WELCOME TO DAYBOOK, our daily collection of media and politics hits/misses from a wide variety of sources plus fun videos and (and at the bottom) musical picks. Return for updates all day. Keep up with fresh items via tweets [1]. E-mail: epic1934@aol.com [2]. To increase type size hit the middle "A" above right.
AFTERNOON UPDATEs
Updates on CNN's firing of longtime top staffer Octavia Nasr over a tweet: former CNN host Daryn Kagan defends her [3], and at legnth Glenn Greenwald attacks move. [4] Greenwald: "Within this episode lies several important lessons about media "objectivity' and how the scope of permissible views is enforced."
AP reveals that it held back [5] reporting news on terror plot against U.S., coming out of Norway, for two weeks.
Andrew Bacevich [6] on Obama's lack of a "moral" core, plus: "Obama doesn’t want to be in Afghanistan any more than Benjamin Netanyahu wants to be in the West Bank. Yet like the Israeli prime minister, the president lacks the guts to get out. It’s all so complicated. There are risks involved. Things might go wrong. So the war continues." See my new piece on Bacevich here. [7]
Turn lemons into lemonade? So says [8] GOP/Tea Party candidate vs. Harry Reid in Nevada in opposing abortions in all cases, even when teen raped by father. Huff Post has audio.
Remember that popular YouTube video of Israelis dancing in the streets? Andrew Sullivan: "It sure was a fun video [9]. But a little context makes it less so. The street in Hebron they were dancing on is restricted to Jewish settlers, who make up just one percent of the town's population. The Palestinians who live on the street cannot leave their homes through the front doors because the Israeli occupiers welded their doors shut in 2000. Here's a video [10] from B-Tselem showing how one woman has to clamber across a rooftop just to leave her house. She also claims she is the object of relentless harassment by the settlers, subsidized by you and me."
--TOPS FOR THURSDAY
CNN drops [11] respected Middle East senior editor and reporter Octavia Nasr after she tweets that she had some respect for Hezbollah leader Fadlallah who passed away. She later apologized, saying she had foolishly tried to express something in 140 characters that is much too complex for that -- and she is in fact critical of much of what the leader did and stood for. Don't miss very complex Foreign Policy look at Fadallah [12] which happened to run just this past Tuesday.
Andy Borowitz: "BP Says Oil in Gulf Must be Changed Every Six Months." I'd add: Or every 3000 miles of drifting.
John McCain is latest Republican to say he is voting against [13] confirming Elena Kagan. McCain says he will not vote for Kagan because of her decision to bar military recruiters on campus. This is the same man who found Sarah Palin qualified to be president. An opinion piece outlining McCain's decision is printed in today's [14] USA Today.
We've run a couple of vintage "Even Steven / Stephen" segments from "The Daily Show" lately but could hardly imagine that we'd see a reprise last night when Carell returned to the Colbert show for a great mutual mockfest. Video:
| The Colbert Report [15] | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Steve Carell [16] | ||||
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The Left and Obama: Eric Alterman [21] with massive accounting of the "Kabuki." . Peter Daou [22] on the Left's growing "civil war" over Obama.
Leukemia patient [23] in Colorado says insurance company held up payment because she owed them -- one penny.
IRAQ ROLLED? Andrew Sullivan this morning: "Two days, two sectarian bombings that killed close to 60 people [24] and wounded hundreds of others. If this had happened in any other country, it would be dominating the news cycle. There is still no post-sectarian government in Iraq and no sign of one either."
AZ DOES IT FOR OBAMA The White House finally speaks to base voters: Robert Gibbs says Obama thinks lawsuit against AZ law [25]is "right" thing to do.
LOST KOS Markos Moulitsas, the Daily Kos founder, reveals [26] that he has been blackballed from appearing on MSNBC for now at the urging of Joe Scarborough. Markos allegedly went too far in a tweet not long ago.
BRISTOL STOMP Gail Collins has some fun [27] with Levi Johnston and his partial "apology" to the Palins, and the mother of his child making a buck off it herself.... Sarah Palin with new video [28] hailing a "Mom Awakeeing" juxtaposed with Tea Party scenes.
TWAIN MEETS.... JIM LEHRER PBS NewsHour offered first look at new Mark Twain [29] ms. to be published, on the subject of journalism, no less. Much more at that link including video of the essay being read. Did Twain and Will Rogers ever meet? Would love to have transcript of that chat.
WHY DID THE CHICKEN CROSS THE ROAD? To get to California? Gov. Schwarzenegger has signed a historic [30] "egg bill" which requires that starting in 2015, all shell (whole) eggs sold in California must come from hens who were able to stand up, lie down, turn around, and fully extend their limbs without touching one another or the sides of an enclosure.
BITS & PIECES . The Daily Show's Olivia Munn [31] joins defense of show not being "sexist" .... George Will somehow connects [32] 1920s Prohibition to today's "ambitious" gov't attempts to "improve" people.... Huff Post has bought [33] Pollster.com to "beef up" election year coverage.... TPM catches [34] Sen. Vitter lying, hooker, line and sinker. ... TIME's Alex Parry latest bigtime journo to totally lose it [35]in the face of criticism (we were among first)
TODAY'S LAFF
American Idol reject Krista Branch records Tea Party anthem, titled "I Am America" -- same name as the bestselling Stephen Colbert book. It's for sale on iTunes and promoted by Glenn Beck yesterday. Yes, she and supporters are "taking names" awaiting "Judgment Day."
TODAY's MUSIC
With the Doug Liman film starring Naomi Watts coming soon, we thought you might enjoy The Decemberists' "Valerie Plame" single, here performed solo by the group's Colin Meloy.