Month: May 2013

Alyssa Rosenberg is too goram smart for Think Progress.

She needs to be snapped up by Buzzfeed or something.  Anywhere where I don’t feel mildly dirty for linking to it

In terms of establishing its independent brand, PBS should absolutely adore the state of television right now. The reality glut may be irritating to donors who would like to see American tastes turn towards something more high-minded. But the fact that not everyone is going into the business of prestige family soaps and British imports actually makes it vastly easier for PBS to distinguish itself, find large audiences for programming like Downton Abbey, and prove to private donors, foundations, and the U.S. government that it’s meeting needs that no other channel has bothered to try to fulfill, along with providing access to things like high-quality children’s programming in areas where it might not otherwise be financially viable. If I were PBS president and CEO Paula Kerger, in fact, I would be slipping unmarked bills in plain envelopes under the table to Animal Planet to keep producing things like Mermaids: The New Evidence, trust that people who are disgusted by such things will arrive at a state of high dudgeon all by their own selves, and then use my advertising budget to put a lot of .GIFs of the Dowager Countess being awesome or clips of Ken Burns being eloquent on video advertising slots all over the place.

Heck, PBS should hire her to be their advertising manager.  And blogger.

Moe Lane

PS:

Martha Speaks is a freaking life-saver.  PBS Kids has a lot of that.

Terry McAuliffe: GEORGE W BUSH KILLED MY FATHER.

Oh, dear.  Terry McAuliffe really doesn’t know how the world works, does he?

In a May 2001 interview with C-SPAN, titled the “Life and Career of Terry McAuliffe,” the former Democratic National Committee chairman says one of the “reasons” his father, Jack, died was “he could not go into a new year knowing that a Republican was actually moving into the White House.”

While his father was in the hospital, McAuliffe’s mother “went and came back in five minutes later, and he had passed away. And I told the story, you know, I gave at the eulogy at his funeral, and there are many reasons why people thought Jack had died,” McAuliffe told C-SPAN. “He was 83 years old. And I said the main reason is that he could not go into a new year knowing that a Republican was actually moving into the White House. I just don’t think he could’ve handled that.”

(Via Hot Air) Or, you know, McAuliffe Senior just might have passed away.  If my father had been a Republican*, I’m pretty sure that I wouldn’t have used his passing as an excuse to slam President Obama. Because my father wasn’t a f*cking political prop, Terry. Continue reading Terry McAuliffe: GEORGE W BUSH KILLED MY FATHER.

Superhero brawling on the streets of Hollywood!

It’s that kind of day.

Costumed superhero characters were involved in a brawl Wednesday afternoon on the streets of Hollywood.

Witnesses said two Captain Americas and a Spider-Man threw punches at each other in front of the Madame Tussauds kiosk, feet away from the Dolby Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard.

Click through to see the one guy… no, wait, let me just embed it.

I am such a bad man for laughing at this.

This may be the actual NADIR of the Louisiana Democratic party.

Jim’s title says it all: “Louisiana Democratic Party Chair Runs Away From Reporters.”  …Well, not quite: the reason why Karen Carter Peterson is running away from reporters is because she claimed yesterday that opposition to mandatory health insurance was based on racism, which is probably not a smart thing to say in Louisiana*.

Continue reading This may be the actual NADIR of the Louisiana Democratic party.

Barack Obama tells DCCC that he fixed Washington, DC.

Indirectly, to be sure: but nobody sensible to expect plain talking from Barack Obama anyway.  At the heart of this stunning revelation is this bit from the Hill:

“Do not buy into this notion somehow that, oh, these problems are too big or Washington is broken,” Obama said. “Washington is not broken.  It’s broken right now for a particular reason, but it’s not permanently broken.  It can be fixed.”

Now, of course, folks reading that line are immediately flashing back to this: Continue reading Barack Obama tells DCCC that he fixed Washington, DC.

The obligatory “Man, that Q-Poll was pretty bad for Obama, huh?” post.

This is a glass two-thirds full kind of situation, really.  Maybe 3/4ths: after all, it annoys some so when I get to chuckle.

President Barack Obama’s approval rating took a hit amid three controversies surrounding his administration, including an investigation into the IRS unfairly targeting conservative groups seeking nonprofit status, a new poll Thursday showed.

Obama has a 45 percent approval rating and a 49 percent disapproval rating — compared with a 48 percent approval, 45 percent disapproval rating from May 1, according to the Quinnipiac University poll.

Continue reading The obligatory “Man, that Q-Poll was pretty bad for Obama, huh?” post.

Sort of scatterbrained gubernatorial observations.

I was going to write something about Lincoln Chafee’s Hail Mary conversion to Democrat, prior to the 2014 RI gubernatorial election, but this passage about something entirely different made me chuckle too much:

Psst! – Barack Obama, there IS a Democrat running for Governor in New Jersey, as Shush Walshe reports:  While President Obama played arcade games Tuesday with Gov. Chris Christie at the New Jersey shore, there was no sign of the Democrat who’s challenging Christie for governor. Instead, state Sen. Barbara Buono was reduced to tweeting, “@BuonoForNJGov It was great to meet with @BarackObama today as we cheer the shore’s re-opening: a testament to all we accomplish when we work together. -BB” http://abcn.ws/174ZTbM (Shushannah Walshe)

Continue reading Sort of scatterbrained gubernatorial observations.

The IRS, Obamacare, and other pains in Barack Obama’s tuchis.

There’s something that I am quite happy to point out about the Obamacare jam (H/T: Hot Air) that Democrats are finding themselves in right now…

Conservative groups are preparing to use the deepening public distrust of the Internal Revenue Service to discredit the Affordable Care Act, and the Democrats who support it, in the 2014 election cycle.

Now that the IRS has admitted to unfairly targeting conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status, Republicans plan to make the agency, which is responsible for carrying out much of President Obama’s health care law, the poster child for dysfunctional government, and a giant liability for Democrats.

Continue reading The IRS, Obamacare, and other pains in Barack Obama’s tuchis.