02/05/2012 archive

No complaining or explaining, we’ll get right to my prediction.  Giants win because they have defense and the Patsies don’t.

Other opinions

• NFL Talkboard: Super Bowl 2012
• The predictions from the Guardian’s team
• NYT’s Mike Tanier’s preview
• How the teams line up

Ads

• Ten Superbowl Ads To Watch For During The Big Game

Because it’s the American way!

In fact Super Bowl Ads are lengthening to tell a 60 second story that they can chop up and reinforce after the game.

• Preview of this year’s Super Bowl ads
• Super Bowl 2012: the new TV ads
• Rate them

Louise Ciccone

Super Bowl XLVI: Madonna’s dream halftime-show set

Tris McCall/The Star-Ledger

Published: Friday, February 03, 2012, 7:00 AM

There it is. No need for frippery or distraction, no room for collaboration or audience participation. Madonna has never been about those things and it would be awkward for her to start now. Instead, she could re-establish herself as a star who can control the party, wherever it may be. Even if it happens to be at the Super Bowl.

You know, back when I started doing this in 2009, Puppy Bowl was hardly the cultural phenomenon it has grown into today.

Puppy Bowl VIII preps: Game day analysis for fans and fantasy players

By Kerri Lendo, Austin Culture Map

02.04.12, 09:00 am

Football’s biggest event of the year is almost upon us. Puppy Bowl VIII airs this Sunday at 3 p.m. ET/PT on Animal Planet. Saying this year’s bowl is going to be huge would be an understatement after last year’s incredible final seconds.

Of course, the kitty halftime show is back with twenty of the country’s top kitten cheerleaders taking the stage. The Piggy Pep Squad will make their debut along with Meep the bird who will be live tweeting all the action. Plus, most importantly, the nation’s top puppy athletes will be vying for the championship in Animal Planet Stadium.

As for getting the ball to the end zone, that’s hardly the point.

• Your Starting Line Up
• Top Ten Moments
• Puppy Bowl Video
• Your Picture Archive

Streaming Video is purportedly here, but you can’t trust Google.

Even Pravda (or is it Isvestia?  There is no news in truth and no truth in news.) has finally gotten hip.  ESPN too from whom we learn the Bissell Kitty Halftime Show has been little more than an afterthought up until now.

Of course for Phineas and Ferb fans there is only one canonical chronicle of Meap–

This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future.

Find the past “On This Day in History” here.

February 5 is the 36th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 329 days remaining until the end of the year (330 in leap years).

On this day in 1917, with more than a two-thirds majority, Congress overrides President Woodrow Wilson’s veto of the previous week and passes the Immigration Act.. The law required a literacy test for immigrants and barred Asiatic laborers, except for those from countries with special treaties or agreements with the United States, such as the Philippines.

The Immigration Act of 1917, also known as the Asiatic Barred Zone Act, added to the number of undesirables banned from entering the country, including but not limited to “idiots”, “feeble-minded persons”, “criminals”, “epileptics”, “insane persons”, alcoholics, “professional beggars”, all persons “mentally or physically defective”, polygamists, and anarchists. Furthermore, it barred all immigrants over the age of sixteen who were illiterate. The most controversial part of the law was the section that designated an “Asiatic Barred Zone”, a region that included much of eastern Asia and the Pacific Islands from which people could not immigrate. Previously, only the Chinese had been excluded from admission to the country. Attempts at introducing literacy tests had been vetoed by Grover Cleveland in 1897 and William Taft in 1913. Wilson also objected to this clause in the Immigration Act but it was still passed by Congress on the fourth attempt.

Anxiety in the United States about immigration has often been directed toward immigrants from China and Japan. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 barred Chinese from entering the U.S. The Gentlemen’s Agreement of 1907 was made with Japan to regulate Japanese immigration to the U.S. The Immigration Act of 1917 is one of many immigration acts during this time period which arose from nativist and xenophobic sentiment. These immigration laws were intentional efforts to control the composition of immigrant flow into the United States.

Had it with the hype?  The Hypnotoad has hours of counter-programming goodness.  Instant scheduling gratification at Zap2it.

“Television is a vast wasteland”

Special mention to actual Football on Faux, Manchester United at Chelsea at 10:30 am.  This edition covers from noon to midnight.

“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Punting the Pundits”.

The Sunday Talking Heads:

Up with Chris Hayes: Sunday’s guests Amy Goodman of (@democracynow), Melissa Harris-Perry (@MHarrisPerry) host of MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry, Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) MSNBC contributor and Slate political reporter, Michael Brendan Dougherty (@michaelbd) politics editor for Business Insider, Eli Lake (@elilake) senior national security reporter for Newsweek / The Daily Beast, Anne-Marie Slaughter (@SlaughterAM) former director of policy planning for the U.S. Department of State and University of Princeton professor of politics and international affairs, and Michelle Goldberg (@michelleinbklyn), senior contributing writer for Newsweek / The Daily Beast.

This Week with George Stephanopolis: Guests are REpublican GOP presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), former Obama advisor Lawrence Summers, top Romney economic advisor Glenn Hubbard, and Diane Swonk of Mesirow Financial. Roundtable guests are ABC’s George Will, political strategist and ABC News political analyst Matthew Dowd, AOL Huffington Post Media Group president Arianna Huffington, and radio host and Bigjournalism.com editor Dana Loesch debate all the week’s politics.

Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer: This week’s guests are GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. The Boston Globe’s Michael Kranish, author of The Real Romney, CBS News’ Chief White House Correspondent Norah O’Donnell and CBS News’ Political Director John Dickerson analyze Campaign 2012. Former RNC chairman and co-founder of American Crossroads PAC, Ed Gillespie, discusses the impact of super PACs.

The Chris Matthews Show: This week’s guests are Katty Kay, BBC Washington Correspondent; Michael Duffy TIME Magazine Assistant Managing Editor: Andrew Sullivan, The Daily Beast Editor, The Dish; and Kathleen Parker, The Washington Post Columnist.

Meet the Press with David Gregory: Sunday’s guests are GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick (D), New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (I) and Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels (R). Roundtable guests are Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-CA), NY Times columnist David Brooks, GOP strategist Alex Castellanos, and MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow.

State of the Union with Candy Crowley: Guests are Virginia Governor and Republican Governors Association Chair Bob McDonnell and Maryland Governor and Democratic Governors Association Chair Martin O’Malley, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins and Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-MI). Joining for a discussion panel are Former CBO Directors Alice Rivlin, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, and CNN Senior Political Analyst Ron Brownstein.

Veto on Syria stokes Arab and Western fury

Russian and Chinese vetoes at UN dubbed as “betrayal of Syrian people” amid fresh calls for President Assad to step down

Last Modified: 05 Feb 2012 08:37

Western and Arab powers have reacted angrily to Russia and China’s veto of a Security Council resolution on the Syria crisis, but Moscow and Beijing insisted the text had needed more work.

Russia and China on Saturday vetoed a UN Security Council resolution condemning the Syrian government’s deadly crackdown despite reports by Syrian activists that troops overnight had killed scores of civilians in the city of Homs.

Thirteen countries voted for the resolution proposed by European and Arab nations to give strong backing to the Arab League’s plan to end the violence in Syria that has claimed thousands of lives across the country since March 2011.