With last night's debate, ABC took sucking to a whole new level
-Headline of the day-
"In Pa. Debate, The Clear Loser Is ABC."
WaPo's resident brainiac Tom Shales writes a review of last night's Democratic debate and it seems it pretty much blew. If, like me, you love a bad review, go read it -- no one can pan as well as Shales.
We're told that moderators Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos "turned in shoddy, despicable performances," that for the first half of the debate "Gibson and Stephanopoulos dwelled entirely on specious and gossipy trivia that already has been hashed and rehashed, in the hope of getting the candidates to claw at one another over disputes that are no longer news," and that "Cable news is indeed taking over from network news, and merely by being competent."
Stephanopoulos gets slammed pretty well, as Shales writes that he "looked like an overly ambitious intern helping out at a subcommittee hearing, digging through notes for something smart-alecky and slimy." He also suspects ABC was in the tank for Hillary. Add to this the fact that Stephanopoulos was coached by right wing loon Sean Hannity and you've really got a train wreck.
Other headlines about the debate were just as stinging, but I went with Shales because I like his writing. UK's Guardian asks "The Dumbest Debate in America?", the Seattle Post-Intelligencer informs us that "Moderators made sure there were no winners," and National Public Radio wonders, "The Debate: Trivial or Critical?"
This is the network that thinks According to Jim is a laugh riot, so I guess we really shouldn't be all that surprised. Suck begets suck.
Geez, it's no wonder we're all bitter. (Washington Post)
-So how bad was it really?-
So bad that Charlie Gibson got booed. Seriously. C&L has the video. (Crooks and Liars)
-Anything about pants is funny...-
...but what about massage pants?
That's right, Wenzhou Wonderful Massage Equipment Company is selling massage pants. You kind of have to assume that they're wonderful. The company's Chinese and, looking at the product description, you get the feeling that something was lost in translation. We're informed that the pants have "Built-7 group of super vibration massage, a scientific and rational allocation" and "Ring far infrared heaters, automatic temperature control, safe and reliable."
If that means anything in English, it's news to me. Oddly, the page doesn't say how much they cost, but they're freakin' massage pants -- it's got to be a bundle. Order now and get "High-performance rechargeable batteries for exclusive use, energy, security." (Tradekey.com, via Geekologie)
