Gawker: Democracy

Important YouTube Bill Stalled In House of Representatives

Pareene — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 10:59:12 EDT

Hah. We just cracked open Roll Call for basically the first time since we left Washington DC, and it turns out we miss reading occasional updates on the slow, grinding pace of incredibly stupid legislation. Like! "Less than a week after the Senate passed its own regulations for using YouTube videos, the House Administration Committee tried to do the same — and ended up with an emotionally charged hearing and a breakdown in negotiations." Oh, it gets better.

"The issue itself is almost mundane," Roll Call explains. Love that hedging "almost." You know, the future of the free world might depend on allowing members of congress to vlog, we better leave that for the reader to decide. How did this particular negotiation fall apart? Did John McCain step in at the last minute to broker a deal, again?

At one point, Rep. Mike Capuano (D-Mass.), who heads the franking commission, accused Republicans of twisting the issue and misrepresenting the commission’s proposal.

“Yesterday it was OK. Today it’s not. Make up your mind,” he yelled. “Honestly, if you want to make a deal, pick up the phone or find me on the floor. This is not the cooperative way to do it.”

The problem is Senators are not allowed to use Senate resources for politicking. House Dems want the same rule applied—no ads on members YouTube accounts. The debate fell apart over interpretation of that rule and over a seeming violation of parliamentary procedure by a Republican.

The attempted negotiations and the subsequent fiery meeting seem to have lessened the prospects for any action during this session. In a statement released after Thursday’s meeting, Capuano said the meeting “made it clear to me that further review is required.”

“[W]e do not agree on interpretation of that language,” the statement read. “Apparently, Republican Members of the Commission believe there should be no restrictions whatsoever on where a Member can post official web video. Democratic Members believe that official web video should appear on sites free from commercial or political advertising.”

Ha ha ha and there the debate ends. The Dems won't just push a bill through for whatever reason, because then they'll get in trouble or something, and that is the story of how Schoolhouse Rock lied to you about bills, and congress.

Harvey Weinstein Threatens to Destroy Democratic Party Unless His Gal Hil Wins

Pareene — Thu, 08 May 2008 11:40:48 EDT

Hollywood strongman Harvey Weinstein is a big supporter of Hillary Clinton, because they share a similar megalomania. Weinstein, who throws a great deal of showbiz money at Democrats and who is known for his Hulk-esque temper, reportedly called up House Speaker Nancy Pelosi last month to threaten her unless the Dems handed his gal Hillary the nomination. Weinstein said he'd cut of all money to Dem congressional campaigns unless Pelosi backed the Clinton campaign's unfeasible plan to get the Dems to pay for brand new elections in Florida and Michigan. Weinsein has denied it all. Or at least he denied that it was a "threat." He owns up to calling Pelosi and "offering" "to put together a team of people to help finance a revote in Florida and Michigan." Then he threatened to eat the officials who leaked details of the call. Weinsein's owned up to a bad temper before, once telling Ken Auletta that it's the thing he dislikes most about himself. In fact, Weinstein's temper makes Weinstein so angry he feels like he's going to explode. An Entourage clip exploring this famous bad mood in a comedic style may be found after the jump.

Clinton Supporter Pressures Pelosi Over White House Battle [CNN via TPM]

Candidates Still Hate Each Other, Everyone Still Hates Media

Pareene — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 11:24:05 EDT

The general consensus about last night's Democratic debate is that the media came off looking the worst. That consensus is based on, of course, media reaction. Alessandra Stanley read some odd "disgruntled employee/imperious boss dynamic between Mr. Stephanopoulos and Mrs. Clinton" but everyone else just saw two moderators asking the most inane, navel-gaving, pointless, content-free, media-obsessed questions ever. Then some petty sniping between the two candidates while they each tried to out-exasperate the other. It was grim.

Washington Post TV critic Tom Shales is particularly harsh (and rightly so) on the moderators. "[Charlie] Gibson sat there peering down at the candidates over glasses perched on the end of his nose, looking prosecutorial and at times portraying himself as a spokesman for the working class." And: "The boyish Stephanopoulos, who has done wonders with the network's Sunday morning hour, 'This Week' (as, indeed, has Gibson with the nightly 'World News'), looked like an overly ambitious intern helping out at a subcommittee hearing, digging through notes for something smart-alecky and slimy." Zing!

George Stephanopoulos appeared on ABC's own Good Morning America today to smugly praise his ability to get Hillary to grudgingly say that Obama could beat McCain, while pointing out that the question was entirely pointless because there's no chance she's going to say "no."

The blog comment takeaway: Obama received a harsher grilling on more inane topics, and also ended up looking a bit better than Clinton.

Also a couple years from now we're going to get another round of those terrible "oh we are so ashamed of how we acted back then" pieces from the idiots who cover the campaign, just like we got after 2000 and 2004. Ugh.

Meet Your New Princeton Student Government: A Jew And A Wang

Joshua Stein — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 11:50:53 EST

On Sunday, Princeton chose a new Undergraduate Student president, Josh Weinstein. (He succeeds outgoing USG president, Rob Biederman, who, on the front page of the Daily Princetonian, is shown lighting "a giant gas-fired menorah outside the Center for Jewish Life.") Weinstein got five times as many votes as his opponent. What's his secret? His spectacular YouTube ad, in which various Class Presidents endorse him while looking uneasily off camera and blinking irregularly and possibly in Morse Code. His opponent, despite winning some science prize when she was eighteen, had no Youtube video. But Weinstein isn't the only Princeton winner with a great ad!

Please welcome Mike Wang, the USG Vice-President and, according to his friends, a guy with "nice hair" who is a "chill guy" and "magic!"