There’s an article moving up on Memeorandum that is trying to cast President Obama’s trip to Asia as a failure.

When he entered office, US President Barack Obama promised to inject US foreign policy with a new tone of respect and diplomacy. His recent trip to Asia, however, showed that it’s not working. A shift to Bush-style bluntness may be coming.

The article goes on to cite no less an “expert” than Newt Gingrich, yes, Newt Gingrich, to confirm the author’s initial thesis. When you see an article like this, you need to check the byline. I’ve learned that over these years, especially in the European press a seemingly straight news item like this tends to be constructed more like an opinion piece – and either through ignorance or intentional deception it’s linked by American conservatives as if it were news. In this case the author is one Gabor Steingart, and to put it mildly, it looks like Gabor Steingart doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about.

Here’s some previous “reporting” from the campaign by Gabor Steingart:

The euphoria is gone, the friendly fire has started: Barack Obama is suddenly looking less like a superstar and more like just another candidate. His message isn’t hitting home with the three most important groups of voters: women, older Americans and blue-collar workers.

All of those people who’ve been dreaming of America’s first black president now have to slowly wake up. It’ll happen one day, hopefully, but not in this election. And perhaps his name will be Barack Obama. But that first black president will have a more mature personality than that which Obama, 46, can offer American voters today.

The senator from Illinois has now lost two primaries, losses that have turned the former superstar back into an ordinary candidate. And after the CNN debate on Monday night, one thing is clear: Obama is a candidate under friendly fire.

Here’s what Steingart wrote after the Iowa caucus:

Once upon a time there was a young African-American candidate who wanted to become president. Obama’s story sounds like a fairy tale, and one would like to believe it. But despite his impressive victory in Iowa, he has scant hope of reaching the White House.

And after New Hampshire:

The Obama revolution has foundered in New Hampshire, where Democratic voters mistrusted the shooting star’s emotional rhetoric of change. Hillary Clinton’s sober realpolitik has won the day, and that’s a good thing.

February 2008:

If democracy functions only half as well as the market economy, the Obama bubble will burst. The burning question is: When? Will it happen before the Democratic nomination this August — or not until afterwards?

Another from February 2008:

Try as he might, Obama is failing so far to win over ordinary people. It’s hard to whip up enthusiasm among the down-to-earth voters of the center ground, people who are too preoccupied with the everyday problems of life to get swept up by Obama’s grand pledge to turn over a new leaf in the history book. His message doesn’t have much impact among them.

March 2008:

Of course, love is always a question of the time of day and the lighting. And there is much to suggest that the love story between Obama and Democratic voters will not continue as romantically as it has up until now.

August 2008:

Obama should be fearing these divided Democrats far more than the attacks by the conservatives. A nervous party is a dangerous party. Dwindling confidence of victory has often been the harbinger of defeat. The Clinton Democrats are only lurking in the wings waiting to build a coalition with the doubters — for the time after Obama.

April 2008 was a doozy!

[Condoleezza] Rice stands a good chance of being nominated as the Republican vice-presidential candidate. Because of his age — he is already 71 — Senator Join McCain might only serve a single term. Standing at his side, she could launch her own presidential campaign from day one. While the two Democrats continue to tear each other to shreds in the run-up to the Democratic nominating convention in August, Rice would emerge as a beaming fourth player. Her entry into the White House, in 2012 or possibly even earlier, would then fall within the range of the possible.

Needless to say, the dude who wrote the obituary of the Obama campaign in January of 2008 may not be the best guy to be writing the obituary of the Obama presidency’s foreign policy in its first year.

So, I’m sort of a weird fanboy/observer of British politics, and as a detached observer I sort of feel that current PM Gordon Brown was dealt a bad hand. The economy didn’t tank on his watch, but people blame Labour and by extension, him. And then along comes this really charismatic guy in the opposition party – David Cameron. (Gordon Brown’s boring nerdness also reminds me of our own Goracle)

But now, even though the press has all but annointed the Conservatives as the winners in next year’s election, a new poll seems to show a much smaller lead than it was previously.

Now, unlike conservative American bloggers I’m not going to pretend that the UK Conservative party is really conservative. They’re frankly considerably to the left of the Democratic Party. If they win the election, it isn’t like they plan to dismantle the NHS. As best I can gather, they’re mostly up for being “not it” with the economy and bailouts, and for appearing slightly tougher on immigration.

And the mischievous side of me kind of wants some wackiness, so that something bizarre like the Liberal Democrats winning happens. That would be like the Green Party being an actual viable party in America, rather than an occasional expression of Ralph Nader’s ego.

So, go Gordon!

(DISCLAIMER: I don’t know a whole lot about British politics, what I do know I get from the BBC, Brit tabloids, and FRANCE24 which has really pretty anchors)

Microsoft is in discussions with News Corp. to remove its news articles from Google in a move to marginalize the search engine that could have ramifications for the newspaper biz, according to the Financial Times.

The talks, which are at an early stage, center around payment for News Corp.’s newspapers such as the Wall Street Journal. News Corp. topper Rupert Murdoch has previously said he wants payment for content from his newspapers, which include the New York Post.

Quite frankly, Google could probably promote the lack of News Corp.’s “journalism” in its engine as a feature, not a bug. I’m not one of those people who believes that Google can never be beat, but this kind of side deal makes me think Bing is compromised and increases the trustworthiness of Google in my eyes.

That’s right! Ten years ago on this exact day my little doggy here came into this world, and a few months later (specificially December 23, 1999) he came home with me and became a part of our family.

