Yeah, you read it here first at 3a.m., November 3:

You know what they say: Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!

Here’s what GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell said that has the progs in fits:

Barely an hour after President Barack Obama invited congressional Republicans to post-election talks to work together on major issues, the Senate’s GOP leader had a blunt message: His party’s main goal is denying Obama re-election.

In a sign that combat and the 2012 elections rather than compromise could mark the next two years, Sen. Mitch McConnell on Thursday called for Senate votes to repeal or erode Obama’s signature health care law, to cut spending and to shrink government.

“The only way to do all these things it is to put someone in the White House who won’t veto any of these things,” McConnell said in a speech to the conservative Heritage Foundation.

That’s the spirit, GOP. Keep it up.

And please, Sen. McConnell, don’t blow it. I don’t want to have to resurrect the head-banging animated .gif again.

***

Earlier today: Dear GOP: What not to do at Obama’s common ground Kabuki theater

First Zsa Zsa Huffington offered to pony up about $250,000 for buses to the so-called “Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear” in DC next weekend, and now Oprah has entered the fray to help spread the event with astroturf until it’s mistaken for the Brady Bunch’s backyard.

From Tim Graham at Newsbusters:

“I know that you’ve got this huge event coming up, and I’m really excited about it, because I think that we need a bit more sanity in the world,” she said. “I’m sorry, Stephen, I’m not for the fear part, I’m for the sanity part. And I wanted to show my support for you, Jon, and also for your audience…(applause) so here’s what I did. I had my staff sneak into your studio early this morning with a little gift. Okay?”

She told the Daily Show audience to look under their seats, where they found red envelopes, which they opened. A woman screamed at the top of her lungs: “We’re going to the rally!” Oprah repeated “You’re going to the rally” four times. “Now get out there and restore some sanity!”

Huffington and Winfrey are spending a lot of cash to ship people to the rally — people who wouldn’t have attended unless somebody gave them a free ride. As far as I’m concerned, Arianna and Oprah’s money is helping make an ironic point for the right.

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

Well, well. It looks like the libs are coming down with a case of Strong Conservative Woman Envy.

Take a look at this:

The fact remains that there is a “Hillary hole,” with women wanting their turn, while people hunger for something radically different, which is currently being filled by the Tea Party, a star named Sarah and her fans. Not surprisingly, as poll after poll on her rolls out, the narrative on Sarah Palin continues to be filled out unfairly. I know, you’re shocked. But love her or hate her, whether she runs in 2012 or not, when you look at the left, the reality is there’s no anti-Palin progressive who matches what Palin’s got.

…Mrs. Palin’s politics aren’t for me, and though I pine to see hot headliners from the left, instead we get the likes of Claire McCaskill, Kathleen Sebelius and other Obama blue dog duds, with no women of any wattage in sight.

What makes the piece extra-amusing: The female writer, Taylor Marsh, posted her lament on the blog of political cross-dressing Gingrichite-turned-liberal Arianna Huffington.

No comment from Marsh on Arianna’s wattage.

Problem: Too many damned conservative authors dominating the New York Times best-seller lists.

Solution: A Fairness Doctrine from books!

No word yet on whether they’ll be making a protest video about the fund-raiser for Nancy Pelosi in Washington, D.C. being hosted by UnitedHealth care lobbyist Steve Elmendorf — or targeting the Washington, D.C. law and lobbying offices of Alston & Bird, where Obama health care advisor Tom Daschle consults for UnitedHealth.

Like I always say:

Corporate Shills for Hope and Change get a pass.

***

Related: MoveOn’s Maryland chapter is holding a mock “funeral” targeting UnitedHealth:

In Maryland, they plan to drive a hearse through downtown Rockville and place a casket at the door of the office of United Health care Insurance Company. They say United is a member of a national organization representing health insurance companies that has spent millions opposing healthcare reform.

No word on whether the procession will head to Pelosi and Daschle’s offices…

He is also “Associate Editor of Citizen Journalism at the Huffington Post Investigative Fund.”

What does he do with all these credentials?

He uses his high journalism perch to…mock a young man who died of swine flu at Cornell University on Friday.

Yes, really. Read the whole thing.

Here’s the screenshot:

Getting your money’s worth, Arianna?

I’m delighted that today we are launching a new venture — The Huffington Post Investigative Fund. This nonprofit Fund will produce a wide-range of investigative journalism created by both staff reporters and freelance writers.

