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Funny, Timmeh did not look so confident as he does in this picture when I saw him testify in the Libby trial about how he spilled everything to the FBI before acting like a First Amendment martyr, claiming he could not possibly speak to that nasty Pat Fitzgerald.
Never forget that Timmeh's credibility was conclusively ended forever in open court.
Sigh. Anyway, the Sunday lineup:
- ABC's This Weak: Rudy Giuliani on '08, and Ways and Means Chair Charles Rangel on the economy. Yes, Nosferatu explains away the rigor mortis of his campaign, and how the undead can overcome said immobility (hint: blood).
- NBC's Meet the Press: Tom Brokaw (NBC News, emeritus), Doris Kearns Goodwin (presidential historian), Jon Meacham (Editor, Newswank Magazine), Peggy Noonan (Olympic Harrumph Gold Medalist and WSJ Calumny-ist), Michele Norris (Nice Polite Republicans' "All Things Considered"). Wash your hair instead. Aimless Pundificating from The Village faithful.
- CBS Face the Nation: Former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C.; David Axelrod, strategist for Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign; Howard Wolfson, communications director for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign. OMG, Democrats!
- Fox News Sunday: Former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. Go, Mittmania, and South Carolina be damned! Will Tagg blog it?
- CNN's Late Edition: Former Senator John Edwards; Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind.; Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C.; Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C. More Dems? Ok, ok, Bayh gets in on a technicality, but Clyburn's Progressive Punch score is good, especially for SC. Will SC be in the news soon?
But remember, folks: "the blogosphere is comprised mostly of white men," unlike the Em Es Em. Blogger ethics panel, stat!
It will be interesting to hear where Edwards thinks he goes from here, what with his poll numbers bad in South Carolina, after a weak showing in Nevada.
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Good Morning Pach.
EPU’ed to Elliot.
But on topic as breakfast to go along with watching Dem on
OMGCBS.It’s toolbared. We are making French toast this a.m. IIRC, it was going to be your contribution to our virtual morning after marion inspired cookbook. Or was it pancake? I have it noted but am not yet awake enough to find the print out.
Do you have a recipe that you can put here w/o too much trouble?
talking about morning after. Today it is one year to the first day of the new administratiion. -364 to a Democratic kingdom or queendom come, we hope.
ah the rapture of it (*g*).
Forgot my manners. clearly I am hungry. g’morning Pach.
Pach!
Billious Blowhards! lol!
of course I have ready access to that particular recipe ;)
French Toast Waffles
Heya, gang.
What’s interesting out there? What should I write about next?
I’m covering for Christy today.
I have some ideas, but the best ideas come from y’all.
Good morning Pach!
I tell you who else is looking battered, Chris Matthews in the presence of KO. He looked very unhappy. Maybe the pounding he got for his HRC remarks, and KO’s rising starpower, are sinking in.
Elliot-
About picking between Hilliary and Obama, just think of all the heads that will explode if either are elected. It will be like the biggest fireworks finale ever.
Yeah, I’m betting they don’t chat much between breaks.
heh
Or, rather to say… DURING breaks.
(More coffee, more coffee)
And what a difference just in one year. Remember them covering the 06 election, it was like Matthews was just barely tolerating KO onstage with him, clearly forced to do this by management.
Interesting that today’s MTP panel is 3 women, two men + host. Maybe the complaints about the pudgy affluent white male cosiness have finally sunk in?
Still waiting for the blogosphere pundit…. oh, wait, they did Kos…once…back in the ’70s wasn’t it /snark.
I don’t suppose you want to write about football? Ok, ok, I’ll head over to Marcy’s trashtalk.
BSRH, here’s the recipe Elliot found for French toast waffles, which sound yummy.
23 below in Fargo, I’m heading for the hot coffee….
Thought both Rich and Dowd have conversation-worthy columns today.
I believe that’s Michele Norris, pach, not Michael on MTP
mornin’ Pach et al.
I’m thinking dark thoughts on a cold (-1 degree F) morning. McCain is looking more and more like a winner. JoeLie could help sink his campaign, but I figure that Huck’s got to be the Veep candidate in order to not lose the nut vote.
