Countodwn Wednesday: Home Improvement
Posted: Wednesday, February 18, 2009 8:59 PM by Countdown
Filed Under:
Blogging the Countdown
The Homefront:
Only days ago -- when opposing President Obama's stimulus plan -- Republicans in Congress complained that the Stim did not focus sufficient resources... on housing. Tonight, now that President Obama has unveiled his plan to fix the housing crisis... In our fifth story on the Countdown: Congressional Republicans are saying the President has focused too many resources... on housing.
Post it, Not:
There is a long, nauseating history (and a particularly revolting strain of racism) which has compared black people to apes. It reappeared last summer and fall, repeatedly. There is a danger in normalizing violence against politicians or people to whom one is politically opposed. It reappeared when a domestic terrorist attacked a Tennessee Church because he couldn't attack the liberals denounced by a conservative agitator. Yet in our fourth story on the Countdown: when Rupert Murdoch's New York Post prints a cartoon touching on the worst parts of both these traditions, and the best defense the cartoonist can make is that he wasn't referring to the President of the United States, just, maybe, the Speaker of the House...Some actually postulate it was neither racist nor hateful.ODDBALL: Naked people doing art...and Obama's gift from Shaq.
Bach in the Saddle:
We already knew some Republicans are taking credit in their home districts for the stimulus money coming their way... even though they voted against it. But in our third story tonight -- that's almost laudable compared to what other Congressional Republicans are saying about the Stim. Basically - it's the American version, of the Russian Revolution. Let me warn you: you are going to hear excerpts from what may be the craziest interview in American political history. And if I use the terms "craziest"... "Republican"... and Congress...Who else could I be talking about...
Worsties...see below.
WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD: Newt, Trace Gallagher, Charles Krauthammer and Kit Bond vie for tonight's top honors.
Magic Nate-ball: The technical term is "logistic regression"... And it argues that a series of statistics from all the past baseball seasons, will tell you what's likeliest to happen this baseball season...And it argues that a series of poll numbers and voting results from all the past elections will tell you what's likeliest to happen this election. And now, in our Number One story on the Countdown, it argues that a series of facts about all the past Oscar winners will tell you... who's likely to be the next Oscar winners.
