Filed under: Economy, Government Spending, Taxes | Tags: ari fleischer, robert samuelson
Robert Samuelson in the Washington Post: Obama’s Economic Mirage
Ari Fleischer in the Wall Street Journal: Everyone Should Pay Income Taxes
Filed under: Transparency
“… in its relentless pursuit of traffic… Politico sometimes plays up the novel, the fleeting, the provocative take that briefly titillates but evaporates within hours. And that has some critics accusing the site of dumbing down the art of reporting.” – Howard Kurtz, The Washington Post, April 13, 2009.
“Bo’s a handsome little guy. Well suited for formal occasions at the White House, he’s got tuxedo-black fur, with a white chest, white paws and a rakish white goatee.” — Manuel Roig-Franzia, page A-1, The Washington Post, touting the paper’s biggest scoop since Watergate, April 12, 2009
“Let’s follow the trail. The Obama puppy trail. Why? Because it is our duty.” – Manuel Roig-Franzia, The Washington Post, April 13, 2009
“…with the announcement that a 6-month-old Portugese water dog is joining the Obama family, the Ritz-Carlton is offering Bo a doghouse. But not just any doghouse! The luxury hotel commissioned interior decorator Skip Sroka to create a presidential puppy pad.” – Amy Argetsinger and Rozanne Roberts, The Washington Post, April 13, 2009.
It looks like there’s even more video from Saturday’s epic Liberal Tea Party Fails – this time (mostly) provided by the participants themselves!
You can check out the participant-produced videos on the group’s Blip.tv site here.
Especially entertaining is this video of a very strange guy named “Rev. Billy” who is apparently “rousing the crowd” in NYC.
Especially sad is this footage from Detroit, where only about a dozen or so people bothered to show up on what looked like a beautiful Saturday. I suppose this means the DC organizers can’t blame their poor turnout on the drizzle, huh?
Of course, since the group helpfully posted their Blip.tv username and password on their website and pointed out that “any video you take can be uploaded,” I went ahead and posted my own not-so-sympathetic video on their channel.
Enjoy my video there while you can – I’m guessing they’ll remove it as soon as they realize it’s up there. I must say, though, the resolution on Blip is much better than it is on YouTube.
UPDATE 1:21 p.m. EDT: As I predicted, it looks like the open-minded liberals at A New Way Forward have removed my video from their site, despite their pledge that “any video you take can be uploaded.”
Of course, since they still have their username and password posted online, anybody can presumably delete any video up there, so we don’t really know who deleted mine. I momentarily thought about deleting their videos, but 1) that’s not how I roll, and 2) it actually helps the real Tea Party movement to leave their videos online so as many people as possible can witness just how pathetic their events were.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that, of course. Flamboyantly donning his rainbow lei, Bo will certainly be a hit in this year’s Capital Pride Parade.
Now, in all fairness, President Bush’s Scottish Terrier, Barney, wasn’t exactly the most testosterone-oozing dog in White House history. But you just know that Putin is going to use this photo to completely roll President Obama during sensitive negotiations at some point…
A couple of remainders on the dueling Tea Party movements on the Right and Left:
1. Instapundit has great side-by-side photos of last month’s recent free-market Tea Party in St. Louis and yesterday’s lefty “Nationalize the Banks” event. Knee-jerk ideological or partisan sniping aside, I think we can all agree that the grassroots energy has dramatically shifted to the free-market side in recent months, which is significant. The big question remains how much this will affect the policy battles ahead.
2. It’d be a lot easier to take the lefties seriously if they didn’t throw out non-sequiters like Fox News supposedly bankrolling the Tea Party movement or silly “teabagging” puns. Ha ha ha ha ha – teabagging. Yes, we know what it means. Got it. Absolutely hilarious. Now let’s all graduate from 7th grade and discuss how our kids and grandkids are going to pay off the $4 trillion in additional debt we’ve just run up in an attempt to save nationalize our economy. I admit it’s not fall-on-the-floor funny like teabagging puns, but at some point it’s an issue we should probably discuss.
