World News Korner

Courtesy of Mediaite:

With an appearance on Bloomberg TV Tuesday, Former CNN president Jon Klein and former NBC entertainment chairman Jeff Gaspin announced their new online streaming video venture called TAPP, short for “TV App.” As for the types of personalities the pair hopes to feature on the service? According to Klein, Sarah Palin is exactly the type of person they are looking for.

“We are not talking about specific talent,” Klein said in response to rumors that they have been in talks with Palin about the venture. “I will tell you that Sarah Palin is the kind of personality who has a massive social presence, and a core group of followers and supporters who hang on to her every word. That is exactly the characteristic that these channels are looking for.”

Similar to Glenn Beck’s TheBlaze.com, TAPP will consist of multiple channels and shows that users can stream online for somewhere in the $10/month range. “Everybody’s got someone, one person at least, that they would pay $10 per month to get more of,” Klein added. He envisions a world in which “everyone has a TAPP channel” the way anyone can have a YouTube channel today.

“Everybody’s got someone, one person at least, that they would pay $10 per month to get more of." That may be true but the problem with Sarah Palin is that a little is too much, and more is essentially toxic to human beings.

Okay so in some ways this sounds like almost the perfect job for Palin.

After all she can probably choose from which state to do the show, and might even be able to use that Fox studio in her Wasilla compound and a make shift one in Arizona to do it from both locations, if need be.

However the optimum word here is "job." And Sarah Palin is well known for having an allergy to actual work.

So if she is willing to make any kind of deal at all it will be one that requires very little effort from her, employs her family members as well (Hey, SOMEBODY has to beat the wig into submission, trowel on the makeup, and push the little record button.), and which overpays her for putting forth minimal effort.

If I were launching a new video venture I certainly would not take a risk on a woman whose name is now synonymous with the word "quitter."

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Numbers are in: 12 million Cosmos viewers in the US alone, 17.5 million with DVR! Thanks to you all!
— Seth MacFarlane (@SethMacFarlane) March 11, 2014

Many were quick to point out that the numbers were underwhelming for this debut, but considering it was up against the hit shows "Resurrection," "The Walking Dead," and the finale of the HBO series "True Detective," I think it did surprisingly well.

And through the advances of science viewers were able to DVR the show to watch at their convenience.

That is for those of us not terrified by progress that is.

And this last Sunday Neil deGrasse Tyson addressed the current "war on science."

Courtesy of Raw Story:

In an interview on CNN’s Reliable Sourcs, host Brian Stelter asked Tyson how to go about brokering a peace in the “war on science.”

“Our civilization is built on the innovation of scientists and technologists and engineers who have shaped everything that we so take for granted today,” Tyson pointed out. “So some of the science deniers or science haters, these are people who are telling that to you while they are on their mobile phone.”

“They are saying, ‘I don’t like science. Oh, GPS just told us to go left,’” he laughed. “So it’s time for people to sit back and reassess what role science as actually played in our lives. And learn how to embrace that going forward, because with out it, we will just regress back into the caves.”

Stelter observed that the news media often tried to balance the climate change debate, even when the two sides were not equal.

“What responsibility do you think the members of the media have to portray science correctly,” the CNN host wondered.

“The media has to sort of come out of this ethos that I think was in principle a good one, but it doesn’t really apply in science,” Tyson explained. “The principle was, whatever story you give, you have to give the opposing view. And then you can be viewed as balanced.”

“You don’t talk about the spherical Earth with NASA, and then say let’s give equal time to the flat Earthers,” he added. “Plus, science is not there for you to cherry pick.”

Tyson recalled that he once said that “the good thing about science is that it’s true whether or not you believe in it.”

“You can decide whether or not to believe in it, but that doesn’t change the reality of an emergent scientific truth,” he noted.

“The good thing about science is that it’s true whether or not you believe in it.” Very well said, and THAT is why he is the perfect host for the relaunch of Carl Sagan's "Cosmos" series.

