Seriously.

Nevermind the dramatic shift in the polls and the beating McCain endured all week on the single most crucial of the election. Mark Halperin says McCain won, so therefore McCain won.

Bill Ayers: Turns out the "unrepentant terrorist" that Sean Hannity, the hacks at ABC, and other GOP shills, are so obsessed with, has a blog.

The Curious Capitalist: So, uh, when did Charles Gibson turn into a supply-side nut job?

Fafblog! Another edition of BARACK OBAMA: THE FINAL THROES

Of Two Minds: Hilarious music graphs (h/t apostropher)

ANNALS OF JOURNALISM: Bill Moyers says that journalism's mission is to uncover the news that powerful people would prefer to keep hidden. Now somebody tell these guys and these guys...Tim Robbins' no-holds-barred keynote address to the National Association of Broadcasters...Proof of hackery is David Brooks' approval, and James Fallows contempt...The very annoying Washington Post...When the Wall Street Journal puts a "Nude Miss Subways" on page 6...Penetrating analysis...The stupid burns...Torture news strike

Attytood: An open letter to George Stephanapoulos and Charles Gibson. Their jaw-dropping hackery was just the latest example of how our useless press corps debases civic discourse everyday. Complain about this atrocity...

Undercover Black Man: Prof. Cornel West on Al Jazeera English

Sadly, No! When you're living on wingnut welfare it's really hard to imagine how the other half 9/10s lives.

Arms Control Wonk: How many nukes to deter China?

James Wolcott: Comedy is where you find it...

The Bonddad Blog: More bad news on the inflation front.

Download | play Download | play (h/t Heather)

A sparkling list of hackery marks Friday's Worst Person in The World for Countdown. The bronze goes to Republican presidential contender Rudy Giuliani for letting his 9/11 Tourettes outbursts reach the point of caricature. Perennial list sitter Bill O'Reilly gets the silver for being too stupid to know the difference between the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence as well as having the bad taste to be proud of said stupidity. And finally, the gold goes to the richly deserved Roger Ailes for his revolutionary FOX Business Channel, who has only averaged 6,300 viewers during the day and 15,000 during prime time.

It may be storming outside, but I'm definitely feeling sunshine breaking through some neo-con clouds..

Two conservative Time magazine columnists are on their way out the door: Neither William Kristol nor longtime contributor Charles Krauthammer will be on contract with the magazine starting next month. Mr. Krauthammer confirmed the news to Off the Record, and a spokeswoman for Time said Mr. Kristol's contract would not be renewed.

The exact reasons for the departures of Mr. Krauthammer and Mr. Kristol, both high-profile backers of the Iraq war, are not entirely clear.

But sadly, we're not completely rid of rightwing hackery at Time:

And according to two sources familiar with the discussions, Time is in negotiations with National Review editor Ramesh Ponnuru to sign him to a contributor contract. Mr. Ponnuru, who in 2006 published The Party of Death: The Democrats, the Media, the Courts, and the Disregard for Human Life, has written twice for the magazine over the past month.

AP Via The Huffington Post:

Download | play Download | play (h/t Silent Patriot for the vids)

Download | play Download | play UPDATE: longer version here, you can see what a madhouse it was (h/t Scarce)

President Bush's former chief of staff Andrew Card was loudly booed by hundreds of students and faculty members as he rose to accept an honorary degree at the University of Massachusetts on Friday.[..]
Card smiled slightly while Seymour spoke and raised his hand in thanks, then sat down without speaking.

One faculty member onstage held a sign: "Card _ no honor, no degree." Another sign said, "War criminals go home." Read more...

Frankly, I have a hard time understanding why UMass would even entertain the thought of awarding Card an honorary degree, especially after hearing the recent testimony of Former Deputy Attorney General James Comey detailing his disturbing and highly unethical bedside hackery meeting in John Ashcroft's hospital room in 2004 with then White House Counsel, Alberto Gonzales.

Fables of the reconstruction: Over 20% of Gitmo inmates free to go but not allowed to leave

BeggarsCanBeChoosers: Count on the GOP to dust off the Lee Atwater playbook if Obama gets the 2008 nomination

PEEK: Federal contractors owe billions in unpaid taxes...hope you enjoyed paying yours

Martini Republic: Another feckless, war-pimp pundit feigns amnesia

Mercury Rising: The hackery never ends...your American media at work

democracy arsenal: Gross Incompetence...no, it's not George Bush

Mia Culpa caught this little gem at MSNBC.com:

(R)ight now on MSNBC, this is what a paragraph states in the article on the Senate backing the March '08 deadline for withdrawal of troops from Iraq:

"The effect of the timeline would be to "snatch defeat from the jaws of progress in Iraq," agreed Lieberman, who won a new term last fall in a three-way race after losing the Democratic nomination to an anti-war insurgent."

Lieberman's continual hackery and slavish devotion to neo-con ideals, reality be damned aside, can I just say anti-war INSURGENT???? I'll take "Loaded Terminology" for $1000, Alex. So Ned Lamont (with his netroots support) should be viewed as an insurgent? Nice of the traditional media to finally (albeit tacitly) admit to what we've been saying for some time now: there is a war going on here at home too. The war between the truth of how everyone outside the Beltway perceives this country and her actions and those inside the Beltway desperately trying to hang on to the status quo.

Screen capture of the article (in case they scrub it) below the fold:

Continue reading »

The Osterley Times: This news was greeted, even in Northern Ireland, with open mouthed disbelief. Two of the world's most bitter rivals had agreed to work together.

Rising Hegemon: Attaturk has a slide show for ya...

Daily Howler: We often cite the willful incompetence and breathtaking duplicity of our pathological press corps, but Bob Somerby has been exposing their hackery for ten years. Yesterday he wrote: "These are nasty, stupid people—transfer students from Salem Village. But then, they’re paid for these very traits. Read on; we have to learn how to describe this criminal class."

Whiskey Fire: Sometimes, you just have to look at the wingnuts in absolute jaw-dropped awe.

Spot of Bother: Smithsonian chief rips off the museum...and America

Taylor Marsh: Embarrassing for Jim Webb, very bad for his aide, but a sure-fire way to impress some of our Republican friends!

Amanda checks into the incredible number of mistakes the crackerjack team led by the ex-Washington Post man---John Harris---has accumulated in less than a week. You remember him don't you? He tried to get the wonderful Dan Froomkin fired. Anyway, their hackery is showing itself in record-breaking time. Oliver Willis posted Mike Allen's audio interview with Matt Drudge that speaks for itself. While the term "slow bleed" that the Republicans now use as an anthem originated from them, their credibility is quickly being flushed down the toilet...

Will Bunch has more: Rookie Mistakes Plague The Politico

OK, actually the headline of the piece that I'm writing about here is "Rookie Mistakes Plague Obama," and it's the latest effort from the new, right-wing narrative-boosting tag team of The Politico web site and Matt Drudge.

UPDATE: Glenn Greenwald: Drudge and the Politico -- poisonously joined at the hip

But whatever else is true, it is now inescapably clear that The Politico will be working hand-in-hand with Matt Drudge. That seems to be the very purpose of The Politico -- quoting a blogger with whom I exchanged email on this topic earlier this week: "to put the full stamp of legitimacy on the Drudgification of politics."

UPDATE #2: Media Matters lists some other reasons that the Politico needs to keep apologizing