philly

Women on the Daily Show

So what's the deal with so few female guests on The Daily Show? My friend Ms. Biffles noticed the trend and told me it was a topic of conversation of late out in San Francisco lately. I immediately noticed the trend as well as I watched for the last month or so with [I'm 99% sure] zero female guests. Until last night when Torie Clarke, author of Lipstick on a Pig: Winning in the No-Spin Era by Someone Who Knows the Game was on.

It's not like women can't go blow for blow with Jon. It's not like women aren't funny. It's not like there is such a scarcity of notable women that the bookers can't get them on the show. What's the deal?

Maybe with the birth of his second child [Maggie Rose] Jon will push for more female guests.

Blame the Right Wing

Hated the Super Bowl in general? Blame the Right Wing, I'm serious.

My dislike of the Super Bowl has a lot to do with the quality of the commercials and the halftime show. Yes, I know that the central point of the Super Bowl is the actual sixty minutes of punishment called the gridiron, but through the years, it has been the commercials and the halftime show which have taken center stage. Everyone knows that the thirty-second spots go into the six figures [right?]. And everyone knows about Janet's tit flopping out in 2004 [right?]. Well, those commercials used to be good and the halftime shows used to be at least halfway decent... until some fuckers got around to rewatching the quarter-second exposure of a tit on their VCRs/DVRs.

There was no fucking outrage until several days later. There were no form letters emailed [they didn't even bother to cite their own anger? They had to all use form letters?] en masse to the networks and their advertisers. There were no mass call-ins to talk shows and radio shows until days later. Manufactured outrage by those bullshit "American Family" groups. It wasn't genuine. These fuckwads were told that it was an outrage, they had missed the actual live tit; but it was replayed [blurred out] almost 24/7 in the next week.

Since then, things have become more and more sanitized. Paul fucking McCartney played the halftime show last year. And this year, the Rolling Stones? I'm not saying that these two acts weren't culturally relevant thirty years ago and didn't have an impact on my life that I don't even know I was aware of. I'm saying who the fuck cares about them now aside from people who are over forty. In this hip-hop generation we live in, there's no chance in hell that Kanye West, Eminem, 50 Cent, Jay-Z or some other multi-multi-multi platinum selling artist would be seen on that halftime show platform. And oddly, the ABC NFL censors thought that the Stones were too raunchy for the viewers. Chroist.

If we can't have some geriatric geezers talking about how they can't get no satisfaction, who the fuck are we supposed to watch FOR ENTERTAINMENT. Is next year's show going to have a Catholic boys and girls choir chant hymns? Fly in a gregorian chant group from Eastern Europe? Why not just black out the video feed for the forty-five minute halftime? Just leave it blank. Because god forbid you'd show a girl in a fucking bikini in a beer ad. It's not like they're not doing it for every single other football game for the entire season. Why not during the Super Bowl? I'm not saying that beer ads should all have girls in bikinis, but that girls in bikinis are what seem to dominate beer ads, and why censor them during the commercial orgasmothon that is the Super Bowl?

I didn't watch a second of the halftime show. I hate all Budweiser beers. I miss the Bud Bowl. And it didn't help that this game was one of the sloppiest that I can recall.

The Blinq commentary on the ads. And he liked the geriatric performance.

Lots to Drink

It was a packed house last night at Tangier for the usual Drinking Liberally crowd plus tons of newbies to watch [jeer at] the State of the Union address at 9p. I sat along on a bench in the back of the room with Booman and CabinGirl from Booman Tribune and Aaron from Philly IMC.

The bartender [fuck I can never remember his name] turned on the volume and I swear, I've never been in a bar as quiet as it got during the speech [except for the shouting and jeering at each of his lies which were more than frequent].

Think Progress has a page of fact checking up already.

I had a lot to drink last night. More than usual. And then I ordered up a delicious plate of cheese fries about halfway through the speech and gobbled that up. Mmmmm cheese fries.

Drinking Liberally 6p

If it's Tuesday, it's Drinking Liberally

So not only is it Tuesday and time for Drinking Liberally at Tangier [1801 Lombard St], it's State of the Union day! Woo hoo! Watch W stumble [almost drunkenly] through the English language for about forty-five minutes. Better yet, watch it with us. We'll be drinking. A lot. And our fearless organizer Peter sent out a note informing us of a drinking game for the occassion.

But Atrios won't be in the house. He'll be on Air America Radio's The Majority Report with Sam Seder going all Mystery Science Theater 3000 on W.

As always, $1 off drink specials from 6p - 9p and free buffalo wings to whomever can grab them faster than I can!

Randi Rhodes on Larry King

Randi Rhodes, probably my single favorite radio personality ever, will be on Larry King tonight at 9p. So Larry will actually be talking some politics, sweet. His shoulder-y body will continue to freak the shit out of me. He's all shoulders!

For anyone not familiar with Randi, she's a talk radio vetran now on Air America Radio, the almost two year old Progressive radio network which is currently on eighty-seven stations plus XM Satellite radio. She anchors the network with her 3p - 7p show. She rocks my world.

Casey's Stage Presence

So with all this talk about candidate Casey, I decided to watch the first extended clip of him on live TV. I had seen teensy clips of him and heard him on the "conference call" last week, but never saw him on live TV. I watched this clip of then Treasurer-elect Casey on PA Newsmakers hosted by pollster Terry Madonna. It was the 11.28.04 show, a few weeks after the election. It's about a three or four part interview with Casey with a runtime of about fourteen minutes [the whole clip is twenty-three minutes, but Casey isn't on the last nine minutes of the show].

