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Last month, Fox's KT McFarland was attacking President Obama's policy in the Middle East and calling it a failure because he did the opposite of George Bush. This Saturday, she was back, going after Hillary Clinton and telling more lies about their drummed up fake scandal, Benghazi-gate and making the absurd claim that the Middle East was pro-American and stable until President Obama was elected and these uprising we've seen with the Arab Spring.

I'm not sure just how much more revisionist history someone could manage to pack into a four or five minute interview as we had here, but McFarland was doing her best to set a record with the amount of b.s. she was shoveling. Never mind anything that happened under Republican presidents. Everything was perfect until the Kenyan usurper came along and got himself elected.

JARRETT: What do we expect to hear from Secretary Clinton? Joining me now to talk about it KT McFarland, Fox News national security analysts. And, one takes her letter word when she and her spokespersons say she's been ill but she has certainly managed to dodge a lot of this event since September 11.

MCFARLANE: Yeah, you know Gregg, she says she takes full responsibility, but so far she's managed to avoid taking any blame. One thing though I think with these hearings, this will probably be the last opportunity these lawmakers have to question Secretary Clinton as Secretary of State and I hope instead of looking back and saying well “What did you now when did you now it?” and “Why did you talk about the video?” I hope instead they focus forward.

Which is “Why have you not responded?” Why has the American government not responded to these attacks? Why have we not gone after the people who killed our own? Because we know that ten years ago or in the late 1980's... '90's... 1998 East Africa bombings US embassies were bombed. 2000 and the USS Cole was bombed. We did not retaliate. We beefed up security. We changed the rules of engagement, but we never went after al-Qaeda and we knew al-Qaeda had done those attacks.

What happened as a result? Bin Laden said, let's go get them again and my concern, and I hope these lawmakers ask Secretary Clinton why has the United States not gotten those people who killed ours? We know where those people are. We could do a drone strike against them.

And then I think Gregg the second point they ought to ask her is why in two years have we gone from a Middle East which was stable and secure and pro-American to a Middle East which is in political and economic chaos, and and governments that are anti-American and increasingly turned over to Islamist radicals.

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Another day on Fox, another day in GOP upside down land. On this Monday's edition of America's Newsroom, their so-called "national security analyst" KT McFarland gave their viewers a big dose of revisionist history, and continued their distortions and conspiracy theories over the attacks on our compound in Benghazi -- only this time with a new twist -- if President Obama had just acted more like George W. Bush with our Middle East policy, maybe he'd be having less problems there -- because we all know how well that worked out for everyone.

McFarland was pushing some of these same lies on Benghazi a month ago, as Media Matters documented here: Fox's McFarland Invents Facts To Accuse Obama Admin. Of Abandoning Americans In Benghazi:

Fox's K.T. McFarland claimed that no additional forces were sent to help Americans at the diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, while it was attacked and claimed that this was "probably a political decision." But before McFarland made her claims on Fox, State Department officials had already said that when agents in the compound requested aid during the attack, additional forces from both Benghazi and Tripoli responded. Read on...

Of course, coming on Fox and lying is nothing new for McFarland. She was more than happy to play along and feign ignorance on the Romney 47 percent recordings with Greta Van Susteren back in September. She was heaping praise on Romney despite his lack of foreign policy experience and comparing him to St. Ronnie back in August. And she was giving wingnut Michele Bachmann cover for her part in the anti-Clinton protests in Egypt back in July.

Rough transcript of the exchange on Fox below the fold.

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Despite the fact that MSNBC, CNN, Current TV and who knows how many other media outlets had already shown or covered the devastating clips that Mother Jones released this Monday, Fox News decided to feign ignorance and pretend they had no prior knowledge of the story when Mitt Romney gave his press conference in response to the leaked videos.

Had they not been completely ignoring the story intentionally instead of covering it, maybe they wouldn't have had to pretend like they were clueless after they were notified that Romney was doing press availability.

