Patterico's Pontifications

2/24/2008

L.A. Times Headline: “Shrill and Desperate Bitch Tries to Attack Messiah”

Filed under: Dog Trainer — Patterico @ 11:00 pm



Well, OK. That’s not literally their headline. That’s the headline I would give this L.A. Times story if I were a headline writer over there. I’ll quote several paragraphs so you get the flavor:

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — With her White House prospects in jeopardy, Hillary Rodham Clinton has shifted from one tactic to another in trying to overtake rival Barack Obama.

She tried TV ads saying he ducked debates. She accused him of plagiarism. She disparaged his huge crowds. She called his attacks on her shameful and dishonest. On Sunday, Clinton turned to ridicule.

“Now I can stand up here and say: Let’s just get everybody together, let’s get unified, the sky will open, the light will come down, celestial choirs will be singing, and everyone will know we should do the right thing, and the world will be perfect,” Clinton told supporters here at Rhode Island College.

“Maybe I just lived a little long. But I have no illusions about how hard this is going to be,” Clinton continued. “You are not going to wave a magic wand and have the special interests disappear.”

Clinton’s string of tactical adjustments comes amid Obama’s 11-contest winning streak, which has given him the lead in delegates to the party’s national convention.

“Most baffling is the inconsistency — literally the three or four or five approaches we’ve seen, all within one week,” said Roy Behr, a California Democratic strategist not involved in the race. “This is commonly what happens to campaigns when things are not going well.”

By contrast, Obama finds himself in the enviable position of sticking with a strategy that has worked well: giving high-minded speeches to large, adoring crowds, including more than 10,000 Sunday in Toledo, Ohio, and delivering the occasional pinprick to Clinton.

Jeez, Hillary. You are really on the outs.

UPDATE: I mean really on the outs — as in the editors feel the need to write a story that conveys (without explicitly saying so) the message: Don’t even think about going after those superdelegates, honey!

UPDATE x2: And Obama is the Golden Child — the most biting story they can think up for him is talk about how Republicans love him too!

Wow

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 10:41 pm



Hot Air is losing Bryan Preston.

And adding a new blogger tomorrow morning.

It ain’t me. Any guesses?

Prediction: Gateway Pundit.

Failing that, Goldstein or See Dubya.

Got a better guess?

UPDATE: Rusty Shackleford! That’s a good one, I think.

As should be clear, I don’t know.

UPDATE x2: OK, as long as I’m throwing out names, let’s throw a couple more in the mix: MKH and Karl from Protein Wisdom.

UPDATE x3: Bob Owens is also a decent guess. Beyond that, I got nothin’.

UPDATE x4: The pick has been announced. It’s a good one.

Calling All Lawyers: iowahawk Needs Help (UPDATE: Resolved)

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 9:00 pm



iowahawk:

This blog is closed. For anyone who gives a crap, explanation follows.

***
Blogging has its occasional irritations, but there’s only one that truly angers me: when other sites reproduce my stuff, in full, without permission. I’m delighted whenever someone excerpts my stuff, or mentions it, or quotes it to illustrate what utter dreck it is. But goddammit, just don’t CTL-C, CTL-V my entire posts to another site without asking me first. It’s just simple etiquette, and it’s all I ask.

I suppose I should consider it flattery, and in these days of IM and email and online forums it’s almost impossible to prevent. Still, when I see my complete posts appearing on other sites, it really ticks me off. On those occasions I sometimes contact the site owners and request that they edit it down, and/or add a link if (as is often the case) it is unattributed. Almost always, this results in a prompt and cheerful resolution.

Almost always. Recently, a post of mine was the subject of widespread unauthorized reproduction on other blogs (including a couple associated with major newspapers), prompting me to send 17 firm-but-polite requests for editing to their respective owners. No demands for apologies, or cash, just a request to whittle the reproductions down to excerpts. 16 of them responded promptly and positively, albeit with one grumble about the coming demise of copyright law. There was one exception. My work appears, in its entirety, in the comments section of this post. After repeated requests, the blog owner refuses to reduce or modify it, claiming that, as the “contribution” was made by a poster, he has “no culpability,” citing as authority his official sidebar. He suggests I take it up my complaint with the poster, the celebrated Mr. Anonymous.

