Stock Puppet

So MSNBC master puppet Phil Griffin is content with Keith Olbermann third place reruns at 10pm? ICN reasons there are other reasons MSNBC isn't filling that 10p slot with new talent:

- MSNBC can’t find a host it likes that it thinks can pull in the numbers.
- MSNBC can find a host it likes but can’t come to terms with said host.
- NBC wants to roll the dice and gamble that it can keep costs down by not paying for a new show and new host at 10pm and still beat CNN. This is a very risky strategy because it’s betting the farm that CNN can’t regroup. That is not something I would want to risk the future on. But given that Campbell Brown is off the air for the next few months, I could see why NBC might hedge at this point. Still, I think it’s a big risk.

I'm with ICN on NBC saving $$$.

Poor Me, Poor Me, Pour Me A Drink

The Glenn Beck Drinking Game created by "Moxie":

Consume an entire drink:
- If there is full on sobbing while talking about God, God’s country or that tampon commercial Beck just watched.
- If there is any mention of the 9 principles and 12 values.

Matt: "My liver ran screaming from the room at 'ultra-dramatic close-ups'".

Recovering alcoholic Glenn Beck is reveling in the attention and killer ratings.

Memo to Glenn: EGO = Easing God Out.

The Brotherhood of the Traveling Suits

Page Six: CNBC is wasting no time in searching for a new suit to replace departed Senior VP Jonathan Wald. An insider says Victor Neufeld, former executive producer of ABC's "20/20," in terviewed for the position last Friday. And earlier this month, Andrew Heyward, a former CBS News president, made a pitch for the job. A CNBC rep had no comment. In the meantime, Tyler Mathisen has been tapped as Wald's interim replacement.

Page Six: Dylan Ratigan is making the suits at ABC squirm. The former "Fast Money" anchor -- who quit CNBC last week after clashing with network VP Susan Krakower, as we first reported -- is telling anybody who'll listen that he'll be the new chief financial correspondent at ABC News this fall. All ABC rep Jeff Schneider would say yesterday was, "We think the world of Dylan Ratigan." Maybe that's because of a strict noncompete clause in Ratigan's CNBC contract prohibiting him from making deals for six months. One ABC insider nervously told us: "There are no talks, so there is no deal, so he has no title." Ratigan's agent declined to comment.

Megyn Kelly: Elle's Belle

Elle mag: Fox News's brainy, beautiful Megyn Kelly wanted to be a cowgirl when she grew up. Now she's making big bucks greasing pigs.

NYT: Keith Olbermann "Freakishly Partisan"

News Flash! Keith Olbermann is over the top - even for liberals!

NYT's media critic David Carr marvels at how cable TV news has changed: "... the cable networks are loaded with red meat eaters and cud chewers. MSNBC is pretty much wall-to-wall politics with a roster to match — the obsessive Chris Matthews, the freakishly partisan Keith Olbermann and the reliably left-leaning Rachel Maddow."

"Fox, too, sees politics everywhere, with Bill O’Reilly on the hunt for new enemies every day and Glenn Beck’s increasingly popular atavism. And CNN still has all manner of political boots on the ground — panels stacked like cordwood even though the election is long past."

"In the old model of cable news, a neutral host would referee fire-breathers fighting it out from either side. But now the middle ground is eroding and everybody seems to be pushing something."

"It’s been a bit of role reversal, with politicians lecturing about the need for reasoned debates and the people formerly known as journalists demanding that lines be drawn and various people be held to account."

"How politicized is the current cadre of broadcast blabbers? Two cable news hosts — Mr. Matthews and Larry Kudlow of CNBC — had public dalliances with running for office themselves, and their networks were fine with it."

I wouldn't concur CNBC and MSNBC brass "were fine with it."

TV news as we once knew it is so dead...

Fox Nation Provocation

"We're calling it a mix between the Huffington Post and Drudge." Fox News SVP Bill Shine on The FOX Nation.

Wash Post's Howard Kurtz: "Fox Nation, an opinionated Web site that launches this morning -- and really, what other network would name a country after itself?"

Uh, Comedy Central's Colbert Nation...

And Howard, what website isn't opinionated? You host CNN's "Reliable Sources" which isn't exactly C-SPAN...

Glennlivid

NYT's Brian Stelter and Bill Carter on why Glenn Beck's an instant ratings wonderboy: Barely two months into his job at Fox, his program is a phenomenon: It typically draws about 2.2 million viewers, more than any other cable news host except Bill O'Reilly or Sean Hannity, despite being on at 5 p.m., a slow shift for cable news.

Keith Olbermann - the liberal Glenn Beck - has been at it nearly six years and will never achieve Glenn's phenomenal ratings overnight success.

MSNBC czar Phil Griffin slyly compares Beck's behavior to Olbermann: "That's good, dramatic television," said Phil Griffin, the president of a Fox competitor, MSNBC. "That's who Glenn Beck is."

Why hasn't the NYT referred to Olbermann as "mad" as in the Stelter/Carter (what does Stelter's top billing over veteran TV critic Carter infer?) headline: "Fox News's Mad, Apocalyptic, Tearful Rising Star"???? Or a screamer?

That photo the Times used of Beck makes me think of Jack Nicholson in "The Shining."

Mika Brzezinski: Up Against The Wahl

MSNBC "Morning Joe" anchoress Mika Brzezinski is inching closer to acquiring a sex toy. This a.m. she announced she's in possession of Estee Lauder's new battery-powered vibrating mascara wand. "Morning Joe's" top story of the week? The media buzz generated by Barbara Walters and her vibrator "necessity" - a staple in these tough economic times. Mika's reax: disgust. "The View" girls retaliate by sticking it to her. Mika runs into Babs in a restaurant yesterday. All is well.

I hope someone gave TurboLash to her. $32 is a hefty price to pay for yet another cosmetic gimmick. The best mascara is DiorShow. Lauder oozes about "the relationship between vibration, length, volume, separation, and curl." It comes with a caveat: Do not insert wand into verboten orifices. (Just kidding.)

Back to vibrators. Chickaboomer knows only too well what Mika is missing sans the Wahl Swedish Massager with G Spot attachment. Amazon sells the whole package for 17 bucks. Goodman's in Miami (where I got my last one) includes a sex video. Without the video the massager is $25.

I get the vibes that Mika would be more comfortable with a device that doesn't scream orgasm like those pricey contraptions with pulsating, rotating love beads inside the translucent fake appendage topped with rabbit ears (not the TV kind).

