November 2010 : Page 27 : The Other McCain

Queen Elizabeth II To Launch Facebook Page
Because Her Majesty is cool like that. No truth to rumor that Her page will have “We approve” and “We do not approve” buttons.

SPORTS

Vikings Pull It Out In OT, Down Cardinals 27-24

"I can't believe I didn't shank that!" — Teammates celebrate with Vikings kicker Longwell after winning field goal

Childress: “They came expecting to see an execution and it ended up a pretty good football game at the end.”

Ducks Hang Onto First, TCU Third, Boise State Fourth

Wilbon says the man be keepin’ Boise State down.

Hamlin Wins AAA Texas 500, Takes NASCAR Lead

Packers Rout Cowboys 45-7; Redskins Fans Rejoice

Vick Leads Eagles Over Manning & The Colts

FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS

Smirnoff Hustled Off DWTS, Soon To Waltz To The Altar

awwwww. :) — Cardinals pitcher Brad Penny and some dancer he's marrying 😉

“A real Southern Gentleman,” she gushed

Lily Allen Recovering Quickly Thanks To Supportive Letters, Prompt Care

Hugh Jackman Turns Down Oscar Host Gig

Rihanna Rocks Out With Bon Jovi In Madrid

“Megamind” Beats “Due Date” At Box Office

“Zombieland” Scribes Take On “Cowboy Ninja Viking”

Carrie Nation’s Bastard Children Rip Miley For Drinking Beer (Legally) In Spain
Will no one rid us of these troublesome scolds?

FOREIGNERS

Army-Backed Parties Set To Sweep Myanmar Poll Results
Gosh, what a surprise.

Biden Underscores U.S. Commitment To Israeli Security

Anti-Nuke Kooks Turn Violent In Germany; Police Respond In Kind

Greek Socialists Win In Local Polls, Drop Election Threat

BLOGS & STUFF

Weasel Zippers: Dems Lining Up To Oppose Pelosi’s Return To Power

Outside The Beltway: Running For Office Someday? Your Facebook Page Suggests Otherwise

Mark McKinnon: How Rick Perry Got Re-elected Despite Blowing Off Every Newspaper In Texas

Althouse: Switch 2 Mitch

Israel Matzav: Lindsey Graham Says Containment “Off The Table” For Iran

Sundries Shack: Conservatives, It’s Time To Grow The Hell Up.

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Finally, PJTV Discovers Rule 5

Posted on November 7, 2010November 8, 2010Comments

Video is a visual medium. So if you want people to watch your videos, try a little eye candy. Stephen Kruiser is a great guy, but definitely not “eye candy.” Ergo, he adds a 25-year-old hottie sidekick, Kinsey Schofield. (Click the image to watch the video.)

“She’s a great writer,” says Kruiser. Yeah. She’s another freakin’ Shakespeare, I’m sure.

Cynical? Moi?

UPDATE: To, uh, disaggregate here: It has been brought to my attention that this post might be misinterpreted as a disparagement of either Stephen Kruiser or Kinsey Schofield, which is certainly not my intention.

Being misunderstood is a common hazard of gestalt logic. Sometimes I think of things as obviously connected and, not bothering to explain the connections, express myself in apparent non sequiturs that others connect in ways that seem logical to them — but which aren’t the connections I intended.

Anyway, I’d been doing the whole “Demi Lovato bikini” shtick with the MSNBC/Olbermann episode — it produced a 67% increase in traffic, BTW — and so, when Instapundit introduced an MSNBC-related PJTV episode by noting “Stephen Kruiser gets a new friend” . . . Do you see the gestalt logic here?

I had made the same Rule 5 point in August, when former Miss California contestant Brandi Milloy made her PJTV debut:

OK, anybody who ever questioned Roger Simon‘s judgment — his ability to spot top-quality video news talent — start apologizing now. . .
My advice to Roger: Change the name PJTV to “BrandiTV.”

I’m not saying that all video personalities have to look like Brandi Milloy or Kinsey Schofield. I am saying that the McLuhanesque requirements of a visual medium dictate that aesthetics must be part of the programming considerations.

