Mushtown Media Corp.

Chris Matthews. He's the host of show called Hardball that should be on Fox News. Is he a well-meaning piece of garbage? Or is he a total douche?

You decide.

Here he is, on The Daily Show, getting skewered by Jon Stewart because his book is shit.

He says his book is better than The Prince.

You have his word on it.

And his nickname in the blogosphere is Tweety because, with his blonde hair and his oval head and his thin lips, he looks kind of like Tweety from the Warner Bros. cartoons.

Now you know.

(You can't tell from this video exactly how despicable he is, but he really is despicable. Don't feel bad for him because mean liberals call him Tweety. Feel bad for him because he is an empty shell of a human being who has to look at himself in the mirror in the morning, and lie to himself that he deserves his success.)

It looks like Rudy is going all-out for the nation's bed-wetter vote.

Here's his ad (and some commentary) at Sadly, No.

I don't know if it's a good strategy. People who are stupid enough to be swayed by this ad are probably too scared to get out from under the bed and go to the polls.

No wonder the rest of the world is so contemptuous of Americans. We have become A Nation of Bed Wetters.

Thank you, Repug panderers!

I made a list of every movie I saw in 2007. There might be a few I missed. As I was making the list, I kept thinking of movies I saw but didn't write down. They are listed by year of release and grouped by decade.

1910s
HEARTS AND DIAMONDS - 1914 * STOLEN MOMENTS - 1920

1920s
THE CAT AND THE CANARY - 1927 * CHESS FEVER - 1927 * THE END OF ST. PETERSBURG - 1927 * THE DEVIL TO PAY - 1930 * PRIX DE BEAUTE – 1930 * ZEMLYA (EARTH) - 1930

1930s
THE ADVENTURES OF PENROSE AND SAM - 1931 * ALEXANDER HAMILTON - 1931 * DIRIGIBLE - 1931 * THE LAST FLIGHT - 1931 * BEHIND THE MASK - 1932 * THE DEATH KISS - 1932 * THE SAVAGE GIRL - 1932 * BABY FACE - 1933 * BELOW THE SEA - 1933 * CENTRAL AIRPORT - 1933 * FLYING DOWN TO RIO - 1933 * LADIES THEY TALK ABOUT - 1933 * LUCKY DEVILS - 1933 * PRIVATE DETECTIVE 62 - 1933 * RIDERS OF DESTINY - 1933 * SAGEBRUSH TRAIL - 1933 * THE TESTAMENT OF DR. MABUSE - 1933 * VOLTAIRE - 1933 * THE LAWLESS FRONTIER - 1934 * THE MAN FROM UTAH - 1934 * RANDY RIDES ALONE - 1934 * SIX OF A KIND - 1934 * YOU'RE TELLING ME - 1934 * ANNIE OAKLEY - 1935 * THE CASINO MURDER CASE - 1935 * HERE COMES COOKIE - 1935 * LOVE IN BLOOM - 1935 * TEXAS TERROR - 1935 * CAVALRY - 1936 * POPPY - 1936 * WITHOUT ORDERS - 1936 * DOUBLE WEDDING - 1937 * HELL TOWN - 1937 * HIGH FLYERS - 1937 * HIS BROTHER'S WIFE - 1937 * SMART BLONDE - 1937 * CAREFREE - 1938 * A CHRISTMAS CAROL - 1938 * THE FIREFLY - 1938 * MR. MOTO TAKES A CHANCE - 1938 * THANK YOU, MR. MOTO - 1938 * JEZEBEL - 1938 * DEVIL'S ISLAND - 1939 * FAST AND LOOSE - 1939 * SECRET SERVICE OF THE AIR - 1939 * ESCAPE - 1940 * KNUTE ROCKNE - ALL-AMERICAN - 1940 * ONE MILLION B.C. - 1940 * PRIDE AND PREJUDICE - 1940

1940s
I KILLED THAT MAN - 1941 * LOVE CRAZY - 1941 * ROAD TO ZANZIBAR - 1941 * WAKE ISLAND - 1942 * A YANK IN LIBYA -1942 * I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE - 1943 * REVENGE OF THE ZOMBIES - 1943 * CRY OF THE WEREWOLF - 1944 * WATERFRONT - 1944 * THE BODY SNATCHER - 1945 * THE HIDDEN EYE - 1945 * ISLE OF THE DEAD - 1945 * ZOMBIES ON BROADWAY - 1945 * BEDLAM - 1946 * IVAN THE TERRIBLE, PART II - 1946 * DEAD RECKONING - 1947 * AN IDEAL HUSBAND - 1947 * THE TWO MRS. CARROLLS - 1947 * THE OCTOBER MAN - 1947 * PERILS OF PAULINE - 1947 * COUNTERBLAST - 1948 * THE NAKED CITY - 1948 * BORN YESTERDAY - 1950

