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Republicans apparently are counting on the American public to have short memories, or to not be aware of who Mitch Daniels is and what policies he's endorsed since they decided to tap him to give the response to President Obama's State of the Union Address this Tuesday evening.

Daniels attacked the President for not turning the economy around quickly enough, ignoring the fact that he's personally responsible for a good deal of the debt and deficit we're dealing with now during his time working in the Bush administration.

From Steve Benen back in February of last year -- The Record Mitch Daniels Doesn't Want to Talk About:

A couple of days ago, David Brooks praised Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) for his record of fiscal responsibility. That record, in Brooks' vision, starts in 2004 when Daniels was elected to statewide office.

But there's also that inconvenient period in which Daniels was Bush's budget director, and the U.S. government began the most fiscally irresponsible period in American history. [...]

It's true that Daniels, as Bush's budget director, was helping shape the books during an economic downturn, but I seem to recall Republicans concluding that these details are irrelevant -- Obama inherited the worst economy since the Great Depression, but as far as the GOP is concerned, that's not a good excuse for large deficits.

For that matter, Daniels is correct that his tenure also included 9/11 and the launch of two wars, but every president in American history raised taxes to help pay for previous U.S. wars, to prevent deficits from spiraling out of control. Bush, with Daniels' blessing, approved two massive tax cuts that ultimately added $5 trillion to the debt in just eight years.

It's that same debt that Daniels believes will destroy the country. Funny, he didn't think that way when he was directly responsible for making the problem worse.

Daniels also claimed during this speech that it's his party that wants to "save" our social safety nets, but this is the same man who called Social Security "a Ponzi scheme." And as Media Matters Political Correction posted last May -- GOP "Savior" Mitch Daniels Wants To Voucherize Medicare, Slash Social Security Benefits.

Daniels also claimed his party is concerned about restoring "hope and upward mobility and greater equality" for Americans, but he's been busy pushing "right to work" legislation through his state that would have the opposite effect.

The fact that this man is one of the people that the Republicans and the beltway Villagers in the media are still touting as some sort of "savior" for the Republican Party just speaks to how extremely weak their field of candidates are right now.

I'm sure there will be a lot more fact checking of this speech as people have time and pointing out the lies by Daniels that were made here and his utter hypocrisy, which it deserves. I'll just leave it there for now with the text of the speech below the fold for anyone that would like to weigh in further at this point.

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As our own Jon Perr and Think Progress noted, Herman Cain is a wingnut that really does not deserve to be taken seriously as a presidential candidate. That didn't stop Fox's Neil Cavuto from giving him some air time as though he did.

From Think Progress's post with an update on Cain's slight walk back of his previous statements on appointing any Muslims to his non-existent which is never going to happen in a million years cabinet since this wingnut is never going to be elected president:

Cain appeared on Fox News with Neil Cavuto this afternoon to discuss the ongoing controversy. Cain declared that "many of the Muslims are not totally dedicated to this country," but reiterated that he disavowed his earlier pledge to refuse appointing any Muslims in his administration. Cain ended by noting that “being politically correct isn’t something I’m going to spend a whole lot of my time worrying about." Cavuto agreed, saying, "you might have many issues, Herman, but being politically correct ain’t one of them".

It's really pitiful that Fox is treating this man as anything other than the fringe candidate that he deserves to be and the fact that he's not that far from what is considered "mainstream" in Republican Party speaks volumes for how far off the rails to the right that party has moved these days.

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Bill Maher took a shot at Republicans in his New Rules segment for showing us that they have absolutely no interest in governing and instead just trying to whip their base up into a frenzy fear mongering over the latest faux outrage of the day.

MAHER: New Rule – Fantasies are for sex, not public policy. When you go down the list of useless distractions that make up the Republican Party agenda; public unions and Sharia law, anchor babies and a mosque at ground zero, ACORN and National Public Radio, the war on Christmas, the New Black Panthers, Planned Parenthood, Michelle Obama’s war on desserts…

…you realize that one reason nothing gets done in America is that one of the political parties puts so much more into fantasy problems. Governing this country with Republicans is like rooming with a meth addict.

You want to address real life problems like when the rent is due and they’re saying “How can you even think of that stuff when there’s police scanner voices coming out of the air conditioning unit?”

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Former New Hampshire Senator Judd Gregg joined the crew of Morning Joe and jumped all over the Huffington Post's Sam Stein when he pointed out that Social Security is solvent for the next twenty-some years. Gregg's reasoning -- it's not solvent because the taxpayers will either be asked to pay the money back they borrowed against it, or we borrow money from places like China.

