Evidently, Box Office Mojo has been acquired by IMDB/Amazon. Let’s hope Bezos & Co. don’t muck up Mojo the way they have IMDB.

This obviously can’t be true.

The Czabe sends us to this amazing item about Redskins head of football operations, Vinny Cerrato.

First, some background: In addition to being Redskins head of football operations, Vinny Cerrato was given a radio show on WTEM 980 when Redskins owner Dan Snyder bought the station. Actually, Cerrato was only given the show when the Redskins started winning earlier this season. As a radio host, Cerrato accomplished something like Pravda Radio. He managed to be uninteresting, cliched, insipid, and high-handed–all at once.

But a funny thing happened once the Redskins saw their season start to implode–Cerrato stopped showing up to do his show. The station kept advertising it. Cerrato just stopped going. Remember, it’s not like he had to face tough questions or anything. He wasn’t a guest–he was the host of the fucking show.

Anyway, after Sunday’s loss to the 1-11-1 Bengals, Cerrato skipped his show, again, prompting Dan Steinberg to go through Cerrato’s TV archives. Here’s what he found:

With Inside the Red Zone off today, leaving fans without a crack at Vinny Cerrato, I thought I’d go back to the executive VP’s appearance last week on Redskins Nation with Larry Michael. In addition to discussing the Portis-Zorn incident, Cerrato spoke at length on the draft, and why the Redskins went in the unusual direction they did with their second-round picks.

Here’s the key point: Cerrato said drafting according to need can be a way to sink your team. “You can’t just go take a need,” was the exact quote. “The way that you can screw up your team is if you go draft a need, you’re gonna get a bunch of guys at those positions but you’re not gonna be happy with the results.”

And as an example, he pointed to the poor rookie seasons of two defensive ends who some Skins fans wanted: Miami’s Phillip Merling, and Arizona’s Calais Campbell.

“I mean, it came down to Phillip Merling, people say that we maybe should have taken,” Cerrato said. “He has seven tackles right now for Miami.”

Damning. Except it’s not even close to accurate.

When Cerrato said this, Merling actually had 23 tackles (17 solo) and a sack, according to NFL.com. For a defensive end who has started just two games, that’s actually not too shabby.

By way of comparison, Jason Taylor, who’s banking $8 million and cost the team two draft picks, had 22 tackles (15 solo) and 1 sack at the time Cerrato offered this explanation, although Taylor did get three tackles and another half-sack yesterday. Andre Carter, the team’s most productive end, had 30 tackles (18 solo) and 3 sacks at the time Cerrato was knocking Merling’s production.

“I think Calais has like 11 tackles,” Cerrato said last week about another DE possibility. Not so. At the time, Calais Campbell had 19 tackles and a forced fumble. He added four more tackles yesterday, giving him 23 for the season, two fewer than Taylor. His one forced fumble is more than the entire Skins defensive line has contributed.

I’m not saying whom Cerrato should have drafted, and I’m not saying Merling or Campbell are, or will be, stars. But if you’re speaking directly to your fans, providing them with “inside information” while justifying your past decisions, and you falsify facts to this incredible a degree….well, even if you don’t like drafting according to need, you might want to pick up a fact-checker next season.

That’s right, the guy running the Redskins organization knows about as much about football stats at a mid-level fantasy player.

Steinberg has the whole transcript if you want it.

It seems a lot of Republicans are griping about Caroline Kennedy’s desire to be named Senator from the State of New York.

Has it occurred to anyone that Senator C. Kennedy would be the GOP’s best chance to pick up Senate seat in New York for a very long time?

Plus, if the Republicans are going to eventually make the case that Democrats are a bunch of entitled and/or corrupt elites, Princess Caroline makes a nice entry on the list of supporting evidence.

Plus, plus, does anyone think she’d be a particularly effective senator?

In other words, from the Republican standpoint, isn’t Caroline Kennedy an unmitigated blessing?

PS: Sure, maybe Republicans want to complain just enough to get noticed, but not so much as to derail Caroline’s coronation. But they should be careful, no?

Is this the meanest thing Todd McCarthy has ever written?

Nor can it be said that Smith, whose most recent box office barn-burners, “I Am Legend” and “Hancock,” seemed consciously designed to set the star apart from the rest of humanity, shies away from the saintlike status conferred upon his character. Indeed, he embraces it in a way so convincing that it proves disturbing as an indication of how highly this or any momentarily anointed superstar may regard himself.

Ouch.

I’ve been going back and forth with several friends over whether or not the left will (or could) ever become disenchanted with President Obama. The general consensus from my conservative friends is that the left almost certainly will turn on Obama because he’s a closet centrist and blah-blah-blah.

Leaving aside Obama’s political leanings, or even his eventual political practices, I continue to believe that there is nothing President Obama could do to cause the left (as a whole) to abandon him. If, on January 23rd, he decided to unilaterally invade Iran, install a nascent democracy, and personally torture Muqtada al Sadr while cutting taxes for ExxonMobil and advocating school voucher programs, I suspect the left would stick with him, whole-heartedly.

I may be wrong–we’ll see soon enough–but all of that is just wind up to say that if the left did turn on Obama, it might look a lot like this open letter to Starbucks from a former barista and the comment thread which follows it. You can’t believe that mushy-headedness on display.

* “You are indeed correct, and echoing a sad sentiment from all of us who ever dared to believe, believe that passion, and knowledge, and hard work, and talent, could in some way make a difference. I joined Starbucks 4 years ago, cynical from a lifetime spent in an industry where respect, integrity, creativity, and dignity were often foreign concepts. . . . Gone is the passion which lead to the talent, and the connection, and the credibility. Leaving those of us who loved our community, our partners, our guests, and our company, manipulated, lied to, disrespected, and most of all devalued. Thus, valued, respected, talented, enthusiastic partners are now crushed, faithless in our leadership, and dejected.”

* “Well, it’s nice to see that people are finally waking up and realizing this isn’t the company they signed on for 2, 4 or more years ago. And if you think for a moment that your DM or even SM feel the slightest bit of remorse for what they are putting you through, I have a bridge to sell you. Don’t even think for a second that anyone above the DM level cares one whit what your life is like.”

* “I have been here for 3 years (granted, not 10) and i used to LOVE everything we stood for. Making the WHOLE experience. . . . I’m all about thoughtful feedback, but i would like my company to be honest with me for once.”

* “A-fricking-men! I used to love it here, but not so much right now.
There’s still time to turn around, Howard! Please do it!”

it turns out that the name’s taken already.

NJ represent!

If that sort of thing excites you, then good news.

I was kind of underwhelmed by Tron, probably through no fault of the movie itself. I was just a kid when I saw it on VHS after about two years of wasted quarters on the really cool looking, but ultimately insipid, arcade Tron.