Liberal Media Elite

The UnFucking of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast…and another sorry chapter in the sorry ass saga of UnFucking the President’s cronyism…took a step forward with a decision by US District Judge Richard Leon that ordered FEMA to immediately resume housing payments to Gulf Coast residents who lost their homes to Hurricane Katrina. Leon referred to the actions by FEMA as “kafkaesque”. We here at LME are rabid supporters of the use of big, literary-based terms, particularly by Bush apointees to the federal bench (Leon was appointed by Bush in 2002).

Here’s what went down…six months after Katrina FEMA cut off housing payments to evacuees. FEMA press secretary Aaron Walker defends this action by saying “the agency’s emergency sheltering initiatie was conceived as a compassionate but short-term solution to shelter evacuees.” The process worked as follows: recipients of the payments were notified (sometimes) via letter that their payments were being suspended; said notification was written in agency jargon and the reasons were stated as codes…no, really…alphanumerical codes; letter recipients then had to get a document from FEMA, easily accessible via its website (when it worked…and assuming that people who had been totally wiped out and were now living in hotels, motels, or other temporary housing had managed to secure computers and internet access), that provided the translation of the codes. On top of this, many recipients received multiple letters with different and often conflicting codes. The FEMA phone line was not particularly useful as often the operators didn’t know what the codes meant and the agency apparently had no service database that allowed them to keep notes on previous contacts with the same caller (off the shelf software readily available and easily installed with price tags starting at about $15k…bearing in mind that FEMA would need a massive implementation and truly robust application but still…a terribly overmatched $15k starter kit would have been a vast improvement over what FEMA still has…which is nothing).

More after the jump…

Continue reading “It’s MY Sandbox”

Aaah, the enduring myth of the corporate conscience.

From CNN…

After a firestorm of criticism, News. Corp. said Monday that it has
canceled the O.J. Simpson book and television special “If I Did It.”

“I
and senior management agree with the American public that this was an
ill-considered project,” said Rupert Murdoch, News Corp. chairman. “We
are sorry for any pain that his has caused the families of Ron Goldman
and Nicole Brown Simpson.”

A dozen Fox affiliates had already
said they would not air the two-part sweeps month special, planned for
next week before the Nov. 30 publication of the book by ReganBooks. The
publishing house is a HarperCollins imprint owned — like the Fox
network — by News Corp.

I am just a touch skeptical about any corporation claiming that some oblique sense of the greater good led it to act a certain way. News Corp. brings us both Fox News and Fox TV. The one panders to, elevates, and foments the whole moral values conflagration while the other brings you the shows most likely to run afoul of the posse on Fox News (of course, when Fox News is bitching about the evils of Hollywood and citing programming that is offensive it never…NEVER…cites shows on Fox TV that are far worse than any of the examples they tout). I’m sure Fox’s decision had nothing to do with affiliates bailing out left and right, thus causing a loss of revenue (since ad rates are predicated on the number of affiliates that run the shows, thus the number of impressions that can be made).

Borders was more subtle but just as cynical. In a blatant example of spinning a business decision in a socially aware light, the book chain had said that it would donate to charity all profits from the sale of the book. Profit is a wonderfully nebulous term. Borders is going to hope that its moderate/liberal affluent demographic reads that to mean the entire difference between the price of the book and the cost to Borders to buy the book from the publisher. It is highly unlikely that they would indeed be doing that. Most likely they would be factoring in some kind of general and administrative overhead, in which case there are in fact profits from the sale of the book that do not go to charity. In addition, the entire Borders business model is predicated on cross and up seilling buyers of a given title such that they purchase another book, magazines, stationary, chocolate bars at the cash register, and overpriced, high-margin coffee from the cafe. They would not, ever, consider donating the true profit of a transaction involving the OJ book to a charity. So the chain would benefit handsomely from each OJ book sold. But, they’re donating the “profits” from the sale of the book to charity. Aren’t they just deliciously socially aware and filled with goodness?

I am not advocating that Fox should not publish the book or run the show. I’m not advocating that Borders shouldn’t sell it. I am however voicing my disgust at the practice of spinning something that is clearly motivated by business needss as something that is being done for social reasons.

It’s bullshit. It’s bullshit when Fox does it. It’s bullshit when Borders does it. It’s just plain old bullshit.

