Monthly Archives: October 2008

I think we all know who he is talking about…

Finally, a get-out-the-vote video I can get on board with.

Two rich entrepreneurs. Each own a basketball team. Both have recently decided to use their powers toward causes in which they believe. One is an inspirational endeavor for the very well-being of this country. The other is a bat-shit insane exercise in misguided futility.

See if you can tell which is which:

Mark Cuban [owner of the Dallas Mavericks] has a new pet project: BailoutSleuth.com seeks to keep readers updated on how their money is being spent as part of the $700 billion bailout of financial institutions.

So far the early returns aren’t looking good. Yesterday the site’s editor, Chris Carey, wrote that the “Treasury Department put out an announcement about a major bailout-related contract with Bank of New York Mellon Corp. that fell short in the transparency department.”

The problem? Nearly all the information on compensation was redacted, leading to less than illuminating lines like this: “The Financial Agent shall receive a monthly fee —————————————.”

–link

or

Megaplex Theaters [owned by Utah Jazz owner Larry Miller] will not screen the comedy “Zack and Miri Make a Porno” when it opens nationwide Friday – once again opening the Utah theater chain to charges of hypocrisy for barring movies with strong sexuality but allowing films with graphic violence.
The movie, which stars Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks as roommates who decide to make a sex film to pay off debts, received an R rating after director Kevin Smith successfully appealed an NC-17 ruling.

–link

Priorities…

:)

Anil Dash on the dangers of deliberately obscured semantics on the campaign trail:

Put simply, if Palin says “Barack Obama consorts with terrorists”, she is making the assertion that he supports acts of violence against American citizens and the media will refute this obviously false assertion. If, instead, Palin says he “pals around with terrorists”, she’s used code-switching to mask the seriousness of the charge, obfuscating her meaning enough to get away with making an assertion that inevitably calls for the imprisonment or even assassination of a political opponent.

This clever use of language only hides Palin’s meaning from members of the press. Because writers for traditional media are usually highly educated and pride themselves on their mastery of Standard American English, they can often look down on dialects like AAVE and North Central English. Instead these forms of language being seen as legitimate and interpreted in the social context where they’ve formed, they’re dismissed as being the words of “people who don’t even speak proper English!” In the cases where the ideas aren’t outright dismissed, there is still rampant misinterpretation of meaning: Reporters wrongly see a term like “palling” as imprecise, when compared to a word like “consorting”.

But these words are not imprecise to their intended audience. They are, in fact, clearer than using legalistic terms like “consorting”. They amplify the urgency of the statements, and increase the sense for Palin’s audience that they’re on the same page with her, speaking a language too “plain”, too full of “straight talk”, for the press to understand. And they’re right. Palin has consistently pitted herself against the media, depicting them as hostile and foreign to her campaign, and thus making it even less likely they’d take her less formal-sounding charges seriously.

I’m pretty concerned about the possibility of an assassination attempt on Obama’s life, even if the recent neo-nazi “conspirators” seemed more like overly-ambitious idiots. I’m not the type to believe that people are malleable enough that they could be so easily incited to violence based solely on speeches, but the crackpot part of the right-wing could easily have its flames of hatred fanned. McCain and Palin should know better. If they are so despicable (as seems likely) that they require a selfish reason to stop, then they should understand that their legacies would be completely ruined should anything happen to Obama. The country would place the blame directly on their doorsteps.

MTV launches amazing new video site. Tons of videos. No Kate Bush though…

WALL-E for Best Picture? Hell yeah.

Gerard Damiano, director of Deep Throat, The Devil in Mrs. Jones, and many others died on Saturday. Goodnight sweet prince.

Obama spokesman Bill Burton is one cool cucumber. I’d have started shrieking like a disorderly child by minute 2.

What is going on here?

Ok, just a couple things on the whole “Spreading the Wealth” idea that seems to be the failed McCain tactic of the week:

1. Unless you are in favor of eliminating taxes all together, you are in favor of “Spreading the Wealth”.

2. The main opponents of “Spreading the Wealth” are the red states, which would be hulking piles of cowpies if it weren’t for the blue states “Spreading the Wealth” and supporting their sorry asses.

My favorite new meme.

I’ve seen some Facebook friends I know from my early days playing classical music around L.A., joining groups like “Protect Marriage – Vote Yes on Prop 8!”. It boggles my mind. You’re a classical musician. You are surrounded by gay people. Do you really want to deny your colleagues and supposed friends a basic human right? And if you are a conservative – which I’m sure most of you are – think of it like this: Voting Yes on Prop 8 increases government intervention into citizens’ lives. It is antithetical to the idea of limited government.

Voting No on Prop 8 doesn’t change anything. It won’t force schools to teach the merits of gay marriage to your kids. It won’t make anyone do anything. Voting Yes, however, does. It will strip rights from thousands of Californians. It will create a second class status for thousands of people, people you know and work with.

The idea of gay marriage offends you? Fine. Then talk to a gay friend about your concerns, write about your thoughts and sent an article to your local newspaper editor or start a blog, work on making your own heterosexual relationship an ideal one. There are any number of positive, societal things you can do that don’t rely on the power of the state to force your beliefs onto other people. Skipping those and going directly to the government for support is lazy and cowardly, as well as futile. Government cannot change how people feel, love, and hate, so don’t ask it to, it will only do more harm than good.

(video embed)

I find this infinitely more inspiring than any patriotic McCain ad or Obama song. Confront intolerance, disable it with logic, and sent the purveyors walking away in shame. Good stuff. If only there were more people like this at these Republican rallies confronting the lunatics.