Sunday night ONT is here.

The New 50 States?
The largest state population is nearly 66 times as big as the smallest state population which is a huge ratio and leads to the occasional Electoral College weirdness. So what if the state borders were redrawn so that the states would have nearly equal populations. So how 'bout them Great Smokey Vols?

Posted by: Open Blog at 06:05 PM | Comments (606)
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The Pro Bowl is the Open Thread of the football world so combining the two seems to make sense.

Apparently the Grammys are on as well. I'm pretty sure I've never heard of most of these people, let alone listened to their music, so I'll be skipping that. Yeah, I'm getting old. Now get off my lawn!

Posted by: DrewM at 03:48 PM | Comments (320)
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Weasel Zippers asks why the President would bow to the mayor of Tampa.

I'm wondering that myself:

Click for the full shot AP caught for posterity. I thought maybe he was reaching down to pick something up (while simultaneously shaking Mayor Iorio's hand, I guess). But the AP caption says he's bowing to her.

I guess I don't mind so much when he's bowing to an American. I'm not happy about it, but bowing to foreign heads of state pegs my OH HE DID NOT meter while this just rises to "what a buffoon"-levels of presidential misbehavior.

Overwrought, but hits the right notes.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 01:13 PM | Comments (425)
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Okay, two RNC/Steele stories came out yesterday. One's sorta noteworthy and one's just powerful stupid. So let's start with the stupid one:

For reasons passing understanding, ABC News thought that asking RNC Chairman Steele if he planned to run for the presidency was a good question. Even Steele laughed:

"Come on, don't ask me that," Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said when presented with the inevitable question about his 2012 intentions and if his political aspirations included running for the White House next time around.

"In all honest-to-good seriousness, that is such silly Washington talk. It's just not even on my mind," Steele said about a possible presidential run.

I think whoever wrote this up for ABC was a little embarrassed too. Note the editorial "the inevitable question" inserted into the quote. Uh huh. It's all cool ABC, it was "inevitable." Someone had to ask, though, so at least it's done.

Now we can all move on. Right? Right?

Oh, wait. You just won't let it go:

Why not rule it out completely and keep those Washington tongues from wagging?

"I just did. I don't know how many different ways I can do that," Steele said. "How many different ways can you spell 'no'?"

I suspect that this was an attempt to get Steele to say something silly. It's not unprecedented, which makes ABC look that much more idiotic. How's your day going when Michael Steele thinks you're a retard?

Oh, right the second bit of RNC news:

They rejected both of Jim Bopp's "litmus test" resolutions in favor of a more wishy-washy resolution asking the Chairman to "carefully screen" candidates to see how close they stick to the Republican Party Platform.

Predictably, both sides of this little purity dispute are declaring victory:

Jubilant conservatives on the 168-member RNC -- the party's national governing body -- called passage of the resolution a "historic" step designed to make it difficult for Mr. Steele and future party leaders to help finance the campaigns of liberal Republicans.

"The importance of resolution's passage now is that it shows we have taken steps not only to welcome tea-party activists and other independent, small-government champions but also to solve problems within the GOP that caused many of them to abandon the Republican Party," said Morton Blackwell, a veteran RNC member from Virginia.

Opponents of the resolution disputed its importance and uniqueness. "This is not historic, nor is it binding," said Mississippi RNC member Henry Barbour, the nephew of Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, a former RNC chairman who is revered by most Republicans.

Effect of this resolution on this year's elections: ZERO. Exit question: is that a good thing or a bad thing?

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 10:54 AM | Comments (127)
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On the one hand: well, yeah.

On the other hand: trial? What trial? Since the Democrats have made such a ruckus about giving terrorists criminal trials, it behooves them to not undermine the process at every turn, doesn't it?

Obama already fouled that up when he decided that some terrorists would get criminal trials and some would get military tribunals. Why aren't military tribunals good enough for all if they are good enough for some? He pulverised the legitimacy of the military commissions system created by Congress. And now Gibbsy is casting doubt on the legitimacy of the criminal justice system.

Accused Sept. 11 plotter Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is likely to be executed after being tried and convicted, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Sunday.

What's that I hear? Is that a million voices from the Islamic world screaming "showtrial!"?

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 08:20 AM | Comments (183)
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Looks like another slow day, so here's another thread.

To our discussion of the nature and role and defects of the national media, I thought I'd add my two cents by adding someone else's two cents, namely, the two cents of Nixon Vice President Spiro Agnew. Yes, we all of us know he was forced to resign from office in disgrace on corruption charges stemming from his tenure as governor of Maryland, and I'll even stipulate at this point that he was as big a rotter as the MSM kept telling us he was. After he resigned, Nixon never spoke to him again, ever, so maybe they're right.

But, apart from all this, Spiro Agnew did make one remarkable speech. It was in 1969 and was in response to the television news coverage of an earlier speech by Richard Nixon on the Vietnam War.

What's interesting about this speech is that it hits pretty much all the topics we complain about today, to wit:

1. The constant coverage of "bad" news at the expense of "good" news.

2. The content of the news, which influences tens of millions of Americans, is determined by a mere handful of individuals.

