Dobbs Visits Weekend Update

No "unseemly Mediterranean displays of emotion" for Old Lou.

For First Time Women Make Up Half of U.S. Workforce

For the first time women make up as large a portion of the US workforce as men.

Kelly Evans of The Wall Street Journal writes:

Deep cuts in male-heavy sectors like construction and manufacturing have left unemployment for men age 16 and over at 11.4% as of October -- a quarter-century high. Joblessness among women is lower, at 8.8%, as employment in female-heavy sectors like education and health care has remained steadier.

Men, however, still earn more, by an average of more than ten grand a year.

Peggy, Can You Get President Clinton Some Coffee?

I recently watched* the first three seasons of AMC's drama about a mid-sized New York advertising agency circa 1960, Mad Men. Apparently, Bill Clinton has been watching too and had this to say about the show:

You ever watch that TV series Mad Men? If I keep watching this program, will I ever find a happy person? Great television. Good drama. But a lot of really painful reminders in that show about how black people were supposed to run the elevators ... were supposed to ask permission before they get on an elevator. The way women were treated is appalling, and only occasionally funny to me.

By the way something, how awesome would Bill Clinton be on this show? He could play Roger Sterling's brother easily.

*By watched I mean binged upon compulsively everyday for three weeks.

An Idea for C-SPAN

This blogger has a solid idea. He writes, "What if, when a member of Congress is speaking on the floor of the Senate or House and it's being broadcast on C-SPAN, a list comes up that gives specific information about who gave that person the most money in campaign contributions?"

Are you reading this, C-SPAN? No, no you are not.

Cartman the Pundit

South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker mock. When they hit the same targets I'm shooting at, it can be quite satisfying. A couple weeks ago they took aim at Whale Wars and whaling. Last night--target Glenn Beck.

Very funny, but Jon Stewart did it better.

Dobbs Clears Schedule, Quits CNN

Lou dobbs has quit his gig at CNN. Some groups are claiming victory. I would like to claim that this is great news because he's a jackass. Adios, Lou Dobbs.

More importantly, who is CNN going to put in that timeslot? I see no clear heir apparent, but anyone but this guy would be an improvement.

Less importantly, for which political office is Lou Dobbs's supermassive ego going to run?

Most Hyperbole Ever!~

In my opinion, hyperbole is shit unless it's used ironically or by someone who is genuinely freaked out for good reason.

On the subject of hyperbole, Josh Marshall wrote this today:

There are many ways in which the political moment (hyper-polarizing) and the technological moment (Twitter, instant news cycles) creates a self-perpetuating arms race of hyperbole.

Then to underscore the point, Marshall points to the story of Colorado state senator Dave Schultheis, a Republican, who compared the president to al Qaida hijackers and cast Republicans as the passengers who need to retake the plane.

No irony there. Yet somehow I don't see this guy as being freaked out. So that leaves one thing... propaganda. Oh my God, this politician is some kind of... liar*.

*Understatement is defined by the Free Online Dictionary as, "Restraint or lack of emphasis in expression, as for rhetorical effect."

Stewart Does Beck

...Brilliantly!!

I'm so happy to be able to present this bit. Seeing as I'm in Canada I normally have trouble with videos from Comedy Central, which are geo-blocked. Big thanks to Media Matters for hosting this one on their own servers, and hat/tip to The Gun Toting Liberal, where I found it.

TAGS: Glenn Beck, The Frayed Outer Edge of the Lunatic Fringe
FOX "news", The Propaganda Arm of the Republican Party

Google To Murdoch--'Whatever, Man'

Google shrugs off Rupert Murdoch's threat to bar the search engine from listing his media outlets' content. Amazing how things work when there's a wide variety of voices available on a given platform.

Speaking of the anti-Net Neutrality crowd Comcast doesn't just want to buy NBC, it lookslike they want to buy a few votes for when Congress gets around to net neutrality. The Center for Responsive Politics' Lindsay Renick Mayer writes, "Although Comcast is not a top all-time donor to federal politics, the company has given $1 million to candidates and lawmakers so far this year and has spent $9.1 million on lobbying." Leading the pack, Pennsylvania Democrat Robert Brady with $91,650. Brady is one of 72 Democrats to send a letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski asking that the FCC "carefully consider the full range of potential consequences that government action may have on network investment."