Category Archives: politics

Rosenblatt on Huffington Post

Alan Rosenblatt has an informative piece up on the Huffington Post, Facts and Lies About Lowering Oil Prices.

I was going to say something smart about Rosenblatt’s cogent analysis of the roots of the lies that are “informing” American’s perceptions on how to resolve the oil crisis, but then I got distracted by Andy Borowitz’s hilarious “report,” McCain Makes Historic First Visit to Internet.

…..

But with his Democratic rival Barack Obama making headlines with his tour of the Middle East and Europe, the McCain campaign felt that they needed to “come up with something equally bold for John to do,” according to one advisor.

McCain aides said that the senator’s journey to the Internet will span five days and will take him to such far-flung sites as Amazon.com, eBay and Facebook.

With a press retinue watching, Sen. McCain logged onto the Internet at 9:00 AM Sunday, paying his first-ever visit ever to Mapquest.com.

“I can’t get this [expletive] thing to work,” Sen. McCain said as he struggled with his computer’s mouse, causing his wife Cindy to prompt him to add that he was “just kidding.”

…..
[read the whole thing]

Quite seriously, I found Rosenblatt’s link to the analysis of the lies around hurricane-induced spills in the Gulf at Think Progress particularly useful, because I just couldn’t believe it when I saw how widely that was suddenly being repeated, and repeated with such conviction.

Wednesday, wherein I deftly combine the Obama New Yorker cover and iphone references into one handy post, just to get it all over with

Granted, I hadn’t had any coffee yet when I saw this headline, but I don’t think that’s a particularly good excuse. My thoughts were, in this order, although not actually enumerated as such in my head:

1. “I can’t believe they used such a derogatory term in this headline.”
2. “Using the word “claimed” casts doubt, like they couldn’t believe a bunch of Southerners could do such a thing.”
3. “Oh. Wait.”
4. “I have just relinquished all right to ever teach courses on the history of computing or cyberculture ever again, at any level.”

The headline? “Crackers claim iPhone 3G hack.”

I know. I know. This is the kind of thing one should just keep to oneself, but it made me laugh.

I don’t have anything else about the Obama New Yorker cover that hasn’t already been said – and said much better – on the Daily Show:

Pay attention, people! While you were sleeping naked breasts are destroying the American way of life.

Last night was the closing night of Artomatic. There were friends, old and new. There was bourbon. I’m sure there was other stuff, too, but I don’t have time to tell you about that because

a) I have that icky feeling that someone put little socks on all of my teeth while I was sleeping (see also: bourbon), and

b) I just picked up the Post and read in the Reliable Source that the reason our country is going to hell is all of the artwork depicting nudity in the Nation’s Capital. GOP delegate Robert Hurt has helpfully explained, “The Lady Godiva thing – that’s what it conjured up, and that’s not what our country’s about.”

Holy cats and kittens, people! Where’s John Ashcroft when we need him? We haven’t got time to send up the Ashcroft signal. (Ironically enough he’s locked in mortal combat with his former cronies at the FCC and DOJ over the satellite radio merger. That’s not working out so well for him, according to the front page of today’s Washington Post, but that’s a story for another day).

According to Dallas Morning News reporter Wayne Slater, the encroaching bustification of our proud nation didn’t make the Texas GOP convention platform.

“You don’t have nude art on your front porch,” the article quoted Hurt as saying. Speak for yourself, Mr. Hurt! (Note to self: get nude art for front porch. Also, get front porch).

Now that I know where we’re all going and why we’re all crammed into this handbasket, I’m going to drink some more coffee.

Then I’ve got to figure out the SilverDocs schedule. If I go, I’m going on a VIP pass so I get guaranteed seating for events because I am much too tired to have to think about getting places super early and standing around in line with commoners. Plus the conference looks really good this year, maybe even better than the films (and there are some very good movies on the schedule this year). But that’s also a post for another day.