So let's pitch in and buy Mika a respectable Wahl. Donate by hitting CB's button. PayPal button at right.

She may tell us to buzz off...

CNBC's Stench of Success

Executive summary: Dylan Ratigan is like a dry drunk still mired in ego - and has major issues with women. Especially powerful, aggressive chicks:

Page Six: There was high drama at CNBC yesterday as "Fast Money" anchor Dylan Ratigan quit -- sources say today will be his last day on-air -- and an insider is blaming his battles with network big Susan Krakower.

Krakower -- the VP for strategic programming and development who co-created "Fast Money" with Ratigan -- "is partially responsible for this. She's been ignoring him for months and he couldn't get the attention he deserved," the insider said.

Page Six heard a tape of highly volatile Ratigan, who also co-anchors "The Call" and "Closing Bell," ranting to a producer at a commercial break last summer: "Don't ask me to talk about every [bleep]ing e-mail that comes up on the screen. I'm not going to host a [bleep]ing TV show that consists of reading [bleep]ing e-mails to [bleep]ing traders." He then accuses Krakower of never addressing his concerns in private. "You know what, Susan, I'm in the middle of hosting a show right now, so now is an unwelcome time to hear your voice . . . If you want to pull me off the show, please do," he roars. "[You are] rude and disrespectful. . . . You lie to me routinely."

Our source says Ratigan's contract expires Wednesday and he's talked to other networks. Another insider said, "Everybody is buzzing about this today. And at [CNBC Senior VP] Jonathan Wald's going-away party the other night, Dylan and [CNBC President] Mark Hoffman were barely speaking to each other. It also comes down to Dylan wanting to take his career to the next level with some new show, and I'm not sure CNBC is willing. But who knows, maybe they'll make a last-minute deal with him to stay."

CNBC rep Brian Steel refused to say if Ratigan had quit or address possible negotiations. He issued a statement: "The premise of your story is incorrect. Susan Krakower, who oversaw the development of 'Fast Money,' is one of the most talented people at CNBC." Alan Berger, Ratigan's agent, did not return repeated calls.

NYT September 2007: If Jim Cramer and Donny Deutsch stand for the voices of business success on CNBC, imparting years of experience to the stock-tip-hungry masses, Mr. Ratigan represents young Wall Street in the eyes of the network. “The guy in the Porsche in the left lane going fast, that’s who Dylan is — the engine that powers it all,” said Jonathan Wald, a senior vice president of business news at CNBC. “He does appeal to women, not in a frat boy way, but he’s an attractive guy who smells of success.” (He does drive a Porsche.)

• Ratigan sees it as his mission to inject virility into cable.


• He is an impeccable self-promoter. Every few days, this reporter received a text or e-mail message from Mr. Ratigan: “Forgive me if I am too forward in offering this, but since I arrived at CNBC in 2003, no one has co-created more new shows — “Bullseye,” “On the Money,” “Fast Money” and “Fast Money MBA Challenge” — than I have. All but “Bullseye” are still on the air.”


• Being labeled a showman doesn’t exactly bother Mr. Ratigan. Entertaining is what he likes to do most. His bottom-of-the-soul ambition is to be the host of a late-night talk show. He wouldn’t mind succeeding Conan O’Brien.


• He went to CNBC in September 2003 to star on “Bullseye,” a panel show about the markets. The reaction was mixed. One critic dubbed Mr. Ratigan “Larry King on steroids.” The show was canceled in 2005. (Mr. Cramer’s “Mad Money” took the time slot.)


• As for his personal life — he was engaged twice but never married.

Personally, he doesn't ring my closing bell...

CNBC: Bullshit & Bears

A CNBC talent utters a bad word during Obama's "virtual town meeting" Thursday. No, it is not new hire Howard Dean.

Onion Rings

Former veteran CNN anchor Bobbie Battista on reinventing herself on ONN: I have just done some web videos for the Onion.com (a parody news site). They're pretty funny. I wasn't sure I should do them at first, but I think it's always important not to take yourself too terribly seriously!

Onion Bobbie bio: Battista left CNN in 2001, telling Anchor Monthly magazine that she could no longer tolerate the “utter lack of professionalism” at the network. Finding the Onion News Network more to her liking, she now anchors the evening news desk.

Bobbie website bio

A wag with the nom de guerre "Peter Jennings" writes on Bobbie's blog: "Sorry to see you on Onion News Network. Real News to fake news…wow. That must suck!" Peter

Yeah, it sucks dick big time. Bobbie: It is beyond the pale how the TV news biz eschews your vaunted "journalistic ethics" (now an oxymoron - like "Senate Ethics Committee" ) - not to mention your chronological age - since you bailed in 2001.

Bobbie fires back: "Oh 'Peter' Are you kidding? It’s a blast! Get a sense of humor!"

I'm far less concerned with brazen ballsy Bobbie bringing decades of journalistic credibility to fake news than fakes sans portfolio bringing no credibility to Bobbie's former employer and other cable news networks.

Why doesn't the snarky New York Times ("content-sharing" partner w/NBC/MSNBC/CNBC) that gleefully pointed out Bobbie's Onion gig peel the veneer from the phonies (Read Olbermann, Matthews, CNN's Rick Sanchez - the list is endless) masquerading as broadcast television journalists?

Bobbie: "I occasionally still do some TV work, most recently for Retirement Living TV, but I was too young for that network!! "

"Too young for that network!!"?? Bobbie's got to be in her fifties. Her age is a State Secret. She was a Raleigh, NC local news anchoress (photo) before CNN hired her in 1981. Same timeline as my career. And I just turned 60.

Kick ass and take names, Bobbie!

Prague's Franz Kafka International Named World's Most Alienating Airport

All right, you cheese-dicks, welcome to the MSNBC! Follow me. To Valkyrie.

Olbermann Watch commenter "Katy Turic" has found her metered metier:

It's Krazy Keith and Howard Dean
Their hypocrisy is obscene
Two partisan hacks
Their discourse lacks
The dialogue from Charlie Sheen

The former DNC chairman's Olbermann on-air shelf life expired in a matter of minutes after new talking head Dean dissed Olbermann for calling George Bush "fascist." NewsBusters

Olbermann (defending his branding of Bush): "If you have a case to call somebody a ‘fascist,’ lay it out. Define your terms and say where you, I mean, you may be crazy and you may be wrong, but at least put some meat on the bones."
Dean: "Even in the darkest days of the Bush-Cheney administration, I don't think there was any reason to call George Bush a fascist."



