The black guy's playing golf again

How are we going to shift the focus of the campaign back to those all-important policy issues, The Washington Times?

A “boys’ weekend” of golf with Tiger Woods in 2013 was fun for President Obama, but it was a triple-bogey for taxpayers.

The Government Accountability Office reported Wednesday that the departments of Defense and Homeland Security spent more than $3.6 million in travel costs and other expenses for Mr. Obama’s getaway weekend with Mr. Woods and other golf partners at an exclusive resort in Florida.

And how did this come to light?

... The performance audit, which took about 20 months to complete, was requested by Sen. John Barrasso, Wyoming Republican. The report said the true costs of the president’s golf weekend cannot be known because some of the Pentagon’s expenses are classified.

... “At a time when the government was tightening its belt to prepare for sequestration, President Obama had such little disregard for the taxpayer that he spent millions of dollars to play golf with Tiger Woods,” Mr. Barrasso said. “This arrogance is par for the course for the Obama administration.”

And how do you conclude a story like this?

... Mr. Obama has played more than 300 rounds of golf during his presidency, the vast majority of them on courses in the immediate Washington area.

How will The Washington Times look when white people reclaim the White House? Let's see if Thursday's online edition holds any clues:

A woman introducing Hillary Clinton at a campaign event conspicuously removed the words “under God” from the end of the Pledge of Allegiance, prompting the Democratic primary front-runner to laugh.

Let's go to the videotape on that:

The New York Post may have caught Hillary Clinton in a little white lie told on a Spanish-language network program.

Asked for her favorite food while appearing on Wednesday’s edition of Univision’s “El Gordo y La Flaca,” the former secretary of state said “I think it would be Mexican food.”

Aside from Mrs. Clinton’s surreptitious April 2015 visit to a Chipotle outside Toledo, Ohio, however, there’s little evidence to back up her claim.

It's going to be a long four years on New York Avenue.

The black guy's playing golf again!

Give us the good news first, The Washington Times!

For the last time, taxpayers are paying for a Hawaiian Christmas vacation for President Obama and his family, an annual luxury getaway that has cost the Treasury easily more than $35 million over eight years.

Golfing on oceanside courses, dining at high-end restaurants and frolicking on stunning white-sand beaches where security guards keep other tourists at bay, the president and his family are in the midst of a 17-day holiday that requires dozens of Secret Service agents, military personnel and other government employees to guarantee their safety and ease of travel around Oahu.

The Obamas are once again renting a multimillion-dollar oceanfront home in Kailua, a town on the northeast side of the island where houses in the neighborhood fetch around $10 million. It’s near golf courses and a Marine Corps base where the president goes for morning workouts at the gym.

Well, that can't be fake news. It has verbs and objects and adjectives, and -- Christmas comes early! -- lots of things that look like actual facts. Still, it has a couple of features that help the larger project of distinguishing the People's Right to Know from the People's Right to ... best two out of three? We were so close that time.

Read more »

The black guy's about to not play golf again!

You really do wonder if the Times has a policy of letting the print edition look all mature -- if incomprehensibly boring, headline-wise -- while saving the cask-strength stuff for online readers:

That explains why Trump is in the 1A print headline but doesn't appear anywhere in the frontpage text -- this is a story about an "Obama snub." Of what, you ask?

Of all the perks of the presidency that Barack Obama will miss as he leaves the White House, it’s a good bet that Camp David won’t rank high on the list.

Compared with his predecessors, President Obama has spent little downtime over the past eight years at the secluded presidential retreat in the mountains overlooking Thurmont, Maryland. In total, Mr. Obama has visited Camp David 39 times, spanning all or parts of 93 days — barely 3 percent of his two-term tenure.

By contrast, President George W. Bush made 149 visits to Camp David in two terms, covering all or parts of 487 days, said Mark Knoller, the CBS News White House reporter who keeps meticulous records of presidential comings and goings.

In other words, this is more or less the same story that the same reporter wrote in May 2014:

President Obama differs from his predecessor on more than just policy.