On the other side, it’s gonna have to be Clinton/Obama, or Obama/Clinton (except that she’d never accept) to beat McCain/Huckabee.
Thanks for the Sunday talking (but not necessarily thinking) heads, complete as it is with appropriate snarkicism.
Evan Bayh on Late Edition = Nap Time.
Whenever I talk about. . . the team I root for, I jinx them.
So. . . is there futbol still going on?
and I thought I was cold, but I’m much warmer now
22 below!
OK MM, I’ll try to think of it that way.
*sigh*
a thank you down @ the previous stream. also address for bet hot chocolate in Manhattan.
By all and may the PackPatChargIants play great football.
Hi, Pach, long time no see!
It didn’t help for him to find out on air that Rachel Maddow is waiting in the wings for him to take that one step further across over the line.
Thanks, found it. Thanked her below in previous stream. and now bye y’all.
great tag by the way, pach. Bilious Blowhards…how perfect for this Regency/aristocracy age.
Talk about heads exploding!
Fred Thompson on AIDS: good conservative reflex?
As I mentioned in a comment yesterday, I would love it if you have or know where to find any stats on liberals/progressives in the electorate, and the differences in what those categories stand for if those liberals consider themselves Dems or Rethugs or even Indies. I’m trying to figure out how much of a minority liberals/progressives are in the electorate, and also why there are Blue/Bush dogs in the Democratic party.
Good morning everybody.
I didn’t watch the coverage last night. Is Matthews really looking that deflated? On the post-debate coverage on Tuesday, it looked like KO was having trouble restraining himself from telling Tweety to STFU.
According to the Pew Research Center, in their latest poll among registered voters, conservatives outnumber liberals by a two-to-one margin — 38 percent conservative versus 19 percent liberal. Another 38 percent identify themselves as moderates. By party, 32 percent of Democrats describe themselves as liberals, 23 percent describe themselves as conservatives and 41 percent categorized themselves as moderates. The respective numbers for Republicans are 5 percent, 64 percent and 29 percent
Bloted Billious Bragging Blowhards
Bloated - my bad, need sum edit
i don’t want to be the bearer of bad news but,,,,,,,,this is a leap year and it is longer than we thought to 1/20/09 = -365. gadzooks.
OCEANIA NETWORK SUNDAY REPORT: The ONSR to all of life’s persistent questions.
I’m feeling nostalgic, or is is neuraligic? I was actually in my infancy when the forerunner to NBS’s Meet The Press had a real host, Drew Pearson.
If anyone really wants to know what is going on in American politics today, I highly recommend turning your TV off and renting “Good Night, And Good Luck” about Edward R. Murrow’s CBS career.
America has been on a slippery slope from vibrant Republic to vibram-soled Imperialism for half a century. Or, as we grouse on the Left Coast, “Democracy, hell yeah, we coulda been contendas!”
“If you want to see the future, picture a boot stamping on a human face …” –George Orwell, author of “1984″ channeling the recent Johnary McClinton victories from the grave
And a very good cover it is!…….the snark be *extra* very good.
Wrt to tweety -
He’ll be sufficiently “battered” and “deflated” when he is nothing more than a puddle on the ground. That luv fest between scar, matthews & mika the other morning should disabuse those who think the twit’s *apology* was anything more than words on a telaprompter. :-(
I’m calling it 365 tomorrow, which will be the first full 24 hours without W anywhere near the White House. He still gets up there on inauguration day, which sullies the property.
Last week, a woman called into CSPAN from Florida, and during the course of the conversation, she said she might vote for Giuliani, or she might vote for Obama.
I hear stuff like this a lot. I believe a lot of people, a significant percentage, actually don’t understand what they are being asked in such surveys. There are a lot of people out there who know as much about politics as I know about sports; almost nothing.
It would be interesting to have a significant sample sit down and take the Political Compass test.
Good Morning everyone. Someone listed yesterday the reasons she was afraid of a Pres. Romney. One of the reasons she listed was Blackwater. Is there a connection between Romney and Blackwater? Should I know the answer to that? If there is, I’d like to see a diary on that connection.
