The endlessness of Bush.
Is he teaching or enforcing the fist bump?

It takes a big man to call bullshit on autism:

"I'll tell you what autism is," [conservative shock jock] Michael Savage told his audience on July 16. "In 99 percent of the cases, it's a brat who hasn't been told to cut the act out. That's what autism is.....Stop acting like a putz. Straighten up. Act like a man. Don't sit there crying and screaming, idiot."

If it's any consolation, Savage's advertisers are rightfully repulsed and actively distancing themselves from him. Still, it would be wonderful if Michael Savage got some awful, quick-acting cancer.

If you're pissed about the way the local media have been covering Friday's Critical Mass altercation (i.e., as an attack on an innocent driver by a mob of bloodthirsty cyclists), let them know. Here's the contact information for the local media folks who've been covering the Critical Mass story:

King 5 News Feedback (Attn: News Director) (Story)

Hector Castro, Seattle P-I reporter
(Story)

Angelo Bruscas, Seattle P-I breaking news editor

AP Seattle: 206-682-1812 (Story)

All Headline News Media Corporation (Story, which refers to the woman riding with the gay 23-year-old driver as "his girlfriend" and says no cyclists were injured)

As for the Seattle Times, here's what you get when you click on "contact newsroom":

[UPDATE: The newsroom link is still broken; however, a producer for the Times' web page sent me a link to their general contact form.

Both yesterday's and today's stories, meanwhile, were written by anonymous "Seattle Times staff" with assistance from Times reporter Carol Ostrom.

The Times' local news editor Jim Simon can be reached here; executive news editor Leon Espinoza can be reached here.

Thank you, Slog tipper Explorer.

From the Wall Street Journal in general, and an editorial by mystery novelist Andrew Klavan in particular:

There seems to me no question that the Batman film "The Dark Knight," currently breaking every box office record in history, is at some level a paean of praise to the fortitude and moral courage that has been shown by George W. Bush in this time of terror and war. Like W, Batman is vilified and despised for confronting terrorists in the only terms they understand. Like W, Batman sometimes has to push the boundaries of civil rights to deal with an emergency, certain that he will re-establish those boundaries when the emergency is past.

The entire, wrongheaded editorial is worth reading, just to watch this dipshit Klavan dig himself into a deep hole of stupidity using nothing but a ferocious man-crush on Bush and a superhero comic addiction. I think he actually thinks that the president is wandering the streets of America, punching terrorists out left and right as they try to blow up our Wal-Marts.

I know, I know. Nobody cares about McDonald's weaseling their coffee cups onto news anchors' desks.

Most Slog commentors think it's just another form of legitimate advertising. Colleagues accuse me of being shrill.

I am, obviously, a prematurely old man.

At least Slog tipper David cares:

Regarding "This Post Brought to You by [Redacted]™", I read elsewhere that the product-placed coffees are as fake and plastic as the news anchors standing behind them.

That is correct, David. They are scale models that weigh seven pounds each. From the linked article:

But wait, here’s the best part: They’re not real. Fake coffee on the real news, two plastic cups permanently filled with some kind of bogus drink. The anchors aren’t even supposed to acknowledge them, McDonald’s reps explain.

I'll shut up about it now, and return to my cardigan, cats, and favorite Andy Rooney columns.

Max Mosley, Formula One racing chieftain and son of 1930s fascist Sir Oswald Mosley, just won his privacy case against News of the World, which had published details of a Nazi-flavored S&M party Mosley hosted.

Or, in News of the World's original headline:

Mosley argued:

... they had no right to go into private premises and take pictures and film of adults engaged in activities which are no-one's business but those of the people concerned.

News of the World editor Colin Myler argued:

Taking part in depraved and brutal S&M orgies on a regular basis does not, in our opinion, constitute the fit and proper behaviour to be expected of someone in his hugely influential position.

The judge disagreed:

... there was no public interest or other justification for the clandestine recording, for the publication of the resulting information and still photographs, or for the placing of the video extracts on the News of the World website - all of this on a massive scale.

