Ted Sorensen, who was JFK’s right hand man and primary speechwriter, has died at the age of 82. I met Mr. Sorensen once and found him to be a charming and courteous gentleman. He also laughed at my jokes, which was truly endearing… Continue reading Ted Sorensen, R.I.P.
Happy Halloween from all of us here at First Draft. First, a picture of a San Francisco Giants fan ready for this holiday: Second, a Halloween classic, Boo from Crowded House: Continue reading The Rally Pumpkin Meets Sister Madly
Or is that silk stocking mudslinging? Anyway, ever wondered what sort of negative ads Thomas Jefferson and John Adams would have run? If you have, this video is for you: What? No “Dusky Sally” references? Hat Tip: Ray Ward @ Minor Wisdom. Continue reading Powdered Wig Mudslinging
As an antidote to all the political despair of late: Who are you the most proud of voting for in your voting history? Local, presidential, etc. Me? My eternal political boyfriend, John Kerry. A. Continue reading Weekend Question Thread
Kitteh and fox are friends. So post away. A. Continue reading Saturday Blogwhoring Thread
Dr. A and I don’t like our next door neighbors. That’s an understatement: we call them Mr. and Mrs Moron, which is not an understatement. I’m not sure what the over, under is on this but thinking about their annual Halloween conclave of knuckledraggers gave me an Aimee Mann earworm. Not a bad thing: Meow. I am a nasty man sometimes but these people are malakas. Here’s only one example: they’ve lived next door to us for 8 years and I’ve only seen them walk their basset hounds once. Bad dog people, bad dog people.. Continue reading Stupid Thing
“You’re lucky,” a guy I knew pretty well told me today when we hooked up at a national media convention. “You didn’t get the job with us.” Two years ago at this time, I was trying anything to get out of wherever I was and into something I thought I should be getting into. I applied for a job at Big Name School, which would have pushed me into a higher-level job at a better-known university doing “more important” things. I got the call, made the visit and was cripplingly disappointed in the school, the faculty, the attitude and more. … Continue reading Welcome to wherever you are
It’s time for the insomniac edition of the malaka of the week, which means it’s gonna be short. I was wired from the Giants taking a 2-0 lead in the World Series and watching Charlie Melancon trounce Bitter Vitter in a debate. It’s just a pity he didn’t grow a pair earlier: he won the battle but is going to lose the war. Now where was I? Oh yeah, malakatude. There’s a lot to choose from this week but I’m tired of kicking teabagger ass so I turned my attention to the trulyhorrendous story at Gawker about some dude’s alleged … Continue reading Malaka Of The Week: Gawker
Crack Van on Tuesday for election results, cats and kittens, starting around probably 5 or so. I have to work the early evening, but I’m pretty sure I can trust you guys to take turns driving until I get home around 7. Remember: friends don’t let friends watch Hardball unmedicated. A. Continue reading Next Week
Charming. I will listen to wank about civility and decency and gatekeeping in traditional journalism after he is fired. Until then, seriously, cool it about how the Internet says fuck a lot. I swear, every once in a while it bothers me, that of all the things I’ve said in this space that have been objectionable to lots of people, I’ve never called for anyone’s murder and yet baby up there is famous and I’m begging people to return my calls. Every once in a while, it gets very, very discouraging. A. Continue reading This Man Has a Major Newspaper Column
The ferrets are caged when we’re not here, mostly for their safety because they get into EVERYTHING RIOT GET OUT OF MY BAG, and lately, we’ve been not here a lot. The magnificent ferret condo we bought for the late Fox seven years ago was really too small for three ferrets, even if Claire is secretly a hamster, and when we leave for the weekend I always feel guilty about cooping them up for 24 hours straight. It’s been time to upgrade for a while. So this week we did: The dingos now live in the ferret equivalent of a … Continue reading Friday Ferretblogging: Movin’ On Up Edition
Dr. A calls this picture, “Ya lookin’ at me?” That sums it up. We live in a Dellacentric world and we’re only here to serve Della Street. That makes us typical cat people… Continue reading Friday Catblogging: Attitude Redux
Seriously, when the kids come to you with the history books open, how on earth are you gonna explain this one: During the interview Tuesday on WDEL-AM, O’Donnell snapped her fingers and beckoned a spokesman to her side after the host of “The Rick Jensen Show” pressed her on how she would have handled the New Castle County budget differently from her Democratic opponent Chris Coons, who is the executive of the state’s largest county. Jensen told The Associated Press that O’Donnell said after the interview that she would sue if the video was released. O’Donnell campaign manager Matt Moran … Continue reading Our Stupid Election Cycle
