Might Stuart have a point?

Doesn't look like comedian turned senator Al Franken is planning a return to NBC's "Saturday Night Live" anytime soon.

In his opening remarks about the proposed Comcast-NBC deal at a hearing held by the Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights, Franken (D-Minn.) ripped into the deal and the risks it could present to not only consumers but media competition as well.

Franken, who was a regular on NBC's "Saturday Night Live" for years and also had a short-lived sitcom on the network called "Lateline" in the late 1990s, dismissed the claims made by Comcast and NBC Universal that the partnering of the nation's largest broadband and cable provider with the entertainment giant would not harm competitors or the public.

"You’ll have to excuse me if I don’t trust these promises, and that is from experience in this business," Franken snapped.

Franken noted that similar promises were made by NBC when it was supporting the gutting of federal regulations that limited the amount of programming a broadcast network could own. Known as the financial interest and syndication rules, the Federal Communications Commission removed them over a decade ago after years of debate between producers and networks. Getting rid of the so-called fin-syn rules cleared the way for the mergers of Walt Disney and ABC as well as Viacom and CBS.

Here’s what really interests us, though, and has us pulling up a chair to see what goes down. We wonder what public proclamations will be coming out of the White House that is dominated by net-neutral and Fairness Doctrine types given the fact that Jeffrey Immelt, who is the CEO of General Electric which owns NBC, is very chummy with the White House and, in fact, sits on the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board.

But back to the matter at hand. Franken and others are worried that smaller production companies are getting squeezed by media conglomerates who demand part ownership of the intellectual property generated by the production companies in order to get air time. According to linked article, these indies either got swallowed up or went out of business when the aforementioned mergers went down.

Here’s our problem with that, however. Forget over-the-air, traditional network television and hit the “guide” button on your remote. Does that look like a dearth of a) outlets available to the consumer and b) material that is being generated by production companies? Save sports programming, we don’t even watch network television anymore – haven’t in years - as we find no shortage of excellent programming on Discovery, History Channel, PBS, Military Channel, NFL Network, etc.

We can sympathise with Senator Franken who probably knows a few people in the biz who’ve been downsized because of these mergers but we’re really having a tough time grasping how that has choked-out competition when we ponder the several hundred cable channels at our disposal and the explosion in numbers of which seemed to coincide with those mergers of 10-15 years ago.

A nice thought, but...

Republican politicians and conservative activists are launching a ballot campaign to suspend California's landmark global-warming law, in what they hope will serve as a showcase for a national backlash against climate regulations.

Supporters say they have "solid commitments" of nearly $600,000 to pay signature gatherers for a November initiative aimed at delaying curbs on the greenhouse gas emissions of power plants and factories until the state's unemployment rate drops.

Mary D. Nichols, chairwoman of the state's Air Resources Board, which is implementing the law, known as AB 32, called the initiative "a campaign that has to be taken seriously."

"It would put all our efforts at energy efficiency and renewable energy in the deep freezer for a long time," she said.

The measure would halt proposed regulations until the state's jobless rate dips to 5.5% or below for a year. That's a level that California has not seen since 2007. California has one of the nation's highest unemployment rates: 12.4%.

Uhhhh… we don’t get it. Why not just kill the thing altogether? Why set some arbitrary unemployment trigger at which it would just kick back in only to force unemployment upwards again?

We understand the concept of incrementalism but this is not that, it’s ping-pong.

If uncertainty is a jobs-killer, doesn’t predicting next month’s unemployment figures have the same effect?

The spirit of ol’ Blue Eyes does not take kindly to you butchering his tunes

Apparently, people are being killed over in the Phillipines over karoke renditions of Frank Sinatra’s “My Way”. Authorities are attempting to figure out why the song has caused outbreaks of violence over the years which includes 6 murders in the past decade in the karoke subcategory of the “My Way Killings”.

As way of an explanation for this, it is reasoned that with karaoke being taken very seriously in that western Pacific nation, everyone thinks they can nail “My Way” much to the chagrin of the karoke bar patrons. And the New York Times offers up this possible rationale:

The murders have spawned urban legends about the song and left Filipinos grasping for answers. Are the killings the natural by-product of the country's culture of violence, drinking and machismo? Or is there something inherently sinister in the song?

