Narrative Fiction Rules The 2008 Campaign

"when the going gets weird, the weird turn pro"

It's both fascinating and a little sickening to see news reporters and their dubious pundits talk to each other about how they are being suckered and manipulated by the McCain campaign but are not posing those questions and concerns to McCain himself.

Likewise, the warping and twisting of language and ideas about women in elected office and women in general which the Republicans are whipping up a media and cultural frenzy:

"In this strange new pro-woman tableau, feminism -- a word that is being used all over the country with regard to Palin's potential power -- means voting for someone who would limit reproductive control, access to healthcare and funding for places like Covenant House Alaska, an organization that helps unwed teen mothers. It means cheering someone who allowed women to be charged for their rape kits while she was mayor of Wasilla, who supports the teaching of creationism alongside evolution, who has inquired locally about the possibility of using her position to ban children's books from the public library, who does not support the teaching of sex education.

In this "Handmaid's Tale"-inflected universe, in which femininity is worshipped but females will be denied rights, CNBC pundit Donny Deutsch tells us that we're witnessing "a new creation ... of the feminist ideal," the feminism being so ideal because instead of being voiced by hairy old bats with unattractive ideas about intellect and economy and politics and power, it's now embodied by a woman who, according to Deutsch, does what Hillary Clinton did not: "put a skirt on." "I want her watching my kids," says Deutsch. "I want her laying next to me in bed."

Welcome to 2008, the year a tough, wonky woman won a primary (lots of them, actually), an inspiring black man secured his party's nomination for the presidency, and a television talking head felt free to opine that a woman is qualified for executive office because he wants to bed her and have her watch his kids! Stop the election; I want to get off."

Also see this post from Sharon Cobb:

"If you are biracial and born in a state not connected to the lower 48, America needs darn near 2 years and 3 major speeches to "get to know you." If you're white and from a state not connected to the lower 48, America needs 36 minutes and 38 seconds worth of an acceptance speech to know you're "one of us."

If you get 18 million people to vote for you in a national presidential primary, you're a "phony." Get 100,000+ people to vote you governor of the 47th most populous state in the Union, you're "well loved."
---
"Black teen pregnancies? A "crisis" in black America.
White teen pregnancies? A "blessed event."

If you grow up in Hawaii you're "exotic."
Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers, you're the quintessential "American story."

Similarly, if you name you kid Barack you're "unpatriotic."
Name your kid Track, you're "colorful."

Is this simply the result of an election which has gone on for so long and had so many players rise and fall? Probably. Ever since these campaigns grabbed the phrase "campaign narrative" the facts lose their meaning and the fictions and fantasies flourish.

Recent Search Requests

I notice the odd ones, of course. Here is a sample of some recent searches which brought readers to this humble page:

Repellent for Porky Pines
Cats Who Look Like Kenny Rogers
Cats Who Look Like Castro
Worst Writing Super Burrito
Marriage Proposal Onstage, Evil Dead
How Was No Camera The Dark Knight
Person Dress As A Tree
They're Dead They're All Messed Up

Obama Talks Issues, McCain Whines

Virginia got a chance to hear facts and plans from Senator Obama yesterday:


"Obama devoted most of his remarks to spelling out the differences between himself and his Republican opponent, Arizona Sen. John McCain, on a broad spectrum of issues including the economy, taxes, health care, energy, foreign policy, education, poverty and veterans benefits."

---

"As president, Obama said he would invest $15 billion annually to launch a decade-long energy resource initiative to free the nation from its dependence on foreign oil and supply the nation’s demand for electricity. Besides research and development initiatives for solar and wind power, Obama promised clean coal technologies such as carbon capture and storage will be a part of his energy policies."

---

"Obama said McCain should be ashamed for voting against benefits for veterans, particularly those returning from Iraq, and said McCain supported 90 percent of the policies of President George W. Bush."

---

" Obama said he doesn’t measure economic progress by how more wealthy the rich are getting, but how working families can get ahead, too, instead of struggle to make ends meet.

Obama said McCain wants to continue the tax cuts for large corporations and the 5 percent wealthiest Americans achieved by Bush, while Obama proposes to cut taxes to 95 percent of all Americans, particularly the working poor. Obama said he would invest in infrastructure improvements across the nation “and put people back to work,” and could easily do so with the $10 billion a month now being spent on the war in Iraq."

---

"“Something John McCain doesn’t understand,” he said, “is that part of the security for this country is to have an economically strong country.”

Obama said McCain represents more of the same kind of leadership, and likely results, as those achieved by Bush.

“You can put lipstick on a pig,” he said, “but it’s still a pig.” That remark practically blew the roof off the gym by itself."

Sadly, the whining from the camp for Sen. McCain remains mired in the muck, willing to talk about anything but the issues affecting Americans, anything but his plans, and willing to sling any lie into the ring in hopes of grabbing the attention of his angry, self-absorbed base.

"The McCain campaign is now saying Obama called Palin a pig, which he didn't." (via)

UPDATE 1: ACK does a roundup of the farce masquerading as political debate in 2008.

UPDATE 2: McCain sinks lower and lower into telling lies to prop up his empty campaign with bizarre claims.

Spice and Sausage Bandit

Odd crimes are plentiful. And yes, often crime is odd at it's very core. Still, imagine waking to an intruder in your home, an intruder who is rubbing spices on you, and is armed with a sausage. (via the Fresno Bee)


"A burglar who broke into a home just east of Fresno rubbed food seasoning over the body of one of two men as they slept in their rooms and then used an 8-inch sausage to whack the other man on the face and head before running out of the house, Fresno County sheriff's deputies said Saturday.

Lt. Ian Burrimond, describing the crime as one of the strangest he's ever heard of, said a suspect was found hiding in a nearby field a few minutes later and taken into custody on suspicion of residential robbery.

Deputies, he said, had no problem linking the suspect to the crime.

"It seems the guy ran out of the house wearing only a T-shirt, boxer shorts and socks, leaving behind his wallet with his ID," Burrimond said.

Arrested was Antonio Vasquez Jr., 21, of Fresno.

Burrimond said deputies headed to the victims' home in the 300 block of South Thompson Avenue near Kings Canyon Road shortly after 8 a.m. Saturday regarding a burglary in progress.

The victims, both farmworkers, told deputies they were awakened by a stranger applying "Pappy's Seasoning" to one of them and striking the other with a sausage."

Completely Crooked Straight Talk

Politics has always, always been a landscape dominated by the surreal.

A centuries old tactic relies on repeating blatant lies until they shine with a glow of truth. A tactic the Sen. McCain for Prez Campaign is celebrating with unbridled enthusiasm.

"The McCain camp has made her signature issue shutting down the Bridge to Nowhere. But as The New Republic put it today that's just "a naked lie." ... On earmarks she's an even bigger crock. On the trail with McCain they're telling everyone that she's some kind of earmark slayer when actually, when she was mayor and governor, in both offices, she requested and got more earmarks than virtually any city or state in the country.

"Think about that. On the stump, not a single word that comes out of her mouth -- or not a single word that the McCain folks put in her mouth -- is anything but a lie. I know that sounds like hyperbole. But just go down the list. None of them bear out." (via)

Also see the way CNN tackles lies from the campaign trail.

Another viewpoint: "This is her introduction to the national scene; this is when her image is being cemented into the public mind. And her image is increasingly that of a guiltless liar."

