Month: November 2006
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Disturbing: Seinfeld DVD sales up?
I assumed Michael Richards’ racist diatribe would kill sales on the Seinfeld season 7 DVD, but it’s actually boosting them (via Drudge): THE K-K-Kramer scandal murdered Michael Richards’ career – but it’s doing wonders for sales of the latest “Seinfeld” DVD. Season 7 of the popular sitcom is outselling the Season 6 set (released on
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New IRS data on income and inequality
The indispensable David Cay Johnston of the New York Times writes about new IRS data showing that average incomes declined from 2000 to 2004: Despite significant gains in 2004, the total income Americans reported to the tax collector that year, adjusted for inflation, was still below its peak in 2000, new government data shows. Reported
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Nominations I’ll accept
I’m flattered New York Press columnist Russ Smith included me on his list of “quixotic suggestions” to replace John Tierney on the Times op-ed page, though the idea gives new meaning to “quixotic.” And while I’m at it, I’d like a BMW M3 for Christmas…
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Hotsoup continues third party hype
The useless Hotsoup.com is still trying to generate PR by getting its big-name founders to exaggerate the unlikely third party threat in 2008. I wrote about it last month when Hotsoup’s Joe Lockhart and Mark McKinnon published an op-ed in which they described an alleged “disenchanted middle” that is “ripe for the plucking by a
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Roger L. Simon: Ideology out of date
Roger L. Simon, the screenwriter/novelist/blogger who co-founded Pajamas Media, sounds like one of the crazed blog triumphalists circa 2002-2003 in this embarrassing quote from a few weeks ago: Like Townhall, Pajamas Media leans to the right politically, but Simon is unhappy about it. “Ideology is so last-millennium,” he said, adding that he’d like to bring
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The Alcee Hastings concession letter
From The Corner by way of The Plank, Alcee Hastings ends his letter announcing he won’t be chair of the House Intelligence committee with the best closing of a political concession announcement ever: Best of all, I will be seeking better and bigger opportunities in a Democratic Congress. There is much to be accomplished and
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Sanity prevails: Hastings out
Some good news – Nancy Pelosi turned back from the abyss: Democratic Rep. Alcee Hastings of Florida, impeached as a federal judge in 1989 on corruption charges, dropped his bid under pressure on Tuesday to chair a congressional panel designed to help protect America’s security, a party aide said. Hastings took the action after being
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The subjectivity of defining an electoral “wave”
Via Mickey Kaus, here’s top election analyst Charlie Cook illustrating the subjectivity of defining an electoral “wave” (just like mandates): Do the math: An 11-point Democratic lead on the generic ballot test, minus 5 points for the gauge’s Democratic skew, translated into a 6-point Democratic victory. When the 6-point Democratic popular vote win is measured
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Newt Gingrich: Today’s politics too mean
In addition to advocating restrictions on freedom of speech, Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House and current presidential candidate, is bemoaning the meanness of today’s politics: Political parties in Presidential primary states should host events that invite candidates from both parties to discuss issues, said Gingrich, who criticized the sharpness of today’s politics.
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Another political figure on Jeopardy
Via Power Line, Hot Air features video of Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings getting spanked on Celebrity Jeopardy. She was more than $20,000 behind at the start of Final Jeopardy — ouch. But that’s still not as bad as Christie Todd Whitman’s Final Jeopardy answer. Here’s what I wrote last year: The final Jeopardy question