Here’s our popular linkfest takling you to blogs and websites of varying opinions. Liinks do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Moderate Voice or its many writers.
SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE LAMPOONS CHRISTINE O”DONNELL: You just KNEW it had to happen. With all of the tidbits that have come out about the GOP’s candidate for Senate in Delaware Christine O’Donnell, Saturday Night just had to lampoon her. And they did last night in their opening sketch which is highly adult oriented (especially for broadcast television) that saved the biggest satirical bit for the sketches’ end. Bill Maher has released another bit of video of O’Donnell some years ago on his show (he likes her personally and she was a great guest) — this time where she called evolution a myth.
DID OBAMA’S STIMULUS MAKE THE ECONOMY WORSE? Some argue yes.
ASTROTURF R US: Where does some of the money that candidates in campaigns come from? Hart Williams looks at a name on one form — Jason Miller.
THE HORROR OF THE TALIBAN: Jawa Report has posted a graphic video of the Taliban stoning a woman in NW Pakistan.
TWO HIGH PROFILE DEMOCRATS ARE AHEAD IN THEIR RACES IN CALIFORNIA: Polls put former Governor and Attorney General Jerry Brown ahead in his bid to recapture the Governor’s job and Senator Barbara Boxer — who has never been as popular as Dianne Feinstein but has easily won past races — in the lead in races where they earlier seemed in serious trouble. As some have noted, there isn’t the big backlash (yet) in California against Democrats for two reasons (1)Barack Obama is still popular in the state (2)Arnold Schwarzenegger is highly unpopular among Republicans, Democrats and independents. And even though he is his own style of GOPer, Arnold is a Republican.
THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION’S ASSASSINATION PROGRAM: Glenn Greenwald writes about a court case and contends it is just as bad as the program under George W. Bush. Also read Booman, who has an excellent progressive blog that doesn’t get the attention it deserves.
WHAT’S REALLY GOING ON BEHIND THE SCENES IN THE ELECTIONS? Democrats digging up dirt on Democrats, Republicans digging up dirt on Democrats and GOP political maven Karl Rove in effect creating a shadow Republican party complete with big name Republican donors. Details HERE.
IS BARNEY FRANK AT RISK IN HIS RE-ELECTION CAMPAIGN? It sounds that way..ARE THERE DOUBLE STANDARDS FOR FEMALE CRIMINALS? Dean Esmay ponders..
GOP HYPOCRISY IS VIRTUALLY IN YOUR FACE in this Republican campaign ad.
NOT ALL POLARIZING, DEMONIZING TALK SHOW HOSTS ARE ON THE RIGHT: I often am highly critical of the demonizing, anger-inflaming polemics and inaccuracies of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck. But the talk show host who the right can justifiably point to on the left is Mike Malloy. Here is some of his latest rhetoric that is already sparking anger on the right. Watch the video in full at the link. If he is not a birther is is doing a good imitation of one. Malloy here shows how our political culture has declined. The idea that simply lashing out and name calling and wishing someone dead is political broadcast talk is early 21st century. Comments such of his some years ago would have kept him off the air or gotten him kicked off the air. FOOTNOTE: I am NOT a fan of Dick Cheney or Lynn Cheney. But Malloy’s comments here put him in the same category as Michael Savage on the right — and suggest that perhaps he has a condo next to Alan Keyes’ on the moon.
NEW JERSEY GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE GETS IN A HECKLER’S FACE: Videos HERE. As you can expect, if you read blogs many Republicans cheer him and many Democrats do not. My view? His comment about heckling is correct. It may be an American tradition but shouting someone down of any party is not debate or discussion. It almost can be seen as a fear that the other side — Democrat or Republican — is a threat and there’s a need to prevent the speaker from being heard. So my reaction is: he was correct. Of course the question becomes: if it was a Democrat would have have jumped up to defender her? Or is this reaction — like so much we see these days in politics — the kind of outrage that is only applied to something that is only applied to one side?
OBAMA AND IRAN: What Obama told the Iranians and why he told it that way.
THE DEATH PENALTY AND TORTURE PORN: Does it cloud up the issue of the death penalty?
A JOURNALISM PROF’S ADVICE TO THE NEXT GENERATION OF JOURALISTS: Jay Rosen, one of my favorite media commentors, bloggers, writers and Twitter commentators has this MUST READ POST on his advice to future generation. It’s extensive so here is just the beginning:
Typically when people like me—a professor of journalism who is deeply involved in the digital world—advise people like you—students just starting their careers in journalism—we say to you things like:
You need to be blogging.
You need to understand search engines.
You need to know Flash and perhaps HTML5.
You need to grasp web metrics like Google analytics.
You need to know how to record audio or edit video
You need to “get” mobile. (“Mobile is going to be big!”)
And all of those things are true. They are all important. But I want to go in a completely different direction today. Ready? You need to understand that the way you imagine the users will determine how useful a journalist you will be.
You need to go to the link to read in FULL as he explains his advice. FOOTNOTE: I fear many in the media still don’t get Internet journalism and what it means. Many are now being virtually dragged, kicking and screaming amid layoffs and emergency measures to see how they can get a new business model in place. Even more continue to have a condescending idea of online news and opinion sites because those who online haven’t jumped through the educational and office politics hoops to be permitted to publish. You no longer have to cover the city bus line to write about an election. You don’t need an editor’s permission to see a big name interview. And, yet, you can still carve out a readership. This will change as it is now changing — due to so many print newspapers and magazines being in a state of crisis and having to downsize and quickly re-invent themselves. But the residue of both lack of knowledge and disdain are still out there. (Jay Rosen is REQUIRED READING for those interested in the media, whether they agree with him or not).
THE BANNING OF BULLFIGHTING IN CATALONIA: I detest bullfighting. I went to one while living in Spain from June 1975 – December 1978 while writing for The Christian Science Monitor, self syndicating to worldwide newspaper op-ed pages and doing some phone in reports for NPR’s All Things Considered. Then I went to another one in Tijuana, when I started covering Tijuana for the San Diego Union. I am among those who feel it is animal cruelty and should be banned. It was banned in Spain’s Catalonia region — but were there some political motives as well?
WHO SAYS NO BLACK VOTERS WOULD VOTE FOR TEA PARTY CANDIDATES? Certainly not this poll..
GUESS WHO MIGHT BE RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT? John Thune…
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.