Popularity: 89% [?]

Popularity: 89% [?]

Popularity: 89% [?]

Popularity: 89% [?]

Day 1: August 23, 2008

As soon as I got to Denver we headed over to some place called Ellitch Gardens, something like that. It was basically a second rate Six Flags, whatever that’s worth to you. It was sort of cool that Google and a few other massive corporations had bought out the entire park so all us media folks large and small could dick around on the tea cups for a while, but I have to admit, aside from the journalist badasses I met at the uptake, the whole party was a bit of a disappointment.

While anyone would appreciate free beer and roller coasters, the whole affair had absolutely nothing to do with politics, the election, or hell, anything to do with the country. Even the press badges didn’t mention what exactly we were there for. If Denver were in Guatemala it’s hard to imagine how it would have been any different.

If for some reason you thought that whole complaint about the mainstream media being bought out by corporations was just some sort of wacky leftist conspiracy theory, all the proof you need was live and in living color here in Denver last night.

Sadly the only protest happening was by a couple of pro-lifers asking why Obama loves to kill babies. I didn’t bother to ask them what’s “pro-life” about the Iraq war or torturing Muslims in Guantanamo, but it’s probably safe to assume your grandma could’ve gotten stoned off the cognitive dissonance.

As I’m writing this, it’s still early I’m the evening of day 2. Check back tomorrow for info on Sunday’s activities.

Popularity: 100% [?]

From FreeTibet2008.org

Beijing - Brian Conley, creator of the well-known videoblog, Alive in Baghdad,
was detained with his friend, Jeffrey Rae, early Tuesday, August 19th
in Beijing. Their detention appears to have taken place at the same
time as that of international artist James Powderly, whose detention
was reported Tuesday. Three other bloggers and activists, Jeff Goldin,
Michael Liss, and Tom Grant, have also been missing since Tuesday
morning. Conley, 28, Rae, 28, Goldin, 40, Liss, 35, Grant, 39 are all
American citizens.

So first off, let me just point out how absolutely pathetic it is that, as I’m sitting down to write on this terrible no-name unpopular zit of a blog, the big time zillion dollar mainstream media CNN is showing Larry King reruns and not bothering at all to cut away to the story of 5 American citizens being arrested by a foreign government. Now, I know Brian Conley. We’re not buddies, we don’t send each other christmas cards or nothin,’ but I have talked to him enough to know the he understands and cares way more about this stuff than any of the blowdried corporate chuckleheads the big networks have covering Beijing.  The fact that my unheard of ass has to blog about this while CNN sits back and runs repeats is absolutely outrageous and a complete and utter disgrace. These cheesy dipshit network goons in Beijing are all drooling and prawning around for the next chance to give Michael Phelps a handjob on live television while the real journalists who came to cover actual important stories are left to rot in a Chinese jail. I could puke.

And here’s the thing: I actually like China! Or at least I did until they threw my friend in jail. But I had their back on Tibet. I looked at it from the point of view of an American. We engaged in all kinds of wickedness and genocide in our quest to conquer North America. I understand that China is absolutely convinced that Tibet belongs to them. It’s “their California,” as so many people are fond of saying. I was willing to be very lenient with them during their growing pains as a superpower.  It doesn’t make it okay for the Chinese since the US did it first, but I was willing to be…patient.

But then I remembered this article I read a while ago about some writer or another visiting and reviewing the Native American museum in Washington, DC. It was in Salon, or Slate, or one of those similar snotty liberal rags that you wind up at on one of those days where you just want to read something you agree with. Anyways, what the reporter found was that the US government was essentially whitewashing the entire native affair. No mention of the forced deportations, the broken treaties, the naked genocide. None of it. The timeline basically went thanksgiving, civil war, casinos, visit the gift shop on your way out. I remember very distinctly sharing the author’s shame with our country’s blatant cover up of crimes against humanity. I remembered that, and that’s when I decided what we can do about our pal Brian.

Even though we can’t stop China, whatever happens, we can’t let China get away with the same cover up we did. The slobbering, snaggletooth old slags who run the Communist Party in China must be exposed, must be laid bare as the vicious, psychopathic war criminals that they are. And how are we going to do that? By supporting independent journalism, of course! Obviously, we can’t count on the prostitutes at the big networks to cover these issues, so we need to make sure people like Brian Conley are completely free to tell the truth about China. Let’s make sure that when Brian gets back to America, he has absolutely nothing to do but kick ass for human rights, independent journalism, and let’s be honest, for us.

