First Draft

Saturday Blogwhoring Thread

Nevertheless, post away!

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Weekend Question Thread

Tattoos.

Got any? Want any?

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Quitting Time Booster Shot

Welcome to the travel version of the Booster where we'll ponder the mysteries of almost missed flights and how it is possible to freeze to death and boil to death a single flight:

- Almost found out the hard way that there is a difference between a 9 a.m. flight where you should be at the airport 90 minutes before take off and a 7:30 a.m. flight. It helps to check the itinerary before you fly. Just saying…

- I know the airlines don’t need any ideas on how to squeeze me for another 10 bucks, but here’s a marketing campaign that would clearly bring in a boatload of cash: kid-free seats. You pay an additional $10 or $25 or whatever and the airline guarantees you won’t have a kid screaming across the aisle from you or a kid behind you kicking your seat. After a flight today in which I had both, I’d gladly pay for this service. Maybe we put the kids in the cargo hold. I don’t know. Even as a parent, it’s hard to tolerate this crap.

- Also, can we please have a standard temperature for travel? The airport was -12, the plane was 89, the waiting area for the shuttle was 80, the shuttle was -138. I'm not a gecko. I can't change my body temp. Pick a temperature.

- From the “You think so, Doctor?” File: Bruce Murphy is backing off of his full-throated defense of Jessica McBride. Yeah, that whole “due diligence” thing you accused Bice of not doing? Tends to cut both ways…

- The reporter who was accused of fabricating sources in a boatload of his stories for the Hawaii student newspaper has fired back today, arguing he in no way made up anything. Look, kid, stop trying to deny that you made up quotes. Do the honorable, tried-and-true thing: blame it on someone else, come out with a book and hit the rubber chicken circuit where you can claim all sorts of bias and stuff.

- From the “When you’re right, you’re right” Department: TMZ broke the Michael Jackson story, beating the crap out of everyone fair and square. In watching some of the coverage evolve and listening to the post-game analysis by the local radio guys today, it was clear not everyone enjoyed that moment. In fact, people seemed to be APOLOGIZING for having to CITE TMZ. Of course, the most reputable news organizations didn’t, simply failing to give any kind of credit. You stay classy… You know who you are…

- Let them eat cake. Or dead tree…

- And finally, if you’ve been having trouble with this whole “gays want to marry” thing, here’s a handy little diagram that just explains everything about the gay marriage pro and con arguments.

Thanks for letting me share your air. Be back next week.

Doc

All Apologies

(I have failed you, the American (and Canadian) readers...)

Good morning and thank you for reading this post,

I am writing to you from the Milwaukee airport as I am on my way to Tampa to a “conference,” which, despite other recent events involving other high-profile individuals, should not be construed to mean I’m meeting with a hooker from Guam. Please stop bothering my wife, daughter, mother, rabbit and trash collector. They will all tell you the same thing, as I have bought them off with the promise of jewelry, a trip to the zoo, my presence at Thanksgiving dinner, an extra wad of hay and a flat-screen TV that will be left on the curb. These promises are in no particular order. 

Due to various situations that I am not willing to get into, but rest assured will be leaked by my press aides who are pissed that they are using their well-earned college degrees in philosophy to get my coffee every morning, I have nothing of importance to say today. I would like to say (long pause, look down at notes, pretend to be anguished), I have decided not to comment on the tragic passing of Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett or Ed McMahon or the tragic staying of Jeff Goldblum. This trying decision was reached after considerable debate among my closest advisers and the voices in my head. Eventually, the voices won, so I will be going for a peanut butter and bologna margarita and a high colonic once this press conference is over.

It was also with deep regret that I decided against spending more time ripping the crap out of Jessica McBride. Apparently, her tersely worded statement asking the media to leave her alone worked, as we haven’t seen much on her tryst since Dan Bice first broke it last week around this time. Either that, or it was her editor’s 3,500-word defense of her 5,000-word article that was meant to scare off people or to keep his ass off the fire pit. Learning from his self-serving and shameless attack on an actual piece of journalism, I’ve decided to humbly beg for forgiveness for the absence of a real post this week. However, I will say in his defense that it’s difficult to understand real journalism when you haven’t seen any of it roll through your magazine in years.

I would also like to take this chance to dispel some persistent rumors, which by acknowledging, I will be giving those of you who pretend to have a shred of journalistic integrity the chance to talk about now. I am not taking this trip as part of a tax dodge or a plastic surgery initiative. As you will surely point out repeatedly, or wait for Jon Stewart to do so and then quote him, I am still as broke and ugly as ever.

During this difficult time, I would like to thank God (pause, sigh, hem, haw, wonder why God decided to screw me) for giving me the strength to face this issue head on, but apparently not the foresight to avoid screwing up in the first place. I believe that He has as purpose for me, but apparently filing an insightful and valuable post is not part of it. I beg for the forgiveness of those closest to me, including whoever decides who gets to headline the 2012 ticket, as my screw up can’t possibly be as bad as those committed by other people recently. At least mine doesn’t have Paul Schaffer playing “Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina” at every break in Letterman’s monologue.

