The Rude Pundit on the latest GOP man crush (audio NSFW):

Demonstrating why we haven’t been fans of Occupy Wall Street, ThinkProgress chose this morning to highlight a statement from Occupy Portland (attn. Brent Musburger: “Orygun”) after the Rose City cops provided them some valuable baton-wielding publicity:

By camping outside the city hall, we gave you a choice to decide to stand with us and with working class Americans. Instead, you made the choice to protect unjust social and economic policies that are leading our nation into a state of financial ruin and institutionalized oppression.

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We haven’t been fans of Occupy Wall Street — to say the least — but we have to give them partial credit for changing the national conversation. When’s the last time you heard about the deficit?

The rest of the credit goes to various police departments in Our Exceptional Nation, starting and — late last night — apparently ending with the NYPD, which forcefully cleared Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park.

Without the NYPD — ably assisted more recently by Oakland’s Finest — the movement would have labored in the obscurity under which it began. But move some riot cops into a bored crowd of unarmed hippies, and you have ratings gold.

Police Begin Clearing Zuccotti Park of Protesters [NYT]

Photo: @JoshHarkinson

Herman Cain! rolls out his hilarious! James Stockdale impression: “President Obama called for the removal of Gaddafi. Just want to make sure we’re talking about the same thing before I say, yes I agree, I know I didn’t agree. I do not agree with the way he handled it for the following reason — no, that’s a different one. I gotta go back to… Got all this stuff twirling around in my head. Specifically, what are you asking me, did I agree or not disagree with on what?” [Political Wire]

“Schools nationwide, including The University of Missouri and Washington University, are snapping up .xxx domain names to avoid links of their names to porn sites.” [CBS]

CNN:

According to a CNN/ORC International Poll released Monday, 24% of Republicans and independents who lean towards the GOP say Romney is their most likely choice for their party’s presidential nominee with Gingrich at 22%… The poll also indicates that 14 percent back Cain, down 11 points from last month.

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ThinkProgress, compiling a helpful list of Barack Obama’s foreign-policy “successes” to throw at your wingnut relatives, saw fit to include this item:

Obama’s policy: President Obama ordered a drone attack that killed al Qaeda propagandist Anwar Al Awlaki, a U.S.-Yemeni dual citizen.

This is, to say the least, astonishing. As noted, Awlaki was an American citizen. And whatever you might think of his behavior, we have means of dealing with that. Constitutional means. Article III, Section 3, to be precise:

Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.

But fine, we live in Exceptional Times. What’s astonishing is that ThinkProgress doesn’t even bother to sex up the dossier: By their account, we’re supposed to cheer Obama because he took out a propagandist.

We have a simple test for situations like this: Substitute “Bush” for “Obama”, and listen to your gut. If your reaction is the same, you may congratulate yourself on your judgment. But if not, you may want to avoid looking in mirrors, because what you’ll see is nothing but a fucking hack.

Obama’s Foreign Policy Successes [ThinkProgress, via Greenwald]