Friday Mini-Mashup (12/4/09)

(And I also posted here.)

The Moonie Times tries to smear our chief executive again; hilarity ensues (here, with the headline telling us that convicted Jordanian embezzler Ahmed Chalabi, from whose fairy tales for the benefit of gullible Bushies the Iraq nightmare took shape, has “cozied up” to Obama).

And what exactly has Hide The Chalabi done?

…(Chalabi) has sent the U.S. leader "sincere congratulations" for winning the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.

Well, even though he’s a little late with his congrats here, I merely have four words I must say now in response:

OBAMA MUST RESIGN IMMEDIATELY! (snark mode off)

This links to a petition from Daily Kos diarist wade norris, who, to his credit, is concerned that, with the acquisition of NBC/Universal by Comcast, the Philadelphia-headquartered cable behemoth will try to push Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow off the air.

Well, Comcast Executive VP David Cohen said the following about that (here)…

I mean, we’re totally committed — really really — to letting Keith Olbermann be Keith Olbermann, and we don’t have any problem with that. But in this world — we saw Jeff Immelt get dragged into something. Jeff Immelt was committed to letting Keith Olbermann be Keith Olbermann too, and all of a sudden, for a month, he’s a national story. So I think that’s going to be an adjustment for us. That’s going to be a challenge for us.

I think the fact that MSNBC is projected to earn $365 million in revenue this year (here) will help Cohen and Comcast live with whatever inconveniences they may have to deal with as a result of the “butting heads” between K.O. and Bill Orally of Fix Noise.

Also, I regret that I didn’t link to Marc Stier’s great post earlier on why the merger is a bad idea (never a good thing when two outfits of this size hook up), but I think what’s really driving this is Comcast’s insatiable appetite for on-demand programming and trying to implement some sort of new scheme to pay for web content. First, last and in between, this, typically, is all about the almighty buck.

Though anything is possible, Comcast knows that MSNBC’s “left turn” (not total I know, hence the continued presence of “Uber Alles” Buchanan and Joe Scar) has been good business. They would be utter fools to mess with that.

Finally, though I utterly detest Joe (“He’s With Us On Everything But The War”) Lieberman as much as anyone, can someone explain to me how, despite his continual obstruction on health care, among other issues, he could still enjoy an approval rating of 49 percent here (with 50 the magic number of when it officially becomes extremely difficult to vote out an incumbent)?

And can someone also explain to me how we can seriously claim to have a shot at knocking off Holy Joe when we can’t even effectively play defense on behalf of Chris Dodd (his accomplishments are noted here, and Dodd did the right thing again today here)?

I defer to My Left Nutmeg on matters such as this, but it is a continual source of amazement to me (and I keep waiting for Dodd’s “come to Jesus” moment when he answers all of the nagging BS questions about his supposed preferred Countrywide mortgage and whatever other peccadilloes the Murdoch Street Journal has drummed up once and for all).

I say this as someone who watched the eminently capable NJ governor (who didn’t play the political games with vigor, I’ll admit) Jon Corzine lose to prosecutorial appointee Chris Christie not long ago (can’t wait for the independents to turn on the new gov when he starts racking up deficits), and as someone who watched our local slate of Democratic candidates get swept by an admittedly-energized wingnut base.

Anybody who’s still sitting on his or her hands about Dodd had better get off of them and realize what’s at stake here if he loses. And if that dreaded event happens, you can be sure that the other “independent” Senator from that state will have a good laugh.

Seriously, we have work to do, people.

Update 12/11/09: All the more reason to support Dodd based on this (God, what hideous trolls in the comments from CNN; we'll have to "leave it there")...