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In Hollywood as in Washington, spite and malice are more than just a card game. And Alec Baldwin has had enough. (*Giggle*)
Here’s the great peacemaker of 30 Rock last night on Letterman talking about the upcoming election:
“If John McBush and Bible Spice win, we have to find a way to come together as a country, because we can’t let it be the way it’s been the last 8 years where there’s been this acrimony and this bitterness. We have to find a way somehow to do that.”
Acrimony and bitterness? It’s a good thing calling people infantile names doesn’t count. Imagine the media crap-storm that would arise if Alec’s brother Stephen (an ardent right-winger) had called a certain presidential candidate “Commie OMuslim.”
Okay … “Bible Spice” was clever. I’ll give him that.
But Alec Baldwin is the last guy who should be lecturing America about avoiding acrimony and bitterness. Just ask his daughter.
The big Democrat donor says he may run for office himself someday. So Baldwin’s recent rant that “This Congress is a disgrace, Democrat and Republican” seems like ill-timed acrimony and bitterness to me. Politicians tend to feign amnesia about how they voted on things and which promises they broke, but this is the sort of stuff they remember.
(Hat Tip: Celebitchy)
Gee … it seems like months and months ago that this humble blog first blew the whistle on Barack Obama for breaking his campaign pledge to work within the limits of the public campaign-financing system during his presidential run.
Oh, wait. It was months and months ago. Back in June, actually. Our own Holly was really on top of things. And CNN’s Campbell Brown is just catching up.
Last night on her “No Bias, No Bull” show, Brown had this to say:
Without question, Obama has set the bar at new height with a truly staggering sum of cash. And that is why as we approach this November, it is worth reminding ourselves what Barack Obama said last November.
One year ago, he made a promise. He pledged to accept public financing and to work with the Republican nominee to ensure that they both operated within those limits.
Then it became clear to Sen. Obama and his campaign that he was going to be able to raise on his own far more cash than he would get with public financing. So Obama went back on his word.
He broke his promise and he explained it by arguing that the system is broken and that Republicans know how to work the system to their advantage. He argued he would need all that cash to fight the ruthless attacks of 527s, those independent groups like the Swift Boat Veterans. It’s funny though, those attacks never really materialized.
The Washington Post pointed out recently that the bad economy has meant a cash shortage among the 527s and that this election year they have been far less influential.
The courageous among Obama’s own supporters concede this decision was really made for one reason, simply because it was to Obama’s financial advantage.
(Click here for the video — Thanks to CNN’s rocket scientists for making the darned thing so hard to embed in Wordpress, by the way…)
I was most surprised by former U.S. Senator Bob Kerry’s frank admission in yesterday’s New York Post that Obama, a fellow Democrat, deserves to wear a scarlet “H”:
A hypocrite is a person who puts on a false appearance of virtue - who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings. And that, it seems to me, is what we’re doing now.
Yessir — Senator Obama is counting his money, and spending it. On infomercials that might delay the World Series for an extra half-hour tonight. (That’s bound to be popular…) Meanwhile, the rest of us can get busy figuring out how much our federal income taxes are going to go up, despite the candidate’s promise that they won’t.
Confused yet? Me too. But in just six more days, we’ll all be pleasantly reassured by someone that everything will be okay. It happens every four years, right?
Good ol’ Al. He’s gonna get you to admit that WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE FROM GLOBAL WARMING if it’s the second-to-last thing he does. The last thing being the consumption of three entire pepperoni pizzas a la mode.
Al Gore returned to his alma mater to help Harvard University launch its new greenhouse gas reduction effort.
The former vice president and 1969 Harvard graduate, told a campus audience on Wednesday that it’s time to find ways to make better use of knowledge to save the global environment.
Riffing off Harvard’s Latin motto of “truth,” he said the challenge is to find truth in the climate crisis and “use that as a basis of a new concept of who we are.”
We already know who you are, Al. Who are we ? We are the people who realize that global temps are actually going down. We are the people who laugh at the thought of you donning a Hawaiian shirt, cargo shorts, and flip-flops to stand in a snowstorm, sheepishly muttering, “Hot enough f-f-for ya, f-f-f-folks?” We are the people who know you’re as right about this as you were about heavy metal in the ’80s:
Are we done pretending this guy matters anymore? Gore, I mean, not Dee Snider. Well, either one.
(The embedded video doesn’t seem to be working, but click the link underneath and that one works.)
Remember last month, when everybody wanted Sarah Palin to go on Oprah’s show? But Oprah was like, “Well, er, um… Nah!” Here’s the excuse she gave:
“At the beginning of the presidential campaign, when I decided that I was going to take my first public stance in support of a candidate, I made the decision not to use my show as a platform for any of the candidates.”
“I agree that Sarah Palin would be a fantastic interview, and I would love to have her on after the campaign is over.”
Well, that’s a principled stance. Fair enough. Good for you, O!
…
Oprah Winfrey is offering to “produce” the half-hour Barack Obama advertisement set to air on Oct. 29, a top source tells the DRUDGE REPORT. The Daytime TV dynamo has even offered up her studio space in Chicago.
“She’s been begging Obama to let her help,” a source explaines (sic).
Hmm. I guess technically she hasn’t gone back on her word. She’s not using her show as a platform for Obama… she’s just building him a new one!
