'Veggie Love': PETA's Banned Super Bowl Ad

PETA's banned video advises: Once you go broccoli, you never go back.

Is that a carrot in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?

NBC won't let PETA even try to ask that question, banning the animal-rights group's proposed Super Bowl ad campaign.

FOX News warns readers that the ads are too explicit, but go ahead and eat your vegetables any way you want.

Who needs a Super Bowl? Get out your salad bowl and watch the PETA ad undressed.

Can't get enough of Obama's January 17 train ride. Here it is again.

Even before today's inauguration, Barack Obama's whistle-stop trip to D.C. brought the best of two worlds to America.

Besides being just a really cool thing to do — complete with speeches by the mellifluous new president to cheering crowds — that trip was truly astonishing.

As a Oklahoma boy who used to ride his bike to the train station to see the 8:55 Oil Flyer pull into Bartlesville in the '50s, I would sometimes sneak into the "colored" waiting room just to try to soak up the inequality.

I did it when I thought no one was looking, and then I raced outside to take a quick sip at the "colored only" water fountain.

It's not a protest if no one else sees it. I didn't face danger. The worst that could have happened was a scolding by the stationmaster. Big deal. A black person who refused to sit in that waiting room and tried to take his or her place in the regular waiting room would have earned much more than a scowl.

Still, that was as much rebellion as I dared, and it wasn't much, because I was overcome by fear — unlike Rosa Parks, who had to fight off mortal fear to risk the consequences. Nearly a century after "emancipation," she dared to keep her bus seat on December 1, 1955.

And now there's a black president? And he took the train to D.C. in a great, old-fashioned whistle-stop tour? That really is the best of two worlds and just as significant a victory for white Americans as it is for blacks.

No more separate waiting rooms. Black Americans aren't being forced to ride out of town on a rail.

A black president is riding into town. The day after Martin Luther King Jr. Day. A conjunction that your imagination couldn't have invented.

If you feel like tearing yourself away from today's historic moment, here are some clickables:

NO PARTICULAR ORDER:

Newsday: 'Experts: Plane that crashed had prior engine problem'

N.Y. Post: 'CONEY IS. PLAN BITES NATHAN'S'

Jewish Daily Forward: 'Who Won the War? Israel Touts Overwhelming Victory, Critics on the Right Disagree'

New Yorker: 'A Lonesome Death' (The Wire's David Simon)

N.Y. Times: 'Billionaire Reaches Deal On Funding For Times Co.'

Crain's New York Business: 'Is Cablevision meddling in Newsday's coverage?'

Newsday: 'Newsday, Cablevision execs mum on rumored firings'

N.Y. Daily News: 'Student auctions her virginity, bids reportedly reached $3.7M'

N.Y. Post: 'GOV: I'M CLUELESS ON SENATE CHOICE'

N.Y. Times: 'For the Jobless, Hope and Fear for a New Day'

N.Y. Daily News: 'New York to lead U.S. in job losses'

N.Y. Daily News: 'NY, TX top list of states with strong housing markets'

N.Y. Post: 'TEEN STABBED AT GORY 3-D HORROR MOVIE'

New York: 'Barack Obama, Party of One'

Wall Street Journal: 'Fiat to Take Stake in Chrysler'

Crain's New York Business: 'BAM launching $300M capital campaign'

New Yorker: 'Back Issues'

New York: 'The New Journalism: Goosing the Gray Lady'

Wall Street Journal: 'Gazans Rally Behind Hamas'

N.Y. Times: 'Anxiety Grips Restaurants, New Ones in Particular'

N.Y. Daily News: 'Inauguration means big bucks for prostitutes, coke dealers'

N.Y. Times: 'At the Office, Taking a Break for the Oath of Office'

N.Y. Daily News: 'Suit: Man died after being jailed for parking tickets and missing chemo'

N.Y. Times: 'Bush Commutes 2 Border Agents' Sentences'

Wall Street Journal: 'Deficits Restrict Obama as His Promises Come Due'

New York: 'Christopher Hitchens Blames Torture on Common Americans, Demands "Tongue" From Andrew Sullivan'

N.Y. Daily News: 'Nearly 1/2 of all women and 1/3 of men prefer the Internet to sex'

Jewish Daily Forward: 'Hebrew School for All?'

