Where’s my friend? My friend is Walid Abu Rass. He is the Finance and Administration Manager for the Health Work Committees (HWC, at www.hwc-pal.org), one of the largest community health service providers in the occupied Palestinian territory. HWC serves over 500,000 patients/beneficiaries per…
Republican Foreign Policy Mad Libs It’s the holiday season, a serviceable pretext time for good clean nonsense. Last year I offered my misheard lyrics video for the epic Clash song “Safe European Home” (fairly suitable for work, but funny mainly for Clash fans). Today’s frivolous…
Fox Moves Into Digital Programming, Countering YouTube?s Channel Realignment Fox just let us know that Nick Weidenfeld, who produced The Boondocks and Children’s Hospital, will start a programming block to compete with Adult Swim, airing from 11 to 12:30 starting in January 2013, and a program to produce 50 pieces of digital programming a year that could move to network if they’re successful enough. […]
Fox just let us know that Nick Weidenfeld, who produced The Boondocks and Children’s Hospital, will start a programming block to compete with Adult Swim, airing from 11 to 12:30 starting in January 2013, and a program to produce 50 pieces of digital programming a year that could move to network if they’re successful enough. It’s a fascinating move and one that recognizes a new reality where companies like Netflix are serious competitors if they’re treated like networks.
Kevin Reilly, Fox’s entertainment president framed the decision as a response to tech companies like YouTube starting to get into the creative content market. “This is the first time a major broadcast company has an opportunity to seed something in the digital realm. Something that starts in digital could be the next big prime time hit,” he told us. “Some of it is technological. You’re starting to enter the realm of internet-connected television…and you’re seeing those entities beginning to see the value of content. We have an expertise, and a history, and a proficiency, and a prime-time audience base.”
He said that animation was a logical place to start both because it could be done less expensively, and because of the nature of the fans. ” Animation is a very particular audience, it’s a distinct and passionate audience,” he said. “They’re willing to consume things in the digital realm.” This all strikes me as a smart bit of outreach to viewers the network has identified as early adopters. And it’ll also likely mean that Fox will have to make sure its online streaming platforms are in good shape and can handle significant capacity—it’s a way of building a new business that creates benefits for the old audience.
LOS ANGELES — Researchers at the Parents Television Council have helpful drop-down menus on their computers loaded with just about every profanity and dirty slang term imaginable.
They are handy shortcuts — there are additional ones for violent and sexual content — as the nonprofit group’s headphone-wearing analysts monitor every network prime-time entertainment broadcast for offensive language, bleeped profanity, flashes of nudity, threesomes and gore.
Tony Blankley, a conservative author, columnist and political observer who had been a top aide to House Speaker Newt Gingrich and later headed the editorial page of the Washington Times, died Jan. 7 at Sibley Memorial Hospital in the District.
He was 63 and had cancer, his wife Lynda Davis said.
Mr. Blankley was born in England and spoke with a trace of a British accent, but he was raised in Los Angeles. As a child, he acted in television shows such as “Lassie” and “Make Room for Daddy” before developing an interest in the law and politics as a teenager.
EXETER, N.H. — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) on Sunday called President Obama the “most pessimistic man I’ve ever seen” and said he is faking anger to win reelection.
Christie, appearing alongside GOP presidential front-runner Mitt Romney at a campaign rally at a high school here, accused the president of a cynical effort to redirect the anger of the American people by appearing angry himself.
Obama-Clinton Is the Ticket Bill Keller, New York Times THE beginning of a new year is a time for resolutions, and Hillary Clinton’s admirers are already busily, lovingly resolving on her behalf. On one sideline, her friends tell me that after a few years of hyperactive globetrotting what she really needs is to put her feet up and dictate another volume of her memoirs while nagging Chelsea to deliver grandchildren. (“She’s tired; she needs some time off,” her husband told ABC.) At the other extreme, a couple of Democratic consultants, Patrick Caddell and Douglas Schoen, propose to draft her right now as the…
When Do New Year’s Resolutions Stick? John Tierney, New York Times IT’S still early in 2012, so let’s be optimistic. Let’s assume you have made a New Year’s resolution and have not yet broken it. Based on studies of past resolutions, here are some uplifting predictions:1) Whatever you hope for this year — to lose weight, to exercise more, to spend less money — you’re much more likely to make improvements than someone who hasn’t made a formal resolution.
Obama’s Foreign Policy Failures Jackson Diehl, Washington Post The political writers tell us that President Obama’s foreign affairs record will be one of his strengths with voters in the 2012 campaign. The logic is pretty simple; Obama himself summed it up in 11 words at the Pentagon last week: “We’ve ended our war in Iraq. We’ve decimated al-Qaeda’s leadership.”That may well be enough in a year when foreign policy is a low priority for voters. Of course, there could be unexpected crises; a confrontation with Iran that sends U.S. gasoline prices soaring, for example.
