Consumed by Media: The NYT declares the death of Facebook, then admits Facebook is just fine. “The most shocking thing about this flimsy story is that it actually made it past editors.”
If you can’t trust them with the small stuff…
Updates from August, 2009 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Jehuda
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And endless source of asininity and mendacity, Senator Reid. Gotta see this collection of his quotes that Ed Driscoll has gathered to really grasp the extent of it.
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Politico: Gibbs says Mike Enzi is betraying bipartisanship because of how he “trashed Democrat reform ideas”.
Bipartisanship? Pffft. This White House and this President don’t need bipartisanship. HE WON, remember? You Dem sillyheads. Such poor memories.
Besides, what do you need bipartisanship for when you control both houses and the White House?
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Jehuda
Wired: BMW’s New Vision.
Nice!
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(via The Corner)
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Hot Air: Obama Strong Disapproval at Peak. This evidently has given Ace a fever.
You know it’s bad when the MSM offers advice AND turns on Obama at the same time.
Things are not much better in Congress: Politico: Experts see double-digit losses for Democrats.
One bit of good news…for GOP coffers (via Instapundit).
And for those who dare to dream, Harry Reid feigns words of encouragement. I love this from the comments: “Should Reid be giving interviews when he’s under the influence?”
Still, don’t forget we need to keep pushing back. This fight ain’t over just yet…
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Jehuda
The Final Destination (but is it really the final sequel in this franchise? I doubt it) beat Halloween II. And so did Inglorious Basterds.
Nikki Finke has figures and analysis.
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Great photos of Organizing for American running interference for Rep. Ed Perlmutter’s (D – Colorado) at town hall in Denver last Friday.
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From the WaPo: How can President Obama regain his political footing?
Related content from Jennifer Rubin: “[I]t’s never a good sign when mainstream papers are running symposiums to examine what, if anything, can be done to save the remainder of the president’s term.”
Indeed. But we need to keep pushing back. The administration and Congress may be on their knees, but they’re not down just yet. That can’t happen until November 2010; and whether it will is far from certain.
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Jehuda
It’s in the House bill.
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Colby Hall: “Whether or not the term ‘Kennedy Care’ ends up as a common phrase just may have a huge effect on the nation’s future health care system.”
I wonder if Colby also did a Google News Search for “Mary Jo Kopechne“?
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I know it’s not a great feat in and of itself, but it’s funny. It’s not like he could have easily avoided this.
Via Insty.
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And it asks for a reconciliation vote in order to pass Obamacare.
Who cares what the People want? Just shove it down there throats and get on with it!
They don’t call it State Run Media for nothing…
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TV Squad: People Who Watch TV Are Older Than Ever: “A new study shows that the average age of TV viewers of ABC, CBS, NBC is now 51 (FOX’s is a bit younger but they’re growing older too). CBS’ average age has been 50 or over for quite some time (no surprise there, with the type of shows they have), but now ABC and NBC’s age has jumped quite a bit in the past several years. The CW is the youngest.”
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Jehuda
I have the feeling Carol Shea-Porter (D – NH) will face a tough re-election battle next year…at the least.
UPDATE: Pushing for Obamacare with an elbow to the face. Hope and Change!
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Jehuda
I’m a Democrat, and have long been concerned about America’s lack of a health safety net. But based on my own work experience, I also believe that unless we fix the problems at the foundation of our health system—largely problems of incentives—our reforms won’t do much good, and may do harm. To achieve maximum coverage at acceptable cost with acceptable quality, health care will need to become subject to the same forces that have boosted efficiency and value throughout the economy.
Is it just me or did I just read a Democrat advocating for a free market approach? Did Waterloo come and go and nobody told us?
The funniest – or perhaps saddest – thing about all this is that this is being described as a “radical solution”.
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American Power: Obama’s Green Jobs Czar. Why is this avowed communist revolutionary working in the White House?
UPDATE: Related (marginally): R.S. McCain on The Self-Destruction of Rep. Diane Watson (D-Havana).
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Weekly Standard Blog: Acknowleding the obvious:
The Washington Post has an important front-page story this morning, with matter-of-fact reporting on the importance of Khalid Sheikh Mohammad as an intelligence source and the enhanced interrogation techniques that made him talk. The piece is headlined: “How a Detainee Became an Asset: September 11 Plotter Cooperated After Waterboarding.”
That’s pretty remarkable. The WaPo is actually siding with Cheney and not the administration. But I think taking this is an indication of the entire MSM coming around on this issue of the appropriateness of EIT’s is overly optimistic.
Via @KarlRove.