According to the Guardian, Roger Sterling’s fictional memoir will be published in what we laughingly call the real world: Hard-drinking, philandering but charismatic advertising chief Roger Sterling from the hit American TV dramaMad Men is to have his fictional autobiography – which features in series four of the fictional series – converted into reality next month. USpublishing house Grove/Atlantic has spotted an opportunity and will bring out Sterling’s Gold: Wit and Wisdom of an Ad Man by Roger Sterling Jr in time for the Christmas stockings of the many fans of the series. Mad Men, which is set in the … Continue reading Life Imitates Mad Men
Obama on the Daily Show: The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c Barack Obama Pt. 1 http://www.thedailyshow.com http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:comedycentral.com:363490 Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Rally to Restore Sanity Obama with The Important Bloggers of Our Time: I think that there may be additional ideas that traditionally have garnered some bipartisan support that we can move forward on. But the point that you’re making I think is really important. Yes, people are concerned about debt and deficit. But the single thing people are most concerned about are jobs. And those jobs are going to come from … Continue reading The Obama Charm Offensive
FromAlbum3 …of how this election cycle isn’t left versus right, but reason versus ignorance and superstition(aka the world according to Fox.) Continue reading Yet Another Example
I’m old enough to have voted for Jerry Brown for Governor in 1978. In 2010, he’s one of the bright spots in a rather bleak landscape for Democrats. The Brown camp took a lot of criticism for not going on the air earier but their strategy of letting voters get sick of Meg Whitman seems to be working. Well done, y’all. Here’s another clever commercial from the Brown campaign that twins Whitman with outgoing and very unpopular Governor Ahnuld: It also reminds us of the putrid “comedy” with Ahnuld and Danny DeVito as Twins. Louie DePalma would have mopped the … Continue reading Twins
Yesterday, as I was farting around on the internetz, like I do, looking for more about the filmTrigger, which I really, really, really wish I could see but apparently will have to move to Canada before I can, I stumbled across this old episode ofTwitch City. I fell in love with this show years ago. I haven’t thought about in a while but back when Bravo picked it up, my ex was working night shifts and I was watching a lot of late night television. A lot. I’m pretty sure this show was the first time I sort of lost … Continue reading A cautionary tale
Time for some comic relief.Cherie Blair was discovered trying to auction husband Tony’s autograph on eBay for a mere ten quid.
Those disappointed whenTony Blairhad to cancel a book-signing due to protests last month will be pleased to learn they can now buy the former prime minister’s signature – from his wife, Cherie.
Cherie Blair, a barrister who together with her husband has amassed a large fortune, sold a signed “bookplate” oneBay for £10, it has emerged.
The enterprising former Downing Street resident offered the item – designed to fit into copies of Tony Blair’s autobiography A Journey – at £25 on the auction site last week.
So day before yesterday, over at that esteemed bastion of critical thinking, Marie Claire magazine, this happened:
The other day, my editor asked me, “Do you really think people feel uncomfortable when they see overweight people making out on television?” … Yes, I think I’d be grossed out if I had to watch two characters with rolls and rolls of fat kissing each other … because I’d be grossed out if I had to watch them doing anything.
It wasn’t just the one excerpt that was jaw-dropping. Writer Maura Kelly went blithely on (and on) about the ickiness of just having to exist in the same world with fat people,
To be brutally honest, even in real life, I find it aesthetically displeasing to watch a very, very fat person simply walk across a room — just like I’d find it distressing if I saw a very drunk person stumbling across a bar or a heroine [sic] addict slumping in a chair.
not to mention seeing them on her teevee, validating their right to exist and all.
My initial response was: Hmm, being overweight is one thing — those people are downright obese! And while I think our country’s obsession with physical perfection is unhealthy, I also think it’s at least equally crazy, albeit in the other direction, to be implicitly promoting obesity! Yes, anorexia is sick, but at least some slim models are simply naturally skinny.
She even dispensed some nutrition advice because everyone knows fat people really do have “a ton of control” over their issues, if they would just put their mind to it.
But hey, don’t get the wrong impression of her!
I have a few friends who could be called plump. I’m not some size-ist jerk.
All of which unleashed a (justified) shitstorm and not just the 900+ comments on the post buthere andhere andall over.
Apparently gobsmacked at the reaction, Kelly apologized — hey she really thinks it’s totally cool to have all shapes and sizes of people in magazines and TV as long as they’re not, you know, obese — and also copped to having some underlying body image issues and a history of anorexia. Which, just maybe, might have influenced what she wrote. To her credit, the apology seems heartfelt and honest, if stillway clueless, and in no way does she deserve the more extreme responses, like having her address and phone number made public. That shit is not cool, nor is it remotely “understandable.”
