Newsweek Addresses Bachmann Cover Flap

Conservatives Upset that Michele Bachmann Looks Crazy on Newsweek

I would have titled it "Batshit."
Image from source, Huffington Post

I'm back from my family trip, and have been fairly well unplugged for most of the time. And if I wasn't, I still had the new baby and the funeral to attend to plus a couple of big family shindigs. So, even though the economy seems to have taken a bit of a tumble, stagger, plunge, cliff dive, that's going to have to wait until tomorrow. For now, we've got conservatives upset because a photograph of Michele Bachmann makes her look crazy. Uh, no, tea baggers. She IS crazy.

[Excerpt]

Newsweek's Michele Bachmann Cover Raises Eyebrows

Newsweek's latest issue features a Michele Bachmann cover that's sure to stir up controversy.
The cover shows Bachmann standing against a stark blue background, looking directly into the camera with a wide-eyed expression. The headline advertising the magazine's story reads, "THE QUEEN OF RAGE. . ."

Read more at: Huffington Post

Kristin Chenoweth Unhappy With Newsweek Over "Gay Actors" Story

Image from source, EW

When I heard about the Newsweek story about openly gay actors being unconvincing in straight roles, I pretty much ignored it. It was just kinda stupid. But when I saw that Kristin Chenoweth (actress, singer, favorite of The Other Half) had come out strongly against the article, I perked up a little. Chenoweth is a dynamo, and what's more, she's right. Read on.

[Excerpt]

Newsweek travels back to 1952 to argue against gay actors in straight roles; Kristin Chenoweth is not happy



Kristin Chenoweth, 473; Newsweek, 0. Yeah, that’s a blowout score, but there’s no other way to tally the points after reading the magazine’s recent piece by Ramin Setoodeh, which argues that openly gay actors like Sean Hayes and Glee‘s Jonathan Groff, pictured right, can’t successfully portray heterosexual characters, and the scathing and spot-on response posted Friday by Chenoweth, who costars with Hayes in Broadway’s Promises, Promises. . .
 
Read more at: Entertainment Weekly
 

A Decade in Seven Minutes

The decade is almost over, and we still don't know what the hell to call it. The two-thousandsees? The oooos? The ots? The 0s? I don't know. And I don't know that the decade is almost over yet, either. After all, if 2000 was the last year of the twentieth century, and 2001 was the beginning of the new decade/century/millennium, we still have a year to go.

But pop culture doesn't work that way. The 70s started in 1970, not 1971, right? So I think we'll all have to be forced to agree that this decade runs from 2000-2009. But looky here, 2010 will start the twenty-teens, but we don't get to start saying "teen" until 2013. It's all so confusing. Wake me up when we get to 2020. That'll be easier. And I'll be so old!

Frum Continues to Hit Limbaugh, This Time in Newsweek

Image from source, Yahoo!News

Conservatives and the Republican Party have been hijacked by the far-right wing, as evidenced by the high profile of personalities like Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter and most especially, Rush Limbaugh. Some time during the Clinton Administration, these types of fringe voices began getting more mainstream coverage, and an 24/7 outlet in already-established talk radio, and the birth of FOX "News."

Nowdays, it would be hard to find a "far-right" personality that is not regularly portrayed in the mainstream as a legitimate conservative/Republican voice. The lunatics are running the asylum. And the more level-headed (which isn't saying much in comparison) conservatives have had enough. Conservative writer David Frum has begun to fight back, and to his credit has not knuckled under after being vilified for stepping out of line. No, he stepped up his argument, with a cover story in Newsweek that is guaranteed to turn Frum into a target.

I don't use that word lightly. I've been concerned for some time now about the rhetoric coming from the far right. They are energized and angry, but with vague and fuzzy underpinnings to their rage. "Socialism," "Marxism," "communism," "fascism." All of these words are being bandied about by conservatives, but they're used as carelessly and cluelessly as "freedom," "liberty" and "democracy" were in the past eight years. It's never good to rile a mob, but even less so to rile them with scary, ill-defined words. Mobs are already nearly mindless. This one is utterly brain dead.

[Excerpt]

NEWSWEEK Cover: Enough! A Conservative's Case Against Limbaugh

David Frum on the GOP and Impact of Rush Limbaugh: 'From a political point of view, Limbaugh is kryptonite, weakening the GOP nationally'

'We are accepting the leadership of a man with an ego-driven agenda of his own, who looms largest when his causes fare worst. . .'

