Gasoline on the fire of Erick’s CNN gig.

A group’s got to know its limitations.

You may have noticed that a lot of the people being most virulent about Erick’s CNN gig are folks who don’t have, won’t have, and probably can’t have CNN gigs, or anything like that (the highest that they aspire to is to get on Maddow once) and it’s not unreasonable to assume that this probably bugs them. They’re in the Left-sphere, remember? Beyond a certain point, there’s no advancement; the activist Left have all the tame blogs that they need, thanks, and they’d prefer to develop the ones that they have than let new ones be created.

But if you’re in that position you don’t want to think about it, I suppose. I certainly wouldn’t, if I was in their shoes*. So they’ve told themselves that it’s because they’re too edgy for the MSM. Too in-your-face. It’s the price that they pay for keeping it real with their rough language and uncompromising style. So it’s OK, really; they can’t be blamed for being too hardcore for television. So when Erick gets a CNN gig, after calling David Souter a goat-f*cking child molester? Well, they can start screaming about the situation, or they can dispassionately admit to themselves that the real reason why they’re not on TV is because they suck.

You tell me which is a more attractive option to these people.

Moe Lane

PS: Jim Geraghty was thinking along the same lines. Which you’d already know, if only you subscribed to his Morning JoltContinue reading Gasoline on the fire of Erick’s CNN gig.

The mash-up that you have always secretly dreaded, yet wanted.

Look in your heart; you will know this to be true.

The Muppet Wicker Man Comic. Based on the original, not the recent one that I didn’t even bother to watch*.

But beware: some things may not be unseen, once they are seen.

Moe Lane

PS: I will be merciful and not tell you from whom I got this.  Just this once.

*I might have, if I could have come up with a good reason for why there should have been a remake in the first place.

#rsrh On Hell Freezing Over.

As you’ve probably heard by now, my RS colleague/Dear Leader/most visible target (and friend) Erick Erickson has landed a nightly gig with CNN.  I’ve been saving my commentary for Twitter because you can pretty much take it as a given that I approve of this move by CNN and Erick, so why bother writing it out all formal-like?

But thanks to RS McCain’s article in The American Spectator, I do have something to note.  Specifically, Steve Benen of the Washington Monthly*, who came up with this gem:

This is easily the worst decision CNN has ever made.

Oh, really?

Over the last dozen years I [former CNN Chief News Executive Eason Jordan] made 13 trips to Baghdad to lobby the government to keep CNN’s Baghdad bureau open and to arrange interviews with Iraqi leaders. Each time I visited, I became more distressed by what I saw and heard — awful things that could not be reported because doing so would have jeopardized the lives of Iraqis, particularly those on our Baghdad staff.

Via Transterrerstial Musings.  Not that this would really count, for the Online Left.  But I don’t feel up for another round of “Try to convince netrooters that non-Europeans are actually real” this afternoon.

Moe Lane

*I should pretend that I take no enjoyment at comparing RedState’s and WM’s relative traffic positions, but… well, that would be a lie, lie, lie.

#rsrh 1989 to be revisited?

Thanks to Glenn Reynolds and Megan McArdle, this is going to be one of the funniest videos you’ll watch today:

That’s Representative Dan Rostenkowski being attacked at a town-hall meeting with his constituents. Afterwards, he plaintively asked his press officer how long it would be before the media foofaraw blew over. “Let me put it this way,” the flack is said to have replied. “When you die, they will play that clip.”

Admittedly, Dan Rostenkowski didn’t lose his job then – he got caught up in the 1994 tsunami, although he was probably on the way out then anyway – but then, in 1989 they weren’t putting practical video cameras in cell phones*.  They also weren’t able to make footage showing a Congressman doing a high-speed getaway from his constituents instantly available to anybody with a decent Internet connection.  And they didn’t have the capacity to let protest groups coordinate activities nationwide.  But we have all these things now.

Enjoy your recess, Congress!

Moe Lane

*Heck, in 1989 what they considered a ‘cell phone’ looks strange and confusing to our eyes.

Did a digital libertarian run over Obama’s dog once?

I ask because it’s like this administration never passes up the chance to do that particular group wrong:

One day after being sworn into office, President Barack Obama instructed federal agencies to ensure government transparency by complying with the spirit of the Freedom of Information Act law.

[snip]

One year later, Obama’s requests for transparency have apparently gone unheeded. In fact a provision in the Freedom of Information Act law that allows the government to hide records that detail its internal decision-making has been invoked by Obama agencies more often in the past year than during the final year of President George W. Bush.

Major agencies cited that exemption to refuse records at least 70,779 times during the 2009 budget year, compared with 47,395 times during President George W. Bush’s final full budget year, according to annual FOIA reports filed by federal agencies.

Continue reading Did a digital libertarian run over Obama’s dog once?