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Vice President Joe Biden said Saturday that the United States can now focus on new global challenges after a long decade of war in an election-year commencement address to jubilant graduates of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. "Winding down these longs wars has enabled us to replace and rebalance our foreign policy," Biden told the Army cadets and their families at the storied academy's football stadium. Biden's speech echoed some of the themes of military success struck by President Barack Obama in his commencement address at the U.S. Air Force Academy last Wednesday. Biden, like Obama, said U.S....

ESPN has issued not one, but two apologies after an “offensive” reference was used on its mobile website and on television, concerning the play of Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin. The first apology came after angry fans and readers caught a headline that appeared on ESPN’s mobile site after Linsanity came to an end—for one day—when the Knicks lost to the New Orleans Hornets on Friday night. So after the Knicks disappointing loss to the 7-23 Hornets, an offensive headline appeared on ESPN’s mobile site that read “Chink In The Armor.” It was the first loss the Knicks suffered since...

After a series of poor debate performances in the early months of his presidential campaign, Texas Gov. Rick Perry is backing off the upcoming GOP debate schedule, committing to just one of the next three events between now and Nov. 15. Perry has struggled in the five debates he has attended since he joined the race in mid-August. At one, he fumbled an attempt to cast rival Mitt Romney as a flip-flopper. At another, bickering between Romney and Perry drew criticism that the candidates were acting juvenile. Perry hinted at his frustration with the debates earlier this week when he...

US Representative Michael E. Capuano, who decried violent political rhetoric after last month’s fatal shooting rampage in Tucson, said today he regrets urging union workers at a rally in Boston on Tuesday to “get a little bloody.” “I strongly believe in standing up for worker rights and my passion for preserving those rights may have gotten the best of me yesterday in an unscripted speech,” the Somerville Democrat said in a statement released this afternoon. “I wish I had used different language to express my passion and I regret my choice of words." Capuano was referring to remarks he made...

Voters now know a thing or two about Harry Reid's type -- the Senate majority leader, speaking at a fundraiser Monday, reportedly called New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand "the hottest member," in front of a crowd that included the blond mother of two. Politico.com reported that the remark caused Gillibrand to blush and surprised those in the audience. Reid apparently was explaining that senators are known for "many things," but that Gillibrand has a reputation as a Capitol Hill hottie. ...

New book out on stands in Japan which took many by surprise: Title: "Obama Shitsugen De Manabu America" (オバマ失言で学ぶアメリカ), by Marie Nishimori (KK Bestsellers (2010/5/15) ISBN-10: 4584132372 ISBN-13: 978-4584132371 Subtitle: "Top 101 Gaffes of Barack Obama" Background: As in many countries overseas, Japan went absolutely crazy two years ago at the prospect of a "President" Obama. Once he won, a whole cottage industry came alive, selling (hawking) CDs and texts of speech upon speech by He Who Must Be Worshipped, The Messiah, teaching Japanese everything from "the spirit of Change and Hope possible in Great America", to "correct English pronunciation...

In what can only be described as a Joe Biden like, foot-in-mouth statement, Representative Steny Hoyer (D-MD) believes Americans work to pay taxes. CNSNews reports: "The projection of revenues has stabilized, not decreased. That is a very good sign because it is a sign that people are in fact making money and will be in a position, because they're making money, to pay a portion of that in revenues to the federal government." Only six days ago, an AT blog reported that Hoyer said public opinion was mistaken in 1994 and suggested that it is mistaken again today. This statement...

Joe Biden's pretty happy with himself for avoiding any major gaffes recently. "You know, I'm sort of a gaffe-free zone right now, you know," he told CNN's Ed Henry in an interview airing today. Biden's been particularly careful to avoid verbal slips recently. After almost taking a shot at Dick Cheney in a recent interview with reporters, Biden caught himself and backtraked. "Yeah, yeah, I know. I can see the headline now," he said, according to a pool report. "I’m getting better, guys. I’m getting a little bit better, you know what I mean?" Biden's foot-in-mouth disease has caused Obama...

