P.J. Gladnick's blog

Okay boys and girls. A bluebook exam question for you. What is the big excitement all about in the New York 23rd CD race that has captured the attention of the political world for the past week? I'll give you a really strong hint in the form of this observation from yesterday's Washington Post: "It is now a two-person race between Hoffman and Democrat Bill Owens with Scozzafava fading badly."

Hmm. So you would think that any recent news story about that race would have to at least include a mention of the Conservative challenger Doug Hoffman who has surged to the lead in a couple of recent polls as the Republican, Dede Scozzafava, plunged to last place. Well, in the world of the New York Daily News, Doug Hoffman doesn't even exist. At least not in this story yesterday by Elizabeth Benjamin. She writes The Daily Politics but her article appears to be The Daily Politics of an alternate universe in which the contest in the 23rd CD is strictly between Scozzafava and Democrat Bill Owens. Here is her story about New York governor David Paterson endorsing Owens and how this affects the campaigns of both the Democrat and Republican candidates but not a certain person whose candidacy dare not speak its name...at least not by Benjamin in this article:

 (New poll update at bottom.)

Chris Cillizza at the Washington Post has written a story in his Morning Fix political news analysis that is sure to cause conniption fits over at the Daily Kos which endorsed "Republican" Dede Scozzafava in the New York 23rd CD race that has now grabbed the attention of the political world. The political news that Cillizza has reported looks great for Conservative Doug Hoffman, bad for Scozzafava, and very depressing for the Daily Kos (and Newt Gingrich):

The Iowa caucuses may be more than two years from now but a series of moves by potential Republican presidential contenders has turned a special election in New York's 23rd district into an early test of conservative bona fides.

In the last week three GOPers with an eye on 2012 -- former House speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.), Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and former Alaska governor Sarah Palin -- have weighed in on the race with Tpaw and Palin throwing their support behind Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman and Gingrich endorsing state Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava.

(Polling and conversations with those close to the contest on both sides suggest it is now a two-person race between Hoffman and Democrat Bill Owens with Scozzafava fading badly.)

Note to Politico: If you base a story on an outdated Daily Kos poll you could end up with egg on your face. This is pretty much what has happened in the past three days.

On Saturday your humble correspondent cited a Politico story of the day before by Josh Kraushaar in which he reported on Doug Hoffman continuing to lag behind in third place in the NY 23rd CD race:

The latest poll in the New York special election shows a close race, with Democrat Bill Owens leading Republican Dede Scozzafava 35 to 30 percent, with Conservative party candidate Doug Hoffman at 23 percent.

Just from the title of today's Huffington Post cover story, Leaderless: Senate Pushes For Public Option Without Obama's Support, you can see that they have pretty much given up on counting on Barack Obama demonstrating leadership in the fight to pass ObamaCare. Here are Huffington Post correspondents Sam Stein and Ryan Grim registering their disgust with Obama in a grim story:

President Barack Obama is actively discouraging Senate Democrats in their effort to include a public insurance option with a state opt-out clause as part of health care reform. In its place, say multiple Democratic sources, Obama has indicated a preference for an alternative policy, favored by the insurance industry, which would see a public plan "triggered" into effect in the future by a failure of the industry to meet certain benchmarks.

The administration retreat runs counter to the letter and the spirit of Obama's presidential campaign. The man who ran on the "Audacity of Hope" has now taken a more conservative stand than Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), leaving progressives with a mix of confusion and outrage. Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill have battled conservatives in their own party in an effort to get the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster. Now tantalizingly close, they are calling for Obama to step up.

So who are they hoping will be their hero to save the day? Since it's not Obama, they are now placing their hopes upon Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid who is actually more like Al Capp's gloomy figure of Joe Btfsplk, who carries his bad luck with him as a perpetual raincloud over his head (illustration below the fold), than Mighty Mouse.

This is a Politico congressional  race story that should have been labeled "WARNING: Read this story with a huge grain of salt." Why? First of all because the poll of the New York 23rd Congressional  District was mostly taken before the big events of this past week were well known there. And even more importantly, the source of the poll was the Daily Kos which endorsed the very liberal Republican in the race, Dede Scozzafava. However, before we go into how absurd this poll was, let us watch Josh Kraushaar of Politico get all breathless about this highly questionable story:

The latest poll in the New York special election shows a close race, with Democrat Bill Owens leading Republican Dede Scozzafava 35 to 30 percent, with Conservative party candidate Doug Hoffman at 23 percent.

