This Just In: Hollywood Republicans Fear Exposure

Fri   16 Nov 2007   8:31 by Kevin McGehee 28° and fair in Coweta County, GA 1 comment [Media Ochre]

Republican presidential candidates have been drawing support—and cash—from Hollywood celebrities, but few of the stars in super-liberal Tinseltown want to be publicly linked with the Grand Old Party. One high-profile celebrity, when asked about her political views, even had her lawyers declare “our client’s rights of privacy and other legally protectable intangible rights” and warn that she should not be labeled a Republican. [...] While Democrats enjoy very public support from Hollywood’s top actors and musicians, who often hold lavish events for their favorite candidates, Republican supporters in Hollywood try hard to keep their political views quiet. “They learn very quickly, if they know what’s good for them, to donate to the Democratic Party,“ said Andrew Breitbart, co-author of Hollywood, Interrupted. » Hollywood stars mum on donations to GOP Meanwhile, left-of-center types insist on pointing to Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly as evidence that the media are dominated by right-wing voices or some such nonsense.

Off-the-Record Smears: The McGehee Zone’s Policy

Thu   15 Nov 2007   16:28 by Kevin McGehee 53° and partly cloudy in Coweta County, GA 0 comments [Get Offa My Lawn!]

James Joyner says he’s been getting emails from a Republican candidate’s campaign attempting to smear another candidate, while trying to avoid being implicated in the smear. James observes: While my rudimentary understanding of journalistic ethics is that I’m not bound to rules of attribution unless I’ve agreed to them, my own site policies, written with emails written by private individuals in mind, states that, “The content of these messages, including the identity of the sender, is presumed for publication unless otherwise requested.“ I’ll give thoughts to a carve-out in the site policies for campaigns and other organizational contacts. In the meantime, let me just state for the record that I find these attempts by campaigns to plant smears reprehensible. In comments over there, I suggest a policy applicable to this particular scenario: Here’s my proposal for a policy: If a campaign emails you with a smear aimed at another candidate, you will publish the smear—except that you will replace the name of the targeted candidate with the name of the candidate whose campaign sent the email. » Posted by McGehee | November 15, 2007 | 05:28 pm With one adjustment—changing “will publish” to “may publish,“ the above is now my policy for The McGehee Zone, in the extremely unlikely event anyone ever tries to recruit me for something like this. Update: Sneaky and sleazy.

Well, Why Not?
Wed   14 Nov 2007   9:56 by Kevin McGehee 62° and sunny in Coweta County, GA 0 comments [Media Ochre]	I really don’t see a difference between them. CBS News writers could be joining their entertainment colleagues on the picket lines. » CBS News Writers Could Be Next to Strike They write fiction too.

Campaign Shock: IT’S A HORSE RACE!!!1!!

Wed   14 Nov 2007   9:49 by Kevin McGehee 60° and sunny in Coweta County, GA 0 comments [Get Offa My Lawn!] [Prognosticate THIS!]

Jeez. In Iowa, the Democratic contest is knotted up. Among likely caucus-goers, Clinton came out on top with 25 percent support, but she was trailed closely by Edwards at 23 percent, and Obama at 22 percent. With a margin of error of 4 percentage points, there is no clear leader. Trailing behind was Bill Richardson, at 12 percent, with all other candidates in single digits. None of the top three has firmed up their support yet - about half of those backing each candidate said they could change their minds before caucus night. » Poll: Top Democrats Deadlocked In Iowa My prediction: If Her Inevitableness finishes third in Iowa—even if she’s only a point or two out of first—the conventional “wisdom” will be that she’s ready for the fork test. And Obama, even if he’s only a tenth of a point up on Hillary, will be the Flavor of the Month again. Miss Johnnie Edwards, being used goods, will only get respect if he trounces his fellow female candidate in a landslide.

Her MSNBC Deal Fell Through, and…

Wed   14 Nov 2007   9:40 by Kevin McGehee 60° and sunny in Coweta County, GA 0 comments [Yee-haw!]

GLEN ST. MARY, Fla.—Mysterious ape sightings are bringing excitement to a sleepy Florida town. Residents have been hearing screeches in the night and stories of sightings echo on every corner. The local newspaper even ran a story about the sightings. “There is kind of that ‘I’ve seen a bigfoot’ type of feel to it,“ said resident Eric Lawson. [...] The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission investigator who answered the original complaint call on the orange ape said there was definitely something up in the top of the tree, but he really couldn’t be sure what it was. He said he took a pack of jelly donuts and left it at the bottom of the tree, hoping to lure the creature to the ground. He said he hasn’t heard anything since. » Small Town Overcome By Mysterious Ape Sightings Come on, it would be the first time in history an orangutan ever climbed a tree. GOOGLE IT, PEOPLE!*

Another Darwin Award Nominee

Tue   13 Nov 2007   17:14 by Kevin McGehee 73° and mostly cloudy in Coweta County, GA 0 comments [Yee-haw!] [Here's Your Sign]

A Florida man police said was breaking into cars at Miccosukee Resort and Gaming was attacked and killed by a 9-foot alligator while trying to run from police. Investigators said officers responded to reports of car break-ins at a Miccosukee Indian Reservation parking lot located at 500 S.W. 177th Ave. in Miami. One of the men was quickly captured by officers during the incident last week but the other robbery suspect tried to elude officer by jumping into a large pond behind the facility, according to a WJXT-TV report. During the swim, police said, an alligator attacked and killed the man. He was apparently bitten on the head several times. The victim’s body was recovered at the bottom of the pond about a day after the reported break-ins. » Fleeing Robbery Suspect Eaten By Alligator Sad story—the alligator died too. H/t Dan Collins.