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Anthony Burch: Will it be the best or the worst video game movie ever?
Well, it’s directed by the same duo that brought us the Crank
movies. So you know at the very least it will look interesting and will be fun to watch, even though it reeks of a The Running Man re-make.
No Jason Statham, though. So who knows?
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“I hope you go out of business.”
Keep in mind Reid is the Senate’s majority leader.
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Hmm. A pro-Obamacare site is pushing depraved racist imagery.
Wow. Do you want to pass Obamacare or do you want to humiliate African-Americans? What’s next? Setting crosses on fire at the next town hall?
Wait. Did a Senate Democrat tell you it was ok to use that cartoon? (yuk, yuk)
Hey, don’t point fingers at me. My family name ends in a vowel and my ancestors wore sombreros, so save the guilt trip. I’m just worried you Democrats might fall back into old ways. But since you’re digging into Democratic Party history, here’s a short list of stuff you omitted from your nasty artwork, just in case you haven’t done your homework (emphasis mine):
* There is no reference to the number of Democratic Party platforms supporting slavery. There were six from 1840 through 1860.
- There is no reference to the number of Democratic presidents who owned slaves. There were seven from 1800 through 1861
- There is no reference to the number of Democratic Party platforms that either supported segregation outright or were silent on the subject. There were 20, from 1868 through 1948.
- There is no reference to “Jim Crow” as in “Jim Crow laws,” nor is there reference to the role Democrats played in creating them. These were the post-Civil War laws passed enthusiastically by Democrats in that pesky 52-year part of the DNC’s missing years. These laws segregated public schools, public transportation, restaurants, rest rooms and public places in general (everything from water coolers to beaches). The reason Rosa Parks became famous is that she sat in the “whites only” front section of a bus, the “whites only” designation the direct result of Democrats.
- There is no reference to the formation of the Ku Klux Klan, which, according to Columbia University historian Eric Foner, became “a military force serving the interests of the Democratic Party.” Nor is there reference to University of North Carolina historian Allen Trelease’s description of the Klan as the “terrorist arm of the Democratic Party.” [presumably, the SEIU has taken on this mantle in modern times --ed]
- There is no reference to the fact Democrats opposed the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution. The 13th banned slavery. The 14th effectively overturned the infamous 1857 Dred Scott decision (made by Democratic pro-slavery Supreme Court justices) by guaranteeing due process and equal protection to former slaves. The 15th gave black Americans the right to vote.
- There is no reference to the fact that Democrats opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1866. It was passed by the Republican Congress over the veto of President Andrew Johnson, who had been a Democrat before joining Lincoln’s ticket in 1864. The law was designed to provide blacks with the right to own private property, sign contracts, sue and serve as witnesses in a legal proceeding.
- There is no reference to the Democrats’ opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1875. It was passed by a Republican Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses Grant. The law prohibited racial discrimination in public places and public accommodations.
- There is no reference to the Democrats’ 1904 platform, which devotes a section to “Sectional and Racial Agitation,” claiming the GOP’s protests against segregation and the denial of voting rights to blacks sought to “revive the dead and hateful race and sectional animosities in any part of our common country,” which in turn “means confusion, distraction of business, and the reopening of wounds now happily healed.”
- There is no reference to four Democratic platforms, 1908-20, that are silent on blacks, segregation, lynching and voting rights as racial problems in the country mount. By contrast the GOP platforms of those years specifically address “Rights of the Negro” (1908), oppose lynching (in 1912, 1920, 1924, 1928) and, as the New Deal kicks in, speak out about the dangers of making blacks “wards of the state.”
- There is no reference to the Democratic Convention of 1924, known to history as the “Klanbake.” The 103-ballot convention was held in Madison Square Garden. Hundreds of delegates were members of the Ku Klux Klan, the Klan so powerful that a plank condemning Klan violence was defeated outright. To celebrate, the Klan staged a rally with 10,000 hooded Klansmen in a field in New Jersey directly across the Hudson from the site of the convention. Attended by hundreds of cheering convention delegates, the rally featured burning crosses and calls for violence against African-Americans and Catholics.
- There is no reference to the fact that it was Democrats who segregated the federal government, at the direction of President Woodrow Wilson upon taking office in 1913. There is a reference to the fact that President Harry Truman integrated the military after World War II.