Olbermann Watch via Johnny Dollar's Place

The Jim Cramer Redemption Tour

MSNBC's "Morning Joe." What Have We Learned Today? Mika Brzezinski: "I learned that Jim Cramer can handle anything with elegance." [POV: Cramer]

Even rival network vibrator vixens?

Barack Obama: An Accident Waiting To Happen

Forty million suckers watched Obama navigate his giant TV screen TelePrompTer.

NBC's Double Standard

Why is it that NBC permitted and encouraged months of media speculation about Democrat MSNBC blowhard Chris Matthews running for Senate (his colleagues even referred to him as "Senator" on the air) while CNBC brass clamp a lid on the under-the-radar rumors that only surfaced a few weeks ago about the political aspirations of a Republican on-air talent?

CNBC's Larry Kudlow? U.S. Senate? Against Chris Dodd? As a Republican? Kudlow? Yeah, he's got impressive creds but knows zip about political campaigns like his MSNBC counterpart Matthews. Nobody would've known about Republicans allegedly feeling out Kudlow if Kudlow hadn't opened his yap and somebody blabbed. Dems savaged Kudlow after the rumors surfaced. So now: "In my heart, I know that I belong right here at CNBC. This is my love. I just signed a new long-term deal here and I can't think of anything else I would rather do. I've invested and worked very hard at this job and I am so blessed to have it."

The gremlin who added "It is now rumored that Kudlow will run for US Senate against Christopher Dodd of Connecticut" to the former Reagan OMB honcho's Wikipedia entry had better take it out now.

Maybe it has something to do with his past drug use. In 1994 Kudlow was canned by Bear Stearns. In 1995 he checked himself into an alcohol and drug treatment center.

Obama: This Ear Bud's For You

It is disturbing that Barack Obama can't get through a press conference without cue cards. The prez ditched his ubiquitous TelePrompTer for a giant screen TV. Why doesn't he just do what some TV network correspondents used to do? Record, play back through an ear bud, and parrot the script.

Wash Post TV critic Tom Shales: "...something seemed to be wrong with the prompting device, which reportedly had been relocated to the back of the room. Obama was not looking squarely into the camera the way he usually does when talking to us "folks at home." He wasn't making eye contact as effectively as usual; in fact his eyes looked a little blurry and weary. His delivery was also somewhat halting at times."

POTUS's TOTUS (TelePrompTer) Monday morning quarterbacks last night's performance: "I was having breakfast in the Commissary this morning, and I overheard some of the Advance team talking about last night's performance. They were impressed that Big Guy was able to say so many sentences without a "real" teleprompter. I had to run out of the room so that no one could see the tears running down my screens. Sorry ... it's been a tough week. You see, the Obamatron is me. It's kind of like Cinderella and Gibbsy is my Fairy Godmother who waves his magic wand and I go from two small screens to one, slick screen. Well not really, they just plugged my cables into a 52-inch flat screen, instead of the mini-LCDs that sit on the floor. Same words, just a different package. And a bigger package. But I digress.I'm a computer after all, and when people can't see past the gloss and the smooth lines, and thin brackets and sleek screens, not bothering to see the real me, the real guts, it hurts. I have a brain, people. This is the best way to look at it: my LCD component is to Big Boy, what the sleeveless dress is to Michelle."

So Obama deigned to recognizeThe Washington Times at last night's press conf? Not the usual suspects - WaPo, NYT, WSJ, LA Times, Chicago Trib et al.

Obama called on the pre-selected Politico, Stars & Stripes, Ebony reporters as well as the Usual TV Network Suspects.



Related: "President Obama's dull delivery during press conference fails to inspire" NYDN "What Obama Said And What He Meant" Politico

Good Vibrations

Mika Brzezinski: you're telling me you've never used a vibrator to get off? Or maybe the MSNBC "Morning Joe" hostess is just uncomfortable talking about battery-powered stimulus packages now that "The View's" Barbara Walters fingers vibrators as a must-have "necessity" in these economic times.

Eeuuuuuuw! Barbara's sorry Mika's "disgusted." Co-conspirator Sherri Shepherd suggests sending a sex toy to Mika.

C'mon, Mika! Expel the stick from your ass! Even oh-so-proper Martha Stewart blabbed to Howard Stern more than two years ago about her top-of-the-line orgasm inducer. Intrigued, I tracked down Martha's objet d'amour (above) and headlined it here under "Romancing The Stone."



Now Mika's backed off her sex toy angst and claims she's sent septuagenarian Babs a present. Presumably a vibrator. The "Morning Joe" boys ribbed Mika this a.m. about her gift. I suspect the vibrator is not Martha Stewart's 18 carat gold-plated Swedish number at $1,200 a crack (above). Frankly, it looks like a gold-plated turd.

My recommendation: the Wahl vibrator with dick substitute and G-spot attachments.

The New York Times Sleeps With Jeff Zucker

CJR's Ryan Chittum on the NYTimes biased reporting on "content-sharing" partner CNBC: "I’d like to tweak the Times a bit for letting NBC/CNBC spin (read: lie) on Stewart vs. Cramer without calling them out on it."

"Last week, NBC brass, in defending its business network, dropped this canard: Last week Jeff Zucker, the chief executive of NBC Universal, told attendees of an investors conference that 'to suggest that the business media or CNBC was responsible for what is going on now is absurd.'”

"The problem is that’s not what The Daily Show 'suggested.' Only a fool or a flack would say that, and the Times shouldn’t have let it go unchecked. Clearly, the people who caused this were Wall Street, regulators, the Federal Reserve, and the mortgage industry. The media’s responsibility is more indirect, in not calling them out enough beforehand. CNBC’s responsibility is that it actively egged them on and helped the inside-the-bubble thinking become that more incestuous and myopic."

"Jeff Jarvis was in the audience and reports that Zucker also said 'blaming' CNBC is like blaming the press for going to war in Iraq. It’s great to see that this media genius hasn’t learned that lesson yet. Or is he just that dishonest?"

"I’m not going to make that call, but it’s awesome how he’s comparing CNBC’s business coverage with the disgraceful press performance in the runup to March 2003..."

Letterwoman: MRS.

Marriage phobic David Letterman makes an honest woman out of his baby's mama, Regina Lasko. The five-year-old kid was probably starting to probe his parents' marital status...

61-year-old Letterman and Regina, 49, did the deed in Montana where the couple has a ranch. The previously married Letterman hooked up with Lasko back in 1986.

Jim Cramer: Crucified, Dead, Buried, Rose Again

CNBC "built for balance," eh? CNBC is about as balanced as Barbie.