Conservatives, a Word of Advice from Jack Bauer’s Creator:
Tue   13 Nov 2007   8:16 by Kevin McGehee 39° and fair in Coweta County, GA 0 comments [Our Times] [Yee-haw!]	“Our job is not to whine, that’s their job,“ Surnow said. “Our job is to succeed despite the adversity.“ » Jack Bauer’s Creator Speaks Damn straight.

Yippee-Ki-Yay, Mis Amigos

Tue   13 Nov 2007   8:03 by Kevin McGehee 35° and sunny in Coweta County, GA 0 comments [Our Times] [Yee-haw!]

MADRID—Spaniards rallied behind King Juan Carlos yesterday, with citizens and even the left-leaning governing party saying the king was right to tell Hugo Chavez to “shut up” at a weekend summit. The king’s remark, prompted when the Venezuelan president insulted Spain’s conservative former prime minister, was discussed by bloggers, laughed about in the streets and even turned into a joke competition by one Web site. Juan Carlos’ five-word message to Mr. Chavez—translated from Spanish as “Why don’t you shut up?“—has been posted on YouTube and already is in wide use as a ring tone for cell phones, according to the El Pais newspaper. Someone even turned the Spanish phrase into an Internet domain name at porquenotecallas.com » Spain echoes king’s quip <evil, maniacal cackle>

Of Course, It’s a ‘Faux News’ Poll, So It’ll Be Dismissed as Biased by People Who Believe Dan Rather

Tue   13 Nov 2007   7:53 by Kevin McGehee 35° and sunny in Coweta County, GA 0 comments [Get Offa My Lawn!]

Most Americans reject the charge that other presidential candidates are “piling on” Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, according to a new Fox 5/The Washington Times/Rasmussen Reports poll. Only 25 percent of voters said recent criticism of Mrs. Clinton constitutes piling on, the survey found, and of those, less than half said she was the target because she is a woman. “The vast majority of Americans are treating Senator Clinton as a front-running presidential candidate, not as a women who happens to be running for president,“ said pollster Scott Rasmussen, adding that the poll’s questions, taken together, show less than 15 percent of Democrats think she’s being picked on as a woman. » Majority of voters dismiss Hillary’s ‘piling on’ charge Most voters surveyed consider Her Inevitableness a “serious candidate” for whom the whine that “the boys” are ganging up on her should be beneath contempt. Which means that if she wants to get elected she’ll have to wage the same kind of campaign voters would demand of a male candidate. Personally, I think that’s bad news for her chances. Which would be good news for the free world. Update, related: For a candidate whom everyone expected to march confidently to her party’s nomination, Hillary Clinton has begun stumbling and cannot seem to right herself. First came a disaster of an answer at the last presidential debate, and the breathtaking attack on Tim Russert for having the temerity to question her about an immigration issue in her home state. Next came the revelations of question planting at campaign events. Now Drudge reports that the Clinton campaign warned Wolf Blitzer not to get tough in this week’s debate, or else… » Have The Wheels Come Off For Hillary? If the campaign hasn’t sent a volunteer to True Value for cotter pins yet, they probably should.

More Traffic for Me

Tue   13 Nov 2007   7:40 by Kevin McGehee 36° and sunny in Coweta County, GA 0 comments [Our Times]

Entertainment bloggers are “walking out” in solidarity with Hollywood writers. I watch television—TiVo has made it possible for me to watch shows I enjoy without having to drop what I’m doing at whatever god-awful moment some network programmer has decided to put it on the air. And some of the shows I watch are even written. That said, very little of the really good television that I watch is being written right now. Or would be, even if not for the writers’ strike. When I look at the “to do” list on our TiVo, there’s a lot of shows that aren’t appearing on the schedule at all because they run for a few weeks and then go on hiatus or into reruns of episodes we’ve just seen recently—with the occasional marathon that generally only includes the season just past. I very rarely can get “into” re-reading a book less than five years after I’ve read it previously—watching a TV episode just a few weeks after I’ve already seen it? (And don’t even get me started on the TV episodes that turn up in slightly adapted form on several different shows.) And there are shows I won’t watch even in first-run, whose writers in my opinion shouldn’t get paid to write the ingredients on a cereal box. I’m not getting paid to write at all, and I still do it. So, if you’re bereft of reading material because some bloggers are going “on strike” in sympathy with the Writers’ Guild of America, come to The McGehee Zone—always more interesting than the ingredients on your cereal box.

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