So basically he thinks it's insolvent because he doesn't think the money should have to be paid back. This is coming from someone who never had a problem with deficits when George W. Bush and the Republicans were busy invading countries that weren't a threat to us and giving tax cuts to the rich which broke the bank, but now the world's going to come to an end because we're supposedly broke. Social Security is funded by our payroll taxes and does nothing to add to the deficit, but these guys can't stop lying and pretending it does.

And of course Joe Scarborough and Pat Buchanan -- who it appears still has a cot in the MSNBC studios since he's on there every time you turn around -- were happy to help him out ratcheting up the fear. If they want to make Social Security solvent for decades to come, all they need to do is raise the income cap. And shame on Gregg and the rest of them for wanting to balance the budget on the backs of seniors and acting like it's acceptable not to repay that trust fund.

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While discussing Rep. Peter King's upcoming McCarthyesque hearings on the threat of terrorism from Muslim Americans, even Joe Scarborough says that King is walking a fine line here and Ezra Klein agrees with Rep. Keith Ellison that King needs to back off and is not holding a serious investigation but just trying to raise his public profile by fear mongering. Pat Buchanan of course doesn't think anyone should pre-judge what King is up to.

BUCHANAN: Look the Muslim community is particularly vulnerable to an approach from abroad to try to make... radicalize them and make them enemies of America. That's legitimate. Every politician frankly raises himself up with hearings like that. I think we ought to wait and see what Peter King does.

When asked if he thinks there is a threat of a small group Muslim being radicalized in America as we've seen in parts of Europe, Klein responds that there's no reason to think we're going to see that in the U.S. because the Muslim community here is very different here. Pat Buchanan of course disagrees and uses the example of the Fort Hood shooting and Major Hasan as an example of how Muslims are being radicalized in the United States. And of course MSNBC's favorite bigot Buchanan thinks we shouldn't be demonizing Muslims, as he proceeds to demonize all Muslims.

KLEIN: How does this not demonize Muslims doing this? (crosstalk) You gave one example here and we're talking about an investigation into an entire religious community. We've gone from the one to the whole very quickly and people need to be very careful doing that.

BUCHANAN: Who is most susceptible or vulnerable to the recruitment coming out of the radical Islam? It's American Muslims.

KLEIN: Why do you think they're so vulnerable to it? There are radicals everywhere. (crosstalk) There are neo-Nazis who claim they're Christians? (crosstalk) Is the Christian community in America so deeply vulnerable to neo-Nazism?

BUCHANAN: I think the FBI would be watching those guys if you got Hitler over here broadcasting in the Unites States?

KLEIN: Uh, but we do have those guys there and we've got seen a ton of evidence.

Update: MSNBC's Martin Bashir has a few things to say about Rep. Peter King's hearings, what it's like to be mistaken for a terrorist, and why Rep. King's hearings are something to be endured, like airport patdowns and no-fly lists.

h/t Karoli

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Apparently Glenn Beck has finally fallen off of the cliff so badly that even neocon warmongers like Robert Kagan have had enough of him. Sadly not quite badly enough for CNN's resident hack John King to pretend like there was still some question about whether Beck's recent rants are anything short of crazy out and out fear mongering with the way he framed this portion of the segment.

KING: This is from a rival news network. It is something that I would describe, this is my opinion, as out there a little bit. It's Glenn Beck yesterday. He's standing in front of a map and he is essentially saying Egypt will fall, the Islamists will seize power and there will be a domino effect not only across the Middle East, but Glenn Beck's conjecture is that it could go further. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: Now what is happens? You move over to Asia and you grab the ones, once this domino starts to fall, and the Muslims start to see, oh, my gosh, we might from a caliphate. We might be able to have Islam imposed and Sharia law all over the globe. You start to lose all of Asia.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Michele, to you first, any scenario in which you see anything like that possibly coming out of this?

DUNNE: I think the Muslim Brothers are going to play a role in the political future of Egypt and I -- but I don't see any kind of a radical Islamist takeover. Let's not forget. The Egyptian army are there and the Egyptian judiciary is there. There are some pillars of the system that have not fallen and will no necessarily fall with Mubarak. They show no signs of falling. So there are institutions, and so forth in Egypt to prevent a radical takeover. But, you know, I would also say this, I mean, what's the alternative scenario? You know, what should the United States be doing? Are we supposed to -- you know, this train is moving down the track, change is happening in Egypt. Should we throw ourselves in front of it just to try to stop the Muslim Brothers from getting into parliament? I mean it's just a totally unrealistic scenario. The idea that somehow the United States should stop political change, and should do what it can to deny political rights and human rights to 85 million Egyptians, you know, because we're concerned about the Muslim Brotherhood.

KING: Is what you just saw, is that alarmist? Is it extreme?

