Sick Puppies

I watched Rachel Maddow's story examining why President George H.W. Bush (the smarter one) called her and Keith Olbermann "sick puppies."

I thought Keith seemed to be taking it a bit personally, although he did cut the old guy some slack. It seemed to me that in his quote, the ex-pres was just naming a couple people who came to mind, not that he was necessarily singling them out as someone he has great knowledge of. Like he's heard others mention them, so he's saying their names.

Then Rachel had Ron Suskind on, who seemed to think Bush was actually being critical, between the lines of Fox News, and for some reason put their names in as a way of balancing things out. Like he doesn't really have a conscious and well thought out grudge against them, per se, but it's just shorthand for someone on "the cables."

And since his fatherly beef is with the news personalities criticizing Junior, of course he would likely pick ones who were more Democratic.

I don't know for sure. I'm no fan of the Bushes -- any of them -- but when they're old and crochety, like Senior seems to be getting, I'd take it less as an insult than as a thing to brag about. Out of all the people in the world, the former president called ME a "sick puppy."

I actually am "one sick puppy," but the President has never heard of me.

Not One Second Of TV Today

I didn't see even one second of the Kennedy coverage today, which I know was probably wall to wall.

I don't usually watch much TV news -- since I think the commentators for the most part are a bunch of ignorant losers -- but I make a special point of avoiding it when there's a high level death. That I really hate.

So I wonder what I missed. My guess, nothing.

Bigger Than Cronkite

Even bigger than Walter Cronkite in the field of TV news was Biff Blevins, Eyewitness News, channel 9.

I know this sounds like "Anchorman," but every word is true. Biff was the best, the most trusted man in Cedar Rapids. When Nixon lost Blevins, most of eastern Iowa was gone.

We remember the great "Blevins Report," a new commentary show they had right before prime time. The other channels were running sitcoms and going for the easy ratings. But not channel 9. Then there was his Saturday afternoon feature, "Moments with Biff," with a black background and casual clothes.

Those were the days when a local guy could be on most of the day and no one knew the difference. As I recall he even signed off the broadcast day, with "Sacred Seconds with Pastor Blevins."

Obama Abroad

I'm not paying close attention to the news. But I see Obama is abroad, in Europe somewhere. Well, he met with the Queen, of course. As for anywhere else he may be, I don't know.

I don't really like watching the news that much. I don't like a lot of gratuitous criticism of him. And that's what we get every time they parade in all these Republican traitors. The guys and gals from the R side are such crooks, liars, and phonies that you can't believe anything out of their mouth. They're such hypocrites too, which, however true it is seems to be an insult that doesn't stick. They have the advantage of people's short memories. Also they have the advantage of politics normally stinking, so they stay somewhat below the radar because of that. But I'm remembering. They put us through the paces with that crook George Bush, but now they can't cut Obama any slack no matter what he does.

I saw a few of the pictures of Obama with the other world leaders. They must be glad to have him instead of that crook Bush. The German leader was threatening to walk out -- as I understand it. Maybe Obama wasn't fast enough with the neck rub. The other leaders. Whatever they're up to? Who knows? Sarkozy hasn't been the same since his phone conversation with Palin. So he's probably still mad being punked like that. (Real Sarkozy, fake Palin; I think it was the other way 'round.)

Speaking of Palin, how is it this dim bulb is still emitting a flicker of light in the public eye? And speaking of dim bulbs still emitting a flicker of light, Joe the Plumber is still out there. It seems he's ticked off real plumbers by parroting the conservative line of crap. Then when confronted about it he didn't even know what he was talking about. So maybe all is forgiven. It's weird relating to him, isn't it? He was an illustration during a debate. That's it. McCain exploited him for those moments. Now he's made a career out of it.

Bobby Jindal is praying no more volcanoes blow up. That's the news as I can remember.

Jim Cramer

I didn't watch the whole interview between Jon Stewart and Jim Cramer. I intended to, really. But I was watching at Huffington Post and they have some kind of periodic update of their page that happens automatically. So I'm a few minutes into it and the update came, wiping out the video. Nice!

I never got back to it. And now it's all over. Plus, as great as Jon Stewart is, I think I got the gist of it in those few minutes. He shamed Cramer and that's the message. CNBC was in cahoots with the wrong people, not looking out for their viewers' interests.

As for myself, I don't watch CNBC anyway, so I won't be leaving it. I've seen Cramer on a few shows, like on Hardball. I thought he was supposed to be a good guy. I was a little put off by him for being over critical of President Obama's plans. But that's no big deal. Now we find out though. He's the one with the shady history and presentations.

Good for Jon Stewart. Hopefully CNBC will change their sleazy ways.