The Growing Fascism of the TSA

Definition of fascism: a governmental system that exalts nation above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocracy headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.

There's growing concern around the nation over the intrusive, abusive new methods of the TSA. Here's takes by George Will, Matt Davis, and the horror stories go on and on.

In this case the "dictator" is John Pistole, and while there are people above him who could stop him, they don't. Is the TSA a fascist movement? No. But whenever talking-heads make political hay over failed terrorist attacks ("yes, but it might have worked") it's the TSA who decides to clamp down on ... passengers.

Why are DC's leaders sitting on their hands while one agency decides to governmentally mandate sexual harrassment and molestation? This needs to be nipped in the bud or it will only get worse. I'm ready for airline security to go back to pre-9/11 security measures. Passengers are heroes, not suspects. If a guy stood up with a boxcutter on my plane, I know that I and the ten other guys nearest me would beat him unconscious, and then we could continue pleasantly on our flight.

All of this is being done in the name of "security." If you really want to be safe, you'd just ban airplanes period.

America likes the Clintons

That's the main positive thing I got out of this polling analysis. The main negative is that Nancy Pelosi has managed to become even less popular than Dick Cheney. Not to mention Huckabee and Romney are better positioned among the general population than Palin and Gingrich.

InTrade Watch on 2012 GOP Presidential Hopefuls - 11/10

I think I'll do this every month for a year, see how things trend.

From InTrade, where people put their money where their mouth is,
who will be the 2012 GOP presidential candidate? Bid %:

1. Mitt Romney - 22.5%
2. Sarah Palin - 17.8%
3. John Thune - 14.1%
4. Tim Pawlenty - 6.5%
5. Mike Huckabee - 6.1%
6. Jeb Bush - 5.5%
7. Newt Gingrich - 5.2%
8. Mitch Daniels - 4.1%
9. Paul Ryan - 3.2%
10. Haley Barbour - 2.4%

I last did this in July. Back then #9 and #10 belonged to Ron Paul and Bobby Jindal.

MSNBC suspends Keith Olbermann

Not too long after Keith Olbermann railed against NewsCorp for donating to the Republican Governor's Association, he himself donates to three Democratic candidates, and MSNBC prez has suspended him for it.

Howard Kurtz on why it was the right call.

Looking at Twitter, conservatives ranging from Andrew Breitbart and Bill Kristol believe MSNBC was wrong to suspend him. Keith's not a journalist, and GE can donate to campaigns but their employees can't?

Meanwhile his replacement did really well tonight. If MSNBC wants to reinstate some journalistic cred, utterly trashed on Election Night, they should let him ride the chair a few days. Besides, MSNBC saves about, what, $34,000 each night KeithO's not there?

2010 Election - A Thousand Words

Morning After - Cable News Watch

CNN - I liked John King and Wolf Blitzer guiding us through. I liked the panel of about eight people throwing out their analysis. Yes, some of it was bound to be wrong - last night was not a referendum on Obama's communication problem, for instance - but I appreciated the variety.

Fox News - They had more Republicans than Democrats as guests, but they kept it fairly balanced. Joe Trippi and Juan Williams were there to rain on parades and praise the Democrats that kept their seats. I changed the channel whenever Mike Huckabee or Karl Rove spoke... They had the smoothest tally displays.

MSNBC - Pretty much embarrassing. Since Keith Olbermann was chief anchor, no moderates or conservatives were allowed within 100 yards. I suspect Chuck Todd's a moderate, but as long as he keeps his opinions to himself, he's allowed in Keith's presense. I like Chris Matthews enough, but Keith's a caricature at this point, and Rachel Maddow came off as his mean-girl flunkie. Lawrence O'Donnell looked like he wished he had Peggy Noonan to bounce opinions off of.

I miss Tim Russert.

Democrats keep Senate

I never thought the Republicans would take the Senate, but I am surprised where some of the losses came from. I blame Sharron Angle and Christine O'Donnell squarely on Sarah Palin. And if Lisa Murkowski wins in Alaska, that's one senator Republicans didn't need to alienate.

On the flip side, Marco Rubio looks like the new star of the GOP, and Rand Paul, Nikki Haley, Daniel Webster, Mark Kirk, Pat Toomey are all good stories.

Election night thoughts

Locally, I thought Morgan Philpot would be a lot closer to Jim Matheson than what they're showing so far in the UT-02.

Nationally, I am thrilled that Alan Grayson's gone from the House. I look forward to seeing what the difference will be now that the House is in GOP hands.

I was really hoping Carly Fiorina could pull the upset on Barbara "Ma'am" Boxer, but alas, it's not in the cards.

I've been flipping between CNN, MSNBC and Fox News, and CNN's the best. This is what they live for. Bret Baier and Megyn Kelly have been doing okay anchoring, but when they go to Mike Huckabee or Karl Rove, I change the channel. MSNBC had Keith Olbermann, Chris Matthews, Rachel Maddow, Eugene Robinson and Lawrence O'Donnell at the desk. Are you kidding me? Chuck Todd was in studio to do the numbers, but I could tell deep inside he was wishing he was giving Brian Williams this information.

Arianna Huffington's stripe changing?

I watch ABC's This Week round-table almost every week. (Personally I think Jake Tapper should get this show back.) I was just particularly amused by the round table where Arianna Huffington enveloped herself in a Jon Stewart blanket, without a hint of irony, denouncing demonizing in politics. She's apparently never read anything she's written in the past few years. Arianna was right-wing in the 1990's, left-wing in the 2000's, now she seems ready to embrace the Jon Stewart civility model. We'll see. But if she means it, good for her.