Greta Van Susteren brought in their previously scheduled guest, KT McFarland, following Romney's just devastating press conference and the best she had to offer in response is that Mittens ought to be talking about national security and the problems with the protests and unrest in the Middle East and Africa instead.

And despite Van Susteren pretending that the Romney presser was the first she'd heard about the Mother Jones story, amazingly her panel of Byron York, Michael Crowley and Rick Klein were somehow able to fill her in on it. Imagine that? Fox really is becoming a parody of itself these days.

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Look for more of the nonsense talking point you heard during this segment in the coming week from the right. This recording of Romney is just like President Obama during the primary season when he was up against Hillary, talking about people "clinging to their guns and their religion." They conceded that it's not the same in this segment, but you watch, they'll be using that same line on Fox as the week goes on and doing their best to play the false equivalency game.

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Ah yes, the deification of Zombie Reagan that only exists in the minds of right-wingers continues on FoxPAC. After being by guest host John Roberts if the Romney-Ryan ticket “fails the Commander in Chief test” or not, here's how Fox regular KT McFarland responded.

MCFARLAND: Look, it's a brilliant foreign policy choice. Why? For three reasons.

One, you know, the biggest problem America faces, the biggest national security problem we face, according to the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is the economy. If we don't fix the economy, foreign policy is collateral damage. So first fix the economy. And people forget that my boss, Reagan, in the first Reagan term, Reagan fixed the economy. He didn't take down the Soviet Union until the second term. So first, fix the economy.

The second thing is, America's immediate problem in foreign policy is Israel and Iran. Now, the United States and Israel have to see eye to eye on how to deal with Iran. If they don't see eye to eye, than Israel could be tempted to go off on its own, start a war with Iran that they can't finish that we have to finish. The closest relationship is between Romney and Netanyahu. They've known each other for forty years. They are on the same page. They may not always agree, but they're on the same page. And, you know John, as far as who's the foreign minister of Kazakhstan, what Romney can do is appoint a blue ribbon committee of wise men. Get Henry Kissinger, who opened China, did the first Middle East negotiations. Get George Schultz, ended the Cold War. Get Jim Baker, won the first Iraq war. Have them be a wise men committee to vet whoever the foreign policy picks are for the Cabinet. So, no, this is a great foreign policy choice, because it shows that America can solve it's problems and we're back.

ROBERTS: Quick answer if I could ask you for it KT, this idea of American exceptionalism as well, in a talk before the Council on Foreign Relations, Paul Ryan said “Obama (the President) doesn't think America is an exceptional nation. It's a shame he doesn't believe in American exceptionalism.” Is this idea of America being bigger than everybody else and stronger than everybody else really play into our national security going forward?

MCFARLAND: Yeah, and John that is in fact a key point. If you look around the world and say what's the biggest problem with the perception of America, it's that the best days are behind us. We were a great empire, no longer. And all the Obama administration's going to do is manage the decline. With a Romney-Ryan ticket, it's like Reagan again! It's like saying, we have big problems. We can solve big problems. And if the United States is the only mature democracy in the world that can do that, it sets the world on a whole new direction. I think it's brilliant!

h/t Media Matters

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It appears Fox doesn't want to let their viewers know why Hillary Clinton was met with protests in Egypt if this interview with Neil Cavuto and Fox regular, KT McFarland is any indication. Cavuto was discussing the fact that Hillary Clinton's motorcade was met with demonstrators a little over a week ago and they managed to get in a little fearmongering over the Muslim Brotherhood's future role in Egypt's government. What they somehow managed to fail to mention is Michele Bachmann and her cohorts' role in causing the protests. Imagine that?

For a reminder of what set things off, here's more from Think Progress: Bachmann’s Islamophobic Conspiracy Theory Fuels Egyptians’ Anti-Clinton Protest:

Egyptian protesters threw shoes and tomatoes at Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s motorcade in Alexandria this week. The New York Times reported that their demonstration “delighted conservative bloggers in the United States” but “what has attracted less attention” is why they were protesting: a conspiracy theory cooked up by Islamophobes in the U.S. that the Obama administration is working on behalf of the Muslim Brotherhood:

Pressed by American reporters to explain where they got the idea that their new Islamist president, Mohamed Morsi, had been foisted on them through a U.S. plot, rather than the will of the majority, several Egyptians cited information gathered from American blogs or news sites.

