Got an e-mail from Al Franken yesterday. He said I should shut the fuck up about SOPA and that I’m a misinformed asshole that doesn’t know what I’m talking about (I’m paraphrasing). Clearly, Al and his buddies in the House and Senate are rather shocked at the large number of ignorant assholes such as myself, and this legislation is currently on hold as they try to figure out who the hell woke up the unwashed masses (they’ll probably just attach it to bill extending unemployment benefits or something). Since Al has been a supporter of Net Neutrality (one of the very few people in Congress that I think actually understands the issue), I was kind of confused. So I decided to educate myself, and looked Al up at OpenSecrets.
His top individual contributor is Time Warner, and in terms of industry contributions, the TV/Movies/Music industry is number three at almost a million dollars (lawyers are #1 at $1.4 million).
You could say that, of course, what with Al being a teevee personality and writer and whatnot, he would naturally attract money from the industry. And I’d agree with that. Plus, being as he’s earned a living from his intellectual property, I’d also understand why he’d have an interest in protecting copyrights and shit.
But SOPA and PIPA are crap bills that cede a huge amount of power to a tiny fraction of already enormously wealthy corporations and their investors who have the finances to buy politicians and write legislation for them to rubber stamp, at the expense of censoring the Internet and without actually solving the problem.
I understand why some of these idiots in Congress don’t understand, because they’re ignorant (some willfully, some genetically). But Al is smarter than that.
Hey, you get what you pay for though, right?
Before anybody chides me for pointing this out and telling me that Al is better than, say, that other guy – who was it? Pawlenty? I forget. Oh, Norm Coleman, that’s right. He of the major dental work. Lack of sleep and stress is getting to me – or Michele Bachmann (who opposes SOPA, BTW) or whatever, let me just say, yes. He is better than them and has done some good (or at least stood and spoke for things I agree with), but – much like my views on our President – I am capable of having complex (and often conflicting) feelings, and Al has been bought off, and is on the wrong side of this.
And it pisses me off. Plus, his singing used to irritate me, and his radio show was frequently boring and couldn’t hold a candle to Morning Sedition.
There – take that, Al.
Some say Al was the guy who brought the failing music bidness ‘insider’ Danny Gold*#&$, who had put out Franken’s two CDs around that time, to Air America. Danny, like many industry ‘dinosaurs’ who could not keep up with the abundant opportunities that the ‘new media’ afforded them, chose to blame the internets and its larcenous minions for their declining fortunes rather than look to ways to take advantage of the new tools that they had literally at their fingers. Let’s not mention that the new technology might also liberate artists and creators from the plantation system of the major record labels, TV networks, media conglomerates and movie studios.
:fu: 😡 :fire:
Wouldn’t surprise me a bit if Al “scored” Goldberg for AAR. I’ll have to look up DG and see who he gives money to.
Al is generally a smarter senator than so many of them and I find that really refreshing. However, I keep in mind that one of the complaints about Al on AAR was that he was not liberal enough.
He isn’t as liberal as, say, I am. That’s OK, as I don’t expect everybody to be a card carrying commie. I just despise people backing legislation that was clearly handed to them by industry lobbyists just because they paid to put them in office (duh, I know, that’s exactly how our government works). And then when we the people express our discontent, they pat on the head and condescend to us and/or tell us we should just shut up ‘cuz we’re too stupid to grasp all the intricacies of the issues.
Al isn’t as liberal as Garrison Keillor, but they have a couple of other things in common. They both live in Minnesota, and they both labor under the false notion that just because you have a radio show, you are entitled force us to listen to you sing.
Snow! It’s snowing! But by Wednesday it’s supposed to be 50 and raining.
I hope that no one’s head explodes when they watch “Real Time” from last night and see that Maher is kinda in favor of SOPA because he lost money on “Religulous”.
I’m not sure he quite got the message from the panel that most of the piracy issues are with China and who in power is going to question anything China does? Certainly not anyone in congress.
BTW, very very entertaining show (except for douch, Matt Lewis) and a sit-down with God, otherwise known as Billl Moyers.
I’m supporting Buddy Roemer for President at this point with Bernie Sanders as Czar of the Socialist Safety-Net. :nod:
You know, I musta missed that part of Maher. The token Republican was definitely a schmuck. I think I saw a plethora of Rebublicans on tap for next week, which I find quite annoying.
I at the very least wish Buddy would be the Republican nominee. He isn’t assholey enough, though.
