Thursday, March 24, 2011

Darla Moore's brilliant response to Haley's snub

When Gov. Nikki Haley unceremoniously dumped Darla Moore from the USC Board of Trustees and replaced the philanthropic businesswoman with a little-known donor to Haley's gubernatorial campaign, many denounced the governor's actions as a petty move motivated wholly by politics. After all, Moore has given $70 million to USC over the past 15 years, and helped transform USC's business school into a world-renowned institution. Moore's replacement, Thomas Cofield, is a small-time attorney whose appointment one high-profile member of the South Carolina legal community called a "joke."

Moore's rumored support for Democratic gubernatorial candidates only lends credence to the widely-shared opinion that Haley replaced Moore in order to remove an ideological rival from a position of power. Haley said she replaced Moore simply because she wanted a "fresh set of eyes" on the board, but the overtly political move certainly walks and quacks like a duck.

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Will Roger Ailes be indicted this week? Doubt it.


Fox News President Roger Ailes may be indicted as soon as Monday for allegedly telling employees to lie to federal investigators, according to a financial commentator who claims to have inside knowledge of the situation.

On Thursday, the New York Times reported that Ailes in 2006 told publisher Judith Regan, who then worked for Fox's parent company, News Corporation, to lie to investigators about a public official with whom she had had an affair.
Ms. Regan had once been involved in an affair with [Bernard] Kerik, the former New York City police commissioner whose mentor and supporter, former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, was in the nascent stages of a presidential campaign. The News Corporation executive, whom she did not name, wanted to protect Mr. Giuliani and conceal the affair, she said.

Now, court documents filed in a lawsuit make clear whom Ms. Regan was accusing of urging her to lie: Roger E. Ailes, the powerful chairman of Fox News and a longtime friend of Mr. Giuliani. What is more, the documents say that Ms. Regan taped the telephone call from Mr. Ailes in which Mr. Ailes ... "discussed with Regan her responses to questions regarding her personal relationship with Kerik."

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

The Alvin Greene Story: A Post-Mortem of the S.C. Democratic Party

It appears that former U.S. Senate candidate Alvin Greene's 15 minutes of fame are up. After predictably losing big-time to tea party leader Jim DeMint and embarrassing the state Democratic Party enough to force a change in management, the unemployed and criminally-indicted Army dropout will surely, finally recede back into anonymity... Right?

Maybe not. At Greene's "victory" party Tuesday night, the defeated challenger's supporters were outnumbered by members of the media, who did their best to provoke the latest absurd statement from a candidate who has unintentionally inspired hours of late-night monologue material and teevee news kickers. True to self, Greene pranced sheepishly around the reporters before revealing a comic book starring himself as a super-hero.

Yep, you read that right -- from the man who proposed ending the recession by producing action figures of himself, now comes the depiction of an Alvin Greene who can take on the Incredible Hulk, and was only trying to help that USC student write an oncology term paper. Seriously, read it for yourself.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Fox News sued for racial harassment: “This is what happens when you mess with white people’s health care”

An African-American former Fox News employee is suing the company for racial harassment and discrimination, according to court documents filed in New York on Monday. Harmeen Jones, 32, is suing three of his coworkers for making constant racist comments to and about him over the course of Jones' four years at Fox. Jones is also suing four of his supervisors for refusing to stop the conduct, and firing Jones when he complained about the harassment.

According to the lawsuit, Jones was hired in 2005 to monitor television feeds from all over the world, record relevant video and pass the clips on for broadcast. "The room was set up like a theatre, with a wall of screens in the front showing the feeds and several rows of control stations facing it," the lawsuit states.

Jones sat a few feet away from transmission operators Mike Greco, Sean McCool and Damien Rodriguez, and had no choice but to listen to the trio's conversations. "Greco, McCool and Rodriguez continually made racist, sexist and extremely offensive comments throughout the course of every working day," Jones says in the lawsuit. "These comments concerned African-Americans, Arabs, Muslims, Hispanics, women and Jews."

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Attention, Christine O'Donnell: They're not laughing with you

Delaware tea party Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell seemed to be the only person in attendance at Tuesday's debate who didn't know that the audience was laughing at her, not with her, as she went after Democratic opponent Chris Coons on evolution and separation of church and state.

O'Donnell, trying to close a double-digit gap in polls over the next two weeks before the election, was intent on trapping Coons in a "gotcha" moment to show off his supposed lack of constitutional understanding. So intent, it seems, that she ended up displaying her own far greater misunderstanding instead:
Coons said private and parochial schools are free to teach creationism but that "religious doctrine doesn't belong in our public schools." "Where in the Constitution is the separation of church and state?" O'Donnell asked him. When Coons responded that the First Amendment bars Congress from making laws respecting the establishment of religion, O'Donnell asked: "You're telling me that's in the First Amendment?"

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Jimmy McMillan of the Rent Is 2 Damn High Party: Reincarnation of Theodore Roosevelt?

New York gubernatorial candidate Jimmy McMillan burst onto the national political scene this week after clips of his debate appearance Monday night went viral. McMillan is founder and apparent CEO of the "Rent Is 2 Damn High Party," and most of his talking points during the debate seemed focused around the general idea that rent in New York City is, well, too damn high.

The first thing I noticed about McMillan was how ready-made he seems for a Saturday Night Live skit starring Kenan Thompson. The folks at 30 Rock wouldn't even have to write much; Thompson could simply recite a bunch of actual quotes, like Tina Fey did in her brilliant Sarah Palin sketch. The second thing I noticed was McMillan's distinct similarity to former President Theodore Roosevelt. Stay with me here.