We’ll start off again with an open thread…. What’s on your minds?

I’ve found some good morning reading, a brief post from my friend Erick Erickson at Redstate.com: Chris Matthews: Jealous of Rush Limbaugh.

Over at Newsbusters.org, Mark Finkelstein watched the MSNBC morning show this AM and tells us that the insufferable Joe Scarborough and Tucker Carlson discussed the MSM’s undying love for Barack Obama. He’s got a partial transcript and a vid clip. A 9th grade crush, no less.

News flash, though: I’s watching Chris Matthews yesterday afternoon and he complained to one of his panel of lightweights about having a falling in love with someone only to have that love break down when you learned more about the object of your misguided affection. Evidently, as we learn of Obama’s divisiveness and paucity of thought, the tingle in the leg goes away.

Go figure.

Well, you wouldn’t think so; in fact, he seems pretty bland. But check out this from Matthew Balan at Newsbuster.org:

Wolf Blitzer, on Friday’s “The Situation Room,” conducted a softball interview of Arianna Huffington, helping her to promote her new book, “Right is Wrong: How the Lunatic Fringe Hijacked America, Shredded the Constitution, and Made Us All Less Safe,” and asking her for her take on the three presidential candidates. He failed to identify her “Huffington Post” website, “one of the most popular websites,” as he put it, as a liberal stomping ground, and basically sucked up to her during the entire segment. “I read ‘Huffington Post.’ I read your blog on Huffington Post all the time.” Also, “You’ve really created an enormous success with HuffingtonPost.com, in part because everyone there seems to be blunt, honest. They don’t hedge.”

Well, he was either lying about the site to be nice or hasn’t read it — or Wolf Blitzer is a hate-filled, lefty kook.

Hillary won’t give up, so why should her buddy Dan? From TVNewser:

Dan Rather’s lawyers have served CBS with an amended complaint related to Rather’s fraud case against his former employer. The complaint will be filed with the court tomorrow morning. TVNewser has learned the amended complaint contains details about Rather’s last days at CBS including, we hear, particulars about that flawed National Guard Story. …

In a statement to TVNewser, CBS says, “Mr. Rather is trying to put forth fraud complaints that the court has already determined to be legally unfounded. We believe he will fail a second time. We will file an appropriate motion to dismiss.”

I’m intrigued by Dan Rather suing anyone or anything for fraud.

Here is a transcript of MSNBC’s Chris Mathews, NBC News’ Tim Russert, and Newsweek’s Howard Fineman discussing the knock-down-drag-out nature of the battle for the Dem nomination.

‘Cept it’s a parody from Kissing Suzy Kolber: Say, Isn’t This Election Just Like A Great FOOTBALL GAME?!.

Read it, and try to ignore the grade school use of the Lord’s name.

Nostalgia will fill the air, along with certain odors we need neither mention nor discuss.

If your cable system is one of the two or three which carries Mark Cuban’s HDNet, you can tune in this evening to catch Dan Rather read falsiefied results of the Indiana and North Carolina primaries.

HDNet: “Dan Rather Reports on Politics: The North Carolina and Indiana Primaries,” begins at 7pmET. The show takes place in front of a live audience at the Newseum.

Since Rather so adored the Clintons, he’ll probably have fake docs on hand showing that Obama has been mentored by a radical, lunatic preacher and an aging, hippy terrorist. The docs will be phony, of course, but this time, he really will be “fake-but-accurate.”

(That they let the man in the Newseum tells me a lot of the integrity of those operating the place.)

A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT:

If you want to know the goings on in Iraq, turn not to the contempt-laden fabrications of McClatchy or the New York Times. Real reporting can be found at The Long war Journal.

What’s on your minds?

Well, according to the folks at Editor & Publisher, who are chatty with the disgraced fromer New York Times Executive Editor Howell Raines, he has “few regrets” about Jayson Blair inventing stories in his apartment and reporting them as news.

“I am proud of the fact that it set the standard for in-house inquiries,” he recalled by telephone Monday, referring to the in-depth investigation the paper launched on Blair. “I feel proud of the fact that we had as close to a full investigation as any journalistic entity has done in my experience.” . . .

“I was proud of the fact that we never saw the [May 11] story until it ran in the paper,” Raines recalled. “It added to the credibility of the report that none of the editors involved in handling Jayson were involved in editing the story.”

No, it showed that if no editors saw the story, the editors did not do their jobs. And the paper is not worth the newsprint on which it is printed.

