Riehl World View

Levi Johnston Discovers Disgust

This is rich. The adult portion of the nation has been looking at this misguided deadbeat dad with disgust since we discovered what he really was. And now he claims to be disgusted?? He really is as troubled a kid, as he is troubling. This will not end well for him. And he doesn't even know it, yet. That is almost sad. I wonder if he doesn't suspect that no one really cares about him at all, except for some few using him for their own goals and agendas every now and then.

Johnston: I just look at her in disgust. ... It's almost funny, that she's like, 46 years old, and she's battling a 19 year old, and I'm winning. And I'm telling the truth. She's lying and losing. ... If you look at her face, she's got -- she's really -- you can tell her mind's going 100 miles an hour when Oprah asked her those Levi questions. ... I've got a lot more knowledge and credibility than she gives me credit for.

MSNBC's Scarborough Reportedly Moving On

While being billed as a national day of service in line with the Obama administration's volunteer-ism agenda, people in the know insist that on November 21st Mourning Joe host Joe Scarborough will be taking a test to enter Starbuck's employee training program for counter help at a Starbuck's location just around the corner from his current MSNBC studio. Scarborough was reported to have discreetly slipped into the location last week after MSNBC executives informed him they thought he might want to start looking for a new job.

Unconvinced he was able to pour their many flavors of coffee at a reasonable clip without becoming confused, Starbuck's manager Van Jones insisted Joe take the standard qualifying test prior to being granted a 90 day probationary period. Joe is said to be thrilled that his benefits will kick in after the probation period assuming he goes on to join Starbucks full-time.

In 2008 alone, Starbucks partners and customers in the U.S. and Canada volunteered 246,000 hours of service toward our goal to contribute over 1 million hours of community service by 2015. We're off to a great start! As we continue to work toward this goal, we will look for creative opportunities to gain wider awareness of the importance of volunteerism and giving back to local communities. With that in mind, we are proud to announce that we are working with MSNBC's "Morning Joe".

On November 21st, participate in the Brewing Together Day of Service, co-sponsored by Starbucks and "Morning Joe." Make a difference on this day, by logging into the HandsOn Network, and finding a local volunteer opportunity in your area.

In tandem with the event, we are introducing the newly updated Starbucks Gold Coast Blend®: Morning Joe Edition, an intense, full-bodied blend that showcases our finest Latin American and Asia-Pacific coffees. Available exclusively where you buy groceries this bold, flavorful coffee is a fitting accompaniment to conversation, whether around the kitchen table, on the set of "Morning Joe", or during a break while you're volunteering in your community.

Click here for a message from Joe & Mika about Brewing Together Day of Service event on November 21, and look for Starbucks Gold Coast Blend® Morning Joe Edition at a grocery store near you.

Good Lord

So I see this tweet about Miley Cyrus saying Twitter should be banned. Okay, pathetic confession - I've never actually seen the girl before this video, though obviously I know the name. So, I look her up on Wiki, as I knew she was a kid. She's 17?

In between trying to pick a food particle out of her teeth with her fingers, she tells how her latest song was actually only cut for her clothing line and, like, um, like, like, um, her movie is coming out and she's trying to reach an older audience at this point in her career. And, well, college might be cool if she ever has time to, um, like you know, check it out and stuff.

American popular culture is so upside down and freaking screwed. And I got old. I don't know which sux worse sometimes. ; )

PS - If she isn't careful, she'll be a wealthy fat dumb ass by thirty-five, assuming she makes it past the crank use in her early middle years. I don't care how grounded she may or may not be. But I do hope it works out better than that.

AZ Attempted Honor Killing: She Wasn't A Census Worker

Too bad the poor daughter wasn't a census worker. Here's a pretty clear window into just how sensitive American media has become when it comes to potentially offending Muslims. An Arizona Muslim man is being sought for running down his daughter as she was becoming too "westernized". I went looking for different stories to see what I might find out. Not a single Google News link except for The Examiner and the Freepers picked it up. That's it. End of story. That's surprising for something of a sensational crime.

PEORIA, Ariz. — Police in a Phoenix suburb are looking for a father suspected of running down his daughter because she was becoming too "Westernized" and was not living according to their traditional Iraqi values.

