Patterico's Pontifications

7/29/2011

Boehner Plan Passes, 218-210

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 9:04 pm



So now what?

L.A. Times Portrayal of “Block Party”: Focus on Police, Not Rioters

Filed under: Dog Trainer,General — Patterico @ 7:05 am



The Instapundit posted about that Hollywood block party that got out of hand. What one correspondent of mine found interesting was the way that the L.A. Times focused on the behavior of the police, giving us images like this:

And especially this:

Which certainly seems reminiscent of the famous Tiananmen Square image of the solitary man peacefully facing down the aggressive militarized response of the government:

What would have been a more appropriate image to present and highlight? How about the way that the Daily Mail focused (quite properly) on the behavior of the rioters, with images like this:

Not quite Tiananmen, is it?

Sockpuppet Friday—the Scarlett Says “No” Edition

Filed under: General — Aaron Worthing @ 6:41 am



[Guest post by Aaron Worthing; if you have tips, please send them here.  Or by Twitter @AaronWorthing.]

As usual, you are positively encouraged to engage in sockpuppetry in this thread. The usual rules apply.

Please, be sure to switch back to your regular handle when commenting on other threads. I have made that mistake myself.

And remember: the worst sin you can commit on this thread is not being funny.

——————————-

And for this week’s Friday frivolity, do you remember how a marine asked out Mila Kunis and got her to go the Marine Corps Ball, and she said yes?  You might even know that Justin Timberlake also agreed to go with a woman in the marine corps.  Well, apparently Scarlett Johansson is saying “no” to another marine:

Unlike Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake, sexpot actress Scarlett Johansson declined an invitation to the Marine Corps Ball.

Johansson, who was asked to the major event by Sgt. Dustin L. Williams, wrote in a statement to Zap2it that she was moved by the military man’s gesture but unable to accept due to some other plans she’d made.

“I feel incredibly honored to have been invited to the Marine Corps Ball by Sgt. Dustin L. Williams,” the actress wrote. “Not only does Sgt. Williams deserve recognition for his bravery, selflessness and dedication to the United States and its people, but he also displays a cheeky talent for film making. Sgt. Williams, unfortunately due to prior commitments I will not be able to attend the Ball with you this year.”

The 26-year-old “He’s Just Not That into You” star did, however, offer some drinks.

“I am sending you a case of Moet and Chandon with gratitude,” Johansson continued. “In my absence, I raise a glass to you and all the men and women of the U.S. Marine Corps, past and present, in thanks for your continued commitment to preserving the safety of our nation.”

Truthfully, while it is always cool when a celebrity does a thing like that for our fighting men and women, they shouldn’t be expected to say yes to every person who goes on the internet asking them out even if that person is a Marine.  So I suspect she could go if she wanted to but just decided she didn’t want to and I am cool with that.  But on the other hand, you have to feel for the guy to know what he is missing out on…

(Rule 5 is in effect, ya’ll.)

By the way, speaking of Avengers, you can watch a little footage from the Avengers movie here, but be warned it spoils some of the end of Captain America (although bluntly, about 50% of the people going to see that movie already know what it spoils).  Man, if they manage to put that together with a reasonable plot…

[Posted and authored by Aaron Worthing.]

Notes on the delayed Boehner Plan vote

Filed under: General — Karl @ 3:06 am



[Posted by Karl]

House Speaker John Boehner could not secure the votes needed to pass his latest bill to lift the debt ceiling in return for spending cuts. As I write this US markets have not opened, but the impact will probably not be good, especially considering that Friday’s GDP report will likely be bad news. Dave Weigel makes two important points, one inadvertently:

Republicans will be absorbing the blame for whatever happens in the markets tomorrow — they’ve been emboldened by what they saw as mild corrections on Monday and the rest of the week. The fact that they’ll take this blame is a real victory for Democrats. Five conservative Blue Dogs had voted for Cut, Cap, and Balance, but it was clear today that Democrats were denying any votes for the Boehner Plan. Nancy Pelosi was pitching a perfect game, with the help (this is from NBC’s Luke Russert) of Heath Shuler, a conservative who was whipping his colleagues. The Democrats are partly responsible for the impasse tonight, but they will escape most blame as Republicans look for tweaks — for the second time! — to make the bill acceptable to their members.

John Boehner’s team had succeeded over several days in turning a number of critics and Tea Party Republicans into compromisers. They just didn’t do enough of it. In the very short term, Boehner lost.

First, whatever the media hype, this is potentially a blip for Boehner. Second, unrepentant ex-JournoLister that he is, Weigel highlights, but cannot bring himself to condemn, his fellow travelers in JournoLism for their predictable failure to fairly report the rabid partisanship of the Democrats here, particularly the so-called Blue Dogs.

Regarding the Democrats’ partisanship, even prog blogger Nate Silver questions a strategy that embarrasses a Speaker whose help the Democrats in the White House and Senate ultimately need. Jennifer Rubin notes other ways in which the cutesy Dems may end up regretting today’s tactics:

There are a couple of benefits to drawing this out (although I have no indication whatsover from conversations with half a dozen House Republican offices this evening that the delay is attributable to anything other than difficulty in rounding up the votes). First, Boehner will certainly have a strong argument that nothing OTHER than this bill can get through the House before August 2. And second, as time slips away, there is less and less time for the Senate to come up with an alternative that can pass both houses by August 2.

Indeed, Sen. Maj. Ldr. Harry Reid has not filed cloture on his debt ceiling bill, so any delay or failure to pass a bill in the House will put the Senate in a bind. However, this is not how the establishment or its media is thinking about either of those points. Rather, outlets like MSNBC and the WaPo are pushing the Nancy Pelosi/DNC narrative that the GOP was winning, but has overplayed its hand, such that Boehner must join with Dems in some alternative plan. The danger is that if markets tank and a handful of GOP Congressmen continue to hold the line, Boehner may buy into that narrative. But if I had to guess, some face-saving minor concessions will be found to switch a few more GOP votes into the “yes” column on Friday.

Update: Yes, the Q2 GDP report was bad… and the Q1 revision was worse.

–Karl


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