Wilshire & Washington: Obama’s Trip Abroad, McCain’s Portrayal in the Media and Editorial Judgement

Join Ted Johnson, Maegan and I — along with guests Greg Mitchell and David Horsey — for a discussion on Obama’s trip to Afghanistan and the Middle East, McCain’s portrayal in the media and the judgement of the news media.

Where the Devil is Andy?

I’ll bet a lot of you are asking, “where’s our favorite loudmouthed liberal?”

Andy’s been taking a little break from blogging to get his house in order. He moved last weekend and is also in his second week of a new job. As if that weren’t enough to juggle, he’s also been in a lot of physical pain from a combination of playing sports without stretching and using a less than ergonomic workstation during countless hours of programming at home.

That’s not to say he’s not in good spirits. I spoke to him last night and overall he sounds happier than I’ve seen him in a long time. But doing any more typing than strictly necessary is just not in the cards for him right now.

I’m sure, however, that he’d appreciate getting some love in the comments. So if you have some words of advice, support or just plain love for Mr. Sparrow…give it up!

[Updated with Player Archive] Wilshire & Washington Live Now!

Join us for a half-hour of conversation with Greg Mitchell, Editor in Chief of Editor & Publisher and two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist David Horsey, plus the political chatter of the week.

New Startup Aims at Ad-Supported Fuel Consumption

Doesn’t it make you sick every time you pull the receipt out of the gas pump after filling up? Mile after mile you drive! To and from work, school, running errands, meeting with friends, how about everyday LIFE!!! Wouldn’t it be nice if you had a way of compensating YOURSELF for all that driving?

So begins the pitch to drivers for a new venture Gas for Free, which pays drivers up to $299 each month to place advertising on their cars.

I can’t decide what I think about this from a business perspective. It’s entirely possible — although I hope not — that Gas for Free’s founders have hit on the next big trend in advertising and are going to make a mint. It’s also possible that their target driver audience — people who are so attached to their cars that even $4.35/gallon gas won’t make them take the bus — will not be willing to deface their precious shiny automobiles with crass slogans.

From an environmental perspective, this makes me utterly sick. It’s bad enough that this venture aims to artificially support the completely unsustainable practice of driving fossil fuel-powered vehicles everywhere rather than taking public transit. (I love that they call themselves “eco-ethical.”) But on top of it, it further clutters the already overwhelming mental and emotional experience of driving. Billboards are bad enough. Now I have to stare at advertising on someone’s car as well?

This kind of reminds me of the GOP’s ham-handed attempts to reduce gas prices which includes:

1. A gas tax holiday.
2. Releasing oil from the strategic petroleum reserves.

and last but not least…

3. The supply-and-demand-defying Find More, Use Less campaign, which asserts that if we excavate for more fossil fuel resources at the same time that we all voluntarily work together to conserve them, we can keep the price of gas low.

All in all, it’s ludicrous. We’re all grasping at straws trying to fix a system whose time is beginning to pass. Let’s pull out our thinking caps and use some of that innovative brain power to actually solve our energy crisis, rather than putting yet another band-aid over a gaping wound.

[Via Mashable.]

Fallujah Gets a Kentucky Fried Chicken

What’s next? Strip clubs?

David Horsey Joins us on Wilshire & Washington this Wednesday Morning

For those of you who don’t know, I’ve worshipped at the altar of two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning Seattle PI editorial cartoonist David Horsey for some time.

Today, he brought us this particularly apropos cartoon given Barack Obama’s calls to draw down troops in Iraq and move them to Afghanistan:

Horsey will be our guest, along with Greg Mitchell, Editor in Chief of Editor & Publisher. Should be a really fantastic show. Be sure to join us.

Obama “Gets an Eyeful” of Acceptance in Iraq

McCain said last week that he expects Obama to get an eyeful in Iraq, including the effectiveness of the surge.

But it looks like Obama’s getting an eyeful of acceptance for his troop withdrawal schedule from the Iraqi government.

I usually have something more insightful to say about stuff like this, but this time, the contradiction says it all: Bush and McCain support staying in Iraq for the sake of staying. Obama proposes leaving and the Iraqi people agree.

Looks like this time around — just like in the runup to the invasion of Iraq — McCain’s experience leaves him on the wrong side of history.

It’s time to give up the ghost, stop wasting time, money and blood in Iraq and bring our people home.

Mulder & Scully are Almost Back!!!!

I really can’t deal with how hot this is:

I cannot wait for this movie to open on Friday.

Joss Whedon Does it Again with Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog

I’m absolutely in love with Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog (iTunes). And, according to NPR anyway, so is half the Web.

Whedon’s knack for producing astute social commentary through fantastical situations is on par with that of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry. At base, Horrible got me thinking about the different ways that people react to the destruction and evil in the world . Some of us become bitter and disillusioned like Dr. Horrible (Neil Patrick Harris). Others stick with the status quo like his nemesis Captain Hammer (Nathan Fillion). And then there are those sweet souls who devote their lives to helping the unfortunate like Penny (Felicia Day), the woman Horrible worships from afar.

The funny recurring theme in Whedon’s work is that good and evil are rarely clearly defined. And while I’d hate to reveal the conclusion of Horrible, that theme makes its arguably darkest appearance in Whedon’s work to date.

Bottom line: Well worth the $4.00 to download it from iTunes.

Impressions from Obama’s Address to Netroots Nation

Parts I liked:

• When Obama subtly tipped his hat to the 24,000-member group on his social network that actively disagrees with him about his FISA vote.
• His recognition of just how important bloggers are by encouraging us to reach out to our readers.
• His acknowledgement of disagreements he’s had with the blogosphere.

