DNCC Funnies

Found on Reddit:


And from Hardball with Chris Matthews:

~BT

McCain's VP pick is reckless

I was in disbelief when I heard the news this morning that John McCain has picked Sarah Palin as his running mate. Palin is an extreme right-wing self-described "hockey mom" who is currently embroiled in a scandal and who is completely unqualified for VP. She doesn't even know what the VP does! Given that McCain is 72 years old and has had problems with cancer, this pick is truly reckless and a completely political ploy with obviously no consideration for actually governing.

I'll have a more detailed post soon about my thoughts on Palin, but for now here is Obama spokesman Bill Burton's initial statement, which Obama has since distanced himself from, but nonetheless sums up how I feel:

"Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency. Governor Palin shares John McCain's commitment to overturning Roe v. Wade, the agenda of Big Oil and continuing George Bush's failed economic policies -- that's not the change we need, it's just more of the same."

~BT

Larry King interviews Bill Maher

Bill Maher is great as usual talking about the presidential campaigns, the veepstakes (this interview was a few days before the Biden announcement) and his new movie on religion. Watch it!

~BT

Baracky II

After enjoying the spoofs of Rocky and Star Wars during the primary campaign between Obama and Clinton, we have a sequel: Baracky II. These videos have been great. I hope to see more of them.

~BT

Clinton Campaign Post-Mortem

The Atantic's much-awaited article on Hillary Clinton's ill-fated campaign says that her divided staff didn't serve her well, that she didn't make hard choices, and that she rejected her chief strategist's suggestion to go after Barack Obama on his "lack of American roots."

Above all, this irony emerges: Clinton ran on the basis of managerial competence—on her capacity, as she liked to put it, to “do the job from Day One.” In fact, she never behaved like a chief executive, and her own staff proved to be her Achilles’ heel.

This is sure to make waves in the media and blogosphere. It was mentioned on CNN earlier tonight before it was even posted online, in the context of having more ammunition to attack Obama now that we know what Mark Penn' suggested line of attack for the primary. I am happy that Hillary didn't follow Penn's terrible advice.

You can also check out all the details from the "Hillary Clinton Memos" yourself.

~BT

Obama Hits Back

Barack Obama's new television ad "Embrace" addresses the numerous ways in which the special interests in Washington have embraced John McCain and how McCain has hugged right back, employing lobbyists in top positions and giving tax breaks to oil and drug companies, instead of working to ease the burden on middle-class families.

~BT

Olympic Coverage

Check out more posts about the Olympics on my Canadian blog

~BT

How Are You Seeing the Beijing Olympics?

Will you be watching it live? On your television or online?

Here in Toronto, live coverage begins at 7am with the Opening Ceremonies beginning live at 8am.

As I brace for the deluge of Olympic coverage from the Beijing Olympics, here are some questions that are on my mind:

• Have you noticed that it is the 8th day in August, the 8th month, 2008? Got to love your lucky numbers.
• How much did the exclusive television and web rights cost in your country?
• What technology platforms are being used to broadcast online coverage of the Games? Here in Canada, CBC is using Windows Media Player.
• How big will the global audience be?
  
• The US is making a huge statement by choosing a victim of violence in Sudan as their flag bearer.
• Will China be able to control the image of these Games? Details leak out.
  
• What will the 'story' be? So far Canadian and American coverage I have seen has air pollution and smog mentioned predominantly.
  
• Will Youtube coverage be available in North America?

What are you thinking about as we the world collectively turns its attention to China ?

Cross Posted at Canadian Liberal @ Penn

~BT

Hipster: The Dead End of Western Civilization?

From Adbusters:

Ever since the Allies bombed the Axis into submission, Western civilization has had a succession of counter-culture movements that have energetically challenged the status quo. Each successive decade of the post-war era has seen it smash social standards, riot and fight to revolutionize every aspect of music, art, government and civil society.

