Archive for November, 2009

A grouping of cable news “mistakes”

Friday, November 20th, 2009

To review.

The staff of the Jon Stewart Show caught Sean Hannity in heading back to the “9/12 Rally” for more impressive footage than was available for the Michelle Bachman organized “Super” Protest.  See here.  Sean Hannity “apologized”, with one snark-laced caveat of “Thanks for watching.”  Inevitable sketch followed, with his teddy bear committing suicide enduring watching the Hannity program.

There are two “Cable News” crap fests of out of context video and photographic footage worth mentioning, regarding Ms. Palin.  Fox News continues the inflated crowds tact of using old footage in showing the large crowds for Sarah Palin.   And MSNBC disgraced themselves similarly, as the current media watchdog du jour of the Jon Stewart Show points toward, with a discussion of a group of those obviously photoshopped Sarah Palin photographs that were swirling around last year (go to 2:08).
But watching that MSNBC flub reminds me to point out one  odd reality of the “Cable News networks”:  as much as I feel compelled to knock everybody from Hannity to Chris Matthews, from O’Rielly to — yes, even Keith Olbermann — and this weird world of partisan political infotainment (the only thing I recommend on the bunch of them is Rachel Maddow) (and, just as aside, you know — there is more actual news going on than these partisan politics) — what is aired in the daytime is ever more insipid and vapid in its inside the beltway tusslings.  But those hours probably only exist as a bridge toward those evening (niche-audience approved) line-ups anyways.

National Review versus New Republic

Friday, November 20th, 2009

nationalreviewnov1999krauthammernewrpublicbobgates2009nov

National Review, 11-23,

-   BP “Beyond Petroleum”
-  Mansanto “How can we squeeze more food from a raindrop?” — extra close image of drop of rain falling from blade of grass

-  Energy Citizens, bearded man in hard hat, looking upward and on, “2 Million Jobs Lost”
-  Rosetta Stone — Stauer Diamond — Bose Radio — Lessons from “The Teaching Company” — US Silver Company — Jitterbug Phone  — First Street Power Lamp “For Boomers and Beyond”  — Neptune Upright Bath Lift.  — Cenesenics “How does this 51 year old Neurosurgeon look so good under his scrubs?”
-  1/2 page “Rendezvous With Destiny” book about 1976 Reagan Campaign, with a new foreward by George W Bush (weeee!)
-  Either a $4.97 deal for Sarah Palin’s new book with free trial subscription to Newsmax, or $4.97 deal for trial subscription to Newsmax with free Sarah Palin book
-  1/2 page “Christiandom College” promising you can “Breath Catholic”
-  1/2 page Thomas Acquinas College
– 1/2 page National Debt Big red 16 ditig calculator
-  You too can get voices from the National Review over the phone
-  FLAME, Israeli group
-  1/4 page ad “Where Keynes Went Wrong”
-  Riverboat Cruise Portagal to Spain
– Mortgage Bankers Association
………………………………………………………………..

New Republic, 11-14

America Future Fund
National Association for Home Care and Hospice
Biotechnology Industry Organization
“Fill the Cup” World Food Programme (4 African boys looking upward at a camera, words spell out “HOPE”, the only kid with any food is the “O” who has a bowl of sou.)
1/3 page Herblock Collection
1/6 page “Where Keynes Went Wrong”
FLAME
Phrma (moon shot and “We can Cure Cancer”

National Review continues its mix of corporate advocacy groups, conservative movement doodads, things for staid hobbyists, and goods for old people.  The New Republic has a few ads which can be transferred to the National Review, though the corporate lobbyist groups tend to have a “Green Wash”ing sheen that is not necessary for the National Review audience.

The ad in the National Review with the most current resonance is the Newsmax — Sarah Palin deal.  Just $4.97 for the book and four issues of Newsmax.  What a Deal!

The relevant ad for your consideration in the New Republic is that giant rhaspberry from “America Future Fund”, showing 36 Congress Members who were the “Losers of 1994”, with the rejoinder at the end of a comparison between now and then (citizens rose up at town hall meetings) and the final rejoinder “Keep it up Liberals.  You have nothing to lose but your majorities.”  It is interesting to note quite a few of these Congress members resurfaced quite easily — Jay Inslee and Maria Cantwell pop up at me due to my geography.  I suppose this is reaching the elite opinion makers of, say, the staff of Blanche Lincoln — the same type who were in 1994 reading The New Republic article “No Exit” by Betsy Mccaughey under the watchful editorship of Andrew Sullivan.

To be fair, I read a lot of nutty crap too.

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

In her hour-long interview with Sean Hannity last night, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin finally answered that infamous question Katie Couric asked more than a year ago: What newspapers do you read?

