Here’s my bias.

I know Scott Ott. I work with Scott Ott. I think Scott Ott is — although he’d disagree with my language — one hell of a good guy. So even though I don’t live anywhere near Lehigh County, PA, I just made my third donation to Scott’s campaign to be elected County Executive.

Maybe putting another $50 in the kitty isn’t a huge deal, but it sure would help if each of you would throw in half that, or even just ten bucks.

There are damn few real small-government idealists running for office at any level, anywhere. Support it where you find it, that’s what I believe. Scott’s one of those guys, and could use your help, too.

Comments

General Motors, the National Broadcasting Corporation — it’s getting tough to remember which is which. One used to make good cars, the other made “Cheers.” That much is easy to remember. Here’s where it gets cloudy:

For the first time, NBC’s Leno experiment was beaten in the ratings by a non-sports program that wasn’t airing on the Big Four networks.

FX’s critically acclaimed outlaw motorcycle drama “Sons of Anarchy” bested “Leno Show” on Tuesday evening in the advertiser-coveted adult demo — drawing a 2.05 rating among adults 18-49 to Leno’s 1.8. “Anarchy” also topped ABC’s “The Forgotten” (1.9).

A niche show on a niche network just beat out one of the most popular entertainers on what used to be the powerhouse network. This is what happens when you fail to compete, when you effectively give up.

Let me explain — there’s another lesson here, which relates to GM.

The Big Three (then Four) TV networks used to have extremely powerful brands. ABC was the family network — upstart, brainless, safe. CBS was the Tiffany network, all about the quality programing. Fox was renegade and subversive, riding “The Simpson” to fame and fortune. And NBC was middlebrow — smart, but not too smart, and more than a little yuppie.

NBC’s Thursday nights ruled the airwaves (and advertiser’s dollars) for twenty years. And almost entirely with shows set in New York City or Chicago. The only two exceptions I can think of were “L.A. Law” (you can guess the location) and “Cheers,” which took place in a Boston bar.*

And NBC wasn’t afraid to flout conventions, either. “Hill Street Blues” frequently crossed the line — chasm? — between “gritty police television drama” and “theater of the absurd.” “Friends” was a soap opera disguised as a sitcom. “The Cosby Show” might have been the first show about a black family that wasn’t about a black family. From about 1980 on, NBC’s brand could probably be best described as “the risk-taking network.”

It paid off handsomely for NBC’s corporate parents, too. Thursday night is the most expensive weeknight for advertisers, as it’s the night closest to the weekend. Movie studios — especially big spenders — could be counted on to spend their biggest bucks on Thursdays, just in time for Friday openings.

So NBC did everything it could to own Thursdays, and for twenty years did just that. Look at this list:

Hill Street Blues
L.A. Law
E/R
Cheers
The Cosby Show
Seinfeld
Family Ties
Night Court
Frasier
Will & Grace

Some of the best TV made over a 20 year-period, all on one network, all on Thursdays.

Then the competition heated up, and NBC forgot its brand.

Pages: 1 2 | Comments

There’s more at Dana Loesch’s place.

Comments

When we finished taping today’s Trifecta, Bill Whittle and I were just saying “wow,” over and over again after Scott Ott’s closing rant.

Check it out.

Comments

Best line I’ve seen all week comes from George Will:

A president who cannot resist dispensing a semi-COLA after the cost of living declines will not really fund a substantial portion of the new health care entitlement by cutting more than $400 billion from Medicare

Well… duh.

Comments

In a nutshell, why I don’t miss Windows:

“Show this every time” is the default option??!!! Who the [BLEEP!] in their right [BLEEP!]ing mind would ever want to see that useless [BLEEP!]ing [BLEEP!] box ever [BLEEP!]ing again?

And that’s just to play Internet Backgammon.

Comments

The public option isn’t dead; it’s just resting:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is scrambling to push back the notion she lacks the votes for a “robust” public option.

Pelosi (D-Calif.) called an emergency meeting of her caucus Friday morning to declare that she has not abandoned the push for including that provision in a healthcare bill.

The Speaker met late Thursday night with the Progressive Caucus, the bloc of Democrats most supportive of a robust public option, and assured them that it was still on the table, according to a member in attendance.

This is what you do in politics, right before pulling the rug out from somebody — in this case, out from under the “Progressive” Caucus. This entire health bill is bad, but the public government option is the worst part.

And before long, it seems likely that the Democratic coalition is going to be on life support. The moderates and the left-liberals just can’t get along on the government option, which is why it was so shortsighted of Obama to push for it. And shortsighted isn’t the way he usually plays.

Which makes me feel just terrible. Honestly, there could be tears.