Finally, I would like to thank my family for their support in my decision not to post. And by family, I’m including the six people who decided to make “Why are you picking on Doc? WHYYYYYYY????” YouTube videos. As I attempt to dodge time in blogger jail, your support is crucial to me. After I don’t beat the rap, your support on blogger jail conjugal visit days will be even more crucial.

With that, I conclude this press conference, pledging to do better. Of course, we all know how that’s going to go… So I bid you farewell. Please don’t follow me and if you hear me talking on my cell phone to someone named “Cinnamon,” feel free to ask for your just due. Perhaps the rabbit will share its wad of hay.

Good night and may God bless you or at least keep you from having to apologize for whatever you have or have not done recently.

Doc

Another First Draft Reader-Supported Project Gets Off the Ground

Our resident Freepaholic, Tommy, asked you some time back to join in supporting a journalism project to help make tomorrow's media. In just a day you had that one handled the way you'd handled the two I asked about the week prior, and here are the results:

The teacher involved writes:

Dear Tommy,

Once again, I would like to thank you all very much for supporting both my Journalism and my Grammar&Composition classes!

I had originally anticipated that the LCD projector would be most beneficial to my senior Journalism students because we do a lot of PowerPoint lessons, surfing the net, and blogging as part of the class; however, I discovered that my freshmen Grammar & Composition classes also excelled in phrases, clauses, and sentence types with the use of projected and interactive lessons. In fact, the freshmen were disappointed that I didn't think of them when I wrote the proposal. They were pleased to reap the rewards of having it in the classroom though!

I cannot begin to explain what a boon the LCD projector has been to all of my students. It has allowed my Journalism students to critique layouts of both professional and student newspapers as a large group. It has helped me show my students how to avoid plagiarism by navigating websites that show proper citation and sticky situations to avoid. It has reminded my students that there are people, unrelated to education in a direct way, that want them to succeed and are willing to facilitate that success.

Thank you so much for your generous donations. My students and I very much appreciate your help.

With gratitude,
Ms. D.

I love that it's being used to teach not just ooh shiny toy but basic skills, because the skill set — communicating clearly and intelligently — crosses platforms and will apply to journalistic tools the kids may have to use that aren't in wide circulation yet. I also love that the lesson they're learning is that they as future journalists and future media consumers are important and that we care.

Well done, everybody.

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Friday Ferretblogging: Paper Bag Chase Edition

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God's Laws

Something Sanford said at his press conference that's been bugging me since:

But I -- I guess where I'm trying to go with this is that there are moral absolutes, and that God's law indeed is there to protect you from yourself.

Because ... I'm sorry, it isn't God's law that keeps me from cheating on my husband. It's the promise I made in public to basically not be an asshole to him for the rest of our lives, and that I like him quite a lot and don't want to upset him. God is not my traffic cop, and I just find the idea that He should have to be so very tiresome. Doesn't He have enough to do without protecting me from my otherwise uncontrollable urges?

Now, granted, God and I have a relationship not unlike two exes who meet once a year for a quickie in a hotel room to get it out of their systems and then spend the other 364 days bitching about each other, but I'm not unaware that many people do rely upon Christian moral teachings for guidance as to how they live their lives. I'm not talking about looking at the life of Jesus and thinking, "You know, I should be like that guy, with the working for the poor and the defense of the decent and downtrodden and whatnot." There's nothing wrong with inspiration and motivation.

I'm talking about this certain conservative fundie tendency to cite God as a preventative, like chemical castration or something. You can be the biggest dick on the planet but so long as your Cosmic Crossing Guard is there, you'll stay inside the white lines? God's a vaccine, basically, to keep away the kind of flu that leads to you sticking your dick in somebody you're not married to?

How ... reductive.

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Today in 'What Total Assholes Who Should Be in Chains Are Up To'

We have the man who gutted and skullfucked the Tribune Company, not missing a meal:

They always land on their feet, don't they?

Dennis FitzSimons, the former CEO of the Tribune Company who walked out the door with $41 million after engineering the disastrous sale of the company to Sam Zell, has just joined the board of directors of Media General.

The board seat was created just for him.

“'Dennis FitzSimons is a proven and innovative business leader who led a premier media company through times of outstanding growth and tough challenges,' said Marshall N. Morton, Media General’s president and chief executive officer, in a filing with the Securites and Exchange Commission," according to the Tampa Bay Business Journal. "'His industry knowledge and experience with the changing media landscape and the synergies of print, broadcast and online platforms will bring a valuable perspective to the Media General board’s deliberations'."

So in case that $41 million wasn't gonna last him:

"Outside directors to the Media General board receive an annual retainer of $116,000 for all scheduled meetings as well as an additional $1,750 for each unscheduled board meeting and each committee meeting attended beyond the two included in the retainer, according to SEC filings," TBBJ reports.

The Internet just keeps sucking money away from newspapers. Why, I don't know how print could ever possibly pay for itself. We should just give up and put everything on iPhones. Print is dead. Nobody reads anymore anyway. Twitter is the future.

