Prime Time Thread

Open thread for mocking the constant variety of cable news hackery and whatever else you’re doing.

Tonight! Where’s the Coward Rick Santelli?

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  • Kat

    Tonight! Where’s the Coward Rick Santelli?Sucking Ann Coulter’s dick?I know, that was horrible. I’ll go away now.

  • Packy

    I LIKED it, Kat.No more Ms. Nice Guy!

  • SillyRatfacedGit

    Nice one Kat. High Five!Sick Rantelli is working up a new rant for CNBC distribution bitching and moaning about all of those ‘losers’ living on Food Stamps while their husbands are serving in Iraq. He’s really tired of supporting all these losers and he’s going to have to go Galt.

  • Nanotyrannus

    Dibbs on Levi’s turgid hockey cock.I picked up something from the War Room at salon.com –

    “At a breakfast with reporters this morning sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor, McConnell — the Senate Republican leader and, effectively, President Obama’s most powerful GOP adversary — made it abundantly clear that he already regards the administration as something between a misguided failure and an absolute disaster. “Their strategy is to use the fact that we’re all frightened to death about the economy to achieve a whole lot of other things that may or may not have any relation whatsoever to do with how we ended up in this dilemma,” McConnell said. “The goal is to take advantage of this situation to pass what appears to be a 20- or 30-year wishlist for liberal elements of their party.”

    Isn’t that right out of their playbook? Every time one of these shitbirds starts complaining, it’s about something they’ve done regularly for the past eight years.”(apologies for the long quote)

  • Kat

    Levi’s cock is all yours, Nano. I’m gay for Rachel Maddow anyways.And I should have known I couldn’t offend this crowd.

  • Packy

    Git – if Santini went Galt, no one would even fucking notice… except it’d be quieter on the TV machine.

  • SillyRatfacedGit

    I want to perform irrumatio on McConnel. What a piece of slime he is.(Thanks fe)

  • SillyRatfacedGit

    Good point packy. These people keep threatening to go Galt, but you know that they are not competent to *actually* go Galt. They are such a tease. If they really went Galt we wouldn’t have to listen to their inane bullshit any more.

  • Jim

    Since it’s been brought up: Ann Coulter. Who is hitting that? Inquiring minds need to know. She would make a pretty good sex slave, a psycho booty-call, but that’s as far I’d go.

  • http://www.thenewwearsoff.com/ Kyle

    Ann Coulter “went galt” when it comes to cock a while back, I believe.

  • SillyRatfacedGit

    Jim ewwwww. Who would want to? (shudders)I’m askeert that if I gave it to her, she wouldn’t give it back.

  • ceu

    Well, think about it. Whose absence is more noticeable – the CEO’s or his secretary’s?

  • Packy

    Jim… Yuck. Your comment, and the accompanying ugly, ugly mental image has just put me into a semi-permanent shrivel.Thanks, buddy.

  • idreamofskiba

    Kat, that’s a good article on Rachel.I’m totally gay for her. Funny they mentioned her neck…I’m always drawn to her neck for some reason.

  • SillyRatfacedGit

    Excellent point Chris.At the office the CEO’s absence is never noticed as long as his secretary (or executive assistant) is present.The CEO’s absence is only noticed at the golf course.

  • Jim

    LOL @ Packy & SillyRat. C’mon, guys, the Cuervo gold and fine Columbian will make tonight a wonderful thing. Don’t lie.

  • Packy

    Jim,When it comes to Coulter, I don’t think I could GET that fucked up. I’d pass out first.

  • Lexaburn

    Never mind Rantelli. If none of the CNBCowards will not be called out by Keith or Rachel, what good is it to patronize either show with our viewership? They were all hyping the event up…probably to get their crook friends to bilk people into betting on who would win the damned thing.I’m sure some here saw his little joke about “Stewart,” right? Cramer just reveled in being a plain chump this evening on his show. He still thinks he’s funny. This is the behavior we all encourage and enable in these egotistical, elitist media scuzzbuckets.The octopus has many arms. The situation is this: Stewart began something that I don’t think even he was ready to comprehend: the national rebuke of the cable “news” culture. I know that the meat of his show is to satirize these imbeciles on these cable gossip shows, but if he seriously believes they are “hurting” America, his efforts last night were like a balm to cure what ails us. The entire NBC cabal ought to hang their heads in shame. They pimped this damned thing all week, but then refuse to acknowledge it once it all went down. Such flagrant indolence is typical of snobs. They’re the George W. Bush of journalism.God damned useless mediots, everyone of them.

