Kurtz, who endured a five-day storm-induced electricity cut prior to going on vacation, returned home just in time for a second stint without power. Just like during power cut one, Kurtz hasn't hesitated to microblog his displeasure with Pepco. But so far this time, there's no evidence that the social media savvy power company has dispatched a crew to Kurtz's stricken household—despite the fact that the electric cut could mean the pundit would be dangerously misinformed in the event an upoming "Reliable Sources" episode deals with such electricity-powered media as the Internet and cable TV. (We'll assume that a resourceful newsman like Kurtz keeps battery-operated broadcast TVs and radios around for just this sort of emergency).

For 11 uneasy hours, we waited for word on whether the power was back. Was Kurtz banging out some new take on a new bloggers-versus-reporters controversy via a manual typewriter? Was he using a treadmill generator to make sure his flow of information was uninterrupted? Had he tragically drowned in the flood of melted ice cream presumably flowing out of the Kurtz family refrigerator? In mid-evening, Kurtz's avatar emerged from seclusion to announce that he "wasn't pushing to restore my power," only objecting to Pepco misinformation. There's still no word that power has returned—with or without the badgering of the most important man in Style section-based Monday media coverage.

Meanwhile, signs have emerged that Kurtz's major-media colleagues may not be prepared to rally behind his criticisms of the power company. ABC White House correspondent Jake Tapper (a City Paper alum) tweeted that his own power cut had been resolved very nicely, and thanked Pepco, hashtaggng his post "the anti-Kurtz." Could such obvious divisions among the Beltway media elite cause overburdened Pepco staffers to play favorites? Or is Kurtz already a target, perhaps because of his trenchant reporting on causes of interest to Pepco workers, many of whom were devoted followers of deposed Washington Post blogger Dave Weigel?

Our reporting has not turned up other examples of leading media-criticism figures deprived of electricity, a contrast that is sure to encourage those who might view Kurtz's as a case of persecution.

But the good news is that despite  the unprecedented loss of power, Kurtz is still tweeting. Which means that the hard working reporters here at City Desk—your number one source for Kurtz electricity-related news—will know as soon as Kurtz and those 33,000 followers exactly when the lights flicker back on that Howard Kurtz HQ. Stay tuned!

Photo via CNN

Really, the good thing about the blowup was that it drew additional attention to Jones, providing further publicity to the allegation that he is a 9/11 Truther.

Here's Jake Tapper:

Van Jones, the Special Advisor for Green Jobs at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, is Number 46 of the petitioners from the so-called "Truther" movement which suggests that people in the administration of President George W. Bush "may indeed have deliberately allowed 9/11 to happen, perhaps as a pretext for war."

In a statement issued Thursday evening Jones said of "the petition that was circulated today, I do not agree with this statement and it certainly does not reflect my views now or ever."

He did not explain how his name came to be on the petition. An administration source said Jones says he did not carefully review the language in the petition before agreeing to add his name.

Shoe's on the other foot, right? Believing that your country murdered more than 3,000 citizens in order to fuck with gas prices is very similar in its paranoia and emphasis on imagined facts to believing that Pres. Barack Obama is not an American. What's fascinating is that Obama can hire a 9/11 Truther and not be called a traitor, yet any Senate Republican would be dead to rights if he came within 10 feet of bringing a Birther on staff. You know what the Birthers need? Professors.

Sorry for the short roundup, y'all. It's FALL ARTS GUIDE TIME!

Military politics, insular media rambling, and medical marijuana, after the jump.

• The Illinois State Senate passed a bill yesterday legalizing medical marijuana. Pot, along with gay marriage, is going to make this country a better place. I can feel it. (I actually don't have any more to say on this. Let's just bask in the THC glow for a bit.)
• Jon Soltz writes in the Stimulist that military men and women are moving left politically: "The trend gained momentum with President Obama and Hillary Clinton during the primaries, and it’s about to get fast-tracked with Rush Limbaugh and Dick Cheney taking control of Republican messaging, ideals, practices, and policies." This is a great chance to plug Babylon By Bus, a first-person account written by two U.S. employees of their time in Baghdad in 2003. Based on their book, and on accounts from imbedded reporters, I'd wager that the rank-and-file switched political allegiances long before the top brass decided it wouldn't kill their careers to do the right thing.
• In media land: Tim Cavanaugh, former editor of Suck.com and a contributing editor at Reason and reason.com, is now blogging regularly for the latter. This is good news for all human beings who can use an Internet, as Cavanaugh was a pioneer of snarky outgoing links, snarky essays, and snarky snark-snark. He's mellowed out in the years since, but is no less great a read. (Srsly, I'm not just schilling for a some-time employer). In somewhat less groundbreaking news, I just saw that Jake Tapper pissed off a whole army of progressive idiots by twittering, "Have MediaMatters or CAP said one critical word about POTUS support of "state secrets," or military commissions, or indefinite detention?" Ha. He's just asking, people!