Compared with President George W. Bush, Mr. Obama has rarely visited Camp David, the sprawling, secluded retreat in northern Maryland that has become a regular getaway spot for presidents over the past 70 years.
Read more »

The black guy's playing golf basketball again

How are things on the White House beat there, Washington Times?

He’s the world’s most powerful armchair quarterback, and President Obama hasn’t shied away from weighing in on the link between concussions and football, the furor over the Washington Redskins‘ name and other high-profile sports controversies of the day.

You can see why it took a while to get the tone of the hed just right. Clearly not the deck from the 1A centerpiece:

Obama takes Bush lead on controversy and runs with it

The HTML kind of fades out with "When it comes to sports controversies, Obama is eager." And the Web version went back and forth from morning to evening too:

Which I guess finally sums it up: The Kenyan still wants to imitate Bush, and he's not just eager to jump in, he's a mean drunk about it. Right, White House beat?
Read more »

The black guy's not playing golf!

No, it's worse than that. Far worse. He doesn't like Camp David! Take it away, The Washington Times:

President Obama differs from his predecessor on more than just policy.

Compared with President George W. Bush, Mr. Obama has rarely visited Camp David, the sprawling, secluded retreat in northern Maryland that has become a regular getaway spot for presidents over the past 70 years.

Although Mr. Obama hasn’t shunned the location entirely — he spent his 52nd birthday there last year — veteran Washington reporters and pundits say it’s clear that the 44th president hasn’t warmed up to Camp David in the same way as did Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Jimmy Carter and Mr. Bush.

Let's let some veteran reporters and pundits explain why:

“I suspect part of the reason is because his daughters would prefer to be in the city, prefer to be at the White House,” said Ken Walsh, chief White House correspondent for U.S. News & World Report and author of the book “From Mount Vernon to Crawford: A History of the Presidents and Their Retreats.”

“I’ve been told that as an urban man, a guy from Chicago, he doesn’t take to Camp David and its rural setting as much as other presidents have. That’s another part of it,” he said.
Read more »

The black guy's playing golf some more

This is why it's called an "echo chamber":


As much of the nation huddles in a dangerous deep freeze, vacationing President Obama on Saturday wrapped up his two-week Christmas vacation by playing his 160th round of golf in his sunny birth state, Hawaii. The temperature: 79 degrees.
His latest round means that Obama has played golf an average of once every 11 days in office.You can go look up the comments yourself.

The black guy's playing golf again

You can read the whole story, or you can just kind of get the whole idea from the top cutline:

R&R: President Obama gives rare access to a media pool Thursday as he plays his seventh round of golf during his Hawaiian vacation. The first family also has taken two hikes, two beach trips and one snorkeling adventure, but has not attended church, even for Christmas.

Oh, all right. Enjoy some reader comments too!
Read more »

Today in framing

Wow! Nothing gets the presidential press corps excited like Big Loud Machines, huh? It's the Daily Mail, so there's really no need to read the text if you've waded through all the decks, but anyway:

Donald Trump got an up-close look at the new presidential aircraft Friday when the next generation of the Marine One fleet landed on the White House South Lawn.

The Sikorsky VH-92A staged the test landing as part of preparations for the new aircraft to enter service in 2021, replacing the Sikorsky VH-3Ds, which have been in service since 1978, completely by 2023.

The White House said Trump inspected the new aircraft, but it was unclear if he stepped on board - the press was not allowed to see him near the helicopter.

He will have to win a second term to be a passenger on the helicopter, with the first being due to enter service with Marine Helicopter Squadron One - HMX-1 in Corps shorthand - after Inauguration Day 2021.

Makes you wonder what the story might have looked like five years ago, doesn't it?

The Department of Defense awarded a contract on Wednesday to a Connecticut company that will build a fleet of helicopters to replace the Marine One fleet that ferries U.S. presidents short distances.

The contract, given to Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, will cost an initial $1,244,677,064 'for the engineering and manufacturing development phase of the Presidential Helicopter Replacement program.' For that price the U.S. Navy will get six test aircraft and all the necessary research & development.