N.Y. Daily News: 'Prominent politician posts picture of herself in shower on Facebook'

---

'Madoff's Ponzi Case Leaves PETA Cowed'

From the Wall Street Journal's Brody Mullins:

Jewish Daily Forward: 'The Gargantuan Gonif'

Wall Street Journal: 'Cuomo Subpoenas Madoff Investor'

Wall Street Journal: 'Vienna Banker in Spotlight as Madoff Fallout Spreads'

Jewish Daily Forward: 'The Long Arm of Halacha: Jewish Law and the Madoff Scandal'

Don't worry if you've been laid off, your kid's school has closed, your neighborhood's community center has had to shut down, your bank (revitalized by your tax money) is pestering you to turn over your home, the prices of booze and cigarettes have gone up again, subway fares are soaring, you couldn't afford to buy more than lumps of coal for your Christmas stocking, Bernie Madoff stole your gelt.

Taking the sting out of that: The Yanks signed Mark Texeira for $180 million in guaranteed money.

The local rags reported the great news as breathlessly as any hometown hack hinterlands newspaper would. From the Daily News:

Rodriguez will make $32 million this year and (for now) gets to fuck Madonna.

You — and ordinary New Yorkers like you — helped make it all possible with hundreds of millions of dollars in public subsidies and free land. Take some pride in that. Even if you can't afford tickets to the games. Give yourself a pat on the back.

You also made New York Mets owner Fred Wilpon happy; the Mets got public money for their new stadium, making it possible for them to afford their new players.

But Wilpon wasn't as lucky as Alex Rodriguez. Fred got fucked, but it was Bernie Madoff who turned the trick and it cost Fred $500 million.

Aside from that, more good news for the rich people you subsidize: If you're one of those people who rents from city slumlord Isaac Toussie, raise a toast to him: George W. Bush just granted him a pardon.

Put a bucket under those drips and click on these ...

NO PARTICULAR ORDER:

Washington Post: 'The Dispirit of Christmas Present'

Slate: 'Bogus Trend of the Week: Booming Evangelical Attendance'

McClatchy: 'Salmon-tracking network upends some sacred cows'

Slate: 'Blago's Legal Eagles'

Wall Street Journal: 'Madoff Scheme Takes New Toll'

Slate: 'Cheney Fought the Law. Cheney Won.'

N.Y. Post: 'EX-BROKER FACES "HEDGE HOG" RAP'

L.A. Times: 'Chinese seek to pull cats from the menu'

Wall Street Journal: 'Obama, Two Aides Questioned in Probe'

N.Y. Post: 'PITY PONZI-POOR PENNEY'

Washington Post: 'SEC Chair Defends His Restraint'

N.Y. Post: 'CITY BIGS FACE DEUTSCHE GRILL'

N.Y. Daily News: 'Suicide not a shock to other Madoff victims'

Washington Post: 'Madoff Investor Found Dead in Office'

N.Y. Post: 'GOOD, BAD AND UGLY IN CITY CRIME STATS'

American Forces Press Service: 'Commander in Chief Recalls His "Great Days"'

McClatchy: 'California will see clout increase at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue'

N.Y. Post: 'SHEL SHOCKER: BEWARE CAROLINE, HE WARNS GOV'

McClatchy: 'Flaunting, sales of luxury goods down'

BBC: 'Cocoa prices hit a 23-year-high'

BBC: 'Dung souvenir based on holy phrase'

BBC: 'Sopranos actor cleared of murder'

BBC: 'NY Times admits to fake letter'

Washington Post: 'Shoe-Thrower Is Called Defiant'

Telegraph (U.K.): 'Pope says humanity needs "saving" from homosexuality'

N.Y. Times: 'Betrayed by Madoff, school adds lesson'

Jurist: 'Russia upper house gives final approval to presidential term extension amendments'

Jurist: 'Australia government lifts control order on ex-Guantanamo detainee Hicks'

Guardian (U.K.): 'Animal rights activists still target lab'

L.A. Times: 'Afghanistan's President Karzai laments coalition use of "thugs"'

Only three shopping days 'til Depression. But no need to hurry as in years past because you may have already been laid off, so have that second cup of coffee before you head off to longingly press your noses against those store windows.

If you still have a job, it probably won't matter if you take off from work (because you're probably not going to have your job much longer anyway) to grab that new bauble for your spouse (because diamonds are forever).

