Archive for the ‘opinion/news’ Category

SNL left out one other failure…

Posted: October 6, 2009 by datechguy in internet/free speech, opinion/news
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…and that is North Korea:

North Korea is in the final stage of restoring its nuclear facilities, a news report said Tuesday, as leader Kim Jong Il expressed a conditional willingness to end Pyongyang’s boycott of international nuclear talks.

South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities reached the conclusion after scrutinizing about 10 atomic facilities in North Korea since April when the communist regime vowed to restart its nuclear program in anger over a U.N. rebuke of its long-range rocket launch.

I’m sure the media will get right on it as soon as their done fact checking SNL’s ass:

Heaven forbid that the average half-drunk late-night Saturday TV viewer be “misinformed” about our savior by a comedy show reminding them that health care’s “not done” (which it isn’t) and that Afghanistan’s gotten worse this year (which it has).

And people wonder why CNN and others are losing to a show at 3 a.m.

Red Eye averaged 432,000 total viewers and 202,000 in the demo. Let’s deal with the demo first – CNN’s 8pmET show, hosted by Campbell Brown, averaged 191,000 in the demo. Let’s just let that one sink in – Fox News had more people in the all important A25-54 demographic watching their channel at three in the morning (east coast time) than CNN had for the show that leads off their prime time. This says as much about Fox News as it does about CNN. Wow.

In total viewers (and demo), Red Eye beat the cable news competition three hours later. All three other morning shows, MSNBC’s Morning Joe, CNN’s American Morning and HLN’s Morning Express had less viewers in September.

I guess if I wanted to grow my blog in the early days I should have liveblogged Redeye.

Update: The Anchoress points this out with less snark than normal:

Yahoo ran a fact-check on the skit too. Can you believe it? The press is treating Obama like a little girl who needs all of their protection. And since both CNN and Yahoo have done this, I’m guessing someone at the WH wanted it done. Humorless, like I said. And stupid.

Read and watch the whole thing.

Now if they had only set up their practice in Hollywood…

Posted: October 6, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news
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…then at least they would have the support of the local community:

Twin brother pediatricians are going on trial on charges that for years they used their practices in a middle-class Ohio community to recruit boys for sex and bribed them not to tell authorities.

Jury selection began Monday in the trial of 53-year-old Mark Blankenburg in a state court in Butler County, about 30 miles north of Cincinnati. Blankenburg’s twin, Dr. Scott Blankenburg, faces a separate trial in April.

Details are few on the number of victims, their ages or where the alleged crimes occurred. The charges include multiple counts of corruption of a minor with at least two youths who were ages 13 to 15 at the time.

What do real estate people say, location , location location. After all if they were in Hollywood maybe Harvey Weinstein could start a new petition for them. Maybe then people would be afraid not to sign:

Could it be that courage does not come as easy when it is time to oppose someone who might give you your next movie role, or you might be doing a deal with soon? The warlord in Sudan, rebel soldier in Congo or the Taliban cannot kill a Hollywood career. The sad fact is that many people in Hollywood probably think that what Polanski did is reprehensible, but lack the real courage – putting your livelihood and status on the line – to go against Harvey Weinstein, Martin Scorsese and Woody Allen, so they just keep their mouths shut and hope the story dies soon. Any actor, agent, director, makeup artist or craft services person who spoke out to disagree with the kingmakers would instantly be dead to “the industry” and everyone knows it. Where is your moral outrage and big voice now Hollywood?

I think it would be really instructive to see if a petition for these twin docs was circulated among the signers of the other to see what they would say.

Update: in Hollywood I am not sure a 13-year-old is really a 13-year-old. Here I thought I was making an Ironic Joke and the Washington Post shows otherwise.

Update 2: Will the last blogger out the door pick up Patterico’s jaw from the floor?

The Swiss Polanski countdown…

Posted: October 6, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news
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concerning bail and initial release should end sometime this week:

The Swiss Justice Ministry says it will decide this week whether to grant a request from Roman Polanski to be released from prison.

Ministry spokesman Folco Galli says the appeal by Polanski’s legal team is separate from a court case it filed last week that also seeks Polanski’s freedom, possibly on bail or under house arrest in Switzerland.

Simple logic should preclude any kind of release as he does have a history of flight.

The story would suggest that the Swiss are unlikely to give him bail but after what I’ve seen this week I’m not taking any bets either way.

If I’m Hollywood I really want this to go away as soon as possible, I don’t think they want more Hitchens articles like this:

Once you begin to notice that special set of ethics known as Hollywood exceptionalism, you may find yourself seeing it everywhere. In a recent book titled We’ll Be Here for the Rest of Our Lives (and enticingly subtitled A Swingin’ Showbiz Saga), late-night music maestro Paul Shaffer feels that he perhaps ought to say something about Phil Spector’s conviction for the murder of another human being whose name most people can’t remember. So he does say something. “I regret all the tragedy that has surrounded Phil in recent years,” is what he chooses to say. Not really even a try, let alone a nice try.

He exposes the dirty little secret that the outrage of Hollywood’s reaction to Polanski is that their reaction is not outrageous by Hollywood standards.

Update: No Bail for you!

I was going to use the famous Flip Wilson line for this story…

Posted: October 5, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news
Tags: , ,

but that would have been tasteless:

Herman Thomas had an enviable political record as a black Democrat elected and re-elected in a county overwhelmingly white and increasingly Republican. The respected circuit judge once was the Democratic Party’s choice to be the first black federal judge in south Alabama.

Then his career collapsed under allegations that he brought inmates to his office and spanked them with a paddle. Later, an indictment accused him of sexually abusing male inmates in exchange for leniency. The trial on charges of sodomy, kidnapping, sex abuse, extortion, assault and ethics violations is set to start Monday.

The details get worse:

Some inmates in those cases described being checked out of the jail for meetings with Thomas in his car or in his private office in the county courthouse. First, there were reports of inmates having to pull down their underwear for spankings with a wooden paddle. Then came allegations of oral and anal sex, according to court records.

Sounds like quite a scandal so I guess this will be big news…for the BBC:

The trial of a former US judge accused of having sex with male inmates in exchange for leniency is set to start in Mobile, Alabama.

Herman Thomas, 48, denies the charges, which include sodomy, kidnapping, extortion, sex abuse and assault.

And Cambodia News:

A black Democrat judge from Alabama in the US has been accused of having sex with male prison inmates in exchange for lesser sentences.

Herman Thomas, who was once the Democratic Party’s choice to be the first black federal judge in south Alabama, allegedly took inmates to his office and spanked them before having sex.

CAMBODIA NEWS? Cambodia news has scooped the MSM on a corrupt judge sex story in Alabama?

Well the judge is a democrat and is black, and is apparently Gay.

I submit to you that if the party label was changed this trial would be the lead story all over the morning shows, but if you are reading this blog then you likely already know that.

At least nobody in Hollywood is starting a petition for him.

Update: Dan beat me and the Cambodia news.

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