Is Chris Matthews Bailing On His Run For The PA Senate?

Maybe, accroding to this story.

There are indications that a decision could come soon, sometime before Inaugural Day. But MSNBC president Phil Griffin declined late last week to say whether that’s true or not.

“I’ve talked to Chris. I think he’s going to be here for a long time,” Griffin said. “I want him to be here for a long time.” Griffin said that there would be “clarity” soon.

If true, I guess Matthews doesn't want to give up that $5 million a year to be an unaccountable assclown for shaking hands with the bitter clingers and having to defend his ridiculous comments over the years.

Posted by: eddiebear at 01:50 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Val-U-Wrong

How do you take a Moron-friendly concept like a blog about alcohol and drinking and immediately drive it into the ground? Well, you could staff it with a bunch of pointy-headed people from the New York Times, for starters...

For years my wife and I resisted owning a television, so I would use my local bar like the family room, and go there to watch sports on TV.

That pretty much tells you all you need to know about the blog. In my experience, anybody who makes a point of publicly and proudly mentioning their refusal to own a teevee is to be avoided, if not shunned.

Here's something from another post that I'm sure you can all relate to:

A few years ago, I was bringing a racing boat back to England after Antigua Sailing week and we made a pit stop in Horta, in the Azores Islands, after 12 dry days at sea. There was a gale building behind, a full moon overhead, the deck and rigging were streaked with phosphorescence, and I turned off the instrument lights and drove by feel, with dolphins as outriders making luminous trails through the swells.

The author eventually gets around to a long and dull discourse on hangovers.

I think I'll stick to the Moronosphere for stories about booze.

Posted by: Sean M. at 12:42 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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All you need to know about the media, in two paragraphs

Politico has a list of the top 10 media blunders of 2008.  Coming in at number 6 is....

ABC Democratic Debate in Philadelphia: Co-moderators Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos faced plenty of blowback following the Obama-Clinton debate for spending the first half focused on what many complained were trivial issues — his relationships with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers, and his stance on flag pins.

Response: Gibson and Stephanopoulos weathered the criticism, but also didn’t get another debate. Little was heard about Wright after that, or about Ayers until the McCain campaign went hard at the link in the final weeks of the race.

That's right.  The only debate where the media was even mildly rough on Obama is now an official "blunder."

Posted by: It's Vintage, Duh at 12:13 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Britain's deathspiral continues

"Tis the Season to Be Careful", a safety pamphlet put out by, no, I'm not kidding, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents.  Seriously, why don't the Brits just wrap the entire fucking island in bubble wrap if they're this worried about accidents?

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 11:45 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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I Wonder If Rush Limbaugh Will Want To Gnaw His Arm Off To Get Away Tomorrow Morning When He Wakes Up With This Cat In Bed With Him

Holy shit! The Head of Air America and Rush Limbaugh agree on something. Namely, their dislike of the Fairness Doctrine.

The conventional wisdom is that Rush's success depended on the 1987 repeal of the Fairness Doctrine. Some say that if he had to make time for opposing opinions, Rush would have flopped. Personally, I think he is most entertaining when he is dismantling opposing arguments. He's successful because he is a superior entertainer.

Rush created the new AM template, and it spread like wildfire. When programmers and sales managers get a whiff of success, it is cloned in every conceivable way until the audience, once grateful for innovation, tunes out.

So why didn't liberal talk radio flourish as well? [...]

First, boring hosts made the occasional, unsuccessful foray (sorry, Mario Cuomo). Second, some talented lefties like Mike Malloy were cast into the abyss of right-wing talk radio where they were completely out of place. [...]

Finally, most broadcast owners are conservative. Programs like Rush's have made them rich, so the last thing they want is to mess with success, particularly if it entails airing opinions they don't share. [...]

When we founded Air America, we aimed to establish a talk network that lived at the intersection of politics and entertainment. Of course, we were motivated by our political leanings. But as a lifelong broadcaster, I was certain that at least half the American audience was underserved by conservative talk radio. Here was an opportunity to capture listeners turned off by the likes of, say, Sean Hannity. The business opportunity was enticing.

It never occurred to me to argue for reimposing the Fairness Doctrine. Instead, I sought to capitalize on the other side of a market the right already had built.

Posted by: eddiebear at 11:13 AM | Comments (12) | Add Comment
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Sweet, Giant LEGO Hoth set

60,000 bricks and $3000 later, you have one awesome model.  Not quite as awesome as the LEGO aircraft carrier, but still awesome.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 10:28 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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Get Your Fresh Hot Conspiracy Mongering Here!

