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Yeah, I’m still trying to figure out why some people think his “calm” demeanor makes him unfit to be President. As opposed to what? Someone who flips their bicycle at the drop of a pen and/or makes rash and idiotic decisions when the well being of thousands or even millions of people is at stake?
Wow. Just wow. Former Bush speech writer and apparent psycho David Frum appeared just a few minutes ago on The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC and accused Rachel Maddow of inciting violence through satire and humor. Video forthcoming.
UPDATE: Commenter Bryan makes an excellent point:
The point that Frum doesn’t get is that Maddow isn’t on C-Span. She’s on a channel where ratings matter. She has to be as entertaining as she is informative or GE will replace her with someone who will be, especially when you consider the time slot that she’s in.
UPDATE II: As promised, here is video of David Frum accusing Rachel Maddow of inciting violence and hatred through satire and humor. Unbelievable.
Last night Republican Congressman and pretend foreign policy expert Eric Cantor (VA-07) appeared on Hardball with Chris Matthews on MSNBC. Cantor became visibly uncomfortable when Matthews began drilling him for attempting to run away from the failed Republican policies of the past eight years. Unfortunately, the MSNBC video code would not work properly when I tried to post it, but here it is via YouTube:
Earlier this week Matthews took McCain’s senior policy advisor Nancy Pfotenhauer to task when she also attempted to run away from the Republican party.
[h/t The Richmond Democrat]
Watching Chris Matthews take McCain senior policy advisor Nancy Pfotenhauer to task during Hardball yesterday was fun, but McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds being told off on all three cable news networks is even better!
When I watched this during the 5pm airing I thought for sure Pfotenhauer was going to walk off the set. Matthews really stuck it to her and she simply had no answers.
In response to this video posted by Cobalt6, let’s all have a good laugh at Bill O’Reilly to close out a hot and humid Saturday in the Imperial District (video is NSFW):
“There is no evidence that the governor’s (Sarah Palin’s) children are unsupervised.”
Republicans get more and more batshit crazy with each and every passing moment. I would like to note though that they’ve dropped the term “liberal” when attacking the media. Perhaps they realize that Americans are no longer scared of being proud open minded people who are free from bigotry?
I think they were probably going for “McCain’s bi-partisan pitch” but opted for a more blunt term. See the NSFW screen shot after the jump.
Well, apparently “bombing for peace” really is the mindset of the world’s ignorant and unenlightened (and here I am thinking it was just one half of a snarky anti-war slogan). In giving what may be one of the most inane statements I’ve ever heard, Moscow’s number two diplomat in the United States, Alexander Darchiev reveals Russia’s reason for invading Georgia during an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer:
“Again, our goal is to force adventurous Georgian leadership to peace.”
And on that note, the main stream media and McCain campaign surrogates are all over Barack Obama for spending time with his family this week in Hawaii while the conflict between Georgia and Russia escalates. In typical MSM and Republican party fashion they almost always fail to mention that both campaigns have already issued statements condemning Russia’s actions. Also, speaking of vacations let’s not forget that President Bush, the poster boy of the Republican party vacationed (as he’s been known to do during times of crisis) in China during the first few days of conflict between Russia and Georgia. On top of that, I’d also like to suggest to the MSM and McCain surrogates that perhaps they should inquire as to why George Bush was unable to convince his BFF Vladamir Puttin (aka Pooty Poot) into working towards a cease-fire.
On a completely unrelated note (except that it once again involves the MSM), I just wanted to take a moment to remind folks that what a politician does in his sex life should not be part of the vetting process for our elected leaders, especially compared to the judgement they will use and the policies they will put in place to better our society and solve the problems facing our country, our people and our planet. While I certainly feel for Elizabeth Edwards and in no way condone John Edwards’ behavior, his (and any other politician’s) sex life is in no way going to help or hinder my access to affordable health care, affordable education and cleaner, more affordable energy. After all, let’s not forget that if a politician’s infidelity mattered in the overall scheme of things, John McCain would not be a sitting senator or a candidate for president.