To do that, let’s head over to the support page at Brian’s flagship project “Alive in Baghdad.”

Alive in Baghdad was started with money primarily gathered through
grants and donations. Today we are struggling to get by, and have made
it this far on a combination of donations and footage licensing. We
have begun taking voluntary monthly subscriptions, in the hope that our
viewership will step forward and provide financial support for the
Baghdad reports you have come to love. Please make a subscription
pledge today of 5, 10, or 25 dollars. If you don’t feel you can make a
regular commitment, consider donating even a few dollars in a one-time
donation today.

If you go to that link above to the support page, you’ll also notice that you can pick up a copy of the Alive in Baghdad DVD and also some t-shirts and assorted swag and stuff. In fact, if you haven’t been watching AiB, now would be a great time to pick up a copy of the vol. 1 DVD. Iraq will be a major issue in this year’s election, and Alive in Baghdad will teach you everything you need to know about life in Iraq. Grab one for yourself, for somebody else, whatever you want. Besides that, just give whatever you can. It is absolutely critical that we support independent journalists like Brian Conley. If he doesn’t have the funds to keep bringing you the truth about Iraq, China and so many other places, these stories will not get covered, period. Please, give whatever you can so that when Brian gets back he’ll know that even though the Chinese government doesn’t like citizen journalists, the rest of us are hungry for more.

Popularity: 99% [?]

As you’ve probably heard through the usual channels, President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan has resigned in the face of impending impeachment charges. This is the first step, and a good one, toward reforming Pakistan’s political structure, but the security situation in Pakistan is still very dire. You have the Taliban civil war in the tribal regions, ever escalating tensions with their nuclear-armed foe India, and an internal power struggle with their own intelligence services over ties to jihadi groups. But for just a moment, we’re allowed to be at least satisfied that the brutal dictator, whose contemptible negelect led to the assasination of Benazir Bhutto, has finally stepped down.

The story is by now a cliche. For years, the Bush Administration has had a “Musharraf Policy” instead of a Pakistan policy. Even while US troops suffered withering insurgent attacks in Afghanistan, Musharraf was simultaneously cutting deals with the Taliban and American weapons manufacturers. When his power was threatened democratically, Musharraf declared a state of emergency, which Washington backed, and promptly gunned down his detractors in the streets and put his most powerful political opponents under house arrest. Most damning of all, Musharraf refused to give Benazir Bhutto adequate security and protection, all but handing her over to the jihadis for assasination. The fact that these same jihadis are trained and supported by Musharraf’s own intelligence services makes him doubly accountable.

But there is some small justice in this democratic process. Though weak, Pakistan’s parliament is exerting power and control. And best of all, Musharraf is denied the usual pomp and circumstance of a dictator falling. He won’t be made a farsical martyr like the sadist Saddam Hussein, and neither will he be the supernova flame-out of Benazir Bhutto. Instead he will suffer the same humiliating defeat that cruel and lousy democratic leaders have known for a long time: A peaceful transfer of power. No lights, no cameras, just Musharraf and his rotten destroyed reputation all alone to digest. The terrible murder of Bhutto should be enough to haunt his nightmares for years to come, and that’s just the beginning of a long, long rap sheet.

And hey, let’s not forget, the same thing will happen to Bush in just a few short years. That’s something the whole world can celebrate.

Popularity: 98% [?]

So, I know what you Obama folks are thinking. We’ve all seen that Hillary’s name will be up for the nomination in Denver, we know her supporters are planning a “big” protest, and yeah I bet you even saw that post on Digg about Hillary registering a site for a 2012 campaign. Now, us Obama people, the primary battle was very emotional for us, so I know our first instinct is to tear into the Hillary supporters. And why not, Hillary herself.

But we can’t. Unless we want to spend the next few months bickering amongst ourselves and all but hand the election to John “Bush” McCain, Obama supporters and Hillary supporters need to come together in unity behind our party’s nominee. Of course, in order to do this, we’re going to have to swallow some our differences. Let’s see what we can do about just a few issues dividing us…

The FISA Vote

This might seem like a point of contention between the camps, Obama voting for broader executive power over intelligence, Hillary voting against it, this is actually best interpreted as the first real act of unity between the two camps. Both of them used their greatest strengths to help the Democratic party. First, Obama’s “flip-flip.” Most people on the left, including my fellow Obama supporters, completely interpreted this vote the wrong way, assuming Obama was afraid of being painted as “soft on terror.”

