Love Affair
Least surprising story of the year: Washington political “journalist” winds up falling in love with the subject of his/her book.I think this sort of thing happens more than we know. Members of our esteemed media who keep professional score based on “access” to power wind up worshiping at the altar of leadership, and the deference shown particularly towards Pentagon officials is unmatched. Have you read the excerpts from this Petraeus book? The gist seems to be-- David Petraeus: great military leader, or the greatest military leader?!
The bigger the politico, the more he or she is treated like a rock star. Last election cycle, when John Boehner advanced to the position of House Majority Leader, "60 Minutes" sent Lesley Stahl to Ohio to give him a tongue bath, and I got stuck one night watching it on television. Here's a tip: When you see an upcoming interview being promoted on television as “exclusive,” run fast in the opposite direction. There’s a reason that program or that journalist was chosen by political consultants as the vessel of information to the public, and that reason is not because they are afraid of the journalist. It’s sad that “gotcha” journalism is all we have left that's effective, but our feckless corporate media is no match for the modern filters of public relations.
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The Petraeus scandal is serious business. The head of the world's most dangerous and terrifying law enforcement organization isn't allowed to just wind his clock indiscriminately. The supreme irony is that the head of the CIA is outed for his imprudence thanks to the FBI's discovery that his mistress was trying to hack his email. He's been eavesdropping on us, and the weight of the Orwellian security state winds up falling on him. This is a beautiful, beautiful thing.
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What's confusing is why these women go for Petraeus? In Huggy Lowdown's words this morning, he looks like Don Knotts in the Incredible Mr. Limpet. They say it's the uniform that can transform women into puddles of melted butter, but most women I know don't care a lick for all of those colorful "decorations" on a general's jacket. What's with all that crap anyway? As Mort Sahl once said, "Very impressive. If you're twelve."
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And by the way, he was a shitty general.
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I guess we'll never know how those numbers would have worked themselves out in the Romney/Ryan budget.
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John Bachman delivered his final newscast for WHO Channel 13 last week. I'll never forget my first meeting with Bachman in the WHO TV building on Grand Avenue. Some of you have heard me tell of it. It was about 15 years ago now and I'm a cub reporter at WHO Radio across the hallway from the WHO television studio. I'm at the urinal emptying out the rain gauge one afternoon and Bachman saddles up at the next basin. We stand in determined silence for a few seconds. He has no idea who I am. Then he says, "I hear Stricky's going on vacation." Stricky, I presume then and now to be then-ace reporter Jim Strickland, lead investigator in WHO-TV's popular "Dirty Dining" series, among other entertaining features. "Oh, is that right?" I reply. End of story.
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I live in a part of the country that primarily uses the word "pop" to describe a carbonated sugar beverage, but I choose to say "soda" because "soda" has only one meaning. I don't care for needless confusion.
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My car has over 140,000 miles on it and last week I changed the clock in it for the first time without the aid of the owner's manual.
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How great is John Goodman?
St. Louis Cardinals fan
New Orleans resident and champion
Roseanne
A Moonlighting episode
Raising Arizona
Sea of Love
Barton Fink
The Hudsucker Proxy
The Big Lebowski
Bringing Out the Dead
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Monsters Inc.
Treme
Community
The Artist
Argo
Just an unbelievable resume.
posted by CM @ 7:58 PM
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