Oddly, rigorous debate on economic issues and policy plans from Sen. Obama can be seen courtesy of ... Bill O'Reilly?? Link.

Monday's Apocalyptic News

It isn't a science fiction story, it just sounds like one. Scientists will fire up a massive particle accelerator on Wednesday aiming to discover the hypothetical 'God particle', aka Higgs Boson. A worldwide network of some 60,000 computers are to be tasked to sift through results of the test to find the elusive particle.

The collision of particles, which will occur at near light-speed, is meant to create conditions which existed in the universe just after the "Big Bang". However, some fear the event will create a wee tiny micro-black hole which will devour the planet and maybe the solar system.

Maybe you should say the things you've always meant to say, do the things you've meant to do, since we may all explode soon. (A live webcast of the test firing will be shown here.)

Other Signs The End Is Near:

McCain Promotes Myth and Amnesia

The presidential campaign being waged by Sen. John McCain isn't just scraping bottom - it is digging through the bottom in search of new awfulness. The GOP is celebrating the McCain Myths and Legends Tour, and the fictions which prop up this tour just grow and grow.

- Executive Experience: "The biggest project that Sarah Palin undertook as mayor of this small town was an indoor sports complex, where locals played hockey, soccer, and basketball, especially during the long, dark Alaskan winters.

The only catch was that the city began building roads and installing utilities for the project before it had unchallenged title to the land. The misstep led to years of litigation and at least $1.3 million in extra costs for a small municipality with a small budget. What was to be Ms. Palin's legacy has turned into a financial mess that continues to plague Wasilla."


- Corruption and Reform: Sen. McCain continues to extend the lie about the sale of the Alaska governor's private plane despite the truth. It was placed for sale on eBay and after months, no takers. Despite that fact, Sen. McCain tells audiences the Myth - "You know what I enjoyed the most? She took the luxury jet that was acquired by her predecessor and sold it on eBay -- and made a profit!" McCain declared in Wisconsin at a campaign stop on Friday. It could not be immediately determined what that profit was."


- The Amnesia Platform: The recently ended RNC convention was full of folks with amnesia, casually forgetting it was their party and their president who have failed and failed to devise any strategy to overcome the issues facing the nation. Any topic is better than the long record of failure, and if amnesia doesn't work or needs help, here's a feisty lady to divert your attention: "Listening to McCain, you'd think it was the Democrats who occupied the White House the last seven-plus years and it was time to throw the bastards out.

Given that 82 percent of voters believe we are heading in the wrong direction, it's a logical position to take. But for the American people to buy into the notion that McCain, who has raced to Bush's side on tax cuts, on offshore drilling -- even on torture -- is this campaign's agent of change, it's going to require an incredible suspension of disbelief. Or a serious case of amnesia.

And this is clearly McCain's campaign strategy: inducing amnesia about the past and confusion about the future, attempting to hoodwink the American people about what he has become. Which is where Sarah Palin comes in. As a major distraction. In the effort to divert attention from the matter at hand -- McCain's embrace of all things Bush -- Palin is the perfect storm."

Weekly Best of Tennessee Blogs

A roundup of bloggers in Tennessee has several perspectives on the "unavailable to the press for interviews" candidate and Queen of the Culture Wars, Sarah Louise Heath Palin. (via TennViews)

SPECIAL NOTE: Our condolences to Katie Allison Granju, whose father passed away unexpectedly.

• 55-40 Memphis: 55-40 Memphis: Failin' Palin: Some are betting that McCain's current VP pick, Sarah "Failin'" Palin, won't last through Friday. Others are not so sure.

• Aunt B: Palin Thoughts: Okay, America, let’s have a brief talk about whether it’s wise for Palin to continue to harp on her "small town" roots. Those of us who grew up in small towns, who are watching her, know her. We recognize her. PLUS: Stacey Campfield, Put Up or Shut Up: This stuff Campfield claims? That the children of illegal immigrants are allowed to go to school without proper immunizations? It’s utter bullshit. Nowhere in the state law that I could find is that allowed.

• Carole Borges: A Republican star is born! But wait! Isn't celebrity vapid?: It is exactly the same old same, same old, only now it's wearing high heels and a skirt. As a feminist Sarah worries me.

• The Crone Speaks: Mortgage Delinquencies Rise, Health Care Costs Rise: The one thing I need to note is that all of these things that have seriously impacted people’s lives all come from the GOP’s mismanagement, and the deluded notion that free markets promote competition. As these reports show under GOP leadership, more people are hurt. PLUS: TN R. Delegates Vote for "George S. McCain" « The Crone Speaks: Why a Freudian slip? Because McCain, no matter how much he tries to distance himself, is so much like Bush, it keeps slapping him in the face. AND: Palin summed up here and here.

• Joe Powell: Political Mother: I did learn some reasons why Sen. McCain picked Gov. Plain to be his running mate. She's George W. Bush in heels, all hat and no cattle, and she did what McCain could not do - unify their party behind his campaign. PLUS: US Media FAIL says Brit Media: Meanwhile, England's Guardian newspaper says the best thing about American bloggers is they resemble Brit media in general.

• Don Williams: McCain’s heroic story isn’t the whole story, questions need asking: It won’t be easy to challenge this man who is rapidly becoming a living icon of military heroism. Still, here are a baker’s dozen pertinent questions -- plus corollaries -- that should be asked before it’s too late for our nation and the world...

• TNDP: Sarah Palin’s Speech Under Scrutiny: That bastion of liberal media bias, Comedy Central, no wait, the Associate Press, today reports that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was lying in her Wednesday night Republican National Convention speech.

• Enclave: Revenge of the Community Organizers: So the question bears repeating: who is more worthy of scorn? Community organizers or the lobbyists who help Sarah Palin stay in office?

• Fletch: Angry

• KnoxViews (Rocketsquirrel): How Far the GOP Has Fallen: How far the GOP has fallen...Just as Eisenhower warned of the emerging military industrial complex, so too did Goldwater warn of religious extremists thinking they could control our public discourse and political decisions. PLUS: (Rikki): dunced around: This flagrant violation of Constitutional checks and balances persisted for months as Congressmen sent letters of protest and disgust to the White House. Finally, the House of Representatives voted to hold Bolton and Miers in contempt. Karl Rove was declared in contempt by a House subcommittee. Contempt was appealed, rejected and a stay denied. Miers is scheduled to appear before Congress Thursday. AND: Convention coverage archive.

• Lean Left: Why Does John McCain Hate America?: It’s not just Sarah Palin who’s the darling of the anti-government fringe. McCain himself is seeking lists of supporters and pledged delegates from a person who is simultaneously a flagship leader of an extremely radical fringe party and also a member of McCain’s own party. [..] Not only are McCain and Palin both on record as courting secessionist and anti-government groups, but the GOP is fine with having two of that group’s presidential nominees in its own ranks, and McCain’s platform is apparently close enough to the anti-government party’s platform to enable an endorsement.

• Left of the Dial: Meet Sarah Palin

• Left Wing Cracker: Heh. Think THIS may be how Palin was vetted?

• Liberadio(!): Misconceptions: A Reflection of Values: I’ll be glad to grant the Palins their privacy. But the circumstances they wish to keep private, they, and others like them, keep foisting on the public through cynical public policy that fails.

• Newscoma: Tennessee Soybean Festival ‘08: So, I’m guessing this is a Hooterville Exclusive.

