‘Inquirer’ Compares Bob Casey To… Borat?

The Inquirer reports on Bob Casey’s Senate orientation sessions this week. Nothing too fancy, until the end.

Casey was asked about where he was planning on living in D.C.:

“Somewhere close in and inexpensive,” Casey said of his housing plans, displaying a comic, Boratlike innocence in his understanding of the Washington housing market.

Agreeing with Wonkette here: “It’s nice that what is surely the first use of ‘Boratlike’ in a major newspaper is also completely nonsensical. But there’s our talking points for Senator-elect Casey: Antisemite, sister-fucker.”

Thanks as usual, Inquirer.

Casey begins Senate orientation [Inquirer]
Orientation Week Continues: Bob Casey Finds DC Housing Market “Verrry Niiiice” [Wonkette]

True Comedy Does Not Defame Eurasian Nations

A letter writer in today’s Daily News writes with anger at the new Borat movie:

I was looking for some good belly laughs. What I found was a display of ignorance and bigotry that was uncomfortable. My husband and I walked out not quite halfway through.

We aren’t Jewish, but we found nothing amusing in his depiction of Jews. In fact, it was nothing more than a degrading depiction of many groups, including women. I come from a time (I’m 63) when entertainment didn’t need to resort to foul language, nudity or insults for a laugh.

I long for a return to decency. But this won’t happen as long as we continue to accept mediocrity or make excuses as to the moral decay of society. It’s sad that recent generations missed true comedy like Bob Hope, Abbott & Costello, Carol Burnett, Lucille Ball, Bill Cosby, to name a few.

Ahh, yes, Bill Cosby, who when doing his great “true comedy” was also allegedly drugging and sexually assaulting women. Of course, that may be legal in Kazakhstan, so perhaps “Borat” is guilty of that as well.

Cosby Lawsuit Settled [Daily News]
Borat movie left a bad taste in her mouth [Daily News]

Now That The Election’s Over, We Can Get Back To Important News Like This

TWO Borats? [Inquirer]

To Note: Our Editorial Content Is Not For Sale

Jon Fine reports in Business Week today about a company called PayPerPost.com, which allows bloggers to make a few quick bucks by mentioning (favorably) products in their posts.

Here are the relevant bits of the article:

Murphy is launching PayPerPost.com, which will automate such hookups between advertisers and bloggers and thus codify a new frontier of product placement. Advertisers pay to post details about their “opportunity,” specifying, among other things, how they want bloggers to write about, say, a new shoe, if they want photos to be included, and whether they’ll pay only for positive mentions. Bloggers who abide by the rules get paid; heavily trafficked blogs may command premium rates. Those seeking to subvert PayPerPost from within can’t: No pornographic or “illicit” content is accepted.

Murphy’s approach used to be more ad hoc. He made invitations through e-mail via the BlogStar Network, which he started in 2004. BlogStar paid nicely — a flat fee of $5 or $10 per post. “Easy money…go buy a burger or something,” advised a BlogStar invitation from 2005 soliciting posts about cable network TNT’s basketball commercials featuring HBO character Ali G. That come-on also told bloggers “we definitely appreciate more positive posts.”

Just so you know: Our editorial content will continue to be simply whatever I pull out of my brain/ass and slap into a little web-based form for the indefinite future. That mention of Ali G, though, reminds me: The Borat movie comes out in November, and I hear it’s great!

Polluting The Blogosphere [Business Week]
Borat: Cultural Learnings from America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan [Wikipedia]