New and Improved!
Yet another goody from Musings of a Philosophical Scrivener…
The Geek Test:I guess not learning Klingon and not being a serious gamer hurt my score. I think I should get extra credit for questioning the need to calculate the score to five decimal places.
I view the potential return of UFO about the same as the return of Battlestar Galactica.
I suppose it won’t be too long before someone tries to bring back Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.
(via Eschaton)
Fox’s bias directed by a daily memo from management:
But the roots of FNC’s day-to-day on-air bias are actual and direct. They come in the form of an executive memo distributed electronically each morning, addressing what stories will be covered and, often, suggesting how they should be covered. To the newsroom personnel responsible for the channel’s daytime programming, The Memo is the bible. If, on any given day, you notice that the Fox anchors seem to be trying to drive a particular point home, you can bet The Memo is behind it.
The Memo was born with the Bush administration, early in 2001, and, intentionally or not, has ensured that the administration’s point of view consistently comes across on FNC. This year, of course, the war in Iraq became a constant subject of The Memo. But along with the obvious – information on who is where and what they’ll be covering – there have been subtle hints as to the tone of the anchors’ copy. For instance, from the March 20th memo: “There is something utterly incomprehensible about Kofi Annan’s remarks in which he allows that his thoughts are ‘with the Iraqi people.’ One could ask where those thoughts were during the 23 years Saddam Hussein was brutalizing those same Iraqis. Food for thought.” Can there be any doubt that the memo was offering not only “food for thought,” but a direction for the FNC writers and anchors to go? Especially after describing the U.N. Secretary General’s remarks as “utterly incomprehensible”?
How can anyone think Fox News is Fair and Balanced?
(Thanks to Cup O’ Joe for inspiring the headline)
Donald Luskin is threatening Atrios with a libel suit.
Luskin has problems with comments in response to Diary of a Stalker.
Aren’t conservatives supposed to be against bogging down the legal system with frivolous lawsuits?
Yesterday, George W. Bush (aka Miserable Failure) blamed the “Mission Accomplish” fiasco on the crew of the USS Lincoln:
THE PRESIDENT: Nora, I think you ought to look at my speech. I said, Iraq is a dangerous place and we’ve still got hard work to do, there’s still more to be done. And we had just come off a very successful military operation. I was there to thank the troops.
The “Mission Accomplished” sign, of course, was put up by the members of the USS Abraham Lincoln, saying that their mission was accomplished. I know it was attributed some how to some ingenious advance man from my staff — they weren’t that ingenious, by the way.
From Media Whores Online:
MSNBC’s Buchanan and Press…
BILL PRESS: Bush said…the crew of the ship put that sign up. Now we find out the White House has just confirmed, we just got this handed to us…Senior Navy officials now confirm the sign was in fact produced by the White House.
–Bush to troops in Qatar, 6/05/03
I suppose it’s the troops’ fault that Bush said “that mission has been accomplished.”
I’m listening to Miserable Failure‘s press conference. He sounds completely disinterested and disengaged (even more so than usual).
His doctors must be messing with is meds…
Apparently Iraq is a dangerous place.
New Bush word: Suiciders
Update: here’s the transcript.
Here’s an “interesting” exchange:
Q Thank you, Mr. President. You recently put Condoleezza Rice, your National Security Advisor, in charge of the management of the administration’s Iraq policy. What has effectively changed since she’s been in charge? And the second question, can you promise a year from now that you will have reduced the number of troops in Iraq?
THE PRESIDENT: The second question is a trick question, so I won’t answer it.
Let’s not forget his attempt to blame the whole “Mission Accomplished” fiasco on the crew of the USS Lincoln.
Q Mr. President, if I may take you back to May 1st when you stood on the USS Lincoln under a huge banner that said, “Mission Accomplished.” At that time you declared major combat operations were over, but since that time there have been over 1,000 wounded, many of them amputees who are recovering at Walter Reed, 217 killed in action since that date. Will you acknowledge now that you were premature in making those remarks?
THE PRESIDENT: Nora, I think you ought to look at my speech. I said, Iraq is a dangerous place and we’ve still got hard work to do, there’s still more to be done. And we had just come off a very successful military operation. I was there to thank the troops.
The “Mission Accomplished” sign, of course, was put up by the members of the USS Abraham Lincoln, saying that their mission was accomplished. I know it was attributed some how to some ingenious advance man from my staff — they weren’t that ingenious, by the way.