Let's face it: You're fucked. (No really, Xmas season is the peak time of mating.)

Anyway, this could be your last chance to get that plasma TV. Next year you could be at the blood bank cashing in your plasma just to put food on the table.

This morning's best headline is the New York Post's "DEATH-LEAP SUV GAL WAS BOOZY: BAR BOSS." And the most heart-warming Xmas story also comes from the Post: yesterday's joyous shopping spree by one of Bernie Madoff's sons. The Post was on the scene:

No word on whether the couple also went shopping for a shiny, new Ponzi to give to their dad. Take us for a ride, Bernie!

Already going for a spin at our expense is Governor David Paterson, who went to Iraq to "spread holiday cheer" to the troops, as the Daily News reports.

WTF is he doing in Iraq!? He has no say on decisions concerning the war. Some government is paying for that trip. The Daily News sez:

It's bad enough that the two congressmen are over there for no practical purpose. But while tens of thousands of New Yorkers and other Americans are standing on line for the first time to collect food stamps and other dwindling social services, Paterson's collecting good wishes from the troops? We know that pols live for applause, but WTF!?

Stranded, we point and click to these items ...

NO PARTICULAR ORDER:

N.Y. Post: 'MADOFF'S SON IN SHOPPING GALL: POSH-GIFT SPREE AMID $UFFERING'

N.Y. Daily News: 'Obama probe clears top aide Rahm Emanuel of too much Blago blabbing'

McClatchy: 'Stimulus plan could be mother of all "Christmas tree" bills'

N.Y. Daily News: 'Stars of David: A-listers do Chanukah'

Wall Street Journal: 'Investors Lose Faith, Pull Record Amounts'

Guardian (U.K.): 'Stampede for "Bush shoe" creates 100 new jobs'

Times (U.K.): 'Gordon Brown puts millions on table to save car maker Jaguar Land Rover'

BBC: 'Windows XP allowed to live again'

N.Y. Post: '"ID-THEFT CELL SCAM" HITS COPS IN B'KLYN'

Wall Street Journal: 'The Presidential Pickup Game'

Wall Street Journal: 'U.S. Developers Seek Their Own Bailout'

The Age (Australia): 'Japanese protest against Google Street View'

Saudi-U.S. Relations Information Service: 'Election 2008: Arab World Views'

Times (U.K.): 'FBI diverts anti-terror agents to Bernard Madoff $50 billion swindle'

Washington Times: 'Bush, Cheney comforted troops privately: Met with thousands of war injured, kin out of spotlight'

Times (U.K.): 'Three near-invisible drawings discovered on back of Da Vinci masterpiece' [VIDEO]

Wall Street Journal: 'Mortgage Applications Surge on Falling Rates'

Times (U.K.): 'Bad for investors, good for lawyers: Grandchildren of Madoff investors will still be suing grandchildren of hedge fund managers in fifty years'

Washington Post: 'Cheney Defends His Tenure, Administration's Actions' [TRANSCRIPT]

AP: 'AP study finds $1.6B went to bailed-out bank execs'

Sunday Mail (U.K.): 'Fury as bust bank flies 100 branch managers to New York on junket'

America's newest national resource — protect him.

Anything is possible, Barack Obama said in his awe-inspiring victory speech.

The obverse is that nothing is impossible.

The perverse is that humanity is schizophrenic. Just a few days ago, financial panic was sweeping across the globe. Now it's optimism. Give it a few days, and pessimism will return (although the election-spurred market did stage a historic rally).

Our country was born in a bloody revolution, and the history of the rise of U.S. territory, wealth, and power is written with the blood of black slaves and other people of color.

At various times since then, "uppity" black people have been assassinated. A few of the slaves who weren't uppity were allowed into "the big house" — by the back door.

When I was a kid in Oklahoma, black people still weren't allowed in my town's movie theaters and were consigned to separate but unequal drinking fountains and train station waiting rooms. In my neighborhood, black people still weren't welcomed into white houses except by the back door and then only as menial laborers.

How much of that has really changed? New York is the most segregated place I've lived in. The U.S. is not only still heavily segregated but also beset by rising inequality of wealth and health (see my December 28, 2004 article "The Numbers Beyond the Bling").