Here’s the thing: the vote itself passed 78 to 22. If Obama had voted against it, the vote would have passed 77 to 23, and Obama would still have to worry about being painted as “soft on terror” simply because he’s the Democratic nominee. The difference is within that 77 are several very weak freshman Democrats who are in very real danger of being voted out of office exactly because they would appear weak on terror. Obama, most beloved Democratic nominee, “flip-flopped” on FISA simply to deflect any “soft on terror” criticism to himself. By eating that criticism, Obama helped buoy a lot of down ticket candidates in November.

Hillary, on the other hand, by voting against it, also carried the democratic flag by voting the party’s actual position. Both of them used their strengths to help to the Democratic Party. Obama used his popularity to quash any criticism against downticket candidates and Hillary used her invulnerability to conservative attacks by voting the Party Line. When Obama saves us from another “Democrats bend over big time” story and Hillary saves us from another “radical left wing blogosphere” story, that’s not division, that’s teamwork.

The John Edwards Affair

Now, I know with this one I could link you to a hundred million places that will break down the polling math for you. Kos can break down the exit polling, the Edwards campaign has shown its own inside data shows it, and even the big media networks are showing it in their horrible polls: It is simply not true that if John Edwards had not entered the race, Hillary would have won. In fact, the data shows Obama would have won bigger, sooner. But let’s chunk all this math garbage and get down to something we can really unify on: Mark Penn.

We absolutely cannot ignore the context and timeline of this whole story. The whole idea of Edwards causing Hillary to lose came from Mark Penn at the exact same time that the Clinton campaign was releasing memos revealing a very unflattering picture of the campaign, and of Mark Penn. He said his bullshit about Edwards to distract us from what we should really be doing, and that’s hating Mark Penn. If we’re to pinpoint one thing, out of all the post-campaign “what happened” Hillary Clinton obituaries out there, the one thing that cost Hillary the most in this election, it would be Mark Penn. His shameless pollmongering and divisive negative attack strategy did more to damage Senator Clinton’s reputation than 8 years of Bill Clinton’s dithering and constant Republican attacks.

So yes, the answer to party division over the John Edwards affair is, indeed, “Man, fuck Mark Penn!”

Hillary for President 2012

For us Obama supporters, the prospect of Hillary coming after Obama again in 2012 is very frightening. We know from history that these divided conventions, where a fellow party member tries to steal the nomination from the sitting President, always end in failure. And rest assured, the Clintons are nothing if not students of political history. They understand this kind of division would be fatal to any party. More likely, this is Hillary cutting off any future media hype about party division. If Hillary didn’t buy up all the 2012 stuff, be sure the PUMA radical Hillary supporter surely would. And the media would love nothing better than to interject that little storyline into any campaign.

Look at it from Hillary’s point of view. If she enters the 2012 race, not only would she derail any chance for a Democratic victory, but the entire Clinton legacy, including any possible careers for Chelsea, would be completely destroyed. The story of the Clintons would begin with Bill’s affairs and end with Hillary’s string of defeats and dismemberment of the entire Democratic Party. It’s not likely this is their goal in life. On the other hand, if she keeps her feet firmly on the ground in the Senate, a few years into a roaring Obama administration, the entire primary battle will be forgotten and the Clinton legacy will be that of transformation and power, perfect for Chelsea to step right into.

Of course, there’s always the chance that Obama could lose the election, but let’s be clear. It will be written in blood in the history books that Obama’s loss will absolutely without a doubt be Hillary Clinton’s fault. She will have torn him up and politically bloodied him so much in the primaries, to the point of injecting race, that there will be no choice but for the entire Democratic party to shun and discard her. There could be no forgiveness for such a blatant disruption of the party. After all, look what happened to Joe Lieberman!

Uh oh.

Popularity: 99% [?]

So here it is Monday morning, I leave saturday to head to Denver, and I still don’t have a very clear idea as to what I’m bringing with me. Well I have the hardware figured out, but I’m still not totally settled on the software side of things.

