MSNBC wants to keep line-up going with a similar show at 10 pm. I'm thinking, "Political Animal, with Steve Benen...."

Just promise us you'll lose the law books.

Just promise us you'll lose the law books.

My thoughts exactly.

This Caroline Kennedy thing was weird. When she announced her support for Obama she struck me as someone who had long sense arrived at some public status. The media aura was similar to the scene when a certain contest ends with "There she is, Miss America..." She seemed to represent something, but I was never sure what.

But as a candidate for office, it was kind of strange, almost like a Miss America campaigning for a job she already had. That is a role she obviously had no experience playing.

Is Rush trying to be repulsive? If so, it's working. Seriously, of course he's trying to be repulsive. Saying outlandish things on the radio gets you ratings.

Just promise us you'll lose the law books.

Haha, you mean the fake law book wallpaper! :)

"It is kind of like going from an Xbox to an Atari," spokesman Bill Burton said.

At least it's not a Wii!

I'm thinking, "Political Animal, with Steve Benen...."

trying to give us an early tip?

I'm thinking, "Political Animal, with Steve Benen...."

go for the gold.

and i vote for keeping the law books.

If somehow MSNBC and Steve can't come to terms, I'd like to propose a "Please Consider":

James Warren -- He's already in the MSNBC family, knows his stuff, has quite the arid sense of humor. He might be a little low-key to carry a show by himself, but if, say, Chris Matthews would move from the late slot, Warren would be a perfect co-host to balance him out.

Political Animal with Steve Benen totally works for me. Email being sent to MSNBC as I type!

rachel@msnbc.com
countdown@msnbc.com
letters@msnbc.com

Let the writing begin! :-D

Olbermann's a hit at 8 pm

Is it just me, or was Keith's bombshell last night a bit of a dud? NSA was spying on journalists. OK, but are we talking reading e-mails, listening to conversations, using phone records to establish degrees of separation or to find out who outed black sites? If Tice knows they were actually using the information instead of merely culling it, he must be able to answer what kind of information was there, and who eventually used it.

Just stop publicizing Rush's nonsense, please! I try very hard to avoid him, and yet he somehow manages to invade even this space. I do not need to be informed of all the stupidity oozing from him on a daily basis. I knew he was a moron yesterday, I know he is a moron today, and I trust he will remain a moron tomorrow... and that is all I need to know about him.

Rush who?

Rush trying to be offensive ... what, something's changed?

The new White House staff is very tech savvy, but their offices aren't.

They were probably still using AOL 2.0. No wonder they were so paranoid.

I'm all for Political Animal on MSNBC!

And, Rush trying to be offensive? I don't think he tries -- I think he just is. It's in his genes.

Yeah, if I never read another quote from Dick Cheney it'll be too soon. Thanks for providing the link to it though.

* Do you ever get the sense that Limbaugh is trying to be repulsive?

You haven't been paying attention, have you?

(Or did you stumble on a stash of understatement that Kevin left behind?)

Am I the only one who has noticed that MSNBC daytime T.V. news pundits have suddenly gotten much more gracious with their guests at interview's end?

Folks like Shuster and that gal who always wears a lot of make-up (Norah?) and whose name is escaping me now are actively saying:

**Great journalism coverage!
**We couldn't have picked a wiser guest for this issue!
**Fantastic work of this issue!

Somebody definitely has now briefed them to start thanking and singing praises of their guests...this was decidedly absent before, and now it's a bit over-kill if you ask me...but always better to be gracious--and it's
certainly good for ratings to pump up your interviewee...

Matt, as much as we do not want to know about Rush, there are millions who listen to his words and take them as gospel. We have to know what the gasbag says. Honestly, as over the top as this sounds, I believe it is a national security issue. Hate radio spreads hate.

I loath Rush, but I do want to know what the lying, hypocritical, drug taking asshole is saying. I thank Steve for allowing me to never have to listen to him.

I read right wing blogs (and post some of the more outrageous outtakes at TheZoo) so others don't have to read their bullshit. I am thankful for never having listened to Rush...but that doesn't mean I don't want to know what he is up to.

That would be laughable serial liar compounding his original lies with “TurboTax ate my homework,� compounded by possible “I’m indispensable� arrogance.

