I agree that poor Bristol (and the jerk Levi–I say jerk, not because he didn’t use elemental protection–because, neither did she, IOW, they’re both culpable here-but because he comes across as remarkably immature for his age. I saw a bit of his MySpace page yesterday and it’s my bet that poor Bristol will be left holding that baby while he’s out being a “fucking redneck”. Oh, and on the space he says he doesn’t want kids. Well, hell–who does at 17? But it looks bad. You’d think something as smooth and well oiled as the GOP would have taken that page down prior to the VP announcement.)
However, the fact that Palin has advocated for abstinence education (and still does, apparently) IS germane. One would think that, faced with the evidence that it just doesn’t work, she’d advocate for birth control, but perhaps that’s too much to ask.
I didn’t see the Democratic convention on CNN, so I’m curious - which Republican party bigwig did they have rebutting each Democrat’s speech? I assume they had one, didn’t they? Because last night after every speech they cut to Donna Brazile, who is a Democrat superdelegate, to give a short rebuttal. Did they do that for the Democrats?
Having watched the segment last night, it leaves me ambivalent.
On the one hand, it has long been my intention to spare Campbell Brown after I conquer the Earth, so that I put her the anchor chair of the nightly news, which she would, of course, do naked.
On the other hand, her vigorous and amusing spanking of Tucker what’s-his-name makes me think that she is more than just a hot news chick, that she might have a brain, and thus that she might use my warm fuzzies toward her to assist the inevitable rebellion.
They did it constantly, believe me. The Democrats are actually doing this because the Republicans did it. Fox was especially bad (they frequently had a panel of 5 conservative to 0 Democrats responding to speeches), but CNN always had Republicans responding to everything. The McCain campaign has set up a quick response headquarters in Denver specially to attack everything the Dems said and to try to step on Obama’s bounce as much as possible.
I’m not saying you’re wrong and this is certainly the type of thing upon which reasonable people can disagree, but I think “you guys” meant the McCain campaign and not Republicans in general. My reasoning is that Bounds was not asked to do that interview just because he was a Republican; he was specificly there as a representative of the McCain campaign.
I’m specifically asking if CNN hired a Republican strategist to rebut Democrat speeches. Because that’s what they did with the Republicans. I’m fully aware that both sides have oppo teams who’s job it is rebut things the other side says. Usually, they show up on panels after the debate, and members from both sides are brought on.
This was different. Brazile was treated as one of the commentators, and after each speech Wolf would explicitly cut to her for ‘her thoughts’ - which were just boilerplate Democrat talking points about how the speech never talked about the poor, or the families losing their homes, or whatever.
They also had a panel which included Democrats and Republicans. I’ve got no problem with that. I’ve also got no problem with hiring Brazile to give rebuttals after each speech - so long as they did something similar with the Democrats. The Republican equivalent to Brazile would be someone like Haley Barbour or Newt Gingrich or Mary Matalin - a Republican bigwig and campaign organizer currently not involved in the race. Did they have someone like that giving a rebuttal after each speech? I honestly don’t know. That’s why I asked.
I agree that abstinence-only sex ed is, to say the least, a bad idea and maybe this is a result of it, but one data point does not an argument make. Ya know what I mean? We can discuss this issue without putting one unfortunate girl in the spotlight. I just feel bad for poor whateverhernameis. Getting pregnant at seventeen was probably not in her plans and now half of the country is gleeful that she and her boyfriend don’t know how to use a condom. It’s just…mean.
Let’s leave her alone and use actual studies to prove that abstinence-only sex ed is disastrous policy.
FWIW, one of my best friends in high school got pregnant when we were seventeen-year-old seniors. There were unkind rumors going around the school about her as a result, which really hurt her. I cannot even IMAGINE how hard it would be to have this shit in nationwide headlines.
Sorry, she’s not on the list of people I’m allowed to screw without Kim counting it as cheating, so if she’s going to be doing the news naked, I can’t let her get THAT close.
I can’t say about CNN, but MSNBC had both conservative and liberal commentators on its panel discussing the Democratic convention (and now the Republican convention), including Pat Buchanan (who actually can be a remarkably astute political analyst as long as his politics aren’t getting in the way - the problem is, you can’t always tell). I’ve watched CNN a few times, but I don’t know the players well enough yet to know who’s who and what’s what.
Again, I’m not talking about a panel. Having a bipartisan panel analyze events after the fact is SOP.
What CNN did was cut to Brazile, and Brazile only, after each speech, and ask her essentially to give a quick rebuttal. This was not a panel, and there were no Republicans who got to have a say.
Diogenes says that they did have a Republican doing this during the Democrat’s speeches. Who was it?
The abysmal coverage of the DNC by all the networks, cable and broadcast, was the reason why I watched it all via streaming video (in HD, no less!) from the official DNC website. The Repubs had the same option, but apparently decided that teh intartoobz are not the place where their constituency gets its info–the streaming video options are shitty quality and the site doesn’t work well. Apparently technology, like reality, has a well-known liberal bias. Many, many people also watched the DNC on C-Span and PBS (estimated at 4 million for Obama’s acceptance speech alone) for the same reason. We wanted to, you know, WATCH THE SPEECHES, not just the speeches the networks have decided are “important” enough to shut the fuck up during. Yes, every single group of talking heads included at least one Republican to explain how it was all bullshit, and CNN tended to have several. I prefer to draw my own conclusions and don’t need a pundit to tell me what to think, thank you very much. I might point out that these bias free alternatives are open to everyone, and rather than crying like a little bitch with a skinned knee it might be best for the sensitive to avail themselves of these alternatives.
As for McCain and his flunkies, they’ve enjoyed so much 'taint licking goodness from the media that they’ve completely forgotten one very important thing–reporters will put up with anything except for stupid evasions, because acting stupid makes the reporter look stupid, and that makes the reporters get pissed off, and they will absolutely go into pitbull mode and call the stupid motherfucker out. Getting upset about that basic reality is like throwing a giant chumbucket into the shark tank and then getting all butthurt when you get bit. It ain’t bias, it’s what journalists fucking DO, it’s their JOB to make people answer questions, and if the McCain flunkies can’t get their talking points nailed down with some semblance of smoothness and finesse they’re gonna have shark bites on their butts just like any other stupid jackass.
Speaking of jackasses, Obama’s going on the Bill “Fuck it, we’ll do it live” O’Reilly show tonight. I bet anybody in here a loofah that there won’t be anything even remotely resembling journalistic integrity or lack of bias in that show. I’m also betting Obama’s cool enough to make O’rly look like a frothing jackass, and that’s a bet I sure hope I win.
I wonder if some burly GOP thugs show up at the boyfriend’s house in the middle of the night with brass knuckles and baseball bats in order to “convince” him to do the right thing, or how does that work?
I like her better in that outfit. It suits her. And I agree with the rest of what you posted–well articulated, as always, Smartie. I regret that I could not watch the speeches (esp. Obama’s) live due to my parents not having a TV that functions and my father not wanting to “rev up” the computer (dial up, no less) during our stay there last week. I never felt so cut off from the world. Thank God for NPR in the car in the morning… I will go back and watch Obama’s speech online as soon as I have time this week.
