There's not much to say about this:

After months of accusations of political bias and simmering animosity between MSNBC and its parent network NBC, the channel decided over the weekend that the NBC News correspondent and MSNBC host David Gregory would anchor news coverage of the coming debates and election night. Mr. Olbermann and Mr. Matthews will remain as analysts during the coverage.

The change — which comes in the home stretch of the long election cycle — is a direct result of tensions associated with the channel’s perceived shift to the political left.

Translation: NBC bent over and took one for the GE team because of complaints from Republicans. So kudos to NBC...America can't have too much fair and balanced news coverage.

Perhaps pointing out hypocrisy from Bill Kristol is as pointless as saying the grass is green, but let's do it anyway. From today's column:

....they’ll stick to the argument they made in their first reaction to the Palin announcement: "Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency."  [...]

Should voters be alarmed by a relatively young or inexperienced vice-presidential candidate? No.

And less than two months ago:

Never before have we had someone running for president in a time of war who was so unqualified to be commander in chief.

Now Kristol thinks that the most important thing during a time of war is "character, judgement and the ability to learn." It's not clear why Kristol thinks he's qualified to make that call.

In the House, courtesy of the Office of the Majority Leader:

FLOOR SCHEDULE FOR MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2008
House meets at 2:00 p.m. for Legislative Business
Unlimited "One Minutes" Per Side
Last Vote Predicted: 7:00 p.m.

Suspensions (5 Bills):

1)       S. 2403 - A bill to designate the new Federal Courthouse, located in the 700 block of East Broad Street, Richmond, Virginia, as the "Spottswood W. Robinson III and Robert R. Merhige, Jr. Federal Courthouse" (Sen. Warner – Transportation and Infrastructure)

2)       S. 2837 - A bill to designate the United States courthouse located at 225 Cadman Plaza East, Brooklyn, New York, as the "Theodore Roosevelt United States Courthouse" (Sen. Schumer – Transportation and Infrastructure)

3)       H.R. 4081 - Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act of 2007 (PACT Act) (Rep. Weiner – Judiciary)

4)       S. 2450 - A bill to amend the Federal Rules of Evidence to address the waiver of the attorney-client privilege and the work product doctrine (Sen. Leahy – Judiciary)

5)       S. 2135 - Child Soldiers Accountability Act (Sen. Durbin – Judiciary)

H.Res. _ - Expressing the condolences of the House of Representatives on the death of the Honorable Stephanie Tubbs Jones (Reps. Kaptur/Regula)

• Conference Reports may be brought up at any time.
• Motions to go to Conference should they become available.
• Possible Motions to Instruct Conferees.

And we're back! Suspensions and a Stephanie Tubbs Jones memorial today. A light pace to let Members get themselves back into the D.C. swing of things after the party conventions.

Is trouble expected for the memorial bill? Is that why it's not on the suspensions calendar? No. Probably just that suspensions are limited to 40 minutes of debate time, and more than 40 minutes worth of Members are expected to want to say something about their departed colleague.

In the Senate, our usual schedule from the Office of the Majority Leader isn't available yet.

However, they're expected to convene at 3 p.m. and take up where they left off -- with a motion to proceed to consideration of the Defense authorization bill, S. 3001. The last action on this was back at the end of July, when a cloture vote on the motion to proceed failed by a vote of 51-39. You may recall that the bill was being held hostage by the Republicans over (what else?) oil drilling. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was pressured by his Conference into refusing to agree to any unanimous consent agreements that would allow the bill to go forward until the Republicans got everything they wanted in an oil drilling deal. And if you didn't recall that, you do now.

"But isn't the Defense authorization bill kind of important?", you may be asking. Well, yes it is. And this is exactly the kind of thing that, if Democrats did it, would be in TV ads all over the country, accusing them of cutting off funding to our troops.

Did you see those TV ads this summer? I didn't either. But you will see a vote on oil drilling.

Go figure.

From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE...

WHAP!!