And speaking of "Cosmos" I finally have a link to the show that will work.

If you have not seen it trust me when I tell you it will be the best 44 minutes you will waste all day.

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I once told a job interviewer that her questions were ridiculous and that answering them would give her no indication of my ability to do the job.

Didn't get the job. I know, surprised me too.

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Courtesy of The Dish:

Of course, we bonded over the former half-term governor. He reached out to me when I was wildly exposed among journalists for refusing to believe her stories at face value. And what we bonded over was not a mutual revulsion at her politics. What we bonded over was the abject failure of the American press to say what had to be said about this preposterous, delusional maniac plucked from deserved obscurity by John McCain to be a heartbeat away from a potential presidency.

Her candidacy was a total farce; a disgrace; an outrage to American democracy; an appalling act of cynicism. Joe saw the creation of this media figure as a continuation of the Ailes recipe for optic politics, and he was appalled as so many mainstream outlets nonetheless insisted on taking this joke seriously.

So he went to do what others wouldn’t: to find the real truth about Palin, and he came closer than almost anyone.

I don’t see his last book as some kind of aberration, though it was obviously not in the same league as The Selling Of The President or Fatal Vision. I saw them all as a continuing crusade for a journalism that takes a stand, that welcomes obloquy if that’s what it takes to get to the truth, and that cares about our democracy. He would never have aimed for the “view from nowhere” or the facile mantra that one leading Washington journalist gave me when asked to explain why they hadn’t sought any proof for the fantastic Trig story that Palin spun: “Why ask questions when you know you won’t get an answer?” For Joe that was pathetic. As indeed it was.

There were a number of things that surprised me about Joe McGinniss.

His incredible love of Alaska, his love of strong drink, his tenacity, and his ability to befriend all manner of different people.

He was good friends, and I mean really good friends, with people from all walks of life.

At a party I attended in his rented house on Lake Lucille I discussed politics with an oil company spokesman, a mountain guide, an out of town journalist, and a few fellow Alaskans who had met and befriended Joe when he wrote "Going to Extremes."

Yet the friendships that he shared with Roger Ailes and Andrew Sullivan were perhaps the two which really demonstrated his capacity to welcome into his life people of quite extreme differences.

Ailes of course did not like Sarah Palin at all, something which I learned well before the public at large (Though Joe swore me to secrecy.), and only used her to attract viewers and to rake in advertising dollars.

Sullivan, as all of you well know, was the last real journalist standing on the hunt for the truth about Trig's birth.

Joe once told me that he had been hesitant about even approaching that subject, since he knew it would open the book to ridicule, but that he had been very impressed with the reporting by Andrew and myself, and came to realize that he could not write a book about Palin without addressing it.

He would never openly admit that he knew that she lied about the circumstances of the birth, but in conversations and e-mails it was pretty clear that he did not buy her story one little bit.

Sullivan also shared this e-mail that McGinniss sent him:

My shrink asked me this afternoon if I thought my book was a factor in Palin’s decision not to run. I said, “It might have been. It certainly didn’t tip her toward running. She may well have seen what one lone reporter turned up in four months and realized what teams from MSM outlets might learn in twelve, as they would have done over the next year, if she’d run.”

She said, “In that case, the people of the United States will be eternally in your debt.”

In that I am in total agreement.

Thank you Joe we owe you so very much.

P.S. For those who want to go on a trip down memory lane, here is a reminder of the e-mail exchange between Joe and I that the Right Wing tried to use to sabotage sales of "The Rogue."

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So McCain does not even realize that Palin is now a semi-permanent resident of HIS state?

Oh yeah they are SO close!

And for the record Senator the Iditarod is truly the toughest race in North America, and the Iron Dog is for those who don't have the balls for that yet still want to look tough. (Sorry Levi, but it's true.)