This morning I did something I rarely do on Twitter. I wrote what was exactly on my mind (which I guess is the point of twitter). I typed out: "Jake Tapper had the best question at the Obama press conference." I sat there last night watching the Obama press conference like it was event television. I'm a sucker. Tapper was one of the few reporters who asked a question aimed at getting Obama off the talking points. He asked Obama what benchmarks or milestones or measurements his administration and the public could use to see if the stimulus plan was working. In other words, how would we know if the trillion bucks were gonna cough up is money well spent.

It was a great question.

I pretty much have forgotten Obama's answer. But I remembered the moment as a typical Tapper moment. He's not your average political correspondent/hack. Since he left CP years ago, I have read and watched Tapper with amazement at his ability to churn out good copy for Salon, and solid pieces for Nightline and his politics blog. So it was just odd to read today the anonymous carping from the press corps about Tapper.

Rachel Sklar writes in the Daily Beast that Tapper is fast becoming "the new star of the Washington press pack." She points to Tapper's now-famous skirmish with Press Secretary Robert Gibbs:

That may or may not been Tapper's big moment. Surely Tapper will have bigger moments and important scoops in the coming months and years. But it was enough to get the anonymous quote roundup on Tapper:

“I think it’s safe to say that he's calculated, meaning that if he's being tough, it's likely because he sat down one day to say, ‘I want to be this administration's David Gregory,’" said one colleague on the D.C. political circuit. (Note where Gregory ended up.) Others have also compared him to Sam Donaldson, whose scrappy briefing room questioning is still legendary. “[Tapper] works really hard, he's really smart, and he does have good questions that you just can't dismiss as showboating,” said another D.C.-based political reporter who has known Tapper for years. And while more than one other person also used the word “showboating,” a briefing room colleague was a little more zen: “It's too early to judge anyone... And I wouldn't get too worked up over the press briefings. Judge all of us on the reporting, analysis, and packages.”

I think it's a little lame of these correspondents to a) insist on anonymity; b) carp on a colleague as ambitious (this just reeks of sour grapes); c) describe Tapper as showboating. These are the same press corps that gave Bush a free ride. These are the same people that hissed at Colbert. What's so wrong with asking tough questions?

Tony Kornheiser is an illustrious alum of the Washington Post. Before taking the paper's buyout, he'd written thousands upon thousands of columns and stories. Now he's a highly paid
ESPN personality. He said on the occasion of taking the Post's early retirement offer: "All I ever wanted to be was a newspaper writer. This other stuff is great, but I don't care about it. In my mind that's what it says on the headstone, it says 'newspaper guy.' "

OK, so fellows: If you really are in your minds and hearts really print guys, get the hell off of TV. Go back to print, full-time–no makeup, no takes, no standups, no set, no big-time six-figure paydays. Just go back to the newspapers, fellows. 'Cause it's got to be killing you not to be doing what your hearts say you should be doing. C'mon now, quit these sweet gigs and get back to writing 10-inch stories.

Thank you New York Times. The out-of-town paper has noticed something that's been irking me for weeks: Obama's slogans, campaign themes, image, and logo have been co-opted by corporations and plastered all around the District. Obama is on buses, Metro cards, the radio and TV. Ikea has a new slogan: "Change Begins At Home." There's also a hot sauce, a hope-and-change necklace, and trading cards. Plus Obama toilet paper, soap, and candy bars. Visit any of our local airports and you will find a kiosk or three selling anything and everything with Obama's face on it.

The biggest offender is Pepsi. Slate made a case over the summer that Obama was the Pepsi candidate. But Pepsi appears to have tweaked their red-white-and-blue yin-yang and has adopted words like "hope" and "optimism" for its bus and TV ads. Only Pepsi spells it "optimismmm." Or something like that. Cool.

I marvel at what Pepsi would have done with McCain's "America First" slogan. But anyway. You just know Sarah Palin will be appearing in a painful Superbowl ad. Probably something for Viagra or Crystal Meth or Crystal Light or GED classes or LensCrafters.

ABC's Jake Tapper has the full scoop. Pepsi has a name for its new campaign–the Pepsi Optimism Project (PoP–sorry PoP). Tapper writes:

"Last month, Pepsi commissioned a Pepsi Optimism Project (POP) survey, which concluded that those whom they dub 'Millennials' (people born between 1980 and 1990) remained, 'confident and optimistic” despite “a failing economy, employment woes and countless other concerns.'...

Pepsi also has plans to have a big presence in Washington, D.C. next week during the inauguration. The company has teamed up with The Creative Coalition to hold an inaugural ball. A spokesperson from Pepsi said that during the week they will continue it’s brand re-launch around the ideas of hope, positive change, and active participation though forums out-of-home communications, and TV.

Is this change we can believe in?"

No, it is not.