From Bravo.com.Deposed HarperCollins executive Judith Regan is back in the news this week after identifying stately, plump Roger Ailes as the News Corporation executive who, in 2004, “encouraged her to lie to … federal investigators who were vetting Bernard B. Kerik for the job of homeland security secretary,” according to The New York Times. In the early aughts, Kerik, former police commissioner of New York, and Regan carried on an affair, during which they’d reportedly make love “in a Lower Manhattan apartment meant to provide a haven for rescue and recovery workers at Ground Zero.” (Yup.) And, as Regan first alleged in 2006, News Corporation, which owns HarperCollins, insisted she lie during Kerik’s vetting process so as not to besmirch the reputation of Kerik’s pal and former boss Rudy Giuliani. The precise source of the News Corporation directive remained a mystery until this week.
Freelancer lecturer and disaffected former half-term governor Sarah Palin® is embarking on a trip to the East. In March, Palin® will travel to India, where she will give some speech in New Delhi. “It’s unknown if Palin is getting paid for the appearance,” Politico reports, “but the $1,850 price tag to attend the two-day event makes it seem likely that she got her quote—reportedly $100,000 per appearance.”
The real question, though, is how much will Palin®’s trip cost America taxpayers?
Arlington, Virginia, community newsletter Politico published a piece today critiquing the Obama administration’s new catchphrase, “Win the Future.” Reporter Matt Negrin does not care much for the slogan, and chatted with George Lakoff, a linguist and—this is important—“a liberal by any measure,” to see if there is any science to corroborate his distaste. “President Obama has mentioned his new favorite catch phrase so often in the last month that you’d think he was being paid for each reference,” Negrin wrote. Liberal linguist Lakoff added, “Nobody cares about winning the future. It doesn’t mean much to anybody.”
It’s curious that Politico, of all Arlington, Virginia, community newsletters, would tackle this subject, given the site’s own unofficial slogan.
NPR social-media strategist Andy Carvin is one of many journalists whose Twitter feeds have become a reliable source for up-to-the-minute news about the mass uprisings in Bahrain, Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya. Carvin regularly retweets photos, videos, on-the-scene reports from a wide network of trusted activists, protestors, and journalists. VF Daily corresponded with Carvin via e-mail about the challenges and methods of curating his feed.
The protracted resurrection of Rod Blagojevich continues today, as prosecutors requested that racketeering charges filed against the mop-topped vulgarian be dropped for his April 20 retrial. In other words, Justice! In other, other words: “Prosecutors told U.S. District Judge James Zagel the accusations contained in the charges are duplicated in other counts. The move is an attempt to simplify the government’s case after jurors in Blagojevich's first trial said the two dozen counts were confusing,” according to The Washington Post.
Wisconsin governor Scott Walker was pranked—punk’d, in Kutcherean parlance—by a gentleman impersonating cagey billionaire and G.O.P. benefactor David Koch. The prankster, Ian Murphy of the Buffalo, New York, Web site the Buffalo Beast, chatted with a congenial Walker about the pro-union protests that have snarled his state’s infrastructure. Walker, somewhat amazingly, doesn’t actually say anything all that damning, despite the escalating strangeness of his fictitious interlocutor. As Politico’s Ben Smith notes, the banal tape “reflects politicians willingness to give large amounts of time to rich guys whose obvious weirdness and terrible ideas are to be tolerated for the cash they put up.” Walker’s office has a different interpretation: “The phone call shows that the Governor says the same thing in private as he does in public and the lengths that others will go to disrupt the civil debate Wisconsin is having.”
Senate majority leader Harry Reid would like to eradicate prostitution in his home state of Nevada. He proposed this plan to the Nevada legislature, members of which did not appear to immediately embrace the idea. (“Harry Reid will have to pry the cathouse keys from my cold, dead hands,” the proprietor of the Moonlite Bunny Ranch, Dennis Hof, told press attendees.) In fact, political reporters seem far more amused with the idea than sex workers: coverage of Reid’s poorly received recommendation has been rapturous. Below, we’re ranked the five best ledes from various news outlets.
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Rahm Emanuel, newly elected mayor of Chicago, has a very amusing fake Twitter account created in his image. (The fake Twitter’s bio: “Your next motherfucking mayor. Get used to it, assholes.”) The handle, MayorEmanuel, has already been the subject of a New York Times write-up, and now its anonymous author is feuding with conservative blogger Michelle Malkin. Last evening, Malkin tweeted, “Fake @MayorEmanuel’s f’in acceptance speech tweetstream is cracking me up,” a compliment to which the fictional Emanuel replied, “Just so we’re perfectly fucking clear here: You’re a crazy fucking shitwad. Enjoy your night.”
