Anti-Tea Party Susan Roesgen out at CNN.

You may remember Susan Roesgen as the woman who rather notoriously played the role of Obama stimulus apologist while carrying a CNN microphone at the April 15th Chicago Tea Party (she was also the subject of some now-vanished Jon Stewart scorn over her coverage of a Fargo flood, but that’s a different story). Well, it seems that she’s become an unemployment statistic:

Breaking: TVNewser has learned CNN correspondent Susan Roesgen‘s contract will not be renewed and she will be leaving the network.

[snip]

When TVNewser asked whether Roesgen’s comments at the Chicago tea party rally had anything to do with her not being renewed, a CNN spokesperson said, “I can’t comment on personnel matters.”

In other words, Roesgen’s comments at the Chicago Tea Party had something to do with her not being renewed. See also Ed Driscoll, who revisited Ms. Roesgen’s adventures in advocacy in his report on the July Tea Parties; Founding Bloggers, who had the video that CNN rather badly wanted to go away; and Hot Air, which is openly wondering when MSNBC will offer her a job. Given the way that the two networks are hacking each other into bloody gobbets to claim the #2 spot in cable news, they may have already.

I don’t know who gets to keep this (metaphorical) scalp; but I think that the Tea Party movement can certainly claim it.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

That… is an exceptionally large freshwater catfish.

The tiddler who caught a monster: Schoolgirl angler nets record catch that’s twice her size and weighs 14stone

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(Via Drudge) Not much else to say, except that cooking up this sucker would probably be a test to destruction of The World’s Best Catfish Cookbook.

Some quick Rasmussen polls.

Virginia Governor: McDonnell 44%, Deeds 41%.  Expect that one to be volatile.

New York Democratic Senate Primary: Maloney 33%, Gillibrand 27%.  Guess Paterson picked the wrong Representative to elevate to the Senate.  Speaking of which…

New York Democratic Governor Primary: Cuomo 61%, Paterson 27%.  Does anybody have any idea at all why Cuomo hasn’t just announced already?

Texas Republican Governor Primary: Perry 46%, Hutchison 36%.  That lead’s increased, but I believe that KBH is going to still run anyway.

And last, but not least: today is not the day that POTUS drops below 50% in Rasmussen’s daily poll.  He’s still holding out at 51%.

Crossposted to RedState.

Peter Singer thinks that he should have a say in your health care.

[UPDATE] If only.

If that title doesn’t frighten you, nothing will.

You have advanced kidney cancer. It will kill you, probably in the next year or two. A drug called Sutent slows the spread of the cancer and may give you an extra six months, but at a cost of $54,000. Is a few more months worth that much?

I’ll save you the trouble of reading: his answer is “The decision should not be up to you.”

Actually, if that doesn’t frighten you, then nothing will.

Continue reading Peter Singer thinks that he should have a say in your health care.

Jack Murtha(D, PA)-linked companies in Florida corruption probe.

It’s a lovely morning today.  The sun is shining down from a brilliantly-azure sky.  The birds are singing counterpoint to the steady rumble of people getting up, going to work and living their lives.  Somewhere, a child laughs with innocent delight as a sudden breeze stirs the grass, and sends dandelion seeds dancing through the air.  And Air Force investigators are charging that various-and-sundry companies linked to Rep. Jack Murtha (and his lobbyist brother Kit Murtha) improperly received and used earmarks funneled to them by him.

When an Air Force command in north Florida sought new battlefield technologies, Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.) steered millions in federal dollars its way to hire defense contractors.

The research effort at the Pensacola Air Force base fell apart, however, when investigators found evidence that it was used to improperly pay a series of companies linked to Murtha. A handful of defense firms were paid for work that was never done or not called for in the contracts. Some of the companies involved, based in Wyoming, Florida and Murtha’s district in Pennsylvania, had hidden owners, prosecutors allege; one was secretly owned by the Air Force official who helped approve the payments.

As prosecutors reveal new details of their criminal probe into the $8 million earmark that Murtha arranged for the Air Force project, one familiar player is never mentioned by authorities. Several of the companies had hired the lobbying firm of the lawmaker’s brother, Robert C. “Kit” Murtha.

They’ve already flipped one of the defendants: Richard Ianieri (formerly of Coherent Systems International, one of the companies involved) will be cooperating with the authorities on this and a probably-related kickback case. In other words, this is the point in the ongoing investigation timeline where the investigators have finally taken hold of the loose thread and are prepared to give it a good, hard yank – just to see what happens. This is also the point where people start mumbling things like ‘no wrongdoing has been proven on the part of my client’ rather than confidently shouting it: it’s not yet the point where sitting politicians start discovering a burning need to spend more time with their families, but there’s time for that. Continue reading Jack Murtha(D, PA)-linked companies in Florida corruption probe.

I originally had linked to something else…

…but then I realized that it wasn’t actually funny.

So here’s a link to the Multiple Sclerosis Society instead. When I was a kid I used to participate in their Readathons. Nobody would sign up with me twice, though; I’ve always been a fast reader, so I’d rack up easily a hundred, hundred fifty books in the time elapsed.

That adds up. Especially if I had gotten you to agree to a quarter per book.