cleaning off the tivo

[jlh]

So I rewatched the Idol semis before deleting most of it—though I found I needed to keep Nick's performance and Ryan trying to put a "garter" on Simon's head, for posterity/good mood creating on bad days. I know the wild card got a bad rap this year, but three out of the four people who've been eliminated so far weren't wild cards, and only one of them was a girl who you could argue was "forced" by the system. So that means the two guys who've gone were voted for heavily in the semis, and didn't have staying power. I know some of you don't care for Megan much, but Anoop was a good save. And while Matt landed in the bottom two this week, I think he was screwed by the order of the show more than anything else, and is doing the same slow-and-steady-wins-the-race that Elliott did in season 5. Also he was the perfect person to be saved by the wild card, because he had no business singing a Coldplay song, and came back with that awesome Jackson 5 track, so there you go.

I also watched the Presidential Press Conference on Monday, while chatting with wordplay about how seeing Obama at such events causes some cognitive dissonance. Obama was so excellent, and often subtly sarcastic. If you didn't watch, here's the recap. He was totally on time, starting and ending, and you really could never say that about Clinton. Also, he has a good walk.

OMG he made a statement off the TelePrompTer, literally going over the heads of the press, and you know they don't like that shit.

1. AP's Jennifer Lovin gets to ask the "gimme" AIG question, to which Obama says nothing new, because there's nothing new to say, because we've all been talking about it all week.
   
2. NBC's Chuck Todd asks some bullshit question that seems to have been given to him by Tom "Greatest Generation" Brokaw about how Obama should be calling for the country to make sacrifices. Obama rightly says that everyone is already making sacrifices. Chuck should remember that FDR didn't ask anyone to make sacrifices during the Depression; he asked them to make sacrifices during the war.
   
3. ABC's Jake Tipper asks about Obama's needs for the budget process, obviously trying to get him to say that if he doesn't get this, that or the other, he'll veto. Obama reminds him that he knows that Congress actually makes legislation, not the President.
   
4. CBS's Chip Reid asks if Obama wants to put all our descendants into debt, and Obama replies that right now they already are, and he's trying to fix it.
   
5. Lourdes Meluza of Univision (who was never id'd on the chyron) asks if anyone's going to keep Mexico from becoming a failed state, and Obama basically says, yes.
   
6. Kevin Baron of Stars & Stripes (also never id'd) asks if these cuts in the military budget will fuck over vets again, and Obama says no, we're going to try to just fuck over the military-industrial complex.
   
7. CNN's Ed Henry asks why Obama isn't angry again, because he's in cable news and that's all they care about right now, and also what about that deficit thing? Obama says, I will say this to you in small words so you understand that we have to fix the economy in order to get out of the deficit. Then he says that he waited a couple of days to say he was "angry" about AIG "because I like to know what I'm talking about before I say something." Oh snap!
   
8. Fox's Major Garrett asks whether Obama is even more of a socialist than Europe, and whether he wants a Chinese-based world currency. Obama says no, and no.
   
9. Politico's Mike Allen says that upper middle class people can't deduct as much on their taxes any more and that's lame, and Obama says that actually it doesn't change charitable giving as much as a sucky economy, and also if you're making more than $200,000 a year, you can suck it up.
   
10. Kevin Chappell from Ebony asks about homeless people and poor black folks. (Note that it takes CBS a few minutes to put his name up on the chyron.) Obama says, well, that's why we need to create jobs and do some programs especially for vets.
    
11. ABC's Ann Compton wonders if race has come up lately. Obama corrects her grammar, and says that the economy is too bad for anyone to really care, and that while everyone was happy at the inauguration, now everyone just wants him to fix some shit.
    
12. Jon Ward from the Washington Times asks him if he can possibly have any morality or ethics and fund embryonic stem cell research. Obama says, yes he can, and perhaps we should start listening to the scientists as well as the moralists.
    
13. AFP's Stephen Collinson asks about the middle east because the rest of the world actually exists. Obama says mostly wait and see because governments are changing, but that shit has to happen because it's a goddamned mess. Also, George MItchell managed to work shit out in Ireland, so maybe he can do it there. Then he talks about where there's life, there's hope, not just with the middle east but with everything that's wrong in the world, because he's a progressive.

Comments

[annearchy.livejournal.com]

Then he says that he waited a couple of days to say he was "angry" about AIG "because I like to know what I'm talking about before I say something." Oh snap!

My absolutely favorite moment. WIN!!

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

I was fangirling him throughout that speech. My favorite moment, as awesome as the "I like to know what I'm talking about..." snap was the thing about charitable contributions. No, I don't agree that my changing the deductable amount is the same as cutting off charity. All it means is that rich people get the same deductable percent as poorer people. Are you really telling me you only give money to charity for the write off? Because people really don't suck that much in quite that way. Rich people are just making that up because they want as much money as possible.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

God, so fangirly. I love how relaxed he was. No hunched shoulders, and at one point he was even standing with his ankles crossed. And the walk out and back, HOT.

[twoapennything.livejournal.com]

Then he says that he waited a couple of days to say he was "angry" about AIG "because I like to know what I'm talking about before I say something."

But, wait! That is not the American way!

Srsly.

Maybe it truly is a new era :D