Florida follies: Rick Scott’s in-your-face budget signing, cooked polls & angry cops
Cartoon from the Miami Herald's Jim Morin.
Shorter Rick Scott at the South Florida Water Management District headquarters, where he showed up unannounced to tout the bill he signed that overhauls the state’s water and Everglades management (most environmentalists say, for the worse): “Hi, I’m the governor, and I’m here to cut your job.” Read more
Remainders: rapture guy hospitalized, Pentagon papers out, Cain’s neobirtherism, crazy Moonie stories
Herman Cain: neobirther
Filed under crazy shit the Washington Times publishes. Read more
Wednesday morning round-up: Keith vs Rachel, Palin vs Bachmann, PA GOP vs teachers, and another headless body scam
Keith Olbermann opens up about his new gig, and his old one.
A few thinks to take a look at this morning:
Your “yes we can” moment of the day: Denver elects its second black mayor, and it’s an underdog story for the ages.
Your “oh now they didn’t” moment of the day: “stop the spending” GOP freshmen living large.
Girl fight? Like it or not, Palin-Bachmann is morphing into one. And Ed Rollins is officially the first Republican to not fear Sarah Palin and her many minions.
Speaking of Palin, Margaret Thatcher just really isn’t interested in meeting her. Guess Rush Limbaugh and friends are gonna have to trash the Iron Lady, now.
Friday clicks: GOP losing America’s finest, the 8.8 rate, Boehnerbagged, and ‘bye-bye Gbagbo’
Memo to the GOP: police and firefighters unions are unions too.
A piece in today’s Politico spells out the danger for Republicans who have gone after unions in the rust belt, thinking they’d just piss off unionized teachers, and apparently forgetting that often conservative-leaning police officers and firefighters are union members too. Read more
The CIA-Libya leak … or, aren’t we supposed to get intel before bombing stuff? **UPDATED**
Shouldn't we know what ... or who ... we're blowing up?
I’m not in the intelligence business. Nor do I work in the White House or Pentagon. But if I was, or did, and I was helping to plan the bombing campaign that kicks off the creation of a U.N.-authorized no fly zone in Libya, I’d want to know exactly where or what our guys would be bombing, and exactly who it is we’re protecting. But then, that’s me. Read more
The Egyptian uprising: 6 media winners **UPDATED with reader nominations
The Egyptian revolution was an exhilarating experience for those of us who watched it unfold on television and on the Internet — which of course cannot compare to the experience of those who lived it firsthand. But among the many storylines to emerge from Cairo, a few brand new media stars stand out. Here are my six big media winners, in no particular order: Read more
Everything I know about Glenn Beck and Fox News I learned from watching ‘Network’
A news operation stripped down to its entertainment essentials … brightly colored showbiz and emotion-churning, paranoid pschyodrama masquerading as news … a basic disrespect for journalism … even a female Roger Ailes. I finally watched the 1976 movie “Network” last night (having seen only part of it many years ago, I’m ashamed to say.) If you haven’t seen it, rent it. You’ll finally understand America’s most popular cable news channel — and the method behind Glenn Beck’s calculated madness. Here’s Oscar winner Peter Finch as Howard Beale, delivering his iconic speech from the film, only in Beale’s case, he really was crazy:
But wait, there’s more… Read more
(Video and full text) President Obama’s remarks at the victims’ memorial in Tucson, Arizona
President Barack Obama on Wednesday addressed the nation at a memorial for the victims of the Arizona shooting last Saturday. A greying Obama spoke as a national leader, healer, and as a father of young children himself, in a moving call for more civility, and for altering our national discourse in a way that would make the victims proud. “‘We may not be able to stop all evil in the world,” the president said, “but I know that how we treat one another is entirely up to us.” He also made news with the information that Gabby Giffords opened her eyes during a visit from her friend Debbie Wasserman Schultz, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Giffords’ family members.
Media takes from Roger Simon | Jill Lawrence | Joe Klein | Nate Silver | Sam Stein | Michael Crowley
So far, with the exception of the dispeptic panel on CNN
Watch the speech here:
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
And after the jump, read the speech in full. Read more
Monday clicks: Air Barbour, Assange book deal; Miller out of the way? Obama on Vick’s 2nd chance
Politico turns up the heat on one of its favorites
Happy Monday! Here’s some of what’s going on out there.
Julian Assange still faces rape charges, but he does have a $1.5 million-dollar book deal.
The Wikileaks chief says he’ll use the money to cover the legal fees for both his rape case and what he believes is an impending prosecution for espionage by the U.S., as well as to “keep Wikileaks afloat” even as banks pull away (coincidentally, just before he doc dumps on Bank of America…)
Meanwhile, some good news on the economy: job creation may be slow, but it’s happening faster than in previous recessions.
Good news for Lisa Murkowski: Joe Miller is finally getting out of the way of her election … mostly.
Did President Obama really call the owner of the Philadelphia Eagles to praise him for giving Michael Vick a second chance? Yes he did (the White House issued a happy Kwaanza statement too. Permission for winger heads to start exploding now…)
In fiscal conservative news, Mississippi may be the poorest state in the union, but it apparently has plenty of cash to blow on its wannabe president governor’s plane travel.
Air Barbour makes the top of the fold on Politico, where he attempts to explain himself (“them Dukes! Them Dukes…!”) Read more
Ailes unplugged: Obama a Socialist, NPR run by Nazis, Jon Stewart ‘crazy’ (but Fox still ‘fair and balanced!’)
The breathless fawning of Colby Hall and the other Fox apologists at Mediaite aside, no serious person believes any more that Fox “News” is either a news channel, or a source of “fair and balanced” information. But what Fox is, and the larger conservative myth-making factory it is simply one very large, very important part of, is the real story worth uncovering. Case in point: Fox boss Roger Ailes, who let a whole lot of cats out of the bag while opening up to conservative media critic Howard Kurtz… Read more
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Finalist: Best Liberal Blog
WTF Has Barack Obama Done So Far?
