Politics and Pundits: The Influence of Media on Elections and Democracy

The Financial Times of London in conjunction with the U.S. State Department held a panel discussion with talk radio personalities this morning. Featured on the panel, held at the U.S. Embassy in London, were Stephanie Miller, liberal talks morning queen, Neal Boortz, right-wing blowhard, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, broadcaster, writer & columnist, The Independent & The Evening Standard,and Nick Ferrari, LBC 97.3 Breakfast Show host. The panelist were asked questions submitted by the public and a spicy discussion ensued. Give it a watch. [note: Boortz is such a tool]

Turtle Travels

Dr. and Mrs. Turtle went to Cozumel, Mexico to relieve themselves albeit temporarily, of the burdens of today's world. Being underwater or drunk most of the time, I got virtually no news but was able to speak to several Americans about the state of the nation. Even the average,conservative republican seem fed up with what's been going on. A strange confluence of circumstance found The Turtles vacationing among many from the San Francisco bay area and Texas. We just moved from Texas a few months ago, and from San Francisco before that. It was a kind of old home week. It was a treat. I apologize for my absence, and I'll post some pics and tell of my travels later today.

Republican Ratfuckery

Palau over at Progressive Gold has posted a terrific piece on more GOP malfeasance:

A NY state Republican political thug ‘consultant’, Roger J. Stone Jr., is alleged to have been harassing the 83 year old father of the Democratic attorney general, Elliot Spitzer, with threatening late night phone calls - traceable directly back to aforesaid thug “consultant”.

The title of the article has also given me a terrific new tag for gooper wingnuttery:Modern Mobsterism, or Republican Ratfuckery or “Nice Family You Got there. Shame If Anything Happened to It…” Ratfuckery, indeed.

Muggled

A little four minute something from Go Left TV featuring Jason Alexander and Company. A short film parody of "Harry Potter" called "The Plot to Bury Congress". It's funny and oh so right on the money. Give it a look.

"If the muggles are upset, tell them we're fighting them over there so...we can do whatever the hell we want over here."

"The strategy of being obstructionist can work or fail...so, far it's working for us. The Democrats are taking the blame for not getting anything done."

-Trent Lott in Roll Call, April 7, 2007

For more info go to: The Campaign for America's Future. Go check out where your Senator stands in regards to being "obstructionist".

YKOS Live

As most people who are not dependent upon the MSM know, Yearly KOS is happening in Chicago this weekend. YKOS has provided a free live stream and I encourage everyone to tune in at some point this weekend to find strategies, ideas, hope and information about wht YOU can do to help end the criminal BushCo and root out the evil in DC. Currently (10 AM Central) Jon Soltz of Vote Vets is speaking on the policy changes needed to end the Iraq occupation. Please tune in.

Politics: The Music Video

Apparently while I was packing, unpacking and dealing with my new 'money pit', a cultural phenomenon erutpted: The political pop music video. One of the trailblazer's is Barely Political. Check out the music video Debate '08: Obama Girl vs. Giuliani Girl.

"Sen. Warner: Protect America, Not George Bush"

So says General Wes Clark. Watch his latest from Vote Vets:

I'm glad somebody said it

Courtesy of Tully over at Broadcatching (new on the DeepCon blogroll), we have for your perusal, a video clip from Bill Maher's HBO show "Real Time." Sean Penn, Gary Shandling and former Congressman Harold Ford discuss the evolution of the usage of Chimpy's phrase, " the war on terrah," and the hoped-for disposition of this criminal administration.

Sean Penn says on national television, what I have felt deeply for some time: "Bush, Cheney, Rice, et al should be in fucking jail."

Brit Rant

It is said that people who curse to make their point suffer from a lack of creativity.Warren25Smash is a YouTuber with a markedly filthy mouth and while I don't agree with all his verbiage, his content makes a number of good points. Where he lacks creativity, he makes up for in passion.

MySpace, Their Space; Race to the Presidency

The Guardian is reporting the Rupert Murdock owned MySapce site will be conducting the grandaddy of all straw polls in January.

The candidates' campaign teams have already set up profile pages, promoting policy statements, selling merchandise, and encouraging networking among supporters. Barack Obama is streets ahead of the pack, seemingly pulling in the same kind of young, web-savvy supporters as Howard Dean did in 2004. With more than 99,000 "friends", he leads John Edwards (18,000) and Hillary Clinton (10,000), while Republicans Mitt Romney and John McCain languish with fewer than 6,000; Rudy Giuliani's figures are kept private.

Read the rest...

