Media

AFA boycotting Desperate Housewives

The American Family Association is urging a boycott of Desperate Housewives. Of course my response to TV censorship is always “unplug the TV” — but this time the nutjobs are addressing my retort:

Some people have said to pro-family viewers who dislike indecent network TV programming simply to turn it off, Wildmon notes. In response, he asks, “Why should we have to do that? Why do our children need to be exposed to such trash? Why do the networks keep putting out trash?

Because some of us are paying good money for that trash, mister, and we want it on our damn TVs. You can take my favorite TV shows when you pry them from my cold, dead hands. Which will never happen, because if it comes down to me or you biting it, it’s gonna be you.

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1,325 images – More Abu Graib photos, exclusively on Salon.com

Salon.com does the Australian media one better, by obtaining a huge cache of pictures and secret goverment documents on the Abu Graib scandal. They explain why they are publishing the information and then go on to show you all the new pictures Warning: don’t look at these at work, or after you’ve just eaten. What our government is doing in your name will cause you to lose your lunch.

The DVD containing the material includes a June 6, 2004, CID investigation report written by Special Agent James E. Seigmund. That report includes the following summary of the material included: “A review of all the computer media submitted to this office revealed a total of 1,325 images of suspected detainee abuse, 93 video files of suspected detainee abuse, 660 images of adult pornography, 546 images of suspected dead Iraqi detainees, 29 images of soldiers in simulated sexual acts, 20 images of a soldier with a Swastika drawn between his eyes, 37 images of Military Working dogs being used in abuse of detainees and 125 images of questionable acts.”

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Chris Matthews suggests that gay people are burning churches

What the hell? Chris Matthews suggested that gay people are responsible for a series of church burnings that occurred last Thursday in Alabama. See the video of his suggestions (made with out any proof).

MATTHEWS: Is there anything in the papers down there where a Baptist church has taken a position on some social issue, gay marriage, something that’s hot, where that would have aroused somebody?

ATF AGENT CAVANAUGH: I haven’t seen that Chris, but it’s very viable because we had an arson at a Unitarian church in rural Virginia, back in the summer, and it was right after the church at a national level had embraced gay members. There was an attack on this church in Staunton (?), Virginia, so things like that can happen.

MATTHEWS: That’s why I’m thinking like that because the more liberal churches would drive some people on the right crazy and maybe a more liberal person, who’s gay for example, would feel that they’ve been terrorized by the beliefs of another church too. We don’t know.

Way to demonize gay people, Chris.

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Congress blocked from Wikipedia

My brother Scott sent me this dandy link to a page on Wikipedia detailing a problem they’ve had with our elected officials. Seems some of the folks inside the beltway have been vandalizing wikipedia pages by replacing their own politician’s pages with slick PR copy, while trashing their opponents pages with derogatory, and sometimes obscene writings. Naughty, Naughty.
Now the admins at Wikipedia have banned the IP addresses from several congressional offices temporarily, and are discussing a permanent ban to prevent people who can’t play nice from being able to play at all.
Pretty sad commentary on our society, when a community like Wikipedia can find a way to work well together for the public good, but the people that we elect to protect the public good are trashing the community.

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NBC’s partisan double standard

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Last week, NBC allowed Chris Matthews to say, on the air, that Osama bin Laden sounds like Michael Moore.
This week, though, when Rachel Maddow made a much more apt comparison on Tucker Carlson’s show, saying:

This is a global war on terror. This is a war for you or for us to win. You need patience…He sounds like Ken Mehlman when he’s saying that only less gay. I mean this is ridiculous.

NBC chose to scrub the transcript. Ken Mehlman, for those who don’t know, is the closeted gay head of the Republican National Committee. Here’s the transcript that NBC put online:

MADDOW: He sounds like Ken Mehlman when he‘s saying that. This is ridiculous.
CARLSON: I‘m going to blow by that comment. But I will say—you…

Apparently you’re allowed to dis Democrats but not tell the truth about Republicans.