As the newspaper industry continues to contract, one of the most commonly voiced fears is that serious investigative journalism will be among the victims of the scaleback. And, indeed, many newspapers are drastically reducing their investigative teams. Yet, given the multiple crises we are living through, investigative journalism is all the more important. As a result, all who recognize the indispensable role good journalism plays in our democracy are looking for ways to preserve it during this transitional period for the media. …This investigative initiative is being funded by The Huffington Post and The Atlantic Philanthropies, and will be headed by Nick Penniman, founder of The American News Project, which will be folded into the Fund. Nick and I first worked together back in 2000 when we organized the Shadow Conventions to address issues — poverty, the failed drug war, and money in politics – that neither political party was focusing on. We’ve stayed in touch ever since, and I am really looking forward to working with him on producing journalism with real impact.

We’ll start with a budget of $1.75 million — and continue to raise funds and expand the project as we move forward.

Why, the Huffington Post reprinting a massively large version of the image on its front page with an accompanying blog commentary praising the AP photographer’s work as “tasteful” — along with thousands of comments praising the decision and calling for even more bloody US troop photos to be published.

***

And no, I’m not done with the AP yet. Blogger Ztower points out that the AP refused to reprint the Mohammed Cartoons because they were “offensive”
, but has no problem offending a dead Marine’s family for the Greater Journalistic Good of ginning up anti-war sentiment.

Slimeballs.

The national media doesn’t want to talk about the dominance of conservative books atop the New York Times best-seller list and other national lists.

But it’s clearly getting under the Left’s skin.

At HuffPo, a Soros-tied co-author has launched a bid to dislodge conservative authors — and he’s asking for help from every last nutroots activist out there.

The book that will save America from us evil right-wing extremists and rescue the Democrat agenda from oblivion?

50 Ways You Can Help Obama Change America!

Look, Obama-bots: The book has the weighty endorsements of starlets, rappers, and yes, Teddy Kennedy.

“This book is a great resource to help the President change America by encouraging young people to embrace their civic responsibilities. During his campaign, Obama empowered all of us to take part in initiating change and it’s imperative that we keep that momentum going by involving the next generation.”
—Jessica Alba

“In 50 Ways You Can Help Obama Change America, Michael Huttner and Jason Salzman have given us a practical handbook on how every American can do something for our country. This should be required reading for anyone interested in making a difference and helping President Obama get our nation back on track.”
–The late Senator Edward M. Kennedy

Co-author Michael Huttner urges his fellow Obama cultists to buy the book so they, too, can be inspired to “help Obama pass health care reform, enact other core campaign promises, and move the country forward.”

And the bribe?

It never hurts to offer a little incentive, especially if your incentive has the potential to drive extreme right wingers crazy, so among our prizes is a grand-prize of a trip for two to Honolulu, Hawaii for a private tour of the hospital where President Obama was born, followed by an opportunity to take part in a community service project there on MLK Day of Service, January 18, 2010.

Submit stories and ideas on how people can help Obama change America for the better. Anyone is welcome to enter by sending us their stories by September 30. The winners will be announced on November 4, 2009 – one year to the day that Obama gave his memorable victory speech in Chicago.

…The contest and book are designed to inspire more people to help–at a time when progressive values are under serious attack in Washington and across the nation.

“Under serious attack” apparently means under attack on the NYTimes book lists:

In its small way, we hope our book and contest will advance Kennedy’s vision of progressive reform in America. And we also hope it contributes to changing the dialogue in this country, at a time when it’s beginning to look a little too much like the Bush era with books by right-wingers Michelle Malkin, Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly topping this week’s national bestsellers list.

Something in the air tells us that in the next few months, progressives will make their voices heard even louder than they did during the campaign. Let’s get fired up, ready to go.

Translation: Please buy our book. Get those awful conservatives off our turf. Do it for Teddy!

***

Huttner is the founder of “Progress Now” – a Democrat group of non-profit satellites funded with start-up money from billionaire George Soros and the Democracy Alliance — whose board members include SEIU International Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger and ACORN embezzlement cover-upper Drummond Pike.

This is what left-wing “grass-roots” look like:

Source: Center for Investigative Reporting

HuffPo is promoting this lost cause.

Shamon!

The question itself was unobjectionable and Obama’s response was so bland and rambling I don’t remember it.

But what was noteworthy was Obama’s embarrassingly obvious and patronizing coordination of the question. I have no love for the HuffPo people (and vice versa), but really, was such schoolmarm-ish hand-holding by the White House necessary?

Via the Politico:

In a clearly coordinated exchange, President Obama called on the Huffington Post’s Nico Pitney near the start of his press conference and requested a question directly from Iran.

