Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Geico Pulls Ads From Glenn Beck Show


I just signed on to work on this campaign. It feels good to be actively involved. Yesterday we got front page of the Huffington Post and it was mentioned the previous day. Olbermann was wrong on the signature numbers; we're over 112,000 signatures.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Bloggingheads hits homerun with timely Iran election diavlog

h/t BJKeefe

It's fun to watch Eli Lake agree with the liberal Reza Aslan. Like Brendan, Lake is one of my favorite neocons. He's a thinking mans neocon. If you're looking for more details from two of the more knowledgeable foreign policy heads from both sides of the political spectrum, I highly suggest watching this diavlog. These diavlogs are of the type that make bloggingheads.tv one of the better resources on the web.

A must read with Aslan in The Daily Beast for some more background on the protests.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Oh the irony in the GOP

Considering the joke Meghan McCain's father made at Chelsea Clinton's behalf.

If you don't remember:
"Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly?
Because her father is Janet Reno."
It sure is amusing reading the younger McCain's critique of David Letterman's Bristol Palin joke.

The most frustrating part of McCain's complaint is she continues to peddle the nonsense that the joke is about 14-year-old Willow Palin. No where in the original joke did Letterman mention Willow by name and in his apology the following the day he specifically says he was referring to Bristol.

I'm not defending what he said. In my opinion, neither Letterman nor the older McCain's jokes are defensible. But I wish Meghan McCain would just shut up already.

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Mo Dowd Just Isn't as Funny as She Thinks She Is

When NY Times columnist Maureen Dowd is on, she's hilarious and on fire. It's just that more often than not her columns scream laziness.

I'm far from a fan of the Edwards' family, but you got to love Elizabeth Edwards defending herself and taking a slap at MoDowd:
In response to a recent New York Times column by Maureen Dowd that called Edwards's new book, Resilience, "just a gratuitous peek into their lives, and one that exposes her kids, by peddling more dregs about their personal family life," Edwards says Dowd is way off base and adds that she'd have been "foolhardy" to think she'd be protecting her kids by not writing about her life.

"My children aren't protected from the death of their brother, my breast cancer, or any of the things that have happened in our family," says Edwards. "They're smart kids, they have Google alerts. They already know." Dowd, she adds, "has written an editorial where she clearly does not understand this."

"Least. Welcome. Convert. Ever."

War criminal and former Liberian dictator Charles Taylor is apparently a convert Jew for Jesus:
Q. So he's now a practicing Jew?

A. He's now a Jew. He's practicing Judaism.

Q. Tells us about that? What led him to that?

A. Because of the difficulties, he always wanted to know God in a very diffent and special way. From a very small boy -- because we talk about his childhood a whole lot -- he asked himself questions about Christianity. Too many questions about why certain things happened. And why, this one and that one. Just too many question in Christianity and the whole thing about Christ because he does believe in Christ. When he got to the Hague, he got to know that he really, really wanted to be a Jew. Wanted to convert to Judaism. And that...

Q. Does that mean he has rejected Christianity then? Because that's quite a radical departure.

A. No, no, no he hasn't rejected Christianity. He has always been a Christian. He just decided to become a Jew. He wants to follow the two religions.

Friday, June 5, 2009

Favorable Obama Coverage


It's impossible not to notice that NBC is the White House's favorite network. As a supporter of Obama, I can't say I'm terribly bothered. For all of the hate spewed on Fox it's nice to see the White House have a favorable balance. I'd prefer it was MSNBC, but when they have Liz Cheney on around the clock, NBC may end of being the liberal sister to MSNBC.