The Pentagon made a similar attempt to replace the aging fleet of Sikorsky choppers, spending $3.2 billion on a landing pad to nowhere.

Adding in the likely $17 billion price tag for the new project – a number estimated by the Congressional Budget Office – the $20 billion total makes the fleet the most expensive helicopters ever built.

Pretty impressive Arithmetic In The Service Of The Party there -- adding in the $3 million the Kenyan usurper spent before even taking office.

While we're on the topic of the party press, do you ever pine for the days when Fox News was obsessed with presidential golf at birthday time?

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama kicked off his birthday weekend Saturday with a round of golf with friends and a getaway to Camp David.

Obama, who turns 52 on Sunday, left the White House just after 8 a.m. EDT -- that's unusually early for the half-hour motorcade ride to Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland -- to squeeze in some golf before the celebration shifted to the presidential retreat nestled in Maryland's Catoctin Mountains.

The black guy's playing golf again

Here's the NRO post Drudge links to from the above:

Had you noticed we were enjoying a “Year of Action”? Are you enjoying it?

On Saturday President Obama enjoyed his 11th golf outing of the year before heading off to the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Today the president meets with President Ismail Omar Guelleh of Djibouti and then hosts a Cinco de Mayo reception in the Rose Garden. Later this week, the president will attend four Democratic fundraisers in California.

But perhaps the clearest sign of the “Year of Action” is in the results.

Further questions?

Fingernails on the blackboard

But first, this message from the Stories I Won't Be Reading This Century, Thanks category:

Now back to your regularly scheduled program.

Here's a bit of run-of-the-mill cop reporting made worse by what appears to be drastically bad editing at the MCT stablemate that picked it up.* If there's a suggestion for the desk here, it's something along the lines of: It's not really a lot of fun to read about infant death. Try not to make it any worse.

When investigators found the remains of baby Harmony Jade Creech's body this weekend, she was inside a diaper box in the family's attic, said Harnett County Sheriff Larry Rollins.

The statewide Amber Alert for the 11-month-old baby girl was canceled and Harmony's mother, Johni Michelle Heuser, 25, is being held without bail in the Harnett County jail on a charge of first-degree murder.

Notice how little new information there is in "11-month-old baby girl"? In that we already know both "baby" and "girl"? Think we're being tugged upon a bit here?

The baby's father, Ronald Earl Creech II, just returned from a 15-month deployment in Iraq. Now, he must bury his first daughter, whom he had seen just once during a leave shortly after her birth in January.

It'd be nice to see some editing time spent here -- say, moving "in January" to the left a bit so it can more reasonably modify "a leave," rather than "her birth." If she was born in January, of course, she wasn't an "11-month-old." And since it seems unclear when she died, it might be time to drop "11-month-old" anyway; that phrase seems to have entered the ongoing story when she was first reported missing. Arithmetic is the sort of thing editors can always pay attention to.

Heuser's mother, Brenda Irizarry, picked Creech up at Pope Air Force Base on Friday and drove him to the home he shared with Heuser, Harmony and Heuser's three children from a previous marriage.

But Harmony was gone -- the window near her crib open, clothes and blankets missing as well.

Somebody is doing some editing (the original has another "and": the window near her crib open, and clothes and blankets missing as well), but it's hard to tell to what end.

An investigator searched the house, including its attic, but they didn't find the baby girl.

Evidently not to smooth out glitches in pronoun-antecedent agreement.

Stuffed in a back corner, reachable only with a golf club from an old set stored in the attic, investigators were able to grab a Pampers diaper box so light it could have been empty, Rollins said.

Aha! It's to edit in annoying offenses against standard desk grammar! We've taken the original (They discovered, stuffed in a back corner and reachable only with a golf club from an old set stored up in the attic, a Pampers diaper box so light that it could have been empty, Rollins said) and turned it into a dangling participle! But there's more:

In there they found little Harmony Creech's decomposing baby body wrapped in a plastic bag, he said. Investigators are waiting for a medical examiner's report to provide a better time and cause of death.