With plenty of work still to do in fighting the chronic infection of racism, a black person has nevertheless won title to the big house. No black person is by definition more uppity than Barack Obama.

George W. Bush was merely the target of well-deserved sneers. But you know that there are nut cases in this gun-crazy country who see Obama as a different sort of target.

Amid the euphoria today, one of the few mentions of the fear of Obama's being assassinated comes from Jeremy Vernon, a web developer in Toronto. On AgoraVox, the French journalistic weblog that bills itself as "citizen media," Vernon — an ordinary person, not a self-described pundit — writes:

But Vernon adds this proviso:

On the eve of this election, Barry Saunders of the Raleigh (N.C.) News & Observer warned, in "Threats to Obama Deserve Serious Attention":

Are people like Saunders and Vernon paranoid? No. The Civil War was fought over civil rights; blacks were commonly lynched until well into the 1940s. Racism drove such talents as native son Richard Wright into European exile.

While thousands of everyday insults persisted, the N-word finally became impolite — Mississippi senator Theodore "The Man" Bilbo was barred from his U.S. Senate seat in 1947 for continuing to spew vitriol in public about the mongrelization of his cracker race.

But the sentiment behind the N-word is more dangerous than the word, and it still bubbles just below the surface. Politicians and others still feed off the ingrained racism of the American culture.

A hundred years after the Emancipation Proclamation, blacks hadn't even gained the right to vote in many parts of the country.

In the '60s, GOP operative Bill Rehnquist did something worse than spout the N-word; he personally obstructed black people from voting in Phoenix. And he wound up as Chief Justice of the United States.

That wouldn't be — and won't be — the last disenfranchisement of black voters.

Late into the last century, blacks continued to be knocked down for standing up. Martin Luther King Jr., the most uppity black of his generation, was murdered for not only standing up but daring to march.

If reports of the recent assassination plot against Obama are true, then believe that there are other Cowarts out there who are gunning for our president.

So if the Pope has to ride around in a special "popemobile," then so be it for Obama. Build the guy a new and more secure bulletproof vehicle.

The new president, who oozes with charisma (especially now in the first blush of victory, before the reality of a nationwide recession sets in), will want to keep working the crowds.

Memo to Obama: Resist that impulse. Stand behind bulletproof glass. And make sure you assign the most paranoid Secret Service agents to your detail.

In other news, people are still being killed in the Congo, Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere . . .

NO PARTICULAR ORDER:

Der Spiegel (Germany): 'GOOD MORNING, MR. PRESIDENT: What Europe Wants from Obama'

BBC: 'Congo eyewitness: "I saw them die" '

BBC: ' "Many dead" in Afghan air strike'
"It is the latest incident involving civilian casualties and underlines the challenge ahead for US President-elect and commander-in-chief Barack Obama."

Wall Street Journal: 'Racial Significance of Vote Looms Large for Many at Polls'

N.Y. Times: 'Russia Warns of New Missile Deployment'

Washington Post: 'Extended Therapy Helps Drug-Addicted Teens'

Guardian (U.K.): 'Rainbow coalition of voters sweeps Obama into office'
"There was plenty of evidence to support the view that Obama's candidacy was racially and nationally unifying."

Economist (U.K.): 'There can be only one' [live-blog one-liners on election night]

Der Spiegel (Germany): 'The Serenity of Barack Obama'

N.Y. Times: 'Strongest Election Day Stock Rally in 24 Years'

Wall Street Journal: 'How the Election Could Affect Iraq-U.S. Negotiations'

L.A. Times: 'High court conservatives favor indecency rule'

Washington Post: 'FCC Expands Use of Airwaves: 'White Space' to Be Opened to Devices Connected to Web'

Guardian (U.K.): 'In Pictures: Presidential Pets'

Slate: 'Where To Dump The Kids: How Nebraska became to child abandonment what Nevada once was to the quickie divorce'

Economist (U.K.): 'Online activism in China: Murder and theft'
"Less heinous when the victims are the police, and Microsoft?"

Slate: 'Election Day's Nine Worst Press Releases'
"La Fresh Travel Towelettes and other products no reporter wants to hear about today."

N.Y. Daily News: 'Two busted in drive-by shoot of judge home'

Count the ways that Americans are cooked: Obama and McCain roast, the markets boil dry, Google sops up the gravy.

