"The margin is now reportedly in single digits." ... the link says double-digits (ie,

GM is giving up some of its private jets. Good move.

I hear AIG and Lehman are looking into buying them since they've got all that 'no strings' cash.

I still think failed CEOs should be treated like money launderers and drug peddlers and have all of their assets stripped.

* Wall Street loves Tim Geithner.

That's not a good sign.

* I'm sorry to hear that Salon is cutting its staff.

I'm sorry that Walsh didn't have the decency to fire herself.

Did Palin actually give the okay to film the grotesque bloody slaughtering of a turkey after she just "pardoned" one?

Did she acknowledge the piece would likely bring controversy, but it was nonetheless "FUN"?

Did she somehow find justification this was fine, just a business?

I think I'm going to be ill. The woman is truly pathological. Very masochistic, very chillingly in-your-face-inhumane. And proud of it, it seems.
That smile as the bird is being killed--it's horror exemplified.

While Salon is how I found out about The Carpetbagger Report, I cant say I'm sorry (or surprised) that it's having trouble. Greenwald and Benjamin are excellent, but beyond that, there's not much to see there.

The last straw for me was the Palin-as-dominatrix story. That was just pathetic.

"a clean bill of health."

Sounds to me as if he is pre-diabetic.

"...We have had 30 years of class warfare, in which the wealthy strip-mined the middle class...." Joe Klein

Michell Bachmann on Fox with H & C: "What I said was that I'm not qualified to say whether members views are pro or anti American. That's not my job to do."

"What I said was that I'm not qualified..... "

At least she got one thing right.....

* I'm sorry to hear that Salon is cutting its staff.

Weren't you one of the first Salon casualties, when they dc'd the Blog Report and broke my heart?

I'm not sure what the margin (for the Franken-Coleman race) means when only half the votes have been counted. Does that mean that they discovered errors in the original count for whatever precincts have been checked so far?

Sounds to me as if he is pre-diabetic.

I dunno - I think he locked his knees.

"GM is giving up some of its private jets. Good move."

Pure window dressing. The exact words were "taking them out of service" which means they could be put back "in service" as soon as the media heat is off, so they're actually giving up nothing.

What amused me the most is how confused they all looked at the hearing. It was like they were thinking, "But...but...but...you're supposed to give us anything we want with no questions asked. You're the U.S. Congress, for God's sake!!"

See, guys, there was this election the other day....

LOL--Bachmann actually had the audacity yesterday to deny outright what she had said,and went on to re-frame it as: "Urban Legend"!

What's unbelievable is she actually had the gumption to think she could simply get away with this, that somehow it makes her interpretation real.

In Psych circles, they call that delusional.

I am sure there are others here and elswhere that could do a better job illuminating my points but I posted this at 538 in response to the Ziegler writeup;

Nate, have you read or looked into any of Lakoff's research any other behavioural scientist as it relates to brain plasticity?

The reason conservatives have failed and can't admit it to themselves or at least step outside of their worldview long enough to see their failures for what they are probably lies in brain plasticity theories.

I won't do it any justice so you're better off looking into it yourself but basically their synapsis are frozen and locked into a sort of feedback loop and that's why their ability to stay on message worked so well for so long, that is that it asserts and emphasizes the frames that have become fixed in the speakers and listeners minds.

I think the internet has become such a powerful tool that it shifts things away from the repeated messaging and it maybe the underlying reason why most voters under 40 support OBama and will probably never vote Republican unless another paradigm shift occurs. We that are under 40 expect multiplicity in our communication and look at feeble attempts at messaging for what they are, lame propaganda.

You need to be careful about your electronic calorie intake...

While I stopped reading Salon about two years ago (after being an avid reader for years)... I'm sorry to hear they're losing staff.

Though I'd be pretty angry if I found out they had to do this while continuing to pay one red cent for any of Camille Paglia's nonsensical rantings.

I gave up on Salon a long time ago. Loved it when Steve subbed for the War Room and then migrated to The Carpetbagger Report when that gig was up. This sounds mean, but I hope that they canned Cary Tennis. His columns have been fluffy at best and ethically irresponsible at worst. And poor Joan Walsh...well, she has been a dismal editor. Glenn Greenwald would be better off writing elsewhere--his blog is great, but I don't read it very often because it's such a hassle to wait through the ads just to get to his page. And I'm not even considering a subscription until something is done about Cary's "Since You Asked" column.

I love Nate Silver, if for no other reason than he proves the protractor crowd hasn't changed much fashion-wise since the '60's. I see a future at the Fed for him.

Morning Apparatchik

Joe Scarborough?
Claiming Al Franken is stealing votes?
Supplying no evidence of the charge?

Wasn't he the one who recently lectured Chris Matthews on the responsibilities of a journalist?