One of the very first things Casey spoke about were the six debates he had. Yes, this was during the general election, but he lauded the fact that they had so many, he [or Madonna] said that he thinks it was a record. Why not set another record and flush out all the details in this all too important primary we have now? Chuck Pennacchio and Alan Sandals would love to debate him. I think Pennacchio would trounce all of them in a big debate. But Bob Casey is scared to open his mouth in fear that his ever shrinking lead over Sen. $antorum will shink some more with each word spouted from his lips. So he stays at home. And as far as I can tell, he never leaves home; he doesn't have a calendar/events page up on his site to show for.

Madonna asked Casey for his thoughts on the growing culture gap in the Democratic party, the gap between the elites and everyone else. He said that they needed to change the [paraphrased] "same old thing" way of going about things. If that "same old thing" way of going things is being pro-choice, pro-privacy, pro-balanced budget, pro-environment, pro-healthcare for all, I'd be all for it. But Casey doesn't stand for all of those things. Chuck Pennacchio is a pro-choice candidate who believes in the rights of the private citizen. He stands firmly against the Alito nomination whereas Casey has backed the nomination [I got my eye on you too Hoagiemaster Rendell].

Casey then went onto suggesting that we need a bigger tent in the Democratic party; I'm assuming so that he'll feel more comfortable since he's almost out the door anyways. He said that if the Dems had a candidate who had all of the same stances on the issues as Kerry has, including being pro-choice, but got up to the podium and said that s/he agreed with the anti-choicers that "we should ban partial birth abortion, that alone would be progress" [he used that phrase which is a fallacy, it's a late term abortion]. Casey wants to ban third trimester abortions without regard for the life of the mother, as inferred from that comment. That is not progress, that is regression. He wants to overturn Roe v. Wade. As stated in this Inky article:

It would seem obvious: Democratic Senate candidate Robert P. Casey Jr., who opposes abortion, believes Roe v. Wade should be overturned.

"You can't say you have the position I have and not believe that," Casey said in a recent interview about the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that made legal abortions available nationwide.

And that's that. With his backing of Chief Justice Roberts the last time around and his backing of Judge Alito this time, I see that it is crystal clear that it is on his agenda.

It's actually quite hard to concentrate on him while he speaks. Monotonous. Phlegmatic. Snoozefest. But I got through it, I felt I needed to. If you're trying to fall asleep late at night, I suggest clicking on the video of this interview.

Supporting Chuck Pennacchio, the Progressive chioce for a Progressive Pennsylvania, is what I've been doing for months now. The rest of the blogosphere turned their heads after the word got out on his backing Alito. I hope that the pressure is kept on. We don't want another Joe "Alf's Dad" Lieberman on our hands. Well, even Alf's Dad may vote against Alito. Only Sen. Ben Nelson (D-ND) as of right now would vote to confirm. Casey would further weaken the Democrat's efforts to can this nomination.

So, in the end, I'd have to agree with Chris' assessment of Casey's presence:

a sandwich bag filled with lukewarm Vaseline and crushed Valium

And how.

Colbert Report Rips Humane Society

On Thursday night's Colbert Report [it's French, bitch] Stephen cited this Inky article and it immediately piqued my interest. It was an article on how the Humane Society was "livid" about the episode. Stephen then played a [real?] taped conversation of his call to the Humane Society. The most hilarious part the one that had me almost in tears, was the "visual approximation" of the Humane Society receptionist. A just beginning to be dread locked dirty blonde haired girl with freckles or acne and a goofy smile. I was cracking up a storm. And when Stephen was handed off to a higher up, the graphic was changed to a black bear holding the phone up to its ear.

Stephen demanded an apology and when he didn't get one, he said that he accepted it anyways. When the bearman said that he/they didn't apologize, Stephen said that it was too late and that he had already accepted the apology and quickly hung up. I don't know how he does it. Keeping that straight face.

It's in Westchester!

So this Book of Daniel show is totally in Westchester County, NY! Mentions of Bronxville and Tuckahoe. But where exactly does the Webster family live? I thought that it may be in Rockland County, but I don't think so if that dude is jogging over from Tuckahoe. My dad used to own the Carvel in Tuckahoe across the street from the train station. I worked there for many years. Bronxville is the next town over from there.

It certainly isn't Scarsdale, as the house may lead you to believe. Where!

Koppel Presents: Shark Week!

Just peeped in the NY Times and WaPo that lompsided head hair anchor Ted Koppel has just signed on with Discovery Networks. Good to see that he got another interesting gig after the gentle ousting from ABC where he sat for a quarter century.

He's supposed to be doing about ten hours of progamming a year and has brought along most of his crew from Nightline, eggcellent.

Now, I just wonder, will he be getting into a shark cage for Shark Week?

South Koreans: Sooo Cool

The NY Times tells me that my people are soooo cool and that China's youth, hundreds of millions strong, all wanna be us. Who's the real Slim Shady?

"We know that the products at Korea City are made in China," said Wang Ying, 28, who works for the local branch of an American company. "But to many young people, 'Korea' stands for fashionable or stylish. So they copy the Korean style."

Ha.