It’s been a joy, and every day with my four legged pal has been a blessing.

CK, the weiner dog of infinite justice, now over a decade on the job!

And conservatives would be cheering him along.

We do not ask for much. We are your humble servants, but we come to you with one request:

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE LET THE REDSKINS BEAT THE COWBOYS TODAY.

The Cowboys are evil, in league with Satan, and since we know you are not a fan of his (to say the least), we implore you to push the football mojo the Redskins’ way.

So for one day forget world peace, curing cancer, or getting Daddy a job interview.

We beg of you, make the Cowboys lose to the Redskins.

AMEN.

Let’s look at the ways this is dumb.

* Obama beat McCain by 7%. He beat him by 10 million votes overall. Bush lost to Gore in the popular vote by 0.51%. Gore got over 500,000 more votes than Bush.

* The 2000 election went into a recount

* The recount was halted by Bush bringing a case to the Supreme court, adjudicated by some judges appointed by his father, using legal precedents that only somehow applied to this one case

So, in one case, we had a clear and present winner beyond dispute yet conservatives insist that a community activist group somehow stole the election for the victor.

In the other case we have a close, complicated election that involved the intervention of the Supreme court in which the winner of the lesser amount of votes was eventually sworn in as president.

Yeah, the two cases are just the same. Where’s Obama’s birth certificate?

The New Republic is horrible.

(Back in 2006, Jason Zengerle called supporters of Ned Lamont “Lamonsters”, is anyone surprised?)

“Europe: Proton beams circulate in Big Bang machine ”

1. We have a “big bang machine”
2. It’s circulating “beams” of stuff.
3. PROTON beams.
4. A big. Bang. Machine.

And yet, no flying cars, no food replicators, and no hoverboards. Still.

Also, this:

Since some opponents of reform seem too obsessed with the length of the Senate health insurance reform bill to even bother looking at what’s in it for American families, we thought we’d make it a little easier for them to find some key of provisions they’re working so hard to kill:

* On page 78 you’ll learn that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ends discrimination based on pre-existing conditions.

* On page 17, it makes preventive care completely free, with no cost-sharing. (This might be of particular interest to those who have chosen to seize on concerns about the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force Recommendations on mammograms to spread baseless myths and advance their own political agenda.)

* Flipping back to page 16, you’ll find that insurance companies are prohibited from dropping your coverage or watering it down when you get sick and need it most.

* Also on page 16, you might notice that it puts an end to lifetime caps on coverage.

* Page 18 is where the bill extends family coverage eligibility for young Americans through the age of 26.

* On page 83 it requires insurance companies to renew any policy as long as the policyholder pays their premium in full – that means they can’t refuse to renew your coverage just because you get sick.

* Page 307 is home to tax credits for small businesses to help them afford insurance for their employees.

* And folks looking to scare our senior citizens about what reform means for them might be interested to check out page 923 and learn that it provides a 50% discount on drugs for seniors in the so-called donut hole.

I worried that the Obama folks might lose some of their edge in the transition to the White House, and while of course they can’t be as hard edged about some things due to their role as the government, they clearly are not going to roll over like so many Democrats in power too often do.

Alessandra Mussolini, a former showgirl turned MP, said she immediately informed the police when she found out.

The listing, on auction site Ebay, reportedly showed images of a wooden container and ampoules of blood.

Ebay, which does not allow the sale of human matter on its site, said that the listing was removed within hours.

The initial price requested for the material was 15,000 euros ($22,000; £13,000).

Charlene S. Lugar, 77, was stopped shortly after 6:30 p.m. by an officer who noticed smoke coming from her car and damage to the front end of the car as she drove on Old Dominion Drive, Officer Bud Walker said. The officer pulled her over near Dominion Reserve Drive, ‘developed probable cause that she was intoxicated’ and arrested her. He did not release her alleged blood-alcohol content.

Tea Party Express co-chair Mark Williams, one of the most visible spokespersons for the tea party movement, has repeatedly called his political opponents ‘faggot’ on his blog.

‘I attended all those meetings that President Obama had with Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao,’ Huntsman said, referring to the Chinese president and premier.

‘I’ve got to say some of the reporting I saw afterward was off the mark. I saw sweeping comments about things that apparently weren’t talked about, when they were discussed in great detail in the meetings,’ he said.

It’s a pretty safe posture to assume the media is just totally getting stories wrong.

Voting for health care reform – and at the ultimate least, voting for that bill to get to a floor vote – should be a fundamental element of being in the Democratic caucus. If you’re going to be against it, you shouldn’t be there in the first place. There is a party opposed to reform of of one of the most important elements in American society. It is called the Republican party.

Senate Dems and their staffers have coasted along for far too long, protected from the world of actual politics because for so long they could do no more than toothless stunts and speeches. Now they’ve got to step up to the plate and deliver, and playing CYA wont’ cut it.

UPDATE: Chris Rock said it best.

N***as always want credit for some shit they supposed to do. A n***a will brag about some shit a normal man just does. A n***a will say some shit like, “I take care of my kids.” You’re supposed to, you dumb motherfucker! What kind of ignorant shit is that? “I ain’t never been to jail!” What do you want, a cookie?! You’re not supposed to go to jail, you low-expectation-having motherfucker!

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The shirts had Psalm 109:8 which says:

Let his days be few; and let another take his office.

The right keeps rooting against America.

And I’m sure this brand of rhetoric has nothing to do with it. Nothing at all.

Can we just give the south back to the Brits?