A horse is a horse, unless it's dead

Prepare yourselves for one last news blitz about our Lord and Savior Barbaro, as the Kentucky Derby winner and inspiration to millions was put to sleep earlier today. Even though Barbaro and his trainers were from Kennett Square, Chester County, I cannot honestly say that I care even one bit for this majestic animal. However, on the other end of the spectrum, there are folks who care a little too much about our four-legged friend:

I must admit that on hearing the sad news of Barbaro's passing, the only other times that I have felt so empty and so devastated was when President Kennedy was assassinated, and when the World Trade Center Twin Towers collapsed.

and:

For eight months I prayed for a miracle for Barbaro. Even last night at 8 p.m. EST I kept praying. To me, Barbaro represented hope in dark times, belief that in God all things were possible including a miracle for a well-loved horse who just wouldn't give up. Yet within the past five days, I learned three times that God does not hear prayers or grant miracles. Barbaro was the third. I've come to the conclusion that "in Him, all things are NOT possible." With respect to Barbaro, the only redemption is that he is no longer suffering.

D-Mac over at Philly Will Do is collecting these precious prayers all week long, so stop over and say hello if you get a chance. It's a hell of a blog to read; unless, that is, you're a raving lunatic disciple of a racehorse.

link via [Philly Will Do]

T-Shirt Heck

I suppose this is to be taken as a sign that we've learned absolutely nothing from our time in Iraq. Beautiful.

Hey, let's make one for liberals that says "I {noose} America!"

Smearing the Senator from Illinois

Media Matters has a pretty complete and comprehensive list of smears against Barack Obama, originating with, and repeated by members of the press.

This really goes beyond digging up dirt on the guy so they can have something negative to broadcast. He just entered the race two weeks ago and they haven't even let him trip up on his own -- no, they're doing everything they can to nip this campaign in the bud, and it's not working.

link via [Media Matters ]

le syndicacion de francais oui oui oui

I just realized a minute ago after adding all my friend's blogs to my feed reader that Estelle's food blog is written entirely in French, which means all I can do is look at the wonderful photographs and wonder what exactly she's blabbering about in her crazy moon language.

Enter your SSN and Driver's License # in the comments section

Welp, the free cable gravy train ran out this week, so I was forced by Lauren at gunpoint to call Comcast and pay my hard-earned TP dollars to get it switched back on. I come to find out that after you fill out the order form on the Comcast website, they direct you to a chat room where a friendly Comcast representative claims they need your Social Security number and Driver's License number to continue with the order for the $12-a-month service.

"I can assure you sir that this is a secure chat room"

I informed the agreeable chap that I have a once-a-month max limit on having my identity stolen, then shut the browser window. To be safe, I shut off my brother's computer and then stabbed the screen a couple times with a pocketknife I found nearby. Robbie wasn't very happy about the phony Comcast chat room either.

The "C" in C-SPAN is for "Candid"

It is amazing that this type of frank, open discussion has taken nearly four years to reach the Senate floor, but that's the fact. Who would've guessed that the person to speak up would've been a Republican from Nebraska?

And I want every one of you, every one of us, 100 senators to look in that camera, and you tell your people back home what you think. Don't hide anymore; none of us. That is the essence of our responsibility. And if we're not willing to do it, we're not worthy to be seated right here. We fail our country. If we don't debate this, if we don't debate this, we are not worthy of our country. We fail our country.

...

These young men and women that we put in Anbar province, in Iraq, in Baghdad are not beans. They're real lives. And we better be damn sure we know what we're doing, all of us, before we put 22,000 more Americans into that grinder. We better be as sure as you can be.

That is the voice of Chuck Hagel, Republican Senator from Nebraska, speaking to the rest of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Refreshing to hear such candor coming not just from liberals, but from conservatives as well in the largest legislative body in the country. How many more politicians have to have this "Come-to-Jesus" moment before we find a way to stop what we're doing in the Middle East?

Link via [Crooks & Liars]

Show some love for Dennis Kucinich and the Fairness Doctrine

Got this tidbit from FMQB via Crooks & Liars. Bringing the Fairness Doctrine back would change the news so completely you wouldn't even recognize it anymore.

Over the weekend, the National Conference for Media Reform was held in Memphis, TN, with a number of notable speakers on hand for the event. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) made an surprise appearance at the convention to announce that he would be heading up a new House subcommittee which will focus on issues surrounding the Federal Communications Commission.

The Presidential candidate said that the committee would be holding "hearings to push media reform right at the center of Washington.” The Domestic Policy Subcommittee of the House Government Reform Committee was to be officially announced this week in Washington, D.C., but Kucinich opted to make the news public early.

In addition to media ownership, the committee is expected to focus its attention on issues such as net neutrality and major telecommunications mergers. Also in consideration is the "Fairness Doctrine," which required broadcasters to present controversial topics in a fair and honest manner. It was enforced until it was eliminated in 1987.

Kucinich said in his speech that "We know the media has become the servant of a very narrow corporate agenda" and added "we are now in a position to move a progressive agenda to where it is visible."

