Andrea Tantaros, who recently tried to slime Barack Obama as a "fancy lad," is referred to as a "Republican strategist" by both Fox and MSNBC. So I decided to look into what passes for Republican strategy these days, and it’s pretty funny.

Tantaros’ previous experience apparently consisted of spokespersoning for the unsuccessful William Weld race in New York and both of Jeanine Pirro’s flameouts. (Did Tantaros have anything to do with Pirro’s do you have page 10  moment?) Prior to that, her most newsworthy mark was made as conservative columnist for her college newspaper, Lehigh’s The Brown and White. The New York Observer caught some of her more choice lines in one column :

"...Mrs. Clinton realizes that her time as first lady is coming to a close and this power-hungry monster..."

"...Mrs. Clinton is a power-hungry congenital liar..."

"Whitewater. This was the Clinton`s real-estate scam in Arkansas that ended up costing us taxpayers $69 million and White House Deputy Vincent Foster's life."

Early this morning, IndyMac customers began lining up at company headquarters in Pasadena California to withdraw their funds. This in reaction to the news that the bank had failed, and that the FDIC had taken over.

My first thought was that these were overly fearful depositors, because the FDIC was going to swoop in and guarantee every dollar that had been deposited. Wrong:

Yet not all customers would be able to access all of their funds. Customers with $100,000 or less in deposits or with $250,000 or less in a retirement account would have full access to their funds, which are insured by the federal government.

There are, however, an estimated 10,000 IndyMac depositors who had a collective $1 billion over federal insurance limits. In an unusual move, the FDIC said it would give those customers access to 50% of their uninsured deposits. Any additional payments would be made only if the sale of IndyMac assets proved sufficient.

For the over 46 million American citizens who lack health insurance, or the many seniors who reach the Medicare "donut," the cost of out-of-pocket prescriptions can be crushing. And yet Freakonomics co-author Stephen J. Dubner says the price of Prozac, as an example, can vary from a high of $117 down to $12 per month at Costco.

Here are the results of the informal drug price survey in Houston for 90 tabs of Prozac:

Walgreens: $117
Eckerd: $115
CVS: $115
Sam’s Club: $15
Costco: $12

The Wall Street Journal, via the same Freakonomics blog, cites instances where the price of a Zocor generic can range from $108.99 down to $6.97. How could someone consistently pay the much higher prices for these generics and others? Dubner asked the physician who conducted the original survey:

March 8, 2007

Dear Senator Obama,

    Right now, I’d like to see you win the Democratic nomination. But if you agree to appear in the Nevada debate to be carried by Fox News, I will look elsewhere for a candidate to support. You won’t just lose me, but I will actively back one of your competitors who declines to appear in the Fox debate.

    Why should you worry about losing me? I am an activist and a member of the netroots, and in both 2004 and 2006, I probably totaled about six or seven full days of precinct walking and many hours of phone banking. I suspect I’m fairly average compared with my compadres. I know we made a huge difference in 2006, we’re growing stronger every day, and frankly, our movement is much more important to me than your candidacy. My number one issue, more important than even Iraq, is finding a candidate who respects us and listens to us.

    If you appear in the Fox debate, you will be doing neither.

    Would I back a candidate who is less aligned with my own political beliefs? Absolutely, and I wouldn’t have to even think about it. Would I support a candidate who is considered less "electable" in the general election? Again, yes.

God I hate to defend Fox. But the idea is to fight Fox, not to become them.

This screencap has been frontpaged:

Looks pretty damning, until you view the the 2:19 video on Fox, in which other captions disclosed the verdicts in the other four counts. And the "Libby Found Not Guilty" caption didn't even dominate the story.

Following are three caps that show this, I'll post the others when I have them.

On Feb. 14, I received a fundraising email from Mike Duncan of the RNC, using the phrase "slow-bleed" six times, and attributing it to Nancy Pelosi, John Murtha, and other Democrats. The email included a link to a 2/15 Politico story, in which John Bresnahan used the phrase to describe possible Iraq legislation from some Democrats. I immediately emailed Bresnahan:

Sent: Wed 2/14/2007 6:58 PM
To: John Bresnahan
Subject: Politico.com: Web Comments To Reporter

In your recent story, who exactly used the phrase "slow bleed?" The Republicans are making hay out of it - I just received a fundraising letter from the GOP quoting the phrase

Within a couple of hours, Bresnahan responded with, "I am interested in following this up. Can you send me a copy of the fundraising letter that you received?" I forward the RNC email, and that was the end of our correspondence.