Proverbial last straw. This blog will return whenever my material is removed from that site. If you’ve got a problem with it, take it up with him, not me. And, if you want to reproduce this post, you have my permission.

Sounds like some legal thuggery is needed. Anyone willing to help? Say so in the comments. It sounds like a bird’s nest on the ground, legally speaking. Justin? Interested in some rare plaintiff’s work for a good cause?

P.S. The proper defendant may not be the blogger, but the commenter. That doesn’t mean legal action isn’t warranted.

UPDATE: iowahawk says the matter has been resolved. Glad to hear it.

Beauty and the Luv Police (Updated)

Filed under: General — DRJ @ 6:27 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

Two young ladies think they may be too pretty to fly on Southwest Airlines:

“Prejudice against pretty?

That’s the claim from a pair of 18-year-old best friends from Oldsmar who were escorted off a Southwest Airlines plane. USF student Nisreen Swedberg and friend Sarah Williams claim the flight crew was rude to them from the moment they stepped onto the plane at Tampa International Airport on February 14.
***
“I think they were just discriminating against because we were young decent-looking girls. I mean, nobody else on the plane looked like us except us,” she said. “[The flight attendants] were like older ladies. We were younger. Who knows, they could have been just jealous of us because we were younger.”

There are photos at the link and Breitbart has video here.

Paula Berg of Southwest Airlines responds in the comments.

— DRJ

No Country for Old Men: A Great Movie

Filed under: General,Movies — Patterico @ 3:03 pm



The lovely Mrs. P. and I saw “No Country for Old Men” a couple of weeks ago. (We don’t get out to the movies much, and when we do, they tend to be animated movies; something to do with the two small humans that follow us almost everywhere we go.) Other than “American Gangster” and “Into the Wild,” it’s the only movie up for an Oscar that I have seen — and it’s better than those films by a country mile, so I am rooting for it. It sounds like it has a good chance of raking in some awards, which means more moviegoers will be exposed to lines like this:

Wendell: It’s a mess, ain’t it, sheriff?
Ed Tom Bell: If it ain’t, it’ll do till the mess gets here.

That line is delivered by Tommy Lee Jones, who plays the part of Sheriff “Ed Tom” Bell with humor and authenticity. He is one of the “old men” for whom this is “no country” anymore; as he tells another oldtimer in one scene, things in 1980s America just aren’t the same anymore:

Ed Tom Bell: It starts when you begin to overlook bad manners. Anytime you quit hearing “sir” and “ma’am”, the end is pretty much in sight.

Another scene captures Ed Tom’s understated sense of humor. In it, the sheriff and his sidekick Wendell enter a trailer looking for a man, and find a bottle of milk on a table.

Ed Tom Bell: Now that’s aggravatin’.
Wendell: Sheriff?
Ed Tom Bell: [points to a bottle of milk] Still sweatin’.
Wendell: Whoa, Sheriff! We just missed him! We gotta circulate this!
Ed Tom Bell: Well, okay. What do we circulate? Lookin’ for a man who recently drunk milk?

You don’t have to be a guy to appreciate this movie. But it helps. A lot of the dialogue is so funny because it accurately captures the taciturn manner that many men from Texas have.

Carla Jean Moss: Where’d you get the pistol?
Llewelyn Moss: At the gettin’ place.

. . . .

Carla Jean Moss: Fine. I don’t wanna’ know. I don’t even wanna’ know where you been all day.
Llewelyn Moss: That’ll work.

Llewelyn Moss is played by Josh Brolin, who was a standout earlier this year in the weaker “American Gangster.” But the only actor in the movie nominated for an Oscar is Javier Bardem, a Spanish actor who was, by the way, riveting in the Spanish movie Mar Adentro. He has a million great lines in this movie, but I’m not going to repeat any of them here. It would give too much away.

Me, I don’t plan to watch the Oscars. Never do. I plan to invite neighbor Jeff C. down here; he’s been here the last two Oscar nights so we can avoid them together. Jeff C., if you’re reading this, give me a call!

Parody or Reality? You Be the Judge!

Filed under: 2008 Election,Dog Trainer,General,Humor — Patterico @ 12:41 pm



Imagine my surprise when I woke up this morning and made up saw this news article:


Huckabee Didn’t Know He Couldn’t Win


Republican makes startling admission in NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” television program. Experts are astounded.