This afternoon I swung by the “New Way Forward” rally in front of the White House – it was billed essentially as a left-leaning Tea-Party-style anti-bank protest that’s being held in dozens of cities around the country.
The group’s website claimed that 438 people planned to attend. But only about a dozen lonely souls showed.
Turnout was so bad that one of the organizers tried to claim that DC rallies “always set the record for low turnout.” Guess that guy’s never heard of the March on Washington. Or the Million Man March. Or this week’s Taxpayer Tea Party on April 15.
Also of note was a claim by liberal blogger Jane Hamsher that the real Tea Parties are “financed by Fox News” and that the movement is “just a bunch of people on the conservative end who are pissed off that they’re not the ones stealing right now.” Whatever that means. Of course, when I asked her about her comments afterward, she refused to answer and walked away.
UPDATE 10:40pm: Jane at firedoglake seems to equate Fox News’ promotion of their upcoming coverage of Wednesday’s Tea Parties with “financing” the events. Of course, by that definition, every other media outlet in the nation would have been “financing” President Obama’s Inauguration when they heavily promoted their coverage of the event a few months ago.
Both cases are essentially just attempts to make money by piggybacking on events that are already wildly popular with large audiences. That’s called savvy marketing – not “financing” the event.
And, of course, Jane could have made that point on camera when she had the chance instead of dodging my interview.
Check out video from the scene below:
Filed under: Online Video
Interactive Angle brings us a new media buzzword: “Video Snacking,” but more importantly, they also report further evidence that online video continues to explode. Among the stats they recently highlighted, via MediaPost.com:
* 146 million people, or 77% of the U.S. Internet audience, viewed online video last year.
* Those viewers watched 34% more online videos than they did last year.
* The average online viewer watched 273 minutes of video, up over 40% vs. the previous year.
* The average duration of online video is fairly short, at 3.1 minutes per video.
* And, the audience viewed 87 videos per month on average, 18 more videos per month than last year.
The link above also spotlights a 2008 NY Times article that reports that lunchtime is prime time for online video viewing, as office workers steal a few minutes of personal time as they grab a bite at their desks.
So Happy Video Snacking, people Just remember to wipe down the keyboard when you’re done, ok?
Filed under: Online Video
So it looks like the Library of Congress recently set up a YouTube channel that includes some very old clips of marginal interest. Stuff like a boxing match from over a hundred years ago and a guy named Fred Ott sneezing on Jan. 7, 1894.
Of course, inevitably, one of the most viewed videos on the channel features Professor Welton’s Boxing Cats:
Not sure if this channel has any mainstream appeal, but definitely look for some of this public-domain archival footage to show up in future Frank Strategies LLC productions…
Filed under: Obama
Wasn’t the Age of Obama supposed to usher in a new era of high-mindedness and an end to vapid consumerism? Unfortunately, it isn’t turning out that way.
First it was the Obama Victory Plate, and now it’s the Chia Obama, which has apparently been pulled from Walgreens shelves because some people think the President’s Chia Hair looks like an afro, thus making it racially insensitive:
Of course, the real scandal isn’t racial insensitivity. It’s that the advertising makes it appear as though Chia Obama will represent all follicles across the entire head, but once you purchase the product, you find out that only the far-left side sprouts any Chia.
Filed under: Protest, Shameless Self Promotion | Tags: journalism, maureen down, ny times
The New York Post reports today that NY Times Executive Editor Bill Keller has compared the sorry financial state of his newspaper to genocide in Sudan:
“The bombastic broadsheet editor went on to equate the keep-the-Times-alive movement to the cause of starving African refugees, saying, ‘Saving the New York Times now ranks with saving Darfur as a high-minded cause.’”
Nice. And since the New York Times so influential, expect this poster to start popping up soon in hippie coffee shops and on college campuses across America:
