A Little Of The Old In And Out



(image via usda)

In: E-Verify. The scary far-right, for all their xenophobic Nativism, have gained traction in their populist battle against a popular President by raising the spectre of illegal aliens taking construction jobs from the American worker. We cannot imagine an scenario in which the President, who could face a critical backlash in the demographically important American Southwest, might not advocate for E-Verify. It's not personal; it's just politics. This week the Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009 allows that E-Verify should remain operational until September 30th. From Patrick Buchanan, America's "Archie Bunker," who had an otherwise bad week when his pal John Demjanjuk was charged with WWII murders:

"E-Verify is becoming standard operating procedure for U.S. businesses that wish to obey the law. According to NumbersUSA, U.S. businesses have used E-Verify in 3 million inquiries this year alone. That is almost half the total of 6.6 million inquiries for all of 2008 and five times the rate of use in 2007.

"E-Verify is a smashing success with an accuracy rate of over 99 percent that holds out promise of a day when every employer in America will be able to ensure that every employee is an American or someone authorized to work here. At its rising rate of use, one-fourth to one-third of all new hires could soon be checked by E-Verify.

"Isn’t this what we all want, what we have all sought—an easy, verifiable, non-intrusive, inexpensive way for businesses to assure that those they hire are in our country legally?"

While the lack of jobs for Mexican illegals is bad news for Mexico, presently in an existential struggle with the drug cartels, it is bad news for the American worker. It is not personal, it is just politics.



Out: Norm Coleman. The lonely, quixotic struggle of Norm Coleman is beginning to look a lot like the near-endless battle of Ellen "Sour Grapes" Sauerbrey to achieve the Governorship of Maryland (never happened, btw). Is Al Franken a prickish asshole that has no business in the Senate? Naturally. But it looks like he won this, a race he should not have been able to win. So -- go away Norm Coleman. Do what countless American politicians have done before and exit the stage with some dignity to live to fight another day. Don't drag us into your fucking issues about letting go.

For the sake of the country and the citizens of Minnesota, please desist Norm Coleman! Close elections ousting incumbents may be embarassing personally but they are nothing new in the history of these Unites States of America. Sitting Vice President Al Gore stepped aside under dodgy circumstances in favor of then-Senator George Bush rather than plunge us into a Constitutional crisis. If it is the Minnesota peoples will to return you to the Senate, they will -- the nest time around. From TheHill:

"Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Friday that he would urge former Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) to take his legal battle with Al Franken to federal court, potentially dragging out the Minnesota Senate race for several more months.

"'This could end up in federal court, based on the allegations of the Coleman campaign that there hasn’t been a consistent manner of counting votes from county to county,' McConnell told reporters Friday morning.

"McConnell noted that a court ruling in the post-election battle between Al Gore and George W. Bush found that the 14th Amendment required that votes must be counted the same way in different counties.

"'Whatever standard you have in one county, you have to have in another county.'

"McConnell said he would urge Coleman to take his legal fight to the federal courts, which could delay the outcome of the Minnesota Senate race for several more months.

"'I don’t know when this ends,' said McConnell. 'It seems endless at the moment.'"

Well, it could end with Coleman graciously stepping aside for the sake of his state so that the US Senate can procede in an orderly fashion and then running again next time around for the seat as a challenger. But that sort of high-mindedness would betray a sense of civic responsibility that is beyond the feeble limitations of Coleman's asshole character.



(image via nytimes)

In: Jimmy Fallon. Damn him and his goddam sincerity. We wanted to hate Jimmy Fallon, we really did. We have in the past. But his wooing -- his studied, tech heavy courting -- of the blog nation, of hipsters, has been by and large successful. Damn him and his charm offensive. From Variety:

"Jimmy Fallon finished his first week as host of NBC's 'Late Night' franchise on top, beating all cable and broadcast competition while also besting incumbent Conan O'Brien's season average.

"In addition, Fallon's was the most watched premiere week for a latenight yakker in the last decade, bettering the bows of 'The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson' (2 million viewers in January 2005), ABC's 'Jimmy Kimmel Live' (1.7 million in January 2003) and 'The Late Late Show With Craig Kilborn' (1.5 million in March/April 1999)."

Well played Jimmy Fallon. Well. Played.



Out: CNBC. Jim Cramer had a bad night, clearly, but so did his parent network CNBC, which took the brunt of the beating that Jon Stewart dished out. Cramer's strategy of avoiding direct blame by minimizing his role on CNBC made the cabler look, well, pathetic. From -- of all places -- the Financial Times (yup, it's a bona fide financial news story now):

"The scrutiny of CNBC’s responsibilities as a real-time network whose reporting frequently moves markets was more damaging to the channel’s brand than to Mr Cramer, said Harris Diamond, chief executive of the constituency management group at Interpublic.

"The expectation hanging over the interview was built up in part by CNBC’s sister channels, NBC and MSNBC, which invited Mr Cramer to appear during the week to dismiss Mr Stewart as 'a comedian'

"On Thursday night, 'it changed from comedy to news,' Mr Diamond said.

"Mr Cramer, usually over-the-top, was sometimes contrite, admitting that he had got many things wrong, and CNBC was fair game.

"'Don’t you want guys like me, who’ve been in it, to show the shenanigans?' Mr Cramer asked. 'I’m not Edward R Murrow, I’m a guy trying to do an entertainment show,' he said, in reference to the trenchant broadcaster’s McCarthy era exposes.

"Finance was not a joke, Mr Stewart said.

"The clash, coming after CNBC has enjoyed some of the highest ratings in its history, began when Mr Santelli pulled out of a planned appearance on the Daily Show."

Will Cramer even be allowed to keep his job after he belittled his role as a broadcaster (not Edward Murrow? Why even admit to that?)? And if CNBC's own on-air host wont stand behind his financial expertise, then why should the viewers?