Am I a cynic to assume that Kinsey Schofield was hired for her “eye candy” appeal rather than because of her writing ability? Yes, indeed, I am. And the day that PJTV hires an on-camera personality who looks like Barbara Mikulski, I will apologize for my cynicism.

But you and I both know you’re going to wait a long time for that apology — probably until hell freezes over — and I am certainly not going to apologize for explaining how the world actually works.

UPDATE II: I know we’re all grateful to learn that Katie Perry will never pose nude, but probably not as grateful as we are to know that Donald Douglas will never pose nude. At any rate, dibs on the “Kinsey Schofield nude” Google-bomb.

UPDATE III: In for a dime, in for a dollar — Kinsey Schofield’s mama hates me:

I’m obviously not going to “win” in this kind of situation. (“Why is Stacy picking on a girl?”) But here is Kinsey Schofield’s “about” page in its entirety:

Recently recognized as #25 in The 100 Greatest Women in Social Media, Kinsey Schofield was born and raised in Texas. Cart-wheeling her way into the spotlight at an early age; she proudly represented The Dallas Cowboys football team as a Jr. Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader. Kinsey homeschooled from fourth grade until college, immediately finding a calling in front of the camera and pursued entertainment while solidifying her marketing instincts in the class room.
A nationally recognized writer, social media strategist, and TV personality; Kinsey was chosen as a cast member of E!’s Party Monsters Cabo, where she won over International Superstar, P. Diddy. Party Monsters Cabo was a Survivor-esque competition based in Cabo San Lucas that featured celebrities- 50 Cent, Brody Jenner, Carmen Electra, and Lil’ Jon to name a few. Contestants were given 24 hours to throw parties for some of Hollywood’s elite using limited resources in a foreign country.
Mixing business with pleasure, the self proclaimed “Pop Culture Connoisseur” worked as a Fashion & Entertainment contributor for Arizona’s largest entertainment weekly, AZ Weekly Magazine. Through AZ Weekly, Kinsey was able to dish about fashion trends and interview some of her favorite celebrities like Hayley Williams of Paramore and designer, Ashley Paige. Additional published work includes an interview with Cindy McCain for So Scottsdale Magazine, a small write up regarding pop culture’s influence on the election in The Arizona Republic, and Celebrity Beauty Secrets on FOXNEWS.COM’s iMAG.
Kinsey has been seen multiple times on ABC 15?s Sonoran Living and Phoenix’s Fox 10 News, E! News, Reality Binge, MTV, Strategy Room on Fox News, and has become a recurring panelist on Byron Allen’s, The Gossip Queens, as well as Red Eye w/Greg Gutfeld on The Fox News Channel. She has appeared in The Phoenix New Times, AZ Weekly Magazine, Las Vegas Weekly Magazine and Runway Beauty Magazine. She was even featured on the cover of Entrepreneur Magazine discussing social media and celebrity ghost blogging.
Living in Los Angeles, CA, she continues to write, contributing to Examiner.com as their official Celebrity Social Media Expert. Kinsey also currently contributes to DailyFill, MovieFill, and AlloyTV as a host; where she has interviewed the likes of Ashton Kutcher, Jason Segel, and Kristen Stewart to name a few. Most recently Kinsey was heard filling in as “The News Girl” on The Adam Carolla Show. [Episodes 1 & 2]

You see that Kinsey’s status as a “nationally recognized writer” is asserted, rather than demonstrated.

At Examiner.com, her most recent contribution was “10 HILARIOUS Jersey Shore tweets” — soon to eclipse Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France among the most influential conservative treatises in history.

To clarify: I’m 100% in favor of pretty girls being TV stars. I’m also 100% in favor of pretty girls being writers. But a career as a TV star does not entitle a pretty girl to acclaim as a writer.

However, I was pleased to see that Kinsey shares my contempt for Cousin Meg. Unfortunately, she also takes a shot at Bristol Palin:

Meghan McCain sucks. The daughter of John McCain, Meggie spends her time writing books with words like “dirty” and “sexy” in the title (when there is absolutely nothing dirty or sexy within), TwitPic’ing web-cam shots of her rack and hanging out with fame-whore Tila Tequila. Rumer Willis, Sean Stewart, Ashley Hamilton, Bristol Palin – go away. Most celebrities’ children who go into the entertainment industry have absolutely no redeeming qualities nor an ounce of talent.

