In what looks like an attempt to win "cool" points with many of the young, tech-savvy voters he has pissed off during his presidency, Barack Obama is hosting a Google+ Hangout this afternoon, where he'll answer a few not-at-all cherry-picked questions via live video stream. (We hope a lot of questions turn out to be about weed, like they have been at YouTube-based Town Hall events.)

Runnin' Scared has decided to live blog the "first completely-virtual interview," which has basically been interpreted by the press corps as a giant "fuck you" from the White House.

So . . . enjoy!

More »

That's right, false alarm. The only thing adding any sliver of believability to the National Enquirer's rehashing of a 2008 rumor about a Barack Obama affair was a claim about the existence of a video tape showing the president and his former aide at an illicit hotel rendezvous. They didn't claim to have the tape, or even know where it was, but just that it existed. Maybe:

"The ENQUIRER has also learned that on-site hotel surveillance video camera footage could provide indisputable evidence," the story once read.

Now, an astute eye at Mediaite (doubtlessly refreshing the page all day, fiending for new info), found that the Enquirer report has been "UPDATED," meaning stripped of anything almost resembling journalism.

More »

Did President Barack Obama have an affair with Vera Baker, a campaign aide on his run for Senate in 2004? Definitely (maybe), says the National Enquirer! Probably, says the Drudge Report, amid vivid Vietnam-style flashbacks while muttering "Lewinsky" repeatedly. Everyone else is hedging their bets so far, including some of the Right Wing web, possibly because we've already heard this exact story before. But let's rewind...

There's a fable about a shepherd boy who gets off on hollering to the neighbors that wolves are attacking his sheep. They never really are, and eventually the townspeople pick up on this and stop responding to the false alarms. When the wolves do actually come and the boy yells for help, no one listens because they assume he's full of shit. And then the wolves tear him up. Like, imagine if John Edwards won the Democratic nomination.

More »