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Chris Matthews is also a homophobe

Chris Matthews also had this to say about the movie Brokeback Mountain on the Don Imus radio show:

MATTHEWS (1/18/06): Have you gone to see it yet? I’ve seen everything else but that. I just—
IMUS: No, I haven’t seen it. Why would I want to see that?
MATTHEWS: I don’t know. No opinion on that. I haven’t seen it either, so—
IMUS: So they were—it was out when I was in New Mexico and—it doesn’t resonate with real cowboys who I know.
MATTHEWS: Yeah—
IMUS: But then, maybe there’s stuff going on on the ranch that I don’t know about. Not on my ranch, but you know—
MATTHEWS: Well, the wonderful Michael Savage, who’s on 570 in DC, who shares a station with you at least, he calls it [laughter]—what’s he call it?—he calls it Bare-back Mount-ing. That’s his name for the movie.
IMUS: Of course, Bernard calls it Fudgepack Mountain…

Notice he called Michael Savage wonderful? That’s really frightening.

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Jill Carroll and “Negotiating with Terrorists”

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Not to lean on Katic Couric this morning, but she deserves this one, too… She had a story this morning on Jill Carroll, the American reporter kidnapped in Iraq by insurgents. She interviewed a fellow journalist (a pretty level-headed guy) about her, and he spoke well of Jill and her style of reporting. And she had an FBI analyst on to talk about Jill’s prospects for freedom. What made me do a spit-take was Katie’s statement to the FBI guy —
“how likely is it that Jill will be freed, since America has a policy of not negotiating with terrorists?”
What? Um, Katie. You’re getting real life mixed up with the movies again. That was Harrison Ford, not George Bush. We negotiate with terrorists ALL THE TIME. That “missing” 8.8 Billion dollars was passed out as cash payments to insurgents, Katie, to pay them to clear a green zone in Baghdad. America traded prisoners from Abu Graib for kidnapped contract mercenaries — paid killers — at more than one time. America traded for guns, money, oil, roads, towns, Halliburton. America paid the insurgents not to attack before both of the elections, Katie. George Bush is a whore who’s slept with every criminal in Iraq. The only dirty, filthy thing that George won’t do is negotiate for an actual American citizen. Because they’re expendable.

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Cell Phone Privacy and Katic Couric

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I watched the news story about cell phone privacy on the Today show with Katie Couric in disbelief. In case you are unaware, if you have a cell phone, (or a regular phone actually) your records of calls made and to who can be purchased online from several internet sites for about 100 bucks.
That’s not what shocked me, because I knew that story already. What shocked me is that they didn’t mention at all that the story was broken and all the brew-ha-ha about this issue was stirred up by LIBERAL BLOGGERS. The story was broken by John Aravois of Americablog.com several weeks ago, when he first bought his own cell phone records, and then bought the records of several prominent politicians. He started reporting on the story because people came to him with the issue who had been battling with the cell phone companies, and with legislators for MONTHS. The phone companies knew of the problem, but didn’t do anything about it. The federal government knew of the problem, the FBI knew of the problem, legislators knew of the problem, and no one would do anything about it.
Now, although they knew the story three months ago, the cell phone companies are leaping into action and legislators are rushing out legislation in an “aggressive” fashion according to Katie’s story.
Right.

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Why the media can’t get Wikipedia right

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I recently had a short conversation with a woefully misinformed person about Wikipedia, wherein they claimed that “It’s going to be shut down!” and “They’re getting sued!” Nope, on both counts. They were discussing, without much understanding, John Seigenthaler Sr.’s USAToday op-ed piece about the popular online open-source encyclopedia.
David Weinberger analyzes the “controversy” and identifies what the media is not getting about what wikipedia is, and does, and why the hysteria is unfounded.

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how much brush is on that ranch, anyway?

From three recent White Houlse press briefings:

December 27
Good morning. Let me update you on the President’s schedule. Yesterday, after arriving, he went out and did some cutting and clearing brush, and then was at his home on the ranch.
December 28
The President had his normal intelligence and daily briefings this morning, and was out clearing brush. And that’s what I have on his schedule.
December 30
He then did some brush clearing and just completed a bike ride before I came out. This afternoon he’s scheduled to sign several pieces of legislation…

Seriously, is there really that much brush? He’s been clearing it for five years now, shouldn’t it be done? How can Trent Duffy go out and say this every day with a straight face?

Continue Readinghow much brush is on that ranch, anyway?