TBogg is the Boyfriend Keith Olbermann Deserves?

I hate to break it to you, TBogg, but KO is spoken for.

The Firedoglaker is at it again, attacking yours truly in a fit of blind partisan snrage (that’s “snark” and rage”), and once again getting his facts wrong.

The provocation this time was the fact that I pointed out Keith Olbermann’s fingerbang salute to Carrie Prejean. I actually took it pretty easy on KO, of whom I am a big fan. Unfortunately, some liberals require blind idolatry, even when it runs counter to actual liberalism.

I went on to critique the left’s treatment of Prejean, another big no-no in TBogg-land.

First, though, he references the last story he got wrong about me:

When we last saw  Conservative Pet Liberal Tommy Christopher he was getting blog-killed by Big Bunny because he had the blogdacity*  to go “shame shame” over Guy Cimbalo’s hatefuck article/post thingy. As it turned out, pretty much anyone who was familiar with Cimbalao’s article shared Tommy’s opinion, but the timing of AOL’s de-Tommyfying was enough to throw the wingnuts into a frenzy.

Well, they’re always in a frenzy, but it was kismet that day because the Mexicans, Muslims, and Negroes  were  behaving themselves. At least for for a few hours.

Now we see that Tommy has washed up on the shores of the  Mediaite (I don’t know how to pronounce it either) blog which is kinda of like the crackbaby lovechild of Politico and Tiger Beat (”Who’s Hot Who’s Not!” “Win a Dream Date with Dreamylicious Jake Tapper!” etc.).

The “wingnuts” in a frenzy? Right, like The Huffington Post, or Howard Kurtz? He also displays the same class that led him to make fun of special needs children last time, tossing his barbs at crack babies here. Real nice.

He also forgot to check his facts again. I got fired from Politics Daily, asshole. I still work for AOL now, still write about politics for them. AOL offered me a new job the next day.

He also posits that I only defend young, hot, conservative women. You know, like Kevin Jennings or Van Jones. Boing!

True, I was also fortunate enough to land a great gig with Mediaite that permits me to get out of my jammies and into the real world once in a while.

Factual lapses aside, he also goes on to miss the entire point of my post. By attacking Prejean’s tits and masturbatory habits, the left has amplified her importance well beyond what it should be, and made themselves look ugly in the process. Keith Olbermann’s (thankfully non-glistening) fingers may be worth a chuckle to some, but at what price? What average American is going to watch that and say “My, that Keith Olbermann is a clever fellow. Let me probe his views on marriage?”

TBogg says “As to his point that she has been amplified, her book sales (#846) at Amazon tell another story.” I say the problem was never that she was selling books.

Finally, before TBogg tries to accuse someone of being a “Conservative pet liberal,” maybe he should think about elevating his own editorial standards to at least equal Hannity’s. At least he admits he’s “mistaken” when somebody busts him.

Billie’s Quickies…Early week news predictions

This week should be fascinating, what with the new Veteran death panel talk, @mccainblogette on The View, Chuck Todd gettin’ cold yelled at about Blackwater, the reality show dude who killed his ex allegedly committing suicide, and the continuing debate about what constitutes a “right” in America.

Well, here are my predictions as to what will make the news, along with some just plain interesting, cool, or weird linkage.

• The Lutherans are letting in teh gays in committed relationships, so WTF is the wrong with the rest of us? “Under the new policy, individual ELCA congregations will be allowed to hire homosexuals in committed relationships as clergy.” Seems to me that if the Lutherans can accept it, and Iowa can accept it, then maybe the rest of the US can quit getting its panties in a bunch about relationships that don’t concern them.
• Texas is in the education news again.  Well, allowing a Bible study class to become a mandatory elective I could kinda let slide – it is an elective after all – but, revisionist history?! I THINK NOT! “Texas high school students would learn about such significant individuals and milestones of conservative politics as Newt Gingrich and the rise of the Moral Majority — but nothing about liberals…”
• Oh, hey, here’s HR 3200 in case you haven’t read it yet.
• And, here’s the science behind finding all those undecided voters to sway with political ads.
• Community organizers are so useless, and are such troublemakers ;):  “…the middle class is very thin,” said a 38-year-old graphic designer who in 2004 helped found an undercover nonprofit group that recruits potential political leaders. ‘We need to grow, strengthen that. Most democratic countries have a broader middle class. It is the only way to go forward.'”
• This quote says it all: “‘When a woman walks into a gun store and says she’s looking for a weapon for her own protection, there aren’t going to be a lot of questions,’ the chief said.”
• OMG, people are test firin’ missiles again! 😉
• A medical student spends 10 days in a nursing home: “’As a doctor, my job is to help patients live the life they want to,’” she said. ‘And if they’re in pain, you have to say ‘That’s O.K. if you want to spend your time in a wheelchair.’  For me that’s such a different place to be. Because I hate this chair. It still startles me that that’s the choice.’”
• 5 medical tests that could save your life – Cardiac CT angiography, virtual colonoscopy are worth the time.
• Mmmkay – “Until recently, most Americans traveling abroad for cheaper non-emergency medical care were either uninsured or wealthy. But the profile of medical tourists is changing. Now, they are more likely to be people covered by private insurers, which are looking to keep costs from spiraling out of control.”

