Told ya, Ted.

Porkopolis (and I’m sure other SOBers) got on this news from yesterday before I did:

Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, at 84 the longest-serving Republican in the Senate and one of its most powerful members, was indicted Tuesday on seven felony counts alleging that he lied to conceal his acceptance of $250,000 in gifts and services from a now-defunct Alaska oil services and construction company.

Stevens notified senior Republicans that he’d abide by a Senate Republican rule and temporarily step down from his ranking posts on the Senate Commerce Committee and an Appropriations subcommittee.

The indictment, returned by a federal grand jury in Washington, charges that Stevens made false statements on his annual Senate financial-disclosure statements for the years 2001 through 2006 to conceal gifts from VECO Corp. and its chief executive officer, Bill Allen. If he’s convicted, Stevens could face an unspecified fine and as much as five years in prison.

The indictment marked the latest turn in a sweeping, four-year-old federal investigation of public corruption in Alaska that already has led to seven convictions and also is focusing on veteran Republican Rep. Don Young. The investigation has revolved around VECO, whose executives have been the top donors to Alaskan political campaigns in recent years.

Saddest related story — “Indictment will hurt Stevens’ primary hopes, pollsters say.” Geez Ted, you’re 84. Withdraw already.

If you’re on the home page, a re-run of my October 22, 2005 post on Stevens (”Waste Ted” Stevens Threatens to Resign. He Should.” — without the detailed pork spending footnotes), is below the fold.

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….. But I Don’t Have Any Time For:

• Evangelicals warn McCain: Just say no to Mitt — Agreed. Allah at Hot Air complains this is old news. I say it’s a new, reinforcing reminder, and there’s nothing wrong with that. To see the case against Romney’s selection as VP, and for that matter staying in public life, go here.
• Brendan Cronin e-mailed this MSNBC link — “Heavy? Your neighborhood may be to blame; Those built before 1950 help keep you skinnier by encouraging walking.” You see, this is before eeeevil suburbia came into vogue. I would suggest that many older neighborhoods are especially good at keeping people in shape for this reason: Because of their often-higher crime rates, people learn to walk really fast.
• Jack Shafer of Slate says, in comparing the treatment of John Edwards’s treatment vs. Larry Craig’s: “if the press craves consistency, it owes its readers some sort of assessment of Edwards.” Good luck with that.
• What’s Left of the New York Times Watch — The stock is still in the $12-$13 range. Last week, the company raised the newsstand price to $1.50, making it double USA Today and 50 cents lower than the just-increased Wall Street Journal. Business Week (Biz Weak around here) asks how the Times’s news operation, which it estimates is worth $750 million after taking out its real estate and about.com from the company’s market value, can be worth so little. I’m amazed that it’s worth so much.
• Just in time for the presidential election — If you think the Associated Press is bad now (wait - you know it is), just wait until AP Washington Bureau Chief Ron Fournier fully implements the sham known as accountability journalism. Steve Boriss’s subheadline at his Pajamas Media’s op-ed: “Amidst charges of bias, the AP decides to put even more opinion in its articles.”
• Joe Lieberman (HT PrairiePundit) tells you everything you need to know about the Eeeeexcellent Overseas Adventure taken last week by the presidential candidate I refer to as “Mr. BOOHOO-OUCH” (Barack O-bomba Overseas Hussein “Obambi” Obama - Objectively Unfit Coddler of Haters) — “If Barack Obama’s policy in Iraq had been implemented, he couldn’t be in Iraq today, is because he was prepared to accept retreat and defeat, and that would mean, today, al Qaeda would be in charge of parts of Iraq, Iranian-backed extremists would be in charge of other parts of Iraq. There’d be civil war and, maybe, even genocide.” Obama was okey-dokey with leaving Iraq even given the possibility of genocide during the primary campaign. He even has a copy of the article at this web site. In fact, the AP article states that “The greater risk is staying in Iraq.” Has any presidential candidate ever been so wrong about so many things and gotten as far as Obama has?

From Tampa, Florida:

July 16, 2008

A Tampa bride-to-be who defied doctors’ expectations after being told she had a year to live four years ago has celebrated another victory — she and her fiancee won a $100,000 dream wedding.

Courtney Dempsey, 33, and Gary Courtney, 37, were among 40,000 couples who entered US Magazine’s wedding contest. The prize includes a dress and honeymoon.

“We’re beyond thrilled. We’re actually in a state of shock right now,” Dempsey said Tuesday.

Dempsey was diagnosed with late-stage melanoma four years ago and doctors told her she had less than a year to live. She survived beyond that and began dating Courtney. But soon after, doctors said she needed a double mastectomy.

Courtney asked Dempsey to move in with him so he could help her recover.

Now the couple is planning a September wedding.

As for her married name, Dempsey says she’ll follow tradition and take her groom’s name, meaning she’ll go by Courtney Courtney.

“I love it,” she said. “I’m in sales. No one will ever forget my name.”

Go here for the rest of the story.

(….. or, “we followed Barack Obama around like starstruck
rock groupies, and we didn’t even get a 1% bounce”)

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So the Big 3 networks sent their evening news anchors on the road to follow Barack Obama around last week on his Excellent Overseas Adventure.

If the nets’ managements harbored any hopes that doing so might significantly increase their overall audience, or meaningfully increase the number of viewers in the key 25-54 demographic, those hopes were dashed when last week’s ratings were released Tuesday (Source for all ratings info in this post - Media Bistro Newser: July 21, 2008; July 14, 2008; July 23, 2007; July 16, 2007):

If you’re on the home page, analysis is below the fold.

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