I just got a note from BraveNewFilms.com with a great new idea they have, and I decided I’d share the message with that portion of the blogging community who might not have heard about it yet. This is a great idea, and I can’t wait to DVR some Faux News and get down to the database’n:

Hello FOX Attackers,

I have some exciting news — in just a couple of days, our FOX Attacks Decency video has exploded online with almost half a million views! Not entirely shocking considering the subject matter, but it’s a huge opportunity for us to really make an impact.

We’re planning a follow-up video this week for Wednesday or Thursday which should draw even more attention, and we want to use that to encourage people to call local FOX News advertisers and inform them of what FOX is pumping into our homes.

But we need to get the advertiser database as current as possible. Can you help out?

Fire up the TiVo, skip through the bloviating, and watch for local advertisers you can add to the database.

Go to the FOX Attacker website here: http://foxattacks.com/advertisers

Click on “add advertiser.” You’ll be asked to login or create an account. If you forgot your password (I do just about every day), there’s a link there to get a new one.

You can also search the database. If the advertiser is already in there, please be sure to click on the “I saw this advertiser on FOX more recently.” This helps us know whether they are still advertising, which is very important.

Your efforts in the next few days will have a big impact. Thank you!

Jim Gilliam
Brave New Films

Who is up to helping out? Can we get some local advertisers to stop advertising on Fox?

Hmm. . . would almost seem a shame if Billy Fucillo stopped advertising on Fox as a result: that’s the one channel I’m guaranteed not to watch. . . . what a waste. . .

CareerBuilder.com recently added a new LAMP developer position available at the D&C, and for a fleeting moment, I’d half considered throwing my hat in the ring.  Then I realized that, if ever there was a chance for me to get dooced, it would have to be a job at the D&C. Because, of course, the D&C sucks.  I’d have to spend all day pretending they don’t and hoping no one googles my name.

How could I fail to comment on such crappola as this:

School decline a scourge on city || Democrat & Chronicle: Editorials

(October 16, 2007) — Rochester’s elected school board must answer for the debacle that is public education in the city. It sets policy, it hires the superintendent, it is charged with making sure children are taught well in safe environments and taxpayer investments earn dividends. Its failures cannot be passed off to state mandates, labor contracts, societal disadvanges or the myriad of excuses dredged up at election time.

No, and I don’t suppose the upcoming failures can be blamed on a run-away County Executive who has just stolen school money and made the situation worse?  That the D&C considers “societal disadvantages” to have been “dredged up” at election time proves that, except for endorsement time, folks on the D&C editorial board aren’t paying attention to city schools.

This is the best opinion piece written for the New York Times in a long time.  Don’t miss it!

A Mock Columnist, Amok - New York Times

So why I am writing Miss Dowd’s column today? Simple. Because I believe the 2008 election, unlike all previous elections, is important. And a lot of Americans feel confused about the current crop of presidential candidates.

For instance, Hillary Clinton. I can’t remember if I’m supposed to be scared of her so Democrats will think they should nominate her when she’s actually easy to beat, or if I’m supposed to be scared of her because she’s legitimately scary.

Or Rudy Giuliani. I can’t remember if I’m supposed to support him because he’s the one who can beat Hillary if she gets nominated, or if I’m supposed to support him because he’s legitimately scary.

And Fred Thompson. In my opinion “Law & Order” never sufficiently explained why the Manhattan D.A. had an accent like an Appalachian catfish wrestler.

Ah, yes.  Good old Derf Thompson.  He is, in fact, a man of several characters, off screen and on.  Brian Ross’ The Blotter recommends to us yet another treatment of the man’s ability to act.  This time, Freddy attempts to act principled while simultaneously opening the biggest window he can for Richard Nixon to weasel out of:

The Blotter: Nixon on Thompson: ‘Dumb’ but ‘Friendly’

Fred Thompson has made much of his role 30 years ago as a young Senate lawyer helping to lead the investigation of the Watergate scandal and President Richard Nixon. . .

“He isn’t very smart, is he?” Nixon asks.

“Not extremely so, but –,” Buzhardt says, interrupted by the president.

“But he’s friendly,” Nixon says.

“But he’s, he’s friendly,” Buzhardt echoes.

“Good.”

