great sign on property in Milwaukee

Originally uploaded by nomadrhizome

came across this flickr photo - wonder what the thief took?

The Squeaky Comment Gets in the News

I have been reading some of the coverage of this Emily Gould NY Times Magazine piece that ran this Sunday. I have not yet gotten through the whole 8000 word essay by the sexy NYC Blogger. The few articles I read focused on the fact that the NYT website received lots of comments on the piece (1216 at last count!) and most were very negative against Gould and the NY Times for even running a magazine cover story about this person. They also mentioned that some bloggers and on-line magazines have written very scathing articles about the piece.
Check these out:
Salon story
LA Times Article

While it is easy for a reporter or blogger to sit on-line and put together a story like this, the fact that a small set of the readers of this original article had strong views on the topic does not represent the views of the public and is not really newsworthy. Maybe 200,000 people read the article and 185,000 found it interesting, funny, sexy, etc. and 15,000 found it to be stupid, pithy, narcissistic, or are bloggers who were jealous that there was not an article about them. What can we conclude? To conclude that America hates Ms. Gould and doesn't want to read about her would be a wrong assumption.

While the article is not about the crisis in Burma, a lot of what we read is not about serious world events. Given the number of bloggers out there, it is reasonable to think that many people, even old people, would be interesting in reading about what many young people are doing and why.

Could I write a comment that is so interesting that the MSM would choose to stick it in some article or story?
Another interesting side note, I have been intrigued by this "reporting" of comments submitted on-line being reported in the news. These two pieces picked out interesting comments from readers and put those comments in the articles. It is becoming clear that often reporters look on-line to get info for a story and are more and more using the views of the commentors as part of the story to provide a feeling of what the public thinks about the topic. This is dangerous for the reasons stated above.

Here is an example, if a politician does something bad, gives a job to a family member. They local paper could run an article about it. Then 20 people could write comments on the article on the website which would say, he should step down, be recalled, etc. Then in followup articles, if the paper says, there is growing public sentiment that Mayor Smith should resign. That would not be fair because many people may feel that he is doing a good job and that the bad act is not so bad but they did not write into the website. And there we go- this could actually lead to real actions. Welcome to the media in the 21st century.

My Kind of Bully

Great commercial that won award at International Advertising Festival in Cannes.

epuron - the power of wind

LA Times on Bums and Crime in Madison

The LA Times has an article about Madison and how our long tolerant attitudes towards homeless has changed in the wake of the recent murders. Intersting that this is getting national press.

I am not sure that most people connect the murders and the homeless feelings. This is not Berkley. I think most folks tolerate the homeless and are occasionally annoyed by them but the cozy relationship has been gone for years for most folks. I know that police have arrested and questioned many homeless because of the murders but I think that the citizens would not have cared if this occurred without any murders.

This type of article may actually add fuel to the little fire and make more people think that the homeless may have actually be murderers and criminals. Thanks LA Times. Imagine if this article gets sent out to grandma of Suzie the UW student.

Is there some crime here? yes. Should a person, especially a female, walk home at night alone downtown. Not here and not in any city. If it takes these crimes to remind folks of that, that is probably a good thing. This has nothing to do with our homeless population.

Spike Lee Calls Out Eastwood

At the Cannes Film Fest, Spike Lee criticised Clint Eastwood for not casting black actors in the two movies he made about Iwo Jima.

All the stories I saw about this have lots of comments saying Lee is a racist and his comments are ridiculous. This is going to be a theme in the election. This type of backlash towards those who call racism when they see it is upsetting - many people don't want to hear it and just attack anyone who says it.

If there were many black men who died at Iwo Jima it seems wrong not to have a few in the movie. Is Clint Eastwood the worst racist in America? of course not, and are these good movies, of course.

I still like Lee, I saw him speak in college and he has lost much of his general appeal since he has said some controversial things but I like the guy.

South Florida Jews and Obama

Great NY Times article about the problem Obama has with the South Florida Jews. This is a personal issue with me because I know two of these folks well and they are probably going to go for McCain.

I am glad the article went beyond the questions of Wright, Farrakhan, and his support of Israel and got to the most important issue, many older Jewish people are racist. Especially the suburban upper class folks.

A couple of observations:
- this is not just an Obama problem for FL, there are older Jewish folks in many swing states, MI, OH, NV and this block is influential and they are big donors and have a large contingent of congressional leaders who will not be working to support Obama

- even if Obama can pull off a win, this tension will continue for the whole administration, Obama's actions will be viewed by that racist skeptical lens; hopefully an Obama presidency can help to soften this deep racist attitude among the Jews.

- Obama's need to keep at a distance from Black leaders largely because of the Jews will hurt his support among the black community. It is like the SNL cartoon skit with Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. This is messed up.

- He should not spend much time in South FL. These folks are not easily persuaded and it is better to focus on other races and national media. As the country becomes more comfortable with him, the children of the bubbees will try to convince them to vote for him. They watch a lot of TV and will start to be more conformable with him as time passes. More time should be spent trying to convince older white Americans (not just Jews) about how bad McCain is.

The most distrubing thing I've seen on line

uggggh - I clicked on Yahoo popular news page and they have the top photos up there. Many are often strange or freaky but this one takes the cake. There was one of Elaine Davidson, the most pieced person. The face photo is gross then out of freak curiously I googled her and found more photos. My stomach is actually sick looking at her photos. This person has a mental illness and will be in the hospital with a bad infection soon if she has not been already. I am not including links because it is so nasty.

