Ran into this guy on Friday. It’s true that McCain is becoming a figurehead on his own ticket. The Hockey Mom From Wasilla™ is firing up all the wackos out there. I fear Obama has no clue how to run against this.

“Hard Headed Woman” – Elvis Presley

Ann and Nancy Wilson, known to rock fans as Heart, are not pleased with a certain campaign’s use of their 1977 guitar hero track “Barracuda“

According to TMZ.com, the pair has sent a “cease and desist” letter to McCain and Palin’s representatives.

SFGate: Daily Dish : Heart Duo Furious Over Republicans’ Use of ‘Barracuda’.

There’s still the 5,6,7,8′s song “Barracuda” though:

So, there you go. Grrl power! Whoever put this video together is totally psyched over the thought of a woman in the White House.  The fact that Palin’s against equal pay and for banning books really doesn’t stack up to pink guitars!

My sister gets a shoutout in the latest episode of Political Lunch with her on-the-ground political commentary from Alaska! Check it out.

Not sure where I live anymore. This is sobering.

Massive police raids on suspected protestors in Minneapolis – Glenn Greenwald – Salon.com.

Listen and read: “Copy Cat” – P-Funk All Stars

Never up on politics as much as I should be, I’ve always thought of  Joe Biden as “that guy who plagiarized his speeches” in the 80s. “What a jerk,” I thought. But, shame on me for letting a single incident color my judgment of the man’s long career.

Much better to let Declan McCullagh’s examination of his voting record in the twenty-odd years since then color my impressions of the man’s long career

By choosing Joe Biden as their vice presidential candidate, the Democrats have selected a politician with a mixed record on technology who has spent most of his Senate career allied with the FBI and copyright holders, who ranks toward the bottom of CNET’s Technology Voters’ Guide, and whose anti-privacy legislation was actually responsible for the creation of PGP.

Ok, then. What a jerk!

Joe Biden’s pro-RIAA, pro-FBI tech voting record | Politics and Law – CNET News.com.

Listen to this while reading: “This Is Not A Photograph” – Mission of Burma

Here’s a must-read piece in the NY Times. It has it all: It’s a blog by Errol Morris (Documentary filmmaker responsible for The Thin Blue Line and A Brief History of Time among others – IMDB link.) It touches on all the big topics: Mainstream media, Photoshop, Wittgenstein, Dada,  Godzilla, et. al. I respected and enjoyed Errol Morris  before reading this. I do so even more thoroughly now.

Photography as a Weapon – Errol Morris – Zoom – New York Times Blog.

It’s primarily a look at the situation surrounding the faked Iranian missile photo. But, it reaches well beyond that — as Morris is so good a doing.

People often trust low-res images because they look more real. But of course they are not more real, just easier to fake. We look at picture of Nessie (the Loch Ness Monster). It’s grainy, fuzzy. It’s hard to make anything out. You never see a 10-megapixel photograph of Big Foot or the Abominable Snowman or the Loch Ness Monster.

Now that’s a blog. It’s researched. It has interviews, It has footnotes!

“Airwave (Radio Edit)”- Rank 1

The FCC auctions off the airwaves to wireless carriers in the name of the public good. The wireless carries ostensibly operate this public utility, and we all get cellphones — probably considered by many to be a basic necessity now — at an acceptable cost. The wireless carriers, incidentally, make billions in profits off of the air around us that our elected government licensed to them. This is all cool because it’s considered for the common good. I can accept that if I don’t look too closely.

What I don’t agree with is how the wireless carries can deliver such a low level of service where if there is a some sort of local crisis, say an earthquake, all circuits will be busy for hours after the event. Presumably if there was danger for an extended period of time, the circuits would continue to be unusable for a vast majority of the people trying to use them to reached loved ones.

I believe everyone who carries a cellphone is comforted by its presence, should there be an emergency. But, the wireless carriers who are making billions from your airwaves have no intention of serving you in the case of a very large emergency. They’ve built an infrastructure as cheaply as possible based on normal usage and have not planned — seemingly at all — for any usage beyond that. When an moderate earthquake that lasts thirty seconds with no loss of life can effectively tie up service for an hour or longer, as I saw this week, I get pissed off.

If we’re willing to hand over control over the airwaves, and the billions of dollars that go with that, I’d expect more. But, that’s not what we get.

We see this already with the feet-dragging over wireless 911 service. If there were any sort of mandated level-of-service guidelines, the wireless carriers would cry about the cost to them and pass on higher rates to customers — for what is essentially a necessary service today. And, they would continue to make billions.

Did I mention they’re our airwaves in the first place?

Hullabaloo: Running With The Devils

I’m too tired to explain this, but I’ll try very briefly. This blog points out the basic tragedy that defending basic core things like the Constitution has been totally marginalized to the point that if you even mention the Constitution, you’re portrayed as a left-wing wacko. The media plays along, too sphisticated to actually care. But somewhere there may be support for some true change.

And I’ll add that this was Obama’s core message to me when I read The Audacity of Hope — so why he is starting to turn his back on any kid of real progressive idealism makes me wish I could vote for whoever his ghostwriter must have been.

Anyway go read the bog, and look up Glenn Greenwald while you’re at it — another inspiring thinker.

I’ve never heard of the site MAPlight.org until today (via Slashdot). “Money and Politics. Illuminating the connection,” is their tagline. This is the report they issued which got the attention.  Apparently your average representitive will sell out the constitution for a mere $4,000. That seems a paltry sum, so something is weird here. Is it really so cheap? This seems to just be the top of a smelly iceberg.  Here’s an excerpt from the report:

Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint gave PAC contributions averaging:

• $8,359 to each Democrat who changed their position to support immunity for Telcos (94 Dems)
• $4,987 to each Democrat who remained opposed to immunity for Telcos (116 Dems)

88 percent of the Dems who changed to supporting immunity (83 Dems of the 94) received PAC contributions from Verizon, AT&T, or Sprint during the last three years (Jan. 2005-Mar. 2008). See [the report] for list of these 94 Dems.

SPOTLIGHT: Telco PACs Gave $8K to Dems Who Changed Their Vote on FISA Bill | MAPLight.org

 

 

This force of nature enjoyed some astounding early success from their unique talent that thrust them into the brightest of spotlights. They quickly developed a rabid and devoted fan base that believed they’d do great things for years to come.  Their early success also resulted in a lot of irrational and bitter opposition from those offended by success and threatened by new ways of thinking.  Then, spurred by the impatient culture around them — perhaps it was the mix of driven confidence and the egotistical desire to show up their critics that’s shared by most of the strong personalities that shape our world — they got ambitious and shot for the ultimate prize in just their second big project.  In this Icarian attempt, they flashed youthful and undeniable brilliance, but ultimately they lacked a sound fundamental core that only time and experience can develop. They fell just short of their goal in heartbreaking fashion.

Now, I’m desperately and selfishly hoping that they didn’t peak too early, and that this attempt doesn’t ruin their promising career past this year, because that would rob me and the rest of the world of the potential enjoyment and fulfillment to come.

In this way, Panic At the Disco are the Barack Obama of Rock.