A bunch of stupid British evangelicals denounced:

We condemn unconstructive relationships based upon the dominion of one person over another.

Mosley's "Mistress Switch" appealed:

[It's] like children playing cowboys and Indians, it's adults having fun.

Now News of the World has to pay Mosley's legal costs, plus 60,000 pounds. (Which, I assume, Mosley will spend on a massive orgy and send taunting photos to News of the World.)

But Mosley's reputation remains fucked:

Paul Stoddart, the former boss of F1 team Minardi, said the sport was left "without credibility" while Max Mosley remained in charge. "Various heads of state that go to Grands Prix don't want to be seen with him."

Looks like somebody at the P-I is a little upset at Vanity Fair for "stealing" David Horsey's totally one-of-a-kind idea to spoof the controversial New Yorker Obama cover with one depicting John and Cindy McCain. Under the headline "Vanity Fair Cover Ripped Off Our Cartoonist," the P-I's Monica Guzman waxes sarcastic:

Wait a minute. This looks familiar. Hold on - I think the Vanity Fair commenters are trying to tell us something ...

"This is a straight rip-off of something David Horsey did for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer on July 15th, 2008."

"Never thought VF would stoop to plagiarism!"

"COPYCATS!!!! You are going to get sued by Horsey."

Oh, right. Sorry, Vanity Fair. But P-I cartoonist David Horsey had this idea long before you did.

Because spoofing the New Yorker cover with a McCain version is such an incredibly original idea that no one ever thought of it before David Horsey.

...I direct you to this absolutely wonderful comic by Rebecca Sugar, about life, death, and quoting The Simpsons.

Thank you, MetaFilter. (And extra thanks to Dolly Parton's character in Steel Magnolias, from whom I stole my subject line.)

For all of the commentors on this post (about McDonald's weaseling product placement into news broadcasts) who don't understand the difference between advertising and bribery: I've seen the—yellow, dual-arched—light.

I struck a deal with the McDonald's people this afternoon. They've agreed to sponsor Theater News. A couple weeks of this and I'll never have to work again.

Thanks, everybody!

Snickers also got slammed for this ad, which ran during Super Bowl XLI:

A shit storm ensued and Snickers pulled the ad. More on the controversy here, along with photos of football players getting all squeamish over a lil' man kiss.

Towleroad's got the homophobic advertising beat covered.

Exhibit A: The Nike ad above, which appears to be making a Biblical (if grammatically iffy) judgment about accidental analingus, which kinda makes me want to buy some expensive sneakers.

Exhibit B: The Snickers commercial posted below, which elicited a passionate response from Ad Age writer Bob Garfield.

The connection between speed-walker and homosexual is tenuous enough to almost seem clever. Still, there's no denying that Mr. T shooting a bazooka at a swishy guy for his "disgrace to the man race!" before ordering him to "get some nuts!" sends a definite message...

From the Guardian:

The tentacle-like growth of clandestine advertising in American TV shows in the form of product placement has taken another controversial step with the introduction of McDonald's products into regional news programmes.

Several TV outlets have begun to sell the fast food giant the right to place cups of its iced coffee onto the desks of news anchors as they present morning current affairs shows.

Typical is Fox 5 News, an affiliate of Rupert Murdoch's Fox television network in Las Vegas.

I know the news industry is dying and all, but weaseling product placement into news broadcasts crosses the line—it is completely, utterly, unambiguously fucked.

The New York Times has reported that similar deals to place McDonald's products in news shows are up and running in TV stations in Chicago, Seattle and New York.

Anybody seen one of these weasel ads?

Which newscaster should we string up first?

Safe-for-Work Porn.

Thank you thank you thank you, World of Wonder.

P.S. I am a particular fan of this one.

....and makes me not only willing but hungry to see the goddamned ABBA-movie-musical-starring-Meryl-fucking-Streep Mamma Mia!.