Little Harmony's decomposing baby body! Do people actually write that badly? Well, not in this case. Here's the original: Inside they found Harmony's decomposing body wrapped in a plastic bag, he said. And "a better time" isn't original either (as if you weren't having a good time already); in the source paper, it's a more exact time.

Seriously. Editors, if you feel the need to do something to prove you're there, why don't you just make the guacamole or something?

* I'm sort of inferring from past practice here, and it's a bit rusty; it may be that the copy went out raw and actually got cleaned up at the source paper. Delighted if any hands at either paper could advise.

Today in agenda-setting

If emails = golf made sense to Drudge on Sunday night ...

... maybe you should expect to see it at Fox on Monday morning:

And with a little more time to think, Fox can make the headline even better!

Though that creates a few pragmatic/discursive challenges of its own. "Reportedly flagged" is a nice, comfy headline passive: the point is the emails, of course, so why bother with a subject? "Teeing up," on the other hand, puts that question to the reader: Who's doing the teeing? Fox? The WashTimes? The cunning usurper himself, finally launching his move to push Secretary Clinton off the ticket in favor of Valerie Jarrett?

The emails are an interesting case, in that -- unlike the transparently bogus BENGHAZI !!!!! scandal -- they do point to some genuine questions about, if nothing else, common sense. If Fox, following in the master's footstomps, casts it as just another Black Guy Plays Golf Again story, it's missing a chance.

Sourcing and mayhem

Good to see the Formerly Fair 'n' Balanced Network is on the case as "officials" push back against the Fake News Media:

President Trump specifically condemns “white supremacists” and other extremist groups as forces behind the deadly protests and counter-protests this weekend in Virginia, a White House spokesperson said Sunday.

That ought to show 'em. Now let's see the quote!

"The president said very strongly in his statement yesterday that he condemns all forms of violence, bigotry and hatred. Of course that includes white supremacists, KKK Neo-Nazi and all extremist groups. He called for national unity and bringing all Americans together,” the spokesperson said from Trump’s private golf club in Bedminster, N.J.

Oh, no. Would that be another of those anonymous Fake News sources? I wonder what other commercial news agencies say:

A White House official, who requested anonymity and ignored attempts to go on the record, told reporters Sunday that it was obvious the President condemned "white supremacists, KKK, neo-Nazi and all extremist groups" despite Trump not mentioning those groups during an event at his private golf club Saturday and instead blaming the violence on "many sides."

"The President said very strongly in his statement yesterday that he condemns all forms of violence, bigotry and hatred, and, of course, that includes white supremacists, KKK, neo-Nazi and all extremist groups," the official said. "He called for national unity and bringing all Americans together."

Glad we have that worked out. Meanwhile, though, let's enjoy some other Fox treats. Here, for example, is Saturday evening's top story:

"Face of mayhem," is it? What other faces do you suppose have been spotted lurking around the Formerly Fair 'n' Balanced Network in recent months?

Well, that's hardly fair. Surely it would have been stronger than "mayhem" if someone had actually died!

It does seem kind of hard not to conclude that certain skin tones are more strongly associated with "hate" and "terror," doesn't it?

The black guy played golf in 2013 again!

You guys! Guess what party the McClatchy Washington Bureau is arriving late at:

WASHINGTON--On a windy winter day in 2013 at one of Florida’s top golf courses, President Obama and Tiger Woods played a friendly round together for the first time.

Some 44 months later, the president’s trip to Port St. Lucie, Florida, has been revealed: $3.6 million.

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/article111163862.html#storylink=cpy

Strictly speaking, no. As the fourth graf suggests, the trip was "revealed" in (ahem) 2013. (Fox, usually better at chronicling the usurper's hijinx, caught up the following day, though it had borrowed a precede from the Daily Caller earlier.) Perhaps we meant the cost had been revealed?

... The GAO report was requested by Sen. John Barrasso, a Wyoming Republican.

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/article111163862.html#storylink=cpy

That's a relief. I thought for a moment there it might be someone who didn't already have a Washington bureau to call their own. Anyway, now that McClatchy has awakened to the scope of the Kenyan menace, could we suggest some stories to catch up on?

