Anderson Cooper is likely jealous of Maddow. In any case, he sounds like David Frum now, critiquing her for being sarcastic.

The thing is--Maddow is more than 'only' sarcastic. She INFORMS with superb interviewing, resaarch.

The sarcasm is FULLY warranted given the craziness of the politics in my view. It's what's needed to puncture the haze we all reside in.

I'm sorry now I even critiqued her earlier about her assault on Warren. She is a breath of fresh air --and we truly need a journalist with a brain and with chutzpah as Maddow brings us.

Cooper is a wus who plays it safe.

You call that a "shot" against Rachel Maddow? That was nothing. In fact, I agree with Cooper. Olbermann, even though I often agree with him, is an embarrassment. As for Maddow, she's snarky and opinionated, but poses as objective. Spare me.

Maddow doesn't say she's objective. She clearly stated on Leno that she has her point of view.

Olbermann is more over the top cartoonish/ childish with his worst persons and best persons and his long rants...

Maddow is so obviously more politically astute and her show is more substantive over-all. And she also is a better interviewer--she actually seems present and responsive in real time. (It's called fresh, bright and engaged).

Cooper is merely self-conscious that, unlike himself, Maddow has yet to do something as stupid as host Celebrity Mole.

"An upside to the economic crisis that only Tom Tancredo could love: fewer immigrants are trying to sneak into the country now than at any point in 30 years."

An immigrant who is legally entitled to enter does not have to "sneak" into this country.

The absolute refusal of the so-called "realty based" Left to acknowledge the problem of illegal immigration or to characterize those who are as "racists" or "bigots" poisons its standing with the broader electorate more than anything we conservatives could do. So keep up the good work Steve. LOL

It's hard for me to take seriously the criticism of Maddow from Cooper when this interview also contained the answer, "Is he Puff Daddy still? I think you're in early 2006."

I hope he doesn't actually think that sarcasm and snark are new to the political arena or that yelling has gone by the wayside.

If he does, he's got some babies to eat.

Cooper is merely self-conscious that, unlike himself, Maddow has yet to do something as stupid as host Celebrity Mole. -DJ

To be fair, neither has Cooper. He hosted two seasons of the original 'The Mole,' which was one of the smartest, most interesting reality game shows I've ever seen.

The bastardized C list celeb version was hosted by Ahmad Rashad.

The original was back earlier this year with host Jon Kelley.

I am the mole.

I'm no fan of Maddow but I have seen Anderson Cooper be snarky and wiseguy-ish during some pretty heavy moments. If memory serves he was that way on election night cracking jokes and rolling his eyes at certain times but it might have been after a debate.

I love this blog, but I really don't understand the love affair with Rachel Maddow, I find her broadcasts pretty much as Anderson said....snarky and sarcastic.

I'm not sure what she'll have to talk about after Bush leaves office.....Rush Limbaugh and O'Reilly.

I'm a gay man and I've stopped watching MSNBC at 9pm. There's no appeal for me at all, that cheesy fake smile is what turns me off. Most of my friends feel the same way and the majority of them are lesbians.

Frank Rich has a very good editorial re: the Warren pic over at NYT web-site.

It's interesting to read some of the question posed Obama. So much angst, so much wanting to know NOW how he is going to do this and that....

Gee, I keep thinking of Shearer's poignant comments about the heap of crap that keeps piling on Obama's agenda...and then there is this huge hope sitting there next to it.

Yep, I too wouldn't be surprised if Obama wept profoundly at 2:00 am over what is before him...

But, whew--if it had been McCain, I might have truly lost it. He was so ill-equipped, both intellectually and emotionally to be our President.

"...Millions of White House e-mail messages created from 2003 to 2005 appear to be missing and may not be recoverable. And in September 2007, the top lawyer at the National Archives wrote in a memorandum that he had “made almost zero progress� planning the transition because the White House had ignored repeated requests for information about the volume and formats of electronic records.

In May of this year, the Government Accountability Office, an investigative arm of Congress, found that “the administration has not yet provided specific information on the volume and types of data to be transferred� to the archives. Linda D. Koontz of the accountability office warned in May and again in September that the National Archives might not be ready for the torrent of electronic records on Jan. 20."

From the Citizens for Responsiblity and Ethics in Government

I don't recall the open for questions feature being user unfriendly before, only that wingnuts were pissed that fewer people cared about their shit stirring than cared about real issues.