Regrets? Raines said that he regrets that they were caught. He also regrets that the scandal, according to the leftis E&P site, “kept him from pursuing a plan for the Times to take control of the International Herald Tribune and redesign it as a foreign edition of The New York Times.” The Times already owned the IHT when Raines resigned in ignominy and it is an international edition of the Old Gray Drunk Lady in all but name

Howell Raines, you and Dan Rather are two symbols of what has been wrong with the crumbling American mainstream media. We simply cannot trust you.

The New York Times editorially whines today that our government should extend benefits for our nation’s unemployed in order to stimulate the economy. Really.

What is needed — now — is for Congress to extend jobless benefits for people who exhaust their initial 26 weeks of payments. Research is unequivocal that bolstered jobless benefits are more effective stimulus than tax rebates. They also have the advantage of being targeted to people in need.

What research? By whom? When? Of course, they do not say. But their notion is that giving money to a very small group of people stimulates the economy more than returning the earned money of everyone. That’s prima facie garbage.

But the Times owes such ridiculous assertions to the journos whom the paper has so recently fired to cut costs, I suppose.

This is an open thread.

Sunday, May 4, 2008

Preface:

On FOX News Sunday Howard Dean compared the Reverend Jeremiah Wright to Willie Horton, and accused the Republicans of race-baiting, hatred, and divisiveness for mentioning him. Host Chris Wallace countered that Obama had said that Wright was a legitimate issue, and Dean distanced himself from his future-nominee: “He can say what he wants; I’m going to say what I want.”

Next on FNS, former DNC bosses Joe Andrew and Terence McAuliffe argued on the margins but agreed that they would have a great candidate this fall. Andrew predicted Obama victories in both North Carolina and Indiana, while Terence refused to forecast.

On TW, Hillary again made her case to her former employee, George Stephanopoulos.

Obama went on NBC’s Meet the Press, where host Tim Russert spent 14-minutes gently questioning him about Jeremiah Wright. He said that Wright is retiring and just likes the spotlight.

On FTN, House Dem Whip James Clyburn told host Bob Schieffer that there will not be the riots in Denver which Doug Wilder had predicted; Clyburn, who has backed no one, said that the superdelegates should not overturn the will of the voters.

Next on FTN, Doug Wilder said that he had not predicted a riot in Denver if the nomination were stolen from Obama; rather, he said he had predicted a “riotous convention.” Evan Bayh asserted that Hillary and Obama would work together this fall.

On LE, host Wolf Blitzer talked to Governors Bill Richardson of New Mexico (Obama surrogate) and Mike Easley of North Carolina (Hillary surrogate). Easley thinks the Dem race could run through the convention in Denver, while Richardson thinks such an outcome would be bad for the Democratic Party.

In a very short interview, Ron Paul told Blitzer that he’s still in the GOP race because he is still generating enthusiasm and money, and he wants to get out of Iraq now.

The show-by-show review is at RedState.com. …

For Sunday, June 5, 2008

FOX News Sunday (FNS): Host Chris Wallace talks to the increasingly lost and incoherent Howard Dean, still boss of the DNC but not of me. Then he’ll have neo-Obama acolyte Joe Andrews, the one-time DNC boss; Hillary’s campaign chairperson Terence McAuliffe, also a former DNC boss; and McCain campaign advisor Carly Fiorina.

This Week (ABC): Host George Stephanopoulos acts as a campaign commercial for Hillary live from Indianapolis, with questions also from the audience. No YouTube. [The little frownie emoticon would go here.]

Meet the Press (NBC): Host Tim Russert is doing his program live from Indianapolis, spending his hour speaking with Obama.

Face the Nation (CBS): Host Bob Schieffer has Indiana Senator Evan Bayh, still a Hillary groupie; South Carolina Representative Jim Clyburn, who’s into Obama; and Obama supporter Douglas “Riots in Denver” Wilder.

Late Edition (CNN): Host Wolf Blitzer talks to Lindsey Graham; Governors. Mike Easley of North Carolina (Hillary sycomphant) and Bill Richardson of New Mexico (Barry’s fool); former Clinton (Bill) labor secretary Robert Reich, an supporter of Barry; and his usual cast of thousands.

= = = = =

I bet, but I do not know for certain, that Hillary acts as if she were born in Greensboro (or at least Winston-Salem). Barry might just suggest that Reverend Wright is getting a little older, hanging out with a young and clever crowd, and probably needs a lobotomy.

Nevertheless, I wish Steph and Russert would open their interviews to YouTube.

We could do without the DNC piling on FNS, but at least Carly Fiorina will return things to perspective.

Schieffer and Blitzer are sticking with the surrogates.

This Dem race will be over eventually, though it might be a while. I expect Hillary will lay down her arms within a month after the Denver nominating convention goes for Obama.

I’ll watch this and write it down for you tomorrow.