This is another charmed day for LME. Another charmed day in a string of charmed days. Yesterday, Icelandair called to tell me my Dec. 26 flight to Frankfurt had been canceled. I called back, dreading the worst. You see, on Dec. 25, I’ll be in Rapid City at chez my sister on a flight that Icelandair can’t change and then, on Dec. 27, I’m flying to Budapest with yet another airline, so they can’t change that ticket, either, using the weird magic that airlines have to move money and people and tickets effortlessly among one another in a system that seems to make British Airways bear the brunt of Continental’s incompetence (or at least that’s been my experience). In effect, I must be on some flight that leaves Minneapolis on December 26 and lands in Frankfurt on the 27th. They said, “We can fly you through Boston.”

“Okay,” I said.

“But you’ll have to get yourself there.” No. I’m not being pwned by the Official Airline of Fjords and Björk. I’m not spending another $250.

“Could you fly on the 25th? 27th? 28th?”

“No, I already spent money on other, nonrefundable tickets that fly somewhere on the 25th and 27th.”

“Oh. How about a full refund, then?”

I went click click click and found out that I could buy a Northwest ticket with longer dates (leaving the same, but coming back four days later) and for $300 less!1!!!! OMG! PONIES!!!1!!

Then I hang up the phone and found out that Pelosi and Murtha were totally pwned by the House Democrats. Which has nothing to do with Icelandair, but that’s okay, because I consider it quite bitchin’. After the initial thrill of the Democratic victories wore off, I realized, “Oh, fuck me. We elected Democrats.”

Now, I love me some Democrats. I am a Democrat. But (and I say this with love), they fuck so many wonderful things up in so many stupid, uncreative ways.

And I think this whole Murtha thing is a step in the right direction. Pelosi could do what politicians often do: Interpret the slap against the President as a pat on her back. Nuh-uh. She has to earn those wings, yo. And Murtha was just the wrong choice. Pelosi needs to maintain caucus unity—above all else. She’s not necessarily going to be the key spokesperson for the Party (well, we’ll see what happens to Reid). But she can’t unify anything if she forces someone like Murtha down the caucus’s throat.

Some people have asked, “Well, would this have happened to DeLay?” Well, no it wouldn’t have.

But he’s also a slimeball whose party just lost huge amounts of power. That’s not exactly the kind of cloth I’d be making my coronation gown out of if I were the Armani Gramma from San Fran.

I keep thinking I should have some witty comment.

Can’t think of a thing.

LOS ANGELES - Fox plans to broadcast an interview with
O.J. Simpson
in which the former football star discusses “how he would have
committed” the slayings of his ex-wife and her friend, for which he was
acquitted, the network said.

The
two-part interview, titled “O.J. Simpson: If I Did It, Here’s How It
Happened,” will air Nov. 27 and Nov. 29, the TV network said.

Simpson has agreed to an “unrestricted” interview with book publisher Judith Regan, Fox said.

“O.J. Simpson, in his own words, tells for the first time how he
would have committed the murders if he were the one responsible for the
crimes,” the network said in a statement. “In the two-part event,
Simpson describes how he would have carried out the murders he has
vehemently denied committing for over a decade.”

The interview will air days before Simpson’s new book, “If I Did
It,” goes on sale Nov. 30. The book, published by Regan,
“hypothetically describes how the murders would have been committed.”

In a video clip on the network’s Web site, an off-screen interviewer
says to Simpson, “You wrote ‘I have never seen so much blood in my
life.’”

“I don’t think any two people could be murdered without everybody being covered in blood,” Simpson responds.

Simpson, who now lives in Florida, was acquitted in a criminal trial
of the 1994 killings of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her
friend Ronald Goldman. Simpson was later found liable in 1997 in a
wrongful death lawsuit filed by the Goldman family.

Messages left with Simpson and his attorney Yale Galanter were not immediately returned.

The Strib has an interesting little story about how Minneapolis-St. Paul is creeping toward being a one-paper town (hereafter known as “Minneapolis” or possibly “Minneapolis-St. Louis Park”):

Faced with steep declines in advertising, the St. Paul Pioneer Press announced plans Monday to cut 40 full-time positions from the company roster in the next two weeks, many of them from the newsroom.