• Pesky Fly: A Question for the Candidate, plus: Future Leader of the Republican Party

• Progressive Nashville: Judgement call: The McSame campaign wants us to believe this election is about the experience to make good decisions, but we've seen nothing but horrible decisions come out of the campaign and the GOP leadership. Even if we forgive McSame's role in the Keating 5 scandal, we still have to deal with the fact that he thinks George Bush is doing a swell job and that it might be good for us to remain in Iraq for 100 years.

• Resonance: The American Oil Refinery Shortage Myth: According to rightists, the second-most common response to energy crisis, behind "Drill! Drill! Drill!", is that gas prices are high because environmentalists have prevented America from building any new oil refineries in 30 years (or whatever duration it is). How does this claim square with marketplace reality?

• RoaneViews: Governor Bredesen Endorses Ruppe for State Senate PLUS: The Governor Campaigns for Becky Ruppe, with photos. (Ed. note: This one is a must-win, folks!)

• Russ McBee: McCain imitates Caligula: The nomination of Palin for the office of vice president sends exactly the same message to the American people and to the US Senate (in which Palin would be the presiding officer and tie-breaking vote): he thinks so little of them that he believes any random fundamentalist wingnut plucked off the street would be qualified to lead them. PLUS: Labor Day scorecard: American workers not doing well: That's the "ownership society" for you: workers get shafted, while one of the two main presidential candidates doesn't even know how many houses he owns.

• Sean Braisted: Kissinger Most Expensive Baby Sitter Ever: I'm sure Palin has at least basic knowledge of the national issues at stake (just like most Republican politicians), and so the "soft bigotry of low expectations," can only help her in the coming weeks. Given that Republican ideas are generally formulated by a select group of pre-schoolers high on glue, its not that hard to remember GOP talking points. Taxes bad, spending bad, liberals bad. PLUS: More Republican Comedy: Of course, its perfectly plausible that a 50+ year old man from Georgia has never heard that phrase used in a negative light towards black people...just as its perfectly plausible that David Duke didn't know what the Klan was all about...or its perfectly plausible that Sarah Palin was McCain's first choice for VP.

• Sharon Cobb: A Wrap Up Of Sarah Palin's Speech At The Republican Convention Wednesday Night.: Still half asleep, I rolled over and opened one eye and asked, "Why is Sally Fields speaking at the republican convention?" PLUS: Senator John McCain: A Hero, Yes. But A Maverick, No. The Republican Convention Speech Last Night: According to CNN, McCain had 169 lobbyists in the front of the auditorium during his acceptance speech. You simply cannot sell yourself as an agent for change when you've been a U.S. Senator for decades.

• GoldnI: Things I Learned Today: I was vetted more thoroughly by Wash U Law than Sarah Palin was by John McCain. PLUS: Republicans -- Make Up Your Minds: How is she going to handle foreign leaders if she can't handle "Meet The Press"?

• Southern Beale: Permission Not Granted: Should be the new slogan of the McCain-Palin ticket. The funniest is this statement from the principal of Walter Reed Middle School in North Hollywood, California... PLUS: Return Of The Wedge Issue: But really what Sarah Palin has done is bring the evangelical base back into the voting booth. And along with them come those rancorous, divisive social issues. Karl Rove is ecstatic.

• Vibinc: Joementum to Educate Palin: Palin will also not be available to the media for an undetermined time while she gets her affairs in order back in Alaska. I guess they’re going to use some of that time to get her up to speed on their Cold War era worldview of foreign policy. Personally, I don’t think she needs it.

• WhitesCreek: What are we changing here?: I thought I had seen the nastiest lies ever in the past two presidential elections, and somehow, I though John McCain would be slightly better at sticking with the truth. WRONG! PLUS: Moose and Snow: McCain's Veep pick seems to be up to her miniskirt in the rankest form of good old boy and girl corruption and cronyism.

• Women's Health News: Just a Thought on Palin: Sure, campaigning and being VP may be demanding. However, if, with all of the resources at Palin’s fingertips, the situation still seems inadequate for providing for a child, if the deck still seems stacked against working mothers, imagine how women without the luxury of these choices must feel.

Camera Obscura: "Honey West' Returns; JCVD is a Hit; Del Toro Does Frankenstein; plus a Zombie Puppet Musical!

I heard rumblings about the movie "J.C.V.D." a few months back - b-movie action guy Jean Claude Van Damme stars in a wildly satiric comedy as himself, caught in battles over child custody, his problematic career, media swarms and a bank robbery.

The movie is out now the Toronto Film Festival and got raves at the Cannes Festival this summer.

One review, like others, is stunned by his performance:

"That JCVD is able to show you a new face to its star and subject at all makes it a major accomplishment. That it does so with such an incredible sense of style, insight, and pure entertainment value makes it a revelation. Ladies and gentlemen, after spending decades turning out lowest-common-denominator action pictures Jean Claude Van Damme has just made a truly great film. No matter what criteria you may use to judge it - scripting, cinematography, humour, action, even dramatic performance - JCVD is one remarkable piece of work. Yes, I flat out love this film. "

And a trailer --





-----

And since I'm posting wee movies today, this is for all the folks who are beyond being zombified by the ongoing political debacle in America and for zombie fans too. And musical fans. And puppet fans. Oh, just watch it.



I love the one zombie back up guy there just mumbling the lyrics and sort of off the beat. And if your jaw falls off while singing, it's gonna affect the performance. Yep.

-----

"Hellboy" director Guillermo del Toro is gonna be busy, busy, busy. He's already at work on a pair of movies adapted from "The Hobbit", and this week he announced a monster deal with Universal. Remakes of "Frankenstein", "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", plus a version of Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse-Five" ... and a new TV series based on "Hellboy." Whew!

-----

HBO rolls out their new vampire TV show, "TrueBlood", from "Six Feet Under" creator Alan Ball, on Sunday night after months of obligatory online viral ad campaigns. The story is set in an America where vampires have 'come out of the coffin' and now seek some respect and rights, the ones due them as 'undead Americans'. OK. The show stars Anna Paquin. One blogger tackles the viral marketing and offers a pilot episode review here.

-----

The internet sci-fi musical comedy known as "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog" released the soundtrack this week, according to the first of the Horrible Newsletters in my mailbox:

"The Official "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog" Motion Picture Soundtrack is now available on iTunes. Internationally too. Thanks to all of you, we're already one of the top sellers in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, and the list goes on! It is great for listening in your car, at work, while working out, it makes a great gift, do I sound like a whore? I'm whoring now, aren't I? Anyway, spread the word, tell a friend, say it was Horrible..."

Go here for more info.

-----

A fantastic arrival at long last on DVD, the complete series of the 1965 TV show, "Honey West." If you haven't seen or if you are one of those folks like me who recall it fondly, this is a must have. Honey made American TV history:

"Certainly the character of Honey West wasn't TV's first independent woman, or even its first female private detective. But she was the first TV action heroine (in the U.S. TV market, at least) to be modeled specifically after her male counterparts: namely in this case; James Bond. And even more importantly, she was the star of the show. In no way did Honey "answer" to her bigger, stronger, hotheaded partner Sam. It was her name on the agency, and she ran it her way, despite Sam's constant hectoring for her to play it safe and let him protect her. Not that she needed his protection. Equally skilled in the martial arts, Honey could keep up with Sam in hand-to-hand combat, small weapons proficiency, and in utilizing all those tricky little gadgets Sam thought up for audio and video surveillance. And she did it all while being a most...aggressively erotic woman - something that TV audiences regularly tuning into the housewives on Bewitched, The Dick Van Dyke Show, and The Lucy Show didn't see as a lead character in a weekly series. That kind of thoroughly independent, sexualized (while not being punished for her looks and appetites) woman was a first for American TV audiences. Mrs. Emma Peel would have a bigger, longer-lasting impact, but Honey West was there on American TVs first."

