Threats against the president? A left-wing lie. Against Glenn Beck? "We hope he has bodyguards."

I was struck last night by a pair of articles that, to my mind, illustrate even further the bizzaro universe in which some 20% of my country currently lives. The first article indicates that the Secret Service is strained to the breaking point by a four-fold increase in threats on the president's life.

The other was a report issued by James Carville's group, Democracy Corps, and was a firewalled collection of focus groups involving self-identified members of the Republican base entitled, "The Very Separate World of Conservative Republicans."

Asking them about violence aimed at the president, they scoffed at the idea and claimed that was all part of a coordinated media campaign to discredit attacks on Obama:

Fabrication to prove the point that they want to prove that may or may not be truth. It is relative to their need to get a headline and they are stupid if they think we're not seeing this stuff. They're stupid if they think we're so stupid.

On the other hand, Carville notes of Glenn Beck:

[There is] a common fear among the women for his personal safety, a belief that his willingness to stand up to powerful liberal interests was putting his life, as well as the lives of those working with him, in danger. Of course, his willingness to face this danger head on only adds to his legend:

I fear for his life... He is heavily secured believe me.

Glenn Beck is the type of man that he has put his personal finances on the line to protect everyone of his employees. They all have... bodyguards, security, high security. He said I don't care if my business goes down or I am put out of business, this is my family, my family and, he has twelve employees in his business. That is the kind of man he is.

I can't help but giggle at this. Does anyone honestly believe that someone is going to take a shot at the rodeo clown? And more to the point, where does this impression that Beck is in any more danger than Anderson Cooper or Jon Stewart come from? This just seems like another very weird wish for some martyrdom to point at and genuflect with.

Schedule Games.

Great Caesar's Ghost, I think this woman had hidden cameras watching the PMs at ${UNSPECIFIED_FORMER_EMPLOYERS}

Check this out: Schedule Games. Start at the bottom. "Schedule Chicken," "Hope Is Our Most Important Strategy," "Pants on Fire," "Schedule == Commitment," and "The Schedule Tool Is Always Right," are so painfully familiar they're giving me flashbacks.