- There is reference to the fact that Democrats created the Federal Reserve Board, passed labor and child welfare laws, and created Social Security with Wilson’s New Freedom and FDR’s New Deal. There is no mention that these programs were created as the result of an agreement to ignore segregation and the lynching of blacks. Neither is there a reference to the thousands of local officials, state legislators, state governors, U.S. congressmen and U.S. senators who were elected as supporters of slavery and then segregation between 1800 and 1965. Nor is there reference to the deal with the devil that left segregation and lynching as a way of life in return for election support for three post-Civil War Democratic presidents, Grover Cleveland, Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt.
- There is no reference that three-fourths of the opposition to the 1964 Civil Rights Bill in the U.S. House came from Democrats, or that 80% of the “nay” vote in the Senate came from Democrats. Certainly there is no reference to the fact that the opposition included future Democratic Senate leader Robert Byrd of West Virginia (a former Klan member) and Tennessee Senator Albert Gore Sr., father of Vice President Al Gore.
- Last but certainly not least, there is no reference to the fact that Birmingham, Ala., Public Safety Commissioner Bull Connor, who infamously unleashed dogs and fire hoses on civil rights protestors, was in fact–yes indeed–a member of both the Democratic National Committee and the Ku Klux Klan.
Oh and no doubt you will be glad to learn that you are not the only one willing to oppress African-Americans for the sake of socialized medicine. Ask the SEIU. They know!
UPDATE: Related content from Ed Driscoll. Thanks for the link!
MORE: American Power uncovers an enemies list and more.
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Parcbench: Visual Effects: 100 Years of Inspiration.
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Now this is something the world really can’t wait for: No More Chavez.
So here’s something we can all look forward to: Global Anti-Chavez Day.
And here’s something to get you going: just remember that when a tiny, harmless, impoverished Honduras, needed its big friend the USA to stand by its side – like Honduras did for us in Iraq – Obama sided with the Chavista side.
UPDATE: Related content at Daily Uprising. Thanks for the link, Brandon!
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Sorry, Batman fans. Here’s the trailer (via Thompson, where there’s more):
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Specifically, Star Trek II
, IV
, and VI
, (my favorites, incidentally) with director Nicholas Meyer.
Related content at Instapundit: Star Trek Design FAIL’s, plus a DIY Star Trek design (whether it’s a FAIL or not is debatable).
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Jehuda
How long before MSNBC airs a story on racist crop circles?
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U.S. Representative Carol Shea-Porter (D) seems ready to engage the opposition in a respectful manner…until her mask falls off.
(Via Instapundit)
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Remember that bill that would give Obama control of the internet in case of a “cyber-security emergency”? It’s still in the works. CNET News has obtained a copy of a draft of the revised bill.
Can you imagine needing a federal license in order to work in IT? Now you can. And that’s the least troubling part of it. Giving the President the power to shut private computer networks is the real clincher.
The bill is apparently too vague to conceivably pass constitutional muster. Evidently, its text allows government to silence a huge swath of expression too easily. But – as with so many things – it’s not the substance of the bill we should focus on right now, but the intent. Someone in DC wants the power to shut a whole lot of people up on a whim under the guise of “cyber-security”, something we didn’t even come close to seeing during the allegedly dark days of the allegedly tyrannical and fascist Bush administration.
The funny thing is that it didn’t take a Patriot Act to get to this point. It just took Hope and Change!
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Only yesterday I called it Obama’s Next Mistake. But some people saw it coming back in May:
Resurgent Republic: “Attorney General Holder may have placated some of the most liberal elements of the Democratic Party in releasing such information and appointing a special prosecutor to look back at past actions of CIA officers, but it is likely to be one more factor in driving Independent voters further away from President Obama and his party.”
Via @KarlRove.
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Politics Elevated: “Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.”
From a reader’s tip.
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Mediaite’s Jeffrey Feldman laments that a clip of a tearful woman - desperate for health care for her husband - at Tom Coburn’s recent town hall got drowned out of the news cycle by Ted Kennedy’s passing:
In reply to the desperate plea for help from a constituent, Coburn serves up a cold spoonful of Republican ideology.
The story captured in the CNN clip is so fundamental, so understandable, so penetrating that it will likely tip the balance of the news coverage in favor of reform from this point forward [That's right. The guy is complaining that there is not enough news coverage in favor of reform. But let's indulge him for the sake of argument].
In the long struggle to cover the healthcare debate, cable news has been caught by its own choice to consider even the most outlandish claims offered at the town halls. But up to this point, the networks have not shown what many believe is the most critical side of the healthcare reform story: the fear tens of millions of Americans experience when they are stripped of or denied health insurance at the most desperate moments of their lives. Now CNN has shown this exact dynamic.
Amidst all the talk of paying tribute to Senator Kennedy, perhaps now is the time for CNN to bring this powerful clip back into the headlines.