An Egyptian-American Christian who met Mrs. Clinton on Sunday cited a recent assertion by Representative Michele Bachmann, a Republican, “that the Obama Administration is pursuing a closeted pro-Muslim agenda,” in a conversation with Time magazine’s correspondent, Abigail Hauslohner.

Rumors that the Obama administration has provided the Muslim Brotherhood with billions of dollars in aid remain an article of faith with many Egyptians who are convinced that Mr. Morsi’s victory was a sham, despite repeated efforts by the U.S. Embassy in Cairo to correct the record on Twitter.

That’s right — Bachmann’s ludicrous allegation that the Muslim Brotherhood has “penetrated” the United States government convinced anti-Islamist Egyptians that the U.S. is backing their domestic Islamist opponents. The source for Bachmann’s ravings is Frank Gaffney, a conspiracy theorist who claims that the Muslim Brotherhood has infiltrated the government and that shari’a law is coming to the U.S.

It seems Cavuto and McFarland are more concerned with protecting Michele Bachmann and her fellow wingnuts who are all regular guests on Fox than letting the viewers know they were the cause of Clinton's "really awful" treatment in Egypt. I'm sure not wanting anything to get in the way of their fearmongering about the Muslim Brotherhood has something to do with it as well.

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Geraldo Rivera goes after Rolling Stone reporter Michael Hastings for his reporting which led to the resignation of Gen. Stanley McChrystal and goes so far as to compare him to al Qaeda. This is coming from the same guy that the military kicked out of Iraq back in 2003 because he disclosed information about troop movements on the air. He made similar remarks earlier in the week on Fox when he appeared with KT McFarland when he said "whoever was in charge of putting that reporter with those soldiers in that context allowed a rat to be in an eagle's nest." More on that from Reason Magazne:

Losing the War in Afghanistan? Blame Rolling Stone, Suggests Geraldo Rivera:

And now some pundits are making the reporter, Michael Hastings, out to be the bad guy. [...]

True, there are strategic implications: We learned that the top general in Afghanistan surrounds himself with idiots. As KT McFarland points out in the video, public officials and their aides should know better than to make disparaging and derogatory remarks in front of reporters. Far from having jeopardized our mission in Afghanistan—which is what Rivera is implying—the Rolling Stone article reveals important details about the people McChrystal relied on. Like, for instance, the McChrystal aide who described a meeting with a French minister as "f**king gay." Does this sound like the best team to head a war effort where the U.S. needs to win the hearts and minds of the people in Afghanistan and Pakistan?

I suspect Rivera is probably just jealous that someone went out and did real reporting for a change. Other journalists are jealous, too. Check out Jon Stewart making fun of them here.

During this interview with O'Reilly, Geraldo rails on about how the soldiers remarks should have been considered "off the record", he claims that they didn't know they were beig interviewed, he accuses Rolling Stone Magazine of being just as dangerous as al Qaeda to the mission in Afghanistan and wanting to rush the story to press without checking with the military first and even O'Reilly who obviously hates Rolling Stone for the article they did about him has to call out Geraldo for going over the top.

O'Reilly tells him that Rolling Stone claims they ran the quotes by Gen. McChrystal and he allowed the story to go to print and Geraldo does a complete 180 and says he'll take the magazine at their word and then credits Gen. McChrystal for "not trying to sleaze away." I guess it was asking too much of Geraldo to maybe actually find out himself if the magazine cleared the story with the military first before he went on the air and accused their reporter of being akin to a terrorist.

Transcript below the fold.