Maybe you can help me figure out what to use on this wacky adventure of mine. So let’s break this down by hardware shall we?

First up I’ll be bringing the iPhone. Incidentally I’m typing this post on my phone, so by the end of it we can safely say that I’ve tested wordpress’s mobile capability. For communication, I’ve got palringo so I can connect to all my IM services like aim and google talk and such. I’ve got twinkle for updating my Twitter although I’ve noticed a lot of people prefer twitterific. Am I making the right choice on that? For photos i’m using standard email to post to Flickr. Pretty sure this doesn’t geotag or mark them by location though which is something I’d like to be able to do. Is there a better app to post to Flickr from the iPhone than just standard email?

On the laptop, I’m of course already settled with my communication apps like digsby and twhirl. What I’m really concerned with is video. Since my video camera only records to tape (ugh I know) any video I shoot on it won’t be available until I get back from BOTH conventions. I’ll be relying on the built in webcam on my vaio as well as a logitech USB webcam which I’m still not sure I’m bringing. My question to you is what video streaming software should I use? I already have a blogtv account and one with operator11. Not sure I like either of them though. I like what I’ve seen so far from oovoo, is it worth checking out? I don’t have a Qik account but I sure wouldn’t turn down an invite ;)

So what do you think? What should I use to geotag my Flickr photos from the iPhone? What software should I use to stream live video? Drop me a line and let me know.

UPDATE: Wordpress on the iphone worked great, although I did have to log in from the dashboard to add in the special tags for the front page icons. Oh well, small price to pay for blogging on the go, I guess!

Popularity: 98% [?]

From CNN:

The political spotlight will shine on Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama Obama on Saturday night, when the two candidates will face tough questions focused on personal values, presidential leadership and international affairs.

I’ve been looking forward to this forum for a couple of reasons. First off, I think John McCain only stands to lose more evangelical voters from this. Senator Obama, on the other hand, only stands to gain evangelical voters. Thanks to the popularity of Rick Warren, we can count on quite a few evangelicals actually tuning in to be swayed in either direction. On top of that, this could be our first indication as to the priorities of Evangelical voters in a post-George W Bush era.

John McCain’s standing with evangelicals is no mystery. Back in 2000, the “maverick” McCain denounced the religious right as “agents of intolerance.” Then he got his ass kicked by George W Bush and his army of evangelical red meat voters. Since then he’s been sucking up to the religious right, convinced they’re his ticket to his own spot in the White House. However, evangelicals are not shy about voicing their suspicions. If there’s one thing evangelicals are savvy about, it’s God talk. They understand that when Bush says God told him to invade Iraq, he was just batshit loco enough to believe it himself. Conversely, when McCain rolls into town with his Zionist-by-the-numbers empty suit pastors and starts kissing ass, evangelicals get that its mostly bullshit. Any undecided religious voter tuning in tonight to be enraptured by the convulsing, fiery Born Again Faith of John McCain will be terribly, terribly disappointed.

Senator Obama, on the other hand, has a chance to really blow them away. Since it’s a “forum” and not a real debate, there won’t be any fierce back-and-forth exchanges. Instead, it will be a series of canned and rehearsed speeches. Obama’s skill with this sort of thing is nothing short of spectacular, and I have no doubt it will go over quite well with the faith-based crowd. For many, at least, this will be the final nail in the coffin on the smears of Obama as a secret muslim. Tonight’s forum will provide opportunity after opportunity for Obama to plainly discuss his faith in his own terms directly to evangelical voters. Recent polls show Obama doing surprisingly well with evangelical voters already, and I suspect this forum could produce a bit of a spike.

Beyond the partisan politics aspect, tonight’s forum will also be the start of the debate among evangelicals as to what exactly they’re looking for from their candidates. Will they continue the push on wedge issues such as gay marriage and stem cell research, or will they opt for more pressing, and quite frankly less ignorant and hateful, issues such as poverty reduction and climate change? While I think its a bit early for liberals and progressives to count evangelicals firmly in their corner, there are cracks beginning to appear in the Republican’s iron grip on them as a voting demographic. The issues raised by Rev. Warren could produce a bellwether for the religious debate in campaign 2008.

So what do you think? Can McCain work the forum to his advantage? Could Obama make a gaffe? Are you even planning on watching? Drop me a line and let me know.

Popularity: 77% [?]