The Weekly Poll
Current Question
The 'Public Enemy #1' Edition
Who is the most dangerous person in the U.S. right now?
Well, Poll-fans, I think this is one of the most interesting sessions to date because of the variety of responses. There're the usual suspects listed, as expected, but some rather unexpected ones as well. Read on and ponder...
Bebo blames...
The people responsible for the mess we're in --- Harvard & Yale graduates with MBA's. take your pick.
(Don't forget Penn {Wharton}. They were rated #1 last year with Harvard #3 and Yale merely #19)
The Vidiot sees symbolism...
It's too difficult to name just one. I mean, there's Obama, Bush, Cheney, SecDef Gates, frmr SecDef Rumsfeld, everyone at the DEA, ATF and INS. I mean, the list is endless. They're ALL responsible for killing a lot of people.
Maybe the most dangerous person in the US right now isn't a real person. Maybe it's a symbol that represents all of the murderous ideals of certain factions of the US government. And that symbol is Uncle Sam.
So, IMHO, Uncle Sam is the most dangerous 'person' in the U.S. Right now.
Inflammatory enough for ya'? (Nah, it's been said before)
(Then again, maybe I should just say "Glenn Beck" and leave at that.)
DanD said...
Who is the most dangerous person in the U.S. right now?
Oh, that's an easy one ... the most dangerous person in the U.S. right now is the average American couch potato(e).
(Ya got a point there, I'm tellin' ya, Dan...)
Tom R. is down (and I mean DOWN) on Faux... and not just FNC...
The person who owns and controls Fox News and all the Fox programs has contaminated our broadcast media. Fox News, regular readers of Bartcop already know about. But few people consider how hypocritical Fox is in its entertainment broadcasting.
Fox broadcasts and produces Family Guy. Seth McFarlane has made the series, basically, a whorehouse of jokes. I could talk forever about how poorly the series hangs together, compared to The Simpsons. I could talk about how the characters engage in conduct that Fox's news whores would condemn in real people. But consider how Fox killed the show.
They ran it randomly, so people couldn't keep up with it. They pre-empted it for their terrible specials like "America's Top Nearly Undressed Sluts" and "World's Wildest Beatings of Black Criminals." Of course the ratings of Family Guy dropped like a rock. After cancellation, Cartoon Network's Adult Swim ran it on a regular basis. Now that they could find it, the public loved it (God help their souls). And with a fan audience that they did not encourage, Fox brought the show back with a fanfare.
Fox's network has always been run like an insane child without Ritalin was doing the programming. The network buys outrageous and unusual programming like Greg the Bunny, Firefly, Tru Calling and others.
When they don't instantly provide killer ratings, they kill the show. As they are about to do to Dollhouse, the second time a Joss Whedon show will be slashed and thrown into the dumpster.
Pushing lies on their news, killing imaginative shows before they grow to maturity, blasting obnoxious promos, herding the public for Cheney's right wing buddies and the rich...Rupert Murdoch, who also treats his employees like chattel, is an important part of the Republican hate machine.
rdmcd sees not one, but many...
All of the right wing of Repug. Party
DC Madman surprisingly picked...
Without a doubt Obama. Not for wingnutty reasons though. His inability to get Democrats in line and accomplish the things the majority of Americans want doesn't bode well for the future. I voted for him knowing it would probably be the same-o same-o, promise 'em anything to get elected then switch allegiance to the corporate masters. As the corporate masters drain the electorate they'll have more power over who gets elected in the future since we won't have the cash to support candidates. If he gets us out of Afghanistan, Iraq, and gives us a public option on healthcare the Rethugs are toast. If not, standby for more neocon morons.
maw sees many, too...
The non-leaders of the Republican Party.
Charlie sees many, also, but does name some names...
There are many candidates, and among 300,000,000 or so possibilities, I can't pretend to have considered them all, so I have restricted my attention to some of the more notorious right-wing whackos. To name a few:
Sarah Palin (we all know who she is).
Tim LaHaye (author of the "Left Behind" books).
Grover Norquist (president of Americans for Tax Reform, i.e. let corporations rule totally).
I don't take seriously Palin's viability as a presidential candidate in 2012 (yet, but I've been wrong before), and I think it would take a PR campaign over and above the one that sold (and continues to sell) Reagan, to put her in the White House.
I haven't read any of LaHaye's books, but based on reviews, I can see where they appeal to a certain segment of the population whose craving for immortality drives them beyond reason. This is certainly very dangerous, and a commenter on Democratic Underground has indeed nominated LaHaye as "Most Dangerous Person."