Obama uses first-person pronouns!
Hillary wrote a paper about ALINSKY!!!!!
Obama wants the Marines to wear girly hats!
BENGHAZI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Obama sat next to an Arab guy at dinner this one time!
Hillary is running for office, with politics!


Let me know if I can help.

* McClatchy could also take a note from the follow-up -- just like in the textbook, kids! -- pointing out that Obama didn't seem to have learned much.

Paging the Dental Don Juan of Detroit

 

Well, this is hardly a surprise. The lead story on your Fox News homepage on Saturday night (9:30ish Eastern US) is the great man's rally at ... well, take it away, Fox:

Former President Trump echoed Ronald Reagan on Saturday during a spirited battleground outdoor rally at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, asking, "Are you better off now than you were four years ago?"

Do you think he knows who was president in October 2020? Just asking. Because the real question -- since we're at a "spirited battleground outdoor rally" at the Arnold Palmer Regional Airport, after all -- might be: What did he say about Arnold Palmer?

... The crowd was both large and optimistic, with many children present at the rally dressed up as the former president and local steelworkers wearing hard hats.

Trump opened his nearly two-hour stump with a tribute to his late friend and PGA golf legend Arnold Palmer.

"But there was nobody that had his magic. He was a thriller. He was unbelievable. He, he knew how to win and he knew how to,, just do whatever it was that electrified a crowd," Trump said. "If I had him here right now with me, this crowd would be going absolutely crazy. They'd say, Trump, get off this stage. We want Arnold Palmer to speak."

Trump said he was good friends with and named one of the villas on his Doral, Florida, property after Palmer, who was a native of Pennsylvania, and died in 2016.

That seems somehow less than compelling. Did anything else catch the attention of the press -- the AP, for example?

Trump kicks off a Pennsylvania rally by talking about Arnold Palmer’s genitalia
LATROBE, Pa. (AP) — Donald Trump’s campaign suggested he would begin previewing his closing argument Saturday night with Election Day barely two weeks away. But the former president kicked off his rally with a detailed story about Arnold Palmer, at one point even praising the late, legendary golfer’s genitalia.

Oh. The Independent?

‘But don’t call them weird’: Trump raises eyebrows after crude 12-minute anecdote about Arnold Palmer’s manhood
Donald Trump shared a 12-minute anecdote about golfer Arnold Palmer at a Pennsylvania rally, prompting derision on social media after he made an off-color comment.

... “This is a guy that was all man,” Trump said. “He took showers with the other pros, they came out of there, they said, ‘Oh my God, that’s unbelievable.’ I had to say it.”

The (hem, kaff, Murdoch) New York Post?

Trump implies legendary golfer Arnold Palmer was well endowed at campaign rally in Latrobe, Pa.: ‘Oh my God’
He’s spilling the tea, and lemonade.

Former President Trump told a story about Arnold Palmer at a rally in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, Saturday night that ended with the former Commander-in-Chief insinuating that the golf legend’s manhood was legendary.

USA Today?

Donald Trump targets steelworkers, riffs on golfer's anatomy in Pennsylvania rally
Orange and red hard hats dotted the crowd at a Donald Trump rally in western Pennsylvania on Saturnday night as he presented himself as the savior of the steel industry, a key part of the region’s identity, and made off-color remarks about the late pro golfer Arnold Palmer, a local hero.

... Trump spent his first 15 minutes at the microphone extolling Palmer's masculinity − and anatomy.

“Arnold Palmer was all man,” he told the crowd. “And I say that in all due respect to women. And I love women. But this guy. This guy. This is a guy that was all man. This man was all strong and tough. And I refused to say it but when − when he took showers with the other men, they came out of there, they said, 'Oh my god. That’s unbelievable.'”

NJ.com (and the shades of the newspapers it represents)?

