Sunday Morning Bobblehead Thread
Maybe it's just me, but I think we're hurtling towards a Howard Beale moment between the blogosphere (the *new* media) and the mainstream media. You have cozy little holidays between politicos and the "journalists" scheduled to interview them like George's tweet above, oblivious to the appearance of conflict. And you have DFH bloggers trying to explain to corporate journos like Marc Ambinder, Chuck Todd and Joe Klein that we actually do know what we're talking about and moreover, we're correct more often than they are, much to their consternation. With the ridiculousness that passes for top stories, how much longer will it be before we all collectively yell out that we're not going to take it any more?
Aside from the aforementioned lovefest between Georgie and McCain, the same ol' complainers are on: Grassley on Face The Nation; Orrin Hatch on Meet the Press and Lieberman on State of the Union. Ironically, the death of newspapers is the subject of The Chris Matthews Show. Betcha not one of the journalists will accept responsibility for the demise because of their abdication of their journalistic integrity.
ABC's "This Week" - Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
CBS' "Face the Nation" - Sens. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Kent Conrad, D-N.D.; former national Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean.
NBC's "Meet the Press" - Sens. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.; Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Karl Eikenberry, U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan.
NBC's "The Chris Matthews Show" - Panel: Bob Woodward, Tina Brown, Gloria Borger and Joe Klein. Topics: Can America survive without newspapers? Will online news fill the void? When city papers fold, who's going to watch City Hall? Meter Questions: Will outspoken fringe players dominate GOP for the rest of Obama's term? YES: 9 NO: 3; If unemployment is still high next year, will Obama revise his tax proposals? YES: 11 No: 1.
CNN's "State of the Union" - Mullen; Eikenberry; Sens. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and Ben Cardin, D-Md.; Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo.
CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" - Encore presentation of Fareed's Emmy nominated interview with China's Premier Wen Jiabao. Plus, the always interesting Malcolm Gladwell tells us how to get to Carnegie Hall and more.
"Fox News Sunday" - Jim Towey, president of Saint Vincent College and former director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives; Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa.; Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis.; Tammy Duckworth, an assistant Veterans Affairs secretary.
So, what's catching your eye this morning?
Wow, the Steph-O tweet is particularly shameless. And we wonder why the *loser* of the last election is on his show just about every other Sunday?
This week's lineup seems particularly bad. Having just attended a Rightwing Town Hall yesterday, I'm thankful to see Dean in the lineup again, but he sure seems to be tackling the healthcare issue almost "single handedly", and when you consider he is neither in Congress or the White House at the moment, you realize just how alone he really is out there.
I haven't seen a government effort handled this badly since Katrina (speaking of which, with the MSM reporting almost daily news critical of how "Cash for Clunkers" is being handled, the only thing worse for the argument of allowing the government to handle healthcare reform is if they botch the response to a hurricane... and mark my words, the first one to make landfall, no matter what the response is like..., Republicans will attack the response like it is Katrina all over again to make the argument "the government is too incompetent to be trusted with your healthcare."
* There are two types of Republicans: millionaires and suckers.
"Mugsy's Rap Sheet": Recording history for those who seek to rewrite it.
Or as Colbert said, Look how the government handled the US highway system and potable water.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
..............the gov. does OK getting my SS to me each month. I might be way, way off, but, you do sound like a rightwingnutter with that old saw '.............gov. is 'too imcompetent to be trusted with your healthcare.'
Sorry if you can't tell the difference between an opinion and someone reporting what's being said, but based upon this Sunday lineup, I can see where you might get confused.
* There are two types of Republicans: millionaires and suckers.
"Mugsy's Rap Sheet": Recording history for those who seek to rewrite it.
Wealthcare is the programs the government maintains to keep the wealthy living well.
A good example of wealthcare is the bank bailouts of 2008 and 2009.
One can also look at keeping the Health Insurance Industry at the status quo as another form of wealthcare.
I am sure others can provide plenty of other examples when wealthcare is promoted within US government policies.
All GOPers are supporters of wealthcare, look at their voting records.
May your comment/observation go viral! Excellent insight.
That's really disgusting. I guess George really is the mendacious little twerp he appears to be.
This country is so fucked, I can't believe it.
There's always free cheddar in the mousetrap, baby. - Tom Waits
I certainly won't be watching "This Week" this week.
An incredibly boneheaded move for ABC when the most recent ratings showed them pulling ahead of MtP fo the first time in years.
* There are two types of Republicans: millionaires and suckers.
"Mugsy's Rap Sheet": Recording history for those who seek to rewrite it.
-Hunter S. Thompson, Author's Note to Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72
I think it was the poster, Alice, that said that if you're a real journalist, politicians will hate you, not want to have BBQs with you.
