Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
For those of you keeping score at home, since this is a difficult issue, I thought I would help you with this little round-up.
This is censorship:
Dozens of people walked out on pioneer TV talk-show host Phil Donahue, as he delivered a commencement speech at N.C. State on Saturday.
This is acting on principle:
About one in every eight graduates walked out of Sunday
Here is the latest story that is becoming the newest spin cycle swirling through the left flank of the blogosphere:
Critics of Teresa Heinz Kerry’s unorthodox and outspoken views have the fabulously rich wife of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry reaching for her $550 million can of whup-ass. Originally reserved to counter GOP sniping at her hubby, Heinz Kerry is now open to spending some of her ketchup fortune on a counterattack. “The assumption,” says a friend, “was always that the attacks would be on him, not her.” But now: “The attacks on her have exponentially increased the likelihood of her tapping the fortune.” Heinz Kerry, previously married to ketchup heir Sen. John Heinz, who died in a plane crash, has been ridiculed by Republicans for recent statements promoting Botox treatments, prenuptial agreements, and feeding rabbits to kids. One critic compared her to egomaniac Donald Trump, calling Mrs. H.K. “the Teresa.” If Republicans don’t shut up, warns one of her friends, she’ll give Kerry a war chest that would dwarf anything President Bush could collect. “It would be George Bush’s worst nightmare,” says the friend.
Giggle. If you believe this, I have a bridge to sell you. This story is a typical planted gossip piece that you should start expecting to see a lot of, and it actually should be interpreted as this:
1.) Kerry thinks he has a shot at getting the nomination, and now he needs to find a way to spend his fortune without looking like a hypocrite. Why would he look like a hypocrite? We’ll get to that in a second.
2.) This is just to stoke the fires of the memeufacturers to make sure they remember to break out the election year mantra- “Republicans are mean and bullies, so we have to be mean and fight at their level.” This is what Democrats say to themselves so they can excuse themselves for doing things like, well, running the Bush/Byrd lynching commercials. Or letting Terry McAuliffe speak in public. Remember, this is key to the way they think: “Republicans are evil, our cause is just, the end justifies the means, and it matters not what we do, but we must regain control. Anything wrong or illegal that we do will be overcome by the goodness of our return to the throne.”
Personally, I have no problem with Kerry spending his wife’s inheritance of 500 million dollars- hell, it is their money, they can do what they want with it. Unfortunately, Kerry needs an excuse before tapping into his wife’s wealth, so we have to pretend she is ‘fired up’ over those mean Republicans making fun of her. Why do we need to make this up? Maybe Kerry can tell you why we need to start spinning on this one:
“Every month in Washington, D.C. the special interests spend $100 million to get us to do something or to stop us from doing something. It’s time we broke the power of the big special interests and made the political system work for the average working Americans who make this country great. We’ll never have a government that truly represents all of the people, if we don’t at long last succeed in reforming our campaign finance system. Since coming to Washington in 1984 this has been one of my most important goals. Elections must be more than auctions, and money must no longer drown out the role of citizens in our democracy.”
Is there a more powerful and unregulated special interest than a shameless self-promoter with a half a billion dollars?
And btw, Ms. Heinz Kerry- if you think people are being mean to you, you ought to hear what Howard Dean is saying about your husband.
*** Update ***
John Hawkins has some thoughts on the ‘Democrats just need to fight tough like Republicans’ meme.
Democrats Write Laws, Other People Are Supposed to Follow ThemPost + Comments (7)
The Instapundit links to this Blogcritics master list of Matrix:Reloaded reviews, I was going to read them all when I saw this review title:
The Matrix Rocked Turbo Hardcore Hot Monkey Ass – by Vivian St.George
What would you pay to hear those words come out of Gene Shalit’s mouth?
I saw Comedian today and have to admit it was worth the time. A couple of quick notes:
– Orny Adams is funny as shit and I would like to see him.
– Colin Quinn is much funier in a casual situation than he was on SNL. He seems like someone you would want to hang out with.
– If anyone has seen this on DVD, I would love to know who is performing the Jazz piece during the set-up screen (where you choose to play, scene select, etc.).
– Seinfeld is still pretty damn funny.
Is Funny Cide going to be the 12th Triple Crown winner? Will he be the first gelding to win the Triple Crown?
I’m sure they are crying in their beer at the White House over this one:
“There is, in the American press and in the British press, a great number of articles, information that was without foundation, untruthful,” Mr. de Villepin said in an interview aired on French radio yesterday.
Paris is taking an inventory of press accounts about France, with plans to show that they are not true, he said.
Jean-David Levitte, the French ambassador to the United States, stated in a letter to Congress and the administration that the U.S. press has made “false accusations” against France. He complained in the letter about what he called the “troubling
Time Capsules are interesting ideas, if you remember where you put them:
In 10 days, this city plans to revisit the moment 100 years ago that President Theodore Roosevelt rode into town in a horse-drawn carriage, gave a rousing speech about the great pioneers of the Pacific Northwest and put a copper box into the cornerstone of a towering monument to Lewis and Clark.
That is, if anyone can find the box.
Portland is frantic to find the time capsule. Nobody knows exactly where it is.
Sheer genius.