Building Brains

Scientists are hard at work creating brains which can power computers, projects using rat and cat brains as the bio-electronic basis. The Pentagon has one of the projects underway now:

"The first nine-month phase of the program will focus on designing, fabricating, and characterizing synaptic and neural elements and combining them into a high-density, interconnecting microelectronic "fabric," which will be incorporated into a more complex system-level fabric design...

In the following 15-month phase, HRL [a joint venture between Boeing and General Motors] will combine the synaptic and neural elements to fabricate and demonstrate "cortical microcircuits" that can model various lower-level brain functions and actually "learn" by interacting with the environment."

Meanwhile, British researchers showed off their robots which are controlled by cortical tissue grown from rat brains and then bonded with electronics:

"To create the "brain", the neural cortex from a rat fetus is surgically removed and disassociating enzymes applied to it to disconnect the neurons from each other. The researchers then deposit a slim layer of these isolated neurons into a nutrient-rich medium on a bank of electrodes, where they start reconnecting. They do this by growing projections that reach out to touch the neighbouring neurons. "It's just fascinating that they do this," says Steve Potter of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, who pioneered the field of neurally controlled animats."

---

"Because it is living material, it needs to be kept at body temperature, so the control system is placed in a temperature-controlled cabinet the size of a microwave oven and communicates with the robot over a Bluetooth radio link."

Political Mother

One might be tempted to fact check the Republicans at their convention this week, but they haven't offered any.

Like whole-cloth fabric of lies from Gov. Palin claiming 'I told the Congress 'thanks but no thanks' for that Bridge to Nowhere' -- Congress scuttled that huge earmark in Nov. 2005, a year before she took the office of the governor.

I did learn some reasons why Sen. McCain picked Gov. Plain to be his running mate. She's George W. Bush in heels, all hat and no cattle, and she did what McCain could not do - unify their party behind his campaign. And as a former TV sports reporter, she knows how to appear and talk in front of a camera ... although she has yet to actually provide other TV reporters the chance to interview her. But it's still just been a few days since she vaulted onto the political podium.

Her speech was a like a web page from any of several hardcore right-mommy bloggers whose love for party outweighs everything else, especially facts:

"As mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to Washington annually to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million. In her two years as governor, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation."


I get it, she's like Coulter but a brunette.

And it isn't just Gov. Palin who likes to spin til reality disappears:

"FORMER ARKANSAS GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE: Palin "got more votes running for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska than Joe Biden got running for president of the United States."

THE FACTS: A whopper. Palin got 616 votes in the 1996 mayor's election, and got 909 in her 1999 re-election race, for a total of 1,525. Biden dropped out of the race after the Iowa caucuses, but he still got 76,165 votes in 23 states and the District of Columbia where he was on the ballot during the 2008 presidential primaries.

FORMER MASSACHUSETTS GOV. MITT ROMNEY: "We need change, all right - change from a liberal Washington to a conservative Washington! We have a prescription for every American who wants change in Washington - throw out the big-government liberals, and elect John McCain and Sarah Palin."

THE FACTS: A Back-to-the-Future moment. George W. Bush, a conservative Republican, has been president for nearly eight years. And until last year, Republicans controlled Congress. Only since January 2007 have Democrats have been in charge of the House and Senate."

At this point, I'm ready for Sen. McCain and those who support his ticket to deny the earth is round, that Democrats are actually demons with forked tongues and tails, and that it's really 1980 and the air is filled with flying pigs which poop gold and platinum bars, rainbows, and unicorns.

Act Now To Halt New Fees For Public Record Access

The state is creating a whole new fee system for anyone who seeks access to public records, and even though the public can offer comments on this new proposal, you only have until noon Thursday to do so. Many thanks to R. Neal for pointing this out on his blog:

"Dorothy Bowles, U.T. Professor and member of the East Tennessee Society of Professional Journalists, alerts us to a proposal that would make it more difficult and expensive for citizens and journalists to access public records.

The deadline for public comment, which was only announced this week, is noon tomorrow (Thursday) and the hearing is on Friday. You can submit your comments here: open.records@state.tn.us

She explains more ...

From Dorothy Bowles:

As you know, the recently enacted TN Open Records Act established a legal counsel's office to set fees for record requests in an attempt to have some consistency across the state.

Unfortunately, the statute allows for BOTH copying costs and labor costs.

The statute also established an Advisory Committee on Open Government, and I was appointed one of the members of that committee.

FRIDAY (yes, day after tomorrow) a public hearing will take place on a proposal that was only this week distributed by the legal counsel's office. Written comments will be accepted through NOON tomorrow.

Written comments can be submitted via e-mail to open.records@state.tn.us

I will attend the hearing and do everything I can to have open records without huge fees. But I expect that records custodians and their bosses across the state will storm the hearing. After all, it's part of their regular workday, whereas citizens would have to take a day off work to attend.

We need folks who believe that the taxpayers own public records and should be able to examine them to send comments to Nashville, but time is short."

I'm going to summarize what my email will say - and I really encourage you to sound off on this too. It is truly a now or never situation.

On The Topic of New Fees For Public Records:

First let me say this opportunity needs to be set at a time AFTER the public has had adequate notice. I do my best to stay informed on this topic and still have only a few hours to respond. This is reprehensible and certainly appears that the goal is to eliminate and not encourage public participation.

However, since any postponement is highly unlikely, I write to encourage you to set any fees at a very lowest level.

Public agencies and officials are already earning salaries drawn from taxation for their labor. While a fee for making copies of records might be defensible (again a nominal fee) to add even more costs is ultimately a method of repelling the public from gaining information about their own government. This is nothing short of a new Tax On Information. Agencies will not be creating new records, simply providing copies of existing information. To consider it otherwise is simply wrong and at worst is an attempt to quell any search for public information.

The state already has a very poor history responding to the previous laws covering access to public records. The state already ranks near the very bottom for access to public records. Many of the case by case examples as well as audits of agencies which supply this information are available via the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government website and I encourage this panel to review that information. In a nutshell, compliance with existing laws hovers around 65%.

Adding new costs for information requests will again be a deterrent not an enhancement.

Already, the individual must bear the costs of challenging violations of the public records and meeting laws. A state official might face a fine of $50 for violating this law, but only if a member of the public pursues the matter. Adding fees for copying records and for the "labor" could easily cost a resident much more than than $50.

I'm afraid I see no reason to create new costs for a system that currently barely works. And even if state agencies responded to requests for information at least 90% of the time, it is work already covered by their existing duties, not some unheralded new task forced upon them.

In short, I strongly oppose new fees for access to public records and hope this panel will discover ways to enhance compliance with the law by state agencies and not burden the residents with higher costs, and will encourage more education for state officials in offices requiring these records be provided, and will help foster a more transparent and accountable public service sector.