At last we have a slogan for this century's depression: United We Fall! Last night was a celebration of our one-party system, and what a party it was.

The Al Smith Dinner at the Waldorf was a prime example of the lame leading the blind.

Were the candidates themselves cooking?

My colleague Roy Edroso delivered the best post-dinner punch line:

Oh, SNAP! Still haven't gotten a review of the dinner from the Survivors' Network of those Abused by Priests.

But after you take a look at the photo of Cardinal Egan heartily laughing with John McCain and Barack Obama and you read the New York Times tiresome recap (like everyone else's) of the jokes, browse SNAP's library of stories about abused altar boys and shuttered churches in poor areas. Or go straight to a reprint of a 2003 Times story, "Cardinal Egan Spurns Members of Review Board Studying Abuse."

That one's a real knee-slapper.

At least Obama and McCain were funnier than John Kerry was at the 2004 dinner. Actually, Kerry didn't even get a chance to display his humorless personality because Egan didn't invite the candidates. That was because of the Catholic Kerry's stance on abortion.

And in 1996, the candidates weren't invited because Cardinal O'Connor was pissed off at Bill Clinton over abortion.

Good thing 2001 wasn't a presidential election year, Wall Street being bombed and all.

This year, Wall Street's bombing itself, and more (but slower) deaths can only result from the resulting depression into which we're sinking.

Speaking of leftovers . . .

NO PARTICULAR ORDER:

McClatchy: '3rd-party debate's only confirmed participant: the moderator'

N.Y. Daily News: 'Where you sit says a lot about where you stand at annual Al Smith dinner'

Politico: 'McCain, Obama try to be funny...on purpose'

Washington Post: 'Life's Basics More of a Stretch: Inflation, Stagnating Pay Squeeze Low-Wage Workers'

McClatchy: ' "Birthplace of Flight" is on bleeding edge of job losses'

Wall Street Journal: 'Financial Crisis May Diminish American Sway'

Wall Street Journal: 'Oil's Slide Deepens as Downturn Triggers Sharp Drop in Demand'

BBC: 'US industrial output down sharply'

McClatchy: 'Google's Net Climbs 26 Percent'

McClatchy: 'Private sector loans, not Fannie or Freddie, triggered crisis'

BBC: 'European shares lose early gains'

BBC: 'China press freedoms due to end'

N.Y. Daily News: 'Nude portrait of Sarah Palin hung in Chicago tavern'

BBC: 'Police battle police in Brazil'

Slate: 'Dubya, Stoned'

We crown New York's mayor, but first . . .

NO PARTICULAR ORDER:

CNN: 'Race could play big role in election, poll suggests'

McClatchy: 'Poll: Most Americans think U.S. is losing war on terrorism'

New York: 'The Rage of the Previously Rich'

N.Y. Post: 'ATT'Y TAKES A SWIPE AT CAT KILLER'

New Yorker: 'Sarah Palin is my kind of gal'

N.Y. Daily News: 'Historian questions 'Bling Bandit' medal claims'

Jurist: 'Second Circuit rules government must release photos of Iraqi, Afghan prisoners'

N.Y. Daily News: 'Rikers brass axed before big scandal'

New York: 'The Great Shakeout: Good-bye, Masters of the Universe. Hello, Ron Hermance of Paramus, New Jersey'

Bloomberg: 'Oil Falls as Stock Losses Signal Concern Over U.S. Bailout Plan'

Financial Times (U.K.): 'Fears emerge over $700bn rescue'

McClatchy: 'Democrats battling to add restrictions to $700 billion bailout'

N.Y. Post: ' "SHORT" ATTACK MAY SPUR HEDGE FUNDS TO SUE'

McClatchy: 'Can you trust a Wall Street veteran with a Wall Street bailout?'

Financial Times: 'New York to regulate credit derivatives'

---

Running down the press:

You'd think that after watching The '08 That Ate New York the press would stop bowing and scraping at the feet of billionaires. (See Jon Friedman's "Wall Street Coverage Makes Me Cringe.")

But the Daily News insists on anointing a rich guy who has yet to display one iota of sympathy for, or understanding of, those of us less fortunate to bail us out of this mess created by rich guys.

The paper's City Hall reporter, Erin Einhorn, cranked out a clueless puff piece Monday, "Warren Buffett: Let's hire Mayor Bloomberg to save the economy."

