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Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category

Wrong Track?

In Media, Politics on June 15, 2009 at 5:46 pm

Recession and Recovery Road Signs

This last week has found me mulling more than a cinnamon-spiced, Calvados-infused cider: is the government addressing the recession the wrong way?  Are they putting a Band-Aid on when a full cast is needed?

The massive sums of money, like reinforced concrete on rusting girders, attempt to cement large financial establishments.  These TARP funds are intended to defibrillate the system with capital to jumpstart credit lending again.  (Is anyone else about ready for these overwrought similes and metaphors to stop?  Apologies, dear reader.  By the way, have you ever seen ”defibrillate” used as a verb like that?)

The stimulus and TARP were sold as a full-blown effort to firm up and restore our economy, but two recent contrarian arguments in major media raise doubt.  And they are not noisy Republican yammerings about over-spending, socialism, and outsize growth in government.

Author and executive Peter Schiff was on the Daily Show explaining the “Toldja so” signs of collapse he saw before everyone else.  (The montage of him getting laughed at on cable news at 1:00 in the video below is a must-see.  Also, Jon Stewart catches him mulling a Republican run against Chris Dodd.) Read the rest of this entry »

Cue The Pool.

In Media, Politics on June 8, 2009 at 8:50 am

Barack Obama at Soccer Game - Getty Images

I love pool reports, those delicious minute-by-minute journalings of public activities by presidents and leading candidates.   They’re written by members of the White House Press Pool, a rotating set of reporters from a group of news outlets that take call on different days.  The write-ups are usually terse, but specific.  As a general rule, the more ordinary the activity would be for anyone else, the more entertaining the report.   It’

s funny how it often seems like the assigned reporter feels they are taking one for the team in covering the event.  And how they add in personal touches.  Inanity ensues as the President takes in a nice little Saturday:

Pool Report – Obama at Sasha Soccer Game: POTUS, in jeans and regular guy (Chicago White Sox) jacket, walked to motorcade with Chicago friends Eric Whitaker and Marty Nesbitt at 10:45.

Off we all went into Georgetown, sparking doubletakes by pedestrians.


Arrived at Boys and Girls Clubs at 10:57. POTUS headed to soccer field.

From soccer sideline with other, likely, parents, POTUS watched one of his daughters – Sasha -play in a game.

POTUS applauded, and cheered “go go go GOAL.” Threw up hands. From pooler’s perspective, it appeared that Sasha set up the successful goal. Her dad was  very excited. Read the rest of this entry »


BLOVIATOR: Party Over Country.

In Politics on May 27, 2009 at 11:11 am

Bloviate (v.)  \ˈblō-vē-ˌāt\

to speak or write verbosely and windily

This is the inaugural Bloviator segment (patent pending) on Brief Wit.  It’s reserved for those long-winds you just can’t keep to a low word count, knowing full well you’ve lost the reader halfway through.

Heath Ledger as Joker in Dark Knight

To hijack a recent movie quote and mess it around: “This country deserves a better class of Republican.”  (-Gasp– Did he just compare GOPers with criminals?)

It barely seems partisan to say that the rhetoric coming out of Republican leaders this year has been nitpicky, complaint-ridden, and largely free of substance.  Some of the sounds vibrating through the uvulas of these guys (which most of them are) go beyond passionate disagreement.  It’s like they’re rooting for their constituents to lose jobs or for Afghanistan to turn into Iraq circa 2004, just because Obama’s in charge. Read the rest of this entry »

Live From DC… It’s Saturday Night!

In Politics on May 14, 2009 at 11:00 am

Photo/Brendan Smialowski

The first White House Correspondents’ Dinner of the Obama years was this past Saturday.  Check it all out here.

Now that this whole Wanda Sykes “Oh-no-you-didn’t!” business is blowing over, let’s do a quick recap of what President Obama said… and didn’t say.

 

Jokes we heard:

  • “Wishing all a happy mother’s day, a difficult time for Rahm Emmanuel who’s unused to saying the word day after mother.”
  • “I’d like to welcome you all to the ten-day anniversary of my first one hundred days.  I’m Barack Obama.  Most of you covered me.  All of you voted for me. Apologies to the Fox table.”
  • “Sasha and Malia aren’t here tonight because they are grounded. You can’t just take Air Force One on a joyride around Manhattan. I don’t care whose kids you are.”

Read the rest of this entry »

An Officer And A Congressman. (2 of 2)

In Politics on May 14, 2009 at 1:24 am

Once again, Chris Matthews produced a provocative, substantive interview.  What is it with this guy?  I want to view him as some caricature but he simply isn’t choking lately.

He had Joe Sestak on as well.  The entire discussion was about Arlen Specter and the repercussions of his switcheroo.  Sestak acts skeptical and critical, but somewhat open-minded about this realignment: “[I am] waiting and seeing.  If he has got the right answers then he can be the man, I am not opposed to it… but right now… I am worried it is more about political survivability.  Too many people lost their jobs to worry about his.”  He persists, “At the end of the day, Arlen Specter found it was too hard to run against someone.  That’s not what politics is about.  It is what you are running for.”

For his part, Matthews offers Specter no quarter, saying “We have no idea which way Arlen Specter will go on any issue, you never can predict him… He’ll do what he thinks will work politically” and Sestak laments, “But it shouldn’t be true.  That isn’t the point of politics.”  The Statue of Liberty just stood up straight with pride.

