Thursday, July 21, 2005

Photo of the Day



credit: Joan's Lewis & Clark Geek Page/DailyKos

I am sure this was just a party gag, but when you get your picture wearing a button like that, which is making a false statement about something that has prompted a Grand Jury investigation with Special Prosecutor...It ain't all that funny anymore. Especially when you are posing with the rotting corpse who started the whole mess. I have seen Novak in person, and he really is a short, giagantic headed, nastly fat, old white man.

Don't those two make a pair though? They sure deserve each other, as goes CNN and Novak for their little lovefest and spiral down the tubes. It feels like it was only yesterday that they were a respectible world leader in 24 reporting. Now...they are Fox News, Jr. At least CNN international is like the CNN of old, only with more caring about the world around the US. Personally, if I could swap the two without going to super fancy cable, I would.

Wednesday, July 20, 2005

radar jamming Roberts

The Bush Aministration still has a few tricks up its sleeves and the MSM is still lazy and dumb, or it just seems that way. Rove's wrecking crew pretended several O'Conner-esque judges were in the running, including syncophant Alberto Gonzales, but then pulled out the old standby: a classic "Stealth Nominee."

John Roberts is a partisan political hack who has movie star good looks, youth (50 years old), stellar resume, and most importantly, no track record. Yet the American Taliban must know something the press doesn't since they are pleased with this pick, saying repeatedly that he is Scalia/Thomas II. This guy clerked for Rehnquist, wrote George Bush I's amicus brief pushing to overturn Roe for a case where the landmark case wasn't even at issue. He was part of the BC2000 Florida recount legal team, he wrote amicus briefs in support of "Operation Rescue," the hyper-pro-life group that is one step removed from abortion clinic bombers like Eric Rudolph.

We need to pressure the media to cover both Roberts' "secret" life of a paleo-conservative and Rove et al's illegalities. To put it into cult TV show terms if "The West Wing"'s Josh and Bailey outed "Alias"' Marshall to score political points for the rush to Pres. Bartlet's war, 75% of Americans would say that is dead wrong and that Josh and Bailey should be in the slammer. And if CJ lied to Danny about it all, well same deal. Next imagine Bartlet and his staff deciding to float their secretly super-liberal nominee in sooner than expected after Josh and Bailey got in trouble with a special prosecutor. One would rightfully be skeptical about their motives and not let up just because the subject was changed.

But in the real world, our so-called journalists (TV-face-time whores) are like goldfish. "Oh look, a treasure chest!...Oh look, a castle!...Oh look, a treasure chest!"

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

tired of waiting

Right now I am waiting until it is 6 o'clock and I can get off work. So I can wait to see if my copy of Harry Potter has arrived 4 days late (thanks Amazon), so I can wait a week to find out how to add/drop courses for next year. Before that, I get to wait until Bush announces his Supreme Court nominee, so I can wait for the information and nomination process, so I can wait for Patrick Fitzgerld to counter the distraction by handing down grand jury indictments on folks like Karl Rove.

And then I can wait to find the perfect house/condo, so I can make an offer, and wait to find out what the buyer thinks, and then wait until closing. So I can live in a cramped basement apartment on a month-to-month basis, or move back in with my parents.

When I was younger, I kept hearing people telling me to wait until I was older, and I still feel like I am waiting for something, until I am done with law school, until 2008/impeachment, until whatever. Well, as someone who was diagnosed with ADD as a child, I can't stand waiting (any longer). Some say life is a journey. I am begging to wonder if it isn't just a line at the DMV.

a growing niche job

It is amazing to see how bloggers have become a normal high-level position to fill in big campaigns. In just a few years we have gone from novelity to must-haves for part of the communications and fundraising wings of campaigns.

I am pleased to know at least one of them: Matt Stoller. In the summer of 2003 he was a blogger extrodiniare and Clark Draftee. By the summer of 2005 he is on his second major campaign as blogger. First, he worked for Simon Rosenburg in his big for DNC chair, now he is working for Sen. Corzine in his bid for NJ governor. There are others like him. Folks like Tim Tagaris, who works for GrowOhio.org a pre-Senate grassroots site for US Rep. Sharrod Brown (D-OH) and a PA US Senate candidate whose name I have trouble spelling. He also blogs on SwingStateproject and all the other major democratic blogs.

Of course, I am sure Webmasters used to be a new fangled thing, but now a serious campaign couldn't imagine not having a website, even those running for city council. And before that, it was the TV guy or the Radio guy or the Telephone guy (they were all men I am sure back then).

What will the future bring, and am I too late to get on the blog consultant bandwagon? By the time law school is over, I won't have much of a chance to get on board at a high level of a campaign that is national. Maybe a state-wide one in my beloved state of Utah, but even there I may be too far behind the curve. Still, I always love sharing my thoughts with you all and getting some input.

As an aside, if you have any public interest law topics you would like to speak in public about to the U law students, please contact me. Or if you have any suggestions for events, also feel free to contact me.