Archive for October 12th, 2010
George Clooney and Obama have date in the Oval Office
No reason to guess why these two need a chaperone.
It looks like someone named John Prendergast chaperoned the two of them, but Obama and George Clooney had a date in the Oval Office today.
It’s been reported that Obama’s very excited to have one of the first, autographed copies of Justin Beiber’s new book, and Clooney apparently brought him samples from Beiber’s new nail polish line, for guys, called “Kool Dudez”.
Apparently, Clooney was there to try to get Obama out of the funk he’s been in since he and Kal Penn broke up earlier in the year, and then someone had to have Penn mugged in DuPont Circle to get back his phone that had all of Obama’s text messages on it.
To his credit, Obama feels bad about that, still, and about how roughed up Penn was…and how Penn gave up his starring role on “House” to be with Obama but then the relationship didn’t work out.
So, maybe Clooney can help Penn by giving him a role in the next Ocean’s movie or something. Or, at the very least, set him up with Lucas Haas or something now that he and Leonardo DiCaprio have broken up so that Penn isn’t so lonely.
It’s like gay General Hospital going on in this White House…and the most hilarious thing is that 90% of the public can’t read between the lines or see the signs as to what’s really going on.
Meg Whitman Jerry Brown Debate Live Blog: October 12, 2010 Dominican University California
Tom Brokaw is the moderator.
I’ll live blog it as long as the tech holds out – sometimes the audio goes in and out on these things.
If you are watching, please chime in as well in comments below.
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LIVE BLOG (Not a transcript…the gist of what’s being said as I watched it):
828pm CST – waiting for the debate to start. Tech people are adjusting the set. There are a lot of people in really bad, Men’s Wearhouse suits. The candidates are looking at their notes. Whitman’s are professional looking. Brown’s appear to be written in crayon and have circles all over them that I think are from Arby’s medium sized drink cups.
So far, Jerry Brown has not called anyone a whore yet…but the debate has not started, so stay tuned. He LOOKS like he wants to call all kinds of people whores, like he has Tourette’s but is keeping it under control for now.
830pm – I realize this is the first time I have watched anything on NBC in probably months. Sometimes, I forget it’s still on the air as an actual network and not just a figment of someone’s sad imagination (like how that hospital on St, Elsewhere was really just in Chad Allen’s snowglobe the whole time). NBC permanently damaged their brand with me in 2008 when they went all-in for Obama and became the DNC propaganda channel. I wonder if part of the reason they’ve fallen to fourth place in broadcast networks is because millions of others feel this way too.
832pm – There’s something wrong with Tom Brokaw’s face. He has an upper lip like a ventriloquist’s dummy. And not one of the cool and fun ones, but the creepy ones that seem like they would come to life and murder you late at night.
833pm – Meg Whitman gets the first question. Brokaw says that few people remember John Kennedy or things he said, like what you can do for your country, or whatever. What do you think about that Meg Whitman?
Whitman: Here’s why I came to California. My husband Griff and I moved to California because everything is possible here. He wanted to be a doctor and I wanted to be a business person. We lived the dream. I don’t think my story would be possible in any other state. The dream is broken. Not everyone has their chance to be successful doing what they love. I want to bring the dream alive. People need to support the next governor in making tradeoffs. We have a government we cannot afford. We need to get California back on track. This is a great state with great people but we have to pull together. There needs to be shared sacrifice.
Brown: (Who looks terrible by the way, like Vincent Price playing Egghead on the old Batman series). We can’t scapegoat immigrants. We have to rise above our own poisonous partisanship. We have to think for the first time. As Californians we’re first in being a great state and having potential and while other states say we are a failed state, I say that we have something like 8 trillion dollars here and there’s a great environment here. I’ve known about California all my life and I want a chance to be better at things I do, not like I was the first time I was governor and ruined everything.
Brokaw: Let’s talk about cuts. Are people unrealistic about their budget situation?
Whitman: Voters have the right instincts and know government is not run efficiently or effectively. We need to put Californians back to work. I have identified 15 billion in savings that will shrink the government and we need to have fewer government workers and we have to make two reforms: (1) the public employee pension system that’s a $100 billion unfunded liability, (2) we need to reform welfare…we are a welfare state…we have 12% of national population but 33% of welfare. We have to run the government more effectively and efficiently. There are too many overbudget projects like the Bay Bridge.
