The Week That Was

Love his take on Reid/dems, though I'd add that it's all the more damning when juxtaposed with 20 ex's of rightist lunacy on his list. David Brooks' notw/standing, that is the GOP circa 2009--that's what our so-called party is up against, and let's be perfectly frank, we still f'ing suck.

More Grayson, via Digby:

"Update: Matthews interviewed Grayson today and actually got off a pretty good bon mot. He said he was wrong to call the Republicans Neanderthals because they don't believe in evolution."

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Citizen Journalists, F*ck You
• Senator Chuck Schumer writes failed business models into law, codifies First Amendment protections as applicable only to favored institutions, effectively defining journalism in the eyes of the law as a matter of paycheck instead of reportorial content.

Elizabeth Edwards!

I was shocked at her apparent inaction after the entire Edwards-Hunter torrid affair became public knowledge.

I made a comment here previously and stated that it was fairly certain this was probably not the first affair her husband had been involved in-- however, the only difference in this case was that he made a baby. What a nightmare for his poor wife.

To compound it, he also exposed his wife and children to public ridicule by continuing to actively participate in high stakes Presidential politics knowing that it was more likely than not that his philandering and out of wedlock child would eventually be unearthed by someone.

From what I have read thus far, it seems the adulterer and his unrepentant mistress were made for each other.

More power to Elizabeth Edwards as she shoos away Mr. "Pretty John" morally bankrupt husband of hers.

LM

http://theblindspotsofgod.wordpress.com/

Tumulty, Karen
• non-judgmental appearance of indicted political insider -- and all-around scumbag -- Tom Delay on Hollywood's Dancing With The Stars is unabashedly praised by

• non-judgmental defense of convicted entertainment insider -- and all-around scumbag -- Roman Polanski by Hollywood's Stars is unabashedly condemned by

What made my week? when my colleague brought me cake balls for my birthday.

Oh, wait, you meant politics?

Toxic Media:

Proof of lies in its collective decision to nearly ignore the story that exposes the extortionist heart of the mainstream press. The David Letterman confession is like the mother of all sex scandals and it landed in this sex scandal crazed environment with the thud heard around the world. Perhaps it was the case that so many villagers had fantasized about doing the exact same thing with the dirt they dug up that now the scandal hits a little too close to home and no one wants to touch it. Frankly, I'm surprised it took so long for this kind of thing to happen since dirt diggers is what the bulk of our media has become. It's what's wrong with America, it's why we can't get off the floor, the media won't let us out of the dirt.
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Of course it's not solely the media's fault. The right wing is made up of the same bullies we all knew in high-school and of course they recognize that the press is made up of the same little geeks that made up the AV squad, the school paper, and year book that they gave swirlies and stuffed in lockers. So they yelled and screamed and sent threatening letters and the press just did what everyone afraid of being attacked by bullies did in high-school, they made jokes, gave good gossip and sided with the bullies so that they focused their fire on someone else. We liberals chose to let the media get away with this crap back in the Clinton era. The media was so taken back by the bullies on the right yelling about liberal bias they ended up the class clowns in that little morality play. And as liberals we hid our identities, changed names to protect the innocent and as progressives sat back and told ourselves it was pointless to blame the press.
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Of course that isn't true now, just as it wasn't true then. The press just tells you don't blame us because they are praying we don't, they can only handle one set of bullies at a time. Don't forget how quickly the caved under pressure from Hillary's camp during the primary. The press does what it does because we let them. We've got youtube, the internet, we don't need them to get a message out. If Democrats collectively refused to give interviews, or answer press questions until they started acting more responsible, how fast do you think they would clean up their act if we simply used only alternative media?
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Now we're all hooked on this mostly fact free propaganda and meaningless titillation and dependent on them for a daily fix of ridiculous rhetoric. They no longer take the time to even pretend that they are engaging in guilty pleasures. Today, noted foreign policy reporter Andrea Mitchell actually dismissed the agreement of Iran to ship its fissile material to Russia as discussion for another day because she wanted Chuck Todd to give her the dirt on Obama's failure to get the Olympics -- as if... The entire village should be ashamed of what they've become, but frankly I think they've probably grown to intellectually lazy to recognize what they've become.
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For their own good as well as ours we need to quit them cold turkey. Right now it's worth a try. We need a national media free day or week or something so we can go through a little detox. It's clear that they are toxic. They are helping to destroy this country using our addiction to one ridiculous story after another. If it is really is news to cover Limbaugh and Beck or any of these astroturf organizations, they wouldn't ignore the corporate connection, the historical perspectives of these policies or the practical application of some of this rhetoric if it were to happen. The fact remains that this hasn't been about news in a very long time and if Tom Brokaw, the NBC elder statesman was any kind of statesman he would have brought up the fact himself rather than longing for the days of Cronkite when it was so.

