News Roundup for 3/17/09

John McCain uses the interwebs to check his Facetubes

-Headline of the day-
"McCain Refuses To Condemn Ingraham’s Attacks On His Daughter."

Fair warning ahead of time; there's no part of this story that isn't stupid.

Stupidness #1: The schoolyard insult.

Right wing blowhard Laura Ingraham basically calls McCain's daughter Meghan a fattie, because Meghan was mean (read "honest") about Ann Coulter. Meghan responds by telling her critics to "Kiss my fat ass!" (OK, so Meghan's response is one thing that's not stupid. The rest is dumber, I promise)

Stupidness #2: The "Twitterview."

Yes, there is such a thing. It seems ABC's George Stephanopoulos got John McCain on his webputer and twitterpated some tweetily questions at him.

GStephanopoulos: @SenJohnMcCain Lots of twitterers want to know: what do you think of Meghan's feud with Coulter and Ingraham?

SenJohnMcCain: @GStephanopoulos I'm proud of my daughter and she has a right to her opinions.

GStephanopoulos: @SenJohnMcCain Do you agree with them?

SenJohnMcCain: @GStephanopoulos like any family we gree on some things and disagree on others.

GStephanopoulos: @SenJohnMcCain Thanks for your time Senator. You're a good sport I know I'm not getting anymore on Coulter and Ingraham Happy St Pat's again

Stupidness #3: History.

Remember when McCain practically threatened to beat Barack Obama up for that "lipstick on a pig" thing?

Yeah, it's the worst thing in the world to not really call Sarah Palin a pig, but anyone who wants to can come along and make fun of his daughter's weight.

John McCain, father of the year. (Think Progress)


-In related news-
McCain's twitterview has the twitterverse atwitter.

According to the report, "Asked whether he agreed with former US vice president Dick Cheney's claim that Obama was 'putting (the) US at risk of new terror attack,' McCain said it was 'too early to draw that conclusion.'"

So you're too afraid to contradict Ann Coulter and Laura Ingraham on your daughter's weight, but you'll contradict Dick Cheney on his terror alarmism -- although, pretty mildly.

What a twit. (Agence France-Presse)


-Bonus HotD-
"Obama says top o' the mornin' to St. Paddy's."

Oh for fuck's sake... Who wrote this, the leprechaun from Lucky Charms?
(The Hill)


-Not helpful-
While Stephen Colbert wants to put together an angry mob to hunt down AIG execs for taking bonuses after getting bailed out by the taxpayer, an Iowa Republican has a better idea -- AIG execs ought to save us the bother.

"I suggest, you know, obviously, maybe they ought to be removed," said Sen. Charles Grassley. "But I would suggest the first thing that would make me feel a little bit better toward them if they'd follow the Japanese example and come before the American people and take that deep bow and say, I'm sorry, and then either do one of two things: resign or go commit suicide."

"And in the case of the Japanese, they usually commit suicide before they make any apology," he added.

No they don't. Apologizing is like Japan's national pastime.

Anyway, "GO DIE!" struck a lot of people as maybe being just a tiny bit too harsh and psychotic, so Grassley spokesman Casey Mills had to mop up the mess.

"Senator Grassley has said for some time now that generally speaking, executives who make a mess of their companies should apologize, as Japanese executives do," Mills said. "He says the Japanese might even go so far as to commit suicide but he doesn't want U.S. executives to do that."

Thanks for the clarification, because "resign or go commit suicide" kind of seemed to suggest otherwise. (Associated Press)


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