If a drone kills a child in Kandahar, do the crying parents make a sound?
I am 58 years old. My sunday mornings used to consist of getting up and reading the sunday paper and then watch meet the press. From the time I was a little boy, when Spivak was the host, hardley ever missed it. But in 2003 it all came to an end.
It became all to clear that russert had taken the money and was willing to say whatever the company thought he should say to increase their sales and advantage. I don't think it started in 2003 but with the 911 attack they saw their chance to take advantage and they did it. It was the begining of the end of journalism as we had known it. Now it is going to have to go back to what it once was, with a few twists. We are going to see very few newspapers because they are costly to operate and have all been bought up by big corporations who want only to make a profit and therfore can never operate in the public interest! Just like the insurance companies, the corporations that own the newspapers want the fast buck. They are paying a few people with recognition huge sums to put forth the company propaganda lines. Much like the old soviet union.
They no longer do research they talk to who ever the story is about and repeat what ever they said and call it reporting. Even though the person that they are reporting on works for the same company they do!
I never turm my Tee Vee on to the "news" any more. It is a colossal waste of time. I tell everyone I meet if they mention the Tee Vee news: I say the news was cancelled in 2003 and has not been seen since!
republicanism is a mental illness!
McCain said during his last week sleepover in Libya at the Colonel's ranch, that Gadaffi was 'an interesting guy'. (on McCain's Twitter)
This is the Libyan leader who is a confirmed American killing terrorist and who gave hugs and kisses to the sick convicted bomber who was just released by Great Britain.
Did Stepho ask McCain what he meant by 'interesting'? Are you only interesting if you are a wingnut terrorist or a Republican nutjob?
not a large man. Wonder how far up McCain's ass he managed to get?
....so, he had to get pretty far up in that thing.
YAWNNNNNNNN
Yikes! I can't think of many things worse then going on vacation with McCain. Yuck, talk about a sort of torture.
Think we'll stick to our plan today to take our dog and drive over to the beach to see the big swells rolling in as a result of Hurricane Bill. Thank goodness we didn't see the actual hurricane rolling in here.
Tonight we are going to do BBQ chicken on the grill. Now that's something to look forward to and there will be no politicians joining us. :)
Have a great Sunday everyone and try to keep your cool.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
I really like your attitude. Let them spred the shit, we'll find a way to make fertilizer out of it, yet. Ignore the Oligarchy, they think they're so important. Have a great Sunday and watch some big swells for me. I'm in the mountains.
Thank you, and consider it to be done in regards to watching the ocean. I wouldn't mind watching some mountains one Sunday. When I was little we lived in Knoxville Tenn for a while. We would often go up into the Smoky mountains on Sundays. It was so beautiful back then.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
I'm in the Mexican mountains because I'm paranoid about climate change and confess to fearing the flatlands anymore. Yes, it is beautiful here! Mexicans are such friendly people and it's much more tranquil and peaceful. No NUTTERs with vigalante militant groups. The Drug War has resulted in sm. personal amts. of most street drugs being now legal!!!
Hope that goes well. Keep us posted on how it works. We expect NOTHING from our MSM.
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
FnS opens with the "Death Book" story that hit the news only yesterday.
Their first guest, Jim Towsey (?) says the book is "a guide on how to kill yourself."
Tammy Duckworth has "insisted to be interviewed separately." Good for her.
* There are two types of Republicans: millionaires and suckers.
"Mugsy's Rap Sheet": Recording history for those who seek to rewrite it.
I just turned my teevee off. Boy, did that feel good. I have the power! If anything worth while happens, I know I'll read about it here at C&L, thanks to you guys.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
Wallace: ..."I'd think that most people don't contemplate end-of-life care until they are in a coma."
* There are two types of Republicans: millionaires and suckers.
"Mugsy's Rap Sheet": Recording history for those who seek to rewrite it.
That could win quote of the week. It should anyway. Damn, Jon and Colbert are both probably wishing they weren't on vacation next week.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
The TEEVEE pundits are no more than paid propaganda agents of the corporate media.
Any one who would take them seriously is either a fool or a willing victim.
What's catching my eye this Sunday morning? For a long while now, I've found that TVLand's Beverly Hillbillies and Leave it to Beaver marathons are much more entertaining and informative on Sunday morning while I sip coffee and get my news from blogs and other online sources. Also, keeping my distance from these fools seems to keep my blood pressure close to normal.
The American press drank the kool-aid a long time ago, and there appears no hope for recovery. The media/press "stars" rarely challenge any of their guests, even when handed the most wildassed assertions imaginable.
These shows should be thoroughly disregarded, and based on what I've seen of their ratings, I think most Americans have done just that.
It's also fun to at 7am eastern time to turn on Comedy Central and watch back to back the four Colbert shows of the previous week. You can turn on at the same time on Saturday morning and see the four Daily shows from the previous week the same way. Starting Sunday morning laughing is such a great way to kick off the day.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
The FnS "the government wants to kill you" guest cited references in the "2003" and "2007" guide to "the Hemlock Society", but when Wallace points out those references are "not in the 2009 document", Tuey (sp?) says it is only because of him bringing it up.
BTW: Tuey is selling his own guide.
PS: Tammy points out that those "2003" and "2007" guides were used "throughout the Bush Administration".
* There are two types of Republicans: millionaires and suckers.
"Mugsy's Rap Sheet": Recording history for those who seek to rewrite it.
He sure gives his opinion alot and the facts he gives are regularly wrong. Why is HE pushing so hard to get out of Afghanistan now? He sure didn't do this for Iraq.
The difference between how Wallace coddled their "Death Book" hack and the way he went after Tammy Duckworth, attacking her for even allowing the 2007 guide to even remain available to veterans, is a real case study in Fox Bias.
Let me repeat: Wallace attacked Duckworth for allowing a Bush-era document to remain available to vets. Where was the outrage in 2003-2007 when it was written?
* There are two types of Republicans: millionaires and suckers.
"Mugsy's Rap Sheet": Recording history for those who seek to rewrite it.
The outrage, the outrage.
/Snark
"I'm mad as hell and won't take it any more!", is to take the TV and throw it in the trash. If there were a grassroots move where millions of people were staging "bring-your-old-TV-to-the-local-landfill's-electronic-drop-off-bins-days" (say, every saturday), it would sooner or later catch the media's attention. More so if broadcasters were e-mailed by each person doing it (especially, if the emails were CC'd to a long, long list of advertisers). If it were turned into a bit of political theater, with people making a big show of what they were doing and why, who knows where it could go? If the psychos can have their teabagging parties and "grassroots" town hall insurrections, why can't we have trash-your-TV parties? Good way to show how irrelevant the MSM is. Throw out your old radios, while your at it.
I threw my TV out about 10-11 years ago, after not watching it for at least 10 years before that. I don't miss it, and guess what...you don't need one to be well-informed, especially with the world at your finger tips by way of the intertubulizers. Not being lied to by propagandists and virtually all advertisers, no inane mind rot disguised as entertainment.
Alternatively, threaten to cancel your cable if they don't remove FOX, CNN and the other propagandists from the lineup that you are paying for but refuse to watch. Refuse to pay for those channels as part of your cable subscription. If millions of subscribers refuse to pay for these channels, that should create a lot of ripples.
Either route would create a lot of worry amongst advertisers.
Just a thought.
BTW, this is an interesting thread for me, because yesterday afternoon I got a call from the Neilson ratings people who asked me to become one of their sample population. Speak of coincidences.....When I told them that I do not watch TV, have no TV and explicitly detailed my reasons why, it seemed to distress the Neilson person on the other end of the line:
Me: "I don't watch TV...Nothing but lies, propaganda and inane garbage that passes for entertainment...Nothing worth watching. Watching TV is far too passive a pass-time...not a healthy thing to do to your mind...I'm willing to bet that I'm ony one of millions of people who are making this choice...I can't for the life of me think of a reason why I'd ever want to do that to myself...".
Neilson Person: "Dead silence...ummmm...more silence...Warning! Warning! Danger! Danger! Does not compute! Does not compute!". This was clearly a response she didn't expect or want to hear.
Me: After some more awkward stumbling,"Have a nice day". Click.
"He's trying to sell a book. That's all."
* There are two types of Republicans: millionaires and suckers.
"Mugsy's Rap Sheet": Recording history for those who seek to rewrite it.
Seriously, I would love to know how often John Kerry -- who was still a senior senator in 2005 -- was invited onto these Sunday morning shows after he lost to GWB. It was even a tighter margin than Obama/McCain, as I recall, but I don't remember him being cited as an Elder Statesman then and carted out every other week.
McCain, Gadaffi, and Stephonutolus have so much in common, like feeling they are entitled to do anything they want to and to screw the public.
and a hundred other sites, i learn more reading those and comedy central for 1 hour 4 nites a week than i ever could on the rest of the teevee
i'll take moyers on pbs or goodman on the mp3 over anyting on fox or cnn and stopped watching press the meat when the everything is off the record unless you say otherwise method of journalism became profit worthy
on an unrelated note, does anyone know of a 'shorter version' of the maddow appearance on gregory ?? i only watched the first 10 seconds because they then cut to him saying something and had to turn it off
( the one version of the shorter concept that is safe for work: http://video.google.com/videosearch?sourceid=... )
The only thing that would even remotely interest me in this lineup is Fareed's program. Other than that, I don't have time to listen to these Beltway psychobabblers congratulate each other on how brilliant and incisive they are.
As for Stupidassifuss, what an asshole. A perfect representation of all that is wrong with the MSM.
"We will find fulfillment not in the goods that we have, but in the good we can do for each other."
Robert F. Kennedy
At the end of FnS today, Bill Kristol argued against the Tom Ridge revelation (that he was urged to raise the terror threat level before the election) by "point(ing) out the fact it WASN'T raised" before the election.
So I decided to check. True enough, that it wasn't raised, but only because accusations of "politicization of the threat level" were already being raised, and had they of done so, it surely would of been criticized.
I need to investigate more, but IIRC, the threat level had already been adjusted at least 4 times in 2004 (between yellow and orange), at least one of those time because of a "three year old video tape just found in Iraq (or was it Afghanistan?) threatening an attack on the U.S.."
UPDATE: Newshounds had a story on the "computer disk" (not "videotape", my mistake) found in Iraq that was used to justify raising the alert level to orange" in April of 2004.
UPDATE2: Ridge had already raised the threat level in August based upon what turned out to be "4 year old information". (also from the Newshounds report.)
A little video reminder: Olbermann's "Nexus of Politics & Terror" video that even then was pointing out the manipulation of the threat level. According to the video, the threat level was raised three times from December of '03 to August of '04, with two other warnings (ex: the infamous "duct tape & plastic sheeting" advisory) were issued.
* There are two types of Republicans: millionaires and suckers.
"Mugsy's Rap Sheet": Recording history for those who seek to rewrite it.
Why can't we do the same to Stephany, Press the Meat, and Mace the Nation?
Fuck Faux. They're not worth our time. Nothing will change them but indictments.
I turned on CNN to get some corporate news and all I got were 3 solid minutes of corporate commercials, so I turned it off.
Politics is for the present, but an equation is for eternity. Albert Einstein
Thanks for asking Nicole. I ran into the computer room and hit the power key when I heard John McCain say "we" need to clear up the corruption and law breakers in politics before the American people will trust "us" again. (or some such similar statement). I was floored this comment coming from a corrupt politician with blood money on his hands and a complete cover up of his corruption and law breaking. He said it a couple minutes before his "condor" observation.
I wish that bird would have bitten him.
There are two great questions in Nicole's article I would like to answer.
"How much longer will it be before we all collectively yell out that we're not going to take it any more?"
My answer: I have been yelling for 10 years to the readers of this site to cancel their pay TV. This would send one hell of a signal that we don't like this spoon fed propaganda and junk TV. Why pay for it? Of course C&L and other sites like it would HAVE to keep their feed to fill these pages. But the majority of Americans don't have to keep PAYING THESE GUYS. Where do you think they get their power from? "Your wallets" is the answer.
Second question, "When city papers fold, who's going to watch City Hall?"
Easy to answer. US. WHO do you think is watching City Hall these days? For the last 20 years? Your newspaper? Your TV show? Your conservative screamers? They have ALL been BUFFERS and DIVERSIONS, blocking OUR WAY from "watching city hall."
Maybe when they're removed we will have a more clear view of what is going on "at city hall".
By the way, where do you think all that money politicians raise for their campaigns ultimately ends up (not counting their jets, yachts, and high styled living)? It ends up at BIG MEDIA. Ultimately it goes to the SAME PEOPLE WHO ARE PICKING EVERYONE'S POCKETS FOR A MONTHLY FEED OF VIDEO.
So who is the joke on? What are YOU going to do about it?
How's that for answering the questions 1 and 2?
so you haven't been doing it for that long.
"The blog first appeared on the Internet in August 2004..."
not even close.
Hey when's the anniversary John? Which day did you first power on?
me-oww!
There was Buzzflash.
I was doing it there.
I did not refer to JUST THIS SITE.
You know people like me talk all over the place, NOT JUST HERE.
I tend to sit in one spot. I've tried being at several blogs, but it's not the way I work best.
:D
me-oww!
I really do. But, my fear of it's potential is even greater.
To me, it's the most shameless form of navel gazing and the worst excuse for journalism ever.
Now excuse me, I'm off to read a real newspaper. Then I'll wash my hands as to not get ink from my hands on the sofa. And I'll enjoy it thoroughly.
Peace
"Better." It's what we should ask of ourselves and of our leaders.
Maybe next Sunday Steph can forego any of the journalistic integrity thingies and just do a power-point slide show of "George and John's Great Adventure"I'll bring the popcorn. Seriously,what a putz.
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