Friday Follies – September 21

Made it through another week!  What are your plans for the weekend? I have some fall fertilizer to put down on the front lawn, dinners to cook for guests both nights this weekend, and the usual round of errands to run, including (of course) the Farmers’ Market Saturday morning.  Things are winding down for the farmers – we’re seeing winter squash, potatoes, etc.  But we didn’t get our usual "second crop" of homegrown tomatoes.  Oh, you can find a few, but they’re not as plentiful as most years.  Of course, there will be more than a little football-watching this weekend, highlighted by the Arkansas game Saturday night.

If you haven’t read it (or seen it), make sure you catch Keith OIbermann’s latest Special Comment. We snagged both the transcript and video last night.  Enjoy. And, as long as we’re on the subject of KO, dig through the comments in the Open Thread here, after you read the suggestion that Keith replace Katie on CBS -

Friday Open Thread

Welcome back! Marvin Kitman – yes, that Marvin Kitman – has penned a bit for the new edition of The Nation positing that KO should be the new face of the CBS Evening News: "In short, what CBS (and all the others) need is a new Ed Murrow. Good news! There’s already one out there [...]

As for today, we begin with the latest, sorry, tale of money issues at the Pentagon. We’re talking really big bucks, folks.  Our tax dollars, floating around out there, being used for who knows what!

$6 billion under review, $88 billion under audit at Pentagon

…Taken together, the figures, provided by the Pentagon in a hearing before the House Armed Services Committee, represent the fullest public accounting of the magnitude of a widening government investigation into bid-rigging, bribery and kickbacks by members of the military and civilians linked to the [...]

Tags: Pentagon, Bid-rigging, Bribery, Kickbacks

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The Rather Lawsuit

We haven’t talked much about Dan Rather’s big lawsuit against CBS. It’s taken me a couple of days to learn enough about it to feel comfortable writing much of anything.  However, after hearing an interview with Rather on MSNBC early this morning, I’m beginning to think he’s honestly just sticking up for what he thinks is right.  And good.  There are many who are saying, basically, that Rather has become a crazy, old, man who’s way out on a limb that sure to be cut off.  Myself, I sense that he’s just fed up with big media corporations buckling to political pressure.  And, he sees the lawsuit as a way to prove it.  I say, go for it!  Here’s a post that pretty much summarizes some of the key points -

Two More Details on the Rather Complaint

Hey! Howie Kurtz has decided to do some reporting!! He has two pieces on the Dan Rather lawsuit today. In a piece based on an interview of Rather, he notes that Moonves and Heyward demanded Rather resign the [...]

More analysis of the lawsuit -

I’ve been going…

I’ve been going through the big lawsuit that Dan Rather filed against CBS the other day, and there’s some stuff in it that’s pretty eye-opening and definitely deserving of more attention. Rather’s lawsuit, of course, deals mostly with the scandal [...]

And, guess what?!  Because Rather is taking on the Bush Administration, the conservative bloggers are whipped into a frenzy -

Third time’s a charm?

With the return of Dan Rather, we get two for the price of one. Mary Mapes crawls out into view with a blast into the past at the Whipping Post. I actually read Mapes’s fraudulent book about her 60 Minutes II escapade and had my say about her in "Second time’s a charm?". Ed Morrissey comments on [...]

Rather’s compared to O.J. over here -

Dan Rather, OJ and the Culture of the Delusional Celebrity

What do an unpunished celebrity murderer and a disgraced former anchorman have in common? According to Roger L. Simon, Dan Rather and OJ Simpson both feel their fame diminishing and are out to reclaim it [...]

Tags: Dan Rather, Rather Sues CBS, Howie Kurtz

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Money, Money, Money

Kevin Drum has some really discouraging money thoughts today. I’ve been thinking much the same – that our financial situation is really much worse and much more tenuous than we’ve been led to believe.  Just a bit of sugar-coating, apparently.

Hold On To Your Wallets

Earlier today I was wondering if the Fed had reduced interest rates so dramatically because it believed things were even worse than the rest of us thought. I guess so: "Losses from sub-prime mortgages have far exceeded [...]

Tags: Interest Rates, Sub-Prime Mortgages, Economy

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Another Lawsuit

Not the Rather one.  Have you heard that Johnson & Johnson has sued the American Red Cross?  That’s right, the huge pharmacutical company wants the Red Cross to stop using that little red cross as a logo. I first heard about it at a gathering a few weeks ago, when I ran into a long-time friend who happens to be a local administrator in the Red Cross.  Today, the ARC has responded.  In a BIG way!

Red Cross roughs up J&J in legal tussle

As if Johnson & Johnson needed more PR headaches over its ill-conceived lawsuit against the American Red Cross, the latter has now filed a bruising response that turns the tables on J&J by accusing the drug company of improperly using [...]