My expectations for the ABBA musical Mamma Mia! were low. Very low. My expectations were so low that they dug a hole all the way to China and were walking around upside down asking for a fork (my expectations never learned how to use chopsticks). But oh, how young and wrong I was then! Mamma Mia! is pure entertainment. Sparkling and earnest, hammy beyond all acceptable boundaries of ham, full of slow-motion leaping and young love—it's the movie equivalent of, well, ABBA. The cast rules: Meryl Streep is adorable; Pierce Brosnan sings (TERRIBLY) and stands on a cliff looking windswept in front of an Aegean sunset. Mamma Mia! entertained the shit out of me.

Read the whole thing here. (And see you at Mamma Mia! this weekend! I'll be the one cowering in shame!)

So after sitting on information that Republican state lands commissioner Douglas Sutherland had repeatedly sexually harassed a young Department of Natural Resources employee--an allegation corroborated in official state documents by several eyewitnesses—for FOUR MONTHS, the Seattle Times finally ran with the story today, after David Goldstein at Horse's Ass wrote about it yesterday. Their take? Well, at least he apologized.

Washington public-lands commissioner apologized after complaint by employee

Washington's public-lands commissioner, Doug Sutherland, inappropriately touched and made remarks to a young female employee who soon quit the Department of Natural Resources despite his formal apology, according to public documents on the incident from his own department.

During a workplace meeting in 2005, Sutherland touched the woman's back and waist and made suggestive comments that made her uncomfortable, according to written accounts from the woman and a witness.

After an internal investigation, Sutherland met with the woman at her request and apologized to her. He agreed that he had violated departmental policy on appropriate behavior, according to the documents.

Sutherland has maintained that his contact with the woman was simply meant to be a friendly gesture.

So, basically just a he-said, she-said, right? Except that: 1) That's not what the eyewitness accounts in the documents say, and 2) The Times story has exactly two sources (not counting a two-word quote from Sutherland's opponent Peter Goldmark): Sutherland... and Sutherland's campaign manager. Gee, I can't imagine why they would maintain that repeatedly rubbing a young female employee's back and waist was just a "friendly gesture."

For the record, here's how Sutherland's own aide recalled the incident at the time (notes appear to be from an oral interview):

Shook Jesse’s hand, then got to [the woman], instead of shaking hand he turned her slightly and ran his hand all over back.

I was uncomfortable, & made joke: “And she’s quite strong too.”

Doug turned her to front: “And she has some other great parts also.”

[The woman] was very embarrassed. Taken aback.

That account matches closely with the woman's own notes, which recall Sutherland turning her around and running his hand over her back and waist, saying something about "just looking," then adding something like "could've felt the other side."

At least the Times (sort of) covered the story. The P-I chose to ignore it entirely--a decision political assignment editor Chris Grygiel told me he made because the case didn't involve disciplinary action or a payout of state money. During a podcast I participated in at Drinking Liberally last night, P-I columnist Joel Connelly noted that the P-I has just one reporter in Olympia, and there's a lot going on down there. Guess how many reporters Horse's Ass has in Olympia?

Iran testing four missiles. At least, that’s the logic we can glean from Iran’s state media. Images that hit the wire a couple days ago depicted four rockets blazing toward the heavens, and the photo ran on the front page of the The Los Angeles Times, The Financial Times, The Chicago Tribune and a bunch of news sites.

But, um, when the AP ran the photo, lo and behold, there were only three missiles.

The doctored photo (up top) is dissected over at The Lede.

Personally, Iran firing any missiles at all is terrifying. Not that the first thing we should do is bomb Tehran or anything, but this ordeal makes me nervous. At least now I am 25 percent less nervous about Iran than I was a minute ago (but much more concerned about our gullible mainstream press that will unquestioningly publish photos from Iran's state media).

In the NYT yesterday, in the Seattle Times and Seattle PI today.

Hey, Sloggers. I’ll be on KUOW’s The Conversation with Ross Reynolds at 1:50 p.m. We’ll be talking about the MSM’s credulous reporting of drug busts and the highlights of the last week on drugs. If there’s druggish news you think we should ramble about, toss it in comments.

