David Letterman

A regular reader of Skip’s articles, Bill Hallbert, commented that the use of the term ‘Lame Stream Media’ is too polite… that ‘Pravda West’ would be more appropriate. A good point, Bill… one that, along with some events the last couple of days, has inspired me to write this article while sitting in for Skip.

It was my misfortune to catch Bill Maher in conversation with Letterman last night. Naturally, it descended to the depths of old, worn-out attacks on anything right-of-center in a feeble attempt at humor. Donald Trump’s hair, Sarah Palin’s mind, George W. Bush’s presidency and the Tea Party were all precursors to the stage-prompted bouts of applause and laughter.

Letterman was in his element… he could let his guest gush with spiel that reflected his own views and not even have to think about asking any questions… probably a good thing, given the question put to Cote de Pablo (Ziva David) later in the show… “Is there a real NCIS?” Yes, Dave, there’s a real FBI too. And a real US government… or what’s left of it!

After mocking The Donald and Sarah Palin’s brief tenure in a state where “no one lives” (I’m sure that endeared them to the folks in Alaska!), blaming Bush (what’s new?) for the debt crisis (while conveniently omitting the fact that Obama is racking up more debt than all of his 43 predecessors combined), they turned their attention to the Tea Party.

It may have been my imagination, but I got the feeling that a large portion of the audience were not so keen to commit to the prompts for applause and laughter… to the point where discernible groans and grunts of disapproval could be heard. Maher said that he would refrain from using the word ‘Teabagger’ if the Tea Party stopped calling it ‘Obamacare’. Why, Bill? Wasn’t it Obama that pushed so hard to get it passed, to the detriment of all else? You wouldn’t be distancing yourself from it, knowing that it, along with the federal debt, will finish both Obama and the Democrats in 2012? If you were really smart, you’d put the blame for the health care disaster at the feet of Bush, just as you did with federal debt… call it ‘Bushcare’!

One thing that Maher said resonated with me, amongst all the stereotypical trash that he regurgitated. It was something about the Tea Party actually doing something, and the fact that we spend our time on internet forums complaining about deficit levels. Could that partly be because the alphabet networks are vehicles for the likes of Maher and Letterman? “Corporate America’s useful idiots”? I think I’d rather be a useful idiot than a useless know-it-all.

Tomorrow, I’ll be looking at some other aspects of the left’s control of the media.

(Due to IT problems, Editor Dee is in for Skip today)

I wonder to what extent Sarah Palin is being primed (and by whom) to be a serious contender for the 2012 GOP nomination. She is definitely a “candidate” at this early stage and is looking towards a run in 2012. Whether she turns into a serious candidate remains to be seen. She both has a real base of support and a lot of serious negatives. If Obama is still popular in 2012 and looks unbeatable, I also wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of other Republicans sit back and allow her to be a sacrificial lamb.

The controversy over the poor taste of a few of David Letterman's recent jokes continues to receive attention in the media and blogosphere, but the actual jokes have become overshadowed by the manner in which Sarah Palin has decided to sacrifice the good of her children for political gain, along with the mob mentality expressed by some on the right wing.

In the most benign reaction from the right, ditto heads repeat endlessly how Letterman’s jokes were in poor taste. True, but this is hardly worth spending any more time on. Everyone agrees that the jokes were in poor taste. Even Letterman agrees that he should not have told the ones about Bristol Palin (but he sticks by the reference to Sarah Palin as looking like a slutty flight attendant).

It seems the flare-up over David Letterman's lame effort to make the Palin family the butt of sleazy humor isn;t going away.

I think other commenters have pretty much covered the waterfront on this. In regards to Willow Palin, I like the idea of sending Todd on the show. Sadly, the aging Letterman seems to be slowly going Don Imus before our eyes. 

But there are a couple of points here.

First, and this may bother the chattering class Republicans, it's clear this all got going because Sarah Palin is now the nation's "conservative celebrity." Like I said, I don't think Mitt Romney gets hounded for autographs at the ballpark. 

So don;t think this whole thing wasn;t planned by Letterman.  What better way to promote his show now that Conan O'Brien is the new alternative than to manufacture a scandal. And you need to pick on someone "bigger" than you to draw enough attention to make it matter. Voila! press coverage!

Of course, since I think thas shows Palin is "bigger" than Letterman that means of course she would be dimininishing herself by appearing on his show.  She's be better off dealing with the likes of Jon Stewart, who has a younger and more engaged audience anyway.

Now to the other people dissed by Dave. Flight Attendants.

Dave seems to have his mind stuck in some cheezy Rat Pack movie from the late 1960's where some femme fatale in an airline uniform was making moves on Dean Martin. Far from being relevant today, it makes Letterman out like Austin Powers.

The real flight attendants are well-trained professionals.  And hmm, they deal occassionally with rather tough problems. Sure, Sully landed the plane. The flight attendants got it evacuated.

And guess what. My Governor, Jodi Rell, is a former flight attendant.

The eggheads in the CT Democratic party used to snicker about the state being run by a clueless stewardess.  Used to. This pretty much stopped after she crushed their guy John DeStefano like an SUV crushes a latte cup.

Dave abandoned CT awhile back so he could enjoy the joys of the Empire State.  You could come back Dave. The New Canaan cops need to write more speeding tickets. Maybe you could appeal to the Governor for leniency. Or maybe not.

 He might also want to use private jets, too. Who knows what a fight attendant might do by "accident".