Archive for the 'U.S. Right-Wing Politicos' Category

07
May

Mayor Bloomberg’s Anti-Doobie Campaign

By Holly Won't 3 Comments Digg! Digg this
Categories: Activists, Legal Messes and U.S. Right-Wing Politicos

bloomberg.jpgMichael Bloomberg, in 2001 (before he was mayor of New York), when asked if he’d ever tried marijuana:

“You bet I did. And I enjoyed it.”

These days, Mayor Bloomberg better watch his back before smoking spliffs on his Upper East Side terrace. He now oversees what the New York Civil Liberties Union describes as a “marijuana arrest crusade,” as the NYPD locks up more than 35,000 people each year for marijuana possession.

Arrests are up elevenfold since the 1990s, even though most people who are arrested aren’t even smoking up at the time. Why would cops do that? According to researchers:

[B]usting pot smokers is a relatively safe and easy way to pad arrest figures, which creates the illusion of productivity, and generate overtime pay, a practice known as “collars for dollars.”

Additionally, studies have shown white kids ages 18 to 25 are the most likely to light up a fat one, but black and Hispanic New Yorkers are arrested three to five times as often for possession. Which might explain why Mayor Bloomberg himself escaped his youth unscathed, hmm?

01
May

Arnold’s Commute Could Be Terminated

By Simon Scowl 6 Comments Digg! Digg this
Categories: Environmentalists, Movie Stars and U.S. Right-Wing Politicos

Quick follow-up on a story from a few months ago: We told you about how Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, self-proclaimed environmentalist and signer of Cullyfornia’s Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, has been flying back and forth every day in his private jet between his home in L.A. and his office in Sacramento. We all have our own ways of saving the planet, right?

Well, now Santa Monica residents and even members of his own family want to put a halt to Ahnold’s carbon-creating commute:

A federal judge will decide on May 15 whether the governor can land aboard a Gulfstream IV in Santa Monica, a 15-minute drive to his home in Los Angeles’ wealthy Brentwood enclave. The governor’s brother-in-law, Bobby Shriver, is among the Santa Monica city council members who voted unanimously on March 25 to ban large jets at the municipal airport.

“These guys aren’t listening so we have to lift the conversation to a different level,” said Shriver, referring to proponents of allowing the jets, including the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration. A surge in flights “has changed the whole safety profile of this little airport,” said Shriver, 54, a brother of California’s first lady, Maria Shriver.

Man, Thanksgiving must be awkward!

When told he might have to spend hours every day driving being chauffeured to Sacramento and back — or possibly might even have to live there — due to the meddling of a bunch of nobodies who’ve never made a single blockbuster, here was Schwarzenegger’s reaction:

(Hat tip to faithful Deceiver reader Pastafarian)

07
Apr

Airhead for the Hills

By Holly Won't 3 Comments Digg! Digg this
Categories: Activists, Bad Boys & Girls, Television Actors and U.S. Right-Wing Politicos

heidi_mccain.jpgSo remember four days ago when Heidi Montag endorsed John McCain for president? (If not, maybe it’s time to lay off the Ambien.)

Turns out Spencer’s questionably better half isn’t even registered to vote.

Radar magazine checked voter databases in Los Angeles County, where she currently lives, and Crested Butte, Colo., where she grew up. Nada.

And not that it matters anymore but McCain lost in the Colorado primary, so maybe she should have gotten on that sooner.

04
Apr

The Hills Are Alive With the Sound of Insanity

By Holly Won't 3 Comments Digg! Digg this
Categories: Activists, Bad Boys & Girls, Television Actors and U.S. Right-Wing Politicos

I admit it, I’m a late adopter but I totes buy into The Hills. Spencer sucks, nothing ever goes Lauren’s way, and Heidi is an icon for female empowerment.

Wait, that last one?

Yes, The New York Times called Chesty McBooberson “a kind of feminist hero” for starting off the new season by not letting Spencer rule her life anymore (or, you know, encourage her to get anything else injected or implanted into her body). So now she feels pretty bona fide about it.

heidi_montag_bikini.jpg“I was very honored to be called a feminist hero,” Heidi tells In Touch. “It’s a big deal to be even acknowledged, let alone complimented by The New York Times by such a profound, famous TV critic.”

Her boyfriend, Spencer Pratt, was also a fan of Ginia Bellafante’s review — even though it praised Heidi for refusing to acquiesce to his demands. “Spencer was ecstatic,” says Heidi. “He’s proud of whatever I do.”

The 22-year-old aspiring singer and Heidiwood fashion designer says she considers herself a feminist (“I definitely do!” she exclaims), but was less forthcoming when asked who her own feminist heroes were. “Who are my feminist heroes?” she asked. “ Um… I’ll get back to you on that one!”

Oops. I also like how she gives Spencer’s opinion of her and the article without prompting. Woman power!