Brown: Look, I’m unrealistic when it comes to pain or sacrifice (audio cuts out for a while…nice work, NBC). * I can’t read lips so I don’t know what Brown is saying, but he looks like a vulture now, and keeps bopping his head up and down like he’s eating dead meat. Then, he takes his hands and makes his fingers stand up like feathers. He’s wearing a gray suit that makes him look more like a vulture. This is what he should go as for Halloween: a vulture, that calls women whores.
Tom Brokaw is now talking, but the audio is still out. He still looks like a ventriloquist’s dummy.
Now, Meg Whitman is talking, but I can’t hear what she’s saying. She looks very nice though and I remember back when I could hear what she was saying she was very poised and calm when speaking…it was very pleasant. I sure wish I could hear what’s going on, but I don’t have another live feed ready so I cant’t switch over to someplace with actual audio.
843pm – the excellent techs at NBC still haven’t figured out the audio got dropped on the live stream. Let’s see how long it takes them to figure it out.
Can anyone else hear what’s going on?
If so please tell me in the thread below.
846: Sound is back
Brown: I’ve been fighting a lot of people as Attorney General. We can return power to the local level by digging into things where we can. I’ll cut the governor’s office by 10%.
Brokaw: Let’s talk about Prop-13 to limit property taxes. Can you go forward and achieve the goals you outlined without reforming Prop-13 that has been in effect 40 years.
Whitman: Prop-13 is essential to CA because it keeps a lid on property taxes. Because property taxes are low, people can stay in their homes. One of the reasons I am running is to defend Prop-13. The only way to increase tax revenues is to increase jobs. We need to decrease taxes, decrease strangling regulations, and make CA a place where people want to have their businesses. We need to keep people from moving out of CA to neighboring states. We need to be a help to business instead of putting a red stop sign up telling them to go to other states.
Brown: There are no cows over the long term. I heard about Prop-13 and used to know how it works. Someone said I made Prop-13 work, because I used to hold down spending. There’s some mist in Prop-13. We have to live in our means and make tough decisions and we have to go on the local level to stop micromanaging the schools at the state level and I want to give the utmost to the people in local communities. One thing I wouldn’t do is to eliminate the capital gains tax because it benefits the million billionaires who don’t go to public school.
Whitman: Jerry Brown is wrong. The capital gains tax is a tax on jobs job creators and investment. WA, TX, and NV don’t have capital gains tax so we lose business to them. We are not competitive with neighboring states. Tax cuts are a big part of my plans.
Brown: I don’t believe in tax breaks because they are only for rich people and there’s no guarantee they spend money. Ms. Whitman, how much money will you save on tax breaks?
Whitman: I am an investor. I create jobs. You are a politician who has been on a war against jobs for 40 years. You make it more difficult for businesses to do business here.
Jerry: You are monstrously false because I haven’t been in government for 20 something years and you should call those other people to account.
Whitman: What you just heard is a classic politician answer. Brown talks about how he created all these jobs as governor but unemployment doubled under him, all the way up to 11% and spending went up 21% and his budget went a billion into deficit.
Brown: Talk about half answers, you don’t know about the business cycle. We get booms and then busts. There have been 7 recessions since WWII and California becomes booming again after we make tough choices.
Brokaw: When Brown was Governor it was back in the Reagan recession, and there were 4 states back then that were worse than what he did to California, like Illinois and others. So we need to be fair to him that he was not the worst governor. It took 100 days for the legislature and the governor to reach a budget of smoke and mirrors and you keep saying the process is the plan, but hasn’t the last 100 days undermined your authenticity.
Brown: Let me tell you, I don’t have to learn on the job because I used to be governor. My plan is to have the governor do things like have a budget and then do things. I will call all 100 legislators into a room and then I want to get special interest groups and in November I want to go on the road with the budget and ask some people in Los Angeles about it, ask the people in schools and in prisons and in the water works, and I want something entirely different and see the governor cut 10-15% and then ask the legislature to cut some budget too.
Whitman: Well, we need a plan. Brown said the process is the plan. If you like the process we have now then you should elect Brown because if he goes back to Sacramento it is the same old same old. By the way when Brown says he will cut the governor’s budget, do you know how big the governor’s budget is it’s $18 million….he would not be saving not even 1% of the budget problem. I have a detailed plan…that’s leadership…and then we have to engage the legislature and the governor has to use her way forward to make sure the government is not dysfunctional. I have 30 years of experience solving problems and using technology. We need a fresh approach, a different approach. When we have a problem we can’t solve, we need to go around it and try new things instead of hunkering down and doing the same old things over and over again.
