Listeners called and wrote in today to express a huge, often hilarious arsenal of ideas regarding just what journalist-turned-tool Bob Woodward is referring to when, in recent interviews about his latest book, he talks about a “true breakthrough” by the US military — some kind of “top secret… operational capabilities” that help “locate, target and kill” enemy leaders. Speculation ranged from Pete’s idea of tiny robots that sneak around and find you then somehow snuff you, to a crass idea suggested by suspiciously Tard-like caller “Drat”: Goat AIDS, which would strike Taliban fighters when they “sought comfort” on cold nights in the countryside.

So what’s your guess? Check out highlight’s from Woodward’s 60 Minutes appearance below…

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So here’s the dirt, folks. What’s your take on the differences between these recent interviews?

Clips embedded after the jump…

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At the top of today’s show, Aaron treated us to a dream he had in which planes fell from the sky into New York Harbor just before killer whales started jumping around and jetski-riding terrorists headed toward shore. Speaking of nightmares, it’s been a while since I took a good shot at Obama, but this just caught my eye…

More cartoons by Mr. Fish

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So Sen. Barrack Obama either just admitted he’s a secret Muslim (the worst Muslim ever, since he’s not observing Ramadan!), or he misspoke when he referred to “my Muslim faith” in an interview on ABC’s This Week.

Meanwhile, Gov. Sarah Palina misrepresented the relationship between Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac and the American public at a rally in Colorado Springs. It’s not clear that she even knew what these institutions are or do, but all sorts of theories are popping up to explain what she meant to say, or why she’s actually correct if you twist truthiness just right, while others are simply insisting that a Vice Presidential candidate doesn’t need to understand the forces behind the US housing market as a couple callers insisted today.

Pete says Obama made a slip-up but Palin exposed a fundamental lack of understanding of one of the major economic issues of the moment (the biggest of the day).

Then again, Pete also referred to the war on Iraq as a “mistake” instead of a wildly immoral, patently illegal act of unjustified aggression. So maybe it’s all a matter of perspective.

So what’s the truth in either case? Obama a secret, unobservant Muslim? Palin needs to take a remedial economics course? I’m volunteering to tutor her! I TA’ed Macroeconomics 103 at The American University in 1994, so I’m clearly qualified!

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Okay, PBMers, let’s all gather around the TV and make fun of McCain together! Go to this website here and sign up for an account (takes about a minute) and then go into the Chatrooms area and look for the PetesBigMouth chatroom. That’s where we’ll be waiting. Except I won’t be because I lack the constitution to watch McCain speak. So thanks for watching it on my behalf!

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I don’t agree with my little brother that Palin’s family life is fair game or all that relevant, or that we should say she belongs at home with her kids. But I do agree that she is a religious zealot based on what she has actually said. Unlike Obama’s Rev. Wright, who was making political statements that lots of people disagreed with, this is the candidate herself spouting off with religious nutbaggery!

After the jump, some videos to illustrate the insanity of it all. And don’t think we’re not just finding the tip of this iceberg. If this stuff doesn’t sink McCain’s campaign, then paraphrasing one of today’s callers, we deserve whatever reality TV gong show our political system, and our collective ignorance, deliver unto us…

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So the puppet show in Denver has been going on all week, in case you hadn’t heard. And as Pete pointed out on the show today, PBM hasn’t exactly been dwelling on the spectacle. What’s more interesting is that neither have the callers. Not long ago there was some talk about how much PBM should focus on all the crap the mainstream media and political pundits dwell on, vs. the issues and news events with less banter about trends in Washington. I mean, there are so many places for people to get gossip and argue about the peripheral, superficial elements of the political process — isn’t there room for one show where, at least some days, we put all the ridiculous bullshit aside and just deal with real news and real issues? Do we have to play the fake democracy game every day?

So are Pete and the callers missing something important that’s going on in Denver? Is that democracy at work, deserving of our attention and worthy of air time?

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So I just checked my email, and it seems my brief appearance on the show today struck some nerves in a positive way. Pete was actually the one to use the R word first, but it is true, the cat is out of the bag, I am an advocate of revolutionary change. Already several of you have written me directly at my email (which is my first name @petesbigmouth.com) to say I was right on, which only reinforces my statement on the air that I bet a lot of PBM listeners have revolutionary leanings. I suspect there’s a broad range of views regarding what form that revolution should take, but the first step is deciding if the system itself is so fundamentally flawed that it needs to be replaced.

I’d love to hear all your thoughts on this — whether we need a revolution, and if so what form it might take. Let me kick it off with a comment Bryan from Flar-E-Da made in an email to me this afternoon:

We live in the best country in the world, but maybe it’s time to hit the reset button.

My response is that as cool as that sentence sounds at first, I think we don’t want to start from scratch, which is what “restart” implies to me. We’ve made a lot of progress as a society since 1776, and we’ve learned a lot from the mistakes (or wrongdoings) of the Founding Fathers. But Bryan’s point is well taken…

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Has everyone gotten all their “Welcome Backs” out of their system.  If not, feel free to welcome Pete back below.  Also, Biden, who is this guy?  Best choice for VP?  You tell me…

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Pete’s on his way back to work, and I have to admit I haven’t listened to the show in his absense (amazing what I can get done when I am not distracted during prime work hours!). I also was unable to post to the blog like I had hoped, for which I apologize.

But I thought it would be a good idea to get a running start as Pete returns to the studio. And the biggest topic has to be the DNC and Obama’s VP pick: Joe Biden. I looked him up on Wikipedia and it just said “See Douchebag,” which was kind of telling, I guess. The McCain campaign took less than a day cranking out this ad showing Biden slamming Obama as unprepared for the presidency, counterposed with a clip of Biden praising McCain. I have to admit, I thought that was a pretty good jab.

Is this guy even worth a shrug of the shoulders? Biden loves him some prisons and hates him some recreational drugs. He’s got a hard on for militarism and was instrumental in getting Bush’s illegal invasion of Iraq authorized. He also buried dissenting anti-war voices in order to lube Bush’s path. He is even nutty enough to suggest partitioning Iraq. I could go on and on, but I guess I’ve made my point… So what’s yours?

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