He's an Anchorman

Brian Williams recently took over the NBC Nightly News after Tom Brokaw retired. It was big news in the TV world.

My impression of WIlliams is pretty much the same as that of Peter Jennings of old: a fairly dopey pretty boy who has risen through the ranks very quickly because he has very nice hair and not much going on beneath it.

Today, Salon gives us an even better reason to be suspicious of the new Brice Beautiful: a secret memo reveals Williams is the GOP's new "go-to anchor."

-M!

Ads: Super!

In case you missed all the ads on this past weekend's Super Bowl broadcast (I sure did. I have no interest in football), they're here.

It should come as no surprise that my fave is the one entitled GoDaddy.com: The Full Hearing.

-M!

Love Them Royals

No, not the baseball team. I really don't care much about them.

I mean the British Monarchy Royals.

The AP reports this morning that Prince Charles said today that "he will marry his divorced lover Camilla Parker Bowles in April, putting an official seal on a long romance that Princess Diana blamed for the breakdown of her tempestuous marriage to the heir to the throne. The announcement ruled out the possibility that she would become queen."

"One of Charles' titles is Duke of Cornwall, so Parker Bowles will use the title Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cornwall after the marriage. When Charles becomes king, she will not be known as Queen Camilla but as the princess consort, Charles' office said."

"That decision by the prince appeared to be a nod to public opinion, which has never warmed to Parker Bowles, the object of ridicule after tapes of her intimate conversations with Prince Charles emerged in 1992."

I never understood why this ridiculous monarchy (which also regins over Canada, my fave country, the greatest nation in the world, by the way) thing existed 'til today.

It's all obviously ceremonial, but the big answer came for me several years ago [maybe back when Diana passed away, running around because the big-eared dullard of a prince she married lost interest in her] when I learned that the Royal family generates bajillions of dollars in tourist revenues!!

So that's really what they are is a big, wealthy, goofy, freak show of a tourist attraction.

Incredible.

-M!

Fake News, Fake Reporter

Does this story really come as a surprise to us when we have a fake president and a press secretary who many regard as a simpleton, if not a faker as well?

-M!

Social Security

The Prez has stopped calling it privatization, because it turns out that doesn't play well with the focus groups. Now, he's talkin' "personal accounts." Same thing: an effort to hand billions over to his wealthy, martini-sipping, private sector pals.

My thanks to the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, for explaining this for me and millions of others...

As a Reform Jew, I embrace a religious tradition that urges people to respect and care for their elders. Again and again, our tradition reminds us to care for the most vulnerable in our society: the widow, the orphan and the stranger.

Through the creation of the Social Security program, our nation made a commitment to lift the elderly out of poverty, and we have had amazing success. In 1958, 59% of the elderly population lived in poverty. Today, the percentage of elderly Americans living in poverty, 10.2 %, is below the national average, 12.4%. Without Social Security, over half of women and 40% of men over sixty-five would be living in poverty.

Social Security is the lynchpin of our safety net, and it ensures that millions of elderly Americans have income insurance as they age and retire. Plans to privatize Social Security threaten the promise of income security we have offered to our elders. While some changes need to be made in Social Security to respond to the aging American population, privatization of Social Security will only exacerbate the program’s fiscal problems. Under a privatization scheme, trillions of dollars needed to pay today’s and tomorrow’s retirees, disabled workers and their families would be shifted from the trust fund to private accounts, rapidly depleting the Social Security trust fund.

I oppose any plan that would replace Social Security’s current benefits with private accounts, either in whole or in part. Social Security must remain a social insurance program. Its primary role should continue to be providing for the elderly, widows, widowers, orphans, and people with disabilities.

I urge [legislators] to reject any proposal that seeks to privatize Social Security.

-M!

Yet Another Reason to Love Canada

I love Canada so much. It is truly the greatest nation in the world.

Yeah, I love my country, warts and all...but it ain't Canada: the greatest.

Here's the latest reason why.
While millions of Americans smile and lap-up Anne Coulter's inaccurate, venomous, divisive, leggy bullshit, someone in Canada had the guts to challenge and make a fool out of her.

We should all express our gratitude to Bob McKeown and the CBC for this.

-M!

Quite a Bulge, Quite a Story

No, not there.

It's the story of the bulge in the President's back during the three presidental debates and how the NY Times and Washington Post really ignored it. Even more here.

Once again, a cowed, compliant, malleable, fearful news media lets us down and doesn't do their job.

-M!