Tonight the Tri-Cities chapter meets. And for Thursday, the Spokane chapter and Drinking Liberally Tacoma meet.

With 230 chapters of Living Liberally, including fourteen in Washington state, four in Oregon, and three more in Idaho, chances are excellent there’s a chapter that meets near you.

Ann Telnaes: The flat earth candidate.

Jon: McCain’s anti-Rice agenda.

Red State Update: Elmo’s fall from grace.

Sam Seder: Bradley Manning speaks out on his abuse.

Liberal Viewer: FAUX News fake war on Christmas.

Maddow: Biden eats snacks at Costco!!!

SlateTV: Hillary Clinton says drug legalization wouldn’t stop violence.

Thom: Former FL GOP leader admits voter suppression.

Ann Telnaes: Mitch McConnell clings to hope, air

Young Turks: Nutjob Congressman says Obama is advised by Muslim Brotherhood.

General Petraeus’ sex tape leaked.

Mark Fiore: Pay attention!

Sam Seder: The teabagger’s insane idea to reverse the election.

Maddow: The War on Women—Mississippi’s lone abortion clinic faces closure.

Bashir: Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R) and other right wing nut-cases.

Thom: The Good, the Bad, and the Very, Very Ugly.

The G.O.P. Good Ol’ Boy Club:

• Boehner’s women problem.
• Maddow: G.O.P. House problem.
• Young Turks: The G.O.P. women leadership problem.
• Ann Telnaes: Speaker Boehner’s good ol’ boy club.
• SlateTV: Republicans go almost all white.
• Bashir: The G.O.P.’s white male problem.

Thom: AZ joins the War on Women.

Glenn Beck’s Obama in Pee.

Maddow: Obama and Romney have a ‘turkey chili’ summit:

Pap: The GOP’s war on voters hasn’t ended.

White House: Bo Inspects the White House Christmas holiday decorations.

Red State Update: A farewell to Twinkies.

Al Gore gets autotuned.

Fiscal Cliff Notes:

• Stephen peers over The Fiscal Cliff.
• Ed: Boehner is cornered on fiscal cliff
• Jon: Cliffpocalypsemageddonacaust!
• O’Donnell: Obama’s cliff leverage.

Maddow: Congress still blocks closing of Gitmo.

White House: West Wing Week.

Young Turks: Mississippi’s only abortion clinic may close.

Thom: The Good, the Bad, and the Very, Very, Ugly.

Stephen takes Boeing to task.

Ann Telnaes: Speaker Boehner’s good ol’ boy club.

Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.

It’s Tuesday already. So please join us tonight for a pint and discussion at the Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally.

We meet every Tuesday at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Starting time is 8:00pm. Some people show up earlier for Dinner.

Can’t make it to Seattle’s DL tonight? Check out one of the other DL meetings over the next week. The Tri-Cities chapter also meets tonight. On Wednesday, the Bellingham chapter meets, as does the the Burien chapter. And on Monday, the Yakima, South Bellevue and Olympia chapters meet.

With 230 chapters of Living Liberally, including fourteen in Washington state, four in Oregon, and three more in Idaho, chances are excellent there’s a chapter that meets near you.

Red State Update: Mad Obama won.

SlateTV: Ron Paul, “Secession is a deeply American principle”.

Martin Bashir: But wasn’t it Romney who was offering the most “free stuff”?

Sam Seder: Linda McMahon screws campaign staff with bounced checks (and condoms).

Thom and Pap: Is this the death of the GOP?

Touré: The GOP’s modern version of the Southern Strategy.

The Twinkie Blues:

• Hostess Love Song:
• Jonathan Mann: The Twinkie Kid and King Ding Dong are Dead.
• Ed: The vultures and the twinkies.
• SlateTV: No more Twinkies.
• Sam Seder: So long, Twinkies!

Ezra Klein: Some numerology with Mitt Romney’s 47..

SlateTV: Mitt Romney was right about the 47%…in a way.

Maddow: Misguided rich idiots try shaving Income to under $250,000 to ‘avoid taxes’:

Young Turks: Jon Stewart versus Bill-O the Clown.

Daily Show correspondents explain Constitutional amendments.

Sharpton: Allen West Finally Concedes.

McCain and Company:

• Maddow: Bitter, sputtering, and wrong…that would be John McCain.
• Sharpton: McCain and friends use ‘racist code words’ in attacking Amb. Susan Rice.
• Ed: Bosom buddies McCain & Graham won’t let go of Libya witch hunt.
• Maddow: The troubles with McCain.
• Ed: Are these racist “code words”?
• Maddow: McCain and the GOP’s basic lack of foreign policy incompetence. Part I
• Maddow: McCain and the GOP’s basic lack of foreign policy incompetence. Part II

Ed: Henry Winkler talks pro-Obama politics.

Ezra Klein: Are Republicans losing their fidelity and devotedness to Grover Norquist?

Liberal Viewer: Did Jesus die for Klingons?

Sam Seder: Marco Rubio on the age of the earth.

Thom: The Good, The Bad, and The Very, Very Ugly.

