I looked for other diaries discussing the coverage of the returns, before starting this one where we could document the atrocities.

I'm watching MSNBC out of intense loyalty to KO. Seems to me that he is the only adult at the table. The rest of them: Tweety, Fineman, Mitchell, seem like children compared to Keith.

And did anyone catch that spat between Scarbrough and Matthews because Tweety called Joe biased? Just 2 years ago Joe would have never cared if he was referred to as a red-meat Republican. He probably would have called himself a culture warrior.

Check out this fascinating ad from Singapore for the game of Risk.

http://www.flickr.com/...

The rest of the world understands what Howard Dean, Al Gore, and Wes Clark understand: If we continue to "Stay the Course" with business as usual from George Bush and his enablers like Hillary Clinton and Joe Lieberman then the United States is done.

Today's interview with Ann Coulter is too much.

"These broads are millionaires, lionized on TV and in articles about them, reveling in their status as celebrities and stalked by griefparrazies. I have never seen people enjoying their husband's death so much." - Ann Coulter

Today NBC News allowed a hate monger to spit on the graves of everyone who died on 9/11. And enough is enough.

With Katie Couric now in direct competition with Brian Williams, we should let NBC know how much we disapprove of their journalism by simply turning them off.

Will you pledge to stop watching all NBC News programs, and will you encourage your friends and family to do likewise? While our numbers our small we are the demographic that NBC needs to survive. Let's him them where it hurts.

Short, short comment: Whoa.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

LA PAZ, Bolivia -- President Evo Morales ordered soldiers to occupy Bolivia's natural gas fields Monday and threatened to evict foreign companies unless they give Bolivia control over the entire chain of production.

Just read this story on MSNBC about the court blocking the pollution loopholes the EPA and the Bush administration had created for the energy companies.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...

Folks, here is a great quote from Eliot Spitzer.

"This is an enormous victory for clean air and for the enforcement of the law and an overwhelming rejection of the Bush administration's efforts to gut the law," said New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who led the suit for the states. "It is a rejection of a flawed policy."

"It has been estimated that more than 20,000 Americans die prematurely each year from power plant pollution," he added. "As a result of this decision, that number should be reduced."

Good friends of mine, Amy Carr and Robert Johnson, have traveled overland from Europe through the Middle East and India on their way to their new home in Australia.

They spent several weeks in Iran and loved it. Their summary says it all: The press plays up fear to sell newspapers.

http://journals.aol.co.uk/...

Bob is a funny writer, and if you surf around their blog you'll find a lot of good travel writing about riding a bike in the States and Canada, and travel around Europe and the Middle East.

I usually skip the Tom Friedman columns. He has a remarkable grasp of the obvious. And the fact he is paid to state the obvious in the NYT or on Charlie Rose is truly God's own mystery. But today's column should surely go into some sort of bizarro-world hall of fame.

http://select.nytimes.com/...

Today's column, surprisingly, isn't distinguished by him stating obvious facts with the awe and wonder of a 6-year-old. No, today he reveals himself as someone who clearly has zero understanding of what it means to be an American.

In today's Washington Post, Howard Kurtz makes the following statement in defense of the MSM's coverage of the Cheney shooting.

I'd concede that the vice president is probably not their favorite politician. But in terms of it "mattering" -- did it matter to the average American that Bill Clinton was fooling around on his wife, or that Vince Foster committed suicide (to pick two matters that seemed to matter a great deal to the conservative commentariat)?

It matters when the vice president shoots another man because the character and responsiveness of our elected leaders matters. Had Cheney addressed this right away, it would have been a far more modest story.

So, the Vice President goes on a hunting trip with a woman who  is not his wife. While on the hunting trip he shoots another man in the face with a 28-gauge shotgun.

What would be the reaction of the MSM and the right wing media if it had been, say, Al Gore or John Kerry in this situation?

Poll below

Please, please God, let the Republicans bring a change to the mortgage deduction up for a vote.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/11/politics/11cnd-tax.html?hp&ex=1129089600&en=e103d62d8f789b b5&ei=5094&partner=homepage

For the past 8 years the Republicans have been guided by their wacked out economic philosophy to transfer wealth from the poor and the middle class to the rich. Time and again, the help of the MSM, they have fooled the American people into believing that they were looking out for them.

Sorry if this was blogged elsewhere, but just wanted to alert everyone that Barack is now podcasting. Looks like a weekly update.

Get thee to iTunes and subscribe!

BTW, I threw out a poll for '08 and '12. I paired Barack against Clark in '08 (consistent winner in Kos straw polls, and Barack against Spitzer in '12.

Spitzer is a guy who gets very little notice on this blog, which is surprising because he and Obama are clearly the stars of the Party for '08 and beyond.

How can he possibly think this, let alone say it:

"My caucus would do anything for Senator Santorum," Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee (R-R.I.) said of his colleague. Chafee, who himself faces a tough reelection battle next year, predicted Republicans will increasingly be faced with the choice of propping up Bush or protecting their own. "I think they're going to collide," Chafee said of the two options.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/20/AR2005092001704.html

What is it gonna take for NARAL and everyone else who thinks Chafee is a "moderate" to realize that a vote for Chafee is a vote for Santorum and Bush.

Fineman discovers the Blogosphere ( / )

Interesting article from Howard Fineman in Newsweek:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9339863/site/newsweek/

He seems to have discovered that those of us at Kos and Atrios view the mainstream Dems as "Vichy France." (I wouldn't go that far, but close enough.)

He also seems to feel like Hillary Clinton just needs to start a blog, or take a meeting with Kos, and everything is going to be okay.

I got news for her. Speaking for myself, I don't want her as the nominee because she's not qualified AND because she is an appeaser.

Check out how some Harvard researchers just slapped down the medical plan that she and NEWT just cooked up. http://www.mydd.com/story/2005/9/14/114258/259

Hillary is truly worse than worthless. Seriously, how in the hell can she even stand to be in the same room as Newt after what he did to her husband.

Now that I think about it, I do view Clinton/Biden/Lieberman as Vichy France.

First, there is GREAT diary going right now about impeaching Bush because of his lack of preparation for Katrina.  That diary is one of the best diaries ever and the reason why I love this site.

I have to say though that I don't see how Bush's fuckups in the preparation for Katrina are impeachable. Even if we argue that Bush's lack of preparation for Katrina is tangible evidence that he is in dereliction of his duty to protect the country, there isn't a singular event that can be pointed out as evidence that Bush ignored the preparation for Katrina.  

And man are they pissed!

Let's never forget, and never let the National MSM forget, that Katrina's isn't Bush's only disaster. He has BROKEN our National Guard, and it will take decades for it to recover. The St. Paul Pioneer has the story.

http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/local/12596415.htm

These Guard members must be really pissed to speak out like this:

Hey folks, here we go again. Tropical Depression 16 has formed east of Florida and is drifing towards Miami. Maybe we need to get Condi to write a memo, "Hurricane determine to strike US" that she can not read or give to Bush to read.

http://www.weather.com/newscenter/tropical/?from=wxcenter_news

Zarqawi's forces have seized open control of an Iraqi town on the Syrian border. When the press asked the Marines they said they didn't know anything about it.

Meanwhile, in New Orleans, the President of the United States is engaging in open political warfare against a Governor.

I'm just speechless. Maybe he will blame the Louisiana Governor for the quagmire in Iraq.

The Democrats overwhelmingly supported Chertoff. The vote was 98-0. We need to hold the Democrats accountable for just waving through these nominees. We need to make them understand that Chertoff's confirmation is a stain on their integrity. How many Americans have to die before they start performing their duty to manage the country?

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ntquery