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From the Today Show Oct. 15, 2009. Dylan Ratigan and Michael Moore slam Wall Street for the latest round of bonuses being paid to their executives after being rescued by our tax dollars.

Lauer: Dylan, let me start with you. There are going to be a lot of confused people out here. The Dow is over 10,000 again. The bonuses are back, but on Main Street you’ve got money still tight, spending is tough, people can’t get mortgages, and unemployment is still a problem. Is it just the reality now that Wall Street and Main Street are completely disconnected?

Ratigan: Largely they were. Unfortunately the government has changed the rules on behalf of Wall St. to allow them access to trillions of our dollars as you and I have discussed, as Michael Moore has documented. When you have access to trillions of dollars of taxpayer money with no strings attached, it's very easy to make a few billion dollars. A billion is only 1/1000 of a trillion and because our government is allowing the indulgence of the risk taking of the trillions of our own money not only is it allowing Wall Street to make the billions, but it is also depriving the rest of our economy out of the use of those funds which is why you see the heart wrenching antidotes that Michael Moore is so good at portraying.

There is a direct connection between those who you see suffering in films that Michael documents and the abdication of duty by our government to allow all the taxpayer money we all work so hard to create to be the plaything, the gambling toy, of the financial industry as opposed to forcing the financial industry to get back to the business of being investors and becoming the next Warren Buffet, actually putting money into the economy as opposed to taking it out.

Lauer: Michael, let me make sure people understand this. The Wall Street Journal report says that firms are going to pay out about a $140 billion dollars in bonuses this year. The year before the economic meltdown, 2007, they paid out about $130 billion, so it’s gone up. How is this news going to go over with people like the ones in your home state Michigan that just found out unemployment is 15.3% in that state?

Moore: Well eventually people aren’t going to take it and I don’t know how many gated communities these people who are taking this $140 billion in bonuses, I don’t know how many castles with moats around them they can build, but I’ll tell you something—there’s an anger that’s building out there and I mean Matt, these people, they burned down our economy. They completely crashed it. And now they're getting rewarded for it. It would be like I burned down your house today and then tomorrow you send me a check for it thanking me. It's absolutely insane that we allow this to happen but not surprising because that’s our capitalist system. They can get away with it because it’s legal. They can get away with it because they can make whatever they want to make. They can take whatever they want to take. There’s no such thing as enough.

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Obviously, Jeffrey Immelt feels more than a little pressure to prove that NBC is not the liberal bastion (and messenger of Obama's secret army) that the unapologetic righties like to whinge about, otherwise there's really no excuse for this latest hire:

Journalism continues staggering pushes forward on an otherwise ordinary Sunday! In the great "tradition" of mixing up people like Matt Lauer and Meredith Viera with public drunks like Hoda and Kathy Lee, The Today Show's newest hire? Jenna Bush. Whee!

Absolutely, completely, 100% true. Here's looking at you, NBC, via the AP report:

...a 27-year-old teacher in Baltimore, [Bush] will contribute stories about once a month on issues like education to television's top-rated morning news show, said Jim Bell, its executive producer.

"It wasn't something I'd always dreamed to do," she said. "But I think one of the most important things in life is to be open-minded and to be open-minded for change."

Not to put too fine a point on it, but the spawn of the guy who mangled the English language so often that it was painful to listen to him speak and who is personally responsible for the grammatically-odd statement above is going to cover educational issues?

That's like asking the spawn of Darth Cheney, Liz Cheney, on her opinion about Obama's foreign policy, or lifelong government-paid health insurance recipient John McCain about his opinion on the public option...oh wait.

As Atrios tweeted yesterday:

I look forward to seeing Jenna Bush interview Liz Cheney on The Today Show, being introduced by Luke Russert

Unqualified nepotism: Conservative values at their very best.

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From Morning Joe, Pat Buchanan apparently wasn't too happy about Levi Johnston's criticism of his girlfriend Sarah Palin on the Today Show, where he said Palin resigned to cash in on her recent celebrity.

Buchanan: Well, first, with regard to Levi, I think First Dude up there in Alaska, Todd Palin, ought to take Levi down to the creek and hold his head underwater until the thrashing stops.

Mika made sure the audience knew that MSNBC does not advocate any violence against Levi Johnston before the segment was over. Way to stay classy Pat.

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(h/t Heather for the vid)

ON FOX News Sunday, Chris Wallace really got into Joe Biden's remarks from the Today Show about the flu and ran with them pretty hard. It's been almost a week and the administration has clarified his statements, but that didn't stop Wallace from FOXing them up.

