On last night's Countdown, Keith Olbermann & his guest, Rev. Welton Gaddy, president of the Interfaith Alliance, discussed just how wrong Brit Hume is about is not only about his own religion, but that of others: Hume confused about Christianity? UPDATE I: I Can't believe I forgot to post this video from Monday's show. Dan Savage rips Brit Hume over his advice to Tiger Woods:

Religious & right-wing conservatives -- Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly -- constantly talk of a time in American history that they wish we could just go back too. A better time, when things were right with their world and scary things - anything not resembling them -- had little impact on their lily white childhoods which were filled with cotton candy and hermetically sealed dreams. Jon Stewart and John Oliver search for that simpler time in American history: Even Better Than the Real Thing var addthis_pub="thejoshuablog";

When is an attack on Christianity really an attack on someone's arrogance and holier-than-thou proselytizing of any religion? When you're Brit Hume touting religion's superiority while proselytizing to Tiger Woods and unable to take the heat for such arrogance...and ignorance. The Temple of Hume

Stephen Colbert announced a new security measures the TSA should be taking to protect flight from would-be terrorists: Involuntary Colonoscopies & Government-Issued Photo ID of their balls: The Word - Ideal or No Deal Every time a young Muslim man arrives at the airport, the TSA should respectfully take him aside and give him an involuntary colonoscopy. Night of Terror - The Crapification of the American Pant-Scape var addthis_pub="thejoshuablog";

Jim Greer, Florida RNC Party Chair has resigned and laid the blame at the feet of the Teabaggers. From DemRapidResponse:

On tonight's Countdown, and following the President's statement today, Keith Olbermann revisited the bombshell news from Richard Wolffe, with Richard clarifying what he meant when he asked was the botched attack an actual "conspiracy" or "cock-up." He's clearly walking back what he implied last night. The question is why? I guess it is more probable that waht he was talking about was, as he says in this clip, that it was the inter-agency negligence and it wasn't necessarily malicious or political. Here is President Obama's full statement from his news conference earlier today:

During last night's Countdown, Keith Olbermann & Richard Wolffe were talking about steps Obama is taking, needs to take, in order to prevent another terrorist attack when Richard Wolffe laid a bombshell on Keith: Was the failed sharing of information about the bothced Christmas terrorist attack a "conspiracy" or "cock-up?" The Obama administration is looking into the possibility that there was some sort of foul play with regards to terrorist information being intentionally withheld by the intelligence community either from each other, or from the President, in some sort of conspiracy. Or, was is simply "cock-up?" A stunned Keith was joined be Arianna Huffington where they continued discussing this possible bombshell: Richard then walked it back a bit when he appeared on Rachel Maddow's show, via the phone, a little while later: What's really going on? Only time will tell. But if Richard's implication is proven true, there is a much greater threat to this country than from and terrorist trying to blow up a plane. As Keith mentioned, President Obama will make a statement today around 4pm. Will this bombshell be addressed? Who knows. But, someone needs to get to the bottom of this. Hello Congress? Can you hear them now? UPDATE I: Here's President Obama's statement today:

On yesterday's Hardball, while discussing Dick Cheney's -out-from-his-cave again attacks on President Obama, Chris Matthews confronted Politico's Jonathan Martin about being Cheney's personal stenographer & "news conduit." Also see Raw Story's piece on how Politico’s Mike Allen was slammed by numerous bloggers & reproters for being Cheney's ’stenographer’ (h/t Crooks & Liars): The Atlantic’s Andrew Sullivan labeled Allen “Cheney’s Chief Spokesman” and quipped that Cheney should “be paying him.”“There he goes again,” Sullivan said of Allen, “the mouthpiece for Rove and Cheney, believing his ‘access’ as a stenographer makes him a journalist. It doesn't. It makes him a stenographer.”[snip] Salon’s Glenn Greenwald, who has long argued that Politico is too deferential to conservatives, accused Allen of “[f]aithfully serving as Cheney's press secretary” on his Twitter feed Wednesday.“Dick Cheney uses Politico like Sarah Palin uses Facebook: a venue to spout false statements to the press without being challenged,” Greenwald wrote, alleging that the article fails to scrutinize Cheney’s claims or apply them fairly based on the Bush administration’s actions.[snip]Conservative watchdog Media Matters blasted Politico for failing to vet Cheney’s own possible culpability in his charges against Obama.[snip]“So to sum up: Dick Cheney sends Mike Allen a press release, which Mike Allen then copies-and-pastes it into a 'news article' without mentioning key facts that would undermine Cheney's press release,” Foser continued. “Aren't you glad Politico got a spot on the Pulitzer committee?”“Politico really is just a GOP bulletin board,” Foser posited.read the full take down...