In case you hadn't heard, there's a bit of a blow-up over two editors at the Gawker-owned feminist web site Jezebel.com, Moe Tcakik and Tracie Egan, who appeared, representing Jezebel, an event called "Thinking and Drinking" last week. The host of the show, Lizz Winstead, says she asked them to do the onstage interview because "their work on Jezebel has made them role models for young women everywhere." She wanted to talk to them about Hillary and sexism, women's magazines and whether they "feel any obligation to write about responsibility and safety when they write graphically about their sex lives." But things quickly went off the rails, as you'll see when you watch the video.

On safe-sex choices:

Moe: Withdrawal has always worked for me.

Tracie: One hundred percent.

On rape:

Tracie: People are always saying it's not safe to go home with strange men, blah, blah blah, like Mr. Goodbar whatever.

Moe: What's gonna happen??

Lizz: You could get raped.

Moe: That's happening too, but you live through that, you know?

Lizz: Sometimes you don't.

Moe: That's true, if they have weapons.

Tracie: I'm not going to bring someone home and be like, not tonight.

Lizz... But that's just not how rape works! If you bring a guy home and you want to fuck him and he's like guess what, I'm a psycho, and when I look in your face I want to kill you...

Tracie: I live in Williamsburg, there aren't very, um, assertive men there.

Moe: The thing about the rapists of our generation, is that they're not very assertive men, but they all use drugs, they all have some sort of drug they use on you, so it's good to feel, and I don't know if this has happened to me or if I just drink too much but there are times when... It's really hard to prosecute them (rapists), so you should try to avoid them at all costs. But you know, I don't know, it's a very strange line.

Tracie: I moved to New York when I was 18 and you think you would encounter more rapists in this big city , but, I don't know, I haven't. I always, I don't know if I attract, like, dudes that want to be dominated or something?

Moe: I attract rapists.

Tracie: I once paid someone to rape me once.

Lizz: Well, first of all, you cannot pay someone to rape you. You are a willing accomplice. You have said, rape me now, it's not rape. ..

Tracie: I think even though I'm a feminist I just have this issue where I naturally dominate everybody and so I had this like fantasy where I like wanted to be dominated so I paid someone--well, I didn't pay someone, I had a magazine pay for it—

Lizz: That is two steps removed from rape.

On date rape:

Moe: I've totally been like victimized, and I think that I kind of must broadcast something. But the point is that, like, I think you were saying what do you regret in terms of sexual experiences and I guess I regret like being date raped.

But, you know, it seems like in terms of kind of bad sexual experiences that you've had the worst ones always seem to be in countries where sex is not accepted. I mean, that is the good thing about New York, it's like, I've never has any problems with anyone here

I guess third guy, I ever had sex with, date raped me, and I got very mad at him, but I wasn't gonna fucking like turn him in to the police and fucking go through shit.

Lizz: Why not, you see that's the problem, why not, I am just curious?

Moe: Because it was a load of trouble and I had better things to do, like drinking more.

On how to not get yourself raped:

Tracie: I have to honestly say that like, I know that it happens to girls who are smart, who know what they're doing, and blah blah blah, but like, I've never ever been in that situation and I've had lots and lots and lots of sex with a lot of people in my life. Maybe it's about education or something.

Lizz: Maybe you're lucky.

Tracie: I think it has to do with the fact that I am like, smart. Don't hiss! When I see myself in a situation that's not cool--I get wasted and stuff but like when I see myself in a situation I'm out. I've never hung around with frat guys. I took self-defense classes.

Moe: Yeah but it's like that Holocaust poem, you know...

Tracie: I'm just saying I've never been in that situation.

Moe: I always felt very like, safe around this guy even after he date raped me.

Lizz: You're digging yourself a huge hole, darlin'. You were not safe with him, he raped you!

Moe: All I'm saying is that he didn't seem like a guy who was like a date rapist.

Lizz: You can't identify where latent rage and anger and all that is. It doesn't have a look, it doesn't have a style, it doesn't have any of that.

Moe: But it's also, like, ridiculous to be like, you can never know, you have to be on guard at all times, it's like, the war on terror.