Also, from the same interview:

If you are currently in high school, or even college, and Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” is your ringtone, I hope you get your ass kicked. Your parents probably conceived you to that song and, frankly, that is gross. This move is not retro or cool–and it pretty much signifies to the world that you’re still a virgin.

Where does the gestalt logic lead there?

UPDATE IV: The comic opera continues:

But I have no basis to judge her as a writer. For all I know, she may be capable of composing essays as incisive as anything ever penned by Bill Buckley, and was just slumming as a reality-TV personality.

What I was saying is that she was hired to be on camera because she looks good on camera — which is, I think it fair to say, a big part of how people get jobs on TV.

Also: She’s 25. When I was 25, I was driving a forklift. Perhaps I ought to go back to that.

Approaching 5 Million Hits

Posted on November 7, 2010November 7, 2010Comments

Smitty has pointed out that this blog will pass the 5-million-hit mark sometime this week — probably Tuesday — and we must consider how to celebrate this occasion in appropriate fashion. I’m thinking about compiling a “greatest hits” post. If readers have any classic moments they’d like to nominate for such a compilation, feel free to do so in the comments.

MSNBC Self-Immolation Watch UPDATE: Olbermann’s ‘Indefinite’ Suspension? Yeah, One Entire Show

Posted on November 7, 2010November 7, 2010Comments

The Keith Olbermann suspension evidently provoked former Obama administration official Susan Crawford’s paranoid streak:

Crawford, whose Twitter handle is @scrawford, tweeted on Saturday: “someone should find out whether any comcast connection to olbermann fracas – and remember Quiz Show plot line.” . . .
She has previously raised concern that the merger might give Comcast the ability to tamper with MSNBC . . .
“What happens to MSNBC post-merger?” she wrote in a blog post last month. “Right now, it’s providing the only response to Fox News.

(Via Jammie Wearing Fool.) Meanwhile, it appears that Lee Fang of Think Progress libelously suggested that Comcast chief operating officer (and Bush fundraiser) Steve Burke was involved in Olbermann’s suspension.

Ed Driscoll has much more about the ongoing beclownment of MSNBC, including Lachlan Markay’s Newsbusters post about MSNBC’s Election Night fear-mongering.

Liberals so routinely employ this Dark Night of Fascism motif — the idea that Republicans are totalitarian Christianist theocrats, etc. — that after a while they forget that it is merely partisan propaganda and begin to take it seriously. That’s why we like it when liberals lose, and we can laugh at their lunacy, rather than suffer when they win and impose their lunacy as policy.

BTW, you should congratulate me on resisting the temptation to reference Demi Lovato bikini pics in the headline.

UPDATE: The millionaire cradle-robber will only miss one episode of his show. (Hat-tip: The Rhetorican.)

UPDATE II: Drew M:

I wonder if there will be a Special Comment™ about this. If there is, I’m sure he’ll identify the real culprit here . . . Fox News.

Be assured, Olbermann will cast himself as the victim. Because $7 million a year is total victimhood.

MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell Admits: ‘I Am a Socialist. And, Yeah, I Checked Out Those Demi Lovato Bikini Pics, Too.’

Posted on November 7, 2010November 7, 2010Comments

Wait. Maybe I need to double-check that quote:

O’Donnell was arguing on “Morning Joe” with Glenn Greenwald, who accused him of “trying to blame ‘the Left’ and ‘liberalism’ for the Democrats’ political woes.” O’Donnell responded:

“Glenn, unlike you, I am not a progressive. I am not a liberal who is so afraid of the word that I had to change my name to progressive. Liberals amuse me. I am a socialist. I live to the extreme left, the extreme left of you mere liberals, OK? However, I know this about my country. Liberals are 20 percent of the electorate. Conservatives are 41 percent of the electorate, OK? . . . You can sit there and pretend that liberals should run more liberal in conservative districts. You love the loss of the Blue Dogs. The only way, the only way you have a chairman Barney Frank, there’s only one way, that’s by electing Blue Dogs. It’s the only way. That’s the only way you have a Speaker Pelosi.”

