talk radio 2005

David Foster Wallace just killed himself. Ezra Klein links a piece he did for the Atlantic on talk radio circa 2005. Good details on a scary subculture.

consolidating frame

Some recent DailyKos posts to add to AS and others - we may be at a moment where a new liar frame is emerging about McCain. Not because the bloggers are calling out lies like they've been doing, but that the traditional media is shifting (finally) to ignoring the superficial content and going for the real pattern - the consistent lies on all subjects. And if you believe that elections are decided on things like framing, then this is devastating.

What is surprising this election season is that a piece of the megamedia actually seems to be starting to call out campaign lies, as Chris Carlson points out. Some of the traditional media - the old and established media so calcified and concentrated and craven that it failed to examine the lies of the men and women of an administration whose policies McCain and Palin would like to continue for another four years - actually are saying, "wait a minute, that’s frakkin’ bullshit."

Well, they've not gone quite that far.

Also, the loss of intellectual authority then gives other figures cover to oppose you on principle, like Alan Greenspan has just done. (AP: "Greenspan: Country Can't Afford McCain's Tax Cuts")

Cool chart of the tax plans btw. Send to friends!

Les Misbarack

check out Palin as the Thernadiers ;)

Youtube

quoted in entirety

Andrew Sullivan brings it:

If McCain were a blogger, he would have had to retract by now. But he's running for president of the United States, so he can say anything, lie about anything and not have to answer for it. Yesterday, John McCain lied on national television about something that no one disputes in the public record. He was challenged by the only serious journalists on television right now - the hosts of "The View" - about the large number of pork barrel earmarks Sarah Palin sought and secured as governor of Alaska, including the "Bridge To Nowhere" that Palin and McCain lied about and are still lying about in public. Here was his clear and irrefutable statement:

Palin's comments came after McCain sat for a feisty grilling on ABC's "The View," where he claimed erroneously that his running mate hadn't sought money for such pet projects. "Not as governor she didn't," McCain said, ignoring the record.

It has now been a day since McCain lied this explicitly in public. And he hasn't yet retracted his lie. This AP piece is dated as of this afternoon. Why not?

Because if he has to retract this lie, he will have to retract his multiple other lies? While the media demands that Obama respond to things he never said and never meant, McCain is not even asked to retract a bald-faced, massive, obvious, refutable lie.

In the last month, McCain has become the biggest liar in the modern history of presidential politics. He makes Bill Clinton look like George Washington.

Word.

creeping falangism

Ha. Nice title for this story from TPM. McCain campaign caught making up crowd size numbers.

Also from TPM, a reader's comment on the consequences of politics based on lies. Possible end stage campaign theme seems to be shaping up. Josh: "This campaign has shown that while we know McCain has physical courage, he has bad moral character"

it's all our fault

Driftglass gets a little too insulting at times, but damn, he has a point.

Hell, if the election were between the Risen Christ (D) and Satan’s Fiery Cock (R), come election day polling would still peg it at “too close to call”: 45% Risen JC, 45% Lucifer’s Penis, 7% undecided (“My friend Laura says that Mr. Jesus is good on the economy, but I just trust that Fiery Cock fella a little bit more on keeping America safe. And his running mate is so feisty!”), 2% Ron Paul and 1% Ralph “Not a dime’s worth of difference between them!” Nader.

This election was, is and will continue to be over that oblivious 8%.

Maybe it is audacious, but let's hope they do what's right.

rally disruption

McCain cuts speech short due to chanting Obama supporters who were in the area. Media is playing it like he's weak and lost without his gal Palin. Ha.

After lunching with a roundtable of women at Philadelphia’s Down Home Diner, McCain shook hands with supporters and strode up to a podium to deliver a statement. But as he spoke, chants of “Obama, Obama, Obama” filled the room.

Reporters craned forward trying to hear the Arizona senator. Unfortunately for McCain — and possibly overlooked by aides who planned the event — a section of the diner opened up to a market where a crowd had gathered behind a cordon.

Also, this might be the time to link to Adam Kokesh, the "revolutionary patriot" and Vets Against the War member who busted up McCain's acceptance speech. The video linked has some comments on why he disrupted the speech - McCain refused to meet with veterans' groups or discuss their concerns. ("At least Obama pretended to listen" he says) So he decided to deliver an alternate message. Some of his ideas get pretty threatening unfortunately, but looking at things through his eyes, I would be pretty pissed off too.

more levity

And actually about politics. What else from Triumph?

I came here to poop on her but I am in loooove!!

Hopefully we will be able to look back on all this and laugh.

Siegels vs DC

The Superboy copyright saga explained! An FAQ from 2006.

Wow, change of pace from the latest entries, I know ;)

if this stands...

...we have no democracy. Over in Mississippi, where the Republicans already lost one special election recently:

So what does Republican Gov. Haley Barbour (the former RNC chair) and the Republican Secretary of State do? They shuffle the placement of the race on the ballot in order to bury it. They put it last, under all the local and minor races, things like school board races and so on, so that it's difficult to find. They do their best to hide it, knowing that it will lower the response rate and help the Republican incumbent.