Morning everyone, and nice to see you, Pach! Since you torture us with this round-up of bobble heads, how about doing a catch up of what’s going on in torture world. Here’s the piece on buying torture insurance.
One connection is Cofer Black. And I’m with LS, this is a very serious problem.
Re:
How about the run in the social safety net stockings?
Starting tonight, we’re in a temperature emergency here in Bend, OR. We expect the temps to reach 0 F. over the next few nights, and we have already had two deaths due to hypothermia and a candle accident in a homeless man’s tent within the past couple weeks. The Latino who froze to death did so on the stoop next door to my house. There are no adequate shelters for the several hundred homeless here.
In the meantime, the City is dithering, and the State of Oregon is sending huge “kicker” checks to the already satiated rich. http://wsws.org/articles/2008/.....-j18.shtml
The question on my mind is this. Isn’t it time for Americans to embrace socialism in its benign and enlightened form as occurs in Western Europe where homelessness is essentially non-existent? Clearly America can afford to house its poor. But America has turned into a mean-spirited and vile nation that is turning its back on the weakest among us. This is a national disgrace. Are they talking about this on the talking head shows on the IdiotBox today? Of course not, the poor are invisible.
I agree and yet a large number of them feel obligated to vote. It’s really frustrating when it looks like an election will turn, as it too often does, on the last minute “undecided voters”. It’s like having to find jurors who know nothing about a celebrated case. I sometimes think we ought to lighten up on the “whatever you do, vote” theme.
Well, he spent about five minutes on Hardball in his so called “apology” for just the one remark that he thought got him into trouble, but he may be aware that there’s a lot more than that going on. Bottom line, he’s been rebuked and so he is duly chastised.
The funny thing is, this man desperately needs professional sensitivity training. Pach would know better than I whether it would help. So Pach, maybe your professional insight into the Matthews, et al, issue would be a good topic.
Ok, I see the connection. Cofer Black is part of the Romney team. Yep, very scary.
Rudy campaign guy on msnbc pimping rudy 9uil11ni rigtht now.
Romney and Cofer Black.
We already have socialism…for the rich. We just have to get it expanded to the rest.
Watchin’ Meet the Press…pretty subdued this morning, but somebody needs to hand Peggy Noonan a riding crop to go with her supercilious matron of the romps…
Jane Austen would have a field day.
Watching Noonan on MTP. I am shocked that she is only in her 50’s & I’m not talking about looks. It’s her naive, rose-colored glasses views & general aura that had me thinking she was a lot older. Most of my over 50 female friends are nothing like Peggy, thank goodness.
Why is Rudy so sure he is taking Florida? I haven’t seen one road sign with his name on it. I would say Mitt is taking Florida, according to road signs. He must have the voting boxes sewd up.
That is tragic, Ray. I hate that the world is laughing at us.
Another idea, Pach, is this business of sending out checks to kick the economy. I just don’t get it, considering the ridiculous debt we already have. It seems to me like telling people with horrific credit card debt to go shopping.
Great. Now I have to get tea down out of my sinuses…!
Horrible.
On Tweety, oh, lord, pleeeze don’t make me jump inside that monkey brain.
Schumer on Fox now talking about need for economic stimulus.
He’s right, of course, but two things are true: 1) None of the stuff the Dems are talking about now will be enough to deal with the storm on the horizon, indeed, already upon us, and 2) this Congress will capitulate in any event to Mr. 25%.
Pach? Unless Brokaw has some kind of infection of the “emer” (which could be possible, who knows?), it’s “emeritus,” with a “u.”
Got it, thanks!
Peace Baby that’ the ticket.
How about the grass roots effort to change things.
Potluck dinner for Art Landis to raise funds for his up-coming trial in Georgia for protesting against the school of americas training.
Big protest on March 29 capitol steps in Trenton,N.j. will be covered by 30 full time reporters that received national press coverage last year.
If there isn’t a chapter near you why don’t you start one?www.peacecoalition.org
The peace voter guides change things ask Rush Holt who I’ve seen at our events.
Ann,
Consider a more cynical approach to life. You say “(t)he funny thing is, this man desperately needs professional sensitivity training.”