US Media FAIL says Brit Media

I only know of a couple of British bloggers, and one of them is the Vol Abroad, so I'd have to defer to her on the state of British bloggers. And British media vs. US media.

Meanwhile, England's Guardian newspaper says the best thing about American bloggers is they resemble Brit media in general.

The comments arrive in a column that's just jam-packed with derisive nuggets, like the 'unreported joke to vile to reprint' which John McCain made about Chelsea Clinton, and the writer of the Guardian story, Ed Pilkington, scores the bulls eye for nailing multiple insults in a few short, sharp sentences:

"The puzzle is explained partly by the US press, which barely reported the story. The Washington Post broke it in June 1998 but declined to relate the joke on the grounds it was "too vile to repeat". Such coyness has long been ingrained in the US media, which has an annoying tendency to regard its readers as wayward children in need of moral protection. That's one important reason, incidentally, that blogs are doing so well in the US - they have no such scruples and behave in ways more akin to the British than the mainstream American media."

A 1976 Jukebox

Ah, 1976.

The first Cray supercomputer was presented, Steve Jobs formed the Apple Computer corporation, President Ford was a failing (and often falling) president (dodging assassins) but some unknown guy named Carter hot on his heels, terrorists were people like Patty Hearst, and by the middle of that summer, everything which was being sold in the U.S. was stamped Official Bicentennial Collector's Edition. I recall having a bicentennial high school yearbook (yes I am old) which had lots of red, white and blue over all the pages, one of the ugliest things I had ever seen, but what I recall most of that book which has now turned to moldy paper was that all the cheerleaders in my school had signed it and that seemed Very Important At The Time. I'm sure that was only possible due to the fact the school had less than 300 students and I was persistent nerd.

(Digression: do students get yearbooks anymore, or do they get some kind of disc or memory stik or something? Surely they don't still make them do those weird poses leaning against some imaginary fence row or leaning on a plastic tree. Do they? Surely they just upload a pic from their web page ...)

I say all this to paint an image of a time over 30 years past, the ancient past to some. For the last few days I was listening to some fine old music from that year. Some local diners had these big neon-light-covered machines with small vinyl discs inside which held recordings of music, all huddled around an enormous spindle, and you could drop a coin in a slot and listen to 3 or 4 songs. Some machines held over 50 songs. Imagine, 50 songs in one machine ...

So listening to some of the songs I liked, I thought that today, they sounded kind of ... well, disco-centric. True, there were some tunes that year with "disco" in the title. And yes, I did have a t-shirt with the words "Afternoon Delight" written across it, not because I liked the song. I liked the euphemism. And I remember that back in that year, I was pretty sure this is the car I would own:



I can't even afford one now. And all those cheerleaders are grandmas with dusty trophies somewhere. Thank god I am still young and vital.

Anyway, thanks to computers, I can make my own ersatz jukebox, with some songs of the time, some which were pure disco, some not, and thankfully by year's end I had that Ramones album to tide me over the oddness of disco. I do recall owning the album by Kiss, Destroyer, but I never really liked it although I did like the album cover a lot for some reason. So here you are, an eclectic 1976 musical compilation. (Note: I omitted the country music songs which were always on jukeboxes back then as a requirement of being in Tennessee. None are below. You'll have to wait until I do a post about country music.)


SeeqPod - Playable Search

McCain-Palin Get Stars on the Walk of Fame

The Sen. McCain presidential campaign has become a wild and massive success - finally, they get major media coverage and enormous Internet activity. That's due to his choice of a vice presidential candidate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

Sure she left her small town government in debt to the tune of $20 million, has only days of experience in the job of governor, sure, sure, sure. Her name and his campaign are The Talk. And as he has learned, the only thing worse than being Talked About is Not Being Talked About.

Can't diss a woman just for being a woman, ya know. That's sexist. If you question her abilities, her qualifications, her actual history in government, yer a sexist, given to repression.

Some reports say that McCain did not get his way and so went for a wildcard choice. Golly, he's a maverick. Spin, baby, spin!!

I have to give him props, he's done the almost impossible - gained attention despite the weary Ghosts of Hurricane Katrina haunting the Republican National Convention and made the concerns of an unwed pregnant teenager a national issue. Hooray!!

My first thoughts on hearing stories about her daughter's pregnancy were mostly along the lines of "Why would a mother agree to submitting her daughter to the media circus?"

Over at Katie's blog on the KNS pages, she writes:

"Governor Palin's announcement about her daughter acknowledges the unique challenges of young motherhood, and explicitly refers to the extra support that her daughter will require. However, Sarah Palin now leads a party whose policies in no way acknowledge the same for the many other girls across the country who are in the same position as Governor Palin's daughter - young women who are in urgent need of access to prenatal care, affordable housing, childcare, and the financial option to continue their educations beyond high school.

I am also disturbed to see that Bristol Palin is now becoming something of a poster child for the anti-choice movement. They are holding her up as a symbol for their cause. Honestly, as much as right wing pundits are criticizing the left for their approach to this matter, I believe it's the right which should be ashamed. Making any individual teenage girl into a brand-name martyr for your highly contentious political cause is about as low as you can go."

Good points there.

We'll just have to wait until the presidential debates to actually start hearing about policies, plans and programs of the two candidates.

Roundup of TN Blogs and Roundup of Americans By Republicans

The weekly roundup of the best in Tennessee blogs from Tenn Views is - as much of the nation last week - taking on the most-watched televised political convention ever. Rather than reprint all of it, you can click here.

However, for this Sunday, how about the news of SWAT Teams are out in force in pre-emptive strikes against groups the Republicans perceive as real threats.

Writer Glenn Greenwald has been on the scene:

"There is clearly an intent on the part of law enforcement authorities here to engage in extreme and highly intimidating raids against those who are planning to protest the Convention. The DNC in Denver was the site of several quite ugly incidents where law enforcement acted on behalf of Democratic Party officials and the corporate elite that funded the Convention to keep the media and protesters from doing anything remotely off-script. But the massive and plainly excessive preemptive police raids in Minnesota are of a different order altogether. Targeting people with automatic-weapons-carrying SWAT teams and mass raids in their homes, who are suspected of nothing more than planning dissident political protests at a political convention and who have engaged in no illegal activity whatsoever, is about as redolent of the worst tactics of a police state as can be imagined."

Wonder how they did this? The RNC working with the FBI decided these folks are terrorists - because, you know, it's the Axis of Evil Vegetarians that threaten us.

"Back in May, Marcy Wheeler presciently noted that the Minneapolis Joint Terrorist Task Force -- an inter-agency group of federal, state and local law enforcement led by the FBI -- was actively recruiting Minneapolis residents to serve as plants, to infiltrate "vegan groups" and other left-wing activist groups and report back to the Task Force about what they were doing. There seems to be little doubt that it was this domestic spying by the Federal Government that led to the excessive and truly despicable home assaults by the police yesterday.

---

"Yet how is our own Government's behavior in Minnesota any different than what the Chinese did to its protesters during the Olympics (other than the fact that we actually have a Constitution that prohibits such behavior)? And where are all the self-righteous Freedom Crusaders in our nation's establishment organs who were so flamboyantly criticizing the actions of a Government on the other side of the globe as our own Government engages in the same tyrannical, protest-squelching conduct with exactly the same motives?"

I was thinking of offering a speech to the Republican Convention just as I did for the Democrats. Perhaps a virtual speech is best - of course it may mean being threatened with raids and jail time.