Joe Sestak on Hardball - 5/1/09

Read the rest of this entry »

An Officer And A Congressman. (1 of 2)

In Politics, War on May 13, 2009 at 11:17 pm

Sestak and Sanchez - 5/5/09

Sans Snuggie, I caught a few other interviews recently.  Nope, not Elizabeth Edwards and Oprah.  Or Sarah Palin lounging with the dudes from American Chopper on a grizzly bear blanket.  Actually, the ones I am thinking of have been with Joe Sestak, another Congressman, of whom I didn’t know anything about beforehand.  And I feel like I should have.  He is rational and slow-to-judge on-air, definitely a fox (in the intellectual sense) in my book.  His background is unique and distinguished: he was a three-star admiral in the Navy, which makes him the highest-ranking military man ever to serve in Congress.  How has that not gotten a bit more press?

Sestak represents Pennsylvania’s 7th district, which gives him dominion over the King of Prussia Mall.  He’s been on TV saying a few smart, possibly popular, possibly unpopular things lately.  Compared to these shenanigans, it’s like the difference between listening to Brian Williams and Lauren Conrad explain current Russian-Georgian relations.

Read the rest of this entry »

Mike Pence, None The Richer

In Energy, Politics on May 7, 2009 at 1:06 pm

So, there I was Tuesday evening, taking full advantage of the 3Ss (Snuggie, ShamWow, and Slap Chop, of course) in the kitchen with the TV on in the background, when Hardball came on.  Chris Matthews interviewed Congressman Mike Pence, Republican in the Indiana 6th district (shout out to the Ball State women in Muncie!)

Pence is chairman of the Republican House Conference, making him third highest in Republican leadership, which these days is like being the third best player on the Knicks.  Matthews proceeds to playfully interrogate Pence in a long but worthwhile interview.  Not so much for the brilliance of Pence’s responses, but for the charade he has to put up because right now his party has few answers and does not want to offend its powerful, if ignorant right flank.

Chris Matthews takes a lot of flack for his outsize persona but he is a dogged interviewer who knows when to cut to the chase.  Pence comes across as a somewhat amicable, sensible guy who has to shill garbage talking points.  As I slapped some red pepper into submission, they got to it:

Mike Pence on Hardball - 5/5/09

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Blue 60, Red 40?

In Politics on April 28, 2009 at 1:53 pm

specter-party-switch-ny-times

Happy 100 days to Obama: Arlen Specter is switching sides of the aisle, affiliating himself with the Democratic party.  “I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans,” he explained.  Note the reporter in the khaki suit above is beaming with partisan joy.

Now this looks like a bold move at first, but it’s very pragmatic.  What’s amazing about this is not simply that the Democrats may reach 60 votes in the Senate, in a way they did not anticipate.  It’s that Specter must have seen overwhelming polling data persuading him that he could not win re-election unless he changed parties.  The GOP brand is in such dire disarray that he had to do this to be viable.  If a 29-year Senate veteran of your party thinks you have moved to0 far to the right, you might just be a “Red”-neck…

Diehard filibuster fans are mourning even though Specter suggests he will not be a rubber stamp.  He is rather independent-minded, so we’ll see.

So, if The O’Franken Factor can get Norm Coleman to pipe down then maybe we can have 100 senators again.

How will this affect Coleman’s thinking?  Franken’s triumph is virtually inevitable at this point, but will this redouble Coleman’s efforts and resolve to fight on?  There may be political expediency for him in being the last bastion of Republican fire left in the party: even though he will lose, he has made a statement, can wear it as a badge of honor, and has gained national attention.  That kind of thing helps if you run again.  The problem is that most Minnesotans want him to throw in the towel.

Grand Funk Railroad.

In Politics on April 17, 2009 at 9:38 pm

Over the last year or two the idea of rail travel as a transportation alternative in this country has gained some momentum, aka any momentum considering it had almost none before (except from addictive jingle Senate candidate extraordinaire Gail Parker!)

NBC Nightly News had a great report Saturday evening adding context and specificity to the cost and approach of implementing high-speed rail.  Somehow, I caught this broadcast live.  It was a quiet weekend evening.  In the process, I single-handedly lowered the median viewership age to 28 from 68.  Maybe there will be fewer Flomax ads now.

If there is any doubt high-speed rail is much faster than what we have now, take this illustration.  Right now the fastest commuter train in the US is the Amtrak Acela and it travels from New York to Washington D.C. in 3 hours and 5 minutes, give or take.  Its average speed is 84 mph.  (It could go over 100 mph but the track it uses does not enable that.)  High-speed trains like the ones in Europe and Japan go 200 mph and higher.  If you apply that to the NY to DC route, we are talking about a traffic-less trip in an hour to an hour and 15 minutes.

Two other words that don’t come into play on those 5-hour automotive escapades between Gotham and the Potomac: bar car.

high-speed-rail-map-nbc-nn

Read the rest of this entry »

Bo Knows Bailouts.

In Politics on April 12, 2009 at 4:53 pm

bo-the-dog-washington-post

Obama’s chief diplomat to the animal kingdom has arrived: Bo Dogg is in the (White) House!  Little is known about Bo as of yet but details are emerging in real time.  Apparently, he used to hold dual citizenship with the kingdom of Fauna and Portugal but has requested asylum in the US after he was persecuted in Lisbon for being ridiculously adorable.  Unsubstantiated rumors also suggest Bo and President Obama both subscribe to a Keynesian economic dogma.