Best health care in the world, eh?

• LET.THE.MANUFACTURED.BIRTH.CERTIFICATE.CONTROVERSY.GO!
• Oh, hey, Mike Huckabee visited Israel and said there is no such thing as a Palestinian.  Just so you know. Oh, and it’s ON TAPE, BABY!
• Here’s the ‘scary’ booklet the VA used to hand out until recently….boogedy boogedy!
• Finally….FOOD PR0N!

Are Meghan McCain and Michelle Malkin Fighting Over Me?

“Ladies, La-hay-hay-dies,” (smooths imaginary mustache),”there’s plen-T of TC to go arou-how-hound!”

So, remember the big feud between Michelle Malkin and Meghan McCain a few days back?  Michelle talked some Meggie Mac smack, and Meg fired back over teh Twitter, and on her Daily Beast blog?  Well, I just caught up to the Politico Arena chat that started it all, and guess who’s smack-dab in the middle of it?

12:29 [Comment From Matthew]
Who would you say is the most insightful liberal political figure or commentator out there right now? Who is a conservative political figure of commentator who you think needs to shut up?

12:30 Fred Barbash-Moderator: That’s the last question. So sorry.

12:32 Michelle Malkin: Hmmm. Interesting question. On the right: Less Meghan McCain. On the left? Tommy Christopher is an honest lib.

Whoah! AWK-ward!

Maybe it’s the hopeless bleeding heart in me, but I see an opportunity to make some magic here.  Just as Meghan McCain seeks to be a bridge between her party’s old and new factions (and succeeds, to a large degree), perhaps I can be the bridge between Meghan and Michelle.

Everyone knows I have nothing but respect and admiration for Meg, especially for the great example she sets for women and girls everywhere.  As for Michelle, we probably agree on one thing only, which is that she does not deserve to be called a “bitch” or to be “hate-f**ked” by Playboy’s Guy Cimbalo.  It’s a sad state of affairs when our political discourse has led to the lauding of common decency.

But, since they’re both listening, let me see if we can bridge where a chasm now yawns.  Let’s join hands, the 3 of us, and think about what has happened to this country in the age of polarization, and ask ourselves if we can move past it all.  Now, close your eyes and chant with me, “Yes, we can!”

Well, I tried.

Eff You, PETA. Eff You in the Effing Face.

I’m paraphrasing one of my tweeps (Tricia Llanes), and trying to adhere to my “no profanity above the fold” policy, in reference to this little item on PETA’s newest ad campaign by Andrea Grimes: (read the whole thing when you’re done here)

More and more, PETA is looking like the snarky, self-righteous vegan film student who spends 10 minutes at a time telling you how to live a healthier, more conscious life–and down with Wal-Mart and McDonald’s!–during the smoke break wherein he practically eats a Marlboro Light. On The F-Word yesterday, (vegetarian!) Rachel calls out this heinous new PETA promotion, which like many PETA promotions, shames and objectifies women, who occupy some vague place below animals on their level-of-importance scale. Rachel asks, “Against animal cruelty, but not human cruelty?”

There will be profanity below the fold.

Freeper Madness and Young Republicans: Racism Rears Ugly Rear End

Update 2: Michael Shaw at HuffPo thinks everyone except the racists should be ashamed of themselves, including us.  He says we escalated the story, and then tweets by Shuster, et al, took it to 11.  I’m not sure how that works, though, since we reported those tweets, and the attendant escalation.  In other words, we reported what Shaw reported, only sooner and more accurately.  Shame on us.

