Wiki editor suspended or fired for scooping NBC on Russert death

The Wiki editor was a lower level employee of Internet Broadcasting Services, which provides internet service for media companies, and said the editor thought that the news was out and common knowledge.  IBS has since canned or suspended the employee.  An NBC staffer went in and scrubbed Russert's wiki entry of the information of his death quickly.  I dunno, unless he was told not to leak it, firing or suspending this person seems excessive.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 01:03 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Hmmmm...

...I wonder if Sen. Robert Byrd has a blog.



Because, you know, the irony.

Oh, and by the way, in case you didn't get the oh-so-subtle hint, you're all RRRRRAAAAACISSSSSSTSSSS!!!1!!one!1eleven!!!

(Via another anti-Obama, uh, racist.  I guess.)

Posted by: Sean M. at 11:55 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Sectarian Barbarian Carrion: Media Pines For Good Ol' Days

Total US deaths in Iraq --- down.

IED deaths --- down.

TV news coverage --- down.

 

And the vulture media weeps:

CBS News no longer stations a single full-time correspondent in Iraq, where some 150,000 United States troops are deployed.

Paul Friedman, a senior vice president at CBS News, said the news division does not get reports from Iraq on television “with enough frequency to justify keeping a very, very large bureau in Baghdad.”

“It’s terrible,” [CBS correspondent] Ms. Logan said in the telephone interview. She called it a financial decision. “We can’t afford to maintain operations in Iraq and Afghanistan at the same time,” she said. “It’s so expensive and the security risks are so great that it’s prohibitive.”

Posted by: Cuffy Meigs at 09:44 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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Zombie Kickball!

Eddiebear sends this along, Portland, Maine will be having its third Zombie Kickball game, where locals dress up as zombies and play a game of kickball, as zombies.  Why yes, they do shamble to base.  Will we see a Zombie Slublog?

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 09:13 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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What do Pastor Hagee and Paris Hilton have in common?

Giant Moon Pie!

More of the same.

Liberal fascism.

Atheists, don't be this guy.

Kimchi and paparazzi.

YARRGH!

I rearry rike this guy!

You can never escape.

RACIST!!!

RAC...UH, UM...SELLOUT!!!

Britain:  Our eugenics, let us show you them.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 09:00 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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"How high up is Dumpster Muffin?"

Remember my previous post about dirty goddamn hippies sitting in trees and keeping my Cal Bears from building a new athletic training facility?  Remember what one of those stupid, worthless hippie pieces of shit chose to call herself?

Well, now, thanks to the magic of the internets, you can watch real-life, serious, professional teevee journalists talk about whether or not some screaming hippie waste of skin who calls herself "Dumpster Muffin" is safe perched hundreds of feet in the air above a tree.

(Via Zomblog and Michelle Malkin.)

By the way: I moved to Berkeley in August of 1994, and I lived there until a week before September 11, 2001.  I probably would have died of a massive anger stroke had I stayed a week longer.  And it's a good thing I didn't own any guns or chainsaws while I was there.  I'm just saying is all.

Posted by: Sean M. at 02:06 PM | Comments (16) | Add Comment
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Accessories for the Ace of Spades Lifestyle™

I'm not talking about night vision goggles for your late-nite hobo huntin' expeditions.  No, these are Val-U-Rite vodka delivery systems for those rare situations when a Moron doesn't want to be seen guzzling his (or her) favorite 80 proof beverage straight out of the 1.75 liter jug.  You know, like at family weddings.  Or parole hearings.

Posted by: Sean M. at 11:55 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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Why Charlie Crist shouldn't be Vice President...

...in 9 words:

NYT: One of your first acts as governor was signing a bill requiring paper receipts on electronic voting machines. You know who convinced me of that?

Christ: Congressman Robert Wexler, the great Democrat of Southeast Florida.

It's bad enough that our Presidential nominee is fawning over liberal Democrats, is it too much to ask that the VP act like an actual Republican?

Posted by: It's Vintage, Duh at 11:48 PM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
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The dead have risen...

...and they appear to be participating in health fads:



It actually seems to be a promotional video for some book.