Given that collective national skill set it's a wonder that karoke hasn't taken hold more in Australia, Mexico, the Ukraine, El Salvador, South Africa, Brazil and to hear the Harvard English Department tell it, right here in America.

Perhaps our favorite Super Bowl ad...

... for reasons that should be entirely apparent.



This the ad the Cato Institute would've made had they a couple million dollars to throw around.

An eco-tyrants wet dream.

Think that this Green Police is merely a figment of some ad wiz’s imagination? Think again. From Audi’s very own Green Police website:

Who are the Green Police?

Green Police: Who are they? Here is a quick primer.

Every day consumers around the globe are faced with a myriad of decisions in their quest to become more environmentally responsible citizens. Paper or plastic? Bottled water or tap water? Gas or electric? Compost Bucket or Recycling Bin? So many questions; yet so many conflicting answers. It can be overwhelming.
Now consumers have help, from the Green Police.

As part of the lead up to their third consecutive Super Bowl ad, Audi has created a fictional Green Police unit that are caricatures of today’s “green movement”. The Green Police are a humorous group of individuals that have joined forces in an effort to collectively help guide consumers to make the right decision when it comes to the environment. They’re not here to judge, merely to guide these decisions.

Coincidentally, there are numerous real Green Police units globally that are furthering green practices and environmental issues. For example, Israel's main arm of the Ministry of Environmental Protection in the area of enforcement and deterrence is called; you guess it, the Green Police. New York has officers within the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation that are fondly called the "Green Police". The Green Police is also the popular name for Vietnam’s Environmental Police Department and the UK has a group who dresses in green as part of the Environment Agency’s squad to monitor excessive CO2 emissions.

See, kids. The Green Police is fun! And besides, having to make all those choices is, like, hard, so the Green Police is there to gently nudge you in the right direction. No need to actually have to think for yourself, let the Green Police do it for you.

All in all, we got a kick out of the commercial because despite the over-the-top goofiness of it, it was a panning of Big Green and it’s hand-in-glove partnership with the government, though, at least one of our guests yesterday who will go unnamed had some choice invectives for the whole spectacle. As we made reference above, the Cato Institute could not have done a better job.

Kudos, Audi. Not that we would now ever purchase one of your smug-mobiles after that, though.

H/T: MM

A bad idea that just can't be killed?

A conservative pundit of some note, once remarked something along the lines that the fact you can’t get a decent cigar in Havana or quality take-out in Beijing tells you all you need to know about collectivism and its progeny socialism and communism.

And with our statist stateside, the condescension that is employed when rationalizing undead legislation ("there, there, little people - we’ve probably just been talking a little too fast for you all") is very revealing when it comes to healthcare reform.

B-Daddy has more here on the zombified legislation and what its current state and the proposed way ahead says about its biggest champion.

Photo images of the day

Who says it doesn’t rain in Southern California? We got slammed here in San Diego on Saturday morning and the urge to hit some puddles around the neighborhood in our hoopdie proved irresistable.

The storm surge produced some localized flooding in the ‘hood.

Here’s what the flood control channel at the bottom of our hill that later on becomes Chollas creek looks like normally.



And here’s what it looked like Saturday around 10:30 A.M.








Same channel on the other side of the street.

The scene there on Saturday.






Up until a few years ago, the record for most rainfall in a 24 hr. period in the continental United States was held by the city of Pasadena north of us and just outside of downtown Los Angeles and which is tucked up against the San Gabriel Mountains which wrung 24” worth of precipitation out of a tropical storm.* Point being, certain weather conditions combined with the topography of Los Angeles can create some very un-stereotypical weather on occaison.

*Going on memory from Marc Reisner’s excellent Cadillac Desert which we cannot locate at the moment. Hmmm… who did we lend it to?

Super Bowl Sunday open thread (UPDATED)

We like the Saints getting 5 points and we love the the under at 56.5 points for a game that is not going to be the shootout everyone thinks.

And read our annual plea for moving this game from Sunday to Saturday night. With non-sensical talk over making tomorrow a national holiday because of the Great American hangover, moving the big game to Saturday evening makes more and more sense.

Super Saturday: A Salute to Excess

See. We've even got a slogan that loses none of the alliterative corporate punch.