  • Will

    Why is the entire NBC family ignoring the smackdown Jon Stewart administered last night?

  • ceu

    @Will. They think if they ignore it, it will go away. It’s easier than admitting that they’ve been totally incompetent at their jobs for the past 20 years

  • Packy

    Perhaps because they’re embarrassed that a late night comic is doing the job THEY should be doing… seeking the truth…Nah.It’s just cause they’re douchnozzles.

  • thruwithbuzz

    Jim, do I sense another Dan fan out there?

  • SillyRatfacedGit

    Because, as I have been saying for over 10 years, they are corporatist propaganda dispensers NOT news organizations. What they do has nothing to do with journalism. The only time they provide a real unspun, unfiltered, unprocessed news story is by accident.TV journalism died when ratings were done on news shows. It’s a small step from entertaining news shows to outright propaganda. Few noticed when it happened. It was more noticeable in which stories were completely ignored. (The filtering) If you only got your news’ from TV you didn’t know that there were stories you weren’t hearing about.

  • Packy

    So, Git… I guess there ARE “unknown unknowns… the things we don’t know we don’t know?”

  • SillyRatfacedGit

    I forgot to finish.Ignoring stories is SOP. They have never once mentioned that our voting machines are not fit for purpose. Did you know that the SoS of Ohio is sueing (Diebold) Premier Election Systems for selling voting machines that don’t work?Did you know the the CA SoS did a Top To Bottem review of election machines that concluded that none of them worked or could be trusted?Did you know that the OH SoS did a similar review called EVEREST that also found that the voting machines don’t work and can’t be trusted?Did you know that Ohios 2004 election was tabulated on computers in TN owned and operated by a fellow named Connel who was the web wizard that set up W’s reelection web site as well as setting up the White Email systems and servers in the Capital used by house and senate commitees.Connel died in a mysterious plane crash in early December.Do you wonder how Bush beat Kerry in 2004?None of these ‘minor’ stories has been mentioned by the MSM. You can find them. The truth is out there.You’d think that these would be a big story, that everyone would have heard of it, but our fourth estate has become the Ministry of Information.They ignore the Daily Show because that is what they always do. Pretend it never happened.

  • http://nanotyrnns.blogspot.com/ Nanotyrannus

    Does anyone think that maybe Stewart just fired a huge shot across the bow of the BBQ media? I mean, he’s been doing this for years, but only now has it suddenly gotten so much attention outside of his normal viewership. Maybe this will wake them up a bit. He just showed the media that all he needs is a few hours and a Tivo to make a complete fool out of any one of them.

  • http://www.thenewwearsoff.com/ Kyle

    Let’s not get into Meno’s paradox or Rumsfeld’s thought process, Packy!

  • SillyRatfacedGit

    Packy – Yeah. We have a shitload of unknown unknowns.If they start filtering the internet we’ll really be screwed. Keep fighting for net neutrality. Machines that can prioritize network traffic can also censor. The software difference between traffic shaping and censorship is trivial.

  • SillyRatfacedGit

    Kyle -I always hoped that Rummy could talk himself into a singularity and disappear. Alas, no.

  • SillyRatfacedGit

    Nano -He did. I’m not certain that was his goal or intent. He just wanted to dig Santelli a deserved new asshole. Cramer was collateral damage.

  • jane

    Wow, a sausage fest tonight. I should be able to get someone to buy me a drink in this crowd.And if I seem like a ditzy woman, I’m not pretending.

  • jane

    Okay, fuck it, I’ll buy the drinks.Just ignore me. I’ll go catch up on some Bill Maher. No brain cells left for The Seriousness.

  • Jim

    I think the thought of quality time with Coulter petered *ahem* these guys out.

  • ceu

    G&T for me, please, Jane.

  • ElMystico

    Hey… anyone know how to convert an area given in decimal degrees to one in, oh, say, kilometers or another unit that anyone’s ever heard of? No? Okay, well, I’m boned… stupid computer program take home exam bullshit gaaaah! I would buy you a drink Jane but I’m still at work for the next three hours… blah! That’s what I say.grumblecakes.

