[Guest post by DRJ]

An 11-year-old girl and her 15-year-old boyfriend have been arrested for trying to burn the girl’s sleeping mother alive:

“Samantha Broadhead and Jack Ault have been charged with attempted murder and arson after the fire Tuesday in Clearwater — about 20 miles west of Tampa on Florida’s Gulf Coast — MyFoxTampa.com reported.

Clearwater Police Department detectives say the young couple poured gasoline on Nancy Broadhead’s bedroom floor and bed, and then set the room aflame. Police say the pair escaped in the mother’s 2007 Ford Focus.”

Police spokeswoman Elizabeth Watts said a motive was “probably just typical teenage angst.”

— DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

Time for a poll:

— DRJ

UPDATE — Compare our results with these Rasmussen poll results:

September 1, 2009 — “Forty-nine percent (49%) of Americans believe it is at least somewhat likely that there will be a significant terrorist attack in the United States in the next year.”

December 28, 2009 — “A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 79% of U.S. voters now think it is likely there will be another terrorist attack in the United States in the next year. That’s a 30-point jump from the end of August when just 49% of Americans felt that way.”

[Guest post by DRJ]

Adam James, the player at the center of the Mike Leach firing, has apparently posted a video on YouTube:

The description:

“This video was taken by Adam James, a player on the Texas Tech Red Raider football team on Saturday, December 19th, after being confined by Coach Mike Leach in an electrical closet off the Press Room at Jones AT&T Stadium. James was suffering from a concussion received during an earlier scrimmage game. James was ordered to stand in the darkness until released several hours later. James momentarily turned on a light to record his surroundings with his cell phone.”

— DRJ

UPDATE: An interview with Leach’s attorney posted on YouTube:

[Guest post by DRJ]

Breitbart and the AP report a vacationing Rush Limbaugh is in serious condition in an Hawaii hospital. The report says he had chest pains.

— DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

The UK Daily Telegraph’s U.S. Editor Toby Harnden gives President Obama and his Administration an “F” for their handling of the “events that led to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab boarding a Detroit-bound plane in Amsterdam with a PETN bomb sewn into his underpants.” The highlights, or maybe I should say the lowlights, from Harnden’s analysis (NOTE: My summary with Harnden’s thoughts in quotes):

1. What did the CIA know? The CIA had “at least two face-to-face meetings, telephone calls and written correspondence with [Adulmutallab’s] father. If it’s true that the CIA sat on this then it beggars belief.”

2. What did the National Counter Terrorism Center, the NSC, and the White House know? “CIA spokesman George Little says here that ‘key biographical information’ and information about ‘possible extremist connections in Yemen’ was passed to NCTC. If NCTC knew about it, then did someone at the National Security Council within the White House?”

3. This wasn’t the Administration’s only intelligence failure. “According to CBS, as early as August of 2009 the Central Intelligence Agency was picking up information on a person of interest dubbed ‘The Nigerian’ suspected of meeting with ‘terrorist elements’ in Yemen.”

4. Obama’s initial response did not demonstrate leadership. Obama’s delayed, legalistic and aloof response — punctuated by golf, tennis, and snorkeling — suggests he is “dangerously close to failing as a leader.”

5. Obama can’t continue to be complacent about the danger of terrorism. “There has been a pattern developing with the Obama administration trying to minimise terrorist attacks” as illustrated by its initial non-existent or tepid responses to the Arkansas recruiting center shooting, the Fort Hood shooting, and now this.

6. Obama should rethink closing Guantanamo Bay. “How many other enemies of America and the West are going to be released back to the battlefield?”

7. Janet Napolitano can’t do this job. “[Her] ‘system worked’ comment was a ‘heckuva job, Brownie’ moment. Is she up to the job?”

8. “Will Obama hold individuals accountable?” Obama has called for “accountability at the highest levels.” Will he follow through by making the right heads roll?

9. Stop blaming Bush. Obama and members of his Administration continue to blame Bush: “It’s bordering on the juvenile. Obama’s been president for a year now. It’s time for him to accept that things that happen as his responsibility …”

10. “Will there be US air attacks against targets in Yemen?” In other words, will Obama talk or will he do something?

Read the whole thing.

H/T The Drudge Report.

— DRJ

[Posted by Karl]

On Tuesday, the Pew Research Center posted an analysis comparing the annual results from its weekly News Interest Index and the News Coverage Index compiled by Pew’s Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ):

This year, the media’s top stories generally reflected the public’s top interests: the economic crisis, the new administration and the health care debate were the most covered news stories. But there were number of occasions when news coverage exceeded the public’s interest and vice versa.

