259 Stories served.  37 per day.

This is actually the hardest diary to execute, and yet perhaps the most valuable because it lets you track story trends over time.  It should be a Sunday morning feature.

• Sunday 10/24
• Monday 10/25
• Tuesday 10/26
• Wednesday 10/27
• Thursday 10/28 (diary 999 BTW)
• Friday 10/29
• Saturday 10/30

All right people, we got 10 minutes ’till game time, let’s all gather ’round. I’m not much for giving inspirational addresses, but I’d just like to point out that every newspaper in the country has picked us to finish last. The local press seems to think that we’d save everyone the time and trouble if we just went out and shot ourselves. Me, I’m for wasting sportswriters’ time. So I figured we ought to hang around for a while and see if we can give ’em all a nice big shitburger to eat.

So you’re down 2 nothing in the World Series and you’re going home to get healthy.  There’s really nothing wrong with that, though you’ll want to win tonight because otherwise you’ll be up against it, one game away from elimination and all.

Therefore the Rangers play with some urgency while there’s very little pressure on the Giants.  They’re going back to San Francisco whatever happens and you can’t count on them being charitable and wanting to celebrate in their home locker room.

Now like most pundits I revel in my wrongness so after 11 – 7, 9 – 0 slug fests I am once again predicting a Pitchers’ Duel between Lewis and Sanchez even though they’re only the 3rd best on each staff and the Aces have already gotten lit up.  Who knows, if I am consistently spectacularly erroneous enough I’ll probably get a job at The Washington Post or The New York Times.

This is an early edition.  Since I’m all about alternative programming I’m extending the hours.

College Throwball, Michigan State @ Iowa or Missouri @ Nebraska and Ohio State @ Minnesota or Oregon @ USC, Florida @ Georgia.

• ABC Family– The Spiderwick Chronicles, Hocus Pocus x 2
• AMC– Predator 2, From Dusk Till Dawn, Evil Dead 2
• Comedy– Shaun of the Dead, Scary Movie 4, Superhero Movie
• Discovery– Mythbusters marathon
• E!– Evan Almighty, Knocked Up x 2
• ESPN– Whatever College Throwball game you’re not getting on ABC, Michigan @ Penn State
• ESPN2– College Throwball, Auburn @ Mississippi, Michigan @ Penn State, Colorado @ Oklahoma
• FX– The Happening, The Strangers
• Nick– The Boy Who Cried Werewolf (not the good 1973 version)
• Oxygen– Catwoman x 2, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest x 2
• Sci Fi– Underworld, Red: Werewolf Hunter x 2
• Spike– Blade: Trinity, Halloween (not the good 1978 version)
• TBS– Titanic
• Turner Classic– Strait-Jacket, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
• TLC– Cake Boss marathon
• TNT– The Guardian, Tomorrow Never Dies x 2 (Brosnan)
• Toon– Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island, Beetlejuice
• USA– NCIS marathon
• Vs.– College Throwball, Stanford @ Washington
• Disney– Phineas and Ferb
• Food– Challenge marathon
• Lifetime– Flatliners, Within
• Speed– World of Outlaws

Later-

• ABC Family– Clue
• AMC– 28 Days Later
• Bravo– House marathon
• Comedy– Scary Movie 3
• Lifetime- Project Runway (Season Finale Part 2)
• Sci Fi– Skinwalkers
• Spike– Freddy vs. Jason, From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money (Bruce Campbell)
• TBS– Twister
• Turner Classic– Mad Love
• TNT– A Few Good Men
• Vs.– Semi-Pro Throwball, Hartford Colonials @ Sacramento Mountain Lions

SNL- Jon Hamm Rihanna.  GitS: SAC– Annihilation, Barrage (Episodes 24 and 25)

Zap2it TV Listings, Yahoo TV Listings

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

1 Amid bitter US election, liberal comics lead rally for sanity

by Karin Zeitvogel, AFP

1 hr 3 mins ago

It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and You’re Not Elected, Charlie Brown again?  Something is screwed up with ABC or Zap2it TV Listings.

Remember you only get the one crack at Keith and Rachel.  Friday Night Thurber.

I met him fifteen years ago. I was told there was nothing left. No reason, no conscience, no understanding, even the most rudimentary sense of life or death, good or evil, right or wrong. I met this six-year-old child, with this blank, pale, emotionless face and the blackest eyes… the devil’s eyes. I spent eight years trying to reach him, and then another seven trying to keep him locked up because I realized that what was living behind that boy’s eyes was purely and simply… evil.

• AMC– Predator & 2
• Bravo– Legally Blonde & 2 x 2
• Disney– New Phineas and Ferb, Pair of Kings, Fish Hooks
• Discovery– Swamp Loggers (last week’s and new), Snow Men (Series Premier)
• E!– The Soup (premier)
• ESPN– Magic @ Heat, Lakers @ Suns
• ESPN2– College Throwball, West Virginia @ Connecticut
• FX– Halloween: Resurrection, Halloween H2O: 20 Years Later
• National Geographic– Dog Whisperer (premier)
• Nick– The Boy Who Cried Werewolf (not the good 1973 version)
• Oxygen– Juno x 2
• Sci Fi– Sanctuary (premier)
• Style– The Good Girl
• TBS– Catch Me if You Can x 2
• Turner Classic– The Curse of Frankenstein, The Revenge of Frankenstein (Hammer time)
• TLC– What Not to Wear (premier)
• TNT– GoldenEye x 2 (Brosnan)
• Toon– Sym-Bionic Titan, Generator Rex (premiers)
• USA– NCIS marathon

Later-

• AMC– Deep Blue Sea
• Sci Fi– Caprica (this week’s), Sanctuary (instapeat)
• Style– Pay It Forward
• Turner Classic– Frankenstein Created Woman, Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (more Hammer time)
• USA– Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins, Bait Shop
• VH1– New Jack City

Dave hosts Michael J. Fox, Shaun White and Amar’e Stoudemire.  No Alton.  The Office (the good one).

Zap2it TV Listings, Yahoo TV Listings

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

1 EU treads uncharted waters to defend single currency

by Claire Rosemberg, AFP

2 hrs 26 mins ago

Attentive readers will notice new buttons on the right labeled Daily Features.  It highlights the work of mishima, TheMomCat, and I.

It’s something of an experiment, I’d expect our readership to be using a scroll mouse or the keyboard or window buttons to scroll through all of our recent content, but perhaps you have a particular favorite and want to catch up.  If you find it useful, my grand concept for future development is to add a section highlighting our weekly regular contributions and move it all out of the way of our Twitter feed.

Now it gets more meta

If you examine my body of work you’ll know I’m a nut about scheduled blogging.  Not because I like being a nag, but because it’s a convenience to the reader.  When TheMomCat and I created this blog I resolved to myself that I’d just let things set themselves up organically.  What has developed is that we put up about 8 diaries between 6 am and 8 pm on the even hours.

Translator is a regular contributor, but not daily.  He usually submits his work after 8 pm on Fridays (Popular Culture) and Sundays (Pique the Geek), though he does post at other times.  mishima posts Random Japan on Saturdays at 4 pm.  TheMomCat posts Health and Fitness News Saturdays at 2 pm.  I post Monday Business Edition on… wait for it… Monday mornings and The Week In Review on Sunday mornings when I’m not distracted by Sports blogging.

Because you may think this blog is about politics, but it’s really about Formula One and Le Tour.

Our other contributors are more muse driven, and that’s ok.  What’s important to understand is we have an aggressive promotion policy to compliment our usual content.  If you have something you’d care to draw our attention to, please do.

Soapblox blogs can run 24/7/365.

So tomorrow is Jon and Stephen’s big show and almost every estimate says that they’re going to blow Glenn Beck out of the water on crowd size.

Which is unsurprising to me because this whole ‘silent majority’ thing is bullshit.  Republicans represent the 24% of the most racist, reactionary, and ignorant Americans and the ‘Tea Party’ is it’s most fascist, Bircher, paranoid, delusional fringe.

Except for the .01%ers, the plutocrats who run it.

But they run the Democratic Party too, you can’t kid yourself, and their performance with historic majorities has been horrible.

You know, from an “electoral victory” kind of standpoint.

If you can’t fucking summon enough enthusiasm from your party base because your policies suck you deserve to lose your phony baloney jobs you miserable failures at the one thing you’re supposed to be good at- politics!

I have no sympathy at all for anyone who’s going to lose a prime Capitol Hill parking spot for their BMW.

