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01 Nov 2010 19:08

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Politics: After the party: Reddit and Fark feel used by Stewart & Colbert

  • delight After weeks of heavy suggestion from the Internet, specifically Reddit, Comedy Central goes forward with “The Rally To Restore Sanity.” Everyone’s estatic.
  • dissing One of the co-founders of Reddit asks Stewart at a press conference how the Internet helped influence them to do the rally. His response? “It didn’t hurt.” Ouch.
  • drama Drew Curtis of Fark loudly rips Comedy Central for giving the Internet too little credit for sparking the idea. It’s the angriest we’ve ever seen Drew. source
  • » The lesson to take here: DO NOT PISS OFF THE INTERNET. EVEN IF YOU’RE JON FREAKING STEWART. THEY WILL TURN ON YOU.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 5 Comments • Permalink

01 Nov 2010 11:08

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Politics: Haley Barbour: GOP isn’t winning elections; Dems are losing them

  • We have to understand they’re not saying ‘Hey, we love you Republicans,’ but, ‘We’re not satisfied with this and will give you guys a chance.’
  • Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour • Explaining his reasoning of why the GOP will probably win big tomorrow: They’ll win in spite of themselves. The divisions this country has fostered over the last two years totally hint at it, and it’s something that GOP-leaning pollster Scott Rasmussen agrees with Barbour on: This election is a referendum on the Democrats, not a show of support to the Republicans. They have to earn it. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

31 Oct 2010 22:04

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Politics: Max Headroom: Examples of amplifying everything & hearing nothing

  • We hear nothing Jon Stewart had this killer line during his twelve-minute rant: “If we amplify everything, we hear nothing.” It’s so relevant to this video that you know that the second this moron starts yelling that you can ignore basically anything he says. He obviously heard nothing in the speech.
  • Missing the point And here’s someone who missed the whole point of the whole driving-through-the-tunnel analogy, which is that we have our differences and such but we’re just normal people. This guy instead suggests that “sanity” will be restored by Tuesday’s election. Not the same thing, buddy.
  • Here’s the point You know what critics of the rally are missing out of all of this? The inherent, almost simplistic euphoria that was around the event. The excitement that was there. There’s no politics in this video. Only a simple exchange between a random dude and a hot girl holding an “America” sign. Fuck yeah!
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

31 Oct 2010 21:17

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Politics: Reagan budget director: GOP, Dems going too far with tax cuts

  • It’s rank demagoguery. We should call it for what it is. If these people were all put into a room on penalty of death to come up with how much they could cut, they couldn’t come up with $50 billion, when the problem is $1.3 trillion. So, to stand before the public and rub raw this anti-tax sentiment, the Republican Party, as much as it pains me to say this, should be ashamed of themselves.
  • Reagan budget director David Stockman • Ripping his own freaking party for emphasizing a tax-cut strategy despite the fact that there’s a huge deficit. “It’s become in a sense an absolute,” he explains. “Something that can’t be questioned, something that’s gospel, something that’s sort of embedded into the catechism and so scratch the average Republican today and he’ll say ‘Tax cuts, tax cuts, tax cuts.'” The key point he seems to be getting at: We have too much going on as a government and it can’t simply be solved by cutting taxes. It’s a point that makes him angry when the Democrats (i.e. Obama) recommend it, too. The fact of the matter is that we have the Reagan tax cuts, the Bush tax cuts and now the Obama tax cuts. Is the solution cutting the government severely, like our boys in the U.K.? Or is it just raising taxes? A lot to question. (Thanks soupsoup) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

31 Oct 2010 20:58

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Politics, U.S.: Palin: ABC reporters are “corrupt bastards”

  • In this clip, Sarah Palin charges ABC affiliates in Alaska with “corruption,” claiming that they “conspired to make up stories about Joe Miller.” According to her, reporters at a recent Miller rally attempted to find a child molester in the crowd in order to discredit Miller and his supporters. A tape of has been released, and Palin “can’t wait until it busts out all over the nation.” source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 2 Comments • Permalink