Police say 48-year-old Faleh Hassan Almaleki of Glendale allegedly ran his daughter down Tuesday at an Arizona Department of Economic Security parking lot in Peoria.

The victim, 20-year-old Noor Faleh Almaleki of Surprise, remains hospitalized with life-threatening injuries.

A second woman, 43-year-old Amal Edan Khalaf, also of Surprise, suffered non-life threatening injuries. Police say the women are roommates.

The Untruth Fairey

Jules has a round up of links on scam artist Shepard Fairey of Obama "Hope" infamy.

TNOYF offers up a humorous commemorative.

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False Hope: Obama "HOPE" Artist Admits To Scam

Talk about poetic justice. The artist that created the original Obama "HOPE" poster has admitted to carrying out something of a scam, all the while carrying on a suit against the AP based upon a false and ultimately intentionally misleading claim.

Oh no! You mean after all this time and celebration, the "HOPE" the American people thought they were buying when it came to Obama wasn't real? I'm shocked, just shocked I tell you. If we can't believe in Obama's "HOPE," what is it we can believe in at all anymore?

I am so without "HOPE" right now, you simply wouldn't believe it! heh! How kind of the AP lawyers to allow this news to come out on a weekend!! Maybe there is really hope left somewhere in all this mess even now - hope for Obama, that is, thanks to a willfully compliant press and justice system at this point, if nothing else.

NEW YORK (AP) - The artist who designed the famous Barack Obama "HOPE" poster has admitted he didn't use the Associated Press photo he originally said his work was based on but instead used a picture the news organization has claimed was his source.

"Mr. Fairey was apparently mistaken about the photograph he used when his original complaint for declaratory relief was filed on February 9, 2009," the papers say. "After the original complaint was filed, Mr. Fairey realized his mistake. Instead of acknowledging that mistake, Mr. Fairey attempted to delete the electronic files he had used in creating the illustration at issue. He also created, and delivered to his counsel for production, new documents to make it appear as though he had used the Clooney photograph as his reference."

Fairey sued the not-for-profit news cooperative in February, arguing that he didn't violate copyright law because he dramatically changed the image. The AP countersued in March, saying the uncredited, uncompensated use of an AP photo violated copyright laws and signaled a threat to journalism.

Fairey's attorneys, led by Anthony Falzone, executive director of the Fair Use Project at Stanford University, have informed the AP that they are withdrawing.

It was unclear whether Fairey would continue with his case. Although he said he was "very sorry to have hurt and disappointed colleagues, friends, and family," he added that the real issue was "the right to fair use" so artists can create freely.

Limbaugh Responds To Critics In WSJ

Unfortunately for Conor with one N, he didn't quite make the list of critics Rush Limbaugh chooses to address here. Read the whole thing. This most certainly qualifies as a low point for media, sports and a diseased, politically correct culture run amok. And one can blame the Left, not the Right and surely not Rush Limbaugh, for that sad state.

Mr. Wilbon wasn't alone. Numerous sportswriters, CNN, MSNBC, among others, falsely attributed to me statements I had never made. Their sources, as best I can tell, were Wikipedia and each other. But the Wikipedia post was based on a fabrication printed in a book that also lacked any citation to an actual source.

I never said I supported slavery and I never praised James Earl Ray. How sick would that be? Just as sick as those who would use such outrageous slanders against me or anyone else who never even thought such things. Mr. Wilbon refuses to take responsibility for his poison pen, writing instead that he will take my word that I did not make these statements; others, like Rick Sanchez of CNN, essentially used the same sleight-of-hand.

The sports media elicited comments from a handful of players, none of whom I can recall ever meeting. Among other things, at least one said he would never play for a team I was involved in given my racial views. My racial views? You mean, my belief in a colorblind society where every individual is treated as a precious human being without regard to his race? Where football players should earn as much as they can and keep as much as they can, regardless of race? Those controversial racial views?

Marc Lamont Hill Out At Fox

Okay, have at it if you want. Full disclosure - I didn't even know he was in. I simply don't watch much TV. Please don't take my conservative ID away!!

NEW YORK -- Rupert Murdoch continued Fox News Channel's duel with the White House on Friday while also announcing the termination of the network's left-leaning analyst Marc Lamont Hill.

