Disqus - Latest Comments for bbebop

Re: The Senate Can Block Blago's Appointment

no comment — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 04:35:14 -0000

i don't think that chuck todd is correct. in powell v. maccormick the supreme court established that in order to prevent seating of burris, the senate would have to present a constitutional basis for why burris can't be seated. at the time burris was selected, bjagovjevich is/was constitutionally allowed to make the appointment.

as to the introduction of race into the issue - my suggestion to you is to not get worked up over it. the media has and will continue to pump up racial issues every time they get a chance. the media will seek out even the most tangentially involved person to an issue and pump up that person's comments if they can get race into the issue. a lot of this has to do with the commercial pressures being placed on the corporate media and the need to increasingly adopt a "national inquirer" model to increase public interest in their wares.

as to the comments of bobby rush, i understand his intentions but the idea of circulating a petition stating that the appointed senator should be an african-american (as rush did) was inarticulate in its execution. race is not a "qualification" so the petition made no sense. what he should have done instead was to circulate a petition in support of a particular individual (for example, jesse jackson, jr.) then you can promote the qualifications of that individual in support of the petition.

that said, bobby rush was never particularly significant or influential in this issue and his comments were effectively little more than a call for social activisim. but they did not deserve the media attention that they got other than for the media's efforts to inject race in the interest of promoting sensationalism.

Re: The Senate Can Block Blago's Appointment

bbebop — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 04:31:19 -0000

for the record, all chucky t. said was he consulted a lot of legal and
political experts and the only thing they agreed on was that the
senate could delay seating burriss for quite awhile. there's a
complete lack of agreement on whether they can avoid seating him.
politically it wouldn't make sense to seat him and then kick him out.

wrt race, my first thought was that blagojevich might be cynically
using burriss' race to try and make his appointment stick. afaik, the
media didn't play up that angle until bobby rush did. that said, i'm
not all worked up about it. i just find it disappointing and cynical.
it should be noted that bobby rush is the only politician to ever beat
the president-elect, and he did it by inventing/spreading the "not
black-enough" meme (even though he should/could have beaten obama
without doing that).

finally, wrt the media, i am looking forward to jan 20 because when
there's nothing for the media to talk about, they talk about nothing
incessantly...

Re: The Senate Can Block Blago's Appointment

http://www.jedreport.com/2008/12/the-senate-can-block-blagos-ap.html — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 04:22:49 -0000

i couldn't agree more with you on the race stuff.

i've updated my post some to reflect some of the things you mention.

i guess the most important thing is that the end of the day, under any scenario, the senate has the power to do whatever it wnats.

Re: The Senate Can Block Blago's Appointment

bbebop — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 04:10:45 -0000

Based on the Supreme Court's ruling in the case of Adam Clayton Powell, it's not clear at all the Senate can block the Burriss appointment. As Chuck Todd just said on Rachel Maddow, that may all be moot because the Senate can certainly delay seating Burriss until Blagojevich has been impeached.

While the Senate can seat Burriss and then kick him out, that would be punishment for something he clearly didn't do, either as a Senator or before serving. So I can't imagine that scenario really happening.

More interestingly, while Presidents can be impeached for "high crimes and misdemeanors," there apparently is no such standard for impeachment of and Illinois governor, so I'm thinking the legislature could, in fact, impeach Blagojevich very quickly.

Finally, I'm sickened by the attempt to use race to support this appointment. I'd love to see more blacks and other minorities, not to mention women, represented in the Senate, but this is just as cynical as the appointment of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. Of course, it did work then...

Re: MEMORANDUM

http://www.jedreport.com/2008/12/memorandum.html — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 22:04:48 -0000

ha ha. i'll try to come up with a few more. i was just pissed at something i saw on teevee.

Re: MEMORANDUM

bbebop — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 21:35:38 -0000

only one new rule? i thought you were just getting warmed up...

Re: Terror, Fear and Loathing

bbebop — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 02:22:41 -0000

"Seems we could use a strong, straight-talking, authentic, incorruptible leader…"

Weird that I'd write that last bit before knowing anything about Barack Obama. Also interesting that we've just witnessed the last season of The West Wing -- for real!

Re: 2/24

bbebop — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 15:01:46 -0000

according to kiefer sutherland (on charlie rose), this was a special interregnum episode, bridging the last season and the next which, i think, starts in january.

Re: YouTube Goes Widescreen (And Some Politial News)

bbebop — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 21:59:30 -0000

who cares about widescreen? a jedreport embed shows up in google reader! yaaaaY!!

Re: David Axelrod On This Week

bbebop — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 19:46:49 -0000

unlike youtube, this shows up in google reader, but it doesn't play (downloads flash file instead). when i'm on your site, the video plays. otoh, when i click the pause button, it doesn't pause. it simply restarts the video.

Re: Markos Talks About Change vs. Joe Lieberman On MSNBC

bbebop — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:25:39 -0000

kos extended the impression (mine, at least) that he's mad at reid because he doesn't want to (or can't) be mad at obama. at least not yet. doesn't seem like he's acting on principle. maybe principally acting...

Re: unsummits and more (Scripting News)

bbebop — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 01:10:19 -0000

wouldn't a mac version of ec2 be essentially the same as linux or unix version, especially if running it as a server? what would it allow us to do?

Re: New moderator for Meet the Press? (Scripting News)

bbebop — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 17:59:47 -0000

gwen ifills

Re: The Shephard Smith Shuffle

http://www.jedreport.com/2008/10/the-shephard-smith-shuffle.html — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 07:28:21 -0000

the thing is that if he hadn't invited wurz on to discuss the smear, there never would have been a smear to fight in the first place.

