From CBS Sports:

NBA commissioner David Stern sat through more than 16 hours of labor negotiations on Tuesday and into Wednesday morning, but the harshest words aimed at him came from outside the bargaining room.

Emmy-winning television commentator Bryant Gumbel closed Tuesday night’s episode of HBO’s Real Sports with a pointed editorial aimed at Stern, whose league has made little progress in negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement since it locked out its players on July 1.

Gumbel’s statement evoked slavery with reference to a “plantation,” “boys” and “hired hands”. Gumbel and a vast majority of NBA players are African-American. Stern is not. (more…)

- It appears that new tone deal everyone has been talking about involves encouraging  violence, as long as it’s directed at select targets. Remember this next time the  Left starts talking about a Fairness Doctrine. They aren’t interested  in honest debate. They want to destroy any opposition.

On The Rachel Maddow Show Tuesday, Maher said of the protesters demonstrating near the homes of some New York millionaires earlier in the day, “If a brick came through Rupert Murdoch’s apartment, yes, I have a feeling Fox News would be a lot more gentle on the Wall Street people.” Maddow thought that was funny …

- Meanwhile, Leftist media is on the march, attempting to drive political debate. Keep an eye on Media Matters; they’ll likely be running interference on this at some point. It’s who they  are. It’s what they do.

Jumping on the anti-Wall Street media bandwagon, Josh Boak of Politico says Democratic Rep. Peter DeFazio’s measure to tax Wall Street has “newfound momentum.” The Soros-funded Think Progress blog quickly jumped on the report, saying the plan is being seriously considered on the Hill. There is only one problem: DeFazio hasn’t introduced any such bill in the current Congress.

- Whatever your thoughts on Gingrich as a potential  2012 nominee, he knows politics and he knows media. He’s saying what he’s saying for a reason, not simply to draw attention to himself.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich during Tuesday’s Republican presidential debate once again went after one of his favorite targets – the media.

(more…)

Even the children:

Ha ha.

Your tax dollars at work: hoop dreams, 2010:

Even Dana Milbank of the in-the-tank, corrupt Washington Post — Ground Zero of the JournoList — can’t take it any more:

While President Obama’s wife and younger daughter were conducting international relations in Majorca on Sunday with Spain’s King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia, the commander in chief was at home hosting a fantasy camp for himself. He and his buddies had a birthday weekend barbecue and basketball game with LeBron James, Alonzo Mourning, Magic Johnson and other legends of the sport.

The day before, it was a four-hour golf outing for Obama and the boys. On Monday, he hosted the Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints at the White House and talked about his own exploits on the gridiron last year with Saints quarterback Drew Brees. “He tossed me a nice tight spiral that I then lateraled to a kid on [Dallas Cowboys linebacker] DeMarcus Ware’s shoulders,” the president recalled. “I also want to point out I beat [Pittsburgh Steelers safety] Troy Polamalu over the middle on that throw.” Obama turned to Brees. “You remember?”

Boys will be boys — even if they’re presidents…

(more…)

OBAMA:  The Gulf gusher, Sestak and Romanoff, Israeli terrorism on the high seas —you see what’s happening here?  We’ve lost control of the narrative.  We look like bystanders, passive and helpless.  Even Old Media isn’t shilling for us. What the hell do we pay them for?

ROBERT GIBBS:  They’re too busy covering themselves covering the spill, sir.  Last night, the anchors led their broadcasts with attacks on each other over who was doing the best job keeping your feet to the fire.

DAVID AXELROD:  We need to do something dramatic to knock those stories off the front pages, sir—start driving the news again.

RAHM EMANUEL:  He’s right, sir.  Cap and trade, the union pension bailout, an FTC leash on the internet, selling out Israel, stealth-sabotaging the economy so Americans turn to you for salvation—our whole agenda is stalled.

