And that, in a nutshell, illustrates the rank hypocrisy of the right wing pundits in today's Republican Party. Good for you to call it out, Meghan.
UPDATE: Louis C.K.was announced as host of the June 8 Radio and Television correspondents’ dinner – which is not the same as the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. He has since withdrawn from the event.
Showing posts with label Louis C.K.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Louis C.K.. Show all posts
Friday, April 27, 2012
Tweet of the Day
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Must Reads
Kristen Philipkoski: Climate Change Skeptics Eat Crow
Joan Walsh: Pat Buchanan Declares Defeat
Bob Cesca: The Most Depressing Thing of the Week So Far
AP: Mark Sanford Hired By Fox News: Former SC Governor To Become 2012 Election Commentator
Max Udargo: Open Letter to that 53% Guy
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Pat Buchanan's White Oppression!
This must stop. For far too long, the white race as been at a disadvantage. Just take a look at affirmative action and see the result; qualified white males being passed over for a job that an equally qualified minority can do. Don't believe me? Just ask Pat Buchanan. Here he is on the Laura Ingraham Radio Show.
Yes! That's the problem! Republicans do nothing about repealing affirmative action. They're too busy defunding Medicaid, restricting Planned Parenthood family planning services, and railroading organizations like ACORN. How much time can they possibly have left for asserting the rights of white males?Buchanan: "Now, these folks [meaning minorities], these appear to be inordinately overrepresented of one group. And I've gone through for my new book and you find out that the federal civil service has affirmative action basically for women, for Hispanics, and for African-Americans, but none for white males who are diminishing dramatically. So what you're going, is you're going back to pre-Chester Arthur as I wrote in my column, going back to the federal service as a huge patronage thing that the party in power rewards its friends, rewards the voters that put it into office, and the problem is that Republicans do zero about it."
Of course, Pat Buchanan is completely full of shit. Here's a handy little chart of the "dramatic diminishment" of white males in civil service employment:
See? White males hold 56.1% of the federal civilian workforce and whites overall (including women) hold 67.7% of the jobs. Shouldn't they have more? That 17.6% for blacks is just too much, don't you think? But if Pat Buchanan is so dependent on the numbers, perhaps he should explain why with a current unemployment rate of 9.1%, unemployment among Whites is 8.1% while it is 15.9% for African-Americans. Maybe he thinks it's laziness? Or maybe as he believes that the federal civil employment ratio is disproportionate in favor of blacks as he infers in his column, he should explain why the US prison population of non-Hispanic blacks is 39.4% when the total population of blacks in America is 12.6%. Are they just born criminals?
Yeah, those white males really have it hard to not be included in affirmative action.
(H/T Bob Cesca)
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Saturday, February 26, 2011
The Rumsfeld Interviews
Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has been doing the book circuit to sell his new memoir, Known and Unknown, and made a stop along the way to The Daily Show for a sit down interview with Jon Stewart.
I knew I wouldn't be home in time, so I recorded it and watched it the next day. And I have to say that initially I was disappointed. I had hoped Stewart would be a little more forceful with Rumsfeld and a little less deferential. It was incredibly frustrating listening to Rumsfeld's hemming and hawing about an exact word or phrasing of a question before answering it. And doubly frustrating to have Stewart stop, take a moment to regroup and rephrase in order to get through to an attempt at an answer.
But after letting it sit for a couple of days, I watched the complete, unedited interview posted on Comedy Central and have changed my mind about my overall take. I watched and listened intently to the questions and answers and I have to give Stewart credit for A) asking some tough questions and B) being incredibly patient under the circumstances. In hindsight, I'm glad that it was a serious interview and there wasn't crosstalk that you might find in, oh, I don't know, an Obama/Bill O'Reilly interview. Showing respect while disagreeing with someone is much harder than blustering over an answer you don't want to hear, and that's the last thing I want to see from a Stewart interview.
I also have to give credit to Donald Rumsfeld for having the guts to go out and expose himself. Yes, I know he's doing it to sell books, but kudos for not taking the safe route and remaining in friendlier confines like Sean Hannity's studio or Fox and Friends. And although some, including myself, may not like his answers, at least he's not in hiding like his incurious, lazy former boss. I also came to the realization that the reason Rumsfeld would object to certain ways questions were framed was because he's conditioned himself over his incredibly long career to prevent from falling into "gotcha" traps, whether it's a soundbite trap or not. He's not going to answer a question that, in his mind, he doesn't think is fairly phrased.
My overall opinion is that Rumsfeld, although taking responsibility as he must in his former position, is still too easily passing the buck on the faulty intelligence on which they relied. And while history shows that there was a run up to the Iraq War that, as Stewart says, was "arrogant in it's certainty," I think he sincerely believes that the decisions made weren't in haste, that there was a lot of effort of forethought, but he can't connect the forethought with the lack of followthrough as a mistake.
Here's the entire interview. You can judge for yourself.
Here, on the other hand, is Rumsfeld calling in to the Opie and Anthony Show to whore his book. Comedian Louis C.K. (one of my favorites) is a guest host (my assumption) and throws respect out the window immediately, asking Rumsfeld about the rumors that he and Dick Cheney are "alien lizards who eat human flesh" and would he take the opportunity now to deny that. He also asked, "How many guys do you think you've met that have died by hanging?"
Through it all, Rumsfeld kept a good natured sense, but he deserved this kind of treatment for being naive enough to go on this particular radio show. Some appearances aren't worth it and if I were him, I would fire his agent or publicist. Enjoy!
Monday, December 6, 2010
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
ShareThis