Change the name to "Keith's Playhouse."

At a forum on Sunday, when Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell called MSNBC "the official network of the Obama campaign," Brokaw said, "I think Keith has gone too far. I think Chris has gone too far."

Insiders say Olbermann is pushing to have Brokaw banned from the network and is also refusing to have centrist Time magazine columnist Mike Murphy on his show.

Lots of background stuff on the feud at the Newsbusters link.

Though I hope this will be the beginning of Keef's regularly-scheduled crash and burn, I don't think it will be. NBC is too high on him. After all, he manages to garner a third-place finish among cable news channels night after night.

How can you argue with results like that?

Posted by: Ace at 10:15 AM | Comments (39)
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Not too long ago it was declared a lost cause. Now, the Iraqi government is set to take control of and responsibility for Anbar Province, once one of the most dangerous places on Earth.

"We believe the province could turn over to Iraqi control in just a few days," Marine General James Conway said.

"The change in the Al-Anbar province is real and perceptible," said Conway of the majority-Sunni region, which is Iraq's largest.

"Anbar remains a dangerous place, but the ever growing ability of the Iraqi security forces continues to move us closer to seeing Iraqi control of the province," the general said.

He expressed the hope that the handover of the Anbar province to Iraqi control will allow the Pentagon to redeploy troops elsewhere.

"They (the Marines) are doing a very good job of this nation-building business," in Anbar, said Conway.

"It's our view that if there is a stiffer fight going someplace else, in a much more expeditionary environment where the Marine air-ground task force really seems to have a true and enduring value, then that's where we need to be."

The handover was originally scheduled for June but there were some bumps and last minute negotiating to be done, so like everything else in Iraq it's not a done deal yet.

Still, it's hard to ignore the difference the last year and half has made in that part of the country. Of course, the MSM did their level best to do just that.

For a fuller look at the progress made there, visit Matel-In-Iraq the personal blog of John Matel, the leader of the province's reconstruction team. He's wrapping up his tour soon and has seen the changes first hand.

For the record, I'm willing to bet this news doesn't make it into anybody's speech at the Democratic Convention this week, it just doesn't fit the narrative you know.

Posted by: DrewM at 09:57 AM | Comments (18)
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Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 09:41 AM | Comments (7)
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I admit that I try to watch as much MSNBC as I can during political events. It's just too much fun watching these 'reporters' gush and swoon over Democrats in general and Obama in particular. There's also an element of a NASCAR racing to it, you know at any minute, anyone of them could do or say something so stupid the whole thing will crash.

This clip, which we talked about during the live blog last night, isn't the proverbial 'big one' but it's a tasty appetizer for those of us who enjoy uncomfortable on-air moments.

After Matthews was apparently told by a producer to wrap it up, he went on and on about how Hillary voters felt like they were passed over. Olbermann tried to move on but he couldn't do it without taking a shot at Matthews. Thanks to the miracle of copyright infringement that is Youtube we have the video.

The history of Olbermann's career has been filled with self destructive blowups and you can just feel one coming. Yes, he's basically running MSNBC as witnessed by his ability to get Rachel Maddow a show and his ratings (such as they are) but with two on air spats in as many days, you just know another one isn't that far away.

Private note to "MK" at "FNC"...I'd ditch these two clowns in a minute if you'd wear the damn glasses.

Posted by: DrewM at 07:42 AM | Comments (50)
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Friend of Barack's.

In the interview, conducted three years after the September 11 attacks, Ayers argued the U.S. government had carried out “many other acts of terror … even recently, that are comparable,” and claimed he and his bomb-planting comrades were “restrained” in their actions.

Ayers, now a professor at the University of Illinois, Chicago, served with Barack Obama on the board of the charitable Woods Fund of Chicago for three years and helped launch ObamaÂ’s political career in Illinois by hosting in his Hyde Park home an informal campaign event for the future state senator in 1995.

Ayers claimed the Weathermen were driven by “hope and love,” not despair, and said he did not think the group’s violent acts, targeting federal officials and local law enforcement officers, were “a big deal.”

...

When asked about some Palestinians who had been captured on videotape dancing in the streets after the attacks, Ayers said coverage of those individuals had been “overwrought” in the U.S. media, and added: “[E]verybody in the world knows that Americans are geographically challenged and historically challenged. We don’t have a sense of who we are or where we are. So I think every American that I know was weeping over the next several weeks, and devastated and shocked. Was that an act of pure terror? It absolutely was.

“And there are many other acts of terror carried out by our government, even recently, that, that are comparable. And there are other acts of terror that have gone on in places like Bosnia that we forgot to notice.”

Explaining how he became a leader of the radical 1960s antiwar group, the Weathermen (and its subsequent fugitive incarnation, the Weather Underground), Ayers was unrepentant about the group’s planting of bombs in the Capitol, the Pentagon, and other sites. “I think I was on the side of justice and ultimately it will be seen that way,” Ayers said. “I don’t think our move was so much towards violence."

Posted by: Ace at 08:09 PM | Comments (69)
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Alice has new pictures up from the activities in Denver (careful; if you have a slow connection this will take a looong time to load).

I like the fact that the neocons can still be a bugaboo for some people. It's so 2004.

It's an insult that this idiot with a magic marker thinks he can stand up to our supr-sekret mind-control and moral clarity rays.

I can't decide if this fellow is a bonafide protester, an Obama supporter, or a homeless fellow caught up in the carnival. Didn't Denver bus the homeless out of the area?

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 07:55 PM | Comments (32)
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Scott did a Flickr search and found these.

I'm leaving the pictures at their huge, margins-blowing size -- the way Caesar Obama would want it.
more...

Posted by: Ace at 07:48 PM | Comments (145)
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I hear Olbermann and Matthews just went at eachother. Meee-ouch. more...

Posted by: Ace at 05:18 PM | Comments (50)
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"Clash of the Titanic Egos,"
by Slublog

I think he's pretty much baiting people to call him the AntiChrist at this point.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's big speech on Thursday night will be delivered from an elaborate columned stage resembling a miniature Greek temple.

...

Some 80,000 supporters will see Obama appear from between plywood columns painted off-white, reminiscent of Washington's Capitol building or even the White House, to accept the party's nomination for president.

He will stride out to a raised platform to a podium that can be raised from beneath the floor.

...

Once Obama speaks, confetti will rain down on him and fireworks will be fired off from locations around the stadium wall.

Speechless. I can't even snark.

Via Hot Air.

Posted by: Ace at 05:01 PM | Comments (117)
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Usually these are things like "hot buttered horse nipples" or something.

This one, though, was kinda worrying.

Worse yet, I don't see an answer.

Posted by: Ace at 03:31 PM | Comments (36)
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