You can view this video right here by getting the latest version of Flash Player!

DOWNLOADS: (354)

PLAYS: (627)

Byron York repeats the nonsense that someone actually pays him to write in his column at The Washington Examiner that the Democrats in the House voting for the health care bill a second time is somehow akin to Tiger Woods cheating on his wife.

Dems turn risky health vote into manhood contest:

I called a Democratic strategist with a question: Say I'm a moderate Democrat. I voted for the House bill last November, but I've seen the polls, I know a majority in my district opposes the bill, and I feel certain that voting for final passage will end my time in office. Why should I vote yes?

"Look, you voted for it before," said the strategist, who asked to remain anonymous. "You should have thought about that then. You're stuck with the vote, it's around your neck, you're going to wear it like an albatross. The ad that's going to run against you is going to be the same whether you vote for it now or not.

[...]

What about this argument, I asked: Yes, I voted for it once, but why compound the damage by doing it again? Say you've cheated on your spouse. You can tell them you only did it once, that it was a mistake, and that you won't do it again. Or you can assume the damage has been done and carry on like Tiger Woods. Which is more likely to save the relationship?

I'm sure York just has their best interest at heart and would never turn around and call them flip floppers if they listened to him...right? The last thing any Democrat should do is listen to this hack. That strategist he talked to was right. If they vote against it at this point, the Republicans will use it against them if their only concern is getting reelected. If they really cared about making good policy, they'd have been pushing for single payer at the beginning. Listening to York and his ilk and flip flopping now just makes them look like they're weak and can't govern.

You can view this video right here by getting the latest version of Flash Player!

DOWNLOADS: (73)

PLAYS: (381)

Real Time's New Rules for Feb. 26, 2010. Maher has some fun at Scott Brown's expense and doesn't pull any punches with how he feels about Buddhism and the Tiger Woods sex scandal.

You can view this video right here by getting the latest version of Flash Player!

DOWNLOADS: (28)

PLAYS: (41)

Economists say that the Democrats' stimulus package saved or created one to two million jobs but the Senate Minority Leader isn't about to admit it.

"The evidence is clear, Tiger Woods and John Edwards had a better year than the stimulus did," Sen. Mitch McConnell told Fox News' Chris Wallace Sunday.

McConnell did concede that there was some benefit from stimulus money. "The stimulus probably did save state government jobs," said McConnell.

You can view this video right here by getting the latest version of Flash Player!

DOWNLOADS: (505)

PLAYS: (1043)

There's been no shortage of ugly Obama-bashing at CPAC, of course, but Gov. Tim Pawlenty yesterday hit a real low in comparing President Obama and the "big government" Democrats to Tiger Woods:

Pawlenty: Now at this very hour, or very shortly this morning, a big event is happening in the United States of America: Tigers Woods is holding his press conference. At 11 o'clock Eastern.

Now, I think we can learn a lot from that situation. Not from Tiger, but from his wife. So, she said, 'I've had enough.' She said, 'No more.' I think we should take a page out of her playbook and take a nine iron and smash the window out of big government in this country.

Now, we understand, of course, that this was just a metaphor. Nevermind that it was a ridiculously inapt one: Unlike Tiger Woods, Obama has not broken his vows; he is in fact working largely to enact the very "big government" policies on which he campaigned and for which he was duly elected. Progressives may have an argument with how well he is fulfilling those promises, but conservatives certainly do not.

But did anyone else notice that this was a particularly violent metaphor, one suggestive of people breaking out windows? It inspires images straight out of Kristallnacht.

Of course, like Glenn Beck, Pawlenty will no doubt claim that it was "just a metaphor." But as we observed in regard to Beck:

We understand metaphors and rhetoric at least as well as Beck does. The point ... [is] that this kind of rhetoric, employing violent metaphors, in fact has the effect of inspiring violent responses among its audiences.

It's grotesquely irresponsible -- which is what we have come to expect from movement conservatives anyway.

UPDATE: Yup, Rachel Maddow noticed.

You can view this video right here by getting the latest version of Flash Player!

