This very brief and innocuous-sounding Roll Call story is basically its obit.

Democratic moderates, uneasy with Majority Leader Harry Reid's (D-Nev.) choice of a public insurance option even though it includes an opt-out provision for states that do not want to participate, are looking for an alternative that can garner the 60 votes needed for passage. The public option offered by Reid is strongly opposed by all 40 Republicans.

Carper described Thursday's meeting as productive.

"Among the concerns that centrists have expressed are concerns about an alternative that might be government-run or government-funded, and we had an opportunity to drill down on both of those concerns," Carper said.

Among those who attended all or part of the meeting were Democratic Sens. Mark Begich (Alaska); Kay Hagan (N.C.); Mary Landrieu (La.); Blanche Lincoln (Ark.); Ben Nelson (Neb.); Mark Pryor (Ark.); Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.); Arlen Specter (Pa.); and Mark Warner (Va.).

You know what? That is a lot of Democratic Senators attending this "let's kill the Public Option" meeting. It is also a nice illustration of the way being a Senate moderate works: saying "I can't support this because others might not support it because of the fact that they might not support it."

And then there is today's Washington Post story on the ongoing negotiations, which presents these developments as a positive for a Public Option:

At Reid's urging, various senators have begun exploring alternatives for a public plan that could pass muster with the centrists, and some lawmakers are starting to examine other ways to achieve the same goals of greater competition, better coverage and lower prices. But as the negotiations unfold, liberal Democrats say they are growing increasingly realistic in their expectations.

This means they have already conceded. If they can convince the vile "moderates" to grant them a more subsidies they will drop their insistence on a government insurance program that can actually cover or negotiate with anyone.

So, liberals lose again!

The layoffs will come in the New York Times News Service (which includes the paper's AP-like newswire). Next year, the company is moving editing duties for the News Service out of New York and down to sunny Florida, where nonunion employees at the Gainesville Sun will be happy to do the same jobs for a fraction of the cost, concomitant with Gainesville's affordable "100% trailer park" cost of living.

Below, the memo that the Newspaper Guild sent out to its members about this inevitable, economically prudent union-busting development.

Times to Subcontract News Service

Times management informed the Guild late this afternoon that the company
intends to subcontract the work of the News Service. Management
representatives told the Guild the work will be sent to the Gainesville
Sun, a property owned by The New York Times. The subcontracting would
impact all 28 Guild staffers – one assistant to the editor, two editors,
23 staff editors, one news assistant and one news clerk.

After members had been informed by management of the subcontracting, the
Guild met with the affected employees to answer questions and inform them
of their rights under the collective bargaining agreement. Under the
contract, The Times has given the contractually required notification to
the Guild, which triggers a 60-day period that allows the Guild an
opportunity to try to avert the subcontracting. The Guild, as always, will
monitor the situation and keep members informed.

Please be advised that a demonstration, directed at FOX News and consisting of approximately 150 people, is expected in front of 1211 today (Wednesday, November 11) from 12:00 pm to 2:00 pm. The NYPD will be present to monitor the demonstration along with News Corporation security.

Although no disruptions are expected, you may wish to contact any visitors or appointments you are expecting this afternoon and suggest they allow additional time for processing. If you are booking car service this afternoon, request pick up on 48th Street.

We also encourage employees to use the alternate entrances at the back of the building and on the C-1 level if the main entrance becomes congested. As a reminder, it is always recommended that you NOT display your building ID card once outside of 1211. This is particularly important when arriving and departing the building during the demonstration.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Corporate Security Manager Lee Boody through the Security Operations Center at [redacted].

Karl Solterer
Vice President, Corporate Security
News Corporation

[Pic via]

That's them in the tiny pen in the middle.

"The dude is a very anti-birther friend who could not resist the opportunity."

