Poli Sci

Ben Shapiro is absolutely right. The italicized preface to Breitbart.com’s May 17 item makes it perfectly clear that their release of a 1991 biography booklet proclaiming President Obama to have been born in Kenya is not an attempt to resurrect the birth certificate controversy. “It is evidence,” the preamble concludes, “not of the President’s foreign origin, but that Barack Obama’s public persona has perhaps been presented differently at different times.”

Nevertheless, among the careless MSM pick-ups of this Drudge-fed “The Vetting” dispatch is an unbylined Huffington Post item. Arianna, Shapiro insists, aggregated this one all wrong:

What was Huffington Post’s headline? “Birthers Make Another Blunder.” Once you click in, the headline becomes, “Obama Birther Rumor Debunked As Literary Agent Clarifies Mistake.” The first line of the piece? “Barack Obama birth certificate conspiracy theorists have been foiled again.”

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Joe Mathews is certainly not alone in expressing the sentiment that tonight’s big fundraiser in Studio City for President Obama will cause another needless LA traffic nightmare. But the NBC Southern California blogger and Zócalo Public Square associate editor takes it a step further with this headline taunt – “Starmageddon: Obama Could Make Us Hate Clooney”

FishbowlLA thinks it will take something much more cataclysmic for Angelenos to start hating on the Charming-est Man Alive (e.g. like stealing Angelina Jolie away from Brad Pitt). Then again, we’re not planning on being anywhere near the 91604 zip code at rush hour tonight. From Mathews’ Prop Zero post:

It would be one thing if the presidential stop at Clooney’s pad was for a public, governmental purpose. But it’s not. It’s for a fundraiser. When the president and a movie star schedule something like this, they’re demonstrating arrogance: our party and our politics are more important than your life.

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This is just bizarre. At the criminal trial of John Edwards today in Greensboro, North Carolina, his former speech writer Wendy Button testified that the politician ran his January 2010 admission of extramarital guilt through some surprising Tinseltown channels.

Per a report by WRAL-TV5, Button says the text of her boss’s eventual admission of fathering a child with Rielle Hunter was circulated as follows:

As the draft statement went through more than a dozen revisions, Button testified, Edwards sent copies to actor Sean Penn and actress Madeleine Stowe and to writer-director Paul Haggis… No reason was mentioned for circulating the draft.

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Reality TV superstar Kim Kardashian filmed a public service announcement about the Armenian genocide for the city of Glendale’s official commemoration of the tragedy. During the genocide, which lasted from 1915-1923, 1.5 million Armenians were killed. Watching Kardashian struggle to read the cue cards is a little tedious, but it’s still a worthy history lesson.

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In case you were out, here’s Jimmy Kimmel‘s monologue from the 2012 White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

How do you think the ABC late night talk show host did? There were some awkward moments at times but Kimmel pulled no punches.

Politico.com’s Patrick Gavin traveled to LA this week to talk to Jimmy Kimmel ahead of the talk show host’s weekend assignment as MC of the 2012 White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.

Kimmel says he checked in with several of the event’s previous hosts including Seth Myers and Stephen Colbert. Everyone has told him that the key to success is getting the President to laugh. As goes the POTUS, so goes the crowd.

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OK, this is pretty funny. “Barackness Monster”… very nice Jimmy Fallon.

We don’t watch Fallon’s Late Night very often, but if he can make a political stump speech funny, we’re willing to give him a shot.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney pulled out a familiar flak trope in a press conference today, declaring the White House “disappointed” with the LA Times‘ decision to publish controversial photos of American soldiers posing with dead bodies in Afghanistan.

Perhaps the only recent trope we find more annoying is when the White House lectures about not “rewarding bad behavior” of hostile nation states. Not sure what social psychologist advises the White House to talk to the world like it’s a child, but we really wish they’d stop. Why don’t you try “disagreeing” with the decision and then citing your rationale? We don’t care about your disappointment. We care about logical arguments. If you have one, give it to us. If not, stop wasting your time and ours being disappointed and start cracking down on the financial industry.

Carney did manage to put his paternalistic side away long enough to condemn the actions of soldiers in the photos in language befitting an audience over the age of five. “[T]he conduct depicted in those photographs is reprehensible and does not in any way represent the high standards of the US military. And the president certainly shares in the defense secretary’s opinion that this should be investigated and those held responsible will be held accountable.”

An unidentified American soldier has provided 18 photographs to the Los Angeles Times showing U.S. Army paratroopers posing with the body parts of Afghan insurgents. After being shown the images by the newspaper, the Army launched a criminal investigation. The military also requested that the LA Times not publish the photos.

Ultimately, the paper decided to run two of the 18 photos. Editor Davan Maharaj explained:

After careful consideration, we decided that publishing a small but representative selection of the photos would fulfill our obligation to readers to report vigorously and impartially on all aspects of the American mission in Afghanistan, including the allegation that the images reflect a breakdown in unit discipline that was endangering U.S. troops.

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Looks like Kim Kardashian already has a challenger for the 2017 Glendale mayoral election. Gotta be honest, this Fishie is pretty torn. On the one hand, as someone who lives in Glendale, the mere mention of Mayor Kardashian has me pricing moving trucks. And our tweeting bear is beloved.

On the other hand, as someone who writes for the Glendale News-Press on occasion, the thought of Mayor Kardashian fills me with the kind of journalistic glee that could only be trumped by Mayor Emma Watson. (Hermione!) Plus the inevitable influx of NBA and hip-hop stars to our fair city under Mayor Kardashian would probably make the nightlife more interesting. Doesn’t riding the fake Americana trolley with Kanye sound fun?

Both candidates have five years to win me over–only six months more than our current presidential election cycle. I’m hoping for some face time with the bear at Billy’s. That is if he’s not too hung over from his recent meatball and tranquilizer binge.

Previously on FishbowlLA:
Kim Kardashian Running for Mayor of Glendale?