Watching CNBC, a little live-blogging here:

The Dow is plummeting, now hovering around 9765.  Flanked by the crisis PR flack (Paul Verbinnen, probably) who helped Martha Stewart, Lehman Brother's former CEO Fuld is testifying before Congress.

CNBC pundits have gone bonkers.  Vicky Ward calls Fuld's testimony. "Shameless!" "Cluelessness gone crazy,"says another CNBC pundit.

Now our favorite 8-way split screen goes up.  It's the Octopolis!

Says one grizzled analyst: "This is the most enormous crisis financial crisis I've ever seen. Retail sales have slowed. We're going off a cliff."

11:35a  Dow now 9624.  CNBC: "Everything is broken right now in the stock market."

12:08p.  Dow still slinking around 9625.  CNBC comforts...Read More

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The "Obama is a Muslim" fallacy exploded on Twitter this morning.  The hysteria was reinvigorated when someone posted a twitpic of what appeared to be a sleazy gossip magazine cover story claiming to prove that Obama is a Muslim.

As we gird ourselves for the mother of all sleaze campaigns (now that Obama is up 8 pts. according to the latest Gallup poll) why is the MSM ignoring the real October surprise story? -  Obama is IRISH. 

Why, why, why won't they cover it!? Months ago, several bloggers posted credible reports that Obama is Irish, but the MSM overlooked the bombshell.  Who doesn't want us to know OBama is Irish?

Why is Fox News' Sean Hannity looking the other way?  He's Irish, too!  ...Read More

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As we're glued to the presidential debates and awaiting the congressional vote on the bailout (coming up in just moments and airing live on MSNBC and Fox right now) NYT's Paul Krugman warns this morning on his blog: "we are going over the edge."

A grim morning

Double plus ungood news on multiple fronts this morning.  The credit crunch is getting worse: LIBOR jumped again, the TED spread is at a new record....

We are going over the edge.

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Shout out to Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune (also IO9) for her tweet on this one. 

Last week, on their blog "Eureka Unscripted," writers for the SCI FI Channel dramedy talked openly about network demands imposed on the creative staff.

In a candid post dated September 24 and titled "By The Skin of Our Teeth," an unknown author described the chaos triggered by network insistence on last-minute rewrites.

A week before shooting, we were in great shape.  Then the Network told us that while our script was good, it wasn’t appropriate for a season finale.  It was thrown out.....the entire writing staff convened and re-broke 308 from the ground up in one, marathon late-night s...Read More

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From NYT's Brian Stelter who issued this tweet a few moments ago:

NBC says a court has "issued an order prohibiting" Weinstein Co. from taking Project Runway to Lifetime.

ETA:  Nikki Finke posted the brief NBC Universal statement, which says the "court granted our motion for a preliminary injunction against The Weinstein Company...."

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This morning, ProgGrrl (an indispensable tweetpeep.  Here's ProgGrrl's must-read blog called fangrrlmagnet) gave us the heads-up on the cover for the latest print edition of EW:

Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart mock the mock. They spoof the controversial New Yorker cover which poked fun (but fell flat in some quarters) at the persistent memes floating around the culture in regard to Michelle and Barack Obama - the link to former Weatherman William Ayers,  the fallacy that Barack is Muslim, and the eruption last summer over the ...Read More

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FYI - straight off the SCI FI press release.  The network says the figures include full DVR playback for only five of the eight season three eps. A year ago, Multichannel reported that Eureka was the most highly DVR'd series (for the 18-49 demo) on television.  So, when DVR playback is factored in eventually, these figures may shift to the upside.

·         Eureka completed Season 3.0 with its best season average ever in P25-54s, 1.56 MM P25-54s (note that this includes full DVR playback for only five of the season's eight episodes).

·      ...Read More

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Late Show host David Letterman skewered John McCain for canceling his appearance about one hour before taping.

(ETA: LA Times says McCain canceled "hours" before taping.)

After praising McCain as a hero, Letterman then repeatedly speculated that “something doesn't smell right.” 

"This is not the way a tested hero behaves," asserted Letterman, "somebody's puttin' something in [McCain's] Metamucil.”

Letterman also questioned McCain's campaign suspension. "I'm more than a little disappointed by his behavior. Are we suspending it because there's an economic crisis,...Read More

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This clip (embedded below) from CBS' Late, Late Show with host Craig Ferguson materialized on Youtube almost instantaneously this morning.  As I write (now 1:20a.), the talk show is still airing on the West Coast.

First Letterman, now Ferguson.  The CBS talk-show hosts are really roasting McCain tonight.

Newly-minted American citizen and true believer, Ferguson had this to say about John McCain's decision to suspend his presidential campaign.

I can't believe John McCain wants to suspend the debate. You can't suspend the democratic process just because we're facing problems!  At what point do you think that, "well maybe we'll suspend the election, we'll have the elections later."

Some people have done that before.  Castro did it.  Napoleon did it.  Julius Caesar did it. ...Read More

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A big thanks to NYT's Brian Stelter for his tweet reminding us of this classic moment from CNBC's Jim Cramer.  It's Cramer prophetic rant, circa August 2007, about the mortgage meltdown and Fed Chairman Bernanke's failure to respond to the crisis.

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Tip 'o the hat to FishbowlLA (via Huffington Post) for this.  It's comedian Michael Terry impersonating Keith Olbermann having a snit-fit over the double meat (or lack thereof) in a Subway sandwich.

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TPM organized this hilarious series of clips of Greta Van Susteren's obsession with Todd Palin's nickname,"First Dude."  Here she flirts ("They love you here, they love you here."), describes the meaty contents of the Palin freezer,  and painfully extracts one word responses from Todd, a guy who is clearly the strong, silent type.

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