So I don’t know about feminist, but you know who is Heidi’s hero? Sen. John McCain for president. A celebrity endorsement that he actually ACCEPTED. WTF?

“I’m honored to have Heidi’s support and I want to assure her that I never miss an episode of ‘The Hills,’ especially since the new season started.”

I do not want a president who makes the time to watch anything on MTV. Maybe that’s why he’s not answering the ringing telephone of doom — because crisis never comes calling during the commercial breaks.

08
Mar

“Come with Me If You Want to Live (Far, Far Above the Little People)”

By Simon Scowl 3 Comments Digg! Digg this
Categories: Activists, Movie Stars, U.S. Left-wing Politicos and U.S. Right-Wing Politicos

For anyone stumbling upon this page who’s just awoken from a decade-long coma, it’s 2008, and for the last 4 years Arnold Schwarzenegger has been the governor of California.

I’ll just let that sink in for a minute…

You alright? Okay. So, Ahnold is running a whole state these days — seriously! — and one of his big causes is The Warming Of The Globe. (This is a theory that WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE because SUV fumes are melting the icebergs and the polar bears are all drowning. Al Gore won an Oscar and a Nobel Peace Prize for it. I told you a lot has happened since ‘98!) In 2006 Schwarzenegger passed the Global Warming Solutions Act, which puts caps on greenhouse gas emissions and penalizes Cullyfornia industries that don’t comply. Here’s what he said when he signed it:

“We simply must do everything we can in our power to slow down global warming before it is too late… The science is clear. The global warming debate is over.”

Hasta la vista, debate!

And how is the Governator showing his own personal commitment to ending this crisis? By flying back and forth between his mansion in Brentwood and his office in Sacramento every day on his private jet. According to the LA Times:

The governor’s Gulfstream jet does nearly as much damage to the environment in one hour as a small car does in a year, according to figures compiled by the Helium Report, an online publication for buyers of luxury items.

Administration officials say Schwarzenegger is well aware of this and makes amends by purchasing pollution credits for the carbon dioxide his jet releases. The credits fund efforts worldwide to reduce greenhouse gases, such as projects that harness energy from wind, landfill gas and farm waste, although they don’t eliminate the pollution from Schwarzenegger’s plane.

Flying the Gulfstream and other jets the governor uses costs as much as $10,000 an hour. Some conservationists say Schwarzenegger is essentially attempting to buy a clean conscience with the carbon offsets, which cost about $43 an hour.

Hey, what do you want the guy to do, live in Sacramento??

(Hat tip: Hot Air)

03
Mar

WikiDrama

By Simon Scowl 1 Comment Digg! Digg this
Categories: Businesses, The Naughty Bits and U.S. Right-Wing Politicos

Jimmy Wales is the guy who founded Wikipedia. Rachel Marsden is a right-wing Canadian political pundit. She didn’t like some of the stuff that was written about her on her Wiki page and directly appealed to him to change it. He did. They got to know each other a little better. They got together. They broke up. (Well, he dumped her. On Wikipedia.) She claims it’s all his fault. She has kind of a history of bad romantic breakups and other problems playing nicely with others. Now Wales is at ground zero. It’s really starting to get good. Did I say “good”? I meant great. (I just made this my home page.)

All of which is salacious enough. But what makes the whole thing Deceiver-worthy is that it looks like Wales broke his own rules by helping Marsden in the first place. According to Wiki:

A Wikipedia conflict of interest (COI) is an incompatibility between the aim of Wikipedia, which is to produce a neutral, reliably sourced encyclopedia, and the aims of an individual editor.

COI editing involves contributing to Wikipedia in order to promote your own interests or those of other individuals, companies, or groups. Where an editor must forego advancing the aims of Wikipedia in order to advance outside interests, that editor stands in a conflict of interest.

COI edits are strongly discouraged. When they cause disruption to the encyclopedia in the opinion of an uninvolved administrator, they may lead to accounts being blocked and embarrassment for the individuals and groups who were being promoted.

Is “trying to get into the pants of a nutty Canuck talking head by deleting all the evidence of her being a serial stalker” considered an outside interest? Citation unneeded!

01
Mar

Isn’t “Thou Shalt Not Steal” One of the Big Ten?

By The Oversneer 1 Comment Digg! Digg this
Categories: Politicos, The Religious, U.S. Right-Wing Politicos and Writers

timothy-goeglein.jpgPity Tim Goeglein. Just a little bit.

OK. Screw the pity. This guy is a schmuck.

Goeglein resigned from his $125,000-a-year job at the White House on Friday, after it emerged that “guest columns” he’s been submitting to his hometown newspaper (the Fort Wayne, Indiana News-Sentinel) since around 2000 have contained varying amounts of plagiarized material.

