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 @gregmitch at Twitter. [1] E-mail: epic1934@aol.com [2]. To increase type size hit the middle "A" above right.
NO SUNDAY OF REST
Newsweek cover story out today: Re-thinking Afghan war, [3] i.e. not worth it? ....Shocking detail in that report of U.S. Army suicides climbing again: massive surge among Guard [4], probably due to U.S. economic stress.
Study finds only about 2% of top climate scientists [5] do not believe in man-made global warming. Will media care?
American Nazi group now patrolling border [6] in (where else?) Arizona.
Frank Rich [7] hits Mel Gibson and recalls rightwing, and Fox, backing for Mel and "The Passion." Where are they now? .... Maureen Dowd [8]: If Roman Polanski were a priest he'd still be working in the Vatican.
According to CBS News WH reporter Mark Knoller---first 18 months in office Obama took 65 days off, Bush: 216.
Good for Tom Friedman: he slams CNN [9] for firing Middle East expert Octavia Nasr over "Hezbollah" slip.
Leave it to Cleaver: Waiting for Daily Show to come back & cover most absurd story of year: New Black Panther threat. Wash Post ombud elevates it here [10].
PBS ombud Michael Getler strongly critiques [11] that fawning series about George Shultz, and PBS, partly inspired by piece I wrote about it week here -- and creator smacks me in response.
--SATURDAY MATINEE
Fox in the henhouse? Oh, see how [12] Wash Post changed a headline on an "explosive" New Black Panther story. Meanwhile, D.C. types, and others, holding their breaths for giant Dana Priest Post scoop coming within two days.
Yes, Mad Men fans, big piece [13] in Sunday's NYT (note Pryce/Bryce typo or error) reveals that Betty and Henry do get married and Don is living in a "dark" Greenwich Village apartment and finding it harder to score as a single man than he did as a hubby. One wonders if Joan's husband will be sent off to Vietnam? I'd say yes. In any case, final season before Dylan goes electric!
Especially on the weekend, please take this to heart, so to speak: [14]Bob Herbert [14] column: "Tweet less, kiss more."
Part II of series: My new piece [15] on 65th anniversary (Friday) of first nuclear blast: How it led Truman to Hiroshima.... Hot and much-needed anti-nuke film Countdown to Zero opening this Friday from the people who brought you An Inconvenient Truth.
Listen to audio of prostitute fan Sen. Vitter saying [16] Rachel Maddow looked like a woman "a long time ago" to get flavor of where he's at. Maddow accepts [17] his apology.
5 more NATO troops killed in Afghan by roadside bombs. AP: Hillary heads [18] to Afghan amid growing doubts about war. "Holbrooke acknowledges concerns that the war and the reconstruction effort are not going as hoped or planned." .... Andy Borowitz: "The people who say Afghanistan will get better after 9 years probably said the same thing about Friends." Or the Knicks.
Glenn Greenwald catches [19] NYT referring to torture in China as "torture" but by U.S. as "rough" treatment. "So in NYT World, even shackling helpless detainees to the ceiling for prolonged periods and repeatedly beating them is not 'torture,' but are rather merely 'rough tactics' or 'brutal interrogation methods.'"
Unpublished Mark Twain autobiography rails against [20]YouTube, BP, War In Afghanistan. Oh, it's from The Onion, of course.
Case study: Kentucky woman [21], with no unemployments left, almost out of money.
TODAY's LAFF
One of the great infomercial fails ever. "No, that is not a horse."
TODAY's MUSIC
If you've missed "What If the Tea Party Was Black?"