For the past day or two, I’ve been seeing some very inexplicable-even-by-twitter-standards stuff on the tweetstreams. David Roth at Vice Sports finally explained this new “thing” for me, and you:
It’s greatly to Twitter’s credit that no one has yet figured out a productive use for it… It is a place to flush our puns and dispose of our surplus thoughts and spoonerisms, and that is valuable, but there is the question of what all those words are actually worth. Are they just millions of plastic bags clotting the virtual ocean? Or are they poems, each of them, waiting to be read as such?
Ha, just kidding, it’s the “millions of plastic bags” thing for sure. But the site Poetweet is doing its best to advance the idea that there’s some poetry hidden in our Twitter feeds, and uses an algorithm (presumably) to mine old tweets, chop them into iambic pentameter, and turn them into poems. If you can handle soaking in your own fragmented mundanities, you should absolutely try it yourself…
Since I am only a twit-lurker (I can get into enough trouble just with FYWP, thanks) I tried feeding Poetweet “inspiration” from our Blogmaster…
by John Cole
Out of bounds to get to the one.
Is too small for my fat fingers.
By next week he will act alone.
In next generation power sources.
This is on SNL, but it is horrible
That Judy Miller’s WMD pieces.
Detroit got J O B JOBBED.
Condemn the turkey to death…
.
(Yes: If this, my fellow Juicers, cannot attract a bigfooting puppy-update post from Himself…. well, I’ve done my best.)
Open Thread: Social Media Kidz, These DaysPost + Comments (130)
Thursday Evening Open Thread: Another Clown Shoves into the GOP Car
Seriously John McCain on Lindsey Graham is my favorite thing today http://t.co/Q9K53yn0Yk pic.twitter.com/t7i79Rk6Ad
— daveweigel (@daveweigel) January 29, 2015
Guess who’s still mad about 2012 (not to mention 2000)…
…. “I know what you’re going to ask about!” said McCain. Indeed: The press wanted to talk to McCain about South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham’s launch of a presidential exploratory committee. McCain, who considered Graham as a 2008 running mate before picking Sarah Palin, had “strongly encouraged” Graham to run. He also credited his friend fully with the decision, and started warning 2016 rivals of what was coming…
McCain talked through the ways that Graham could win an “uphill battle” against rivals with “lots of money.” Graham, said McCain, had an “unmatched” record on national security when the country needed an expert in the White House. “Senator Graham is known in New Hampshire and he’s best in the town hall setting,” said McCain. “I’ve down town halls with him—I’ve watched him at those meetings. He’ll be able to do well in New Hampshire.”…
… Did he, for example, think Graham was more qualified to be commander in chief than Mitt Romney, whom he’d endorsed at the start of the 2012 primaries?
“Yes, I do,” said McCain, “but I’m not being in any way critical of Mitt Romney or anyone else who may be running. I just think that Lindsey Graham at this time in history is best suited to address threats to our national security.”
McCain’s enthusiasm seemed to outstrip that of Graham himself. After a Senate vote, the South Carolina senator checked his phone, then re-broke his news to reporters…
The first time a scary dark-skinned Muslim (Keith Ellison, say) gave would-be-President Graham so much as a cutting look, Lindsey would soil himself. But apart from gently buffing Graham’s own credentials as a Serious Foreign Policy Expert, this “exploratory committee” gives John McCain a reason to hang around the 2016 primaries… and the Media Village another excuse, as if they needed one, to invite McCain to show up for the Sunday Bobblehead yakfests.
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Apart from mocking the endlessly mockable, what’s on the agenda for the evening?
Thursday Evening Open Thread: Another Clown Shoves into the GOP CarPost + Comments (130)
Thursday Morning Open Thread: American Family Association (Sort of) Ditches Bryan Fischer
@jbarro yes, Fox News' Todd Starnes. Said he is "One of the most intelligent talk show hosts in the country" http://t.co/wkDpchF45h
— Jeremy Hooper (@goodasyou) January 29, 2015
Hat tip, commentor Howard Beale IV. Per Mediaite:
Rachel Maddow… broke news that the American Family Association has officially fired notorious evangelist Bryan Fischer after a controversy involving the RNC and Israel. Fischer is notorious for having some––well, let’s not sugarcoat it––crazy views on gays, “homofascists,” more crazy views on gays, and… yeah, basically a lot of gay stuff…
At issue this time is an RNC trip to Israel that was apparently being paid for by the American Family Association, of which Fischer is the director of issues analysis.