More better party hacks please...

I'm sorry to hear about Salon, but I'm more sorry in general millions are losing their jobs, their pensions--and that professions like teaching continue so underpaid and that thousands upon thousands are unable to afford basic health care and that 18 & 19 year olds are considering they have no future, that they can't afford college.

In regards to Scar's bogus claims, might I suggest that his network could be best served by having him involuntarily committed to an experimental species-transplant surgical procedure? He just seems too much like a mange-infested, yammering toy poodle to be human....

So sorry to hear about Joe.

What is unique about optical scan ballots is that each voter leaves behind a physical record of their attempt to vote.

With this type of ballot, the first tabulation is the result of a machine trying to figure out what a human meant to do. Most humans are good at providing good hints, but some of us leave ambiguous clues.

What is clear from many of these ambiguous votes is that the voter made a mistake, and attempted to correct it. Yet we expect that a mechanical system will avoid mistakes and never attempt to correct the result.

Hey, Steve--Re: my post above:

This is indeed your site, and you are a Journalist-- and such awful news from Slate has to prove quite disconcerting for you. You likely know these folks on an intimate basis, and I don't.

So let me apologize if my earlier post above sounded at all callous or felt invalidating.

I'm actually horrified at ALL the lay-offs and I'm very depressed.

I'm in a profession wherein I hear of the wide range of the devastating economy--in ways small and large. It's destroying families at this juncture.

It's all just a nightmare, but I am also hopeful there will be some silver lining--indeed we did (well those of us who stood in line and voted) elect an amazing guy.

But it's likely going to be horrible for a good couple of years for many. Time to re-evaluate our values and give what we can to those in need, when we can. Time for us all to pull together...

* I'm sorry to hear that Salon is cutting its staff.

Please, oh please, let one of them be Camille Paglia.

oops--meant to say Salon (not Slate).

Does anyone else here think that Palin's choice to stand in front of the Turkey being beheaded as unseemly?

I mean talk about your EW factor....If nothing else, it just illustrates how crude she is--and proud of it to boot.

So killing turkey's is now cool, that sort of callous like toughness is considered the new feminism--along with saying you're a Pit-bull with lipstick and along with promising you will "Plow right through the door that God opens for you".

Something tells me this woman has been 'plowing her entire life" --and in some perverse way loves it.

There really is a difference between genuine self-confidence and violent and thoughtless aggressiveness.

The former requires an element of civility and humility and the latter requires nothing but love of being in the limelight no matter what.

I'm sorry to hear that Salon is cutting its staff.

I was premium Salon member for a few years. The Walsh took over and the quality went into decline. The Walsh became a shameless shill for HRC, so I voted with my wallet, cancelled my membership and went to the carpetbagger. It seems lots of other members shared disapointment. As a previous commenter stated, Walsh should have fired herself.

Oh! GM, that makes me so happy that you're only going to use your jets for the CEO now.

Not.

Salon is so last century! I'd been a loyal reader since day one--back when Annie Lamont was writing an entertaining piece that was stacked down the center of a narrow column, and . . . David Talbot was my hero.

The fact that Salon was snatching up every award possible for excellence was a no-brainer. They used to break exclusive news stories, days, and sometimes weeks before that story would be retold by some talking head on the nightly news.

When they started offering paid subscriptions, I didn't hesitate a minute. I rallied for them, I got others to join, I sent links to articles to friends, I gave gift subscriptions. Then it happened. David left the helm, and something amazing and unique went with him . . even the awards stopped coming. I used to check into the War Room a few times a day when Grieve was writing it. That's where I found the brilliant Steve Benen and quickly migrated over to the CarpetBagger.

Today, blogs like Washington Monthly and HuffPo, to name just a few, seem more reminiscent of Salon's glory days. Alas, in my humble opinion Salon has lost it edge. I'm letting my subscription expire this month, and will say goodbye after all these years. I guess I can tolerate a few insipid ads when I come for my weekly dose of Garrison. I wish Salon the best,. . . even if just for old time's sake

Why doesn't Joe ask this question instead: "Why have election officials hidden so many Franken votes?"

After 8 years of the Republican Culture of Corruption, I'd look in THEIR closet first before accusing Democrats of anything.

* Did talk radio kill conservatism? Nate Silver has a fascinating piece on the difference between "stimulating" political discourse and "persuasive" political discourse. -- Steve Benen

Another question might be: did the more ephemeral part of the conservative media (not just talk radio but Fox TV) purposely set out to appeal to dimwits and/or tried to dumb down their audience?

The following quotes were spread out in Silver's posting but, together, they seem to make that case (even if he does not):

"[...] the distinguishing feature of radio is that it exists in a sort of perpetual amnesiac state. In a book, you can go back and read the previous page; on the internet, you can press the 'back' button on the browser. In radio, there is no rewind:[...]
and:
[...] most of the audience is not even paying attention to you, because most people listen to radio when they're in the process of doing something else."