“Nico, I know you and all across the Internet, we’ve been seeing a lot of reports coming out of Iran,” Obama said, addressing Pitney. “I know there may actually be questions from people in Iran who are communicating through the Internet. Do you have a question?”

Pitney, as if ignoring what Obama had just said, said: “I wanted to use this opportunity to ask you a question directly from an Iranian.”

He then noted that the site had solicited questions from people in the country “who were still courageous enough to be communicating online.”

“Under which conditions would you accept the election of Ahmadinejad, and if you do accept it without any significant changes in the conditions there, isn’t that a betrayal of the — of what the demonstrators there are working towards?”

Reporters typically don’t coordinate their questions for the president before press conferences.

Snort. Just wait until the ABC News health care infomercial tomorrow tonight…

***

Meanwhile, Obama snapped at a McClatchy reporter who had the audacity to ask him about his cigarette addiction in light of the recently passed FDA tobacco regs.

Obama sarcastically chastised the reporter for asking a “cute” question, then argued that the new regulations don’t apply to him, but to “future generations.”

In other words: Do as he says, not as he smokes.

Also targeted for Obama snappishness: Fox News reporter Major Garrett (for asking “What took you so long” on Iran) and Jake Tapper (for a non-respectful question on health care reform).

Dissent no longer equals patriotism. Dissent = RAAAAAAAACISM.

Feel the HuffPo brand of Hope and Change:

Michelle Malkin Doesn’t Care About Black People

To mark the day, Michelle Malkin kept a whimsical inauguration cliché count, supposedly monitoring utterances of the “First black president in American history” and “We are witnessing history.”

Michelle didn’t hide her contempt for all this attention being paid to Obama or for the credit he’s getting for being our first black president. She also made space on her blog to point out that no one in the media was covering how Obama inauguration celebrant Jay-Z often uses the word “nigga.” Then she uploaded a video on her site to prove it and sniffed, “And you wonder why some of us don’t believe MLK’s dream has been completely fulfilled …”

Now, many of you may be wondering why someone who is of Asian decent would be so antagonistic toward Obama and his background. And while Michelle may be a whore for the far-right — and she is certainly being a good one by discounting this momentous event — it still gives us pause. While most whores love to bring joy to people, it seems this one only seeks to spread hate.

Yeah, that’s me. “Whore for the far-right.” All because I refuse to genuflect at the altar of the far-left’s selective, skin-deep diversity and slaver at the feet of Barack Obama. All because I pointed out the hypocrisy of the post-racialists’ obnoxious racialism.

Perhaps if I instead drooled all over Barack Obama’s presidential blanket like giddy Donna Brazile did in this embarrassing Good Morning America video, they’d pat me on my head and consider me a properly-behaved member of my ethnic group, too:

My suggestion: The Huffington Re-Post.

I like Whet Moser’s, too: Grand Theft HuffPo.

This desperate: (Hat tip: HA Headlines)

Gov. Sarah Palin made her first potentially major gaffe during her time on the national scene while discussing the developments of the perilous housing market this past weekend.

Speaking before voters in Colorado Springs, the Republican vice presidential nominee claimed that lending giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had “gotten too big and too expensive to the taxpayers.” The companies, as McClatchy reported, “aren’t taxpayer funded but operate as private companies. The takeover may result in a taxpayer bailout during reorganization.”

Economists and analysts pounced on the misstatement, saying it demonstrated a lack of understanding about one of the key economic issues likely to face the next administration.

“You would like to think that someone who is going to be vice president and conceivable president would know what Fannie and Freddie do,” said Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. “These are huge institutions and they are absolutely central to our country’s mortgage debt. To not have a clue what they do doesn’t speak well for her, I’d say.”

The only ones without a clue here are the HuffPo’s Obama water-carriers.

As I wrote four years ago about the Fannie/Freddie racket:

Clothed in politically correct fashions (”Catch the dream,” beckons Freddie Mac’s program to boost minority home ownership; a “leader in diversity,” brags a Fannie Mae press release), these public-private hybrids are two dangerous pigs feeding at the federal trough. Congress created Fannie Mae (nickname for the Federal National Mortgage Association) in 1938 to bolster home ownership during the Depression. Three decades later, it was partially privatized, but retained a host of government benefits. In 1970, Congress spawned Freddie Mac (nickname for the Federal Home Mortgage Corp.) to provide a lending competitor to Fannie Mae. Both entities expand the pool of money for home purchasers by snapping up loans that lenders make to homebuyers, and then converting those loans into relatively safe mortgage-backed securities that are attractive to investors.

So, what’s wrong with this picture?

