TV - Far too forgiving

For here's someone that shouldn't be allowed to talk anymore, first, because he's always wrong, second because he's annoying, and third, because he was such a wuss on The Daily Show.



Jim Cramer: Buy A House Now, Calls Housing Bottom

Robert Novak: Douchebag, Treasonist, Reality-Denier

No mandate for Obama, no lopsided Congress
November 5, 2008
ROBERT NOVAK* novakevans@aol.com
WASHINGTON -- The national election Tuesday was not only historic for the election of the first African-American president in the nation's history but also for how little the avalanche of Democratic votes changed the political alignment in Congress.
The first Democratic Electoral College landslide in decades did not result in a tight race for control of Congress.
When Franklin D. Roosevelt won his second term for president in 1936, the defeated Republican candidate, Gov. Alf Landon of Kansas, won only two states, Maine and Vermont, and Democrats controlled both houses of Congress by wide margins.
But Obama's win was nothing like that. He may have opened the door to enactment of the long-deferred liberal agenda, but he neither received a broad mandate from the public nor the needed large congressional majorities.
The Democrats fell several votes short of the 60-vote filibuster-proof Senate that they were seeking and also failed to get rid of a key Senate target: Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
Republicans, though discouraged by the election's outcome, believe Obama will be hard-pressed not so much to enact his agenda but to keep his popular majority, which he considers centrist, as he moves to enact ultra-liberal legislation, particularly the demands of organized labor.

*Douchebag.
________________

[11/06/04]
Q: Bob Novak, is 51 percent of the vote really a mandate?

NOVAK: Of course it is. It’s a 3.5 million vote margin. But the people who are saying that it isn’t a mandate are the same people who were predicting that John Kerry would win. … So the people who say there’s not a mandate want the president, now that he’s won, to say, Oh, we’re going to accept the liberalism that the — that the voters rejected. But Mark, this is a conservative country, and it showed it on last Tuesday.

So in Bob's World, a Republican mandate comes from a win of any kind, but a Democratic mandate would have only come from Obama winning every state but Utah, Wyoming and Oklahoma...
~

McCain campaign estimate of Americans' intelligence plunges to new low in heavy trading; also, AP's Nedra Pickler still fullas#i+

Nedra:

"You can put lipstick on a pig," he said to an outbreak of laughter, shouts and raucous applause from his audience, clearly drawing a connection to Palin's joke. "It's still a pig. You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change. It's still going to stink after eight years."

Oh, my, yes, it was such a clear connection. It was almost as glaring as the time he "didn't mention Clinton by name".

I look forward to Hawk and DJ's gloating farewell tribute

Jay Mariotti, the opinionated and polarizing sports "columnist" for the Chicago Sun-Times, has resigned after 17 years with the "paper," he told the Tribune on Tuesday night.

Just back from Beijing, where he "covered" the Olympics, Mariotti said in a phone interview that he decided to quit after it became clear while in China that sports journalism had become "entirely a Web site business. There were not many newspapers there." He added that most of the journalists covering the Games were "there writing for Web sites." (Waaaaaaaaaaah... Ed.)

Mariotti, whose public battles with fellow staffers, team owners, managers, coaches and rival columnists are legendary, didn't disclose any specific plans except to say he will continue doing his regular stint on ESPN's "Around the Horn."

He said he "is talking with a lot of Web sites" and added that the future of his business "sadly is not in newspapers."

LA Times channeling Smiff's per capita medal count idea

Canada is redeemed, and Azerbaijan is making us look sick, but the Bahamas rule.

Not to beat the dead horse of Chicago sports "journalism" to death, but by comparison, one of the highlights of the Tribune's coverage of the Olympics was the observation that Chinese women carry umbrellas rain or shine.

The singlemindedness will end immediately

Michael Phelps will now start to discover whether an "eat, sleep, and swim" mentality is enough to sustain him a lifetime...

The question-and-answer session, arranged by one of Phelps’s sponsors, Visa, included journalists from The Harvard Lampoon, The Hollywood Reporter and a cheeky gentleman from New Zealand, a nonmedalist in swimming here, who, when called on, delivered a stand-up routine around the theme of Phelps’s greediness.

Phelps was asked to weigh in on whether light is a particle or a wave and describe love. His answer to both was, “I have no idea.”

getting curioser

More from Greenwald on Iraq/anthrax stuff:

Last year, when I first wrote about ABC's broadcasting of this false Saddam/anthrax story, I spoke with numerous experts in "journalistic ethics," such as they are, and all of them -- journalists, Journalism Professors, and media critics alike -- agreed that while the obligation of source confidentiality is close to absolute, it does not extend to a source who deliberately exploits confidentiality to disseminate lies to the public. Under those circumstances, it's axiomatic in journalistic ethics that a reporter is not only permitted, but required, to disclose the identity of the source who purposely used the reporter to spread lies.