Parts I disliked:

• How subtle Obama’s hat tip to the anti-FISA group was. He should have mentioned that My.BarackObama.com is a place for debate and discussion, not just support and fundraising.
• The partisanship. I know he’s the Democratic nominee and he has to tow the party line to a certain degree. I expect it, but I still hate it. I’d love to see him regularly mention the names of some Republicans he likes and respects.

What do you guys think?

[Via Maegan Carberry.]

Blog Break for a Couple of Days

Andy is in the midst of moving apartments and I’m helping him. It will be an intense couple of days and I doubt either of us will have time to blog.

If you’re hankering for some interesting reading, you might want to check out this very interesting story about the role my friend Mónica Guzmán has played in the future of newspapers and their relationships to reporters’ unions.

When Pat Robertson Says Outrageous Things, Blame People for the American Way

After all, Robertson himself does.

I said it yesterday morning on Wilshire & Washington and I’ll say it again here: these so-called Evangelical leaders are making themselves more and more irrelevant with every crazy word out of their mouths. I’m starting to get the sense that many Christians are getting really fed up with being represented and led around by these guys.

Let’s hope that trend continues.

The Notion of “Executive Privilege” on Full Display During Ashcroft Hearings

John Ashcroft’s appearance today before a Congressional panel featured repeated refusals to criticize the Bush administration. Even though it’s readily apparent that he’s uncomfortable with torture and domestic spying, he tows the party line, refuses to share what he calls “privileged information” while vigorously defending practices which — behind closed doors — he expressed grave doubts about.

I suppose there are two kinds of Bush officials, the Ashcrofts and the Roves who refuse to talk even if they may be on the wrong side of history, and the McClellans who choose to speak out.

It’s Time for Some Campaignin’

I know Andy says that Barack Obama is nearly impossible to make fun of — unless you’re Dave Chappelle, that is — but JibJab has sure done a great job:

JibJab - Time for Some Campaignin'

Andy points out however, that the funniest part of the video “by far” is when Hillary hits Bill with the frying pan.

Wilshire & Washington: Dr. Karen North, Online Communities, the New Yorker Cover & Obama’s Faith

Join Ted Johnson, Maegan Carberry and I for an interview with Dr. Karen North, head of the USC’s Annenberg Program on Online Communities and former White House staffer on Science and Technology policy. We discuss Barack Obama’s online communities, the New Yorker Cover, and the Newsweek cover story on Obama’s faith.

Nation’s Comedians Terrified Of Barack Obama Presidency

“A thousand points of light.” “Read my lips.” “I did NOT have sexual relations with that woman.” “Lockbox.” “Presidenting is hard-work.”

The last few Presidents and Presidential candidates have provided tremendous amounts of fodder for the nation’s comedians, from Dan Akyroyd’s Nixon to Will Ferrell’s ‘Dubya’. The Clinton impeachment paid for an extra house for Jay Leno, while Stephen Colbert’s Colbert Report took off under George W. Bush’s comic misspeaking (”Thank you, your Holiness. Awesome speech.”).

But alas, there is fear of comedic recession, if not depression, in Hollywood, for it seems the nation’s comics cannot find anything to make fun of about Barack Obama.

Obama isn’t “a comical figure,” said Mike Barry, who started writing political jokes for Johnny Carson’s monologues in the 1960s. The editors of the New Yorker tried this week to poke fun at Obama, but the joke fell painfully flat.

What is there to make fun of exactly, about Barack Obama. There’s none of Clinton’s womanizing, Nixon’s foul play, Gore’s monotonous droning, or Bush’s dyslexia. He has no catch-phrases like “The Gipper”, “lock-box”, or “A thousand points of light.”

There is a course, plenty of potential material in the first African-American Presidential candidate who happens to have a white Kansas mother (and somewhat racist white grandmother) and a black Kenyan father, grew up on food stamps and then went to Harvard. The only problem is, there’s only one comedian capable and willing to make hilarious jokes that heavily based on race.

That would be the man who put on skits involving a black KKK member, a black time-traveler who shoots white slave-owners, a game show called “I Know Black People”, and a guest spot called “Ask A Black Dude.” Unfortunately Dave Chappelle is temporarily retired, or crazy, or both. So it looks like, unless Mr. Chappelle decides to make a fourth season of The Chappelle Show (”I’m Rick James, bitch!”), it could be a long, laughless eight years.

Bush Proposal Dresses Restricted Access to Reproductive Health Care in Anti-Discrimination Clothes

The New York Times has obtained a draft of a White House proposal to deny Federal funding to any hospital or health organization that refuses to hire a health care professional based on their personal moral objections to contraception or abortion.

NARAL sent out an alert via text message earlier this afternoon asking members to call the White House hotline and register their non-support for the proposed regulatory changes.

The Bush administration claims that the change is intended to keep people from being forced to perform abortions. But the real aim is much more subtle. It seeks to define abortion and the use of contraceptives as fundamentally different from other kinds of medical care.

Notice that they’re not advancing the idea that Christian Scientists — who believe that modern medicine interferes with God’s will — should not be discriminated against in hiring. Nor are they pressing the issue of non-discrimination against Jehovah’s Witness health care professionals who object to blood transfusions.

This proposal is not about protecting religious freedom. If it were, it would be much more audacious in its scope. The targeting of birth control and abortion alone reveals the real aim: to reduce women’s reproductive health care choices.

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