Just the legacy of the Republicans in the White House, folks, nothing to see here, move along.

McCain Picks Who? An Alaskan Perspective

I was most impressed at the lightspeed response by the media and internet folks to John McCain's announcement of his pick for the Vice President spot, one Sarah Palin, the current governor of Alaska, who is two years into her first term.

Yeah, who??

In mere nanoseconds (decades in computer time), bloggers and the media were hoisting images of Palin just a'totin' some guns with some guys and her beauty pageant pics. The choice allowed McCain the chance to do something he has not been able to muster during his entire campaign: to make news. Also, the story today is not Obama's acceptance speech, it's McCain's pick - a double whammy!

So who is she?

A most informative post can be found here at the Alaskan political blog Mudflats. It has tons of info and perspective and I'm posting a chunk of it. Hopefully, you'll bother to read it and learn something about her beyond this current day's media gush:

"Is this a joke?” That seemed to be the question du jour when my phone started ringing off the hook at 6:45am here in Alaska. I mean, we’re sort of excited that our humble state has gotten some kind of national ‘nod’….but seriously? Sarah Palin for Vice President? Yes, she’s a popular governor. Her all time high approval rating hovered around 90% at one point. But bear in mind that the 90% approval rating came from one of the most conservative, and reddest-of-the-red states out there. And that approval rating came before a series of events that have lead many Alaskans to question the governor’s once pristine image.

There is no doubt in my mind that many Alaskans are feeling pretty excited about this. But we live in our own little bubble up here, and most of the attention we get is because of The Bridge to Nowhere, polar bears, the indictment of Ted Stevens, and the ongoing investigation and conviction of the string of legislators and oil executives who literally called themselves “The Corrupt Bastards Club”.

So seeing our governor out there in the national spotlight accepting the nomination for Vice Presidential candidate is just downright surreal. Just months ago, when rumors surfaced that she was on the long version of the short list, she was questioned if she’d be interested in the position. She said she couldn’t answer “until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the VP does every day. I’m used to being very productive and working real hard in an administration. We want to make sure that that VP slot would be a fruitful type of position, especially for Alaskans and for the things that we’re trying to accomplish up here….”

There is no doubt that Palin has fierce territorial loyalties. When elected governor there was much concern because she came right out and said she would favor her own home town of Wasilla (where she was mayor) and its surrounding environs collectively known as “the Valley” while leading the state. And it’s obvious from her statement that Alaska was on her mind when accepting the VP nod (see my emphasis above).

So what is it that we’re “trying to accomplish up here”?

• Palin is currently in the middle of a controversial gas pipeline project in Alaska. She’s favored the ‘Trans Canada’ proposal that will run the pipeline through Canada, in effect shipping US jobs over the border. Many Alaskans, including former governors, have favored the “All Alaska Route”.
• She is also sueing the federal government over listing the polar bears as a threatened species. The science was even compelling enough to convince the Secretery of the Interior that the bears needed to be listed. But acknowlegement of this issue, and the potential disruption to development on Alaska’s oil-rich north slope spurred Palin to attempt to stop the listing.
• Does she want to open ANWR? Yes. Every politician in Alaska wants to open ANWR. It’s basically a requirement if you ever hope to get elected for anything. Even Mark Begich, the progressive Democrat running against the indicted Senator and Alaskan institution Ted Stevens, is pro-drilling. That’s the sea we swim in up here. There are a few anti-drilling folks, but you have to look hard to find them, and work hard to have them admit it.

Will all this wash with voters in the ‘Lower 48′? Time will tell.

18 Million Cracks in the Glass Ceiling

It was obvious anyway, but became beat-you-over-the-head-with-a-two-by-four obvious when Palin referenced the ‘glass ceiling’ line, that this choice is a blatant pander to women. I would like to believe that women will actually feel insulted by this. Yes, it would have been historic if Hillary had gotten the nomination. It was historic that she made it as far as she did. Yes, it would be great to have a woman in the oval office, or in the VP slot if they are the right woman…a woman who got there with her own drive, grit, determination, intelligence, skill and merits. When you’re hand-picked by a man to win votes simply because you are a woman, that doesn’t count, and it doesn’t break any kind of ceiling. Would we have had a Stan Palin as our VP pick? No. So choosing a woman because you think her gender will get votes is insulting.

Governor “Squeakyclean”….or not.

Another focus of Palin’s introduction today was her reform image. Listen to John McCain and you’ll hear about a maverick reformer who took on big oil, took on corrupt Alaska politicians, and whose ethics are unquestioned.

Alaskans really want to like Sarah Palin. In a state where corruption is the rule, and the same faces keep recycling over and over and over again like a bad dream, a new face, with a promise of reform seemed like a breath of fresh air. Palin defeated incumbent governor Frank Murkowski (father of Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski who he appointed to his own Senate seat when he was elected governor) because he was such an obnoxious, bloviating, downright BAD politician. This staunchly republican state voted with relief, not having to cross over and vote Democratic, but still able to get Murkowski the hell out of office. In the general election Palin swept into office running against a former Democratic governor, Tony Knowles, who was capable but came with baggage. And he represented to Alaskans more of the same, tired old-style politics, and special interests that we have come to loathe.

So, if McCain had made his selection six months ago, the squeaky-clean governor meme would have made a little more sense. But, Sarah Palin is currently under an ethics investigation by the Alaska state legislature. The details of this investigation read like a trashy novel, and I suspect that the players will soon have newfound celebrity on the national stage. I’ll try to explain for all you non-Alaskans who suddenly have good reason to want to know more about Sarah Palin. For those of you not interested in trashy novels, feel free to skip ahead. Here it is…what we in Alaska call “TrooperGate”.

Sarah Palin’s sister Molly married a guy named Mike Wooten who is an Alaska State Trooper. Mike and Molly had a rocky marriage. When the marriage broke up, there was a bitter custody fight that is still ongoing. During the custody investigation, all sorts of things were brought up about Wooten including the fact that he had illegally shot a moose (yes folks this is Alaska), driven drunk, and used a taser (on the test setting, he reminds us) on his 11-year old stepson, who supposedly had asked to see what it felt like. While Wooten has turned out to be a less than stellar figure, the fact that Palin’s father accompanied him on the infamous moose hunt, and that many of the dozens of charges brought up by the Palin family happened long before they were ever reported smacked of desperate custody fight. Wooten’s story is that he was basically stalked by the family.

After all this, Wooten was investigated and disciplined on two counts and allowed to kept his position with the troopers. Enter Walt Monegan, Palin’s appointed new chief of the Department of Public Safety and head of the troopers. Monegan was beloved by the troopers, did a bang-up job with minimal funding and suddenly got axed. Palin was out of town and Monegan got “offered another job” (aka fired) with no explanation to Alaskans. Pressure was put on the governor to give details, because rumors started to swirl around the fact that the highly respected Monegan was fired because he refused to fire the aforementioned Mike Wooten. Palin vehemently denied ever talking to Monegan or pressuring Monegan in any way to fire Wooten, or that anyone on her staff did. Over the weeks it has come out that not only was pressure applied, there were literally dozens of conversations in which pressure was applied to fire him. Monegan has testified to this fact, spurring an ongoing investigation by the Alaska state legislature. But, before this investigation got underway, Palin sent the Alaska State Attorney General out to do some investigative work of his own so she could find out in advance what the real investigation was going to find. (No, I’m not making this up). The AG interviewed several people, unbeknownst to the actual appointed investigator or the Legislature! Palin’s investigation of herself uncovered a recorded phone call retained by the Alaska State Troopers from Frank Bailey, a Palin underling, putting pressure on a trooper about the Wooten non-firing. Todd Palin (governor’s husband) even talked to Monegan himself in Palin’s office while she was away. Bailey is now on paid administrative leave.

As if this weren’t enough, Monegan’s appointed replacement Chuck Kopp, turns out to have been the center of his own little scandal. He received a letter of reprimand and was reassigned after sexual harrassment allegations by a former coworker who didn’t like all the unwanted kissing and hugging in the office. Was he vetted? Obviously not. When he was questioned about all this, his comment was that no one had asked him and he thought they all knew. Kopp, defiant, still claimed to have done nothing wrong and said to the press that there was no way he was stepping down from his new position. Twenty four hours later, he stepped down. Later it was uncovered that he received a $10,000 severance package for his two weeks on the job from Palin. Monegan got nothing.

After extensive news coverage about all this nasty behind-the-scenes scandal, which is definitely NOT squeaky clean, Palin’s approval ratings fell to 67%, still high, but a far cry from the 90% number that’s being thrown around so glibly by the Republicans today. Alaskans are quickly becoming disillusioned once again.

Read it all.

The Satanic Lunch Program of Doom!

"Hawkins County school officials assure me that students participating in the biometric identification system will be under no obligation whatsoever to swear allegiance or worship the school lunch lady. In fact, the Hawkins County School system advises against the worship or religious-type following of any staff or board member - as this would be just really weird.

Okay, they didn’t actually say that. They were mostly offended by the notion that half the county thinks they’re acting as a mark distributor for the devil. But the point here is: you are not and will never be required to kneel before anyone wearing plastic gloves and a hair net."

Read the whole story at DeMarCaTionVille.

My Speech to the 2008 Democrat Convention

Hello convention delegates!

Thanks for the invite to speak to you all.

I salute your party today because your primary campaigns offered, for the first time, viable contenders for the office of President who were not White Males. I think that is a most historic event, worthy of praise and admiration, and points to a nation lead more by ideals than any other thing.

I am an Independent voter, sort of. I decided to vote in the primary in Tennessee back in February and in order to do that I had to pick a political party primary to vote in. (Of course, I was also voting on a local sales tax increase, which I voted against, which really meant nothing, since the city voters decided in June to vote again and passed it and now the county says they want the increase too and it is on the ballot in November, but I wonder how it can be on the ballot twice in one year, and sorry I digress here.)

So as of this moment, I am still an Independent but a peek at my voting record would show I voted this year in the Democrat primary and am thus, I suppose, a Democrat. (The state's Democrat blog links to my page while the GOP's blog does not link to me, whatever that is worth.)

(Jeez-oh-Pete, look at these parenthetical remarks ... that's what happens to my writing and speechifying after I've just read a Robert Heinlein book. Ah well. Anyone who finds the use of the word or the form of parenthetical writing are all gone now, so it may be safe to continue.)

I mention all this as a form of full-disclosure. I have never been a dues-paying, card-carrying member of any political party, but I did vote in the primary and most folks who know me who are members of the two-party system have always labeled me a "liberal democrat", mostly as a short-hand way of expressing distaste for my views, meaning not so much they are 'liberal' as they are individual.

Since so many bloggers, texters and jillions of other event-recorders are at your convention, and since your candidate, Sen. Obama, is intent on including more than just delegates at his acceptance speech, I decided to make my virtual attendance and provide a speech. Thanks for thinking of me.

(Oh, and for those who think the Senator's speech in front of "Greek columns" is a grab at the power of Godhood, what? Have you people even been to Washington, D.C.? The style of our government's architecture is purely Greek temple.)

Here is my plea:

Don't blow it.

Our current Republican President and V.P. and his appointees have greatly abused the powers of their offices. Never thought I would see such abuse in my lifetime. Centralizing authority in a single political office is utterly opposite the reasons our Nation was founded. And they led by stirring fear and suspicion and woe and still, even with all that power, they are inept; so inept that 3 years ago they could not muster a response to a hurricane in the Gulf Coast and still can't; so inept they cannot conduct a military campaign to victory even after they have claimed it; so inept ... well, you get the point and I am no Great Orator.

My concern is that much of the conduct of this official and his crew were all made possible by the elected representatives in Congress. It was allowed to happen and accountability has been sorely absent. So I'm saying - Do Not Blow This Opportunity.

Our Nation has been stained with the acceptance of torture, of acting without legally obtained warrants, and all the while telling me to get some duct tape and plastic to make myself safe in my home and to take off my shoes to be safe in an airplane. The last eight (well, seven and change) years have been surreal. More so than normal.

I'm about twelve years past the median age in this country, so this ain't my first rodeo. Political conventions are as engaging to most folk as oral surgery. Now that you have had your time to gather some unified energy, it is time to hit the streets and get some face time with voters who are unsure of what to do after having the bejesus scared out of themselves. And should you be fortunate and blessed and obtain the office of the Presidency, then boy oh boy the real work starts. And it will not be easy to undo the damage. I will be watching closely and you can check what I think by visiting this page often and thank you for that.

Still, I speak today to support the Obama/Biden ticket. Your choice is highly optimistic about our Nation. I surely hope that is what you begin to spread among the masses and truly bring back into government.

As a great British writer once wrote: "God bless us, every one."

G'night.

(Can you get your house band to play this as I leave the stage? Can I pretend to conduct, too? No? Ah well, play on, play on.)

Why I Feel Justified Fearing New High-Tech Cellphones

Tales Told By Idiots

After the 24-hours of comments left on this Knoxville News Sentinel story, I may have to take back my comments yesterday that the good outweighs the bad on the internet.

Crikey. I sure feel sorry for those who have to moderate the comments there. Must be like cleaning out Ancient Septic Tanks of the Damned.

I did note one comment worth repeating:

"Sounds like most of you took the day off from working on your GED's."

UPDATE: I'm embarrassed. KNS blogger Michael Silence writes this morning that I was more right yesterday. I should not read news and comments until I've had more coffee and sleep, maybe??

It's a Madhouse!!

"It's basically become a mudpit and it's very loud," he said of the blogosphere. In his final post, he wrote, "Today the blogosphere is so charged, so polarized, and so filled with haters hating that it's simply not worth it. "

From Jason Calacanis, founder of Weblogs and CEO for Mahalo, in the Washington Post article Monday.

Since I began scouring the Internet via a 9600 baud dial-up connection in the early 1990s and all the way to today, what I have discovered is you can find whatever you wish to find - mudpits, nitwits, genius, talent, scum, glory, community, isolation and an opinion on any topic. Managing sites can be thankless, brutal work, and it can also be incredibly rewarding.

The real crux of the WaPo article above is that marketing directors, CEOs, large and minuscule, companies all compete on the Internet now. This humble page is one of millions of daily blogs, nearly impossible for anyone to find, right? Nope. Readers arrive from every corner of the planet to view this page, from all manner of sources and queries and searches. As many as hate, just as many offer something better than that.

For me, what I continue to see is an ever-expanding creativity. And yes, some folks just scrawl dirty limericks on the walls, but the larger truth is about creation and not destruction.