Unmasked Jim Cramer's still the object of CNBC's "Impossible's Creed."

The cable business network isn't backing away from Jon Stewart-skewered Jim Cramer "In Cramer We Trust" on-air promos.

Anyone witness Cramer accolytes muttering the mantra "WWJD?" What Would Jim Do?

Matt Lauer Brakes For Animals

The "Today" show host was M.I.A this a.m. with a sore shoulder after falling off his bike trying to avoid a deer on a weekend jaunt on Long Island.

The deer was an undercover contract employee of "Good Morning America"...

Four More Years Of Biased Blowhard Chris Matthews

"I love what I do. It’s transparent. You can see it in my face.” MSNBC's Chris Matthews to the NYT's Bill Carter on his new downgraded four-year contract.

I predict this is the last MSNBC contract for Matthews who will be 67 when the aforementioned expires. What I see in his face is unresolved anger, resentment, alcoholic rage, insecure fear-driven ego, jealousy and more.

To those who thought Matthews was dangling a possible Senate run against Pennsylvania Repu Arlen Specter as as contract negotiating leverage: “I think it’s unfair people think like that. That’s sacrilegious.”

Shut the fuck up, sanctimonious shill. The lazy blowhard woke up to the realization that it is far easier and lucrative to blow smoke out your ass every day on TV than run for political office.

Matthews on deciding to not run: “Every great guy has three things. Motive, passion and spontaneity. Clearly I had the final two. But motive?"

How presumptuous to refer to himself as a"great guy."

I find it hard to believe that Matthews was "pursued" by top Dems. I'm more intrigued by this line linking Obama to UBS: He said that Pennsylvania political figures and consultants had pursued him. Last October, he was a guest at a dinner in Manhattan organized by Robert Wolf, president of UBS investment bank and one of Mr. Obama’s top fund-raisers, and attended by Democratic donors. One of the attendees said at the time that it was the understanding of those at the meeting that Mr. Matthews was feeling out his prospects and whether money would be available to him. In October, Mr. Matthews disputed the idea that the dinner was an overt political introduction, saying that he had never told anyone at the dinner — or anywhere else — that he was running. Mr. Griffin raised no formal objection to the meeting, but he said last week, “I told Chris not to drag this out or it will present a problem.”

Bill Carter: Tom Rosenstiel, executive director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, said, “You can’t be using your job in the media to promote a political career.” He said Mr. Matthews “got pretty close to the line, but he never actually got to the point of starting an exploratory committee.”As to the conflict issue, “I was sensitive to it,”

“That moment, that day, I told the producers around me: I’m not running. I cannot be in a position where I’m either dodging the story or dealing with it in a way where people believe me to be self-interested."

Oh, puh-leeze? "Thrill up my leg" ring a bell?

Mr. Matthews said he had proved his worth to the network over the last year. “My numbers were good,” he said, adding that his program — shown at 5 and 7 p.m. — set up MSNBC’s prime-time stars Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow.

The audiences for “Hardball” are growing. In February, Mr. Matthews added viewers from the same month in the election year, to 616,000 from 531,000 for his 5 p.m. show, and to 871,000 from 699,000 for the repeat at 7.

With the intense interest in the economy and the new president, Mr. Matthews said, “That microphone is more potent than any legislative position.”

Keith Olbermann: Obama's Pin Boy

"He wouldn't have been talking bowling if he'd been doing Letterman. Why didn't he do Dave? i don't understand." Craig Ferguson to Obama contract employee Keith Olbermann despairing over "What do 'we' do about Obama's Special Olympics gaffe?"

Leno's killer ratings were a "mixed blessing" for the New York Daily news which lamented more people heard Obama's gutter talk.

Oh, and "We" report. You decide. Narcissistic News God Olbermann: "It is all about me."


Related: "Perhaps Bowling Is A Subject Best Avoided" Wash Post

Obama's Diaphanous Dodge

NewsBusters: Barack Obama is about to be crowned "Newsmaker of the Year" by the National Newspaper Publishers Assn. The ceremony is to take place this afternoon, March 20, at the White House. And here is the kicker... it's CLOSED to the press! Seriously! This dude is getting an award from the press and he's closed the ceremony to the press. Where is the outrage? Where is the screaming about how Obama is the most "secretive president" since Bush? Where are comments about the lack of "transparency"? More to the point where are the guffaws about just how ridiculous this move is?

LA Times: Barack Obama was elected commander in chief promising to run the most transparent presidential administration in American history.This achievement and the overall promise of his historic administration caused the National Newspaper Publishers Assn. to name him "Newsmaker of the Year." The president is to receive the award from the federation of black community newspapers in a White House ceremony this afternoon.The Obama White House has closed the press award ceremony to the press.

Simon Says

"The Everywhere President" Politico: "Obama is the Oprah of politics."

Obama's ditched FDR and Lincoln and is quoting Harry S Truman. First it was "The buck stops here." Now on Jay Leno Thursday night: "If you want a friend in Washington get a dog."

The prez had to apologize to the head of Special Olympics after he joked that his bowling score was so low he qualifies for the Special Olympics. The gaffe was serious enough that the WH spinmeisters issued an apology even before Leno aired.

NYT: Obama’s best line was a swipe at the Beltway crowd. “In Washington, it’s a little like ‘American Idol,’ except everybody is Simon Cowell."

MSNBC dispatched the "Morning Joe" crew to L.A. where the show originated this a.m.

Obama's White House Special Olympics

Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi: "It's over — we're officially, royally fucked. no empire can survive being rendered a permanent laughingstock, which is what happened as of a few weeks ago, when the buffoons who have been running things in this country finally went one step too far."

"People are pissed off about this financial crisis, and about this bailout, but they're not pissed off enough. The reality is that the worldwide economic meltdown and the bailout that followed were together a kind of revolution, a coup d'état. They cemented and formalized a political trend that has been snowballing for decades: the gradual takeover of the government by a small class of connected insiders, who used money to control elections, buy influence and systematically weaken financial regulations."

"The crisis was the coup de grâce: Given virtually free rein over the economy, these same insiders first wrecked the financial world, then cunningly granted themselves nearly unlimited emergency powers to clean up their own mess. And so the gambling-addict leaders of companies like AIG end up not penniless and in jail, but with an Alien-style death grip on the Treasury and the Federal Reserve — "our partners in the government," as Liddy put it with a shockingly casual matter-of-factness after the most recent bailout."