As she told Hannity, she reads Newsmax, the Wall Street Journal, her hometown Wasilla paper the Frontiersman, and “everything online.”
AND

On Tuesday, Palin took time out from her hectic schedule to chat exclusively with Newsmax about her new book, “Going Rogue: An American Life,” and offer her take on the current political scene.

But, before the interview could even begin, Palin excitedly offered her unsolicited opinion on Newsmax.

“Thank you so much for your daily updates,” she said, adding, “If it weren’t for Newsmax, there’d be a lot of us wondering what the heck was going on that day.”

But Palin couldn’t contain her praise for Newsmax.

She continued: “It is very valuable, very helpful, and I appreciate all that you guys are doing to get a good message out there.”

When last you heard from Newsmax, it was running an article advocating a military coup against President Obama.

It could be worse.  When we find out she places on her car the  bumper sticker that is sweeping America, call me back:

There’s a new slogan making its way onto car bumpers and across the Internet. It reads simply: “Pray for Obama: Psalm 109:8”

A nice sentiment?

Maybe not.

The psalm reads, “Let his days be few; and let another take his office.”

Presidential criticism through witty slogans is nothing new. Bumper stickers, t-shirts, and hats with “1/20/09” commemorated President Bush’s last day in office.

But the verse immediately following the psalm referenced is a bit more ominous: “Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.”

It might be worth noting too that this was the top ad on the Drudge Report yesterday.

Because Palin won’t go away as of yet…

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

The controversial Newsweek magazine cover, the repost of the Runners’ World Cover, which Sarah Palin is in a huff about.  For what it is worth, I’d prefer the magazine have not gone with that one — the equivalent is something like having the shirtless Obama Beach photograph as the cover, though I don’t think it is all that much offense with it, and I would not put it past them to have such a cover for a feature on — I don’t know, the imaging of the President.

But Palin is in no position to complain.  Here’s the syndrome she has benefitted from:

During the panel, Mattera took the David and Goliath metaphor another perverse step: If conservatives (David) smite liberals (Goliath), they will be rewarded with the hot conservative women, just like King Saul promised his daughter to the warrior who slew the evil giant. “You know his daughter must have been beautiful because there’s no guy whose gonna die for an ugly girl,” Mattera chortled. “Our women are hot. We have Michelle Malkin. Who does the left have, Rachel Maddow? Sorry, I prefer that my women not look like dudes.”

To her credit, Palin kept herself from posing for the “Women of the Conservative Movement” calendar.  But we have seen prominent bloviators and friendly pundits claim Palin as annoying “the Left” because she’s the first “fertile” female politician to reach her heights.

Meanwhile, Palin gave the “conern trolling” about Levi Johnston, worried about the direction he is taking.  I can’t say that as of yet.  A pretty good sign is that he did not go fully naked in his Playgirl shoot.  My thought on Johnston is that forced into the spotlight against his will, forced into the shotgun marriage and into Sarah Palin’s campaign narrative, he’s now cashing in on his 15 minutes of fame.  Whether this is a “bad direction” depends entirely on whether Levi Johnston is aware or blind to the ending of his 15 minutes, and is prepping himself for the post-limelight when he can return fully back to the Real World.  If he is aware, this was the greatest opportunity he could ever have had, theoretically the same would go for his child.

Presidential Responsibilities

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

140 confirmed active duty  suicides in ten months, more than all of last year.

Related, I think, approval for the war in Afghanistan is at an all time low.  My one thought on Afghanistan is a thought about the thought process and assumptions that you will find in your, for instance Charles Krauthammers and Dick Cheneys.  The lowering approval ratings are themselves an indictment on President Obama, who has forfeited his presidential responsibility in keeping the approval ratings for these military expeditions high and rallying the nation around them.  The American popular approval rating for Harmid Karzai is particularly striking — just 26 percent think he and his government is a “reliable partner”.  It is almost as if Americans didn’t really believe that last election had any legitimacy to it, and we see Obama compound the problem in his statements about Karzai.  This is something that Bush would not have allowed to happen, and a popular thought he would have squelched in gaining currency — “Our Partners in Peace” — and another sign that Obama is falling down on the job.

the Ten Year Old’s Conflict of Conscience

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

You’ll excuse me if my feelings are kind of mixed on the ten year old “Conflict of Conscience” kid from Arkansas.

A 10-year-old Arkansas boy name Will Phillips has decided that he cannot in good conscience pledge allegiance to the flag as long as the country for which it stands refuses legal equality to its GLBT citizens.

That stand has brought young Mr. Phillips anti-gay taunts in the lunch room, but admiration from around the country, reports a Nov. 5 Arkansas Times article. The West Fork School District fifth grader clashed with a substitute teacher for his refusal to stand for the pledge, prompting a call to Will’s mother, Laura Phillips. When the principal acknowledged that Will has the right to refuse to say the pledge, Ms. Phillips asked that her son receive an apology–a request that the principal declined to honor.