And in so arguing, O’Donnell makes the case that my friend Ali Akbar has often made: Nothing is more important for Republicans than the defeat of “Blue Dog” Democrats, because it is only by the aid of these alleged “moderate” or “centrist” Democrats that liberals can achieve majority status.

This was what Bill Clinton taught me, by the way. I used to be what was called a “Sam Nunn Democrat,” and thought that Clinton was the same breed. After the useless folly of the Dukakis campaign in 1988 (when I didn’t even bother to vote), I was enthusiastic in 1992, putting a Clinton-Gore bumper sticker on my car and everything.

So I voted for a centrist Democrat and what did I get? Gays in the military, HillaryCare and the so-called “assault weapons” ban. In other words, a vote for Clinton was a vote for the Dukakis agenda.

People who say, “I vote for the man, not the party” are idiots. When you vote for the man, you’re voting for his party. Having been born and bred a loyal party-line Democrat, my experience with the first two years of the Clinton administration convinced me that I could no longer in good conscience vote for Democrats. (It was the infringement my Second Amendment rights that was the deal-breaker. I got my first semi-automatic rifle for Christmas when I was 11.)

But in becoming an ex-Democrat, I did not become a “moderate.” Instead, I became a right-winger. Why? Because I recognized that politics is a tug-of-war, and Clinton convinced me that I’d spent my entire adult life pulling on the wrong end of the rope. So I went way over to the other end of the rope, and started pulling as hard as I could.

Having recently had some disagreements with fellow conservatives over the Delaware Senate campaign, I reiterate my position: Conservatives win when they offer America, as Phyllis Schlafly famously called it, “a choice, not an echo.”

Mike Castle was an echo of liberalism, and not a choice. While I regret the GOP defeat in Delaware, I refuse to accept the idea that Mike Castle was the best Republicans could have hoped for in that campaign. Notice that Republicans just elected Pat Toomey to a Senate seat in Pennsylvania, where we were told — just six years ago — that Arlen Specter was the best we could hope for.

Liberalism always fails as policy and will also fail as politics, so long as Republicans are willing (a) to identify liberalism for what it is, and (b) to oppose it coherently and without apology.

One ought to add the caveat (c) that GOP opposition to liberalism should be presented by credible candidates running competent campaigns. But we should never assume that, because any state, district or demographic group has previously supported Democrats that we should abandon conservative arguments and instead adopt a Republican “me, too” approach to liberalism. I was not won over by “me, too” arguments, and I don’t think any other Democrat voter ever will be.

The key fact that Lawrence O’Donnell points out — twice as many American voters identify as “conservative” than identify as “liberal” — tells us that conservatism can be, and should be, the politics of Republican victory. But people will never be persuaded by an argument they never hear, and we thus do ourselves no favors by supporting Republican politicians who are unwilling to make the argument for conservative policies.

And I apologize for mistakenly suggesting that Lawrence O’Donnell had checked out those Demi Lovato bikini pics. Must have confused him with multimillionaire cradle-robber Keith Olbermann.

Congressional And Media Probes Into The Obama Admin Promise To Be Un-Boring

Posted on November 7, 2010November 7, 2010Comments

by Smitty

The Constitution Club reports that, while the cat is away in India, the mice are playing a game of circle the mixed metaphorical wagons:

Expect the trickle of leaks to go a-gusher in the coming days. Now that Obama has lost his rainmaker mojo and earned much enmity within his own party (not just for political setbacks, but also for his pettiness, arrogance and condescension), insiders have already started scheduling private meetings with journalists who have suddenly started paying attention for the first time in three years. The party is terribly alarmed at the prospect that Obama’s doing serious, long-term damage to the brand. The kind of damage that could take decades to undo. And that’s why the Obami are in India playing Sultan: the Dems are deciding what to do about him.

Uncoverage has pointed to an Obama-gate scandal, featuring Deep White House Insider Throat, or whoever.
It could be big, or it could be as unprecedented as a logo with a green “D” in a circle.
The will of the people to support the GOP seriously investigating and holding the Obama Administration accountable is unclear. Even though the race card is worn rather smooth, there will always be charges of putting a black man down. What is more insidious than the posturing, though, is the concern of turning our politics into a winner-takes-all reprisal affair.
So, hopefully, the major take-away isn’t that we need to purge crooks. Rather, we need to trim the Federal muffin-top, the centralization of power in DC that affords officials such temptation.

