Archives
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Flotsam and Jitsm
Be
patient. I'll get to it. I promise.
EMERGENCY BUTTON (If you need it). Every once in a while we do a blog-type blog entry like most people do, taking credit for noticing what's going on, with nothing personal to add but a wry quip at the beginning or the end. Call us lazy, but you have no idea how much effort is involved in scanning the Intertubes for links that are, well, wry quip material. Especially when the normal IP inclination is toward a machete, only in reverse, if you know what I mean. And who cares if you don't?
Be that as it may. I'm doing my best. Think of this as IP's version of the measured, friendly, bloggery of Instadumb**it. It's just pointing and wrying for a day. Like the good guys we are I am..
NBC BLINKS: No more Olbermann on NBC Sunday Night Football, the network that's presently crowing like crazy that it is "more colorful:"
Liberal cable news talker Keith
Olbermann has been benched from NBC's Sunday night NFL broadcasts this
season, according to various reports.
The move, originally reported by SportsByBrooks last week, was apparently no reflection of his political views, but the gig conflicted with his daily MSNBC broadcast. Olbermann, 51, had taken an occasional Friday off to focus on NBC's pre-game show, something his bosses at NBC News weren't keen on.
The New York Post reported NBC officials told reporters that Olbermann's left-leaning political views had nothing to do with the move. Olbermann, who rose to the national scene as a co-anchor for ESPN's "SportsCenter," had been a part of NBC's football broadcast -- termed "Football Night in America" -- in some capacity since 2007.
Olbermann, who was paired with fellow "SportsCenter" expatriate Dan Patrick, did lace some of his sports takes with politics, including a minor ribbing of former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin. [Ya think?]
The move, originally reported by SportsByBrooks last week, was apparently no reflection of his political views, but the gig conflicted with his daily MSNBC broadcast. Olbermann, 51, had taken an occasional Friday off to focus on NBC's pre-game show, something his bosses at NBC News weren't keen on.
The New York Post reported NBC officials told reporters that Olbermann's left-leaning political views had nothing to do with the move. Olbermann, who rose to the national scene as a co-anchor for ESPN's "SportsCenter," had been a part of NBC's football broadcast -- termed "Football Night in America" -- in some capacity since 2007.
Olbermann, who was paired with fellow "SportsCenter" expatriate Dan Patrick, did lace some of his sports takes with politics, including a minor ribbing of former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin. [Ya think?]
Like nobody at NBC noticed that the ratings fell like a rock ("30 Rock"?) when last year's telecasts went to halftime. Right. How smart does a network executive have to be to detect that pissing off at least half your audience isn't the best possible move in sports coverage?
DOG BITES MAN: Almost two years into his presidency, The One is still snivelling about his predecessor:
Obama
attacks Bush policies in Bush's home state
Obama hammers Bush's "disastrous" economic policies
By Ross Colvin
AUSTIN, Texas, Aug 9 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama attacked the economic policies of his Republican predecessor George W. Bush in Bush's home state on Monday as evidence of the way Republicans would operate if given power in Nov. 2 U.S. congressional elections.
At a fund-raising event for Democrats in Dallas, where Bush now lives, Obama said the former president's "disastrous" policies had driven the U.S. economy into the ground and turned budget surpluses into deficits.
Obama defended his repeated references to Bush's policies, saying they were necessary to remind Americans of the weak economy he inherited from Bush in January 2009.
"The policies that crashed the economy, that undercut the middle class, that mortgaged our future, do we really want to go back to that, or do we keep moving our country forward?" Obama said at another fund-raising event in Austin, referring to Bush's eight years as president.
In reminding voters about the policies of the unpopular Bush, Obama is trying to protect his fellow Democrats' majorities in Congress and limit anticipated Republican gains.
Obama hammers Bush's "disastrous" economic policies
By Ross Colvin
AUSTIN, Texas, Aug 9 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama attacked the economic policies of his Republican predecessor George W. Bush in Bush's home state on Monday as evidence of the way Republicans would operate if given power in Nov. 2 U.S. congressional elections.