Re: The Shephard Smith Shuffle

bbebop — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 07:04:41 -0000

actually, how you fight a smear depends on how intelligent you think your audience is. shepard's approach - challenging wurz to back up and support what he's been saying with some facts - is ok because people are actually paying attention this year.

still can't watch fox, though...

Re: The Party Of Denial

already been said — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 06:58:01 -0000

Well in some ways I agree with you, bbebop. But I take a different perspective. I see the power of the Obama movement is that he has not limited himself to archaic definitions. He has taken the best of everyone (Democrats/Republicans, liberal/conservative, etc) and ascribed those qualities onto himself and the movement. Actually, he has removed the false cultural war division that split our most enduring qualities in half and had each side fight over which side had the best qualities. This leaves the Republican party to concede that everyone indeed had those qualities to begin with or, in order to maintain the false dichotomy, embrace the worst qualities in themselves as the only contrast. It's actually a brilliant idea and strategy.

There is a challenge for Obama in terms of definition. But what is so empowering is knowing that this is not a challenge from an outside force -- no menacing power or oppressive Republican ideology. The challenge is entirely internal to the extent that it is in fact personal. And the fact that Obama says "The one you've been waiting for is you" is testimony to his understanding of this. The point is our focus should start to evolve into envisioning the country we want to be, not the enemy want to fight.

Re: The Party Of Denial

bbebop — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 06:09:26 -0000

jed, you're underestimating the scope of the problem. it's not just what's happened with the republican party. we're witnessing the death of the conservative movement itself. there's going to be a huge battle to define what happened, what went wrong and how to fix it. we're just now seeing the beginnings of that, but we're no where near the end.

otoh, barack obama and supporters have an opportunity to define a brand new movement, a coalition that can lead america for a generation. but the truth is, we're in for a battle too because we have a lot of definitions of what we are and what we should do. and, almost inevitably, we'll overreach and possibly screw it up. that's exactly what the republicans and conservatives have done, and we're human just like they are.

so my point? schadenfreude is very, very unbecoming. let's keep a hopeful, calm, barack obama kind of countenance. let's continue to work together, even with the soon-to-be or recently vanquished, to turn the country around, ok?

no. drama.

Re: Bill Burton Isn't Taking Any Bull From Faux News Channel

bbebop — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 07:29:38 -0000

can't wait until after the election when the obama administration decides it doesn't have to go on fox anymore...

Re: Total Fail: McCain's Own Aides Can't Defend Palin

bbebop — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 23:49:23 -0000

thanks! also josh marshall has an edited version here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-bHIqxkmdw

Re: Total Fail: McCain's Own Aides Can't Defend Palin

http://www.jedreport.com/2008/10/total-fail-mccains-own-aides-c.html — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 23:39:31 -0000

bbebop --

here u go

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/#27327993

Re: Total Fail: McCain's Own Aides Can't Defend Palin

bbebop — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 23:28:17 -0000

i'm looking for vivivideo of chuck todd's comments about the lack of chemistry between mccain and palin, and how the mcccain campaign is essentially imploding. i thought that was the major news on hardball today. jed??

Re: If the Republicans lose (Scripting News)

bbebop — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 18:47:41 -0000

the republicans' problems are way more complicated than what arguments to use. there are at least three strains of conservatism (fiscal, social/religious and military/national security) that have helped republicans dominate for thirty years. but with the bush presidency and the mccain debacle (that would be the palin pick), the coalition has finally come undone.

more than choosing which argument to make, republicans are going to have to figure out what they actually believe in. that will be hard to do successfully, at least until they have a new barack obama-type leader to personify their new argument.

Re: I'm not a liberal (Scripting News)

bbebop — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 14:02:48 -0000

we already are a team. we're just dysfunctional at the moment. in need of some leadership, clear communications. a little teambuilding (five dysfunctions of a team presents a compelling description of what i mean, although doing it for a whole country is gonna be hard).

the cool thing is, obama is building a team. 3 million donors. over $150 million raised last month. skads of volunteers. a great veep choice. competing in every possible state. even getting so-called "ignorant inbred racists" in west virginia to support him, demonstrating that neither of those so-called charges are true.

what's needed is a leader, a president, who actually recognizes we need to work together like a team. like a winning team. and that's obama.

as for republicans, they were a coalition of three strains of conservatism. social/religious, economic and military/national security. they have dominated for almost 30 years and, under bush, have driven us into a gaping ditch. the coalition, because of bush and with palin as the final blow (maybe helped by colin powell's endorsement of obama), the coalition is now fractured. there's going to be a battle to reframe conservatism. it'll take awhile. it'll take the emergence of a new, fresh face.

btw, the constitution isn't a panacea either. it is, however, a great place to start...

Re: When they criticize P.O.O.T.U.S. (Scripting News)

bbebop — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 00:45:41 -0000

POOTUS isn't cool, especially when you say it. let's stick with POTUS. keep the man separate from the position. it'll be good if obama keeps remembering he's just occupying the office.

i watched the 60 minutes segment and was wondering if the drones were a large part of the secret new warfare bob woodward talks about in his new book. he seemed to give that more credit than the actual surge in troops.

Re: Will Annotations Be The End of YouTube?

http://www.jedreport.com/2008/10/will-annotations-be-the-end-of.html — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 01:58:35 -0000

bbebop -- i keep on forgetting to fix this. sorry. it's a bug, not a feature.