Eli Clifton and Lee Fang of Think Progress broke a story on Veteran’s Day concerning Tennessee state representative Rick Womick and his fear of Muslims in the military. Asked whether or not Muslims should be forced out of the military, Womick told Fang, “Absolutely, yeah.”

Today the Occupy Wall Street movement gains the backing of labor unions from across the country and the sympathies of Ben Bernake, none other than the Chairman of the Federal Reserve. ”I certainly, like everyone else, am dissatisfied with what the economy is doing right now,” he told Congress’s Joint Economic Committee yesterday, pointing out that the unemployment rate is above 9 percent and that Americans are “dissatisfied with the policy response here in Washington.” And when asked about those protesting on Wall Street he said, in certain solidarity, “At some level, I can’t blame them.”

Over the weekend, GOP frontrunner Rick Perry made a thuddingly poor comparison, equating the Civil Rights movement with the struggles of corporations and wealthy individuals. During a pitched Twitter battle with BreitbartTV Editor Larry O’Connor over whether Hardball fill-in Chris Jansing “lied” when introducing the Perry clip Tuesday (she didn’t), I noticed that Jansing’s introduction hewed suspiciously close to the headline of a Thinkprogress item on the same clip.

Rachel Maddow tonight devoted some time to “the Paul Ryan thing;” namely, that “Republicans voted for [it]” and now must defend it at town hall meetings. They haven’t always done so with great success, but Maddow noted a lack of coverage of this, save for liberal websites…plus one site she apparently doesn’t think is so liberal these days.

Think Progress blogger Igor Volsky uploaded a video taken at a Tea Party convention in New Hampshire, where event-goers were asked if and how their lives have changed since The Granite State legalized same-sex marriage in 2010. The reaction from those interviewed was basically akin to web commenters clamoring to type, “boring post, who the f**k cares?!” One man said, “No, not really. It hasn’t really affected me, and I don’t think that’s a priority right now for most people,” and another simply said that, “if you’re in love with somebody, then it’s all good.”

Remember back on August of 2009 when lawmakers to to their constituents to pitch health care reform and were greeted with feisty Town Halls? Of course you do, and the Internet is now littered with thousands of video clips exemplifying American anger. Well now there is another example, though one of a very different stripe, because it features Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) getting a remarkably cynical reaction for his defense of the current tax rate on the rich.

Former Bush speechwriter David Frum is catching hell from the likes of Keith Olbermann and Think Progress for posting an opinion piece in which the writer discusses the status of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords‘ (D-AZ) House seat with all the sensitivity of a Vulcan DMV clerk. The criticism of Frum carries with it the strong implication that the writer, John S. Wilson, is a conservative. Wilson, however, says he’s a Democrat, and his piece was also carried by The Huffington Post. If Frum is a villain for abetting a ghoul, so is Arianna Huffington.

So much for the Christmas spirit. This afternoon, Ben Armbruster of Think Progress published a blog post about Texas Tea Partiers who are working to oust Rep. Joe Straus from his position as the state’s House Speaker. Straus’s detractors aren’t working against the representative because of his political views—Straus is a Republican. Instead, they’re calling for him to be thrown out of office because he’s Jewish.

Love her or hate her, Sarah Palin has influence. If you doubt this, look no further than former Bush adviser Ed Gillespie‘s appearance on CBS News’ Face the Nation today. In responding to charges that he’s helping to “steal our democracy,” Gillespie resurrected the former Alaska governor’s most infamous malapropism, stating that several newspapers had “refudiated” the claim. Was it a mistake, or the start of a campaign to vindicate Palin by rewriting linguistic history? You be the judge. (h/t Think Progress)

While his side may have won the day in preventing a vote on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) appears to have lost the war with reporters after he loses his temper with two journalists from the gay press challenging him on the extent of investigations of gay servicemembers.

While Barack Obama and Sarah Palin have publicly condemned the much publicized burning of Korans planned by Rev. Terry Jones on September 11th, there appears to be another Southern Minister to join into the book burning action, perhaps also looking to get a bit if the publicity as well. Rev. Bob Old of Springfield, Tennessee seems to think setting fire to a Koran at his home seems to be a good idea.

Earlier this week, former RNC chair Ken Mehlman made a bit of news when he acknowledged being gay. This was covered rather extensively by the cable news outlets, save one notable exception – Fox News only covered the story once, during the end of Bret Baier‘s show Friday evening. However, this contradicts reports in Think Progress and Politico, that incorrectly claimed that Fox News has completely ignored the story.

I just read a stirring article on BigGovernment about poor Shirley Sherrod, the victim of a wrongful termination by the USDA. The article, by conservative blogger Jeff Dunetz, tells the infuriating story of how the White House and the NAACP instantly “condemned” Sherrod after video of a speech Sherrod had given seemed to show that she was racist against whites. It’s a great article. It’s just a little strange though that it’s published on the very site that was condemning Sherrod mere hours ago and, y’know, were the very ones to release the edited video that got the woman fired in the first place.

Think Progress reports (via Media Matters) that Redstate chief and new CNN contributor Erick Erickson said on his radio show that he would pull his wife’s shotgun on any “twerp” census worker who tried to get him to fill out the American Community Survey. He made no mention of either “fava beans,” “Chianti,” or “putting the lotion on its skin.”

Earlier, we reported on conservative Human Events’ promotion of a Christmas song parody about peso-catchin’, scut work doing, taco-cooking, drunk-stolen-car driving, tequila-shooting, kidney-freeloading, anchor baby having, bubonic plague/bedbug/tuberculosis spreading (seriously) illegals.

The song, which is still up on the site, name-checks the National Council of La Raza, so we contacted them to find out their reaction to this little cup of racist cheer.

Move over, “Barack the Magic Negro,” pack it in, “Star Spanglish Banner,” the conservative Human Events website has you both beat. They’ve posted a “parody” of Feliz Navidad that ups the ante on hateful shock-jockery, and omits the usual fig leaves of weasel words and framing devices that pros like Rush Limbaugh use.

If there’s a ray of good news here, it’s that the comments on the post, so far, are overwhelmingly negative. Listen to the extremely offensive ditty if you dare.

On Monday night’s “Countdown,” Keith Olbermann granted the Worst Persons gold to a quartet of conservative figures for jumping the gun when tweeting about White House visitors on Friday. Mediaite has exclusive reactions from three of them: Amanda Carpenter, Mary Katherine Ham, and Ed Morrissey. Why? Mostly because we can.

At the Values Voters Summit this weekend, Think Progress caught up with infamous Fox News ambusher Jesse Watters for an ambush interview of his own.

And unlike Gawker’s attempt to ambush Watters outside his home in June, this one was fairly successful.