Sunday, November 9, 2008
What a week. It really defies description or any chance of effectively capturing it with a simple collection of links, but here goes.
As a brief side note, the earnestness quotient of this blog has been PRETTY high this week, hopefully we will be able to scale it back now that the election is over.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
I think it is emblematic of how sick everyone is of the current administration that stories about the historic nature of the election barely lasted a day before pivoting to stories about “The transition.” Every paper leads with stories about who is managing President-Elect Obama’s transition and who might be in his inner circle. Because of the financial crisis, most of the speculation is on who might be named Obama’s Treasury Secretary. Some are worried that Rep. Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s pick for Chief of Staff, will be too partisan a figure for an administration that promised to deliver change by bridging the partisan divide. If you are a Republican, you can argue that this pick demonstrates what you have been saying all along: Obama is a fraud. If you are a Democrat, you should point out that over the last 8 years bipartisanship has come to mean “Democrats doing what the Republicans want.”
Apparently, the Washington DC social set is excited that we might have a cool President again. Well, if not cool at least one who goes to bed after 9 pm.
Kenya is going a little nuts. The country, which is where President-elect Obama’s father was from, has declared today a national holiday. Kenyans have taken to calling Obama “our son” and babies being born all over the country are being named Barack and Michelle. It feels pretty good that America is cool again.
One major dark spot for liberals and progressives in Tuesday’s election was the passing of a constitutional amendment in California banning gay marriage. Proposition 8 has halted all same-sex marriages in California, though it will not revoke marriages already performed. Quotes from gay marriage opponents in the story are typically nonsensical. Look to see a reversal of this back on the ballot in a few years.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
8:00 – Rocky III (AMC)
Announcement from AMC: In light of yesterday’s historic election results, the end Rocky III has been reedited to let Mr. T win. That is all.
10:00 – South Park (Comedy Central)
Matt and Trey chime in with some election humor. Election humor? That is so yesterday. And the 700 days before it. New national meme: hobo humor. (Side note: Gawker runs down some of South Park‘s past forays into Doonesbury territory.)
10:30 – Chocolate News (Comedy Central)
Giving David Alan Grier’s show another week isn’t just compassionate charity, it’s an investment. Because if we keep watching, it has to get better, right? Right?
Late Night
Tom Brokaw calls the election on Letterman, Samuel L. Jackson yells a lot on Leno, Dennis Hopper has an acid flashack on Conan, Fox News flack Chris Wallace flacks on the Daily Show, Ambassador Andrew Young retains his title despite not being an ambassador since the gosh darn seventies on Colbert.