  • SillyRatfacedGit

    yo jane! Rachel’s kicking ass as per usual.

  • jane

    One gin & tonic. Who else? Bong hit? Whack to the forehead? Anyone? Bueller?

  • ceu

    It’s always so nice when a national news person (Rachel) pronounces Boston properly.

  • SillyRatfacedGit

    If you haven’t seen this you should.http://thepolitichtalcarnival.blogspot.com/2009/03/more-fuel-secret-e-mails-show-iraq.htmlSeveral of those emails should be engraved on granite slabs and then forcibly inserted up Ari’s ass sideways.

  • jane

    Red’s got a post on the Interscapes that everyone otter read.Also, heh, read the wall posts.

  • SillyRatfacedGit

    Rachel lives in the Berkshires or somewhere in Western Mass. (I assume the Berkshires only because I know that no one there gives a shit about sexual orientation. They may frown on sex with cattle however, but they won’t shoot you for it.)You know I didn’t notice that until you mentioned it. But she says Boston and I don’t cringe like I usually do so she must have said it right.

  • GIthePotato

    I’ll take take a beer, a bong hit and a quickie in the bathroom from Jane.

  • jane

    Joe: Done, done, and done.

  • GIthePotato

    That was quick. I feel better already. Now it is time for a nap and some Bill Maher.

  • SillyRatfacedGit

    I needs me a Long Island Iced Tea.

  • ceu

    It would have to be the Berkshires, since there is nothing else in Western MA.She’s the epitome of a Northamptonite – which is a GOOD thing, for those of you live below the M-D line.ElMyst, i asked my son, the physicist, your question. He left the room rolling his eyes. Apparently, that means no. sorry.

  • fe

    we’re boring tonight, guys.

  • http://www.shitheadery.com capedshitheader

    Fantastic news of the night. I’m still reeling from seeing a real interview last night on The Daily Show and can’t believe it took a “comedian” to question the integrity of so called reporters. The interview Stewart aired from thestreet.com was brilliant and the coincidence of the day, is the CEO of thestreet.com quit today.http://shitheadery.com/Talk-Shows/clown-car-caravan.htmlA big bow goes to Stewart, and an ass up to Cramer and his ilk. The beauty is that I can accomplish both with one move.

  • http://nanotyrnns.blogspot.com/ Nanotyrannus

    I think he’s definitely sent the message that he can do a take down and not because he’s The Almighty Jon Stewart of the Daily Show, but simply because these guys have left a double-wide trail of half-assed reporting for him to mine. The shitty work of their pathetic careers is out there on video waiting patiently for him to find. Clips of them getting it wrong, clips of them kissing ass when they should have been reporting, clips of them focusing on the wrong angle of a story, and on and on and on.

  • SillyRatfacedGit

    My brother lived in Northampton for about 5 years so I’ve been to the Brewpub there many times. The first time I visited him there I said “Well there is no shortage of young ladies around here.” He said “That’s true, however a large number of them are only interested in each other.” I agree that Rachel is the epitome of a Northamptonite. He liked it there and I liked to visit. He moved away because jobs became scarce.

  • Packy

    Mystico: Decimal degree conversion, simple steps:# The whole units of degrees will remain the same (i.e. in 121.135° longitude, start with 121°).# Multiply the decimal by 60 (i.e. .135 * 60 = 8.1).# The whole number becomes the minutes (8′).# Take the remaining decimal and multiply by 60. (i.e. .1 * 60 = 6).# The resulting number becomes the seconds (6″). Seconds can remain as a decimal.# Take your three sets of numbers and put them together, using the symbols for degrees (°), minutes (‘), and seconds

  • Packy

    Or did you need radians?

  • SillyRatfacedGit

    Wow. Now there’s two things I didn’t expect.1. An algorithm to convert from decimal degrees to degrees minutes seconds.2. A visit from the Caped Shitheader.I just hope we don’t get a Spanish Inquisition.

  • ceu

    Geez! Who knew Packy spoke Math?!@Git. Brewpub… yup. Halfway between Mt. Snow & home. :) Northampton is great. They actually stop for pedestrians there and people know what “don’t block the box” means.

