A new poll from the Des Moines Register shows Ron Paul firmly in the on-deck circle for the GOP presidential lead, should current frontrunner Newt Gingrich falter as so many Republican candidates have this cycle. Gingrich leads with 25% support among likely caucusgoers, followed by Ron Paul at 18%, just ahead of Mitt Romney at 16%. Currently in third place in New Hampshire, is Paul a photon torpedo barrage away from two early upsets?

On Friday, CNN’s American Morning aired an Ali Velshi interview with William Shatner, in which Shatner, famous for his role as Captain James T. Kirk in Star Trek, brushed aside the idea that President Obama needed to be more like Kirk and less like Mr. Spock.

Tuesday saw yet another chapter in the ongoing feud between the guy who makes Nazi references, and the other guy who makes Nazi references. Keith Olbermann responded, via Twitter, to a post by Glenn Beck’s The Blaze.com, which was, itself, a response to Olbermann’s viral video attack on Beck. It was only a couple of [...]

MSNBC’s newest anchor, Martin Bashir, devoted several minutes of his show (and an unknown amount of energy) keeping a straight face while reporting on an infectious disease outbreak that emanated from the world famous Playboy Mansion.

It is, perhaps, a sign of the times that the onetime mothership of hedonism and debauchery is suspected of causing an outbreak, not of some exotic malady of the penis, or of peculiar muscle strains, but of Legionnaires’ Disease. This is the sad tale of a dusty, ancient relic of a bygone America, and his mansion.

On Thursday night’s Countdown,host Keith Olbermann once again displayed his Trekkie chops, as he used a Star Trek episode to illustrate the idiocy of the current filibuster rule. He compared the painless way Senators can simulate endless debate (without actually having to debate) with the bloodless war from A Taste of Armageddon, and spoke with filibuster-buster Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM) about his plan to reform the rules.

Thursday night’s Countdown presents a near-existential dilemma for conservatives, many of whom have a Comic Book Guy-esque devotion to all things Star Trek. Host and liberal bogeyman Keith Olbermann not only displayed an impressive grasp of the Trek canon, he did so at the expense of a NASA scientist, a feat which surely must transcend ideological rancor.

In her new book America By Heart, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin goes there, ripping the scab off of a long-festering national wound: Murphy Brown’s single motherhood. Following in the footsteps of former Vice President Dan Quayle, Palin takes a swipe at the fictional TV character who became pregnant, and when the father abandoned her, chose to have the child and raise it herself.

Aside from the obvious contradictions, and the questionable wisdom of lining up with a vice-presidential punchline, what brought this on? And when will she finally speak out against AfterMASH? (h/t Media Matters)

In an article about the impact of the midterm elections on legislative progress, CBS News included a photo that is drawing fire from right-of-center media like Newsbusters, calling it “racist.” The photo depicts the legislative divide with a photoshopped image that bisects the President’s face, with a darker skin tone on the left and a lighter one on the right, flanked by corresponding Congressional leaders.

While it’s hard to imagine that the photo, attributed to the Associated Press and CBS, escaped the notice of any number of editors, it is equally bemusing to contemplate where Newsbusters places its outrage. After the jump, exclusive reaction from CBS.

Since joining the White House beat on the eve of Barack Obama‘s inauguration, CBS News Chief White House Correspondent Chip Reid has distinguished himself as one of the toughest questioners in the Brady Briefing Room.

In this edition of Inside the White House Press Corps, Chip speaks frankly about the role of the Press Secretary, compares the Obama White House to the Bush administration, and much more.

Greg Grunberg has had a pretty great career. Actually, he’s in the process of having a whole bunch of pretty great careers. You may know him best as psychic cop Matt Parker from NBC’s Heroes, or as the pilot from Lost, or Agent Weiss from Alias, or – as I do, and always will – [...]

Like vampire or zombie bites, geekdom is infectious. But this year it really seems like something has changed. Everyone seems to be talking about Comic-Con. With an entertainment industry that is interested in sequels, franchises and the already-proven value of any new investment in an entertainment property, Comic-Con has become the center of both the entertainment-industrial complex as well as the countless fan-universes that each franchise has created.