The Daily Kos/Research 2000 poll provides some encouraging news for Scozzafava, who remains in second place – and within striking distance of Owens – despite a week of bad publicity. It shows her leading Hoffman among Republican voters, 46 to 27 percent.

"Jon Corzine is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life."

Okay, Jonathan Tamari didn't use those exact words when he wrote an incredibly fawning Philadelphia Inquirer article about Governor Jon Corzine of New Jersey who is running for re-election but the words he did use sure come close to that sentiment. See, Corzine's problems weren't really because he presided over a massive budget deficit.The real problem was his difficulty in proper communication...at least according to Tamari:

In his formal introduction to Trenton, his inaugural speech, Corzine read from notes, barely looking up, absorbed in his own message. Problems with communicating would come to plague his term in office.

There is currently a huge corruption scandal involving public officials in Broward County Florida that is being investigated by the FBI. The local Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel newspaper, which has been dragging its feet until recently on reporting this scandal, has finally gotten around to criticizing someone involved in the scandal investigation...the informant who helped break the case. I kid you not.

First let us look at the background on the Sun-Sentinel's reluctance to do what it is supposed to do, namely investigating local corruption. The reporter who has actually been writing about the breaking scandals in depth for weeks doesn't even work for the Sun-Sentinel. He is Bob Norman of the Broward Palm Beach New Times free newspaper who describes the Sun-Sentinel foot-dragging in his Daily Pulp blog:

One of the great joys of watching the greatest corruption story in Broward County history begin to unfold during this past month has been watching the Sun-Sentinel play catch-up. 

...The Sentinel, you have to understand, is what I call an "official" newspaper. In general, it listens to local bigwigs and does what it's told, paying short shrift to those who would challenge those same officials. Yes, it's the exact opposite of what a good newspaper is supposed to do, but it paid the bills for years and years.

"Hello, 911? This is the Dede Scozzafava campaign. Could you send a police car over to the Elks Lodge? There is a reporter here asking our candidate uncomfortable questions. Thank you."

Something like this call went out last night when a reporter committed the "high crime" of asking Republican congressional candidate, Dede Scozzafava (endorsed by the Daily Kos), questions that she obviously felt very uneasy about answering. Scozzafava, who was recently the subject of an Open Thread here on NewsBusters, is running in the special election for the open seat in the NY 23rd congressional district. She was being questioned last night by John McCormack of the Weekly Standard when the police were called with a complaint about him for making Scozzafava uncomfortable with his probing questions. Here is how McCormack describes the scene:

Lowville, N.Y.
Tonight, Dede Scozzafava, the Republican candidate for the November 3 special election in the 23rd congressional district, spoke to about 100 Republicans at the Lewis County GOP dinner at the Elks Lodge 1605. After a dinner of turkey, mashed potatoes, and stuffing, Scozzafava fended off criticism that she wasn't as conservative as third-party candidate Doug Hoffman and urged her supporters to vote for her in order to keep her Democratic opponent Bill Owens from serving as a rubber stamp for Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama's agenda in Washington. It was a fairly typical evening--until the speech ended and someone with Scozzafava's campaign called the police. On me.

"Taken out of context!"

"You just didn't understand the irony!"

"Just kidding!"

The incredibly lame excuses those on the left come up with to try to explain away statements they made that have come back to haunt them is growing more hilarious by the day. Robert Reich clearly stated at a 2007 Berkeley lecture what an honest candidate for president who didn't worry about getting elected would say to senior citizens who face costly treatment to keep them alive: "It's too expensive...so we're going to let you die."

Reich's excuse for this and other bizarre health care statements by a hypothetical honest candidate for president? He was being "taken out of context" despite the fact that Reich himself originally put it into perfectly clear context to the point that his Berkeley audience was applauding in approval of the brutal "truths."

It would be hard to exceed the absurdity of Reich's laughably lame excuse but White House Communications Director makes a good stab at it in trying to explain away why she favorably  quoted Mao Tse Tung as one of her favorite political philosophers. Her unbelievably laughable excuse? She was only following in the footsteps of deceased Republican campaign strategist Lee Atwater who also quoted Mao. Before we get to Dunn's Lee Atwater excuse bellylaugh, let us review what she said about Mao:

Robert Reich has finally responded to the audio of him telling "brutal truths" to an audience at Berkeley which your humble correspondent chronicled here in NewsBusters on Tuesday. Here are the gems delivered up by Reich as to what he claims an honest  candidate for president would say about health care if he didn't worry about getting elected:

"We're going to have to, if you're very old, we're not going to give you all that technology and all those drugs for the last couple of years of your life to keep you maybe going for another couple of months. It's too expensive...so we're going to let you die." 

"...I am going try to reorganize it to be more amenable to treating sick people but that means you,  particularly you young people, particularly you young healthy people...you're going to have to pay more."

"...What that means, less innovation and that means less new products and less new drugs on the market which means you are probably not going to live much longer than your parents."

So what was Reich's excuse for these assertions? Why he was "taken out of context." Here is Reich making his claim on Wednesday:

Paging Congressman Alan Grayson! Here is a quote that validates what you said about those EVIL Republicans:

"We're going to have to, if you're very old, we're not going to give you all that technology and all those drugs for the last couple of years of your life to keep you maybe going for another couple of months. It's too expensive...so we're going to let you die."

Aha! So it turns out that Grayson was right when he said "Republicans want you to die quickly."  Only one "little" problem here. That quote did not come from a Republican. In fact it came from the very liberal former Labor Secretary Robert Reich who is now an economics adviser for Barack Obama.

(UPDATE: Apparently there was a drowned out Republican voice in the promo. See full update below.)

The irony in this story is so delicious, as NewsBusters' Noel Sheppard would probably describe it, that one must take a bit of time to savor it.

Yesterday, Sheppard posted a story about White House communications director Anita Dunn whining at length on Howard Kurtz's "Reliable Sources" about how supposedly unfair Fox News is. Her appearance on that show was instigated by Dunn's complaints about White House coverage by Fox News in a Time magazine story by Michael Scherer. Among her attacks upon Fox News was the assertion that it wasn't a real news network "the way CNN is." Well, Michael Scherer himself wrote a followup blog post and pointed out the supreme irony of attacking Fox News as biased while CNN was running "Anderson Cooper 360" promos pitching that show as appealing to liberals. First Scherer quotes Anita Dunn from her "Reliable Sources" appearance:

But let's be realistic here, Howie.  You know, they are widely viewed as, you know, part of the Republican Party.  Take their talking points, put them on the air.  Take their opposition research, put them on the air and that's fine. But let's not pretend they're a news network the way CNN is.

Bush's fault!

Liberals love to blame former president George W. Bush for such a wide variety of perceived woes that it has often turned into a joke.  Don't like the current deficit? Bush's fault! Polar ice cap might melt in a century? Bush's fault! A baseball playoff game is called off because it was snowed out? Bush's fault!

The above are all jokes but to Gail Collins of the New York Times it is no joke. Bush's fault! And in her latest blame Bush rant, Collins blames Bush for the unlikelihood of the current Cap and Trade bill  being passed by the Senate. Bush's fault! But in this case is that a bad thing if a high tax bill doesn't pass?

What kicked off Collins' latest rant was saying farewell for awhile to David Brooks in their periodic The Conversation column in which they discuss matters back and forth. Collins will be gone for a few weeks to go on a book tour but before she leaves she takes one final blast at her obsession:

Speaking of jerks, I’m afraid I’ve got to depart on a negative note because I need to register a long wail of pain and rage. It’s about George W. Bush.

Don't be surprised to soon see Keith Olbermann display a picture of Randi Rhodes on his "Worst Person In The World" segment while pompously intoning, "Have you no shame, madam?"

