Politics
Thanks for Sharing, Sheriff
The gay talk show host Michelangelo Signorile interviewed Sheriff Mac Holcomb of Marshall County, Alabama, who made headlines last week when people discovered that his official Web site celebrates the old-fashioned values of his youth in the '40s and '50s: During this era, love of God, family, and country abounded. Men were men and women were women and there was no mistaking which was which. Both were proud of their individual roles. Homosexuality was very queer and a despicable act ... an ... (read more)Democratic Podcast: Bush Plans Benefit Cuts
Saturday's Democratic response to the presidential radio address was delivered by Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan. For the third straight week, the topic is President Bush's plan to privatize Social Security. A transcript of Stabenow's remarks: Hello. I'm Senator Debbie Stabenow. Social Security reflects the best of American values. It's a promise our government makes to all Americans that if you work hard and play by the rules, you'll be able to count on a basic quality of life and dignity in ... (read more)2005/01/18A Text Ad By Any Other Name
Zephyr Teachout on politics: It's the most imperfect art, and you really have to get down in the gutter. I love how, at the same time that it's just this ugly sport, at the core its aspirations are so high. Listening to so many different people express their political views is very moving. We're political animals. I like that -- 'political animals' -- it expresses it in one phrase. The highest and the lowest. To call attention to yesterday's entry on Teachout, I bought a Google text ad keyed to ... (read more)
Blogger Payments No Kos for Alarm
A Wall Street Journal story and the invisible backhand of the blogosphere are attempting to make the publishers of Daily Kos and MyDD the liberal versions of Armstrong "No Bribe Left Behind" Williams: Howard Dean's presidential campaign hired two Internet political "bloggers" as consultants so that they would say positive things about the former governor's campaign in their online journals, according to a former high-profile Dean aide. There's no comparison between these situations. Jerome ... (read more)Democratic Podcast: Social Security Works
The first attempt at public affairs podcasting on Workbench appears to have been popular last week. The audio file of the Democratic response to the presidential radio address was requested 8,400 times. I'm beginning to appreciate the bandwidth requirements of podcasting. One 2.38 megabyte podcast consumed more than 18 gigabytes of traffic. That's not an issue, because I have a great dedicated server on ServerMatrix that allows 1,200 gigabytes a month, but it could become one as listeners ... (read more)2005/01/09I'm Joining the Pod People
One of my favorite presidential traditions is the weekly radio address, a practice revived by President Nixon and carried on today. Bush treats them like homework, but in the hands of a natural politician like Reagan or Clinton, the short speeches are an inspired throwback to the days when Americans hovered around the family Victrola to hear FDR's historic fireside chats. Every Saturday afternoon, the president delivers a short address followed by a response from a member of the opposition ... (read more)2005/01/02Recounts Bring Us Closer Together
In the Washington gubernatorial race, Christine Gregoire has passed Dino Rossi in the hand recount for a 10-vote lead, which will probably grow when 700 votes that were improperly disqualified by one county are examined. Whether Gregoire wins or Rossi overturns the count in court, the winner's going to have little legitimacy with half of the electorate. As this race and the Bush/Gore debacle demonstrate, this country can't handle photo-finish elections, because no one believes the recount ... (read more)
Recounts Bring Us Closer Together
In the Washington gubernatorial race, Christine Gregoire has passed Dino Rossi in the hand recount for a 10-vote lead, which will probably grow when 700 votes that were improperly disqualified by one county are examined. Whether Gregoire wins or Rossi overturns the count in court, the winner's going to have little legitimacy with half of the electorate. As this race and the Bush/Gore debacle demonstrate, this country can't handle photo-finish elections, because no one believes the recount ... (read more)Deliver Us From Sean Hannity
Caught a minute of Sean Hannity's radio show last night, and it was enough time to break my brain. He claimed that this newspaper item on Jimmy Carter demonstrates that the former president is a limousine liberal: As one of the most prolific authors ever to sit in the Oval Office, former President Jimmy Carter knows how to sell books. As he hawks his 19th, Sharing Good Times, Carter reveals his secret to reaching the bestseller list: Pitch buyers at discount warehouses. "Sam's Club and Costco," ... (read more)AIDS Conspiracist Takes the Prize
The Nobel Foundation gave the yearly Peace Prize today to a Kenyan environmental activist who believes that the HIV virus is a biological weapon created to kill blacks. Wangari Maathai, honored for a long career of empowering women highlighted by a movement that planted 30 million trees, made the claim to an AIDS workshop in Nyeri, Kenya, Aug. 30, according to the East African Standard: AIDS is not a curse from God to Africans or the black people. It is a tool to control them designed by some ... (read more)Al Franken signed a two-year extension with Air America Radio, putting him on the network through 2006. I listen to his show often on XM Radio. Some of the comedy is forced -- no one drills a humorous premise into the ground deeper than a Saturday Night Live writer -- but I can't pass up the chance to hear genuine liberal voices on the air like Paul Krugman, David Sirota, Amy Sullivan, and Joe Conason. I wish I could find a clip of Franken's phone interview Monday with weblogger Chris Bowers, ... (read more)
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