Of the three above, I think Norquist wins based on his "accomplishments," which include being coauthor of the 1994 Contract with America, and his involvement in the recent (utterly insane) Tea Party protests.
Of course there are also Glenn Beck, Limbaugh, Hannity, and the rest. Of these, though I avoid them all like the plague, and based solely on my readings -- since as I say I neither read nor watch, nor listen to any of them -- Beck would seem to be the most dangerous at the moment.
Identifying any of these people as "most dangerous" is a bit beside the point in my view, since it seems to me that the most dangerous thing is they've got 25-30% of the population going with their flow, and if all of the above dropped dead tomorrow there would be a new crop of candidates lining up to take their places in nothing flat.
I will point to this valuable article on the New York Review of Books site, which is what reminded me of Norquist.
This all assumes you mean by "most dangerous" the same thing I do, instead of its mirror image -- in which case I would nominate myself -- and perhaps Bad to the Bone Bob and other readers of this site. But I doubt if many will interpret the question in that sense.
Gee, I forgot Ann Coulter, and I hope I will again soon. I have probably forgotten a few other worthy candidates as well, and others here may come at this from different, but still viable, points of view.
SallyP(al) with a GREAT point answered...
I've had a week to ponder this poll question, but have been touring the mid-Atlantic states with my visiting company and unable to find a computer (or time) to reply.
In the course of this week, however, so many candidates have danced through my mind it made me dizzy at times.
Newspaper mogul, Rupert Murdoch?
The Quartet of Hate Radio: Limbaugh, O'Reilly, Hannity, and Beck?
Repug spokesperson and RNC Chairman, Michael Steele?
So many choices, such limited time.
That being said, dashing into the market this very morning. I see all the NY/NJ/PA papers spread out for sale, and gleaning the headlines, I do a double-take.
Where is the news about the economy?
The crime statistics?
News of Afghanistan?
Are the Troops pulling out of Iraq?
What's happening on Wall Street?
Obama in the White House?
Even the mayoritorial races in NY and Jersey?
Nothing. Nada. Zip.
There, I see the real villain spelled out in the FRONT PAGE headlines and stories:
David Freaking Letterman, mild-mannered, late-night talk show host - has come out of his Locker Room and revealed his power.
That's right, B2BB, the 62-year old survivor of open-heart surgery, considered by many to be somewhat geeky - David Freaking Letterman - apparently diddles pretty young production assistants - right there in the Ed Sullivan Theater, on his very own Casting Couch!!
The entire country has stopped - it has been revealed, that he, David Freaking Letterman (now representing the dirty old men of the country) has emerged to capture all the news that's fit to print (nowadays that is). How powerful is that?
Must be dangerous - if you ask me - which you did...
Hmmm... Good stuff... My answer is that truly evil Dick Cheney. Why? Because unlike all the others listed that are out there doing what they do in the open, he's holed up with his minions who-knows-where plotting who-knows-what deviltry out of sight and mind. That's scary... and dangerous, I believe...
Well, thanks to all! Yer the best!
BadToTheBoneBob
New Question
The 'Afghan Options' Edition
The White House said Monday that President Barack Obama is not considering a strategy for Afghanistan that would withdraw U.S. troops from the eroding war there.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said "I don't think we have the option to leave. That's quite clear," ( White House: Leaving Afghanistan Not An Option | CommonDreams.org )
That being the case, what options would you recommend to the President?
Send your response to
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
The Best Free Way to Manage Your Money
We use the same security practices as major US financial institutions. No one can move money on Mint.com. Plus, we monitor all your accounts 24/7 and alert you to any suspicious charges.
Paul Krugman: The Politics of Spite (nytimes.com)
If Republicans think something might be good for the president, they're against it whether or not it's good for America.
Susan Estrich: Does Voting Matter? (creators.com)
On my way to work this morning, I heard not one but two advertisements urging me to vote for former eBay CEO Meg Whitman as the next governor of California. The ads touted her decades of experience working for such companies as Disney and Hasbro before taking the helm at eBay in 1998 as its first CEO. The pitch was that California needs someone who understands business and job creation as its next chief executive.
Connie Schultz: Never Trust a Viral Prayer (creators.com)
A reader recently forwarded a rip-roaring e-mail titled "In Defense of Prayer." It circulates widely on the Web, is attributed to CBS commentator Andy Rooney and apparently originated as a defense of team prayer at football games.
