Looks like the long knives are coming out over at NBC News’ cable outlet MSNBC.

After yesterday’s hilarious and painful performance by their newest star, Al Sharpton, blogs and media observers were quick to write headlines describing the incident as a “TelePrompter Mishap”.  Huffington Post sexy headline: “Al Sharpton’s Teleprompter Flub” implied that MSNBC’s host couldn’t read or his crew screwed up.  Politico chimed in with “Al Sharpton’s Teleprompter Trouble” again suggesting that it was probably an equipment malfunction.

MediaBistro called it a “Ridiculous Flub on MSNBC” and wrote “Sharpton began an editorial on the Wisconsin recall elections, but partway through his TelePrompTer failed, and after flubbing a couple of lines he moved on.”

But this morning, MediaBistro added an update to their post which clears up all of the assumptions journalists made about the origins of the Sharpton on-air mishap and shows that Sharpton has some enemies over on the set of his show:

(more…)

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

September 23, 2010

Press Conference by President Obama

8:03 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Good evening.  I have several announcements.

Today, federal marshals delivered George W. Bush to The Hague for his war crimes trial next month. Attorney General Holder will cooperate fully with the tribunal.  My message to the world: even American presidents are not above international law.

Next, I will sign the “Voting Booth Transparency Act” when it reaches my desk on Tuesday.

Beginning in November, this long-overdue amendment to the “Freedom of Information Act” (FOIA) will rip away the veil of secrecy surrounding the act of voting.  Citizens will mark and sign their ballots before witnesses, and this information will become part of the public record.

Your friends, relatives, neighbors, union bosses, and SEIU thugs have a right to know if you voted the way they wanted you to or the way you said you would.  The days of isolated cubicles and anonymous marks on generic ballots are over.

At this time, I’d like to recognize Prince Nouria El-Aziz, my new White House Counselor on U. S.-Islamic relations.  [pointing] He’s the fellow in traditional Saudi dress standing against the wall next to Rahm Emanuel.  [El-Aziz bows to the president; Obama bows back]

His Majesty, King Abdullah Bin Abdul-Aziz, honors me by assigning one of his 403 nephews to be his eyes and ears in the West Wing.

Now, uh, normally, I’d take two planted questions, ramble aimlessly in response, then call it quits. (more…)

With the report from Chris Matthews that Obama uses a TelePrompter even when he’s having private meetings at the White House, it’s time once again to trot out this perennial favorite of the Punahou Kid:

(more…)

Disillusionment is a terrible thing:

He has meetings in the White House with businessmen and he reads to them from the TelePrompter?

Makes you kind of wonder how he got into Punahou, Occidental, Columbia and Harvard Law, doesn’t it? Either the man is not the genius-level IQ the media has so devoutly wished him to be, or else…

Or else this: (more…)

The atmosphere over at Democratic National Committee headquarters has to be pretty gloomy these days. Their party’s prospects in November have progressed from dismal to disastrous and there’s no telling how much worse it can get. Over at the Dem’s website, nobody has bothered to update news about their famed “50 State Strategy” since September of last year. Perhaps, had they employed a “57-State Strategy” instead, the future might look a little brighter for them.

Let it not be said that conservatives and libertarians are without empathy. We’ve been there. We know how disheartening it is when your party of choice is about to get clobbered and worse, when that happens because party leaders refuse to heed your message. We can only hope that  Democrats won’t get sidetracked by the so-called “pragmatists” within the party trying to lead the party astray by deviating from the progressive agenda. It would be a damned shame if somebody was successful in convincing this administration to pull a Clintonesque pivot toward the middle.

Maintaining one’s focus is important and one can only visit the Daily Kos so many times before the amount of bile there starts eating through your skin and destroying your soul. So, as a public service, I’ve taken the liberty of designing a few motivational posters that will help our Democrat friends stay on point as we approach the November elections. No charge Dems – feel free to print them out, use them as screen-savers, whatever. We’re here to help.

Enjoy: (more…)

The crew of braying jackasses on Morning Joe today had much merriment with Sarah’s crib notes, as they continue to whistle past the graveyard of the coming annihilation of the Democrat Party this fall.  And CNN explicitly compared Sarah’s palm to the TelePrompter of the United States. (No, this clip is not from The Onion.)

So… Hand vs. TOTUS – you be the judge!

First the hand:

And now ladies and gentlemen, the TelePrompter of the United States: (more…)

What else is there to say?

FALLS CHURCH, VA – JANUARY 19: U.S. President Barack Obama delivers remarks on the ‘Race To The Top’ program at the Graham Road Elementary School January 19, 2010 in Falls Church, Virginia. The President is announcing his request for an additional $1.35 billion in 2011 for the program that was created as part of the economic stimulus bill signed into law last year. He is joined by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

UPDATE: Apparently he didn’t need the prompters for the kids.  Just the media.  According to The Weekly Standard: (more…)