Bigfoot Found In Freezer

OK, they actually found him in northern Georgia (ours, not Asia's) but yeah, we finally found one of the elusive sons of bitches:

Two Bigfoot hunters claim they have the body of one and plan to release a photo and what they claim is DNA evidence at a news conference in Palo Alto on Friday.

The Bigfoot is claimed to have been found in the woods of northern Georgia by Matthew Whitton and Rick Dyer, and the claim is being supported by a Bay Area Bigfoot researcher Tom Biscardi, a multiple local Democratic candidate.

Is this going to turn out to be real? I don't know but I hope so; if true, this discovery would turn the field of Anthropology on it's ear. The skeptic in me is leaning heavily towards the "not real" side but I guess we'll find out tomorrow. You have to admit that this is a pretty cool picture regardless.

Enter The Spokesdrone

I don't care how good the technology gets I just don't think we'll ever be able to match the dishonesty, vagary and evasiveness of a highly trained Bush White House administrator:

Something I Wish I'd Said

"On January 20th 2009, either the president of the United States will be a man who used to snort coke to ease his blues, or the First Lady will be a former drug addict who stole from charity to get her next fix. In this presidential campaign, there are dozens of issues that have failed to flicker into the debate, but the most striking is the failing, flailing 'War on Drugs.' Isn't it a sign of how unwinnable this 'war' is that, if it was actually enforced evenly, either Barack Obama or Cindy McCain would have to skip the inauguration -- because they'd be in jail?

At least their time in the slammer would feature some familiar faces: they could share a cell with Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and some 46 percent of the US population." -Johann Hari at The Huffington Post

I've made my views on the drug war fairly clear here, here and here so I won't go into the specifics again except to just say that while I understand most of the forces that are at work keeping this whole farce alive I still feel almost surreal when I think about how negatively the drug war is affecting our society along with the almost complete indifference of the American people and their elected leaders.

To his credit, Barack Obama has publicly stated that he wants to decriminalize cannabis and that he will not let the Justice Department prosecute medicinal cannabis users who are abiding by local and state laws. Predictably, John McCain has changed his position on medical cannabis from one of support for patient's and state's rights to one of outright criminalization and federal prosecution. I don't see Obama legalizing cannabis or any other now illicit drugs (I'm realistic on this point) but a ceasing of the excessively destructive federal raids on medical dispensaries and the relentless prosecution of millions of Americans for a victimless, nonviolent crime would be a welcome change; a change that the "Maverick" will almost certainly be too chickenshit and beholden to special interests to even consider.

Tallying Your Votes

As you can see in the column to the right, your votes for "personal commentary" and "long, train of thought rants" beat out "humorous videos" and "political posts" quite handily. Thank you to everyone who took the time to participate in the process; I hear what you're saying and I'll be happy to try focusing more on these areas. To be honest, I prefer writing the longer screeds (I've gotten several compliments on this post in particular) to just putting up stuff by others that I find funny or interesting but it takes a lot longer to create those posts so the frequency of updates may start to decrease as a result. Regardless, the people have spoken.

Something I Wish I'd Said

"How can someone being portrayed as "the biggest celebrity in the world" also be painted as radical and out of the mainstream? Either Obama is like Britney Spears and Paris Hilton: a fluffy, substanceless, mass-consumed but empty celebrity-for-celebrity’s sake, or he is an unfamiliar and dangerous other with a hidden anti-American agenda." -Sean, a blogger at 538

Praying For Rain

The Christianist leader James Dobson's Focus on the Family group is encouraging their followers to pray for torrential rain on the day of Barack Obama's acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, and I completely agree with them. In fact, I think that everyone who is against Obama should spend as much time as they can praying that he doesn't win the presidency: instead of making phone calls to voters for John McCain (or against Obama, which has basically become the same thing), pray that Obama loses. Instead of canvasing neighborhoods or making campaign donations or even voting against him, just spend as much of your free time as you can praying that he loses. Then later when Obama does win the presidency, explain to me how that's not your god endorsing the man despite your weeks and weeks of solid prayer time:

Something Despicable Someone Else Said

“All of these articles about his boyhood in Indonesia and his life in Hawaii are geared towards showing his background is diverse, multicultural and putting that in a new light. Save it for 2050. ... Every speech should contain the line you were born in the middle of America American to the middle class in the middle of the last century. And talk about the basic bargain as about the deeply American values you grew up with, learned as a child and that drive you today. Values of fairness, compassion, responsibility, giving back.

Let’s explicitly own ‘American’ in our programs, the speeches and the values. He doesn’t. Make this a new American Century, the American Strategic Energy Fund. Let’s use our logo to make some flags we can give out. Let’s add flag symbols to the backgrounds." -Mark Penn, Hillary Clinton's chief strategist for her 2008 Democratic primary campaign on how to run against Barack Obama; John McCain seems to be reading his playbook

Presidential Dignity

Remember what that looked like? It's getting harder every day, huh? 160 days left.

