The Hollywood Liberal

Rice: Turkey Will Let U.S. Use Bases in War
Turkey has agreed to let the U.S. use its military bases for operations in Iraq and Syria, National Security Adviser Susan Rice said. Rice said Turkey had also agreed to let the U.S. use Turkish bases and territory “to train moderate Syrian opposition forces.” The deal has not yet been confirmed by Turkey, which has so far refused to send troops into Syria or Iraq.

ALCS Game 3 postponed because of rain
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Game 3 of the AL Championship Series has been postponed because of rain.

GOP lawmaker: “Eliminate the threat” of Ebola in West Africa
Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, says the U.S. should consider suspending visas for West Africans to come to the U.S.

Hillary Clinton gets heckled
The former first lady was addressing the American Academy of Pediatrics in San Diego

Fox & Friends Wants An Ebola “Czar” After Suggesting Use Of Czars Was Turning Us Into Russia

After spending much of 2009 complaining that President Obama’s appointment of “czars” was akin to the crowning of monarchs and Russian practices, Fox & Friends is now calling for the appointment of an Ebola Virus czar.

Fox host Steve Doocy responded to news of the first Ebola diagnosis contracted within the U.S. by calling for an “official Ebola czar” on the October 13 edition of Fox & Friends, echoing the demand of Republican Sen. John McCain. According to Doocy, “We probably need one” because Obama isn’t doing enough to fight the virus:

DOOCY:  So every time there’s an incident like this, you see Thomas Frieden, the guy who heads up CDC, but is he the official — there he is right there — Is he the official Ebola czar? We probably need one, because the president isn’t, you know, he’s not —

KILMEADE: Sen. McCaul is calling for one.

DOOCY: Absolutely. So with all this bad news —

KILMEADE: Congressman McCaul.

DOOCY: Where was the President of the United States over the weekend? Right after he talked to the Secretary of Health and Human Services, he went golfing.

But the Fox program has a long history of mocking previous Obama administration czars. 

In 2009, then-host Gretchen Carlson mocked the term and alleged, “You know when I looked up ‘czar’ in the dictionary, or Googled it, the word that came up was ‘king.’ And I was wondering to myself, why we are having so many czars/kings now in America?” Doocy added, “When you think about it, ‘czar’ is a Russian word.” Fox then aired an altered graphic of Obama’s cabinet members in Russian czar attire displaying the question, “And Now We’re Russia?” Doocy went on to compare administration cabinet members to Russian monarchs: 

 The same year, Carlson asked whether czars in the Obama administration were “just friends of Obama who need work or payback a favor?”, while Kilmeade previously questioned whether the appointment of a czar was evidence “of a new culture of corruption.” 

Death On Demand Is Not Death With Dignity
Debra Saunders, RealClearPolitics
I’d like to think that if I got the bad news that Brittany Maynard received — terminal cancer with a prognosis of less than six months left to live — I’d be like her. I’d like to be stoic and brave. I’d like to take charge of the rest of my cruelly abbreviated life. If I were facing death at age 29, I would want to find meaning in an end come too soon. Maynard has done just that. She moved from California to Oregon, where assisted suicide is legal. She has become the face of Compassion & Choices, which wants to legalize assisted suicide in California. “It’s crazy to me that other patients…

Lame Duck Sessions Reveal What Members of Congress Really Want
Matthew Mitchell & Emily Washington, RealClearPolitics
What does your member of Congress really want? It can be hard to know because typical legislators are under extraordinary pressure to do what other people want. For one, she must cater to home-district special interests because the ability to organize can make or break a political career. She must also accommodate the wishes of donors, for it’s nearly impossible to win reelection without a sizeable war chest. Then there are congressional colleagues. Your member must indulge their often-parochial interests because she needs their support for her own priorities. And, finally, there are…

New Republic Falls Short of the True Liberalism It Champions
Peter Berkowitz, RealClearPolitics
Liberalism, most people would agree, stands for the state’s responsibility to actively improve the social, economic, and political quality of citizens’ lives. In a more fundamental sense liberalism also denotes certain qualities of mind and character, among them tolerance, generosity, the capacity to engage civilly competing opinions, and a determination to base politics on reason rather than physical force or arbitrary authority. On the occasion of The New Republic’s 100th anniversary, Franklin Foer, a proud liberal serving his second tour of duty as TNR editor, has brought out…

Local or National Elections?
Thomas Sowell, RealClearPolitics
Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill once said, “All politics is local.” That may have been true in Tip O’Neill’s day, but some elections are decisively on national issues — and the Congressional elections this year are overwhelmingly national, just as the elections of 1860 were dominated by one national issue, namely slavery. In 1860, some abolitionists split the anti-slavery vote by running their own candidate — who had no chance of winning — instead of supporting Abraham Lincoln, who was not pure enough for some abolitionists. Lincoln got just 40 percent of the vote, though that turned out…

MPs back Palestinian statehood
MPs vote by 274 to 12 in favour of recognising Palestine as a state alongside Israel, after a House of Commons debate.

