Archive for the 'tucker' Category

Saturday Links: things you might have missed

Published
by
alice
on March 21, 2009
in biden, food, history, media and tucker
. 3 Comments

I’ve found some interesting reading lately — things that haven’t worked their way into a post, but are worth mentioning nonetheless. Besides, it’s been a while since I’ve done a link roundup.

  • In The Culture Warriors Get Laid Off, Frank Rich reminds us of some glad tidings amidst all the recent rotten headlines:

    Here, at last, is one piece of good news in our global economic meltdown: Americans have less and less patience for the intrusive and divisive moral scolds who thrived in the bubbles of the Clinton and Bush years. Culture wars are a luxury the country — the G.O.P. included — can no longer afford.

  • The interesting thing to take away from the The 20 Worst Foods in America 2009 is that even the sit-down restaurants and innocent sounding menu items (dishes that use words like “salad” and “chicken”) can be loaded with fat, cholesterol and calories. If you’re trying to eat healthy food, it’s not enough to just stay away from the fast food joints, and surprisingly enough, some of the worst offenders are those family restaurants with the ferns and brass rails — maybe places like TGIFridays and Chilis are best avoided as well. (And speaking of gross food, if you haven’t yet seen Supersize Me, you can now catch it on Hulu!)
  • The 25 Most Influential Liberals In The U.S. Media is an interesting list. I was surprised to have not heard of a few of them (and in at least one case, by who is considered to be liberal).
  • It’s good to see Joe Biden out there stumping for Amtrak. This country needs good passenger rail service, and Amtrak has been neglected for far too long.
  • A Hand in the Health Debate is an interesting perspective on health care reform from Eugene Robinson (why MSNBC doesn’t put him out in front more often than they do is a mystery to me. He’s smart, funny, and he has one of the coolest voices since James Earl Jones):

    What is relevant is that I have good insurance, which I obtain through my employer, and haven’t paid a dime out of pocket for my treatment. If I were among the 46 million Americans who are uninsured, I’d be looking at a huge hospital bill. No one should face financial ruin because of a mishap with a fork and an avocado. The way we ration health care now — according to the individual’s ability to pay — is immoral, and if higher taxes are needed to ensure that no one has to choose between health and bankruptcy, I’ll pay. That was my position all along, but now it’s personal.

    What’s changed is that I also feel more strongly about the ability to make my own choices. I decided where I would be treated and, ultimately, what would or wouldn’t be done. I’m willing to pay for that, too.

  • UK Street View Has Arrived and Brits are celebrating — by finding celebs and playing Where’s Waldo? (but they’ve still got some catching up to do!)
  • This one makes me laugh every time I think about it: Tucker Carlson doesn’t think Jon Stewart is funny. Gee, Tucker, I wonder why? Is it because you’re a drama queen, or is it because you’re still smarting from that asswhuppin’?
  • I’m still blown away by this: Do you remember John Tyler? You know, our 10th president. A long time ago. Way back in the days of Tippecanoe and Tyler too. Back when the only way to take a picture was with a daguerreotype. Well, would you believe he still has a living grandson? Wow!
  • And finally, what would we do without Improv Everywhere? I weep at the thought of it! Here’s the latest, Subway Art Gallery Opening:
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Tucker’s replacement…

Published
by
alice
on March 10, 2008
in media and tucker
. 4 Comments

I was hoping for Rachel, but it’s going to be David Gregory. We’ll see how it goes…

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Breaking: Tucker Axed!

Published
by
alice
on March 9, 2008
in maddow and tucker
. 11 Comments

Finally!

Is he heading for a game show? A video store? Jon’s studio? Who cares! I want to know who’s going to replace him!

UPDATE: more here and here.

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Where is Tucker?

Published
by
alice
on January 8, 2008
in tucker
. 2 Comments

Does anyone else notice the conspicuous absence of Tucker Carlson on MSNBC today? He was all over the Iowa election returns coverage and now tonight, he’s MIA.

(whew!)

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I <3 Rachel Maddow

Published
by
alice
on January 5, 2008
in maddow and tucker
. 3 Comments

If you’ve been watching a lot of MSNBC lately, you’re acquainted with Rachel Maddow — she’s been playing talking head on the news network frequently during the run-up to the primaries, and also has a show on Air America Radio (you can stream and/or download the show).

I love that Rachel is so damn smart, and that she’s unabashed in all she does. I love the fact that when she debates an issue, she gives us all a little credit and doesn’t condescend or play dumb. And I love the fact that she might end up being Tucker Carlson’s replacement on MSNBC! If this comes to pass, I can throw away my remote, because I’ll never have to change the channel again. :-D

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Tucker’s Next Step?

Published
by
alice
on November 27, 2007
in tucker
. 3 Comments

Oh, this is just too good. Tucker Carlson, who like our feeble White House occupant, rode into town on his family connections (but UNlike Georgie Awol McFlightsuit, there’s some question as to whether or not Tucker finished college), is maybe falling out of favor in his current position on MSNBC.