It’s a powerful moment indeed. And it’s great TV. It should make for great news packages on the “heartlessness” of the opposition, of the Mob, of Republicans.
But would it tip the balance of news coverage in favor of reform (you mean there isn’t enough news coverage favoring anything Obama does or stands for? Seriously?)? Maybe. Would that eventually tip the scales in favor of passage? Unlikely, because the fact that desperate, sad, heart-wrenching instances of dire need for health care exist are not sufficient to support any conclusion that Americans should want socialized medicine. There are several reasons why.
First, we know that the aim of Obamacare is not to provide all Americans with the care they need. Obamacare will only provide you with the sort and level of care that the government thinks you should get. It’s not universal, unlimited care, as there is no such thing. Certainly not in a country of 300+ million people such as ours. Obamacare is – by definition – rationed, limited care.
And if you are living in a nursing home, like the husband of the poor lady on the video, odds are that when you are in real, desperate need for care – as in life or death – the government will do no more for you than the “evil” health insurance company that won’t help this poor couple.
Don’t take my word for it. Take Obama’s. In fact apply Obama’s own words to this couple’s situation and see if Obamacare would make a difference in their lives. Odds are it won’t. As the President has made clear, many people in similar extreme situations would also be out of luck under Obamacare.
Oh, they wouldn’t be left with nothing to hang on to. Obama is too merciful for that. They’d be handed a pill, maybe. But probably not much more.
Second, Republican ideology is not standing in the way of Obamacare’s passing. It can’t. Republicans are a minority in both houses of Congress. There’s nothing they can do to stop it if in fact Democrats really want it. The main reason why Obamacare is not a reality is because Democrats are not making it one.
UPDATE: Related content at Gateway Pundit: State Run Media refuses to air ads critical of Obamacare.
You heard the man. Need more favorable coverage of Obamacare. If they can’t find it, then they’ll have to “tip the scales” by reducing the unfavorable coverage.
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I have recently learned that CIA agents interrogated a terrorist mastermind with the aid of – oh, the humanity – blowing cigar smoke on his face. Unauthorized method!
How dare they waste precious cigar smoke on such a turd of a human being as a terrorist mastermind! I am outraged. I hope they were cheap, machine-made cigars and not delicious, handmade imports…
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HuffPo: Gang of Six Repulican Admit’s He’s Simply Blocking Obamacare.
I don’t understand why a liberal would allow a Republican Senator to entertain such delusions of grandeur. No Republican can stop Obamacare from passing. Democrats control both houses of Congress and the White House. If Obamacare never becomes a reality, Democrats will have no one to blame but themselves.
UPDATE: Related content from Forbes‘s Dan Gerstein: Democrats are their own worst enemy and have no one to blame for health care debacle but themselves.
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Funny – and harsh – but true (via Obi’s Sister). Here’s a little taste:
I’m a democrat. I have my own pile of money, but I want yours, too, including the four pennies you have rattling around in the bottom of that peanut butter jar you frugal idiots like to use as a change holder. Give it up! You owe me.
I’m a democrat. I just say I like the public school system. My kids go to private schools so that your kids can go to public schools and learn how to be good little democrats like me. When my kids grow up and become better members of a collectivist society, and your kids grow up confused, my kids will get government jobs and take more money and freedom from your kids. You owe me.
Give it a read. Take it viral and keep a copy of it handy. Suitable for framing…and for framing the issues on the way to 2010…
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The WaPo‘s Steven Pearlstein – as he advocates for passage of Obamacare – complains about Michael Steele’s plan to “bankrupt” America by 2035.
I presume Pearlstein would rather go with Obama’s plan, which will probably bankrupt us sooner:
UPDATE: Looks like Pearlstein didn’t get the memo: WaPo: Wanted: An Obama plan for fiscal sustainability.
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Whoever thought that renaming the Obamacare bill as The Teddy Kennedy Memorial Health Bill would aid its passage with an influx of momentum-fueling emotion must not be thinking very clearly.
Bottom line: Ted Kennedy cannot be positively associated with health. Not in this universe. Not as long as the death of Mary Joe Kopechne is part of his history.
No, I’m not trying to politicize Ted Kennedy’s death, unlike the people who want to name the Obamacare bill after him for purely political purposes. Or – in the case of Chris Matthews – for cathartic purposes.
Just offering some good marketing advice.
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American Power: Feingold updates prior statement: Public option alive. Expect Obamacare vote before Christmas.
When the Dems lose the House and Senate in 2o1o, then we can rest on our laurels (for a short while). Until then, keep pushing towards Waterloo!
