Archive for October 30, 2009
Where On Earth is Joe the Plumber?
Here he is. Speaking at the Livingston County Republicans’ “Reagan Dinner.”
(Give me a sec and I’ll tell you where Livingston County is. The web owners don’t care enough to put that info on their site and frankly I don’t really care to put time into digging it up. Best guess? It’s in Kentucky.)
The Food Network Beats Fox News
Hah!
In the October ratings, the Food Network had more viewers under 55 than any of the news networks, and that definitely includes Fox, which finished behind Food in every single advertising demographic category.
Congratulations to Talking Points Memo
Josh Marshall has done amazing things with Talking Points Memo. His is the quintessential blogger story — a guy starts a little ol’ blog and well, viola, seven years later the White House releases November’s intown pool schedule for media outlets that cover the president and TPM’s Washington correspondent is included.
So cool. Congratulations!
Eat it John Boner
John Boehner (who refers to the Democratic party as the Democrat party — so I feel free to call him Boner) is whining about having to read the House health care bill.
That’s your JOB idiot!
The Psyche of Internet Trolls
I bring a lot of experience with Internet trolls to this blog from the News Hounds. They were all over that site so I found this study about their mindset pretty interesting.
Ohio State professor Kimberly Rios Morrison polled Stanford University students about what they thought about students drinking alcohol. What she discovered was that the students with the most extreme pro-alcohol stance expressed their opinions most readily, in general because they believed that they were voicing the majority opinion. But polls showed that the majority of students had a moderate to anti-alcohol stance. When pro-alcohol students were shown evidence that most people didn’t support their views, they were far more reluctant to express their extreme opinions.
Said Morrison: It is only when they have this sense that they are in the majority that extremely pro-alcohol students are more willing to express their views on the issue.
Sounds like this study explains internet trolling and flame wars too. People with extreme views who are extremely loud about them manage to delude themselves into thinking everybody agrees.
Makes sense. The winger Hannity-lover-types who attacked us at News Hounds were sure; absolutely positively sure, that they were right about everything and that people with their point of view comprised the vast majority of Americans. It’s no wonder they were blown away when Obama won.
$26,000 Per Year for Health Insurance?!
Just got this tweet from Jane Hamsher (of FireDogLake fame):
Some perspective: Thirty-two years ago my husband and I paid $39,000 FOR OUR HOUSE.
Are Bank Overdraft Fees “Very Popular” With You?
That’s what a bank lobbyist told the House Financial Services Committee today. Yeah, hey, those fees are a “courtesy” the bank extends to you. You’re “happy” with them!
It takes a lot of guts to lie in front of the world like this. But of course, the banking industry is so coddled that they have no fear whatsoever. They might as well sit there and give the Committee members the finger. Same difference.