Why this took so long, I have no idea (though his ratings are terrible, his friends are in high places — maybe that helps). I sometimes keep MSNBC on all day — except when Tucker Carlson is on, at which point, I switch the TV to another channel (or switch it off — unfortunately, he comes on at the same time as the droning Wolf Blitzer over on CNN, so I pretty much just have to take a break from the news for that hour). I just can’t stand to listen to the guy. First of all, he can be shrill in a way that I thought was only possible in a woman. Then there’s the fact that he can be quite the disingenuous (or just plain ignorant) snot. And, of course, he sometimes can’t even manage to conceal his mission: to read the talking points fed to him by the conservatives who have been propping him up his whole career. He’s a whining drama queen who thinks feigned stupidity is enough to give his leading questions some sort of legitimacy. He needed a chair for his (lap?) dance on Dancing with the Stars, has been humiliated on his own show, and has been spotted getting some poor video store clerk fired when faced with one of the byproducts of the celebrity he shamelessly courts.

So, guess what he’s planning on doing once he finally gets kicked off the news? Heh. This is where it gets funny.

He wants to be the next Richard Dawson. Or Gene Rayburn. Or — dare I say it? — Bob Eubanks. He wants to be a game show host! Could it be true? Tucker will be perfect! He’s smarmy, can certainly pull off the empty-headed part, and he loves wearing bow ties!

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Tucker Carlson: Drama Queen?

Published
by
alice
on January 16, 2007
in tucker
. 3 Comments

It’s a long story already. The short version: Tucker Carlson claimed that some video store clerk was stalking him after the clerk made a post on his blog about his encounter with Carlson in the video store (the clerk blogs using the name “Chuckles”). Carlson may or may not have threatened Chuckles when he returned to the store. Then Carlson’s lawyers got involved and suddenly, Chuckles didn’t have a job anymore. Here is the post that turned Carlson’s panties into a bowtie:

Not as Recognizable as You Might Think Mr. Carlson

From WIKIPEDAIA:
Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson (born May 16, 1969 in San Francisco, California) is a pundit who currently hosts Tucker, a national television news show, which is broadcast weekdays at 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. ET on MSNBC.

Carlson is generally considered one of the most recognizable conservative media personalties on American television.

Tucker Carlson opened an account last night at my video store. I thought the name seemed familiar but I couldn’t figure out why. It was after he left that I realized he was on the list of Gigantic Cobagz. I could tell you what he and his ridiculously wasped-out female companion (wife?) rented if you really want to know. I won’t tell you where he lives, though. That would be wrong and stupid. I will also not be running around ordering 10,000 copies of America: The Book and having it sent to his place even if that would be more awesome than frozen urine treats for his home.

So is Tucker a prissy drama queen? Or is he, as he claims in the Washington Post’s article about the story, a helpless victim who was reluctant to respond to an attack on his family?

In a phone interview Thursday, Carlson acknowledged that he approached Williamson in the store and said he was “very aggressive” because he wanted the post removed: “I don’t like to call the police or call his boss. . . . I’m a libertarian. I’m not into that.”

(via R. Neal at Knoxviews)

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Cal Thomas is an idiot.

Published
by
alice
on August 12, 2006
in lieberman, republicans, shills, tucker and wingnuts
. 2 Comments

I don’t normally read Cal Thomas, but he was featured on Daily Kos today, so I read this article.

Let me say right off the bat that I know that both sides of the political spectrum have their political hacks, and will grant that there’s room in the world for them. Not all of them are all bad (Tucker Carlson, for example, is a hack, but is also fairly entertaining on a regular basis). But I don’t ever read Cal Thomas, and it’s because of stupid, sloppy stuff like this:

The narrow primary defeat of veteran Sen. Joe Lieberman in Connecticut’s Democratic primary is more than a loss for one man. It is a loss for his party and for the country. It completes the capture of the Democratic Party by its Taliban wing.

They used to be “San Francisco Democrats,” a phrase coined by former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Jeane Kirkpatrick to describe the party’s 1984 convention. But they have now morphed into Taliban Democrats because they are willing to “kill” one of their own, if he does not conform to the narrow and rigid agenda of the party’s kook fringe.

Now, just ignoring Cal’s over-the-top inflamatory language and ridiculous accusations of anti-semitism (has he taken a good look at the Republican party and their Christofascists lately? If he wants to find an American Taliban, he can stop looking right there!), let’s instead focus on the part where the pot calls the kettle black. Here’s something I read in our own little hometown paper just this morning (from the AP):

Fresh off their first victory over a Republican incumbent, GOP conservatives seeking party purity on taxes and spending are focused on ousting moderate Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island.

The Club for Growth and its 36,000 members spent around $1 million to help challenger Tim Walberg unseat first-term Rep. Joe Schwarz in Michigan’s Republican primary on Tuesday. The win came despite Schwarz’s support from President Bush and the National Rifle Association.