31 Oct 2010 20:26

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Politics: DC Metro numbers suggest huge “Rally to Restore Sanity” crowds

  • 350,000 number of trips the DC Metro has on an average Saturday
  • 825,437 number of trips the DC Metro had yesterday source
  • » To put it in perspective: The rally had the highest Saturday ridership ever – passing the record set in June 1991, when a rally was held for Operation Desert Storm. That rally gave Metro around 786,358 trips that day. And assuming the riders went round-trip yesterday, that means 237,719 extra riders were on the Metro yesterday. That doesn’t mean 237,719 extra people – the tally doesn’t account for multiple trips by the same rider – but suffice it to say that the crowd was really huge yesterday. And no, the Beck rally (which also took place on a Saturday) didn’t even rate in the top five (which is what we know you were really wondering).
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

31 Oct 2010 11:33

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Politics: “Front groups” push negative ads on BOTH sides – not just GOP

  • lame Republican-leaning “front groups” have been pushing negative ads into campaigns across the country with little oversight. Democrats have loudly complained.
  • lamer Problem is, Democratic “front groups” also exist, and have been pushing negative ads into campaigns, too – most notably against Sharron Angle. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

31 Oct 2010 10:41

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Biz, Politics: Prop. 23-pushing Valero claims they’re not so eco-evil

Just because we’re pushing for Prop. 23 to pass means we hate the environment! Look! Here’s a worker of ours RIDING A BIKE AT OUR PLANT! SEE? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

31 Oct 2010 10:01

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Politics: Missy Smith, campaign ads, and reaching the bottom of the barrel

  • So, recently, this lady has been clogging DC airwaves with the worst ads. We saw them a few times over the weekend. Missy Smith’s been paying money to show aborted fetuses in as disgusting a light as possible, during daytime hours. (Click here if you’re curious.) And because she’s in cahoots with Randall Terry, the founder of Operation Rescue, she knew that she legally could force the TV stations to show them. In fact, she ran for Congress in DC (where she’s destined to lose, because Eleanor Holmes Norton is very popular) specifically to run these ads on television. The stations have had to put lengthy, 15-second warnings in front of the ads. And they’ve forced us to consider a few things:
  • Culture wars not over In the age of Obama, despite all the negative energy that’s been popping up, one positive of it is that certain social movements (specifically gay rights) have been looking more and more likely to go mainstream. But as this ad proves, certain wedge issues won’t go away quite that easily.
  • Playing to our divisions Jon Stewart’s twelve-minute rant at the very end of yesterday’s “Rally To Restore Sanity” was pretty much made for people like Smith and ads like this one. Most people aren’t like Smith, but people like Smith use stunts like these to dominate our dialogue. Don’t let these stunts define us, fellow Americans.
  • The bar has lowered In a political advertising season that started with Demon Sheep and has only gotten worse from there (barring Dale Peterson), it makes sense that we end it with an ad that literally shows aborted fetuses during daytime television. Those earlier ads set the stage for us to hit bottom. Now, here we are. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 Oct 2010 22:12

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Politics: McDonald’s franchisee regretting telling workers how to vote

  • If the right people are elected, we will be able to continue with raises and benefits at or above our present levels. If others are elected, we will not.
  • A message distributed with paychecks at a Canton, Ohio McDonald’s • Telling employees to vote for the GOP – or else. The dude who sent out the note with the paychecks was called out for it, for good reason, but he gave one of those non-apology apologies which are in vogue nowadays. “Distributing this communication was an error of judgment on my part,” said a statement from franchisee Paul Siegfried. “Please know it was never my intention to offend anyone. For those that I have offended, I sincerely apologize.” Protip: Don’t disenfranchise voters by threatening to cut (or limit) their benefits. It’ll bite you in the ass. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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