UPDATE: Apropos of nothing, here’s a link to the best site on the internet.

UPDATE 2 – ELECTRIC BOOGALOO: Did I really just use references to Star Trek, Monty Python, and Serenity in one short post about health care overhaul? Geekiest. Post. Ever.

UPDATE III – THE FINAL CONFLICT: Oh, and of course in that last update I worked in references to Breakin’ 2 and The Simpsons. I’ll stop now.

Comments

Rasmussen reports on the state of the GOP:

Just 15% of Republicans who plan to vote in 2012 state primaries say the party’s representatives in Congress have done a good job of representing Republican values.

And although Rasmussen can’t describe it this way, there’s no small amount of schizophrenia amongst Republicans:

Nationally, 29% of Republican voters say former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee is their pick to represent the GOP in the 2012 presidential campaign, while 24% prefer former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and 18% like former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.

You can’t complain that the GOP has lost its values and support Mike Huckabee. Well, you can — but you’d be an idiot.

Comments

Here’s a troubled small business worthy of your support.

Mostly because of the beer, of course.

Comments

David Harsanyi has a tough one for you:

What’s more infuriating: a government “pay czar” who can dictate the
salary of private-sector citizens or some corporate welfare queen
having the nerve to complain about a salary cut?

I vote “present.”

Comments

You know things are tough in Virginia when the White House is throwing Creigh Deeds under the bus before the election.

Comments

Peter Wehner on the President’s War on Fox News:

One of the attractions of Obama during the election — one of his attractions to me, who wrote favorably about him several times — was his tone and countenance, his apparent interest in a serious engagement with issues, and his professed allergy to politics practiced by those who are bitter and brittle. We should, he said, “resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long.” He went on to say, “I will listen to you, especially when we disagree.” All impressive and high-minded sentiments. And all, apparently, a ruse.

Read the whole thing.

But before you do, I’ll add my two cents. Even if Obama’s “allergy” wasn’t a ruse, his turn to Nixonian tactics might have been inevitable. When your policies are hyperpartisan, at some point you’re going to need tactics to match. Which brings us to Peggy Noonan. Here’s the takeaway sentence from her WSJ column this morning:

Republicans would best heed this as they gear up for 2010: Don’t hit him, hit his policies.

That’s why none of the Ayers stuff worked in 2008, and is unlikely to work in 2010. That cool exterior, that “allergy” described by Wehner — nobody is buying that the President is a wild-eyed radical. Oh, he’s pretty radical, all right. But he’s very, very cool about it. He’s the kind of radical people wouldn’t mind having as “just a guy in the neighborhood.”

Go after the policies. They’re losers. Obama is, for now at least, still a winner.

Although by 2012, I expect Fox News to be much more popular than the President.

Comments

On today’s Trifecta — Balloon Boy!

What, you need to know more than that?

Comments

Wow, that was fast. Scott Ott, Bill Whittle and I barely finished taping this Trifecta segment before the PJTV crew cleaned up all the nudity and foul language and got it posted on the innerwebs.

Anyway, I took the first round, and the three of us looked at the President’s war against a certain TV network. So is President Obama stupid — or stupid like a fox? Check it out.

Comments

President Obama hasn’t yet made a decision to make a decision:

President Barack Obama has not yet determined whether he will make a decision on sending more troops to Afghanistan before the November 7 election runoff, a US official said Tuesday.

“The UN, NATO, the US stand ready to assist the Afghans in conducting the second round,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters.

“Whether or not the president makes a decision before that I don’t think has been determined.

An $800 billion payoff to political interests? Oh, we’ve got to get that passed in a hurry, within days of the inaugural. Overhauling one-sixth of the US economy? Obama wanted that done in August. Cap and tax? Same story.

But a real-life life-or-death decision on Afghanistan? What’s the rush?

Comments

From the LA Times house blog, here’s some self-defeating cleverness from some clueless Democrats:

Here’s what the new administration’s supporters did to help change the perennial partisan tone in the nation’s capitol and bring all sides together for a clean break with the past silliness, while delivering on the eloquent Illinoisan’s campaign vows of real change. Si se puede. They delivered a trio of mops to the Republicans so the now minority party responsible for the last eight years of mess can help clean it up.

Get it? Clean up the Capitol’s mess with mops. Wow, what a nifty visual! And on RNC Chairman Michael Steele’s 51st birthday too. What an original and refreshing break from the comedic playground acts of political operatives there in recent years.

At this point, the best we could possibly hope for is that the entire leadership gets mopped up by the voters next fall.

Comments

If it’s Monday, it must be time to kneecap the Sunday morning chat shows. And even though I spent the weekend in Vegas and lost most of my voice, I spent today doing just that. On this week’s Hair of the Dog:

Terry McAuliffe throws up his hands at Obama’s antics.