Obviously the school administrators are in the wrong, the substitute teacher, and “Kids can be so cruel”.

The thing I can’t help but get around with the kid is that he’s moving in one of two directions here.  His favoring of uncompromising politics will either serve him to forever change the World, or it will prove a fool-hardy venture that will grind him up into a pulp as he faces the limits of Pure and Lonely stances, if you insist on stopping this or that procedure until the country lives up to an ideal you will be waiting an awfully long time.

Fairness in this case is more than a mere abstraction, since the family has a number of openly gay friends and has participated in GLBT equality events such as Pride parades. Will, who told the newspaper that he would like to pursue a career in law when he’s older, could not square the tenets of the pledge with the political realities faced by his family’s GLBT friends, whose family and individual rights are under constant challenge. “I really don’t feel that there’s currently liberty and justice for all,” said Will.

It would almost be better if somehow this were not the case, if he came to this stance with no particular sign-posts from family and parents, his impressions come more directly from elsewhere.  But we don’t live in a vacuum.   Still, you have to prefer him over the danged CPAC speaker, and I’d prefer the child’s activism of this issue-oriented basis over the “Kids for Kerry” speaker at the 2004 DNC Convention.

Every so often, the News gives us the opportunity to dig into the old Abbott and Costello routine.

Monday, November 16th, 2009

Obama is meeting with Hu.

What?

No.  Hu.

From Kids In the Hall, season one, the video has been taken off youtube by the corporates as per their right regarding copyright.

[Kevin and Dave walk onto a stage, Kevin is smiling comically and dancing around a bit, Dave keeps a straight face and speaks very reserved.]

Kevin: Good evening ladies and gentlemen! I’m McGillicutty!

Dave: And I’m Greene.

Kevin: Well, Mr. Greene, it appears we have a conflict of financial interest to settle up to the extent I owe you 10 American dollars bills. But as luck would have it [pulls out a 20 dollar bill] I only have a 20! [thinks for a second] Say Mr. Greene! Would you happen to have change for a 20? That is to say, do you have two 10s for this 20 dollar bill?

Dave: Uh, yes, I do. [Dave reaches in pocket and pulls out two 10s.]

Kevin: Fine then! I’ll give you the 20 and you’ll give me the two 10s [they exchange money] and we’ll call it even! [Kevin smirks]

Dave: Uh, no, actually we’ve just exchanged equal amounts of money. You still owe me 10.

Kevin: [a little nervous] But, isn’t that a 20 dollar bill in your hand?

Dave: Yes.

Kevin: Well, it looks to me like you owe me 10 dollars!

[Dave turns to Kevin with a whiny look.]

Dave: Please give me my money.

[Kevin stuffs the money into his hand and Dave puts it in his pocket.]

Kevin: Just take it! [short pause] Mr. Greene! Guess who I ran into on my way to the theater this evening?

Dave: Who?

Kevin: Rhonda, the former professional hunchback!

Dave: Oh! Did she get her back straightened?

Kevin: No, she’s just outta work!

[drumroll]

Dave: [a bit depressed] Awww, so her back isn’t better then?

Kevin: [looks nervous again] Nope, just outta work!

[Kevin tries to cue a drumroll; drumroll. Short pause.]

Kevin: Say Mr. Greene, I hear you manage a baseball team.

Dave: No. I’m a vaudevillian.

Kevin: No, I think you manage a baseball team!

Dave: Yes of course, yes I do manage a baseball team.

Kevin: I understand some of the players have rather strange nicknames, rather silly pet names the players have nowadays.

Dave: Yes, it’s true. In fact, I have the team roster with me right here. For instance, Hu is on first base, Watt is on second, and Iduno is on third base.

Kevin: Who’s on first base?

Dave: Yes.

Kevin: Who?

Dave: Yes, Hu is the man on first base.

Kevin: Why are you asking me; I’m asking you! What’s the name of the guy on first base?

Dave: No no, Watt is on – oh, I see what your problem is! Look, you’re confused by their names, because they all sound like questions.

Kevin: I dunno (whispers) third base.

Dave: Well, I’ll explain it to you. See, on first base is Hu, Samuel Hu, and you’re probably not familiar with that name because his grandfather was Chinese. And on second base is Hector Watt, W-A-T-T Watt, and that’s not so unusual because James Watt invented the steam engine. And on third base is Phil Iduno, I-D-U-N-O, and if you do say that fast, it does sound like the phrase ‘Gee, I dunno,’ but it’s actually Iduno, Phil Iduno.

Kevin: That’s it. You’re hopeless, you’re pathetic, you’re the worst straight man I ever worked with. I quit. I should have never saved you from those seals.

Dave: What are you talking about? I auditioned for this job.

Kevin: Bastaaaard!