Paging Keith Olbermann

Gee, Officer, I Could Have Sworn She Was Alive
I guess when police arrived they found two stiffs.An Ohio man charged with necrophilia swears he had no idea the woman was dead when they were having sex, police said. Authorities arrested Richard Sanden earlier this week after finding that the 55-year-old had sexual relations with the corpse of Rebecca Whitehead, the Washington Times-Herald reports. Sanden called the cops to alert them of the 48-year-old's death, according to police documents, and had performed CPR on her until emergency person...

'I Didn't Notice Sex Partner Was Dead'
WASHINGTON, Indiana - A man who claimed he didn't notice he was having sex with a dead woman is now charged with necrophilia, mutilating a corpse abuse of a corpse, and Drug Charges. Fifty-five-year-old Richard Elwood Sanden is being held on $500,000 bond in the Daviess County Security Center, according to the Washington Times-Herald. Police told the paper that Sanden met the 48-year-old Victim, Rebecca Whitehead, on a phone dateline nearly four months ago. On Saturday night, Paramedics were ca...

Analysts: Priebus poised to be GOP head
WASHINGTON, Jan. 14 (UPI) -- Reince Priebus is poised to beat Michael Steele Friday to lead the Republican National Committee for the next two years, a review of committed votes indicates. The Wisconsin GOP head and RNC General Counsel has 41 pledged votes from Republican leaders ahead of their Washington gathering, compared with 28 votes committed to Steele, the committee's embattled first black chairman, The Washington Times reported. Steele, 52, was selected following the election of U.S. Pre...

The New Tone in Action: Keith Olbermann Forswears Death Panel in Arizona Transplant Segment
In his own effort to ratchet down the temperature of political Rhetoric, Countdown host Keith Olbermann seems to be putting his money where his mouth is. For months, he has been satirizing Sarah Palin by referring to Arizona Governor Jan Brewer ’s cuts to organ transplant funding as the “Arizona Death Panel.” However, in the first such segment since he swore off any and all references to violence, and ended his “Worst Persons” segment (in name, at least), Olbermann ...

American Psycho: Meltdown With Keith Olbermann Part 59, Tuscon Shooting Edition
On Saturday, MSNBC, like every other news channel, went all Tuscon shooting all the time.  So, they dragged Keith Olbermann in for a “Special Comment,” and Keith quickly spotted the real story… Keith Olbermann. That’s right, as the media template formed that somehow the fact that a psychopath obsessed with The Communist Manifesto had shot a Democrat Congresswoman was the result of conservative Rhetoric, Keith Olbermann quickly decided that the story was really about hi...

Keith Olbermann is not a madman, he just ate some bad oysters: We watch, because were paid to
Oh, boy. This was quite a week for Keith Olbermann. There’s nothing like a senseless act of violence to bring out the worst in pundits of all stripes, and Olbermann not only isn’t an exception, he’s the rule. By Saturday evening, just a few hours after the shooting at a Tucson strip mall, we had hardly any information about alleged gunman Jared Loughner or his motivations. That didn’t stop Olbermann from somberly opining about why the act required widespread self-censorin...

Thanks For All The Gaffes! Michael Steele's Two Years At The RNC
The end is near, and now he faces the final curtain -- but Michael Steele has sure done it his way. The Republican National Committee is holding its election for chair today, with the Incumbent Chairman Steele widely expected to lose. He may very well put in a strong showing on the first ballot, though just about everyone expects opposition to him to eventually unify around a single opponent -- such as Wisconsin GOP chair Reince Priebus, the frontrunner in terms of publicly committed votes. So...

House to debate health care repeal next week
WASHINGTON — The House will begin debating the Health Care Repeal bill next week, following a week when legislative action was halted after the Tucson shooting tragedy. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s office said yesterday that debate on the bill, which passed a procedural hurdle last Friday, is expected to begin when the House convenes on Tuesday. A vote is expected on Wednesday. “As the White House noted, it is important for Congress to get back to work, and to that end ...

FIRST TICKET: Michael Steele learns his fate; Bob Dole leaves hospital (The Ticket)
Welcome to First Ticket, a morning snapshot of the day's political news. • Members of the RNC today choose their new chairman. (Politico) • Republican Senate hopefuls are making their intentions clear following Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's Retirement announcement. (Dallas Morning News) • A tea Party Leader surmises Scott Brown is "completely safe" for re-election. (Roll Call) • Michelle Obama offers a message of support to all parents following Saturday's shooting. (The O

Starting Lineup: RNC Edition
Good Friday morning from National Harbor, Maryland, where members of the Republican National Committee meet today to elect a chairman for the 2012 election cycle. In lieu of your normal Starting Lineup, we offer five things to watch for as voting gets under way shortly after 10 a.m. (Remember, a Candidate needs 85 of 168 votes to win the chairmanship): Michael Steele's Votes: Steele is unlikely to win another term today, but he's going to play a role in electing his successor. A bloc of Steele s...

Steele gets backing ahead of RNC vote
Former Ambassador Thomas Melady urged Republican National Committee members to back Chairman Michael Steele for Reelection because of his grass-roots appeal. "His long commitment to 'bottoms up' political leadership has been an important factor in the landslide Republican victories of November 2010," Melady wrote in an op-ed in the Washington Times. "How fortunate it is as we prepare for the 2012 Elections, when our goal is to elect a Republican as president, we have as head of the party a ma...

NFL union seeks Hail Mary in labor talks
The NFL is Big Business these days, but the new Congress isn't exactly playing tight defense in the face of a looming and perhaps economically damaging work stoppage. The union that represents the players — the National Football League Players Association — wants the 112th Congress to help negotiate a labor contract with team owners. The contract is set to expire March 3, and at stake are the league's estimated $9 billion in annual revenue and hundreds of jobs, ranging from peanut ha...