Brown: I know what a budget is. We had that when I was governor. I want to lead as a top, and Whitman doesn’t have no plans. She says there are people who need cuts but I say the legislature is where stuff happens.
Brokaw: Public pensions make CA look like Greece. 12,000 state employees make more than $100k a year in retirement. What is the role of current pensioners and should they cut back on what they are obligated to receive.
Brown: I heard about this pension reform. It’s on JerryBrownorg.com and you can read it. The problem is the pension systems keep expanding. When I was Governor in 82 I asked for a two tier system and no one knew what that was. Then we had Arnold who was the governor and he got some date and actuarials and the employee had to lay people off to pay the wages. If a knowledgeable governor got the right numbers he could solve the pension problem.
Whitman: Existing pensioners should not be touched. They signed their contracts and those are done deals. We need to change the contracts going forward. When Brown was governor he oversaw a dramatic rise in pension costs. The lavish pension benefits for government employees have gotten so big that it’s squeezing out students in CA school systems. Fees are going up. No one in the audience has a deal like this with pensions. It is causing CA to run out of money. In 2000 we spent about $300 million a year supporting pensions, now it’s billions. We need to get a rank and file 401k system. For police we need a defined benefit program but we can’t afford a rank and file lavish pension program for civil servants.
Brokaw: There are some firemen who retire on pensions at about $200k. LA will be on the hook for $2 billion in pension programs. A four star general in the Army retires on $49,000 a years. That cost will come due at some point. Should state law oversee county and local government pensions.
Whitman: That’s where leadership happens. There is a $100 billion unfunded liability in pensions. Brown is beholden to these unions. The unions are fighting to keep all this money. I am spending my own money to run in this race so I am beholden to no one. We need programs that are fair to the people of California..and not let the unions dictate things in this state.
Brokaw: We are doing well on time.
Brown: There are people in Oakland who like me and think Whitman distorts facts. I appointed some people who got less money than others, so I didn’t just give everyone lots of money. We need to tell everyone to sacrifice and be sound and I will do it.
Whitman: No one should be exempt from pension reform. We need people to contribute more to the programs. The governor has power over who works for the state. We have a government we can no longer afford. We need to make it smaller so we can make it stronger.
Brokaw: Asks Brown about calling Meg Whitman a whore in the police union call. You didn’t show any outrage over this, and I think it’s like calling a black person a n****er. Why aren’t you looking into who said this and why.
Brown: I don’t think it was that bad. This is a five week old private conversation with garbled transmissions and I don’t know who it was on the phone. I already apologized for this. I repeat the campaign’s apology.
Whitman: It’s not just me, it’s the people of California who deserve better than these attacks. Every Californian and women know what is going on here.
Brown: Have you chastised Pete Wilson for calling the legislature whores?
Whitman: The fact that you are defending your staff for slurs shows you should not be governor.
Brown: I don’t know why you are so upset about this, because I think it was illegal to record me on that call because I didn’t think people were listening when we called you a whore. You weren’t supposed to hear that part. And you’re just bringing this up because of the police union endorsement you got.
Whitman: I got that endorsement from the union because the union knows I will be tough on crime. Jerry Brown is against the death penalty. The police union knows I will be a better defender of the death penalty and three strikes you are out. You are soft on crime, Jerry Brown.
Brown: I got some endorsements from police chiefs and I defended the death penalty hundreds of times. I don’t remember all of them, but I bet there were hundreds.
Brokaw: Let’s talk AB32 and Prop-23, which would roll back carbon levels to the 1990s, it’s supported by Governor Arnold and other people. You said it was a job killer and that you would suspend it. What do you say now?
Whitman: First of all, AB32 was signed in 2006 — could we lead environmental movement and stimulate Green Jobs. However, today we have a 12% unemployment rate. Green Jobs are just 3% of the economy…while AB32 damages the 97% of jobs and drives them out of state. I called for a moratorium on this, freeze what’s happening, fix it, and find a way to encourage green jobs without driving other jobs out of the state. We can be green and smart but we should not jeopardize people who have jobs today…we need to keep people employed.
Brown: We can’t stop and start. We can’t have a moratorium. We need to get to renewable energy by 2020 and if we have moratorium we create uncertainty. We need to keep incentivizing people to get off oil. I think we should just use sun and wind power.
Whitman: He didn’t answer the question about the 97% of jobs that AB32 hurts. People are coming up to me in tears unsure of what they are going to do to keep their homes. What’s wrong with taking a pause, being smart and green, and not having a blind interpretation of this bill.
