“Virtual Friday” Cat Blogging

(A day early because I’m off work and on the road tomorrow.) 

My neighbor’s cat tries (unsuccessfully) to fool the birds.

Impeach the Congress!

No, we can’t do that. But rather than hyperventilating about the Democratic betrayal, we can support candidates to present a primary challenge to members who are out of touch.

Really, it’s only a few dozen Democrats, some in very blue districts, that cause the problems. In the House, my personal top picks for retirement are David Obey, Charlie Rangel, Al Wynn, William Jefferson, and Jane Harman.  (I hate including Rangel, who is tremendously engaging and is in many ways one of the Dems best spokesmen.) With some thought, I could come up with another dozen names. I would stay away from trying to replace Blue Dogs like Gene Taylor unless very, very attractive candidates appear.

Keith Olbermann writes great political commentary. His scathing denunciation of the Democrats felt nice. But rather than issue broadsides, I’d prefer he ran for office.

And the Award goes to … Dick Morris!

Why is David Sirota picking on Dick Morris? Militarization of conflict worked out well in Iraq, didn’t it?

The Sociopath of the Week award goes to those in the media and political world …”whose behavior is antisocial and who lacks a sense of moral responsibility or social conscience.” This week’s award goes to Bill Clinton/GOP strategist Dick Morris. In an effort to push the lobbyist-written Colombia Free Trade Agreement, Morris writes in the fringe-right-wing Front Page Magazine that Colombia President Álvaro Uribe “is a democratic beacon to counter the fog of oppression that is rolling across Latin America.”

Even Sirota seems unaware of the full extent of Uribe’s involvement in mass murder and mayhem.

Why The Daily Show Kicks Ass

(Pic taken from http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04272007/profile.html. One great man recognizes another.)

The best humor is based in truth, so it’s not surprising that the reality-based The Daily Show is not only screamingly funny, but also more truthful than its “real” counterparts. This was pointed out yet again over at the American Journalism Review:

But Thompson’s colleague Hub Brown and some others interviewed for this piece believe the lesson of “The Daily Show” is not that reporters should try to be funny, but that they should try to be honest.”Stop being so doggone scared of everything,” Brown advises journalists. “I think there is much less courageousness than there needs to be. There are people out there who stick out because of their fearlessness. Somebody like Lara Logan at CBS,” the network’s chief foreign correspondent who has reported extensively from Iraq and Afghanistan, “is a great example who is fearless about saying the truth.”

In the hours and days following Hurricane Katrina, state and federal officials dithered while New Orleanians suffered inside the filth and chaos of the Louisiana Superdome. Many journalists, notably CNN’s Anderson Cooper, jettisoned their usual care in handling all sides equally. They were bewildered, appalled and furious, and it showed.

“We saw a lot of that during Hurricane Katrina, but it shouldn’t take a Hurricane Katrina to get journalists to say the truth, to call it as they see it,” Brown says. “The thing that makes ‘The Daily Show’ stick out is they sometimes seem to understand that better than the networks do.” He adds: “I think it’s valuable because when the emperor has no clothes, we get to say the emperor has no clothes. And we have to do that more often here… The truth itself doesn’t respect point of view. The truth is never balanced… We have to not give in to an atmosphere that’s become so partisan that we’re afraid of what we say every single time we say something.”

(AJR via Romenesko.)