White Throat strikes again!

Uh-oh. It looks like the epidemic has spread to Baltimore:

The economy is still a nightmare. The military situations in Afghanistan and Pakistan are perilous -- and getting worse. But for all the troubles swirling around the nation these days, America has rarely seemed to be in such steady and capable hands.

That was the feeling that came across on TV Wednesday night watching President Barack Obama's 100-days press conference. Even on his best nights, John F. Kennedy did not seem as calm, confident and masterful as Obama did in an hour's worth of prime time give and take with the press.

As good as Obama has been in such settings before, Wednesday he seemed perfectly tuned to each shifting topic and tone.

CDC officials have been dispatched to quarantine television critic David Zurawik from the rest of the staff of the Baltimore Sun, but it's likely too late. Baltimore journalists are encouraged to stay home if they exhibit any of the following symptoms: obsequiousness, an incessant need to gargle with mouthwash, or the feeling of being a "dirty, dirty girl."

Posted by: Sean M. at 09:09 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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White Throat pandemic spreading

We were warned about the condition, and indeed, it seems to be spreading.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 11:45 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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One of these things is not like the others

What was that again about the whole "painstaking layers of editorial fact-checking" thing with the MSM?

A seemingly minor Texas dispute that began over moving a voting site from a garage to an elementary school will be argued before the Supreme Court on Wednesday - with the potential to overturn a core piece of the Voting Rights Act that protects minority voters.

The so-called "guts" of the law, Section 5, requires Justice Department pre-clearance of voting plans in nine Southern states - Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia - and portions of seven other states.

Um, I suppose you could make the argument that Arizona, while not traditionally part of "The South" is at least in the southern part of the country, but Alaska? Yeah.

Posted by: Sean M. at 08:30 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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But where did the point go?

Can anyone tell me what the point of this story is besides poverty porn?

I was going to take some potshots at the article but, frankly, there's something about the tone of it that puts me on edge.  To start with, I most certainly hope that the reporter got permission from the people whose names are given to use their names and reveal to the world their financial straits.  Then there's the details about the woman looking for work, such as her clothing, etc., that I assume are meant to be evocative of a woman dressing up to look for a job.  But there's a tenor to it of "Oi!  Look at the female Pooricus Southern Workeramus as she goes about her ritual preparations".  Maybe that's just me.

I must say, I'm stunned that it's being presented in the timeline manner used.  There's no Bush bashing.  And the comments the main figure of the article makes about the tea party are, pretty much, exactly what you'd expect from a woman who is an Obama supporter.  Sure, I don't agree with her, but she's fully free to express her opinion.  Besides, it's quite revealing of her mindset.

I simply can't figure out the *point*.  Yes, times are hard.  Yes, rural communities are hit harder.  Yes, people struggle to make ends meet.  It's simply that this seems like a way for more affluent readers of the WaPo to get a frission of "oh those poor dears".  And that pisses me off.  It certainly seems as if the people involved are struggling to do the best they can in their circumstances.  Their lives are not my amusement.  Look, I've been in that position, I've had to decide which will be turned off first, the electric or the phone.  I most certainly would not want anyone using that portion of my life to prove some kind of oblique point or to make people feel pity for me. 

Or maybe I'm just pissy because it's hot and I'm still coming off a migraine.  But there's just *something* about that article that makes me feel as if the writer was trying to hold up the dignity of the poor or some such and instead did quite the opposite.  

Posted by: alexthechick at 09:58 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Gee, wonder why that is...

At the end of this screed about how the media is upset with Dear Leader's press team, we have this gem:

When covering the White House, said Time's Michael Scherer, "the real substance of reporting doesn't take place in on-camera briefings."

And off-camera, Scherer said the press team has been more helpful than it was during the presidential campaign.

"Even when it's a story that they're not happy I'm doing," Scherer said, "they have not shut me out."

I'm curious as to which of the multiple cover stories about Obama that Time has done this year was viewed negatively by New Messiah.

Posted by: It's Vintage, Duh at 01:17 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Fair and balanced

This San Francisco Chronicle article about some possible new consequences regarding Obama's decision to release the so-called "torture memos" is interesting for a number of reasons, but I thought the language in the opening paragraph (I hate it when people call that a lede, by the way) was very revealing:

Foreign prisoners who accused a Bay Area company of arranging torture flights for the CIA told a federal appeals court Tuesday that the Obama administration's disclosure of memos on brutal CIA interrogations undermined its claim that their lawsuit would endanger national secrets.

Notice that the reporter jumps right into phrases like "torture flights" and "brutal CIA interrogations." Gotta love that objectivity there, right off the bat.

The article goes on to say that "The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment," but does not mention whether or not any effort was made to contact anyone at the CIA. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the plaintiffs' attorney from the ACLU is quoted twice.

There is no discussion about whether or not interrogation techniques like waterboarding ever provided any useful information, either.

We don't report, so how can you decide? Oh. Right. Why bother thinking about it when you're gonna get a free Unicorn?

Posted by: Sean M. at 04:55 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Oh, this is surprising

CNN put a copyright claim on the video of Susan Roesgen getting chewed out by the crowd at the Tax Day Tea Party demonstrations, and had a youtube clip of the exchange pulled.  Of course, the videos are clearly within the realm of fair use, and we can't allow CNN to pull this crap, so,

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 05:03 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Nervous breakdown or leave of absence?

Susan Roesgen needs to take a break. Whether this was ordered by her employer or by her psychiatrist is to be determined.

