My Local Media Market

We swapped Bill O'Reilly for sports-talk. Good deal for us.

WJFK (106.7 FM) yesterday dropped Bill O'Reilly's nationally syndicated show, "The Radio Factor," and replaced it with a sports-talk program hosted by Jim Rome. O'Reilly, an avowed independent who takes many conservative views, occupied a two-hour afternoon slot on WJFK.

The popular Fox News Channel TV host never attracted much of a radio following in Washington -- in the most recent ratings period, his program had about 1.2 percent of the audience. But then, neither have many other conservatives, whose programs are popular in many cities but barely move the ratings needle in the Washington area, the nation's eighth-largest radio market."

From The Washington Post.

Jerry Falwell Is Dead

and I can't write about it. I can think about how joyous I would be if I believed in reincarnation. But I know I can't start writing. That would produce a screed of at least 20 pages that would make Rude One look like Little Mary Sunshine. So for now I will just give you a quote from a fellow blogger:

If Charon can ferry his bloated carcass across the Styx, I'm sure there'll be a huge party in Hell tonight to welcome one of Satan's most effective servants on earth.

from Down With Tyranny

"Will no one rid me of this turbulent blogger?"

The self-loathing Phillipina thinks Barak Obama (on the left with his mother) is inarticulate. Here is the audio. Judge for yourself. It seems a lot of folks on the right don't care for large themes and abstraction.

Digby

Profound as always.

Dick Cheney is Hiding in the Bushes

Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

What does he know that we don't?

My Favorite Sport, Schadenfreude

Yes, two joyous posts today. No photos this time for which, I'm sure, you'll be grateful. From Shenanigan's Blog on Politico a little local gossip:

today on the Hill, Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio) was seen making a spectacle of herself when the unlucky lawmaker slipped and fell in what we’re told was vomit, in a bathroom in Cannon. (Some nice female dealing with the repercussions of Jason Roe’s going away party by chance?) “She made THE biggest scene in the hallway,” says a staffer who escaped the, um, regurgitation. “It’s literally all down her back.”

Wanker of the, Well Month at Least

(h/t to Atrios for the title reference)

I'll just quote the piece in The Hill. It's too stupid for words. The photo over there is just to remind you how really really short he is.

Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), the Democratic Caucus chairman, has told new Democratic members of Congress to steer clear of Stephen Colbert, or at least his satirical Comedy Central program, “The Colbert Report.”

“He said don’t do it … it’s a risk and it’s probably safer not to do it,” said Rep. Steve Cohen. But the freshman lawmaker from Tennessee taped a segment that last week was featured in the 32nd installment of the “Better Know a District” series. Colbert asked Cohen whether he was a black woman. He isn’t.

Eyes (but thankfully, not heads) roll in Emanuel’s office when other freshmen stumble, such as the time Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) got into a debate about the merits of throwing kittens into a wood-chipper, or when Rep. Zack Space (D-Ohio) explained that he is not his predecessor, convicted felon Bob Ney (R).

Part of me wants to blame this idiocy on his DLC inclination, but really it's just because he's a short douchebag with no sense of humor.

A Little Sports Post,

a little Star Trek. Honoring my geek friends who like sports and the NCAA's beginning this week. And honoring General Pace as well.



(And for my supergeek friends who have no idea, Tim Hardaway the basketball player pictured, made a big deal about his hatred of gay folks.

Know The "Candidates," Part I - Newt

We all know how important it is to Know The Candidates, so in the interest of my public and the small service I may provide, I'll focus on charactr.