On being role models:

Tracie: Anybody that would emulate someone else is not with it completely.

Lizz: Hello? We have a, like, 75 bazillion dollar television budget that is based on emulation! What are you talking about? Your whole blog is based on people emulating you. Regardless of whether you think they should! That's like when football players say I am not a role model. You're a de facto role model.

Tracie: That's like undermining their intelligence to make their own decisions.

Now, it's not like I've never said dumb shit when I'm drunk. But you know what? I've also never gone onstage, wasted, representing the Stranger, and made a complete ass of myself in front of a bunch of people who paid to see me speak. If I was their employer--hell, if I was their friend— I'd be sad as hell to watch these two smart, funny ladies make themselves look and sound like complete fucking assholes. If you're gonna be a public person, you've got to take responsibility for your public actions. And tossing up a whiny post about how bad your hangover is ain't gonna cut it.

From the SGN:

Black, Gay and bulimic: Chad Goller-Sojourner relates to everyone

Black and gay both get capped, SGN, but not bulimic? Got something against People of Eating Disorders?

From the book editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer:

Dear Colleagues,

For three years, it's been my joy to help unleash your opinions upon the world, or at least the corner of it in northeast Ohio. Thank you for making the books pages one of the smartest, most diverse, liveliest and unpredictable sections of The Plain Dealer.

Starting this Sunday, July 6, that joy is reduced by 25 percent. The pages are being cut to one and one-half. Nobody following the news biz can pretend to be surprised, but all of us can be sad, just the same.

The most important part of this email, however, is to stress that a reduction of 25 percent still allows us a passing grade, especially if we spend the real estate we do have more wisely.

The Plain Dealer has a really good books page. In fact, I think it's probably the best part of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. The letter ends with a request that people e-mail the Plain Dealer with requests to keep their book section at the size it is presently. Regardless of the glee that some people are taking in the print media's demise, it's sad that editors have to beg for letter-writing campaigns to convince people that their sections are important and relevant.

Two years ago, the well-known Washington Post political writers John Harris and Jim VandeHei told their bosses that the Post should launch a separate, politics-only web site where political obsessives could click and congregate free from the clutter of car chases, lottery jackpot winner profiles, and so on.

The powers that be turned them down, and Harris and VandeHei went on to quit the Post and help launch The Politico, which now does exactly what they were suggesting—and in the process, has become an essential daily web destination for anyone interested in reading or writing about politics.

Now, two years later, the Post, chafing at the success of Politico and other politics-only web destinations, is thinking about launching a politics-only web site of its own, and doing it quite quickly, before the conventions begin in August.

One problem: They want to call the site PostPolitics, which naturally would require owning the domain name PostPolitics.com.

And which forward-thinking media outlet bought up PostPolitics.com right around the time that politics-only sites were starting to be launched? The Politico.

You can see where this story is going.

According to the Washington City Paper, the Post recently paid $20,000 to The Politico, the guys who are currently eating the Post's online lunch, just to become an admitted "late entrant" into the online politics-only field.

Because if I didn't have both the Times and P-I, I wouldn't have seen this credulous AP story about Tim Eyman's "congestion relief" initiative TWICE.

The AP reports that Eyman's initiative "aims to smooth traffic jams and head off open-ended tolls on state road projects" by sending "portions of the money flowing from vehicle sales taxes, certain tolls, red-light cameras and other state transportation projects into a 'Reduce Traffic Congestion Account.'"

What the AP report doesn't tell you is that Eyman's initiative would take approximately $127 million a year out of the state's already-tapped-out general fund. That means $127 million less every year for health care and education, which together make up 80 percent of the state's general-fund expenditures.

The story, which appears to have just one source (Eyman) manages to pack in three references to the initiative's miraculous ability to "ease traffic jams," but fails to mention several other salient facts about Eyman's proposal:

• It would open up carpool lanes to all traffic except weekdays between 6 and 9 a.m. and 3 and 6 p.m. Because "rush hours" now last most of the day, that will mean more traffic congestion (and less carpooling). It will also make transit, which relies on HOV lanes, much less reliable than it already is.