As for that last, his mismanagement of much of the investment banking history leading up to the present state of affairs show he is in fact QUITE dispensable, and, beyond that….

That Barack Obama should dispense with him. IMO, failure to do so says a lot about “change,� “Wall Street vs. Main Street� and more coming out of the new administration.

Yeah, the Funny or Die video was fun, but my GOD, the music! That's "One Day", by Kings go Forth, who I'd never heard of before. I think I'm in love.

YouTube here.

eMusic download here.

Socratic Gadfly said:

> I loath Rush, but I do want to know what
> the lying, hypocritical, drug taking asshole
> is saying.

You forgot "erectile-disfunctional:"
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/06/27/national/main1753947.shtml

RE Grassley and the TPM link -

1. Apples and oranges, comparing this with Geithner.

2. The fact that TPM's new reporter, or the webmaster or whomever, said "go look for it yourself" rather than posting the actual PDF, indicates its small taters what Grassley's PAC did.

3. It was Grassley's PAC; we don't know if he knew anything about it.

4. It was, apparently, a one-off deal, not four years of malfeasance.

I'm shocked, shocked, I tell you that this is somehow supposed to make Geithner look better, or not so bad. I'm sure this will be a MSLB talking point.

If Obama REALLY wanted change at the Treasury, he would have excluded anybody with any of the following taints:
1. Worked for Goldman Sachs.
2. Works for Citigroup.
3. Worked for Larry Summers.
4. Worked for Robert Rubin.
5. Worked for the NY Fed.
6. Worked for The Fed.
7. Taught econ at either Chicago or Stanford.

Those would be good starting points.

But, Obama instead:
1. Had Goldman Sachs as his No. 1 contributor;
2. Had Bob Rubin as an advisor;
3. Hired Larry Summers for the "gray eminence" no-confirmation job he probably wanted all along;
4. Nominated a man as Treasury Secretary who had some degree of violation of the first five points above.

Sorry, Snarky, forgot a name for the "laughable serial liar" in my first post. That name is "Tim Geithner," NOT "Rush Limbaugh."

I like the sound of "The Stephanie Miller Show on MSNBC."

In a way, I agree with Rush.

But the gushing about Obama's heritage actually transcends what our buddy Rush is capable of experiencing.

I have rather direct relatives who have black mothers and white fathers. It is refreshing to realize that they are normal, reproductively viable people.

What's wrong with that?

Am I the only one who has noticed that MSNBC daytime T.V...

Yeah, probably.

(Or did you stumble on a stash of understatement that Kevin left behind?)

Hee!

Ok Steve, you sure you want to do the "before the cameras" thing every night? What about your keyboard savvy? What about your textual insights? -Kevo

Best. Yahoo! Ever.

He could quit now.
I got my money's worth!

Limbaugh on Obama: "We are being told that we have to hope he succeeds, that we have to bend over, grab the ankles ... because his father was black"

You're confused Rush, that damn Oxycontin. Here's a little help: you told the little boy in South America to bend over, grab the ankles ... because your father told you to do the same.

Try heroin if you really want to suppress the pain of your abuse.

Stephanie Miller? Ugh.

Can you say dumb as a stump? No way. I wouldn't ever watch it. The guy on her show is by far better than she. Miller is the anti-Maddow.

Stephanie Miller is more of a comical sort.

At times I feel she cheapens herself and all of us with her potty, sort of low grade, caricuture like and this is what she says to us:

"I'm a sexy liberal with a sense of humor (and folks who back me up with the real facts"

This is her trademark and claim to fame--and so she'd really need to drop that and get more SOBER about the facts, about history, about politics to make the grade for MSNBC.

In other words, she'd actually need to do her homework.

But with that said, I think she could do it. She's got the spirit and the desire and the mental agility to do a sort of quirky version of the news on MSNBC.

Go for it, Stephanie!

I like the sound of "The Stephanie Miller Show on MSNBC." -klyde

I love Steph (and Jim Ward), but she had her chance. She's already had a late night show. Make room for Steve, MSNBC! (Just as long as he keeps blogging and making frequent appearances on TRMS on the radio.)

Olbermann's a hit at 8 pm, Maddow's gold at 9 pm, so MSNBC wants to keep the line-up going with a similar show at 10 pm. I'm thinking, "Political Animal, with Steve Benen...."

