While the Dem blogs are intent on dismissing the Tea Party/Health Care protests as astro-turfing, I think the more interesting question is why the Media thinks these protests matter as opposed to say, the hundreds of thousands who protested the Iraq War? Indeed, as late as September 2007, the Washington Post was referring to war protesters as "the vocal minority."

Of course by 2007, opponents of the war were clearly the majority in the country. The 2006 election was proof of that. So how come a few dozen protesters (astro-turf or not) at selected town halls held by Congresspersons around the country is supposed to mean anything at all?

Proving yet again that Media's problem is not mainly bias, but rather the problem is its incompetence.

Speaking for me only

Via Peter Daou and Media Matters, the Washington Post brings it:

Lighten up! Just good clean fun.

Speaking for me only

Comments closed.

The DEA searched the Las Vegas medical office and home of Michael Jackson physician Dr. Conrad Murray today.

"We are looking for documents" related to the death of Michael Jackson, said Michael Flanagan, assistant special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration office in Las Vegas.

Last week they searched his office and storage locker in Houston: [More...]

The Bachelorette Finale starts here in 15 minutes. You can read my predictions and thoughts on the season over at PopLeft.

I've also got Weeds and Nurse Jackie set to record. I won't be checking in here until after the Bachelorette is over so I don't see a spoiler from the East Coast by mistake.

Thanks to everyone for putting up with my Monday night TV threads, this is probably the final one.

So what are you watching (or not) tonight and what did I miss by spending the day sitting in tiny visiting cubicles at the jail today? This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Happy birthday to Mick Jagger, who turns 66 tommorrow, July 26. "What a drag is it getting old."

He sure doesn't look 66 to me. [More...]

I turned on 20/20 which is doing a special on the truth about oil and they started with quips of Sarah Palin and "drill baby drill." But it's a serious documentary narrated by Charles Gibson.

I've been gone all day and am just catching up. Anything good happen?

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

More . . .

Hilarious:

Cambridge Police Sergeant James M. Crowley is considering a defamation lawsuit, according to his lawyer.

Who would he sue exactly? Gates presumably. I wonder which statement was "defamatory" in the legal sense. Some thoughts from Turley:

A defamation lawsuit would raise some novel issues. There is no question that the suggestion that Crowley acted with racial prejudice is injurious to his professional standing, particularly given his status as an expert on combating profiling. Impugning the professional integrity of another is a per se category of defamation for slander.

This is bad legal analysis in my view. The opinion protection to defamation is what is in play here. BTW, I hope this ends the notion expressed by some commenters here that Crowley is not doing anything to forward the story. Just heard Crowley is going to have a press conference. Incredible. Great visual at the press conference - a bunch of white men defending Crowley. But Crowley has been advised not to speak. A day late obviously. This is hilarious. Now ripping Obama. Hilarious. That'll help race relations in Cambridge. My gawd, what a clown show. Demanding an apology from Obama. WHITE COPS of the world UNITE! they object to the charges being dropped! Excellent! Gates fires back:

I commented in real time that I thought President Obama made a mistake in his press conference the other night in taking on Gates-Gate. His objective for that press conference was to drive the narrative on health care reform. He stepped on his own message. President Obama acted stupidly there imo. Of course, being a good friend of Gates may have influenced his actions. But that does not make it not stupid.

President Obama of course is not stupid. In fact, he appears to be quite a brilliant man. But even brilliant people do stupid things sometimes. (Even me . . .) But because discussing the Gates matter may have been stupid (we all have opinions, maybe it was brilliant. Who knows?), that does not mean he was wrong in characterizing the behavior of Officer Crowley and the Cambridge Police Department as stupid. In my view, he is right on that. And Officer Crowley continues to act stupidly. As does the brilliant Media critic Bob Somerby. Somerby writes:

Paul Krugman writes:

The talking heads on cable TV panned President Obama’s Wednesday press conference. You see, he didn’t offer a lot of folksy anecdotes. Shame on them. The health care system is in crisis. The fate of America’s middle class hangs in the balance. And there on our TVs was a president with an impressive command of the issues, who truly understands the stakes.

But this is not new. When has the Media ever known anything about any issues? When has there ever been actual substantive discussion of issues in the Media? Never in my adult life. Heck, they do not even know much about politics really.

This is an old theme with me. The problem with the Media is not its bias. We know where they stand - Fox with the GOP. Parts of MSNBC with the Dems. The rest with the Establishment and the status quo. The problem is they have no idea what they are talking about for the most part. In short, the Media is incompetent. At one time, this was a serious, almost insurmountable, problem. But the Media is not very influential anymore. So President Obama should be able to get some things done.

More . . .

Looks like Jillian Harris, the Bachelorette, is either going to end up alone or with someone who makes it the most dramatic finale ever in Bachelorette history.(Like they've never said that before.)

Love is a rose but you better not pick it,
Only grows when it's on the vine...

Here's Linda Ronstadt's 1977 version.

Ok, I know you don't care about the Bachelorette, so this is an open thread, all topics welcome.

President Obama wanted his press conference on health care tonight at 9pm ET. NBC said no, it's spent weeks getting an interview with singer Susan Boyle which is airing tonight on America's Got Talent. The result: Susan Boyle trumps Obama. Obama moved the time of his conference to 8pm ET.

But, Fox (not the cable news network, the other one) will skip Obama's news conference as the new time conflicts with "So You Think You can Dance."

Here's Susan Boyle on the Today Show this morning. Now let's forget about her and get back to health care.