The problem is, it's plainly illegal. It's not "arguably" illegal, or "a little" illegal. It's just plain illegal. Barbour, however, doesn't care. He's gonna do it anyway, because the advantage of getting that race buried, thus helping the Republican, far outweighs the odds that anyone can actually do anything about it in time to make a difference for the election.

There are very clear rules being violated. Nobody knows. Nobody cares.

P&G worships the devil!!

From Slacktivist, a background to the viral rumor (that I am just hearing of) that a P&G exec went on TV and declared that the company sends a portion of its profits to the Church of Satan. ("False witness") Turns out it was a calculated plot by another soap company to target the evangelical community.

The post analyzes of why people pass on rumors that are obviously false. Malice, or stupidity? After much thought and resistance to the idea, Slacktivist decides on the former:

The dossier/Snopes approach doesn't work because it attempts to apply facts and reason to people who are not interested in either facts or reason. That's not a nice thing to say, or even to think, about anyone else, which is why I was reluctant and slow to reach that conclusion. But that conclusion was inevitable.

In trying to combat the P&G slander with nothing more than irrefutable facts proving it false, I was operating under a set of false assumptions. Among these:

1. I assumed that the people who claimed to believe that Procter & Gamble supported the Church of Satan really did believe such a thing.

2. I assumed that they were passing on this rumor in good faith -- that they were misinforming others only because they had, themselves, been misinformed.

3. I assumed that they would respect, or care about, or at least be willing to consider, the actual facts of the matter.

4. Because the people spreading this rumor claimed to be horrified/angry about its allegations, I assumed that they would be happy/relieved to learn that these allegations were, indisputably, not true.

All of those assumptions proved to be false. All of them. This was at first bewildering, then disappointing, and then, the more I thought about it, appalling -- so appalling that I was reluctant to accept that it could really be the case.

But it is the case.

I kept expecting a comparison to recent political events, but s/he is more restrained than I.

depressing Sunday

More from the Twin Cities. Makes me sad.

The torture, sadism, and abuse the Minneapolis Police, St. Paul Police, Ramsey County Sheriffs (and out of town departments) unleashed upon protesters, press, passers-by, and community members took place while Homeland Security and the Secret Service they control were in direct command of all area "law" enforcement and had final authority over all decisions about protests and protesters. In other words, what we saw in the Twin Cities shows us how American local "law" enforcement act in broad daylight when the Feds are on the scene and supervising their work.

Over the last week, we had a chance to observe de facto professional cultural norms in America's local, state, and Federal enforcement. This is what democracy looks like?

Hardly. Post goes on to outline all kinds of horrible abuses, including deliberate targeting of journalists and medics. And they're also going after random black people just for the hell of it. And check this:

Just a few rogue cops who don't believe in negotiation? Nope.

Twin Cities "law" enforcement now storms into meetings between residents and elected political leaders.

A peaceful meeting of lawyers with the Mayor of Minneapolis to discuss the police-incited riots and the way peaceful protesters and journalists have been treated is broken up by cops in FULL RIOT GEAR.

This is what democracy looks like?

WTF!?!?!

Northwest passage, northeast passage, its all the same now

"North police ice cap now an island"

For the first time in recorded human history, the Arctic is completely surrounded by open water, new satellite images reveal.

Using images from NASA, scientists at the University of Bremen in Germany have concluded that both the Northwest Passage over Canada and the Northeast Passage over Russia are now free of ice, making it possible to sail around the North Pole.

Bring on the reign of the north!

From Media Matters:

Here's how Tom Engelhardt begins his latest piece, "Going on an Imperial Bender": "Here it is, as simply as I can put it: In the course of any year, there must be relatively few countries on this planet on which U.S. soldiers do not set foot, whether with guns blazing, humanitarian aid in hand, or just for a friendly visit. In startling numbers of countries, our soldiers not only arrive, but stay interminably, if not indefinitely. Sometimes they live on military bases built to the tune of billions of dollars that amount to sizeable American towns (with accompanying amenities), sometimes on stripped down forward operating bases that may not even have showers...

MM summarizes:

The rest of Engelhardt's piece explores how we have garrisoned the planet, why it's not news in the United States, and what the costs of ignorance are to this country, literal and figurative.

Could be good to assign in 2nd semester

more from St Paul

Motherfuckers.

intemperate but true

"How the Secret Service Turned into the Stasi"

And if that isn't Godwin-defying, which it technically is not, then why not refer to them as the SS throughout. That's their proper acronym after all.

RNC protest police state

Bitch, PhD:

Criminalize dissent, privatize public space (and, I would add, politicize private space): the tactics of police and Homeland Security over the weekend leading up to the convention

Needless impounding of a bus on which this earth-activist family lives

All the lies told in defense of the police state

Video from Amy Goodman, journalist with Democracy Now! who was arrested for nothing

See also Glenzilla ("Massive police raids on suspected protectors" -- emphasizing the pre-emptive nature of the police response and its brutality. The best part is where the city code people come by to try and shutter the house for violations including a busted back door -- that the police kicked in). Also his Scenes from Saint Paul, other links as well.

Firedoglake: It also helps to remember that the fascists behind this do so to cover up their own corruption. (Godwin violation mine, not theirs)