Night Owl Chat: The Too-Cute-Small-People Edition

Yet another TOD post that has been reblogged by Jueseppi B, despite requests that he make his own effort to support PBO rather than copying others simply to drive up his reblog’s traffic. He doesn’t take kindly to being challenged, as another woman found out: explicit. Genuine bloggers are welcome to use anything they ever see at TOD. Thanks

EuroTravesty

Today was a dark day in European history – Ireland finished last in the Eurovision Song Contest ….. out of 26 countries ….. with this epic tune.

They got five points, just 276 fewer than the winners, Denmark.

Their only votes came from Cyprus (2), Sweden (2) and the UK (1) – nothing from Greece, for example, which Ireland will remember next time there’s a European Union vote on bailing them out.

This is the musical equivalent of the fall of the Roman Empire, because Ireland have won more Eurovision Song Contests than any other country in the entire, total and complete history of Europe.

What’s gone wrong? Democracy, that’s what. Before the break up of the Soviet Union, everything was fine, Ireland kept winning, but then about 95,000 new Eastern European countries won independence, got to enter the Eurovision Song Contest, didn’t like Ireland’s music, gave them no votes, and that was that.

So tonight I say: “Mr. Gorbachev, put that wall back up.”

The First Lady at MLK Academic Magnet High School, Nashville

Happiness is …. meeting the First lady

Michelle Obama hugs Jenika Headley-Greene during the graduation ceremony for Martin Luther King Jr. Academic Magnet High School in Nashville

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“…. and now he gets to call himself my husband”

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Full speech (thank you Bob!):

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Afternoon Delight: Movie Theme Songs

Up Where We Belong from An Officer and A Gentleman

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It’s been a crazy week so thanks for this wonderful idea Swbluega and thank you JacquelineOBoomer, CarolMaeWY, and Swbluega for suggesting these movie theme songs. Everyone else, you are hereby ordered to tell or show us your favorite movie theme music. 😀

p.s. JacquelineOBoomer suggesting Shaft? Ma’am, you are one rocking and cool grandma!

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Rise and Shine

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Saturday: The President has no public events scheduled

Sunday:

8:0 AM The President departs the White House

9:50: Arrives Atlanta, Georgia

11:0: Attends Morehouse College commencement and delivers the commencement speech

2:10: Delivers remarks at a DSCC event at The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, Atlanta

3:10: Departs Atlanta

4:55: Arrives the White House

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(Photo: Pete Souza, 2009)

The Week Ahead:

Monday: The President will welcome President Thein Sein of Myanmar to the White House. Since President Obama’s historic trip to Rangoon last November, the United States has continued to advocate for continued progress on reform by President Thein Sein’s government, in close cooperation with Aung San Suu Kyi, civil society leaders, and the international community.

Tuesday: Will attend meetings at the White House.

Wednesday: Will attend meetings at the White House, and in the evening, as part of their “In Performance at the White House” series, the President and the First Lady will host a concert honoring singer-songwriter Carole King, who will be awarded the 2013 Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song.

Thursday: Will attend meetings at the White House.

Friday: Will travel to Annapolis, Maryland, to deliver the commencement address at the U.S. Naval Academy.

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This week started with Three! Huge! Scandals! It ends with #umbrellagate. Well played, Mr. President. Well played.

— Jeff Fecke (@jkfecke) May 17, 2013

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Media Matters: ABC News & The Whitewater Tactics At The Center Of The Scandal Machine

…. ABC’s flawed reporting on the emails, based on selective leaks, has led to questions about reporter Jonathan Karl’s future, vividly demonstrating the consequences of this type of press manipulation. But whether fellow journalists – and viewers – will demand accountability from Karl remains to be seen.

It’s the Whitewater experience, which GOP leaders are reportedly skittish of repeating, that provides a blueprint for accountability over this type of press manipulation.

…. Will the media, which once again saw one of their own get burned by relying on selective leaks in furtherance of a hunting of a president, demand accountability this time?

Full post here

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The more you look at this report, the more (literally) incredible it is – and thrown in, for good measure, edits of Jay Carney (from 0:18) to make him look like a bumbling fool. Truly, Fox out-Foxed by ABC.

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Michael Tomasky: Will ABC Finger the Liar?

….. ABC News, if you ask me, has had a worse week than Obama, not that as many people are paying attention. But consider. CNN and Jake Tapper got the actual emails, proving beyond a doubt that ABC and Karl were wrong. And on CBS, Scott Pelley and Major Garrett took the unheard of step of basically calling news gatherers at a fellow network liars.

…. The record up to today suggests that the government is a good measure more trustworthy than ABC News–and, don’t forget, than whoever it was (surely a GOP source of some kind) who lied to Karl in the first place.

Full post here

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More at Mediaite

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Mediaite: Does Jon Karl Have The Juice To Survive Benghazi Email Controversy?

….. Even the best reporter can get played by a source with an ax to grind, but by presenting that source’s misinformation as a series of direct quotes from emails that the source made up, Jonathan Karl bought and paid for the consequences, and so did ABC News. They both owe their viewers, and this White House, an apology.

Full post here

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In light of current events, an interesting read from 2011:

See here

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