The initial estimate on coal waste in central Tennessee was more than 360 million gallons of sludge. Now, it appears the total will be more than 1 billion gallons. The CEO of the Tennessee Valley Authority today pledged to clean up the massive spill.

Just to be technical--the coal-ash spill was in East Tennessee--just east of the Cumberland Plateau in the Tennessee River Valley. Middle Tennessee [as it's called here] runs from the Plateau westward through Nashville to the lower Tennessee River. Thanks for noticing, though; the local blogosphere has been really concerned about what seems here to be national silence.

I love TRMS. She really is a fresh breathe of air. She never stated she was objective and her audience knows that. She presents the news then comments. She does it without having to raise her voice. I'll watch her over Anderson Cooper any day, those who say otherwise have not given the show a fair watch.

"Rachel Maddow is an incredible talent -- she's funny, and smart, obviously well researched on subjects. I'm just not interested as a viewer in listening to anchors' opinions. It seems like there's an awful lot of yelling, and this year yelling's been replaced by sarcasm and snark- iness."

"Oh yeah, and we're both gay, but I think I'm prettier"

David in Nashville - What is happening there? Are people staying and just walking through the sludge, or moving out? I would assume a lot of people in the area have wells. Does this not make these homes unlivable in the long run?

Re: Cooper vs Maddow

I'll take snarky over bewildered any day.

Palin back in the news - according to People Magazine she is a grandmother now.

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE4BS5KG20081229

Well, one conspiracy theory will have to take a new turn: It was just announced network news that Bristol Palin gave birth to a boy, who will be named "Trip" or "Tripp" (no spelling shown.) I called Governor's Office in AK just to say hi and congrats with curious bent (sure the kid is OOW but I thought it would be cute to see how it went) and this youthful sounding young lady answered, "Governor Palin's Office." I said I called all the way from VA to say congrats. The girl hadn't heard, well she's just the receptionist. Was Sarah P there I wondered? No. - I was told, not likely I could talk to her even if she had been, OK I understand that. Oddly enough, not on Drudge yet.

So now more bafflement I guess, why SP looked unpregnant it is said back in the game, who knows.

I called all the way from VA...

LOL @ Neil

Were you asked to specify if you were from *the real Virginia* or the communistic parts?

My ditty in response to Chip Saltsman's racist RNC song.
Sing along to Puff, The Magic Dragon.

Chip, the white supremist,
Of the RNC
He’ll keep those negroes in their place
In the land of white and free.

Little racist party, upset because they lost
Makes Klan music on CDs and other fancy
stuff. Oh.

Chip, the white supremist,
Of the RNC
He’ll keep those negroes in their place
In the land of white and free.

Chip, the white supremist,
Of the RNC
He’ll keep those negroes in their place
In the land of white and free.

Together the right travels
Trying to please their base
Rural and big business whites
With an prejudice of race.
War profiteers and Holy’s
Would bow whene’er they came
Battleships would fire their loads
When profits are too lame. Oh.

Chip, the white supremist,
Of the RNC
He’ll keep those negroes in their place
In the land of white and free.
Chip, the white supremist,
Of the RNC
He’ll keep those negroes in their place
In the land of white and free.

Bush can’t last forever
But his reign sure can
Selling out the government
Is sure American
It really doesn’t matter
Who is now in charge
The system’s broke and so are we
The depression’s growing large.
One grey night it happened
Georgie Bush came no more
And Chip the white supremist
became a mighty bore
Without his right wing lord
Chip could not be brave
He wrote a song for all those folks
who want to whip a slave.

Chip, the white supremist,
Of the RNC
He’ll keep those negroes in their place
In the land of white and free.
Chip, the white supremist,
Of the RNC
He’ll keep those negroes in their place
In the land of white and free.

An upside to the economic crisis that only Tom Tancredo could love: fewer immigrants are trying to sneak into the country now than at any point in 30 years.

Oh golly. But who will do our lawns and iron our linens?? Chicounsel? You got some white folk you can loan out? My laundry's piling up. I pay 1975 wages but the other guys didn't seem to mind.

Heh, no MissMudd the secretary didn't ask that, she was real nice about it. She came across like those low 20s girls working at a department store that say "like" and "you know" a lot, not an officious gubernatorial functionary.

BTW I found the number just typing "Sarah Palin" into WhitePages, and it came out. WhitePages is just amazing, you can find all kinds of people even some celebs (try Obama, it's a weird address I didn't expect.) (I'm keeping SP's number off the comment to make it less "out there"):

Sarah Palin

work

PO Box [no number given]

Juneau, AK 99811
(907) xxx-xxxx
Type: Land Line
Provider: Acs Of Alaska
Location: Juneau, AK
Due to number portability, some numbers have been transferred to a new service provider.

