Conservative Project Veritas auteur James O’Keefe, last seen upsetting deceased veterans’ widows, has published a new undercover “investigation” that he claims shows “the ease in which individuals may register to vote for themselves or others without identification requirements of any kind” in Minnesota. Progressive blogger Brad Friedman explains why, even if true, it hardly matters. Mediaite explains that it isn’t even true.

Earlier today the news broke that CNN contributor Roland Martin will not be appearing on the network indefinitely for what GLAAD perceived to be a homophobic tweet. Despite his personal ideological bent, the reaction from the conservative media was a swift defense of the longtime CNN pundit. But the conservative reaction to Martin’s suspension is no surprise because the conservative movement has long abandoned the left/right divide for a new war front: that between individuals and the media elite.

There are certain words and phrases that we here at Mediaite keep our ears open for when scanning the airwaves. Whenever an anchor starts a comment or segment by saying something like “This may make people mad but…” or “I don’t mean to sound racist but…”, it usually means that what they have to say is going to make for good, blog-worthy television. We can add to that list another great conversational preface in the phrase “Can I just throw a conspiracy theory out here?” That’s the question Eric Bolling asked on today’s The Five and, hoo boy, did he deliver.

So… I’m going to go ahead and let this video speak for itself, for the most part, but here’s a little bit of context to get you started: This video was created by a stand-up comedian named Dave Ackerman, and the school he’s visiting is Brigham Young University.

Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori once made the observation that “the more humanlike his robots became, the more people were attracted to them, but only up to a point. If an android become too realistic and lifelike, suddenly people were repelled and disgusted.” Henceforth, the concept of uncanny valley came into our public consciousness. Perfectly illustrating this concept, CNN presents us with a disturbing news report introducing us to “the robot mule” — not a Tim Burton movie, but in fact, a DARPA invention that can carry heavy equipment for US troops.

Joe Hildebrand, a columnist for Rupert Murdoch‘s News Corp. in Australia, has come under fire for a series of tweets that mock the mentally handicapped, the “retarded,” the Irish, and blondes. It all started with a tweet about airport personnel, but Hildebrand’s reaction to criticism of his remark escalated into a full-on “politically incorrect” display of shamelessness that had one colleague calling him “a disgrace.”

On the heels (but not too closely on the heels) of Monday’s call by GLAAD that CNN analyst Roland Martin be fired for tweets he made during Sunday’s Super Bowl, the network has announced that Martin has been suspended. Martin initially explained the tweets, which GLAAD said encouraged violence against gay people, as tweaking soccer fans, but the network disagrees. In a statement released minutes ago, CNN says “Roland Martin’s tweets were regrettable and offensive.

On Sunday’s Meet the Press New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that “we need to stop demonizing Wall Street and all work together for the good of the country.” At least he got one part right. Because if Wall Street has been demonized, it’s safe to say the Pope’s favorite number is 666. There’s been a lot of talk in President Obama‘s administration, but very little action when it comes to Wall Street and their antics, which were partly responsible for the home foreclosure crisis and completely responsible for the risky investments that led to billion dollar bailouts shortly thereafter. It’s past time for President Obama to get aggressive.

On Tuesday night’s The Young Turks, host Cenk Uygur went the eff off on President Obama over what he sees as administration signals of a compromise on the religious employer exemption to the Affordable Care Act’s Preventive Services Mandate. Loudly calling it like he sees it, Uygur said that President Obama “doesn’t have the guts” to fight conservatives on the issue, and that “his natural instinct” to “run for the hills” kicks in whenever he’s challenged a little bit.

One of the beauties of the transfer of power from major media operations to individuals, bloggers and tweeters is that they — we — can all serve as a sort of fact-checking peanut gallery. So it’s hard to imagine that, in this day and age, the mainstream media could repeatedly misstate the holding of one of the most significant Supreme Court decisions without being roundly excoriated. Not a matter of opinion or a partisan viewpoint, but, simply parroting a mistake or lie about the holding in that crucial ruling.

On Tuesday night’s Countdown, fiery host Keith Olbermann delivered one of his trademark Special Comment™ segments on the roiling controversy surrounding the Susan G. Komen breast cancer charity’s decision to de-fund, then maybe re-fund, Planned Parenthood‘s screening services. He compared the incident to McCarthy-era “witch hunts,” and said that Komen founder and CEO Nancy Brinker had “dishonored both her sister’s memory, and this essential cause.”

Today on his radio show, Glenn Beck jumped into the scandal surrounding a tweet sent out by CNN’s Roland Martin during the Super Bowl. GLAAD is calling for Martin’s firing for what they perceived as an anti-gay attack in the tweet. Beck explained that Martin should be fired, but not for what he wrote. Rather, because he’s a “dope” and an “idiot.”