(UPDATE #1): And the big winner from today’s Super Bowl ad lineup? Not even close: Focus on the Family’s Tim and Mama Tebow’s ad. Second ad out of the blocks once the game started and this is what all the controversy was about.



Dear Planned Parenthood and all the rest that got righteously exercised over an expression of love and choice: how does it feel to get played? How does it feel now that everyone has seen the commerical to look like the biggest horses’ asses on the face of the planet?

All that bitching and whining, all that kvetching about “hate masquerading as love” and that is what you were battling against? All the media savvy and money that is at the disposal of the ubiquitious womens’ groups that were opposed to this ad and they wind up at the end of the day getting punked by a bunch of evangelical hay seeds from out in Colorado somewhere.

Freaking priceless.

Covering both our wagers and seeing this ad...? Not a bad day. Not a bad day, at all.

P.S. Fun Google search engine factoid of the day: The ad itself was 14th in line for a Google search for "Focus on the Family Superbowl Ad".

What did you do with your majorities?

So, what did all that compassionate conservatism get us? The chart below is the tale of the tape.



Crikey! Those look like some actual surpluses in that (far-) righthand column.

This is what happens when you restrict budgetary growth to merely 4%/year vs. blowing out the stops as we did in the Oh-Nos.

A near decade’s worth of folly spent in the pursuit of conservative ends through statist means.

H/T: KT

Radio KBwD is on the air: Special Edition

O.K., we couldn’t resist one more song from The Who prior to their performance at halftime of the Super Bowl tomorrow and not only because National Review rated it as the top conservative rock tune of all-time.

(Quick note: Disagree with that assessment. The song’s “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss” meme’ possesses more of a world-weary political cynicism than any express conservative message. We’ve got Rush’s anti-nanny state “Red Barchetta” (Honorable mention in this category to Sammy Hagar’s “I Can’t Drive 55”), David Bowie’s “Heroes” about two star-crossed lovers separated by the Berlin Wall, the Kink’s anti-statist and pro-liberty, “20th Century Man” and, of course, The Beatles’ “Taxman” with Honorable mention in this category going to “Revolution” all ranked well ahead of this song.)

Never the less, it's a great song.

Ladies and Gentlemen: from the concert film The Kids Are Alright it’s The Who performing “Won’t Get Fooled Again”.



It's amazing no one hurt themselves playing with these guys.

A time-honored BwD tradition just got a little more interesting (UPDATED)

We love rating the Super Bowl ads that run during the big game, though the rating of "totally retarded" might have to be junked for the time being.



The people at Focus on the Family have probably got their money’s worth already for their Tim Tebow/pro-life ad that will air during the Super Bowl as we’ve never seen such reaction to an ad that nobody’s even seen.

Reaction that has spurred a response to this ad which no one has seen by Planned Parenthood and which can be seen below.



Sean James and Al Joyner? The biggest ad in the history of Planned Parenthood and that’s the best they can come up with? We’re avid followers of both the college and pro game and we know not this Sean James dude and our recollection of Al Joyner is a hazy Olympian one from a quarter century ago at that.

Maybe even A and B-listers know Planned Parenthood to be the abortion mill that it is and from which, wish to keep a wide berth.

No matter. We understand the argument of critics of the Tebow ad: on a day that is otherwise fully committed to crass bikini-clad commercialism and good ol’-fashioned wife-beating who wants to be lectured about family values or anything resembling it?



(UPDATE #1): The ad itself is becoming almost immaterial as the reaction to the ad becomes more and more the story. The ubiquitous “coalition of women’s groups” has been calling for CBS to pull the ad stating that the message of the ad they have not yet seen is “hate masquerading as love”.

Ah, yes. As aliens visiting from another planet and witnessing our political discourse will soon find out, tolerance is a one-way street.

H/T: W.C. Varones

Radio KBwD is on the air

Our latest and possibly last installment of Radio KBwD features of The Who, the band that will be playing at halftime of the Super Bowl on Sunday. It’s a pretty recent clip, so it gives us a hint at the look, sound and feel of the band we will all be watching. If the following is any indication, we’re in for a good show.

Ladies and Gentlemen: live from the Royal Albert Hall, it’s The Who performing “The Real Me”.