Media-Whore D'Oeuvres

"We are a week away from the 2010 U.S. midterm elections. The outcome is already locked in. Whether the Republicans take the House or the Senate is close to immaterial. It is almost certain that the dynamics of American domestic politics will change. The Democrats will lose their ability to impose cloture in the Senate and thereby shut off debate. Whether they lose the House or not, the Democrats will lose the ability to pass legislation at the will of the House Democratic leadership. The large majority held by the Democrats will be gone, and party discipline will not be strong enough (it never is) to prevent some defections. Should the Republicans win an overwhelming victory in both houses next week, they will still not have the votes to override presidential vetoes. Therefore they will not be able to legislate unilaterally, and if any legislation is to be passed it will have to be the result of negotiations between the president and the Republican Congressional leadership. Thus, whether the Democrats do better than expected or the Republicans win a massive victory, the practical result will be the same. When we consider the difficulties President Barack Obama had passing his health care legislation, even with powerful majorities in both houses, it is clear that he will not be able to push through any significant legislation without Republican agreement. The result will either be gridlock or a very different legislative agenda than we have seen in the first two years." (STRATFOR)

"In early March 2006, Donald Rumsfeld called a Pentagon news conference to declare Iraq peaceful -- and to say that U.S. reporters in Baghdad were liars for reporting otherwise. Contrary to the jumble of 'exaggerated' reporting from Baghdad, the then-secretary of defense said at the Washington press briefing, Iraq was experiencing no such thing as the explosion of sectarian violence that myself and many of my fellow journalists in Baghdad were covering in the aftermath of a fateful February 2006 bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra. Certainly, some Iraqis were trying to incite civil war, Rumsfeld acknowledged. But Iraq's own security forces had 'taken the lead in controlling the situation,' he insisted, and quick action by the Shiite-led government had 'a calming effect.' Rumsfeld also made clear at the time that U.S. officials were fighting another kind of war over Iraq -- the battle for U.S. opinion. The 'misreporting' on the death toll was driving down U.S. support for the war, the defense secretary complained. Four years on, however, WikiLeaks' release of contemporary troop logs raises serious questions about who, exactly, was doing the lying." (ForeignPolicy)

"Howard (Stern) said Charlie (Sheen) already had a bad reputation so why did she think she was going to change him. Denise (Richards) said that she wasn't trying to change him. She said his past was his past and she was moving on. Howard said everyone was waiting for the bomb to drop on that marriage. Howard asked what the defining moment was for her. Denise said that it was a moment, that's for sure. Howard asked how long it took. She said it was a year into the marriage. Denise was pregnant with their first. Then the stuff started trickling out. Howard said that Elvis was like that too. He'd stop loving them as soon as they got pregnant. Denise said that she and Charlie are getting along now. She said that it's more than just that issue with him. Howard said that some women just don't see through to the reality of what's going on. Howard said Denise could have had any guy in Hollywood. Denise said that it was great in the beginning. She said that Charlie is a very unique individual and he should stay single. She thinks he'd be happy if he stayed single. She said that she's told him that too. Denise said that he probably will get married again though ... Howard said that he heard that when Charlie went to jail he called their daughters from jail. Denise said she tried to tell them that when adults do something wrong they get a ''time out'' so that's what daddy was doing. She said that the kids asked what he did to get the time out but she told them that he'd explain that to them. He never did tell the kids what he did." (Marksfriggin)

"When most of us lose our wallets, we putter around the house for a bit, cursing out the empty pockets and purses we were certain those wallets were left in. Charlie Sheen does not do things this way. In fact, here is how Charlie Sheen did things last night, culled from reports filed by the Post, TMZ, and Life and Style: After losing his wallet, he got drunk and nude, threw tables and chairs around his room in the Plaza hotel, damaged a chandelier, allegedly terrified a naked escort hiding in the hotel closet, admitted he had been "out partying" when cops were called to the scene, and was hospitalized." (Vulture)

"With a week to go until Election Day, House Democrats face the potential of a political bloodbath the size of which we haven’t seen since the presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The largest midterm House loss for the president’s party during the last 50 years was 52 seats in 1994. The previous largest losses were 55 seats in 1942 and 71 seats in 1938. While some Democrats say their party will keep Republican gains to fewer than 39 seats, Democratic losses are likely to be much higher. Democratic district-level polling suggesting manageable losses is contradicted by GOP surveys, which show more than eight dozen Democrats under 50 percent in general election ballot tests, and dozens of Democratic nominees either trailing their Republican opponents or sitting in the mid-40s.In wave elections, incumbents of the party at risk tend not to receive the votes of people who are undecided late, so most Democrats need to hold comfortable leads and be near the 50 percent mark if they are going to survive on Election Day. (Even if third-party candidates draw more support than usual, their presence on district ballots isn’t likely to help Democrats win more than a race or two.)  Political handicapper Nate Silver has challenged the rule of thumb that incumbents don’t get the undecided vote. But he incorrectly assumes that the rule applies to all elections. In fact, it is relevant only for wave elections, when voters are dissatisfied with incumbents and the direction of the country, not for status-quo elections, when incumbents are more popular." (Stuart Rothenberg)
 

"Not surprisingly Gloria (Vanderbilt) has many loyal friends, (some dating back to her childhood) – including her housekeeper and steadfast friend Nora Mulkerins Marley who is a contemporary of Gloria’s and has been with her for most of her long adult life, as well as Nora’s daughter GG who is also part of Gloria’s extended family that she began creating at an early age as her birth family was ebbing. It’s a beautiful book, alluringly designed and art directed by Chip Kidd. It’s full of fascinating archival photos dating from the beginning right up to today. Gloria once told me that many years ago when she was traveling constantly all over the country promoting her famous line of Jeans, that someone came up to her in an airport and said to her: 'Congratulations on your life.' Those kinds and simple words touched her so deeply that she found herself sobbing in reaction." (NYSocialDiary)

"But that was nearly a year ago. Mr. Taibbi, freshly married and now 40 years old, has a major book, Griftopia, an expansion of the squid profile and its main ideas, out Nov. 2 through Random House. It does not have a chapter on king-hell speed binges, like his first book, or, like his second, anecdotes about gobbling acid before interviewing the former White House Drug Policy head and Kerry aide, in a Viking outfit. In fact, the book has no stunts or gags in it, and barely any mugging for the camera. 'I'm worried about it, because it's not a particularly funny topic,' he said. When he was writing, he caught himself trying hard to amuse. 'Some of those things ended up being so unfunny that we had to actually remove them from the book.' Since at least 2008, when he won a National Magazine Award, then began shifting from politics to Wall Street, his name has been a byword for a certain kind of worldview and writing. It is infuriated; inquisitive; indecorous; agog. Except for its lack of psychotropics and costumes, the book is a summation of what his name means to the landscape of financial journalism. But, especially recently, it's also become a schoolyard put-down." (Observer)

"Scott Rudin Productions has acquired screen rights to David Leviathan and Rachel Cohn's new novel Dash and Lily's Book of Dares, and has attached Tiny Furniture writer/director/star Lena Dunham to write the script and direct. Rudin, who'll produce, hasn't yet set it yet at a studio.Leviathan and Cohn previously wrote the novel Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist, which was turned into the Peter Sollett-directed film. Knopf publishes Dash and Lily's Book of Dares today. Two teens, left alone in Manhattan for Christmas, develop a connection when she leaves a notebook full of literary clues at the Strand bookstore and he follows the clues and leaves some of his own. There are dares in the book that lead the characters to crowded places like Macys and FAO Schwartz. Along the way, they reveal information about themselves, leading to an inevitable meeting." (Deadline)