Open Thread: Balance the Budget in Under a Minute

We've got quite the OT today. The New York Times has come up with a nifty interactive tool for making your own preferred reforms to balance the federal budget. James Pethokoukis brags that he balanced the budget (as of 2030) in under a minute.
NB Staff

Arianna Huffington Sued by Democrat Consultants for Stealing Website I

Liberal internet publisher Arianna Huffington is being sued by two Democrat consultants for allegedly stealing their website idea. Politico reported Monday evening the suit filed in New York State Supreme Court claims James Boyce and Peter Daou originally presented the idea for the Huffington Post to Huffington and her partner Ken Lerer, and the four made a handshake agreement to develop the…
Noel Sheppard

WaPo Honors Social Liberal Chris Matthews on Page One as 'Devoutly Cat

MSNBC's Chris Matthews is a devout liberal, including on contentious social issues like abortion and homosexuality. But on the front page of Tuesday's Washington Post, religion reporter Michelle Boorstein began a story on Archbishop Donald Wuerl's elevation to Cardinal at the Vatican like this: The archbishop's two brothers will be there. So will a rabbi he knows from Pittsburgh, the D.C.…
Tim Graham

CBS Highlights Murkowski’s Criticism of Tea Party ‘Purity Test

 On Monday’s CBS Evening News, anchor Katie Couric filed a report on Senator Lisa Murkowski in which she highlighted the Alaska Republican’s criticism of the Tea Party movement requiring a "purity test," and of Sarah Palin being "not worldly enough" to be President. After describing Murkowski as "one of a dying breed of moderate Republicans," without noting that Tea Party Republican Joe Miller…
Brad Wilmouth

From GQ: Obama Respects David Brooks, Stephanopoulos Advised Gibbs

Two noteworthy tidbits in a November GQ magazine profile of Obama White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, an article I stumbled upon while reading the magazine’s look at Washington Capitals hockey star Alex Ovechkin’s summer in Moscow: While Obama has disdain for the news media, GQ’s Robert Draper discovered the few journalists for whom “Obama does reserve a certain respect,” are liberal…
Brent Baker

Olbermann Responds to Koppel, Claims Criticized Obama More in a Week t

 On Monday’s Countdown show, MSNBC host Keith Olbermann used his latest "Special Comment" to respond to former ABC anchor Ted Koppel’s inclusion of him and MSNBC in his recent Washington Post op-ed criticizing the modern news industry. After praising former news man Edward R. Murrow for taking a stand on Senator Joseph McCarthy and Walter Cronkite for doing the same on the Vietnam War and…
Brad Wilmouth

Time's Klein Reviews Bush, and 'The Thoughtless Carnage of His Tenure

Time columnist Joe Klein is one of the nation's leading Bill Clinton apologists and Barack Obama adorers. So naturally, Klein wasn't going to like George W. Bush's memoir. The review is titled: "A Careless Man: What the Bush Memoir Reveals."  Klein concluded the Bush book was readable, and his emotions were real, but: But as the pages turn, a familiar sense of the man unfurls: impatient,…
Tim Graham

Obama Whines: American Journalists 'Never Say Thank You

President Barack Obama is peeved with the American press. They never say "thank you," he whined to journalists in Japan on Monday. According to the pool report from the press conference, one reporter said "Thank you, Mr. President." Someone said the reporter was Australian. "I knew it must have been an Australian because my folks never say thank you," Obama said.
Lachlan Markay

Rachel Maddow at Most Eel-Like Emerges During Interview With Jon Stewa

Think that liberals are slippery when disagreeing with a conservative? They're just as bad during an exchange with another liberal. One didn't have to wait long for examples of this during Rachel Maddow's interview with Jon Stewart on her MSNBC show Nov. 11. Here's Maddow in the first segment of the interview attempting to draw a distinction between "direct-action activists" such as members…
Jack Coleman

Tea Party Blamed for Bristol Palin's Popularity on 'Dancing with the S

Marisa Guthrie of The Hollywood Reporter has a conspiracy theory of why Bristol Palin is still competing on ABC's Dancing with the Stars -- conservative politics. Bristol's low judges' marks are matched with popular voting from Sarah Palin fanatics, "you betcha." Conservative radio host Tammy Bruce has led a Twitter campaign to get fans to vote for “Team Ballin” as Palin and her partner Mark…
Tim Graham

The Needless Division Between Social Cons and Fiscal Cons

A huge wave crashes into DC as I write this. Over 60 new Congressmen and six new Senators flush with a mandate to reduce the size and scope of government will now be a part of the government they’re tasked with depriving of power. As Joe Biden would say, this is a big effing deal. Already though, factions that make up the big Republican tent seem intent on emphasizing their differences…
Melissa Clouthier

ABC's Dan Harris Gently Questions Carville: Do You 'Stand By' Predicti

Good Morning America' s Dan Harris on Saturday gently coaxed an answer from James Carville as to whether the campaign operative still believed  his 2009 prediction that the Democratic Party would rule for the next 40 years. The ABC co-host delicately reminded, "One, last, quick question. You wrote a book last year, I believe, that predicted 40 more years of Democratic dominance in Washington…
Scott Whitlock

An Extremely Slanted New York Times Piece on Oklahoma's Strike Against

New York Times reporter James McKinley Jr., who last garnered the Times Watch spotlight for cheering on the Democratic candidate for governor of Texas, returns on Monday with a dismissive story on a ballot measure in Oklahoma, a pre-emptive ban on implementation of Muslim shariah law in the state: “Oklahoma Surprise: Islam as an Election Issue -- Ballot Measure on Shariah Law Fueled a Political…
Clay Waters

'Sarah Palin's Alaska' Premiere Breaks Learning Channel Record With

Almost five million people watched the premiere of "Sarah Palin's Alaska" on The Learning Channel Sunday night. As the Associated Press reported moments ago, this was the best showing for a TLC premiere in the network's history.
Noel Sheppard