BuzzMachine

Howard’s back
: This is what a sick fan I am: I’m on vacation and could actually sleep this morning, yet I set the alarm for 6 so I could hear Howard Stern on Stuttering John’s defection to the Jay Leno show.

Stern won’t stand in the way of his guy, John, getting a good gig with more money (reportedly $500k/year for three years). That’s not the interesting part.

Howard said Leno called him twice and Howard called Jay lame for stealing not only his bits but now his people. Leno sends people out to the red carpet to ask odd questions, as Stuttering John does (and, in fact, Leno tried to hire John before to do this). Leno stole the Stern homeless game/stripper game. Now Leno steals Stuttering John. And as a I said a few days ago, it’s all the odder that Leno is hiring him as announcer, extending Stern’s stuttering joke.

Leno called Stern a second time asking him to come on Tonight to talk about it. Stern laughed at him.

And that’s the morning Stern report.

More Ralphing
: Rep. Mark Cohen leaves this note in the comments on the Nader post below:

Ralph Nader has every right to declare his candidacy. Voters have every right not to sign his nomination petition, not to contribute to his campaign, not to listen to his speeches, not to vote for him. He has done, and led others to do, great things. But helping George win is not one of them. Nor will helping Bush win a second term be one of them.

Right. Don’t give me any freedom-of-speech crap about telling Ralph that he shouldn’t be running — and he should take responsibilty for the consequences of running. We’re just as free to complain as he is to campaign. That is free speech.

The power of the individual and the web
: On Meet the Press, Ralph Nader is being forced to watch the wonderful Flash appeal on RalphDontRun.net. So a few people who created this are being heard on national TV and are confronting the very man they want to confront. Now that’s power.

And, of course, Ralph is deaf to it: “That’s the liberal intelligensia… That’s a contemptuous statement.” He argues that anyone is trying to stop him from running.

No one is trying to stop you. Many are trying to get you to stop yourself, to be responsible, to recognize that you’ve become a destructive self-parody of political ego.

Ralph, you old loon.

: Here’s Nader’s campaign site. Let’s start a GoogleBomb. Here is the election spoiler.

: No blog. No forum. No chance to hear the voters speak on Ralph’s site. He doesn’t care to listen. That’s obvoius.

: NZ Bear just sent me email; noticed the same thing.

Ralph is deaf.

: Nader calls for the impeachment of Bush. “If there’s any better definition for high crimes and misdemeanors than misleading” regarding the cause to go to war he doesn’t know it, Nader tells Tim Russert.

: “We can’t just sit down like The Nation magazine,” says Nader. Russet read Nader The Nation’s editorial begging Nader not to do what he is doing this morning. Bitchslap.

: “Spoiler is a contemptuous term,” says Nader. Yes, Ralph, it is.

Nader, the dork, does it
: Ralph Nader proves that he’s nothing but ego, officially announces. The story from Meet the Press just went up.

Girl talk
: Couldn’t believe my eyes just now: Tina Brown on a Sunday morning talk show (Today). Tina Brown sharing a couch with others (someone from US, someone from New York mag). Tina Brown talking about the characters on Sex and the City as if they were celebrities. Is this a case of how the mighty do drop? Or is this the real Tina engaging in girl talk?