You are watching the meltdown of the elites.  Our “best” and most prestigious Universities have produced a generation of morons who are simply not good at their jobs.

We need to fire them.

I’d like to draw your attention to this excellent diary by Translator about the melt down at a local party event in Kentucky.  My local runs projects way more complicated 6 times a year with a skeleton crew.

It is not rocket science.  If this is the best a “community organizer” can do…

Well, you know I… I never got to bat in the major leagues. I would have liked to have had that chance. Just once. To stare down a big league pitcher. To stare him down, and just as he goes into his windup, wink. Make him think you know something he doesn’t. That’s what I wish for. Chance to squint at a sky so blue that it hurts your eyes just to look at it. To feel the tingling in your arm as you connect with the ball. To run the bases – stretch a double into a triple, and flop face-first into third, wrap your arms around the bag. That’s my wish, Ray Kinsella. That’s my wish. And is there enough magic out there in the moonlight to make this dream come true?

Cain v. Wilson (CJ not Brian).

• ABC– It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (Bonus cartoon, You’re Not Elected, Charlie Brown, no shit)
• ABC Family– The Haunted Mansion, The Spiderwick Chronicles
• AMC– Constantine, Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday
• Bravo– Real Housewives marathon (with premier)
• ESPN– College Throwball, Florida State @ North Carolina State
• Food– Double Alton (Halloween themed with premier), Food Feuds (premier)
• FX– It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The League (premiers)
• History– Aliens!
• National Geographic– Inside the Milky Way
• TBS– Drumline
• Turner Classic– Dead of Night, Rebecca
• TNT– Wizards @ Magic (a Halloween themed game)
• Toon– Scooby-Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster
• Travel– Man v. Food marathon (thank goodness)
• Lifetime– Project Runway (Season Finale Parts 1 & 2 premier)

Later-

• AMC– Friday the 13th — A New Beginning
• Turner Classic– The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane
• TNT– Suns @ Jazz
• Toon– Delocated (premier)

Dave hosts Will Ferrell, Slash and Kid Cudi.  Jon has no guest listed, Stephen Maira Kalman.  No Alton.  No Boondocks.

Fifty years ago, for five minutes you came within… y-you came this close. It would KILL some men to get so close to their dream and not touch it. God, they’d consider it a tragedy.

Son, if I’d only gotten to be a doctor for five minutes… now that would have been a tragedy.

Zap2it TV Listings, Yahoo TV Listings

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

1 Haiti cholera deaths rise above 300

by Clarens Renois, AFP

1 hr 58 mins ago

As you’ve no doubt read by now, yesterday Obama was interviewed by 5 “Progressive” bloggers- BarbinMD (Daily Kos), Atrios (Eschaton), Joe Sudbay (Americablog), John Amato (Crooks and Liars), and Oliver Willis (Umm… his blog is eponymous).

They weren’t allowed to record the session independently so there is only the official White House transcript.

HuffPo headilines it- Obama Deflects Tough Questions From Progressive Bloggers.  I’d call it Weasel Words.  An illustrative exchange with Atrios–

Mine is an easy question. Will you rule out raising the retirement age to 70?

THE PRESIDENT: We are awaiting a report from the deficit commission, or deficit reduction commission, so I have been adamant about not prejudging their work until we get it.

But I think you can look at the statements that I’ve made in the past, including when I was campaigning for the presidency, that Social Security is something that can be fixed with some modest modifications that don’t impose hardships on beneficiaries who are counting on it.

And so the example that I used during the campaign was an increase in the payroll tax, not an increase — let me scratch that. Not an increase in the payroll tax but an increase in the income level at which it is excluded.

And so what I’ve been clear about is, is that I’ve got a set of preferences, but I want the commission to go ahead and do its work. When it issues its report, I’m not automatically going to assume that it’s the right way to do things. I’ll study it and examine it and see what makes sense.

But I’ve said in the past, I’ll say here now, it doesn’t strike me that a steep hike in the retirement age is in fact the best way to fix Social Security.

But you’ll probably want to read the whole thing and make up your own mind.

Also Obama was on Jon Stewart last night, took up the whole half hour.  A snip from that interview-

We have done things that some folks don’t even know about.

What have you done that we don’t know about?  Are you planning a surprise party for us, filled with jobs and health care?

Part 1

Parts 2 & 3 below the fold.