That the feeling I often get when I open one of Kossack One Pissed Off Liberal's diaries. Also known by the nickname OPOL, he describes himself as "a 60's survivor, Woodstock alumnus, a human rights/anti-war/prison reform/anti-drug war activist, an artist/poet/writer, a dharma bum, a freedom-fighter and an original Southern hippie." He also blogs at Docudharma.
 
Today the Recommended-Diaries stalwart takes a seat in the C&J beanbag chair for a grilling in our never-ending series, Yes, We're All Staring At YOU!

Cheers and Jeers: First things first--how many houses do you own?
One Pissed Off Liberal: I don’t remember, but that’s not unusual for people in my income bracket. I’m still middle class, though, at $4.99 million a year.

How long have you been blogging and what brought you to Daily Kos?
Almost two and a half years now. Stumbled across it at work, recognized some kindred spirits and some folks who had more than the usual two brain cells to rub together and thought I’d hang around and get into some conversations.  

Keith Olbermann says that the first thing he does before writing one of his Special Comments is "get really pissed off." Isn't this your modus operandi for writing your diaries, and have you considered suing Keith for stealing your proprietary creative process?
The second part of your question seems to assume the answer to the first part of your question and you are so right...at least in part. Sometimes I start pissed off, sometimes I end pissed off, and sometimes I’m not pissed off at all. And I’ll forego suing Keith if he’ll just fork over a few bucks every now and then.

What kind of music makes you feel invincible to the GOP horde?
Anything by the MC5, John Lennon, Bob Dylan or Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention.

What's the one book every Kossack must read?
Crashing the Gate would be too easy...maybe something like...Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ‘72 by Hunter S. Thompson or The End of America by Naomi Wolf. I know, I know, you said one...so sue me.

I'll have my lawyer email you the paperwork when we're done with this interview. So what are your most vivid memories of attending Woodstock in 1969?
Sitting on the hood of a New York State Trooper’s squad car surrounded by a seething mass of blissed-out hippies and smoking some extraordinary red Indian hashish...with the State Trooper, who was buggin’.

Which Republican and Democratic politicians are you pissed off most at? Who really gets under your skin?
Any Republican and most Democrats---starting with Pelosi. When Pelosi took impeachment off the table she screwed America, and not in a good way. Virtually all of our mainstream politicians are crooks, sell-outs or traitors.  It’s amazing that we continue to put up with it.

You've been a political activist since the 60's. What are the biggest pros and cons you see to netroots activism?
The pros are the instantaneous communication it allows and the unprecedented access to information (what we would have given for the Internets back in the 60s!). If there is a negative, it may be that the net has served as something of a pressure relief valve that has aided the ‘regime’ by bleeding off significant amounts of our outrage, and reducing our numbers in the street. It has been alleged, and can be argued, that the net gives the neo-fascists a convenient way to manage what dissent they can’t crush outright (via infiltration, provocateurs posing as sympathizers, etc.). It’s enough to make you wonder when ‘progressive’ websites oppose impeachment or kiss the asses of people like Nancy Pelosi.

Finish this sentence: In the kitchen I make a mean...
Paella...no kiddin’, it’s not bad, though I haven’t made it in a while.  I make a pretty mean spaghetti marinara too.

What do you do for fun when you're not workin' the blogs?
I hike in a nearby national forest, go to museums and lectures, dine out, go to movies, read books, smoke pot and hang out with cool people.

You're against the War on Drugs. But if we wave the white flag of surrender, won’t the free market swoop in and start installing heroin vending machines in our schools?
Various options lie between prohibition and some sort of laissez faire drug extravaganza.  Treating drugs as a law enforcement issue exacerbates the worst aspects of the problem.  Virtually all of the violence associated with drug trafficking, for example, is a direct result of prohibition.  If draconian drug laws or godawful prisons were ever going to change anything, they already would have.  I think we need to treat drugs as a medical issue and find ways to intelligently manage the fact that people are going to use them.  I can envision a system where adults are allowed to purchase pharmaceutical grade drugs at pharmacies with counseling and medical supervision as appropriate.  I think we need to focus on harm reduction.  In my opinion we should end prohibition, regulate production and supply much as we do alcohol (no vending machines, no kiddies and no bathtub meth), and focus our anti-drug efforts on education and treatment on demand. Bottom line is that we should acknowledge that people have always used drugs and always will, then manage the problem intelligently.

