Bob Schieffer: For Obama 'When it Rains it Just Seems to Pour and Keep

Bob Schieffer concluded Sunday's "Face the Nation" with a weather metaphor-filled comment about today's politics. With his final observation, the viewer was left with the impression the long-time host feels everything that's happened to President Obama is just bad luck (video follows with transcript and commentary):
Noel Sheppard
November 14th, 2010 8:26 PM

CBS’s Greenberg Blames America for Mexican Drug Cartels, Claims All

 On Friday’s CBS Evening News, travel editor Peter Greenberg filed a report in which, without challenge, he passed on Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s charge that America is "the key part of the problem" of drug cartels in his country. And, even though the overwhelming majority of guns seized from Mexican drug cartels are known to originate from countries outside the U.S., Greenberg seemed…
Brad Wilmouth
November 14th, 2010 5:34 PM

Chuck Schumer: Ten Million Jobs Saved By Stimulus and TARP

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Sunday claimed the President's stimulus plan combined with 2008's Troubled Assets Relief Program resulted in ten million jobs being saved. Such was actually said on CBS's "Face the Nation" (video follows with transcript and commentary):
Noel Sheppard
November 14th, 2010 5:02 PM

It’s ‘Deranged’ to Not Raise Taxes, Washington Post’s Marcus D

Despairing that the current income tax rates will be extended for all income levels, on Sunday’s This Week, Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus declared: “I think that the conversation right now is deranged” and “crazy.” In measuring the long-term “cost” of keeping the Bush rates for those below $250,000 versus for all, she argued: I think that the conversation right now is deranged. We…
Brent Baker
November 14th, 2010 2:12 PM

Paul Krugman Recommends 'Death Panels' to Help Balance Budget

UPDATE AT END OF POST: Krugman tries to clarify what he said. Although he was likely taking a swipe at former governor Sarah Palin with the reference, Paul Krugman on Sunday recommended "death panels" as a means of helping to balance the federal budget. In a Roundtable discussion on ABC's "This Week," the New York Times columnist said of what recently came out of the President's deficit…
Noel Sheppard
November 14th, 2010 1:32 PM

Huffington Post, Created by Alleged Serial Plagiarist, Accuses George

It's a weighty charge, plagiarism. But your credibility in making it tends to dissipate when you do so on a site founded and run by an alleged serial plagiarist.  Arianna Huffington has been accused of lifting portions of a number of her books from other authors, and in one case had to dole out a 5-figure settlement to put plagiarism charges to rest. Her site has also taken heat from…
Lachlan Markay
November 14th, 2010 1:00 PM

In Denial: AP Report Dodges Obvious Potential Reasons For Friday Dive

When you increase demand for something, its price should go up. In the case of bonds, if the demand for them increases, their price should go up, and their effective interest-rate yield should go down. That didn't happen on Friday when the Federal Reserve began executing its second round of "money from nothing" quantitative easing. Even though the Fed increased demand, bond prices went down…
Tom Blumer
November 14th, 2010 11:02 AM

Sunday Open Thread

For general discussion and debate about politics, the economy, sports, and whatever else tickles your fancy.
NB Staff
November 14th, 2010 10:14 AM

NYT's Chan Pens Two Puff Pieces to Offset Thursday's 'Obama Rejected a

Don't go overboard with it, but have some pity on Sewell Chan at the New York Times. On Thursday evening online and in Friday's print edition, Chan was among three Times reporters who composed a report ripping President Obama's lack of results at the G-20 summit. The piece's original title -- "Obama's Economic View is Rejected on World Stage" -- originally appeared online and actually made…
Tom Blumer
November 14th, 2010 9:50 AM

SNL Compliments Glenn Beck: 'He Was Right About Buying Gold

Glenn Beck has been a favorite punching bag for liberal media members since he moved from HLN to Fox News and started getting huge ratings. The folks at NBC's "Saturday Night Live" have also been on this Beck bashing bandwagon, which made the following sequence during Saturday's opening sketch rather surprising (video follows with transcript and commentary):
Noel Sheppard
November 14th, 2010 9:33 AM

Saturday Night Live Unites Bush and Kanye West to Bash the Former Pres

As NewsBusters has been reporting all week, the media have used the occasion of George W. Bush's published memoirs "Decision Points" to rekindle their hatred for the 43rd president. Not surprisingly, NBC's "Saturday Night Live" took its shots at Bush by uniting him with Kanye West during "Weekend Update" (video follows with transcript and commentary):
Noel Sheppard
November 14th, 2010 8:33 AM

Daily Kos: The American Dream Is a Virus Like AIDS, and Rick Perry is

How much do the bloggers of the Daily Kos hate conservatism and the limited-government ideas that informed America's founding? They associate them with Satan...and with disease. Blogger Kevin Tully is really angry about the election returns and wondered if  "all of us, [are] being played like one huge, oxygen starved, exhausted, gullible fish?  Is the destruction of the environment and civil…
Tim Graham
November 14th, 2010 7:35 AM

ABC, NBC Relay Cindy McCain’s Support for Gays in Military

 On Friday evening, ABC’s World News and the NBC Nightly News both informed viewers that Cindy McCain - wife of Senator John McCain - supports repealing the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy on gays in the military. NBC’s Chuck Todd merely mentioned her disagreement with her husband on the issue while noting that Senator McCain "is the guy holding up" any change in the law. But ABC went further in…
Brad Wilmouth
November 14th, 2010 3:32 AM

Outed Former CIA Operative to Valerie Plame: Get Over Yourself

Today's Washington Post "Free for All" section included a letter to the editor from one R.E. Pound, a CIA veteran who retired after 33 years of service in 2009, some 31 years after being outed in a book as an operative. Pound took to task former CIA operative Valerie Plame for her "ludicrous" claim "that the exposure [of her identity] forced an end to her career in intelligence." After all,…
Ken Shepherd
November 13th, 2010 11:33 PM