If you, like most Americans, are seeing fewer movies, now you have another reason to stay out of movie theaters. Your money may be being used to promote right-wing propaganda and religious fundamentalism. Over the past few years, theatrical films have suffered a noticeable decline in attendance. This has been blamed on a variety of [...]
Monthly Archives: March 2006
Mar 28
The Bush Charm Offensive
With approval ratings mired in the low 30′s, and support for the war (and most of the rest of his agenda) in collapse, the president has embarked on a new initiative for American renewal. He is wooing the press. This is a somewhat surprising development from an administration that consistently blames its problems on the [...]
Mar 27
Fake FEMA Director To Appear On Fake News Show
Michael Brown, the former director of FEMA, will be the guest of Stephen Colbert on Tuesday, March 28. This is comedy at its finest because what could be funnier than a jovial romp with the man that let tens of thousands of hurricane victims suffer in a crumbling sports arena because he wanted to have [...]
Mar 25
Dick Cheney’s Tour Rider
Rock stars and other celebrities commonly make special requests when on the road to satisfy their peculiar needs for comfort. Perhaps the most notorious of these was Van Halen’s request for a bowl of peanut M & M’s with all the brown ones removed. Well, move over Dave. The Smoking Gun has obtained the Downtime [...]
Mar 25
Monopolies Kill Newspapers – Dead
The Columbia Journalism Review has offered an explanation for why the newspaper business is gasping for air. After a generation of acquisition, consolidation and cut-throat competition that left many markets with a single reportorial voice, the lone victor became bloated or cocky or lazy, or some combination of the three. Competition is good, remember. It [...]
Mar 22
Time Warner & the UAE
In mid February it was announced that Dubai Ports World, a firm owned by the government of the United Arab Emirates, was acquiring ownership of several U.S. ports. Within a few days of that annoucement another deal was also revealed by the same UAE parent company. Istithmar’s purcahse of 109 million shares of Time Warner [...]
Mar 21
Wrestling A Pig
The Dayton Daily News is rolling around in it with barnyard bully, Bill O’Reilly. DDN’s editor, Jeff Bruce, wrote an opinion column making the outrageous suggestion that a formal investigation should take place before removing a judge from the bench. The judge in question, John Connor, has been the target of O’Reilly’s wrath for imposing [...]
Mar 21
DeadLines
Jon Stewart has been selected to host the 65th annual Peabody Awards. An appropriate choice since he is also the recipient of 2 of them. Dan Rather touts Jon Stewart as Andy Rooney’s successor. I hope he’s wrong. That seems to me to be a demotion. But it must be flattering. Stephen Colbert will be [...]
Mar 21
Washington Post Hearts Red America
The Washington Post says that they hired Ben Domenech to write the new blog, Red America, to provide balance to their editorial profile. Domenech is the co-founder of RedState.com and was a writer for the National Review Online. He also worked in Bush’s White House and for Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX). While at uber-conservative publisher, [...]
Mar 20
Lobbyists Scoff At Lobby Reform
In the wake of numerous Washington influence scandals (DeLay, Cunningham, Abramoff, etc.), Congress has busied itself debating, drafting, and ultimately neutering, legislative proposals to restore fairness and ethics to the troubled institution. However, the targets of these measures have had a rather benign reaction to them. In fact, they don’t seem to think that the [...]
Mar 19
White House Advance Team Impersonates Fox Reporters
Last week, Bush ventured to Gautier, Mississippi, to commiserate with victims of Hurricane Katrina. It was a typical photo-op that made no news other than that the president showed up. But in preparations for the visit, two men arrived at the home of Jerry Akins to make inquiries about his post-hurricane experience. They identified themselves [...]
Mar 08
Shooting The Messenger
No, this is not another swipe at Dick Cheney for shooting a guy in the face. This time the White House has a bigger target than quail. The Bush administration has begun investigating employees at the CIA, the National Security Agency and other intelligence agencies, in an attempt to stem leaks such as those about [...]
Mar 08
What Exactly Are They Fighting For?
Friends of Wonkette discovered that, while it’s OK to fight for freedom, it’s not OK to practice it. Here is a list of the responses received when our soldiers attempted to access the following web sites: Wonkette (http://www.wonkette.com/) – “Forbidden, this page is categorized as: Forum/Bulletin Boards, Politics/Opinion.” Bill O’Reilly (www.billoreilly.com) – OK Air America [...]
Mar 01
Fight For Your Right To Lobby
The poor, disenfranchised lobbyists of Washington have found an advocate. The past few months, the denizens of K Street have had to suffer the embarrassment of multiple scandals. Their poster boy, Jack Abramoff, fell from his perch and pleaded guilty to multiple felonies. So did Rep. Duke Cunningham of California. Tom DeLay continues to fight [...]
Mar 01
The Power of the Media
This should lay to rest any doubts about the media’s power to manufacture a message. Fox News asks: Is all-out civil war in Iraq a good thing? Sure, who wouldn’t enjoy a good civil war every now and again? Then Fox News asks: Did the media make up the civil war in Iraq? Of course. [...]