Just to put this in perspective, the amount of money Dennis Fitzsimmons will make for going to meetings is more than I made as a reporter any three years I worked. Until there is a panel discussion on the best kind of feathers to cover these people with after they've been dunked in hot tar, I hereby exempt myself from attending any more smug bullshit sessions about how unwashed hippies online don't have to pay for their kids' college or something like Real American Grown-Ups.

Seriously, what is it going to take for us to talk about this truthfully? How many more people have to lose their jobs, how many more desperate places have to remain unwatched by any watchdogs, how much more of our national conversation — which is really all a good newspaper is, a city talking to itself — has to be silenced before we start seriously asking why profitable businesses are being deemed unprofitable and productive work is being flushed down the drain so that professional receptacles like Dennis Fitzsimmons can draw six figures for sitting around a conference table once a month. With an added bonus of four figures if he has to come in on a weekend or something.

Jesus tits.

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How It Began

Michael Jackson, who died today at 50:

The guy’s been a comedic punching bag for decades, but quite simply, he was the greatest pop star of all time. The media is sure to be saturated with tributes, gossip, virtual vigils and gallows humor. I’m going to remember MJ as I’ve always tried to in the face of his bizarre tabloid life—as a stunning, unparalleled soul prodigy.

Listen to “Big Boy” above. Jackson recorded that, his first single, at age 9. I just reached out to Gordon Keith, owner of Steeltown Records, who produced that first MJ recording in 1968. Keith had this to say from his Gary, Indiana, home.

Mr. Keith: “I’m shocked…I’ve been praying for Michael for a long time. Boy…this is…terrible. This is blowing my mind.”

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PoonTango

From 2Millionth Web Log

For his own sake I hope the governor dances better than he writes...and while the dalliance itself was apparently plain vanilla enough, the six day sojourn and crudely bungled attempt to cover up provide enough intrigue to generate their own sufficient undertow.

Still, watching the GOP reap what they've sowed on the morality front over the last generation speaks volumes.

Circumstances make it less so with Sanford, but the exposures of himself, Ensign, Vitter, et al, elicited howls of indignant protest from the same political faction that for years smugly insisted "character counts." Now, they are quick to remind us that "moral failings" are strictly a private family matter...and use, of all people, Bill Clinton as example front and center.

Well--gawddamn. You know, a decade ago I sure did insist that Bill Clinton's personal life was his personal business. It was perhaps the sole instance where I strongly supported the president, otherwise considering his strategy of triangulation, if not slow death, slow surrender. But, as Clinton himself famously said, even presidents have private lives, and yep, I agree.

And if wingers like, oh, for instance, John Ensign and Mark Sanford, had like likewise drawn the line and left it at that, well...maybe the shadenfreude quotient would be a lot lower. And maybe I'd think their moral failings, while hypocritical, were their own business.

However...they didn't draw the line. Instead, they loudly trumpeted Ken Starr's ludicrously voyeuristic screed of a report. They went for the nuclear option--impeachment--hoping to either force Clinton's resignation, or, at the very least, render him forever damaged goods. And, in some respects, it was, to cite one of their own, Mission Accomplished.

But...funny this thing called blowback, and how it can really come back to bite, especially when it comes to politicians and their urges...you know, I've always thought a major reason for Clinton's acquittal was the realization of many Senators that their own lives could hardly withstand similar scrutiny. And politicians, being both in positions of power and in constant contact with the public, are in unique position when it comes to means, motive, and/or opportunity in this regard. Which is why, if the wingers HADN'T loudly insisted for years on "character" as a campaign issue, I'd be happy to let it go. They didn't.

Therefore: Own petard? Check. Commence hoist. Call it what you want--payback, pound of flesh? (no pun intended.) Maybe a little, maybe more than a little. Or maybe it's just measure for measure. Those who salaciously devoured the Starr Report are welcome to discover their inner blue noses and/or chins when it comes to Sanford's, um, romantic prose or Ensign's confession. As far as I'm concerned, though, it's a little late in the game to suddenly defer to discretion...

And I'll have my schadenfreude with a side of emails, please. Thanks.

Message Managed

Okay, look. Here's how it happened, according to my understanding: The White House called up Nico Pitney at HuffPo, who has been covering (aggregating, blogging, collecting info from all over and processing it, whatever you want to call it, he's doing a job at least as hard as that of any nightly news producer or rewrite desk, so just calm down, son) the sitch in Iran apparently very admirably and well. The White House calls and says, "Hey, come to the news conference, you might get called on, ask a question from an Iranian." It's all over the Internet for hours that Iranians and anybody, really, can ask the president something through Pitney.

Pitney goes, gets called on, asks a pretty damn tough question (though it was certainly no "Mr. President, should we pray?") and the reaction among the Washington Press Corps is not, "Hey, this guy's making us look dumb, and maybe we should think of this stuff in advance instead of just losing it and having to bug Obama about his smoking." Instead it's OMG STAGE-MANAGING DISHONESTY BLOGGERZ HALP WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE OH GOD.

So I had to cast back into our archives for this, which Holden highlighted:

It was then, more than a year and a half ago, that Pfeiffer received an e-mail from someone claiming to be a citizen of South Dakota, wanting to know the Daschle campaign's reaction to a story by "Jeff Gannon."