Job title: Governor

Company: State of Alaska

Local Information for Juneau, AK

* Population: 30,711
* Total Households: 11,543
* Median Age: 35.30
* Median Household Income: $62,034
*
* Local Time: 3:47 p.m. AKST
[this time, that I copied to show for comment]

* Pick a Juneau Restaurant
* Find Juneau Hotels
* Juneau Hospitals
* Banks in Juneau
* Choose a Juneau Attorney
* Need a dentist in Juneau?

Source: U.S. Census Bureau; Census 2000

I have to say I agree with Anderson Cooper that Maddow does come off as snarky. I like Maddow, but I think her radio show was better than her TV show. I thought it worked better than just the modified Olberman format (Olberman can grate on me as well. He comes off as snarky and snooty). Let people like Anderson Cooper handle the news, and give us commentary from Maddow and Olberman. Rather than Maddow doing the news with a leftward slant.

Anyone have a clue why this WhitePages listing?:

Barack H Obama

home

Bridgeport, CT 06605

Get insight into what's going on with Israel and Hamas, link was on Juan Cole:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10456.htm

I am so sure, why is it every time I turn on the News or sometimes just this blog I have to read someting about Sarah Palin?

I am a woman who can care less about her.

I understand there are some men out there who have a hard on for her, but, will never get to realize their fantasy for her because Todd is in the way.

But, give me a break! Enough already. That shows the mentality of men, do they honestly want a woman that's dumb? Do the intelligent women scare the hell out of them? Does a dumb woman like her make you feel superior?

It's just I am tired of this with her, Britney Spears, Lindsey Lohan, Paris Hilton -

And you wonder why people always say, "dumb American, stupid American."

We have crises around the world, and what do men want to talk about? We have our own economy on the brink of collapse. Our country may end up defaulted on its debt.

OK annjell, somewhat my "fault": Sarah became a grandma yesterday ("reportedly" says Faux) after a pregnancy of her own that many considered suspicious and after she ran as only the second female VP candidate in the USA. She became important, that's a story. Maybe it's silly to talk about her a lot, but what are we supposed to do: go out of our way not to talk about celebrity/newsworthy women; but just men?

Talk about thin skins over here!

It wouldn't surprise me if Ms. Maddow herself felt flattered by Mr. Cooper's comment. He is remarkably complimentary: he notes that she's brilliant and well-informed. Certainly both adjectives are appropriate, but it was nice for him to emphasize them.

And it's true, too, that she's snarky and sarcastic. Good heavens, who would ever think otherwise? It's a big part of her presentation, her entire approach. (And, I think it also true: she's never claimed to be "objective," although she does do a pretty reasonable imitation of being fair!)

So what Cooper is saying is, he's not into sarcasm and snark. There's nothing wrong with that. It's not his style, not his game, and what a boring world it would be if everyone WERE into that.

It surprises me, too, that nobody here seemed to notice Cooper's concern about the ongoing war in the Congo. He's right: it's been a decade of relentless horror there, and the reporting about it has been minimal. Is he right that more people have died in that conflict than in any other since WWII? I don't know, but the numbers of dead are surely monstrous. Likewise the tactics of mass rape and pillage. I find it admirable that Cooper is concerned about this.

I adore Rachel Maddow's show, and have few complaints about her. But I don't see why one's approval of her should translate into such intolerance of "criticism" as softball as Cooper's.

Cousin Itt Palin has been born; first announced in People, not an actual news source. Hmmm...

We have crises around the world, and what do men want to talk about?

Can we continue the discussion of how Mexicans are taking over California, annjell? I mean for a progressive you hit pretty damned hard on the poor brothers down below. What's up with all the hate, girl?

And for Neil, who's *reportedly* lives and breathes only for Sarah, The 2009 Sarah Palin Calendar.

I gotta say, that rifle makes me a little verklempt. Talk amongst yerself.

Rachel Maddow is a corporate clown. She wouldn't be on cable news if she wasn't (sorry Steve). Infotainment plain and simple.

Neil B., I guess I sounded kinda angry. I apologize to you.

I guess I am just really tired of her. I, personally, feel like we have bigger fish to fry.

I'm not trying to disturb your groove. I'm just saying there are prettier women, example, Diane Lane, Julie Banderas from Faux News, you kinda get where I'm going here.