Awww. Shucks. Where will I go for my garage logic now? Also, the Press’s homepage is strangely silent about the whole affair. Which leads me to think that this could be a repeat of the MPR incident a few years back when the Strib broke the embargo on MPR layoffs before MPR management had a chance to tell their employees.

Talk about a rough way to start the day.

Anyway, I’m just wondering who’s gonna get the axe. I’m not terribly familiar with the Press staff—except for the theater folks, many of whom I’d not mind seeing jobless—so I’ll leave it to others to determine the gossip. However, if I was a Gyllenhaal and had to pick from a bunch of writery journalist types with whom I could freshly stock the Strib pantry, I’d totally get rid of Claude Peck first. And Pat Doyle. They suck. Like, have they done research ever?

The Attack Poodle against which all other Attack Poodles are measured, Rush Limbaugh, engaged in this juicy bit of confession last week…

“I no longer am gonna have to carry the water for people I don’t think deserve to have their water carried.”

Freedom! Sweet, sweet Freedom! Finally, after all these years of blindly attack poodling under strict orders of his alien Republican leaders, Rush will finally be free to express his true opinion and not that of his handlers.

Rush always seemed so powerful. I wonder what they had on him. Probably some kind of evidence that would lead to reopening the whole Hillbilly Heroin thing.

BTW: I lifted the term Attack Poodle from James Walcott and his excellent book Attack Poodles and Other Media Mutants: The Looting of the News in a Time of Terror. Very recommended reading. Hardcover now marked down to $5.99 on Amazon…such a deal.

The finger pointing melt-down on the Republican side of the fence has been, simply, delicious. Really, really yummy stuff. One of the more tasty morsels is that all involved are denying that they are playing “the blame game”…one of the most insipid turns of phrase to come out of the Right during its reign of terror. Apparently, though, blaming everyone else involved is not evidence of “the blame game”. It is, instead, “rigorous soul-searching and analysis”.

Two of my favorite moments thus far both cropped up in the same article in the Financial Times.

First, in reference to gargantuan drop offs in the percentages of black and latino voters who broke for Republicans, Ken Mehlman rather dejectedly said that Republicans are “in danger of becoming the party of whites.” Ummm…dude. You are the party of whites. I know you came up with two whole black candidates and all, but, really…have you looked around the room at one of your conventions?

Second, from my very most favorite polticial whack job on the planet, Grover “The Drowning Man” Norquist, this little nugget…

Although some glitz has come off Mr Rove, Republicans have been more
eager to blame botched campaigns and individual ethics scandals. “Bob
Sherwood’s seat [in Pennsylvania] would have been overwhelmingly ours,
if his mistress hadn’t whined about being throttled,” said Mr Norquist.
Any lessons from the campaign? “Yes. The lesson should be, don’t
throttle mistresses.”

The difficulty of this one is in figuring which of the many straight lines it offers one wishes to run with. I think I’ll pass up on all of them and merely point out that Mr. Norquist of the Party of Family Values and God ‘n’ Stuff points out that the lesson is don’t throttle you mistress…and manages to not comment on the moral issue of taking a mistress in the first place.

And on a stats geek note: the media has been pissing all over themselves reporting that 1/3rd of white evangelicals voted Democratic this time around. Not true. This is a case of the media wanting to believe something and rather egregiously misinterpreting a statement from an exit poll. Of the white evangelicals that stated that corruption was a top issue for them, 1/3rd voted for Democrats. The statement is not and never was that 1/3rd of white evangelicals voted for Democrats. In fact, the number of evangelicals that voted for Democrats is pitifully small and pretty much unchanged from 2004. In 2004, 72% of evangelicals voted Republican. In 2006, that number plummeted all the way down to…71%. Yup, an entire one percentage point drop. The fact of the matter is that evangelicals voted exactly how you would expect them to vote…which is exactly as they did in the last election. The voting behavior of evangelicals did not, despite what you hear on TV or read in the papers, change in any meaningful way. In fact, the percentage of voters identified as evangelicals did not change, putting to rest the speculation that they stayed away in droves. This means that this particular voting block did not impact the outcome of the election (of course, anyone who voted impacted the election…the point is that there was not a sea change in how this particular group voted…thus, they are not responsible for the dramatic change in control of Congress).

