Alf vs. Bill O'Reilly

Yes, you read that correctly



Finally someone who can match wits will Bill O'Reilly...an elaborate sock puppet

Republican Debate Thoughts

So I'm here watching the CNN/YouTube debate...at times restraining myself from throwing something through the television. But (and I will admit this is the first Republican debate I've seen so far) I keep noticing certain characteristics/personalities that come through with the candidates. Here is my observations:

Ron Paul: Angry man but makes concise points

John McCain: He's like the groundhog on Groundhog's Day--He appears every now and then in the debate and makes a point that everyone seems to notice but then falls to the background

Rudy Guilani: He really turned around New York City. I was beginning to think he could go 30 minutes without a 9/11 reference, but the man does not disappoint

Duncan Hunter: He has a father and has been hunting since he was 10. That's about all he's really said

Tom Tancredo: Always playing 6-degrees of illegal aliens. There is nothing this man can't tie back to illegal aliens. I'm waiting for him to link the Kennedy assassinations back

Mitt Romney: Geebus this guy will say anything he thinks will win him support. He won't answer questions directly and when he gets called out, is visibly shaken and on the defensive

Mike Huckabee: Grandpa? Is that you?

Fred Thompson: This man is sooo boring. He's a better actor than real person

Plugs!

Net Neutrality is a subject that is coming up more and more often these days. To see why this is important and how it ties into ugly sweaters, check out the 'Zard's Blog (now how about that for a lead-in).

Sports terminology in politics: Part Deux

This is the second installment in my series on sports terminology used in American politics. Today's term:

"In the Corner"

Origin: Boxing

Meaning: While this has a couple definitions in boxing, the one I am focused on is the team behind the boxer, supporting in the corner--the water guy, the coach, and the guy who cuts to open wounds (the other definition being backed into a corner). In the political world, it is generally used to talk about who publically come out in support of a particular candidate. We learned that Chuck Norris is backing Republican candidate Mike Huckabee. More recently, it was announced that Oprah Winfrey, of Baltimore's WJZ-TV 13 fame, was going to go out on the campaign trail to help support Democratic candidate Barack Obama.

Writer's Strike: Week 4

I'm used to the way DC operates: quick-pased everything and public opinion-poll dependent. Around here, many people can't walk down the street without an opinion poll telling them that 57.4% of Americans want them to walk with their hands in their pockets.

So it's about time that someone finally got around to polling Americans on their opinions on the writer's strike; a strike that is soon going to cripple my ability to procrastinate from grad work.

As I've talked about before, it appears that the writers are winning the PR front on the strike. All the videos and internet media outreach the writers have been doing appear to have helped them sway public opinion. 69% of respondents, according to the poll, believe the writers are being more honest and forthright than the companies.

Also interesting to come out of the poll is that 67% of the respondents believe people will watch less television as a result of the strike. 62% think we'll be watching more reality programs. Please don't make us suffer through 10 more Hilton-based reality programs?

The Writer's Strike: Day I don't know

The Writer's strike has been going on for a little while now and I have to say, there really isn't alot of news outside of New York and Los Angeles covering the events, which is a shame. I've become pretty interested in the strike, as alot of the issues being dealt with could potentially impact how media is distributed to and gathered on the internet.

One thing I have noticed is the Writer's have put together a large effort to inform the public of what is going on and their side of the issue. Here's a good example of this:



It appears that the Writer's are dominating the communications aspect and coverage of the strike. It's also helped when you have celebrities like late night talk show staple like Jay Leno and 30 Rock's awesome Tina Fey coming out and supporting the writers. To be honest, I haven't heard anything from the corporate side, other than that without the writers, there is still enough material to keep new content coming for the time being. So nothing really coming from their side...that is, if you don't count this video from the 'their' point of view.



For more information about the strike and the Writer's Guild point of view, go to United Hollywood. Or for more frequent updates, check out the Huffington Post's Writer's Strike section.

Primary Voting

Before you cast your vote, make sure to get all the facts first...







Huffington Post has more

Sports terminology in politics

I'll be the first to admit that I am a huge sports fan. And as a sports fan, I tend to take notice when I hear a sports term used to describe an aspect in a political contest. With everything beginning to really heat up for 2008 and sports terms being thrown around all over the place, I have decided to start tracking the terminology I hear and begin to post them.

So for the first installment:

'Horse Race'

Currently being used to describe the presidential primary nomination process, this term is generally used to describe the polling numbers and statistics that go back and forth between candidates leading up to an election.

As an example Farhana Hossain at the NY Times yesterday wrote about the 'horse race' when discussing political coverage on news networks.

Book Club

For this week’s installment, we’ll be discussing The Interplay of Influence by Kathleen Hall Jamieson and Karlyn Kohrs Campbell.

To be honest, this is a text book. It looks like a text book and reads like a text book. And at this point, a lot of the information is not new. The main message put forth by Jamieson and Campbell is that in the past, the media used to have an immense impact on our thinking and persuasion. However, with new technologies, even though the media still persuades us heavily, we have a great deal of control and even influence them. In particular, Jamieson and Campbell focus on how news, advertising and politics in the modern society are some of the biggest factors, if not main, that shape out actions and behavior.