It was funny seeing Maher having to restrain Bernie several times. It was like he thought he might be going over the table for that douche bags (with all due respect to real douche bags everywhere). Next week has Rohrbacher, Mark Foley :no: :spank: , and Kennedy (?).
How can I be seeing my old gravatar on my PC and the one I replaced it with on my iPhone?
Beats me. Just proves how superior iThingies are, I guess. Expect I’m using a MacBook Pro at the moment, and am seeing the lovely Ayn Rand. I would guess it’s the MS theme in WordPress (as opposed to the Mobile theme you are probably seeing with your iBugger). I’ll have to check with my BB.
Opening Newt’s Marriage
By GAIL COLLINS
Published: January 20, 2012
Right now, you are probably asking yourself whether two divorces, a history of adultery and an ex-wife who says you asked for an open marriage would be enough to disqualify a person from becoming president of the United States.
O.K., pretend that was what you were asking yourself.
Sex was one of the topics very much on the minds of voters as South Carolina prepared to go to the polls on Saturday. Also, there was the big debate, in which Newt Gingrich said that asking about the open marriage thing was “despicable.†That was also when Mitt Romney slipped and referred to health reform in Massachusetts as “Romneycare,†which I enjoyed very much.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the campaign, Herman Cain announced that he was endorsing “the people†for president. On behalf of the people, I would like to say that, if elected, we promise to balance the budget, release Mitt Romney’s tax returns and pass a law against driving to Canada with an Irish setter tied to the roof of the car.
But about sex. Marianne Gingrich, Wife No. 2, told ABC News in an interview that Newt had called her up while she was visiting her mother, told her he was having an affair, and then proposed an open marriage. Newt denied the open marriage part and referred all questions to his two daughters by his other former marriage.
This seems like a lot to dump on the daughters. When we the people are president, we are definitely passing a law against requiring children to field media inquiries about their father’s other wives.
South Carolina is probably not the ideal state in which to be accused of breaking the matrimonial bonds, then smashing them and jumping up and down on them until they’re just a pile of marital powdery dust. But Newt has framed his sexual history — the parts he isn’t totally denying — in terms of a redemption story. (“I’ve had to go to God for forgiveness.â€) Everybody likes a story of the fallen man who rejects his wicked ways and starts a new life. Remember how well George W. Bush did with the one about renouncing alcohol on his 40th birthday? There is, however, a lot of difference between giving up drinking on the eve of middle age and giving up adultery at about the time you’re qualifying for Social Security. Cynics might suggest that Newt didn’t so much reform as poop out.
Still, he has several things working in his favor, one of which has got to be the public’s lack of appetite for thinking about Newt Gingrich’s sex life at all.
Another is that his hound dog persona is old news. Marianne even told the break-up story to Esquire a while back. That version included the memorable description of how Newt had explained that she was a Jaguar, while he needed a Chevrolet, like his Washington squeeze, Callista.
This would appear to be a Newtian version of “it’s not you, it’s me.â€
Conservative Gingrich fans lined up to argue that his bedroom behavior made no difference. Dr. Keith Ablow, a psychiatrist “and member of the Fox News Medical A-Team†opined on the Fox Web site that it actually made Newt a better candidate: “So, as far as I can tell, judging from the psychological data, we have only one real risk to America from his marital history if Newt Gingrich were to become president: We would need to worry that another nation, perhaps a little younger than ours, would be so taken by Mr. Gingrich that it would seduce him into marrying it and becoming its president.â€
O.K.
Voters very seldom penalize politicians for sexual misbehavior — unless it’s of a type that suggests the pol in question is a little … off. (See: sexting pictures of your underwear, having tickling parties with your young male aides, telling your staff you’re going on a hike and then flying to see your girlfriend in Argentina. Really, when you look back, we have been through a lot.)
Beyond the hypocrisy of this sort of behavior from a guy who wants to protect the sanctity of holy matrimony from gay couples, there also seems to be a streak of almost crazed self-absorption that runs through the Newt saga. Who would ditch a spouse of 18 years in a phone call? Shortly after she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis? And, of course, he broke up with his first wife while she was battling cancer. Do you see a theme developing here? This is the same guy who proudly announced “I think grandiose thoughts†during the last debate.
Campaigning after the ABC News interview broke, Gingrich said: “Callista and I have a wonderful relationship. We knew we’d get beaten up. We knew we’d get lied about. We knew we’d get smeared. We knew there would be nasty attack ads. And we decided the country was worth the pain.â€
The country is so grateful for your sacrifice.