If you want to see the big change it is in self-identified moderates. 60% of this group voted for Dems, a huge change over 2004. I’m not saying they’re the most important group…I sincerely doubt there is a single most important group. But moderates jumped to the Democratic side in larger numbers than they have in decades and certainly contributed to the outcome substantially.

This has been another lesson in “Statistics Don’t Kill People, Stupid Reporters Armed With Statistics Do”.

Another bunch of people watching CCN, drinking heavily. But hey, it’s us. Pictures after the jump. Sorry they are late, I was traveling. It’s 5.30am in Germany right now. I heart jet lag.

[I'm afraid the photo's didn't survive the move to our new servers. -Ed.]

Sen. Craig Thomas (R-WY), repeatedly in and out of the hospital in the last few days, was diagnosed today with leukemia. He won his reelection bid on Tuesday with 70% of the vote.

I learned of this as I was surfing the blogs this evening. I learned of it by reading snarky posts (in most but not all places) about another Repub “going down” and read comment boards listed with speculation on if the Democratic Gov. of Wyoming will appoint a Republican and suggesting strategies for replacements, etc.

Two thoughts on this…

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah I want the Dems to control the Senate with as many seats as possible. But the man just got 70% of the vote. The only proper thing to do would be for the Democratic Gov. to appoint a Republican to said seat. Democracy…will of the people and all that.

More important, the man just was diagnosed with leukemia. Can we all agree that this is a pretty serious condition? Can we all agree that we are above snarking and making a fucking power grab due to the gentleman’s misfortune? If we can’t, could those of us that can’t pleasepleaseplease go throw themselves in front of a fast moving vehicle since you pretty much resigned from the human race, already? The Right Wing Attack Poodles have justifiably been criticized by those of us on the left for many things, not the least of which is the distinct lack of basic humanity and compassion for people in times of trouble. Fuck getting another seat in the Senate. The man is facing a grueling treatment schedule that, while having shown promising gains in keeping people alive, still often lands the receiver of said treatment somewhere between debilitated and dead.

Rush Limbaugh doesn’t suck because he’s on the Right. He sucks because he’s an inhuman asshole. His mocking of Michael J. Fox didn’t suck because it came from someone on the Right. It sucked because it’s the product of an inhuman asshole. It sucked because it’s fundamentally wrong. So, how’s about we don’t resort to that same kind of wrong-headed, inhuman crap, okay?

That said, we here at LME, regardless of Mr. Thomas’ politics, are sending the Senator whatever we have that passes for good karma. Hope y’all will do the same.

By the way, it seems that the tone here has been a little subdued since the Democrats took power.

Nothing could be further from the actual truth. All of us at LME have been on Cloud Fucking Nine since Tuesday night. This has been awesome.

We’re just… thinking. Rik and I ventured into the offline blogosphere tonight with the Minneapolis chapter of Drinking Liberally. Oh, yes we did! And sometime soon, Mr. Bill will be joining our ranks.

Also, I just sent a letter to Sen. Lincoln Chafee from Rhode Island. He was a necessary casualty, of course. But still, a good man.

And then I started making banana bread. Because you can take the Midwest out of the homo, but you… Okay, so the analogy doesn’t hold up. Still.

P.S. I agree wholeheartedly with Mark: Drinking Liberally should, by rights, be Drinking Fucking Liberally. It is Minnesota, and DFL is a much nicer acronym in these parts.

You know, I thought it was stupid for Al Gore to concede the election of 2000 before everything that could be counted was, in fact, counted.

I think it’s stupid for Allen to do the same.

I will think it’s stupid of any candidate in a close race who could call for a recount not to call for a recount.

So what if it takes a month, two months, four months? How could our
desire, hell our need, for instant gratification be a more important
need to fulfill than our need, in a democracy, to ensure that the will
of the people is accurately fulfilled?

Yeah…I want the Dems to have control of the Senate. I want the Dems to have as many seats in the House as possible. But more than that I want the state of Virginia and any individual congressional district to be represented by the candidate who had the most votes.

‘Cause that’s how it’s supposed to work, you know?

The AP has this roundup:

On the president’s to-do list for the current Congress before January’s changeover in power: spending bills funding government’s continued operation “with strong fiscal discipline and without diminishing our capacity to fight the war on terror;” legislation retroactively authorizing his warrantless domestic surveillance of suspected terrorists; energy legislation; and congressional approval for a landmark civilian nuclear cooperation agreement with India and for normalizing trade relations with Vietnam.