Posted by: Sean M. at 08:38 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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The Obamessiah: "I voted for it before I didn't show up to vote for it."

In his first national ad, the only bill Barack Obama can point to that he supports any aspect of the military is an authorization bill for wounded troop funding that passed 91-3.

Oh, and those 6 people who didn't vote?  His Holiness was one of them. 

(h/t)

Posted by: It's Vintage, Duh at 01:59 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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I Love a Parade

Wait, why is the marching band eating the spectators?

Man, I wish I was in Chicago right now. 

Well, sorta.  Utah is pretty damned great.  And dry. 

Posted by: Moron Pundit at 12:01 PM | Comments (12) | Add Comment
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Moron Radio, if you're interested in setting up playlists or doing podcasts, check in with chad.

WTF?

Way to stick to your guns, Texas!

Batman Michael sighting!

Donation money is coming in to the Midwest slowly, if you've got a few shekels to throw their way, help them out.  Moron Pundit can tell you, things are pretty rough there.

The latest in missile defense news.

Update on the Agriprocessors raid.

Moar Slubshop!

The latest IRB sighting!

"Is this big, I swear"

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 09:31 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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Pool Boy Available

Scott McClellan continues to be a schmuck.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Former presidential spokesman Scott McClellan on Friday said President Bush has lost the public's trust by failing to open up about his administration's mistakes and backtracking on a promise be up front about the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity.

Ummmm..yeah Scott, the President really wants to "open up about his administrations mistakes." Show me a single President that has ever, ever, had a dialogue about their mistakes, you drooling podium jockey. Good thing you were only handed a job as a spokesmonkey, genius.

Oh, and the Plame thing? Dude.....NOBODY CARES. Let it go. Are you trying to get a job as their pool boy or something?

The only mistake Bush needs to address, is why the hell he hired such a backstabbing douchebag.

Your 15 minutes are up loser, good luck finding a gig now you disloyal jackass.

Posted by: bmac at 09:56 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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The Obamessiah: The GOP will run on their hatred of black people.

Back it up with some facts, asshole:

"It is going to be very difficult for Republicans to run on their stewardship of the economy or their outstanding foreign policy," Obama told a fundraiser in Jacksonville, Florida. "We know what kind of campaign they're going to run. They're going to try to make you afraid.

"They're going to try to make you afraid of me. He's young and inexperienced and he's got a funny name. And did I mention he's black?"

If that's not the language of healing and unity, then I don't know what is.  Make sure you head to the link to read the rest of Obama's thoughts. 

I'm not surprised that the Democrats are throwing out accusations like this.  What does kind of shock me is that Obama himself is using this line of attack, instead of leaving to to surrogates and the Democratic National Committee.  What we are witnessing here is Sen. Obama finally secure in his belief that he is a secular Messiah. 

I think that his arrogance could lead to his downfall.  This type of rhetoric will shore up his base, but I can't imagine it would help in winning over independents or, ahem, Obamacans.  He's allowed his hubris to build up so much that he doesn't even blink an eye when it comes to violating federal law on the campaign trail. 

Exit question:  It's a good thing that McCain reprimanded the North Carolina GOP over their Jeremiah Wright ad, eh?  Otherwise the Obama campaign could have complained that the GOP was race-baiting or something.  Heh.

(h/t)

Posted by: It's Vintage, Duh at 09:08 PM | Comments (13) | Add Comment
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Oh, they're going to get letters

I'm not sure why, but I get GQ in the mail, even though I canceled my subscription years ago. Actually, I'm not really sure why I ever subscribed to the magazine in the first place.  I'm not much of a clothes horse (I only wear suits to weddings and funerals) and I couldn't afford the stuff they feature anyway.

Also, for a conservative guy like me, their political coverage is cringe-worthy. It's a Manhattan-based mag written by urban liberals, after all, so there's not a lot of love thrown our way. In their "Informed Man's Guide to Following the Election," for example, the blog coverage they suggest you follow includes Eric Alterman, Talking Points Memo, and token "conservative" Excitable Andy. Yeah.  [Correction: Looking deeper into the article, they also mention Instaglenn, The Corner, and Campaign Spot.  They also note that Sullivan is an "Obamaphile."  My bad.]