First he brought up a conspiracy theory that says the Vice President slipped up and was giving us information that the government didn't want Americans to know. Namely, that the swine flu is highly contagious and you had better stay in your house and lock your doors.

Wallace: I have to tell you, some people have said to me since Vice President talked. Maybe you guys are telling the public one thing, but at the highest levels of government you've heard something else, no -- you're saying to me that everything the Vice President Biden said, I'm not talking to the travel to Mexico. Being in a confined space, being in a classroom. Being in a school. Being in a subway, no health danger to any of that?

Sebelius: Again, with, we're letting the science lead this investigation and trying to be prudent...

Second, he asked if Biden was just insane.

Wallace: So why would the Vice President tell his family that? Are we to believe that the Vice President of the United States is a crackpot?

Sebelius: I think that each member of our country makes decisions about themselves and their family and about safety and security. What we're telling you is what the science says.

Kathleen Sebelius should have gotten up in his grill on that last point, but she's trying to be reassuring to the American people. We hope the next time a talking head gets out of line she will call them on it.

Wow, Chris Wallace had plenty of good reasons to call out Dick Cheney on a host of topics, but he never would have ever used that language to describe a "Vice President" of the United States during Cheney's tenure. FOX News has completely gone off the rails since President Obama was elected. They were always a propaganda arm for the GOP, but the ad hominem attacks have escalated to monumental proportions among their talk-show hosts.

And a new day is born.

Ann Coulter was scheduled to appear on the "Today" show Tuesday morning to promote her new book, "Guilty." But it's now been canceled, according to her website.

"I guess this ends the 'they just want to get ratings' argument about liberal media bias," Coulter wrote underneath.

As County Fair notes:

Coulter is still scheduled to appear on CBS' Early Show tomorrow, according to her web page. This follows the recent revelation that CBS considered including Coulter on the "independent" panel it created to investigate a 60 Minutes report on President Bush's National Guard record.

Matthews will still beg for her to come on Hardball I would imagine.

Apparently not one to go gently into that good night, Sarah Palin is determined to keep the spotlight on her for as long as the media will allow it. She sat down with Matt Lauer on The Today Show, insisting that despite overwhelming discussion of the tension between her and McCain (coming from anonymous campaign staffers as well as the media that covered them) that she and McCain are still BFFs.

LAUER: There is this feeling, and some of this comes from leaks and other, just perception, people just getting a gut that there was increasing tension between you and Sen. McCain in the final stretch of this campaign. Tell me what the relationship was like.
PALIN: We have a great relationship. Had from Day One. Had from the first time that I met him, last year, he and his wife. I just have been great admirers [sic] of them, of their family, of all that Sen. McCain has accomplished. Never once was there any inkling of tension between the two of us. Perhaps within the campaign, there was campaign staffers who…
LAUER: Well, describe that for me. Who was butting heads?
PALIN: You know, I don’t even know. That inside baseball stuff regarding the way a campaign works on that level, I certainly didn’t get bogged down in any of the potential skirmishes or perceived problems…
LAUER: Have you listened to some of the leaks that have come out since the election, where they’re saying that the McCain people leaked anonymously or saying,‘we couldn’t control her.’ ‘She was a rogue.’ ‘She didn’t want our consultants around her.’ And it became tense. Where do stories like that come from?
PALIN: I honestly do not know, because it’s not true, Matt. And Sen. McCain and I, we have a great relationship. I have nothing but honor and admiration and love for him and for his family. And I think that is mutual. In fact, I talked to him just today, again. And we touching base [sic] nearly every day…
LAUER: So it’s a warm and friendly relationship, even to this day?
PALIN : Very warm and friendly and professional and I…again, I have nothing but honor and admiration and love that I will show for this great American hero.

Well, I'm convinced. (/snark)

In other news, it's being reported by AP that Palin is going through the closets of her husband and kids to return all the clothes purchased for them by the RNC, including Todd's silk boxers. I know that the Republicans want to have a reputation (however unearned) of being fiscally prudent, but really, let them keep the knickers. What would you do with used undies from the Palin family any way?

Joe appeared on the Today Show with Katie Couric in full damage control mode Thursday. He criticized the newspapers for all the rumors swirling around Bernard Kerik's head and praised Bernie for being the man who "found out that he had a problem with the nannies immigration status." Now that's great police work! However, when asked, he said that he wouldn't comment on Kerik's prior relationships: "It is a personal matter and I will not get into his personal affairs."

Aren't personal matters critical in the vetting process for a high level position?