Brown: I think 97% of the jobs are silly. If you put thousands of people retrofitting buildings so they don’t burn then those are jobs. I can create one million jobs by retrofitting things to use green energy.
Brokaw: Let’s talk about the teachers’ union in this state.
Brown: The teachers’ unions are very important because they represent the teachers to get more money for the schools. We can’t go to war against the unions. Arnold learned that. When I was governor, I vetoed pay raises. At this stage of my life I have the stuff to stand up and resist people.
Whitman: Jerry Brown needs to campaign more. Every day I hear someone who is losing their jobs because of AB32. I want to fight for every job in CA. We have a mess on our hands with the K-12 school system. The teachers’ association is the problem. We need charter schools. We need to pay better teachers more. The unions fight change every way. There’s no union representing the children, only ones representing the union big bosses. That needs to change. CA is rated at almost the very bottom of all 50 states. We have to fundamentally change how we do things. I want to defend the children and have the very best public school system in America.
Brokaw: You are spending $120 million of your own fortune. If you were so interested in CA why didn’t you vote all those years or get involved in state commissions and other associations? Is there something about how you have used your fortune in other ways we don’t know.
Whitman: I am not proud of my voting record. It was wrong and I apologize. You are right to look at that. I have a lot to offer CA. The reason I invested my own money is because I think we can make CA much stronger. We can revive the CA dream for every Californian. We are up against the unions. They poured $300 million to control Sacramento. My money lets me go to CA with no one owning me. If Brown went to Sacramento he would go there where the unions would collect there IOUs. This is supposed to be a citizen democracy anchored in the real world and I am an entrepreneur who knows how to create jobs.
Brown: Whitman is going to take money from schools and invest in rich people. The teachers’ associations didn’t like when I created charter schools. My foundation put money into charter schools. I appreciate charter schools. But 95% of the kids are regular kids and go to regular schools and we need to listen to the teachers’ unions because they are the ones who should make the teaching decisions.
Whitman: Brown is lying. I am not going to cut education. I want to spend money smarter. Only 60% now goes to the classrooms and 40% goes to the unions. The #2 contributor to Brown is the CA teachers’ unions.
Brokaw: Let’s talk immigration. You said Whitman that businesses and employers should be held accountable. You had an undocmented worker that had good forged documents. If you couldn’t find a worker in your own home, how can businesses do it.
Whitman: We used an employee agency. We had three documents from her. She lied to us and nine years later told us and we had to fire her. That’s why we need an eVerify system. We need to secure the border with more resources to the border control. We need to hold employers accountable. Eliminate sanctuary cities. And we need a guest worker program. I have a better plan to solve the problem. It is a major problem facing the United States.
Brown: Businesses should be accountable, but this is a federal issue. Police don’t want to be raiding businesses. Illegal immigrants need to be sent to Washington for deportation. We have millions illegal in the shadows. What are we going to do about it? We need a comprehensive immigration reform and a path to citizenship. Some of these people have been here ten years and we need to think of them as people. We have this fear. She didn’t even get her housekeeper a lawyer after her working there for nine years, she could have at least done that.
Brokaw: Let’s talk about CA and Mexico and the drug violence anarchy there. CA has enormous purchasing power for drugs. How do you crack down on illegal drug consumption?
Brown: Part of my department has something to do with drugs. We’ve had a couple of operations where we tried to stop drugs, but it’s tough. We have Mexicans coming across the border to commit murders. We have gang task forces. I feel very strongly that drug operations are connected to prisons and to Mexico.
Brokaw: You are opposed to marijuana legalization Ms. Whitman.
Whitman: I am opposed to Prop-19. It is not the right thing for our communities. Law enforcement says this is wrong. Brown says he is tough on drugs but the narcotics association has endorsed me because I will back up public safety. This is a big difference between us. Brown has been soft on crime for 40 years, like Rose Bird the judge who was recalled because she kept fighting against death penalties. Even the LA cops have endorsed me.
Brokaw: How important is Prop-8 to you?
Whitman: We need to jump start our economy, cut spending, and fix education. I was opposed to Prop-8. The word marriage needs to be between man and woman, but I support civil unions. Brown needs to defend lawsuits regardless of his own views. 52% voted for Prop-8 and it’s dangerous to have an AG who won’t defend the laws. That’s a dangerous precedent.