Froma Harrop: Liberals -- Choose Your Friends Wisely (creators.com)
Nearly as unappetizing as the video of ACORN workers explaining how to run a prostitution business, cheat on taxes and import underage streetwalkers from Central America is the presence of Michael Moore's mug on TV screens everywhere.
Roger Ebert: Review of "WHIP IT" (PG-13; 3 1/2 stars)
"Whip It" is an unreasonably entertaining movie, causing you perhaps to revise your notions about women's Roller Derby, assuming you have any.
Roger Ebert: Review of "Derby" (Documentary, from 1972, 4 stars)
"The kid's name is Mike Snell and he builds tires for a living in Dayton, Ohio. He is 23 years old and pays $85 a month rent on a house he occupies with his wife Christina, two children and his younger brother, Butch. Butch lives in a basement room which he has decorated himself: There are posters on the walls and the floor is wall-to-wall mattress. Here Butch hangs out reading Playboy sideways, scratching his potbelly, and waiting to be drafted. The Army does not appeal to Butch: "I'm a lover, not a killer."
Colin Covert: Joel and Ethan Coen get 'Serious' with their latest movie (Star Tribune)
Since their debut with "Blood Simple" in 1984, Oscar winners Joel and Ethan Coen have created an innovative, iconoclastic, idiosyncratic body of work that reflects their unique sensibilities. They have also been filmland's main interpreters of Minnesota's culture, ethnicity and behavioral tics to the outside world.
Moira Macdonald: Clive Owen's back, this time with a 6-year-old co-star (The Seattle Times)
The British actor Clive Owen has famously shared the big screen with the likes of Julia Roberts, Angelina Jolie, Keira Knightley and Cate Blanchett. And yet, for his new film "The Boys Are Back," it all came down to finding chemistry with a 6-year-old.
Chuck Barney: Three new hosts bring diversity back to late-night talk (Contra Costa Times)
Mo'Nique, the charismatic, bold comedian and actress, can pinpoint exactly when she started to fall out of love with late-night television. It happened in the spring of 1994, when Arsenio Hall, the man who broke the genre's color barrier, walked away from his popular syndicated show.
An Interview with Chris Hardwick (thecelebritycafe.com)
Chris Hardwick is the host of G4's 'Web Soup'-a half-hour long show that gives the viewer the best in viral videos accompanied by hilarious commentary, and the weekly fix that every internet junkie needs. A writer, comedian, and proud Nerdist, Chris shows that there is always something funny, or at least interesting, to be found on the web. He spoke with TheCelebrityCafe's Alexia Nader about 'Web Soup' and the going-ons of the Internet.
wrote:
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
BadtotheboneBob Link
#13
Norway is the best place in the world to live while Niger is the least desirable, according to an annual report by the United Nations...
The United States is rated as the 13th most desirable place to live, while the UK takes the 21st spot.
BBC NEWS | Special Reports | Norway 'the best place to live'
Thanks, B2tbBob!
Viewing Suggestion
that Mad Cat, JD
HERE'S A VIDEO OF ONE OF MY CO-WRITES BEING PERFORMED BY MY CO-WRITER
ENJOY.
JD
Thanks, JD!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Lovely crisp day.
After a really lousy month, Winnie, the queen of our kitties, died.
Cuba Travel Policy Outrageous
Byron Dorgan
U.S. restrictions on travel to Cuba that led to the New York Philharmonic calling off a trip to the communist country are outrageous and should be ended, a senator who has long called for lifting trade and travel restraints said Monday.
"This is almost unbelievable what we are still doing with respect to travel policy with Cuba," Senator Byron Dorgan, a Democrat from North Dakota, said in a speech on the Senate floor.
The New York Philharmonic, which last year played before audiences in North Korea and is soon to hold its first concert in Vietnam, received approval for its musicians and staff to go to Cuba.
But the orchestra decided to call off the trip after Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control denied travel licences for about 150 patrons, who had agreed to cover the costs of the Oct. 30-Nov.2 trip and had expressed interest in accompanying the orchestra to Havana.
Dorgan said that while waiting for Congress to act on his legislation, "we are going through this nonsense of having the federal government and the Treasury Department tell us who can and who can't travel. Restricting the liberty and the freedom of the American people, it's outrageous, in my judgment."
Byron Dorgan
Celebrates 40 Years
Monty Python
Monty Python's Flying Circus, the group which launched the Ministry of Silly Walks and the Parrot Sketch on an unsuspecting world, Monday celebrated 40 years since the comedy sketch show was first aired.
The show, written and acted by John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Graham Chapman, was first broadcast on October 5, 1969 and ran for a total of 45 episodes.
