Rachel Maddow changes the media (here are a few excerpts, but do read the whole thing!):
She is liberal without apology or embarrassment, bases her authority on a deep comprehension of policy rather than the culture warrior’s claim to authenticity, and does it all with a light, even slightly mocking, touch. [...]
Maddow’s immersion in facts rather than in opinions has helped shape her on-air persona. When Pat Buchanan, who joined Maddow on MSNBC’s election-night panel throughout the presidential primary, claimed that the expansion of the health-care program S-CHIP would give money to already well-off families, Maddow quickly pointed out that 8 million children in the very income group he claimed could afford insurance don’t have it. And in another segment, when conservative MSNBC host Joe Scarborough said John McCain had not backtracked on previous support for immigration reform, Maddow was ready with examples of how McCain had reversed himself on the issue during the primary campaign. [...]
Maddow’s wonkery, however, is leavened by a light, sardonic touch that keeps her commentary from veering into the pedantic. Unlike so many televised liberals, who seem almost physically pained by the combative cable-news format, she obviously enjoys herself. A good example came during an election-night panel discussion of Obama’s victory in the Nebraska and Idaho primaries, which Buchanan tried to delegitimize by saying that Obama could only appeal to liberals. Without missing a beat, Maddow responded, “In what kind of a world do Idaho and Nebraska represent the left lane?” She had the entire panel laughing outright. A chastened Buchanan could only manage a wan joke about Marxists.
She’s been on less than a month, but already she has created a large audience for her show, which airs weeknights at 9pm, opposite Larry King’s juggernaut.
An animated dissection of political events and offbeat news, punctuated by the host’s sardonic humor, “The Rachel Maddow Show” has debuted with a strength that surprised even MSNBC executives. An average of 1.64 million viewers tuned in since the show launched on Sept. 8, more than double the number who watched the same hour in the first eight months of the year.
In her second week on the air, Maddow beat CNN’s “Larry King Live,” a cable news institution — quite a feat for a self-described television novice and former AIDS activist who doesn’t even own a TV.
If you haven’t checked her out yet, here’s a sample from a recent show:
The campaigns, 527s, news channels, volunteers and comedians have been spewing video like an open hydrant lately and I’m going to try to round up the last week’s worth here (wish me luck!).
Obama: McCain’s Lobbyist Campaign, Community Organizing, Education, On Letterman, 1982, What is Change?, On Tax Plans, What Economy Are You Talking About?, McCain’s Fundamentals, Another four?, Equal Pay, Old Boys Network, Hope
Biden: America Needs More
McCain: Bloodthirsty Warmonger, On GOP Diversity, Bush-McCain Republicans, Hot Blooded!, The First Family of War, Going for the Pedophile Vote, Squirming, Protecting Sex Offenders, John McCain’s Lies, Recycled Bush, Lies exposed, Women’s Issues, Out of Touch, McCain’s Honor, On Palin’s Experience, Subtle Racism, Rove: McCain has gone too far, Rape Kits, Medical Records, Romney on McCain, Who’s better off?, Fall From Grace, McCain is a Republican, Carly Fiorina, Buh-Bye, Carly!, Stay the Course!, Invented the Blackberry, Lying Their Way to the White House, ABC: McCain Flip-Flops, WHAT? Spain is in Europe?!?
Palin: Forced Gestation, Pentacostal, Wolf Hunting, Sound Familiar?, Bridge to Nowhere, Palin is a Liar, Book Banning, Charging Rape Victims, Hardball: Who is She?, The Bush Doctrine, Drags Out an Old Canard, Pork is Yummy!, On Special Needs, Pray For Us, Sarah!, The Todd, Her First Ad
Rachel: Lipstick, The Fundamentals Are Strong, Commissions
Palin spoofs: Palin in Four Minutes, Vlog, Palin is a Liar, Gina Gershon, The famous SNL skit
Stewart: McCain 2008 = Bush 2000, John McCain, Reformed Maverick, McCain’s Acceptance Speech, Palin is the Bush Doctrine, McCain’s Change?, Generic Off
Colbert: Repo Man, How Dare You?, McCain Attacks Obama
Bill Maher: New Rules (Republican Convention), New Rules (Cities vs. Small Towns), With Paul Begala
Craig Ferguson: Cut to the Chase
The Young Turk: It’s Not Just George Bush
9:00pm — It’s the first night of the new Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC!*
*And don’t let them de-dyke you, Rachel! We love you just the way you are — always the smartest one in the room and dancing circles around Pat Buchanan! 