At the White House, Goeglein was President Bush’s liaison to religious groups, specializing in federal-government “faith-based” initiatives.

You just can’t make this stuff up.

“Thou Shalt Not Steal” is either the 7th or 8th Commandment, depending upon whether you’re Jewish, Catholic, Lutheran, or Orthodox. Regardless, it’s one of the two or three most basic directives for self-professed Christians.

Goeglein’s plagiarism was uncovered by Nancy Nall, a former News-Sentinel columnist who appears motivated by (1) a wholesale annoyance with Goeglein’s right-wing politics, and (2) her once-upon-a-time employer’s lack of respect for “The Nancy.” But she did a fine job using “Sergeant Google” to figure this one out. Seriously, the comments on this blog post are worth reading from beginning to end.

And the News-Sentinel is firmly in damage-control mode. The paper has now identified 20 (yes, twenty) Goeglein columns, out of the 38 he’s had published, in which he lifted entire sections from other writers without attribution. Quoth News-Sentinel Editorial Page Editor Leo Morris:

If somebody lifts a line or two once, maybe it was an accident. Two or three times, somebody thinks he can get away with something. But 20 times, and not a line or two each time but whole passages? The only thing I can think is that there is some crossed wiring that causes the person to think that plagiarism isn’t really stealing … The faith-based assistant to the president filching somebody else’s words?

29
Feb

Go Boycott Yourself

By Simon Scowl 0 Comments Digg! Digg this
Categories: U.S. Right-Wing Politicos

Here’s American Spectator managing editor J.P. Freire talking to Neil Cavuto about the McCain/Eisman “scandal”:

As Big Head DC points out, Freire doesn’t have much room to talk about the New York Times being unreliable and boycott-worthy for printing a story about an alleged sex scandal based on anonymous sources. After all, back in ‘93 the Spectator ran David Brock’s Troopergate story — remember that one? — which was also based on anonymous sources. Not to mention keeping alive the rumor that Bill Clinton was the illegitimate father of a child with an African-American woman, which has never been proven.

Not that it makes the NYT right for doing the same thing, but if we’re going to boycott one, we should boycott the other.

28
Feb

Stars, Stripes, and Idiots

By The Oversneer 0 Comments Digg! Digg this
Categories: Politicos, U.S. Left-wing Politicos and U.S. Right-Wing Politicos

Google already has about 378,000 links to web pages about U.S. Senator Barack Obama’s decision to not wear a U.S. flag pin on his lapel while he campaigns for the Presidency. (For comparison, imagine if every French politician except Nicolas Sarkozy made a habot of wearing “Marianne” t-shirts.) So when U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston started making media appearances to talk about the non-pin-wearing Obama’s supposed lack of patriotism, it was hardly news.

Except that Kingston didn’t wear a flag pin during the interviews.

It’s good to see that American politics is laser-focused on things that matter.

H/T: Jossip

21
Feb

Quick: Which One Had An Affair?

By The Oversneer 24 Comments Digg! Digg this
Categories: Politicos and U.S. Right-Wing Politicos

keller-and-mccain.jpg

By now, we’ve all heard that The New York Times has hinted that U.S. presidential candidate John McCain may have had an inappropriate romantic relationship with a female lobbyist eight years ago. McCain denied this morning that he cheated on his wife Cindy, appearing with her at a press conference to insist: “I am very disappointed in the New York Times piece. It’s not true.” He also explained that he had spoken with Times Executive Editor Bill Keller in an attempt to set the record straight and persuade the paper to spike the story. Keller appears to have made the decision to run it.

This is where it gets interesting.

In a September 2006 New York magazine story, journalist Joe Hagan described the circumstances behind Keller’s marriage to his second wife, the French gin-namesake Emma Gilbey (who is also an ex-something of U.S. Senator John Kerry, but I digress…) and his divorce from National Public Radio reporter Ann Cooper.

Here’s the important bit from the 2006 New York piece:

… Keller wrote one last piece on South Africa, an article for the Times Magazine about Nelson Mandela’s wife, Winnie, in which he cited a book called The Lady: The Life and Times of Winnie Mandela. The following week, the magazine published a letter by the book’s author [Emma Gilbey] …

After reading the letter, Keller called Gilbey, a British journalist living in New York, and asked her to coffee at the Times cafeteria. Gilbey, at the time, had a reputation as something of a power-dater; her exes included Senator John Kerry and Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour. An affair ensued, which shocked Keller’s friends. “I felt bad for everyone involved,” says Stephen Engelberg, a former Times reporter. “This was not characteristic behavior at all. I wouldn’t pretend to be Bill’s psychologist, but he didn’t get a red sports car, so …”

… Two years after they met, Gilbey was pregnant, Keller was divorced from Cooper, and he had a new job as [Times] managing editor.

Glass houses. I’m just saying.

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