Is Romney McCain Version 2.0? Brian Calle, Orange County Register The endorsement of Mitt Romney’s presidential bid by John McCain, the 2008 Republican nominee, was the latest indication that Romney is the GOP establishment’s heir apparent.As Romney, who picked up McCain’s endorsement last week, appears to be gliding to a comfortable victory in New Hampshire’s primary Tuesday, the next major campaign stop, and the GOP establishment begins to rally behind him, he has still yet to capture the trust, energy and esteem of many rank-and-file Republicans, let alone the Tea Party activists.
GOP’s Peculiar Vocabulary of Race Joan Walsh, Salon If Rick Santorum is upset that pretty much nobody believed him when he said he wasn’t talking about “black people” living off “somebody else’s money,” he has Newt Gingrich to blame. A day after the GOP’s flavor of the week changed stories and claimed, “I didn’t say black,” when he said, “I don’t want to make [something sounding like black] people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money,” Gingrich again called President…
Last night was the ABC News-Yahoo debate, this morning it’s the NBC News-Facebook debate on Meet the Press, so please hang in the comments. Shoto found us a drinking game over at Pierce’s, hold onto your socks:
Here’s your drinking game for your Sunday morning mimosa: Take a sip every time Gregory begins a question with the phrase, “Last night, you said….” Drink the whole thing down every time he prefaces matters with the phrase, “Do you stand by…?” I promise you, if you play this game, you will be utterly sockless long before Pittsburgh and Tebow tee it up Saturday afternoon.
(If straight whiskey is your Sunday-morning preference, book a suite at Betty Ford right now.)
Don’t forget FDL Book Salon this afternoon and Virtually Speaking this evening. Also FDL Movie Night Monday.
ABC’s This Week:George Stephanopoulos returns. Obama campaign adviser David Axelrod. Then, Mike Huckabee. Roundtable: George Will, Mary Matalin, Matthew Dowd, Donna Brazile, Jake Tapper. Plus, Jonathan Karl on the campaign and social media.
CBS’ Face the Nation:Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey on pirate rescue. Sen. John McCain.
CNN’s State of the Union:Jon Huntsman. Then, Romney surrogate and former New Hampshire Governor John Sununu, and Gingrich adviser former congressman Bob Walker. Followed by House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi. Roundtable: Neil King of the Wall Street Journal and Phil Rucker of the Washington Post.
Chris Hayes:Lin-Manuel Miranda, composer and lyricist, The Hamilton Mixtape. Irin Carmon, staff writer for Salon.com. Elise Jordan, former speechwriter for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Maria Teresa Kumar, executive director of VotoLatino.org. Jay Smooth, host WBAI-FM’s “Underground Railroad.”
Chris Matthews: Will Republicans rally around Romney if he coasts to the nomination? What would a potential Ron Paul 3rd party candidacy look like?
Fareed Zakaria – GPS:Alan Simpson. Military analysts Michael O’Hanlon and Larry Korb. Roundtable: Vali Nasr, Bret Stephens, Hooman Majd, Hillary Mann Leverett. Plus, why the Chinese this week found two-thirds of their favorite TV shows simply gone.
Fox News Sunday:RNC Chair Reince Priebus, DNC Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL). Roundtable: Brett Baier; A.B. Stoddard; Ovide Lamontagne, New Hampshire Gubernatorial Candidate (R); Neil Levesque, Executive Director, New Hampshire Institute of Politics.
Newsmakers: Following this Tuesday’s NH Primary, South Carolina is up next with their primary set for Saturday January 21. Chad Connelly, South Carolina Republican Party Chairman joins Newsmakers to provide a preview of the primary and how the South figures into presidential politics. The South Carolina primary is often called the “first in the South,” and is one of the states that ultimately ignored the RNC’s instructions that early states not hold prmaries before Feb. 1st.
Q & A:Ward Carroll, editor of military.com. Military.com is a website which provides news, information and support to current and former service members and their families as well as non-military readers. The website has over ten million members. Carroll discusses a wide array of defense issues, including the way procurement works in the Department of Defense…
60 Minutes:Stem Cell Fraud – Stem cells still have not proven to be the panacea many claimed they could be, yet the Internet is alive with stem cells for sale to treat incurable illnesses. Scott Pelley reports on one man offering to treat cerebral palsy who a respected stem cell researcher says could be endangering patients. Marine Brothers – Lara Logan reports on five sets of brothers in the Marine Reserves who fought for the right to be on the front line of combat in Afghanistan with their siblings. The Most Expensive Food in the World – European white truffles can sell for as much as $3,600 a pound. But harvests are down and a black market has emerged that has allowed an influx of inferior and cheap Chinese truffles that are diluting this lucrative market.
To the Contrary:Topics: Is an anti-contraception movement is on the horizon as GOP Presidential candidate Rick Santorum’s opposition to birth control is gaining national attention. Then, millions of female low-income workers in eight states got pay raises thanks to an increase in minimum wage. Lastly, Behind the Headlines: Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas shares why she is retiring from Congress and what’s next for her. Panelists: Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC); The Heritage Foundation’s Genevieve Wood; Judge; Judge and Former Federal Prosecutor Debra Carnahan, and Former EEOC Chair Cari Dominguez.
