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Thursday, April 11, 2013
Part 1 of Joe Biden's Interview on Morning Joe for April 11, 2013 (VIDEO)
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Thursday, March 14, 2013
@RuthMarcus, Villagers and the evolution of media bull@#$%...
My distaste for Ruth Marcus goes back a while. So I guess I shouldn't have been completely surprised when yet again decided to act as the Chief Villager for a Newspaper run by nothing but Villagers when she wrote her latest (cough-cough) column.
After listing through some of the nasty comments House GOPers were tweeting as the President was speaking to them about reaching a Budget Deal, she quoted the President calmly assessing the situation with George Stephanopoulos:
One would think after all the Filibustering and insults (some of them actually racist) that have been hurled at this President from the start of his administration, a columnist might react with shock and surprise that the sitting President managed to keep his cool.
Instead, Ruth Marcus offered this:
Excuse me, but...I did not think it was anatomically possible for one's head to get that far up one's...--never mind.
I don't know how to tell Journalists this, because...I really thought they would have covered it in Journalism school, but...it's not your job to balance the argument.
I know you think that's your job. But let's be clear about what your job really is.
Your job is to present both sides of a story...
Your job is not necessarily to lend them equal weight, particularly when they don't deserve it.
Again, you don't elevate both sides into equality. We don't need you to do that. In fact, it's a really bad idea if you do do that.
If you're a columnist, as Ruth Marcus is, this is even more tricky. Why? Because, a columnist offers nothing but opinion. They don't do any actual reporting. They don't go digging around for facts anymore...they've been excused from that particular activity. In fact, they are paid a substantial salary to say only what they think. Even if what they think has no basis in reality, as Ruth Marcus clearly demonstrated today.
One would think that some measure of journalistic integrity would matter in a circumstance like this, but again...you'd be wrong. The Washington Post is more than capable of publishing utter complete bull@#$% so long as it fills column inches. After all they employ Jennifer Rubin, Marc Thiessen, Robert Samuelson, Richard Cohen...and Ruth Marcus.
(Hey, at least Ezra Klein -- and I know me some Liberals who hate him for some reason -- no idea why -- does actual work to preparing his pieces.)
One would think it would matter to the folks at the Washington Post that their own readers can smell this line of crap a mile off, but we don't matter of the folks at the Washington Post. Ruth Marcus has proved...once again...that the Villagers are talking only to other Villagers.
Which could explain why most newspapers are in trouble.
We need Newspapers and Magazines and Media in general, advocating for their audience, and not entertaining their damn selves.
For example...if someone...say like the President...presents something that is backed in fact, and his opposition presents something that is cloaked in bull@#$%...we kinda need Media to call out the bull@#$%.
But they're not.
They used to. But they're not.
I mean it happens...sometimes, but it sure as hell didn't happen today with Ruth Marcus.
Let me quote something a columnist said not too long ago:
That was from August 10, 2010. My goodness who wrote such a prescient piece?
C'mon, this is easy. This was Ruth Marcus...in a piece backing Robert Gibbs when he called out the Professional Left.
So what happened?
Apparently, Ruth Marcus...still employed by the Washington Post...has lost the ability...to count.
Ruth Marcus got lazy. She and the paper needed column inches to fill, and bull@#$% magically transpired.
When you say the President isn't showing leadership after showing in just a few short paragraphs that there's no one who's willing to be lead, we do wonder why the President is to blame, and not the Congress. And if you can't make that elementary of a call, it calls into question your ability to observe things...or any thing, for that matter.
I mean, I don't meant to tell Ruth Marcus in particular how to do her job, but I figured someone ought to.
After listing through some of the nasty comments House GOPers were tweeting as the President was speaking to them about reaching a Budget Deal, she quoted the President calmly assessing the situation with George Stephanopoulos:
Obama: “You know — I think whatever I’m for, it’s very hard for a Republican to also be for. I think they always have to be a little bit — you know, maintain some distance.”
One would think after all the Filibustering and insults (some of them actually racist) that have been hurled at this President from the start of his administration, a columnist might react with shock and surprise that the sitting President managed to keep his cool.
Instead, Ruth Marcus offered this:
The president has made this point before, and maybe he’s right. Yet this analysis leaves him in a distinctly unpresidential posture — not leaning in, but holding back.
Excuse me, but...I did not think it was anatomically possible for one's head to get that far up one's...--never mind.
