Following her racially charged rant last month, Dr. Laura Schlesinger announced her retirement from radio, saying that she wanted to "regain" her "First Amendment rights." The suggestion that Schlesinger's rights had been violated was as outrageous as the rant itself; she was free to say whatever she wanted, just as her critics were free to take issue with the spirit of her comments.  Nonetheless, many conservatives jumped to defend her.  Sarah Palin, for instance, tweeted that Schlesinger's "1st Amend.rights ceased 2exist."

Along similar lines, Human Events editor Jason Mattera sent an email to subscribers today warning that President Obama and liberals will use "government-enforced speech control" to silence conservatives and maintain power.  (Note: the email is not available online, but it links to this page.)  He also contended that "blatant thought and speech control" is already happening in America.  Amazingly, however, this "insidious form of censorship" hasn't kept the loudmouthed Mattera from continually insulting liberals with ugly attacks:

• In a column attacking then-Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, Mattera asked readers to imagine Kagan "grinding" in basketball shorts and mocked her "toilet preference," declaring that "we shouldn't judge her fidelity to the Constitution because she happens to sit and not stand while urinating" (this sentence has been changed on the website).  He also suggested that Justice Stephen Breyer uses tampons. 

• Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February, Mattera told the audience: "[O]ur notion of freedom doesn't consist of snorting cocaine...which is certainly one thing that separates us from Barack Obama."

• Last September, in a speech at the Values Voters Summit, Mattera said that conservative women are "hot" and denigrated MSNBC host Rachel Maddow's appearance. "We have Michelle Malkin," he said. "Who does the left have, Rachel Maddow? Sorry I prefer that my women not look like dudes."

Those are just a few examples of the near-constant stream of vitriol that Mattera spews on a daily basis.  Obviously, he has every right to express his political views however he wants to without breaking the law.  And progressives have the same right to call attention to his attacks and argue that such behavior hurts our discourse — but doing so doesn't amount to "thought and speech control."

Ironically, when he worked at the Young America's Foundation, Mattera barred progressive journalists from covering the organization's conference.  When a reporter from Campus Progress asked why he was being kicked out, Mattera replied, "Because I said so." "It's censorship," he admitted.

After being catapulted into celebrity (or notoriety) following the passage of Arizona's draconian SB 1070, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer's performance at public appearances has been very hit or miss. 

In April, she said her new law didn't do anything to secure the border and in June insisted she had no clue about the president's plans for border security.

Earlier this week, Brewer expressed outraged over a United Nations report that, based on her comments about it, she clearly didn't read (or didn't understand). 

During her first gubernatorial debate last night, she was unable to answer to her false claims about headless bodies lying in the desert and literally walked away from reporters who tried to follow up. 

And her opening statement was less than professional:

While it is understandable that someone thrust into the national limelight would stumble a bit as they get used to the stress and attention, it is inexcusable that Brewer is using her new fame to promote falsehoods about the state of immigration both in Arizona and nationally. 

If conservatives are determined to lie about immigration through powerful mouthpieces, they should consider finding a new puppet.  This one's broken.

Last night on Fox News, Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN) defended his much-publicized executive order rejecting Minnesota's share of federal health care dollars from the Affordable Care Act with a rhetorical flourish that would make Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) proud.

"The federal government's acting increasingly like a financial drug dealer, handing out tastes or free samples, trying to get people addicted," Pawlenty said with a grin. He also noted that "a majority of America doesn't like Obamacare," immediately before dismissing a poll that shows Minnesotans don't much care for their Republican governor's national ambitions. Apparently when a poll doesn't support Pawlenty's case, it's just a "snapshot in time" that doesn't matter.  Watch:

GOV. TIM PAWLENTY (R-MN): The federal government's acting increasingly like a financial drug dealer handing out tastes or free samples trying to get people addicted, further addicted, and we've just had it and we're not taking the bait anymore, we're not taking the free samples anymore...

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN (host): ...Who's with you on this in Minnesota?

PAWLENTY: Well I think there's a lot of people with me on this, not just in Minnesota but nationally. I don't like Obamacare, I think a majority of America doesn't like Obamacare... There's a lot of people. I think a majority of America is saying Obamacare is radical, it's the wrong direction for the country, so I think the country is headed in the same direction.