This media thing is not even about entertainment, if it had been just about entertainment, I'm sure the truth would have been more dramatic. I'm pretty sure that a story about how Republican policies have systematically set this country on a path to destruction would garner more ratings that Sarah Palin's musings from the back of her boat shucking fish scales.
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Yes, the first amendment gives you freedom of the press and that means Congress shall make no law including setting IQ standards for participation. But that doesn't mean that we shouldn't expect those exercising this right to have some credibility, character and commonsense. The media has become so toxic that it is doing more harm than good. If the media had any integrity at all you would preface every statement made by anyone and everyone on the right who participated, supported and didn't condemn the policies of the last eight years to defend their statements then and now rather than let the country forget what these idiots did to our nation. What I can't fathom is how stupid do you have to be to not be afraid for your own children's future when these crazies that you are either consulting or ignoring are fantasizing about military coos and Senator De Mint's blatant attempt to commit treason.

Copenhagen Beat Down:

How a President gets told "No" in bid for Olympics!!!
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President Obama, wife Michelle Obama, Oprah Winrfrey and various other Chicago thugs and corrupt political wingers go to Copenhagen to secure the bid for the 2016 Olympics.
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Liberal media plays down the fact that Obama's so-called favorability ratings in Europe are making the US look better in the eyes of the international community.
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The Obama apology tour since taking office is NOT working as expected on foreign policy, and "thawing" relationships post-Bush II. What is the international communites reponse back to Obama? "Stick it up where the sun don't shine Bucko"!!!!
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How over a MILLION tax payer dollars are spent on a frivilous trip, not in one plane mind you but TWO 747's hauling their butts overseas of a few "friends and political croonies.
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How a Global Warming alarmist who wants "Cap and Trade" passed in legislation, but spews out over a MILLION pounds of carbon into the atmosphere and ends up with ZILCH
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Now do we see the Iranians "just say no" as well? Stay tuned for the Hillary Beat Down, coming soon...

IOC, Non-political

Of course the King of Spain speaking to the group and the elder Samaranch (President of IOC from 1980 - 2001) crying while he said how important it would be for Madrid to be selected would have no influence at all. Samaranch Jr. notes below that they had 25 - 50 first round votes going in.

http://www.topnews.in/people/juan-antonio-samaranch-jr

But I guess the loss is a big set back for the King of Spain. He may have to abdicate.

Or, perhaps Spain doesn't have a lot of citizens rooting against their country.

Feels like actual news posts have been pretty scarce on Swampland lately. Hell, you guys had to bring on Pickert to pick up the slack.

Any thoughts on the shift over to a celebrity tabloid blog, KT?

As long as there seems to be a dearth of real news, can we please have a "1000 Words"?

Todd quit his job and Sarah's book is going to debut @ #1.

If everyboby that bought Obama's books were Obamabots, are the people who buy Sarah's Palindrones?

sacredh, On Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me today Peter Sagel got off some very funny comments about the book. I can't remember all, but you can listen on line at

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=35

Oh cwap! Why bother?...
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Scottie!
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Aye, cap'n
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Beam me back to last week, will you?
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Oh, sh!t.
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Scottie!
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Aye, cap'n
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Beam me back to next week instead, will you? Last week already happened, and once was enough!

This pretty much sums up America's tortured inability to legislate its way out of a paper bag.

On one hand, we have HCR, which would cost approx. a trillion $ over 10 years and our legislators agonize over the cost.

OTOH, at current rates, our defense budget over the next ten years will total 6$ trillion dollars. And other than Kucinich or Paul, no "serious" villager dares to question such lunar insanity.

And as bad as Ahmadinejad is, and how seriously insane he is, doesn't Ze Frank visage make him look more like a house cat than an enemy?
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Just look a little up and to your right.
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Tell me I'm wrong!
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And, if that wasn't enough, what does that say about the insane right?...

Agreeing with sacredh, I miss “1000 words” too. KT, can we have a new one, please? please?
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If Brooks didn't provide risible pics in the WH blog, an in-office “Life at TIME” shot will do: the staff literally fighting over the last donut in the box; you, Amy, and Jay doing shots after hours; or Amy leading the staff in the daily Shepherd's Prayer …or is that Alan Shepard's Prayer? “Please, dear God, don't let me f*** up.” Or is there a candid pre-photo op pic of Bill Frist literally powdering his nose before your interview? Thanks.

I just read this in Susan Cooper's Silver on the Tree (yes, I also read that Dark Is Rising post in Nerd World a few months back), and it made my week:
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"Will came last, trailing despondently. From the moment when he had heard the man in the car begin to shout, and seen the look in his eyes, he had been no Stanton at all but wholly an Old One, dreadfully and suddenly aware of the danger. The mindless ferocity of this man, and all those like him, their real loathing born of nothing more solid than insecurity and fear . . . it was a channel. Will knew that he had been gazing into the channel down which the powers of the Dark, if they gained their freedom, could ride in an instant to complete control of the earth. He was filled with a terrible anxiety, a sense of urgency for the Light, and knew that it would remain with him, silently shouting at him, far more vividly than the fading memory of a single bigot like Mr. Moore."

[...] http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2009/10/02/the-week-that-was-11/ a few seconds ago from web [...]

Lohan, Lindsay
subtopics: Fashion Week, Paris, Ungaro, Archs, Estrella, critics, pink hearts, pasties, please feed the models
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Lindsay displayed her premiere Ungaro fashion collection at Paris Fashion Week ...and critics didn't like it.
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/entertainment/871498/lohans-fashion-line-savaged-by-critics
(video and pics included)