1950s
DOUBLE DYNAMITE - 1951 * GO FOR BROKE - 1951 * IKIRU - 1952 * ISLAND IN THE SKY - 1952 * SCANDAL SHEET - 1952 * THE SNIPER - 1952 * BATTLE CIRCUS - 1953 * MESA OF LOST WOMEN - 1953 * TOKYO MONOGATORI (TOKYO STORY) - 1953 * UGETSU - 1953 * HELL BELOW ZERO - 1954 * THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY - 1954 * SANSHO THE BAILIFF - 1954 * WARNING FROM SPACE – 1956 * THE WEREWOLF - 1956 * THE INVISIBLE BOY - 1957 * NIGHTS OF CABIRIA - 1957 * WILL SUCCESS SPOIL ROCK HUNTER? - 1957 * ANATOMY OF A MURDER - 1959 * THE HEAD - 1959 * JACK THE RIPPER - 1959 * ASSIGNMENT: OUTER SPACE - 1960 * MASTER OF THE WORLD - 1960 * TALL STORY - 1960

1960s
JULES AND JIM - 1961 * THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI - 1962 * OPERATION BIKINI - 1963 * FASTER, PUSSYCAT! KILL! KILL! - 1965 * VOYAGE TO A PREHISTORIC PLANET - 1965 * THE CHASE - 1966 * THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING - 1966 * WHAT'S UP, TIGER LILY? - 1966 * DANGER DIABOLIK - 1967 * THE NIGHT OF THE GENERALS - 1967 * COMMANDOS - 1968 * THE DEVIL RIDES OUT - 1968 * SHALAKO - 1968 * SIGNS OF LIFE – 1968 * SUPERARGO - 1968 * THE ASSASINATION BUREAU - 1969 * KELLY'S HEROES - 1970

1970s
THE DISCRETE CHARM OF THE BOURGEOUSIE - 1972 * FEMALE CONVICT SCORPION: PRISONER 701 - 1972 * FEMALE CONVICT SCORPION: BEAST STABLE - 1973 * FEMALE CONVICT SCORPION: GRUDGE SONG - 1973 * COFFY - 1974 * LADY SNOWBLOOD: LOVE SONG OF VENGEANCE - 1974 * MADHOUSE - 1974 * LOVE AND DEATH - 1975 * MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL - 1975 * KARATE BEAR FIGHTER - 1977 * COSMOS WAR OF THE PLANETS - 1978 * HALLOWEEN - 1978

1980s
THE LEGEND OF THE EIGHT SAMURAI - 1983 * NAUSICAA - 1984 * TIGHTROPE - 1984 * LAPUTA: ISLAND IN THE SKY - 1986

1990s
FATAL INSTINCT - 1993 * DR. JEKYLL AND MS. HYDE - 1995 * SHRIEK IF YOU KNOW WHAT I DID LAST FRIDAY THE THIRTEENTH - 2000

2000s
BARBIE NUTCRACKER - 2001 * DONNIE DARKO - 2001 * SHAOLIN SOCCER - 2001 * SHAUN OF THE DEAD - 2004 * AQUAMARINE - 2006 * BANDIDAS - 2006 * IDIOCRACY - 2006 * LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE - 2006 * PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST – 2006 * TALLADEGA NIGHTS: THE BALLAD OF RICKY BOBBY - 2006 * 300 - 2007 * AQUA TEEN HUNGER FORCE COLON FILM MOVIE FOR THEATERS - 2007 * BECOMING JANE - 2007 * THE FANTASTIC FOUR: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER - 2007 * GRINDHOUSE - 2007 * HAIRSPRAY - 2007 * HOT FUZZ - 2007 * P2 - 2007 * PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD'S END - 2007 * RATATOUILLE - 2007 * SICKO - 2007 * THE SIMPSONS - 2007

So, this entry is for all those people who seem surprised when I look at them with disgust and pity when they use the phrase "Liberal Media" as if it means anything more than a transparent conservative talking point with little basis in reality.

You know who I mean. You ask them for an example of "Liberal Media," and they respond by saying CNN, CBS, The Los Angeles Times and/or The New York Times. And then you ask them for, like, something a little more specific, like, maybe, a story or a TV segment that they saw in one of those organs, and they give you a blank look that says - "Wha -? Dude, the media clearly has a liberal bias because people I agree with politically say so. A lot! So there." (Then they stop talking to you because it's rude to expose them as they dim-witted sheep they are.)

Check out "Inside NBC News -- it's much worse than you think", a diary at Daily Kos.

The article being discussed - written by former NBC correspondent John Hockenberry - is titled "You Don't Understand Our Audience: What I learned about network television at Dateline NBC".

For those of you still persisting in your "Liberal Media" delusions, I'll be a sport and try to come up with some rationalizations you can cry to yourself at night.

