These people want a reality TV show, give them one. It’s called “Dealing With the Federal Prosecution System of the District of Columbia.”
– Ed Rollins, Republican political operative/advisor
Monthly Archives: November 2009
Reality TV and reality (updated x2)
It seems that various incidents involving reality TV have recently been causing news. On the first was the entire balloon boy incident, when an aspiring reality TV “actor” sought publicity by faking a purported accidental balloon flight by his son. This triggered a large emergency rescue effort, putting rescuers of a non-existent threatened child in danger and costing money.
Now, an aspiring reality TV show couple successfully crashed a White House official state dinner. The couple shook President Obama’s hand while the President stood immediately next to the Prime Minister of India. Pictures of the couple at the event are shown on the wife’s Facebook page. Needless to say, this was a huge failure by the Secret Service, but it is also an outrage that, apparently for the purpose of entertainment, the couple in question intentionally breached Presidential security.
It is important, in this case, that the couple be prosecuted fully. Further, anyone who knowingly aided the breach should also be charged if possible. Reality TV “personalities” cannot be above the law. Also, it appears that Bravo (aka NBC) may also have been involved.
Mr. and Mrs. Salahi, who are known in the area to have a taste for polo and fine wine, are aspiring reality-show celebrities. For months, the couple have been trailed by camera crews with the cable channel Bravo, as it prepared for a new show, “The Real Housewives of D.C.”
Seemingly distancing itself from the Salahis’ actions, Bravo said Friday that it would not comment about “ongoing investigations.” Earlier, the channel said that while its cameras were filming the Salahis before the dinner, producers were told by the couple that they had been invited to it.
Update: More here, from the New York Times’ television critic:
Bravo has not yet said it would drop the dashing blond Mrs. Salahi; Larry King has already booked her for his show. The Washington social climbers had a plan, even if it was lunatic and dangerous. So did the father who pretended that his son was trapped in a runaway balloon, and in much the same reality-show fevered way, so did Jon and Kate Gosselin when they ripped their marriage apart on camera.
Richard and Mayumi Heene, the parents of Falcon, the so-called Balloon Boy, were not as lucky as the Salahis. They briefly held cable news in their thrall last month, but after the local Colorado sheriff concluded that the 50-mile balloon chase was a fake, Mr. Heene pleaded guilty to a felony charge of falsely influencing the authorities and faces jail time. But even that may turn out to be worth it to the Heenes, amateur storm chasers who appeared twice on ABC’s reality show “Wife Swap.”
Update 2: Now they have cancelled their Larry King appearance and are taking bids for their first TV interview. Shame on whoever pays them a dime.
The real meaning of Thanksgiving, part deux
The real meaning of Thanksgiving
(h/t Paul Krugman)
One more turkey pardon video
This was produced and released by the White House. For real.
Arrington: give thanks for Steve Jobs
Michael Arrington has a great essay up highlighting the enormous impact that Steve Jobs has had on multiple industries since his return to Apple in 1997.
Fortune recently named Steve Jobs the CEO of the Decade, and with good reason. Not only has Apple performed financially – it’s worth about as much as Google, and has a larger market cap than AT&T, HP, Intel, Dell and countless other huge tech companies.
But forget all that. What would our world look like without him? We’d likely still be in mobile phone hell. Chances are we still wouldn’t have a decent browsing experience on the phone, and we certainly wouldn’t be enjoying third party apps like Pandora or Skype on whatever clunker the carriers handed us. Even if you use an Android, Palm Pre or newer Blackberry today, you must thank Apple for pushing open the doors to mobile freedom.
Palin’s turkey pardon
Following the turkey pardon, Palin gave this interview with some very unfortunate background slaughter.
Alternate view:
Thanksgiving food: State by State
The New York Times has a fascinating info animation (and a related story) that shows the variations in food preferences at Thanksgiving around the county. I have recently thought that America was getting more and more homogenized in our food preferences, but perhaps this is not the case.
From the article:
The fact that cooks in the Southeast rarely look up crust recipes could mean that they are not interested in pies or that they bake so many that no one needs to be told how to do it. And what of all the searches for “cheese ball” in the Midwest? Do people in Indiana just forget how to make it each year, or are cheese balls winning new converts?
