A Meme is Born

I should really start collecting material for a book documenting the hilarious pattern of the right wing's incredible fumbling of modern technology. They really are clueless when it comes to the internets. But no matter how funny the scrambling was before, from Ted "series of tubes" Stevens to Norm "Ethernet" Coleman, Twitter has become the social networking site most notable for paving a solid path to the glittering gold mine of right wing idiocy.

The latest? Well, congressman Eric Hoekstra (R-MI) thought it would be a good idea to get a double in by wowing the kids with his mad knowledge of all things Twitter while showing his solidarity with the protesters in Iran (who have been utilizing Twitter to communicate with the rest of the world about the recent events there). Tweeted Hoekstra:

"Iranian twitter activity similar to what we did in House last year when Republicans were shut down in the House."

Yes Pete, it's totally similar.

Which naturally, caused endless mocking from the rest of the Twitter community to the joy of everyone everywhere:

ArjunJaikumar @petehoekstra i spilled some lukewarm coffee on myself just now, which is somewhat analogous to being boiled in oil

But as those of us that are aware of all internet traditions know, no internet meme is complete until we bust out the LOLHoekstras.

Funny stuff.

(via The Agitator)

Media FAIL

So I've been scanning my blogs and news sources this weekend to find out what is happening in the aftermath of the Iranian elections, which are looking more and more to be completely rigged (Hilzoy over at Obsidian Wings has the worst case scenario, that this was nothing more then a coup with a pretty faux-democracy bow slapped on top). As a result, post-election riots erupted in Iran this Saturday, but you probably wouldn't know this if you are just watching your local and cable news networks. Part of this is because it appears that a lot of commnications, particularly online ones, have been shut down by the government. But part of it is also because American media is a complete joke.

Tuning into MSNBC yesterday morning, to check on the results and riots, I got maybe a five to ten minute blurb. And then they moved onto other things. Because sure, Iranian citizens in Tehran might be getting the shit beat out of them by the police this weekend, but more importantly, did you know that it's the one-year anniversary of Tim Russert's death? Let's just sit around and watch MSNBC masterbate over that for a while instead.

The coverage of Iran rest of this weekend has been no better. Sullivan has pretty much gone into a "screw the media" mode and has just started asking readers with ties to Iran to help translate and contact people in order to get a better picture of what is happening over there. But I suppose you really can't expect much better from our media anymore.