Update:  The plot thickens.  Gawker reports that Chris Parry, the Vancouver Sun reporter who broke this story, was also a blogger for Daily Kos, and has suggested, in the past, posting hate speech and blaming it on conservatives.  This does little to change the facts in this story, as Parry could hardly have pulled, then reinstated, the offensive thread.  It might mean a rough week for Parry, though.  Parry responds here. Two high-profile stories about the intersection of racism and the Republican Party are exploding all over the internet.  The flap over comments at Free Republic and the Young Republicans’ election of a new president make for a sour cocktail this weekend. Most of the heat is being generated by this Vancouver Sun story about the comments on a Free Republic article featuring 11 year-old Malia Obama:

“A typical street whore.” “A bunch of ghetto thugs.” “Ghetto street trash.” “Wonder when she will get her first abortion.” These are a small selection of some of the racially-charged comments posted to the conservative ‘Free Republic’ blog Thursday, aimed at U.S. President Barack Obama’s 11-year-old daughter Malia after she was photographed wearing a t-shirt with a peace sign on the front.

You might think that this is the same as the lame attacks that Bill O’Reilly levels at commenters on DailyKos and/or Hot Air.  There are key differences.  The Sun report says that the offensive comments overwhelmingly outnumbered those critical of the vitriol, but the real problem is this:

After attention from other blogs, the thread was suppressed and placed under review, but before long it was returned to the site intact, and attracted a new series of racial slurs when the original complaint email was posted publicly to the site, with the sender’s email address intact.

So, they knew about the comments, put them back up, and apparently made the complainer a target for harassment. Very ugly.  Eventually, they took it down again. As disgusting as this story is, it didn’t stand to hurt Republicans that much on its own.  Freepers are not exactly considered the bellwether of mainstream conservative thought. Then, even after an impassioned plea by very young Republican Meghan McCain, the Young Republicans elected a new president with serious racism problems

.

The Young Republicans faced a stark choice at their convention in Indianapolis yesterday as they chose their next leader: a center-right twentysomething interested in greater outreach, or a self-described “true conservative” who is almost 40 and spent last week dealing with Daily Beast reports about her beliefs, which are, at best, often hateful, and at worst, downright racist. The delegates, in a vote of 470 – 415, chose the latter.

Fair or not, the effect of these two stories is devastating.  Already on Twitter, I’ve seen comparisons of the Freeper story to the Letterman/Palin feud, with liberals asking where the conservative denunciation is.  The Young Republicans story serves to neutralize the “few bad apples” rationale on the freeper story. As a liberal with a lot of conservative friends, I hate to see conservatives get painted, en masse, with this brush.  While this makes them understandably defensive on the subject, that defensiveness can lead to tone-deaf handling of these situations.  While some liberals’ idea of the GOP as the Ivory Soap of racism is way off the mark, many conservatives are also in denial about their party’s race problems.  The truth, as they say, lies somewhere in the middle. On the issue of racism, the truth can be elusive.  I think there’s always more racism, in general, than white people think there is.  On the other hand, I think there’s a lot less of it in the Republican Party than most liberals think.  Part of the perception problem that  the GOP has today is that the Democrats have a black President.  Where else are the racists supposed to go?  Just because most of the racists belong to one party doesn’t mean that that party is mostly racists. Still, when your party stands in opposition to policies that are seen as benefitting minorities, this kind of thing can really be damaging. I’ll tell my liberal friends exactly what I told conservatives who asked me where the liberal outrage was on the Playboy story:  Give it a minute.  This story broke on a Saturday afternoon.  Two of my conservative friends who write for very influential blogs just heard about it this morning, from me. To my conservative friends, I hope their reactions, and those of the Republican leadership, veer away from the kind of persecution complex stuff that Newsbusters’ treatment portends, and closer to this.  This story is already drawing attention from media heavy-hitters like Jake Tapper, Major Garrett, and David Shuster.  The conservative response can be a big win. As for the Young Republicans, I think Meghan McCain’s got their number.

Washington Post Publisher’s Apology Doesn’t Wash

Update: This is a piece I wrote for Mediaite that got pushed out by other news.  The WaPo ombudsman is as unimpressed as I am by Weymouth’s explanation.

The hot, steaming mess that is the Washington Post Salon-gate scandal just keeps getting hotter and more messified.  Katharine Weymouth, the publisher who was to host the chummy, “non-confrontational” soirees with Post reporters and Obama administration officials, has issued an apology:

I want to apologize for a planned new venture that went off track and for any cause we may have given you to doubt our independence and integrity. A flier distributed last week suggested that we were selling access to power brokers in Washington through dinners that were to take place at my home. The flier was not approved by me or newsroom editors, and it did not accurately reflect what we had in mind. But let me be clear: The flier was not the only problem (emphasis mine). Our mistake was to suggest that we would hold and participate in an off-the-record dinner with journalists and power brokers paid for by a sponsor. We will not organize such events. As publisher it is my job to ensure that we adhere to standards that are consistent with our integrity as a news organization. Last week, I let you, and the organization, down.

