DailyHowler.com

DailyHowler.com http://www.DailyHowler.com THE DAILY HOWLER is the first post-Socratic press corps review and applies the simplest rules of thought to the exertions of the celebrity press corps. en-us Copyright 1998-2011 Tue, 02 Aug 2011 16:33:00 +2600 Tue, 02 Aug 2011 16:33:00 +2600 marc.cherbonnier@gmail.com (Marc Cherbonnier) bobsomerby@hotmail.com DailyHowler.com http://www.DailyHowler.com/dailyhowler_logo070604g.jpg http://www.DailyHowler.com Print view: Joe Nocera is very angry. Except for the fact that he isn't http://www.DailyHowler.com/dh080211.html A fine place to say you will: Cooperstown is <a href="http://www.christchurchcooperstown.org/index.html" target="_blank">a very nice place for a wedding</a>, especially one with such all-star participants. Each party said that he or she will. Finest bride we ever witnessed! Otsego Lake has never looked wetter. Locals admit that it's not a Great Lake. All the same, it's a very good lake, and we heard no one say different. Much earlier, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Fenimore_Cooper" target="_blank">these acts occurred</a>. History takes a long time, though things can go down very fast. Special report: The discourse you rode in on!< <a href="http://www.DailyHowler.com/dh080211.html">continued...</a> Print view: In a discussion you've never heard, Bruce Bartlett seconded Krugman http://www.DailyHowler.com/dh072911.html It's not a bad time to be pooling resources: We're off on a mission of national import. Actually, we're attending a wedding tomorrow. It's not a bad time to be pooling resources! If the highways are still open, we'll be back at the start of the week. A DISCUSSION YOU'VE NEVER HEARD: How foolish is your national discourse? This foolish: The Washington Post is one of our most important "newspapers." Yesterday, on its op-ed page, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-the-tea-party-is-unyielding-on-the-debt-ceiling/2011/07/27/gIQAGvEVdI_story.html" target="_blank">this ludicrous statement appeared</a>: <blockquote> PHILLIPS (7/28/11): As the founder of Tea Party Nation, I feel confident in saying that the Tea Party understands what so many in Washington seem to have forgotten: We do not have a debt crisis. We have a spending crisis. There is only one way you get to a debt crisis--you spend too much money.</blockquote> That highlighted statement is dumb-beyond-stupid. <a href="http://www.DailyHowler.com/dh072911.html">continued...</a> Print view: In a full-page, eleventh-hour report, the Times moves past self-parody http://www.DailyHowler.com/dh072811.html A great big pile of inept: Good god! Did Big Ed actually say that? Last night, we were watching the opening segment of the Ed Show. (To watch the full segment, <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/43920762#43920762" target="_blank">click here</a>.) About three minutes into the program, Big Eddie played tape of John McCain on the Senate floor, bashing some fellow Republican solons. By the time Big Ed went on the air, McCain's statement had been discussed for hours on the liberal web. But so what? Before playing the tape of McCain's attacks, Big Eddie offered this framework: <blockquote> SCHULTZ (7/27/11): Even Senate Republicans know that Boehner's bill will never fly. MCCAIN (videotape): What is really amazing about this is that some, some members are believing that we can pass a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution in this body, with its present representation, and that is foolish. That is worse than foolish. That is deceiving. That is not fair to the American people. <a href="http://www.DailyHowler.com/dh072811.html">continued...</a> Print view: On Sunday, the country's most famous news hosts asked the world's most useless questions http://www.DailyHowler.com/dh072711.html Already on tape: We're late today because we taped the Marc Steiner Show with the University of Maryland's Sheri Parks. <a href="http://www.weaa.org/" target="_blank">The program airs on WEAA</a>, Morgan State's NPR affiliate. We worked our way out from the Murdoch debacle. For a mixed time, <a href="http://www.steinershow.org/radio/the-marc-steiner-show/july-27-2011-segment-1" target="_blank">just click here</a>. Maureen Dowd has nothing to say/Thomas L. Friedman is quoting himself: Maureen Dowd has nothing to say. Her new column shows how a Pulitzer-winner deals with this time-honored problem: First, you kill four paragraphs with silly clatter about a time-travel claim out of Hong Kong. After that, you toss in some pop culture pap. (Marty McFly, "Cowboys & Aliens.") Then, to kill a bit more time, you revisit your silliest hits about the current president. <a href="http://www.DailyHowler.com/dh072711.html">continued...</a> Print view: Number, please! We pity the fool who is forced to rely on the Post's ever-changing facts http://www.DailyHowler.com/dh072611.html Charlie's clash of the titans: David Brooks is snarking hard <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/26/opinion/26brooks.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper" target="_blank">in this morning's New York Times</a>. We'll take a bit of a guess: He may be making up for some very bad conduct on last Friday's Charlie Rose show. On that program, Rose produced an eighteen-minute clash of the titans--a discussion of the budget mess which matched Brooks with his colleague, Paul Krugman. Brooks told a bit too much of the truth that night. Today, he may be making up for that indiscretion. Whatever! We thought that Charlie Rose segment was very much worth noting. We'll direct your attention to four aspects of the titans' discussion. To watch the whole segment, <a href="http://www.charlierose.c <a href="http://www.DailyHowler.com/dh072611.html">continued...</a> Print view: If you don't like the facts in the New York Times, you should just wait a while http://www.DailyHowler.com/dh072511.html Name that Murdoch aide/The Times does: On Friday, we asked you to name the Murdoch aide who sat right behind the great man at last week's hearing. That aide is a former Bloomberg aide; he scored his big pay-day last fall. For the New York Times' (wide-eyed) account, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/business/media/joel-klein-ex-schools-chief-leads-internal-news-corp-inquiry.html?ref=todayspaper" target="_blank">click here</a>. More on this striking story at the end of the week. The nature of manufactured consent: Yesterday, the silly-bills were out in force in the New York Times "Sunday Review." As the nation slid toward the sea, Frank Bruni wasted everyone's time with worthless predictions about who will win the GOP nomination. Mostly, though, he frisked Michele Bachmann--or at least, he pretended. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/opinion/sunday/24bruni.h <a href="http://www.DailyHowler.com/dh072511.html">continued...</a> Print view: Chomsky described this scam long ago. He ''didn't'' blame average people http://www.DailyHowler.com/dh072211.html Norquist v. Chance the gardener: Frank Bruni appeared with Piers Morgan last night, chatting away with the ex-Murdoch hack. But first, let's examine Grover's Norquist's appearance in today's New York Times. Grover appears on the Times op-ed page, right beneath a pointless piece in which the Times' own Judith Warner muses about Bachmann's headaches. As Warner piddles your life away, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/22/opinion/22Norquist.html?ref=todayspaper" target="_blank">Grover's column helps explain</a> how your country got to its current place: <blockquote> NORQUIST (7/22/11): Reap My Lips: No New Taxes The Taxpayer Protection Pledge has received increased attention as the Aug. 2 deadline for raising the debt ceiling approaches. My organization, Americans for Tax Reform, created the pledge in 1986 as a simple, written commitment by a candidate or elected official that he or she will oppose, and vote against, tax increases. Over the years many candidates and elected officials have signed the pledge, including 236 current members of the House of Representatives and 41 current senators. Nevertheless, there is some confusion these days about what the pledge does and doesn't mean, and numerous people have tried to reconfigure its intent to somehow allow its signatories to support tax increases. <a href="http://www.DailyHowler.com/dh072211.html">continued...</a> Print view: On July 14, the Washington Post reported some facts about the debt limit crisis http://www.DailyHowler.com/dh072111.html Kristof brings in the snide/The news page eschews basic facts: This morning, Nicholas Kristof flies away to a lazy man's retreat. Discussing the ongoing debt limit crisis, he turns to the snark and the snide. His wonderful paper, the New York Times, continues to avoid reporting the most basic facts about this complex matter (see below). But great men like Kristof don't stoop to explain. This morning, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/21/opinion/21kristof.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper" target="_blank">he brings in the snide</a>: <blockquote> KRISTOF (7/21/11): The first few times I heard House Republicans talk about our budget mess, I worried that they had plunged off the deep end. But as I kept on listening, a buzzer went off in my mind, and I came to understand how much sense the Tea Party caucus makes. Why would we impose "job-crushing taxes" on wealthy Americans just to pay for luxuries like federal prisons? Why end the "carried interest" tax loophole for financiers, just to pay for unemployment benefits--especially when those same selfless tycoons are buying yachts and thus creating jobs for all the rest of us? Hmmm. The truth is that House Republicans don't actually go far enough. <a href="http://www.DailyHowler.com/dh072111.html">continued...</a> Print view: Why do voters believe foolish claims? Let's review last Wednesday's Hardball http://www.DailyHowler.com/dh072011.html Establishment values and logic/Why your side can't win: Michelle Cottle is a major establishment player. Rather clearly, she has been in training for several years to be the establishment press corps' replacement for Cokie Roberts. She's is training to be the New Cokie--a clucking southern woman who states the establishment view on all troubling moral affairs. Beyond that, Cottle has become a large bottom-feeder over the past dozen years. Yesterday, at the Daily Beast, she showed how low the establishment is going to go in these brave new years. Are Murdoch's newspapers "bottom-feeders?" This was the Daily Beast headline: "Bachmann Rumor Grows Louder." No, it isn't always wrong to report on a political rumor. But as she starts, Cottle shows that rumor and "whispers" are now assumed to be a basic part of the process: <blockquote> COTTLE (7/20/11): Hear that snickering? That's the sound of the 2012 mudslinging starting in earnest. If you aren't yet familiar with the growing whispers about Michele Bachmann's campaign--the uncorroborated speculation that the candidate's profoundly antigay hubby, Marcus, is a closeted gay man--you will be. The chatter has already made its way from the blogs and Twitter (Cher tweeted that Marcus has tripped her exquisitely tuned gaydar) to the alternative press to The Daily Show, where Jon Stewart and Jerry Seinfeld left each other in stitches this week taking shots at Marcus Bachmann's effeminate manner and "center-square gay" voice. (Anyone out there old enough to remember Paul Lynde?) <a href="http://www.DailyHowler.com/dh072011.html">continued...</a> Print view: Digby spotted a ship of fools when Pew asked a basic question http://www.DailyHowler.com/dh071911.html Christopher's latest vast fail: Wow. To observe the latest epic fail, take a look at Chris Matthews' attempt to debate Grover Norquist on last evening's Hardball. To watch the full segment, <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/#43800947" target="_blank">just click this</a>. Who is Grover Norquist? <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grover_Norquist" target="_blank">Click here</a>. Can we talk? Matthews is stunningly unprepared to discuss any policy topic. Regarding his debate with Norquist, a college sophomore could have done better after three weeks of Government 1. Frank Bruni could have done better last night! Gail Collins could have put up a better fight, in between obsessive references to Mitt Romney's poor abused dog. (Eighteen columns and counting, although she's now "on book leave." <a href="http://www.DailyHowler.com/dh071911.html">continued...</a> Point. Click. Search. Search this weblog. q http://www.google.com/custom