CNN's John King is not a fan of the Obama Conan O'Brien plug:
King: It's my school of journalism, it may not be everyone else's school of journalism, but it's my school of journalism is that I interview all these guys with respect. I respect the office, I respect the people, I respect anybody that puts themselves out there like that. But, I, you know, I need to protect myself and my integrity and my credibility, and the President of the United States, you know, God bless him, God bless the one before him, and God bless the next 200 to come. I'm not going to ask them for an endorsement or a product endorsement. I think that's way over the line.
I agree with King. It was tacky. Cute, but tacky. The Daily Show mocked NBC's "Real World" coverage of Obama:
The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c
The Real World D.C.
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show
Full Episodes
Political HumorEconomic Crisis

h/t Michael Calderone

Stay Classy National Review

"Unfortunately, there’s not a good shorthand term for the psychology behind this kind of behavior. “Racism” doesn’t, I think, capture it. But there’s this deranged fascination with walking up to the line and dancing around there in hopes of getting called on it. Then you get to become indignant. Because, again, the contemporary right’s main view on race is that actual racism against non-white people is only a tiny problem compared with the vast social crisis that allegedly exists around people being vigilant against racism." - Matt Yglesias
Salon has more on this classy cover.

As Andrew Put It: Know Hope


Longterm prisoner and torture victim from Yemen does a spectacular varial 180 in a promotional video for Activist, the new skate- and streetwear brand from Amnesty International
h/t Andrew Sullivan

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Obama in Cairo

h/t Oliver Willis

This video from the White House reminds us just how many Muslim Americans we have. It's a must watch, but I'm sure there will be those on the right who it scares mightily. Today President Obama is giving his big speech to the "Muslim World." Michael Scherer at Time sets the scene in Cairo. The NY Times tells us the goal of the speech. Ben Smith also previews the speech. Bin Ladin is threatened by Obama and thus threatens the U.S. You can watch it live streaming now. Full speech is available here. Mark Ambinder gives highlights here.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Oh Snap, John Cole.

I was just telling Oliver the other day how much I love Balloon-Juice. John Cole is fast becoming one of my favorite bloggers on *the left,* though I'd hardly call him a lefty. He's representative of the Democratic Party I'd like to belong to.

This rant against another of my favorites, Andrew Sullivan, captures Cole's skill of cutting through the b.s perfectly. A must read.
----------------
Now playing: J Dilla - Blood Sport (feat. Lil' Fame Of M.O.P.)

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Biggie Smalls Will Always be the Illest

I know I've already waxed nostalgia on Biggie and the disappointing biopic. But Spencer Ackerman reminds us that Christopher Wallace would have been 37-years-old today. What a shame.

Always will be Brooklyn's finest.

Photo of the Day 05/21/09

a_wmichelle_nv_0601

h/t and article "The Meaning of Michelle Obama" at Time Magazine

Headline of the Day 5/21/9

Twin Boys Have Different Fathers

Crazy!

Super Bowl Champions Pittsburgh Steeler at the White House


There's been some conflict around this, but from the video it looks like good times.
h/t Whitehouse.gov

Congress Wastes More Money, Good for the LOLz


Energy and Commerce hires a speedreader.
h/t Swampland

California's Quick Tumble

John Cole is sick of California budget politics and says "Let [California] Burn." Hours later he returned to say he was right with the prescription, but wrong with the prognosis:
“The California Constitution has been amended or revised more than 500 times. It is now 157 pages. “

That just strikes me as a recipe for fail. Additionally, I learned that you all have term limits, so not only does it only take a 50+1 vote to increase spending and a 2/3 vote to raise money to pay for things, you also have special interests doing bond initiatives for anything that blows their trumpet, property tax laws that make no sense, and then to compound everything, people have no problem raising spending because when the shit hits the fan, they will have been term limited out and it is someone else’s problem. Then, the new people coming in to replace them have no experience and no authority and no way to fix it and the voters all hate them.

Pretty awesome.
You've got to respect someone who acknowledges when they're wrong and isn't afraid to do some research.

John pointed me to one of my new favorite blogs, Calitics, who takes the prognosis one step further:

The video features Assemblywoman Noreen Evans, Chair of the Budget Committee, breaking down the root of the evolving California budget crisis. It's an important watch, regardless of your party affiliation or ideology.

