Jay Rosen talks journalism

Jay Rosen, an NYU professor, talking journalism and other stuff.

What happens when tea partiers protest Letterman

At the 'Fire David Letterman' Rally

Posted to New York Magazine by jgreen on June 16, 2009

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The joke in question which caused the right wingers (all fifteen of them!) to protest was, "One awkward moment for Sarah Palin at the Yankee game, during the seventh inning, her daughter was knocked up by Alex Rodriguez."

And will The Onion have to apologize to Palin as well?

God forbid Palin go see Dave Chappelle perform, let alone one of the truly controversial comedians out there.

Basketball in DC

ESPN had a great story today about the resurgence of basketball in the DC political circles thanks to one man: Barack Obama.

It shows the lengths some people will go just to play in a game with someone who plays in a game with Obama -- just to get the chance to maybe get an invite to play pickup hoops with the Commander in Chief.

Even if no information changes hands, a game with someone powerful gives the appearance of being inside. Even that kind of interaction is invaluable. It means that in your next business meeting, you can say, "Well, I was just playing ball with so-and-so …" You are one step closer to the center than the other people in the room. They have no idea that nothing important was discussed, so they must assume that it was.

You now have power.

I could never work or live in DC.

Five Iranian soccer players don green for qualifying match

In what was one of the biggest soccer matches for Iran in recent years, five players on the team showed support for the demonstrators in Iran by wearing green. From McClatchy:

Five of the players, including captain Ali Karimi, front row second from left, wore green wristbands in an apparent sign of support for Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi.

According to CNN, the players took the wristbands off at halftime.

Iran was playing South Korea in Seoul.

Iran tied the match, which puts them in jeopardy of missing out on a World Cup qualifying spot.

Iran, fourth in the standings going into the match, needed to beat group leaders South Korea and hope North Korea and Saudi Arabia drew to secure the second automatic qualification slot.

GOP just isn't that good at governing

I try to stay away from a lot of political discussion over here and leave that for my other blog, but sometimes I just have to do it.

From Roll Call:

House Republicans presented a four-page outline of their health care reform plan Wednesday but said they didn't know yet how much it would cost, how they would pay for it and how many of the nearly 50 million Americans without insurance would be covered by it.

It reminds of their budget without numbers:

There certainly was no hard budgetary data in the attractively designed 18-page packet that the House GOP handed out today, its blue cover emblazoned with an ambitious title: "The Republican Road to Recovery." When Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) was asked what his goal for deficit reduction would be -- President Obama aims to halve the nation's spending imbalance within five years -- Boehner responded simply: "To do better [than Obama]."

Or then-presidential candidate John McCain's pledge to balance the budget by winning the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan:

Here's what McCain spokesperson Brian Rogers sent me:

It's pretty straightforward, as we win, costs will go down with a smaller footprint over time, and those savings will go to deficit reduction. It's really the logical extension of Senator McCain's position as articulated in the 2013 speech. Achieving success in Iraq would obviously lead to reduced expenditures on the effort.

Empty rhetoric mixed with hoping that no one is paying attention and, if anyone is, they are incredibly dumb or so blindly partisan that they will go along with anything that the Republican Party puts out as a 'plan.'