• Far from "heading off open-ended tolls," it would restrict the use of tolls to building roads. In fact, the explicit purposes of Eyman's "Reduce Traffic Congestion Account" is "expanding road capacity and general purpose use."

• It also contains new restrictions on the use of money from red-light cameras, siphoning those funds into Eyman's road-building account as well.

• And it bans tolls on I-90--a virtual guarantee that tolls on 520 won't work, and that traffic will back up on the "free" cross-lake bridge.

The P-I (via Seattlest) is inviting readers to vote on whether Miss Universe contestants in their bikinis are "hot" or "not."

What's next? Page 3 girls?

Christine Clarridge, Seattle Times staff reporter, who wrote this morning's piece on two women who called police after seeing their neighbor spying on them through the window with binoculars and a flashlight.

The story twice quotes the wife of the peeping Tom claiming the women were always "putting on a show," but does not quote the women or their perspective . And the story repeatedly refers to the two women as "girls," as in: The neighbor's "wife told officers she should have called police on the girls for "putting on a show" by walking around naked or in sexy lingerie." True? Not true? Who knows --Clarridge doesn't bother to ascertain.

And for fuck's sake: This is 2008. "Girls"?

Kate Riley.

Tonight HBO is showing Ganja Queen, a documentary about an Australian who lands in Bali, only to be arrested for smuggling four kilos of marijuana in her luggage. But Schapelle Corby claims, convincingly, that she didn’t do it. Here’s the trailer:

It begins: “Have you ever traveled outside the U.S.? … Then this could happen to you.” Oh, the unfairness. The tragedy. The corruption of the justice system… Over there.

No one would be prosecuted without evidence and convicted to a life sentence at the hands of a corrupt justice system here in America, right? Except, of course, for this horrible thing that happened in Tulia, Texas, where 40 black people were rounded up based on the word of one paid informant. But I guess no one would make a documentary about it... Or, in fact, they would.

The difference is that the film about Tulia is relegated to the indie film circuit, while the film about Bali has a prime-time spot on a major cable TV station. Why isn’t HBO showing the other gripping documentary about people wrongly accused of drug crimes? You know, the one that shows this isn’t the product of some fundamentally corrupt foreign nation but the product of a fundamentally corrupt drug policy?

Recall Martin Gee, the San Jose Mercury News designer Jen posted about last April.

Gee keeps a great—if depressing—flickr account called "reduction in force," with haunting photo essays of desolate newsrooms emptied out by layoffs and buyouts.

They look like archaeological sites—the detritus of human life left behind when the humans have been wiped out.

Gee has become one of the ghosts from his own photographs.

He just got laid off.

Last week's Seattle Weekly had a story about the brutal, potentially fatal gang rape of a 16-year-old Bellevue girl by four teenage boys she met through MySpace. All four boys were convicted after investigators uncovered MySpace messages bragging that they had "run a train on her" in one of the teenagers' cars.

So what image did the Weekly use to illustrate this sensitive, sad, potentially tragic story (the boys threatened to kill the victim if she contacted police)?

Four computer mice piled up in a "train" on top of a fifth. The headline: "MySpace Train to Juvie."

Visual puns about gang rape: Always in good taste!

"Video game may have led to real violence" is one of the top stories over at the PI right now. From reading said headline, you'd think some kids played too much Grand Theft Auto and went on a shooting spree.

Except that's not what happened.

The story, written by Hector Castro, is actually about a double shooting in Kent which, according to everyone else reporting on the story, actually stemmed from an argument over a stolen Playstation video game console. Big difference. The headline—which could have been written by Castro's editors—implies that video game violence led to the shooting, which appears to be complete bullshit.

Now, either the Castro and his editors don't know the difference between a video game and a game console, haven't done additional reporting on the story—the initial press release from Kent PD claimed the shooting was over a video game; I've got calls in to Kent PD for clarification, but no one's been around all afternoon—or intentionally filed a misleading-but-sensationalistic headline.

I've got a call out to Castro to find out what his intent was but in the meantime, mull over this detail, buried at the bottom of the story.