VAN SUSTEREN: ...let me bring to you to one of the polls that just came out recently in your state. Minnesota voters were— they disapprove of the time that you spend out of the state campaigning, becoming a national figure, 54% of 750 likely voters surveyed, disapprove of your national political activity. So what do you say to 54% of the likely voters in Minnesota who say, you're interested in the nation not about us here in Minnesota? 

PAWLENTY: Well, I don't expect people would like the fact that I'm trying to get around the country and influence the elections in 2010, but I think it's important work Greta. I think the future of the country is at stake, the future of Minnesota is at stake if we don't get a better direction in these elections this fall. So I'm happy to do what I can, and I think it is important work, and I don't measure the value of it what's— by what's important in any snapshot in time. I measure the value of what the value of it's gonna be over the next decade for Minnesota and for the country, and polls come and go, the sentiment of the moments come and go, but I'm gonna do what's right. I think that will stand the test of time.

Pawlenty's silly suggestion that President Obama is a "financial drug dealer" whose end goal is bigger government (it's not) is exactly the sort of cable-friendly sound bite you'd expect from a guy who wants to run for president. The people he works for don't like that very much, but Pawlenty is too busy grandstanding and throwing fundraisers to care.

UPDATE: Gov. Pawlenty's hypocrisy isn't limited to polling; 97 Minnesota businesses are already enrolled in an Affordable Care Act program for early retirees. Turns out Minnesota companies don't mind the pusherman as much as Pawlenty would have us believe. The Wonk Room has more.

The suspect in a standoff at the Discovery building was shot and killed.

Rep. Brady wishes people would stop "demonizing" the oil industry.

The Anti-Defamation League denounces a planned anti-mosque rally. 

Sen. Vitter's campaign receives a donation from a dead woman.

John Bolton doubles down on the possibility of a presidential run on 2012. 

The birther movement gets a general...

...who happens to appear on Fox News quite a bit.

A Texas man invents deep-fried beer. 

Earlier today, we highlighted part of an interview with Gov. Haley Barbour (R-MS) posted at Human Events.  During the interview, Barbour — who is also the chairman of the Republican Governors Association (RGA) — walked the party line on a number of issues.  However, he departed sharply from the anti-immigrant rhetoric that has been spreading throughout the Republican Party.   

Barbour explained that he is thankful for the immigrant workers who helped rebuild Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina.  While acknowledging that we need to secure the border, Barbour said it's "common sense" that "we're not going to take 10 or 12 or 14 million people and put them in jail or deport them," adding that "some people need to quit acting like we are and let's talk about real solutions."

BARBOUR: I don't know where we would have been in Mississippi after Katrina if it hadn't been with the Spanish speakers that came in to help rebuild.  And there's no doubt in my mind some of them were here illegally.  Some of them were, some of them weren't.  But they came in, they looked for the work.  If they hadn't been there — if they hadn't come and stayed for a few months or a couple years — we would be way, way, way behind where we are now.  [...]

My idea is everybody from Stanford who's from India that gets a PhD, we oughta stamp citizenship on his diploma.  So instead of him going back to India and starting a business that employs 1,800 people, then he'll start a business that employs 1,800 people in Des Moines, Iowa, instead of India.  A lot of it is just common sense.  And common sense tell us we're not going to take 10 or 12 or 14 million people and put them in jail or deport them.  We're not gonna do it, and we need to quit — some people need to quit acting like we are and let's talk about real solutions. 

Barbour is right that rounding up immigrants and sending them home is not a real solution.  But his stance puts him at odds with many of the Republican Party's gubernatorial candidates in the upcoming elections who have made tough talk on immigration a central part of their campaigns:

• Rick Scott (R-FL) believes "we must reject amnesty" and "send those who are here illegally home." He has also "championed Arizona's new crackdown that requires police to question suspected illegal immigrants and says he wants to bring a similar law to Florida."

• Dan Maes (R-CO) has abandoned his previous support for "some path to citizenship," saying that his position "evolved" after listening to people like Tom Tancredo.  Maes has also said that he would sign an Arizona-style law and pledged to "enroll the state in a program that deports illegal alien criminals."

• Nathan Deal (R-GA) supports bringing Arizona's law to Georgia, and released an ad promising that as governor he would "help deport illegal aliens." In May, Deal came out for changing the Fourteenth Amendment to end birthright citizenship in the United States.  

Notably, while the RGA has endorsed Scott and Deal, it is reportedly steering clear of Maes.