"The mistake most people make in looking at the financial crisis is thinking of it in terms of money, a habit that might lead you to look at the unfolding mess as a huge bonus-killing downer for the Wall Street class. But if you look at it in purely Machiavellian terms, what you see is a colossal power grab that threatens to turn the federal government into a kind of giant Enron — a huge, impenetrable black box filled with self-dealing insiders whose scheme is the securing of individual profits at the expense of an ocean of unwitting involuntary shareholders, previously known as taxpayers."

How Dare You, Sir!

NYT: "One A.I.G. executive, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he feared the consequences of identifying himself, said many workers felt demonized and betrayed. “It is as bad if not worse than McCarthyism."

I Am Barack's Brain!

Who is behind this absolutely hilarious new blog up only since yesterday pretending to be the musings of Obama's ubiquitous TelePrompTer?

Barack Obama's Teleprompter's Blog
Reflections from the hard drive of the machine that enables the voice of the Leader of the Free World!

My first thought: Somebody from the Rush Limbaugh show.

Thursday March 19: I should say up front that Rush Limbaugh is not my kind of guy. He sometimes speaks from notes, and often off the top of his head. If he really wants to impress the electronics community, he ought to spend some time learning how to use me. Then maybe folks would take him a bit more seriously. But I digress. Rush to his credit has identified me as a key player in the White House, and while he didn't formally request an interview with me - nor did he submit his questions for approval with Gibbsy as "real" journalists like John Roberts (little known fact: he was once a Canadian VJ) do - he has posed a number of interesting questions, all of which I will begin answering today in a new, regular feature: Screen Shots with Rush. Screen Shots will be intermittent today, as I've got my West Coast gig, and The Big Guy has a number of phone calls to make to foreign leaders, and he needs me there in case he needs to appear to pull some hip overseas cultural references off the top of his head. That, and he can watch the first round games on my second screen at the same time.
Posted by Tele Prompter at 7:51 AM 143 comments

Johnny Dollar divines it could be the same wag behind Chris Matthews' Leg blog. I'm not getting that vibe...

David Gregory: The Emperor Has No Clothes

Newsday's Verne Gay: REASON TO WATCH: That is the question, and one President Barack Obama apparently asked himself, too, as he bypassed TV's venerable Sunday news institution for another show on the very same network - "The Tonight Show" - where he'll appear tonight to talk about the stimulus package.

WHAT IT'S ABOUT: The president's decision to slip past "Meet the Press" would seem like a massive diss of new host Gregory - in the job three months - but this is politics, and politics is to a certain degree about expediency. The expedient choice for Obama was "Tonight," where he'll talk about an enormously complex plan that will affect every man, woman and child in the country until the day they die - while cracking a few jokes in the process. Still begs the question, though: Why Jay Leno instead of Gregory? Leno's audience is far bigger, of course, but here's another possibility: Under Gregory, "Meet the Press" simply doesn't feel like the force it was under his legendary predecessor, Tim Russert, who died last June.

The problem? Actually, problems. The new moderator often seems like he's wearing a suit made for someone else - Russert - and as a result has yet to clearly establish why he got this gig instead of anyone else in the conga line of potential successors. Gregory is terrifically polished, well-informed, a good listener and has the talking points of both sides down cold. But he also seems more intent on covering the waterfront than digging for news, or in pushing the talking heads off their talking points. Recent interviews with Sens. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) felt like a waterfront that went on for miles - an endless vista of chatter and spin. His exclusive interview with Defense Secretary Robert Gates was thoughtful and probing, but not particularly memorable.

BOTTOM LINE "Meet the Press" is now the de facto safe show on Sunday morning - "safe," that is, for those being interviewed.

Gregory has been handed perhaps the most important program in television journalism. It's time to start acting like the king who rules wisely yet ruthlessly. Otherwise, his legacy will match that of Garrick Utley or Bill Monroe - moderators who were highly respected but not highly feared. In this job, it's vital to be both.

Obama: Under The Bus

Howard Kurtz Wash Post: On Tuesday TMZ aired a segment in which its Washington reporter asked members of Congress at Reagan National Airport what kind of mattress he should use if he wanted to stash his money underneath. "I'd say a Serta sleeper," said Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio). "I use a cot," said Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah). "I don't think you should keep it in your mattress," Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) dissented.

Members of Congress don't need mattresses. Louisiana Dem Rep. William Jefferson wrapped nearly a hundred grand in Reynolds Wrap and hid it in his freezer.

Dem Sen. Chris Dodd, chairman of the Banking Committee, wrapped hundreds of thousands of dollars in Wall Street campaign donations in Righteous Rap and protected the corrupt hands that have fed him for years.

The Connecticut senator finally admits he wrote the language in the stimulus bill that grandfathered AIG's bonuses. "At the time it seemed like a relatively innocent request," blathered Dodd yesterday.

Washington's terminal lying and finger-pointing isn't flying. The jig is up. Dodd claimed Obama's Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and the WH originated the AIG bonus protection scheme. Geithner claims he didn't know about the bonuses until recently. Same with Obama. When the shit was about to hit the fan Geither and Obama backtracked, bellowing about reversing the contractually-obligated bonuses.

So hypocritical breast-beating Congress is trying to get the money back. It appears that in the short term, Geithner's thethe fall guy. In the long term, Chris Dodd when he loses his Senate seat.

Yesterday President Obama invoked Harry S Truman's famous "The Buck Stops Here." But with Obama the buck starts here. The Prez got more than a hundred grand in campaign donations from AIG. He made $2.5 mil last in in book royalties. Obama's raking in a $500,000 advance - which he's splitting with the publisher - to write an "inspirational" book for young people. Read: brainwashing. 1 Bill Ayers Bomb + 5 Bill Ayers Bombs = Six Blown Buildings. Look for a recycling of Obama sayings.

To get people spending dough they don't have, the Fed is injecting $1.2 trillion into the economy and another $8 bil Where's the money coming from?

It is patently unseemly for Barack Obama to be making NCAA basketball predictions on ESPN. After learning that Obama picked Duke to beat Louisville but alas, wouldn't make it into the Final Four, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski retorted: "Somebody said that we're not in President Obama's Final Four, and as much as I respect what he's doing, really, the economy is something that he should focus on, probably more than the brackets."

It is patently inappropriate for Obama to appear tonight on Jay Leno given the scandal, lies, and corruption swirling around the White House and Congress over the AIG bonuses. How will Obama finesse comedy and drama?

NBC's pimping the historical first sitting president's appearance on The Tonight Show with video on MSNBC showing people camping out over night at the show's studios in Burbank, hoping to get tickets for tonight's performance.