The concerned "citizen of South Dakota" turned out to be Gannon himself, as the Daschle campaign quickly uncovered by tracking the e-mail account from which the query had been sent, "jdg17@aol.com." That e-mail address led Daschle campaign staffers to Gannon's AOL website, at which point the entire campaign became instantly aware that Gannon, then a White House correspondent for "Talon News," had attempted to deceive them. This incident, combined with Gannon's "reporting" of the 2004 general election in South Dakota and the sheer oddity of his website, prompted the Daschle campaign to conclude Gannon was not a legitimate reporter.

In fact, said Pfeiffer, in the summer of 2003 there was "not a single minute" the campaign thought Gannon was a real journalist.

Nor did the campaign keep this information to themselves.

According to Pfeiffer, the campaign sent Gannon's website address and news of his attempted deceit of the Daschle camp to several reporters.

They couldn't have cared less. Why is that? Is it just because the idea of a professional, erm, escort in the White House briefing room was so outlandish nobody believed it? Or is that they just didn't care that much back then? If there's one thing that consistently bugs the shit out of me about the news organizations that like to crow about setting our national democratic standards and dictating the political agenda, it's how they pretend not to have anything to do with anything once a question of their actual words and deeds comes up.

In what you choose to cover and not cover, you are managing the message just as much as Obama, by calling on or not calling on someone, is. To pretend otherwise and get all Like A Virgin about it is just stupid. Just sack up and admit that you make the choices, you and no one else. Deciding what you want people to focus on is what you're supposed to be doing, and it's what Obama's supposed to be doing, and for that matter it's what Republicans are supposed to be doing. This is kind of how it's always worked.

You made a choice when you sat on the Gannon story because WE'RE AT WAR and POPULAR WARTIME PREZNIT and such, and you're making a big deal of Pitney because you fucking feel like it. I may not agree with you but at least that way I'll respect your honesty.

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Political Apology Bingo

You know what was missing from Sanford's apology yesterday? "I apologize to all the loving same-sex couples out there — couples that I helped to demonize as a member of the party of bigotry and 'defending marriage' — for being a ginormous hypocritical asshole."

Via ONTD_Political.

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All the Married Ladies

Is it wrong of me to be mildly bored that the whole Sanford story wound up being that he had sex with a consenting adult lady not his wife, presumably while neither of them was wearing any of the following: wet suit, duck costume, diapers, skin of recently killed grizzly bear, etc? I mean it, Republicans have set the bar pretty high lately and I'm kind of ... yawn ... disappointed he didn't reach for the stars.

The rest of the story is pure gold, of course, right down to the crazy way his wife and staff acted, telling the press all kinds of conflicting shit so that for sure, for SURE, this would have to come out. It's so perfectly passive-aggressively AWESOME: "I have no idea where my husband, who I found out five months ago was having an affair with an Argentinian woman, is right now. NO IDEA. Don't look for him, or for God's sake ask any questions of any kind. Really. By the way, here's the airport he might be flying into."

But the acts themselves? Feh. No furries, no underage boys in chat rooms, no hookers, no references to practices I have to look up to be able to assure you delicate readers that you don't want to Google them, no secret closeted behavior, no alpacas. Just your typical hypocritical Republican dumbass, tripping over his own dick. I'm worried they're becoming tired, and just can't bring themselves to make it interesting for us anymore.

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Fair and balanced wishful thinking

Like shooting fish in a barrel

Dedicated to Republican moralists everywhere:

The irrelevant in the room

As noted here previously, the POTUS is not on my list of favorite people right now. I will say this, though: in yesterday's press briefing kerfuffle, I'm coming down on the side of Team Obama. 

So go ahead and call me obtuse and disrespectful of protocol, willing to look the other way and ignore an obvious conspiracy to collude. Oh, and also? Give me a fuckin' break, Politico. And please, Dana Milbank? Upstanding bipartisan bastion of freedom of the press now, are we? Outraged a Democratic president would "pack" the press room with a "planted" questioner?  Have some smelling salts, dearie, the swooning chaise is over there.  

Speaking of conspiracies, anyone else recall Milbank's snide mocking of John Conyers and the Democrats who first dared to attempt an inquiry process about Bush-Cheney dragging the US into the Iraq war? Not content to cast the Democrats as conspiracy theorists "playing house" in "the land of make-believe," what Milbank really seemed to relish was pointing out the impotence of the effort. Whether all that silly Iraq stuff was true or not was beside the point, but weren't Conyers "and his hearty band of playmates" ridiculous meeting down in the basement, acting like they mattered and all? 

Back to the present: I know they aren't foreign correspondents but while Calderone (Politico) and Milbank, et al, sniped and whined about planted questions and bloggers getting called on between, and not after, the wire services, Nico Pitney went back to work like he has been for the past couple of weeks. And yeah, he's just a blogger, he's just aggregating and linking and passing along bits of information. But that's pretty much all that's out there right now and no small amount of what the American public knows about the situation in Iran came straight through Pitney, the NYTimes Lede blog, and handful of others. No, it's not analysis from vetted sources, no it's not news reporting, but it's vital (as well as viral). It's relevant and in the context of this extraordinary moment, Politico and Milbank's concerns and spin come off as anything but.