KAGAN: Of course, it's panic-mongering of the worst kind. It's not the first time in American history that kind of panic mongering has played well on TV or in the press. But I hope that people who have some sobriety and some good sense won't look at a map like that and think that India, which I noticed was colored in, was about to become part of an Islamic caliphate. That shows a profound ignorance of India, as well as the rest of the world.

I think we need to be intelligent about how we move forward. Not be guided by panic about some global Islamic takeover. And, in fact, that kind of panic leads to the worst kind of policies.

KING: Bob Kagan, Michele Dunne, appreciate your insights.

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Hardball's Chris Matthews has finally started paying attention to the fact that Glenn Beck's show is nothing but fear mongering and incoherent rants and touting nonsensical conspiracy theories. Media Matter's Eric Boehlert and The Washington Post's Eugene Robinson discuss some of Beck's latest wingnuttery with the uprisings in the Middle East.

They also spent a little time discussing neocon Frank Gaffney who's been spreading panic about the Muslim Brotherhood taking over our government that John wrote about yesterday. Maybe Matthews will finally quit having him on as a guest on Hardball after this.

Best line in the segment by Eugene Robinson after Matthews asks him if Beck has any sense of history:

ROBINSON: This is the stuff normally you would prescribe medication.

Ain't that the truth?

Full transcript via Lexis Nexis.

MATTHEWS: Welcome back to HARDBALL. As the crisis continues in Egypt and may continue on for quite a while, if you listen to Dr. Brzezinski, the right wing, led by Glenn Beck, continues to traffic in conspiracy theories. Why not? They have more to do with scaring this country than getting the truth out of what`s happening over there.

So what are they up to this time? Well, Eric Boehlert is a senior fellow with Media Matters, and Eugene Robinson`s a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for "The Washington Post."

Gentlemen, thank you both for being with us. And I sometimes -- I`m not surprised by right or left-wing argument in this country. Sometimes the rhetoric is rather wholesome. Now, catch Glenn Beckon Tuesday night, this diatribe about the Caliphate. He starts talking about ancient Babylon. See if you can follow this. I did. Let`s listen.

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Howard Dean and Newt Gingrich participated in a debate at George Washington University, and of course, Gingrich couldn't pass up the opportunity to do a little fearmongering over "radical Islam". Here's more from Think Progress' Faiz Shakir, who posted a slightly different version of the exchange.

Dean Rejects Gingrich’s ‘Radical Islam’ Fearmongering: ‘Radical Anything Is What’s Bad’:

The clash between the progressive and conservative visions for targeting extremism was on full display last night during a debate between former Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Gov. Howard Dean. Like Peter King, Gingrich harped on the need to confront “radical Islam,” which he said is the most dangerous threat facing the world. Dean responded:

I’m a little uncomfortable focusing on the notion of ‘radical Islam’ because the truth is radical anything is what’s bad, and people who use violence – (applause). … What radicals do is they polarize people to get this kind of reaction. … Intolerance breeds intolerance. And we can’t fight intolerance with intolerance. … The radicals that are targeting us are in fact bigoted, misogynist, and intolerant. And if we respond that way, they’ve won. I’m not gonna give up what America believes in because different individuals happen to belong to a particular religion or to a particular sect.

Gingrich responded by conceding that he’d be happy to find a different term than “radical Islam,” but then mused, “There have been, to the best of my knowledge, no radical Norwegians.” [...]

A few points in response to Gingrich. First, there are radical Norwegians, just as they are radicals of different faiths, cultures, and ethnicities. Secondly, he fails to concede in his story about the Times Square Bomber that the street vendor who alerted authorities to the burning car was in fact a Muslim, and that Muslims are key allies in confronting the threat of violent extremists. And lastly, the threat of “radical Islam” is actually decreasing, according to a new analysis released today.

The Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security reports that, while 47 Muslim-Americans committed or were arrested for terrorist crimes in 2009, the number dropped to 20 this past year. Tips from the Muslim American community provided the source of information that led to a terrorist plot being thwarted in 48 of 120 cases involving Muslim Americans, according to the study. The author of the study, UNC Prof. Charles Kurzman, said, “This trend offers a challenge for the American public: If we ratchet up our security concerns when the rate of terrorism rises, should we ratchet down our concerns when it falls?”

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Poor little Annie. It's pretty pathetic when even the Fox footage proves that she's talking out of her hind side right after she claims that there weren't any women protesting in Egypt. Along with that obvious lie, Ann Coulter and Sean Hannity had themselves a nice little fear mongering session over the protests in Egypt and slamming President Obama’s response to it. They wrapped things up with Coulter proving she needs to do a little research on protests in our own country and what they've led to.

