In Which Forbes Recognizes The Power Of The Maddow

The Most Influential Women In Media Forbes July 14, 2009
No. 15: Rachel Maddow

"Maddow's eponymous cable talk/news/events show debuted last year and now regularly beats her CNN competitor, Larry King Live, in the ratings. Maddow, 36, quickly established a reputation as someone who could tackle issues with intelligence and irreverence. With her embrace of Twittering, podcasting and fan art, she appeals to a younger, hipper audience. Her Web site is even designed like an iPod, with a "playlist." She also has a regular show on Air America, the liberal radio station."

Rachel is one of three out lesbians on the list, Ellen at number 4, and Suze Orman at number 18. In celebration, here is Rachel in media influencing mode:

In Which Ann Coulter Lusts After Rachel Maddow

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Sarcasm? I think not. Just check out the first thirty seconds of the clip below from 2006.



I knew it!

In Which My Sad, Sorry Life Regains Meaning

My keyboard runneth over! There's so much to be grateful for. Rachel's back, and she's using props and acting dorky. I haven't been this happy since...well... since...ok...since last night's awesome dinner - but you know what I mean.

First, the waders. The awesome waders. Is it wrong of me that I thought she looked hot in them?

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And, please to notice: still holding her ubiquitous pen.


Now, some actual news: Al Franken is finally a senator! Senator Klobuchar mentions that Senators Kennedy (D-MA) and Byrd (D-WV) are gravely ill, which could affect the Democrats supermajority. Before you start wringing your hands, I'd like to share this from Politics Daily.

It remains one of the most dramatic scenes in Senate history. California Democrat Clair Engle -- dying from a brain tumor -- was wheeled onto the Senate floor, attended by a nurse, to vote to end a Dixiecrat filibuster against the 1964 Civil Rights Act. As civil rights historian Nick Kotz tells it in "Judgment Days," Engle valiantly tried to speak but could not form the words. So he slowly lifted his hand and pointed to his eye as the Senate clerk declared, "Senator Engle votes aye."

Teared up a little, didn't you? Kennedy and Byrd are two guys I won't count out until they are truly gone.

If you haven't seen the Oscar winning documentary about Robert McNamara, "Fog of War" that Rachel makes reference to, you can watch it free here. It is not to be missed.

And, apropos of nothing, other than Holly Hunter is awesome as ass-kicking Grace in "Saving Grace," I present the theme song by Everlast. It has been in heavy rotation in the iPod for several months. (best heard cranked, with a subwoofer)



In celebration of Rachel's return from her fishing trip on Cape Cod, I would like to share a poem. Mary Oliver, a lesbian, is known as "The Bard of Provincetown." In the linked NYT article Oliver describes her relationship with Molly Malone Cook as a “40-year conversation."

She moved to Provincetown to be with the woman she loved, and to whom she has dedicated her books of poetry, Molly Malone Cook. As Ms. Oliver explained it in “Our World,” a collection of Ms. Cook’s photographs that she published two years after Ms. Cook’s death in 2005, the two of them had met at Steepletop, the home of Edna St. Vincent Millay, when both of them were there in the late 1950s visiting Norma Millay, the late poet’s sister, and her husband. “I took one look and fell, hook and tumble,” Ms. Oliver said in “Our World.”

I am a relationship cynic, but that does melt my heart.

On the Beach

Some herons
were fishing
in the robes
of the night

at a low hour
of the water’s body,
and the fish, I suppose,
were full

of fish happiness
in those transparent inches
even as, over and over,
the beaks jacked down

and the narrow
bodies were lifted
with every
shining sally,

and that was the end of them
as far as we know—
though, what do we know
except that death

is so everywhere and so entire—
pummeling and felling,
or sometimes,
like this, appearing

through such a thin door—
one stab, and you’re through!
And what then?
Why, then it was almost morning,

and one by one
the birds
opened their wings
and flew.

Perhaps more dark than celebratory, but excellent just the same. This little picture is the only one I could find of the two of them:

In Which...

Yeah, I hope she feels better...blah, blah, blah...sorry she's under the weather...blah, blah, blah...freaking needs to feel better tomorrow...blah-freaking-blah!!!

ETA: Sorry. My tone was a little harsh, but mostly I meant it. Which I'm sure says way too much about me. Cheers to Rachel's improved health! (That seems nicer, doesn't it?)

In Which We All Mutter, "Really, MSNBC?"

Seriously. Breaking news! MJ still dead. I have nothing to write about, so, as is usual in these circustances: gratuitious Maddow.

If I don't know who they are, I just crop 'em right out.

Rachel wears orange!

You can't really see her, but this picture cracks me up because she is dressed like nearly everyone I know.

Pictures all courtesy of MaddowFans.