DOWNLOADS: (104)

PLAYS: (496)

Keith Olbermann dropped in on David Letterman and talked about the Olympics, Tiger Woods, the Tea Baggers and whether John Mellencamp might consider running for the Senate after Evan Bayh announced his retirement.

Red State Update prays for Tiger Woods. That good enough for ya, Brit Hume? This video is not safe for work.

Open thread below...

From The Daily Show:

Aasif Mandvi feels bad that Brit Hume has received angry e-mails just for stating Christianity is superior.

No More Mister Nice Blog: And Quist differs from other Republicans how, exactly?

Angry Bear: The rich *are* different

SCOTUSblog: Wide detention power upheld

The Mahablog: I love this video

The Satirical Political Report: Buddha gets the last laugh on Brit Hume

OFF THE BEATEN PATH: Mario Piperni, plain view, Zen Comix,

You can view this video right here by getting the latest version of Flash Player!

DOWNLOADS: (620)

PLAYS: (1576)

Brit Hume has apparently never heard the phrase, when you're in a hole, quit digging. From The O'Reilly Factor Jan. 4, 2010.

O'Reilly: Was that proselytizing?

Hume: I don't think so. I mean, look, Tiger Woods is somebody I've always rooted for as a golfer and as a man. I've greatly admired him over the years and I always have said to people that it was the content of his character that made him beyond his extraordinary golf skills so admirable. Now we know that the content of his character is not what we thought it was. He is paying a frightful price for these revelations. My sense is that he is basically, has lost his family and there's a lot of talk about the endorsements he's lost but that pales I suspect in his mind with what he's lost otherwise.

And my sense of that Tiger is that he needs something that Christianity, especially provides and gives and offers and that is redemption and forgiveness and I was really meaning to say in those comments yesterday more about Christianity than I was about anything else. I mentioned the Buddhism only because his mother is a Buddhist and he has apparently said that he is a Buddhist. I’m not sure how seriously he practices that. But I think… I think that Jesus Christ offers Tiger Woods something that Tiger Woods apparently needs.

You can view this video right here by getting the latest version of Flash Player!

DOWNLOADS: (552)

PLAYS: (2618)

Leave it to Pat Buchanan to be the one MSNBC pundit who would come out in defense of Brit Hume's hackery. As David Shuster and Tamryn Hall attempt to point out to Buchanan, neither he or Hume knows anything about Buddhism and really should not be judging something they know absolutely nothing about, but apparently that's not enough for Buchanan to think he or Hume shouldn't have an opinion on the religion anyway. Can't fix stuck and stubborn here guys. Pat's got his preconceived notions and he's sticking to them dammit!

You can view this video right here by getting the latest version of Flash Player!

DOWNLOADS: (633)

PLAYS: (4140)

Buddhism is inferior to Christianity when it comes to forgiveness of sins, according to Fox News pundit Brit Hume. Tiger Woods should turn his back on Buddhism and become a Christian to be forgiven for cheating on his wife, Hume told Fox News' Chris Wallace Sunday.

"The extent to which he can recover seems to me depends on his faith," said Hume. "He is said to be a Buddhist. I don't think that faith offers the kind of redemption and forgiveness offered by the Christian faith. My message to Tiger is, 'Tiger turn to the Christian faith and you can make a total recovery and be a great example to the world.'"

You can view this video right here by getting the latest version of Flash Player!

DOWNLOADS: (848)

PLAYS: (7709)

Well, we already knew that torture apologist Andrea Tantaros is a good fit at Fox News, since she is eager to transmit the right-wing talking point du jour -- no matter how scummy or stupid -- with gusto.

She did it again yesterday on The O'Reilly Factor, debating with Alan Colmes over the political fallout from the failed bombing of Flight 253 on Christmas Day. Tantaros trotted out every cheap rhetorical trick in the book -- suggesting that the right-wing attacks on Obama were a matter of "checking the baggage" of the administration and bringing up Van Jones, then comparing Obama to Tiger Woods -- in order to promote the right's favorite new talking point: Obama and the Democrats aren't serious about combating terrorism.