WH handlers are strong-arming the WH press pool out of the studio. They'll be forced to watch in another room. Obama's wranglers deigned to let photogs take shots during one commercial break.

The president's bedazzlement of mainstream media biased whores and the public is coming to an end. The charm is wearing thin. The fickle media are poised to throw Obama under the bus. Along with metrosexual Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. Chris Dodd. Barney Frank. AIG. Bonuses. Bailouts. Congress.

How will history judge Obama's first 100 days as Commander-In-Chief?

Uh, You Know, Zucker Defends CNBC, Cramer

NBC czar Jeff Zucker's rival at CBS Viacom is defending Jon Stewart's reaming of CNBC's Jim Cramer after Zucker whined it "was incredibly unfair." "Completely out of line."

The rivals appeared at the McGraw-Hill Media Summit in NYC Wednesday.

Zucker: "I put my law school plans on hold. That's a nice way of saying I didn't get in."
BusinessWeek: "I was just trying to be polite."
Zucker: "I'm cool with it."
BusinessWeek: "I just feel I have to ask you what you thought about Jon Stewart -- "
Zucker: "Who?" ... CNBC is a spectacular organization... Everybody wants to find a scapegoat... I'm upset that my 401K isn't what it was.... we all want to blame somebody... CNBC has done a fantastic job... in particular, you known, Jim Cramer, uh, was out in front on two days I remember vividly... I'm incredibly proud of the job they have done."

He says "uh" and "you know" more than I care to count. Zucker denies CNBC's ratings have gone down because of the Stewart/Cramer imbroglio. "When there's a lot of red on the screen, uh, historically people don't want to watch that. Ratings are only one measure you think of CNBC... Historically those have led to periods of lesser ratings. That is absolutely not the case this time... the ratings continue to rise... "

Zucker: "Just because uh, someone mocks authority doesn't make it so. The audience has been there in very strong number in the past seven days..."

BusinessWeek: "I bet you're not putting Cramer on Jon Stewart anytime soon."

Zucker: "That will be up to Jim Cramer."

Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman: "Jon Stewart is a great person and he's very smart and has a connection with the zeitgeist which makes him successful. It got so much attention because Jon Stewart was one of the few people on air that spoke to what people are thinking out there. He did a great job and we're proud to have to have him as part of our family."

Shep Smith: Body Politic

Johnny Dollar distills an hour of an irate Shep Smith into 7 min: "Well, well, well, wasn't that quite a little show... These are the facts about what you are just witnessing... This body is up there screaming about bonuses that AIG paid to employees... they could've stopped this... The Congress and the White House made this happen... Quote 'During late night closed door talks last month, negotiators for the the United States House of Representatives, the United States Senate and the White House of the United States stripped a measure from the stimulus bill that would've restricted these AIG bonuses... Instead a measure by Chris Dodd...replaced it. But Dodd's measure explictly exempted bonuses...' Congress, you cannot have it both ways.

And now the Congress of the United States which allowed all this is grandstanding to beat the band. Are you kidding me? Had this Congress not changed the rules this would not have happened... The Congress did this... What's going on in Washington?

It was this Congress that said go ahead with your bonuses... and now they're up there putting on a show for us... They're distracting us.... Top of the list, Senator Chris Dodd, chairman of the Banking Committee... protecting those corporate bonuses... He is closing in on a quarter million dollars in donations from AIG.... They [Congress] did not read the stimulus bill and they admitted they didn't read it, so shut up!... You know what the Fox News Channel oughta do? We should send them a bill for all the commercial breaks we've missed all day long because this thing is on!

Glenn Beck: K.I.S.S.

Drugs. Check. Alcohol. Check. Rich. Check. Ego. Check. There you have it. What Fox News star Glenn Beck has in common with "the de facto head of the Repub party" Rush Limbaugh.

Lloyd Grove (GROVEL@washpost.com before he bounced to other gossip spaces before landing at The Daily Beast) chats with the ratings phenomenon in a "deeply personal interview":

GROVEL: What is it about you that people respond to?
GLENN: I don’t know for sure but I think it’s a couple of things, I think it’s honesty. They may not agree with me, but they know I believe it. I think it’s a willingness to say, 'Wow, I’ve sucked in the past' or 'I suck today' or 'I was wrong on that yesterday.' I’m just being a person that people are always afraid to be in business or in television or whatever. They’ve gotta be right all the time and if they’re wrong, don’t mention it again. Why? Just tell the truth, and the truth will set you free. I think they find that refreshing And I think the sense of humor. I mean, you don’t have a sense of humor, and oooph.... I’m an alcoholic, a recovering alcoholic, so I’m a guy who’s tried to control my whole life. I screwed it up really, really badly. I don’t really care. Come what may, I’ll be fine.

GROVEL: When you’re weeping on the air, which you do every so often, are you in control of yourself or do you feel like you’re slipping out of control emotionally?
GLENN: No, I’m not slipping out of control. I’m in control of myself. I don’t think there’s a problem with people showing emotion. I don’t care what people think, I don’t care if you make fun of me, I don’t care if you disagree, I honestly don’t care in the end if I turn out to be wrong, because actually I hope I’m wrong. There’s no way for me to win if I’m right on some of this stuff.

Send Glenn a bag of M&Ms. I wonder how long he's been in recovery? Anyone know?

AIG: "Mistakes Were Made"

Excerpts of AIG CEO Edward Liddy's letter in Wednesday's Wash Post: The government rescue of American International Group (AIG) and other financial firms has produced a palpable wave of anger on the part of Americans and a rising public demand for accountability from corporate and government leaders.

The anger is understandable, and I share it. I have been fortunate in more than three decades in business to see firsthand the wealth creation that well-managed American companies bring to their employees and their communities. I have seen the good side of capitalism. But over the past six months, since agreeing to take the reins of AIG and reviewing how it was run in prior years, I have also seen instances of the bad side of capitalism.

Mistakes were made at AIG, and on a scale that few could have imagined possible. The most egregious of those began in 1987, when the company strayed from its core insurance competencies to launch a credit-default-swaps portfolio, which eventually became subject to massive collateral calls that created a liquidity crisis for AIG. Its missteps have exacted a high price, not only for the company and its employees but for the American taxpayer, the federal government's finances and the global economy. These missteps brought AIG to the brink of collapse and to the government for help.

What also became clear is that once AIG's relationship with the government and taxpayers changed, our behavior as a company needed to change. So, of our own initiative, we suspended our federal lobbying activities and halted corporate political contributions. We also restricted executive compensation. In all, total 2008 compensation for the top 47 executives is 56 percent lower than their total 2007 compensation. My annual salary is $1. My only stake is my reputation.