Obama's team isn't perfect but they aren't stupid either. They made an instinctively cogent connection with the heart of the Iran protest, and turned it to their advantage by letting the POTUS get in front of Republican potshots about his response to it. Does anyone, from Joe Normal in front of his TV to the denizens of The Village in DC, really harbor any illusion that presidential press briefings are completely off-the-cuff opportunities for journalists to practice their finely honed skills?  As anyone who follows Mark Knoller, Ana Marie Cox, Chris Cilizza, Jake Tapper, or the other "journo-twits" over on the Twitter machine can see, it's more like feeding time at the zoo, and if the POTUS is at the podium, there is usually some advanced arrangements between the WH press office and those in the media who might be called on, especially those outside the standard pool.  Was there more stagecraft than usual involved yesterday? Sounds to me like there was. Was it worth it? I'd say the White House scored points on substance, and in a style appropriate for the current connection between the people on the streets of Tehran and Americans who've grown to feel involved. Iran and America have a bigger story, on a bigger scale, ahead of them, but right now, it's a different kind of narrative.

Title It

Cheney's memoirs.

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Hunger is a Lesson

So old post is old, but: Cynthia Davis, ladies and gentlemen. Those of you who like that sort of thing can take special note of the crucifix around her neck. I wonder if she wears it in tribute to the Roman system of capital punishment. Efficient, crucifixion was. Talk about a deterrent. One might even call it a motivator:

Who’s buying dinner? Who is getting paid to serve the meal? Churches and other non-profits can do this at no cost to the taxpayer if it is warranted. [...] Bigger governmental programs take away our connectedness to the human family, our brotherhood and our need for one another. [...] Anyone under 18 can be eligible? Can’t they get a job during the summer by the time they are 16? Hunger can be a positive motivator. What is wrong with the idea of getting a job so you can get better meals? Tip: If you work for McDonald’s, they will feed you for free during your break. [...] It really is all about increasing government spending, which means an increase in taxes for us to buy more free lunches and breakfasts.

What a prize she is. Commenters for the win:

Yeah, what the hell was wrong with that dumb hippie Jesus, turning a few loaves of bread and a couple fishes in to enough to feed thousands? Didn't he know that hunger is a good motivator and character builder? What a dirty commie scumbag!

You know, absolutely no one waxes philosophic about the benefits of hunger unless he's presently in front of a full dinner plate. Catastrophically shitty things are only useful lessons later, when you have to make yourself laugh or look wise about stuff because otherwise it's too awful to contemplate. Later, when the crisis is over, it's all, "This was good for me," as you're picking up the pieces. If it wasn't good for you, if it wasn't a learning experience, it would just be you, busted and broken by bad fortune for no reason at all. We have to believe there's a purpose in what happens to us, in that it gets us to the next thing, but let's not for a moment pretend that makes it feel better at the time.

I wonder if anybody will offer to introduce Cynthia Davis to some of these children. Maybe then she can tell them to their faces about how their hunger should be used for capitalist inspiration. Is there anything on this planet more infuriating and tiresome than somebody else telling you, with a sickly smile and a pat on the head, what kind of lessons your personal apocalypse should be teaching you?

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Wednesday Reading

Beware the SUPER-POT.

Via Ntodd: Rest now, Shifty:

In the second-to-last episode of "Band of Brothers," an HBO miniseries that documented Easy Company's wartime exploits, Powers spoke on camera about the soldiers he fought and also hinted at the intrinsic tragedy of combat.

"We might have had a lot in common. He might've liked to fish, you know, he might've liked to hunt," Powers said. "Of course, they were doing what they were supposed to do, and I was doing what I was supposed to do.

"But under different circumstances, we might have been good friends."

RMJ questions the unquestionable war.

Mf is growing his own garden friends.

This is what happens to you when you help the U.S.:

So the best way for me to make a living and be with my family is to get back home, go back to the war zone, and live under continued threat.

But how long will it take before I am spotted again? How long will I have before I get killed? Either way, I risk being apart from my wife and kids--by living in the States away from them or by going back to Iraq and getting killed. At least this way, I will get to see them before I die. 

I have worked with a U.S. media outlet, hoping to tell the truth to the American people about the war and what really happened, and I was helped by the American people to get to the States, but I didn't get any help from the American government or the American system. 

"The rock of hate and falsehood is being broken apart."

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Does Love Light Up Your Christmas Tree?

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They Put Jesus in Show Business

Now it's hard to get in the door:

On this blog and in right wing watch circles in general, we spend a lot of time tracking the religious right’s assault on human rights and secular democracy.  But it’s also important to think about how they financially exploit their own followers, who are lured in with Jesus and fetuses and fears of dudes kissing, and told to open their wallets.  You can usually tell what’s going on with the wingnuts by what they claim The Left is doing, and so it’s not for nothing that there are constant, baseless claims that feminists are in some baby-killing money-making conspiracy---classic projection, a way to push their own angst about the way they really do financially exploit the everyday follower.  As this Kinkade lawsuit shows, the exploitation is endemic, and reaches way past just the televangelist begging.