The G.O.P. Voter Suppression Programme:

• Young Turks: Many threats to voter’s rights remain!
• Ed: Ohio Republicans are already scheming to suppress the vote in 2016
• Maddow: Florida, Wisconsin, and Ohio’s War on Voting™.
• Sharpton: WI Gov. Scott Walker takes aim at voting laws
• Thom and Pap: Federalize voting standards now!

FAUX News’ Scariest Christmas Ever (via TalkingPointsMemo).

Red State Update: Time to secede!

Maddow: The spectacularly wrong clown from ‘Unskewed Polls’ thinks he’s onto massive ‘voter fraud’.

Ezra Klein: ObamaCare is here to stay.

Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.

Happy Thanksgiving, dear Reader. And thanks for all the unique IP hits, page views, and comments over the past year.

Here is a Thanksgiving-themed collection of media clips and open thread, best explored in a tryptophan stupor….

Larry David’s Thanksgiving special.

Suzie Sampson: Thanksgiving and post election sad:

Obama pardons turkeys.

SlateTV: PETA to Obama, “don’t bother with that pardon.”

When turkey’s attack!

BEST THANKSGIVING CLIP EVAR!!!: The Thanksgiving Massacre!:

Raw food Thanksgiving.

Jennifer Granholm: much to be thankful for!

Jimmy Fallon’s Thanksgiving Do Not Read list.

Mark Fiore: Thanks, Turkey!

Learn about Canadian Thanksgiving!

Jonathan Mann: Zombie Turkey:

Jimmy Fallon: Pros and cons of the Macy’s Thanksgiving day parade.

Sam Seder: Thanksgiving with your “independent” relatives.

It’s over now. Go wash the dishes….

Senators John McCain (R-AZ), Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) released a joint statement today:

“We commend Prime Minister Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders for the role they played in reaching today’s ceasefire. We also are encouraged by the responsible leadership role played by the President of Egypt and his government. President Morsi deserves credit for successfully bringing an end to the violence and preventing further loss of life on both sides.

So…Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been shuttling like mad between Jerusalem and Cairo to broker this agreement. What do the three Senators have to say for the Obama Administration’s efforts?

Above all, the recent fighting in Gaza underscores that this is a moment in history when the future of the Middle East has never been less certain – and when the actions or inaction of the United States will be critical to determining what path this vital region takes. …[W]hat happens in the Middle East will impact America’s vital national security interests for the foreseeable future, and stronger, smarter American leadership is desperately needed. There is no pivoting away from that fact.

Wait…so, they are praising leadership coming from Israel and Egypt, and they turn around and, essentially, apologize for the weak and dumb American leadership?

That’s, like…practically an apology tour!

Why do these three stooges hate America?

Goldy nails it:

Regardless of whether McKenna really is a different-kinda-Republican, the very fact that he relied on this image to pacify voters is a tacit admission that 21st century Republicanism remains outside the mainstream of Washington politics.

Uh-oh. It looks like the looney-tune Wingnut brigade is going to have to find some other “thing” to call a White House “scandal” (source):

CBS News has learned that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) cut specific references to “al Qaeda” and “terrorism” from the unclassified talking points given to Ambassador Susan Rice on the Benghazi consulate attack – with the agreement of the CIA and FBI. The White House or State Department did not make those changes.

As Paul Waldman pointed out last week, the Republicans have a serious problem—Obama has nearly completed his first term, and their isn’t a real White House scandal anywhere in sight. Oh, sure, we had “beer summit-gate,” and then the moral fabric of our society was nearly put through the shredder by Biden’s “Big Fucking Deal!” But somehow the public responded with an amused or bemused smile and a vote for Obama—Biden.

This leaves the Republicans with a chronic case of scandal envy. (Oh…the humanity!) I mean, the Benghazi thing is, obviously, entirely vacuous. Suppose the White House had changed Ms. Rice’s qualified (and, in retrospect, partially wrong) assessment of the situation. Who gives a shit? What difference does it make? Waldman sums it up thusly:

If you’re looking at the Republican harumphing over Benghazi and asking yourself, “Why are we supposed to be so mad about this again?” you’re not alone. Let’s review: There was an attack on our consulate that killed four Americans, including our ambassador. Amid confusing and contradictory reports from the ground, President Obama waited too long to utter the magic incantation, “Terrorism, terrorists, terror!” that would have … well, it would have done something, but it turns out that he did say “terror,” so never mind that. But that’s not the real scandal! The real scandal is that Susan Rice went on television soon after and amid all kinds of “based on the best information we have”s and “we’ll have to see”s, said one thing that turned out not to be the case: that after the protests in Cairo, there was some kind of copycat protest in Benghazi, which was then “hijacked” by extremist elements using heavy weapons to stage an attack.

A sane person might say, OK, she was obviously given some incorrect information at that time, but it’s not a particularly meaningful deception. As people have been pointing out for weeks now, it’s not as though not using the word “terror” or saying there was a protest before the attack gave the White House some enormous political advantage. If you’re going to have a cover-up, there has to be something you’re covering up.