Trump makes crude remark about golfing immortal: ‘I had to say it’
In many ways, Arnold Palmer’s resume is unparalleled. While many other golfing greats — like Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods — won more tournaments and majors and earned more money on the course, Palmer is acknowledged as the immortal who grew the sport’s popularity.

... But here’s what Donald Trump wants you to remember about Palmer, who passed away in September 2016: He had a big penis.

But at Fox, we've said all there is to say about Arnold Palmer.

Perhaps this is a pleasantly old-fashioned burst of propriety (after all, there were "many children present at the rally dressed up as the former president," and Fox also omitted his reference to the Democratic nominee as a "shit vice president"). And Fox might always change its mind and update the story later (this was posted at 8:29). But one can be forgiven for thinking that the orders from the ketchup-smeared bunker are conmvincingly clear on this point.

The black guy's allegedly playing golf again

It took 'em a few ties to get it right, but the nice folks over at Glenn Beck's The Blaze finally figured out the right hed to go with the picture and story:

President Barack Obama’s plate is full of difficult situations, foreign and domestic. From the crisis in Ukraine and Crimea to the instability brewing in Venezuela and North Korea still lobbing missiles into the sea. And then there is the President’s ongoing battle against income inequality in America.

If there was only a place that where he could go to relax. A place that believes, “the busier life gets, the more we seek true tranquility, a place where the world’s clamor can be shut out and forgotten for a while.” Luckily, the president has found such a place.

Good to know somebody's always on the Black Guy Playing Golf beat!

Adverbs gone wild: A slight return

They're still lining up the survivors of traffic accidents and executing 'em down in Charlotte:

Man killed after he rear-ends CATS bus
A 38-year-old man was killed Monday when he drove his SUV into the rear of a Charlotte Area Transit System bus in south Charlotte.

Two killed after Saturday wreck in Conover
Two people were killed this weekend in Catawba County when the car they were riding in was struck by another vehicle.

Teen, grandmother killed after car hits golf cart
A 59-year-old Hudson resident and her teen granddaughter were killed this weekend when the golf cart they were in was struck by a car.

Once a philosopher, twice a pervert -- three times must mean it's "style." The ongoing confusion of "when" and "after" is so consistent that it really does look like a matter of policy. Any reason all heds of this sort can't say "die(s) after," rather than "killed after"?

Those nuclear hed awards

Time for a look at how America's Newspapers performed with Sunday night's news that North Korea claimed to have joined the Atomic Candle Club.

Grand Champion:
Is N. Korea nuclear?
The Record (Stockton, Calif.)
Umm... tell you what. If you're going to ask me, how about you give me the 50 cents and I give you some dead pine trees with advertising on 'em?

First runner-up in the Please Read The Wires After 7 category:
No nuke test, China, Japan tell N. Korea
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
The judges singled out for particular commendation the lede, which reminds us that "Pyongyang appeared to back down from its threat."

Special recognition in the Crosstown Echo Effect Echo Effect Category:
North Korea tests nuke
Step forward, the Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News. On tiebreakers, the Post wins for its deck: "Defiance or defense?" (Answer: Yes!)

And in the World? What world? category, the champion is Fort Myers, Fla., leading with:
Golf course labor scarce
This isn't the only paper that couldn't be bothered to find frontpage space for the event. Or the only one that managed to tease to football and baseball. Belleville (Ill.) and the Detroit News both led with baseball (not the same team, of course). And Greensboro gets a special nod for not only leading with golf, but for providing relentlessly clueless hyphenation in its top Actual News hed:

Duke-case prosecutor undeterred by critics

Enough of sermon, pretty much. Though it's worth asking whether the claim at hand should be attributed -- hey, take a bow, the Missourian! -- or stated as a fact, as in the Denver examples above and a few score others. That one doesn't have an exact answer, which makes it more rather than less interesting to discuss.

Certainly, an official stamp from the White House isn't the highest and best way of verifying international events. Nor are "rogue" states' claims presumptively false, nor claims about nuclear testing invariably true. In this case, we're stuck with weighing North Korea's interest in wanting to be known as a nuclear power against access (pretty late on a Sunday) to people with the technical means to add credibility to the event and a vested interest in having an honest answer on the frontpage. I'd go with the attribution.