So why am I writing about this? Well, one part of the magazine I generally enjoy is Tom Carson's movies and teevee column, "The Critic." This month's column (I looked for it online, but couldn't find it) is about Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann. Now, Carson is a liberal, and while he likes MSNBC and hates Fox, he finds faults with both Matthews and Olbermann, especially the latter.

But Carson really stepped in it this month, almost certainly without knowing that he would. Talking about Matthews, he writes:

He's the only cable news heavyweight who's defined by what he loves instead of what he hates. SNL, which should have bigger fish to fry—namely, Tim Russert, a far more egregious Beltway clown—never tires of spoofing his egomania...

[my emphasis]

Talk about bad timing. He surely wrote the column, and the magazine surely went to the presses, before Russert died, but he's going to have to issue a ton of apologies for that one.

Posted by: Sean M. at 07:23 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Taliban Forces Storm Second Prison

In a daring dawn attack, over a thousand Taliban militants stormed a provincial prison in Afghanistan and gained entry in a few short minutes.  Once inside, they demanded to be held without trial “until the Americans go away and stop massacring us.”

 

“We are not in a hurry to get our eternal reward,” said the leader of the militants.  “And it is quite clear that the Americans are not hesitant to drop cluster bombs on us or raid captured villages and kill us like the dogs that we are.  Quite frankly, it’s safer in here, so we’d prefer to stay.”

 

Not everyone was happy with the mass surrender, though.  One prisoner said “how are we to know that the Americans will not bomb the prison to punish them for breaking in?  I’d prefer that they stayed outside and got slaughtered like proper Mujahdeen.”

 

Although the doors of the prison were open for half the day no prisoners showed any desire to escape and rejoin their brethren in the hills, calling the outside world “ a deathtrap.”

Posted by: plebian at 04:32 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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My God, it's full of stars!

Hello, everyone.  As the least well-known of DPUD’s new cobloggers, I thought I might do a brief intro so you can get an idea of who I am.  If you don’t care, feel free to skip this.  But know that deep within my heart I will harbor an abiding grudge that will eventually consume you with the flames of my anger.

 

Or something like that.  I’ll stick the rest of this below the fold to avoid taking up lots of space with my mewling.

 

more...

Posted by: plebian at 04:28 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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If the flooding gets worse in Iowa, it will be all McCain's fault.

Remember in August 2005 when President Bush said that he didn't go down to see Katrina on the ground because doing so would have diverted resources away the rescue and recovery efforts there?  I sure do.  I also remember it being, to this day, called a lame excuse.  You see, President Bush just didn't want to be down there with all those icky minorities! 

After three years, both Sen. McCain and President Bush have learned the lesson that when disaster strikes, you better be there.  Naturally, that response is still not good enough (emphasis mine):

An aide to Gov. Chet Culver said Thursday that Republican presidential candidate John McCain ignored the governor’s request to cancel a campaign visit amid a massive flood recovery effort in the state.

[...]

“As a courtesy — and as we did for Senator Obama — we privately made an effort to make sure that Senator McCain knew that state and local resources were still being deployed to support the flood fight and that now may not be the best time for a campaign trip,” [Culver's Chief of Staff Patrick] Dillon said in a statement.

[...]

While these high-profile politicians bring attention to the disaster, they cause headaches for hard-pressed law enforcement. Bush and McCain are protected by the Secret Service, and call in scores of local law enforcement to provide security during local appearances.

It's nice to have Democrats like Culver and the media finally acknowledge that high-profile visitors divert resources from relief efforts.  Not that they'll ever be asked why this is the case in Iowa, but not in New Orleans. 

I'd also note Dillon's statement above.  He said that, in McCain's case, right now would not be the best time for a campaign event.  As the article states, McCain's visit was for the sole purpose of surveying the flood damage. 

Anyone want to bet that had Sen. McCain not gone, his response would have been branded by the media as Katrina 2.0?

Posted by: It's Vintage, Duh at 12:59 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Some midday video

Ed Driscoll kicked this our way, so I thought I'd post it. Something about the imagery at the end is amusing to me.  The Hundred Acre Mafia really has some serious gear!

