Ana Marie Cox

The Inside Story: Now with 100 Percent More Demon Sheep (UPDATED)

UPDATE: So, uhm, yeah, I figured out how to post the audio to MY OWN BLOG and will thus stop directing traffic to box.net and CAP, though they are both fantastic organizations that I could not do the podcast without.

The Inside Story:

The Inside Story, with guests Christina Bellantoni and Rick Klein

DEMONSHEEP:

Demon Sheep: A Real-Time Narration

What with the snow day and all, you have time on your hands, yes? Time on your hands and, OBVIOUSLY, an internet connection, a combination that lends itself quite well to the listening of podcasts. So I have made one -- actually two -- for you.

The first is the inaugural edition of the newly independent Inside Story. You may recognize it from such networks as Air America... or, er, you may not. You may listen to it here. Guests this week (and yes, that does imply a "next week!" Fingers crossed!) are Christina Bellantoni, senior reporter for Talking Points Memo, and Rick Klein, senior reporter for ABC News. We discuss the Daily Kos poll of Republicans (the answers in the "not sure" category are the truly, truly terrifying data points), the Senate Hearings on Don't Ask, Don't Tell, and wonder if Republicans really know what it means to "steal" an election. (They have had enough practice...)

The second 'cast is a little different. Christina and Rick stay in the studio, but rather than discuss politics, we attempt to recreate, in audio form, the experience of watching THE DEMON SHEEP AD. I am not sure if we were successful, but it was very, very fun to make the effort. You can listen the experiment here . And if you haven't seen THE DEMON SHEEP AD, well, you must. You absolutely must. Here it is now.

UPDATE: Oh this is awesome: THERE WILL BE MORE DEMON SHEEP.

More Words I Never Thought I'd See in the Same Sentence

"[McCain] repeats the more temperate phrases used by his aide, Mark Salter."

I Was Right Before I Was Wrong

Sigh:

Unfortunately, yours truly got a little wobbly on the war as the invasion approached. A ridiculous weakness, in retrospect, given the fact that I was aware of the likely futility of the operation.

Telltale Tuesday

Live-blogging will occur here tonight. And it will have cursing and probably inappropriate mocking of prominent pundits.
A more conventional -- and certainly more appropriate -- live-blog will happen at Swampland. I'll open up the comments here for the 12 people that are reading to pitch in. And, as always, I appreciate input from the peanut gallery for the jokes and whatnot that I will take credit for. You can reach me at anamariecox - at - gmail.com or on IM as (snicker now if you like): foulmouthedvixen.

Oxymorons

Christopher Caldwell now covers Europe from a conservative American perspective for FT; back when he was on staff at the Weekly Standard, my fellow commie pinko symp husband and I hung out with him a fair amount. We mainly talked about personalities and not politics, but the subject -- of course -- came up. I remember reflecting on how we disagreed on stuff, but that I would rather talk to him than most people I agreed with. Chris rolled his eyes and said, that he appreciated the compliment, but that he hoped I'd keep it to myself. "What's the biggest insult a liberal pundit can give to a conservative one?" He joked, "Calling him 'thoughtful.'" Caldwell's point was that if a liberal thinks a conservative is "thoughtful," he probably isn't really conservative. (I could go off on a McCain tangent here but. I. Won't.)

James Joyner's somewhat coy response to a similar compliment from Juan Cole references the same phenomenon but tries to be constructive, and asks readers for suggestions about conservative bloggers who are "1) civil, 2) analytical in style and substance, and 3) not so in the bag for the Republican Party as to be a hack." He rephrases it simply: "what conservative bloggers would be worth reading even if you disagreed with most of their posts?"

My own blog-reading habits are eccentric enough that I'm not sure I can even answer the question. I read and enjoy a lot of blogs out of a perverse sense of anthropological excitement, like I'm observing a fascinating, obscure culture (The Corner, Daily Kos); and I watch those with the ability to come up with spectacularly wrong theories of political engagement like they were a years-long trainwreck. (How much do I love Dan Riehl? I love Dan Riehl a lot.)

I Know It's Actually the Network's Fault, But Still

I'm demanding "anti-social commentator" for the next time I go on.

Joe and Mark Go to the Oscars

Funny, I think.

And remember, if you disagree that Anne Hathaway's dress is "trés classique!", Joe has covered more red carpets than you.