Quickies

• Karl Rove practically gets pulled from a Fox News interview for dissing Fox News employee and probable presidential candidate Sarah Palin. During his tirade about Palin having thin skin, Fox abruptly switches to Breaking News Alert that Steve Jobs was stepping down as Apple CEO. Too bad the Jobs story broke hours prior and had already been reported by Fox News.

• Tea Baggers newest Freedom Fighting venture?  Banning books!  More specifically, books that don't adhere to Biblical principles.  How's that for Freedom!

• Excellent read in the Times from David Cambell and Robert Putnam highlighting data from 2006 showing Tea Baggers were present then just under another name: Republicans.  Their study also casts doubts on Tea Bagger movement being something of a grassroots phenomena by demonstrating people who identify themselves as Tea Baggers have always been highly active Republicans and did not magically appear on the scene in 2009.  They've always been political participants, just with a new name.

• As regular readers will recall, I've been saying the very same things Cambell and Putnam are now quantitatively measuring.  Tea Baggers are not independents.  They are not a movement of people just now entering the political fray.  They are Republicans.  They have always been present but were quiet during the 8 years of George Bush, not because they loved his policies, but simply because he was a Republican-- and seemingly that is all they care about.  You can search The Fold Blog's archives all day long and see since day one I have been on a mission to get the media to quit treating Tea Baggers as an outside group when they are in every way, shape and form Republicans.

• Former VP Big Dick Cheney urged President Bush to bomb Syria in 2007.   He also kept a resignation letter handy just in case.