Brian Williams photo roundup: visual commentary on the downfall of NBC's Brian Williams

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Speaker John Boehner, self immolation, and the G.O.P.'s rapid slide into irrelevancy

By Pablo Fanque, National Affairs Ed.

The Bone makes his sequestration face. I am not a fan, but admit I feel for him. He has tried, but is pretty much helpless while his party is hell-bent on self-immolation, not to mention relishing his humiliation  every step of the way. 

The Speaker thought getting Bachmann, Palin, Paul, Herman Cain, Rick Perry, et al, out of the way would help. But the instant they shuffle one whack job out the door, another wingnut steps in to fill their shoes. And that's the way I like it.

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Michele Bachmann for President! (for people who find Palin too cerebral)

By Pablo Fanque,
National Affairs Editor


Hold onto your mukluks Ex-Governor Palin -- your old Mama Grizzly buddy-roo and fellow Tea-Partier Michele Bachmann has set her sights on an Oval Office run in 2012.  Or will you two tea-partiers team up or tag-team until one of you runs out of gas?

I have been trying to find out if Bachmann's announcement has caused any schism between her and Palin, or between their factions within the Tea Party itself.   So far, nothing has turned up.

Bachmann, the three-term congresswoman from Minnesota, is well-known for her doctrinaire conservatism, and her bizarre views like: "homosexuality is a dysfunction," or that President BHO is "turning America into a nation of slaves."  Rep. Bachmann makes liberals perhaps even crazier than her pal, the Ex-Governor.

Which will it be?  Or will they go head-to-head?

Bachmann, the chairwoman of the House Tea Party Caucus, is traveling to Iowa this month "to seek advice from political forces there and party elders close to the caucus process before coming to a final decision" on whether or not to make a run for the big seat.

Conservatives like Shannon Bell of Right Pundits think Bachmann would, at the very least, make for a spirited contest:  "She's unbelievable when it comes to raising money. She has impeccable conservative credentials. Liberals hate her guts. The Tea Party adores her, and she's not afraid to take on the establishment."

The often hilarious Andy Borowitz tweeted when this first came out: "Michele Bachmann would be an awesome presidential candidate for people who find Sarah Palin too brainy."

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Drilling Pals: Pres. Barack Obama and Ex-Gov. Sarah Palin on offshore oil drilling

By Pablo Fanque
All This Is That National Affairs Editor

Ex-Governor Sarah Palin: "Drill, baby, drill."


President Barack Obama: "We have to compromise in terms of a careful, well thought-out drilling strategy that is carefully circumscribed to avoid significant environmental damage"
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"We did it for the show," which must go on, and conversely, The Piper must also be paid. The Sheriff commences payback time for the Balloon Boy Hoax

By Pablo Fanque
All This Is That National Affairs Editor

The authorities who assured us Friday that the Balloon Boy episode was not a hoax, were actually hoaxing all of us, and have in the meantime, scrambled hammer and tong for evidence to prove otherwise.

In order to get to the truth, Sheriff Jim Alderden of Larimer County said, "it was very important during this time that they [the Heene family] maintained their trust with us." The investigators misled the media (which really means you and me) while they carried out their "game plan," gathering the truth [?]. And now, the cops say the whole thing was staged.


The famous balloon at the sheriff's department in Fort Collins, Colorado, this weekend. Click to enlarge.

After young Falcon Heene [ed's note to Ex-Governor Palin: file that name!] told Wolf Blitzer of CNN "we did this for the show," the authorities, and news media went ape, and two days later, Sheriff Alderden is calling the incident a "hoax," confected by the Heenes in hopes of landing a reality show based on their kooky family.



The parents, Richard and Mayumi Heene, "put on a very good show for us," Alderden said. And now, cops and prosecutors have dropped hints of various possible charges, up to and including:

- Child endangerment [Because Falcon was hiding in the attic?]
- Conspiracy to defraud law enforcement [does this mean the kids should also be charged?]
- Contributing to the delinquency of a minor [one charge per child]
- attempting to influence a public servant [Uh, wouldn't we also need to arrest about five thousand lobbyists, the heads of any corporation doing more than, say, $50 million of business a year?]
- Filing a false police report

The sheriff now says charges will be filed in the case, and says he is concerned about the safety of the youth, ages 6, 8, and 10. The local CPS (Children's Protective Service) is also making rumblings about an investigation.

Hell hath no fury like a bunch of bamboozled cops, editors, CPS workers, and a scandal-starved general public.
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Palin-McCain Halloween Card

From the often amusing blog site, BartCop.com, a Halloween card. . .
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Scarred For Life?

Sometimes I wonder what it has meant, raising three children in the reign of George Bush? In their hearts what do they think of The President? And The Presidency? Have they been scarred for life?

When I was a kid people kind of liked the President (even if he was from the "other" party. Did that kind of fizzle out around about 1969, not long after President Nixon took office? Or maybe it was LBJ that killed it. I just don't remember people so actively disliking, say, Ike, or JFK, or even Ronald Reagan. As much as we disagreed with Reagan, at least you thought he believed in what he was doing. We just don't get that vibe from President Bush.
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Lies & Damned Lies

One of the more interesting books I've read in the last few years is Telling Lies: Clues to Deceit in the Marketplace, Politics, and Marriage (Revised and Updated Edition) by Dr. Paul Ekman. There is a lot of great information on how to learn to detect lies. Unfortunately, the Dr. is not a great writer...he gets a little murky at times. However, the material is worth working around that.

These quotes on lies are not from the book, but ones I've collected around and about...

All political parties die at last of swallowing their own lies.
- John Arbuthnot

The great masses of the people... will more easily fall victims to a big lie than to a small one.
- Adolph Hitler

I have been thinking that I would make a proposition to my Republican friends...that if they will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them."
- Adlai Stevenson (Democratic Presidential Candidate in 1952 and 1956)

Only enemies speak the truth; friends and lovers lie endlessly, caught in the web of duty.
- Stephen King (from"The Last Gunslinger")

Never lie when the truth is more profitable.
- Stanislaw J. Lec

In order to preserve your self-respect, it is sometimes necessary to lie and cheat.
- Robert Byrne

Oh, what lies there are in kisses!
- Heinrich Heine (1797 - 1856)

How is the world ruled and how do wars start? Diplomats tell lies to journalists and then believe what they read.
- Karl Kraus

History is a set of lies agreed upon.
- Napoleon Bonaparte (1769 - 1821)

There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.
- Benjamin Disaraeli, British Prime Minister and novelist