OK. So he establishes that (talk) radio -- of whatever political stripe and even of best quality -- will give its listeners only a vague idea of what's being discussed in the first place, with almost zero memory of it 15 minutes later.

And then he says:

"FOX News is unusual television, really, in that almost all the stimulation is verbal, and almost all of it occurs at the same staccato pacing as radio."

To me, this sounds as if the Murdoch Media has done George Orwell one better. They noticed how little attention (and retention) *radio* generated and then proceeded to replicate it in the TV format. "The better to snooker you, m'dear".

BTW... This also explains how some of my acquaintances can make lace and, simultaneously, "watch TV". It also explains the right-swing of those who do :)

"GM is giving up some of its private jets. Good move."

Uh huh. But I don't think so.

Prediction:

Congress will cave (and I'm not necessarily against some kind of assistance for a restructuring and fast-track reorganization of these dinosaurs into 21st century auto companies) once they get the phony business plans they demanded, and give the auto companies exactly what they want (the status quo, including all that dough for their executives), in return for some conditions that are nothing but empty PR promises with no enforcement muscle.

Look for some strutting and theatrics in the hearings, and a bit of humble pie eating from the CEOs during C-Span's telecasts before they get back in their private jets and uncork the champagne bottles.

Look, the auto, coal, gas and oil industries run this country and they aren't going to change, unless we make them change. And we can't do it by handing out a few billion a year to solar and wind start-ups playing Bill Gates tinkering in a garage.

Buried glaciers on Mars? Very cool.

Sooo our little green friends arent here for the water afterall..

Palin giving her chatty summations with a backdrop of the turkey massacre
was totally insane to me. Certifiably psychiatric.
Now she denies realizing that was going on behind her, despite the video showing her clearly looking back at the butcher, holding her gaze back there and seemingly smiling. Not to mention I could hear the noise of the turkey head grinder myself here in Pennsylvania...but she could not a mere stone's throw away?? What a lying fool she is.
The camera person said Palin was aware that turkeys would be slaughtered behind her.
It was also said that she specifically declined to move away from that particular background.
Palin is just a serial liar, a buffoon--and what a thing to watch just before Thanksgiving.
And she's a mother of five?
What seriously poor judgment this woman has.

Reality has a liberal bias...

It's good news that Mukasey is apparently OK.

I think the problem was that he was giving a talk to the Federalist Society. There he was, the focus of everyone in the building, and the power of all that concentrated evil just overcame him. Notice that he quickly recovered when he moved out of the focus.

It would take someone with the nature of a Rove or Cheney to be able to deal with that utter concentration of essence of Federalist Society.

Scarborough has been using the phrase "Franken just needs to steal xxx more votes" since the recount started. He hasn't provided any evidence for suggesting this might happen.

At one point in a segment Media Matters highlighted Thursday, Scarborough admitted he had no evidence that Franken was trying to steal any votes but he still used the phrase 3 times in that same segment.

Re: Salon ads. If you use Firefox and an adblock, you won't see them at all. That said, I'm surprised Salon hasn't gone under years ago. I just hope that Tom Tomorrow and Keith Knight get new online gigs if it does.

I couldn't help but notice that when Rachel Maddow took the helm and thanked David Shuster tonight with a split screen there--wherein she said "Thanks for a great job this week"--he said, well--NOTHING.

Yes, that's right NOTHING. NOT:
You Bet or
IT was fun
Thanks,
Sure, Anytime--
or even a joke...
NOTHING!!

HOW RUDE!!! It seemed really awkward to me, especially because she made the effort and especially because she and Kieth always do this
nice little transition...

I'd like to know if he truly didn't hear her, or if this was his chosen response.

What do I think?

I tend to think he was too arrogant and narcissistic to thank Rachel Maddow--the bright gal who now has her own show and thanked him--I tend to think he felt annoyed that she would even asses his progress.

Maybe I'm entirely wrong. Maybe he really just didn't hear her. But there was a good 20 seconds or so wherein he just sat there as she thanked him and he said NOTHING.

Carry on Rachel.

Okay..maybe it wasn't 20 seconds (felt like it, though, given his NON-resoponse)..likely more like five secs...in any case, I thought it was very rude unless he truly did not hear her.

I also notice when he does his little blurbs throughout the day and at the end the guests typically say "thank you" or the like--he DOES hear this--indeed he sometimes even takes the time to say
"Your Welcome" (which is odd in itself, frankly, as most pundits don't say too much after the interviewee gives a note of gratitude--it's almost like Shuster likes to say 'Your Welcome' to enunciate that he himself was acknowledged...