So the yuletide joy of Deborah Lawrence will not be seen by one and all at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue this Christmas, as her White House tree-winning decoration featuring Jim McDermott's message to impeach Bush is being taken off the line-up.
Sally McDonough, a spokeswoman for the first lady, confirmed the ornament would not be displayed. "It's inappropriate and it's not being hung," she said. She said that when asked about the issue yesterday, the White House tree decorations were not complete. "We reviewed the ornament along with all the [other] ornaments, and Mrs. Bush deemed it inappropriate for the holiday tree."
Right, because yesterday they said they would hang the ornament. But today: nada. Well, what are White House spokespeople for, if not to give completely contradictory messages from day to day?
It's a little too late to try to oust President Bush from office (though we can still charge him for war crimes! Hurray!), but that didn't stop a local Seattle artist from submitting her handcrafted Christmas ornament for her state's contribution to the 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue tree. The only problem? Deborah Lawrence's globe featured Congressman Jim McDermott's appeal to impeach President Bush on a red and white swirled background. And what do you know? Someone in the selecting process for Laura Bush's call for applicants must have had a sense of humor, because Lawrence's globe is going up.
Sally McDonough, the first lady's press secretary, said yesterday that hundreds of ornaments were submitted for display and there were no plans to pull Lawrence's artwork or her invitation. But, she said, "it really is too bad. I haven't seen the ornament, but I would hope that no one would take this as an opportunity to be divisive and partisan. There is a time and place for everything, and I don't think this is either."
Heh, how perfectly typical. The Bushs' rush job means they overlooked hundreds of qualified candidates and chose the shiniest object on the line…which just happened to be completely inappropriate and wrong for the occasion. Oh, we'll miss those zany fuck-ups once Obama is in office.
(Photo courtesy of Deborah Lawrence)
Now that we're at the end of Bushie Jr.'s second term, will the president go on a prison-pardening spree like his predecessor Bill Clinton did?
It depends…isn't this the same Bush who presided over the highest number of death penalty executions (152) in recent history? And again, the same Bush who has only pardoned a significantly small amount of prisoners (157) in the eight years since he's been president?
Look at that: six years as governor, presides over 152 executions. Eight years as president, only pardons an extra six people from that number. Guess we can tell which side of error he leans on.
But in case you want to place your bets on who old Georgie boy might let go, there is a list compiled here.
The Obamas scoping out their new real estate, accidentally encounter previous occupants.
The Obama family has already been given delightfully awesome nicknames, and by "nicknames" I mean code terms the Secret Service uses to refer to members of the family, although since this shit is already leaked on the Internet it's not so much a "code" now and just more of an "awesome nickname," so my original point stands.
Anyway, all the Obamas have names now beginning with the letter R, and they are way better than those of the Clinton family, who were referred to as Eagle (Bill) and Evergreen (Hillary), or the Bush family which was Tumbler (George W.), Tempo (Laura) and Sheepskin (George Sr.).
If you guys ever want to use your ham radios to listen in to your Secret Service station, get ready for President-Elect Renegade.
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Only a couple months ago, President George Bush was the biggest goof America had on its radar. Lovely, innocent times those were, before Sarah Palin came down from Alaska and gosh darnnit if she didn't just steal folks' hearts with her colloquial syntax and adorable doodles.
Back then, when the first trailer for Oliver Stone's biopic (is that what it is?) on our fearless leader hit the screens and the blogs, everyone was pissed. Conservatives were mad that W. made George Bush look like an alcoholic fratboy who got the presidency through nepotism, and the liberals were pissed because having a detrimental picture come out so close to election time would give the right something to rally against. So, everyone loses? Especially Josh Brolin, who got so into caricature as Jr. that he was arrested in Shreveport for bar fighting.
But in a twist worthy of M. Night Shyamalan, the first reviews are in, and it looks like W isn't the usual heavy-handed Stone affair that people were afraid of. In fact, it could have done with some more liberal interpretation:
Despite what David Blaine might have you believing, there are appropriate ways to criticize George Bush's economic policy and his seeming inability to have any sort of foresight when it comes to national crises. CNN's Campbell Brown does a good job giving it to the boys upstairs this season, like when she took on John McCain's spokeperson Tucker Bounds by demanding examples of Sarah Palin's qualifications for vice presidency.
Now Brown is abandoning any last vestiges of nonpartisan journalism as she incredulously questions Bush and Secretary of Treasury Henry Paulson's decision to ask American taxpayers for $700 billion to save the economy from ruin:
Everyone is still baffled by David Blaine's latest attempt at illusionism in Central Park this week, where the magician was supposed to hang upside down for 60 hours straight and then do something with balloons and disappearing. Instead, Blaine took frequent breaks from hanging and then jumped off a high place with the necessary safety gear, so essentially America just witnessed a two-hour spectacle of loser bungee jumping.
In a sad attempt to save face, the googly-eyed Blaine told TMZ his recent FAIL was due in part to the timing of the president's speech earlier that day. Ah, the old "George Bush made me fuck it up" excuse. Priceless.
This racism is killing me inside! Yessir, the Republicans have done it again. They've gone and called Barack Obama, the well-educated, distinguished Senator running for President of the United States, "uppity."
Speaking with Politico, an anonymous (of course!) Bush insider used the tainted term while going over his keys for a McCain victory in November:
With the Dow Jones dropping more than 800 points, the dollar weakening with news of AIG's government buyout, and a total loss around one trillion dollars for the country in this week alone, you'll have to forgive Chris Matthews for forgetting himself for a moment and actually asking a legitimate question to Eric Cantor (R-VA):
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In what was described as the most important moment of his life, Barack Obama officially accepted the Democratic Party's presidential nomination last night.