For example, the media was more interested than the public in the death of Sen. Ted Kennedy, Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination to the Supreme Court, Sen. Arlen Specter’s switch to the Democratic Party and the release of Sarah Palin’s book.

While Pew compiled the establishment media’s top 15 stories from PEJ’s News Coverage Index, it failed to compile a similar list from PEJ’s New Media Index, which used services including Icerocket and Technorati to track interest in stories by the percentage of news links appearing in blog posts.

Had they done so, the list of the 15 bloggiest stories of 2009 would have looked like this:

1. Economic crisis/AIG bonuses (Mar 16-20) 65%
2. Obama Inauguration (Jan 19-23) 63%
3. Iran post-election unrest (Jun 15-19) 63%
4. Economy/Financial bailouts (Mar 23-27) 62%
5. ClimateGate (Dec 7-11) 52%
6. “What Happened to Global Warming?” (Oct 12-16) 50%
7. Stimulus passes (Feb 9-13) 50%
8. E-mail Phishing Scam (Oct 5-9) 45%
9. Senate passes health insurance bill (Dec 21-25) 44%
10. Navy SEALS charged with punching terrorist (Nov 23-27) 40%
11. Stimulus contents (Feb 2-6) 39%
12. Ted Kennedy dies (Aug 24-28) 38.7%
13. Obama slips in polls (Jul 20-24) 36%
14. Interrogation memos released (Apr 20-24) 36%
15. Prop 8 upheld (May 25-29) 35%

Initially, I should note that the blogosphere cannot be expected to be more than roughly compared with the establishment media. The traditional media can be limited in the time and space they devote to a topic, and feel much more of a responsibility to serve a spectrum of topics within those limits. Conversely, blogs still tend to be a niche media, and position themselves as an alternative to editorial judgments of the establishment.

Thus, it is not surprising that the list tends to reinforce the general image of the blogosphere as more focused on hot-button issues like global warming, enhanced interrogation and same-sex marriage than the establishment media. In some cases, the blogosphere mirrored establishment media interest in stories that did not engage the public (Iran, Ted Kennedy’s death). In other cases, the blogosphere shared the public’s relative lack of interest (the Sotomayor nomination, the death of Michael Jackson). And in the case of healthcare reform, the blogosphere tended to lag behind both the public and establishment media.

Of course, neither the blogosphere nor the establishment media are charged with simply mirroring the public’s interests of the moment, so the import of these differences is debatable. However, it is worth noting that neither the blogosphere nor the establishment media matched the sustained public interest in the economy (and to a lesser degree, public interest in Iraq and Afghanistan). Given the centrality of peace and prosperity to American life and politics, perhaps the new media should join the old in taking a look in the mirror.

–Karl

[Guest post by DRJ]

Texas Tech University has fired head football coach Mike Leach. The announcement was made by Leach’s attorney, who read a letter he received this morning at a scheduled hearing on Leach’s TRO motion:

“Before the hearing this morning, Mike Leach’s personal attorney, Ted Liggett, received a letter from Texas Tech signed by President Guy Bailey terminating Leach’s employment effective immediately.

Liggett shocked the courtroom full of spectators with the news. No hearing took place as scheduled.

According to the letter, Leach is in violation of Article Four of his contract. The article reads in part, “Coach shall assure the fair and responsible treatment of student athletes in relation to their health, welfare and discipline.” The contract goes on to say the breach of those guidelines can result in penalties ranging from fines to termination.

Leach’s suspension and subsequent firing comes after a complaint filed by wide receiver Adam James and his family.”

Leach’s attorney promised a lawsuit would be filed “soon.”

— DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

The USGS confirms there was a 5.8 magnitude earthquake south of Mexicali, Mexico, which is on the California-Mexico border just east of San Diego.

This Fox News report has more on the quake. Any readers feel it?

— DRJ

Quotable:

It was also a year of Change, especially in Washington, where the tired old hacks of yesteryear finally yielded the reins of power to a group of fresh, young, idealistic, new-idea outsiders such as Nancy Pelosi. As a result Washington, rejecting “business as usual,” finally stopped trying to solve every problem by throwing billions of taxpayer dollars at it and instead started trying to solve every problem by throwing trillions of taxpayer dollars at it.

. . . .

The annual observance of Earth Hour is observed with one hour of symbolic energy conservation as hundreds of millions of non-essential lights and appliances are turned off. And that’s just in Al Gore’s house.

Lots more like that. Good stuff.