If you want to be part of setting a Guinness World Record (turns out it had nothing to do with beer; go figure), today’s the day. The good folk over at Mozilla are trying to set a record for the most software downloads in 24 hours with the official release of FireFox 3. So get over there and start clicking (after 10 AM, PDT).

I’m still pretty devastated by the loss of the 21^st century’s incarnation of Edgar R. Murrow. It’ll be all I can do to drag myself to work today. I think a national day of mourning (or at least a national morning of mourning) should be declared. But I’ll try to persevere. I need to get through this day since the season premiere of Weeds is on tonight. Sadly, I don’t know any Nancy Botwins these days, so I won’t be able to appropriate the necessary substances to properly appreciate the show. But, we all do what we can.

Happy Father’s Day to all you guys who managed to slip one past the goalie.

As you might suspect, NBC will be devote the whole hour today to Tim Russert, as Tom Brokaw hosts a special potato salad edition of Press the Meat. In addition to Brokaw, the folks lined up to completely ignore real news today include some guy from MSNBC named Mike Barnicle, creepy couple James Carvill and Mary Matalin, MTP producer Betsy Fischer, presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, PBS’s Gwen Ifill, and Maria ‘Skeletor’ Shriver.

Bush Buddy Bobby Schieffer hosts a fair and balanced look at “Campaign ’08’ on Faze the Nation, with Louisiana’s Republican Governor, Bobby Jindal, asshole Newt Gingrich, and Jim “Art” Vandehei of the ever incorrect Politico.

Speaking of Fair and Balanced, on Fux News Sunday, Weaselface Wallace has icky Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, ND Senator Byron Dorgan, Red Cavaney, president and CEO, American Petroleum Institute (on to tell us how bad he feels about all the record profits the Oil Industry is making), the usual group of Fuxheads, and, channeling the ghost of Josef Goebbels, the Pillsbury Dough Nazi, Karl Rove.

Speaking of Goebbels, on This Weak with George Snufalufagus, we get into the ‘big issues’ with John Edwards and Fred Thompson. Fred Thompson? Really? I guess maybe they need somebody to make John McCain look more lifelike or something. Plus there’s a roundtable of Robert Reich, former pentagon spokesbitch Torie Clarke, the depressingly stupid Jake Tapper, and George :jerk: Will.

On CNN’s Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer it’s the always disgusting John Boehner, KP’s Gov, Janet Napolitano, Chris Van Hollen of MD, Arlen Specter, McCain’s Economic Adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin,and his counterpart from the Obama campaign, Dan Tarullo, plus Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari.

Later, on 60 Minutes, Lesley Stahl tells us we need to get some sleep, and Morley Safer tells us that Denmark is the happiest country in the world. Well good for them.

Enjoy the day. I’ll probably just sprawl across the davenport of despair.

Sadly, our flags are all at half-staff today as we mourn the loss of not only a great journalist and a great American, but a great Buffalonian.

You know, when I did two years lived in Buffalo, one of the teevee stations had a “what does Buffalo mean to you” commercial running constantly. They’d say “the Bills” or “the Sabres” or whatever. And then they’d end with “it’s the weather. That crazy weather. Now that’s Buffalo.”

That commercial used to piss my friend Pat (a native) off to no end, since it was, well, pretty stupid. If they’d have asked me, I’d have said “the bars close at 4 am, now that’s Buffalo.”

Anyway, Timmy, in a lot of ways, was “Buffalo.” The epitome (superficially, at least) of that big-hearted, big-headed, affable, working class Western New Yorker. Of course, he wasn’t actually working class, and he was a poor excuse for a journalist (or maybe just the perfect example of how far teevee journalism has fallen), but I bet he really was a likable fellow, and I bet his colleagues really do feel bad about his death. Hell, I feel bad, and I never even knew him.

It’s always sad when somebody young (and, at my age, 58 definitely qualifies as young) passes away, and it’s sad for Tim’s dad and his wife and kid. But that sad story is repeated hundreds – thousands, no doubt – of times a day, every day. And nobody really seems to notice, let alone care.

To what extent do we hold ‘journalists’ like Russert responsible for the death and destruction in Iraq (among other places) that they’ve enabled by their tacit (if not overt) support of crazy King George and his Prince of Darkness regent Darth Cheney? And for the incredibly sorry state of our political system, really. Instead of getting the answers to the important questions, the media is now tasked with providing ratings-ready kabuki theater that ultimately means nothing and is useless.

Look at this past primary season, for instance. Regardless of who you may have supported or how you feel about the outcome, we just spent six or so months on the Seinfeld election; a campaign about nothing. No issues were raised or discussed. It was all about lapel pins and “3 AM” and whether landing in Bosnia was really as scary as you remember, and a whole lot of absolute bullshit. All driven by the inability of the media to believe that “we the people” care (or deserve to know) about anything substantive.

Not to lay this all at Tim Russert’s feet, of course. He was just one of many all-too-willing (and easily replaceable) cogs in a profit-driven machine. Not designed to make a profit off ‘news’ coverage, necessarily, but designed to make it possible for the corporations that own the media and our government to earn record profits. If they need to throw a few hundred million dollars at flashy graphics and propaganda designed to drag us into a war that will net billions in profits for the oil industry, no problem.

Russert was happy to do his part, and had he felt a twinge of conscience, there’d have been plenty of people ready to take his place (no doubt plenty of young eager vultures are already scrambling to take his place).

So, no, I don’t demonize Timmy. But I can’t bring myself to sing his praises – or pretend that the noble profession of journalism has lost a hero. I feel sad in the same way that I mourn the loss of any human being with friends and family that cared for them. I just wish that our ‘media’ could muster up a fraction of the compassion they feel for the passing of Tim Russert for the damage they’ve enabled over the past eight years.

But, as my dad used to say, wish in one hand and shit in the other, and see which fills up faster.

Ooh. Scary day. Thursday the twelfth wasn’t a picnic either.

But, it’s Balloon Fest weekend.

Another nice (cool) day today before things turn to shit and go back to the 90’s tomorrow. To make matters worse, it’s Balloon Festival weekend, so no park for the pooches this weekend. Oh well, time to make the donuts.

I’m gonna cop out, and just copy this, from Free Press:

Rupert Murdoch and his on-air bully Bill O’Reilly launched a laughable attack against Free Press, the media reform movement, and quality journalism everywhere.

Murdoch uses his media empire to attack his political foes and — not to inform citizens or tell the truth. The fight for media reform is about regular people like you and me fighting undue corporate control of the media. This kind of abuse of media power aggravates progressives and conservatives alike.

Visit the link below to sign the letter and thank Bill O’Reilly for proving once again that Fox News Channel has nothing to do with real journalism in America.

Take action at: https://secure.freepress.net/site/Advocacy?id=269

Speaking of O’Reilly, have a good hump day. Oh, and John McCain, John McCain, John McCain.

So, Snotty Scotty’s gonna testify before Congress – in public and under oath. Not that I’d get my hopes up, but wouldn’t it be funny if McClellan was the one who finally brought down the Bush/Cheney crime family (or at least was the first crack in the wall)? Odds are, he’s just a schmuck lackey who really doesn’t know anything, but, hey, you never know.

I hate to keep resorting to bitching about the weather, but it’s just too friggin’ hot here. I know it’s probably hotter elsewhere, but around these parts we like things a helluva lot cooler. There’s high pressure off the Carolina coast teaming up with a low pressure over the Dakotas to act as a pump. According to a weather geek down at Cornell, we’re breathing air up here today that was over the Gulf of Mexico just two days ago – hot, humid, nasty goddamn air.

Up until last Wednesday, we were getting nice cool weather from our friends in Canada. Now we’re getting record heat and humidity, and it sucks. Even the dogs feel like shit. It’s been in the 90’s since Friday, and it’s supposed to be 95 today and in the nineties Tuesday, too. Worse, it isn’t supposed to get below 70 until we get hit by a cold front (no doubt ushered in by thunderstorms that will scare the hell out of the dog).

Oh well, at least there’s a/c at work (at least, it better be working, or I’m outta there).

You’ll have to get up a little earlier this morning if you want to watch Press the Meat. Thanks to the French Open, the potatoheaded one and his gaggle of gasbags will be on at 8 AM Eastern. This week’s bombastic buffoons (all NBC news ‘reporters’) include Ron Allen, fresh off the Clinton campaign bus, and his counerpart from the Obama campaign, Lee Cowan. Then there’s intrepid Gilligan lookalike, David “how dare you say we wereshills for the Bush administration” Gregory, the woman who must have the most motivation to get out of bed in the morning, Mrs. Allen Greenspan, Andrea Mitchell, Kelly O’Donnell, stuck following the McCain campaign, and proving once again that goatees are for schmucks, Chuck Todd (no offense to Jeff Farias or you other goatee types, of course). The topic of the day? “How can we prop up this half-dead grumpy old man McCain and make a ‘horse race’ out of this thing?”

Now that Clinton has conceded and thrown her support to Obama, the day’s topic on Faze the Nation is, predictably, “What Does Hillary Clinton Want?” 🙄 Helping Bob Schieffer figure that out will be Howard Wolfson of the Clinton Campaign, the ever entertaining Charlie Rangel, Jim Webb, and Roger Simon of the ever incorrect Politico.

Turning the dial to Fox News Sunday (does anybody still have a teevee with dials on it?), we find Weaselface Wallace hosting Obama supporter, Governor Tim Kaine of Virginia and McCain supporter, Governor Tim “why waste money maintaining bridges?” Pawlenty of Minnesota. Then the regular fuxheads ponder the question, “is the VP nod likely for Hillary Clinton?”

Over on the Goebbels network, George Snufalufagus has Obama supporter John Kerry, li’l Lindsey Graham, for McCain, and DINO Dianne Feinstein. At the roundtable, it’s The Washington Post’s Jonathan Capeheart, dynamic duo Jay Carney and Claire Shipman, and, of course, George :jerk: Will.

Dianne the Dino pops up on Late Emission with Wolf Blitzkrieg, along with Bob Casey, Krazy Jon Kyl, the extremely horrible Kay Bailey Hutchison (horrible enough to be St. McCain’s veep, perhaps?), Howard Wolfson (again), and Husain Haqqani, Pakistani Ambassador to U.S. (hey, how’d he get in there?).

Later, on 60 Minutes, Scott Pelley reports on the deaths and property damage caused by dust explosions at American factories, Lesley Stahl reports on how Howard Hughes’ money is being used to probe life’s medical mysteries through the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (the only catch is, you have to fish the money of the mayonnaise jars he kept it in), and Byron Pitts (whoever that is) reports on some preacher named Joel Osteen, who packs in lots of god fearing Texans down there in Houston.

The Tudors is done for the season, but you can catch up on reruns of Dexter, with back to back episodes starting at 8:00. Truly a sight to behold in Hi-Def.

Have a good one.