3. And, unlike the print media, there are no other alternative TV new sources available.

4. News analysis or news stories that are actually partisan political commentary in disguise.

We recognize all of these as still being problems, except for perhaps #3, which has pretty much been alleviated technologically, thanks to talk radio and the internet.

But here's my favorite bit:

When the President completed his address -- an address, incidentally, that he spent weeks in the preparation of -- his words and policies were subjected to instant analysis and querulous criticism. The audience of 70 million Americans gathered to hear the President of the United States was inherited by a small band of network commentators and self-appointed analysts, the majority of whom expressed in one way or another their hostility to what he had to say.

It was obvious that their minds were made up in advance.

...

To guarantee in advance that the President's plea for national unity would be challenged, one network trotted out Averell Harriman for the occasion. Throughout the President's address, he waited in the wings. When the President concluded, Mr. Harriman recited perfectly... [H]e twice issued a call to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to debate Vietnam once again; he stated his belief that the Vietcong or North Vietnamese did not really want military take-over of South Vietnam...

All in all, Mr. Harrison offered a broad range of gratuitous advice challenging and contradicting the policies outlined by the President of the United States. Where the President had issued a call for unity, Mr. Harriman was encouraging the country not to listen to him.

This actually sounds somewhat quaint, because what Agnew is complaining about, the "instant analysis" that immediately follows a presidential speech, is now standard journalistic practice, practiced by every news outlet, and no one objects to it. In fact, the media are usually given copies of the speeches beforehand to facilitate this practice.

Agnew goes on:

[T]he President of the United States has a right to communicate directly with the people who elected him, and the people of this country have the right to make up their own minds and form their own opinions about a Presidential address without having a President's words and thoughts characterized through the prejudices of hostile critics before they can even be digested.

I understand what he's saying here, but unfortunately, the 24/7 news cycle makes this basically an impossibility. It probably was an unrealistic expectation even in 1969, but Agnew is wise enough to realize that some things take time to digest. Sometimes I find myself wondering what it must have been like to hear about historical events days or even weeks after they had already happened.

Below the fold is Agnew's speech in its entirety:

more...

Posted by: Open Blog at 07:54 AM | Comments (64)
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Hello, hello all M&Ms. Welcome to your weekly Saturday night ONT.

Programming note - I'll be traveling again this week so the ONT may not go up until 10:30PM EST for a while. So hold off for a bit on the angry mobs search parties.

Four Lions: a Jihadi comedy
Here's a scene from an upcoming mockumentary by British satirist Chris Morris that follows a group of hapless UK Jihadi wannabes. If he has the balls to go all the way with this, it could be really funny.
And yeah I just noticed that ArthurK had posted this in the sidebar earlier. Oh well I guess double posting is part of the moron way.

Posted by: Open Blog at 06:02 PM | Comments (992)
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Slow Saturday night. Man I miss making dumb football picks.

Actor Elmore "Rip" Torn was arrested Friday night for allegedly breaking into a Main Street bank intoxicated, armed with a loaded revolver.

Highly intoxicated, according to the story.

More..

Police have declined to specify how Torn allegedly entered the bank. The small bank appeared untouched in the front and on its left and right sides, however one window near the back porch of the bank had a board sitting in front of it. A screen resting adjacent to the window was also torn.

That's pretty much all a ninja needs, a bottle of Jim Beam and a board.

andylevy via Twitter. Andy, to his friends. Mr. Levy to me.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 03:17 PM | Comments (170)
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I see none here in Gallup, where he returns to his worse ratings in the daily tracking (47/47).

He did get a moderate blip in Rasmussen, from 45% to 49%, owing to his solidification of the Democrats (going from 81% to 90% with that subset). But, you know, Scott Rasmussen is Hitler and can't be trusted.

More troubling for Obama is Rasmussen's findings that a majority of the public just doesn't believe his wild claims about "2 million jobs created" and the rest of the nonsense.

Posted by: Ace at 01:49 PM | Comments (283)
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Perhaps it's time for another thread.

Most of you aren't going to know who Gary North is, and that's probably just as well. He's a somewhat marginal figure on the Christian right best known for making wild predictions of apocalyptic disasters which always fail to materialize, culminating ten years ago in him going all in on Y2K. North has a smallish band of devoted followers, but most everyone else on the Christian right thinks of him, if at all, as a nutcase. He's kind of like the stereotypical mad scientist. I can well imagine him with a crazy glint in his eye and screaming "Mad, am I!? I'll show them! My theories are sound!" He likes to dabble in things perhaps best left alone and his failed experiments wreak havoc.

His political beliefs most closely resemble those of the paleocon right. He's written many articles that appear at LewRockwell.com.

But just when you're about to write him off completely, he comes up with something that makes such perfect sense that you wonder why it hasn't been thought of sooner.

Therefore, I am intrigued by his views and so I subscribe to his newsletter.

Below the fold, I have cut and pasted North's latest newsletter, which contains his advice for Sarah Palin. I thought it was, well, intriguing, as it is a blueprint for taking back the country, one small step at a time. Discuss among yourselves, if you feel so inclined.
more...

Posted by: Open Blog at 08:41 AM | Comments (367)
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