Or, rather, he was. Until today…
Update- 11:11 pm EST: For the sake of clarification, Fischer has been fired as a spokesperson and director of issues analysis, but is still a radio show host for the AFA.
1,250. That is the number of posts we wrote chronicling Bryan Fischer's bigotry before the AFA finally fired him http://t.co/E98rK10p07
— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) January 29, 2015
Background on “The GOP’s Favorite Hate-Monger” here:
… Fischer’s radio show has become an obligatory stop for Republican presidential candidates, prominent Republican politicians and top social conservative activists.
As the AFA’s leading talk show host, whose voice is heard on affiliates in the early primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, Fischer frequently hosts likely presidential candidates who are looking to make inroads among Religious Right voters. Former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty, former House speaker Newt Gingrich, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and businessman Herman Cain have all appeared on Fischer’s radio show. In addition, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour were both guests on Fischer’s show while they were weighing runs for the presidency…
Last year at the Values Voter Summit, which was co-sponsored by AFA Action, Fischer shared a stage with Huckabee, Bachmann, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and Indiana Rep. Mike Pence.
Many GOP members of Congress have also been guests on Fischer’s radio show, including: Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina, Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey, Rep. Steve King of Iowa, Rep. Jack Kingston of Georgia, Rep. Raul Labrador of Idaho, of Mississippi and Rep. Tim Huelskamp of Kansas. Among the major conservative activists who have appeared on Focal Point are Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, David Barton of WallBuilders, Phyllis Schlafly of Eagle Forum and Amy Kremer of the Tea Party Express. …
Of course the Talibangelical Reicht Religious Right will no doubt cry out against the martyrdom of another victim of the PC police, but at least a few of the much-courted low information voters might notice the noise enough to look at what they’ve been passively supporting.
Here’s the relevant clip from Maddow’s show [warning: continuing autoplay]:
Open Thread: Speaking of Desperate GOP Clowns…
Belatedly realizing that by doing this, Andrew Sullivan saves himself from liveblogging the Clinton Restoration.
— daveweigel (@daveweigel) January 28, 2015
Oh, yeah, back in the day… PandoDaily let Mark Ames reprint his 2013 Hall of Shame coverage on Sullivan, so let’s step in the wayback machine for a pertinent excerpt:
…[I]t was in 1994 that Andrew Sullivan’s recklessness and media fraud went berserk. First, he published a devastating three-part series destroying President Clinton’s universal health care legislation, articles that are generally considered the reason why “Hillarycare” failed to pass. The author, a Republican operative from the rightwing Manhattan Institute named Betsy McCaughey, had secretly prepared her articles in cooperation with Philip Morris (much of Hillarycare coverage was to be funded by hiking tobacco taxes). McCaughey’s article, “No Exit,” won for The New Republic that year’s National Magazine Award. However, her articles were complete frauds; not journalism, but the very opposite of journalism: Tobacco industry propaganda designed to kill off health care for Americans in order to protect big tobacco profits.
A secret 1994 memo from a Philip Morris executive outlining the tobacco giant’s role in crafting McCaughey’s articles reveals just how grotesquely corrupt journalism under Andrew Sullivan’s editorship had become…
The articles were so full of obvious lies and embarrassing flaws that in 2006, The New Republic publicly recanted. But as with the October Surprise smear, the damage was done — health care reform was dead for another 15 years. When you consider that a recent study estimated 45,000 Americans die every year from lack of health care coverage, and you multiply that by the nearly two decades since Andrew Sullivan helped kill Clinton’s health care reform, you start to understand who the real terrorist is.