Happy New Year! Love, Stephen (partial transcript h/t to Think Progress): Erick Erickson Erick Erickson opposes the Republican National Committee's purity test because the voters should decide. COLBERT: "Now, speaking of standing on the issues, I, I am proud of some of the things I’ve said on this show. For instance, I said that Rosa Parks was overrated. Ok. I thought that was bold and I stand by it. She broke the law. But you sir, have put me to shame. You have twittered the following things. You said of Justice Souter that he was “a goat f#$king child molester.” You said that Linda Douglass, the White House health care spokesperson, was the “Joseph Goebbels of health care.” And you said of Nobel Prize winner Barack Obama, “I did not realize the Nobel Committee had affirmative action quotas.” Now…" Oh, and Stephen's gone HD: High-Definition Upgrade var addthis_pub="thejoshuablog";

"Even if the bomb works, there are going to be 72 very disappointed virgins."Happy New Year! Love, Jon Stewart. Terror 2.0 by Yemen The Al Qaeda masterminds attempt the same plot to blow up a U.S. airliner that they tried eight years ago. var addthis_pub="thejoshuablog";

The world's tallest building opened in Dubai on Monday. The Burj Dubai is more than 2,625ft high with has 160 floors for offices and apartments. Via AlJazeeraEnglish: Here's another video from AFP: That's a pretty stunning achievement. var addthis_pub="thejoshuablog";

Rush Limbaugh on the care he received in Hawaii after his heart attack scare (via the Denver Post): Limbaugh couldn't resist a few political comments in the short press conference at the hospital. He said he got the best health treatment in the world "right here in the United States of America." "I don't think there's one thing wrong with the United States health system," Limbaugh said. He thinks he's being a smart ass; that he'll show Obama by holding a news conference to tout the care our current health care system provided him. Unfortunately for him, or fortunately for his health, Hawaii has pretty much had what amounts to universal health care since 1974. His treatment, under the Hawaiian system, and one he'd call socialist on any given day, was the best possible care he could have gotten despite being very similar to that dreaded "universal health care" he rails on and on about. From Paul Abrams: Yes, Rush. That's the point! American medicine is superb--for those who can get it. And, in Hawaii, no one gets special treatment, because everyone can get it. [snip] Hawaii has had nearly-universal employer-mandated health insurance since 1974. Although its Pacific Island location makes the costs of everything--from gasoline to milk to ice cream to housing--the highest in the nation, health care premiums in Hawaii, for comprehensive care with small co-pays and deductibles, are nearly the lowest and their costs per medicare beneficiary are the lowest in the nation. Why? There are a variety of reasons, most traceable to universality. With everyone covered by primary care, emergency room visits tend to be for real emergencies, not the non-emergent care mainland ERs dispense for people without coverage. That reduces the costs of ERs and the costs of non-emergent medicine since patients can be handled less expensively and more effectively by their primary docs. Hospitals have not overbuilt, acquiring expensive machines to compete with their neighbors for patients.

The single most arrogant man on television, Fox News' regular, Brit Hume, called on Tiger Woods to be "a great example to the world" by converting to Christianity, as it would be the only way to "forgiveness & redemption," seeing as Buddhism, Woods' faith, doesn't offer any such path. From Media Matters: From the January 3 edition of Fox Broadcasting Co.'s Fox News Sunday: UPDATE I: Imus, of all people, takes Hume's hubris to task (via Think Progress): Fox Business’ Imus Mocks And Fact-Checks Fox’s Brit Hume, Reports That He’s Wrong About Buddhism UPDATE II: Hume went on The O’Reilly Factor to whine about the negative reaction he has received, and he doubled down:

On yesterday's Fox News Sunday, White House Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Adviser John Brennan responded to Dick Cheney's hypocritical attacks against President Obama’s response to the botched terror attack on Christmas day, saying that either the “vice president or others have willfully mischaracterized President Obama’s position and actions or they’re just ignorant of the facts" (via Think Progress): var addthis_pub="thejoshuablog";

Sen. Claire McCaskill put nutter Sen. Jim DeMint in his place, calling his effort to block President Obama's TSA nominee simply 'nuts': Via PoliticsCentralX: var addthis_pub="thejoshuablog";

In this week's Youtube-radio address, President Obama addresses the botched terrorist attempt on Christmas day & what he's been doing to fight Al Qaeda. From the White House Website: Read the Transcript var addthis_pub="thejoshuablog";

Canadian Family Sets Themselves On Fire In Hope Of Getting Reality TV Show (h/t C&L):

Lady Gaga, you're in very good company it seems. Last week, Reverend Fred "God Hates Fags" Phelps of the Westboro Baptist God-Hates-You Church proclaimed, "God Hates Lady Gaga" too, at a St. Louis concert he was protesting of hers. Well, have no fear, Headzup is on the story: See more at http://headzup.tvvar addthis_pub="thejoshuablog";

CNN's Rick Sanchez just Rick-rolled Nevada GOP Sen. John Ensign, who basically came on to continue bashing President Obama & to continue fear-mongering over the botched Christmas eve terror attacks -- as the good rethug that he is -- but Sanchez was having none of it. Sanchez dove right in to Ensign's affair with the wife of an Senate aide, and the senator's questionable attempts to cover it all up. Ensign was dumbfounded, to say the least. A must watch (via TPM): UPDATE: Partial transcript (h/t MeMeMeMeMe): Sanchez: It behooves me to ask you...I know this is a very difficult thing for you...are you under an investigation right now by the Senate Ethics Committee Ensign:...I've commented all I needed to comment on that... Sanchez: Hold on! Hold on! I gotta stop you there...Here, let me show the viewers what we're talking about. This is a picture of you and Doug Hampton. This is from the New York Times website. And the question has to be asked, Senator: did you help him get a job because you felt bad for him, or because you had been sleeping with his wife and you wanted to get him out of the way?And it only went downhill for Ensign from there.

From Health Care for America Now: Read & sign the letter President Obama, Speaker Pelosi & Majority Leader Reid. var addthis_pub="thejoshuablog";