White House photographer Pete Souza's great picture from the Situation Room during the raid on Osama bin Laden's "hideout" left us all wondering: "but what does it all mean?" Speaking to reporters in Rome today, Hillary Clinton answered questions about the photograph, saying she has "no idea" what was going on when the picture was taken.
Orange County, California, GOP official Marilyn Davenport — who last month sent around an email with a family photo depicting President Obama as a chimpanzee — was censured yesterday by her colleagues in a 12-2 vote, which basically means nothing. State law says her racist emailing ways are not enough to get her shitcanned, so they went with a wrist slap that's most likely a Tea Party™ badge of honor, anyway. Orange County GOP honcho Scott Baugh told the OC Register:
Native Americans are happy to see Osama bin Laden gone, just like other Americans. Quick little question though: Why did his operational code name have to be Geronimo, one of the last, and perhaps most famous, great resisters of the United States' continental expansion?
In your brash Wednesday media column: Chris Matthews' wacky idea of "influential journalists," Alex Kuczynski strips, AOL's momentary earnings lapse, Adam Moss's reading list, crazy UK libel laws, and Newsweek's subtle Bin Laden cover.
Like your grandparents, Osama Bin Laden kept cash in all sorts of weird places. He apparently had 500 Euros (about $740) and two telephone numbers sewn into his clothes when he was shot dead by U.S. commandos, "sure signs that he was prepared to flee his compound at a moment's notice," according to Politico.
Pariah oil company BP is settling charges by paying $25 million in civil fines over two oil spills on Alaska's North Slope in 2006, and for basically ignoring court orders to properly maintain their pipelines. How shocking! According to a report in the Times, "The fine is the largest per-barrel assessment ever levied against an oil company in a spill case and represents a new blow to BP's corporate treasury and reputation." Yes, it's a new blow to BP's reputation, but it's doubtful the company's rep can get much worse than it already is.
When you're dealing with the assassination of the world's most-wanted criminal, you might want to actually know what you're talking about. In the space of 36 hours, the official story on what happened to Osama bin Laden has gone from "he went down guns blazing and taking hostages" to "basically we shot him."
It's unclear why Sarah Palin still keeps people around to write policy positions for her. Weren't we supposed to be over this running-for-president business due to its guaranteed failure? Maybe she's just burning through her PAC money for the hell of it. But it's not going to her longtime war-loving neocon confidantes anymore. She's just too disapproving of the latest war, Libya, for their tastes.
The first televised images many Americans saw when hearing the news about Osama bin Laden's death was a horde of preppies from George Washington University climbing trees and screaming arena chants most frequently heard at professional hockey games and roaring elatedly about death and blood. Sure, it was substantial news! But when you see that "Jack Bauer" is a Twitter trending topic at the same time... maybe the generation raised over the last decade has a little more thirst for the ol' ultra-violence?
In your moody Tuesday media column: Bin Laden saves the White House press corps, HuffPo people moves, Andrew Sullivan's traffic, a missing Al-Jazeera reporter, and Michael Wolff speaks (some more).
The first quickie poll of President Obama's approval rating since the killing of Osama bin Laden is in, and the predicted boost is definitely materializing.
Osama bin Laden and his Abbottabad goon squad were so creepy in their dealings with the local children. CNN's Nic Robertson reports that "neighbours say local children who kicked ball over compound wall, weren't allowed in to look for it," and "someone gave them money instead." The kids don't have to look personally; you just throw it back! Didn't Al Qaeda members have childhoods? Spoiled, fat childhoods, maybe, spent indoors playing video games.
Obama's week has been all about screwing up his critics' new releases. First, he unveils his birth certificate just days before publication of the birther tome Where's the Birth Certificate? Then he went and killed Osama bin Laden right as he was preparing to release a hot new jihad tape.
Senator Scott Brown has requested to do his training as a Massachusetts National Guard Lieutenant Colonel in Afghanistan this year, to help him "better understand our ongoing mission in that country." This guy is such a showoff.