Former Gret Stet Fuhrer wannabe David Duke has glommed on to the Tea Party. Duke looks as if he’s had a bit too much plastic surgery: skin peel anyone? HAT TIP: Greg Peters at Suspect Device. Continue reading Speaking Of Brownshirtery
All you other Dick Cheneys are just imitating. Tim Profitt — the former Rand Paul volunteer who stomped on the head of a MoveOn activist —told told local CBS station WKYT that he wants an apology from the woman he stomped and that she started the whole thing. “I don’t think it’s that big of a deal,” Profitt said. “I would like for her to apologize to me to be honest with you.” “She’s a professional at what she does,” Profittadded, “and I think when all the facts come out, I think people will see that she was the one … Continue reading Guys? Only Dick Cheney can be Dick Cheney
Undertow, fromWarpaint‘s just-barely-released albumThe Fool. Nice, very nice. Continue reading WWTFUS: better not to light that fire
Jacob, from a recap I read once a week, no kidding:
… Guy gets on a train with a box, airholes in the side. The man he sits down next to asks him about it, and he admits that he’s got a mongoose in there. Dude B is like, “Not something normal, like a bunny or acat?” No, there’s more to the story. “It’s because of my older brother. He’s a drunk, among other things, and at this point he’s just completely out of his tree. He sees serpents, everywhere. Everywhere he looks, he’s seeing these snakes and they make him terrified.” And Dude B is like, “So they’re imaginary?” Yeah. “So then why the mongoose?” And the first guy smiles and looks very meaningfully at the box, which is empty. “Imaginary mongoose.”
Continue reading “I Will Not Be Alone Again: Caprica Thread”
The whole Lauren Valle getting stomped by a Paultard story gets weirder by the moment. The video clip I saw Tuesday night on MSNBC showed the blows (kicks?) landing harder than I previously thought. Holy concussion, Batman. The stomper, Tim Profitt, was a Paul campaign lackey and Ms. Valle has asserted that the Paultards knew who she was. I believe her.What I don’t believe is the stomper’s ridiculous explanation for why he assaulted Ms. Valle: back pain. Talk about preposterous piffle. I have a bad back but it’s never led me to stomp anyone; especially not a woman wearing glasses … Continue reading American Brownshirts
Vanity Fair has posted an hilarious spoof of a beefcake calendarthat features nuts; Republican wingnuts to be specific. They run the gamut of Goopers but I’m only posting Mr. September who is a man so callow and gawky that not even photoshop can make him look good. He’s also the not so great Governor of the Gret Stet of Looziana, PBJ: HAT TIP: Kevin Allman at the Gambit Tabloid blog. Continue reading Mr. September
The 2010 edition of the freak show keeps spinning out of control.Some lefty had the nerve to try to present Rand Paul with a mock award before his final debate with Jack Conway. She wound up with some creep’s footprint on her head: Well, that certainly redefines Southern hospitality. I wonder if the news director of that local Fox station got an angry call from Roger Ailes or one of his underlings. It’s a good thing that the stomper was wearing sneakers when he stepped on the lefty’s head or she could have been seriously hurt. I can’t wait to … Continue reading Redneckery In Kentucky, Teanut Style
Why should the Blue Dogs cooperate with the rest of the Dems anyway? With President Obama in office, some notable beneficiaries of the Democrats’ 50-state strategy have been antagonizing the party from within — causing legislative stalemate in Congress, especially in the Senate, and casting doubt on the long-term viability of a Democratic majority. As a result, the activists who were so inspired by Mr. Dean in 2006 and Mr. Obama in 2008 are now feeling buyer’s remorse. Margaret Johnson, a former party chairwoman in Polk County, N.C., helped elect Representative Shuler but now believes the party would be better … Continue reading Blue Dogs, Booting, and Running Away
Meg Whitman recently waxed nostalgic about the “good old days” in California when she arrived in 1980. Jerry Brown fired back with one of the best ads by a Democrat this election cycle. Pure political genius: Continue reading Meg Whitman Steps In It
Anyone experiencingMad Menwithdrawal symptoms? I sure as hell am after mainlining season-4. I’m jonesing to write a wrap up post but the show’s a wrap so there’s nothing to wrap up.In lieu of that, here’s a nifty article from the San Francisco Chronicle about aMad Men course at UC Berkeley:
“Mad Men” is a television series about a time in the early ’60s when sexual harassment in the workplace was the norm, and people smoked cigarettes with abandon. It’s also an unlikely source for a history lesson. But it’s exactly where dozens ofUC Berkeley students are turning to learn more about an era many of them find intriguing.
The cult hit is the subject of a new course on campus exploring the lives of the show’s cocktail-swilling, social-climbing advertising executives on New York’s Madison Avenue.