Today, Human Events posted a new interview with "the most powerful man in Republican politics," Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour.  In the interview, Barbour bucked conventional wisdom and argued that the rise of the Republican Party in the south had nothing to do with race.  The governor explained that he was raised as a Democrat before he dropped out of college to work on Richard Nixon's campaign in 1968, and said that his parents' generation, which was more concerned about race, "became Republicans after their children" did. 

Asked directly about Nixon's "southern strategy," Barbour was cagey, saying, "There's no question that in the fifties and probably the sixties there was some of that." He claimed, however, that "the people who led the change of parties" were part of a younger generation who "went to integrated schools" and recognized that segregation was "indefensible." Additionally, he said that many older people wouldn't leave the Democratic Party because "it was the party of the Civil War."   

BARBOUR: There's no question that in the fifties and probably the sixties there was some of that.  At the same time, the people who led the change of parties in the South, just as I mentioned earlier, was my generation.  My generation who went to integrated schools — I went to integrated college, um, never thought twice about it.  And it was the old Democrats who had fought for segregation so hard.  By my time, people realized that was the past, it was indefensible, it wasn't gonna be that way any more.  So the people who really changed the South from Democrat to Republican was a different generation from those who fought integration.  In fact, I can never forget — I mentioned we elected these two young congressman.  We were just itching to get a senator, and one of my friend said, "Haley, we're just a few funerals away." You had some of the old crowd that just wasn't going to give up on the Democratic Party because it was the party of the civil war, segregation.  

Barbour's version of history is so grossly distorted that it's tough to decide where to start.  Broadly speaking, Barbour's claim that Democrats are the ones who fought segregation is incredibly misleading.  Although it's a popular argument among southern conservatives, particularly when they're feeling defensive about race, the fact remains that the Civil Rights Act was passed by Democratic majorities in Congress and signed by a Democratic president. The real division among lawmakers was geographic — it was southern conservatives who bitterly opposed the bill.  

The Democratic Party's embrace of civil rights led some southern Democrats, like Strom Thurmond, to flee for the GOP.  In 1964, Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater — who opposed the Civil Rights Act — won only five states outside his home state of Arizona: South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.  None of them went for the Republican four years earlier. 

This deception is particularly rich coming from Barbour, who has always worn his roots on his sleeve.  Barbour says that he was raised an "Eastland Democrat," but fails to mention that Jim Eastland once said that "segregation is not discrimination," but rather "the law of God." Barbour boasts that his generation didn't think about race because "they went to integrated schools," but he enrolled at Ole Miss just a few years after the first black student at the university, James Meredith, whose enrollment led to violent rioting and who was frequently harassed on campus.  Barbour completely glosses over the issue of Nixon's "southern strategy," even though he personally worked on the campaign.    

Forty years later, according to Newsweek, Barbour has a Confederate flag signed by Jefferson Davis hanging on the wall in his office.  When Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) came under fire earlier this year for issuing a proclamation to honor Confederate History Month without even mentioning slavery, Barbour was among the first to defend him.  "It's trying to make a big deal out of something that didn't matter for diddly," Barbour said.    

52% of Republicans believe President Obama "sympathizes with the goals of Islamic fundamentalists who want to impose Islamic law around the world."

Steve Benen weighs in on the possibility of a government shutdown in the next Congress.

Govs. Pawlenty and McDonnell apply for federal funds from the Affordable Care Act...

...and so does Koch Industries, which spent millions of dollars fighting against reform.    

The Minnesota State Fair tells Rep. Bachmann to stop using its logo. 

Rep. Steve King says health care reform "nationalized your skin and everything inside it."

There's something fishy in the tap water in NYC.

New Left Media presents scenes from the Glenn Beck rally:

Last night on Fox News, Governor Jan Brewer (R-AZ) delivered a sputtering attack on the State Department's report to the United Nations on human rights in America.  Gov. Brewer gave a wildly inaccurate description of the report, claiming that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Obama are "gonna turn us over to the Human Rights Council on Senate Bill 1070 and let countries like Libya and Cuba decide if we're doing right or wrong."

Brewer went on to argue, absurdly and incoherently, that Clinton and Obama are hypocrites because a real human rights advocate would militarize the border to stop "illegal aliens" from "suffering under inhumane conditions due to the drug cartels and due to the heat." Watch the interview:

It is both funny and sad that Gov. Brewer, who mocked critics of her state's new immigration law for not having read the whole bill, has so clearly not read the State Department report that's got her so worked up she "can hardly get [her] words out."