The Washington Post's violent Style section uncovers the catragic case of Hoity, done in by the do-gooding of PETA interns repeatedly knocking on Netzer's door and telling her that keeping her cat outside was dangerous:

For six months, Netzer tried to keep Hoity inside, but he began clawing the furniture, "pooping all over things," and going, as far as Netzer could tell, completely insane. When she would put him out again, some or another intern would stop by again, implying, she says, that Hoity might be happier and safer in a shelter. Afraid that the PETA interns would take her cat, she eventually had him put to sleep.

A PETA spokesman says that the interns had seen the cat "have close calls" with cars in the neighborhood.

Purr-nicious!
[Pic via]

Not, obviously, that he is off the hook for Gitmo et al, but this is a useful corrective (especially because it is aimed, theoretically, at terrified conservative WSJ-readers) to the "but he hasn't done anything yet" bitching. He did a bunch of things that Democrats have been unable to accomplish in years of trying, like the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay act, children's health insurance expansion, setting aside lots more federal land as wilderness that Sarah Palin will want to drill in, the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Preventions Act, and killing the F-22 and a couple other defense boondoggles.

Also, according to the Wall Street Journal, all of the lobbyists are quitting! That is wonderful news, for everyone! Soon we will be back down to a respectable late-'90s era number of lobbyists in DC, arguing for a health care reform package that consists of mailing every American free corn and offering them payday loans to buy more corn.

Vanity Fair caught up with the freedom fighter himself in London:

What could happen to him if he went back today? "I don't know," he says. "There are enough lawyers working on it. So I let them work." He blames a lot of what happened to him in America on the eight George W. Bush years. "America has always been a country of dreams, and it became a country of hate."

Alberto Gonzales never could get a decent table.
[Pic: Getty]

SPOILER: Yes!

After a preview screening last week (at which I did a Q&A session with Michael), he came over to my home for a late night bite. Over lasagna, he told me about an incident that occurred while he was filming that exemplifies how the economic crisis cannot be looked at through a left vs right prism.

That incident: When Michael Moore realized that Arianna Huffington has been a fervent Republican and a fervent Democrat, yet she's still incredibly wealthy.

Kidding! It was just some more boring rote blowjobby talking point tripe from Arianna, as always. The real scandal is this whole "I had Michael Moore over to my house for lasagna" bit.

1. Arianna Huffington eats lasagna? And/ or cooks it? Highly doubtful.
2. Were her interns also invited to eat lasagna?
3. Michael Moore wasn't even a tiny bit embarrassed that Arianna Huffington—knowing she would be meeting him that day—made sure to have her kitchen stocked with lasagna? Who's to say he doesn't like carrot juice? He's a man, not Garfield. Come on, dude. Still, he took the lasagna.
[Pic: AP]

"Survivaball." Read all about it on the website. "Worried About Climate Change? Don't sweat it." Instead, you can wear a ridiculous rubber-ball body suit to protect you from the ravages of global warming. It's an example of the world's largest corporations using engineering to replace ethics, with humorous results, etc.

This sort of fake corporate reductio ad absurdum is The Yes Men's specialty. They've previously posed as corporate spokespeople and weaseled their way onto unsuspecting news shows, where they made humorous, evil corporate statements, and filmed rooms full of unsuspecting corporate suits applauding politely at some outrageous presentation for an idea like using shit to feed the poor. They also had a hand in last year's Fake New York Times.

So! A tipster tells us this Survivaball website and promo video are just laying the groundwork for next week's stunt:

The plan so far is to put a bunch of people in like 50 inflatable "Survivaball" suits and float them down the East River. It's about the UN meetings that are happening that day, and it's going to be pretty crazy.

The group's already been handing out this Survivaball flier down on Wall Street. Everything appears to be in order here. All you unsuspecting corporate whores who don't read this website or watch lefty documentaries on a regular basis will soon pay—with your dignity.

