Day: September 27, 2011

Miller Backs Cain — Let the Celebrity Endorsements Begin!

Buck Banks

With “comedian” Dennis Miller’s announcement that he is endorsing Herman Cain in the Republican presidential race, the silly season of the campaign officially has begun. It joins the mean season already under way.

It’s a bit early for endorsements, but with Cain’s sudden ascendency last week in the Orlando straw poll, Miller obviously saw an opportunity to garner a little media attention. Since he stopped being funny about a decade ago, his career needs the boost.
Oprah-Obama
Miller’s bold move reminds us of the silly celebrity endorsements bestowed in the 2008 election. That is, if we allow for a loose interpretation of “celebrity.”

We all recall Oprah’s endorsement of Barack Obama, but few remember that actor Gene Wilder also stood for our first black president. Tough guy Chuck Norris loudly tossed his Grecian Formula’d beard behind Mike Huckabee in several viral videos. Huckabee also drew support from “musician” Ted Nugent and “wrestler” Ric Flair.

But those are the higher-profile endorsements. What about more obscure ones?

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Electoral Map Favors Democrats

Buck Banks

Amid those dark political clouds overhead right now, President Barack Obama can console himself with this silver lining: The electoral map remains stacked in favor of him and his Democrats…. Specifically, there are 18 states plus the District of Columbia that have voted Democratic in all five presidential elections since 1992. Combined, they carry 242 electoral votes — 90% of the votes needed for victory. Republicans have a much smaller bloc of highly reliable electoral college votes. There are just 13 states that have gone red in each of the last five elections, and they deliver 102 electoral votes, less than half of the number needed.

— Gerald Seib, writing in the conservative Wall Street Journal.

Is This What the Tea Party Calls Progress?

Trish

us-congressional-sealThere is so much wrong with this story, it’s mind-boggling.

The House of Representatives is expected to take action Thursday on a bipartisan agreement ending a dispute over disaster relief spending that threatened to cause a partial shutdown of the government by the end of the week.

Specifically, the House is set to approve a one-week government funding extension on Thursday, followed by a more comprehensive measure next week that will keep Washington funded through November 18, according to the office of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Virginia.

The age of multitasking in Congress is over

So that’s how we’re doing it now? It’s a legislative victory when we muster all our resources to agree not to shut down the government and instead to continue relief for Americans devastated by disaster…for one week? And the more comprehensive measure, the big blockbuster deal, is to keep the government operating right through part of the month after next?

Houston, we have a problem.

[…]

Maddow: Beltway Media Deliberately Misreported Obama’s Speech to the Congressional Black Caucus

Jon Ponder

At about 02:00 in the video above from the Rachel Maddow show on MSNBC last night, Maddow runs the last few minutes of Pres. Obama’s speech to the Congressional Black Caucus last weekend — the section in which, as the Associated Press, the Beltway media and right-wing propagandists reported it, he exhorted the African-American congressional leaders to take off their bedroom slippers, put on their boots, stop grumbling and start marching.

A transcript follows of the excerpt from the speech (and a complete transcript of the president’s remarks at the bottom of this page), but first, here is what Maddow said about the way the media reported on the speech:

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Fox News President Roger Ailes Dishes on His Network’s Hosts

Jon Ponder

In an interview with the Daily Beast, Fox News President Roger Ailes spoke candidly about the news anchors and show hosts he employs. Predictably, Alies does not like it when Shepard Smith, the only actual journalist employed by the network, goes off script and reports reality-based news that runs counter to Fox’s GOP-propaganda narrative:

Hannity’s show uses a logo that asks, “Can You Afford Four More?” Ailes calls him “predictable,” but Hannity says he’s not a party man …

Ailes seems to relish the feuding among his stars, saying, “O’Reilly hates Sean and he hates Rush because they did better in radio than he did.” ….

Ailes keeps a wary eye on anchor Shepard Smith, who occasionally backs aspects of the Obama record: “Every once in a while Shep Smith gets out there where the buses don’t run and we have a friendly talk.” And Ailes likes to tease O’Reilly: “You gonna suck up to Obama so you can get another interview at the next football game?”