To mark the anniversary, the five remaining members of the team -- Chapman died in 1989 -- put together a documentary covering the history of the Python team.
Entitled "Monty Python: Almost the Truth (The Lawyers Cut)", the film marked the first time in 20 years that all five surviving Pythons have come together on a project.
Monty Python
Britain's New Healthy Eating Guru
Homer Simpson
Forget all the pizza and doughnuts -- the British government wants fans of "The Simpsons" to ditch junk food and eat more healthily.
The Department of Health is spending 640,000 pounds ($1 million) to sponsor episodes of the long-running U.S. cartoon series broadcast on Channel 4, as part of its Change4Life campaign.
Before the start of the sponsored shows, cartoon characters pretending to be the members of the dysfunctional animated family are shown sitting on a sofa tucking into ice cream and chips which then morph into more healthy alternatives.
The government hopes that viewers will realize they should follow that behavior, and not the beer-swilling, doughnut-guzzling diet of Homer Simpson and his family.
Homer Simpson
Renewed For Season 4
"Californication"
Showtime has given an early fourth-season pickup to "Californication," a week after its Season 3 premiere scored an all-time ratings high.
The dark comedy, starring David Duchovny as a sex-addicted Hollywood writer, drew 821,000 viewers on September 27, up 57% from last season's premiere.
"Californication"
Illness Halts "Bones"
David Boreanaz
The jitters over a possible swine flu outbreak in the United States hit the set of Fox's comedy-drama "Bones" on Monday.
Production on the show was shut down for one day because star David Boreanaz was sick with flu-like symptoms.
"First time in 'Bones' history we are shut down from production," "Bones" creator Hart Hanson tweeted. "Damn swine flu! That's gonna cut into Christmas hiatus."
A spokesman for 20th Century Fox TV, which produces "Bones," downplayed the production stoppage.
David Boreanaz
Record Labels Sue
Guns N' Roses
Two independent record labels sued U.S. rock band Guns N' Roses for $1 million, claiming the group used portions of two songs by a German musician on their last album "Chinese Democracy."
Guns N' Roses and Universal Music Group's Interscope-Geffen A&M label were sued by British label Independiente and the U.S. arm of Domino Recording Company, who own the licensing rights to songs by German electronic musician Ulrich Schnauss.
Singer Axl Rose and Guns N' Roses band members and album producers copied portions of two of Schnauss' songs -- "Wherever You Are" and "A Strangely Isolated Place" -- for a song used on the band's last album called "Riad N' the Bedouins," according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit, filed on Friday but made available on Monday, seeks $1 million in damages. A spokesperson for Interscope-Geffen A&M, owned by Vivendi's Universal Music Group, was not available for comment.
Guns N' Roses
Grave To Be Exhumed
Federico Garcia Lorca
A Spanish official says bodies from a Civil War-era grave believed to hold the remains of the poet Federico Garcia Lorca will be disinterred in two to three weeks.
The exhumation from the unmarked common grave will be the most high-profile step yet in Spain's drive to address atrocities committed during that conflict.
Garcia Lorca was Spain's most renowned 20th-century poet. He is believed to have been executed by militia loyal to Gen. Francisco Franco in the early days of the 1936-39 war.
Garcia Lorca's relatives are opposed. The plan will go ahead because relatives of others interred with him want proper burials.
Federico Garcia Lorca
UK Supermarket Pulls Ad From Rupert 'News'
Waitrose
Upscale British supermarket chain Waitrose said Monday it was pulling its advertisements from Fox News in the U.K. after customers complained about the cable news channel's Glenn Beck program.
The popular and controversial talk show host is already the target of a boycott campaign in the United States after he accused President Barack Obama of harboring "a deep-seated hatred for white people."
Waitrose, known for its upmarket fare and focus on organic foods, said in a statement it was responding to customer concerns, and that the move was not politically motivated.
The wide coverage afforded to Beck's tirade against the U.S. president and the subsequent boycott campaign has also been noticed in Britain - where Fox owner Rupert Murdoch controls a powerful news and broadcasting empire.
Waitrose
Some Passwords Exposed
Hotmail
Microsoft said on Monday that passwords belonging to some users of its Hotmail email service were exposed on an Internet site, but had since been taken down.
The company did not say how many users were affected, but some reports suggested that passwords to more than 10,000 accounts were exposed.
"We are aware that some Windows Live Hotmail customers' credentials were acquired illegally by a phishing scheme and exposed on a website," a Microsoft spokesman said.