OBAMA:  OK, how’s this: think of something really bad that’s bound to happen in the foreseeable future.  Then, suggest an action we can take now to forestall that event, a move so bold it dominates the news for weeks and gets us out of our prevent defense.

TIM GEITHNER:  China, sir.  We don’t want them dumping our Treasury bonds too soon, or all hell breaks loose before we’re ready.  So we make a deal:  they continue to prop us up while we pursue a controlled decline, we give them Manhattan as a “Special Administrative Region,” like Hong Kong.

OBAMA:  Too arcane.  Who’s gonna care about that besides Krugman and Cramer? Besides, I got my mosque going up at Ground Zero and I don’t want any interference with that.  I want a game-changer. I want the Times banner headline to be in one inch font.  I want the networks to schedule specials. (more…)

I’ve been a Phoenix Suns fan of varying intensity since I was seven years old. I’ve never been much of an athlete, but I enjoy watching sports from tennis to basketball. It thrills me to watch people who are among the best in the world at what they do, whether it’s Roger Federer, Peyton Manning, or Kobe Bryant.

But mixing sports with politics? Running an interview with President Obama during an NBA playoff game?  No thanks.

So how does something like this happen? I guess you and the president just talk all the time, and he says “why don’t you come over with your TV crew?”

Marv Albert: He keeps calling! And after a while, it just gets annoying, you know?

No, we came up with the idea of doing this for a pregame show in the Western conference finals. They said yes right away. It was just a matter of trying to come up with a date. Because he’s obviously very busy, and I’m jumping back and forth between cities in the playoffs. So we finally settled on Friday, which worked out because there was a little bit of a three-day break. We did it on the basketball court, at the White House.

He was just … it was a great experience. He was tremendous. He knows his stuff. That’s apparent.

(more…)

Boston-based radio talk show gabber Fred “Toucher” Toettcher, of 98.5 The Sports Hub or WBZ-FM, offered some uninvited color commentary about the gathering of friends and family that were on hand to support Tim Tebow during the NFL draft last week.

As you might have heard, the former Heisman Trophy winner and University of Florida Gator quarterback Tebow was drafted in the first round, number 25, by the Denver Broncos. (Way to go, Tim!)

Toucher ‘joked’ that the group surrounding Tebow “looked like some kind of Nazi rally … so lily-white is what I’m trying to say. Yeah, Stepford Wives.”

Would Toucher have made such an impolitic, over-the-top comment about the folks (‘looked like an NAACP meeting’) surrounding,  say, the amazing Gerald McCoy, who was the number three draft pick and was a stand-out defensive lineman for the University of Oklahoma? (more…)

Well, isn’t this just ducky:

This Thursday, CBS “Early Show” co-anchor Harry Smith will go one-on-one with Pres. Barack Obama in a court-side interview. Then, Smith and his CBS Sports colleague NCAA basketball analyst Clark Kellogg will shoot hoops with Obama on the White House basketball court.

Smith’s interview and clips from the game will air on The Early Show Friday. Kellogg’s interview with the President, and the game, will air Saturday afternoon and evening during CBS’s coverage of the Final Four.

Whoops!  That’s bowling — the second favorite Hawaiian high school sport, right after basketball… (more…)

The Chicago media is having trouble picking a winner out of the line-up of likely suspects for the Machine’s chosen candidate for Barack Obama’s old, hardly even used U.S. Senate seat.  The dragnet doesn’t include anyone with an impressive rap sheet of accomplishments. So what’s up? Is the Machine sputtering?

The Illinois primary election for U.S. Senator is February 2. Senator Roland Burris isn’t running. No money. No support. No surprise.  After what the disgraced Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s hand-picked seat warmer had to go through just to get credentialed, it’s no wonder he just wants to pack up and go home to his monuments.

And the recent victory by Scott Brown in the Massachusetts special election for the U.S. Senate certainly has put the fear of God into party hacks from sea to shining sea. So, who’s the Machine’s candidate among the leading suspects? Here’s the line-up. (more…)