The merchandising of Christianity has driven me nuts since the crucifix nail necklaces that accompanied The Passion of the Christ got released. It goes on and on and it never ends, like the Pokemon from hell. My favorite example of this is this china, which is advertised in an entirely secular magazine I get.

I'm torn between wanting to laugh at the thought of early Christians' reaction to the trinkets now sold in their names and an abiding disgust for the people attempting to profit from exploiting a market that, while maybe not now, was once made up primarily of people sincerely searching for truth in the world. Who are then told that in order to find that truth, they need a set of plates with Holy Writ upon them, and a painting by Thomas Kinkade.

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The Internet Strikes Back

Clearly this poll is the fault of bloggers and their pitiful sourcing.

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If You Read Nothing Else Today

Read this.

Whenever I talk about why people like the Interwebs and dislike newspapers, I talk about the mealy-mouthed word-mincing of privileged columnists, about the disappearance of righteous outrage on behalf of the powerless, about the idea that's somehow crept in in the past decade that it's uncouth to actually get angry about what's happening. So when something like that comes along, I feel the need to yell to the world at large THIS THIS IS WHAT WE WANT FROM OUR JOURNALISM THIS IS WHAT WE NEED FROM OUR JOURNALISTS THIS RIGHT HERE.

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Mark, Mark, Mark, Mark, Mark...

I've been following the drama that is Mark Sanford since the story of his disappearance broke.  And like a David Lynch film, no matter how I look at it, it comes out weird.

Imagine, if you will, somebody you know leaving his job, going off without telling his wife where he were going, turning off his cell phone, and remaining out of touch for four days.  Wouldn't that raise some eyebrows?  You'd have people worried, your employer would be at least annoyed, you might even have people contacting the police.

But a fracking GOVERNOR doing that?  Colorado Matters, a local show on our NPR affiliate, did a story about our Governor Ritter (audio link), and how demanding his job is.  He talked about 18 hour days, pretty much every day of the week.  It's not a job you can just bail from for four days.  It's certainly not one you can bail from and not have people notice.

I don't generally like to judge spouses, especially not knowing all the details, but Jenny Sanford's statement was equally weird.  If my husband were gone for four days and I didn't know where he was, I would freak the hell out.

And the last time I checked, the Appalachian Trail doesn't run through Atlanta.

If I were a loony Red Stater, I'd be positing wild conspiracy theories about Democrat cabals taking out Republican presidential contenders before they can get going.  First John Ensign (about the only thing he didn't do was dare reporters to follow him, telling them they'd be bored), now Sanford.  But I'm not a Red Stater, and I firmly believe that Republican presidential contenders are perfectly capable of imploding all by themselves.

At a minimum, this was a situation that could have been handled far, far better by his staff.  Honestly, I think the only way they could have botched this further is if his spokesperson came out and said the governor had pulled a Kung Fu.

UPDATE:  Josh Marshall says Sanford's press folks did good yesterday.  I beg to differ.  This wasn't a case of good spin by Sanford's people.  It's a case of piss-poor reporting (plus a major disaster story taking over the news cycle).  Dudes, the story isn't that Sanford has been found.  It's WHY THE HELL WAS HE EVER MISSING?

Well, YES, For Chrissakes

Journalists should do journalism!

The earnest Washington audience — lobbyists, policy types, writers, etc. — picked up on the conventional wisdom that the comics have become the go-to source for America’s news. They kept asking about it in different ways for an hour. The comics took the questions seriously at first, but then they grew more and more uncomfortable with what was starting to sound like a growing social responsibility.

As the crowd marveled at the comics’ ability to skewer the very people those in the audience spent their days courting or covering, the comics essentially said, while shrugging their collective shoulders: “Hey, we’re just doing our jobs. We’re just trying to make people laugh. Sure, we try to be accurate and not make up facts, but that’s as far as it goes. We don’t want people to use us for their main source of news.”

Then it hit me that the people in the audience thought the comics led a glamorous life and the people wanted the comics to bring that glamor to news. But the comics made it clear they work hard at their jobs, similar to journalists perhaps, but they’re not journalists. Their job title is “comic” and they report to their offices early each day with enough on their plates for chrissakes, and that usually entails keeping up with what journalists are reporting.

Well, no. They're not journalists. And a lot of people look at Those Kids Today getting their news from That Jon Stewart Fella as evidence that there's something wrong with the Kids Today and not something wrong with the people who can't seem to hold the interest of anybody but themselves. Is this my Catholicism talking, or something, where if I couldn't keep my audience I'd assume something was wrong with me, and not them? Are these the same people that, when you break up with them, assume it's because you're unworthy of their greatness?

I've been talking about this with various smart people in the wake of Chicago Media Future, this idea that I wouldn't mind so much newspaper folks bagging on new media ideas as all trivial and stupid and fake if they were doing their own jobs well. Like, don't come to me bitching I'm not making enough money to be credible or producing enough original content when by your own admission you've got to ask your staff to cut their own salaries in order to make your owners happy; clearly what you got going on ain't burning the barn down, slick.