Read more at: Yahoo!News

Shocking News: Newsweek Did NOT Retouch Palin

Image from source, DailyKos

Wait a minute, what? Conservatives (and naturally, FOX "News") are upset that Newsweek magazine put Sarah Palin on its cover, and did not retouch her? I totally don't get what the fuss is about. She's got a little creping about the eyes, and that's really all I see. All in all, she looks good for a 44-year-old woman, if you're into that kind of thing.

But apparently, this is the height of sexism, and liberal hate. Or something.

[Excerpt]

Fox and GOP wingnuts furious at Newsweek over Palin cover pic

At first I thought you gotta be shittin me, but it's true.

Financial meltdown? Nah. People losing their mortages? Yesterday's news. Healthcare premiums going thru the roof? Not our problem.

But Newsweek dared feature a cover that highlights every imperfection--their words not mine--in their cover of the Alaskan wolf shooter. . .

Read more at: DailyKos

And here is the FOX "News" hysterical take on the subject. The host is particularly disgusted:

Barack Obama Bounds Ahead in the Polls

Photo from source, Newsweek

51% - 36% with Barack Obama in the lead? Wow. We all know a lot can happen between now and November, but this is heartening news, given so many neck-and-neck previous ones. One thing that is seldom discussed with these numbers though, is turnout. If the primary percentages hold, and Democrats far out-vote Republicans, it shouldn't matter how close it is.

But we need a large win. We need polls like this one going in to November. Because if we're back to neck-and-neck, it provides the opportunity for more voting monkey-business by the crumbling Rovian machinery.

[Excerpt]

Barack’s Bounce

Barack finally has his bounce. For weeks many political experts and pollsters have been wondering why the race between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain had stayed so tight, even after the Illinois senator wrested the nomination from Hillary Clinton. With numbers consistently showing rock-bottom approval ratings for President Bush and a large majority of Americans unhappy with the country's direction, the opposing-party candidate should, in the normal course, have attracted more disaffected voters. Now it looks as if Obama is doing just that. . .

Read more at: Newsweek

Newsweek Hires Markos Moulitsas and KARL ROVE?

Photo from lowculture.com

It was predictable that right-wingers would blow a gasket at the announcement that The Daily Kos' Markos Moulitsas was hired as a Newsweek columnist. As evidenced in recent episodes of the FOX "News" roster of commentary programs, Kos is hated with a fiery hot passion in Right-wing World. They regard him as a loony, far-left, radical, raving moonbat.

He's not. He is left-wing, sure. But as I've stated in the past, when you present Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh as "mainstream," anyone to the left of them seems like a far-left radical by comparison. But Newsweek had another ace up its sleeve. They'd already announced that they'd add a conservative blogger as a counterpoint to Moulitsas. And now they've announced him.

It's Karl Rove. Yes, that Karl Rove. Now, imagine a teeter-totter, with both of these men sitting on it. Mr. Rove (a chickenhawk) sits so far to the right, he's practically falling off. Kos (a military veteran) sits somewhere in the middle of the left side. When you consider that disadvantage, you'd probably need to add a few more liberal bloggers, or at least Michael Moore to offset the weight disparity. . .

[Excerpt]

Karl Rove To "Balance" Kos at Newsweek

The Nation -- Newsweek announced that Karl Rove, the controversial architect of the rise and fall of the modern G.O.P., will join its ranks as a new contributor to balance the recent hire of blogger Markos Moulitsas.

This is an odd pair on several levels. First, it makes Kos look huge. His web commentary and grassroots organizing have earned him a media perch on par with one of the most powerful people to ever work in the Bush White House. If columns are going to be handed out based on power, then at least Newsweek understands that there is power beyond holding office in Washington. . .

Read the whole story at: Yahoo! News (from The Nation)

Americans Shockingly Uninformed

Hat-tip to John for this story. Appallingly, Americans are still being deluded into believing that Saddam Hussein was somehow connected to 9/11.

NEWSWEEK Poll
June 23, 2007: Conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International.
Do you think Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq was directly involved in planning, financing, or carrying out the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001?

Current Total
Yes 41%
No 50%

From John: Is it possible that the electorate of this country are so uninformed and ignorant of reality that they buy George Bush and Darth Chaney's line on the "war against terrorism?" This is appalling !!

I agree, John.