It’s supposed to be funny. It’s supposed to be witty. It sometimes plays on the dimwitted people it’s making fun of. That having been said, can everyone (especially Democrats, because we’re smarter than this) please cease with the calls for boycotts and chemical warfare against The New Yorker over a satirical image (pictured right) that appears on the cover of the magazine’s current issue. Please? Seriously, when I first heard about the “mass outrage” over this, the first thing I thought of was the woman (seen below) who stood in front of McPherson Square metro last Summer protesting after an article in The Onion claimed that the U.S. planned to re-hang Saddam Hussein. Are you all really that dimwitted?
I’ll be calling Comcast within the next few days to have them come collect their cable boxes and cancel my subscription.
Via The Boston Herald:
CN8 has fired veteran TV journalist Barry Nolan for publicly protesting the decision by the local Emmy Awards to honor Fox News blowhard Bill O’Reilly.
Nolan tells MediaBiz he was fired Tuesday following a two-week, unpaid suspension.
“I knew going in that there was serious risk that I’d lose my job,” Nolan said yesterday, “but nobody likes it when people tell them to stifle, not even Edith Bunker.”
Not only that, but Comcast also decided to take MSNBC off the air in Oregon. According to Comcast, this was MSNBC’s decision, but given the fact that Keith Olbermann decided to address the situation on tonight’s episode of Countdown, I somehow find the Comcast explanation extremely hard to believe.
Chris Wallace accuses Fox news of Obama bashing and distorting statements made by the Democratic Presidential front runner:
Via News Hounds:
This could be exactly what it seems to be, a difference of opinion. But knowing that FOX is so carefully messaged and controlled top-down, it could also be a staged event to reinforce the faux notion that Chris Wallace is independent. Were the three stooges set up? In any event, it was refreshing and anything but par for the course.
“Your own advisers are slowly killing your chances to become President. Senator their words and your own are slowly killing the chances for any Democrat to become President.”
“You are now campaigning as if Barack Obama were the Democrat, and you were the Republican.” Wow… Just wow!
That’s right, MSNBC’s Conservative talk show “Tucker” hosted by Tucker Carlson has been cancelled with it’s final show to run next week. However, Carlson will remain with MSNBC through the 2008 election and is expected to be reporting from the campaign trail. Via Media Bistro:
Insiders tell TVNewser Tucker Carlson’s 6pmET show Tucker is getting the axe, but Carlson stays on as a political contributor to all MSNBC shows at least through the 2008 election. The official announcement, expected tomorrow, will include details about who will replace Tucker at 6pmET as well as other political programming additions. Sources say the network is going to beef up its schedule with more NBC News talent.
In recent days, Jossip, as well as other blogs, ratcheted up the talk that Tucker would be replaced “for a new project.” In its 33-month run, Carlson’s show has had two names, four time slots and multiple formats. At 6pmET, it builds on its Harbdall lead-in on some days, but loses audience on others.
Oh this is an instant classic. John McCain became annoyed earlier today with a New York Times reporter who asked about his 2004 conversation with the then Democratic Presidential nominee John Kerry regarding McCain possibly running as Kerry’s vice presidential nominee.
[Cross posted on Raising Kaine]
Via Media Matters:
From the February 19 edition of Westwood One’s The Radio Factor with Bill O’Reilly:
O’REILLY: Maryanne, Woodbury, Connecticut: What say you, Maryanne? Maryanne –
CALLER: I’m here.
O’REILLY: — you’re on the air.
CALLER: Here I am.
O’REILLY: OK.
CALLER: I just wanted to say that I think Michelle Obama is an angry woman — is speaking, I think, with her real voice for the first time. And –
O’REILLY: But how do you — what do you base that on? You’re basing that on what?
CALLER: Well, your representative asked me not to talk about this, but I have a friend who had knowledge of her and said to me months ago, “This is a very angry,” her word was “militant woman.”
O’REILLY: All right. What I want you do then, Maryanne, if — I want you to stay on the line.
CALLER: OK.