What's next?
As the notion of California as ungovernable grows stronger than ever, Mr. Schwarzenegger, a Republican, has expressed support for a convention to address such things as the state’s arcane budget requirements and its process for proliferate ballot initiatives, both of which necessitated Tuesday’s statewide vote on budget matters approved months ago by state lawmakers.

“There could not be more of a tipping point,” said Jim Wunderman, chief executive of the Bay Area Council, a business group that moved forward on Wednesday with plans to push for a constitutional convention. “We think the interest is going to grow by orders of magnitude now.”
The constitutional convention would be must see TV. It looks to be the best solution to this mess.

Sullivan Explores a Fundamentalist Disconnect

Amy Sullivan does great work over at Time's "Swampland" blog presenting digestible religion journalism for non-believers. Also, everyone once in a while she'll show up on BHTV. She does great work tonight demonstrating the gap between the Vatican and Bill Donohue's version of American Catholic Fundamentalism. The whole piece is included below:

First L'Osservatore Romano, the official Vatican newspaper, ran an article giving Obama's first 100 days a tentative thumbs-up. Then, as conservative Catholics in the U.S. were wringing their hands about the horror of Barack Obama's scheduled appearance at Notre Dame, the newspaper--and the Vatican in general--was conspicuously silent. Then, when the paper did report on Obama's speech, its calm, fairly positive take was in stark contrast to the furious reaction of many conservative Catholics here.

But this takes the cake. In an interview with an Italian newspaper the day after Obama's speech, Giavonni Maria Vian, editor-in-chief of L'Osservatore Romano, seemed to forcefully push back against the view that Obama is a threat to Catholic values and religious freedom. “Obama has not upset the world,” said Vian. “His speech at Notre Dame has been respectful toward every position. He tried to engage the debate stepping out from every ideological position and outside every ‘confrontational mentality.' To this extent his speech is to be appreciated.”

After reaffirming that the Vatican newspaper shares the American bishops' staunch opposition to abortion, Vian went further. "What I want to stress is that yesterday, on this precise and very delicate issue, the President said that the approval of the new law on abortion is not a priority of his administration. The fact that he said that is very reassuring to me. It also underlines my own clear belief: Obama is not a pro-abortion president."

Uh, oh. It sounds like the Vatican newspaper "doesn't understand what it means to be Catholic."

You can follow her, as well as Joe Klein over at Swampland. Together Sullivan and Klein almost make Karen Tumulty tolerable. The feed is still worth following.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Frank Black Performs With Portland School Of Rock


h/t stereogum

Republicans Piss into the Wind and the Media Hold Their...

I haven't said anything yet about the closing of Gitmo. Mostly because while I believe it should be closed sooner rather than later, I understand the politics of it are going to be a difficult, and I won't pretend have the answers. But the Republicans fear mongering and claims that Gitmo is just like Disneyland are quite amusing. Today's comments by Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) take the cake:

I've mentioned Inhofe before here. He's in the running with Sen. Jim Demint (R-SC) and Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) for biggest wackjobs in the Senate.

It's frustrating that the White House has allowed Republicans to control the debate. It's natural for congress feeling left high and dry to vote against funding the Gitmo closing. Dem Senators say they need a plan. After all, they're the ones who have to take this back home and the fear mongering is going to work unless the White House gets into the debate. Tomorrow is Obama's big national security speech, which Politico is already hyping as a duel with Dick Cheney's “Keeping America Safe" at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.

It's unclear how a private citizen's views on national security can compete with the President of the United States, but when you're a leaderless party Dick Cheney might be the best you've got.

Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) says them to CA:


Why not? We keep the Manson Family, the Night Stalker and many other various dangerous people. We sure could use the money, after last night's ballot initiatives were trounced. All this talk of dualing almost makes me forget we had a 2+ year long presidential campaign. It's a shame Dick Cheney didn't run. Maybe then the media would ignore the guy.

h/t: ABCNews and Think Progress