And I’ll tell you that Chris Matthews’ well-honed “in your face” schtick is deliberately designed from the inception of his program to garner ratings by adding utterly contrived agitation, controversy and contention to his program.
Think about George Orwell’s “1984″ and the deliberate effort by the Ministry of Truth to incite a “two-minute” hate in a patriotic bid to create national cohesion. This is essentially the schtick that Matthews is emulating with his program. While Oprah essentially goes after a audience who want to embrace self-help, and Dr. Phil embraces an audience that feels that they are somehow in need of psychological counseling, Court TV provides for those who enrich their meager existences with a sense of shadenfreude at the human train wrecks paraded there, what Chris Matthews is doing is appealing to the sector of society that you might see getting into near fist fights daily in the trading pits at NYMEX or the CBOT. Matthews is a verbal pugilist, and absolutely no do-gooder proposing that he get “sensitivity training” is going to elicit anything but further mockery from Matthews who after all is simply an actor, an entertainer and someone who expects no one but the utterly naive to take him seriously. He’s a fraud, and he has found that to be a successful formula. He’s never going to become more “sensitive”. He’s not looking for that market niche.
Shorter MTP: it’s all about Bubba. And won’t Noonan ever STFU?
will wonders ever cease, Fox News Allstars *cough*
is starting out bashing BILL clinton
Mr. Sunshine equates Noonan’s lionization of Reagan with Monica and the blue dress. uh-oh.
No more “liveblogging” MTP from here…we’ve turned to Versus and the fishing shows. More reality.
“Cynical” works for me. *g* Your analysis is spot-on, imho.
Tell me more, please, I missed it! But I did catch Tweety thanking both Scarborough and David Shuster for their support, so I knew something had happened. I still think Tweety’s in dire need long passed due for sensitivity training. Obviously, though, he enjoys the role of provocateur and trouble maker. He wants to be the rabble rouser, but he doesn’t know how to do it in a constructive way.
Re:
Joe Stalin infamously quipped that the death of one man is a tragedy, the death of a million is a statistic.
I really do not know what the answers are to our homeless situation. The man who died next door was probably from some sleepy town in southern Mexico where he never learned how to dress for cold weather. The only good news here is that after the initial burst of involuntary shivering, hypothermia is a fairly benign way to go.
***
As far as the world laughing at us, I’m not sure about that. The impression that I get is that most decent people on the planet are looking on at our kooky and dysfunctional dive into the Dark Ages of an Old Testament theocracy with utter horror at how deranged America has become. And they are worried that they might be the target of the next assault on the planet’s resources by our criminal military forces.
Here’s a gem from this morning’s comics pages: Non Sequitur
Captures the day perfectly for me.
the bloody Kristol is clutching his pearls over the indecorous manner the former President of the United States is acting, getting involved in the petty bits of his wife’s campaign.
shoot me now, I can’t last until the campaign ends
There is a part of me which hopes against hope, that W will leave the White House in less than 365 days. Preferable frogmarched, but that would be truly audacious.
You never need to be humble about being smart enough to “get it”. I wish more people here at FDL would understand just what a cynical business Matthews is in. I’m certain that he reads some of the agitated comments here and just laughs his ass off as he chortles, “gotcha, suckers!”
You are right: it is a disgrace. And vicious assholes who never did a real day’s work in their lives, like Doughload, praise Giuliani for “clamping down” on the squeegie men, as if there were no structural reasons whatsoever that they were doing what they were doing.
Me, too. I do not like seeing so much of the inside of the sausage factory. Just give me the fucking sausage already.
LOL! Good One Molly! Thx!
MTP is a damn laudatory poem to McCain and Obama and a savaging of all things Clinton. It is an outrage.
“The question on my mind is this. Isn’t it time for Americans to embrace socialism in its benign and enlightened form as occurs in Western Europe where homelessness is essentially non-existent?”
You’ve never been to London, have you?