At a fund-raising event for Democrats in Dallas, where Bush now lives, Obama said the former president's "disastrous" policies had driven the U.S. economy into the ground and turned budget surpluses into deficits.
Obama defended his repeated references to Bush's policies, saying they were necessary to remind Americans of the weak economy he inherited from Bush in January 2009.
"The policies that crashed the economy, that undercut the middle class, that mortgaged our future, do we really want to go back to that, or do we keep moving our country forward?" Obama said at another fund-raising event in Austin, referring to Bush's eight years as president.
In reminding voters about the policies of the unpopular Bush, Obama is trying to protect his fellow Democrats' majorities in Congress and limit anticipated Republican gains.
Good luck with that. Louis XIV tried blaming Louis XIII too. Pretty sure that didn't work, either. And excuse me, but what's so 'cool' about this strategy? Did Pacino blame anything on Brando in Godfather II? Maybe he was thinking of the famous scene in which Brando exploded, "Be a man!" Advice worth considering, we'd say.
RIFT IN THE GLOBAL MSM: Even the Brits are noticing that the American mainstream media are a bunch of lame, lazy, ass-kissers:
The
Obama presidency increasingly resembles
a modern-day Ancien Régime: extravagant and
out of touch with the American people
What the great French historian Alexis de Tocqueville would make of today’s Obama administration were he alive today is anyone’s guess. But I would wager that the author of L’Ancien Régime and Democracy in America would be less than impressed with the extravagance and arrogance on display among the White House elites that rule America as though they had been handed some divine right to govern with impunity.
It is the kind of impunity that has been highlighted on the world stage this week by Michelle Obama’s hugely costly trip to Spain...
The timing of this lavish European vacation could not have come at a worse moment, when unemployment in America stands at 10 percent, and large numbers of Americans are fighting to survive financially in the wake of the global economic downturn. It sends a message of indifference, even contempt, for the millions of Americans who are struggling just to feed their families on a daily basis and pay the mortgage, while the size of the national debt balloons to Greek-style proportions.
While the liberal-dominated US mainstream media have largely ignored the story, it is all over the blogosphere and talk radio, and will undoubtedly add to the President’s free falling poll ratings. As much as the media establishment turn a blind eye to stories like this, which are major news in the international media, the American public is increasingly turning to alternative news sources, including the British press, which has a far less deferential approach towards the White House...
a modern-day Ancien Régime: extravagant and
out of touch with the American people
What the great French historian Alexis de Tocqueville would make of today’s Obama administration were he alive today is anyone’s guess. But I would wager that the author of L’Ancien Régime and Democracy in America would be less than impressed with the extravagance and arrogance on display among the White House elites that rule America as though they had been handed some divine right to govern with impunity.
It is the kind of impunity that has been highlighted on the world stage this week by Michelle Obama’s hugely costly trip to Spain...
The timing of this lavish European vacation could not have come at a worse moment, when unemployment in America stands at 10 percent, and large numbers of Americans are fighting to survive financially in the wake of the global economic downturn. It sends a message of indifference, even contempt, for the millions of Americans who are struggling just to feed their families on a daily basis and pay the mortgage, while the size of the national debt balloons to Greek-style proportions.
While the liberal-dominated US mainstream media have largely ignored the story, it is all over the blogosphere and talk radio, and will undoubtedly add to the President’s free falling poll ratings. As much as the media establishment turn a blind eye to stories like this, which are major news in the international media, the American public is increasingly turning to alternative news sources, including the British press, which has a far less deferential approach towards the White House...
When Americans "turn to the British press," shouldn't that be a wakeup call for their betters in the States? Nah. They are the unchanging hope that went down the drain a long long time ago.
MUSLIM TO THE RIGHT OF BLOOMBERG & O'REILLY: Just love this one because O'Reilly is such an ass. He's so determined to be the open-minded middle-of-the-road "traditionalist" that he utterly fails to see when events have passed him by. This is the ONE time I have seen him nonplussed into breaking his unthinking pose that he's the one who speaks for "the folks."
Enjoy.