VIDEO: Recognising Palestine ‘right thing to do’
A Labour MP says recognising the state of Palestine is the “right thing to do” ahead of a vote in the Commons.

Irish invited to Remembrance Sunday
The Irish government accepts an invitation to lay a wreath at the Cenotaph in London on Remembrance Sunday next month.

Ferguson Protesters Hang Banner At Rams-49ers Monday Night Football Game In St. Louis
ST. LOUIS (AP) — The ongoing protests over the death of Michael Brown made a quick appearance at the Edward Jones Dome during the second half of the St. Louis Rams’ game Monday night.

Protesters briefly hung a banner reading, “Rams fans know on and off the field black lives matter,” over of the top of a jumbo video board in the north end zone during the 49ers’ go-ahead drive in the third quarter. A few minutes later, about three-dozen protesters marched with their hands raised in an aisle just below the upper deck in the south end zone. Five police officers followed them.

The protests stem from the August shooting death of Brown, who was black and unarmed, by white Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson.

Jean Tirole Wins Nobel in Economics for Work on Regulation
Mr. Tirole, a French economist, has provided insight into how governments can best tame powerful firms, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.

Car Bomb Kills at Least 15 in Somalia
A car with explosives was detonated near a popular cafe in Mogadishu in what the government says was an act of terrorism by the Shabab militant group.

The Ortolan: A Tiny Bird as a French Cause Célèbre
Celebrity chefs are waging a campaign to bring the bird, banished from menus since 1999, back to the table, prompting protests to keep it protected.

Sinosphere Blog: Relatives of People Detained for Supporting Hong Kong Protests Appeal for Their Freedom
The relatives of the detainees have spoken out via social media, saying the charges are unjust and “a big insult to the families.”

At the Vatican, a Shift in Tone Toward Gays and Divorce
In remarkably conciliatory language, a synod of bishops appeared to reflect the more tolerant and inclusive direction Pope Francis has set for the church.

Billy Eichner Says Burger King Stole His Act

THIEVES! Or, you know, not.

The post Billy Eichner Says Burger King Stole His Act appeared first on ThinkProgress.

CREDIT: Danny Moloshok/Invision/AP

Another day, another accusation of theft in the comedy community: this time, Billy Eichner versus Burger King.

Eichner’s signature “Billy on the Street” move entails him running up to a bunch of pedestrians, usually with a celebrity in tow, and screaming questions in their faces. If you are into this sort of thing (I am!) it is very funny; if you’re not, it’s kind of just very loud. Key elements of the bit: high volume, semi-uncomfortable questions, the involvement of famous guests.

Last night, Eichner tweeted…

…in reference to this Burger King commercial:

Joke theft is a serious crime of creativity; in an industry where the only currency that can never be devalued is ideas, to steal someone’s original work and pass it off as your own is as bad as busting open their bank account. It’s a problem as old as professional comedy, and probably even older. But is that really what this is?

The guy in the Burger King commercial has a passing resemblance to Eichner, in that, they are both white guys with dark hair. But I wouldn’t even describe his voice as “yelling,” let alone the emphatic shout-scream for which Eichner is famous. He sounds more like a game show host describing what prize is behind door number three. There’s no celebrity on his arm. While Eichner runs between passersby and accosts them as they’re walking to the subway or whatever, the Burger King spokesman is just doing an interview with kids who are already there, who appear to have met him outside for the express purpose of being interviewed. Is it likely that someone at the ad agency, or at Burger King, saw and liked Eichner’s comedy and was inspired by it for this commercial? Sure, but that’s hardly a cause for outrage. The ad doesn’t look ripped off. If Eichner had not made this comparison himself, I’m not entirely sure anybody else would have sounded the alarm.

Eichner’s sketches are vulgar and strange — “I hope you’ve got your condom on, because it’s time for the lightning round!” — and his tone is frazzled, frantic, manic. None of that energy is present in the static Burger King commercial.

The Burger King ad and Eichner’s sketch look alike the way any normal person “looks like” a celebrity: in the just-right lighting, if you squint, if you’re generous, and also, nope, not really, not at all.

The post Billy Eichner Says Burger King Stole His Act appeared first on ThinkProgress.

The Wage Gap Makes Perfect Sense When Tech Executives Say What They Really Think About Women
From: Bryce Covert

What is said off the cuff, even in front of an audience full of women, gives us insight into what women are still up against in the tech industry.

‘Raiders Night’ Comes to Sayreville
From: Dave Zirin

High school football, hazing, sexual assault and a truth more horrifying than fiction.