No one knows better than I do that AIG has been the recipient of generous amounts of government financial aid. We are acutely aware not only that we must be good stewards of the public funds we have received but that the patience of America's taxpayers is wearing thin. Where that patience is especially thin is on the question of compensation.

I am mindful of the outrage of the American public and of the president's call for a more restrained compensation system. I am also mindful that every decision we make at AIG has consequences for the American taxpayer. We weigh decisions with one priority in mind: Will this action help or hurt our ability to pay money back to the government?

Although we have wound down more than $1 trillion in the portfolio of the AIG Financial Products unit that is at the root of the company's troubles, there remains substantial risk in that portfolio. The financial downside for taxpayers is potentially very large, and that's why we're winding down this business.

To prevent undue risk exposure in the meantime, AIG has made a set of retention payments to employees based on a compensation system that prior management put in place. As has been reported, payments were made to employees in the Financial Products unit. Make no mistake, had I been chief executive at the time, I would never have approved the retention contracts that were put in place more than a year ago. It was distasteful to have to make these payments. But we concluded that the risks to the company, and therefore the financial system and the economy, were unacceptably high.

Where does that leave us?

Beck Beats Rush, Hannity

The winners of Radio & Records news/talk/sports awards given out last weekend in LA. (click on Awards). Glenn Beck beat out Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and two oth ers for syndicated radio personality of the year.

And that dead guy to Beck's right? He won producer of the year. Rush's producer Halderman R. "Kit" Carson.

If anyone has a real photo of the elusive Mr. Carson, please email it to me!

Chris Dodd: Face The Music

How much you want to bet that most if not all of AIG's board of directors and senior execs are Chris Dodd's Connecticut constituents? Tony New Canaan? Darien? Greenwich? Fairfield County?

The AIG $165 mil bonuses cannot be legally challenged, thanks to Dodd who inserted language in the stimulus package to protect "contractually obligated bonuses agreed on before February 11, 2009."

Why are we just finding this out? All 535 members of Congress and the Barack Obama WH are complicit in attempting to pull the wool over the American public's jaded eyes. Didn't they read the stimulus bill before it was rammed through in record speed? What did Dem leaders know and when did they know it? Right out of the chute. Just another valid reason why Repubs didn't vote for it.

Now the fingered corrupt Dodd wants to crack down on AIG. Too late. And so illegal under the Constitution. You're so busted...

The only thing I know about Dodd, other than he's a corrupt, craven hypocrite, is a long-ago anecdote I picked up from one of my friends in the "intelligence community." He told me he'd heard an audio tape of Dodd in his Capitol Hill office getting a blow job from some babe.

An unrepentant Iowa Senator Chuck "Commit Suicide" Grassley today: AIG is "sucking the tit of the taxpayer."

Fox Business: Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) on Monday night floated the idea of taxing American International Group (AIG) bonus recipients so the government could recoup some or all of the $450 million the company is paying to employees in its financial products unit. Within hours, the idea spread to both houses of Congress, with lawmakers proposing an AIG bonus tax.The move represents somewhat of an about-face for the senator.While the Senate was constructing the $787 billion stimulus last month, Dodd added an executive-compensation restriction to the bill. That amendment provides an “exception for contractually obligated bonuses agreed on before Feb. 11, 2009” -- which exempts the very AIG bonuses Dodd and others are now seeking to tax. The amendment made it into the final version of the bill, and is law. Separately, Sen. Dodd was AIG’s largest single recipient of campaign donations during the 2008 election cycle with $103,100, according to opensecrets.org.

[He's lying.] A spokesperson for Senator Dodd said the senator "was completely unaware of these AIG bonuses until he learned of them in the past few days; to suggest that the bonuses affecting AIG had any effect on Senator Dodd's action is categorically false."

One of AIG Financial Products’ largest offices is based in Connecticut. Eleven getting $1 mil bonuses aren't even with the company anymore.

CB: AIG is one of Dodd's top five campaign contributors. Dodd was the beneficiary of more than $243,000 from AIG between 2003-2008. #1 on the list? Citigroup. 2006 contributions reads like a Who's Who of Wall Street.

AIG Code of Business Conduct and Ethics (“Code”) embodies the commitment of American International Group, Inc. and its subsidiaries (collectively, “AIG”) to conduct its business with the highest ethical standards and in accordance with all applicable laws, rules and regulations of the countries in which AIG engages in business... II. Honest and Candid Conduct: Each director, executive officer, and senior financial officer owes a duty to AIG to act with integrity. Integrity requires, among other things, being honest and candid. IV. Corporate Opportunities Each director, executive officer, and senior financial officer owes a duty to AIG to advance AIG’s legitimate business interests when the opportunity to do so arises.

Do you see a conflict here?

The House and Senate Ethics Committees are deliberately impotent. More like Pathetics Committees...

CNN Disemboweled

Jon Klein: Take Charles Grassley's advice to bonus boners AIG: save face by committing Hara-Kiri. CNN's ratings are sucking hind tit. Why not do it on-air? Sure to be a ratings blockbuster...

CNN has been on a severe ratings slide – finishing 4th or 5th in the prime time (8:00 – 11:00pm ET) 25-54 demographic behind FNC, MSNBC, HLN. This past Friday, March 13th, they even finished 5th behind CNBC. According to Nielsen, CNN has finished 4th or 5th in the prime time demo 7 out of the first 15 day in the calendar month of March. They finished 4th or 5th on March 2, 3, 5, 6, 11, 12, 13.

McCain and Assailable

Laura Ingraham reax to Meghan McCain's "Kiss my fat ass!" on ABC's "The View" Monday. The chicks' catfight catalyst? Ingraham dubbed John McCain's daughter "plus-size." Watch the vid here or below.

