Obama - McCain JibJab
The gang at JibJab have released a new animation, Time for Some Campaignin': Send a JibJab Sendables® eCard Today! "Like the change we must change and the change we hold dear. I really like change, have I made myself clear?" is probably the best line. UPDATE: Newsweek's Samantha Henig has an interesting interview with JibJab founders Gregg and Evan Spiridellis. Do you consider the ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on July 16, 2008 06:07
John McCain’s Message
Daniel Strauss sat through a session at the center-left New America Foundation yesterday and came away with an epiphany about John McCain's campaign: "It's what he's saying, not how he says it." Jeremy Rosner observed, A lot of people have noted he's just very incoherently between the right and the center, between offshore drilling and $300 million prizes for new electric ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on July 10, 2008 08:01
Congress Banning Social Media?
As if to prove Robert Heinlein correct, the House Administration Committee is, apparently with honorable intent, considering effectively banning the use of popular social media sites, including YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook by Members. Soren Dayton couches this in partisan terms: "In typical fashion, House Democrats are trying to pass rules that stifle debate and require regulation." In fact, though, it appears ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on July 9, 2008 08:54
John McCain ‘Love’ Ad
John McCain's latest ad, "Love," contrasts himself with those dirty hippies who spent the summer of 1968 on sex, drugs, and rock and roll rather than being tortured for their country. The voiceover: It was a time of uncertainty, hope and change. The "Summer Of Love." Half a world away, another kind of love — of country. John McCain: Shot down. Bayoneted. Tortured. Offered early ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on July 8, 2008 13:30
Google Shuts Down Anti-Obama Blogs
Some Obama supporters are apparently taking advantage of Google's terms of service to silence anti-Obama blogs, Simon Owens of Bloggasm reports. The company automatically shuts down sites upon receipt of TOS violation claims until they're able to do a human audit, a rather slow process with given little priority on the free BlogSpot service. After some digging it became apparent ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on June 30, 2008 12:30
Nationalize The Oil Industry?
Though I'm not that fond of the Democrats on most economic matters, I don't think they are socialists (what they are would involve a much longer discussion). The idiocy of socialism and national ownership of industry is apparent to most thinking people. Nevertheless, my first reaction to tripe like this is alarm: Link: sevenload.com Once I have a chance to ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on June 18, 2008 19:07
Online Life Rewiring Our Brains
The cover story of the current Atlantic (Monthly) is an interesting piece by Nicholas Carr which asks, Is Google Making Us Stupid? It begins with the standard "the Internet is giving us short attention spans" meme but eventually gives us much more than that. Over the past few years I’ve had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on June 16, 2008 15:20
Obama Quits Trinity United Church of Christ
CNN has issued a Breaking News alert: "Barack Obama has resigned as a member of the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, his campaign says." The story itself is on their Political Ticker blog: Barack Obama resigned Saturday from his Chicago church — where controversial sermons by his former pastor and other ministers had created repeated political headaches for ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on May 31, 2008 18:31
Rachael Ray, Donut Terrorist
Dunkin' Donuts has pulled an ad spot featuring Rachael Ray wearing a scarf around her neck because some thought it was a subtle nod of support to Palestinians. Does Dunkin’ Donuts really think its customers could mistake Rachael Ray for a terrorist sympathizer? The Canton-based company has abruptly canceled an ad in which the domestic diva wears a scarf that ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on May 28, 2008 07:51
If Wright Were White
Leonce Gaiter believes that ,"If Reverend Jeremiah Wright and his former disciple, Barack Obama were white, this would not be a story." He contends that, "White pastors have been spewing hateful bile and filth for generations. But it's white bile, and that makes all the difference." Ezra Klein disagrees slightly, arguing, "Americans recoil from the Chomskyite critique, and any ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on May 1, 2008 12:01
