Archive for January 21, 2010
George W – Sleeping Tight Tonight?
After all, you got what you wanted from John Roberts.
Does Pat Buchanan Live at MSNBC?
I kid you not. I have turned to that bastion of the “liberal media,” MSNBC four or five times today and guess who’s been on the screen every time, literally? PAT BUCHANAN.
Aaaaaah!
Another Tweet of the Day
I try to keep it to one Tweet of the Day but there’s a lot going on and this, from Devilstower, is too good to pass up:
The Stupidest Comment on Television Today
I’m watching the evening “news” on the local CBS affiliate in Denver right now. It just aired a promo for “what’s coming up” at 6:00 p.m.: “Conan O’Brien got $45 million to leave NBC. What should you ask for if you get the ax?”
Hey, I think I should ask for oh, maybe $30 million?
God. Give me a break.
“Hillary: The Movie”
This is a trailer for “Hillary: The Movie.” This is the “movie” at the heart of today’s Supreme Court ruling.
The Supreme Court ruling grew out of a decision the by Federal Election Commission to
block video-on-demand broadcasts of a 90-minute documentary attacking the potential presidential candidacy of Hillary Rodham Clinton.
The film, “Hillary: The Movie,” was produced by Citizens United, a conservative nonprofit corporation. The group complained that the FEC action was unconstitutional censorship of political speech.
The agency responded that the documentary was similar to a pre-election broadcast attack advertisement and thus could be regulated by the FEC under BCRA.
Citizens United filed suit, arguing before a three-judge panel that the McCain-Feingold law was unconstitutional in the way it was being enforced by the FEC against “Hillary: The Movie.”
The panel disagreed. It ruled that the documentary was the functional equivalent of electioneering and that Citizens United must disclose the documentary’s financial supporters if it wanted to run broadcast ads during election season.
In its ruling on Thursday, the high court upheld the lower court’s ruling on the disclosure issue but reversed on the constitutional challenge.
So watch the trailer. You tell me if you think this looks like a “documentary,” as its producers claimed, or a political attack ad. As of a few hours ago, corporations (and unions*) can spend unlimited amounts of money producing “documentaries” like this – be they against a candidate/person or a political issue such as the environment, drugs, food safety, etc. – in order to influence the outcome of our elections:
* Corporations have far and away more money than unions do so to compare the two is silly.
Meg Whitman Donates $20 Million to Her CA Gubernatorial Campaign
Meg Whitman, the former CEO of eBay who is running for governor of California, just made a $20 million donation to her own campaign, on behalf of herself.
So, it looks like the writing is on the wall: Nobody should even consider running for office unless (1) they’re already a bazillionaire and they can finance their own campaign, or (2) per today’s ruling by the Republicans on the Supreme Court, they suck up to a corporation who will be their benefactor by promising to introduce all sorts of legislation that would benefit that corporation once they’re elected.
Oh, and by the way, the corporation a potential candidate sucks up to can be any corporation, even one from oh, say China, because they get to donate as much money as they want to our campaigns too.
Woo hoo.
(H/t JG.)
Fox Hides News of Supreme Court Ruling
As we know, the United States Supreme Court ruled today that, “corporations may spend freely to support or oppose candidates for president and Congress, easing decades-old limits on their participation in federal campaigns.”
It’s a pretty damn big deal. So, I thought I’d mosey on over to Faux to see how they’re covering it. Well, guess what. For all intents and purposes, they aren’t.
Here’s a screen shot of the “above the fold” portion of the home page as of 3:57 p.m. ET:
The home page goes on and on (as most do) and if you scroll literally half way down, you come across this teeny, tiny headline:
Poor Faux. As the leader of the Tea Party movement I don’t guess it would be such a good idea to blast a big ol’ headline across the top of its home page telling its readers that they are more screwed today than they were yesterday and that judges appointed by Republicans are the ones who screwed them.
Cool
Seattle’s new City Attorney is essentially refusing to prosecute marijuana possession cases.
Man, I hope this catches fire and spreads across the country. Enough already with pouring money down the rat hole of trying to control the use of pot.
We are such freakin’ slow learners.
Check Out This Newspaper Headline
Talk about wanting something to be true so badly one convinces oneself that it is, here is a headline from a newspaper in Philly that reads, “How will Dems recover after losing majority?“
I presume they’re talking about the Senate. Unfortunately for this sorry, pitiful excuse of a newspaper, Democrats still have 18 more members there than the Republicans.
Jesus.
Did You Hear? We’re Supposed to Boycott Houston
A few weeks ago Houston swore in a new mayor, Annise Parker — duly elected by the people there — who happens to be a lesbian.
Now, the wingers have launched a campaign to boycott the city: “Do you want a Texas version of San Francisco?”
Sigh.
After a Year Spent on “Health Care Reform”…
but with no actual “reform” in sight, Mike Luckovich nails it.
Tweet of the Day
I know it’s early but this has got to be the tweet of the day (it relates to the Supreme Court decision I posted about immediately below):
The End of Life As We Know It
This is very, very bad news. You think politicians don’t listen to us now? We just became totally, TOTALLY irrelevant:
The Supreme Court has ruled that corporations may spend freely to support or oppose candidates for president and Congress, easing decades-old limits on their participation in federal campaigns.