O’REILLY: Because it’s not fair to Michelle Obama for you –
CALLER: Oh no, all I’m saying is –
O’REILLY: — because we don’t know who you are, and we don’t know who your friend is, but we want to know. We want to know, OK. But it’s not fair at this point for you to say, “My friend said X and Y,” because we just don’t know. But if you would give us your information, we would like to talk to your friend. And then whatever your friend tells us, we’ll track it down. We’ll do it in a fair and balanced and methodical way. That’s how we’re going to cover this campaign — all of them, all of them. So stay on the line, give us your information. If indeed Michelle Obama is angry about something, if she has a history, we would like to know that, and then we can put it into some kind of context so that we can be fair to everybody.
You know, I have a lot of sympathy for Michelle Obama, for Bill Clinton, for all of these people. Bill Clinton, I have sympathy for him, because they’re thrown into a hopper where everybody is waiting for them to make a mistake, so that they can just go and bludgeon them. And, you know, Bill Clinton and I don’t agree on a lot of things, and I think I’ve made that clear over the years, but he’s trying to stick up for his wife, and every time the guy turns around, there’s another demagogue or another ideologue in his face trying to humiliate him because they’re rooting for Obama.
That’s wrong. And I don’t want to go on a lynching party against Michelle Obama unless there’s evidence, hard facts, that say this is how the woman really feels. If that’s how she really feels — that America is a bad country or a flawed nation, whatever — then that’s legit. We’ll track it down.
How much longer is this man going to have a job? The answer would (and should) be not long (NOTE: you see how swiftly MSNBC dealt with the David Shuster situation), but since it’s Fox News, and their viewers (and radio listeners, as is the case here) actually support this kind of talk, and it’s truly saddening.
But not all media coverage is good.
Sure it may be true that 492 term Senator John McCain is receiving more media coverage than anyone else in the race for President, but it seems to me he’s not getting very favorable coverage either (being constantly bashed by members of his own party and all). Remember Ann Coulter claiming she’d rather vote for Hillary? Then there’s Michelle Malkin who’s been railing on and on about how “liberal” he is for weeks on her blog. Also, questions about McCains bad temper. And more on McCain’s temper.
In the last week, Senator John McCain has surpassed even Senator Barack Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton in the amount of news coverage he has received.
The media effectively anointed Mr. McCain as the Republican front-runner after he won Florida. At the same time, reporters were writing up a storm about how conservatives were trying to deny Mr. McCain the crown. All of this made for a frothy brew of coverage for the week of Jan. 28 to Feb. 3.
Last week the presidential election dominated 51 percent of the nation’s news coverage, the highest level since PEJ began counting. The week’s events included the Florida primary, a Republican debate and the first one-on-one Democratic debate between Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton.
Mr. Obama, who got 34 percent of the coverage last week, was about even with Mrs. Clinton, who got 32 percent. These two have long dominated the political coverage, so Mr. McCain’s spike in visibility is noteworthy.
And for the record, Bill Clinton only garnered six percent of the media coverage last week.
UPDATE: And how could I have forgotten to mention the “not so breaking news” that John McCain dumped his first wife after she was crippled in a car crash and the fact that Cindy McCain is a known pill head! I’m sure the media will reemphasize this story when John McCain wins the Republican nomination too. And they should too, given that McCain comes from a party that rails on and on about their “morals,” but as we all know, in reality, they’re nothing more than a bunch of hypocrites.
McCain fell like a brick for Cindy, who was the heir to a brewery distribution business worth millions. For several years afterwards the McCains endured Washington gossip that he had dumped his first wife - who had been crippled in a car accident - in favour of a trophy bride to enhance his political ambitions.
It was in the late 1980s, after a series of miscarriages and giving birth to three children, that Cindy developed spinal problems and was prescribed painkillers after surgery. Her husband and family had no idea she was secretly taking pills stolen from a charity she had created called the American Voluntary Medical Team, which sent mobile surgical units to war zones. When federal agents began to investigate gaps in the charity’s records, Cindy telephoned her husband, a senator in Washington, and confessed.
She admitted at the time that the 1994 episode had “nearly destroyed both of us”. But she underwent treatment and attended meetings of Narcotics Anonymous as part of a deal with prosecutors who dropped charges.