That’s a pretty good start, but then, Weymouth goes on to explain that the way she had planned out the events would have been just ginchy.  So what happened?

When the flier promoting our first planned event to potential sponsors was released, it overstepped all these lines. Neither I nor anyone in our news department would have approved any event such as the flier described.

We have canceled the planned dinner. While I do believe there is a legitimate way to hold such events, to the extent that we hold events in the future, large or small, we will review the guidelines for them with The Post’s top editors and make sure those guidelines are strictly followed.

That sounds a lot, to me, like “Yeah, the problem was the fliers.”

The Post’s ombudsman, Andrew Alexander, doesn’t seem to be buying what Weymouth is selling:

Post spokeswoman Kris Coratti issued a statement describing the flier as a “draft.”

The “draft” is a single-page solicitation, printed in full color on glossy paper, which was distributed to potential underwriters for a gathering on health care. It reads: “Underwrite and participate in this intimate and exclusive Washington Post Salon, an off-the-record dinner and discussion at the home of CEO and Publisher Katharine Weymouth” on July 21.

Oh, it was a draft.  Kinda like those photocopied sheets they distribute in every office in America for the football pool, or something.  Just a sketchy, hastily prepared spitball-y deal, right?  Not so much.

Alexander goes on to quote Charles Pelton, whose office produced the flier, taking a curiously high-handed attitude:

“There’s no intention to influence or peddle,” Pelton said this morning. “There’s no intention to have a Lincoln Bedroom situation,” referring to charges that President Clinton used invitations to stay at the White House as a way of luring political backing.

Do you really want to bring up bedroom hijinks here, Chuck?

The one positive, as I have noted, is that the Washington Post’s own Howard Kurtz did a good job in reporting on his own paper’s scandal.  Still, although it’s pretty clear to me that Kurtz got all he could out of Weymouth, some may question whether he really held his boss’s boss’s feet to the fire.

It also has the side-effect of undercutting Post reporters’ ability to point out other journalists’ potential conflicts of interests.  For example, when this story broke, I was immediately put in mind of Dana Milbank’s lecture of HuffPo’s Nico Pitney on Kurtz’s own “Reliable Sources.”  That splinter in Pitney’s eye is looking positively microscopic, now.

Kurtz, ironically enough, raised questions about such conflicts in reporting on the launch of this site.  In responding to criticism about his consulting business, Mediaite founder Dan Abrams was blunt:

Says Abrams: “It does seem I’m being held to a higher standard than anyone else in the history of the consulting world. That’s okay. . . . What some of the purists say is that if you’re engaged in journalism at all, you should not be able to work with business, ever.”

By that standard of purity, it would be tough to argue for the continued existence of the Post, at least under the stewardship of Katharine Weymouth.

“Washington Post For Sale” Bombshell Good News/Bad News

What a disappointing day for journalism.  Not minutes after I revisited the dark Playboy saga, I got an email from Lee Stranahan with his video parody of a story I hadn’t even heard yet:

Apparently, WaPo’s publisher hatched a half-baked scheme to pimp the paper’s staff, and the Obama Administration, for huge wads of cash:

Media Lizzy Dismissed by Politics Daily:Playboy’s Hate F*** List Strikes Again

For those of you who followed the saga of the Playboy “Hate F*** List,” it’s deletion by Playboy (then by Politico), my firing from Politics Daily, and its Editor-in-Chief’s campaign of lies to cover it up, there is a newer, sadder, much more unjust wrinkle to this story.  You may recall that Media Lizzy played a pivotal role in outing Melinda Henneberger as a liar, providing a smoking-gun email that detailed Politic’s Daily’s internal decision not to address the Playboy story at all.

Now, a month later, Melinda Henneberger has struck again.  From Lizzy’s new site: (bookmark it!)

I was informed yesterday by the (Politics Daily) Hot Seat editor that our relationship was being terminated.  Zero notice.  No reason given.  Nada.  Gee, do ya think it could be because of the Playboy controversy – and publicly outing Melinda Henneberger for lying about her relationship to the firing of Tommy Christopher?

As of this writing, Politics Daily hasn’t explained the dismissal.  I checked with other Hot Seat contributors, and none of them have been let go, although that may change if Melinda wants to cover her tracks again.