But the White House didn’t make the changes. It was at a number of stops through the intelligence screening process where the edits happened—on the road from a classified intelligence assessment to a public statement about something that was still under active investigation. The edits are even more comprehensible (well…to folks living in the reality based community, anyway) considering that the attack ended up at a CIA annex about a mile from the consulate. The existence of that CIA facility was a secret prior to the attacks.

So, our friends in the right-wing-nut-o-sphere are left without much of anything in the way of White House scandals, so far. But I’m thinkin’ that one of these days, some reporter is going to catch President Obama in an undisclosed smoke-free location with a coffin nail hangin’ from his lips.

“Impeach!!!!!”

Please join us tonight for a pint and some more post-election gloating thanksgiving at the Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally.

We meet every Tuesday at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Starting time is 8:00pm. Some people show up earlier for Dinner.

Can’t make it to Seattle tonight? Check out one of the other DL meetings over the next week. Tonight the Tri-Cities chapter also meets. The Longview and South Seattle chapters meet on Wednesday.

With 229 chapters of Living Liberally, including fourteen in Washington state, four in Oregon, and three more in Idaho, chances are excellent there’s a chapter that meets near you.

SlateTV: The GOP’s mad rush to immigration reform.

Ed: Republicans try to reinvent themselves with minority voters.

The Losers Weepers:

• Maddow: Republicans begin their purge.
• Jonathan Mann: Karl Rove goes nuts.
• Ann Telnaes: Mitt blames gifts.
• Sam Seder: Mitt Romney blames loss on Obama’s “gifts.”
• Jon on Bill-O the Clown and the end of Traditional America.
• Thom: The Ryan excuse.
• Maddow: Leaderless…some Republicans learning 2012 lessons better than others
• SlateTV: Romney’s bitter excuses.
• Young Turks: Romney’s postmortem ‘gifts’ excuse.
• Republicans need to stop being the stupid party.
• The boy who couldn’t handle it.
• SlateTV: Secession Petitions of the disgruntled.
• Young Turks: ME GOP Chair, “Hundreds of Black people committed Voter Fraud!!!
• Letterman: Top ten Romney Scapegoats (via Crooks and Liars).
• Sam Seder: Maine G.O.P. chair on “dozens of Blacks” seen voting.
• Lawrence O’Donnell: What the G.O.P. needs from Romney.
• Thom: Mitt Romney couldn’t be Santa
• Buzz60: three signs Republicans haven’t learned from their losses….
• Maddow: Romney’s final insult to the American public.
• Jon: Look who’s still talking!
• Young Turks: the Obama ‘mind control’ conspiracy
• Liberal Viewer: Right wing crazies lost Romney the election.:
• Jon and Kristen Schaal married and single women voting their viginas
• Mitt Romney “explains” his loss (via Slog).

Kimmel: This week in unnecessary censorship.

Sam Seder: So long, Twinkies.

The five funniest campaign videos of 2012.

Thom with more Good, Bad, and Very, Very Ugly.

Mark Fiore: Newly frugal guy!

Young Turks: Rep. Allen West loses election & his grip with reality.

The Petraeus Surge:

• Jon: Never saw it coming
• SlateTV: Wikipedia entry mentions Broadwell-Petraeus affair in January
• Young Turks: Pat Robertson excuses the General.
• ONN: Petraeus is just a start.
• TV fail: All (up) In(my snatch)?!?
• Ann Telnaes: Your privacy.

Monika Eckhart goes to Rep. Cathy McMorris-Rodgers’ Office.

Rush Limbaugh goes all apoplectic over a Twinkie joke petition!

Thom with the Good, the Bad, and the Very, Very Ugly.

Pap and Katrina Vanden Heuvel: Obama should get tough against GOP obstruction.

Super-duper-scandal of All Time:

• SlateTV: McCain snaps at reporter.
• Lawrence O’Donnell: tears into Graham and McCain for hypocrisy on Rice appointment:
• Anderson Cooper whumps Rep. Rohrabacher on Benghazi, “What you’re saying is factually not correct”
• Al Sharpton: What the hell is going on with John McCain??
• Ed: Bitter, hypocrite John McCain wants details, yet skips Benghazi briefing.

White House: West Wing Week.

Lawrence O’Donnell: Rewriting a blatant, malicious FAUX News conspiracy theory

Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.

The Seattle Times has more on Rep. Dave Reichert’s (R-WA-8) role in the Petraeus affair.

Humphries took Kelley’s concerns to the FBI cybercrime division, but later was worried that the FBI was dragging its feet — possibly for political reasons — and took his worries to U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert.

My read: Shortly before a presidential election, a renegade FBI agent is annoyed with how slowly the FBI is investigating the incumbent President’s CIA Director. He decides to leak information about the investigation in a way that might affect the election.

Reichert is duped into playing the intermediary. Rather than taking the disgruntled FBI agent to the House leadership (you know, the leadership position as defined in the Constitution), Reichert connects the man with Eric Cantor, who is the G.O.P. leader.

Clearly, this was an attempted political hit. But, Cantor isn’t as stupid as Reichert, and decided to not meddle in the investigation.