Juan Williams drinks the Fox Kool-Aid.

This is your Cadillac and this is your Cadillac on taxes.

Plus, ABC News can’t get enough of insulting concerned Americans. But you knew that already.

Comments

The next Democrat complaining about Ayn Rand’s wordiness should be slapped upside the head with the Senate’s health care bill.

Comments

Oops — also forgot to put up the links to this week’s Week in Blogs on PJTV. But I have a very good excuse. I was in Vegas. So, here they are:

Too good to factcheck.

Tweet of the week.

Aspen in now Bat Country.

Do not click.

Epic health fail.

I fought the law and the law… got its butt pretty much kicked.

Code Pink goes marching off to war.

They don’t just give those away.

Rooting out waste and fraud.

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

If you missed WiB on PJTV this weekend, now would be an excellent time to check it out.

Comments

Here’s Traci Skene’s Blog World recap, including nearly one-half of my head.

Comments

Scott “Scrappleface” Ott is running for Lehigh County (PA) Executive — and just found a donor who will match the next $1,000 in donations. Donate $50, Scott’s campaign will get $100.

And he sure could use the help.

Comments

Spent the weekend on my feet at BlogWorld in Vegas, and totally forgot to link the new PJM Political. On this week’s show:

Pajamas CEO Roger L. Simon interviews, from the left, John Aravosis of AmericaBlog.com, and from the right, Dan Blatt of Gay Patriot.net, on President Obama’s promise to end Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, and the Defense of Marriage Act.

From PJTV.com’s weekly Trifecta program, Scott Ott of Scrappleface.com, PJTV’s Bill Whittle and PJM Political host Steve Green debate the epic fail of the new GOP.com Website.

Bill Whittle interviews Col. Austin Bay, the co-author of A Quick & Dirty Guide To War, on President Obama’s next actions in Central Asia, including Afghanistan, Pakistan & India.

Joe Hicks of PJTV.com on President Obama and net neutrality, a topic he’ll explore with Veronica Belmont of MaximumPC, beginning with the obvious question – just what the heck is net neutrality, anyhow! And then asking, “Does Net Neutrality Mean Censoring the Internet?”

Instapundit.com’s Glenn Reynolds interviews Steven Pressfield, author of Gates Of Fire, Killing Rommel, and other works of military historical fiction – and a very non-military book eventually adapted into a movie starring Will Smith, The Legend of Bagger Vance.

As always, producer Ed Driscoll has put together a great show.

Comments

I got to host this week’s third and final Trifecta segment, and Bill Whittle and Scott Ott and I take a look at the Obama… flag?

UPDATE: Scott is still campaigning hard for Lehigh County (PA) Executive, running on a very solid shrink-the-government platform. So give him some support.

Comments

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. And also no.

Hat tip to Ed Driscoll, who managed a slightly more coherent response.

Comments

Nick Rizzuto forwarded this Parcbench item about HuffPo:

The evidence that can be gleaned is that Arianna and her gang of 100 acolytes that “staff” the Po have a burn rate of maybe $1M/month, giving the Po about a 24 month shelf life (from last December, giving them about a year to live … unless they get a new cash infusion).

The Po was funded, as a business, by a venture capitalist. Not an advocacy site like Center for American Progress. There is zero evidence that the Po is generating, or capable of ever generating anything like $12M a year. (Just a guess, but … where are the ads???)

Nor is there much evidence that the Po has anything like the political clout of populist bootstrap webspaces like the much less expensive, feisty, DailyKos or the really, really smart Personal Democracy Forum. The Po — except for the rare columns by Esther Dyson and a few others — not only is journalistically shoddy — parajournalism, really — but is consistently guilty of the most unforgivable crime on the Web.

It’s completely predictable and boring: Mad Magazine for Liberals.

It’s conjecture, but it’s conjecture with some pretty solid-looking numbers to back it up.

Comments

Austin Bay on the Peace Prize:

Obama’s Nobel is the result of the Left’s “long march through the institutions,” a phrase encapsulating the route ’60s hard left political radicals took to gain control of universities, media, religious organizations, arts and literary associations, and businesses in order to break the chains of “bourgeois” hegemony and bring about “true revolution.” If this sounds neo- or semi- or vaguely Marxist, well, indeed it is — secular utopians dedicated to creating paradise on earth once the politically correct people are in control.

Read the whole thing, especially the last half, where Austin talks about some of the people who maybe actually deserved the Nobel.

Comments

On today’s Trifecta segment, Scott Ott hosts and wonders how many public sector pensions does it take to bankrupt the nation, city by city, county by county, state by state.

Comments