President Obama has decided to give his blessing to Priorities USA, an “unaffiliated” Super PAC that will raise money on his behalf. Unaffiliated in the legal sense — the president will not correspond with the group as required by law. But obviously by giving his public blessing Priorities USA will be far more likely to raise funds from big money Democratic donors. There shouldn’t be anything wrong with this. It’s legal and GOP candidates are already using Super PACs to their full advantage. But there is something very wrong with this. Let President Obama tell you in his own words circa the State of the Union in January 2010

Yesterday on The Five, Dana Perino made the bizarre claim that M.I.A. wasn’t American enough to perform in the Super Bowl Halftime Show unlike such American luminaries as, I guess, The Who, The Rolling Stones, and Madonna’s accent. Obviously, Perino’s allegation was borderline laughable and easy to make fun of (seriously, if I didn’t have to leave the office early yesterday, Frances never would have gotten a chance at this post), so you know what that means; set the timer for a rival cable network to mock it. And…take it away Ed Schultz!

After a week off due to a bout with bronchitis, Countdown host Keith Olbermann returned to the air Monday night, to the center of the Current TV universe, and to the black backdrop that seems a fitting stand-in for the star’s reportedly tumultuous relationship with his employer. According to a new report by Newsweek, that relationship may be hanging by a thread, and with it, the future of Current’s plan to become the left’s answer to Fox News.

On Tuesday morning’s Starting Point, host Soledad O’Brien led yet another discussion of the Obama administration’s decision to give non-church religious employers one year to comply with the Preventive Services Mandate, which some claim is an “attack on religious liberty.”

O’Brien did a good job of challenging that false premise, but allowed guest Rep. Marcia Blackburn (R-TN) to slip in the lie that the mandate covers the “abortion pill.”

Super PACs have been facing heavy criticism since the moment they were created but, lately, that outcry has become nearly deafening. One of the harshest critics has been President Obama. That’s why it was awesome for his campaign to write a blog post explaining why they need to win eliminate Super PACs by winning the election…using a Super PAC. This morning on CNN, Obama supporter Russell Simmons defended the President’s “second Super PAC wrong to make a campaign finance reform right” approach.

The influence of independent expenditure groups like PACs and SuperPACs has become a major factor in this year’s presidential election. Consequently, the news that President Obama has decided to encourage donations to the Priorities USA Action SuperPAC is dominating political news today, with handwringing on the left and the right about the President’s prior vocal opposition to outside groups. Philosophically, he’s just taking a page from Ronald Reagan‘s book.

It is the biggest secular holiday of the year, so naturally much of today’s The Five revolved around last night’s Super Bowl events. The crew particularly stopped on the first case of indecent conduct during the Halftime Show since Janet Jackson exposed her breast to America: British/Sri Lankan rapper M.I.A. giving the finger to the camera, as she does in the music video for the song being performed, “Give Me All Your Lovin’.” Most found it vulgar on its face, but Dana Perino objected not to the gesture but to M.I.A.’s presence at all: why would Madonna perform with a rapper who was “not even an American?”

On Monday’s Hardball on MSNBC, Chris Matthews gave President Obama’ an early Valentine, fawningly gushing over the political power of his toothy grin. “I think that smile of his is worth five to ten points in the general!” Matthews exclaimed. He added the caveat , “Hs campaign strategists might feel differently.”

Friday’s encouraging jobs report has resulted in predictable agita from Republicans, who are scrambling to figure out how to sell themselves, in an improving economy, to sane America. On Monday morning’s Fox And Friends, Eric Bolling conspiratorially asked “Are they playing around with the numbers?”

The liberal blog Raw Story is accusing Fox and Friends of “inventing” a conspiracy around the jobs report, but that’s not true; Bolling simply neglected to credit the inventor of this silliness, Rep. Allen West (R-FL).

Michigan residents watching the Super Bowl last night may have noticed an unusual political ad that aired during Sunday’s game. In it, a young Chinese woman is seen riding a bike through what appears to be a rice paddy. She stops to tell the viewer all about Democratic Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow‘s spending, as young Chinese women riding bikes through rice paddies are wont to do. As a result of spending, she informs us, the U.S. has to borrow more money from China and “your economy get very weak. Ours get very good. We take your jobs. Thank you, Debbie Spenditnow!”

While Clint Eastwood‘s stirring “Halftime In America” ad for General Motors has been the feel-good success story of the annual Super Bowl Look-At-Me Advertising Pageant (and Football Game)™, another car commercial is engendering more negative feelings. Chevrolet‘s post-Mayan Apocalypse entry “amusingly” posits that drivers of Chevy pickups stand a better chance of surviving such a catastrophe than Ford customers. Apparently, that’s a claim that can be challenged, says Ford.

On Interstate 70 west of Saint Louis (a dull stretch), there used to be something called “The Elvis is Alive Museum.” It was founded at some point in the late ’80s or early ’90s by Bill Beeny, an accountant and Elvis impersonator. Its simple premise: Elvis is still alive and we have the evidence that proves it.

Back in May of last year, The Onion wrote a silly article satirizing the growing ridiculousness of the charges being levied against Planned Parenthood entitled “Planned Parenthood Opens $8 Billion Abortionplex.” Unfortunately, due in part to the anti-PP tidal wave being brought forth by conservative media and the sad fact that there were still people in 2011 that didn’t understand The Onion or satire, a number of people thought the article was real, sharing it on social media platforms.