That's one reporter who's sure to get first crack at the City Hall press releases.

Einhorn didn't include even one dissenting voice to puncture this trial balloon. (She did call Henry Paulson — as if he would say anything substantive about it.)

Tucked in up high in her piece is a link to a Daily News editorial ("Run, Mike, Run") pleading with Bloomberg to run for a third term as mayor. The paper reasons that he's done such a great job and has such supposed business acumen that he needs to remain our leader so he can pull us out of this chasm.

If he has such vast business knowledge, why didn't he, as mayor, use his connections to the Wall Street execs to try to halt their march toward oblivion?

Bloomberg made his billions selling financial software to Wall Street — number-crunching software and hardware that gave Merrill Lynch (one of his early partners) and others the tools to create increasingly sophisticated ways of playing the market.

How do you think they figured out how to create such now-discredited instruments as credit default swaps and collateralized debt obligations?

If any mayor should be able to spot dangerous trends on Wall Street, it's the guy who made his billions furnishing info to Wall Street during its boom-bust-boom-bust cycles.

So why didn't he? I dunno, ask his chauffeur. Why didn't Bloomberg use his bully pulpit to bully his pals into at least tempering their greed lest it bury themselves (temporarily) and the rest of us (for generations)?

Instead of trying to rein in Wall Street, Bloomberg as mayor has chosen to rein in the city's smallest businessmen: those scruffy street vendors and their ilk.

His performance as the mayor who has been overseer of Wall Street qualifies him to be either the country's or the city's financial savior?

At least Warren Buffett has an excuse for touting Bloomberg: It's true that Buffett is maybe more compassionate than the average rich guy. (See my June 2007 story, "Even a Caveman Can Do the Math," about Buffett attacking greed.) But he wouldn't want to see anyone with a built-in animus toward Wall Street's basic functioning step in as a czar. And Bloomberg definitely has no animus toward Wall Street's profit-taking practices.

The Daily News has no excuse. Oh, wait, the paper does have an excuse: It's owned by rich real estate guy Mort Zuckerman, whose fortune is based on leasing office space to financial wizards in America's big cities.

These huzzahs for Bloomberg remind me of how Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh was treated by his acolytes (before his Oregon-based empire dissolved in chaos). The '80s guru, you may recall (and as I witnessed first-hand as a reporter), used to drive his Rolls-Royces slowly through his yuppie followers while they showered flowers, song, and pledges of obedience on the bhagwan ("blessed one").

And we want to do the same with Wall Street's blessed bagman?

Running down the press:

I know I sound like a broken record by constantly flaying the New York Times for its political coverage, but it's the paper of record that is broken. And because the Times has such influence — particularly in other newsrooms — one can't help but parse the paper.

And nothing personal against Adam Nagourney (it's strictly business), but he's more of a recorder than a reporter, unlike the many fine front-line people on the Times staff. And his prose is amateur. I'm not the editor who chooses to rely on Nagourney for front-page political stories, so don't shoot the messenger.

OK, go ahead and shoot me. But before you lock and load, see this morning's coverage of John McCain's convention speech.

Nagourney's lede:

Now here's the Wall Street Journal's lede, proving that two heads (Jerry Seib and Laura Meckler) are less turgid than one:

Similar, but at least Seib and Meckler chose to detach themselves from simply recording McCain's comments by noting that the "pledge . . . was designed to help him launch the fall campaign." And they threw in some perspective by noting that McCain's "maverick" image is under fire.

Up high, in the fifth graf, they added this bit of interpretation:

Yes, an explanation for McCain's relatively conciliatory and bridge-building words.

Nagourney does some interpreting, but he submerges it under his predictable recounting. He waits until the 12th graf to note:

No mention of how the other Republicans' attacks freed McCain to sound like the Great Conciliator.

And on down in the story, Nagourney, as usual, gives McCain free publicity by saying straight out that his "strength as a candidate is his national-security experience and expertise." A good reporter would say that McCain says or claims that those are his strengths, instead of stating as fact what the candidate claims.

I'm so pedantic.

A dose of the Post is indicated, so moving on . . .