I really hated watching Letterman bring up that whole apology thing again. I said way back then, right before the flying monkeys came after me, that he was setting a dangerous precedent and that NOBODY should ever apologize to that bitch.

And look what has happened to everybody who dared to criticize her since.

Update: Speaking of the Iditarod it looks like this year's champion is Dallas Seavey.



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Click image to play video

If any of you have ever seen these "Between Two Ferns" interviews you know that their hook is that they demonstrate an extremely uncomfortable interview where insults fly like poison darts between Galifianakis and his interview subject.

It is not for the faint of heart, or for those without a well developed sense of humor.

I think the President did very well, and the fact that he went on this show, which is much loved by younger Americans, demonstrates that he is willing to do just about anything to convince people that the Healthcare.org website is working well, and that it is in their best interests to sign up for the Affordable Care Act.

And it appears to be working.

http://t.co/FrO24hdvcA is the #1 source of referrals to http://t.co/0r93BavlrV right now.
— Tara McGuinness (@HealthCareTara) March 11, 2014

Update:



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Courtesy of Access Atlanta:

Politician turned pundit Sarah Palin says vegetarianism "is an old Indian word for poor shot" in a new interview appearing in the April issue of the magazine Guns & Ammo.

She also shares wisdom from her father, who advocated taking children on hunting expeditions. "I'm really blessed that all my kids love a rugged outdoor lifestyle," she says.

You know that whole "Indian word for poor shot" joke is as old and used up as Palin's lady parts.

Oh and by the way we call them Native Americans today.

For the record there is virtually nobody in Wasilla who has ever known Sarah to hunt, and seasoned hunters who have seen her hold a rifle all agree she could not hit the side of a barn if the barrel were pressed up against it. I have little doubt that his interview will be chock full of the same fake family mythology and bullshit as ever other one she has ever given.

Speaking of bullshit, here is what FactCheck.org reported about her comments about Obamacare at CPAC:

Sarah Palin told her fellow conservatives at CPAC that “there are more uninsured today than when Obama began all of this,” referring to the Affordable Care Act. But there is no evidence of that. Annual Census surveys show the percentage of uninsured Americans in 2010, when the ACA became law, was 16.3 percent. It dropped to 15.7 percent in 2011 and 15.4 percent in 2012. Gallup surveys show the percentage of uninsured Americans hit a five-year low in the first two months of this year.

It is too early to determine the full impact of the ACA, but the fact is that the percentage of uninsured Americans has been on the decline since the law took effect — and, conversely, the percentage of the insured has increased. Congressional budget experts project that the law will reduce the number of the uninsured by 13 million by the end of this year.

The Census Bureau’s annual Current Population Survey shows 16.3 percent of Americans were without health insurance in 2010, when the law took effect. Since then, the rate has fallen to 15.7 percent in 2011 and 15.4 percent in 2012. (The raw numbers have gone down, too, from 50 million uninsured in 2010 to 48 million in 2012.)

As for the state of the “uninsured today,” which was Palin’s time frame, Gallup regularly conducts a survey called the Well-Being Index of more than 28,000 Americans. On March 10, Gallup issued a press release on its latest survey that carried the headline, “U.S. Uninsured Rate Continues to Fall.” The survey, which covered Jan. 2 to Feb. 28, shows the percentage of uninsured Americans hit a new five-year low at 15.9 percent, down from 17.1 percent in the final quarter of 2013.

By the end of 2014, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates the law will reduce the number of uninsured Americans by 13 million people. The report says there will be 25 million fewer uninsured Americans in 2024 because of the law.

In other words, piles and piles of Palin's signature brand of moose poop.

In fact the Affordable Care Act is doing quite well, and one can only imagine how much better it would have done if the conservatives had not been pissing on it from the moment it was passed, and had actually worked to help make it more successful.

But what am I saying, that would have meant doing something good for their constituents.

Now in the comedy arena Palin provided much inspiration, especially for Jimmy Fallon.




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