Can Cal not even read his own freakin’ paper? At the very least, couldn’t he time his stupid rant for a day when the exact same behavior by his own party is not highlighted in the news? Sheesh. I’ve got no use for boneheads like Cal Thomas.

UPDATE: Is it possible that Cal’s just blinded by panic?

Incidentally, this is all happening — the coordinated attacks from Tony Snow to Dick Cheney to Cal Thomas to every other war supporter, calling those Connecticut voters who voted for Lamont “al Qaeda supporters”, or Taliban members, or all the rest of the very virulent crap we’ve heard yesterday and today — because the Iraq War propaganda campaigns and failed policies are falling apart around their ears.

The arrests in the U.K. were very significant, in the public zeitgeist, because they very much reminded everyone of the dynamic of al Qaeda — you know, the enemy we were supposed to be fighting, and the enemy that actually attacked us, and may again. But those arrests demonstrated once again, at a very inopportune time (heading into election season) that the Iraq War didn’t make us safer. In fact, the Iraq War didn’t have anything to do with the actual enemy — actual terrorism — at all.

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Armstrong apologizes

Published
by
alice
on January 10, 2005
in media, shills and tucker
. Closed

Armstrong Williams made a pathetic attempt to rescue his career in his column today. Unfortunately, he lied in the process:

In 2003 Ketchum Communications contacted a small PR firm that I own, Graham Williams Group, to buy ad space on a television show that I own and host. The ad was to promote The Department of Education’s “No Child Left Behind” plan. I have long felt that school vouchers hold the greatest promise of ending the racial education gap in this country. We need to hold schools accountable for their failures and create incentives to change. That is why I have vigorously supported school vouchers for the past decade—in print, on TV, during media appearances and in lectures. I believe that school vouchers represent the greatest chance of stimulating hope for young, inner city school children&mdashoften of color. In fact, I am a board member of Black Americans for Educational Options (BAEO), because I feel that school choice plans hold the promise of a new civil rights movement.

In the past I have used my column space to convey the promise of school options. I continued to do so, even after receiving money to run a series of ads on my television show promoting the “No Child Left Behind” act. I now realize that I exercised poor judgment in continuing to write about a topic which my PR firm was being paid to promote.

But, it wasn’t just a matter of his talking about an issue that was contained in an ad on his show. The contract he had with the Bush Adminstration required him to regularly comment on the No Child Left Behind Act in his show and in his columns, and to convince others to do the same. This is illegal. Much like so many other people connected with this adminstration, this jackass is a weasel who doesn’t have the cajones to own up to what he’s obviously done. How pathetic.

Well, his column has been dumped and supposedly, his tv show has been suspended. No doubt, he’s now well qualified to be hired by the Bush Adminstration for something. And speaking of the Bush adminstration, that’s where the story continues:

There can be no defense of syndicated columnist Armstrong Williams’ disgraceful grab of public money from the Education Department to tout President Bush’s No Child Left Behind law while posing as an objective journalist. But focusing on one man’s ethics disaster misses the larger and more important story of the Bush administration’s pattern of placing propaganda in U.S. news media.

[...]

Williams is likely to skip away with little more than a spate of bad publicity and a hand slap for another reason. During the past decade, the major networks have shamelessly blurred the line between news and corporate and government infomercials. At the eleventh hour of the presidential campaign, Sinclair Broadcasting announced that it would air a program on its TV stations that falsified the Vietnam War record of Kerry. The Clear Channel Network bankrolled billboards praising Bush, and the gaggle of right-wing talk radio shock jocks blatantly promoted Bush’s re-election. The FCC, which has gone berserk over rock stars’ foul language and a momentary glimpse of Janet Jackson’s breast, has knuckled under and given the media conglomerates free rein to bombard the public daily with partisan political blather.

Who else has been playing shill for the Bush adminstration in exchange for our tax dollars? Armstrong says there were others. Perhaps time will reveal their identities…

UPDATE: Oliver Willis is trying to get some of the right wingers to go on the record. Will they be happy for the opportunity to clear their names, or do they have something to hide?

What are the odds?

UPDATE: Frank Rich had a piece in the New York Times on January 13th, which follows, after the jump.

Continue reading ‘Armstrong apologizes’

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Jon 1, Tucker 0

Published
by
alice
on January 6, 2005
in media, novak, stewart and tucker
. Closed

Tucker Carlson is parting ways with CNN and Crossfire is getting axed. The official story is that Tuck is leaving to host a 9pm show over at MSNBC (sucks to be Deborah Norville), but I’m giving all the credit to Jon Stewart on this one. Jonathan Klein as much as admits it.

UPDATE: the more I think about it, the more I feel that it is CNN’s great shame that they’re keeping Robert Novak, hypocrite extraordinaire and Douchebag of Liberty, on board. Yeah, Tucker isn’t anchor material (for evidence, see his stint filling in for Aaron Brown last week) and he was reportedly demanding his own show, but at least he’s not evil. Novak, on the other hand, is aggressively so. Keeping him on the payroll is giving CNN all kinds of bad karma.

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