Talking About Michelle Obama

I only got to see some of the event last night, but one thing did really creep me out: those silhouettes along the railing above the stage and in front of the big screen look really weird.

Anyway ...

I think Michelle Obama did something fairly amazing in her speech last night at the Democratic Convention - she made a mostly critique-proof speech. It wasn't a rant on the failures of Republicans, or a huge promotion of policies and platforms. It was a kind of fluffy talk about how her family made her strong, how her marriage and her children made her strong, and that those kinds of strength are the best of American Life.

Mom, Dad, Home, Kids and Apple Pie. As both the Tennessee and the national Republican PR-geeks have worked to create the image of Michelle Obama as a deranged and bitter and angry woman, she effortlessly deflected such claims, gave huge emotional and symbolic salutes to the role of women in American Life - as sisters, mothers, and daughters - and still gave salutes to her man, too, in a way that is hard to smack down with criticism, like this bit:

"He's the same man who drove me and our new baby daughter home from the hospital ten years ago this summer, inching along at a snail's pace, peering anxiously at us in the rearview mirror, feeling the whole weight of her future in his hands .."

Every parent who heard that probably got a bit misty on that line. Making her a target at that moment would be a major error. It also made me think perhaps she had wished he would move a little faster, too.

Likewise, a salute (emotional and symbolic) to Sen. Kennedy, whose health is failing, was tough to knock apart too. Kicking a man when he's down, when his family shows a bittersweet hopefulness for the future, would be political suicide.

So critics were left with little to actually say about last night other than it was "a wasted night", as Bill Kristol said on FOX. Yeah, see, he wants to attack and be attacked. A solid image of families whose lives are measured in small and large moments, sometimes historic, sometimes mundane, leaves critics with nothing to fight about.

UPDATE: Be sure to read R. Neal's observations on Monday night, part of his continuing coverage.

ET Unemployment Hits 5 and 10 Year Highs

Unemployment in Morristown hit a 10-year high at 13%, the highest rate since Jan. 1998, and other metropolitan and county communities likewise saw the summer bring on high rates, according to a report in the Kingsport Times-News:

"With the exception of Johnson City and Kingsport, unemployment rates for East Tennessee cities with population above 25,000 are the highest rates since Jan. 1998 - the date the current Bureau of Labor Statistics report begins.

"Morristown's unemployment rate was 13% - the highest since Jan. 1998.

Kingsport weighted in with 8.2% in July.

Bristol's July rate was 6.6% - the highest since Jan. 1998.

Johnson City's July rate was 6.2%, down from June's 6.3% rate."

The KTN also spoke with ETSU Economist Steb Hipple, who says that even though there were more jobs available this summer than there were in 1998, it's the constantly rising cost of living and inflation which is bringing more and more job seekers out into the marketplace:

"The higher cost of living has decimated family living standards. The only recourse is to put additional family members to work, so in the second quarter millions of Americans entered the labor market trying to find work to augment falling household incomes.”


The announced 20% rate hike in utilities this fall from TVA, and an economy which isn't adding jobs as fast as costs rise mean these numbers may well stay high into next year. And expect your taxes to increase as well.

Ben Cunningham posts about two new increases - one on a so-called 'streamlined-sales-tax' on internet purchases, and another on the coming increase in gasoline taxes in Tennessee as well.

Seems the government, along with most of the rest of us, are searching high and low for ways to provide enough money to cover ever-increasing costs.

Blogging The Democratic Convention

The voices and views of many hundreds of bloggers, the instant texting, the live feeds, the YouTube cameras, and much more hi-and-lo-tech touches are making this year's political nominating party conventions something new.

East Tennessean R. Neal is already in Denver, posting many activities as the event gets underway. A sample photo of the convention center and the security fencing is show below, BUT I want to stress a few things about this new kind of political coverage so peek at the pic, but please read on.
What's happening this week via Neal's reports and comments (which you can easily track with this nifty feed full of links he's provided) and the reports from all those other folks means we're getting fresh perspectives on how our political, social and technological actually works, far ahead of the typical dry old media approach. He's already made numerous posts about just how the convention works, a view from the inside which will be uniquely his own. It's a civic lesson of sorts and I am already learning things -- and he is hardly alone in reporting and writing and photographing a complex political creation.

An article in today's NYTimes calls this the Year of the Political Blogger:

"While many Americans may watch only prime-time television broadcasts of the convention speeches, party officials also recognize the ability of bloggers to deliver minute-by-minute coverage of each day’s events to a niche online audience.

“The goal is to bring down the walls of the convention and invite in an audience that’s as large as possible,” said Aaron Myers, the director of online communications for the Democratic National Convention Committee. “Credentialing more bloggers opens up all sorts of new audiences.”

Many raised the money for the travel and other needs online, some paid for it themselves, and even the so-called 'credentialed' bloggers concept was expanded in recent weeks to allow for even more bloggers to get that inside look. One person with a laptop and a wee camera can do what used to take an army of media employees, hefting cameras and trailing microphone cords at the direction of some producers in van parked outside a convention center. And there are hundreds of folks at the convention with that kind of media power now - not professional.

So, as this week unfolds, I'll be attending the convention too, as I never could before. And I'm working on my own speech which I will present as well. It is gonna be a doozy.

Weekly Best of Tennessee Blogs

Bloggers across the state, like many others, are pondering on the selection of Sen. Joe Biden as the V.P. candidate for Sen. Obama. One way in which Sen. Obama scored a huge win with his announcement was they way in which the media and the public and the bloggers made his choice a huge story for much of the last week.

Here are the thoughts of those in Tennessee who wrote about the event, courtesy of Russ McBee via TennViews:

Given the large number of blog posts discussing the choice of Biden and the diversity of opinions on the topic, this week's roundup is devoted exclusively to that subject.

• 10,000 Monkeys and a Camera: Biden! and Senator O'Biden [Ed. note: The RSS feed for 10,000 Monkeys and a Camera has moved to this link.]

• 55-40 Memphis: It's official now

• Carole Borges: Joe Biden is perfect! I'm excited once again.

• The Crone Speaks: Obama Says it is Biden, I Say More of the Same

• Don Williams: Obama-Biden’s a brilliant ticket, but only if they win, natch

• Enclave: Wealthy Elite vs. Middle Class: Pick Your Biden Scorecard and Biden His Time: Delaware Senator Brings Commoner Cred to the Ticket

• KnoxViews: Joe Biden

• Lean Left: Hello, Joe! (Whadda ya know?)

• Left Of The Dial: Hey Barack

• Left Wing Cracker: I think it's going to work..

• Nashville for the 21st Century: Asshatery at Fournier's "Associated Press"

• Newscoma: Obama Chooses Biden and LA Times Gets Its VP Story Wrong and Breaking Down The Biden Factor

• Russ McBee: A quick thought on Joe Biden

• Sharon Cobb: BREAKING: Obama Picks Joe Biden!

• Silence Isn't Golden: It's Definitely Biden

• Southern Beale: So It's Biden and IOKIYAR: Veepstakes Edition

• Tennessee Guerilla Women: Obama Picks a Bro: It's Biden

• Vibinc: The Veep-Stakes Fiasco [Ed. note: OK, the Vibinc post isn't a reaction per se, since it was written on Friday, but it's still relevant. Sue me.]

And finally, Katie Allison Granju blogs on the subject from her new home at KnoxNews.com, "Because I Said So":

• Because I Said So: Obama didn't get this one right