---

Post: 'TEACHER VANISH MYSTERY'

Don't you just love that terse, verb-less hed? The story is ominous:

---

Post: 'TERROR-STRIP DEMO? UH, FAT CHANCE'

Not the usual blubber you'd find in staid papers, and so un-P.C. Picking a courtroom moment that other papers might not have even reported, let alone led with, Jennifer Fermino writes:

---

Daily News: 'Bashed bicyclist beats rap'

Good piece, starting with:

---

Daily News: 'Deutsche disgrace: Butts, beer found despite fire regulations'

Here's a story that won't make the cover of Cigar Aficionado:

---

New Yorker: 'Party Faithful: Can the Democrats get a foothold on the religious vote?'

Oh, the perils of working on a weekly. The mag's Philip Gourevitch talked with Palin a couple of weeks ago and now publishes his piece, which really is kind of a softball, but how was he to know back then that she would be chosen? And the mag's Peter J. Boyer, meanwhile, was working on a story about how the GOP's grip on evangelical voters might be slipping. How was he to know that the GOP would take care of that problem? At least Boyer managed to jam in the party's heaven-sent veep pick, probably past the mag's deadline, down low in his story:

Worth reading anyway.

---

Huffington Post: 'Sebelius Accuses Palin Of Deceiving Voters'

Lame headline but good precursor by Seth Colter Walls of what the Democrats will do more and more of: release Kansas governor Kathleen Sebelius to hound the much more lightweight Palin.

---

McClatchy: 'Community organizers protest mocking by GOP speakers'

Always with the sharp angles, McClatchy nabs this one. William Douglas's story is datelined St. Paul, but it zooms in on New Yorkers:

And once again we see what kind of shameless hypocrite Rudy Giuliani is for now sneering at community activists — he's even more of a lying hypocrite than most other pols:

This is a better story than the Daily News's version, 'Community groups hammer Rudy Giuliani & slam Sarah Palin.'

But in attempting to get the other side of his story, Michael Saul does accidentally reveal the presence of one of the main gurus for "compassionate conservative" George W. Bush in the Empire State Building:

Last I knew, Olasky — a former Commie Jew who crossed over to the other extreme and became a hardline conservative Christian (see my February 2005 item) — was a journalism professor in Texas. I didn't realize that this fervent evangelical has returned to his East Coast roots to convert Godless New Yorkers from a perch in a skyscraper that reaches into Heaven.

Stepping back from the hoopla, the planet wonders, "Is he out of his mind?"

It doesn't really matter what the world's lefty sites say about Sarah Palin, unless any of them have some real meat to put on the table.

It does matter, on the other hand, what the conservative, mainstream outlets say if they're the news sources for the people with money who control the planet.

Take, among others, the Economist, the U.K.-based sober magazine that influences the financial world's policy-makers. You'll see that much of the world is practically sneering at John McCain's choice of a Tonya Harding to bust the Democrats' kneecaps.

For a good round-up, see the Financial Times piece "Palin fascinates European media," in which the British counterpart of the Wall Street Journal points out the depth of Palin coverage in France:

The timid U.S. mainstream press has of course generally downplayed Palin's religious-right credentials as a key to her being chosen.

The Economist focuses not on Palin but on what McCain's choice of Palin says about him. Under the headline "The woman from nowhere: John McCain's choice of running-mate raises serious questions about his judgment," the mag says:

The piece is well worth reading in its entirety — even my lengthy excerpts from it shouldn't stop you — because the Economist's writers clearly aren't brain-dead from having watched hour after hour of the paralyzing spinster vs. spinster drivel emanating from CNN or Fox News. The opinion piece/analysis points out that Palin "was greeted like the reincarnation of Ronald Reagan by the delegates, furious at her mauling at the hands of the 'liberal media,' " but then throws in a heavy dose of reality:

OK, you'll say, but that's not looking at her from the perspective of the GOP. But the Economist does:

Can't resist one more clump from the Economist, because it dares to bring George W. Bush into the conversation:

In fact, McCain is usually much more calculating and politically aware than this — or at least I thought so, based on my having covered him off and on for the past 20 years, since his early days as a new Arizona congressman. Nobody can accuse him of being a dumbass, like Bush.

But this episode is only confirmation that McCain's choice of a religious-right, inexperienced woman is little more than a race-based act of desperation. The religious right, after all, has long detested McCain. The Palin move may well win over those voters. But relatively few moderate women, either Republicans or Democrats and especially those who are pro-choice, are likely to fall for this.

