Weekend Open Thread

Watching the Elite Eight this weekend? Sound off on this thread about college basketball or whatever else you'd like.
NB Staff
March 24th, 2012 8:13 AM

Bozell Column: Putting the Bull In 'Bully

In 1968, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) effectively nationalized the movie industry’s rating system to guide parents and the wider public about the content of films before purchasing tickets. A year doesn’t go by since then that the Beautiful People don’t throw their artistic temper tantrums when they receive a harsher rating than they want. The latest example is a…
Brent Bozell
March 24th, 2012 7:53 AM

Atheist Arrogance Marches on Washington

Slate.com political reporter Dave Weigel tweeted with typical sarcasm yesterday "Excited for the Atheist rally tomorrow. It's usually so hard to find smug people in DC." One of the stars of this rally is Richard Dawkins, author of "The God Delusion." In an article for the badly named "On Faith" website of The Washington Post, Dawkins displayed his contempt for the "ignorance" brigade led by…
Tim Graham
March 24th, 2012 6:49 AM

Daily Kos Week in Review: The Grand Old Crazy Party

This was Republicans Gone Wild week in the imaginations of Kossacks, who described the party as a "radical hate group"; suggested that the "spirit of Hitler" counsels its leaders; and predicted that rank-and-file GOPers, foreseeing President Obama's re-election, soon would lash out violently.  As usual, each headline is preceded by the blogger's name or pseudonym.
Tom Johnson
March 24th, 2012 6:27 AM

Ex-Newsweek Writer Wolffe Warns of 'Ugliness' Toward Obama from GOP Cr

On Friday's The Ed Show on MSNBC, host Ed Schultz and MSNBC political analyst Richard Wolffe - formerly of Newsweek - drew attention to a woman at a shooting range who recently encouraged Rick Santorum to "pretend it's Obama" while the GOP presidential candidate was firing at a target. After Schultz noted that Santorum criticized the comment when it was brought to his attention, Wolffe…
Brad Wilmouth
March 24th, 2012 4:41 AM

MRC's Tim Graham and Neil Cavuto Compare Coverage of Gas Prices (Bush

On Friday's Your World with Neil Cavuto on the Fox News Channel, MRC director of media analysis Tim Graham appeared to review how the media covered the politics and economic of gas prices under the Obama administration as compared to the Bush administration. Fox News ran a series of headlines showing the difference in approach -- high gas prices could doom Bush, but aren't Obama's fault, and…
NB Staff
March 23rd, 2012 10:56 PM

AP On Rising Gas Prices: Not Obama's Fault

We get it, Associated Press. We get it! Rising gasoline prices are NOT President Obama's fault. Or so you want us to believe. However, could you be just a little less blatant in pitching that line? As it is, your lack of subtlety in hammering home that message is embarrassing to read such as your latest example in which you mention that some people blame Obama along with a lot of other…
P.J. Gladnick
March 23rd, 2012 6:41 PM

Even Scalia? CNN Legal Analyst Toobin Says SCOTUS Might Uphold ObamaCa

If the Supreme Court upheld ObamaCare, would it really be by an eight-to-one margin? CNN's senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said it's possible, expressing more confidence in that prediction than the common analysis that the Court is evenly split on the issue with Justice Anthony Kennedy as the tiebreaking vote. Toobin's analysis echoes the overwhelmingly positive liberal meme that…
Matt Hadro
March 23rd, 2012 6:18 PM

NBC: Kardashian Flour-Bombed is 'Terrifying'; GOP Candidates Glitter-B

On Friday's NBC Today, news anchor Natalie Morales worried about the safety of reality star Kim Kardashian after a "nasty surprise" at a red carpet event: "...a woman threw white powder on the starlet. Paramedics were called to the hotel, but Kardashian refused treatment....The woman who allegedly threw the so-called flour bomb was detained but later released." The same concern was never…
Kyle Drennen
March 23rd, 2012 4:44 PM

ABC Touts the 'Message' Tyler Clementi Case Sends, Even If It Goes 'Be

On Friday's Good Morning America, Chris Cuomo interviewed the man convicted of "bias intimidation" against a gay college student who took his own life. Co-host Robin Roberts admitted, "...So many people believe this case went beyond the facts, that a clear message was trying to be sent here." Cuomo, then touted the "message" that was sent. He began, "The agony, in this situation, for the…
Scott Whitlock
March 23rd, 2012 4:30 PM

Hypocritical Piers Morgan Slams Gingrich's 'Overreaction' to 'White Fi

Piers Morgan is astonished at Newt Gingrich's outrage over Robert DeNiro's knock on GOP white First Ladies – but it's a slim chance the liberal CNN host would be trying to calm the tempest if Michelle Obama were the butt of a celebrity joke. DeNiro, speaking at an Obama fundraiser, had joked that after seeing the wives of the Republican candidates, America wouldn't be ready for a "white"…
Matt Hadro
March 23rd, 2012 4:03 PM

Former NYT SCOTUS Reporter Doesn't Bother With Obama-care Critics, Que

Former New York Times Supreme Court reporter Linda Greenhouse, who previously confessed she couldn't grasp "the moral compass" of people who opposed Obama-care, denied the need for any balance when discussing the constitutionality of the matter in her Wednesday column, since the measure's opponents are so obviously wrong. Journalistic convention requires that when there are two identifiable…
Clay Waters
March 23rd, 2012 3:07 PM

MSNBC's Finney Won’t Let Shooting Tragedy Go To Waste, Connects to V

On Friday’s edition of MSNBC’s NOW with Alex Wagner, former DNC Communications Director Karen Finney (and occasional MSNBC host) used the tragic death of Trayvon Martin to viciously attack Republicans across the country.  The segment started out examining the role of gun laws in our society and quickly turned into an assault on Republicans, following comments made by liberal-host Wagner.…
Jeffrey Meyer
March 23rd, 2012 2:30 PM

NYT's Krugman Says GOP Lying About Obama Wanting Higher Gas Prices

Friday's New York Times column by Paul Krugman is titled "Paranoia Strikes Deeper." (It's evidently a sequel to Krugman's "Paranoia Strikes Deep" column of November 9, 2009. We eagerly await the final installment of the trilogy, "Paranoia Strikes Deepest," which should come out before the 2012 election.)
Clay Waters
March 23rd, 2012 1:33 PM