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 12:51 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The Maverick stands alone, the Maverick stands alone

I've long thought that John McCain faced the risk of being overrun by Obama's huge advantages in funding.  I also thought he may have to bank heavily on effective 527s to counter that disadvantage.  Looks like I might have been wrong, he's probably on his own.  Most of the major Republican and conservative 527 groups are not going to be there for him like they were for Bush in 2004.  Many of them are sitting out the election, have disbanded or are operating at limited capacity.

There are a few typical cited reasons that GOP and political operatives are giving as for why there isn't a 527 operation set up yet, lack of enthusiasm, donor fatigue, fear of the race card getting thrown, but you know the biggest fear they have, one that most of them are citing? 

But, in explaining the absence of any anti-Obama groups this time around, every individual interviewed for this story cited the same central reason: a fear that their party’s nominee will publicly denounce them and hold a grudge.

There it is, McCainiacs!  I saw that coming from a mile away, did you?  How many times have we talked about this?  McCain's fixation with fragging his own side has caused him to be completely abandoned.  This is a tough quote,

“Both donors and operatives know how much [McCain] abhors these groups,” said John Weaver, the Arizona senator’s former chief strategist, referring to the independent groups that have thrived following passage of the landmark McCain-Feingold campaign finance law. “If he is ultimately successful and any of these groups played a significant effort in electing him, many believe, probably rightfully, that they would be ostracized.”

Yeah, that's typical McCain.  You help the guy, and he immediately kicks sand in your face.  Oddly enough, the big 527 groups, donors and organizers seem to agree with us "crybaby conservatives."  Funny, it's almost like if you think you're entitled to treat people like garbage in an system of government that requires you to convince those same people to elect you, they don't work very hard to see you to victory.  Interesting how that works.  Moar,

Another GOP strategist said that McCain’s denunciation of a 501(c)(4) which aired an ad in South Carolina last November touting McCain when his resources were severely limited sent a chilling message to potential independent expenditure groups.

Yet he went further,

"Anyone who believes they could assist my campaign by exploiting a loophole in campaign finance laws is doing me and our country a disservice,” McCain said then.

He used even stronger language after that, saying at a Texas town hall meeting in late February that 527s “are distorting the entire political process and they need to be outlawed.”

Yeah, that was just a genius move there McCain.  Let's not forget, he doesn't just do this to conservatives and 527's, he does this to state parties too, like what he did to the NC GOP, which the article notes too.  That little press conference he put together to trash the NC GOP pushed me into the Write-in Zombie Reagan camp, where I still reside.  The money quote,

“People think that if they take the wink and nod and give the money that he will piss all over them like he pissed all over the lobbyists," said a Republican who has been involved in past third-party efforts.

...there it is!  How many times have conservatives warned the McCainiacs that they needed to put a muzzle on their guy, saying the same thing, nearly word for word about conservatives for months now?

I know McCainiacs and the Fall in Line brigades are going to argue that "McCain don't need no stinking 527's", that he's gonna rise above it all.  Bull.  Negative ads and 527's exist because they work.  People swear up and down that they hate 527's whenever they're polled, but time after time, election after election, they work.   You need negative ads, you need 527's.  If McCainiacs are honest with themselves, they'll admit that McCain's political situation is grim, he has no support from conservatives, no support from the GOP (because the GOP has no support from conservatives), and now no support from big donors or 527's.

McCain's only chances are if Obama's campaign implodes due to scandal, people are turned off by his radicalism, or his demographics disadvantages break him.  This is no longer John McCain's election to win, it's Obama's to win or lose, as a veteran, McCain ought to know giving the initiative to your opponent is never a good thing, yet he has done exactly that.

If McCain wins, it'll be, to paraphrase our co-blogger Moron Pundit, because 10 unenthusiastic people voted for McCain, and 9 enthusiastic people gleefully voted for Obama.  That said, I'm really beginning to doubt that McCain is going to pull that off, and his insistence on fragging his own side will be his downfall. 

Hi-ho the derry-o
The Maverick stands alone...

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 12:11 PM | Comments (26) | Add Comment
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