White men, however, might still feel threatened enough by the specter of a black man as president that they'll vote for this lightweight hockey mommy.

In a world where a no-name Alaskan could suddenly become an aging heartbeat from the U.S. presidency, as Don LaFontaine might have intoned it if he hadn't died before I could hire him, the stunning desperation of that very move got glossed over by 99 percent of the U.S. media.

Matt Scully's speech at the Republican National Convention — recited by Sarah Palin last night — received the imprimatur from the New York Times: "Palin Assails Critics and Electrifies Party."

Like an ER team using the paddles to jump-start a dead patient.

As if they were reporting on the emperor's new clothes, Elizabeth Bumiller and Michael Cooper pronounced the Republican ticket healthy:

What a shock that the delegates said yes.

Of course, Times reporters didn't have to play into the McCain campaign's hands by describing him that way. Closer to the truth is that McCain is an admiral's son who married an Arizona liquor magnate's daughter, carpetbagged into Congress, and built his career by sucking up to the rich and powerful, including financiopath S&L schnook Charles Keating and newspaper publisher/phony war hero Darrow "Duke" Tully.

They got Palin right, however. She really is a hockey mom — even the father of her accidental grandchild is a high-school kid who plays hockey with his buddies.

Is she really a good choice for the ticket? I don't know. Alaska.

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A look-see at how the rest of the press handled the GOP's desperate move to offer a Snow White alternative to the Democrats' Negro candidate:

• The Wall Street Journal was more rational, steering clear of the kind of glib labeling used by the likes of the Times and me. The lede by Jerry Seib and Laura Meckler:

• Perhaps influenced by Fashion Week, the big event going on this week in New York City, our hometown Post picked a glamor image and ran with it:

SHE'S A 'PIT BULL WITH LIPSTICK': PALIN WOWS 'EM BY POUNDING DC SNOBS

Michael Vick's pit bulls also had red mouths, but in their case it was blood. Anyway, here's Brendan Scott and Chuck Bennett's lede:

Not the kind of tongue-lashing Larry Craig — the last unknown Republican from the West to make a splash in Minnesota — was prepared to give in that airport bathroom stall, but at least Palin got it done.

(By the way, she didn't "prove her chops." She tried to prove her chops. That's why the WSJ's "countered" is more accurate.)

• The Daily News promo'd its coverage nicely with "Hockey mom drops gloves," but its lede slipped and fell:

This is a theme with Republican pols. Rudy Giuliani in drag was also a pit bull with lipstick.

• McClatchy noted that Palin "defined herself as someone irritated with the news media and Washington."

Well, who isn't?

• Nice job by Newsday's Craig Gordon:

But so what. For all the talk about the feistiness of Palin's speech, you have to remember that the words came from former George W. Bush speechwriter Scully, who's been spraying similar vitriol at liberals since he was an Arizona college student harassing professors two decades ago.

• A surprisingly humdrum lede by the Washington Post:

(Yes, a black man in America is accused of being "elitist," and it's reported with a straight face.)

But the WashPost deserves kudos for Dan Balz's front-page story yesterday that detailed the GOP's desperation and shoddy vetting of Palin:

• Interesting blog analysis from the BBC's U.S. guy Justin Webb:

Webb doesn't point this out, but it's pretty funny that Giuliani has the nerve to talk about what the GOP calls "family values." This is the same mayor who famously shucked his wife and shunted his kids to the sidelines. (See my colleague Wayne Barrett's 2007 piece "Public Displays of Disaffection.")

• The Times (U.K.) had the guts to use the most accurate label for Palin:

• The most clever review of last night's sitcom pilot comes from Der Spiegel. The German outlet's headline and typically (in the foreign press) long subhed:

Gabor Steingart's story is somewhat snooty, but at least it's original, so you can forgive him the factual boo-boo of confusing Alaska with Arizona. (How's a German copy editor going to catch that mistake unless he or she grew up reading Karl May's novels?) Quoting at length from Steingart:

We'll see about that, but congratulations to Steingart for working in a mention of Cheney, who has been our de facto president for the past eight years.

More to the current point, it probably takes a furriner like Steingart to observe our moralistic brand of politics at a safe remove:

Steingart can get away with using "schadenfreude" in a daily news story. He is German, after all. And the Palin melodrama does have its enjoyable moments.