ROSABUD BACK IN THE NEWS: Pardon a bit of self-promotion here. Back in 2000, there was BoomerBible.com and Shuteye Nation, where we had this to say about someone(s):
Rosabud. Leading real-sized°
TV talk show host. Didn't she used to have a sitcom, where she was fat
and loud and obnoxious to everybody? Well, now she does it on her talk
show, except she's only fat and loud and obnoxious to people who are
part
of the vast right wing conspiracy°,
because there are so many people out there who need the kind of
political°°
[crap] you can only get from
a turd in a pantsuit.
Now she's back in the news. Twice. There's this:
George Bush, in the middle of a war,
had an all-station news conference to announce how horrible it was for
the safety of America that gay people were getting married in San
Francisco, which pissed me off enough to get on a plane and go get
married.
And this:
Israel: What a vile and hideous
country. I have reached the point, after reading today’s news where I
can really no longer support in any way anything having to do with
Israel or its apologists. I know that this means I will most
likely never work in US media again. I have tried to navigate my
way through attempting to be a person of moral courage and a performer
in the US. I have come to the realization that there is just no
way to remain mute on the subject of the horrid oppression by
Israel of its neighbors and workers and have any conscience at all.
We think she's still a turd in a pantsuit.
A SERIOUS (but hilarious) PROPOSITION: What wasn't around back in 2000 was Greg Gutfeld. We're happy about the progress he represents. Here's something this normally mosquito-weight scamp appears to be serious about:
I’m announcing tonight, that I am planning to build and open the first gay bar that caters not only to the west, but also Islamic gay men. To best express my sincere desire for dialogue, the bar will be situated next to the mosque Park51, in an available commercial space.
This is not a joke. I’ve already spoken to a number of investors, who have pledged their support in this bipartisan bid for understanding and tolerance.
As you know, the Muslim faith doesn’t look kindly upon homosexuality, which is why I’m building this bar. It is an effort to break down barriers and reduce deadly homophobia in the Islamic world.
The goal, however, is not simply to open a typical gay bar, but one friendly to men of Islamic faith. An entire floor, for example, will feature non-alcoholic drinks, since booze is forbidden by the faith. The bar will be open all day and night, to accommodate men who would rather keep their sexuality under wraps – but still want to dance.
Bottom line: I hope that the mosque owners will be as open to the bar, as I am to the new mosque. After all, the belief driving them to open up their center near Ground Zero, is no different than mine.
My place, however, will have better music.
No, Gutfeld isn't gay. He pants too much in the presence of his female guests on Redeye for that. But he's hit on a new idea, I think. Satire acted out, invested in, made real in an insane reality. Wish I'd thought of it first.
Which is the end of our blog-type blog entry. Except for the footnotes. Any time you challenge the left anymore, you have to have footnotes. I have one. I guess that's the minimum.
FOOTNOTE. I suppose there are those who think the Barney Frank video above merits a post of its own. I disagree. Even if the whole purpose of this post was to get, finally, to Barney Frank, that wouldn't make him any more than a footnote in American history. You can do a LOT of damage without being more than a footnote. To transcend that status, you have to have some actual stature. You know. Character. Wisdom. Or at least tragically wrong convictions. You can't just be the living embodiment of every stereotype associated with the monolithic identity you choose to inflict on everyone. So here's our Barney Frank footnote.
THE STEREOTYPE'S STEREOTYPE: So what do gay men want that we can all agree they might deserve? That they be freed from the cartoon notion that if they're not effeminate, victim nonentities, they're shrill, vicious, conniving composites of all that is worst in both sexes, with the arrogantly predatory instincts of a male with a grudge and the poisonous, eternal, criminal resentments of a female scorned. Welcome to Barney Frank. This choleric, corrupt, delusional, self-ordained Poof Pontiff of the Congress is the worst possible advertisement ever for the cause he purports to believe in most. He's nothing but a rutting hog with a snarling lisp and a liar's preference for the pigpen from which he hurls the dung he's spent his life squeezing into the shape of Massachussetts rhetoric
Yeah. Nobody else will say it. I will. He's the best argument against gay rights alive on the planet. Compare the gotcha video up top with this account from Jonathan Alter's suckbutt paean to Obama, The Promise:
At the Washington Independent Aaron
Weiner highlights another F-bomb festival, this time from a September
2008 meeting that included House Financial Services Chairman Barney
Frank (D - Mass.), Obama, John McCain, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson
and President Bush.