Mark Binelli in the latest Rolling Stone has very positive words for Keith Olbermann, although little in the article will be a revelation for most Countdown fans. I think his subhead is particularly perceptive: "Keith Olbermann is mad as hell -- and unlike Rush Limbaugh, he's not faking it." I’ve heard Keith say that if Limbaugh could get a real sportscasting gig, he’d drop the political act in a second.

The "mad as hell" part is obviously a reference to the Howard Beale character in Network, although Olbermann doesn’t fully embrace the comparison:

"That scene from Network where Howard Beale is walking down the street in his pajamas, mumbling to himself -- that's not me," Olbermann insists. "I'm not in a state of perpetual outrage. But I don't think I've ever taken a position on the air that I didn't feel strongly about. What I do is not some kind of performance designed to create an image for myself, or to create false anger in people. The difference between me and O'Reilly is, I will shout 'Fire!' in a crowded theater if there's a fire. I think Bill would shout 'Fire!' in a crowded theater to hear the sound of his own voice."

It’s been widely reported that the supposed 21,500 troop escalation will likely be at least 35,000, and up to 48,000. This in spite of Bush's statement in the SOTU, "I’ve committed more that 20,000 additional American troops to Iraq." Yeah, I know - as Duncan Black might say, Bush lies, sun rises.

Since we can’t count on the Washington press corp to get Bush to fess up as to his intentions, I would love to see Senator Jim Webb give a second speech. It could be the SOTU Democratic Response, Part II, because obviously, there are things that still need to be clarified. It could be shot in the same office, with the flag in the background, and with the same picture of Webb’s father on the desk. It wouldn’t get any live network coverage, but I think it could make a substantial impact.

In the speech, Webb could ask Bush about his intentions. He could also say that if the real numbers come out to 35,000 to 48,000 troops, then what Bush said to Congress and the American people was a lie. And if this administration doesn’t know how to deal with the truth, we will be showing him the way.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children will feature Bill O’Reilly at a fundraiser in March. The organizers are apparently aware of the comments O’Reilly made about Shawn Hornbeck, a boy abducted when he was 12 years old, and according to his parents, sexually assaulted.

Here is a Media Matters video, and here is some of what O’Reilly had to say about Hornbeck:

The situation is that it looks more fun than what he had with his old parents. He didn’t have to go to school, he got to run around," he said. "There was an element here that this kid liked about his circumstances.

What flaws are military recruiters willing to overlook to meet their quotas? Teddy Wayne writes in Radar Magazine that they will try to recruit almost anything breathing.

Wayne called numerous recruiting stations, and portrayed himself all sorts of misfits; a bed-wetter who was concerned about plastic sheets, a martial arts nut who wanted to go one-on-one with Osama bin Laden, someone suffering from irritable bowel syndrome and halitosis, and a lobotomy patient.

He also portrayed himself as a gay man – obviously not a misfit except as defined by the military - who would render Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell inoperative, because there would be no need to ask. Of course most of the candidates were invited to visit the recruiting station to continue the process.

It's all very funny, at least the first time through. Of course when you ponder on how this reflects on our weakened military, especially our army, it’s not as much fun.  Here are some highlights:

The Orlando Sentinel reports that Geraldo Rivera is threatening to beat up Keith Olbermann.

Apparently Geraldo was visiting with 104.1 FM's Monsters just before Christmas, when they asked him about the time he made international headline for disclosing too much information about troops in Iraq. Geraldo claimed the incident was blown out of proportion, largely by NBC -- and specifically Olbermann. Geraldo then began mumbling semi-audible names, seemingly meant to describe Olbermann: "midget ... punk ... slimeball."

But then, with the Monsters helpful prodding, Geraldo went a step further, leaving no doubt about what he was saying. He called Olbermann a coward -- specifically a "[female part of the anatomy] who wouldn't walk across the street against the red light."

I don’t know whether to file this under good news or bad news, but today’s Broadcasting & Cable magazine is reporting that Keith Olbermann is demanding "north" of $4 million a year in his next contract with MSNBC. That would be a four-fold increase from his present $1 million per.

