Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
by John Cole| 44 Comments
This post is in: Democratic Stupidity
Just pretend for a second that John Kerry’s daughter was a lesbian, and during the waning weeks of the campaign, both Bush and Cheney had taken every opportunity to bring this up, including during a debate.
What would be the reaction of the Democrats and the left?
Just curious.
*** Update ***
Elizabeth Edwards, Bitch:
“She’s overreacted to this and treated it as if it’s shameful to have this discussion. I think that’s a very sad state of affairs
by John Cole| 10 Comments
This post is in: Politics
Withoutwatching one minute of the debate, one minute of the post-debate coverage, and none of the online spin, I hereby declare the winner of the 3rd debate to be:
Rupert Murdoch.
Sorry folks, I can’t see this debate getting any ratings when you have college football on ESPN, and Fox Sports is carrying the Yankees/Sox and the Cards/Astros.
Speaking of college football, my beloved WVU Mountaineers beat UConn 31-19, although it was a hideous performance. The ‘Eers had 12 penalties for 103 yards, and were awful the entire first half. They did gain 323 yards on the ground again, which is decent.
This post is in: Previous Site Maintenance
The premium blogad slot is still available, and as a sort ofpromotion, I will give one free week of advertising for every two weeks purchased.
Also, regular blogads have numerous slots open.
In other blogads news, check out this hilarious Andrew Sullivan post on blogads:
As you can see, the response to our blogads has been phenomenal. Over two dozen ads in a couple weeks, a revenue stream like never before, and we’ve only just begun! Yes, Mickey, I’m excitable at times. I have Irish blood in my veins. But I’ve waited over four years to break into a real business model, and now we have. I’m also proud to have ads from both George Soros and Ann Coulter on the same page. Says it all, doesn’t it? If you want to advertize to one of the smartest and most influential readerships on the web, contact Henry Copeland: [email protected].
Quite a discovery, Andy! Except almost every blog I know has been using blogads for over a year.
Sully is like the guy who sees a Ferrari afor the first time and thinks he has discovered the wheel.
by John Cole| 7 Comments
This post is in: Media
Andrew misses the point completely regarding the Sinclair Groups decision to show the Kerry documentary:
As I’ve said, it’s a free country, and my instincts are against any attempt to regulate this kind of thing. But the blatantly partisan nature of this move – and its dissemination of rank smears into millions of homes – is still troubling. If CBS announced they were pulling regular programming to air “Fahrenheit 9/11” a week before the election, do you think no conservatives would protest?
Of course they would, but they wouldn’t attempt to get the government shut it down. Well- maybe a few statist wingnuts on the far right might, but the rest of us would do precisely what some on the left are now doing- pressuring advertisers.
Free market, baby. I chided Kevin Drum earlier about his whining over this, but his new approach I am completely in favor of and support.
Another thing that is being missed is that for people on the right, we already feel like there has been a jihad ongoing against our candidate since, well, forever. That is why we are laughing at the lefty outrage over this Sinclair documentary. Had they been as outraged when CBS tried their Reagan hitpiece, rather than denouncing conservative attempts to use the market and boycott CBS to influence change as ‘fascistic,’ we might be a touch more supportive. Had the left and lefty bloggers not spent two weeks futilely attempting to debunk the fraudulent CBS memos, stopping their attempts only when Dan Rather and Co. admitted they too believed the documents were false, we might be more sympathetic.
Had the left and lefty bloggers denounced all the documented deceits in Michael Moore’s F 9/11, we might be more supportive. Had they mentioned that all the free rock concerts for Kerry should be called ‘in kind’ donations, we might be more supportive.
Instead, the attitude was:
To win the war of public opinion takes all kinds, and that includes people like me, people like Moore, and people like John Kerry. We all have our place in the ecosystem, and I certainly have no interest in disowning a guy who’s obviously doing pretty good work for our side even if I don’t agree with him on every issue.
Which is why my attitude is that the Sinclair group can show whatever they want, and should Democrats manage to exert enough market pressure on them to force them to retract the documentary, I am fine with that too. I just will be sitting on the sidelines on this one, watching the ‘ecosystem.’ I will continue to note the attempts of Democrat thuggery through government to shut down the film, though.
This post is in: Foreign Affairs
Speaking of Pandagon, I should not a rare occurrence in which I completely agree with Ezra Klein:
Kristof really deserves an award for the amazing work he’s done on Sudan. As Wolf Blitzer luxuriates in his “Iron Man of Journalism” reputation, Kristof is writing sentences like:
The Sudanese government refuses to give me a visa so I came here on my own, sneaking across the border into Darfur from neighboring Chad.
Yup, just another day, scurrying into a genocide. I know we’re all tired of hearing about Sudan. The enormity of the tragedy combined with our own powerlessness renders the situation a profound depressant with little-to-no outlet for activism. That these sorts of massacres seem so frequent in Africa, what with Rwanda and Sierra Leon barely fading from memory, makes it all the easier to ignore.
But if we can’t understand, we can remain aware. The only way I know is trite, groups like Oxfam. If anyone has other ways to make a difference, put ’em in comments. And go read Kristof’s column, he’s the only writer I can think of with the courage and compassion to really make his op-ed real estate count.
There are only two comments to that post over at Pandagon. Ezra is right.
by John Cole| 7 Comments
This post is in: Media
I am sorry folks, but my mind has changed about the media.
I used to think that the real media bias was simply a factor of laziness and stupidity. Events of the past 4 years have changed my mind, and this past week has sealed the deal.
Honestly, ask yourself: “If there had been wholesale slaughter, mass confusion, explosions, massive voter irregularties, brutal murder of innocents, would the press have been this silent about the successful democratic elections in Afghanistan?”
If you answer is yes, quit reading me and go back to Atrios, Pandagon, Oliver, and the Daily Kos.
*** Update ***
by John Cole| 2 Comments
This post is in: Politics
I am not going to watch the debates because the WVU Mountaineers take on the U. Conn Huskies at 7:30pm, and, well, a man has to have his priorities right.
The other day someone asked me if there was anything that would get me to vote for Kerry, and I responded with “A partial lobotomy.”
There is no point for me to listen to Kerry moan, whine, and lie or to listen to lopsided attacks from Schieffer about the actual state of economic affairs over the past four years. Plus, I hate domestic affairs debates. If campaigns were allowed to be blunt, the entire economic message From Bush/Cheney:
“We inherited a recession. We have fought two wars. Despite all that, the economy is rolling along at a pretty nice clip with low inflation, low unemployment, and low interest rates. The Democrats are damned liars.”