Just do your own jobs. Just do journalism well. Isn't that a tall enough order? Why witter around about what Jon Stewart and Colbert are doing? If you think they can teach you something, then learn from them the way you'd learn from anybody and get back to doing your job better. But all this, "He's not a journalist" and "you aren't going to be able to pay your writers" and other nonsense that goes on is just noisy carping. Doing journalism well is hard. That should be enough work without monitoring every comic on the planet making sure nobody's taking them too seriously.

Via Romenesko.

A.

Happy Dodd Photo

I knew I loved this man.

My young daughters are growing up in a different reality than I did. Our family knows many same-sex couples – our neighbors in Connecticut, members of my staff, parents of their schoolmates. Some are now married because the Connecticut Supreme Court and our state legislature have made same-sex marriage legal in our state.

But to my daughters, these couples are married simply because they love each other and want to build a life together. That’s what we’ve taught them. The things that make those families different from their own pale in comparison to the commitments that bind those couples together.

And, really, that’s what marriage should be. It’s about rights and responsibilities and, most of all, love.

Young Dodd. Tastycakes.

Seriously, though, he says something here I think will resonate with a lot of people his age and even my age:

I was raised to believe that marriage is between a man and a woman. And as many other Americans have realized as they’ve struggled to reconcile the principle of fairness with the lessons they learned early in life, that’s not an easy thing to overcome.

But the fact that I was raised a certain way just isn’t a good enough reason to stand in the way of fairness anymore.

Because I wasn't so much raised to believe that marriage was between a man and a woman — we weren't so much homophobic in my family as we were untalkative — as that I simply never had to confront the question. As a middle-class straight chick with middle-class straight friends (at least, friends who presented to me and the rest of the Catholic-school-going world as straight) it simply never came up. I feel bad about that now, wondering whose issues I simply ignored because I didn't know any better, but I don't think that's unusual, about anything, really. Not a lot of people consider the lives of others unlike them unless forced to, unless the reality of injustice to someone else is put in their path and they can't avoid it anymore.

The question then becomes, of course: Knowing, what did you do? Did you shut your eyes and talk about The Lord not liking all the boykissing, or did you look at what was in front of you and take it upon yourself to figure out what was your upbringing and what was your basic humanity? Where did the things you believed smash up against each other, and where did you have to choose: Fairness for all before the law, or the comfort of disdaining the stranger? Having to choose, what choice did you make? Having made a choice, did you speak up about it or did you keep quiet?

And while it will seem crazy to Dodd's daughters that we questioned this at all, this is how we change, one decision at a time, one choice at a time, one statement at a time.

A.

Sack Up Already, Democrats

Krugman:

The real risk is that health care reform will be undermined by “centrist” Democratic senators who either prevent the passage of a bill or insist on watering down key elements of reform. I use scare quotes around “centrist,” by the way, because if the center means the position held by most Americans, the self-proclaimed centrists are in fact way out in right field.

While driving this morning I was listening to somebody absolutely rip the insurance companies a new one on NPR. Just blistering them. What brave Democrat could this be, I thought?

Republican Joe Fucking Barton:

Yes. Smokey Joe Barton. Stopped clocks, blind squirrels, etc, but still. I offer this as an example of the rule that it does not take a great deal of intelligence to notice when someone is fucking you over. And America is starting to catch on that it's not going to get better, and people are getting pissed off, because we elected you to fix this, not to take a backseat in terms of advocacy to people like Barton. So quit acting like you're surprised it's this hard, and quit bitching that it's difficult for you politically, and FIX IT, because collectively, we are sick of your whining, and we have been here before, and it wasn't fun, and we're not interested in doing it again. Knock it off.

A.

Today on Tommy T's Obsession With The Freeperati - Turncoats and Traitors edition

Hi gang - before we suit up and crack the airlock door, I have to advise you that Levi "Hockey" Johnson (or an amazing facsimile) now has his own column at Something Awful.  They're doing a pretty good job of channeling the Swain Of Wasilla, I think.  Take a look, if you dare.

All right! I've asked Doc to bring some extra blowers online, as this week's Obsession features Freepers getting the Dolchstosslegende treatment from people they once fawned over and rolled over for in the vain hope of getting their collective bellies scratched.

First up - I’ll give 8 to 5 on the muzzies!

A gunman entered the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and opened fire, according to reports.
bartlesvillelive.com ^ | 6/10/09
Posted on 06/10/2009 10:33:58 AM PDT by KeyLargo
WASHINGTON, D.C. - A gunman entered the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and opened fire, according to reports.
Fox News and CNN are reporting a man walked into the museum and shot at a security guard.
A second security guard returned fire on the gunman.
Fox News is reporting a law enforcement official as saying two people have been shot.

Freepers are, of course, well-known for their insightful analysis and powers of deduction:

To: KeyLargo

Religion of peace?

2 posted on 06/10/2009 10:34:44 AM PDT by Da Coyote

To: Da Coyote

I’ll give 8 to 5 on the muzzies.

3 posted on 06/10/2009 10:35:30 AM PDT by domenad (In all things, in all ways, at all times, let honor guide me.)