I had never even heard of this guy, but if some "Loose Change" type of goofballs can send out a press release, it must be legit.

A tipster close to the McCain campaign disclosed to VR in July that Mr. Connell's life was in jeopardy and that Karl Rove had threatened him and his wife, Heather. VR's attorney, Cliff Arnebeck, notified the United States Attorney General , Ohio law enforcement and the federal court about these threats and insisted that Mr. Connell be placed in protective custody. VR also told a close associate of Mr. Connell's not to fly his plane because of another tip that the plane could be sabotaged. Mr. Connell, a very experienced pilot, has had to abandon at least two flights in the past two months because of suspicious problems with his plane. On December 18, 2008, Mr. Connell flew to a small airport outside of Washington DC to meet some people. It was on his return flight the next day that he crashed.

On October 31, Mr. Connell appeared before a federal judge in Ohio after being subpoenaed in a federal lawsuit investigating the rigging of the 2004 election under the direction of Karl Rove. The judge ordered Mr. Connell to testify under oath at a deposition on November 3rd, the day before the presidential election. Velvet Revolution received confidential information that the White House was extremely concerned about Mr. Connell talking about his illegal work for the White House and two Bush/Cheney 04 attorneys were dispatched to represent him.

An associate of Mr. Connell's told VR that Mr. Connell was involved with the destruction of the White House emails and the setting up of the off-grid White House email system.

Mr. Connell handled all of John McCain's computer work in the recent presidential campaign. VR has received direct evidence that the McCain campaign kept abreast of the legal developments against Mr. Connell by reading the VR dedicated website, www.rovecybergate.com.

VR demands that the Ohio Attorney General and the United States Justice Department conduct a complete investigation into the activities of Mr. Connell and determine whether there was any foul play in his death. VR demands that federal law enforcement officials place the following people under protective custody pending this investigation. 

Seriously, guys. The Bush Administration has been beset with people who have wanted nothing more than to curry favor with Sally Quinn's Cocktail Party Circuit or get a sweet book deal from day one, and leaking or revealing damaging details or conversations has been one of the great tactics of this crew. By now, do you not think that some mid-level staffer or official with one of the myriad agencies polluting Washington would have leaked this devious scam? And if this Connel guy was so good before, why couldn't he help rig the vote in Ohio again?

 

Posted by: eddiebear at 10:23 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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New book argues that Patton was whacked by Allied leadership

People have been arguing that he was whacked for a while (though it's usually argued the it was done by the Soviets, not the Allied leadership), I'm not really convinced, but it is an interesting line of thought.  It wasn't any secret that Patton hated the Soviets and wanted to push through Germany and go after the commie bastards.  In any case, I laughed at this bit from the article,

George Patton, a dynamic controversialist who wore pearl handled revolvers on each hip and was the subject of an Oscar winning film starring George C. Scott, commanded the US 3rd Army, which cut a swathe through France after D-Day.

FAIL

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 10:06 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Your Daily Dose Of WTF, Japanese Game Show Edition

Posted by: eddiebear at 09:40 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Fred to take over Bill O'Reilly's radio time slot

I hope he does a good job with this, on one hand, he's known for being low energy and needing a script to read from, on the other hand, if he does this daily,

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 09:38 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Minnesota Has A Serious Jihadi Problem

Usually, the pretentious Powerline guys are on top of analyzing the out of control problems popping up with the Somali population and the rise of a clan-like sharia system in certain neighborhoods in the Twin Cities. The most high profile incident involved Somali cab drivers who refused to drive passengers who carried alcohol or dogs with them.

But so far, and I may have missed it, the guys who love to remind you ad nauseum that they attended super exclusive private schools and Dartmouth and how the Republicans will always lose, have missed discusing the rise of Somalis leaving their families and winding up fighting in Africa for assorted Islamic groups. So, it falls upon these half-witted shoulders to bring the issue to the fore.

Nearly two decades of civil war have ripped apart Somalia, including an invasion two years ago by troops from neighboring Ethiopia that ousted an Islamist government that U.S. officials say was allied with al Qaeda. Ethiopia has said it plans to withdraw, which would likely make way for the loose coalition of Islamist insurgents threatening to retake the central government's seat in Mogadishu.

U.S. Somali community leaders estimate that as many as 20 men may have left the U.S. to fight in the past two years.

