news bloopers

I enjoy bloopers of all sort, because I like watching others embarrassed, so these news bloopers from HuffPo are enjoyable (someone needs to teach me, again, how to embed video) . A few are dumb, but the "Terrifying Criminal Mastermind" is pretty hilarious. Also, as per usual, I love Anderson Cooper.

An exclusive club.

From The Warren Times Observer, a Pennsylvania paper:


(In case you cannot read it, the ad says, "May Obama follow in the footsteps of Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, and Kennedy!")

Shh, don't say anything - you don't want to jinx it!

Not sure how many of you have noticed, but the numbers that keep coming out on the economy are consistently pretty-bad-but-they-could be worse kind of numbers. Also not sure if you noticed, but the news has sort of just stopped talking about the economy ...

So it should come as little surprise then, even with no indication of economic improvement, that consumer confidence numbers are on the rise - and fast! It seems that without hearing bad news about the economy all the time, people are actually starting to think it's improving (even I have to actively resist this trap). But then again, people thinking the economy is better could very well be all it takes to start the recovery.

Don't screw this up for us CNN.

Woman deems absurdly large breasts "not racist enough"

OK, so that's not true, but you've got to read this article.

Good sources of information, round two

I just re-organized my Firefox bookmarks and decided to update my list of where I get information in the hopes that if I tell you I read all of these then I will actually continue to do so (see the post on the value of hypocrisy). I hope this works, as I both believe these to be valuable sources and also my non-reading of some of these sites has not been aggressively called out by someone else.

Academic blogs:

• Calculated Risk: Finance & Economics;
• Common Tragedies: Thoughts on Environmental Economics;
• Dani Rodrik's weblog: Unconventional thoughts on economic development and globalization;
• Electoral-Vote;
• Five Thirty Eight: Politics done right;
• Freakonomics: The Hidden Side of Everything;
  
• Grasping Reality: The Semi-Daily Journal of Economist Brad DeLong: A Fair, Balanced, Reality-Based, and More than Two-Handed Look at the World;
• Greg Mankiw's Blog: Random Observations for Students of Economics;
• Marginal Revolution: Small steps toward a much better world;
• The Conscience of a Liberal: Paul Krugman.

Periodicals and news blogs:

• Al Jazeera;
• The Atlantic;
  
• BBC;
• The Daily Beast;
• Drudge Report;
  
• Economist;
• Huffington Post;
• The New Republic;
  
• New York Times;
• Real Clear Politics;
  
• The Week.

Any others to be added to my overly long list?

News and Notes

I'm sure you've thought to yourself before how annoying (and similar) the "extreme" graphics employed by CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News are.  Well, if you've ever thought the same thing about their sound effects, you're not alone.

In other news, the Arena Football League is cancelling its 2009 season.  It was, however, quick to point out that it is cancelling only the 2009 season.  Here's my favorite quotation: "This is the farthest thing from the league folding.  This is, in my opinion, just showing us the league will not fold."

Finally, despite my knowledge that it is grammatically imperative to use the word "quotation" where I did above, I felt like losing part of my soul for not using the more conversational "quote."

This is pathetic.

Apparently MSNBC chose to play the same footage of five Blackwater contractors walking across the street fifty-four times in fifteen minutes. That is correct: 54 in 15. That would be 3.6 plays per minutes, or one play every 16 2/3 seconds.

The most frustrating part of this for me is that I know this happens all the time. Watching TV news is unbearable because the repetition and simplification is so drastic and blatant. This is really not okay.

Jet Pack!

Reading the article though, this sounds like a pretty idiotic stunt.

"The IQ level of this group is not impressive"

A hilarious line from an otherwise sad story.

Where Do You Get Your News?

I've got a variety of reasons for asking, but I'm looking to improve on my news sources a bit. There's the political ones, and typically I used Yahoo for general news because it was sufficient without doing anything wrong. Well now it's ugly as hell, and I'd like some help.

Here, I'll start. I tend to mostly go to RCP, HuffPo, and Drudge. A few others here and there, but that's the bulk of it (mostly because of the election).

High court rejects GOP bid in Ohio voting dispute

Story

So, my understanding is that what is at issue here is a big issue. In states throughout the country, most notably Ohio and Florida, Republicans are doing their best to ensure that new voter registrations must match either current state DMV records or current federal Social Security records.

Not a bad idea in theory, but if Bartholomew registers as Bart, my understanding is his application is eligible for rejection. And have you seen your driver's license number? I know it's tough to imagine someone who's job entails keying in that information off of applications to possibly make a mistake, but that would also invalidate your application.

In fairness to the GOP, I'd be pretty pissed if Mickey Mouse got to vote.

Irish Bookie Pays Out on Obama Bets

Told you that there was little reason to worry. This guy's already paying off as if the election was over.

I Hate Dick Morris

The guy regularly lives up to his first name. A former Clinton advisor, he now spends his days on FOX News insinuating about Obama's background.

Today he's come out with his electoral map. Oddly, it shows an Obama landslide, but only a crazy one, with Barack picking up Arizona and Tennessee. Dick Morris, I don't know what you're up to, but I still hate you.

I was for her before I was against her

Conservative columnist Kathleen Parker the latest to turn her back on Sarah Palin.

Two Obama articles worth reading

New Yorker on Joe Biden
Wall Street Journal on Obama's tax cuts

My friends ...

"... we've got them just where we want them."

Campaign FAIL

Paul Krugman, Really?

I'll not say much since this is probably a topic you guys have thoughts on, but let me just say that based on the times I've seen him on TV, I wouldn't have guessed Paul Krugman was Nobel Prize kinda stuff. I hold him in pretty mediocre regard, really.

Morning News Rundown

You bought one hell of a party for AIG

New website gets my hopes up by tracking the NPVIC (Wiki)

New morphing drone to be based on pterodactyl (Wiki)
Actually, this is cool. The dino in question could walk on all fours, or just two, or fly.

Cindy McCain: Obama's is "dirtiest campaign in history"