Ann, I don’t know about the last month or so, I have been unwilling to watch him. Before that, it had basically become half or more of his show bashing Hillary. Brutally bashing her. I didn’t see it, but apparently he finally said that the only reason she won her senate seat was because people felt badly for her because she was a victim re the Monica affair. As though she has done NOTHING in her own rite.
just so long as Cheney’s frogmarched right along with him
I did watch last night……..as Timmeh , in a Freudian slip, referred to South Carolina as South Africa while discussing the Clintons. Tweety couldn’t correct him fast enough, then could not get the producers to cut away from him as fast as he wanted too either.
Since the Libby trial and the input of FDL postings and comments, I will never consider him A) a journalist and B) an authority on anything.
So I’m reading the local newspaper–which just two days ago announced it is merging its newspaper news staff with its radio news staff…now there’s a confidence builder.
And here’s what I’ve learned so far from the local op-ed pages: John Daly was the mayor of Chicago in 1968.
Al Gore endorsed Barack Obama. Did I miss that?
Bush must be counting the minutes till he can leave. I keep expecting him to resign to start replenishing the old coffers. No money, broken military, everyone hates him, they won’t let him bomb Iran….what fun is that? Plus, it’s just such damn hard work being pres. I’m surprised he’s still there.
Problem with people like Noonan is that they believe their own press. She really thinks her knowledge of everything political is far superior to the riff raff, and her attitude shows. When she went into that minor diatribe on dynasties, I kept wishing Doris Kerns Goodwin would pipe up with a much deserved history lesson about John and John Quincy Adams. I hoped it would go something like, “Yes, well, but this is not something new in American politics…”
Whenever I talk about. . . the team I root for, I jinx them.
This is my deal with political candidates. How did Edwards sink so far, so fast? (sigh) Now it looks like I’m going to have to shift to supporting someone I just don’t care about. Again. Is it me or is it Memorex?!
What? Gore endorsed Obama?
Russert in his sign off on MTP, said this week he and Williams will be moderating the GOP debate in South Carolina and “asking the tough questions.” In other words tune in and see if I can create news with my inane gotcha schtick. What is this person of such pedestrian ability doing at the center of our political discourse?
Truth to tell, Ann, I started listening and just about got physically sick….when ya start to reach for the barf bag, ya know it’s time to turn the d*mned idjit box OFF. Sorry I can’t provide a more in-depth report.
I agree the Noonan is beyond aggravating, but do not share your view of Goodwin. I just finished her Biography of Lincoln and concluded she should go back to plagiarizing.
Because the powers that be want it pedestrian.
Can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this before, but just discovered the Adam Curtis BBC series titled “Century of the Self.” Here’s the link. An excellent series that gets at the heart of how PR/MSM/et al got into position to shape thought and shift paradigms. Edward Bernays (nephew of Sig Freud) was a principal mover and shaker (think early stage Rove). It’s a stunning series.
OT..Rut..Roh
C&L
I don’t think so, I think the local editorial page editor screwed up bigtime and I’m writing to the editor to tell them so…but I’m doing what they didn’t. Fact-checking first.
Yup!
Speaking of John Adams, HBO has a miniseries coming up on Adams and his times, produced by Tom Hanks, starting in March.
Is there any more news about the “alleged” Clinton voter-suppression moves in Nevada? I’m not seeing much.
I doubt the Clinton campaign would be so stupid as to supress votes.
HBO’s John Adams
Chris does look a tad shaken and stirred these days. I imagine that when you get called on behavior that is reprehensible it tends to rattle you a bit.
Now he’s running everyone of his dopey lines through his ‘is it sexist’ filter.
-G
Ann in AZ@74:
I’ve come to think of most of that crowd, Noonan, msm pundits, journalists as fervent believers in their lords and ladies of the manor vision of themselves. That shows up in what they say & write continually, overt or not, a mutual reinforcement & admiration society.
Life in Bush World. The history channel is running Dirty Harry.
-G
DING!
“Let them eat cake!” I suppose that is the message. Boy are we fucked.
Good morning
It has made it to 17degrees this morning. I’m not sure I can bear much more election politics. Millions of dollars while people go hungry
Bradblog also has some incredible claims. Specifically Marc Grossman revealed Brewster Jennings, to Turkey 2 years before Valerie Plame was outed.
