Political Theatre category archive

Via Bob Cesca’s Awesome Blog.

Fox News is often rightly characterized as the official propaganda outlet for the Republican Party.

Or is it perhaps the other way around? Jay Bookman reports:

Somehow — and that “somehow” is a no doubt fascinating story in its own right — Bob Woodward at The Washington Post has obtained a digital recording of a long, detailed conversation between Fox News correspondent Kat McFarland and then-General David Petraeus in the spring of 2011 in Afghanistan during which McFarland:

A.) Urges Petraeus to run for president against Barack Obama;

B.) Tells Petraeus that she was instructed to carry that message to Petraeus by Fox News President Roger Ailes and its owner, Rupert Murdoch;

C.) Tells Petraeus that Fox would fully back his presidential campaign, and by fully back she means:

D.) Murdoch would finance the campaign. Ailes would leave Fox to run the campaign. And Fox News itself would become the house organ of the campaign. As McFarland puts it point blank, “The big boss is bankrolling it. Roger’s going to run it. And the rest of us are going to be your in-house.”

No doubt this would have worked out well.

After all, everything else being equal (which, of course, it would not have been), the Paula Broadman story would have broken three days after the election.

The Virginia Beach city fathers are continuing their attempts to convince the citizenry that Virginia Beach needs nothing more than a sports palace to achieve civic nirvana, as the potential costs proliferate (many more details at the link):

Details of the proposal in a draft of a report to be presented to the City Council today show that financing costs would bring the city’s total to just under $241 million. Last week, Mayor Will Sessoms estimated the cost at $195 million but noted that did not include borrowing costs.

At the same time, city officials have suggested boosting the hotel tax by 1 percentage point to help pay for the proposed arena at the Oceanfront, and resort hoteliers voted Monday to support the idea.

A rate increase to 14 percent, from 13 percent, would generate an estimated $2.8 million per year for the project. For a $200 hotel room, a customer would pay $28 in tax, up from $26.

“We think it will be a big boost for Virginia Beach and the region,” said Verne Burlage, president of the Virginia Beach Hotel-Motel Association, which he said voted unanimously to support it.

Supposedly, this will attract the Sacramento Kings, a third-rate basketball team distinguished primarily by the duplicity of its owners.

My two or three regular readers know that I see this as of a sport-fan-induced pipe dream the primary result which will be to deliver truckloads of money to developers. It is notable that, to create their rosy marketing predictions, the marketing consultants have extended their version of the metropolitan area as far as Richmond–90 miles away, about the distance from Manhattan to Trenton.

It takes so little effort with Google to find piles of the smoking ashes of arena pipe dreams in other cities that I’m not going to waste my time.

Instead, I will point out this little fact that seems lost in the shuffle: Several decades ago, two nearby cities smoked the same stuff and built very nice arenas. Major civic events, big-time professional sports, transformative effects, and magical visits from the revenue fairy were predicted. One of them even had a professional basketball team for a few years.

As I write this, both cities are still nice little cities with nice arenas that host concerts and other performances, but neither provides evidence that shoveling money to developers to build sports palaces transforms a relatively small city into anything other than a relatively small city with a mortgage on a sports palace.

Thom wonders what the next targets will be and visits with Congressman Alan Grayson.

kavips comments on the latest rage. All the cool gazillionaires have one:

Remember those few donors during the Republican primaries who were sheltering candidates almost to the point of being their prime funder?

Among the nouveau riche, it appears one hasn’t arrived until he/she has a prize winning candidate in their barn… It used to be racehorses. It is now GOP candidates…

She goes on to link this to the phony phiscal cliff.

Susan Antilla, writing at Bloomberg dot com, considers the disparate treatment of the principles in the affair of the Petraeus affair. A nugget:

But there is something a little bit off when one party to a sex scandal is congratulated for the sins he managed not to commit while the other gets attacked as “a shameless, self promoting prom queen,” which is the way Broadwell was described by an unnamed military officer in the blog Business Insider. (Memo to Mr. Unnamed Military Officer: Next time you get on the phone for a media interview, show a little military-style courage and attach your name to those smears.)

Petraeus is no stranger to self-promotion himself, and several writers have called him out both for his assiduous courting of the reporters who covered him and for his tacky decision to adorn his civilian clothes with military medals for a recent speech in Washington.