Report: Keith Olbermann Refuses to Apologize for Giving Money to Democrats and Looking at Demi Lovato Bikini Pics

Posted on November 7, 2010November 7, 2010Comments

But mainly it was the giving-money-to-Democrats thing:

Network sources tell Playbook that Keith Olbermann was suspended because he refused to deliver an on-camera mea culpa, which would have allowed him to continue anchoring “Countdown.” Olbermann told his bosses he didn’t know he was barred from making campaign contributions, although he is resisting saying that publicly. Olbermann may not hold as many cards as he thinks. He makes $7 million a year and MSNBC’s prime time is not as dependent on him as it was before the addition of Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O’Donnell, who make considerably less.

Via Glynnis MacNicol at Mediaite, who points out Steve Krakauer’s observation about MSNBC ratings:

Rachel Maddow is getting better ratings than Olbermann in the key A25-54 demographic, and Lawrence O’Donnell isn’t far behind. Olbermann is no longer the center of the strategy either – as the network has unveiled a vibrant, massive new campaign “Lean Forward” which focuses on half a dozen members of the MSNBC talent pool.

On the other hand, Olbermann — who is actually older than me, and I just turned 51 — recently spent a couple of years banging 20-something reporterette Katy Tur (he actually interviewed her on “Countdown” earlier this year) but, hey, NTTAWWT. And now that dysfunctional Disney princess Demi Lovato is 18, there’s no reason that Keith should be forced to apologize on air for checking out her bikini picture:

On the other hand, the executives at MSNBC might be troubled to learn that their $7-million-a-year prime-time anchor — with a demonstrable predilection for cradle-robbing — actually checked out Demi Lovato’s bare rump. Continue reading Report: Keith Olbermann Refuses to Apologize for Giving Money to Democrats and Looking at Demi Lovato Bikini Pics →

Obligatory: ‘Hey, Did Anybody Notice That Allen West and Tim Scott Are Black?’

Posted on November 7, 2010November 7, 2010Comments

Video via The Right Scoop:

Quoted at The Hill:

“So I think that the — the liberal progressives saw the strength of the grass-roots movement that we call the Tea Party which stands for ‘taxed enough already’ and they tried to turn against it,” Rep.-elect Allen West (R-Fla.) said Friday on “Hannity” on Fox News.
“And the number one thing that you always try to do to silence an opponent in the United States of America is to call someone a racist.”
West said that attempts to tarnish the Tea Party did not foil his campaign. “And we see that that did not work whatsoever,” he said.

Ann Coulter: “MSNBC is still searching for the ‘Republicans are racist’ angle in all of this.” And speaking of MSNBC, I like Allahpundit’s take on Keith Olbermann’s suspension:

If you’re going to rant against the other team every night, own it. Please, no more Murrow-esque professions of avoiding the voting booth in the name of objectivity when you’re on the air five hours a week screeching about wingnut fascists and the racist dystopia they’re about to impose on America.

Someone needs to compile a highlight reel of Olbermann’s most hyperbolic pronouncements about the Impending Dark Night of Fascism. He’s done that Martin Niemoller lecture so often — we’re always just one election away from cattle cars and concentration camps — that even liberals must be tiring of it by now.

UPDATE: Susannah Fleetwood has this video of an earlier “Fox and Friends” interview with Tim Scott:

This year, a record total of 13 black candidates won Republican congressional primaries, two of whom won their elections Nov. 2. Another candidate we covered extensively here, Charles Lollar, got just 35 percent against Steny Hoyer in Maryland’s 5th District, but fared well in Calvert and St. Mary’s counties.

We should remember that Allen West didn’t win his first campaign against Ron Klein in 2008, and we should also keep in mind that district lines will be re-drawn before the 2012 election. Black GOP candidates who didn’t win this year ought to be encouraged to try again, using the fundraising and other resources they developed in 2010 as the basis for building stronger campaigns for 2012.