FCC Commissioner Michael Copps was also on hand at the conference and took broadcasters to task for their current content, speaking of "too little news, too much baloney passed off as news. Too little quality entertainment, too many people eating bugs on reality TV. Too little local and regional music, too much brain-numbing national play-lists." Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein also spoke at the event.

I'm going to see Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein hold a "Public Forum on Media Ownership" at Temple University tonight, and this smashing news ought to dominate discussion. If you're in town and want to join me, it's at 6:00PM in Gladfelter Hall.

On the topic of Electability

The primaries are still over a year away, and every day we're hearing about new exploratory committees to determine someone's chances of being elected to the highest office in the land. To some, this is the beginning of a too-long election process that will dominate headlines and conversations. To me, it's an encouraging sign that folks still care enough about democratic politics to have dozens of hopefuls revving their engines at the starting line here in January 2007.

Right now, though, it's a bit discouraging to tune in on cable TV or talk radio when they're talking non-stop about the elect-ability of a person; especially when they're discussing things like gender, race, religion, marital status, and other things that should have no bearing on a campaign two years ahead of Election Day (or at all, in most cases). Save that shit for the primaries, when strategy actually will count for something. Now is the time for original ideas, policy discussions, and public service track records.

Instead, we're already descending into the petty and the mundane. Everyone's asking one another the same silly questions with the same incredulous, wide-eyed faces as though they were the first people to think:

"Will Americans vote for a woman?"
"Will Americans vote for a black guy?"
"Will Americans vote for a guy who's been married three times?"
"Will Americans vote for a guy who's smoked pot?"
"Will Americans vote for a guy whose name doesn't sound of Anglo-Saxon origin?"
"Will Americans vote for a guy who did coke?"

The answer to most of the above WOULD be yes, but unfortunately the questions get asked so much that folks get spooked and tend to shy away from these candidates, gravitating toward more "safe" choices -- candidates that are, as the term goes, more "electable". We sacrifice the chance to have the best public policy and to have the best possible leaders in office because we're all scrambling to put our money down on the one who we think has the best chance to win.

Because of this phenomenon, genuinely interesting candidates like Barack Obama, Rudy Giuliani, Hilary Clinton, and John McCain are already being thrown under the bus by a mass media that has nothing better to talk about at this point in the campaign than how black, divorced, female, or old they are. It's as though if they're being punished for coming to the party early; and yet, anyone who dares to make a late entrance will be dismissed as being a long-shot. What's left are the in-betweeners, the play-it-safers, the favorites in Vegas -- the leaders Americans choose not because they want the best government, but because they want to Win At All Costs.

Filthy old Captain Noah

Apparently, Captain Noah was on Preston and Steve this morning, and related this story to the MMR listening audience--

(from Citizen Mom via Philly Will Do):

Remember how, on the Magical Ark, the Captain would finish making a craft and then the garbage-eating hand puppet would come up and take away all the trash and paper scraps? Well, live on the radio this morning, the Captain said it was Mrs. Noah under the table working that puppet. And sometimes -- according to the Captain -- things would get a little boring under there, so Mrs. Noah would while away the time, uh, "singing a rainbow" on the Captain's mizzen mast. To hear him tell it, the ol' Captain had trouble concentrating on those crepe-paper flowers.

Oh, what the fucking fuck. It's not like I was a dedicated fan of this show when it was on (I just caught the tail-end of the show while waiting for Looney Tunes to start) but now I'm thinking back to each time he warbled or stuttered during that last song at the end. Apparently the podcast is up on Preston & Steve.com....

Send your pictures to dear old Captain Noah,
Send today, send right away....



Link via [Philly Will Do]

Surge into '07

The discussion in Washington and on your television once again strays away from issues and policies and into the muddy territory of semantics. Do we call it a "surge"? Or do we call it an "escalation?"

From Crooks & Liars:

Nicole Belle gets the nod in the LA Times: "Storm rises over "Surge" by Johanna Neuman.

I've noticed a complete acceptance on the part of most of the MSM [mainstream media] (and Congress) to accept the White House nomenclature," blogger Nicole Belle wrote in a complaint posted on crooksandliars.com.

"After six years of this, I think we all know that he who frames the debate and chooses the vocabulary wins from the beginning. Let's be sure to not accept the White House framing, no matter how wimped out the MSM is."

As Jon Stewart pointed out last night on The Daily Show, the additional 21,500 troops heading to Iraq represent only 15% of the more than 130,000 soldiers currently deployed there (funny how they throw in the occasional hard fact every now and then, eh?). Said Stewart, "That's not a surge; that's a gratuity! That's a tip!"

If you want to play the word game, neither "surge" nor "escalation" fits the bill. "Surge" would mean that these additional troops would fill the streets of Baghdad tomorrow. "Escalation" would mean taking the conflict to another level by doubling or tripling U.S. forces, not topping off the glass to bring us back to 2004 levels. In fact, the announcement of the additional troops was hardly worthy of a word, much less a prime-time presidential address. This is business as usual for the Bush White House, only now they're making moves to cover their asses so later on they can say "well, at least we tried!" Unfortunately, it looks like more people are still playing their word games with them instead of actually discussing the feasibility and cost of such a maneuver.