Clearly, the GOP’s funders are going to get some sort of refund before Pelosi and Reid take over. Energy? Free trade with Vietnam? Warrantless domestic surveillance? The congressional diary is going to read like a K Street Christmas list. Except, oddly, for the Religious Right. It looks like they’re going to get exactly what they deserve: Nothing, natch.

Have the TV on this morning while working from home. Clearly, a little training is needed for the Dem talking heads making the circuit. I’m not talking about the legislators. I’m talking about staffers and Dem attack poodles (christ…we’re gonna have dem attack poodles, now). The four I’ve seen so far this morning spent most of their on-air time either snarkily taking shots at the Republicans and/or taking umbrage with people like Norquist, et al.

Um…guys…you won. You have the stage. You get to dictate the terms of the conversation. Grover Norquist? At the moment, in terms of public access, he’s been marginalized (Grover ain’t gonna stay marginalized for long). You’re giving the other side the air time, keeping them in peoples minds. And you’re looking like a bunch of wonky whiners. Perfectly acceptable role for the party out of power. But now you’re in power.

Please, try not to fuck it up.

From the New York Times:

“Karl Rove, the president’s top political strategist, informed the
president that the House was lost at around 11 p.m., the White House
said.”

What? CNN, Fox, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC said it too obliquely? Rove had to translate it for him?

“What are they sayin’ on the talking box, Karl? I don’t understand. Something about Democrats and a House.”

“It means the bad people have taken over Congress, Little George.”

“Do they have a nice house, Karl?”

“Not as nice as yours, Little George.”

“Maybe they’ll invite me to their House.”

“Oh…I’m sure they will, Little George. They have to once a year.”

“For my birthday?”

“Umm…no. Remember when you go talk to all the nice people in the big place with the dome?”

“Yeah. They always clap and cheer and shake my hand. Except for some mean kids, but there aren’t so many of them.”

“There’s a few more now than there used to be, kid.”

“Oh. That’s bad. Sometimes they boo and laugh and make fun of me. They laugh even when I don’t say anything funny…like I’m the Decider and stuff. That’s not funny, is it Karl?”

“No, Little George. Not at all. You’re a big strong Decider just like Mama Barbara says.”

“Yeah. Are you crying, Karl?”

“Of course not, Little George. It’s just allergies.”

“Hey, Karl! I know what would be fun! Let’s play the Executive Order game! That always makes me feel better when I have allergies!”

“Yeah, kid. Not a bad idea. We’ll probably be playing that game alot from here on out. Might as well get the practice in.”

They called Montana for Tester. And as I am refreshing my Browser, this becomes breaking news. Sometimes the phrase “Christmas came early” just doesn’t cut it.

We’re back, babies. Oh, yes, we are back:

Democrats staked gains in state legislatures around the country Tuesday, positioning themselves to take control of chambers in Iowa, Indiana, Michigan and Minnesota and solidifying their hold on several other statehouses.

The DFL won the House in Minnesota. And kept the Senate. In fact, Pawlenty is the only Republican left standing. WHEE!!! So much more tomorrow. For now: Water and bed.

And everyone wish Natascha a good trip back to her mom’s house in Germany.

Update: More on that:

So far, Democrats control both chambers in 21 states, while Republicans control 15 and 9 were split between the two parties, according to Storey.

Heading into the election, in which 6,181 out of 7,382 legislative seats were on ballots, 20 legislatures were controlled by Republicans, 19 by Democrats and 10 were split between the two parties.

Like it or not, we are not alone. People all over the world are watching the outcome of today’s election with great interest. My mom just called from Germany to wish me luck and a couple of friends sent me emails telling me to do my best. It almost seems as if they are taking this personal. And in a way, people all over the world do have a stake in this election. It influences their countries politics, too, if the most powerful country on the planet changes direction. Or stays the course.

Their drinking game. Witness:

Katherine Harris wins: Have a “Crying Jesus” — two rails of meth and then give your Republican neighbor a blowjob.

I just read the election predictions over at National Review. Go read them. Seriously. They’re stunning. Really, boldly stunning. It’s like trying to read the future in Karl Rove’s barf.