WELCOME TO DAYBOOK, our daily morning collection of media and politics hits/misses from a wide variety of sources. And return for updates every afternoon. Plus: Don't forget to keep up with fresh items, events and analysis on Twitter @MediaFixBlog [1] and @GregMitch [1]. Email me at: epic1934@aol.com [2].
AFTERNOON UPDATES
Glenn Greenwald [3] takes on Ken Salazar and Obama admin missteps on BP and oil drilling in general. Jim Hightower [4] slams corporate and government actions..... James Cameron [5] elaborates on being asked to help on oil spill: BP "morons don't know what they're doing." .... Great satiric BP bashng using kids' cartoons/comics (including SpongeBob and Aquaman), billboards, defacing gas pumps here [6]..... Andy Borowitz: "BREAKING: BP Consulting With Toyota about Making Things Stop."
Obama on Larry King tonight.
Shocker: Turns out one of 9 victims of Israeli assault on aid ship was American [7], age 19, died with 5 bullet holes in him. Here's a bit about him [8] and his photo ..... Leon Wieseltier [9]: "Israel does not need enemies: it has itself. Or more precisely: it has its government. The Netanyahu-Barak government has somehow found a way to lose the moral high ground, the all-important war for symbols and meanings, to Hamas. That is quite an accomplishment.."
Haaretz in editorial calls on Bibi [10] to lift blockade.... Jeremy Scahill tweets that during a break in his MSNBC appearance on Israel today, Ed Koch called him a "terrorist supporter." Jeremy replied: "Say it on the air." Watch debate below:
Palin's hometown paper apologizes to Joe McGinnis [11] for its recent "death threat" editorial.... Palin's consensus poll ratings [12]: 35% approval, 52% non-approval.... Huff Post: Dems now will try to tie Palin to top GOPer Fred Malek, whose anti-Jewish bashing [13] for Nixon was revisited by Wash Post this morning.
S. Carollina police probe racial angle [14] after white man accused of killing black man--and dragging his body behind his truck.
PORN IN THE USA: Survey finds amazing stats [15]on popularity of online porn. Beyond raw numbers, favorite day for watching is Sunday, most active state--Utah. Much more.
YOU GOT THE SILVER: NYT announces it will host [16] great 538.com political site, and Nate Silver will become regular Times contributor. Details [17] on unusual structure of deal.
BITS & PIECES: Flap over another White House job "offer" to candidate: Bush ethics chief [18] says, move along, nothing illegal here.....Doo-Wah Diddy? Paul Krugman [19] has cameo in new Apatow - P. Diddy flick. Call him P. Krugy from now on.... Getting Gored: Man in the street complains to The Onion about breakup of Gore marriage: [20]"Great, now I have to compete with Al Gore for women?"
--TOPS FOR THURSDAY MORNING
FOX NEWS BAIT another Democratic candidate claims he was offerred [21] job by White House to quit race. White House confirms but says no big deal. [22]
JON OVER JOE Joe Biden on Charlie Rose last night backs Israel, [23] to the hilt, on Gaza ship attack, asking "what's the big deal here?" (At least he left the "F" out of "BFD.") AIPAC [24] thanked him. At about the same hour, Jon Stewart turned serious, after segment on Israel and Korea, to call statement by Charles Krauthammer "stupidest thing" he's ever heard. Krauthammer, on Fox (naturally), said this week there is "no humanitarian crisis in Gaza."
John Cole slams Barney Frank [25] for over-the-top defense of Israel on flotilla assault on Hardball. Chris Matthews had chimed in: "When you let Europeans judge Israel they are not being judged by jury of their peers." Actually, a jury of their peers would be....Palestinians. Strong Nick Kristof column [26] on "saving israel from itself." Must end blockade and Obama "needs to find his voice" to demand that.
NUKE LA LEAK Latest idea to stop leak [27] in the Gulf--nuke it--gets turned down by U.S. officials. Too bad, think of all the cool names for the operation: Top Final Kill, Critical Mess, Radiate/Fade Away..... Jon Chait slams Palin [28] for her Facebook postings yesterday about oil spill and her claims she only favored drill baby drill on land, not at sea (a complete lie, as easily proven).... Alaska GOP Rep. Don Young [29]: Gulf spill “not an environmental disaster."
TWOFER Stephen Colbert tweets: "Two wrongs don't make a right. but i'm determined to find out how many wrongs do."
DENNIS HOPPER FUNERAL: Read about it here [30]--was held at my favorite church in the world, San Francisco de Asis in Taos, made famous in photos by Ansel Adams (left) and others, paintings by Georgia O'Keeffe.
MORE ON ISRAEL/GAZA Another front-page NYT story today on the crisis by Ethan Bronner, whose son serves in IDF. As we've noted, the paper's public editor suggested months ago that he be reassigned because of just this eventuality, even if Bronner fine and honorable reporter..... Angry Gideon Levy piece [31] in Haaretz on Bibi: "Soon Turkey will be at war with us too." David Brooks in dialog with Gail Collins at NYT blog blames flotilla killings [32] purely on "thugs" on ships. Collins says nothing..... British PM Cameron [33]calls Israeli attack "completely unacceptable" and calls for lifting blockade.....
PAUL OVER WHITE HOUSE Paul McCartney got the Gershwin Medal from Obama tomorrow and some people, i.e, Andy Borowitz, had some fun with it, claiming he received a presidential pardon for his post-Beatles work. In any case, here's Obama's tribute:
COLL: THE WHOLE THING OFF The great Steve Coll explains why [34]he is giving up blogging at the New Yorker and will stick to his important long form work: "Some problems that I half-expected that also turned out to be true: 1) Writing fast about serious subjects because they are in the news, without doing a lot of reporting first, can produce crap. 2) Even the better instances of that sub-genre are still not very satisfying over time to the author."
ON THE CAN-PAIN TRAIL Second man claims affair [35] with S. Carolina GOP candidate Nikki Haley, but has no proof. Gail Collins [36] has some fun. ....Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona, caught claiming [37] her dad died fighting the Nazis--when he passed away ten years after war. Yeah, and I served in Vietnam (well, I was in ROTC in 1966-1968). Carly Fiorini, [38] candidate, calls global warming merely "weather."
CORRECTION IS NOT M.I.A. Controversial NYT cover story on singer M.I.A. gets correction today [39]about cobbling together of a key quote.
KEITH DON'T GO (THERE): Olbermann blogs at his Baseball Nerd site on ump missing call [40] in perfect game last night--suggests commissioner overturn today (unprecedented?).
BITS & PIECES Katrina gets "Real," Nation editor to appear on Bill Maher's show this Friday with Andrew Sullivan, Van Jones, Judd Apatow..... Ken Paulson [41]: the "myth of media bias" -- they're just against whoever is in charge..... NPR ombud says it has reported too-low number [42]of Jewish settlers in Wet Bank and E. Jerusalem--because relied on bad CIA numvbers...... On first day, four parties [43] make bids for Newsweek.... Survey finds two-thirds of Americans can't name [44] a single U.S. Supreme Court justice, 1% can name all of them..... Brad Pitt [45]buys film rights to "The Imperfectionists" about an International Herald Tribune-like newspaper.
BUSH IS PURE TORTURE Hell, yeah, I waterboarded and I'd do it again [46], former president says yesterday.
TODAY's LAFF
Fun mashup of the wild, viral, TV spots of three just-defeated Alabama candidates. Watch for Bill Ayers. Guns optional.