Tags: Johnson & Johnson, American Red Cross, Lawsuit, Logo

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More Media Attention

Lots of media chatter today – Rather suing CBS – Kitman suggestion Olbermann should anchor CBS news – and now, the media vs Rudy…

Stumbling onto Giuliani’s open secret

Former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s personal life has been a mess for quite a while. No one needs to go dumpster diving to learn the details; they’re all out in the open — three marriages (including one to his cousin), repeated extra-marital affairs, left his second wife by of a press conference (he told reporters [...]

Tags: Giuliani, Vilsack

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I’m Confused

I totally am.  Mattel is apologizing to China?  Is the world upside down tonight? Or inside out?

Mattel Apologizes To China Over Recalls, Take Full Blame

U.S.-based toy giant Mattel Inc. issued an extraordinary apology to China on Friday over the recall of Chinese-made toys, taking the blame for design flaws and saying it had recalled more lead-tainted toys than justified. The gesture by Thomas A. Debrowski, Mattel’s executive vice president for worldwide operations, came in a meeting with Chinese product safety chief Li Changjiang, at which Li upbraided [...]

Tags: Mattel, China, Lead Paint

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Break Time

Just to mix things up a bit tonight, take a break and enjoy another blast from the past.  Actually, a darn good collection of blasts.

Whatever happened to the old ad stars?

I can’t count the number of times I’ve been driving somewhere or watching TV and suddenly thought, “Hey, whatever happened to the FedEx fast-talker guy?” That’s because I’ve never actually done it. But the folks at Mental Floss have, and [...]

Tags: Classic TV, Advertising

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Controlling the Coverage

It certainly was interesting to watch George Bush’s news conference yesterday.  It’s been disected on so many levels, but this one sticks out in my mind.

Did Conservative Reporter Conspire With Bush On Question Bashing Democrats?

At the end of yesterday’s press conference, a reporter asked President Bush what was his “reaction” to MoveOn.org’s Gen. Petraeus ad in the New York Times. The question — the last of the briefing — gave Bush an opportunity to express his disappointment in the “leaders of the Democrat party“: I thought the ad was [...]

Tags: Patraeus, Bill Sammon, Keith Olbermann, Dana Milbank

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That Didn’t Take Long

If anybody thought Blackwater was REALLY getting forced out of Iraq…welll…

Blackwater: Back in Business

Since State Department officials’ ability to travel in Iraq had been severely limited by Blackwater’s temporary shutdown, it was just a matter of time: American convoys under the protection of [...]

Tags: Blackwater, Iraq

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Take Another Break

If you didn’t catch the Daily Show last night, you missed a good one. John’s take on the President’s News Conference is classic. He snagged all of the questionable comments and had some fun..

Daily Show: Cliff Notes for Bush’s Press Conference

For those of us who have a hard time understanding President Bush’s rambling, nonsensical press conferences, Jon breaks it down. He also gets a few good jabs in at feckless Democrats and idiotic Republican Senators [...]

Tags: Press Conference.

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BlogRush

We’re trying something new! At the top of the right-side information column, you’ll find a new box near the top. That’s BlogRush, an interesting new way to highlight good posts at other blogs.  If you’d like more information about how it work, just click here.

Tags: BlogRush

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Bet Bush Didn’t Expect THIS!

The power of the prez! via AMERICAblog -

Bush raises half a million for MoveOn

Maybe we could get him to attack AMERICAblog too? From Eli Pariser, the Executive Director of MoveOn. "Dear MoveOn member,…And then came the donations. By midnight, over 12,000 people had donated $500,000—more than we’ve raised any day this year—for our new ad calling out the Republicans who blocked adequate rest for troops headed back to Iraq. The message from MoveOn members was loud and clear: Don’t back down. Take the fight back to [...]

Tags: MoveOn, Patraeus

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Surging Toward Success

Well, that may be a bit overblown.  A bit optimistic. Ahem…

How up are they?

As the Iraqis stand up, we’ll stand down. At least that was the theory. So, how much standing up have they been doing in Baghdad? Iraqi forces have taken the lead for security in only about eight percent of Baghdad’s neighborhoods more than eight months after the start of the US troop surge, a senior US [...]

Tags: Iraqi Security Forces, Standing Up, Baghdad

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It’s Not Just Lead Paint

Nope.  Now it’s cribs. Baby cribs.  From – drum roll, please – China!

Largest crib recall in history

Federal regulators today recalled about 1 million cribs made by Simplicity Inc. because the drop rail on some of the nation’s best-selling models can detach from the crib, creating a dangerous gap that has led to the deaths of at least three children.Following a Chicago Tribune investigation to be published [...]

Tags: Crib Recall

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