The book covers a wide range of issues, policies, and ideas. The issue discussed that I found the most interesting was that of the influencers on the media. By this I mean those forces that play a pivotal part in directly manipulating media productions. Among these include: pressure from advertisers (refusing to sponsor stories they see as unfavorable or don’t agree with), competition (politicians using political weight to pit channels against each other for their own gain), and the Internet.

My biggest argument with Jamieson and Campbell is in their discussion of the Internet’s affects on politics, which is especially strange since the latest update on the book was in 2006. In my opinion, they tend to minimize the effects of the Internet on political coverage and as a media manipulator (it is the shortest chapter in the book). In the 2006 election, the internet and the blogosphere (which Jamieson and Campbell don’t spend nearly enough time talking about) had an immense impact on political races, in addition to news coverage and what stories became news.

For the most part, it was an interesting read. I guess a lot had changed in the past two elections in our society. We now have many more interests competing for our attention and trying to influence us, which Jamieson and Campbell discuss. However, and maybe this is due to when they actually wrote this past update in comparison to when it was published, but I don’t think they do a good job conveying the immense impact of the online communities and blogosphere to political campaigns and media sources.

I'm back

Breath and rejoice.

I apologize for the long absence. The past week has been hectic.

Anyway, on the news front, the writer's are still on strike. Liz over at Verbage has a post on her site about the strike that's pretty interesting. She's also got the writer's video that explains the issues and their side of everything.

Go. Watch. Like. Enjoy!

Because I Can

As it is my birthday, I'm changing things around a little and giving you all a present. Here is one of my favorite versions of Where the Streets Have No Name, by the best band in the world U2. Enjoy everyone!

Geebus that's alot of money

The Ron Paul camp is saying that they have raised $2.7 million today in a 5 November/Guy Fawkes Day/calling all to arms/wallets day. And all I have to say is 'whaaaaa?' Seriously, $2.7 million in one day? Did they give a call to Brewster?

Think of what Ron Paul could do with that money if he decided to stop running today. Here are some of my suggestions...

1). Buy Action Comics 1 and Detective Comics 27 (yes I'm that much of a dork)
2). Pay Roger Clemens to pitch for about 2 games and give up 8 runs
3). Give out a car to around 92 members of his studio audience (at least, if he were Oprah)
4). Purchase a 30-second ad in the Superbowl and show nothing at all
5). Buy the world a coke and keep it company (or, at least 2.16 million people in the world when averaging a 20-oz bottle at $1.25)


Update: Make that $4.2 million

Writers Strike

This morning, the Writers Guild of America went on strike against the Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers. The LA Times has a more indepth piece on it here.

One of the main sticking points here is the use of new media technologies (ie the internets) and the royalties that come along with them. The Writers Guild is holding out so their members get more of a share of the profits when television programs and movies are distributed online (through programs such as iTunes). The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers contend that the distribution channels are still too new to determine how much profit they pull in and therefore can't really negotiate with that in mind.

While many probably don't think this is too significant (aside from those who like me who fret the thought of even more reality programing on television) here's why it is. For one, it'll determine who profits and in what ways from programs distributed on the internet. That could have an effect of how television shows and movies are downloaded and flooded to the internet (through channels like YouTube) and how much they cost consumers. The other item of importance is, as described by Scott Collins of the LA Times (although he rejects the idea), is whether a prolonged strike will drive up viewership of online only and user-constructed programming.

In terms of programming, this will effect you, the viewer in terms talk shows and day-time 'stories.' Without their writers, these programs will be airing reruns for the time being. Most of the hosts of talk shows, like Jay Leno are supporting the writers on the picket lines. John Stewart is even paying the writers of his show and the Colbert Report for two weeks, should the strike last that long.

Rudy Giuliani adds the SuperPoke function

The Republican Candidates have their own 'version' of facebook.

The site was brought to my attention a couple days ago by Rafael over at The Machine is Us. It's pretty freakin funny, so if you get a chance, take a look.

War on the holiday season

Now that Halloween is over, the official 'War on Christmas' as FOX News will undoubtably begin anew, begins with pundits over there saying that Christmas is under attack from the liberal/secular left.

But, let us not forget the holiday that has just passed. The mighty Halloween. FOX News might be saying that Christmas isn't the only holiday with a war on its hands. Nicole Belle over at Crooksandliars has the story.

Geez, this 'War on Christmas' talk keeps getting earlier and earlier each year.

When 'Big Ben' doesn't pertain to a football player for the Steelers

For the last couple of weeks, I was highly invested in the NY Giants football game vs. the Miami Dolphins. Normally I wouldn't care about seeing either teams, but I was uber excited this time to see this game because it was being played in London. It was, as most of you probably know, the first regular-season game to be played outside North America.

Having spent the 2005 football season in London, I saw alot of interest and compassion for American football from British citizens. Also, it was a first and assuming everything went over well, I saw it as an opportunity to help rebuild some of our lost relationship (I know it's kind of a stretch) with the British public, even if it was a money making venture (to be honest) masked in good will and under the guise of 'expanding football into other cultures' around the world.

Overall everything got a pretty good review. While the play of game was pretty shitty, it was still good to see something other than a fast food chain expanding internationally.