The Kicker

Take that, Pau Gasol

Middle class heroin abuse is nothing new

From today’s Honolulu Star Bulletin: Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign is keeping the candidate away from much of the typical Hawaiian vacation imagery — hold the lei and aloha wear. It’s a strategy that appears based on political reality, as the 50th state gets bashed on the mainland as too “foreign” to be a presidential destination. […]

She knows low-brow! She knows high! In a single paragraph, she proves her pop culture IQ spans centuries (and oceans)! Not every Big League columnist is hip to Shakespeare and American Idol (not every column reader, either, but for the showboater it’s never about the audience). Not every opinion writer can look at Bill Clinton’s […]

North Korea’s Mass Games are surreal, photogenic

"Sasquatch’s Remains" In A Cooler in Georgia

Westword, Denver’s altweekly, had a great post last week debunking a sort of semi-official convention rumor–one that made it as far as the august pages of the New York Post. Apparently, someone told someone that someone had been asked to piss in a pail as part of pre-convention protest prep. Three months ago. And that […]

The New York Times reports on CNN’s plan to do more with less by assigning “one-man bands” to assorted U.S. cities, in effect “doubl[ling] the number of domestic cities where the cable news network has outposts.” CNN, in its words, is “harnessing technology that enables us to be anywhere and be live from anywhere.” And […]

According to the new PEJ study of campaign news coverage, “policy debates accounted for about 31% of the campaign newshole studied last week,” with, among other subjects, “the debate between the two candidates over energy policy and gas prices” filling 23% of last week’s newshole and “differences over the economy (4%), Iraq (2%).” * Of […]

If you’re a “former close friend to [John] Edwards’ mistress” with something[s] to say about The Edwards Story, TV news wants you! Pigeon O’Brien, whom a Fox News chyron this afternoon ID’d as “[Rielle] Hunter’s FMR Friend” (FMR=Former), wants the world to know that “Edwards lied on timing of affair.” O’Brien told Fox News’ Shep […]

John McCain is this much closer to checking off that must-have presidential photo-op: Candidate in Camo (doing something mannishly outdoorsy). The Patriot-Ledger reports that John McCain visited the Bass Pro stores in Harrisburg, PA yesterday and: [B]efore leaving McCain bought a fishing scale and a green, camouflaged jacket. “Now all I need to do is […]

MSBNC stops dragging its feet

The Associated Press sent two different reporters to examine from two different angles the presidential candidates’ offices and tell us To What Conclusions We Might Jump Based On Their Work Spaces. The AP’s Nancy Benac would have us believe that “by their offices ye shall know them,” reporting that McCain’s work place has “an abundance […]

Obama Vacation News from the (Honolulu) Star Bulletin: Unlike previous days when [Barack Obama] spent a lot of time outdoors, he spent almost all of his time indoors yesterday. The newspaper is also asking readers “lucky enough to get a photo or video of Sen. Barack Obama while he is out and about during his […]

Bill Schneider, a CNN political analyst, confessed just now during a report previewing the Democratic National Convention: There will be more than 10,000 reporters at the convention and very little real news. But plenty of news of the contrived or press release-generated variety! How many reporters is CNN sending? (We’re sending two –hoping, of course, […]