1. John Hockenberry never worked for NBC.

2. John Hockenberry was never in the loop.

3. Freedom isn't free.

4. Waterboarding isn't torture and we don't do it anyway and we did it because there was a nuclear bomb about to go off in a major city and we saved hundeds of thousands of lives but we can't say what city or when because it's Top Secret and, no, it didn't just happen on "24," that was based on a real incident and you're just mad because one conservative show got past you liberal censors.

Isn't THAT an inspiring campaign slogan!

And isn't Huckabee LAME?

I came up with the idea to write a little essay about the Huckebeast over a week ago, but I got busy, working the holidays, then visiting my brother for a few days, and coming home to work through most of the New Year's weekend. Some of the time, I get ideas that make little sense a few days later, or maybe I'll think they just won't have the same impact with the passage of time, and they remain a few barely legible words in my notebook and nothing is ever done with them.

But not this time! Mike Huckabee is the gift that keeps on giving. Several times since I came up with it, when I thought too much time had passed and this idea wouldn't be nearly as funny, Huckabee has come through with more homespun insanity than you shake a NASCAR program at.

Now, I'm not saying Huckabee is the worst Repug candidate. He may be. Each of them is awful in his own way. It's almost as if the Repugs are getting us back for making fun of their Great War Leader, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Criticized, George W. Bush.

"Worst president ever," we said.

"You think we can't do worse?" the Repugs responded, taking it as a dare.

And they showed us! They are now parading five or six really awful people before us, each worse than George W. Bush and, amazingly, each worse than Bush in his own very special way.

I don't know if Huckabee is the worst. His real problem is that he is the least self-conscious. As a former governor of remote Arkansas, he has escaped serious scrutiny until quite recently. He seems to say whatever comes into his head without really thinking too much about how it will sound to the people he is not pandering to at any given moment (and as he is usually pandering to "good" "Heartland" "folks" who think Jesus is coming to get them at any moment, he says some really goofy shit).

I guess we'll start with "Top 10 Moments in Mike Huckabee's Extremism", a Daily Kos diary that lists a few of Huckabee's ... I'll be nice and call them gaffes. Then we can move on to "10 More Moments in Mike Huckabee's Extremism".

(Mull those around a little bit. Read the comments. There's so much!)

I knew Huckabee was a crackpot the first time I saw him talk. But I learned SO MUCH about this human freak in the first half of December. Do we need to know any more? Can there BE any more?

Uh, yeah. (By the way, this is in no way comprehensive. Go here, if you can stomach it, for a lot more about the Huckabeast. (As they call him in Arkansas, I'm told.))

This is also eye-opening, about some of the company Huckabee keeps.

Just to show that his asshattery is not an anomaly of the distant past, Huckabee weighed in when Benazir Bhutto was assassinated:

In light of what happened in Pakistan yesterday, it's interesting that there were more Pakistanis who illegally crossed the border than of any other nationality except for those immediately south of our border, 660 last year from Pakistan who came into our country illegally because we don't have secure borders ... The fact is that the immigration issue is not so much about people coming to pick lettuce or make beds, it's about someone coming with a shoulder-fired missile.

We need to build that fence! So those Pakistani immigrants won't have brought those shoulder-mounted missile launchers all the way from Pakistaniland for nothing!

(He also said that Afghanistan is east of Pakistan. (Helpful factoid for my conservative friends: Afghanistan is west of Pakistan.))

Huckabee acknowledges he's a little weak on foreign policy, but he knows people ...

I've corresponded with John Bolton, who's agreed to work with us on developing foreign policy.

John Bolton responded enthusiastically when asked about his exciting correspondance with Huckabee ...

I’d be happy to speak with Huckabee, but I haven’t spoken with him yet.

Oh. (Huckabee must have gotten a little excited about working with Bolton. Jumped the gun a bit. It happens when you're a whacko.)

(Full discussion here.)

The latest: That nice Mr. Huckabee.

His campaign put together an ad showing that Mitt Romney is bad (who needs an AD to tell them that?) and that nice Mr. Huckabee called a press conference. But he said he wasn't going to run the ad! He had a change of heart, and he's against negative campaigning! Wasn't that nice of Mr. Huckabee.?

And just to show how nice he really is, that nice Mr. Huckabee played the ad for those nice newsmen at the press conference, so that they didn't come all that way for nothing.

And if those nice newsmen turn out to be not so nice and the networks play the ad and everybody gets to see it on the Internet and the Huckabee campaign gets all that air time without paying a dime? That's not Mr. Huckabee's fault! He had no idea that might happen because he's such a nice Christian man!

He reminds me of Larry "Lonesome" Rhodes in "A Face in the Crowd," but without the integrity, intelligence or charm. (Rhodes, by the way, was from ... Arkansas.)

(News story here. (Read the comments.) Discussion here.)

Are even the stupidest Republicans stupid enough to fall for this man's horse shit?

(Please, Baby Jesus. Make Huckabee the Repug candidate for president.)