- Fanklin Roosevelt going on TV after the crash of 1929! - No Coal for you, Pennsylvania! - Obama ad not fair to McCain, oops I forgot I was on the ticket! Bill said that Hillary wasn't interested in Veepee, so my question is, If Joes leaves then who?? "Stand up, FDR!"

I mean, the truth of the matter is that, that the—America’s—this administration’s policy and the surge are a failure, and that the surge, which was supposed to stop sectarian violence and—long enough to give political reconciliation, there’s been no political reconciliation. The reality is that we’re supposed to, as you said, stand up American—or stand up the Iraqis so the Americans could stand down. We’ve been hearing that for five years. We’re nowhere near being able to do that. The reality is that, although there has been some mild progress on the security front, there is, in fact, no, no...

Say what? The 2008 presidential campaign theme could be "Oops! What I meant was ..." Just about every Republican and Democrat has flubbed an answer to a question or made a borderline inappropriate comment — some so uncomfortable they make you cringe — only to take back the remarks or seek to clarify them later when under fire. This month alone, Republican Mitt Romney backtracked from a comment about his sons' lack of military service. Rival Rudy Giuliani retreated from his suggestion that he spent as much time as Sept. 11 rescue workers at the ground zero site and was...

SEN. BIDEN SHOCK INTERVIEW: OBAMA FIRST 'CLEAN' BLACK IN MAINSTREAM... 'I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy'...

Chairman Joe Biden of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was trying to uphold two resolutions yesterday: one criticizing the [...]administration's Iraq policy and the other Biden's own resolution to himself -- to stop talking so much.[...] Biden's other resolution failed, by a voice vote -- Biden's voice.The Delaware Democrat and presidential hopeful ran the hearing more like a talk show host than a chairman: inviting the other senators to speak and then commenting on each senator's remarks.He opened the hearing with a 3,000-word statement in which he used the word "I" 88 times, including a lengthy discussion of the types...

The following remarks were prepared by Rep. Tom Tancredo for a speech at the Miami Rotary Club that he was forced to cancel because of threats of violence. Thank you for the kind introduction. Your own congressional representative, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, wanted to be here and was the first Miami resident to invite me to visit. I would love to have her visit Colorado, but first she has to do or say something controversial. If, for example, she would propose new federal legislation that prohibits Californians from emigrating to Colorado, she would be very popular in Colorado. Probably Denver Rotary or...

The Corner is reporting that John Kerry will hold a news conference at 2PM to discuss his recent comment.

Democrat Ned Lamont's campaign manager said he will send an apology to the mayor of Waterbury, Conn. for describing the city that backed his opponent, Sen. Joe Lieberman, as a place "where the forces of slime meet the forces of evil."

Sen. Conrad Burns has issued a written apology for having an "altercation" at a Billings airport last weekend with members of a hot shot firefighting crew about the management of a 92,000-acre blaze in eastern Montana. Jennifer McKee of the Lee State Bureau broke the story on Thursday, reporting on an account from state firefighting operations that Burns criticized a member of the Augusta Hot Shots from Virginia for doing a "poor job" and not listening to ranchers. Today, Lee's Chuck Johnson reports on the Burns apology and includes this little nugget of a quote from Burns in the original...

A Spanish news agency apologized for a report that described a Republican gubernatorial candidate's proposed work program for illegal immigrants as "concentration camps." The story last week caused an international stir when EFE, a national news agency of Spain, quoted candidate Don Goldwater as saying he wanted to hold undocumented immigrants in camps to use them "as labor in the construction of a wall and to clean the areas of the Arizona desert that they're polluting."

Four days after the killing of top terrorist Abu Musab al Zarqawi brought the U.S. its most stunning military success of the Iraq war, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee is calling for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to be fired because the military effort is failing. "I don't think we're succeeding militarily," Rep. Jane Harman told "Fox News Sunday." "Continuing the same course, you know, is not getting us anywhere," she insisted. "What would help with doubters - and there are doubters in both parties all over the country - [would be] if the president decided that Rumsfeld...

See for example this thread first. The latest gaffe from Howard Dean about gays puts him squarely between the Christians, who say "You can't marry, you're gay!" and the folks who say "God save the QUEEN!"