A few days later, White House aides are heard saying Thompson will be even more helpful than his boss, Sen. Baker, and that Thompson agreed to secretly help undercut the credibility of White House whistleblower John Dean.

And say, Brian! Take the goddamned phone away from your ear. You don’t look hip, you look like a senile grandpa trying to figure out how to use his remote control.  Note the vacancy in his eyes. . .

Technorati Tags: Fred Thompson, 2008, Republicans, Brian Ross

. . . do American Democracy no good at all.

I just got an email a little while ago. I started reading the same old crap from the same old DCCC source as always, but then I noticed. “Hey!” I exclaimed loud enough for the guy in the next cube to hear me, “that sucks!”

Dear Thomas,
Here’s how Dick Cheney does it. He travels the country with little or no media attention and raises millions of dollars at posh fundraisers to fund GOP attack ads. Next stop on the Cheney “Get a Pic with Dick” Tour: Las Vegas for a GOP fundraiser charging folks $2,500 a head for a photo with the seldom-seen Vice-President.
{{snip}}
Donate now so that we have all the resources we need to promise we’ll help pull them through to victory.

Onwards,

Paul Begala

WTF, people? I thought Paul Begala was some sort of journalist, working for CNN and Crossfire and all that? How is this ethical? At least Mr. Bowtied Avenger isn’t actively campaigning for money for the Republican Party (that I know of).

Conflicts such as this, regardless what side of the isle they happen on, are just plain wrong.

No question about it: CNN is the single most shamelessly hypocritical network out there.  Remember back in 2004 when state after state of the union was moving to pass amendments to their constitutions banning same sex marriage?  Remember all the flushed comments about the sanctity of marriage repeated over and over again on CNN with nary a challenge from nary a “journalist?”

Well, get President Ahmadinejad of Iran to make some comments about the supposed lack of gays in his country, and boy!  Watch the CNN folks fall all over themselves to defend gay people now!

Ahmadinejad speaks; outrage and controversy follow - CNN.com

NEW YORK (CNN) — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday challenged a university audience to look into “who was truly involved” in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, defended his right to question established Holocaust history and denied there were gay Iranians.

Wolf Blitzer just got done doing a whole “Keeping Them Honest” segment on TV just a few seconds ago, “exposing” the truth that there are - get ready - gay people in Iran. And they’re not treated kindly, if you can believe it. Suddenly, CNN cares.

Ted Koppel is speaking out about the Dan Rather roll-over moment and his impending lawsuit.  Like most thinking people, Koppel realizes that the whole firing was crap from the beginning.  Towards the end of this article, though, he reveals an interesting freeze-out of one of journalism’s top news men (him) by the White House simply for crossing the former failed baseball manager a slight bit in an interview:

Koppel on Rather Suit: Squeezing Out of Newsman was a ‘Travesty’ - TVWeek - News

When Mr. Bush was running for president, Mr. Koppel asked then Governor Bush what qualified him to be president. Mr. Bush cited his experience as governor of Texas, his experience running the Texas Rangers baseball team, as well as the fact that he was a loving husband and father.

Mr. Koppel replied that those qualifications would seem to be good qualifications if one were running for president of the Kiwanis Club, but not for president of the United States.

Ever since then it’s been the big freeze for Mr. Koppel from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Technorati Tags: Ted Koppel, Dan Rather, George Bush, Censorship

. . .  and indeed, if there is any reason that the D&C continues to *decrease* in significance, it is because of such over-obvious statements happening years after they were really relevant and long after they’ve already been discussed to death on the “newly-emerging” Interweb.

I couldn’t help pointing out this bit of drivel in the D&C.  I’d hoped to find an interesting discussion of the effects Internet media and marketing are having on business, perhaps with a bit of local experience and some businesses making a go of it.  Instead, it’s just an article that marvels at the fact that the Internet exists and that anyone takes it seriously:

Social media network growing in significance || Democrat & Chronicle: Business Columns

Earlier this year, I joined the social media network and became a blogger. My background is in promotional marketing so my blog, Donna’s Promo Talk, is targeted to marketing professionals. I first did what the experts recommend, which is to browse, read and comment on other people’s blogs before starting your own. This helps to find your “voice” as well to create relationships with other bloggers in your field.