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5582
I did see it, and it was even worse than you indicate, because his next words were something like, “She didn’t do it on merit!” But I’m around Rethugs often enough that I’ve learned to say, “Well, he’s just an asshole!” and move on.
I sent this to MSNBC this morning:
I don’t watch Hardball, and I can’t stand watching any time he shares the camera with others of your team. Can’t you do something about this?
‘So Pach, maybe your professional insight into the Matthews, et al, issue would be a good topic.’
I agree. MSNBC is on the defensive about Matthews’ sexism and misogyny. I hope the blogosphere will keep the heat on.
It would be great if we manage to run this fucker out of town, and onto some shitty local access channel in Morristown, NJ.
Forgive me if someone already mentioned this but Russert just flat-out spread this lie that Hillary Clinton listed Ronald Reagan as a favorite president when she merely praised his communication skills.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/.....152/439202
The entire MTP today was just Clinton bashing today, Reagan loving, and Obama boosting. Even Doris Kearns Goodwin said that Obama perpetuating the GOP myths of Reagan was stating fact!
Thanks in a large part to Reagonomics, society has little over after the rich get their’s for the unfortunate in our great country. One of the most important reasons we need to wrest the reigns of power from the Republican party for good… Good governance by Democrats would go a long way to burying the party of greed and thievery! IMHO
OT about Russert, but on point about bilious blowhards, I see that Dick Cheney has again sent out his button men. Not, this time, to arrest for assault some fellow citizen in Beaver Creek, CO, who disagreed with him and had the temerity - and the luck of a sleeping security detail - to be able to pat him on the shoulder. No.
This time it was to send them out in the guise of “diplomats” to threaten Canada. To threaten to stop Niagara Falls, and to prohibit the entry of hockey playing immigrants and the import of maple sugar and lumber if Canada didn’t take the United States of America off its Torture Watch List.
Regrettably, but understandably in light of the upcoming Stanley Cup, Canada relented to this “offer it couldn’t refuse”. Those not in Mr. Cheney’s secret prisons will live to fight another day. But frustrated Foreign Ministers, like US voters, may hold grudges as long as usurping “vice” presidents.
(h/t to Think Progress)
Somebody is confused.
If there are 32% of Dems who consider themselves Liberal, then why do they vote for so many Conservative DLCers like Bill Clinton or Hillary Clinton? According to Republicans there is no such thing as a Conservative or Moderate Democrat, so all those 41% moderate Democrats really don’t know what they are. It just seems a lot of Dems think they’re a lot more to the Left than they’ve been voting.
Republicans obviously don’t like the “liberal” label, regardless of where it puts them when modified with “liberal Republican”. But, wow, that’s a lot of 64%ers who think they’re Moderate. They are really really misinformed!
Now, considering the Dem positions and the Repub positions, just how does one get All Libs at 19%. That just makes no sense at all. First, 32% of Dems and 5% of Repubs does not make 19% overall Libs. They aren’t the same kind of fish at all. You can’t average these guys. Besides, if you averaged the 41% Moderate Dems with the 64% Moderate Repubs you’d end up with 53% All moderate, not 38%.
Can’t anybody do math any more?
At WashingtonMonthly.com blog they had some charts from Pew and the Repubs thought Hillary was so far to the left she wasn’t even Liberal. She was off into the Socialist area. This kind of misinformation just blows my mind and leaves me wondering if we’re fit to be a Democracy.
Of course, politicians who pander and lie their proverbial asses off don’t help. They don’t want to be categorized and lose voters.
I knew in 1980 when Reagan started using rhetoric which was traditionally Democratic that they were confident he’d win and they wanted more voters. They were wooing Democrats. Well, these days Clinton and Obama have repeated lines from Edwards speech so much that people actually believe those are their positions. Reagan did nothing for Democrats and I suspect our neither Clinton nor Obama would do much for Progressives. Obama’s line about uniting America, I fear, only relates to uniting to vote for him. After that all bets are off.
It’s been said Edwards is a phony. Pot meet kettle. I’m just hoping for someone who will do some good stuff and at this point I’m hoping more and more for someone who won’t do so many horrible things. It’s a tragedy. The politicians, pundits and spinners have completely boiled all the hope out of me.