If you aren't outraged...

Much has been said about people who cast votes for Senator Clinton in the primary and who continue to voice their disappointment in how the nomination has been given by the DNC to lightweight Barack Obama. We're commonly referred to as being angry and irrational. I have been motivated to change my political affiliation from Democrat (life-long) to independent. But, I don't think I have been operating out of anger. Well, I'm angry today.

Check out this "journalism" from MSNBC:



At one point, maybe feeling a slight bit foolish about her appallingly giddy idiocy, Novotny quips: "Welcome to mid-July." As if MSNBC hasn't been covering Senator Clinton in this sickeningly sexist fashion from day one. Here's just one other example out of many:

As Media Matters for America documented, on July 30, 2007, MSNBC devoted a total of 23 minutes and 42 seconds to segments discussing Clinton's (D-NY) "cleavage" between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET.

BTW - Senator Clinton's statement before her colleagues in the Senate was about the veto override of the medicare fix.

Contact information:

MSNBC
Mr. Phil Griffin,
Senior Vice President, News
NBC Television Network
30 Rockefeller Plz
New York, NY 10112
phil.griffin@nbc.com

Steve Capus,
President, NBC News
steve.capus@nbc.com

MSNBC
letters@msnbc.com
MSNBC/Microsoft-NBC
30 Rockefeller Plz
3rd Fl
New York, NY 10112
(212) 664-4444

Oh, that media imbalance

From an article in today's NYT "Media Stars Will Accompany Obama Overseas":

The imbalance has appeared in various analyses of the news coverage. The Tyndall Report, a news coverage monitoring service that has the broadcast networks as clients, reports that the three newscasts by the networks — which have a combined audience of more than 20 million people — spent roughly 114 minutes covering Mr. Obama since June. They spent about 48 minutes covering Mr. McCain, who made the rounds of the evening newscasts in satellite interviews last week.

This amazing situation is not one those in the Reagan administration who killed the Fairness Doctrine would have envisioned, I'm sure. Wonder if Pelosi, Kerry and Durbin will renew their efforts to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine? Not holding my breath.

Quotable

"Someone who can shift positions so quickly on so many important issues that will face the next President comes off as a man who doesn't have fixed convictions. Pragmatism has to be guided by principles. A man who believes in everything believes in nothing, and that's a formula for chaos in the White House."

~ Michael Goodwin, "Will the Real Obama Please Stand Up?"

Cynthia McKinney: Green Party nominee for President

The Green Party has announced its 2008 ticket: former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente.

"I am asking you to vote your conscience, vote your dreams, vote your future, vote Green," McKinney told the convention's 800 or so attendees. "A vote for the Green Party is a vote for the movement that will turn this country right-side-up again."

McKinney, a former six-term congresswoman and the first African-American woman elected to represent Georgia in Congress, might be best known for asking "What did this administration know and when did it know it, about the events of September 11th?"

"It is time for a new beginning."

Obama takes stand against sexist joke at fundraiser

Nah, I'm just messin' with ya. Barry actually played along with Bernie Mac's joke about mothers and sisters as "hos."

Here's the joke Mac performed before a $2,300 a seat fundraising event in Chicago:

The Chicago-born comedian and actor told what he said was a joke about his nephew coming to him and asking the difference between a hypothetical question and a realistic question.

To demonstrate the difference, he tells the nephew to go ask his mother if she would make love to the mailman for $50,000. The mother says she would make love to the mailman and anybody else for $50,000.

He tells the nephew to go ask his sister if she would make love with her neighbor for $50,000. She says she would make love with the neighbor and anybody else for $50,000.

So he tells the nephew: “Hypothetically speaking, we should have $100,000. But realistically speaking we live with two hos,” Bernie Mac said.

There was an awkward moment and nervous laughter from the crowd of about 600 people who had paid $2,300 each to attend the fundraiser at a Chicago hotel. One person objected to the word “ho” — derogatory slang for woman — and urged Bernie Mac to leave and make way for Obama.

Here's Obama's response (via Mark Halperin)

“Everybody is concerned about whether the Democratic Party will be unified in time,” he said. “We don’t have an option but to make sure that we are united and make sure that we succeed…we can’t afford to be divided by race. We can’t afford to be divided by religion, or by region or class. Or by gender,” he said, pausing for effect. “That means, by the way, Bernie you got to clean up your act. This is a family affair… I’m just messing with you,” he said.

Don Imus was probably just messin' with us too.

Senator Clinton on FISA vote

"...I believe strongly that we must modernize our surveillance laws in order to provide intelligence professionals the tools needed to fight terrorism and make our country more secure. However, any surveillance program must contain safeguards to protect the rights of Americans against abuse, and to preserve clear lines of oversight and accountability over this administration. ...

Congress must vigorously check and balance the president even in the face of dangerous enemies and at a time of war. That is what sets us apart. And that is what is vital to ensuring that any tool designed to protect us is used - and used within the law - for that purpose and that purpose alone. I believe my responsibility requires that I vote against this compromise, and I will continue to pursue reforms that will improve our ability to collect intelligence in our efforts to combat terror and to oversee that authority in Congress."

Entire statement here.

A democratic Democratic Party

Fished in

Even the NY Times editorial board is beginning to realize they have been fished in by the hopey-changey candidate. It would be somewhat gratifying if it weren't so pathetic.

Read about Barack Obama's 'perplexing' and 'distressing' shifts here: New and Not Improved.

more than a single case of sour grapes

"He's already President!"

John Stewart pokes fun at Obama's Great Seal -- "He's President already!" And, Obama's turn around on campaign public financing.



It's OK to laugh...really.

hardcore Hillary types

Although both Traister and Shapiro ultimately reach the same conclusion (women come around and vote for Obama in Nov.) in their articles for Slate about Hillary Clinton supporters who have yet to line up behind the democratic messiah Barack Obama, they take very different paths.

Check out this repellent nugget from the Shapiro piece:

A common theory is that disgruntled voters, troubled by the direction of their party, end up staying home in November. But with a record-smashing 36 million Democrats voting in the presidential primaries, this is not shaping up as a political year in which anyone will neglect to vote because, say, Whole Foods was having a sale on organic olive oil that day. "If there is a demographic group that isn't going to vote, it certainly isn't the hardcore Hillary types who score highly on all the indicators of likely voting," says Bill Mayer, a political scientist at Northeastern University.

Besides reeking of condescension, there may be a slight bit of truthiness to this assertion. I know I would never sit out an election, but I will not cast a vote for either the GOP or Dem candidate. As Obama says about the public financing system, our primary process is broken. The democratic party is broken. So, I'm opting out. Continuing to play along will only enable blow hards such as Shapiro. Dig up quotes from all the political scientists you want -- we reached a tipping point in this cycle. It will be like no others before it.

Change We Can Believe In

Rex Babin

What? You don't have your own seal?

"I think we can all agree that we need presidential candidates that are serious enough not to play make-believe on the campaign trail."

"It's laughable, ridiculous, preposterous and revealing all at the same time," Bounds [McCain spokesperson] said.

Yikes! Quite the display of egomania and stupidity. Can't believe your eyes? Read more here, here and here.

"The Obama campaign is clearly counting on any stink over the broken pledge to blow over in the 136 days left before the election. And, of course, once Obama backers see the kind of first-class seal they're getting for $290-plus million, they may go along." - Andrew Malcolm, LA Times