Newt Gingrich, courtesy of Scoobie Davis via Skippy

Here's a summary of Gingrich's family life: 1) Gingrich marries his high school teacher, Jackie, who was seven years his senior; 2) Jackie puts Gingrich through college and she works hard to get him elected to the House in 1978 (Gingrich won partly because his campaign claimed that his Democratic opponent would neglect her family if elected--at that time it was common knowledge that Gingrich was straying); 3) Shortly after being elected, Gingrich separated from his wife--announcing the separation in the hospital room where Jackie was recovering from cancer surgery (the divorce was final in 1981); Jackie Gingrich and her children had to depend on alms from her church because Gingrich didn't pay any child support; 3) Six months after the divorce, Gingrich, then 38, married Marianne Ginther, 30; 4) "In May 1999, however, Gingrich [55] called Marianne [48] at her mother's home. After wishing the 84-year-old matriarch happy birthday, he told Marianne that he wanted a divorce." Happy Fucking Mother's Day. This was eight months after Marianne was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis; 5) In 2000, Gingrich, 57, married ex-congressional aide Callista Bisek, 34, with whom he was having a relationship while married to Marianne.

More Wingnuts For Your Entertainment

I don't think this is becoming the blog of YouTube Wingnuts, but with film this good, how can I resist.

Interviews from CPAC (Conservative Political Action Committee) Max Blumenthal writing at The Nation. I have a particular fondness for watching Ms. Malkin go all apeshit after she realizes that putting out an errata sheet on her book means that she admitted she made mistakes.

An Educational Post

Apparently one of my faithful readers, Miss Kimmah, has never seen the aforementioned decorative testicles hanging behind a vehicle. She clearly lives in a better neighborhood than I do. So in the interest of greater clarity, I give you Truck with Testicles.

Just so you know, they come in a smaller size for motorcycle users and in a wide range of colors including chrome, camouflage, "flesh," and black. Here they are in a lovely shade of blue which I suspect is supposed to make a statement, but perhaps I give the users too much credit.

Yes, yes, you're welcome. We try to keep our readers fully informed.

Maryland, My Maryland

Proposed legislation, taken from a newsletter I get keeping me informed of these vital things.

Bill would ban explicit decorations on vehicles
Regional Digest
Maryland
Baltimore Sun
Feb 23, 2007

Fake bull testicles and other anatomically explicit vehicle decorations would be banned from Maryland roads under a bill pending in the state legislature.

The measure was filed Monday by Del. LeRoy E. Myers Jr., a Washington County Republican who says children shouldn't be exposed to such decorations dangling from pickup truck trailer hitches. The bill also would ban depictions of naked human breasts, buttocks or genitals, with offenses punishable by fines of up to $500.

The American Civil Liberties Union objected to Myers' bill. [Associated Press]

My first reaction was to ridicule such silly legislation. But on reflection I think it might keep a lot of rednecks, Texans, and those with tiny penises out of the state. I think I'll call Delegate Myers and tell he that I support him.

Cash for Science

I love everything about this brief story.

Scientists and economists have been offered $10,000 each by a lobby group funded by one of the world's largest oil companies to undermine a major climate change report due to be published today.

Letters sent by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), an ExxonMobil-funded thinktank with close links to the Bush administration, offered the payments for articles that emphasise the shortcomings of a report from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Let me be linear for a moment. First they think that scientists' professional reputation and labor is only worth $10,000. Seems a bit low to me but maybe they have graduate students in mind. Of course they wouldn't be the best spokespeople when pitted against the caliber of scientists on the panel, but maybe the sponsors would be happy with anybody they could point to as long as they could put the word "Scientist" after the name.

Let's move on to other joys this story brings me. The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) tries very hard to convince us that they are an independent think tank, a gaggle of thoughtful conservatives providing us with guidance. They tell us

Competition of ideas is fundamental to a free society

The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research is a private, nonpartisan, not-for-profit institution dedicated to research and education on issues of government, politics, economics, and social welfare.

(I'm sure you can find the link for yourselves. I don't need to make it easy on them.)

I suppose they would argue that offering cash for an idea consists of "competition of ideas" but some might disagree. Some -- meaning me -- view this as a spectacular example of monopoly capitalism run amok.

More important, though, is the information that AEI is "an ExxonMobil-funded thinktank." Well if that doesn't just scream nonpartisan, competition of ideas, and the elevation of research.

Fear the Light Bright?

Landru has calculated the probability you'll be killed by a light bright.