At Least He Drives A Prius

This hilarious pseudo-ad campaign dreamed up by someone obviously tired of the self-righteousness of hybrid owners is taking the Internets by storm, placing the usually high-minded and selfless owner in an ethically questionable situation. Each driver is in the midst of perpetrating some kind of morally ambiguous act like hiring a prostitute or dumping a dead body in one of our nation's precious waterways. I want to save the environment but my neighbor just wouldn't shut his fucking mouth; does that make me a monster?

Aurora Australis

The Northern Lights usually get all of the positive press but this footage from the dirty, dirty South is extraordinarily beautiful. We here at Brain Rage eagerly await our first hit from Antarctica, completing the much sought after "continental septfecta"; for now, enjoy the collision of solar particles and Earth's atmosphere:

Russian Cheerleaders

Do the Russians have cheerleaders? As someone who loves cheerleaders and Eastern European women, I'm happy to report that yes, they certainly do. конфета = Russian for: sweet.

The Minnesota Senate Race

For those of you who don't follow politics as closely or rabidly as myself, you might not be aware of this particular electoral battle. Comedian, author and former Saturday Night Live alum Al Franken is trying to win the Senate seat currently held by Republican Norm Coleman; Coleman won the seat when the former Senator Paul Wellstone (who was a close family friend of Franken) died in a plane crash shortly before the '02 election.

Now a new political ad by a pro-business group is misrepresenting itself as fighting for worker's rights by playing on old mafia stereotypes surrounding unions; I actually remember seeing very similar ads here in California a few years ago using the same actor from The Sopranos. A local newscast in Minnesota does a good job of debunking this latest attempt to twist the truth about union organizers' rights:
When watching political ads like this, from either side of the aisle, I've found that a good rule of thumb is to wait for the end of the ad and then read the small print indicating who actually paid the bills. Taking a few minutes to Google these groups usually gives you a much better idea of what they're trying to accomplish than the actual ads themselves; politics as usual, I suppose.

Obama's New Yorker Cover

I won't call it tasteless because I get what they're trying to do here, and it's not unfunny when viewed in the context of what the right wing has been saying about the man for the last year. I do however consider it irresponsible; Andrew Sullivan disagrees:

I thought it was quite funny myself. This was obviously intended ironically, and it's not exactly Parade magazine.

He's right in a way; I agree that the intent of the New Yorker staff was indeed to be ironic and yes, the regular readers of the magazine are for the most part well educated and politically informed. But the editorial staff must have known that running this cover in the age of the 24 hour news cycle would garner a great deal of press (perhaps this was their motive all along) that will be seen by much more of the voting public than just their core of regular readers, and this is what I consider irresponsible.

The lies spewed by the right wing hate machine during this election cycle have been so over the top in their vitriol: he's a secret Muslim, she's a radical who hates America, he's not a patriot, the fist bump was a terrorist code sign (for Christ's sake!), that even a blatantly ironic parody of these lies is indistinguishable from the original Republican talking points. I mean, does any logical, thinking American really believe that Barack Obama hates his country and doesn't wear a flag pin to specifically call attention to that stance? Of course not, but does your average American who can't tell you how many Senators we have or find Iraq on a map, yet still votes for president, believe these things?

Polls tell us that unfortunately a significant percentage do, and they're the idiots who might well determine this election: undecideds who apparently need more information on the candidates but won't take the time or effort to do some elementary Internet research and find it for themselves. The New Yorker commits a serious lapse in judgement when they overestimate the intelligence of this voting block and I find this advocation of responsibility disturbing.

On a parting note, later in the day Sullivan posts a reaction (similar to my own) from one of his readers:

Here's what's going to happen. Fox News is going to have a whole day where they talk about nothing but this and repeatedly show the image just like they did with Wright. Then Limbaugh will be saying "Well look, these liberals can make drawing like this and we call it harmless satire, so why did they give me so much grief when I played the song Obama the Magic Negro on my show. It's liberal hypocrisy I tell you!".

We've seen this scenario acted out in smear campaigns time and time again; the reason the right keeps doing it is because it works. And the staff at The New Yorker should realize this.

[Update: This poll at the right wing website WorldNetDaily is just a taste of the idiocy that's out there right now.]

Something Scary Someone Else Said

“They go on for me,” he said. “I am learning to get online myself, and I will have that down fairly soon, getting on myself. I don’t expect to be a great communicator, I don’t expect to set up my own blog, but I am becoming computer literate to the point where I can get the information that I need.” -John McCain, on using the Internet, something which was created several decades ago and is now an integral part of every technological society on the planet.

This man wants to be the leader of the free world, and he's incapable of checking his own email. On a more practical note, this via Ben Smith at Politico.com:

"Where does he get his porn?" conservative talk show host Michael Smerconish asked me in an interview just now. "That’s what I want to know."

Bar Codes As Art

A new branch of pop art; I think Andy Warhol would have approved. Most of them are drawings or light installations but this building from the former Soviet Republic is my favorite.

Birth Control vs. Viagra

Insurance covers the latter but not the former; what's your opinion? Apparently, John McCain has none. Me, I'm in favor of both; of course I'm not pregnant nor do I have erection problems but I'm just trying to consider the greater good:
That was an 8 second pause after the second time she asked the question if you're scoring at home. Now chalk this up to him being very old or just not giving a damn about young women but either way, does this spouse of a nine figure heiress seem like he's connecting with you, the everyday voter? How long would you take to answer this question?

The Human Mirror

An improv group has fun on the New York City subway with fifteen sets of twins; the same group is responsible for the Grand Central freeze here. People doing things like this make the world so much more fun to live in:

(hat tip: Jeremy)

Something Stupid Someone Else Said

"Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter." -George W. Bush, who has been condemned throughout his presidency for failing to tackle climate change, ending a private meeting with other world leaders at the G8 Summit on climate change in Hokkaido, Japan. He then punched the air while grinning widely, as the rest of those present including Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy looked on in shock. 190 days left.