Obama: Anti-Christ

Some of you might remember this t-shirt design from a few days previous but I feel that this one from Redstate really accurately depicts the level of political discourse coming from the McCain campaign, and the religious right in general, during this election. When you don't have anything more than smears and fear-mongering in your holster, what else can you do?

Political Priorities And Implications

For those of you who haven't watched the news for the last five days, former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards has admitted to having an affair with a woman who worked for his campaign. I haven't commented on it until now because I really don't care outside of it's implications for hurting Barack Obama's presidential chances (which I think are minimal) and frankly, I'm just sick of hearing about it. Then I read this post over at Crooks and Liars about the media's roll in this election cycle and I found myself yelling, "Yes! These are the lack of priorities that are really pissing me off!" or something to that effect. Tell me if you don't agree:

From the email inbox:

David Gregory just said young people were inspired by him and are let down…and questioned whether it will have “broader implications for the party.” during the election. This week, Ron Suskind’s book revealed the Bush team knew Iraq didn’t have WMD, forged letters, paid hush money, and lied us into war. (Chirp, chirp…) Any broader implications for the Republican party there? How about instead of us buying into all the clamoring to analyze Edwards betrayal (wait, no, BETRAYAL!) we analyze the absurdity of a media culture where THIS is what passes for holding politicians accountable.

Broader implication for the party. OK, let’s talk party.

McClellan said that FOX News got talking points from the White House

Bush authorized rendition.

Bush authorized torture. Yes, that means waterboarding.

Bush authorized a war based on lies resulting in millions of innocent Iraqi and Afghani civilian deaths as well as an ethnic cleansing.

Thousands of our troops have been killed or seriously injured.

The US dollar is in the tank.

The housing/mortgage crisis has almost caused a depression.

How about the trampling of our Constitution with warrantless wiretapping?

Laptops are being confiscated at airports and the border.

Under Bush, oil companies are raking in record profits while Americans suffer.

The US attorney scandal.

A health care epidemic.

Monica Goodling

A standing ovation in Congress for David Vitter’s return.

Military TV Analysts/Generals scandal.

Larry Craig’s bathroom adventure.

And many, many more.

Would any of this have “broader implications” to the Republican party during the election if the media did its job?

A good friend asked me the other day if I could tell him about "the liberal media" and who they were because he'd heard a lot about it from conservative talk radio and from his Republican relatives. I had to tell him the truth: there is no liberal media. Yes, it makes for great talking points when vilifying anyone in the media that doesn't parrot your conservative narrative and it's a convenient cudgel for politicians to use when they're revealed to be less than virtuous but despite it's repeated use by the right in this country, this meme just does not hold water.

Sure, surveys show that the majority of actors and writers in Hollywood (although not really the media I'm referring to here) have liberal beliefs but those same surveys show that the big wigs and fat cats (studio execs and presidents) are decidedly Republican. The same goes for the news media: the majority of reporters and news writers are liberal but when you look at the political leanings of news executives, editors-in-chief, studio presidents and corporate media owners, you can see who's really in charge of the political narrative in this country.

Now, am I making the exact opposite argument as the right wingers, that there is a conservative bias to the media? No, and it's not because I don't think it's possible or that there aren't many, many conservatives out there that would like to do that; I just think that there's a simpler answer for the actions of the media than just a pervasive ideology of liberalism or conservatism: money. Yeah, I know you're surprised. Of course despite my earlier protestations, I do think that the corporations in charge of the media will put the pressure on to spin things in a positive manner for themselves and these large entities are aligned with the pro-business Republican party in this government (OK, the more pro-business than the Democrats party). But news stories fuel ratings and ratings bring in the dollars and dollars are what matter to the types of multi-national conglomerates that control the vast majority of what we watch, listen to and read every day. In the media jungle, the bottom line is the Lion King.

So, are liberals trying to force their godless ways on the rest of America by making us all watch shows about marital infidelity, out and proud gays and vacuous celebrities? No, that's just what we the people have signaled to the networks that we'd like to see, so they're providing more of the same. And are conservatives trying to turn the rest of the country into mindless, flag waving warmongers who don't give a shit about the less fortunate amongst us? Well, I kind of think that they are but if pressed on the matter I'd have to say no, it's just that a sizable majority of Americans are easily led automatons who respond with well-conditioned vigor whenever the call of jingoism goes out across this great land (see: the Iraq war).

With that said, think now about what kind of person you are: do you seek out alternative sources of news and information that don't necessarily conform to or confirm your already held thoughts and beliefs or do you turn to the established staples of the American media that can be counted on to deliver just the right message for either side in the ideological struggle that now defines the partisan landscape of American politics? Or even worse, do you just not care at all and are content to let the powers that be go about their business of lying to the American people? Seeing the complete abdication of it's oversight responsibilities by the media, I honestly have a hard time begrudging anyone any of these alternatives. Finding the truth in 21st century America is decidedly hard, and the collective media are not making it any easier. But to be completely frank the truth doesn't really affect their bottom line, so why should we expect them to?