RNC finances suffer from loss of major donors
Hundreds of major Donors have abandoned the Republican National Committee, leaving it $20 million in Debt and threatening its future as a central player in the 2012 Presidential Election. This Story RNC finances suffer from loss of major donors Major donor drop-off The RNC raised just $7 million from major Donors for the Midterm Elections, one sixth as much as it brought in for the previous midterms, in 2006. By contrast, the Democratic National Committee raised $38 million from large Donors ...

Expect a scramble for U.S. Senate seat
Expect a crowded field, state jobs are on the chopping block and House members get fewer dollars for their Budgets. (Happy Birthday today to U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, on Saturday to Ben Wright, and on Sunday to Harold Cook.) The House and Senate are out until Tuesday. So U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who worked across the aisle to bring millions of dollars back to Texas for research, the Military and infrastructure projects but who lost her seat last year as voters grew less and less impressed...

News Briefs
SOTU Address. Wasn’t this foretold in the Prophecies as the end times? says anyone can sit wherever they like, as always. (Washington Times) You Lie! - Remember shouty Me Neither! But anyway, some gun company had been selling a rifle with Wilson’s famous “You Lie!” engraved on it (to commemorate this great moment of American decorum) has suspended sales of the gun, you know, to honor those slain in Tucson. (The Ticket) Someone call Guinness! - Over one million homes wer...

The Arrogance of Honesty
Writing in the Washington Times, former Connecticut U.S. Senate Candidate Peter Schiff (R) explains "the enormous chasm that separates the real world from Washington." "This is how the game works in big-time politics: A potential Candidate hires a polling firm to create a strategically written and scientifically executed poll to discover the buzzwords and simple campaign themes that 'resonate' among voters. Consultants then boil down the poll results to a few 'winning' message points and strate...

Solomon shoots down rumors about returning to Washington Times
by Jim Romenesko Published Jan. 14, 2011 9:12 am Updated Jan. 14, 2011 9:13 am “I have heard this [rumor] from the day after I resigned” as Washington Times executive editor, says John Solomon. “I am happy with my job for the Center for Public Integrity and deeply involved in developing the center’s New Media and business strategies and any rumors to the contrary and any rumors suggesting anything else are patently false.” Help! for Writers Live chat today: How...

Senator wants to mix it up at Obama address
Sen. Mark Udall wants his colleagues to adopt a new seating arrangement, calling on lawmakers to break with tradition by sitting next to a member of the opposing party during President Obama's State of the Union address Jan. 25. In a letter to House and Senate leaders, the Colorado Democrat said that having Democrats and Republicans sit on opposing sides of the House chamber for the annual address sends the wrong message to the American public watching on television. "It sets a negative tone tha...

SIGN OF THE TIMES
SIGN OF THE TIMES Do lawmakers need Bodyguards now? Almost half of Americans agree with the idea - 48 percent of the respondents say lawmakers "should be given Bodyguards to help protect them," says a new CBS News poll. Forty-two percent disagreed. The public is split about danger. A slim plurality - 47 percent - says the Arizona shootings were a random event and not likely to be repeated; 45 percent predicted there would be more incidents. The specter of violence already has taken an extra toll...

Palin denounces 'blood libel' in Tucson debate
Former Republican Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said Wednesday she is heartbroken over the shootings in Arizona in which Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was gravely wounded, but accused some in the news media and others of "blood Libel" for saying heated political Rhetoric from her and others are to blame. "Journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred they purport to condemn," she said in a roughly 8-minute Speech posted on her Facebook pag...

Showdown over Steele dominates RNC gathering
Top GOP officials fear the White House could slip through their fingers next year unless a new Republican National Committee Chairman of integrity and managerial competence emerges as the victor in Friday's Elections at Maryland's National Harbor resort, just down the Potomac from Washington. Incumbent RNC Chairman Michael Steele faces formidable opposition as state party officials gather for the three-day annual winter meeting which officially begins Wednesday, with many unhappy over Mr. Steele...

Chamber chief: State of business 'improving'
The head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Tuesday praised what he called a "new tone" in the Obama Administration's dealings with the business community but warned that rising Energy Prices, the new Health Care law and a "regulatory Tsunami" continue to hurt businesses and slow the drive to create more jobs. "We begin 2011 in a lot better shape than we found ourselves last year," Chamber President Thomas J. Donohue said during his annual State of American Business address in Washington. "The stat...

The Dismissal of Sarah Palin
Liberals are pathologically fixated on Sarah Palin. I am neither shocked nor surprised that this nation's most prominent liberals see fit to blame Sarah Palin for causing the shooting in Tucson which severely injured Democrat Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and claimed six lives. But it does sadden me. Yet perhaps the most insightful of these denunciations of Palin was that of MSNBC's Keith Olbermann. Now when I use the word insightful I am not referring to the merits of his arguments. ...

Naming Names: Some Of The Liberals Who Were Overjoyed About The Tucson Shooting
Sadly, there have always been mentally disturbed people who’ve acted out violently. Sometimes it’s against their families, at their jobs, schools, places of employment — and sometimes it’s against famous targets. Most people, when they hear about events of this sort, feel sorrow for the senseless loss of innocent life. We wonder why God allows bad things to happen to good people and we mourn for those affected, their families, and friends. This is how most Americans fee...

Is Sarah Palin Retreating, or Reloading?
In the days following the massacre in Tucson, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has become a focal point in the media conversation about the shootings. The confluence of her March posting of an electoral map that featured crosshairs over Shooting Victim Gabrielle Giffords ‘ Congressional District, Giffords’ own denunciation of the image at the time, and Giffords’ current struggle to survive that shooting has linked Palin to the shooting, despite a lack of any evidence of a cau...