But that self-promotion hasn’t led to any portrayals of Petraeus as “a shameless self promoting prom king.”

Via Balloon Juice.

Christmas is coming, so Dick Destiny is making a list and checking it twice.

How high-ranking officers move from the war machine to the war lobby.

Heh.

Gov. Christie asked the federal government Wednesday for an additional $7.4 billion for Sandy recovery, bringing the state’s total request to $36.8 billion.

The additional money would be used to reengineer beaches, including additional sand dunes, to protect the shoreline against future storms. Last week, state officials asked for $29.4 billion in federal funds to offset emergency response and repair costs.

Not from the schools.

The schools themselves.

All the cool gazillionaires are doing it.

Lies, damned lies, and Citizens Benighted:

Consider this: If all the election commercials on local stations had aired as one nonstop broadcast, it would have taken almost 11 days to view them – with no breaks for sleep.

(snip)

A Virginian-Pilot analysis of political ad sales to the four Hampton Roads stations found that the commercials amounted to more than 260 hours of air time. That doesn’t include the barrage of nationally broadcast ads bought directly from networks or cable outlets.

Via Bob Cesca’s Awesome Blog.

A TPM reader has some thoughts about Republicans and Romney.

Tony Norman remembers the parade of singers and stars who protested the use of their songs by Republicans and wonders why an entire class of potential Republican support was ignored. A snippet:

While the Obama campaign could draw upon an all-star roster of contemporary and classic musicians from Jay-Z to Bruce Springsteen, the Romney/Ryan ticket had to settle for endorsements from a motley crew (no, not the band) that included Pat Boone, Hank Williams Jr., Ted Nugent, Alabama, Meatloaf, the Oak Ridge Boys, Kid Rock and the surviving members of Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Ironically, there are several fiscally conservative hip-hop stars who probably would have loved to have been approached for their support. Why wasn’t LL Cool J asked to license “Mama Said Knock You Out” for large rallies in Ohio and Pennsylvania? And is there a bigger capitalist in all of popular entertainment than longtime George W. Bush groupie 50 Cent? Why didn’t the Republican National Committee seek the support of these outspoken black Republicans? I think the answer is obvious.

Indeed.

In the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Reg Henry plants his tongue inside his cheek and urges Republicans, “Enough with the soul-searching!”*

A nugget:

GOP chiefs should ignore anyone who says the bubble is a problem. The party doesn’t need any facts from outside the bubble. The problem with facts is that they are so — how shall we say? — factual.

That Latinos preferred Mr. Obama in the election by a wide margin is a problem for the party, but not as big as advertised. Apparently, Latinos saw punitive steps being taken against illegal immigrants and feared that they would be confused with them. Who knew people could be so thin-skinned?

The remedy is not to cease saying bad things about illegal immigrants — that has given conservatives too much pleasure — but to make room for approved Latinos in the right-wing information bubble or echo chamber.

Another possible remedy is to diversify the party’s enemies so Latinos don’t have to be singled out so much. As you know, fear and loathing of something is absolutely essential to the conservative worldview.

__________________

*Listen carefully to the calls of the soul-searchers, then take out your Audubon and identify the callers.

Republican politicians are not doing any soul-searching, apart from the occasional “we need to stop sounding crazy” sound bite (emphasis on “sounding”). Any soul-searching is being done by members of the right-wing punditocracy, such as David Brooks and the much lighter-weight Joe Scarborough, trying to figure out why their relentless attempts to paint Republicanism as some sort of moral imperative did not carry the day.

Republican pols will just double-down on the crazy.

It’s what their base wants.

Never let it be said that they won’t pander to their base.

Care2 offers some suggestions for avoiding nasty political discussions with your wingnut welatives this Thanksgiving. My favorite:

3. Offer to Do the Dishes

No one likes cleaning up after such a big feast, so no matter how much ire you’ve received based on your leftist views, you’re sure to win back brownie points by taking on the dishwashing. Plus, it’s a good way to excuse yourself from the conversation. If you’re particularly livid at this point in the night, you could also just pull a Paul Ryan and pose for a photo while pretending to wash a dish before booking it altogether.

Via Farnsworth.