It's a Youth Thing

A message from some young friends that just started a new blog:

As the 2008 elections approach, which means the end of the Bush era, a new era will began. A new era complete with voices of reason and change. The youth vote will be a big part of that change.

We are announcing the creation of a new revolutionary community of liberal/progressive young adult bloggers!

YOUTHinkLeft.com (YOUTH THINK LEFT) will deal with political issues and information written in a blog article format or through original videos delivered in an online newsmagazine style blog and rss feeds.
We write about politics, and all articles are written by teens/young adults.
One of our writers is the popular Ava Lowery of Peace Takes Courage who recently appeared on CNN.

Please take a look, make a post about us, or add us to your blogroll!

Give Youth Think a look; they are our future.

The Regressive View on Global Warming

Newt Gingrich makes it apparent why conservatives, or regressives as I call them, cannot be trusted in government. In trying to explain why conservatives resist "doing the the right thing" in regards to the environment, he tells us it's because of a fear of "higher taxes and bigger government." In other words, no matter what the cost to the planet, human and animal life, and our very existence, the thing that really matters is not acknowledging our actions have consequences to the detriment of corporate responsibility and profits.

The GOP as a whole shows how very selfish and short-sighted they are in regards to the very foundation of life on the planet. I'm hoping for a little social Darwinianism to start having an effect upon republicans as a whole 'species'. Watch John Kerry back the toadster into a corner on the topic of changing course in our lifestyle choices in order to save the planet we seemed bent on destroying. Think Progress has the film.

Another Rat Jumps Ship

McClatchy is reporting Bush insider Meghan O'Sullivan will be leaving the White House, "later this spring." Bush losing key adviser on Iraq

Top 10 Best Political Web Videos

PVT's six minute compiliation

Stephanie Miller on Larry King

Mama is on with right-wing tool Lars Larson.

Stephanie Miller On Larry King (3/27/07)
Video sent by virtualmatter

The Stephanie Miller Show can be heard live Monday through Friday 6AM-9AM (Pacific time) on NovaM Radio streaming online.

Stephanie to Lars:"I've heard your show and I can see why you carry a gun."

DoJ is D.O.A.

Shoephone of Evergreen Politics is the speed reader extraordinaire who after poring over 1000 pages from the Department of Just-us docu-dump, gleans the really good stuff in a way I can actually read. I tried to read some of the emails out of the DoJ's junk mail but could trudge through very little. As has been reported in the MSM, much of the material submitted are repeats of the same email, over and over, 3 and 4 times. What they didn't repeat, they just redacted. As Shoephone says, "Distract, junk up, obfuscate, confuse. Rinse, repeat." Get over to E.P. and read, "The DOJ 'Document Dump' -- Fear and Loathing in D.C."

Informed Consent:Top Ten

Juan Cole of "Informed Consent" stokes the fire under the Burning Bush formerly-known -as-the-Decider with today's post:Bush’s Top Ten Mistakes in Iraq during the Past 4 Years What Mr. Cole says about March 19, 2003: Bush’s Address on Iraq

What struck me in looking again at Bush’s address to the American public late on March 19, 2003, is how obviously mendacious it was. That dishonest and propagandistic character is even more apparent with the passage of time. The accusation that Iraq was planning to attack anyone in 2003, that US cities were in danger from it, was monstrous in its mirroring of Bush intentions toward the Iraqi people. Which innocents have had to dig out of rubble? And, at a time when Bush rushed to war, engaging in dirty tricks in hopes of getting a Baath provocation that would serve as casus belli, and not letting the weapons inspectors even finish their jobs, to say he was “reluctant”! It is impossible to reread this text without images from the destruction of Fallujah, from Abu Ghraib, from Najaf, flashing through one’s mind. It is America’s nadir, the most Goebbels-like Big Lie in modern American history.

H/T to Lotus

Skeletor to Replace Gonzo?

As soon as you stop laughing read the story at Politico.

Uncanny isn't it?

The Bush Blunderography

LA Times Editorial "Blunder after Blunder"

Bush and his advisors seem to be in over their heads too often, and that's not good for them or the nation.

ya think?

Funny Thing Happened on My Way to the Gitmo

I was just chastised at another site for "dissing the president." I'm getting pretty tired of this nonsense from the 30% of brain-dead Americans who follow blithely on the chimp's trek to Dante's Inferno. I have a video response for the USAF putz that would prefer I stifle my 1st Amendment right to Free Speech. Madonna speaks for me:

"I'm not sorry, it's human nature, I'm not your bitch, don't hang your shit on me. Handle it. I'm not apologizing. Would it sound better if I were a man? Would you like me better if I was? Well, I feel the same way. You're the one with the problem. Why don't you just deal with it? "