Imagine for a moment, the type of high journalistic standards we should expect in this country, then watch this:

Yep, she really did call the President of the United States a monkey. Nice try to attempt to cover it up with the monkey in the middle line but I am sorry, it doesn’t cut it.

What a disgrace, but probably an acceptable one to many. I am also relatively certain those in charge at MSNBC will have very little or nothing to say about their disrespectful “news(ahem)caster.”

HT:Drudge

*Update: So here is the apology from Ms. Burnett about the “stupid thing” she said:

You know, generally I am a forgiving person as everyone is entitled to make a mistake, but in this instance the original statement seemed more genuine than the apology.

Sorry, Ms. Burnett, just the fact that it appears you are reading from copy makes this mea culpa seem empty and lame.

The unbearable length of time this presidential race has been in motion has made it quite difficult to get very excited about anyone or anything involved.

Once upon a time, a long time ago, I looked very much forward to Fred Thompson entering the race. I felt he was a strong conservative with many of the qualities the country needed in a President.

Then began his off again, on again entry into the race, his announcement on Jay Leno on the same night as a Republican debate and the appearance of his own less than enthusiastic approach to his campaign.

Now I know, his entrance was the traditional timing many years ago. The appearance on Leno has been a tactic used by may to throw their hat in the ring and perhaps what I see as less than enthusiastic is just his southern heritage coming to the forefront. But gosh, at some point you have to show some real get up and go if you want to be President.

I read this today at Real Clear Politics and immediately thought the Thompson campaign would be well served to do the same:

The Watergate attorney has made himself into this election’s Don Quixote, the impractical idealist tilting at “the system.” Even as he announced his run on the Jay Leno show in September, Mr. Thompson quipped he “wasn’t in the room when they made the rules” that resulted in today’s sped up, big-money, 24-hour-news-byte primary. He has refused to play nice–declaring late and declining to join rivals in the media hoopla and nonstop campaign. It has proven a case study in the folly of trying to single-handedly buck modern politics.

It might have helped if Mr. Thompson, who stated his intention to trust in “the people” to give him a hearing, had offered those people something more than personality at the start of his tardy campaign. It has instead only been very recently that he has, admirably, tried to craft himself into the ideas candidate.

If Mr. Thompson is serious about his desire to be President, we need to hear more on his thoughts on immigration, national security and taxes and not just at these so called debates.

He needs to find a way to garner more press and that is the job of his campaign and the man himself, not those who might in the future find him the most appealing candidate the GOP has to offer.

Convince us Fred. Show us you have what it takes not only to win the nomination but the general election.

There are many of us waiting to throw our support behind a strong GOP candidate.

Most who peruse the blogs daily make at least one stop at Instapundit.

Glenn Reynolds is in the running for an ABA award for Top Law Blogs.

If you have a minute, stop by this site and consider throwing your support his way or if you prefer, any of the other fine men and women in contention.

…John Murtha says the surge is working.

U.S. Rep. John Murtha today said he saw signs of military progress during a brief trip to Iraq last week, but he warned that Iraqis need to play a larger role in providing their own security and the Bush administration still must develop an exit strategy.

“I think the ’surge’ is working,” the Democrat said in a videoconference from his Johnstown office, describing the president’s decision to commit more than 20,000 additional combat troops this year. But the Iraqis “have got to take care of themselves.”

Violence has dropped significantly in recent months, but Mr. Murtha said he was most encouraged by changes in the once-volatile Anbar province, where locals have started working closely with U.S. forces to isolate insurgents linked to Al Qaeda.

He said Iraqis need to duplicate that success at the national level, but the central government in Baghdad is “dysfunctional.”

He should recognize a dysfunctional central government when he sees one.

If only we could have gotten him to read Michael Yon’s posts and those of other milbloggers and folks on the scene, or if only he had listened to Gen. Petraeus instead of stuffing his ears with cotton plugs we could have spared the expense of sending him over to Iraq to tell us what we already know.

Of course the Iraqis have to take care of themselves and that’s what we are teaching them to do.

Boy! I’m impressed that Murtha is doing a 180, even if reluctantly. It’s kind of hard to deny success when it stares you in the face.