Univision’s Al Punto:Cecilia Muñoz, White House Director of Intergovernmental Affairs; Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ); Helen Aguirre, Noticias Univision Republican Analyst; Fabian Nuñez, Noticias Univision Democratic Analyst; Arnoldo Torres, Expert on Hispanic Issues; Patricia Poleo, Journalist and Author of “Fugitiva en Rosa.”
Virtually Speaking:Cliff Schecter and special guest Gotta Laff discuss developments of the week, highlighting what’s been neglected or misrepresented on the Sunday morning broadcasts.
FDL’s Book Salon:Manufacturing Hysteria: A History of Scapegoating, Surveillance, and Secrecy in Modern America. “In this ambitious and wide-ranging history, Jay Feldman takes us from the run-up to World War I and its anti-German hysteria through the September 11 attacks and Arizona’s current anti-immigration movement. What we see is a striking pattern of elected officials and private citizens alike using the American people’s fears and prejudices to isolate minorities (ethnic, racial, political, religious, or sexual), silence dissent, and stem the growth of civil rights and liberties.” Chat with Jay Feldman about his new book, hosted by Jeffrey Feldman. 5pm ET.
FDL’s Movie Night Monday:Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea. “Once ‘California’s Riviera,’ the Salton Sea is now America’s worst ecological disaster. Yet a few hardy eccentrics hang on to hope, including a roadside nudist and a man building a religious mountain out of mud and paint. Hair-raising and hilarious, this is the American Dream stinky as a dead carp.” Join host Lisa Derrick and Producer/Director Chris Meltzer. 8pm ET Monday.
‘Left, Right & Center’: The (Elusive) Middle-Class Agenda Republicans, start your engines. With the Iowa causues in the rear-view mirror and New Hampshire and South Carolina up next, the GOP primary field has pretty much narrowed to Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul. What might the great minds of “Left, Right & Center” think of these presidential wannabes?
Republicans, start your engines. With the Iowa causues in the rear-view mirror and New Hampshire and South Carolina up next, the GOP primary field has pretty much narrowed to Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul. What might the great minds of “Left, Right & Center” think of these presidential wannabes?
China Wary of Obama’s New Military Plan Republicans weren’t the only ones irked at our nation’s leader this week. President Obama has also ruffled some feathers in the Chinese government with his newly hatched military strategy, which he announced in a rare news conference at the Pentagon on Thursday, and which apparently strikes the Chinese as a potentially unwelcome display of U.S. prowess on their side of the globe. —KA BBC: China’s state media have warned the US against “flexing its muscles” after Washington unveiled a defence review switching focus to the Asia-Pacific. In an editorial, official news agency Xinhua said President Barack Obama’s move to increase US presence in the region could come as a welcome boost to stability and prosperity. But it said any US militarism could create ill will and “endanger peace”. Read more
Republicans weren’t the only ones irked at our nation’s leader this week. President Obama has also ruffled some feathers in the Chinese government with his newly hatched military strategy, which he announced in a rare news conference at the Pentagon on Thursday, and which apparently strikes the Chinese as a potentially unwelcome display of U.S. prowess on their side of the globe.? —KA
BBC:
China’s state media have warned the US against “flexing its muscles” after Washington unveiled a defence review switching focus to the Asia-Pacific.
In an editorial, official news agency Xinhua said President Barack Obama’s move to increase US presence in the region could come as a welcome boost to stability and prosperity.
But it said any US militarism could create ill will and “endanger peace”.
Jason Fitzgerald: Ask Not What Occupy Wall Street Will Do Next; Ask How We Will Change The Status Quo Occupying Wall Street was not a crazy scheme that a group of activists did for attention. They did it for us. If the stock market is really going to be a seat of power in contemporary society, then we all have a stake in what happens there. If Wall Street is king, then Wall Street is ours, and the activists were holding our spot. The state knew this, so it dispatched some of its employees to arrest a few of us, to pepper spray a few others, and then, finally, on a cold November night, to throw all of us out.
Karen K. Harris: Why Obama Has the Right to Appoint Cordray Although it is very likely that Cordray’s recess confirmation will be challenged, it is clear that President Obama had both the legal authority and moral obligation to make this appointment.
Kevin Cathcart: When Ordinary People Say ‘No’ to Injustice Three ordinary people who stood up against injustice and became heroes died in the past two months. Lambda Legal was proud to represent each of them in court, wining victories that improved the lives of many.
The Hollywood Liberal is an anti-war, anti republican, from right here beautiful Hollywood California.
This site was originally started to help get The Worst President Ever G.W. Bush Jr. Out of office. Now that we have accomplished that
the goal is to get Obama to start acting like a Democrat, and not an butt kissing Republican Wannabee. We will continue to fight for that goal
. Thanks H.L.
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