Meet the Press is just too sad without Tim Russert. I have to go garden.
Category Archives: politics
Fred Schneider sings Scott McCLellan
Last night on the Daily Show they made Scott McClellan’s book more exciting by having Fred Schneider from the B52s sing parts of it. (The clips aren’t up yet, but I’ll provide the link now so I don’t forget to come back).
Husband watches politics on TV the way other people watch sports, but I have to admit that I was the one who said, in all seriousness, “John Dean needs to back off, he’s starting to dilute his brand.” Then I thought about what I’d said, and then I thought about taking a little vacation somewhere far away.
Dean has been ubiquitous on talking head shows for several years now. The people who remember, or understand, just how evil the Nixon Administration were are decreasing in number. Dean is in danger of becoming the commentator-equivalent of an aging Arena Rock band. He’s got to be sweating now that McClellan has joined the ranks of insider Executive Branch malfeasance experts who give good interview.
Still, I’ve gotten used to seeing Dean pop up everywhere, so this will require a period of adjustment. It was particularly weird to see Scotty sitting down and getting cozy with Keith Olbermann (May 29th).
I don’t have the Daily Show clip, so here’s the dance remix of that Bill O’Reilly temper-tantrum, which you should know by now is not worksafe.
I want to go dance in the streets
I’ve discussed the current Administration’s hellbent mission to relax the ownership rules on television, radio and newspapers and the tomfoolery the FCC has been engaged in since 2003, most recently in this post.
In a turn of events too good to believe true, the U.S. Senate, led by North Dakota Senator Byron Dorgan, voted to roll back the media ownership rule the FCC had recently passed with a 3-2 vote.
The unusual “resolution of disapproval,” sponsored by Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and 26 other senators, was approved by a voice vote. The measures sponsors include both Democratic candidates for president, Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois.
…..
The White House is, of course, already pumping out it’s patented brand of misinformation, misdirection and outright lies. Stop Big Media has a piece posted debunking the media ownership lies being propagated by the White House.
Police and Fire Fighter's widows, cremated soldiers, and Burma
Well there’s a title that screams “Come on in and have a cuppa'” doesn’t it?
Police and Fire Fighter [tag]pensions[/tag] are getting the axe all over the country, but I wasn’t sure how widespread the problem was. The situation is even more depressing than I thought, according to an article in the Washington Post today, “Growing Deficits Threaten Pensions.”
Between this and yesterday’s revelation that, “Some War Dead Were
Cremated at Facility Handling Pets” I haven’t been able to post a coherent thing about the situation in [tag]Burma[/tag].
I can say that I think Google’s matching funds campaign is excellent for the people of Burma, but may have a lasting impact on those who click because it does something useful in addition to raising funds – it educates people on where Burma is. Not just a spot on a map – the newspapers and news do that adequately. I feel like people engage with Google Maps in a way that gives the images they view some actual context (at least sometimes, or at least more often than a static image in a newspaper).
I think I need to go have some [tag]pho[/tag] and a lot of Vietnamese coffee before I dig into the rest of the paper.
Later I’ll post about happier things like [tag]Artomatic[/tag], the [tag]SanFran MusicTech[/tag] conference, and my trip in general.
RIP, James Unger
I picked up the paper this morning to see that my college debate coach died. (I didn’t really stay on the team very long – constant weekend travel, even free, got old for me fairly fast).
“James Unger, 66; Debate Coach at Georgetown, AU.”
In the late 1970s, Mr. Unger’s “policymaking” approach to debate strategy became standard practice for debate teams at the high school and college levels.
“Jim is regarded as a pacesetter in terms of theory and technique of debate,” University of Kentucky debate coach J.W. Patterson told The Washington Post in 1978. “He is regarded as one of the two or three best coaches in the nation. If there is any criticism of Jim, it is that his teams are over-coached, but they always acquit themselves well.”
Mostly, I remember that James Unger was the only human being I ever encountered who could use phrases such as vis-a-vis in casual conversation without sounding completely insane. A little bit like Frasier Crane at times, perhaps, but who’s perfect?