The Hollywood Liberal

Late Late Nite FDL: Hypo Chrondi Cat
The Hypo-Chrondi-Cat, starring Hubie and Bertie and, of course, Claude The Cat.  This Warner Bros Merrie Melodies production was directed by Charles M. Jones.  The story is by Michael Maltese with animation by Ben Washam, Lloyd Vaughan, Ken Harris, and Phil Monroe.  Layouts by Robert Gribbroex and backgrounds by Phil De Guard.  Vocal characterizations by Mel Blanc and others.  Music by Carl Stalling.

What’s on your mind tonight?

The Hypo-Chrondi-Cat, starring Hubie and Bertie and, of course, Claude The Cat.  This Warner Bros Merrie Melodies production was directed by Charles M. Jones.  The story is by Michael Maltese with animation by Ben Washam, Lloyd Vaughan, Ken Harris, and Phil Monroe.  Layouts by Robert Gribbroex and backgrounds by Phil De Guard.  Vocal characterizations by Mel Blanc and others.  Music by Carl Stalling.

What’s on your mind tonight?

Watch Rachel Maddow’s Debut Show Launch on MSNBC Tonight: She Fights Lies Uttered by Politicians, Repeated by Media
Maddow will show that smart, provocative, truth-telling journalism and commentary has a potential massive audience on cable TV.

Empowered To Sort Myself
Three major trends are driving the consumer marketplace, and, indeed, society at large. Purpose. Well-being. And empowerment. It is the latter that is most important for “the big sort” described by Bill Bishop. People now have access to information…

House and Senate Dems Claim Victory, Say Miers, Rove Should Testify
House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) hailed today’s court ruling and said he expects former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and political director Karl Rove to testify on Capitol Hill in September. “Today’s landmark ruling is a ringing reaffirmation…

Friedman on ?drill, drill, drill?: It?s like someone chanting ?IBM Selectric typewriters? during the IT revolution.
On NBC’s Meet The Press this morning, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman criticized the chanting of “drill, drill, drill” and “drill, baby, drill” at the Republican National Convention last week, saying that’s just what Saudi Arabia, Russia, Venezuela and Nigeria want to hear Americans focusing on. “They’d be up there leading the chant. They […]

On NBC’s Meet The Press this morning, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman criticized the chanting of “drill, drill, drill” and “drill, baby, drill” at the Republican National Convention last week, saying that’s just what Saudi Arabia, Russia, Venezuela and Nigeria want to hear Americans focusing on. “They’d be up there leading the chant. They would be saying, ‘this is great, America isn’t sitting there saying, invent, invent, invent new renewable energy,’” said Friedman. Friedman added that he isn’t opposed to offshore drilling, but we shouldn’t be “making that the center focus”:

FRIEDMAN: I’m actually not against drilling. What I’m against is making that the center of our focus because we are on the eve of a new revolution, the energy technology revolution. It would be, Tom, as if on the eve of the IT revolution, the revolution of PCs and the internet, someone was up there standing and demanding, “IBM Selectric typewriters, IBM Selectric typewriters.” That’s what “drill, drill, drill” is the equivalent of today.

Watch it:

Romancing the Vote
ST. PAUL — The 2008 Republican National Convention had too much in common with the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston. That’s where presidential candidate John Kerry talked endlessly about his military service — to the point where people would joke, “Hey, did you know that John Kerry served in Vietnam?” Nor did Teresa Heinz Kerry — the Massachusetts senator’s heiress second wife — set delegates on fire. By that convention’s end, the crowd clearly lacked gusto for their nominee and the campaign ahead. Last week in St. Paul, the Republican convention dwelled too long on McCain’s POW status — and, yes, he is a true hero — and McCain’s wife didn’t seem to connect with the delegates. There was less hoopla after McCain’s speech than after that of his running mate, Sarah Palin.

The Electoral Sitcom
WASHINGTON — St. Paul followed Denver as night follows day. Republican deconstruction artists quickly tore into the lofty images that Democratic campaign managers had spun around their guileful, graceful nominee. Two months of party warfare to come were methodically set in concrete in the past two weeks. But conventions also send important, often unintended, messages about the state of the American spirit at any given moment. Both gatherings revealed Americans as anxious and eager not just to move beyond the George W. Bush era but to repair the gigantic mess that Washington policymaking is rightly perceived to have become.