Liberal Talk Radio

An insider’s account of why Spencer Ackerman was fired from the New Republic:
In what [TNR editor Franklin] Foer called the “proximate cause,” Mr. Ackerman had been using that personal blog — titled “Too Hot for TNR” — to disparage the magazine.
Again with the Web logs: On Sept. 1, senior editor Lee Siegel was suspended and [...]

I just heard a clip of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on the radio coming out in support of Connecticut Republican Christopher Shays. Bloomberg, himself somewhat of an iconoclast, was saying (I’m paraphrasing — maybe I’ll find a link later) that Shays is a good guy because he speaks his mind and stands up [...]

The good news is you can live to, like, 160. The bad news, Julian Dibbell explains in New York Magazine, is you have to half starve yourself to get there:
My dinner guests — five successful urban professionals who for years have subsisted on a caloric intake the average sub-Saharan African would find austere . . [...]

I think Studio 60 finally hit its stride last night, approaching the heady, cheesy blend that characterized the early seasons of The West Wing. Nate Corddry continues to steal the show, despite the fact that the storyline made me wince a bit — his seemingly-a**hole dad turns out to just be worried sick about [...]

It’s today. Take a moment and give thanks for multilateralism, diplomacy, and unpaid parking tickets.

P.U.T.D.P. = Picking Up The Damn Phone
Jonathan Cohn does it and manages to figure out something that Rush Limbaugh needs to know.

Shorter Elizabeth Rubin in the Sunday Magazine: Pakistan is to Afghanistan as Iran is to Iraq. And we should probably just legalize all drugs. Then again, in some ways I’d prefer to have Afghans blowing up each other than have drug addicts breaking into my apartment. Choices are a bitch.

Bizarre results from a CNN poll. I’ll try to summarize:
1. John McCain would lose to Hillary Rodham Clinton he would give Hillary Clinton a run for her money.
2. Alternatively, Rudy Giuliani would lose to Hillary Clinton, but he has a better shot against Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Can anyone offer a good pop-psychology answer on this? [...]

Bruno and the Professor present a 60 second news update from a funny, left-of-center perspective that covers some of the major topics of the week. This week: The Democrats’ optimism on the midterm elecitons — is it warranted? Also, we’ve got Rob Johnson from the Transportation Choices Coalition on the show to talk about [...]