I can dig it. But also *cough* Amy Goodman *cough*.

"Antarctica is warming, but we've got some work to do before Americans fully appreciate the problem."

Nobody will ever care until New Orleans is under water. Oh wait.... I guess they'll never care. They'll just bitch about the cost of new levies. Sometimes I wonder abut why I should even care about humans. If they want to kill themselves, then fuck 'em. Unfortunately, I'm one of those humans. Oh well. Humanity is destined to become really stupid. Only the stupid people reproduce in any real quantities. And they will produce a society that I don't want to be reborn into. I guess it's back to Laos for me. I lived there the last life, and I'll go back in the next.

Nobody will ever care until New Orleans is under water. Oh wait.... I guess they'll never care. They'll just bitch about the cost of new levies. Sometimes I wonder abut why I should even care about humans. If they want to kill themselves, then fuck 'em.

fostert, I like the cut of your jib.

I had essentially this same conversation with a friend yesterday. The studied conclusion: people suck.

Today I happened upon "The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying" by Sogyal Rinpoche in Border's and thumbed through it, not having picked it up in years. It reminded me that while people may and, in fact, do suck, the practice of phowa and compassion are still necessary.

Just a few thousand more lifetimes to work out the pissed-offedness....

If Steve Benen gets his own TV show, we can say good-bye to his blog, except maybe a posting or two a day; it's a full-time job and then some.

I must say I'm impressed with y'all's selflessness in being willing to give up reading his stuff; I, for one, would miss it (as I'd miss the chit-chat. Er... Comments)

* The new White House staff is very tech savvy, but their offices aren't. "It is kind of like going from an Xbox to an Atari," spokesman Bill Burton said. -- Steve Benen

Yeah, and Kornblutt just couldn't help herself and had to stick a few jabs into those incoming tech savvy geeks, so unlike her -- departed, but still beloved -- shrubbery. Who did not, unlike You Know Who, vandalise the keyboards (old as they might be). And the poor geeks, so naive... Wanting to be able to communicate with the world *fast*, instead of obeying the old, old rules... Except for that one quote from Burton, it's a hatchet job on the Obama staff.

Monaghan and his team found that while climate models projected temperature increases of 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit (0.75 degrees Celsius) over the past century, temperatures were observed to have risen by only 0.4 F (0.2 C).

The model is too high by a factor of 3.5, and that's "post-dicting" rather than "pre-dicting".

Still, the measured increase is an important item of information. I expect the upcoming 2 years to be decisive in the debate. Don't neglect to follow the story here:

http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/

Have you bought your CO2 offsets yet? Does the company actually use the money to offset CO2? It's a good insurance policy in case the atmosphere really is warming up.

More about latest developments in alternative sources of fuel at some other time.

How about The Palin Show? Within 2 months she will have destroyed any potential she has for 2012. Be great fun to watch too.

Olbermann's a hit at 8 pm, Maddow's gold at 9 pm, so MSNBC wants to keep the line-up going with a similar show at 10 pm. I'm thinking, "Political Animal, with Steve Benen...."

Well, who you know is as important (if not moreso) than what you know, and since you are publicly Rachel Maddow's "favorite blogger" and I am sure you know Keith, then let me give you a word of career advice Billy Wilder once gave me: "If you don't believe in yourself, why should anyone else?" So, go lobby them. I am sure their opinions count.

You can't win the game if you're not out on the field.

Socratic Gadfly - I want to commend you for your tireless efforts in proving that computers are now so user-friendly that bipeds lacking frontal lobes and opposable thumbs can use them just like actual human beings do.

Your efforts are deeply appreciated. We need constant reminders of how Republicans love to revel in their public nitwittery.

Has anyone tried to communicate with the WH on the brand new site that replaces change.gov? I tried on their contact form and it wouldn't go through. Then I tried emailing comments@whitehouse.gov and got a notice from the friendly neighborhood daemon. What's going on?

More about latest developments in alternative sources of fuel at some other time.

Why bother? That's the problem with being a dishonest commentator, Marler; even if you decide to comment honestly on a topic, your credibility is shot. You aren't fooling anyone by your pretense -- people here remember you and your Republican-enabling bullshit.

Jackass.

Would we torture a lone gunman...
It's easy when it isn't someone you love.