To: KeyLargo

I bet Muslim.
How long before he gets pardoned?

4 posted on 06/10/2009 10:35:59 AM PDT by GeronL

To: KeyLargo

The longer it takes for them to give a description of the perp, the more likely a muzzie.

7 posted on 06/10/2009 10:36:55 AM PDT by b4its2late (I love defenseless animals, especially in a good gravy.)

To: b4its2late

I suspect that if the shooter was a middle-aged white guy, this information would have been provided in the very first press report on incident.

20 posted on 06/10/2009 10:45:23 AM PDT by Zeddicus

 And then....Jew-hating "muzzie" turns out to be bitter white guy!!!!‏

Police: At least 2 shot inside Holocaust Museum
AP ^ | 6/10/2009
Posted on Wednesday, June 10, 2009 1:24:47 PM by TomOnTheRun
Authorities say at least two people have been shot at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. ---
Update: Tapper & MSNBC are reporting that name of susupect is James Von Brunn, a white supremacist, born 1920.

Cue the furious backpedaling!

To: TomOnTheRun

Seems awfully early to be releasing a suspect’s name.

2 posted on Wednesday, June 10, 2009 1:26:03 PM by theDentist (qwerty ergo typo : i type, therefore i misspelll)

To: TomOnTheRun

“James Von Brunn, a white supremacist”
Wow, they sure are fast with a name and motive when its not a Muslim killing American.

4 posted on Wednesday, June 10, 2009 1:26:14 PM by icwhatudo (For every clinic bombed or burned, 17 to 18 churches are burned down. MSM? MSM?)

Almost as fast as Freepers moved in that last thread, no?

To: TomOnTheRun

thought for sure it’d be a Muslim.

9 posted on Wednesday, June 10, 2009 1:27:00 PM by GeronL

Hey - maybe he'll convert in prison?

To: TomOnTheRun

oh crap. why don’t these old Democrat white supremacists (like the Democrats who tried to keep Conservative Republican James Meredith out of Ole Miss, or murdered those three civil rights workers near Meridian) just go away?

12 posted on Wednesday, June 10, 2009 1:27:38 PM by MuttTheHoople

Um - they did go away.  And good riddance.

To: TomOnTheRun

WOW my apologizes. I thought it was a Muslin for sure..An 89 year old man, wow I didn’t see that one coming

20 posted on Wednesday, June 10, 2009 1:30:19 PM by Sarah Barracuda

What a concidence - neither did the guard he killed.

Well, let's leave the Freeperati to start blaming shooting up places on Dems rather than crazy bitter old white anti-goverment people with guns - there's a plethora of perfidy after the

Your Goal

Grassley becomes a bigger asshole every single day:

Iowa Republican Senator Charles Grassley said on CNN that the Senate Finance Committee is “dialing down some of our expectations” of the legislation in response to an estimate by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office that earlier options under consideration would cost $1.6 trillion.

“Our goal is affordability,” said Grassley, who is the top-ranked Republican on the finance panel.

Well fuck shit goddamn, our goal is to not have more people essentially assasinated by economics, how about that, Chuckles? Our goal is not to make the program the cheapest possible half a loaf it can be so it sucks enough for you to declare that national health care is a failure and can't work. Our goal is to actually try to help people, you know, and if that costs a couple trillion dollars, so did your party's war, so don't come crying poverty to me.

Your goal is affordability. Yeah. It would be.

A.

A List, in No Particular Order, of 21 Things My Father Has Taught Me

1. Cheetos and chocolate stars are the breakfast of champions.

2. There is no day so bad some shopping can't make it better.

3. There is no day so good some shopping can't make it better.

4. Nag enough, loud enough, and eventually you will get what you want. Beach! Beach! Beach!

5. You're never too old to give kids horsey rides.

6. SIEVE! SIEVE! SIEVE!

7. Sarcasm and mockery are the highest forms of affection. If you're not loved you're not worth teasing.

8. Don't take any crap from anybody just because you're a girl.

9. Do what you love. No matter what that is.

10. Cadbury Eggs are the dinner of champions.

11. When you go on a trip, always bring back treats for everybody.

12. Spend serious money — if you're lucky enough to get some — on books and art and experiences, not clothes and cars and houses.

13. Keep a big jar in the closet and put all your change in it. When the jar is full, it's time to take a vacation.

14. Sometimes the job is more important than anything else, and that's okay.

15. Doing donuts in the snow in a rusted-out Subaru with bald tires and no passenger seats is probably not that bright a move, but it is pretty hilarious.

16. Don't be afraid to go someplace new. You'll figure it out.

17. When the phone rings in the middle of the night, pick it up, no questions asked.

18. When a friend needs a ride at some ungodly hour, go, no questions asked.

19. When a distant cousin you haven't talked to in years and didn't like very much back then needs something, anything, do it, no questions asked.

20. Why? Because you can, that's why.

21. Lounging on the bed on a Sunday afternoon with the window open and a transistor radio as old as you are blaring a baseball game in which the Brewers are only winning because they haven't found a way to lose yet is one of the best ways possible to spend your time on this planet.

I love you, Dad. Happy Father's Day.

A.