I don't know how to tell Journalists this, because...I really thought they would have covered it in Journalism school, but...it's not your job to balance the argument.
I know you think that's your job. But let's be clear about what your job really is.
Your job is to present both sides of a story...
Your job is not necessarily to lend them equal weight, particularly when they don't deserve it.
Again, you don't elevate both sides into equality. We don't need you to do that. In fact, it's a really bad idea if you do do that.
If you're a columnist, as Ruth Marcus is, this is even more tricky. Why? Because, a columnist offers nothing but opinion. They don't do any actual reporting. They don't go digging around for facts anymore...they've been excused from that particular activity. In fact, they are paid a substantial salary to say only what they think. Even if what they think has no basis in reality, as Ruth Marcus clearly demonstrated today.
One would think that some measure of journalistic integrity would matter in a circumstance like this, but again...you'd be wrong. The Washington Post is more than capable of publishing utter complete bull@#$% so long as it fills column inches. After all they employ Jennifer Rubin, Marc Thiessen, Robert Samuelson, Richard Cohen...and Ruth Marcus.
(Hey, at least Ezra Klein -- and I know me some Liberals who hate him for some reason -- no idea why -- does actual work to preparing his pieces.)
One would think it would matter to the folks at the Washington Post that their own readers can smell this line of crap a mile off, but we don't matter of the folks at the Washington Post. Ruth Marcus has proved...once again...that the Villagers are talking only to other Villagers.
Which could explain why most newspapers are in trouble.
We need Newspapers and Magazines and Media in general, advocating for their audience, and not entertaining their damn selves.
For example...if someone...say like the President...presents something that is backed in fact, and his opposition presents something that is cloaked in bull@#$%...we kinda need Media to call out the bull@#$%.
But they're not.
They used to. But they're not.
I mean it happens...sometimes, but it sure as hell didn't happen today with Ruth Marcus.
Let me quote something a columnist said not too long ago:
Excuse me, but can these people not count to 60? Have they somehow failed to notice that Mitch McConnell and John Boehner have not exactly been playing nice? That while the left laments Obama's minor deviations from party orthodoxy, the right has been portraying him, with some success, as an out-of-control socialist?
That was from August 10, 2010. My goodness who wrote such a prescient piece?
C'mon, this is easy. This was Ruth Marcus...in a piece backing Robert Gibbs when he called out the Professional Left.
So what happened?
Apparently, Ruth Marcus...still employed by the Washington Post...has lost the ability...to count.
Ruth Marcus got lazy. She and the paper needed column inches to fill, and bull@#$% magically transpired.
When you say the President isn't showing leadership after showing in just a few short paragraphs that there's no one who's willing to be lead, we do wonder why the President is to blame, and not the Congress. And if you can't make that elementary of a call, it calls into question your ability to observe things...or any thing, for that matter.
I mean, I don't meant to tell Ruth Marcus in particular how to do her job, but I figured someone ought to.
Monday, March 4, 2013
Friday, March 1, 2013
"These aren't the cuts you're looking for..." (VIDEO)
Here is the President's brief Press Conference on the Sequester:
That's right. He went with Jedi Mind Mend.
I was entertained no end. The rest of the Geek world was not, preferring instead to chastise my President for getting his franchises confused. (Yeah, like that's never happened to them.)
Leave it to the Geek Godather, Leonard freakin' Nimoy to put it all in perspective:
Yeah, baby, YEAH.
Also. It seems that the White House has chosen to OWN it (OWN IT, I say!!):
That's right. He went with Jedi Mind Mend.
I was entertained no end. The rest of the Geek world was not, preferring instead to chastise my President for getting his franchises confused. (Yeah, like that's never happened to them.)
Leave it to the Geek Godather, Leonard freakin' Nimoy to put it all in perspective:
Only a Vulcan mind meld will help with this congress. LLAP
— Leonard Nimoy (@TheRealNimoy) March 1, 2013
Yeah, baby, YEAH.
Also. It seems that the White House has chosen to OWN it (OWN IT, I say!!):
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Did President Obama drop a Prop. 8 hint on ABC 7 News in San Fran (VIDEO)
Via Greg Sargent (heck his whole piece comes from Greg Sargent):
In an interview with an ABC News affiliate in San Francisco, President Obama made his most extensive comments yet on the question of whether his administration will weigh in with a friend-of-the-court brief on the Proposition 8 case set to be heard by the Supreme Court. He said:
“The Solicitor General is still looking at this. I have to make sure that I’m not interjecting myself too much into this process, particularly when we’re not a party to the case. I can tell you, though, obviously, my personal view, which is that I think that same-sex couples should have the same rights and be treated like everybody else. And that’s something I feel very strongly about and my administration is acting on wherever we can.”This is more encouraging than not. It shows that the administration is very actively considering taking this step. What’s more, Obama reiterated the view, spelled out in his Inaugural Address, that full equality before the law is the ultimate goal of his administration, stressed that he feels “very strongly” about it, and underscored that his administration is acting to bring this about “wherever we can.” Obviously, filing a brief in the Prop 8 case — one that forcefully articulates the view that Prop 8 is unconstitutional — falls into that category. It is something his administration can, in fact, do. And since the Court gives weight to the views of Solicitors General, doing it could help bring about a broad Supreme Court ruling that would put state laws banning gay marriage on the road to extinction — bringing us closer to the full equality that Obama himself articulated as a paramount moral goal.
At the same time, by saying that this is something his Solicitor General is examining, even as he noted the need to avoid interjecting himself into the case, Obama was also signaling that this process is unfolding as it’s supposed to: With the Solicitor General making this determination independently, on the merits. An optimistic reading of this is that it could give the Solicitor General the breathing room he needs to expound on the administration’s views of Prop 8 even if gay marriage opponents will inevitably cast such a move as political.
Chris Matthews wonders what happened to the Republican Party of the 1960s (VIDEO)
I keep saying it, saying it and saying it. The Republican Party's last hope...as in last hope to continue existing as a Party is to dump the John Birch Society retreads (aka, the Tea Party) and grasp onto their proud heritage from the Eisenhowers of the world. For the GOP to survive, the Eisenhower Wing has to lead.
Meanwhile, one of the Eisenhower Wing's potential leaders has dumped the party to become a Democrat...and more than likely, the Governor of Florida once again.
Meanwhile, one of the Eisenhower Wing's potential leaders has dumped the party to become a Democrat...and more than likely, the Governor of Florida once again.
GOP, consider this your final warning...
Coming off John McCain's rather rambunctious Town Hall, we now have this:
Okay, for one thing...before you panic too much over this: don't. This doucebag Bob Goodlatte is not the only person in charge of Immigration reform. He's just in charge of it in the House. There is this thing called the Senate, which will have a pathway to Citizenship, and there will be a Conference Committee, so my guess is it gets stuck back in there somehow.
But in the end, it goes back to what I said before.
Republicans, this is your final warning.
This is your last chance...by which I mean, your last chance to survive as a party.
Believe it or not, as Democrats, the purely craven political calculation here (i.e., if we were thinking like you) is to have this bill fail, and have your fingerprints all over it.
That's the best case scenario for us. You kill Comprehensive Immigration Reform, and leave an entire emerging (and young) majority of Latinos in Democratic Hands for generations to come, and you Republicans become the 21 Century Version of the Whig Party.
And it's this close to happening.
Fortunately, we Democrats give a @#$% about Governing...so we might ultimately save you from yourselves.
But it's time for Latinos to flex their muscles yet again. It's time for you to participate in the other, less fun side of electoral politics...the flooding of phone calls to various Congressional Offices.
I've heard it from the President, I've heard it from Latino Groups: a pathway to Citizenship is a must.
Well, time to let 'em know it's a dealbreaker...LOUDLY.
Immigration reform’s chances in the House are looking bleaker after one of the top Republicans tasked with shepherding a bill to passage ruled out a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.
Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), chair of the Judiciary Committee that will mark up any House legislation on the issue, told NPR this week that he will not support a bill that eventually grants citizenship for the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in America.
“People have a pathway to citizenship right now: It’s to abide by the immigration laws, and if they have a family relationship, if they have a job skill that allows them to do that, they can obtain citizenship,” Goodlatte said. “But simply someone who broke the law, came here, [to] say, ‘I’ll give you citizenship now,’ that I don’t think is going to happen.”
Okay, for one thing...before you panic too much over this: don't. This doucebag Bob Goodlatte is not the only person in charge of Immigration reform. He's just in charge of it in the House. There is this thing called the Senate, which will have a pathway to Citizenship, and there will be a Conference Committee, so my guess is it gets stuck back in there somehow.