Asked about the White House's recent suggestion that Fox News is acting like an arm of the Republican Party, Murdoch simply said at a shareholders meeting that the criticism has "tremendously increased their ratings."

White House officials have recently stepped up pointed criticism of Fox News in blog postings and media appearances.

Murdoch also said that Hill has been fired. He revealed the move after a shareholder had raised the question of how Hill was hired, citing his "reputation of defending cop killers and racists."

Hill, a frequent guest on "The O'Reilly Factor" and other Fox News shows, has been the target of increasing criticism on the blogosphere for alleged sympathies to controversial figures including Assata Shakur and Mumia Abu-Jamal. Though Hill bills himself as an expert on hip-hop culture, he also drew fire for serving as a liberal foil for various Fox News personalities on subjects far from his stated area of expertise.

What Will Meghan McCain Reveal Next? The World Awaits

Come on, you know it's coming. How long before Meghan McCain inks a deal to add body, though not necessarily substance, to the latest celebrity on the slide to nowhere playground of cable or broadcast TV? You have to admire a self-centric young twist who can manage to put down "flat-chested" women for not being as "sexual" as she's allegedly seen to be, then going on to bemoan a double standard when it comes to men without a blink.

Yes, Meghan McCain wants so badly to be taken seriously in politics, she felt it was time to start tweeting her tweats. Does that take one account, or two? Or perhaps more in the oh so sexual Meghan McCain's unfortunate case? Are you noticing how she usually makes news when she's playing the victim of someone, or something? What an inspirational young woman this is.

I suppose there are several ways to look at her issues, though I'd just as soon pass on her temporary tweat-icon. I didn't find it embarrassing, or sexual myself. If it reminded me of anything, it was Anna Nicole Smith at her worst, someone I always found more tragic, than sexual, to be blunt.

You see, all this time Meghan has been showing everyone everything, in her words, what she's "doing every minute of every day". (yawn) But no one seemed to be paying much attention to young Meghan. Ah, but now that she's shown us her tweats... Meghan's world is apparently, well, ... just okay - after all, she is yet once again just a viktum. Should we be surprised at this point? Really? And how special, ... how sexual, is all this? Thank God for her sake she isn't a B cup. She might not have even gotten her full fifteen minutes squeezed into that little thing.

On Wednesday, I posted a hastily taken self-portrait on Twitter—which I thought was funny and silly—and within a few hours I had caused a minor media scandal. I spent most of the next day thinking about what exactly was so shocking about the picture, why there was such an immediate and nasty overreaction. After all, it’s not like I was caught making a sex tape. I certainly didn’t pose nude for Playboy. And I hadn’t even exposed a nipple.

For years I have struggled to accept the fact that the way I look in a tank top comes off more “sexual” than a flat-chested woman. And once again I was reassured by the media that someone with my cup size should always be covered up. Or what, I’ll be seen as a slut? It’s pathetic we can come so far in so many ways, but when Rep. Aaron Schock or Rep. Jeff Flake post pictures of themselves without their suits on—and their shirts, for that matter—they are proclaimed “hotties.” But put me in a tank top and I am suddenly an embarrassment to the Republican Party and women everywhere. The double standard is infuriating.

As those of you who follow me on Twitter know, I live my life very openly. I will happily tell you what I'm doing every minute of every day. I will tell you what songs I'm listening to, what movies I've seen, and what books I've read. (That’s Arthur Danto’s new biography of Andy Warhol in the photo, by the way.) I love reading other people's Tweets to me.

Palin To Launch Political Group

While interesting, it isn't exactly unheard of either. I would imagine this would be a way for her to travel and such without donations being related to a campaign. Not sure what other benefits it has, but it seems to work for Newt, and others. Fred Malek is mentioned and fund raising is his thing, so I'm assuming it will be a funded effort.

The New York Post reported this week that Palin’s new group will be called “Stand Up For Our Nation.” (News Corp. owns both the Post and The Wall Street Journal as well as HarperCollins Publishers, publisher of Palin’s book.) Crawford, who is treasurer of Palin’s existing political-action committee, SarahPAC, refused to provide any details about the new organization’s purpose or structure.