There are multiple ironies here, but chief among them is that this is an achievement of the Playboy article’s mission, to harm and marginalize conservative women.  In this case, it has managed to do so to a wonderful woman who was spared inclusion on the original list.

Along with the injustice, I object to the cowardly manner in which this was done, quietly, a month after the fact.

I take comfort in knowing that, although the intent here was not benevolent, my friend Lizzy will feel less harm from this than Politics Daily will.  Disagree with her as I might, it won’t be a tango without her.

Meghan McCain Quotes of the Week: Bras, Bugs, & Beta Males

Unfortunately, Meghan McCain’s boobs can’t really talk, but thankfully, Meg’s Twitter feed is such a treasure trove of good quotes, they really don’t have to.  Politico even put one of Meghan’s tweets in its “Politi-quotes: The week in one-liners,” but I think she deserves a whole list to herself.

First, there was Politico’s pick, Meg’s tweet about killing a cockroach in her sink.  Funnier than that, though, were her followups.  Apparently, this one spurred a flurry of cockroach fun facts:

WHAT? @HeyDaveJ Tip: Put a paper towel over the cockroach before you kill it. They carry eggs on their back, and that way they don’t spread. 9:58 AM Jun 27th from web

stop tweeting me about roach eggs people! good lord, I just killed one! 10:18 AM Jun 27th from web

I have to give Meg some props here.  Even though she said “Ewww!”, she did kill the roach herself.  Several years ago, I had a girlfriend who made me drive 2 hours to the City so I could kill a roach that she had trapped under a glass.  To be fair, the thing was the size of a Rottweiler puppy, but it was also missing a bunch of legs.

Now, killing is second nature to Meghan, putting her even more squarely in the “Cool Chick” category, the kind of girl that every guy wants to have a beer with, then have breakfast with.

My favorite Meg quote (aside from her perceptive take on our Meg story) was this 2-Tweet decimation of her conservative critics:

I love people that tell me “I’m doing damage to the GOP”, yeah cause Donald Rumsfeld, Karl Rove, Sen. Ensign, Gov Sanford and the entire Bush administration have nothing to do with the GOP’s problems, no…it’s my 5″1 ass in a pushup bra thats the real problem with the GOP… about 19 hours ago from web

She’s right, of course.  The problem isn’t her ass, but the GOP’s habit of telling people what to do with their own asses, while stealth-hunting extracurricular booty.

Finally, she launches a funny one-liner at Hot Air blogger Allahpundit, who self-deprecatingly refers to himself as a “beta male”:

@allahpundit I don’t like beta males darlin’, I am a lot of a lot to date and guys gotta be able to handle it! 12:41 AM Jun 27th from web in reply to allahpundit

At least now, he’ll know who to call if he needs some exterminating done for him.

Other highlights this week include her run-in with an unhinged taxi driver, smackdown of a jerky Twitter troll, and coinage of a great Battlestar Galactica-related catch phrase.  What I’m saying is, you’re missing out on a full life if you don’t follow Meg’s Twitter feed.

Dana Milbank vs Nico Pitney=Old Media Trying to Stuff New Media in Locker

Update: Here’s Nico’s take, including the fact that Milbank called him a dick off-mic.  Also underscoring my earlier point, in Nico’s article, Politics Daily’s Lynn Sweet brags about being the only journalist besides Milbank to ask about Obama’s swimsuit.

Sure, it is delicious to watch, like trains full of fireworks colliding, but this is the culmination of a growing blood feud between Old Media and New Media.  Here’s the clip, from Reliable Sources:

Let me start by saying that neither of them did themselves a favor with their tit-for-tat deconstruction of the other’s “record,” but Milbank seemed especially childish with his Rain-Man-esque “dossier” on Pitney.  Nico would have been wiser to point out that his and the White House’s only “crime” was in trying to give voice to the voiceless.

I’ve already said my piece on the “collusion” charge, and although Milbank highlights something I didn’t know about the timeline of the social media solicitation and the White House’s contact with Pitney, it doesn’t change the larger point.  The question was not staged, the President didn’t know what it would be, and Pitney/HuffPo was selected because they have been outclassing old media with their coverage of the Iranian unrest.  Because they’ve had their ear to the ground, they were the natural choice to get a question from an Iranian on that ground.  It was a reward for responsive journalism.

Despite what Milbank and Amanda Carpenter want to make out of it, this is a win for New Media, not for partisan blogging.  It’s also the latest in a string of Old Media attempts to push New Media down the stairs, “All About Eve”-style.