“That’s post-rational!”
– Rachel Maddow, at the Democratic Convention on 8/25/2008, talking about how Hillary supporters don’t support Obama because they’re Hillary supporters, even though Hillary wants them to support Obama.
Link and video as soon as they’re available…
No sooner did I go offline on Tuesday to deal with server issues, and there was big, long-awaited, breaking news: Rachel Maddow is getting her own show on MSNBC! She’ll follow Keith Olbermann, who’s on at 8pm — instead of Dan Abrams, we’ll get an hour of Rachel at 9pm every weeknight — starting on September 8th! Yippie!
- If you are trying to follow all the news from Sunday’s tragic church shooting in Knoxville, Michael Silence has all the details. Just scroll down.
- When it comes to supporting the troops…
- Amazing auditory illusion
- Quite a fiscal legacy
- McCain attack ad is “literally not true”
- How to survive a plane crash
- Don’t talk to the cops!
- Not only is John McCain a spoiled whiner, but he’s also wrong about the press (and — oh, dear! — a liar!)
- Your next car?
- Speaking of cars, VW plant could spur high-speed rail link!
- Lego album covers
- Obama’s VEEP announcement any moment now?
Here are a various few links for a Friday afternoon…
- 10 Most Magnificent Trees in the World
- 30 Creepiest Trees on Earth
- A brilliant and hilarious parody from Jimmy Kimmel.
- If you’ve been reading here for long, you know I loves me some Rachel Maddow — she’s smart, very quick, witty, and I love the way she can make Pat Buchanan turn a helpless shade of purple when they appear together as talking heads. I’d love to see her get a show on the teevee. Maybe the time is near? She is at the top of the list.
Let’s not even get started on the misogyny of McCain’s position — that insurance companies might be happy to pick up the tab for an old man’s attempt to get an erection, but if that same old man manages to find a receptive fertile woman, she’s on her own when it comes to fending off his sperm — but instead let’s watch while he tries to respond to criticism from his his own campaign surrogate and possible running mate, Carly Fiorina and, as Rachel Maddow puts it, tries to “will himself out of his own body”:
I wonder how often McCain votes in the Senate without thinking much about the issue he voted on? And does Fiorina think that she’s going to impress voters, or McCain, by misrepresenting his positions? Is he really interested in putting a liar (or idiot?) on the ticket? And does McCain really disagree with Gramm? Not likely.
I’ve got some links lying around in my rss reader. Some of them are a little dated (going back a week or so), but they’re all worth sharing.
- Looking for a way to beat higher grocery prices? Ever considered Community-Supported Agriculture? There are quite a few CSA Farms in Tennessee. Surely, we’ve all had enough of the failed global food system.
- Here’s a great interview with Rachel Maddow, #50 on the Telegraph’s 50 most influential US political pundits list (and, of course, my favorite pundit).
- And once again — and I can’t believe there is anyone left who is still willing to peddle this crap (but unfortunately, the group includes the idiots and misogynists currently running the show in DC) — the evidence continues to show that abstinence-only education DOESN’T WORK:
Programs teaching U.S. schoolchildren to abstain from sex have not cut teen pregnancies or sexually transmitted diseases or delayed the age at which sex begins. [...] Vast sums of federal monies continue to be directed toward these programs. And, in fact, there is evidence to suggest that some of these programs are even harmful and have negative consequences by not providing adequate information for those teens who do become sexually active.
I’ve gushed before about Rachel Maddow’s coolness, so it comes as no surprise to see her fan club numbers exploding after her brilliantly smooth smack down of Joe Scarborough this past week. You can watch the video or read the transcript over on Crooks and Liars, or just watch below:
Rachel Maddow tried to point out the fallacies in Joe Scarborough’s glowing, fact-free praise of John McCain on MSNBC’s Race For The White House.
The Scar continues to spew this ridiculous media narrative that John McCain is a “maverick,” completely disregarding the myriad of flip flops the aging Arizona senator has made over the past year. Rachel tries to put him in his place, reminding him that McCain has been pandering to the right on all the major issues including permanent tax cuts, immigration and torture, but all Scarborough does is tell her that she doesn’t understand the Republican party. True dat, since she is the lone voice of reason and we all know that facts have a liberal bias. Scarborough loves to steamroll Mika Brzezkinski on his morning show, but as you’ll see from this video, his bullying style gets him nowhere with Maddow.