But that’s no sweat off Sully’s whiskers: The pattern, set early, proves that no matter how hard he fails, no matter how disastrous the consequences for journalism or his adopted country, Sullivan’s career advancement is guaranteed to keep rising. Journalism, schmournalism: He’s a proven reliable waterboy for the tobacco lobby and the Republican Right, what value can journalism have that can possibly compete with that?…
Even after his own magazine recanted the article, in 2007, Sullivan, while admitting “I was aware of the piece’s flaws but nonetheless was comfortable running it as a provocation,” defended his failure, and the catastrophic consequences to millions of Americans, with all the aggressive conviction of a sociopath:
I think the magazine’s refusal to be mau-maued by the Clintons at the time – and Hillary was threatening blue murder against anyone who so much as dared to criticize her – is a feather in the magazine’s cap. We weren’t “out to get the Clintons.” Some of us – well, two of us – were merely worried that America’s excellent private healthcare system would be hobbled by too much government regulation. I am glad we helped head off the Clinton-Magaziner behemoth. Proud, actually.
That was in pre-internet, pre-social-media days, when publicly rebutting outright liars and exposing shills like Betsy McCaughey was a process requiring months, not hours. Sullivan’s been a well-paid whore for the worst elements of the American moneyed right since the day he took Marty Perez’s gig, so when you read encomiums to his vast dedication and tributes to his tireless intellectual curiosity, remember the evils to which he’s put those gifts. If he’s getting out of blogging now, it’s because there’s no longer a thick scrim of “professionalism” to protect his tender sensitivities from the vulgar assaults of truth.
Open Thread: Speaking of Desperate GOP Clowns…Post + Comments (98)
Open Thread: Sherrod Brown’s Not Joining the Scrum
Because it’s a company town where the monopoly industry is politics, Senators get covered in the Style section of the local paper. I wish the reporter had talked more about Brown’s actual accomplishments and less about the horse race, but here’s the Washington Post with a “scoop”:
… By almost any standard, Sen. Sherrod Brown, 62, a former Eagle Scout with a voice like Tom Waits, is the kind of pol who should at this very moment be making the rounds of the Sunday shows, growling to packed audiences in Iowa and all the while insisting to major media outlets that he is not currently considering running for president at this time. Or at least you’d expect a bunch of liberal activists to be mounting a Draft Sherrod campaign. No?
“Huh, I really had not thought about it until this phone call,” said Adam Green of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.
That, of course, is because all the attention has been heaped onto another, fresher-faced member of the Senate: the progressive rock star from Massachusetts, Sen. Elizabeth Warren…
“I don’t see it as a competition,” Brown said in an interview from his Senate office. “I’m always looking for allies, so was thrilled when she ran and am thrilled to have her in the Senate.” …
“I don’t think you can do your job well in the Senate if you’re looking over your shoulder wanting to be president,” he said. He may be a fan of Warren and Sanders, but he isn’t above taking minor potshots at their headline-grabbing ways — pointing out, for example, that it’s much easier to be a progressive in Massachusetts and Vermont than in his home state of Ohio.
Asked if Brown should run for president, Warren would not take the bait.
“Sherrod really has been a great leader for years,” she said. “He has been true on core issues that matter to hardworking families.”
Back during Obama’s first term, Brown was an advocate for a bigger stimulus package, a proponent for the reenactment of the Glass-Steagall Act, a critic of “fair trade” and its impact on manufacturing jobs back home. Recently he was one of the first Democrats to go on the offense to fight for more Social Security benefits. When Sen. Al Franken decided to run for Senate, he sought advice from Brown on how to run as a progressive in a purple state.
Brown said he understands that the press attention that comes with a presidential run can be good for getting a message out, but it can also have a negative effect on building credibility with his colleagues…
Brown’s not competing with Warren, and she’s not competing with him — they’re colleagues working towards the same ends. We need another several hundred people like Sherrod Brown in Congress, and a few thousand like him in the various statehouses. But the Media Village is only interested in American Idol-style competition, so stories only get written in the context of picking the one “winner” who gets to the Oval Office.
Open Thread: Sherrod Brown’s Not Joining the ScrumPost + Comments (47)
Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Lynch. Loretta Lynch.
.