And what would be the cause for this "honor?" Well, yesterday Randi emerged briefly from radio obscurity to blast Olbermann's one hour special comment on ObamaCare that he delivered earlier this week.  And it wasn't just a quick blast. She went on a rampage against him for her entire three hour show. To get an idea of the tone of the attack, here is what Randi posted on her blog:

Last night's Countdown on MSNBC was devoted to a one-hour "special comment" by Keith Olbermann. I always thought a comment was a brief observation. Evidently I was wrong about the "brief" part. I'm sorry, but that was the most self-indulgent hour I've heard since Emerson, Lake & Palmer broke up. Keith! Talking for an entire hour isn't a comment. It's a filibuster. Olbermann railed on for an hour about how we need healthcare reform. Keith, the best thing about stating the obvious is that you can state it pretty quickly. At least most people can. Watching that there were a lot of things I wanted to hear Keith Olbermann say. But mostly I wanted to hear him say "And in conclusion..."

Remember the artificial panic pervading the CBS "Early Show" just a little over a year ago that, for the first time in history, the North Pole may not be covered with ice sometime during the summer of 2008? Well, not only did it not happen but evidence now shows that Arctic ice has been thickening substantially this year.

And who is making that "heretical" claim? Why Andrew Revkin, the New York Times environment writer. On the heels of his recent "heresy" of quoting noted climatologist Mojib Latif's finding that the world will probably be in for a cooling trend for the next decade or two, Revkin's latest report will probably not sit well with the global warming alarmists: 

The National Snow and Ice Data Center released its summary of summer sea-ice conditions in the Arctic on Tuesday, noting  a substantial expansion of the extent of “second-year ice” — floes thick enough to have persisted through two summers of melting. The result could be a reprieve, at least for a while, from the recent stretch of  remarkable summer meltdowns.

So much for any claim of political neutrality on the part of Consumer Reports. They have now come out in support of ObamaCare which you can see on their website along with their TV ad. Here is the message from the president of Consumers Union, Jim Guest, publisher of Consumer Reports:

Health care has been a top priority of Consumers Union since we started back in 1936. In the pages of Consumer Reports and the advocacy work we do for consumers, we've long argued for better health care that's more affordable and reliable.

While working for better health care is not new for our organization, today we are doing something that we've never done before. For the first time ever, Consumers Union is weighing in with a TV ad that calls on lawmakers to find a solution for health reform.

This is highly ironic.

While the New York Times house "conservative," David Brooks, continues to shower love upon President Barack Obama, editor-in-chief Marty Peretz of the liberal New Republic has become highly critical of The One. Just how critical? Well, here is Peretz using a Financial Times report on the humiliating Olympic snub of Obama in Copenhagen as the platform to launch a withering critique of the president's self-defeating attitude:

As the FT went on to say, the IOC "delivered an astonishing snub" to the president "by eliminating Chicago in the first round of voting." Chicago was dumped before Madrid was dumped and before Tokyo was dumped. Had the Obama folk not done any canvassing which would have alerted them to the fact that they were jet-setting to a humiliation?  Maybe Michelle's presence added to the over-confident sense of invincibility. Moreover, how could they lose with Oprah Winfrey in tow?

If you want to become a house "conservative" for the New York Times, the prime rule is that you must treat Rush Limbaugh as well as other talk radio conservatives with utter disdain. In fact it is pretty much a job requirement at the Times as the other house "conservative" there, the conspicuously inconspicuous Ross (Whothat?) Douthat, knows full well when he slammed Limbaugh at the Atlantic magazine a few months before enduring obscurity at the Gray Whale.

The main house "conservative" at the Times, David Brooks, took time from from his "bromantic" stares at Barack Obama's finely creased pant leg, to slam Limbaugh today:

Let us take a trip back into history. Not ancient history. Recent history. It is the winter of 2007. The presidential primaries are approaching. The talk jocks like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and the rest are over the moon about Fred Thompson. They’re weak at the knees at the thought of Mitt Romney. Meanwhile, they are hurling torrents of abuse at the unreliable deviationists: John McCain and Mike Huckabee.

Could. If. Might.

Take a look at almost any global warming alarmism story and you are likely to see a plethora of those speculative weasel words. It happens so frequently that your humble correspondent, in his previous global warming story about the "Modoki," labeled a new term incorporating those words: "Couldifmite." 

It was my recommendation that a mineral rock be given the name of Couldifmite. Any MSM reporter in the vicinity of of Couldifmite will be subjected to the uncontrollable urge to overload his global warming stories with "could," "if," and "might" along with the related speculative weasel words of "may" and "should." Okay, there probably won't be a rock that would be given that name but it could happen if some geologist out there might have a good sense of humor. See, even I can play the Couldifmite game.

However, Gerard Wynn of Reuters isn't joking. He goes full scale Couldifmite in this latest global warming story. Even the intro to his story is chock full of Couldifmite:

Okay ladies and gentlemen, it's time to once again play America's favorite political parlor game---Name That Party! And today we have a special two-part episode: Broward County and Jersey City. First up Broward County but I warn you, it won't be easy to figure out the political party to which the protagonists belong. The Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel has certainly played along in keeping the party label under wraps as you can see in this story:

School Board member Beverly Gallagher, County Commissioner Josephus Eggelletion and former Miramar City Commissioner Fitzroy Salesman were arrested and charged in a public corruption probe Wednesday.

Head for the hills! There is yet another monster with a strange Japanese name that is threatening destruction of our coastal cities! No, it is not Godzilla or Rodan. This is a much more destructive monster, at least in the fervid imaginations of the global warming alarmists: "Modoki."

The warning about a possible Modoki attack was sounded by Doyle Rice in the Science Fair section of USA Today:

Global warming could have a dramatic effect on El Niño, the periodic warming of the eastern Pacific Ocean that alters global weather patterns and calms Atlantic hurricane seasons, according to a new study published this week in the journal Nature.

Specifically, the warming might help spur the development of a secondary El Niño, one which forms thousands of miles to the west in the central Pacific Ocean, near the International Date Line. Unlike its kin to the east, the central Pacific El Niño appears to cause more Atlantic tropical storms and hurricanes.

Woo! Hoo! Break out the victory champagne! Wonderful news on the diplomatic and economic fronts!

Obama's expressions of deep concern have caused Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to wilt under the pressure and announce that Iran will destroy its nuclear plants. On top of that there is news of soaring employment numbers as well as a booming economy. 

Okay, so maybe none of this is really happening but one could be forgiven for believing these fantasies if his reading material were limited to Reuters which jubilantly published a story by Steve Holland titled Obama Scores Twin Coups on Iran, Economy:

PITTSBURGH (Reuters) - President Barack Obama scored twin diplomatic coups on Friday, seizing the world stage to forge a new allied call for action against Iran and a framework for global economic growth.

Sometimes movies can be quite educational. In the case of the docu-drama, The Age of Stupid, we learned quite a lot but not about global warming which the producers intended. Instead we got quite an education at the movie's premiere which gave us a front row seat into stupid liberal hypocrisy. Despite the fact that this film attacked the idea of flying in airplanes because the producers believe it is harmful for the environment, guess how most of the promoters and producers of this film arrived at the Manhattan premiere? The answer is wonderfully provided in this video featuring Phelim McAleer who also posted his commentary at Big Hollywood:

Inspired by James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles who have shone an uncomfortable light on Acorn by asking obvious questions and by simply letting people answer I decided to cover the New York premiere of  “The Age of Stupid” – a documentary that claims the human race will be extinct by 2055 because of Climate Change.

Mark down the week of September 20, 2009 as the period when global warming skepticism kicked into high gear. Yes, there had been a lot of skepticism earlier but this was the week when doubt about the "inevitability" of global warming broke into the mainstream media in a significant way.

In the not so humble opinion of your humble correspondent it began last Sunday when I took the American MSM to task here in NewsBusters for failing to report on the observation by a noted climatologist, Professor Mojib Latif, of Germany's Leibniz Institute, that the planet is in for a cooling period that could last from 10 to 20 years. The very next day, by an amazing "coincidence," the findings of Professor Latif were reported by Andrew Revkin of the New York Times. Although Revkin couldn't quite bring himself to renounce the global warming faith in which he invested a couple of decades of his life, the mere mention of Latif's findings caused him to be charged with heresy from the usual leftwing suspects including the Daily Kos. Here are a couple of  examples of Kossack invective  hurled at Revkin for daring to question in even a small way the sacred global warming dogma:

Come on, Andy... 'fess up.

Admit that you have been reading NewsBusters, particulary the story posted by your humble correspondent on Sunday about how the U.S. media has been ignoring observations of a noted climate scientist, Professor Mojib Latif of Germany's Leibniz Institute, that we are entering a period in which the earth is likely to cool for a period of one to two decades.

The very day after the NewsBusters story was published, New York Times writer Andrew Revkin by strange "coincidence" decided to mention Professor Latif and his inconvenient observations about global cooling. Poor Andy sounds more than a bit peeved that Mother Nature is just not cooperating with the global warming dogma:

The world leaders who are meeting at the United Nations to discuss climate change on Tuesday, are faced with an intricate challenge: building momentum for an international climate treaty at a time when global temperatures have been stable for a decade and may even drop in the next few years.

In case you hadn't gotten enough of Barack Obama plugging ObamaCare on any of the five Sunday talk shows yesterday, your eyes can continue to glaze over tonight when the President appears on David Letterman tonight to continue his seemingly endless shill routine. And if you think Letterman somehow bowed to White House pressure to allow Obama on to continue talking about a subject that many are already growing weary about, think again. This was actually Dave's idea according a story in the New York Times:

Mr. Obama, of course, famously was the first sitting president to visit any late-night entertainment show when he dropped by “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” in March. The Letterman bookers have been diligent ever since in arguing for some fair play — and equal booking — for their guy.

Imagine if the Pope suddenly announced that the Catholic Church  had been wrong for centuries about prohibiting priests from marrying. Would that be considered big news?

Of course.

And yet something like that has happened in the field of global warming in which a major scientist has announced that the world, in contrast to his previous belief, is actually cooling.

This was the analogy made by columnist Lorne Gunter in the Calgary Herald:

It is a post-apocalyptic world. The oceans are a grayish brown, not blue. No green vegetation. In fact, no life on the planet at all. Just heat, wind, and dust. The movie on how this happened could be called Terminator 5: Rise of the Republicans.

This is pretty much the scenario that Jonathan Freedland of the U.K. Guardian paints in his article laughably titled If Obama can't defeat the Republican headbangers, our planet is doomed. Yes, the future of the planet depends on ObamaCare passing which those wascally Wepublicans are blocking. Even Freedland admits he probably sounds quite hyperbolic:

Anyone who cares about the survival of our planet should start praying that Barack Obama gets his way on reforming US healthcare. That probably sounds hyperbolic, if not mildly deranged: even those who are adamant that 45 million uninsured Americans deserve basic medical cover would not claim that the future of the earth depends on it. But think again.

The leftwing blogosphere has been trying to convince themselves and others that the attendance at the 9/12 Washington, D.C. Tea Party was fairly small. However, there is one really big problem for them. How to explain away a highly inconvenient time lapse video from a camera showing massive numbers of Tea Party folks parading down Pennsylvania Avenue (video below the fold). The way they get around to explaining away what our lyin' eyes tell us on that video is to devise the most hilarious set of conspiracy theories you can imagine.

Why is flag in the video at half staff? How come it is suddenly at full staff? Why does a man appear and suddenly disappear in the video? The flag flap doesn't match the wind speed. Etc., etc., etc..

I could go on and on explaining their bizarre conspiracy theories but please allow your humble correspondent to present them in their own highly entertaining and comedic words which you can also see at the Democratic Underground and the Daily Kos. The DUers kick off the comedy show by presenting absurdly low numbers: 

Movie star Megan Fox has a bad habit of bashing middle America and constantly whining about how she is supposedly mistreated in Hollywood as chronicled in June by Leigh Scott of NewsBusters:

Megan Fox recently stated that her solution to a real life evil Transformer invasion would be to negotiate and ask, “instead of the entire planet, can you just take out all of the white trash, hillbilly, anti-gay, super bible-beating people in Middle America?”

I also found these quotes from Ms. Fox:

“I don’t want to have to go on talk shows and pull out every single S.A.T. word I’ve ever learned, to prove, like, ‘Take me seriously, I am intelligent, I can speak.’ I don’t want to have to do that. I resent having to prove that I’m not a retard.”

Class act there, Megan. However, Ms Fox apparently acts like such a brain dead prima donna on the movie set that her "Transformers" crew have struck back and the results are, as my NewsBusters colleague Noel Sheppard would put it, absolutely delicious. Here is Nikki Finke reporting on the background at Deadline Hollywood: