DOWNLOADS: (75)

PLAYS: (629)

Embed

If you're Al Gore and you own 20 percent of Current TV, and Current TV is sold to Al Jazeera, which is owned by Qatar's royal family, and Qatar's royal family also profits from oil trading, have you sold out the cause of global warming?

That's the question Howie Kurtz brought up on Reliable Sources this morning. I think it's a manufactured issue, but Dana Milbank begs to differ, saying "[H]e's been a big spokesman on global warming, a principled man and now he is this big, fat target." Continuing his rant, Milbank said Gore is "worth $300 million more than Mitt Romney and basically he's seen as a guy now who enriched himself, rather than advancing his cause -- opening up to the criticism of people like this global warming denier."

The Blaze writer Amy Holmes was predictably banal in her response, claiming Gore has "been telling the rest of the world to, you know, restrain and constrain our spending while he personally is becoming a wealthier man through, you know, his attack on Mother Nature."

What does that even mean? Does anyone think Al Gore bought Current TV in order to further his cause around global warming --so he could make a boatload of money on climate change? Really?

Finally, what does Mitt Romney's wealth have to do with it, anyway? Gore's wealth has come from sitting on the boards of Google and Apple after he left public office. He cashed in. Did anyone decide he was insincere about global warming because of those affiliations?

Gore and his partner Joel Hyatt bought a struggling cable network for $70 million in 2004. When Current was sold in 2013 for a price reported to be about $500 million, Gore's profit would be 20 percent of that sale price, less any financing that may have been obtained between 2004 and 2013. I have no idea what those financing arrangements might have been, but they either financed or else put their own funds in over the years in order to keep the doors open on what wasn't a particularly profitable enterprise.

For its part, Al Jazeera needed a channel with carriers. They have online traction, but were having difficulty finding cable carriers that would include their channel. By purchasing Current, they hoped to use Current's position as a channel already carried to build a news network competitive with CNN, which might explain why Time-Warner cable dropped Current the day the deal was announced.

I'm sure Comcast will follow suit, because when you own everything from cable to internet to pipeline to content creators, why bother with any voices you don't like?

At any rate, I'm having a great deal of difficulty connecting his sale of Current TV to Al Jazeera with a sellout of his credibility on climate change. I also don't view him as the sole authority on the question, but he is one who has credibility simply because he has been passionate and has put his money where his mouth is.

Continue reading »

It's good when normally non-political (at least, publicly) celebrities like David Letterman come out and attack corporate greed, because I suspect it has more of an impact. Letterman's right, of course - but no one's going to do anything to stop it because you can never really have enough money in your campaign chest:

David Letterman held nothing back last week when he voiced his concerns over fracking, calling the oil companies greedy, he plainly explained to America, “we’re screwed.”

The Late Show host went on to point out the issues with water contamination as a result of fracking, saying, “The Delaware Water Gap has been ruined. The Hudson Valley has been ruined. Most of Pennsylvania has been ruined. Virginia, West Virginia has been ruined. Colorado has been ruined. New Mexico has been ruined.”

Fracking is a controversial drilling method used for extracting natural gas. It has spread throughout the U.S. in recent years, despite growing acknowledgement of the risks involved. It has come under even more press in New York state recently, where activists are currently fight against reports that Governor Andrew Cuomo may allow fracking to take place in several counties.

Letterman joins fellow commedian, host of Late Night, Jimmy Fallon, who also recently discussed fracking on his show. Fallon joined Sean Lennon and Yoko Ono on stage for a song, titled “Don’t frack my mother.”

Digby told she watched Pam Stout, a tea party activist who was interviewed on David Letterman the other night. If anyone in the media is still confused by who and what ideas the Tea Partiers represent, they should watch the entire Letterman interview. (And the media should get a copy of our new book when it's released in June). Pam is hep to the fact that the Tea Party wants to take over the Republican Party, because a third party wouldn't help their cause and hey, they are arch-conservatives. Her hero is Jim DeMint and she wants us to leave Big Business alone and believes people really want to live off welfare checks. So, there you go.

This is part 2 of the interview. Digby has all three embedded in her post.

Digby nails it:

Watch the videos here if you have the time. She was the best tea party representative I've ever seen --- a perfect face for the angry Bircher club to which she also belongs, the Friends of Liberty.

I was blown away by this interview and frankly, a little bit chilled. She's mild-mannered, reasonable, utterly sincere, decent and true. Yet, she watches Beck because he "makes her think" and she reveres Jim DeMint, the most radical of all the rightwing Senators. This lovely woman believes in the raw, violent politics of the Hobbesian jungle in which it's every man for himself. I'm sure she doesn't see it that way.

Her politics aren't grounded in real life but in abstract concepts. She certainly doesn't seem defensive or even aware that her political heroes are considered radical extremists. But then if you only watch Fox news, listen to talk radio and live in the town known for its proximity to Ruby Ridge and the Aryan Nations compound you probably don't realize that your views are not held by the majority of Americans.

People like Pam show us how powerful the right-wing noise machine is. She's clearly living in a Fox News Universe; people like this have been converted to believing in essentially an alternative universe. Grover Norquist would be very happy after he watches this because he believes that the more anti-government people that are created (and believe me, he helped create a great deal of them), the more votes the conservative movement gets, all of which helps to eradicate the left entirely, which is their ultimate goal.

The NY Times had a great piece featuring Auntie Pam some months ago (and Dave discussed it here). Her views resemble the John Birch Society, only she has no clue that's where she is politically.

The Future

Pam Stout wakes each morning, turns on Fox News, grabs coffee and an Atkins bar, and hits the computer. She is the hub of a rapidly expanding and highly viral political network, keeping a running correspondence with her 400 members in Sandpoint, state and national Tea Party leaders and other conservative activists.

Mrs. Stout forwards along petitions to impeach Mr. Obama; petitions to audit the Federal Reserve; petitions to support Sarah Palin; appeals urging defiance of any federal law requiring health insurance; and on and on.

--

Continue reading »

David Letterman talks about his old pal, Sarah Palin in his top ten.

10. Ruined office floor by drilling for oil

9. Detached a retina from winking at the camera

8. Got confused-- thought she signed with QVC

7. Pistol-whipped three guys who called her "Tina"

6. Released a statement saying she won't follow Leno

5. At lunchtime, Todd picked her up driving snowmobile through lobby

4. Sad to learn there was no actual fox to hunt

3. Hosted a "Fire Dave" roundtable

2. Actually found a place with more white people than Alaska

1. Announced plans to run for President in 2010

And Howie Klein has some good news for a change.

Yesterday I had to put off a meeting with the Blue America attorney because he was manning a northern Virginia polling station. I hadn't realized there was a special election, but he reminded me that when lunatic-fringe sociopath Ken Cuccinelli was elected Virginia Attorney General, his state Senate seat came open. It's a Republican-leaning district and no one really expected it to go from insanely die-hard Republican to unapologetic Democratic. But I had to postpone the meeting again today because he was celebrating. His candidate, state Delegate Dave Marsden, a former Republican, won the seat last night!

Congratulations to the Phillies for giving it a great try as defending champs and to my Philly blogger friends like Chris Bowers, d-day, Will Bunch and C&L's own Susie Madrak who were good sports with me as we all watched the World Series.

Jeter, Posada and Pettitte were on David Letterman Thursday night to celebrate #27. Matsui, who made all of Japan proud by winning the MVP came on, holding the trophy. The only one missing from the Core Four was Mariano Rivera, the greatest reliever of all time. He'll be 40 this month and no one has ever done it better. These guys play the game the right way and do not act like fools doing it as so many pro athletes do these days.

And the Yankees do really well with a Democratic President:

Since winning the 1958 World Series when Republican Dwight Eisenhower was president, all nine of the Yankees’ titles have come under Democratic administrations — 1961, 1962, 1977, 1978, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2009. This bodes well for the Yankees for at least the next three seasons.

You may have wondered why I stopped posting about the series after my first one. Well, I'm kind of a superstitious sports fan (OK, I'm just a little bit obsessed) and when the Yanks lost Game One after I live-blogged it, I immediately gave that up.

It was a jinx, you see.

I realize this is a little old-news-cycle, but it did amaze me this past month that Sarah Palin went massively ballistic in defense of her daughters re: David Letterman's jokes, but a localized threat like Levi Johnston, who actually had sex with her underage daughter? Not so much. The Obama daughters are more 'off-limits' than you know, Governor. Ask their grandmother.

Open thread below.

"Well gee, if the amnio had warned me he'd be like this, I'da rethunk my 'culture of life' mumbo jumbo, you betcha!"

Caption this photo[shop] in comments yourself, or use it as an open thread...Happy weekend!

Our buddy, Sam Seder, decided to go check out the protest talk show hack (and professional potty-mouthed angry person) John Ziegler organized to take David Letterman off the air in light of his joke about Sarah Palin's daughter, a joke for which he had already apologized twice.

Give Sam credit. It wasn't easy to find those whole fifteen protesters amongst the sea of media covering them. I'm not sure that your protest can be considered effective if the media outnumbers the protesters by more than 2 to 1. Way to try to horn in on the media circus that surrounds Palin, Ziegler.

(T)o show you the lengths Ziegler will go for his point, check out this convoluted logic in explaining the hypocrisy of going after Letterman and not other media figures. When asked why the protest took a week to happen, Ziegler asked, "Why did David Letterman take a week to apologize?" When Air America, in more of an accusation that a question, remarked that Sarah Palin went on Saturday Night Live in 2008 a week after they had aired a skit which said that Tod (sic) Palin had slept with his daughter, Ziegler pointed out that skit was set in a New York Times staff meeting where the paper's staff was considering topics to write, so it was essentially a satire on what the Times might publish to discredit her, not Saturday Night Live saying this directly of Gov. Palin.

So this was more about attacking David Letterman and CBS than in some crusade to go after "perverts." And as Keith Olbermann pointed out, the amount of time for Letterman's apology was a matter of 3 or so hours, not a week. It sounds like Ziegler graduated magna cum laude from the Palin school of upholding responsibility.

The timing of Ziegler's latest round of publicity appears to be tied in with his return to radio in Los Angeles this month, almost as if he got involved to promote his revitalized radio career. But when you look at his track record, it's a wonder that even in the world of conservative talk radio that he keeps getting hired.

Ahhhh...so the real agenda comes out. Well, Ziegler, Freedom of Speech is a wonderful thing. You're free to make an ass out of yourself and others are free to start a FireJohnZiegler.com site to show you for the ass you are.

DOWNLOADS: (2853)

PLAYS: (7984)

Embed

While talking about the dustup between David Letterman and Sarah Palin, Republican strategist John Feehery instantly tried to say that no one made jokes about Chelsea Clinton. Contessa Brewer wouldn’t let that go and stopped him right in his tracks, which led Feehery to try and claim that Chelsea wasn’t 14 when the jokes were being made. Brewer then corrected that and reminded him, complete with finger wag and all, that Chelsea was only 12.

Considering how offended Sarah Palin is by Letterman’s jokes, I am sitting here wondering if she will boycott Rush Limbaugh now. Ok you caught me – I’m not wondering. We all know the answer to that, just like we saw how she never seemed to worry about the “jokes” her former running-mate made about Chelsea. 

(Please donate to C&L's 2009 fundraiser if you can. We need your support.)

Snail Mail:

Crooksandliars.com

POBOX 66310

Los Angeles, CA 90066

DOWNLOADS: (1728)

PLAYS: (10021)

Embed

Two words come to mind every time John Ziegler appears on TV: Braying. Jackass.

Contessa Brewer had him on MSNBC this morning to talk about David Letterman's rude and sexist remarks about Sarah Palin. But it quickly became obvious that Ziegler wasn't going on MSNBC to talk about the subject -- he was there so he could bash MSNBC for six minutes or so.

And he was his usual a-hole self. It's really a sight to behold; the man's capacity for self-humiliation seems bottomless.

My favorite part comes when he whines that MSNBC is trying to depict the Republican Party as the party of aging white males.

Gee, I wonder where they could have gotten that idea:

A 52% majority of those surveyed [all adults] couldn’t come up with a name when asked to specify “the main person” who speaks for Republicans today. Of those who could, the top response was radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh (13%), followed in order by former vice president Dick Cheney, Arizona Sen. John McCain and former House speaker Newt Gingrich. Former president George W. Bush ranked fifth, at 3%.

So the dominant faces of the Republican Party are all men, all white, all conservative and all old enough to join AARP, ranging in age from 58 (Limbaugh) to 72 (McCain). They include some of the country’s most strident voices on issues from Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination to the Supreme Court to President Obama’s policies at home and abroad. Two are retired from politics, and one has never been a candidate.

There's also the flaming a-hole demographic. It looks like Ziegler has that one covered.

Ziegler: ...and surprise, surprise, she gave an incredibly classy answer showing far more class than clearly most people on this network have,"

Brewer: I don't really know what to do with that. Honestly, I'm here to give you an opportunity, I consider myself a common sense thinker, I haven't attacked you, and for you to come on and use those sort of insults, insults me.

..cut the mic please.

(Please donate to C&L's 2009 fundraiser if you can. We need your support.)