Link via [Crooks & Liars]

Things take shape

After some careful deliberation, I've settled on a name for the blog -- we're gonna call ourselves "Open All Night" and dress the place up like one of my favorite places: an all-night diner. The topics of discussion? Well, whatever you might want to talk about at 3 in the morning, of course. If you're an old member of the Exton / West Chester Diner Krew, you know what I'm talking about. Happy Days, bitches.

Apple unveils iPhone, AppleTV

Apple blew everyone out of the water today, with the unexpected iPhone announcement piggybacking on the official, very expected, Apple TV. After two years of rumors about an Apple Cell Phone, a widescreen iPod, and a few here and there about the return of the old Newton, Steve Jobs took the stage in San Fran today and spent approximately an hour hyping up the new device that combines all those functions.

While the phone doesn't really bring that many new must-have features to the table when compared to, say, a Windows Smartphone, it easily jumps to the head of the pack if it can do everything Jobs said it can do (just like the iPod did with the MP3 player market). If they enjoy the amount of success they've had with the iPod, it will make the iPhone a formidable opponent in a field that has not had to field top-quality hardware or software since, well, forever.

To start off their 31st year, the company showed it's commitment to their new cell phone and home theater line by changing it's name from Apple Computers to Apple, Inc. It will be very interesting to see what happens now that this innovative company has expanded beyond being just another desktop computer manufacturer.

iPhone
Apple TV

How about this...

I know the Eagles beat the Giants yesterday, but I just came across this beautiful meltdown from a Cowboys fan. Apparently he's got a whole list of these up on Youtube. Enjoy.

video via [Kissing Suzy Kolber]

Obama != Osama: The Running Count

A running count of how many times the media has "accidentally" mixed up these guys:



1. CNN: "Where's Obama?" - Jan. 1
2. Yahoo! News: Top Stories Photos: Osama Bin Laden & al Qaida - Jan. 3

It's going to be hard to believe after we count 30 more of these that the news outlets are doing this by accident. The more they make out of the "How will his name hurt his election chances" topic, the more it actually will, um, hurt his election chances. They're creating news about this guy when there is none to be reported, and it's irresponsible.

links from [Salon] and [TPMCafe]

Give 'em hell, Nancy

First female Speaker of the House.

Two heartbeats away from the Presidency.

Most Powerful Woman In America.

Let the 100 Hours commence!

Not only does he read the news, he reads your mail

So Bush affixed another one of his patented signing statements to a new postal reform bill, granting himself unchecked authority to open your mail. Not sure what the purpose of these signing statements are when a). they don't give him any more legal grounds to do this sort of shit than if he had just started breaking the law, and b). they do nothing but piss off concerned Americans by highlighting the fact that hey, he's breaking the law!

The President asserted his new authority when he signed a postal reform bill into law on Dec. 20. Bush then issued a "signing statement" that declared his right to open people's mail under emergency conditions.

That claim is contrary to existing law and contradicted the bill he had just signed, say experts who have reviewed it.

...

"Despite the President's statement that he may be able to circumvent a basic privacy protection, the new postal law continues to prohibit the government from snooping into people's mail without a warrant," said Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), the incoming House Government Reform Committee chairman, who co-sponsored the bill.

Well, whether he intends to do it or already has been doing it and is covering his ass now, the joke is still on him and his Administration. People don't use the USPS for anything but sending anthrax nowadays.

W pushes envelope on U.S. spying [NY Daily News]
via Crooks & Liars

XM / Sirius merger coming?

from Stereogum:

Speculation of a Satellite Radio merger is nothing new, but an increasing number of pundits are weighing in with scenarios of how the possible transaction would play out, and whether it'll benefit anyone (aside from Mel Karmazin).

With only about 13 million subscribers between the two major providers, XM and Sirius, satellite radio isn't reaching nearly the amount of ear-holes that radio big-wigs thought they would be at this juncture. A lot of folks I've spoken to see the service as a high-priced stop-gap between the old technology (the FM dial) and the new one coming down the pike (wireless internet radio). In fact, satellite radio could be jumping the shark faster than satellite television did while bridging between old basic cable and services like Verizon's fiber-optic TV.

The fact that these companies are considering a merger less than a decade after both services were launched is a clear indicator that subscription-based audio content, no matter how it's delivered, will not work as long as there are free alternatives. A merger between XM and Sirius will mean more content for listeners, but at what price? Will fees go up, or will the new Frankenstein service insert ads to create what will effectively be a CD-quality radio dial with more stations?

Why were radio executives ever under the impression that people will pay for radio? Listenership on FM and AM has been in steady decline for years -- so why would people want more of the same (even at a much higher quality) and want to pay good money for it? It's a wonder that both companies still exist here in 2007.