Friday, June 13, 2008

Astros v. Yankees


I had tickets to tomorrow's contest -- Moose v. Wandito -- but sold them to my friend Neil, because my mother wants to attend the annual LSU alumni crawfish boil in Beaumont (and every year we have attended they've won the national championship, so...)

The fellow on the right, Richard Stonely, was interviewed on the telecast of this evening's game. He grew up in New York as a Yankee fan, and when the Astros and Mets entered the National League in 1962 he also was became a 'Stros fan because he couldn't root for the Mets. And he named a couple of early Colt .45ers like Bobby Shantz and John Bateman, and when he moved to Houston in 1976 became an even bigger fan.

Asked he was feeling conflicted tonight by reporter Bart Enis, Stonely replied without missing a beat: "I'm conflicted every night."

The score is tied 1-1 in the top of the 7th.

Tim Russert

passes suddenly this afternoon, while preparing his Sunday telecast:

"He worked to the point of exhaustion so many weeks," Brokaw said, adding: "This news division will not be the same without his strong, clear voice."

Brokaw said Russert had just returned from a family trip to Italy with his wife, writer Maureen Orth. They were celebrating the graduation of their son, Luke, from Boston College this spring, Brokaw said.


I wasn't much of a fan of Russert's any more. Though he began his political career as an aide to Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, he long ago became a conservative in the interests of "objectivity", and the praise for his interviewing skills has been similarly lost on me. I often saw a mollycoddler for the Bush administration's flacks and lickspittles, after the years of watching him focus on Bill Clinton's private parts.

The accolades roll in today but I see the all-channel tributes as something over the top for a TV reporter.

Condolences to his family (and I hope they give the Press the Meat gig to David Gregory ONLY so that Rachel Maddow gets the 5 p.m. slot on MSNBC).

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Scenes from the Texas GOP convention

Outside the education subcommittee hearing room (h/t Bud Kennedy):



Some of the guest speakers, backstage:



If you want the real scoop (heavy on the slavering), then tune in Rhymes With Hate. He's working hard to outdo Josh from Yon Texas Blue from last week. But the PoliTexans are serving it straight up.

If you need to attend a political convention in Houston this week you have much better options.

FightTheSmears.com

That Swift Boat Bullshit is not going down this time around:

Democratic White House hopeful Barack Obama launched a new website Thursday devoted to dousing "smears" against the first African-American with a serious shot at the presidency.

The site at www.fightthesmears.com debunks false rumors doing the rounds of the Internet and right-wing media outlets -- including one recent assertion that Obama's wife Michelle has been caught on tape slurring white people.

Obama's main campaign website already had a fact-check section to refute rumors such as the Christian candidate is a secret Muslim. But aides said the new site went further in inviting supporters to spread the word.

"We created an interactive tool to allow our supporters to fight back against these smears in the same way that they received them -- on the Internet," campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor said.

Naturally the unemployed conservatives who spend their time advancing slime of this type at FreeRepublic.com and extending all the way to the poor Houston Chronic are hard at work.

Just ain't gonna work out like it did four years ago.

The new initiative was launched after reports, by conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh among others, that a videotape existed showing Michelle Obama using the derogatory term "whitey" in the couple's former church.

No such tape has surfaced despite frenzied speculation by right-wing pundits and blogs, and Obama last week decried the mainstream media's attention to "dirt and lies."

Political candidates have traditionally refused to acknowledge slanderous rumors for fear of giving them respectability. But given the slew of emailed attacks being spread against Obama, his campaign said it had no choice but to respond in kind.

"Whenever challenged with these lies, we will aggressively push back with the truth and help our supporters debunk the false rumors floating around the Internet," Vietor said.


Left with a candidate whom the world has passed by -- one they themselves have tarred "liberal" -- the reactionary Right responds with the only tool left in their box: lies intended to provoke fear.

Between this news and a Supreme Court that has -- for the third time -- smacked down an administration bent on denying due process for six years now to Guantanemo detainee, today is once again a bad day to be a Republican.