As Fred Smith, president of the Washington, D.C-based Competitive Enterprise Institute, has noted, these financial beasts are a textbook example of “profit-side capitalism and loss-side socialism.” When things go right for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, they keep the profits. But when things go wrong, taxpayers — not just private shareholders, managers, and employees — will be on the hook.
Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae each receive $2.25 billion lines of credit with the U.S. Treasury. These special pipelines give the institutions an implied federal guarantee available to no other private sector competitors in the mortgage market. That protection makes them immune to the costs normally associated with riskier and riskier behavior. Moreover, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are not required to pay state and local income taxes. In addition, the standard for how much money the government requires them to keep on hand in case homebuyers default on their mortgages is lower for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae than for fully private banks and thrifts. The two corporations receive an estimated $10 billion a year in hidden taxpayer subsidies.

Political appointees to the companies’ boards pocket millions in stock options to bolster support on Capitol Hill. Clinton-appointed board members at Fannie Mae include Marc Rich lawyer Jack Quinn and Janet Reno’s lieutenant at the Justice Department, Jamie Gorelick. At the helm of Fannie Mae is another Clinton appointee, Franklin Raines, who was paid more than $4 million and had almost $6 million in unexercised stock options in his first year at the helm. Cheerleaders in both major political parties have opposed privatizing Fannie and Freddie.

Now, we are on the verge of bailing out these behemoths to the tune of $200 billion in taxpayer backing — while potentially forking over untold millions in severance packages to Democrat cronies.

That makes Palin in tune with reality — and her critics flailing once again.

Meantime, King of All Gaffes Obama has problems against with rewriting history:

O-Busted: Selective Service Requirement Did Not Exist When Obama Says He Registered

And the Biden Gaffe Clock keeps on ticking.

***

Peter Viles of the excellent L.A. Land real estate/biz blog: There is no gaffe here.

“Silverstein, who as co-chairman of Goodby, Silverstein, and Partners was behind the famous “Got Milk?” ad campaign and the Budweiser frogs, had such a grasp of what makes for effective communication in radio, movies, TV, and online, that I thought he might have some ideas on how to help the Democrats, who continue to struggle with framing an election where they are holding all the cards. He did. When I suggested that he blog about his ideas, he said that since he usually expresses himself best in visual terms, he wanted to see if he could “blog visually.”

The result is three powerful posters that simply but graphically capture the lunacy of the modern GOP. “Here is my thinking,” Silverstein told me, “What if we could TiVo the last six-plus years and play them back – without comment — for the American people, and let them connect the dots? It’s not a pretty picture.” Silverstein’s take away message is uncluttered and direct: “Haven’t we had enough? Democrats ’08.”

This is what they came up with (full-size versions at HuffPo):

So, now it’s your turn. “Posterize the Modern Democrat Party.” Send in your entries, feel free to improve upon the HuffPuffers’ bland design, and I’ll post the best ones.

The winner will get a signed copy of “Unhinged.”

It’s only fitting!

As the American economy falls to pieces, oil is hovering in the $100 per barrel range and gas prices are a few days away from shattering all-time high records. Forecasters are predicting that gas will surpass $3.22 per gallon by next week. Mad Money’s Jim Cramer told Chris Matthews last week that gas prices might top $4 per gallon within the next six weeks.

Even with this brutal economic news to serve as an incentive, will Michelle Malkin, Bill O’Reilly, Rush Limbaugh and their ilk sacrifice for the war effort by purchasing less Islamofascist gasoline for their Ford F-150 Microphalluses? No way. Too moonbatty. Devising new and hilariously clever agitprop words like “Defeatocrats” is clearly more patriotic than actually addressing the principle source of global and domestic instability: oil and gasoline.

The blogger, one Bob Cesca, published his post at the Huffington Post, founded by the Queen of gas-guzzling Gulfstream Liberals, Arianna Huffington. Yes, the same Arianna Huffington who was caught driving this Chevy Suburban beauty to get to the Sierra Club’s national summit in San Francisco a few years ago:

The HuffMobile

Snorty-snort-snort.

Time and again, the Left paints a bogus caricature of conservatives destroying the environment with awful SUVs while they tool around in…awful SUVs.

I drive a minivan and a Subaru wagon.

The government-subsidized, Bush-bashing Frost family drives:

a Volvo SUV…

a GMC Suburban…

and a nice, big Ford F250 Pickup work truck…

Tell you what, Bob Cesca. When Arianna swears off all private jet travel and the Frosts cram their kids into a Prius, I’ll buy a scooter.

Until then, take your eco-sanctimony and drive it off a Malibu cliff.