Photo by Juli Weiner.To the mild interest of dozens of people, Senator John Thune (D-SD) announced today that he will not be running for president in 2012. “I feel that I am best positioned to fight for America’s future here in the trenches of the United States Senate,” he said in a statement. Thune is just one of many prominent Republicans, among them New Jersey governor Chris Christie, Representative Mike Pence of Indiana, and former Florida governor Jeb Bush, who have denied their intentions to seek the presidency in the next general election.
Protesters in Libya are demanding the resignation of Muammar Qaddafi, officially the “Guide of the First of September Great Revolution of the Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya,” who’s ruled the northern African country since 1969. (Qaddafi, who ranks among the world’s worst dressed leaders, famously introduced his pal Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi to the “bunga bunga” tradition.) Mass demonstrations began about a week ago, and, according to The New York Times, hundreds of people have been “killed in clashes with security forces”—security forces that include Qaddafi-controlled planes and helicopters that fired on protestors in capital city of Tripoli yesterday.
William McKinley: everything he touched (or stood on) turned to gold.
February’s forthcoming three-day weekend is the posthumous gift of George Washington, whose birth we will all be fêting in lieu of going to work. This celebration will overlap with America’s monthlong recognition of Ronald Reagan, who would have turned 100 on February 6. With all due respect to former presidents Washington and Reagan, we find it unforgivable that several other recent presidential birthdays have passed by without any post-office closings or commemorative candy. We’d like to use this space to wish a very happy birthday to ... Continue reading »
President Obama’s reliance on a teleprompter while giving public speeches is a half-funny Internet meme from two years ago. It is high time, then, that the cause is taken up seriously by America’s foremost elected official, Representative Steve “Who?” Womack (R-AK). On Monday, he attempted to tack on an amendment to the proposed budget that would prohibit the president’s Teleprompter from receiving financial support. However, it looks as if for now, Obama’s Teleprompter will continue to remain obsequiously funded. According to FoxNews.com, Womack later “pulled his amendment because he wasn't able to get an estimate on how much it would save.”
Screen-grab via Mediabistro.Tonight in San Francisco, President Obama will chat with several tech billionaires, among them, C.E.O. of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg. It’s a meeting so thrilling that it prompted this lede from CNN.com’s Ed Henry: “If President Obama had a personal Facebook account, he might be ‘friending’ technology executives to help advance his innovation agenda right about now.” It’s hardly the first time that the young friend-in-chief has met with a current or former United States president—in fact, it’s the second.
By Mark Wilson/Getty Images.
Shocking precisely no one, Tea Party windbag and Minnesota Republican representative Michele Bachman has come out vociferously against yet another Obama-administration policy suggestion. Following her emphatic and clamorous protestations against the president’s positions on the wetness of water and the life-giving benefits of breathing, Bachman has now turned her crosshairs on the First Lady’s tireless campaigns to improve the health of our nation’s youth. Her specific target? Mrs. Obama’s touting of the scientific research showing a correlation between breast-feeding and a lower incidence of childhood obesity, and her support of tax deductions that encourage the practice among new mothers.
Left, by Daniel Acker/Bloomberg/Getty Images; right, by Chris Pizzello/AP Photo.
Freelancer lecturer and disaffected former half-term governor Sarah Palin® is embarking on a trip to the East. In March, Palin® will travel to India, where she will give some speech in New Delhi. “It’s unknown if Palin is getting paid for the appearance,” 
Photo via Zazzle.com.
NPR social-media strategist 
The protracted resurrection of Rod Blagojevich continues today, as prosecutors requested that racketeering charges filed against the mop-topped vulgarian be dropped for his April 20 retrial. In other words, Justice! In other, other words: “Prosecutors told U.S. District Judge James Zagel the accusations contained in the charges are duplicated in other counts. The move is an attempt to simplify the government’s case after jurors in Blagojevich's first trial said the two dozen counts were confusing,” 
Does not care for hookers.
Rahm Emanuel, newly elected mayor of Chicago, has a very amusing fake Twitter account created in his image. (The fake Twitter’s bio: “Your next motherfucking mayor. Get used to it, assholes.”) The handle, 
William McKinley: everything he touched (or stood on) turned to gold.