Fortunately, Colmes delivered a righteous smackdown of this kind of cheap smear:

Tantaros: But the point now is that we cannot discount this, we cannot use terms like 'manmade disaster' and go after -- it seems like this administration is more interested in going after Republicans, and going after the previous administration, than going after our real enemies. When you say, 'Don't blame Barack Obama' --

Colmes: That is an outrageous smear, an outrageous smear against an administration that's trying to do the right thing, that cares about this country. The implication that this administration or Democrats don't love America, don't want to protect America, don't want to protect the American people -- that's an outrageous smear against Democrats.

Tantaros: Alan, I don't blame just Barack Obama, like you said, Alan. I blame you, I blame Nancy Pelosi, and I blame the left and the liberals who are trying to weaken our country.

I really do wonder when the Fox talkers are finally going to bring up the issue of how the Bush administration responded in 2001 to a nearly identical attack. My guess is never.

Zina Saunders: Kicked to death

Pushing Rope: Florida GOP appointed officials use "pancake and waffles" code in emails to avoid Sunshine Laws? Were the pancakes served with carbon dioxide? Yum.

Wait. Is Bill Kristol getting his column ideas from Wonkette? I guess they're Not Part of the Problem.

It's been a rough year for Tiger Woods, but he's still bringing home at least one more trophy. Congrats!

And speaking of awards, Susie Bright is a Golden Dukes judge this year: "the Dukes honor excellence in public corruption, betrayals of the public trust, and generally shameless behavior." You can nominate your favorites at her comment thread here.

Mike's away this weekend. Round up by Blue Gal.

You can view this video right here by getting the latest version of Flash Player!

DOWNLOADS: (68)

PLAYS: (279)

December 16, 2009 NBC Jay Leno Show

You can view this video right here by getting the latest version of Flash Player!

DOWNLOADS: 61

PLAYS: 6

(" . . .oh those transgressions")

With the current wave of scandals hitting Tiger Woods, I have come to realize Sports and Scandal have become synonymous . . .at least for the past hundred or so years.

I suppose what's different now is the nature of our society and the ever-scrutinizing media; our need for scandal, our obsession with icon-bashing, not to mention the element that fame and power are aphrodisiacs. Sports certainly has no exclusivity rights on that one - politics jumps to mind quicker. It all comes down to the spectacle of seeing the mighty fall, feigning shock and revulsion while poring over the tabloids for more.

But the whole issue of Sports and Morality has been a subject of discussion with a lot of people over the years. This particular clip is one I located from May of 1964. A discussion featuring sports figures Joe Garagiola and Jackie Robinson on the subject of Morality and Sports. Although by todays standards the discussion is quaint and surface and the product of a different time - barely mentioning the issue of personal codes of ethics since, at the time an athletes personal transgressions were kept carefully hidden from public view.

Joe Garagiola: “Jackie, how would you define morality in sports?”

Jackie Robinson: “Well I think, Joe, that we’d have to define it by saying whether the athlete knows the difference between right and wrong. And then we’d have to go a little bit further and say there are circumstances, even though there are rules on the books that an individual do certain kinds of things that are perhaps are not within the law, but he is circumventing it, as you pointed out a short time ago before we came on the air. And my estimation is that morality is just simply knowing right from wrong, whether its in sports or our everyday life.”

Jimmy Carter once indicated that America had lost its moral center. I'm not so sure that hasn't always been the case. What is different now as opposed to scandals in history is the level of scrutiny we have at our disposal today. Were there just as many moral indiscretions in 1964 as there are today? Probably.

We just chose not to notice them.

It's That Time Of Year

As you know, Newstalgia is committed to digging into history and pulling up gems for your reference libraries. It's what we do and it's what we love doing. The task is huge - digitizing over a quarter million analogue recordings takes time, energy and equipment. Equipment breaks down and has to be replaced. The archive is constantly acquiring new material and it all takes money.
So . . .if you like what we're doing and want to see it continue, would you mind tossing whatever you can into the cause by hitting the button below and making a donation to keep this thing going?

As always, we'll be here as long as you're here.