M. (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} m_supercomputer) wrote,@ 2009-06-27 14:01:00 |
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political stories of the week
The big story, of course, was Gov. Sanford of SC (one of the GOP's leaders in the anti-stimulus fight, and someone raised as an early contender for 2012) going AWOL. The story was as follows: no one knows where he is! Wait, he's hiking on the Appalachian Trail! No, he actually decided to go to Argentina! And, of course, this all ended with him admitting in a press conference that he was actually going to visit a woman he's having an affair with. And while that kind of thing's interesting, it doesn't address the *actual* problem - that, as the chief executive of a state, he disappeared without telling anyone where he was going, or putting someone else in charge in his absence. Sanford seemed genuinely repentant in his press conference, but now he's comparing himself to King David sleeping with Bathsheba. Which kinda dampens any sympathy I had for him.
Commentary coming out of this: Limbaugh naturally blames Sanford carelessly having an affair on Sanford's despair that Obama is ruining the country. And Politico takes the occasion to comment on how Obama's family man image is even more of a contrast to the Republicans now...and that's a *bad thing* for him. Srsly. The author uses as an example the public's rejection of Mitt Romney, and makes a point to mention how devastatingly attractive the man is. It's...quite something.
Something else Sanford mentioned in his conference attracted attention - his mention of 'C Street,' which apparently refers to a house in DC for religious politicians run by a secretive organization called the Fellowship Foundation. For more about them, there's this unbelievably creepy account of a reporter who went undercover there. Interestingly, the organization speaks admiringly of King David as well, as they see that he was allowed to do whatever he wanted because he was "chosen" by God. "That's the way everything in life happens. If you're a person known to be around Jesus, you can go and do anything. And that's who you guys are." *shudder* SO CREEPY.
Media notes -
-The Washington Post fired one of its most popular columnists, Dan Froomkin. The rationale seems to be that the leadership there assumes that all liberals worship Obama, and as Froomkin criticizes Obama from a principled left-leaning standpoint just as he did Bush, liberals now won't be interested in him. The traffic and linking to his column sure haven't gone down any as far as I can tell, though. His last column, linked above, is made of win: "The handful of people who did exceptional investigative reporting during this era really deserve our gratitude [lists some relatively obscure writers] ... Notably not on this list: The likes of Bob Woodward and Tim Russert. Hopefully, the next time the nation faces a grave national security crisis, we will listen to the people who were right, not the people who were wrong, and heed those who reported the truth, not those who served as stenographers to liars."
-The media is in full snit-fit mode because Obama called on a Huffington Post reporter before most of the 'real' organizations. They're claiming it's because it's dangerous when a president decides beforehand to call on particular reporters, but that's been common practice for at least a decade now. And it's not like it's a Jeff Gannon situation - the reporter asked a legitimate question, it's not that they were called on to transparently ridiculously suck up. It's hard to see any reason for all the outrage except their defensiveness over their own status. This comparison of the Times' response to Obama's press conference and some of Bush's activities is a good round-up.
-More on the press conference - Chip Reid took the opportunity to ask whether McCain and Lindsay Graham's criticism will make Obama take a sharper tone with Iran. Yesterday, he criticized the White House's *over*-sharp response to Iran. Brilliant!
A few more miscellaneous things -
-The RNC made a Juneteenth video! Now, see, this is some of that outreach to minorities that Steele promised, and I think that's a worthy goal. But, um, in the video? Steele actually mentions *40 acres and a mule* as part of the close relationship between blacks and the GOP. ...no, really. He does. I...I...whut?
-Obama crush watch: the man reads *Urdu poetry.*
-Okay, favorite! At a conference promoting English-only initiatives by Pat Buchanon, they decided to mock Sotomayor for her college-age efforts to improve her English by reading some children's classics. This is WTF-worthy *enough*, as the goal is supposedly to encourage all US residents to learn their English. What makes this beautiful is that they held the conference under a banner that *misspelled the word.* Epic.