Maybe she’ll get Letterman to host. “Oprah, Obama. Obama, Oprah. Have you kids met Trig?”
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8904809101024395024
Boy, that whole mess seems like it was 100 years ago, huh? I haven’t checked for any news on the story lately, but presumably she and the baby and their hush money are doing fine.
But there is an interesting bit of news on the media coverage of the story. Sorry, I mean the non-coverage. As anybody who was reading us this summer can tell you, I had a post or 20 about how the news was turning a blind eye to this huge, huge story. (Here’s just one example.) Deceiver was one of the few blogs talking about it and digging up new info during the three long weeks between Edwards’ late-night hotel tryst and his kinda-sorta confession, and we’re still waiting for that thank-you card from the mainstream media for picking up their slack.
Well, if you still have any doubt that the people we rely on for our news simply did not want this story to happen, ex-L.A. Times employee Tim Cavanaugh just removed it. Over at Reason Online, he has an article about… I’m not sure, actually. Deconstruction and postmodernism and other stuff that just gives me a headache. But in his discussion of how the Obama and McCain campaigns are both trying to “unpack the other side’s assumptions,” he finally confirms what most informed people had already figured out (emphasis mine):
This summer the National Enquirer caught former Democratic vice-presidential nominee John Edwards meeting with his mistress in a Beverly Hills hotel. The Los Angeles Times demonstrated a pronounced lack of enthusiasm for the story in its own back yard, even putting out a notice to its bloggers to avoid mentioning it. Before long, Mickey Kaus and other prominent media critics had jumped all over the paper. As a participant in the fun (I approved the one blog post the L.A. Times had on the matter prior to the gag order; I and the author of the post were both subsequently fired, though the events were unrelated… as far as I know), I can say that while some of the principal players’ roles were misinterpreted, the overall characterization was accurate. The L.A. Times desperately wanted to avoid this damaging story, dressed up its desires in media-diligence drag (we were told not to comment until the paper’s reporters were through looking into the matter), and as a result was beaten and humiliated in its own backyard. Tim Rutten, the sanctimonious endomorph who leads the paper’s columnist lineup, ended up admitting as much in a column written after Edwards had confessed and everybody else had stopped caring. Bias unpacking: 100 percent successful.
Not sure what that last part means, but it’s just nice to have somebody confirm what we all suspected.
As for how it relates to the political news we’re getting now… you make the call.
Barack Obama, as quoted in the Washington Post, Feb. 2008:
I know how hard it will be to alleviate poverty that has built up over centuries, how hard it will be to fix schools, because changing our schools will require not just money, but a change in attitudes.
We’re going to have to parent better, and turn off the television set, and put the video games away, and instill a sense of excellence in our children, and that’s going to take some time.
Today’s Wired Blog:
In their eternal quest to capture the youth vote, Barack Obama’s presidential campaign has taken to the streets of Burnout Paradise, filling the game with billboards promoting the presidential hopeful.
“I can confirm that the Obama campaign has paid for in-game advertising in Burnout,” Holly Rockwood, Electronic Arts director of corporate communications told virtual world fixture Wagner James Au.
“Put down that video game! But not until you’ve seen my ad…”
How many times do I need to say this?
Penn Badgley and Blake Lively from Gossip Girl star in a new McCain-focused ad from MoveOn.org, made in the style of an anti-drug commercial.
Yes, they really say, “Voting Republican even once can have disastrous effects that last for years.”
Now, before I get accused of being a “budding Republican” again, let me assure you that I am not. Deceiver is a nonpartisan blog but the accusation that I’m a Republican, budding or otherwise, is truly laughable.
That said, Dan and Serena would have been better off keeping their political views in their pants after appearing in this ad. Tell me, do they believe it’s still important to come out on Election Day if you’re voting for the other guy? All the dancing in the world couldn’t get me to buy that.
The Creative Coalition has been promoting an ad featuring tons of movie and television stars encouraging people to vote. (For those of you wondering, it’s similar in structure and production value to the one that Leonardo DiCaprio produced but the two are unaffiliated.)
It’s a point I’ve made before, but certain celebrities who appear in this video have a well-established record of supporting only Democratic candidates. Susan Sarandon, I’m looking at you. You too, Samuel L.
It’s one thing to get the word out and use star power to register young voters. But when the message comes from partisan players, it limits the PSA’s impact and makes it look like young people of a certain political persuasion are the only ones who matter.
Also, not a single Asian person to be found in the ad? Really? Yet they used Gossip Girl actor Ed Westwick — who I positively love, btw — and he isn’t even American.
Superstar marrieds Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore are in the middle of a little tour of Iowa, that swing state with so many universities. Supposedly they’re doing a Rock the Vote type of appearance, just lending their star power to encourage college students to register to vote before the election.
Except then the couple put out this lame MySpace video, again telling people to vote … but this time, specifically for Obama.
I think if you’re going to be at all effective in registering more young people to vote, you have to be nonpartisan about it. You’re just losing credibility when you pretend like it’s important that all young people register and make their voices heard, and then you later come out and it’s clear you only care about one party’s members in particular.
Plus I still hate Ashton Kutcher for putting trucker hats on the map. Yes, I am a champion grudge holder.