They started out with more of the yammering we’ve been hearing out of way too much of our media about how the Muslim Brotherhood is going to take over the country. Coulter goes on to take shots at Obama for his response to this uprising in Egypt compared to the one in Iran and then after claiming she’s an “expert on mobs”, says she didn’t see any women protesting in Egypt.

Cue the Fox video that plainly shows women out there protesting where even Hannity was forced to point it out to Coulter. She then is forced to correct herself and admit that yes there were women there, but they were only “a small portion” of the “mob” and she paints them as “dangerous”. Yeah… okay Ann. Whatever. When even your buddy Hannity has to call you out it’s pretty obvious you’re just talking out of your posterior.

Onto more fear mongering about Muslims taking over and Coulter winding it up with this bit of flame throwing:

COULTER: Yes, that is what I’m worried about. Sure, or course change needed to be made. It wasn’t a fabulous regime and brutally unfair and a dead end society; the same sort of society Obama wants to create here. But nothing good has ever come from riots like this in the streets. You need a slow transition and I think you’re right. Obama, you know, if they’re going to turn around and support the protesters when this comes up, then they should have been supporting a peaceful transition to a more democratic and just regime with a rule of law. This isn’t a rule of law protest.

So Obama wants us to be a “dead end society” huh Annie? I’d say your Republican buddies beat him to that by about thirty years or so. And if you don’t think anything good ever came from riots in the streets, maybe you need to spend a little time reading about the history of the labor movement in the United States.

Those "riots in the streets" or in other words, protests and men, women and children being willing to put their lives on the line taking to the streets brought us an end to child labor, a forty hour work week, overtime pay, collective bargaining rights, and a host of other laws that protected workers from being abused by their employers.

I don't know if Coulter is lying or just doesn't know that people protesting has actually been one of the few things that have led to reform when people have finally had enough of being abused, but I would guess the former is true.

That said, I'm sure reading up on that dirty f&#king hippie, commie, evil union history about how the Pinkertons shot at women and children who were out there protesting with their husbands, or how coal mines basically kept their workers as slaves in company housing, or how women burned alive in factories that kept them locked because their doors were chained and on and on with more examples I could give are just too much for Ann to worry her pretty head about and read about. Lord knows there are more important issues for her to spend her time on like figuring out how to trash liberals and get more air time on Fox.

The only reason we have the labor laws today that people take for granted is because people were finally outraged that too many people were dying because of injustices by companies that treated their employees like cattle. And those protesters weren't too worried about the "rule of law" at the time, just as the protesters in Egypt are not. They're fed up to the point that they're finally willing to risk their lives for something better.

It's a lesson we'd better not forget here with the powers that be wanting to take us backwards and one that the likes of Hannity and Coulter would prefer to erase from our history.

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Anderson Cooper brought on fearmonger Frank Gaffney -- who, as Right Wing Watch reported, has been attacking the other guest during the segment, Suhail Kahn, as someone who has ties to "radical Islamists". I'm not sure why he thinks Gaffney needs any more face time in the media, since he surely gets enough over at Fox. But to his credit, Cooper did call Gaffney out for how weak his claims are and allowed him to be confronted by Kahn.

Cooper mentioned Homeland Security Chairman Rep. Peter King's appearance on Gaffney's radio show. Our friends at Think Progress have more on that, and the witch hunt we get to look forward to now that King has taken the gavel there.

Rep. Peter King Says Muslims Aren’t ‘American’ When It Comes To War:

Rep. Peter King (R-NY), the new chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, has promised to launch a series of investigations of Muslim Americans beginning in February. “I’ve made it clear that I’ll focus the committee on counterterrorism and hold hearings on a wide range of issues, including radicalization of the American Muslim community and homegrown terrorism,” he told Newsday. King has repeatedly said that he only wants to single out “Islamic terrorism” in his hearings on domestic security, and has even claimed that there are “too many mosques in this country.”

Joining anti-Muslim conspiracy theorist Frank Gaffney on Gaffney’s radio program last week, King doubled down on his promise to launch a witch-hunt against Muslims. He repeated a falsehood that he stated earlier — that American Muslims never cooperate to combat terrorism. But in addition to this claim, King made the extraordinary smear that American Muslims aren’t “American” when it comes to war. “[W]hen a war begins,” King said, every ethnic and religious group unites as “Americans.” “But in this case,” King continued, referring to Muslims, “this is not the situation. … Whether it’s cultural tradition, whatever, the fact is the Muslim community does not cooperate anywhere near to the extent that it should”.

More there from Think Progress, so go read the rest. Here's a portion of Right Wing Watch's reporting on Gaffney, much of which Cooper mentioned in his opening.

Right Wing Boycott Movement Links CPAC to the Muslim Brotherhood:

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