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jlh(ironic use of Canadians in icon)
For the inside-media types: the skinny on why Obama's half-hour of power won't be airing on ABC tomorrow night. Hey Pushing Daisies fans, you'd better represent; you can always watch Barry on the website.
For the Russell Brand fans: the trouble he's in because of a crank call to a 'pensioner'.
For those who ask, "isn't anyone moral anymore?": Call center workers walk off the job rather than read the latest 'robocall' script. Apparently actual recorded "robocalls" are illegal in Indiana, so to get them out they have to find live people to read the script. Those of you who've worked in a call center will understand how awesome it is that their supervisor just told them to take the day (albeit unpaid) rather than just firing their asses.
For those trying to envision the new GOP: Sarah Palin is the new litmus test. I guess that means Elizabeth Hasselbeck is in, Mitt Romney and the entire intellectual wing of the party is out.
Or not: Ken Layne of Wonkette sees a new centrist republican party finally able to shake off the wingnuts. God, I hope so, because the left needs a true opposition to keep it from its own excesses. To me this seems more likely than the Palin scenario mostly because the party might give lip service to the populist social conservatives, but they freak out the money men, most of whom are moderate fiscal conservatives. That's what held Huckabee back. Given the dollars that the Mormons are flinging at Yes-on-Prop-8 in California, Romney might be able to finally win over those suspicious evangelicals. Any predictions on 2012 or even the 2010 midterms are absurd at this point, but that's what happens when the pundits start to all agree.
For those who prefer very dark themes in their fiction: My usual reply to this is that I can find plenty of darkness in real life, thanks, my current go-to being how we're sending young people to a war that sends them home with PTSD, which the military then doesn't treat because there aren't enough mental health professionals in the army or the Veterans Administration, and then when said soldiers act up they're giving dishonorable discharges which makes it difficult for them to get good jobs after they've come back from fighting a fucking war and on top of that makes them ineligible for veteran's benefits. Well, now the VA is reporting that one in 7 deployed female soldiers suffer from sexual trauma. Five'll get you ten that the armed forces use this as a reason to keep women from forward positions (which makes it difficult for them to advance) as opposed to using this as a reason to get more treatment for the soldiers, male or female or I dunno, actually fucking work against the problems with sexual harassment in the military?
And now two video reasons to vote, one more partisan than the other:
The most adorable thing I've seen all week--a kid's chorus talking politics in a pop song, and also dancing.
Remember that "Wassup" ad? Turns out it was a short film and Budweiser only bought the rights to the concept for a limited period of time. So the maker of the original film gets to do whatever he wants with these guys now. And what he's done is pretty fucking brilliant.
omg one more week.
For the inside-media types: the skinny on why Obama's half-hour of power won't be airing on ABC tomorrow night. Hey Pushing Daisies fans, you'd better represent; you can always watch Barry on the website.
For the Russell Brand fans: the trouble he's in because of a crank call to a 'pensioner'.
For those who ask, "isn't anyone moral anymore?": Call center workers walk off the job rather than read the latest 'robocall' script. Apparently actual recorded "robocalls" are illegal in Indiana, so to get them out they have to find live people to read the script. Those of you who've worked in a call center will understand how awesome it is that their supervisor just told them to take the day (albeit unpaid) rather than just firing their asses.
For those trying to envision the new GOP: Sarah Palin is the new litmus test. I guess that means Elizabeth Hasselbeck is in, Mitt Romney and the entire intellectual wing of the party is out.
Or not: Ken Layne of Wonkette sees a new centrist republican party finally able to shake off the wingnuts. God, I hope so, because the left needs a true opposition to keep it from its own excesses. To me this seems more likely than the Palin scenario mostly because the party might give lip service to the populist social conservatives, but they freak out the money men, most of whom are moderate fiscal conservatives. That's what held Huckabee back. Given the dollars that the Mormons are flinging at Yes-on-Prop-8 in California, Romney might be able to finally win over those suspicious evangelicals. Any predictions on 2012 or even the 2010 midterms are absurd at this point, but that's what happens when the pundits start to all agree.
For those who prefer very dark themes in their fiction: My usual reply to this is that I can find plenty of darkness in real life, thanks, my current go-to being how we're sending young people to a war that sends them home with PTSD, which the military then doesn't treat because there aren't enough mental health professionals in the army or the Veterans Administration, and then when said soldiers act up they're giving dishonorable discharges which makes it difficult for them to get good jobs after they've come back from fighting a fucking war and on top of that makes them ineligible for veteran's benefits. Well, now the VA is reporting that one in 7 deployed female soldiers suffer from sexual trauma. Five'll get you ten that the armed forces use this as a reason to keep women from forward positions (which makes it difficult for them to advance) as opposed to using this as a reason to get more treatment for the soldiers, male or female or I dunno, actually fucking work against the problems with sexual harassment in the military?
And now two video reasons to vote, one more partisan than the other:
The most adorable thing I've seen all week--a kid's chorus talking politics in a pop song, and also dancing.
Remember that "Wassup" ad? Turns out it was a short film and Budweiser only bought the rights to the concept for a limited period of time. So the maker of the original film gets to do whatever he wants with these guys now. And what he's done is pretty fucking brilliant.
omg one more week.
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no subject
Date: 2008-10-28 07:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-28 07:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-28 07:35 pm (UTC)Love the Robocall Mutiny. Good for them--who could ever imagine people just hired to do that if they didn't believe what they were saying? The campaign's lucky they didn't just call people to tell them not to vote for McCain. Nice of their supervisor, though, I agree.
I love the kid's song. Unfortunately I couldn't understand a lot of the words, but the dance is awesome. Obama on the left! McCain on the right!
no subject
Date: 2008-10-30 08:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-28 08:14 pm (UTC)Damn, I can't find the subtitled version. Ah well. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWll6Sz_Vw4&feature=related)
no subject
Date: 2008-10-30 08:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-30 08:14 pm (UTC)I think that Russell, you know, he's funny and all, but he always pushes it a little too far. There are a lot of American DJs who do that, and they get fired and rehired all the time. Russell's problem over here, of course, is that his entire routine demands familiarity with him, and we have no idea who he is, generally. I think you have to be within a culture to make fun of it well, because you fully understand what's absurd and what is only absurd to some people, so the MTV thing fell really flat. (Not that it wasn't a boring show.)
Hopefully he'll be able to actually act, rather than just sort of vaguely being himself all the time, as he was (to great effect, mind you) in the Sarah Marshall film.