  • fe

    Packy, was that in your head?

  • SillyRatfacedGit

    fe -Yeah, that was out of his head. I didn’t understand what El Mystico was asking for.

  • AdyLeigh

    Mmmm…SillyGit, did you say Long Island Iced Tea? One of my favorite drinks.But a White Russian is even better.

  • SillyRatfacedGit

    Hey AdyI like my Russians Black.I should have asked for a Frozen Mudslide. I haven’t had one in over 2 years.

  • ElMystico

    Actually I need meters…or kilometers. I’m doing a GIS project and the effing data is all decimal degrees. Also fucking me up is that the conversions I’m finding require it to be the distance between to lat/long points, and I need to convert areas. Why anyone would use square decimal degrees for anything is beyond me.Decimal degrees can suck a dick, basically.Unless anyone just knows the total area of federal lands in Colorado off the top of their head…

  • Packy

    Packy, by profession, is a Registered Land Surveyor (though that’s not what I do for a living these days), so I speak some math, as it applies to surveying, trigonometry, geometry and such.It wasn’t completely out my head, though. I can sit here and DO the math, but decided explaining was tough… so I found someone other person’s fairly concise explanation.I’m not sure if it was what ElMystico was looking for, anyway, because degrees are a measurement of angle, not area, and he seemed to be mixing them up a bit in his question.I think I’ll go waterboard some Spaniards now, and make them confess to being heretics.

  • ElMystico

    Packy…if you happen to know how to use convert units in an attribute table in ArcGIS…you’ll be my hero forever.

  • ElMystico

    About the whole area/angle thing… The units of my data (or so it says in the metadata cos the table doesn’t note the units) are decimal degrees,one of which is roughly 113 km if we’re talking about the earth (although which projection/coordinate system we’re using also fucks with that length I think). So, the perimeter and area of federal lands are given in decimal degrees and I really don’t know what to do with it other than weep softly.(Here’s what the file says about the area data)Attribute:Attribute_Label: AreaAttribute_Definition:The size of the shape in square coverage units. In the distributedfile, coverage units represent decimal degrees.*le sigh*

  • SillyRatfacedGit

    El MysticoArrgghhh. I feel your pain lat/lon position of pts to define an area is a painful process. I think I’d rather have sex with Coulter or Palin.I’ll give you some ideas next comment.

  • http://www.shitheadery.com capedshitheader

    Nobody expects the Spanish inquisition

  • Packy

    Mystico… I’m not sure, but there may be some help here for you.Lat & Long are great, but only useful for some things. Since the earth is an oblate spheroid, and not a sphere, a plane coordinate system was devised to correct for the earth’s un-roundness.Are you in Colorado? The State may have that Fed Lands info available at their website.

  • ElMystico

    I am in teh CO, but I feel like looking it up would be cheating… However, if it gets closer to the deadline on this bitch I may just look it up. Although, I have a feeling my Teaching Unit might be able to divine that I went to outside sources.Also, your mom’s an oblate spheroid.Sorry, that’s mean.Anne Coulter, now that bitch(‘s Adam’s apple) is one oblate spheroid.

  • Packy

    Mystico,Maybe my mom’s an oblate spheroid, but your mom’s Lat. really liked my Long. a lot!

  • ElMystico

    Okay, now we’re just a hair’s breadth from making dirty jokes about integrals and vector fields, and that would just be lame.Vector field? I barely even know ‘er field.Dammit!

  • Packy

    Vector HELL! Killed her!

  • Packy

    BTW- isn’t asking someone here “going to outside sources” anyway?This is the information age, dude. I’m OLD, and I know that!

  • SillyRatfacedGit

    distance is a constant for degrees only for latitude. A nautical mile is 1 minute of arc (IIRC) so if you go one nautical mile north your latitude increases by 1 minute. If you go another 59 nautical miles than you are now 1 degree farther north than your starting point. For latitude, this is always true wherever you are.Distance as a function of east/west travel along a latitude (change in longitude) depend on your latitude. If you are at the equator, then the 1 nautical mile per minute of arc still applies, but at 45 degrees north lat. you only go a half nautical mile to change your longitude by a minute of arc.As you can see this is nontrivial. It is also complicated by the fact that you are dealing with a subset of the surface area of a sphere, so this is a three dimensional problem if you want good accuracy.I did some stuff like this for a RADAR display in the late 80s. We got good results using a spherical model of the earth and were able to ignore surface elevation for our application.I wish I knew of some software out there that you could snarf for the algorithms. Somebody at a uni must have some open source stuff out there that does what you need. This would be a common problem.Can/Do you write software?If so what languages?