By Rim Tutten, Los Angeles Dog Trainer Staff Writer
February 24, 2008


In a startling admission, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee stated Saturday night that he did not know he has no mathematical chance to win the Republican presidential nomination.

The admission came during an appearance by the dark-horse candidate on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” television program. Huckabee, who trails far behind front-runner Sen. John McCain of Arizona, said: “The media loves to throw around the term ‘mathematical impossibility,’ but no-one can ever explain exactly what that means to me.”

The anchor explained to Gov. Huckabee that “even if you won every remaining unpledged delegate, you would still fall 200 delegates short.”

“Wow. Seth, that was an excellent explanation,” Huckabee replied to laughter from the audience.

Huckabee then explained that he was counting on “the all-important superdelegates,” at which point the anchor reminded Huckabee that there are no superdelegates in the Republican primary process.

“Uh-oh,” Gov. Huckabee replied, clearly taken aback. “That’s not good news. I was, uh, I was counting on those superdelegates.”

Huckabee declined to state that he would exit the race despite the fact that he cannot win the required number of delegates: “I’m not a math guy. I’m more of a miracle guy.”

Thaddeus Q. Entwhistle, associate professor of political science at UCLA, expressed astonishment at Huckabee’s statements. “I haven’t seen the show, but if his remarks are as represented, that shows an astounding ignorance of the process. I’m just stunned.”

Ernest P. Earnest, communications director for Gov. Huckabee’s campaign, attempted to explain away Gov. Huckabee’s confused statements by portraying them as a joke. “Saturday Night Live is a humor program,” he insisted. “You people are idiots. You really are. It was an obvious joke.”

But representatives from Sen. McCain’s campaign were having none of it. “The only joke in this race is that Mike Huckabee thinks he still has a chance,” said a McCain advisor, speaking on condition of anonymity.

In a telling and ironic moment at the end of the appearance, Gov. Huckabee failed to leave the stage, despite having been given a clear indication that it was time to leave. After an uncomfortable period of time during which nervous laughter could be heard from the audience, the anchor finally leaned over and quietly told the candidate: “I think we’re done now, sir.”

At that point, Huckabee waved to the audience and awkwardly pushed his chair aside, disappearing from view.

You can view the video of Huckabee’s appearance here and judge for yourself whether this story is accurate and fair.

Here is the response I received from Dog Trainer “Newspaper’s Representative” Gamey Jold to my angry e-mail:

Dear Mr. Frey,

I received your e-mail complaining that Gov. Huckabee’s remarks were in fact an obvious joke. Editors do not believe that the point warranted correction. They say (and I agree) that the view of the Huckabee campaign was disclosed in the article.

Also, we have previously pretended that President Bush was speaking “erroneously” when he in fact used a metaphor; told readers that documents don’t exist when they do; told readers that Vice President Cheney said the U.S. has tortured prisoners when he said the exact opposite — all among countless other misrepresentations. We didn’t correct any of those; what makes you think we’d correct this one?

Gamey Jold
Newspaper’s Representative

She has a point.

The Place to Go for a Relaxing Meal

Filed under: Miscellaneous — DRJ @ 12:39 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

McDonalds?

“The only familiar signs at the McDonald’s in this large Asian community are the golden arches, the drive-through and the menu. Gone are the plastic furniture, Ronald McDonald and the red and yellow palette that has defined the world’s largest hamburger chain. Leather seats, earth tones, bamboo plants and water trickling down glass panels have taken their place.”

McDonalds’ franchisers are paying more attention to restaurants that fit the mood of their community. This McDonalds is in an LA suburb. It has a wood ceiling, silver-coated chairs, and red accents that “symbolize fire and good luck, laughter and prosperity.” The decor is designed to promote balance according to the principles of feng shui.

I’ll look forward to seeing what they come up with for West Texans. Sawdust floors, perhaps?

— DRJ

Ralph Nader Is Running

Filed under: 2008 Election — Patterico @ 8:29 am



Great news. But does it come too late to do McCain any good?

Personally, I think the race won’t be close enough this time for him to matter.

UPDATE: I put up a post at Hot Air which explains how it might help to have Ralph in the mix criticizing Obama.

UPDATE x2: Speaking of candidates with no chance, Allah has a clip of Mike Huckabee on Saturday Night Live last night, mocking his own reluctance to get out. It’s actually very funny.


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