Just What We Need?! maybe we do

Salon Broadsheet article making fun of a new hip service described in an ABC News article - Professional baby planners.

While Kate Harding seems to think this is ridiculous service for the rich, it actually makes more sense to me than a wedding planner or a college counselor. When you are planning a wedding, you have time to do research, ask around, visit places, make calls, etc. When you are having a baby you have a ticking clock, you are not feeling 100%, the stakes are much higher for some of the tasks, etc.

While it is sort of fun to do all that needs to be done before you have a baby, many mistakes are made and if someone had good recommendations of services and places to go, it could help. Not everyone has time to read baby books and not everyone has friends and family in that community who can help or has recently had a baby who could offer meaningful advice.

How to attack someone while seeming to be complementing them

The Edwards endorsement is too little too late. It may help a little and Edwards works hard for Obama in the general, this will help to build some support among working class white folks.

I love this quote from yesterday from Edwards.

He said Mrs. Clinton is a “woman who is made of steel. She is a leader in this country not because of her husband but because of what she has done.”

I am not sure about the image of a woman made of steel? is this how a woman wants to be described....but the second part is classic, it sounds like a complement but it makes you think, is she only here because of her husband.

Hanging Chad - The Movie

Watch this trailer This HBO movie about the 2000 Florida recount looks excellent. It looks more fun and dramatic than the real thing. I think I would rather watch movies and TV shows about politics than watch the real thing. Laura Dern looks great as Kathleen Harris. It has drawn some controversy but I don't care - it looks like a great pic.

A sign of what's to come

I caught this stupid story about some t-shirt being sold in Georgia with Curious George eating a banana which says Obama 2008. People got upset and are protesting the bar that sold the shirt.

It is obviously racist but it made me think about what we will see a lot of in this election. Conservative McCain supporters doing dumb racist things to make fun of Obama which are or seem to be racist. McCain of course won't do it nor will any official high level supporters and Obama won't say a thing in most cases but, as in this case, the "oh my god this is racist crowd" will make a big deal about each incident.

Up until now we have seen little attention by the right on Obama but now that we enter into the general it will be hard for folks to hold back their subtle and overtly racist jokes and critiques.

It will be interesting to see which right wing talkers can come out of this election without seeming racist. I am sure that they are hating the fact that they will need to mind their tongue and be PC as they attack.

In addition to the whole racist thing, I think a big criticism of Obama will be that he is a Chicago, Democratic machine Illinois politician. He is friends with many, both white and black. Like it or not the way politics works in the Chicago area is not as clean as many Americans would like it to be and he had to play that game. It will be thrown in his face.

Maybe I should send him $20 bucks

Bob Barr is running for president! As I said before, this is great news for the democrats. Here is an acutal somewhat main stream candidate running for president who will take votes away from McCain. As we saw with Ron Paul, there is a lot of libertiaran minded people out there and if he gets some money, he will get some media play and hopefully into a debate, and on the ballot in many states. All we need in some states is a percent of two.

Has any Congressman or Governor ever worked at Chick-fil-A?

I really like the Ben Folds Five song "Army". It is very funny and gives us an interesting tale. I love the line "grew a mustache and a mullet - got a job a Chick-Fil-A" (a great chicken fast food place they had in Atlanta) The drama of the music is also very rich, not like a boring same old chorus rock song.

I know you should not analyze a song too much but the lyrics are interesting in that the main character at then end of the song is on the "eve of my election" - what does that mean? He sounds like he is running for office but his "redneck past keeps nipping at my heals" - he sounds like a bit of a loser, college drop out, no future, etc. How is he in a position to be running for office? how could a guy like that make something of himself? is this about someone in particular.

Don't go on the trailer when you're bringing home the hay

- Saw Doctors

Will Clinton Supporters Vote for McCain?

Read this good piece by Nicholas Kristof from the New York Times about how Clinton supporters will lead to McCain winning the White House. I hope that Ron Wyden is right:

Ron Wyden, a senator from Oregon who is uncommitted as a superdelegate, is among those who take the more optimistic view that the contest will end in June, that tempers will cool and that voters will come together long before the general election.

“I don’t buy this theory that the other’s supporters will walk in the fall — not when the choices are so stark,” he said.

I hope that even though Obama is the enemy now - there feelings will soften and they will grow to like him. I am afraid this may not be the case among the older white democrats. I think part of this will depend on how strongly Hillary and Bill themselves speak out for Obama and say - don't vote for McCain! Also, Obama bashers have to defend him and realize that there is going to be mud, ugly mud thrown at Obama and the Democrats have to realize that it is 90% crap. The GOP game plan is going to be to turn off the Clinton democrats from Obama. We also have to remind Democrats that McCain is a conservative republican and not some fair moderate independent guy.

Cool Artist - Shepard Fairey

Thanks to Althouse for a post about interesting Obama poster. In my effort to follow the links I found the artist's website - check this out. http://obeygiant.com I am sure many people are aware of this guy and I know I have seen the Andrea the Giant stamps but I had not realy heard of Fairey. His rich art collection is great and he is part of this graffiti art thing. Check out the archives of the prints. there are 100s of great pieces.
here is one.

If Obama Wins - Hill Should Drop Out

but she probably won't

These are the last two big states and it seems pretty clear that HRC would be luck to split the few states after today.

do that math!