The Future for Olberdork: 'He and His New Partners Will Make an Exciting Announcement Regarding the Next Chapter in His Remarkable Career'

His remarkable career? What's remarkable is why anyone would employ an angry misogynist who's been fired so many times. And what's so remarkable going to some television nonentity that makes MSNBC look like a cable juggernaut in comparison?

Keith Olbermann, the former top-rated host of “Countdown” on the news channel MSNBC, will announce his next television home on Tuesday, and people familiar with his plans pointed Monday to a possible deal with the public affairs channel Current TV.

Neither Mr. Olbermann, his representatives, or executives from Current TV would comment on the move, but they did not deny that the channel, which counts former Vice President Al Gore as one of its founders, will become at least one partner in Mr. Olbermann’s future media plans.

One of the people with knowledge of the plans said Mr. Olbermann would have an equity stake in Current TV. The people insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized by their employers to comment in advance of the official announcement.

On Monday a public relations agency hired by Mr. Olbermann scheduled a Tuesday morning conference call for an announcement about his next job. “He and his new partners will make an exciting announcement regarding the next chapter in his remarkable career,” the agency wrote in an e-mail.

Al Gore and Olbermann: Perfect together.

Billionaire Global Warming Huckster Fails Again

Former Clinton lapdog and presidential wannabe Al Gore has another failure on his hands. As one of the co-founders of the cable channel Current he is proving to be far more effective at hoodwinking European bureaucrats and UN flunkies then he is at managing an entertainment enterprise.

Current Media, the edgy cable company co-founded by former Vice President Al Gore, announced Wednesday it has laid off 80 employees in conjunction with a programming shakeup.

According to a release from the company, this shift involves canceling a number of programs, including "Current Tonight," "Current Takeover" and "Current Exposed." Most of the layoffs are in conjunction with those programs.

So why is it that somebody that has a pretty dismal record at anything other then riding other people's coattails should be hailed as the high priest of environmental awareness?

Guess that Obama stimulus bill ain't working out too good for him either.

Smart Diplomacy: Norks Sentence Gore's Reporters to 12 Years Hard Labor

We figure without the back-channel negotiations of Obama's vaunted foreign-policy team led by Mrs. Clinton, along offers from Al Gore, these two probably would have gotten 25 years hard labor.

So chalk up another win for smart diplomacy.

A court in North Korea has sentenced two US journalists to 12 years' hard labour, state media say.

Euna Lee and Laura Ling were found guilty of "hostile acts" and illegal entry into the communist state.

They were arrested in March after allegedly crossing into North Korea from China.

The US said it was "deeply concerned" by the sentence and called for the release of the two women on humanitarian grounds.

The trial comes amid growing tensions over North Korea's nuclear programme and recent missile tests.

"The trial confirmed the grave crime they [the reporters] committed against the Korean nation and their illegal border crossing," state-run KCNA news agency said in a brief report, adding that they were sentenced to 12 years of "reform through labour".

The news agency gave no further details.

Outside observers were not allowed to witness the hearing at Pyongyang's court.

The verdict means that the journalists face the prospect of spending years in one of the North's prison camps, where conditions are reported to be extremely harsh, the BBC's Chris Hogg in Seoul says.

In a statement, the US State Department said: "We are deeply concerned by the reported sentencing of the two American citizen journalists by North Korean authorities, and we are engaged through all possible channels to secure their release."

US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton earlier described the charges against the two women as "baseless". She is thought to be considering sending an envoy to try to negotiate their release.

There has been speculation that former US Vice-President Al Gore might travel to Pyongyang. He is the co-founder of Current TV, the California-based internet broadcaster the two journalists were working for.

Euna Lee, a Korean-American, and Laura Ling, a Chinese-American, were arrested by North Korean guards on 17 March while working on the China-North Korea border on a story about refugees.

So these two have been held for nearly three months and just now Mrs. Clinton show deep concern and is considering sending an envoy over there?

Good thing the world loves us again.

Does Al Gore Care His Employees Are Held Hostage in North Korea?

Is it just me or is it just a bit unseemly that Al Gore has had no comment over the fact two of his employees are being held hostage in North Korea and are reportedly undergoing intense interrogation? This story was first reported about five days ago and I've yet to see a single news account where he's commented. Does anyone even know where he is?

Two American journalists detained at North Korea's border with China are under investigation by North Korean military intelligence officers who suspect they were engaged in espionage activities, a report said Tuesday.

North Korea has said its border guards arrested two Americans on March 17 for "illegally intruding" after they entered the country from China. The two have been identified as Laura Ling and Euna Lee, reporters for former Vice President Al Gore's San Francisco-based media outlet Current TV.

South Korea's mass-circulation JoongAng Ilbo newspaper said Tuesday that the American women had crossed the border from China while reporting on North Korean refugees.

They were taken to Pyongyang a day after their arrest, and were being held at a guest house run by the military intelligence agency on the outskirts of the capital, the newspaper said, citing an unnamed South Korean intelligence officer.

North Korean investigators were checking the journalists' cameras, video tapes and notebooks to try to establish if they had been spying on the North's military facilities, the report said.

North Korea "will not treat the female journalists harshly, although they will undergo intense interrogation," the paper quoted another unnamed South Korean intelligence officer as saying.

South Korea's main spy agency, the National Intelligence Service, said Tuesday that South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities had been keeping a close watch on the case, but that it could not immediately confirm the JoongAng Ilbo report.

Seoul's Unification Ministry, which handles relations with the North, also said it could not confirm the report.

A U.S. official said Saturday that the U.S. has been in touch with North Korean representatives about the journalists and was awaiting a reply. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity citing the sensitivity of the issue, said the U.S. did not know where the North was holding them.

It's entirely possible there are some back channel negotiations going on that the media isn't privy to, but has anyone even reached Gore for comment?

Searching around this morning, the most recent item I see mentioning his name is yet another tedious profile in the Boston Globe claiming he's been proven right on mythical global warming.

Frankly, the intervening years have been good to him in other ways. Science generally has borne out his early concerns over global warming. His dogged quest for environmental awareness led to his best-selling book "An Inconvenient Truth," as well as an Academy Award-winning documentary of the same name, and, topping it all, the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.

Maybe this author from the Boston Globe ought to step outside. On the fifth day of spring it's currently 27 degrees with a wind chill of 16 degrees.