Who were the "four separate and well-placed sources" who told ABC News, falsely, that tests conducted at Fort Detrick had found the presence of bentonite in the anthrax sent to Tom Daschle, causing ABC News to aggressively link the attacks to Iraq for five straight days in October, 2001?

I suppose they have a point... I still totally hate that phokker Emmanuel Goldstein though

Fighting with Fox Noise is "'fighting with a pig. Everyone gets dirty and the pig likes it.' But in the Times today, media critic David Carr takes Fox to task for its 'scorched earth' reaction to criticism. In particular, Carr writes that the anti-Semitic overtones to the distortion of Steinberg's photo recall 'a technique familiar to students of vintage German propaganda' as 'his ears were pulled out, his teeth splayed apart, his forehead lowered and his nose was widened.'"

we distort, you accept

Fox News airs altered photos of NY Times reporters

Cuomo '82: OF TO WE

Jon Stewart examines the media’s affinity for smearing Obama

Jon Stewart takes an in-depth look at the phenomenon known as Baracknophobia, defined as the “irrational fear of hope.”

“The Irrational fear that behind the mild-mannered persona, Barack Obama is intent on enslaving the white race. It’s true. Wake up, white people.”

Which attempt at smearing Obama is your favorite? Mine is a close tie between Sean Hannity calling Obama a “radical liberal,” and Steve Doocy claiming Obama plagiarized a speech from Mario Cuomo, despite only three words being the same.

Steve Doocy: possibly the most brain-dead man alive (non-Bush division).

And i don't care what anybody says, she did to:

Obama campaign: Wife never used the word 'Whitey'

Of course, this wouldn't be a problem from a certain bitter someone here (Fung).

Tell Bill O'Reilly: Stop Pretending to be a Journalist

We are living in a golden age (cont)

Jolie pals: 'ET' knew source fake

"Entertainment Tonight" did not name its source at the time. It later revealed that the report was based on e-mails from someone it thought was Jolie assistant Holly Goline.

Shortly after the story was posted but several hours before the broadcast aired, Goline told "Entertainment Tonight" that she was not the person with whom they had been corresponding, a person with direct knowledge of the conversation told The Associated Press. That account was confirmed by another person close to Jolie.

The TV show stood by its story Friday night, with host Mary Hart saying on the air, "Just this morning, a source who says she was inside the delivery room tells us yes, the babies were born and yes, mother and babies are fine."

The show said in a statement Wednesday that it first learned of an impostor from a letter from Jolie's attorney Monday -- three days after the broadcast.

" 'Entertainment Tonight' takes this very seriously and is, of course, concerned that the show may have been victimized by someone allegedly posing as a member of Ms. Jolie's team," the statement said. "We are actively investigating the matter and are reaching out to law enforcement agencies."

The show has not mentioned the story on the air since the initial report, and the story has been deleted from its Web site.

Is it any wonder why and how this current administration was able to con the MSM into falling for their bull$#!+ hook line and sinker? And now we depend on blogs (like dis one) and comedy shows to give us the real news? This report stuff first, investigate later attitude that the whole industry seems to have fallen into needs to stop. Now. I love how they're blaming an "imposter", while if they'd done their JOBS as JOURNALISTS an imposter would not have mattered at all.

a shocking percentage of Lou Dobbs viewers agreed with Lou Dobbs last night (cont'd)

Should the United States send troops to the border to guard against violence from Mexican drug cartels?
Yes 95% 3392
No 5% 191
Total Votes: 3583
This is not a scientific poll

a shocking percentage of Lou Dobbs viewers agreed with Lou Dobbs last night (cont'd)

Does the attachment of amnesty legislation to the Iraq War Funding Bill compound your distrust of Congress?
Yes 97% 6614
No 3% 197
Total Votes: 6811
This is not a scientific poll

which David were you rooting for on Idol last night?

German resident Murat Kurnaz told Congress he was tortured while held by the U.S. military. Kurnaz said he underwent "water treatment," similar to the more notorious practice of waterboarding. "There was a bucket of water. And they stick my head in it and at the same time, punch me into my stomach," he said. Though the CIA has admitted waterboarding three detainees, it is unclear how many more suffered "water treatment." Yet Washington insiders seem ready to ignore this latest piece of evidence about the Bush torture policy. "Barely half a dozen lawmakers came to listen to the former detainee, and most were unable to remember his name, with one even calling him 'Mr. Karzai'," AFP reported. Following a pattern of ignoring new accounts of torture, the White House press corps did not ask Press Secretary Dana Perino about the DOJ report or Kurnaz's testimony until the last question of Tuesday's briefing. She replied that she had not seen it yet; no one followed up to ask her about it the next day.

a shocking percentage of Lou Dobbs viewers agreed with Lou Dobbs last night (cont'd)

Do you believe that stealth amnesty groups should have to declare their political agendas clearly instead of trying to hide their purpose from the American public?
Yes 97% 8269
No 3% 253
Total Votes: 8522
This is not a scientific poll