But in the end, it goes back to what I said before.
Republicans, this is your final warning.
This is your last chance...by which I mean, your last chance to survive as a party.
Believe it or not, as Democrats, the purely craven political calculation here (i.e., if we were thinking like you) is to have this bill fail, and have your fingerprints all over it.
That's the best case scenario for us. You kill Comprehensive Immigration Reform, and leave an entire emerging (and young) majority of Latinos in Democratic Hands for generations to come, and you Republicans become the 21 Century Version of the Whig Party.
And it's this close to happening.
Fortunately, we Democrats give a @#$% about Governing...so we might ultimately save you from yourselves.
But it's time for Latinos to flex their muscles yet again. It's time for you to participate in the other, less fun side of electoral politics...the flooding of phone calls to various Congressional Offices.
I've heard it from the President, I've heard it from Latino Groups: a pathway to Citizenship is a must.
Well, time to let 'em know it's a dealbreaker...LOUDLY.
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Something to keep an eye on...
@senjohnmccain again feels compelled to remind Sun Lakes crowd "we can't send them all back." #immigration
— BrahmResnik (@brahmresnik) February 19, 2013
TPM has more on the story, but if you're a Republican, you are sweating bullets right now.
Think about it. If you are a GOP Pol, you know your future, in fact the entire future of the party comes down to how well you behave on Immigration reform. With more and more Latinos coming of age, and more and more of your own base dying off, the trend appears that starting with the 2016 Presidential Election, the old Republican Party will not see power for a generation.
Yeah, that bad.
The solution is simple, come up with a massive Immigration Reform plan. Behave well. Show the Latino/Hispanic population of this country that you don't hate them. And for a majority of the GOP Caucus in the House and Senate, that's absolutely true. They don't hate Latinos/Hispanics.
Problem is, the base of the Party does. They genuinely hate Latinos and Hispanics, and want to see the lot of them, legal or no, bounced from the country. Heck, they probably want to see speaking Spanish turned into some kind of felony.
This Town Hall was on a border state, which has been reliably Republican. It has a massively unpopular (and massively unconstitutional) Immigration Bill that's unpopular everywhere...except among the people of that Town Hall.
The people of Arizona, moreso the Republicans of Arizona know that they're staring into the eyes of death (of their party). They know that young Latinos will not rest until the white, racist, anti-Immigrant GOP is burned to the ground, and yet this is how they react??
I want to see how McCain reacts when he gets back to town, but in my mind, knowing how ultimately spineless McCain is, the odds of us getting comprehensive Immigration reform this year or any time before 2014 just took a hit.
Bad news for our friends and neighbors, but very good news if you're a Democrat. The Republicans are going to destroy themselves and hand you power as they do it.
Friday, February 15, 2013
Jon Stewart's complete interview with Susan Rice for Feb. 14, 2013 (VIDEO)
Don't think Jon did a particularly great job with the interview (nor did he do a sucky job either), as...and this has been the key to me in the whole Benghazi mess...Susan Rice was never in the chain of command in regards to decision-making when it came to Benghazi, for good or for ill.
She was invited on Television because if you can get the most visible Foreign Policy expert on your TeeVee Show (the Secretary of State), you get the second most visible Foreign Policy expert to be on your TeeVee show (that'd be the United Nations Ambassador).
So...why are we still asking her questions??
Part 1:
Part 2:
Part 3:
She was invited on Television because if you can get the most visible Foreign Policy expert on your TeeVee Show (the Secretary of State), you get the second most visible Foreign Policy expert to be on your TeeVee show (that'd be the United Nations Ambassador).
So...why are we still asking her questions??
Part 1:
Part 2:
Part 3:
Senator Elizabeth Warren's First Banking Committee Hearing (VIDEO)
Since you people seem to enjoy the sight of elected Senators actually doing...you know...their jobs:
Wouldn't it have been easier just to let her be the head of the Consumer Protection Bureau?
Wouldn't it have been easier just to let her be the head of the Consumer Protection Bureau?
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) FINALLY gets in someone's face over Hagel Nomination... (VIDEO)
And the lucky winner is Mr. "I Likes to Wear Diapers", Mr. "DC Madam" Sen. David Vitter (R-LA):
Seriously, this guy gets to questions anybody's ethics...ever??
Seriously, this guy gets to questions anybody's ethics...ever??
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