Moore had a press conference this morning about his upcoming movie I Hate Capitalism. He went off on a rant about the newspaper industry that is both surprisingly insightful, and unsurprisingly rooted in a Chomskyite capitalist critique! His remarks were transcribed in full by the National Post, so all are [sic]. His main points:

1. In Europe, papers get more revenue from circulation than from ads, so they have an incentive to put out a quality news product. Here, newspapers are ad-supported, and they've cut their content down to shit. Then he quotes David Simon, as is the law in such an argument.

2. "We live in a nation of 40 million functional illiterates: that's 40 million adults who cannot read and write above a fourth grade or fifth grade level. We have another probably 40 million adults who can read and write above a fourth grade level but don't have the comprehension beyond that very much. So if you have literally that many tens of millions of adults who either can't read and write above a fourth and fifth grade level or can't comprehend what they do read, you've created a nation of people who are not going to be reading the newspapers." No matter how hard they try, newspapers will never be able to become as dumb as Americans. It's a fact!

3. Republicans hate the Department of Education and thereby contribute to this widespread American illiteracy; nevertheless, Moore says, "In the 17 elections between 1940 and 2004, the majority of American newspapers endorsed the Republican candidate for President 14 of the 17 elections." Vote Republican and die, newspapers.

Also, you know, the XBox is just too fun. Read his whole speech at The Ampersand.

That means it should be possible to vaccinate - well before the flu's expected midwinter peak - all the 159 million people that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate are in the high-risk groups: pregnant women, people under 24 years old or caring for infants, people with high-risk medical conditions and health-care workers.

Whoa whoa whoa—I could have sworn that there are 300 million people in the USA. The socialist government is once again telling the Middle-Aged White Man to suck it! Fend for yourselves! Give the life-saving medicine to welfare people! NObama's not a pregnant woman but how much do you want to bet he gets some vaccine, hmm?

Even hogs are treated better than the Grown White Man these days. Outrageous.
[Pic: AP]

Stewart and his staff dug deep into the archives to find some great footage of various Fox News personalities vehemently condemning the very behaviors that they're now so enthusiastically championing, like criticizing the president during a time of war and taking to the streets in protests. These are the types of things that liberals do! So Fox News = the new liberals!

At one point in tonight's broadcast, Stewart mentioned that after tomorrow night's show he and his staff would be taking three weeks off for vacation. You almost get the feeling watching this that they wanted to go out with a bit of a bang, to get one last good, solid right hook in before they left the ring for a few weeks. In such, they most certainly succeeded. Hurry back guys. You'll be missed in the midst of the craziness going on right now.

Either the Post is trolling us, anyway, or the White House is. They can't figure out why liberals want them to fail so much! Don't liberals understand that they need to shut up about the stuff they want if they want their president to succeed? Jeez, it's like these dumb Democratic Congressmen don't get that we have to let all policy debates be framed by Republicans, and that we must always start from a position of responsible centrism and them move toward a compromise with conservatives from there!

Hey, what would be the worst possible analogy for an unnamed "senior White House adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity" to use, when complaining about liberal whining?

"I don't understand why the left of the left has decided that this is their Waterloo," said a senior White House adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "We've gotten to this point where health care on the left is determined by the breadth of the public option. I don't understand how that has become the measure of whether what we achieve is health-care reform."

"It's a mystifying thing," he added. "We're forgetting why we are in this."

Yes, perfect, let's adopt the language of Jim DeMint and claim the only people who actually want Obama to actually pass effective legislation are just hoping the president will fail, because we hate winning anything. Nice one, Rahm. Thanks for just stoking the flames of this "intraparty rift" instead of bothering to try to convince anyone of the merits of a reform bill without a public option. That would be the coward's way out!

It's true that liberals forgot why they are in this. Those jokers thought they wanted to provide every American with health care!

So far the wingnuts are losing the Obama street art war, handily.

In Copenhagen. Via Per Corell.
U Street in DC. Via goimardantas.
In Jersey City. Via wallyg.
Shepard Fairey, museum-style. Via KwangSoo.
Shepard Fairey, street style. Via LoisInWonderland.
LES, NYC. Via tedjohnjacobs.
Italy is on some crazy shit. Via Max IK7TOE.
In Spokane. Via gerikasher.