I’ll bet versions of this predate Bush, but it’s still damn funny…
While walking down the street one day, George “Dubya” Bush is shot and killed by a disgruntled NRA member. His soul arrives in heaven and he is met by St. Peter at the Pearly Gates. “Welcome to Heaven,” says St. Peter. “Before you settle in, it seems there is a problem: We seldom know what to do with a Republicans in these parts, and the same goes for you. “No problem, just let me in; I’m a believer.” says Dubya
“I’d like to just let you in, but I have orders from the Man Himself: He says you have to spend one day in Hell and one day in Heaven. Then you must choose where you’ll live for eternity.”
“But, I’ve already made up my mind; I want to be in Heaven.”
“I’m sorry, but we have our rules.” And with that Peter escorts him to an elevator and he goes down, down, down, all the way to Hell The doors open and he finds himself in the middle of a lush golf course the sun is shining in a cloudless sky, the temperature perfect 72 degrees.
In the distance is a beautiful clubhouse. Standing in front of it his dad…and thousands of other Republicans who had helped him out over the years… Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, Jerry Falwell…. The whole of the “Right” was there…everyone laughing…happy…casually but expensively dressed.
They run to greet him, hug him, and reminisce about the good times they had getting rich at expense of the “suckers and peasants”. They play a friendly game of golf and then dine on lobster and caviar.
The Devil himself comes up to Bush with a frosty drink, “Have a Margarita and relax, Dubya!”
“Uh, I can’t drink no more, I took a pledge,” says Junior, dejectedly.
“This is Hell, son: you can drink and eat all you want and not worry, and it just gets better from there!”
Dubya takes the drink and finds himself liking the Devil, who he thinks is a really very friendly guy who tells funny jokes and pulls hilarious nasty pranks, kind of like a Yale Skull and Bones brother with real horns.
They are having such a great time that, before he realizes it, it’s time to go. Everyone gives him a big hug and waves as Bush steps on the elevator and heads upward.
When the elevator door reopens, he is in Heaven again and St. Peter is waiting for him. “Now it’s time to visit Heaven,” the old man says, opening the gate.
So for 24 hours Bush is made to hang out with a bunch of honest, good-natured people who enjoy each other’s company, talk about things other than money, and treat each other decently. Not a nasty prank or frat boy joke among them; no fancy country clubs and, while the food tastes great, it’s not caviar or lobster. And these people are all poor, he doesn’t see anybody he knows, and he isn’t even treated like someone special!
Worst of all, to Dubya, Jesus turns out to be some kind of Jewish hippie with his endless ‘peace’ and ‘do unto others’ jive.
“Whoa,” he says uncomfortably to himself, “Pat Robertson never prepared me for this!”
The day done, St. Peter returns and says, “Well, then, you’ve spent a day in Hell and a day in Heaven. Now choose where you want to live for eternity.”
With the ‘Jeopardy’ theme playing softly in the background,Dubya reflects for a minute, then answers: “Well, I would never have thought I’d say this — I mean, Heaven has been delightful and all but I really think I belong in Hell with my friends.
So Saint Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes down, down, down, all the way to Hell.
The doors of the elevator open and he is in the middle of a barren scorched earth covered with garbage and toxic industrial waste…kind of like Houston. He is horrified to see all of his friends, dressed in rags and chained together, picking up the trash and putting it in black bags. They are groaning and moaning in pain,faces and hands black with grime. The Devil come over to Dubya and puts an arm around his shoulder.
“I don’t understand,” stammers a shocked Dubya, “Yesterday I was here and there was a golf course and a clubhouse and drank and ate caviar… I drank booze. We screwed around and had a great time.
Now there’s just a wasteland full of garbage and everybody looks miserable.
The Devil looks at him, smiles slyly, and purrs, “Yesterday we were campaigning; today you voted for us.”
Here’s a nifty idea for a new web project from Blah3.
From this day forth, I will refer to George W. Bush as a Miserable Failure at least once a day. Why, you ask? Well, someone came up with this great idea to link George W. Bush and Miserable Failure in popular search engines. If you have a blog or web site, help raise the link between George W. Bush and the phrase ‘miserable failure‘ by copying this link and placing somewhere on your site or blog.
Thank you very much for your participation.
“The more progress we make on the ground, the more free the Iraqis become, the more electricity that’s available, the more jobs are available, the more kids that are going to school, the more desperate these killers become,” Bush told reporters at the White House.
So goes the spin machine…
Battlestar Galactica – They’re so bankrupt of ideas they’re starting to remake shows that sucked. On the bright side, it probably can’t be any worse than the original (OK, Galactica 1980 was worse).
On the other hand, I’ll be impressed if the new Battlestar Galactica actually turns out to be good.