The reports have raised concern among counterterrorism officials about immigrant youths being recruited by radical groups. For years, terrorism experts have believed that better assimilation of immigrants in the U.S. than elsewhere makes the threat of radicalization of young Muslims less than it is in Britain and other countries with large immigrant communities beset by high unemployment and less opportunity. The Somali case could cause that view to be reassessed.

E.K. Wilson, an FBI special agent in the bureau's Minneapolis office, said he couldn't confirm the existence of an investigation, but he said the FBI is aware that "a number of young Somali men from throughout the United States have left, potentially to fight with terrorist groups. We're in the process of working with the local Somali community to get the parents to come to us with concerns about radicalization of youths."

The FBI confirmed it is assisting the Somali government in the October bombing investigation, and that it helped repatriate the body of an American killed in the incident. The FBI wouldn't identify the person.

At a news conference at a Minneapolis mosque earlier this month, family members of three young men, 17 to 19 years old, told reporters that they were alarmed after the teens disappeared in early November. They next heard from the teens that they were in Somalia and had no contact thereafter.

The FBI is trying to find out whether there are recruitment networks helping the men travel to Somalia, according to people familiar with the probe.

The investigation is complicated by the close-knit, clan-dominated culture of Somalia, which persists even in the diaspora. The nation has been without a unified central government for nearly two decades, and has been ripped apart by conflict among warlords and clans.

"It's very serious," Mr. Jamal said. "The community finds itself dumbfounded. One thing they are really interested in is to find who is doing the financing, who is doing the training and who is sending them to fight a war."

Posted by: eddiebear at 09:31 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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In which God punishes me for gloating

Remember how I was a jerk yesterday about finishing up all of my Christmas shopping in one day?  Well, it turns out I was wrong.  Due to a bit of a crossed wire, my mom and I bought my brother the same thing, so I've magnanimously offered to take it back to save her a trip. 

Anyway, feel free to laugh at me for being an asshole.  I deserve it.

Posted by: Sean M. at 05:01 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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This girl is a pretentious hipster doofus.

I strongly dislike her.

Posted by: It's Vintage, Duh at 02:46 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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"Guhzizzah dilznoofuses!"

God, I miss Phil Hartman...

Posted by: Sean M. at 08:45 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Abandoning grades

Not just the kind of grades you usually hear about in the 'let's make the kids feel better' crap going on in schools - a metro Denver school district is abandoning grades.  As in, when Grandma asks your kid what grade he's in, Grandma's going to get a blank stare that's going to have her (maybe rightfully) questioning the value of your child's public education.


more...

Posted by: Alice H at 08:23 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Some bitching and some perspective

After 27 hours on the road, I finally made it to my parents.  My flight last night ultimately got canceled.  While I did get a hotel room, it wasn't that helpful since I had to turn around and head back to the airport 5 1/2 hours later.  And, being an utter idiot, I didn't have a change of clothes on me.  So there I was, in the airport waiting to get off the plane in Atlanta, feeling sorry for myself, when I got to talking to the woman in front of me.  It turns out that she left her home in Toronto on Thursday night to go to Vancouver.  That's a 4-5 hour flight normally.  She still didn't know when she was going to make it to Vancouver, so far she'd been sent to 5 different airports since Friday morning.  And with the storms out West, it's looking like she won't make it there today.

While that's all really annoying, it's not the awful part.  The awful part is that she missed her sister's funeral yesterday.  Kinda makes my "problems" look terribly petty.

Posted by: alexthechick at 03:26 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Hanukkah starts tonight

I hope all our Jewish readers have a nice celebration.  I'll spare you all the references to various SNL-borne nonsense.  I'm a nice Gentile like that.

As I think about the story of Hanukkah, am I the only one imagining Al Gore clumsily usurping it for some sort of environmentalist message?

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 01:38 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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If you're a poker-playing moron

Francase Place is where you wanna go.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 09:22 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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It's a conspiracy, man!

The latest squeals from the foil hat brigades, they think the Chimperor or Rove sabotaged a plane one of their former computer whizzes was flying.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 08:53 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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You may commence to douse me with Haterade

I finished my Christmas shopping yesterday.  And by that, I mean that I did all of my Christmas shopping yesterday.

I may be lonely and childless, but at least I have plenty of money to spend on Val-U-Rite vodka and cyanide-tipped arrows for hobo huntin' that would otherwise be spent on toys that would get instantly broken and jewelery that would be extremely difficult to pawn anytime in the not-too-distant future.  You know, in case I would possibly need more money for discount liquor or hunting supplies.

Posted by: Sean M. at 07:07 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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