Letters to the Editor
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Scooter's idea of a "metric"
concern for the nation rather than self.
I just don't know about that boy. I don't think he's going to move on with the other sixth-graders next fall.
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Newsweek column: Obama is a wimp.
Michael Hirsh at Newsweek online is calling Obama a wimp. I checked Hirsh's bio: philosophy degree from Tufts. Those are the kind of guys that got beat up in school. Hirsh should try to break in to my house in the middle of the night and I'll blow a hole through him with the gun that I'm clinging to.
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cestmoi
Non sequitur.
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In an Alternate Reality
What I would love to see is one of these "press mavens"--David Brooks, David Broder, Joe Klein, Howard Kurtz, George Stephanopoulos, Howard Feingold; any of them--have to sit down with Glenn or Digby or Josh Marshall or somebody, and answer a few simple questions. Nothing complex.
"What are you basing your statement that "this is what the American people are interested in" on? Do you have polling data to back up your assertion? Or some other objective measure?
"When was the last time you spoke to a cross-section of Americans? Please note that chatting with folks at the next table in the Carnegie Deli in midtown Manhattan doesn't count."
"When was the last time you were out of the city in which you do your work (be it New York or Washington or [rarely] some other big city)? Again, place like Sliver Spring, Alexandria, and anyplace on Long Island don't count." (Hell, "When was the last time you were in a different timezone?")
"Do you wear a lapel pin emblazoned with the name of your employer? If not, why not?"
"When was the last time you held a job that forced you to perform physical activity? Have you ever had to make money for living expenses by laying sod, painting houses, washing dishes, cleaning floors, working the graveyard shift?"
I know; I live in an alternate reality where Media Stars get their arrogant feet held to the fire. So sue me.
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All you need to know about America's War on Terror (tm)
That the country's "top" political journalist can, with a straight face, defend his colleagues' fixation on a leading presidential candidate's bowling style, while the country is engaged in an epic battle for civilization, tells me all I need to know about about this time in American history.
I have newfound respect for those commentators who, in the years leading up to WWII, fixated on the pressing question as to whether or not Hitler was imitating Charlie Chaplin or vice-versa.
Inquiring minds deserved to know then, just as they do today.
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Taste of Death @ Holes
This proves that the US journalists are right in their opinion of Americans as a nation of moronic redneck. America is the land of the pea-brained morons and GW Bush is their king. What about this don't you understand?
Not so much, I think. It is not the entire fault of the news consumers that George is King. Just look at the Brooks quote. He goes all the way back to Dukakis to find supposed examples of democratic candidates that somehow don't share americans' values.
He does not add, in this discussion, what Reverend Agee's endorsement says regarding McCain's 'shared american values'. Do americans really share the concept that His Holiness the Pope (currently among us) represents "The Great Whore"? He does not mention that GHW Bush had no idea what a supermarket checkout scanner was. He somehow forgets to list George Bush's recent statement that he approved of torture-choreographing meetings by he highest cabinet officials. Do the American people share the belief that torture is justified american policy? And when nearly half of the Republican presidential field positively affirmed that biological evolution was simply not true, did that 'shared character' issue receive any attention whatsoever?
No, the 'shared values' issue always seems to apply to Democratic candidates, and never others. This is because, Glen claims, that message doesn't originate with the press--it is implanted in them, or sent through them.
Don't blame news consumers for this. They (we) are not consulted regarding the content or layout of media publications. They (we) are simply forced to view it. Think of it as torture, if you like.
By the way, yours is one of the finest names going, imo.
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RW, You May be Right
RW commented: 'Nothing gets a racist Southerner riled up as much as the very thought that some Negro is trying to rise above his or her station. And for some white fools whose dull sense of entitlement makes them think they deserve a better job than working the loading dock at their big-box hardware superstore, an African-American national leader has just gone TOO FAR AHEAD OF THEM.'
I was over at our local bowling alley a couple nights ago watching my friend's team bowl & at some point the conversation among us non-bowling fans turned to politics (yick) & I mentioned my support for Sen. Obama.
One of our team members wife, a nice 30 something white lady, said that while she considered herself a Democrat, she was worried that if Sen. Obama won then the blacks were going to start acting like they'd won the lottery or start doing stupid stuff in the stupid idea that Pres. Obama could get them off somehow (I can't really do it justice, but it was something wacky like that).
I told her she was crazy (while good naturedly laughing).
I'm getting the impression he won't be carrying Kentucky.
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@Bill H
As far as I'm concerned, the media can giggle all they want about someone's _____ score.
Just not at the expense of discussing their haircuts, knaamean?
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The media's job
Jaques Steinberg at the NYT wrote about the ABC "debate"
url to the story
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/18/us/politics/18moderator.html
Per:
Don Hewitt, the director and producer of the Kennedy-Nixon debate of 1960, said ABC’s structuring of the questions was an acknowledgment that a debate entails “a big dose of show biz” and “trying to keep an audience.”
“When you’re in television,” Mr. Hewitt said, “that’s your job.”
Thought Glenn and the commentariat would appreciate one more piece of evidence that television is a public disservice and quite possibly a domestic enemy in its current iteration.