Brown: I am following precedents where other people don’t follow things they don’t like. I am not entering the court to defend Prop-8. It is fundamentally wrong and I don’t care if it’s the law I am not going to be the one to take that up. I have the police chiefs in my back pocket. I am tough. People say that I am too tough on unions and I have been a tough attorney general. I am going to support reform because there are too many prisons and we need more reentry.
Brokaw: What do you think of Obama and will he campaign with you?
Brown: I like Obama and he is coming to campaign with me. I think in a tough time this man has created jobs and stabilized banks and we now have a healthcare bill that’s the best since Harry Truman and I think Obama is doing a good job.
Brokaw: A force in your party is Sarah Palin will you seek her advice in California.
Whitman: I support a lot of Republicans…I campaigned for John McCain and I was for Mitt Romney in the primaries. I want to talk to whomever out there wants to talk about jobs. Jobs are what’s important. The notion that Brown is going to be tough on unions is ridiculous.
Whitman: There is a way forward for CA with some fundamental reforms. We have to get our hands around spending because it is unsustainable. We need a two year budgeting process that will allow investments and a long term perspective.
Brown: I will take the world and wrestle it as governor. I want to get a pay as you go requirement with bills. I think businesses and unions are influences. When I worked in a kitchen I knew where things were and I have the intestinal fortitude to do what is right for California.
Brokaw: we are out of time, thanks for being here everyone.
Ice Cream Burglar Joe Biden's in Chicago tonight, campaigning for Governor Pat Quinn
Vote for Pat Quinn for Governor!
Joe Biden’s in Chicago tonight.
There’s actually some summer-peach-pie Eddy’s in the freezer, so I’m concerned Biden might detect it with his superhuman ice cream sensing abilities and end up here at Buzzquarters. Though, to get to us, he’d have to pass right by a Whole Foods with their fancy gelato display…and Bobtail’s homemade ice cream’s not that far away either…so even if Biden’s ampullae of Lactosezini zero in on the slightly ice-chip encrusted container we’ve got, I’m hoping he goes for the bigger score elsewhere. Could you just imagine if Joe Biden showed up to your door one day, looking for ice cream?
The latest poll shows Bill Brady ahead by 9% for Governor…but there are 19% undecided, which is bizarre to me.
I have a hard time understanding anyone who is “undecided” about anything.
How hard is it to make up your damn mind?
Either you like having a Democrat as Governor, or you don’t. The current Governor is a Democrat, but maybe some people don’t know that and hence their indecision. They know Blagojevich was forced out, but many aren’t sure why…and, actually, because of all the attention Blago still gets, there could be a percentage of these people who still think he’s in office, come to think of it.
I wonder how many people actually know Pat Quinn’s name.
Quinn is actually a good man, and people I know work for his campaign. I’m voting for Brady because the culture of corruption in this state needs to end and Democrats can’t be trusted with statewide office here in Illinois anymore.
I really don’t see how Biden campaigning here helps Quinn. In the slightest.
What incentive to vote for Quinn does Biden provide?
What percentage of that 19% “undecided” are people who have been breathlessly waiting for Ice Cream Burglar Joe Biden to appear to tell them how they should vote?
Things like this really remind me what a bizarre state Illinois is to live in.
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UPDATE: This is kind of funny.
I just checked my personal email box and at around 10 or so this morning someone in local politics emailed me to see if I wanted to meet Biden today while he was at the event here in Chicago.
Normally, if I’d miss a chance like this to get face time with someone like the Vice President or whatever, I’d be disappointed I didn’t check my email sooner.
But, you know what, I really didn’t care.
I’ve met Biden before, and he’s a very nice man, but I have almost no respect for him.
He’s been sent out so many times to attack the Tea Party, to demean Americans who oppose this administration, that I couldn’t care less about not seeing him today.
Or ever again.
I think that’s an interesting reaction…because I love politics and enjoy running into people from both sides of the aisle…but even if I had read this when it was sent to me in the morning I don’t think I would have gone to the event.
I stopped going to almost all the Democrat stuff I get invited to because I just don’t want to be around all those union members, crazy people, and other props the Democrats use to pump up their crowds. Since nothing particularly interesting would have been said at this Biden appearance, it wouldn’t have been any fun for me to go to.
That’s a very big change since 2008 for me…and I wonder how many other former lifelong Dems feel that way too.
Bristol Palin Dancing with the Stars Results Thread
Please chime in on this thread if you are able to watch the Dancing with the Stars Results show tonight.
Bristol should be safe this week, as the DialIdol site pegged her as one of the top vote-getters…and combined with her score on the show that fan support seems strong enough to keep her out of the bottom.