We may never know why cooks in North Carolina show more interest in sweet potatoes, their most-queried side dish, than people in any other state. Or why a broccoli casserole belt extends through Appalachia and ends in Florida.
Lady GaGa: 2005
Four years ago, this was a performance by Stefani Germanotta.
She is now known as Lady GaGa. She clearly had talent even then. What a voice. There are a lot of critics of this woman, but this proves them wrong.
And here is her current incarnation. I think she could well be a latter day Madonna.
Questions for Bernanke
The hearing focused on the proposed renomination of Ben Bernanke as Federal Reserve Chairman will be held on December 3, 2009. I am surprised that President Obama still supports this guy.
The Cunning Realist, thoughtful as always, has prepared a list of questions that the legislators owe it to their constituents to ask Bernanke. Read the whole list.
Here is a sample.
Derivatives such as credit-default swaps played an important role in the financial crisis, and they are central to the financial reforms currently being contemplated. During the Senate Banking Committee’s hearing in November 2005 to confirm you as Alan Greenspan’s successor, you had the following exchange with Senator Paul Sarbanes [source]:
SARBANES: Warren Buffett has warned us that derivatives are time bombs, both for the parties that deal in them and the economic system. The Financial Times has said so far, there has been no explosion, but the risks of this fast growing market remain real. How do you respond to these concerns?
BERNANKE: I am more sanguine about derivatives than the position you have just suggested. I think, generally speaking, they are very valuable. They provide methods by which risks can be shared, sliced, and diced, and given to those most willing to bear them. They add, I believe, to the flexibility of the financial system in many different ways. With respect to their safety, derivatives, for the most part, are traded among very sophisticated financial institutions and individuals who have considerable incentive to understand them and to use them properly. The Federal Reserve’s responsibility is to make sure that the institutions it regulates have good systems and good procedures for ensuring that their derivatives portfolios are well managed and do not create excessive risk in their institutions.
How did you get it so wrong?
Apple joins the AT&T/Verizon advertising battle
Apple, as usual, prepares their own ads in response to fight going on between Verizon and AT&T over coverage. Apple, being the smartest of three, responding with a strength of the Apple/AT&T pairing: you can be on a voice call and access data at the same time on an iPhone (with AT&T). Apple knows how to play to its strength. Verizon’s CDMA technology does now allow such a functionality.
Apple iPhone Ad – Did You See My Email? from Arik Hesseldahl on Vimeo.
Apple iPhone Ad – What Time’s The Movie? from Arik Hesseldahl on Vimeo.
AT&T may have its congestion issues, but the GSM-based technology is what runs the world and AT&T is offering up a dead (or near-dead) technology as an alternative.
By the way, given the Verizon commercial showing the iPhone on the island of misfit toys, what do you think the odds are at Apple is anxious to get into bed with Verizon?
Remember 46 years ago today
I vividly remember being sent home from school when this happened, even though I was only nine years old at the time. It was clear the teachers were very, very upset.
Beck: I have a plan
Glenn Beck has announced that he has a “plan.” Or maybe that should be “The Plan.” Basically, he says that his “plan” involves a series of “conventions” (so far only one has been announced at a special patriot price of $25 to $85 per head) giving you a chance to meet with him all day to be educated. Then later on August 28, 2010, the full story will be revealed by Beck at the “feet of Abraham Lincoln.” Apparently Lincoln didn’t see him coming.
Given his claims that Obama is a socialist, it is of interest that Beck was quoted today as saying:
We need to think like China and have a 100 year plan for America!
At that same rally, a Beck fan snapped this picture of the crowd. Note carefully how Glenn Beck appeals to all ages and races.
By the way, August 28 is the anniversary Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech. As between the Beck event and MLK’s speech, which do you believe will continue to be regarded as a high point of American oratory.
About that bow
According to a recent poll, American’s overwhelmingly (67%) believe that the Obama’s deep bow to the Japanese emperor last week was appropriate, despite the sniping from the right. More interesting than the result, which seems perfectly reasonable to me, is the fact that the poll was conducted by Fox News.