Man Bear Pig

What a great question on MTP today:
"[In response to three quotes, the first two recommending Al Gore for a cabinet role in an Obama White House and the third, from Al Gore himself, rebuffing those sentiments], how can you (Al Gore) given the passion that you feel about this issue and the enormity of the dimensions that we're dealing with here turn down the idea that you could be in the administration as a VP or as an energy czar or as both?"
Al Gore ably sidestepped a direct answer but it was the first time I'd really seen Brokaw get all 'Russert' on us.

Cramer

Although I don't necessarily agree that we should drill everywhere, Jim Cramer makes a great point about out NIMBY attitude to drilling.

Gen. Clark's remarks

Just a note about Gen. Clark's remarks yesterday about McCain's military record. Were they a ill-timed? Sure. Naive? Yep. But patently false? I don't think so. One CNN reader (yes there is intelligent life out there reading CNN), referenced a Simpsons episode when "Tommy" (an imaginary boy) falls in a well. Everyone claims him to be a hero.

Lisa: How does that make him a hero, Dad?
Homer: Well... he fell in a well, and he couldn't get out.
Lisa: That doesn't make him a hero, Dad.
Homer: Well, what have YOU done lately?

Jay-Z Glastonbury

Some fucking performer. AC/DC (c/o dangermouse) in the mix.

I Like Big Butts

Just when you think you've seen the least flattering picture of HRC...

New Beck Track

with Chan Marshall of Cat Power

France and Spain!

Fuck You!

From Snuff Box

Meet the Brokaw

Pretty smart move by Brokaw and NBC that will maintain the integrity of the show through this election cycle. I do find it ironic that NBC and MSNBC, who through Olbermann, Matthews and to a degree even Russert (who now-famously declared the nomination for Obama), have become the most Obama friendly major network, will now turn away from "on-the-job training" and change for experience and inevitability. Personally, I think it's great. Brokaw's got the stones for it. I really like Brian Williams and thought he did a decent job on this morning's broadcast but I don't think he was forceful enough as a moderator and was almost softspoken. Tim Russert may have been understated but he was never softspoken.

Scott McClellan is a Tool

Scott McClellan may be a complete slimeball but it seems that his book may open the doors for a serious, unfettered investigation into the Valerie Plame affair and several other Bush White House scandals.
Excerpt:
""The administration has always called for different kinds of privileges to avoid their officials testifying, but because Mr. McClellan has put all this information in a book, these privileges, I do not believe, would be available to the administration, so we would have a free flow of information," Rep. Robert Wexler, a senior Democratic on the committee, said when he called for McClellan's testimony."

But It's Not Even Leather: White Picket Fences

A post from a fellow Gersh blogger. He may or may not be gay.

New Girl Talk Album

Pay what you want. Here.

Seriously?

So this is what CNN.com decided to lead with this morning. Thanks guys.

Barack Obama Hates Muslims

So we have a little peek into the nefarious world of the Presidential campaign. Campaign volunteers at two separate Obama events asked two headscarf-wearing Muslim women to either remove their headgear, or Hijab, or not stand behind Obama for the obligatory "diverse-support" photo op. Obama's spokesperson stated "[t]his is of course not the policy of the campaign. It is offensive and counter to Obama's commitment to bring Americans together and simply not the kind of campaign we run." I have no reason not believe that Obama handed down a no-Hijab mandate (Obama posed the following morning in a group shot with someone wearing a Hijab) but it does speak to an unspoken issue: "the candidate has vigorously denies a false, viral rumor that he himself is Muslim. But the denials seem to some at times to imply that there is something wrong with the faith, though Obama occasionally adds that he means no disrespect to Islam."
UPDATE

Some Links

Just some interesting links I've been collecting over the past week or so:

• Roger Cohen's article in the Times last week discusses President Bush's lack of intellectual curiosity. An excerpt:

The American president, of course, is George W. Bush. He’s doing a farewell lap, or limp, around European capitals, or retreats. His German stop has been in downtown Meseberg. A rapturous Berlin welcome was not assured.

Rome, Paris, London — an itinerary to stir the imagination, but never his. That’s been the thing about Bush: no curiosity. “Russia’s big, and so is China,” he opined in 2006. The insights tended to stop there. He’s probably happier at Schloss Meseberg, a kind of German Crawford.

“Ich bin ein Crawforder.” Has a ring to it, even if it’s as meaningless as this exit tour.

• Time examines Obama's attempts to quash slander from independent groups.
• President Bush opposes a Supreme Court ruling that expands the legal rights of captured suspected enemy combatants, but begrudgingly agrees to enforce the decision.
• ESPN's ombudsman criticizes Sportscenter "specials", specifically the network's handling of spygate.
• Michelle Obama's image comes under further scrutiny. Maureen Dowd also discusses.
  
• Today's Profiles in Courage award goes to Charlie Crist who reversed his previous stance against offshore drilling to fall in step with McCain's latest campaign talking point. UPDATE: Bush too.
  
• From George, this article from the Times explores an unexpected, but common sense, implication of increasing gas prices.
• More spurious, lowest common denominator "journalism" from the folks at CNN.
• Huckabee <3's Obama.
  

Breakfast of Champions

Yo Peanut!

Celtics Champs!

California Love

How great is this picture?

Florida! Florida! Florida!

Just a final bit about Russert.
The Meet The Press tribute was touching. The tributes filling NBC and their affiliates' regular programming had begun to get a little stale and repetitive but this hour with some of Russert's closest friends and colleagues was packed with raw emotion. The guests let their collective guard down more than in previous days, where each statement and tribute seemed prepared and calculated (which is understandable. Nobody wants to break down on national television).
The set (Tom Brokaw and a half-dozen others were seated in front of the Meet the Press set, its angular table left vacant), which many had shared as recently as a few weeks ago, and time (Father's day) seemed to really affect the group. I have never seen James Carville as quiet or Brokaw as vulnerable. Throughout the broadcast, it was plainly visible on the panelists' faces that they were trying so hard to get through each "answer", to not cry. On a set where an invisible wall once seemed to sit between moderator and subject, constructed to remove emotion and leave only the subjects' answers, consoling hands reached across. Carville throughout the hour, but for one anecdote about a college football game, sat pensive, head sunk, holding hands with wife Mary Matalin. Brokaw, usually the embodiment of stolid gravitas, choked up when describing Russert's wide-eyed, idyllic world view.
"What a country!"
But what struck me most in retrospect was that these 7 men and women cared about politics and honesty in its coverage as much as Tim did and that my sense of dread immediately following his death regarding the future coverage of this election and politics in general without Tim may have been misplaced. Although I do believe Russert is in many ways irreplaceable, Meet The Press is a strong enough institution to survive his death and continue to be relevant and important if the right stewardship is found.
I didn't think I would say this so soon but I can't wait for Meet The Press next Sunday.

If It's Sunday...

I don't think any in our generation have witnessed this kind of reaction to the death of a journalist (Daniel Pearl excluded). It speaks to how different he was in the field of TV news. There is nothing else like Meet The Press. Nowhere else can you find an hour of deadly serious political journalism. On other shows, it is about the host, it is about the set, it is about the network, it is about right vs. left. Tim Russert was only interested in the truth, only interested in breaking something new, something important, something we needed to know to fulfill our civic duty. It was about accountability, about a rigorous examination of political credentials. As Barack Obama stated, he was the "standard bearer for serious journalism."
I was very much looking forward to hearing this historic election through Tim Russert but I suppose I can hope that his death has focused people's attention on integrity, on honesty, on good politics.