Microsoft said the passwords had been removed from the offending website, which it did not identify, and said it had blocked access to all affected accounts and was helping users to reclaim their Hotmail accounts.
Hotmail
Shuts 4 Magazines
Conde Nast
Conde Nast will close four magazines -- Modern Bride, Elegant Bride, Gourmet, and Cookie -- following a review the publisher undertook to find ways to reduce costs and staff in the face of a slump in advertising.
The decision is among the clearest signs yet of severe cost cuts at the publishing house best known for magazines such as The New Yorker, Vanity Fair and Vogue. Those cuts follow a study from McKinsey & Co consultants who were brought in by management this summer.
Word of the cuts had loomed over Conde Nast since then, leading to speculation that they could even touch the expense accounts of editors such as fashion magazine Vogue's U.S. chief Anna Wintour, considered the inspiration for the editor portrayed in the book and film "The Devil Wears Prada."
The company said the review has been completed. It is unclear whether Monday's announcement is the last.
Conde Nast
MTV To Air Series
DJ AM
MTV is going forward with the late DJ AM's "Intervention"-style reality series "Gone Too Far," which will premiere next Monday.
DJ AM, a.k.a. Adam Goldstein, was a recovering addict who died of a drug overdose in August during production of "Gone Too Far," in which he sought to help fellow sufferers.
"After careful consideration we have decided to air the show," Goldstein's family said in a statement released by MTV. "Adam felt strongly that by doing this series he could help other addicts who were at a crisis point to get sober. Adam was fully aware that if it were not for his own sobriety he never would have achieved the level of success and happiness he had found. Helping people in their recovery was a huge part of Adam's life. It is our hope through airing this show that people will get to see the side of Adam that we knew and loved, not just the celebrity DJ, but the honest and caring person who gave so much of himself to help others. The decision to air the show has been difficult, but we do this with the profound belief that it will inspire others to seek help."
MTV notably did not include any executive quotes in its release. "Gone Too Far" will premiere at 10 p.m.
DJ AM
Mr. Belvedere?
Bruce Willis
Veteran action hero Bruce Willis is to join the board of directors of the embattled French drinks group Belvedere, which owns the Polish-made Sobieski vodka brand, the firm said on Monday.
The US actor, who has appeared in ads for Sobieski, "expressed his wish to become a shareholder of reference alongside its management and to be fully associated with the group's marketing strategy," it said in a statement.
Willis, best known as the gun-toting star of the "Die Hard" films, will become a member of Belvedere's board of directors at the next general meeting of shareholders, it said.
Belvedere has debts of about 550 million euros (800 million dollars) and was placed under bankruptcy protection by a French court in July 2008.
Bruce Willis
In Memory
Peg Mullen
Peg Mullen, an author and former Iowa farm wife who hounded the U.S. military to find the truth about her son's death in Vietnam, has died. She was 92.
Peg Mullen wrote the 1995 book "Unfriendly Fire: A Mother's Memoir" after her son Michael died at age 25 when a U.S. artillery shell fell short and killed him on Feb. 18, 1970, near the South Vietnamese village of Tu Chanh.
Almost from the day Mullen and her husband, Gene, who died in 1986, learned that Michael had been killed, she tried to get more information about their son's death from the U.S. military. Her full-page ad in The Des Moines Register protesting the war and marches in anti-war demonstrations put her on par with more notable protesters of the day.
Her other son, John Mullen, said Sunday that he doesn't know if his mother was ever satisfied with the information she tracked down, "but she came to terms with it."
"If there was one thing, she brought to the forefront the idea of friendly fire. It was a term that never got much play until that time," he said. "I think she'll be remembered as somebody who asked a lot of questions, somebody who wouldn't take a pat answer, somebody who would stand up for something she believed in. You need those types of people."
Her book includes 40 letters from Michael, along with an account of her conversation one night in 1989 with the man who told her he had fired the fatal shell. It also lambasts Norman Schwarzkopf, the Persian Gulf War general who was Michael's battalion commander in Vietnam.
The autobiography was a follow up to "Friendly Fire," a book by C.D.B. Bryan and a television movie of the same name that starred Carol Burnett and Ned Beatty.
According to the University of Iowa library's Iowa Women's Archives, Mullen was born in 1917 in Pocahontas, about 140 miles northwest of Des Moines. She was inducted into the Iowa Women's Hall of Fame in 1997.
Mullen also is survived by her daughters Patricia Hulting, of Des Moines, and Mary DeJana, of Kalispell, Mont., and her grandchildren.
Peg Mullen
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