In case you're unfamiliar with Ms. Roesgen and her recent stress, here's a video:

May I be the first to say BWAHAHAHAHA! offer my condolences during what I'm sure she brought upon herself by buying into the thrill up her leg instead of doing her job as a journalist is a difficult time for Ms. Roesgen and her family.

(h/t @ConservativeGal)

Posted by: Alice H at 09:34 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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I'm shocked, shocked that this didn't make it to air

Watch, as Susan Rosegen gets called out by tea partiers for her shoddy "reporting."

(h/t)

Posted by: It's Vintage, Duh at 12:10 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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You're crazy

Marc Cooper of the Annenberg School for Communication at USC, writing in the LAT, called the Tax Day Tea Parties "collective insanity":

Go to a hobby store. Buy a scale model of a U.N. One-World-Government Black Helicopter and a tube of glue. Toss the model kit. Sniff the entire tube of glue. You're all set for the party.

Subtle, no? I don't remember any similar columns from Cooper when the Left was losing its collective shit and claiming that we were sliding into fascism during the last eight or so years, but, hey, who can remember that far back?

And now this. Whip out your Lipton and don your tinfoil hat and join the protest against ... against ... against what exactly?

The original Boston Tea Party was caffeinated by a very simple injustice: American Colonists refused to be taxed by a government that lacked any popular representation. That was remedied a few years later in a heroic struggle that stretched from Concord to Yorktown.

So, if you'll excuse the mixed metaphor, what's the beef behind today's protests? The Obama administration is cutting taxes for all except the very richest of Americans. Reduced withholding is already showing up in millions of paychecks.

Aaaand, that's gonna last forever, huh? Because when you push trillions of dollars worth of dubious spending through Congress, well, you can get that back just by raising taxes on just those "richest of Americans," right? I mean, it's only the millionaires who are gonna have to pay for that, and it's fun to soak the rich (or, as Cooper dubs them, "loaded country clubbers.") You and I? We'll never get a bill for any of it. Uh-huh.

Cooper also manages to squeeze in references to yesterday's protestors as "Teabaggers." You stay classy, MSM. And keep puzzling over why you're losing money hand over fist.

Posted by: Sean M. at 11:57 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Dissent is no longer the highest form of patriotism

Great news! The WaPo's Dana Milbank has apparently been awakened from an eight-year coma just in time to cover the Tax Day protests:

Without the spectacle of a 1773-style tea-bag dump in the square, the handmade signs became thfocus of the event. Though ostensibly an anti-tax protest, it was more of an anti-Obama festival. Among the messages: "The Audacity of the Dope," "O Crap" and Obama as an acronym for "One Big Awful Mistake America." Some messages were ugly ("Napolitano -- Obama's Gestapo Queen," "Hang 'Em High Traitors," and a sign held by a young girl saying "Victim of Child Tax Abuse"). Others were funny ("Don't Talk to Me! I Forgot My Teleprompter"). Certain ones had sinister overtones ("Tax Slavery Sucks," and "Obama bin Lyin"). Then there was the guy holding a Cabbage Patch doll by its hair with the message: "My kid's growth stunted by your stimulus."

Aaaaand, the effigies of Bush and members of his administration who have been hung or burned in effigy between the end of the 2000 election and the magical Inauguration? Water under the bridge, I suppose. The endless protests calling members of the last administration Nazis and murderers and criminals? I don't seem to remember Dana complaining too much about all of that trivial bullshit. After all, who on the cocktail circuit would give a damn?
And, um, how is "Tax Slavery Sucks" exactly "sinister"? Why would Dana find any of this so terribly wrong? Oh, right...

The theme was echoed in some of the homemade signs the demonstrators carried, including "Watch Fox News," "Thank You Fox News," and even a recommendation: "Move Glenn Beck to 7 PM.

Oops. Those idiots should have just stayed the hell at home. I mean, it's not like there's any bias regarding this story from any of the other cable news networks, right?

Posted by: Sean M. at 04:34 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Spelling lessons from Meat Loaf Aday

It's a good thing they fired all those journos and editors at the Rocky Mountain News, otherwise they might have someone on staff who knows how to write a headline.  Note the publication date.  The screenshot is from about five minutes ago.

Posted by: Alice H at 12:26 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Opportunism

So, in the wake of two horrible tragedies in which nutjobs used guns to kill people, ABC News is running a 20/20 special on Friday night at ten p.m. called "If I Only Had a Gun," which, judging by the promo I saw for it will claim that ordinary people with guns (probably people like me who have never had any firearms training or experience, I'm guessing, which is hardly fair, but hey, that's being picky) would not have been able to stop the recent shootings in Pittsburgh and Binghamton.  There will also be segments on how guns are "irresistible" to children and bitching about the "gun show loophole."

Click on the link ("Questions Linger About Easy Access to Guns") to see what our MSM betters think about our Second Amendment rights and for a taste of what I'm sure will be a balanced report on the issue hosted by Diane Sawyer (yeah) this Friday night.

(As a bonus question, what do you want to bet that Diane Sawyer has armed bodyguards?)

Posted by: Sean M. at 11:54 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Lashing out

There's some interesting use of language floating around regarding the Palin women and their responses.

There's a story on People's website with the following headline:

and then we have this video:


I don't see where either of these responses could be construed as 'lashing out'.  Palin's commentary seems well-composed, Bristol seems calm in her interview. 

Has 'lashes out' become a phrase that means 'delivered an oppositional response', or is there a not-so-subtle attempt to portray the Palin women as venomous? 

(via Hot Air, via Head Moron Central)

Posted by: Alice H at 12:12 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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