When on his Bloomberg TV show today it came John Heilemann's turn to comment on a clip of Hillary from a speech to a women's conference in Silicon Valley yesterday, I sincerely thought he was going to criticize Clinton's canned delivery.
But to my amazement, Heilemann hailed Hillary as "much looser, much more spontaneous, much funnier" than she's been in the past. Talk about the soft bigotry of low expectations! Have a look at the video and judge Hillary's delivery for yourself.
The Bloomberg headline was shocking: “Grisly Language Propels Kansas Anti-Abortion Bill as U.S. Model.”
Bloomberg journalist Esme E. Deprez was tasked with informing readers about the Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Act, which last month was introduced in both Kansas and Oklahoma. The writing experience obviously wasn’t pleasant for her.
Speaking at Drake University in Iowa on Thursday, Vice President Joe Biden was running through a list of dignitaries that were there for his remarks and referred to former Iowa Democratic Representative Neal Smith as his “old butt buddy” and told Smith that “I miss you man.” On Thursday night, the major networks ignored the story and didn’t even one of its lighthearted news briefs to it (as the networks often do in the second half of their programs).
Mike Huckabee, the once and future presidential candidate, is somehow controversial for attacking Beyonce and her gangsta-rap husband Jay-Z in his new book God, Guns, Grits, and Gravy. Beyonce is one of the most popular singers in America, and Huckabee acknowledges that. But pollsters are distorting his book.
Conservative politicians aren’t really allowed to condemn the crudest excesses of popular culture. The Obamas can be best friends with Jay-Z and Beyonce and never face any scrutiny for their parenting, which is always presumed to be fantastic.
The Seattle Seahawks yesterday - in a moment of profound foolishness - forsook Beast Mode for Least Mode. And it cost them the Super Bowl. But they can take ever so slight solace - the Media has been in Least Mode for decades.
This has been on prominent display throughout the Barack Obama Administration - and certainly when it comes to the Administration’s many, MANY unilateral power grabs.
First, a bit of a Constitutional primer for a Media that seems to desperately need it. Congress is the Legislative Branch. They write laws - which the President then signs. Said President presides over the Executive Branch. His many, many, MANY Departments, Agencies, Commissions and Boards are then - and only then - charged with executing the legislation Congress first composed.
If someone fools you once, shame on them. If they fool you with the same trick a second time, shame on you. If they "fool" you a third time — well, you must be in on it.
That's my take on Bloomberg News's virtually euphoric reaction to yesterday's new-home sales release from the Census Bureau. The wire service's Shobhana Chandra celebrated how seasonally adjusted December sales were at "the highest level in more than six years." The problem is that the bureau reported the same development two other times in 2014, only to see each improvement disappear in subsequent revisions. Excerpts follow the jump (bolds are mine):
Filling in for John Heilemann on the Monday edition of Bloomberg’s With All Due Respect, Campbell Brown took a shot at House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for “whining about President Obama” in an interview that aired Sunday on CBS’s 60 Minutes.
Following a clip from the interview, Brown first credited Boehner for “holding a very diverse, you know, House together,” but she then quickly reversed course and made this swipe at Boehner and McConnell: “[I]n terms of being messengers for the party right now, it sounds a lot like whining.”
Appearing on PBS's Charlie Rose Tuesday night following President Obama's State of the Union address, Bloomberg View columnist Al Hunt praised it as "one of the best speeches of his presidency" and "remarkably effective," before admitting: "I don't think he's going to get much done....This is not a cycle where you get much done. He may get a little stuff on trade and infrastructure."
In an interview with newly elected Colorado Senator Cory Gardner for PBS's Charlie Rose, Bloomberg View columnist Al Hunt grilled the Republican on conservatives in Congress being obstructionist: "Some of your Republican colleagues, Ted Cruz in the Senate, those twenty-four House members who voted against Speaker Boehner, they're not interested in getting things done as much as they are in putting down markers. Isn't it more likely there'll be a series of confrontations rather than any kind of collaboration?"
David Weigel at Bloomberg.com reports a PAC called Conservative War Chest, is arranging an ad buy against Comcast in five swing states – Florida, Michigan, Nevada, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. The two-minute ad warns that Comcast is becoming “America’s most powerful and militant left-wing political force” and conservaitves should “fight the corruption of American journalism.”
"Comcast needs Obama administration approval to merge with Time/Warner cable, giving it access to two-thirds of American’s homes,” spokesman Mike Flynn said in a statement. “The last time Comcast needed a government favor we got Al Sharpton five nights a week. What will we get in exchange for a deal worth billions to Brian Roberts and other owners of Comcast?"
Three results returned in a search at the Associated Press's national site on "Venezuela" tell us almost nothing about that country's deepening economic crisis.
An unbylined January 10 item reports on the visit of Nicolas Maduro, the country's de facto dictator, to Iran in hopes of "stabilizing" (i.e., raising) oil prices. A second unbylined report on January 9 tells readers that there's really nothing to worry (oh sure) about in China's growing Latin American influence. Only the faintest hint of the horrors everyday Venezuelans are now experiencing appeared on January 7. The following two paragraphs appeared at the very end of a report describing Maduro's visit to China:
At Business Week, reporter James G. Neuger was really upset on Thursday that concerned politicians were raising the issue of protecting the public against radical Islamists in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo massacre.
Of course, he couldn't resist chalking it up to bigotry — against "immigrants -- especially those with veils, turbans and non-white skin." Excerpts follow the jump.