Since D.C. missed the worst of the actual snowstorm, there will be plenty of energy for today’s BS-blizzard. Here’s Loretta Lynch’s bio, from a wide-ranging Washington Post report:
… The Senate Judiciary Committee will begin two days of confirmation hearings Wednesday on the first African American woman nominated to be attorney general.
If confirmed, Lynch, 55, will be the first U.S. attorney to become attorney general in modern history. (The last one was William Wirt, who was attorney general under President James Monroe in 1817.) From her office in Brooklyn, where she supervises 170 lawyers, she would be moving to Washington to oversee 116,000 full-time employees, a $27 billion budget and a department that is often a lightning rod on Capitol Hill…
Lynch is poised to take the job at a moment of high tension between law enforcement and minority communities across the country, with the Justice Department assuming a prominent role in investigating allegations of civil rights violations and excessive use of force by some police departments.
“She will face an exceptional amount of her time responding to Congress,” said Robert Raben, a consultant and the former assistant attorney general for legislative affairs in the Clinton administration. “And a big chunk of the time is partisan and political shenanigans. With the complete control of Congress by another party, there’s maximum possibility that there’s going to be an onslaught of oversight to tie up the leadership of the department and humiliate the president.”…
Dave Weigel, at Bloomberg Politics, describes the drum majors that will lead today’s ‘onslaught of oversight’:
If you don’t count the Republican members of Congress, outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder has no more determined critic than Sheryl Attkisson. The investigative reporter, who left CBS News last year and now contributes to the Heritage Foundation’s Daily Signal, spent years investigating the Fast and Furious gun-walking scandal…
… Attkisson will lead the expert testimony on Holder’s likely replacement. The Senate Judiciary Committee, which Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley took control of after the Republicans’ 2014 wins, has called Attkisson to speak on a panel of witnesses after nominee Loretta Lynch is introduced….
Putting ‘expert testimony’ and ‘Senator Chuck Grassley’ in the same paragraph is what gaming observers call a tell. Also on that panel: the president of True the Vote; a Milwaukee County sheriff re-elected with the backing of the NRA; and Jonathan Turley, the law professor who called Holder President Obama’s “sin eater”.
Clues to the less risible lines of attack, I’m guessing:
Raw Story: “Obama AG nominee Loretta Lynch quietly dropped $450,000 civil forfeiture case a week before hearings”
International Business Times: “Attorney General Nominee Loretta Lynch Omitted HSBC Interview From Senate Questionnaire” (Questions about Lynch’s attitude towards Holder’s “too big to jail” legal theory have been raised since her nomination last November.)
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Apart from watching the judicial circus and/or cleaning up after the snow, what’s on the agenda for the day?
Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Lynch. Loretta Lynch.Post + Comments (72)
Late Night Open Thread: Cynical Opinions from A Fat Old White Lady
at some point the role of an editor has to be to sit down with a writer and say "you are too obsessed with twitter." http://t.co/tnhm5I4bJt
— max read (@max_read) January 27, 2015
Jonathan Chait, who is a widely-read self-professed Liberal political commentator, has a lengthy sad inspired by rude Twitter treatment of his personal friend Hanna Rosin.
Hanna Rosin is a professional “feminist” troll, a hipster Kathleen Parker who makes a living explaining, for outlets like Slate and the Atlantic, that all is for the best in this best of all possible worlds — assuming you’re an upper-middle-class Stanford-grad professional person, preferably married and with a respectable number (at least one, not more than four) of children. And if you’re not of those fortunate categories, WTF are you doing hanging around her nice ideological neighborhood?!?
Dr. Brittney Cooper is an academic with a side gig at Salon cataloging microagressions against her and her peers. She doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page.
Hanna Rosin is sureasfvck not my “ally”, although I have garnered some insights by hate-reading her. Dr. Cooper probably wouldn’t have me as an ally, because I read her work (mostly at Salon) keeping in mind that she’s being paid to pearl-clutch at that venue.
But if Jon Chait can’t tell the difference between Rosin’s social/cultural influence and Dr. Cooper’s… then he is letting his friendship seriously compromise his judgement.
(Also: Alex Pareene remains a very sharp writer.)
Late Night Open Thread: Cynical Opinions from A Fat Old White LadyPost + Comments (62)