No waffling here: dogs or cats?
Dats. Since when has there been a no-waffling rule in this country?

I have one question left, but Michelle Obama needs me to baby-sit the kids for a few hours. Please ask and answer the final question yourself...

Do we really want someone who would have a wild-eyed radical leftist Kossack as a babysitter for our first lady?
I guess we do.  :-)

And please allow me to close with a quote from your last interview---of one of my favorite kossacks:

What is needed is "an enormous shift in the entire power structure of our country."
---OrangeClouds115

Next week: a Kossack who enjoys all-you-can-eat buffets, but never eats all he can eat. Cheers and Jeers starts in There's Moreville... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]

Your one stop pundit shop:

Dermot Cole of The Daily News Miner in Fairbanks, Alaska, debunks Sarah Palin's laughable claim that she rejected money for the "bridge to nowhere," and raises an interesting question that hasn't been talked about:

One of the immediate related questions for Alaska is whether Palin plans to change her position and accept McCain's view that earmarks should be abolished and that any bill containing them should be vetoed.

This is significant because the state, along with dozens of local governments and nonprofit groups across Alaska, routinely asks Congress to fund everything from new buildings to docks and road work. The Alaska Railroad alone asked for about $80 million this year, while Nome wanted $13 million for wind generation, North Pole asked for nearly $7 million, and the Fairbanks North Star Borough asked for about $25 million.

Perhaps if the traditional media could stop waxing poetic over her love of mooseburgers, and if the McCain campaign releases her from her undisclosed location, someone could ask her about this. I'm sure Alaskans would be interested in her answer.

Sebastian Mallaby takes John McCain to task for his dishonest claims, yet can't bring himself to call him a liar, instead opting for the more sanitized, "a convenient untruth." It's called a lie, Mr. Mallaby.

Andrew J. Cherlin talks about the families of the presidential and vice presidential candidates and manages to avoid mentioning the circumstances of how John McCain's current family came to be. But why ruin a good column with pesky details about adultry and the disabled wife he left behind?

John D. Shages believes that Barck Obama's plan for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve should be adopted.

Michael Barone apparently gives a critique of the Democratic and Republican convention themes, but I couldn't make it past this point:

George W. Bush's convention produced one that was sustainable until Katrina and the 2005-06 meltdown in Iraq - yet that may be redeemed in history by the success of the surge and the rapid response to Gustav.

We still have more than 150,000 soldiers in Iraq with no end in sight, the political reconciliation that the surge was supposed to make possible hasn't happened, and people continue to die every day. Yes, victory is right around the corner. And the rapid response to Gustav makes up for a major American city nearly destroyed, almost 2,000 dead, with tens of thousands of lives changed forever? Have I got a bridge (to nowhere) to sell you.

Jeffrey T. Kuhner arrives late to the the-liberal-media-is-mean-to-Palin party. And as always, there's nothing like a member of the traditional media assailing the traditional media.

David Limbaugh props up a straw man as his lead-in for an all-purpose attack on everyone who doesn't agree with him:

Liberals are outraged at the supposed hypocrisy of Sarah Palin (and conservatives) for supporting abstinence-only education and family values generally in light of revelations concerning the pregnancy of her teenage daughter.

Sigh. Wrong, David. We're not outraged at her hypocrisy (on this issue), we simply think she's delusional given that abstinence-only "education" doesn't work. The rest of the column is cribbed from a book he wrote.

Andy Stern President of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) vows that:

At the SEIU, we are committed to leading a reform movement within labor. That means setting the highest standards of honesty and integrity. If we want to continue to be the voice of millions seeking fairness in their workplace, we can be nothing less.