Laura on her website: "USEFUL IDIOT" WATCH...Memo to Meghan McCain: Enjoy the media coverage while it lasts, but know you're being used. You are the flavor of the month in left-wing media land because you are a Republican bashing the GOP. Likewise, your dad is most popular among the same people when he is slamming his Republican brethren in full-blown "maverick" fashion. At least he backs up his views with a lifetime of sacrifice and public service. What is Ms. McCain's own political, business, or real-world experience that lends credibility to her argument that the GOP needs to "moderate" (read: abandon its core principles)? Now the Left is seizing on one satirical line from our show to paint Meghan as the victim of a right-wing hate crime. This comes from the same playbook responsible for the ongoing demonization of Rush Limbaugh -- where his take on President Obama's economic policies are misrepresented as some kind of attack on America. Their goal is to malign outspoken conservatives (specifically in talk radio) as members of a radical fringe movement whose right to free speech is questionable at best.The left's indignation in this instance is manufactured and totally phony. If any off-the-cuff remark about a woman's size was condemnable, then where was the outrage when President Obama made a passing reference to Jessica Simpson's "weight battle" during his Super Bowl interview with Matt Lauer? And of course they look the other way when obvious personal attacks are levied against conservatives. Remember when Al Franken was the toast of all media for his book "Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot"? Last month The View's Joy Behar called him a "fat guy"; and when I was a guest on The View a few years back she ridic Ann Coulter and me as "peroxide" blondes on Fox. I laughed it off. If you can't stand the heat...get out of the punditry business.Next time, just for fun, Meghan should pretend that she's had a change of heart and is now a pro-life conservative. Then she'll really see how the Mean Girls treatment feels.

Don Wan

Tom Taylor Radio Info: I’d argue that the I-Man has helped save and improve some lives, because he’s shared some gory details of his own past. Having Imus say to a caller “I don’t remember that entire year, because I was so coked up” is probably worth an hour of “your brain on drugs” PSAs. Now he shares the news that he’s been diagnosed with Stage II prostate cancer, and that might just spur lots of guys to get that PSA test they’ve been postponing. (Tim Russert’s heart attack certainly made some guys think.) They’ll also now learn that the National Cancer Institute defines Stage II of the disease. Imus may be discussing modes of treatment, which could range from what the docs call “watchful waiting” all the way to radical prostatectomy. But once again, by responsibly discussing his own personal situation, Imus may be doing some good for lots of listeners..."

Related: Prostate Cancer Foundation

Friel Of Fortune

Courtney Friel opens up wide for TV news industry blog Soup Cans. Soup Cans picks her brain and finds it is (in my view) as empty as Al Capone's vault.

SC: "What's your favorite story involving a celebrity you've interviewed?"

CF: "There have been some funny moments- but I'm not going to embarrass anyone famous- or myself!"

The Fox News bikini bonehead ex-World Poker Tour hostess has embarrassed herself enough on the air to the point that Fox brass banished her to website Siberia.

SC: "How did the gig with Fox News come about?"

CF: "Well...I went on a date with Roger Ailes...OMG- I'm joking!!"

OMG! TV news casting couches are terminally stained with Courtney's DNA!

SC: "Any truth to the report on some websites that there is on the set animosity between you and Julie Banderas?"

CF: I just ran into Julie and we laughed about this "rumor." We were on a weekend show together for 6 months and “message boards” imagined a catfight.

OMG! I analyzed Julie's body language when Friel was on the show. There's no doubt that Julie had a hard-on for bubble-headed Friel. The Maxim nearly-nude model couldn't read a TelePrompTer, was constitutionally incapable of stringing an intelligible sentence without a script, and Julie's attitude was like, why the fuck is she screwing up my show?

It wasn't just Julie's show. Friel was summarily dismissed by a grimacing Alan Colmes in an appearance on "Hannity & Colmes." More Friel Follies? Click on her name in the box below.

Executive summary: Three years at Fox and the notorious brick shit house is still dumb as a brick

Glenn Beck: Not From Concentrate

The Hari-Kiri knives are out for Fox's Glenn Beck, ratings star second to Bill O'Reilly. MSNBC's David "Chelsea Pimped Out" Shuster is tittering, er, Twittering: I didn't know, until I watched Glenn Beck, the Obama administration wants "totalitarianism" and concentration camps. Sheesh.

Dennis Miller: "Beck, Beck, stay back! Is that Beck guy in the building?"
O'Reilly: "Yeah, he's in the cage... He's perfectly normal off-camera... You'd never know it... That guy's racking up huge ratings... People love him!"
Miller: "Makes Howard Beale look like John Wayne... The Twelve Prophecies Of The Nine Sarcophaguses."
O'Reilly: "I don't know if you're the guy who should be calling Beck out of control."



Glenn's Friday the 13th special where he had a live studio audience killed in the ratings. Number one for the month of March.

Madoff Mug Shot

Why is this man not smiling?

"Verrry interesting...but stupid"

"Maybe he'll be better than I think." MSNBC "Morning Joe" talking head Eugene Robinson on Barack Obama's Thursday appearance on "The Tonight" show where he'll walk the line between comedy and presidential stature to spin "The American People" on the outrageous $165 AIG bonuses.

A disapproving Pat Buchanan: "He's a popular leader but also a chief of state."

Well, what about Richard Nixon delivering the "Sock it to me!" line on "Laugh-In?"

Buchanan: "He was a candidate then."

Dana Milbank Wash Post: "As the crowd began to file into the East Room yesterday to hear President Obama's thoughts on the AIG bonuses, the pianist in the Grand Foyer of the White House struck up the tune "Killing Me Softly." It was an apt selection.

NYP: At one point, when Obama coughed during his remarks, the president revealed the depth of his rage. "Excuse me, I'm choked up with anger here."

Too many verboten cigarettes...

Repub Senator Charles Grassley is so pissed he told an Iowa radio station these AIG clowns should resign or commit suicide the honorable Japanese way: Hara-Kiri. Grassley later said he really didn't mean it literally.



Related: "Anger Over Firm Depletes Obama's Political Capital" Wash Post

CNN's John Roberts: In Flagrante Delicto

Is suddenly single CNN anchor John Roberts dipping his pen in company ink?

Page Six: Roberts, who was once the heir apparent to Dan Rather at CBS News, seemed to be joined at the hip with fellow CNN anchor Kyra Phillips last week in Toronto, where he was inducted into the Canadian Broadcast Hall of Fame. "What's interesting to me is . . . that he - a veteran of the fourth estate - thought he could get away with it," noted National Post columnist Shinan Govani. Roberts "blanched" when asked about his gorgeous companion, Govani wrote: "Does he think no one is going to notice he's traveling with a drop-dead gorgeous co-anchor?" CNN had no comment.

Recall in August 2006 when Miss Phillips accidently took her live wireless mic into a CNN ladies room and the Whole World heard her to some other babe how "really lucky" she is to find a "really passionate, compassionate great, great human being, and they do exist. They're hard to find but they are out there... He's married, three kids, but his wife is a control freak."



The incident propelled Phillips to "Late Night With David Letterman" where she starred in "Top Ten Kyra Phillips Excuses." #5 "I was set up by the bitches at Fox News."