Witnesses told investigators that they believed the video game dispute led to the violence, but police suspect there are other motivations behind the assault and shootings.

Galleycat says that, due to cutbacks, the Tribune Company might cut the books sections of a number of papers that it owns. And also the Newark Star-Ledger has killed its Sunday books section, with occasional space provided from now on for a book review or two. No doubt the reviews published will be of local books that are completely uninteresting to everyone but overworked arts editors. This is great news.

Also, this is only related in that it's about books, but today The New York Times covered a $130 ebook reader (The miBook, it's called) with a color display that also plays music and works as an organizer. This is probably closer to what an ebook reader will wind up being: multimedia, but still book-y.

This one's for you, copy editing department...

The LA Times reports that its own building is for sale:

Tribune Co. is putting two of its most historic properties—the Los Angeles Times headquarters downtown and Tribune Tower in Chicago—on the block.

Tribune CEO Sam Zell says the company seeks to 'maximize the value' of The Times' headquarters in downtown Los Angeles as well as Chicago's Tribune Tower. He seeks options to maintain 'some level of occupancy' in the buildings.

I like the Times headquarters, which always make me think of a loaf of bread wearing a suit of armor:

But I adore the Tribune building in Chicago:

I love the Trib building for its crazy, totally unnecessary flying buttresses...

... and how its outside is festooned with rocks that reporters brought back from their travels, per the demands of Colonel McCormick, the Trib's crazy owner:

It's not like anybody wants to tear down these lovely, bizarre buildings, but still—it seems like poor, grown-up siblings having to sell off their childhood home.

Don Imus is apparently a bit of a racist.

Because I just can't get enough of NYT columnist Paul Krugman. From today's opinion pages of the Seattle Times...

Homeownership's not for everyone by Paul Krugman

"Owning a home lies at the heart of the American dream." So declared President Bush in 2002, introducing his "Homeownership Challenge"—a set of policy initiatives that were supposed to sharply increase homeownership, especially for minority groups....

And from today's opinion pages of the PI...

Home not-so-sweet home By PAUL KRUGMAN SYNDICATED COLUMNIST

"Owning a home lies at the heart of the American dream." So declared President Bush in 2002, introducing his "Homeownership Challenge"—a set of policy initiatives that were supposed to sharply increase homeownership, especially for minority groups....

The Paul Krugman column that graces the opinion pages of today's Seattle Times and the today's PI was originally published yesterday, of course, in the New York Times, which is where I first read it. Yesterday.

Via Original Andrew, in comments: Everything Seemingly Spinning Out of Control.

This is a day old, so I apologize if anyone else has already posted about it, but... HOLY CRAP, MSNBC illustrated a segment on Chris Matthews' Hardball about Michelle Obama with silhouettes of STILETTO-WEARING STRIPPERS. Truly, they have lost their fucking minds.

From the comments on my post about an impending strike over reduced health-care benefits at the Village Voice, owned by the same chain that owns Seattle Weekly:

The troubles at the Voice and elsewhere have absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the chain and you know it. The Seattle Weekly is obviously very much alive and well, so you'd better get back to work.

From a press release issued by the Times Shamrock Alternative Newsweekly Group this morning:

Friday, June 21: Times-Shamrock Communications today announced the acquisition of the Cleveland Scene and the Cleveland Free Times, alternative newsweeklies separately owned by Village Voice Media and Times Publishing Co. of Erie, Pa., respectively.

Terms of the purchase were not disclosed. The deal is to close on June 25.

The two alternative publications will continue to publish separately for their next three issues and then merge into a single newsweekly, the Scene, on July 23, according to Don Farley, publisher of the Alternative Group for Times-Shamrock Communications.

Last year, the Cleveland Scene had $3.9 million in sales and $5.1 million in expenses—or $1.2 million in losses. But hey, since nothing that happens in one division of a company ever affects another division of a company, VVM's other 16 papers have nothing to worry about.

Jonathan Golob's Dear Science gets some love from my beloved MetaFilter.

Congrats to both.