Hey, if new people want to jump onboard and start blogging, I’m all for it.  We all win.  But this is a lot of space on the D&C to talk about stuff that’s years old, and it seems incongruous in the business section, doesn’t it?  This could have easily and perhaps more appropriately been in the living section.

Technorati Tags: Rochester, Journalism, Web, Internet

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Ah, childhood.

Some of us left it behind at the tender age of eighteen, but in Tucker Carlson’s case, some people live it out in pathetic form straight into their forties.  Carlson was on MSNBC with Dan Abrams and Joe Scarborough discussing the bathroom incident with Larry Craig, and in a rhetorical miss-step, inadvertently pointed out that he had been “bothered” in men’s rooms (plural).

Well, that just sounds like he’s asking for it in the minds of manly men like Abrams and Scarborough.  True to form, everybody started laughing, the clear humor being not so much those lecherous, violent bathroom-stalking gays, but rather the effeminate Tucker Carlson with his cute little bow tie being solicited by gays because he looks and sounds so. . .  well, queer.

But Tucker ain’t no queer.  Hell, no!  In fact, he beat the shit out of someone who tried to come onto him in the bathroom. . .  or maybe he didn’t:

Media Matters - MSNBC’s silence speaks volumes; by Jamison Foser

Let me be clear about an incident I referred to on MSNBC last night: In the mid-1980s, while I was a high school student, a man physically grabbed me in a men’s room in Washington, DC. I yelled, pulled away from him and ran out of the room. Twenty-five minutes later, a friend of mine and I returned to the men’s room. The man was still there, presumably waiting to do to someone else what he had done to me. My friend and I seized the man and held him until a security guard arrived. Several bloggers have characterized this is a sort of gay bashing. That’s absurd, and an insult to anybody who has fought back against an unsolicited sexual attack. I wasn’t angry with the man because he was gay. I was angry because he assaulted me.

Media Matters later asks the question:

Media Matters - Cont’d

Which version of Carlson’s story is the closest to the truth? The first version he told, apparently spontaneously and unrehearsed? Or the statement he issued after the first version drew criticism?

Allow me to field this one.  Neither story is true.  While we’re in the spirit of full disclosure, I never had a girlfriend from Canada and your dad is not a lawyer.  Oh, and when I said, “well, if you don’t know, I’m not going to tell you,” the fact was, I didn’t know.

If Carlson was in fact approached in some way as a high-school student, he would doubtless have reacted the way any kid might, with either a bat-out-of-hell retreat or nervously giggling embarrassment.  He’s full grown now, only about five foot tall, probably under 100 pounds and physically incapable of banging the head of a heavily-medicated octogenarian against the wall even now, let alone an equal in high school.

Oh, but the story changed.  He didn’t beat the guy up, he came back with a friend (here-to-fore unnamed) and valiantly held the lecher until security could arrive. . . . twenty five minutes later.  Because in those days, no one had to go to class, not even the gays.  So, The Tuckster, his friend and one bathroom stalker all went about their business for twenty five minutes until Tuck decided something needed to be done.  Twenty five minutes later; not half an hour, twenty five minutes later.  What amazing recall nearly thirty years hence!

Reminds me of that time I was in Alaska hunting wolverines.  My cousin and I got assaulted by some in a bathroom, though I can’t be sure that they were actually gay.  There were like thirty of them.  What did I do?  I banged their heads against a wall, of course, GOD!  What would you do in a situation like that?

Technorati Tags: Tucker Carlson, Joe Scarborough, Dan Abrams, Gay Bashing, Childish, Immaturity, Lying, Napoleon Dynamite

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Between 2003 and the second quarter of 2005, the federal government spent 1600 million dollars on domestic propaganda.

Says the Washington Post.

One fun quote:

Around the same time, a spat erupted between the GAO and the White House over whether the government’s practice of feeding TV stations prepackaged, ready-to-air news stories that touted administration policies (but did not disclose the government as the source) amounted to “covert propaganda.” The GAO said that it did. The administration disagreed, saying spreading information about federal programs is part of the agencies’ mission, and that the burden of disclosure falls on the TV stations.

Just putting it out there.

P.S. Fun song - Propaganda.wma from the soundtrack of cult videogame hit Beyond Good and Evil.