Olbermann is looking for such a big pay raise because Countdown has been on fire, playing a big part in the current audience uptick at the network. [...]
 
But MSNBC brass may have their hands tied on how much they can pony up for Olbermann. MSNBC parent NBC Universal has mandated $750 million worth of budget cuts across all divisions, and this is hardly a politic time to hand out a gargantuan raise.

 

Now a  non-partisan, and presumably pro-business trade magazines is enraged by the radical Republican agenda. Advertising Age’s Simon Dumenco writes FCC Chairman Martin? It's Time for You to Resign because "Kevin Martin has proved time and time again that he's all about serving his special interests, not the interests of the creative community -- and certainly not those of the average American consumer." Dumenco ridicules Martin’s crusade against naughty broadcasting:

Ohio GOP fundraiser Tom Noe was sentenced to 18 years in prison for the Coingate scandal, embezzling millions from the state of Ohio in a rare coin investment scheme. But first he will be serving a 27 month federal sentence.

Thank God for the Toledo Blade, because without their incredible diligence, none of this would have been exposed. Noe was a powerful man with even more powerful friends, and the paper was under tremendous pressure to curtail their investigation. Rather than fold, the Blade put tremendous resources into their effort:

A staff report from Brandweek Magazine (warning, 17MB pdf) claims that Al Gore’s image used to be "rotten," but no more.

From a marketing point of view, Gore has achieved in six years what most CMOs [Chief Marketing Officers] dream of achieving in a lifetime: He has turned around a tired old brand that everyone thought was spent into something fresh, controversial, lucrative and interesting. And he has done it—like all guerrilla marketers—on a tiny marketing budget.

According to Brandweek, if he were not a politician, “...Gore would be hailed as one of the most interesting businessmen of our age.” The article highlights marketing ploys such as the Inconvenient Christian marketing to evangelicals, and his Futurama film trailer with Bender.

William Powers explains in today's National Journal one reason the press is tougher on Democrats than Republicans:

Journalists are more aggressive under Democratic rule. This doesn't jibe with the stereotype of reporters as liberals, but it's the stereotype that winds up undermining itself. When Democrats are in power, there's a huge incentive for reporters not to appear too sympathetic and thereby confirm the old liberal-bias charge. Thus, despite the friendly coverage we're seeing in this honeymoon period, the Democratic restoration will eventually produce tougher coverage than we saw of the GOP Congress, as media outlets strive to prove that they aren't soft on the Democrats.

So what can we do about it? They say that self-awareness is the first step toward change. Is there some way to make the mainstream press aware of their bias?

LOS ANGELES  --  O.J. Simpson will tell FOX "how he would have committed" the slayings of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman in an interview to air later this month. [...] In the two-part event, Simpson describes how he would have carried out the murders he has vehemently denied committing for over a decade.

I think this hypothetical confession genre may have a future. Here's one idea:

NEW YORK  -- James Carville will tell FOX "how he would have leaked" John Kerry's 2004 Ohio recount strategy in interview to air later this month.  In the two-part event, Carville describes how he would have told his wife about the confidential plans, which were then related to Dick Cheney and Kenneth Blackwell.

Mackris v. O'Reilly sets the text of Bill O'Reilly's sexual harassment suit set to music; a tenor sings the narration, a soprano performs as Andrea Mackris, and a baritone sings Bill O'Reilly's words. Here is the final climax final chorale of the libretto; try to imagine it set to music:

On or about September 21, 2004, Defendant Bill O'Reilly telephoned Plaintiff Andrea Mackris and, once again, without invitation or solicitation, launched into yet another disgusting, lewd and disturbing monologue concerning his sexual fantasies with her until he climaxed.  During the course of this call, O'Reilly said to Plaintiff: "Next time, you'll come up to my hotel and we'll make this happen." Plaintiff felt frightened and threatened.

Mackris v. O'Reilly is a concert length baroque oratorio to be performed in Seattle in January. (An oratorio is "an opera with no scenery.") It features New York City Opera baritone Charles Robert Stephens, backed by a chamber orchestra and a 32-voice choir. It's a serious composition, and wasn't designed as a hit-piece.