Our bet is “The Situation” goes home this week.
We love Bristol and will support her every week, but have to be honest when we say we don’t care much for this show…or for TV in general.
But we enjoy reading these threads when those of you who watch chime in live and keep things updated, so this is here for you to do that.
QUESTION: Is it possible for Nancy Pelosi to be defeated on November 2nd?
This is purely anecdotal — and I don’t know California voters — but I heard from a friend today living in San Francisco and she says that people in her offices are very demoralized, not planning on voting on November 2nd, and don’t seem particularly enthused about Nancy Pelosi getting re-elected for another term.
Let’s just reason this out for a moment to see if the impossible might just be possible this year — could Nancy Pelosi really lose her re-election bid?
(1) Nationwide, Democrats like Russ Feingold, Barney Frank, John Lewis, John Dingell, Blanche Lincoln, Harry Reid, and others are in the fights of their political lives. People who lockstep voted Democrats forever broke with the party in 2008 when it veered unapologetically Left. These incumbents are in grave danger because of the bleeding out of the moderate and conservative Democrats who are no longer in the party’s lockstep.
(2) Leftists, however, are also upset with Democrats…because they are not Left enough. There are many Democrat voters who are feeling disappointed, disillusioned, and dejected and the new (D) logo Democrats threw together didn’t sufficiently reinvigorate them. These people won’t be voting Republican, but they might just sit home on November 2nd.
(3) Halloween weekend is a very big deal in San Francisco. Liberal voters tend to be more into Halloween than conservatives are. Halloween is a big cosplay drinking party that will run nonstop from Friday October 29th through Sunday October 31st, with many San Franciscans dragging tail Monday morning November 1st. Will they be motivated to hit the polls on Tuesday, either going in early before work or after they’ve dragged themselves through a rough recovery Tuesday? Ordinarily, would this wouldn’t be that big of a factor…but in a year when people are demoralized and dejected anyway, how many will use Halloween as an excuse to just not vote?
(4) Is any really good polling being done on the Pelosi race? Everyone seems to believe she’s a Democrat like Jan Schakowsky here in Chicago who will hold her seat for as long as she wants it — but is that really true?
Probably.
But, this year is shaping up to be weird enough that it’s not DEFINITELY a fait accompli for Pelosi.
Remember how stunned Democrats were in 2004 when tax cheat Tom Daschle , then a Democrat Senate leader, lost his seat to Cocktail Party darling John Thune? No one saw that coming. The election was closer than anyone could have imagined.
Could the same thing happen to Nancy Pelosi?
You tell us.
Who knew? Condoleezza Rice is a fan of the TV show "V"
Condoleezza Rice has a new book out today.
USAToday did a little interview with her, in her home on the Stanford campus, where Rice plays the piano and enjoys a quiet life.
She likes watching football on TV and is a big fan of the show “V”, where an Obama-like alien named Anna has come to Earth promising hope and change but is really a space lizard that wants to eat people.
It’s hilarious to imagine Secretary Rice sitting there watching that when it comes back on the air — the way we’ll all watch it here.
It’s a shame that Rice doesn’t want to seek elected office, because it feels like she’d be a great choice to run against Diane Feinstein in her next election. Rice would be an excellent Senator or Governor for California.
She’d also be a great commissioner of the NFL.
But, she seems happy to be back at Stanford…and she certainly doesn’t owe America any more service.
Though she certainly has a great deal to offer and would be marvelous in just about any position she sought.
It’s nice to get this window into what she’s doing now.
Breaking the Fourth Wall: A Roundup of Behind-the-Scenes Points of Interest
Every once in a while I like to do a “Breaking the Fourth Wall” post on things I find interesting dealing with comments in the spam filters, emails we get here at HillBuzz, and other little things that aren’t big enough for a full essay unto themselves — but that you might like to know about.
Recently, the trolls have really been trying to hit Meg Whitman hard on this site, which I find fascinating. None of the troll posts are getting through because I have the spam-filter set to trap anything with foul language in it, which I don’t allow here at HB. For the longest time, I really did struggle with the whole concept of the spam filter because I didn’t want to be draconian with moderation…but lately I’ve been writing essays for a few other sites out there, a few of which don’t moderate comments at all, and the difference is night and day. I don’t like reading the comments at some other sites because they are so hateful, full of venom, foul language, and incoherent baseless attacks against other posters. When we started this site here in Boystown, we didn’t have any sort of roadmap for getting to a place where there’s none of that garbage here, but somehow it just organically happened…and I really like that.