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December 28, 2009 FOX and Friends

Dave N.: Well, that certainly didn't take long. And as usual, the chief turds -- in this case, the execrable Mike Gallagher -- have come floating to the surface of the punch bowl:

Gallagher: But guys, let's look at the inevitable, the 800-pound gorilla in the room. How about we scrutinize young Middle Eastern men to stop this.

What happens when El Al Airlines, the airline run and operated by the state of Israel, if a Palestinian tries to board that plane? Do you think he goes through an extra degree of security? Well, let's do that with Muslims, let's do that with anybody named Abdul or Mohammad or Ahmed, let's take them and put them in a room and make sure they don't have explosives sewn into their underwear.

...

Brian Kilmeade: Do you think we ought to profile any Muslim?

Gallagher: Yes! I think we ought to do what El Al does. Ask anybody who knows El Al what they do with Palestinians who attempt to board El Al. We should anybody who is a known Muslim and put them in a separate line. Call it the VIP line! Treat them with respect!

Christine Fair: That is so preposterous. One-third of the world's population is Muslim. Trying to treat every single Muslim as a terrorist is simply untenable, it's fearmongering.

Gallagher: Who are you afraid of offending Christine? Al Qaeda?

Memo to Gallagher: Nigeria is not in "the Middle East," and the suspect in this case was not "Middle Eastern" -- he was African.

If you want to profile every "known Muslim," you're going to have a hell of a time in countries like Indonesia and the Philippines, considering that their populations are a mix of the world's religions, and any Muslim who wanted to pose as a member of, say, a Christian church in order to fool authorities could do so with ease.

This just underscores how foolish the whole notion of racial profiling actually is, because when you embark on such policies, they actually make you more vulnerable, not less.

That's because terrorists are not that stupid. If you begin profiling for Middle Eastern men, they will find Indonesian or African or European operatives to perform the same task. If you begin profiling for Muslims, they will find ways to conceal their religious preferences.

We know two things about profiling, especially ethnic, religious, or racial profiling: 1) These policies expose the profilers to being gamed by terrorists; and 2) They are always a tremendous waste of resources and inevitably are counter-productive.

Sounds like your classic conservative solution: Hey, let's just make matters worse!

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From MSNBC's Morning Meeting, Dylan Ratigan loses his temper with Debbie Wasserman Schultz when she starts spinning about what a good bill HCR is going to be but doesn't answer his question about why Wall Street is so happy and all the health insurance stocks are going up. Ratigan tweeted that he will apologize for losing his temper but not for "challenging lies and misinformation".

Here's the terrible thing about the administration and Reid allowing this health care bill to be watered down so badly by the ConservaDems in the pocket of the insurance companies. Now you've got someone like Debbie Wasserman Schultz who you know probably doesn't like what's going on any more than most of us do being forced to try to defend this crap sandwich to the likes of Ratigan, and not being able to. She really did not look like she was prepared for this interview at all. I think Ratigan was extremely rude, but I don't disagree with his points.

Wendell Potter followed up on the phone and gave him some plain spoken answers about why the stock market is so happy. Then he let hack KT McFarland follow up and act like Republicans aren't as happy about this as the insurance industry. They get to sit back and play populists and let the Democrats own this mess.

Eli over at FDL has more on this--What’s The Matter With Democrats?:

Not only have Obama and the Senate Democrats adopted pro-corporate policies that will hasten their own political demise, but they have allowed the Republicans to keep their hands clean and pretend to oppose legislation that they would have happily championed a few years ago.

[...]

Unless Obama and the Democrats pull their heads far enough out of their corporate donors’ asses to hear the transpartisan outrage brewing outside the Beltway, the 2010 and 2012 elections will be very very bad for them. They will reap all of the pent-up rage and resentment that was aimed at the Republicans in 2006 and 2008, and we know how that turned out.

Given Rahm's statement to Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal, the administration is looking pretty tone deaf these days--Rahm Emanuel: Don’t Worry About the Left. Not helpful Rahmbo. We've got Axelrod trying to calm down left wing bloggers one day and Rahm Emanuel telling us to stick it the next. Talk about mixed messages.