This is absolutely hilarious. Lou Dobbs works himself into a lather over Condoleeza Rice's recent statement that slavery is America's "birth defect." He begins to rant about how it's ridiculous that any politician would say that we have a problem talking about race. And it is at precisely this moment that Dobbs catches himself in the middle of saying, "cotton-picking."

Forget global warming. The most palpable climate change that’s occurred in the past two years has been a shift in the political climate. As the 2006 midterms demonstrated in no uncertain terms, the ability of GOP strategists to rally the masses behind fear of homos, Mexican day laborers, and science has been severely compromised. Things are so dismal for the right that more Americans now believe 9/11 was an inside job than approve of Bush’s job performance— an unfolding utterly unthinkable on September 12, 2001.

Like cornered komodo dragons reeking of carrion and desperation, conservative stalwarts have resorted to unleashing some of the most brazenly idiotic and transparently insincere utterances in the history of asinine horseshit. Consequently, political discourse has devolved into a parody of itself. It’s reached the point where there’s no need to debunk these ramblings; their mere existence discredits their sources more thoroughly than any rebuttal ever could.

All you protester-types gearing up for the RNC in St. Paul would do well to study up on all that has been written about the surveillance, mass arrests and lawsuits of the last convention, held in New York City in 2004. Four years later, there is still court activity. Most recently, it was a subpoena issued by the New York City Law Department and served to Tad Hirsch, a doctoral student at M.I.T. who invented the service called TXTmob that allowed activists at the 2004 RNC to communicate in real time, via text messages, about actions going on throughout the city.

My favorite part about the controversy over Hillary Clinton lying about being under sniper fire is that it was first broken by Sinbad.

Yes, that Sinbad (nee David Adkins), the star of A Different World and numerous other family friendly sitcoms from the 1980s and 90s.

The controversy began March 11 when Sinbad told the Washington Post's website that he was along on the trip and didn't remember any threat of danger:

In an interview with the Sleuth Monday, he said the "scariest" part of the trip was wondering where he'd eat next. "I think the only 'red-phone' moment was: 'Do we eat here or at the next place.'"

Hillary tried to claim she mispoke because she was tired, but it turns out she's trotted out the anecdote on numerous occasions.

Now a Florida blog is asking how Sinbad got the scoop that the mainstream media missed:

Both CBS's Sharyl Attkison and NBC's Andrea Mitchell have pointed out during their reports that they were actually with Clinton on that Bosnia trip and recalled no sniper fire, rushing crowds or exagerrated danger. Since headlines have been filled with the news, other journalists who took that trip 12 years ago -- including former MTV News reporter Tabitha Soren -- have weighed in.

So why did it take comic Sinbad to blow the lid on the whole deal?

So, Fox News' Chris Wallace goes on Fox and Friends, the network's version of a vapid morning show, and calls them to task for "two hours of Obama bashing" over the candidate's comment that his mother thinks like "a typical white person."

John McCain, the self-proclaimed foreign policy guru and best candidate for president of the United States, apparently has very little understanding of the situation on the ground in the Middle East.

Although Hillary Clinton once said she wouldn't sling mud over Rev. Wright's incendiary remarks from the pulpit, today she dumped a heaping handful of it. And in the most unlikely of outlets: the paper owned by the man who helped get her husband impeached.

In an interview today with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Hillary said she would have left her church if her pastor made remarks like Rev. Wright's.

"He would not have been my pastor," Clinton said. "You don't choose your family, but you choose what church you want to attend." ...

"You know, I spoke out against Don Imus (who was fired from his radio and television shows after making racially insensitive remarks), saying that hate speech was unacceptable in any setting, and I believe that," Clinton said. "I just think you have to speak out against that. You certainly have to do that, if not explicitly, then implicitly by getting up and moving."

The chairman of the Michigan Republican party, Saul Anuzis, in an article over at Politico, has this to say of the state of the GOP in 2008: “After twelve years of being in power, you tend to get fat and lazy, and in some cases arrogant with respect to your positions ... If you go back to 2006 most people would agree that not only did we lose our brand, that we damaged our brand significantly. We are clearly rebuilding.”

Politico documents the "dire straits" of state GOP parties. Here are some highlights:

When I moved to Washington state in almost 10 years ago, my cousin's husband asked me about what my friend up there did for work. He worked for Boeing, I replied. "Oh, of course," said my cousin's spouse. "Everyone up here works for Boeing."

If the Rev. Wright videos are going to be bouncing around the ether and onto our television screens for the foreseeable future, might as well get this one in the mix: Rev. Jerry Falwell in conversation on the 700 Club with Pat Robertson--just two days after the 911 attacks and one day before Wright's now famous "chickens coming home to roost" remarks.