[Joker pic via Newsbusters]

You see, there is just so much media bias out there right now. It's sickening. Just sickening! NBC, ABC, CBS, MSNBC, CNN—they're all just a bunch of liberal hacks trying to indoctrinate the masses into their little cult of pansy-ass liberalism. How dare they besmirch the memory of Walter Cronkite (who was murdered by Dan Rather by the way) a deeply flawed man who was probably a communist, but was so desperate to appease Jesus that he refused let it show on the air. If only more of the media we like him and, of course, Fox News, because they will never tolerate any of this political bias crap, because Bill O'Reilly and Bernard Goldberg said so.

"Fair and Balanced," always and forever. Never forget, folks. Never forget.

Froomkin wrote the "White House Watch" blog and he was extremely "Liberal" because he generally pointed out the Bush administration lied all the time. (While the rest of the paper's opinion page supported the Iraq War, etc, they really do suck). Here's the paper's shitty explanation:

I think the easiest way to put it is that our editors and research teams are constantly reviewing our columns, blogs and other content to make sure we're giving readers the most value when they are on our site while balancing the need to make the most of our resources. Unfortunately, this means that sometimes features must be eliminated, and this time it was the blog that Dan Froomkin freelanced for washingtonpost.com

Translation: the Washington Post has to be even more conservative now with Obama as president or else they won't be taken "Seriously," by assholes.

[Politico, Wonkette]

hormiga brava chavez Says:

Fake News has the most bogus polls I've ever seen!

June 12th, 2009 at 10:03 am

DNFP Says:

Did they even care about Jeff Gannon's off-the-record late-night visits to Dumbya?

IOKIYAR.

June 12th, 2009 at 10:03 am

tom Says:

Suggestions for the next FoxSnooze poll question list:

1) is Bristol keeping the barn door closed or still taking a roll in the hay from time to time?

2) do you think it's manly when John Boehner cries?

3) Liz Cheney — boxers or briefs?

June 12th, 2009 at 10:10 am

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.Additional nicknames employed: "Dubya," "FAUX News," "DBumbya."

Anyway, "do you think it's manly when John Boehner cries" is actually kinda funny.

So you can go through her terrible speech and read some old Gingrich op-ed and painstakingly find every sentence or phrase that rings similar, if you want, and cry "plagiarism!" But we gave up on that once we read this bit of Palin's speech: "Recently, Newt Gingrich, he had written a good article about Reagan...." She then goes on to summarize many of the things Newt Gingrich wrote about Ronald Reagan.

So, yes, it is not by any standard a very good speech, and it is quite lazy, but to call it "plagiarism" is bullshit.

NPR is worried its listeners will not know which set of financially inept radio taxocrats they're sending all their hard-earned money to, presumably because their total libtard sheeple. "There's plenty of opportunity for confusion," NPR's flack told the Wall Street Journal.

Ha ha, of course there is, just look what happened in Boston:

At WJIB, a commercially licensed oldies station... a listener once sent a check with the subject line marked "WGBH" — a prominent local public-radio station. Owner Bob Bittner says he sent the check back.

Oh, liberals, never knowing who to send their checks to.

Anyway, it should be pretty easy to keep the two left-leaning radio organizations straight: One pays taxes and has faced financial issues and management shakeups; the other doesn't pay taxes and has faced... financial issues and management shakeups. Hmm.

Maybe it's better to focus on the gifts: NPR will give you tote bags, DVDs and hand-cranked radios; Air America would probably offer, more impressively, "access to Air America talent and tickets to special events." (Read: More teabagging with Ana Marie Cox and Rachel Maddow.)

[WSJ]

Conservative media outlets are obviously doing much, much better, due to their innate business savvy and understanding of free markets (*cough*).

(Image via)