Frank was apparently incensed at Paulson's attempt to stop Democrats from criticizing the huge plan to bailout the financial sector -- in fact, it was Republicans who balked, Weiner observes. Here's Frank's blowup at Paulson:
Barney Frank muscled his way past Harry Reid and started yelling. "F-- you, Hank! F-- you! Blow up this deal? We didn't blow up this deal! Your guys blew up the deal! You better tell [GOP Rep. Spencer] Bacchus and the rest of them to get their s-- together!"
Frank was apparently incensed at Paulson's attempt to stop Democrats from criticizing the huge plan to bailout the financial sector -- in fact, it was Republicans who balked, Weiner observes. Here's Frank's blowup at Paulson:
Barney Frank muscled his way past Harry Reid and started yelling. "F-- you, Hank! F-- you! Blow up this deal? We didn't blow up this deal! Your guys blew up the deal! You better tell [GOP Rep. Spencer] Bacchus and the rest of them to get their s-- together!"
Hardly an exception. The public record is stuffed with his vulgarity, sanctimony, venom, overflowing rage, sense of superiority, and utter, utter personal and political corruption . (Go here, here, here, here, here, and here.)
This from a man who should have been tossed out of the Congress for personal ethics violations long before he betrayed his office in matters of state.
Shortly after coming out, Frank met and
began dating Herb Moses, an
economist and LGBT activist; their relationship lasted for eleven years
until an amicable break-up in July 1998... Moses, who was an executive at Fannie Mae
from 1991 to 1998, was the first partner of an openly gay member of
Congress to receive spousal benefits and the two were considered
"Washington's most powerful and influential gay couple
Compare:
NEW YORK (CNN) -- Troubled mortgage
giant Fannie Mae planned to pay four
top executives retention bonuses
ranging from $470,000 to $611,000, according to a February SEC
filing.
Executive vice presidents Kenneth Bacon, David Hisey, Michael Williams and Thomas Lund will be receiving bonuses of close to half a million dollars each. Bacon supervises community development for the company, Hisey is its deputy chief financial officer, Williams is its COO and Lund oversees the single-family mortgage business.
By contrast, Fannie Mae CFO David Johnson received no bonus on top of his salary of $625,000, while CEO Herb Allison received no compensation or bonuses in 2008 or 2009.
A spokesman for Fannie Mae deferred comment on the bonuses to the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
The bonuses were necessary to keep Fannie's most experienced executives working to reverse the effects of the mortgage crisis, FHFA Director James B. Lockhart told CNN.
Executive vice presidents Kenneth Bacon, David Hisey, Michael Williams and Thomas Lund will be receiving bonuses of close to half a million dollars each. Bacon supervises community development for the company, Hisey is its deputy chief financial officer, Williams is its COO and Lund oversees the single-family mortgage business.
By contrast, Fannie Mae CFO David Johnson received no bonus on top of his salary of $625,000, while CEO Herb Allison received no compensation or bonuses in 2008 or 2009.
A spokesman for Fannie Mae deferred comment on the bonuses to the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
The bonuses were necessary to keep Fannie's most experienced executives working to reverse the effects of the mortgage crisis, FHFA Director James B. Lockhart told CNN.
But he's escaped all accountability for his turpitude because he's gay, hostile, and vicious? Sometimes, stereotypes rule. But gays shouldn't be surprised that straights are still resistant to their demands for surrender across the board. Who wants to surrender anything to the Barney Franks of the world? They don't even deserve accommodation. They deserve to be locked up.
ANTIDOTE: No. We don't -- I don't -- hate gay people. I just hate whores, manipulators, crooks, and bullies of every stripe. That's not who most gay people are. At all. So let me leave you with scenes from a movie I genuinely liked, with no inclination to feel that I was being patronizing. I'd have enjoyed being at that dinner party. Not kidding. Here's some background and the scene I'll leave you with:
Night all.