The big story, of course, was Gov. Sanford of SC (one of the GOP's leaders in the anti-stimulus fight, and someone raised as an early contender for 2012) going AWOL. The story was as follows: no one knows where he is! Wait, he's hiking on the Appalachian Trail! No, he actually decided to go to Argentina! And, of course, this all ended with him admitting in a press conference that he was actually going to visit a woman he's having an affair with. And while that kind of thing's interesting, it doesn't address the *actual* problem - that, as the chief executive of a state, he disappeared without telling anyone where he was going, or putting someone else in charge in his absence. Sanford seemed genuinely repentant in his press conference, but now he's comparing himself to King David sleeping with Bathsheba. Which kinda dampens any sympathy I had for him.
Commentary coming out of this: Limbaugh naturally blames Sanford carelessly having an affair on Sanford's despair that Obama is ruining the country. And Politico takes the occasion to comment on how Obama's family man image is even more of a contrast to the Republicans now...and that's a *bad thing* for him. Srsly. The author uses as an example the public's rejection of Mitt Romney, and makes a point to mention how devastatingly attractive the man is. It's...quite something.
Something else Sanford mentioned in his conference attracted attention - his mention of 'C Street,' which apparently refers to a house in DC for religious politicians run by a secretive organization called the Fellowship Foundation. For more about them, there's this unbelievably creepy account of a reporter who went undercover there. Interestingly, the organization speaks admiringly of King David as well, as they see that he was allowed to do whatever he wanted because he was "chosen" by God. "That's the way everything in life happens. If you're a person known to be around Jesus, you can go and do anything. And that's who you guys are." *shudder* SO CREEPY.
Media notes -
-The Washington Post fired one of its most popular columnists, Dan Froomkin. The rationale seems to be that the leadership there assumes that all liberals worship Obama, and as Froomkin criticizes Obama from a principled left-leaning standpoint just as he did Bush, liberals now won't be interested in him. The traffic and linking to his column sure haven't gone down any as far as I can tell, though. His last column, linked above, is made of win: "The handful of people who did exceptional investigative reporting during this era really deserve our gratitude [lists some relatively obscure writers] ... Notably not on this list: The likes of Bob Woodward and Tim Russert. Hopefully, the next time the nation faces a grave national security crisis, we will listen to the people who were right, not the people who were wrong, and heed those who reported the truth, not those who served as stenographers to liars."
-The media is in full snit-fit mode because Obama called on a Huffington Post reporter before most of the 'real' organizations. They're claiming it's because it's dangerous when a president decides beforehand to call on particular reporters, but that's been common practice for at least a decade now. And it's not like it's a Jeff Gannon situation - the reporter asked a legitimate question, it's not that they were called on to transparently ridiculously suck up. It's hard to see any reason for all the outrage except their defensiveness over their own status. This comparison of the Times' response to Obama's press conference and some of Bush's activities is a good round-up.
-More on the press conference - Chip Reid took the opportunity to ask whether McCain and Lindsay Graham's criticism will make Obama take a sharper tone with Iran. Yesterday, he criticized the White House's *over*-sharp response to Iran. Brilliant!
A few more miscellaneous things -
-The RNC made a Juneteenth video! Now, see, this is some of that outreach to minorities that Steele promised, and I think that's a worthy goal. But, um, in the video? Steele actually mentions *40 acres and a mule* as part of the close relationship between blacks and the GOP. ...no, really. He does. I...I...whut?
-Obama crush watch: the man reads *Urdu poetry.*
-Okay, favorite! At a conference promoting English-only initiatives by Pat Buchanon, they decided to mock Sotomayor for her college-age efforts to improve her English by reading some children's classics. This is WTF-worthy *enough*, as the goal is supposedly to encourage all US residents to learn their English. What makes this beautiful is that they held the conference under a banner that *misspelled the word.* Epic.