First: the State Department put this report together as part of the U.N. Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review or UPR. The UPR is not a tribunal; even if the report did condemn Arizona's law, the Human Rights Council would have no authority over Arizona, and no power to modify American laws.

More importantly, Brewer misconstrues the report itself. The mention of Arizona's law amounts to three sentences out of 29 pages. Notably, those sentences do not include any condemnation of the law, attack on Arizona's motives in pursuing the law, or suggestion that SB 1070 is in any way comparable to human rights abuses in places like Libya. Indeed, the report knocks down that very charge elsewhere:

Some may say that by participating we acknowledge commonality with states that systematically abuse human rights. We do not. There is no comparison between American democracy and repressive regimes.

Brewer's problem is with paragraph 95 of the report:

A recent Arizona law, S.B. 1070, has generated significant attention and debate at home and around the world. The issue is being addressed in a court action that argues that the federal government has the authority to set and enforce immigration law. That action is ongoing; parts of the law are currently enjoined.

No condemnation. No accusations of human rights violations. Just an acknowledgment that the law "has generated significant attention and debate at home and around the world." Two of the paragraph's three sentences are about the legal process the United States is pursuing — a far cry from stealing Arizona's sovereignty and subjugating our legal system to the UN. In fact, the report's main theme is the incredible political system we have and the tools the Constitution gives us for perfecting our union peacefully over time:

Throughout our history, our citizens have used the freedoms provided in the Constitution as a foundation upon which to advocate for changes that would create a more just society. The Constitution provided the means for its own amelioration and revision: its glaring original flaw of tolerating slavery, as well as denying the vote to women, have both been corrected through constitutional reform, judicial review and our democratic processes.

Proud descriptions of the American system like the above appear throughout the report, and suggest America should be an example to the world.

If Gov. Brewer took the time to read the whole report she would know that.

The Los Angeles Times reports that Carly Fiorina is Israel-bound.

There is nothing wrong with the Republic Senate nominee, who is contesting incumbent Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) for the seat, going off to Israel two months before the election.

After all, for years candidates have suddenly decided to travel to Israel just before an election to impress pro-Israel voters with their sudden devotion to the Jewish state.  Most, including Jewish candidates, never felt the urge to visit before undertaking their candidacy but develop a timely need to see the place first-hand in the summer and fall of election years.  

Matt Brooks, chairman of the Republican Jewish Coalition which is sponsoring the trip, said in an email, "it's not about politics.  It's about an opportunity to learn."

Please.  Is she also going off to "learn" about Afghanistan, Pakistan, South Korea and Iraq? 

Of course, Fiorina thinks that she can pull some Jewish voters away from Barber Boxer, although it is impossible to be more zealous an advocate for Prime Minister Netanyahu than Boxer (who is Jewish to boot).  Or she may be hoping to impress evangelicals, who tend to be very right-wing on Israel, but she has their votes anyway.

Or maybe she just wants to get in practice for serving in Congress.  Pandering to interest groups is a skill that politicians invariably hone to perfection.  Maybe Fiorina wants to be ready to hit the pander road running, should she be elected.

Although Fox News host Glenn Beck insisted that his rally over the weekend was not about politics, there's no question that the piggy-back event hosted by Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) was a partisan affair.  One of the speakers was far-right Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX), who recently invited ridicule by promoting a conspiracy theory about "terror babies" being born in the U.S.  In his speech, Gohmert revived another one of his dubious claims, arguing that Tea Party members comprise "more than half" of all American taxpayers.   

GOHMERT: And then they see a poll that says 28 percent of American adults say that they identify with the Tea Party.  Do the math.  28 percent say that they're associated with Tea Parties, 53 percent are paying all the taxes - uh, do you think that maybe more than half of all people paying taxes are Tea Party folks? Yeah!

Watch:

Gohmert is citing a poll from May, in which 27 percent of respondents said they were "supportive" of the Tea Party.  Of course, the same poll also found that just 2 percent of Americans identify as "active participants" in the movement.  And Gohmert's math assumes that every Tea Party member pays income taxes (the 53 percent figure refers to federal income taxes), which is highly unlikely considering the prevalence of retirees in the movement's ranks.  So while you can at least see Gohmert's logic, he's still way off base. 

Watch highlights of Gohmert's remarks below: