Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride, a new documentary about the life and death of Hunter Thompson, looks like a terrific film.

From Electric Artists:

Interviewees Include Johnny Depp, Sean Penn, Bill Murray, John Cusack, Benicio Del Toro,Tom Wolfe, George McGovern, Ed Bradley, William F. Buckley and Many Others. Narrated By Nick Nolte.

The best part may be that you don't have to go to a theater to see it. It will be airing on the Starz movie channel on December 12.

The original documentary is a personal, intimate look at Thompson with a special emphasis on his Hollywood relationships. It will capture the legacy and “gonzo” spirit of one of this century’s most notorious figures – a man whose life and work regularly intersected with some of the biggest names in the world of film, politics, journalism and sports.

Guests are --

Meet the Press: Schwarzenegger.

FOX News Sunday: Charlie Rangel, Barney Frank, and John Dingell. Trent Lott.

Face the Nation (CBS): McCaskill of Missouri and Brown of Ohio and Corker of Tennessee.

This Week (ABC): King Abdullah II of Jordan and then Dick Durbin and Sam Brownback.

Late Edition (CNN): Senators Cornyn and Reed.

Rangel, Frank and Dingell being portrayed as Commies on Fox will be the lowlight - but they can fight so . . . that is what I would watch. Probably I'll just roll over and zzzzzzz.

Matt Stoller, who has been on fire the last few days BTW, takes DC Gasbag Tom Edsall (who seems intent as being as successful as the car with the similar name) to task:

[Edsall] is one of the Old Wise Men of Washington, or a Very Serious Person, as Atrios would say. After that, I would sometimes read his work in the Washington Post and think 'who is this silly man?' His sources are obviously heavily stacked towards neoliberal insiders on the Democratic side, and he dismisses progressive activists and voters alike. Even though voters rejected an anti-labor anti-choice political party, the lesson for Edsall is that voters embraced an attack on labor and more restrictive abortion laws. It's not hard to figure out why Edsall believes this - peer pressure. Edsall's crowd is that of Harold Ickes, Rahm Emanuel, and Steny Hoyer, people who live in a rarefied world of Democratic elitism.

The hot Christmas item this year may be the big screen tv. I've been trying to decide on one for a few months, since I moved into a place with an additional room that seemingly would be perfect for one.

But, how do you choose? I've read many articles about the difference between rear view projection screens, LCD and Plasma. I'm still confused.

Then there's the installation issue. And the furniture issue. Do you hang it on the wall, put it in a wall unit, or let it sit on a stand?

War, Children, is just a shot away.

The Rolling Stones live in Twickenham Stadium, England with an amazing solo by the incredible Lisa Fischer (she starts rocking about 2:12 in.)

I saw them perform this live in Denver on Thanksgiving night last year and was just blown away.

Ok, I won't repeat my numerous posts about how Arlo Guthrie's Alice's Restaurant is the national Thanksgiving anthem on radio stations across the country.

The Boston Globe today does it for me.

And if you are in New York Saturday night, you can hear Arlo sing it live:

ARLO GUTHRIE. So it's the Saturday after Thanksgiving: Do you think the Guthrie fanatics went to Alice's Restaurant on Thursday? Ah, to be a hippie. (8 p.m., Isaac Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage, Carnegie Hall, 57th Street and Seventh Avenue, Manhattan, 212-247-7800. $35-$60.)

Where's Alice? You can find her here (link fixed.) But she's also been in my kitchen for 30 years, where her cookbook from 1969 is prominently displayed and always in use.

John Mellencamp, Eddie Van Halen, Bryan Adams, Richie Sambora, Max Weinberg, Melissa Etheridge, Sheryl Crow, Steve Winwood, Don Henley, and Paul Shaffer performing "I Fought the Law and the Law Won"

Added bonus: Gloria.

The family of Melissa Duckett, who killed herself the day after being "aggressively questioned" (to put it politely) by Nancy Grace on her cable tv show has sued her.

Jay Paul Deratany, the attorney representing Duckett's estate, said Tuesday that Grace encouraged Duckett to appear on her show by saying the goal was to draw public attention to help find Trenton.

"It's not just about the questioning, it's about the misrepresentation with the knowledge that she was emotionally distraught," Deratany said. The attorney said Grace improperly took on the role of a law enforcement officer.

I'd bet a year from now the case will settle with CNN, not Nancy, paying the tab. In the meantime, the publicity probably will result in higher ratings for her show which in turn will bump the ad rates which will mean more money for the network. I doubt she'll change her style.

The "fry them, don't try them" mentality is still a winner with the public.

Good for Rich:

ELECTIONS may come and go, but Washington remains incorrigible. Not even voters delivering a clear message can topple the town’s conventional wisdom once it has been set in the stone of punditry.

Right now the capital is entranced by a fictional story line about the Democrats. As this narrative goes, the party’s sweep of Congress was more or less an accident. . . . [N]ow the party is deeply divided as its old liberals and new conservatives converge on Capitol Hill to slug it out.

The only problem with this version of events is that it’s not true. The overwhelming majority of the Democratic winners, including Jon Tester of Montana, are to the left of most Republicans, whether on economic policy or abortion.

As Rich notes, this narrative distracts from Iraq:

[D]isengagement from Iraq is the patriotic thing to do. Diverting as “divided Democrats” has been, it’s escapist entertainment. The Washington story that will matter most going forward is the fate of the divided Republicans. Only if they heroically come together can the country be saved from a president who, for all his professed pipe dreams about democracy in the Middle East, refuses to surrender to democracy’s verdict at home.

William Powers explains your Liberal Media:

The hive is buzzing because a Democratic Congress is better for journalism. What!?? you say. Journalists really prefer Democrats? Yes, but not for the reasons you've heard -- covert pinkoism and so on. . . . Tough love. Journalists are more aggressive under Democratic rule. This doesn't jibe with the stereotype of reporters as liberals, but it's the stereotype that winds up undermining itself. When Democrats are in power, there's a huge incentive for reporters not to appear too sympathetic and thereby confirm the old liberal-bias charge. Thus, despite the friendly coverage we're seeing in this honeymoon period, the Democratic restoration will eventually produce tougher coverage than we saw of the GOP Congress, as media outlets strive to prove that they aren't soft on the Democrats.

Case in point, Mark Halperin.

Greg Sargent gets it in his "memo" to the Times:

[I]t's really, really critical that the paper be more skeptical when reproducing the storyline that Lieberman may leave the Democratic Party, and hence, that he alone holds the fate of the Dems in his hands. Mr. Taubman and Ms. Abramson, this is exactly the story Lieberman wants you to tell. But the truth is this: Lieberman is virtually certain not to switch. The Senate map for 2008 looks like tough sledding for the GOP, so if Lieberman switched parties, he'd be at grave risk of relegating himself to the minority for years to come. And as you've probably noticed by now, the last thing Lieberman wants is to be considered irrelevant. Every time he hints that he might switch, he's doing it to get attention -- nothing more, nothing less. Why would you allow yourselves to be played for suckers in this manner for two days in a row now?

From Media Matters:

From the November 14 edition of CNN Headline News' Glenn Beck:

BECK: . . . What is noteworthy is that Keith [Ellison] is the first Muslim in history to be elected to the House of Representatives. . . .

[BECK to ELLISON] OK. No offense, and I know Muslims. I like Muslims. I've been to mosques. I really don't believe that Islam is a religion of evil. I -- you know, I think it's being hijacked, quite frankly.

With that being said, you are a Democrat. You are saying, "Let's cut and run." And I have to tell you, I have been nervous about this interview with you, because what I feel like saying is, "Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies."