Notes on the Nevada Democratic Debate

The more the pool of NBC-sanctioned candidates shrinks, the more tragically boring the debates get. I'd write a mathematical equation, but let's just say that this one sucked the most so far.

Short summary: Kucinich was punked, Everybody loves each other, no one has a true weakness, Hillary uses ninja attack once, and Chris Matthews is still an asshat.

Let's itemize, shall we?

• Kucinich drama summary: NBC says "Hey, join us!" then says "Oops, hey forget about that thing we said." Dennis sues and appeals court says "Heck yeah you should be there" and minutes before the debate the Nevada Supreme Court says "No dice." NBC should be ashamed; the American people (and maybe the other candidates?) should at least act like they care.


• Everyone plays nice: the media-spewed race issue is no longer an issue. Yay! But toned-down issue foreshadowing of excitement level of rest of 2 hours. Boo.


• The people will elect whomever will effect change and says No to lobbyists and everyone on stage likes each other and "I agree" and "I respect" and - can we cut the damned oral sex daisy chain and maybe discuss why one of you is better than the other?


• Obama started the debate with his signature "Uhm"s but softened it towards Hillary's "ah" pronunciation by the end.


• Edwards was dang proud of flapping his arms to conjure up the word "fervently." It was tremendous.


• Edwards states that thousands of Americans come to Nevada every day to find the Promise of America. Gambling on a shot at unearned cash winnings is the American Dream? He later claims he meant people looking for work, moving to Nevada, but if population growth from 2000 to 2006 is any indication, daily average increase was a little over 200 people. So he was wrong, or he meant gambling. Or hookers.


• John Edwards constantly wears an obnoxiously large black K-Mart watch that, in its enormity, refuses to be hidden under his clothing. What the hell?


• Obama's greatest weakness is that he has a messy desk, Edwards cares too much, and Hillary pushes too hard. Were these answers given at a job interview, the interviewer would've replied "Okay, thanks. We'll let you know." Wait; this is a job interview.


• Hillary takes a double whack at Obama and Edwards on Yucca Mountain, attacking like a ninja; Obama is afraid to hit a girl; Edwards attacks, but amidst cries for relevance, appears to be tossing cream pies. Yes, I just called John Edwards a clown. And yes, he amuses me.


• Hillary is "against illegal guns." That's probably a good thing. For all things that are illegal.


• Post debate: Chris Matthews exploded onto the screen declaring Hillary the hands-down winner, amazed at her performance, talking like she's already the Democratic candidate, and "playing on the varsity team." The rest of the MSNBC team tried to calm him down, to no avail (at least poor Olbermann didn't have to be in the same room with him this round). Why is this disaster still on television?

I was bored. I was tired. And nothing happened. As soon as one candidate picked up on a topic, the others picked up and agreed. Iraq was equalized between them on nuance, everyone's for the economy, against the current administration and all the Republican candidates. So how to decide?

Personally, I think I'm still pushing for Dennis through the primary (Kate and I are voting on the same day - how fun!), but you've got three choices.

1. Stick to your original, gut reaction, even if they're not going to win the primary in your state.


2. Base your choice on experience, once you define for yourself what type of experience matters and how much of that experience each candidate has.


3. If you're looking for most presidential, while the misguided, obnoxious rantings of Matthews were unprofessional, he was not entirely off base: last night, Hillary looked and spoke like the leader, flanked by her seconds.


4. Base your choice on the woman, the African-American, or the rich white guy who was poor as a kid.

Cheers!

Kucinich and Democratic Reindeer Games

a.k.a., Shotgun Debate in Nevada. From the LA Times:

A Nevada judge said Monday that Democratic presidential candidate Dennis J. Kucinich must be included in today's candidate debate in Nevada.

Senior Clark County District Judge Charles Thompson said if Kucinich was excluded, he would issue an injunction stopping the televised debate.

The judge sided with a lawyer for the Ohio congressman, who said MSNBC invited Kucinich to take part and then told him that he couldn't.

"We disagree with the judge's decision and are filing an appeal," said a statement provided by Jeremy Gaines, a communications vice president for MSNBC.

He said the network would seek an immediate hearing before the Nevada Supreme Court.

MSNBC says they billed the debate as only the top 3 candidates, but I can swear I saw a promo for the "showdown" debate featuring Bill Richardson's mug before he removed himself from the race.

MSNBC, there are two options here: Say "oops" and set up a fourth podium or scramble to the Nevada Supreme Court and make complete asses of yourselves on a national stage to prove just how far you will go to silence minority opinion.

Davis Fleetwood has some excellent summary information about the story so far, GE (NBC's parent company) and war profiteering, and contact information for NBC and the DNC - and his live calls to those organizations.

The Hungry Boy in the Back

I was able to pull one quote out of the post-debate interview with Fred Thompson, but at that point, quickly became entranced by the drama that had been unfolding in the background. Yes, I know I'm going to hell.



I just really hope that poor kid had some cake at home.

Notes on the FOX News Republican South Carolina Debate

Ugh, *gasp*, ...burnout - 2 more Republican Debates, 3 more Democratic Debates before the conventions. This is getting tired.

So for those of you who don't want to dig down into the bullet points, here's the short short version: McCain drones racist, Thompson whips Huckabee, Huckabee says "gates of hell," Romney can't say "Ahmadinejad," everybody laughs at Ron Paul, no one will acknowledge what a benchmark in Iraq is, and the flashy background lights and Wendell Goler's tie distracted viewers from all of it.

Oh, and Ronald Reagan.



...and here's those witty bullet points you all so love:

• While I'm glad to see that they haven't shut out Ron Paul for good, I'm disturbed by the recent reports of decades of racist newsletters published under his name.


• The anti-Huckabee ad never showed. :(


• McCain's tone is so droning that he rendered 30% of the FOX audience comatose and paramedics lined up stage left should he slip into a coma himself.


• Note to Giuliani: "oversuing" is not a word or a reality - the only people who want tort reform are the medical insurance companies and the tools who are wrapped around their various appendages.


• Thompson with the big guns, goes down the line on why Huckabee's version of the Reagan Coalition is the policy of the Democratic Party. Ooh, snap. Too bad he's about 4 months too late in gaining a pulse.


• Huckabee on Iran pseudo-scuffle: The enemy should set their sites on the American ship, then know that the next thing they will see "will be the gates of Hell." Did you really just...yes you did.


• Distractions - Stop the twinkle lights in the background and tell Wendell Goler to tone down the Zebra Stripe Gum tie. I'm trying to watch a debate, not slip into an epileptic fit. Granted, with McCain's monotone, it was one of the few things keeping me conscious.


• Ron Paul points out the Bush Administration's saber-rattling, how they were disappointed in the NIE, and how we need to be way careful before pushing the Iran Go button. Hume makes snide comment about direct question he had asked another candidate and everyone has a laugh at Ron Paul. Ron Paul is apparently not in the Ronald Reagan Club.


• Note to Romney: If you want to be The Leader of the Free World, you might want to practice the names of other leaders in the world, like "Ahmadinejad."


• Note to McCain as old-fashioned sexist: it's not 1953 anymore. Time appoints a "Person of the Year," not "Man of the Year."


• Note McCain as new-world racist: Saying you don't want to trade with Al Qaeda because they only want to trade burqas, and don't want to travel with them because they only buy one-way tickets might be seen as inflammatory to anyone with a sense for such things. Ass.


• McCain has "the greatest respect and affection for" Giuliani. Did you mean "admiration" or can we look forward to a the McCain/Giuliani version of Madonna/Britney. Pop culture nuance note: McCain will also French kiss Thompson; no one will remember.


• Carl Cameron to Ron Paul: "Electability...do you have any?" Carl Cameron is a dick.


• Nitpicking Huckabee on referencing Hispanics as "some of the ones." Some might see that as dehumanizing minorities. Non-whites are people too.


• Thompson's post interview summed up the overall view of how the Iraq Surge is a winner: "The only benchmark is success." I would've gone with the 9/18 benchmarks; at least there you get 50%.

So another debate dies and we breathe deeply before January 15th's Democratic debate, if it's aired. I guess I'll figure that out by then. Cheers!

Republican Debate, Huckabee Gets Spanked

Huckabee will be a part of the Republican debate tonight, but he'll have to contend with the fact that this scorcher will be viewed during a break:



Nice.

Limbaugh, Liberals, Race, and Ron Paul

Today on his show, that preternaturally epic bag of douche, Rush Limbaugh, was in a tizzy. He attempted to veil it, but his shouts that something happened, he didn't know what, but Democrats better find out what it was rang only of "The polls said Hillary wouldn't win! Kryptonite! Somebody whine with me!" And his manhood, it shrunk - two more sizes - that day.

Rush then went on to explain to his attentive sheep that the liberals are horribly disorganized and completely terrified that there might actually be a "woman" or "black" nominated for the presidency. Why would Rush say such a thing? According to the El-Rusho, Conservatives are the inclusive folks, and us Liberals are the real closet racists and sexists. And according to him, we're scared as hell that a woman or black might get the nomination. Incidentally, we also don't believe that elections are about issues, but about posturing and marketing. And we killed Baby Jesus (no, he didn't say that).

Mr. Limbaugh then vaulted into Hillary getting teary-eyed, how calculated it was, and the Oprahization of the country, a term he apparently coined along with every other pop culture reference.

But the segue here departs from the tirades of the over-medicated conservative medium to the issue of race and how it applies to Ron Paul, the net-roots juggernaut candidate of the Republican Party. As James Kirchick of The New Republic states, "If you are a critic of the Bush administration, chances are that, at some point over the past six months, Ron Paul has said something that appealed to you."

Well, he does want to end the illegal war against Iraq...

But before Ron Paul entered the world of politics, he published many, many newsletters, newsletters that "were published under a banner containing Paul's name, and the articles (except for one special edition of a newsletter that contained the byline of another writer) seem designed to create the impression that they were written by him."

Who wants excerpts?

• On the LA Riots: "Order was only restored in L.A. when it came time for the blacks to pick up their welfare checks three days after rioting began."


• "America's number one need is an unlimited white checking account for underclass blacks."


• 1992 Bulls Celebration: "blacks poured into the streets of Chicago in celebration. How to celebrate? How else? They broke the windows of stores to loot."


• On MLK Day: "What an infamy Ronald Reagan approved it!" one newsletter complained in 1990. "We can thank him for our annual Hate Whitey Day."


• "One newsletter ridiculed black activists who wanted to rename New York City after King, suggesting that 'Welfaria,' 'Zooville,' 'Rapetown,' 'Dirtburg,' and 'Lazyopolis' were better alternatives."

I think that's enough.

Please read the article for the rest of the foul story. And never again equate Ron Paul with the ideals of Dennis Kucinich or anyone else who actually has the welfare of all people in America in their heart.

FreeCreditReport.com: Fuck You

Aside from the obvious Pastafarian upside, here's the spot:



The bepirated teller of this sad, catchy tale explains that he had his ID stolen. Said misfortune has somehow caused him to forgo his chosen vocation in order to take up waiting tables at some Long-John's-Lobster-esque joint. However, the decrepit crooner relates, if he had gone to FreeCreditReport.com (and apparently enrolled in the Triple Advantage version of the program which runs $15/mo), he would've "seen it coming like an atom bomb."

The pirate job, while snazzy, doesn't relate to ID theft. Is this an extra job? Why? If you shred your important documents, have a reasonable firewall, and aren't pissing your information all over the goddamned internets, ID theft is relatively rare. Hell, LifeLock is only $10/mo and that stops a life hack cold. This commercial doesn't make sense!

Round 2:



Here we have the same, unfortunate schlep, this time he has married his "dream girl," but did not know her credit was bad before going through with the nuptials. He then states that if he had gone to the aforementioned website and apparently pulled divining rods out of his ass (because you check your credit there, not someone else's), he would have seen that she had bad credit, kicked the woman with whom he has chosen to spend his life's skanky ass to the curb, and now be living in some masturbatory fantasy world where a single-income guy who can't afford to buy a house with the aid of his wife's income could somehow afford not only a house, but a dog as well, if that interest rate was just a couple points lower. Poor son of a bitch is now doublefucked, as you can see his accursed pirate hat in the foreground. This commercial doesn't make any fucking sense either!

So why all the goddamning and fucking? I listen to television all day - mostly Headline News. One of these two commercials appears repeatedly during the day on most stations (Time Warner buy, no doubt) to the point not just where it's not just "stuck in my head," but I dream these songs and hear them vividly playing upon waking. And my daughter sings them.

"Well, Ricky, you're just giving in to the what the advertisers want you to do," you say.

No shit. I love you all, but in my viral-induced misery, I sneeze on you. Share my hell.

Glenn Beck Had Ass Surgery

I posted Glenn's YouTube video Sunday and I've listened to the radio show (now I'm subscribed to Beck and Hannity...sheesh) and watched the Headline News spot, which both covered roughly the same items:

• "Ass surgery" gone "awry"


• Woke up under anesthesia


• Cocktail of Morphine, Phentanol, Toradol, Percocet, Synthetic Morphine Drip for pain


• While some good doctors/nurses, he was often treated poorly, ignored, and looked at as nothing more than a number


• "Don't talk to me about health care, don't talk to me about HMO's" until you can talk about compassion, until folks involved in health care start seeing people as human beings


• Med cocktail brought darkness, drained hope, caused hallucinations of grotesque death and children having their faces chewed off by dogs


• On his TV show, discussed putting the Care back in healthcare, how insurance-based systems are big part of problem, and about the over-medication of Americans: better living through pharmaceuticals

I don't wish this experience on any human being and do feel compassion for Glenn Beck. Unfortunately, it usually takes a negative experience - although not nearly as horrid as this one - to open our eyes to the sad state of American health care.

The "I hate Michael Moore and America's teh bestest" argument does not stand and it shouldn't be such a partisan issue; all Americans suffer because the insurance companies in charge of us receiving health care make money by not allowing us to get health care. It is broken. For everyone.

And if you'd like to pull this into our current election process, Dennis Kucinich is the only candidate who thinks insurance companies should not be in charge of our health care. If he does not win, we need to make it clear to whomever does that insurance company-run, profit-based health care is not an option.

If they don't care about a nationally-syndicated radio and television host, do you really think they give a shit about you?

Update Note: ABC's Good Morning America had Glenn on this morning where he shared his story again, this time with his wife (video at link). But I couldn't help notice the banner posted above the story:



Yes, that's Pfizer's logo on the right. Today, Glenn Beck's medical and pharmaceutical horror story was sponsored by a keystone of the very industry that caused it.

Brave New Films in New Hampshire

If you're tired of the mass media telling us how to think about the elections and the results of the elections, give Brave New Films Live Online Coverage a try. They're currently taking live suggestions and comments about what they should discuss/address for the evening. Current lineup is as follows:

7:10: Robert Greenwald, Brave New Films
7:40: Matthew Yglesias, The Atlantic
7:50: Robin Abcarian, L.A. Times
8:00: Billy Wimsatt, League of Young Voters
8:10: Rachel Sklar, The Huffington Post
8:20: Jane Hamsher, Firedoglake
8:30: Jim Dean, Democracy For America
8:40: Steve Clemons, The Washington Note
9:00: Lane Hudson, News for the Left
9:10: Isaiah Poole, TomPaine.com
9:40: James Rucker, Color of Change
10:00: Liza Sabater, Culture Kitchen
10:10: Eric Boehlert, Media Matters

Help support independent media and not, like I just heard on Headline News, extrapolation of New Hampshire Primary results based on how Dixville Notch, NH - with 17 voters - fared. FOX News too:

McCain with 4 votes, Mitt Romney with 2 votes, Rudy Giuliani with 1 vote. Those were the only Republican votes cast.

On the Democratic side, Obama won a landslide 7 votes compared with 2 for John Edwards, one for Bill Richardson and none for Hillary Clinton.

That's right: "a landslide 7 votes." WTF?

Of course, I'll be suckling from the teat of the mass media because someone's got to let you know the outrages that seep from their assuming, power-addled minds. Remember to be discerning while listening, and to decode while digesting.

Kucinich in New Hampshire

Davis Fleetwood reporting.

Glenn Beck on Monday

As I posted Friday, Glenn Beck's had a bad experience with American Medicine, and he's hinting at naming names and spouting compassion for the Average Joe.

I will listen. I will watch. I will report.

Glenn Beck can be heard on the radio at 9am Monday morning on local stations and seen on CNN's Headline News Monday night at 7pm EST.

Glenn Beck's Taste of American Health Care

And then Glenn's like OMG, "horribly awry" surgery, American medicine might not care about average Joe...understands compassion..."full fledged suicidal." I am not going to disrespect a man who's obviously gone through a pretty harsh ordeal with comeuppance, but what the hell is going on?

One thing's for sure: Monday will be something to tune into, radio and television as it were.


(h/t to TVNEWSER on Media Bistro)

Altering the Mind and the Human Condition

I am still getting hits and - surprisingly - comments on that long ago post "Marijuana Duck Duck Goose" where I blogged about a study that took the chemical in marijuana that makes you paranoid, administered it to subjects, and, surprise, it made them paranoid.

Most of the trickling comments are of the same variety as before:

- OMG, my friend smelled weed and totally went schizo!
- OMG, my friend's a doctor and gets high every day!
- OMG, pharmaceutical companies are the devil!

I'm making a generalization, not a commentary about my commenters; I love you all.

Except this one showed up in the post today:

Honestly, you kind of fail at life if you need a drug.

Based on the rest of what Anonymous had to say, I'm guessing his/her comment excludes caffine, energy drinks, nicotine, alcohol, and any OTC or pharmaceutical drug obtained and used legally with a doctor's prescription...except marijuana. Aside from the naive nearsightedness of the comment, I thought I'd take a moment to comment on the human condition and how it relates to altered consciousness.

When we are children with our first few handholds on reality, what is it we do? We alter it. We spin around until we can't stand up straight, feel sick, then do it again. We beg Mom or Dad to throw us up in the air and go down the slide 500 times because of the way it makes our tummy feel. We speed away on our bikes and get on the tallest roller coasters. We jog for the runner's high and meditate to take reality down a notch. We sleep to rejuvenate, dream to process, daydream to escape.

The legal stuff can speed us up, slow us down, numb us, and put us out, even permanently. The illegal stuff can take it a step further by altering our perception of sensory stimuli and time or simply ramping up the effects of the legal stuff.

But whether we seek enlightenment in a quiet mind or an expanded mind, whether we seek to touch God through a bag of shrooms or by speaking in tongues and dancing with snakes, whether we are looking to enhance or numb the experience of life, or are just plain addicted to the effects of a particular drug, human beings have grown tired of reality: we get it already.

And to say that anyone has "failed at life" because they have decided - for whatever reason - to lift the velvet rope, open a couple doors, and go beyond the nickel tour that comes with the ride is ignorant, naive, and sad. For the rest of us: do what you will, though you harm none, and happy exploring.

Message from Elizabeth Kucinich

Worth the minute of your time. Enjoy.
(See how I didn't mention how smoking hot - damn. Nevermind.)


[Alternative YouTube Link]

Kucinich in the Oval Office

And this is how he'd do it...

New Year's Kittens

A day late, but yes, I said New Year's Kittens:


[Alternative YouTube Link]

The Pope Mentally Masturbates on Marriage

On December 30th, 2007, the Emperor Pope said

we celebrate the mystery of a God Who chose to be born of a woman, the Blessed Virgin, and to enter this world in the same way as all mankind. Thus He sanctified the family, filling it with divine grace and fully revealing its vocation and its mission

First we have "the mystery of a God Who chose to be born of a woman." C'mon, now. So God, who supposedly designed the entire universe, specifically how things are born and "enter this world" chose to reference his own blueprint when he decided to pop in for a visit. That's a real head-scratcher.

Secondly, "thus he sanctified the family." By impregnating an unmarried woman against her will and forcing a shotgun wedding to a man who was not the father, God showed us what the family is all about? WTF? And while it does fit a modern profile of the family unit, the Pope and Republican leaders in this country are so focused on preventing people of the same sex who truly love each other from getting married that they are blatantly blind to the fact that the current, standard version of the institution is frostbitten, rife with gangrene, and slowly dissolving in its own juices.

But I guess it is part of the human condition to fantasize about and elevate something that you can never have or be a part of. Pope Benedict XVI, you're so emo.

MySpace IMPACT Pre-primary Primary

Yay voting! Stay in and vote. Now.

MySpace is holding an online primary starting 1/1/08 and running to 1/2/08 at 11:59pm. Choose a party, choose a candidate, then take the exit poll.

Make your voice heard.

Wi-Fi Tee From Heaven

I'm a little bit of a geek. Okay, I'm a rather big geek. Which is why this tee from Think Geek is something I will probably own very, very soon.

Here at ThinkGeek we're pretty lazy when it comes to technology. We expect our gadgets to do all the busywork while we focus on the high level important tasks like reading blogs. That's why we hate to have to crack open our laptops just to see if there is any wi-fi internet access about... and keychain wi-fi detectors, we would have to actually remove them from our pockets to look at them. But now thanks to the ingenious ThinkGeek robot monkeys you can display the current wi-fi signal strength to yourself and everyone around you with this stylish Wi-Fi Detector Shirt. The glowing bars on the front of the shirt dynamically change as the surrounding wi-fi signal strength fluctuates. Finally you can get the attention you deserve as others bow to you as their reverential wi-fi god, while geeky chicks swoon at your presence. You can thank us later.

Amen.

2007 into 2008 - Be Change Now

Happy New Year's Eve, folks. MoveOn.org has done some great things this year, the least of which was to get deeply embedded under the skin of such windbags as Limbaugh, Hannity, Savage, and FOX News. Here's a retrospective featuring some of the members: people just like you and me.



We have way too many people in America snugged comfortably - ass-print and all - on Apathy's couch, the thought bubble reading "Doesn't matter what I do" and floating above their head like a stubborn, stagnant, fetid fart. We need to lead by example: mobilize, volunteer, get involved. Do something. Ghandi said "we must be the change we wish to see in the world," but putting that in the signature of your outgoing emails doesn't actually make you the change; it makes you complacent. "Do or do not; there is no try."

I don't care what party you are a part of: get active. Be a part of the process, whether it's political or environmental or humanitarian or Drewish. Find something that makes you want to tear open the shutters, throw up the sash, and scream your fucking brains out. Then do that.

When you are standing on a street corner with a protest or concern sign, when you're attending a rally - whether ten or ten thousand strong, when you're writing letters to your elected officials and getting out there with your vote to back it up, that's when you're in it, that's when you're doing something. Then do more. Think. Act. Emote. Aspire.

Let's make 2007 cry like a little schoolgirl because it's so jealous of 2008's progress. Let's show Americans what America can be. Let's make it count.