But after punk was plasticized and hip hop lost its impetus for social change, all of the formerly dominant streams of “counter-culture” have merged together. Now, one mutating, trans-Atlantic melting pot of styles, tastes and behavior has come to define the generally indefinable idea of the “Hipster.”

I have to admit my enjoyment of the hipster scene back in Philadelphia as well as here in Toronto. Although I don't consider myself a hipster, I enjoy the dive bars, the young good-looking crowds and the often electronic music. Every time I go out to some hipster event, I think to myself about the opportunity to politically organize the crowds of intelligent, well-informed 20-somethings. The problem is that I haven't yet figured out how to inject progressive political activism into this hipster world.

Adbusters, whose cover story on Hipsterdom sparked this post, takes a unsurprisingly critical and pessimistic view.

Hipsterdom is the first “counterculture” to be born under the advertising industry’s microscope, leaving it open to constant manipulation but also forcing its participants to continually shift their interests and affiliations. Less a subculture, the hipster is a consumer group – using their capital to purchase empty authenticity and rebellion. But the moment a trend, band, sound, style or feeling gains too much exposure, it is suddenly looked upon with disdain. Hipsters cannot afford to maintain any cultural loyalties or affiliations for fear they will lose relevance.

An amalgamation of its own history, the youth of the West are left with consuming cool rather that creating it. The cultural zeitgeists of the past have always been sparked by furious indignation and are reactionary movements. But the hipster’s self-involved and isolated maintenance does nothing to feed cultural evolution. Western civilization’s well has run dry. The only way to avoid hitting the colossus of societal failure that looms over the horizon is for the kids to abandon this vain existence and start over.

Adbusters laments our "defeated generation" that is too afraid to create our own authentic counterculture. First, I can't disagree more with the fact that we are defeated. Have you seen the level of activism among millennials in the US? Our generation is well-informed, caring, and using the new tools at our disposal to effect real change, instead of feeding into some new counterculture movement that will inevitably be co-opted and sold back to us. Second, the whole notion of effecting change through some authentic counterculture has not worked for the last 20+ years. Remember all those culture jammers and anti-globalization radicals that Adbusters exemplifies? What have they achieved?

Instead of worrying about how Hipsterdom is growing into "a global phenomenon that is set to consume the very core of Western counterculture" we need to reevaluate what actual value comes from these countercultures. In my view, all of this focus on creating and sustaining these subcultures opposed to the "mainstream" is just a distraction from achieving real political change.

Cross Posted at Canadian Liberal @ Penn

~BT

Protest at the Fed

This mini protest ahead of the Fed decision at 2:15 today begs the question of when all of these bailouts for wealthy investors and wall street types will become a salient political issue. It truly is socializing the costs and privatizing the profits. Sooner or later Americans will catch on, right?


Via The Big Picture

~BT

Can't Say You Weren't Told

wow

comments welcome

~BT

I.O.U.S.A. Movie Trailer

Take a look


Official site: IOUSA the Movie
http://www.iousathemovie.com/

~BT

Follow me on Twitter!

I've recently discovered this new social networking tool called Twitter. It is a "service to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?"

You can find my Twitter page here. I first joined Twitter in May and have slowly started to use it and get familiar with it. In that time I have posted 22 updates, all pretty short (less than the 140 character limit). I am "following" 52 people, which means I get their updates through the Twitter website and can choose which ones I want to receive on any of my devices (I have set up my phone to receive texts from Twitter). There are 29 people "following" me although I don't really know if/how they read my updates and I haven't really had a twitter back/forth like I've seen other people have.

So, if you feel like trying it out, go to Twitter and sign up. Then click on my page and "follow me". You can then see my updates through the website and any device that you set up with Twitter. If you get free incoming text messages - you should set Devices On for me and then you will receive my updates via text. And if you start using it yourself, let me know so I can follow you!

If you have tried Twitter or use it, leave your thoughts in the comments.

~BT

US Army's cover-up of Lavena Johnson's tragic death

LaVena Johnson was 19 years old, serving in Iraq as a private in the
Army, when she was raped, murdered, and her body was burned--by someone
from her own military base. Despite overwhelming physical evidence,
the Army called it a suicide and closed the case.[1]

For three years, LaVena's parents have been fighting for answers. At
almost every turn, they've been met with closed doors or lies. But
together we can help achieve justice for LaVena and other families who
have suffered similar tragedies.[2]

Will you join me in standing with the Johnsons and calling on Henry
Waxman, Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, to investigate the
Army's cover-up of Lavena's death? And ask your friends and family to
do the same?

http://www.colorofchange.org/lavena/?id=1963-642358

Thanks.

1. "The cover-up of a soldier's death?" LavenaJohnson.com, March 6, 2007
http://www.lavenajohnson.com/2007/03/cover-up-of-soldiers-death.html

2. "Is There an Army Cover Up of Rape and Murder of Women Soldiers?" CommonDreams.org, April 28, 2008
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/04/28/8564/

~BT

One Year Anniversary of Jim Cramer's Freakout

On August 9, 2007 I posted Economic Armageddon? and wrote:

The jury is still out but Jim Cramer, host of the always entertaining Mad Money on CNBC, thinks the fixed-income market is already in Armageddon. If you still haven't heard or seen Jim Cramer's freak-out on CNBC last friday, you should join the over 1 million people who already have.

A lot has happened in the last year. If you watch the Cramer clip, you see Bear Sterns trading at $109. And we know what happened to Bear Sterns. We saw the bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and a US economy that likely has been in recession since the beginning of the year, with the world economy not far behind.

So, Economic Armageddon? No. But, the Federal Reserve in coordination with other G8 central banks have pulled out all the stops to avoid a total economic calamity.

Update: Paul Krugman reviews the last year: A Slow-Mo Meltdown

~BT

Literature, Activism and Politics

A few days ago, Jennifer Nix launched an online conversation with a post on her life in the literature world and her move to activism in recent years. Here is the online conversation in chronological order:

1) Jennifer Nix at HuffingtonPost: Resurrecting Literature: Sustenance for the Progressive Soul

2) Chris Bowers on Openleft.com : The Rise Of The Non-Fictional Aesthetic

3) Emptywheel of Firedoglake.com : The Count of Monte Cristo Was Not Fiction

4) Chris Bowers responds: More On The Shifting Aesthetic

5) Jennifer Nix's response published at Openleft: Sustenance For The Progressive Soul

I also read an offshoot post that I am still making sense of. Tales of the City IS Fiction-And Mythos (also at Openleft). If you haven't you heard of Tales of the City, it is a series of books written in the 70s and 80s in San Francisco and that were serialized in their local papers.

In Jennifer Nix's response at Openleft she writes,

During the Gilded Age, in America and Europe, newspapers ran short stories and serialized novels. The greatest novelists of the time, including Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Henry James, Mark Twain, William Thackeray and Joseph Conrad published their works of fiction in installments in daily newspapers. Because this format was more affordable, people outside of the upper class had access to books for the first time. The publishing phenomenon sparked a growth not only in the number of people desiring to read, but also in literacy rates.

With newspapers cutting book sections and reviews-and entire news operations shrinking by the day-progressive political blogs could help to integrate literature back into American life. We know the value of pulling people out of their consumer-driven television comas, and getting them reading, informed and connected. Bringing literature back into people's everyday lives will provide sustenance for the progressive soul and lead to more hope, engagement and action.

This needs to be connected to the free culture movement and the few examples of serializing books online that I've started to see online. We need to start talking about making available more of these books online for free. Some authors have started doing that, notably Lawrence Lessig's Free Culture. This is a great way to drive sales of books because people read a bit of it online and prefering to reading a book in print, they go out and buy it.

All in all, a great conversation that occurred online in the last few days that has started to connect various threads. I discovered a whole bunch of new fiction that I want to read and hopefully more political blogs will take Jennifer up on her offer to help sites tie more fiction and build further ties with some literary blogs. I might even contact her and read The Lazarus Project.

~BT