  • Packy

    Git, NOAA has the on-line software for free use.

  • ElMystico

    >>>It is also complicated by the fact that you are dealing with a subset of the surface area of a sphere, so this is a three dimensional problem if you want good accuracy.Plus the data wasn’t projected, and then I chose a projection for it…No idea whether that affects the numbers in the table (or should but doesn’t) But whatever.I tried some basic programming once, Git, but I never really took to it. I’m learning to use GIS, which is a pretty awesome piece of software, but luckily people did all the writing for me. Although if they included a way to do the conversion I seek, they hid it away pretty well.(The help file is of course, fucking useless)

  • ElMystico

    >>>BTW- isn’t asking someone here “going to outside sources” anyway?Well, you guys are nearby, relatively speaking. I just assume the Teaching Unit wants us to be able to figure it out from the data using the program. But whatever, it’s Friday night and the only reason I’m still messing with this bullshit is I’m at work waiting to lock up after the state HS girls basketball championships.Broomfield High beat the Mullen Mustangs in the 4a division, BTW, for everyone out there following Colorado high school sports.Someone get me out of here…

  • SillyRatfacedGit

    Try this google search. It may provide you what you need or not.http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF8&q=arcGIS+surface+areaThis looks interesting to me:Ironing Out Colorado: Planimetric versus Surface AreaWe used ArcGIS’s grid command Slopegrid = slope(CO90mDEM, degree). The next step calculates the surface area for each 90 meter grid based on the location’s …www.innovativegis.com/basis/Supplements/BM_Dec_02/Ironing_Colorado.htm

  • Packy

    Wow. THIS conversation was probably the ultimate thread killer!

  • SillyRatfacedGit

    which is the better oblate spheroid – Karl Rove or Rush Limbaugh?

  • SillyRatfacedGit

    Heh – We should probably avoid math and computer programming.You’re a Surveyor packy?

  • ElMystico

    I think Rush… Karl Rove is more of a skeleton loosely draped in borrowed pig flesh.

  • Packy

    Yes. I am. But I don’t write the software, I just use it. I did have to learn how the whole UTM system works, tho.

  • veralynn

    wow what a conversation guysand eeww Myst….eeewww on the rover thinglol, i was going to fix that typo but i think i like it

  • veralynn

    Nobody expects the Spanish inquisitionPosted by: capedshitheader at March 13, 2009 11:31 PMthat never gets old, just likebring out your dead

  • ElMystico

    Meanwhile, the Spanish Inquisition is hopping the cross town bus just hoping to make it in time… Two- three!- for the Old Baily please!Well, Veralynn, I make no apologies for anything I say about Karl Rove as a matter of course. There’s really nothing I can do for you, other than repeat the phrase ‘loosely draped’ a couple of times…loosely draped

  • veralynn

    very nicely done Myst, very nicely done

  • SillyRatfacedGit

    Rush it is.Packy -People like me write everyone’s software. I mostly write stuff that you never see or think about. Most of the stuff I write is in things like wireless gateways/routers, except most of the stuff I wrote software for sat in phone company central offices and in the communications closets in schools, businesses, and universities. One of the machines I wrote software for wound up in every school and university in Florida. As far as I know, all of their network traffic still flows through them 24/7. The stuff I write has to work. Crashes are not allowed. I have little to no respect for that company up in suburban Seattle.

  • emsique

    Herro, Amelican Hippies!I know you are all asleep, or awake the next day or whatever the fuck else you are doing on the other side of the planet, but here is my 2 yuan’s worth about the media. Here in China they have state controlled newpapers, TV news, etc. The really weird thing is that they really aren’t that different from the MSM in the States. They cover some stuff, sometimes in depth. They can even be critical of the government. They also neglect to mention stories, just like NBC. The newspapers are kind of like USA Today.It’s sad that in the land of a “free press” our corporate owned media bears a powerful resemblence to the state run stuff of a totalitarian state.