Bridge-buying with the Post

What happens when clueless journalism runs head-on into jackleg social science? Well, we get the Washington Post buying itself a shiny new bridge to Arlington or Brooklyn or nowhere. Since this tale has brought such tidings of comfort and joy around the nattersphere, let's go for a drive:

Well, that's a relief! I wonder how we know.

A new analysis of political signs displayed at a tea party rally in Washington last month reveals that the vast majority of activists expressed narrow concerns about the government's economic and spending policies and steered clear of the racially charged anti-Obama messages that have helped define some media coverage of such events.

There's a lot to unravel here -- not just what constitutes a "vast majority" and how we tell "narrow concerns" about policy from "racially charged" messages about that Kenyan Muslim socialist colored guy in the White House, but what constitutes the sort of "new analysis" that rises to the attention of the Washington Post.

Read more »

Locker-room talk

See if you can guess what has the party press on the fainting couch this morning:

Freshman U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib wasted no time in calling for the impeachment of President Donald Trump just hours after being sworn in.

Speaking to a crowd of supporters Thursday night, the Michigan Democrat and one of the first Muslim women elected to Congress said of Trump: "People love you and you win. And when your son looks at you and says, 'Momma, look you won. Bullies don't win.' And I said, 'Baby, they don't, because we’re gonna go in there and we’re gonna impeach the mother***er.'”*

Perhaps the snowflakes should calm down a bit. If you were writing a set of rules for coding political speech,** it'd be hard not to count that as "locker-room talk" -- though admittedly more like a rookie who had doubled twice, singled and stolen a base in the first game of the Series than like an old con artist after a golf game. And it does seem a bit late in the going to get all huffy about locker-room talk. Maybe Rep. Tlaib should try changing the subject?

You know, when we have a world where you have ISIS chopping off heads, where you have — and, frankly, drowning people in steel cages, where you have wars and horrible, horrible sights all over, where you have so many bad things happening, this is like medieval times. We haven’t seen anything like this, the carnage all over the world.

And they look and they see. Can you imagine the people that are, frankly, doing so well against us with ISIS? And they look at our country and they see what’s going on.

Yes, I’m very embarrassed by it. I hate it. But it’s locker room talk, and it’s one of those things. I will knock the hell out of ISIS. We’re going to defeat ISIS. ISIS happened a number of years ago in a vacuum that was left because of bad judgment. And I will tell you, I will take care of ISIS.

So no, "unveiled" probably wasn't an accident either.

There are some cool subroutines of news practice going on in Fox's follow-up:

"Profanity," of course, would be something like asking God to damn the head of state. And how one "motherfucker" makes a statement "profanity-laced" -- apparently that's just another Magic Phrase of Journalism.

The fear knob certainly has been dialed up to 11 the past couple days at Fox. Here's the lead story from Thursday around 7 a.m.:

 And from 11:25:

And from 1:45:

So the question for the audience at year's end was: Is Fox scared of girls? The answer seems to be that Fox is scared of almost everything, but it's flat-out terrified of girls.

* Could you at least count the motherfucking asterisks, please?

** There's still space in that Tuesday night content analysis course, kids!

Today in framing

Judging from Wednesday's centerpiece, bb dayorder was received and understood at the Washington Times*: Massster speaks and the Times listens!

For all of President Trump’s celebrated battles with the media, he is also allowing the press more extended access to some of his White House meetings than previous presidents did.

Did you ever wonder about how the president's celebrated openness looks elsewhere? Say, at Military Times?

White House officials held their first listening session on problems with the Department of Veterans Affairs on Tuesday, but without inviting prominent members of the veterans community to the event.

What fun could be had at White House briefings if topics like this came up! In the good old days, you'll recall, the president would occasionally bring things like the Iron Cross to bestow on particularly offensive tools of the far-right press. Perhaps those days could return.

* How quickly things change. The reporter seems to be vastly less interested in how often the president plays golf than he was a few months ago.