Yes, I understand she was the Veep nominee. But, I feel like this was an insult. I feel like this is a assault on the American people, the continuous dumbing down of the American people.

If you were to see the movie, "Idiocracy," you'd see exactly what I mean. It stars Luke Wilson, Dax Shepherd....a movie made by the makers of Beavis & Butthead. This movie was hilarious, yet, a wake up call. The American society was so dumb, it didn't know what to do with landfills (trash). Families living in what looked like public housing and impregnating their next door neighbors - the men wives were having fights and arguments with the ladies next door.

I dunno, I think he's spot-on about Maddow. She's clearly very smart, and she's much more palatable than Olbermann, but it would be hard to mistake her show for anything other than partisan cheerleading. It's certainly not news, and it's generally less insightful than, say, Jon Stewart and the Daily Show.

I think I know what Obama's transition team is trying to accomplish. Maybe they'll even succeed.

The Obama transition team is bound to know that certain southern racist, anti-American Republicans in the U.S. Senate, along with some turn-coat Blue Dog Democrats, will block any attempt by liberal, progressive Democrats to save American jobs and the U.S. economy, using the Senate filibuster, which Senate Republicans, then having a death-grip control over the Senate, sought to abolish during the infamous Bush years.

But what about "wild-card" potentially swing-vote more-moderate Republicans?

Could it be that the Obama transition team, in keeping certain Bush administration officials on board as well as selecting Rick Warren to lead off the inauguration, are hoping that these conciliatory gestures will shift some of the more-moderate Republicans away from their hardcore, anti-American Republican brethren, especially the southern Republican racists, giving the Democrats in the Senate just enough votes to stop any McConnell-led filibuster, shutting off debate and bringing any Economic Stimulus package up for a vote?

We'll know shortly.

I figure the first test will be in the first week of January when Congress reconvenes.

Will die-hard and deceitful Republicans in Congress get their wish, releasing the other $350 Billion of the Bush-Reaganomics bail-out package to Paulson, so he can throw even more unmarked bills at the fat cats in the financial industry, with no more accountability and oversight than was exercised over the first $350 Billion installment?

Or will Harry Reid stop any vote from occurring, thus handing off to the Obama administration an additional $350 Billion to go along with whatever size stimulus package may get past a Republican filibuster?

In other words, if this remaining $350 Billion gets handed to Paulson on a silver platter just weeks before Bush slithers out of office, then one can bet that Democrats will not be able to get any Economic Stimulus Package passed over a corrupt Republican filibuster, no matter what size.

I know some people like to invent their own language but that would be Wall Street INDICES, please!

"I love this blog, but I really don't understand the love affair with Rachel Maddow"

Mutual aggrandizement. Mr. Benen is trying to further his career. Who can blame him.

Anderson Cooper is a blonde Geraldo Rivera.

The Rachel Maddow show sucks, it doesn't matter that Olbermann sucks worse. Her show is only initially interesting because it is so completely novel to hear arguments from a slightly left political position. But it's just like any other editorializing - cherry-picked examples, uncharitable interpretations, pointing out technical, probably meaningless hypocrisy.

Yeah, Maddow is smart, but her show is for stupid people. If you're convinced of something by her arguments, well...

Actually I think both Cooper and Maddow are a notch above their competitors. I'm sure there's a little rivalry, a little competition, but that's good.

www.freegaza.org - "Israeli Navy Attack & Wound Dignity in International Waters."

see also http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/world/2008/12/29/penhaul.gaza.bpr.boat.cnn

**CNN's Karl Penhaul, and former U.S. Rep Cynthia McKinney is on this boat to bring medical supplies and doctors to Gaza.

According to www.freegaza.org - the ship was fired upon by the Israeli Navy, then rammed and turned away.

I watched CNN this morning, they showed still pix of Cynthia McKinney & Karl Penhaul - no damage shown on cable. Cable news said the Israeli Navy said it was an accident.

However, the website says it has it captured on video sent to CNN that they fired upon - I am having trouble getting the video from the website!!! what a bummer!

Okay, an hour later, now CNN has reported, that yes indeed, the boat was fired upon, they had to get to Lebanon, and Karl Penhaul said, no it wasn't an accident. It was by force, the warships from Israel would not let them deliver medical supplies.

They are all shook up - Karl Penhaul, and the rest of people on board the ship.

Israel has been turning back food, medicine and medical supplies since early November. It's not being reported lest Israel lose sympathy because of it.