While some people were seeking one of Obama's soaring, rhetoric-filled speeches, last night's showing spelled out his presidential plans as he told the roaring crowd he would "restore America's promise." And, yes, it was inspiring.
There are live on-air gaffes that news anchors wish they could erase, like the common Obama/Osama mix-up.
But when Jesse Jackson whispered that he wanted to "cut [Obama's] nuts off" before a Fox & Friends interview on Sunday was set to begin, it was a reminder that public figures often have a hard time keeping their private conversations to themselves when they've got a hot mic pack clipped to their hip.
It should be a simple life lesson: When you have a media outlet's microphone attached to you , by default you should expect other people are listening to your conversation, and very likely recording it. Herewith, some famous examples of people who should know better, but obviously didn't. CONTINUED »
You might think cable news networks, morning gab shows, and Comedy Central's unique offering of satire soapboxes might be interested in the new book from Vincent Bugliosi, the Los Angeles county prosecutor who put Charles Manson behind bars, who's now promoting The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder, which has sold a quite remarkable 130,000 copies.
You would be wrong.
Bugliosi and his publicity team can't get him booked on Today or Good Morning America, let alone Countdown or The Colbert Report. Book review publications, so far including the New York Times (it's "under consideration"), won't write up his manuscript. Don Imus won't even accept his advertising. Don Imus! (Bugliosi has, however, conducted some 100 radio interviews.)
Perhaps it has to do with the book's central premise: That President Bush could, and should, be held criminally accountable for the deaths of American soldiers in Iraq. And while Newsweek editor Jon Meacham says "Bush bashing fatigue" may be to blame, there are a few other plausible scenarios. CONTINUED »
Glenn Greenwald, the Salon columnist, is usually scribbling down attacks on the GOP. But not always. Greenwald, who often gets trashed talked in pundit circles and at media parties, has a history of taking a break from Bush mudslinging to go on a tear against one media outlet or another.
Last year he did it to Time columnist Joe Klein ("For the sake of its own credibility, Time Magazine needs immediately to prohibit Joe Klein from uttering another word about the eavesdropping and FISA controversy."). He's also spit blood with Politico, criticizing its overly cozy relationship with the Drudge Report (perhaps because he covets it?) and effectively labeled it a "gossip rag masquerading as news organization." (Us too!)
To be sure, Greenwald's media crits are often based on his original premise: Playing nice with the right-wing makes you the devil. So anytime a media outlet violates this treatise, they're fair targets.
And so too, then, is Greenwald's latest victim: Keith Olbermann. The MSNBC host who was once a liberal hero is now — to Greenwald at least, though also to many others we've spoke with inside the industry — a double-talking liar. Worse: a centrist! And Greenwald has some pretty damning evidence. CONTINUED »
The American press corps isn't the only group anxious to see President Bush leave office in January — the Brits are twiddling their thumbs just as much. The Guardian's Bill Blanko, who refers to said American press corps as a "bunch of toadies," lays into the current leader of the free world, and his list of complaints is lengthy. Among them: "His sneering performance this week at his press conference with Gordon Brown in the Locarno Room (which lobby correspondents much prefer visiting for Foreign Office drinks parties) confirmed that he obviously loathes us. And after his surly verbal swipes at journalists, in between such horrendous Bushisms as "white-guy Methodists" (imagine the row if a British politician used a phrase like that), the feeling was mutual."
But most of all, what really bags Blanko is a little thing called alcohol — and the fact that the president doesn't drink any. And that the D.C. media doesn't drink enough. CONTINUED »
This handy "Bush Apostate Matrix," which track's the president's turncoats, has the unintended consequence of reminding readers that John Dilulio also wrote a book. [TNR]
With an October release date, Oliver Stone's W has already become a liberal media favorite talking point. And now, the rest of America may join the discussion: Lionsgate is unleashing its ad blitz. This spot is a bit of a riff on your "Webster's Dictionary defines this word as …" canned phrase, but when you name your movie with a single letter, it's either that or "W is for …"
Update: Turns out, the poster is a fake. CONTINUED »
Like Ronald Reagan, George Bush has an unusual relationship with Hollywood. Namely, the industry loves to turn the president's blunders into film and television projects. (So what if nobody watched Recount?) The latest turn: Scott McClellan's book, What Happened, is getting shopped around Tinseltown for a possible moving picture adaptation. "We’ve been talking to TV people, and interest is starting to come, but it’s too early to say anything,” says McClellan’s literary agent, Craig Wiley. The likelihood of a project could hinge on the success of Oliver Stone's W, which will gauge America's openness to paying to watch the president fall all over himself, when it's readily available on cable news already.
Uh, yes. And anyone who works in television news already knew this. So far, there are on-the-record guilty pleas from top people who were, at the time, working at NBC (Katie Couric) and MSNBC (Jessica Yellin, though she sort of backtracked). [NYT] Who's next? And don't look so shocked when they come forward.
Scott McClellan's book hits next week, but it's already getting a huge PR push this week, thanks to its early circulation among media types. Oh, and the fact that he pulls a 180 and slams the Bush administration! (Except for that little, touching part where he says George Bush started crying when he fired him).
Naturally, everyone is looking to book McClellan. He's this week's big get! On the list of interview hopefuls? The big bad man, Bill O'Reilly, who was yammering on on his radio show about how Scott turned down his request to come on the show. Imagine! CONTINUED »
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