What's Black and White and Rocks?

[via Jezebel, Cute Overload]

Smoke-Filled Room, v. 2

● A 57-year-old Obama campaign worker was allegedly assaulted in Caledonia, Wis. on Saturday afternoon. Chicago resident Nancy Takehara was working as a door-to-door canvasser, when she encountered a disgruntled male resident. In an interview with 12 News, Takehara said: "The next thing I know he’s telling us we’re not his people, we’re probably with ACORN, and he started screaming and raving. He grabbed me by the back of the neck. I thought he was going to rip my hair out of my head. He was pounding on my head and screaming. The man terrified me."
The Obama campaign reacted quickly to the incident. In fact, by the time Takehara returned home, a message from the campaign awaited her, asking her to call in and speak with Obama. Takehara said: "Senator Obama understood… it was wonderful. It made me feel wonderful. It made me feel connected to this government again." The campaign also issued a reasoned public statement Sunday: "Last night’s unfortunate incident in Caledonia was isolated and extremely rare, and we are grateful our volunteer is doing well,” said Phil Walczak, Wisconsin communications director for Obama For America. "Thousands of Wisconsinites welcome our canvassers at the doors each and every day and whether or not they support Barack Obama. There is an overwhelming desire across the state to have a dialogue about how to bring our country forward." I couldn't help but agree with HuffPo columnist Jeff Dorchen when he wrote yesterday: "It isn't hard to imagine what Sarah Palin's reaction would be to a McCain/Palin volunteer being assaulted. It would no doubt sound something like this: 'Some of these people just don't get democracy. They don't get that you have to be accepting of others' right to disagree. That's the American way. But they don't get it. So, like Bill Ayers, they lash out violently at what they don't understand.'" And it's strange how little coverage the liberal, elite MSM is giving to this tasty little sensationalist nugget.

● Yesterday, in Grand Junction, Colorado, Sarah Palin gave Barack Obama a new "Joes the Plumber"-style nickname: it's, get this, "Barack the Wealth Spender". I guess "Barack the Wealth Spreader" didn't have quite the same ring to it. CNN reports that, in addition to providing Obama with a shiny new nickname, the McCain/Palin campaign have located a new working class hero. This time it's "Tito the builder", or Tito Munoz, a Columbian immigrant and construction worker. Palin explained Tito the builder's beef to the outdoor crowd: "Tito is not pleased with how the Barack Obama campaign and some of the media friends there have been roughing up Joe the Plumber,” Palin said, after accusing the Obama campaign of 'investigating' Wurzelbacher’s background." As we've all read by now, thanks to the evil, liberal, elite media, Wurzelbacher inflated his income and was only speaking metaphorically about buying a business that's a) not for sale and b) generates less than $250,000, the profit margin at which further earnings would be taxed at a higher rate in Obama's proposal. So, it would seem that the McCain campaign's poster child for working-class-hero-whose-dreams-will-be-crushed-by-Obama would actually benefit from Obama's tax plan. And, unless they're making way more than the national average, the other heroes that Palin conjured at Monday's rally -- "Phil the bricklayer" and "Rose the teacher" -- probably stand to save money under Obama's plan, as well. My question is this: After the Joe-the-plumber media disaster, Team McCain's reaction is to attempt to force more hokey stereotypical and, more disturbingly, blatantly inaccurate working-class-hero rhetoric down our throats? Really? Is Palin so utterly removed from reality -- or in an "alternate universe", as suggested by Rachel Maddow re: Troopergate -- to think that "Rose the teacher", even if she has a fellow teacher as a domestic partner and their income is combined, is makin' over $250,000?! Ain't happenin', folks.

● In other news, it's been a hard weekend for the McCain/Palin camp. Colin Powell delivered a strongly worded endorsement of Obama that simultaneously served as a rejection of the GOP ticket. Palin flopped on SNL, amidst potty humor. And Obama is outspending McCain in advertising in an unprecedented manner. Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann channeled McCarthy. Man names baby Sarah McCain-Palin. And I've got a crush on Arianna.

دام

Have you heard of Palestinian hip-hop group DAM? According to DAM members, their moniker is an acronym for 'Da Arabic MCs and means "blood" in Hebrew and "eternity" in Arabic. In 2001, the unsigned group released the single "Meen Erhabe?" ("Who's the Terrorist?") via their Web site; it was downloaded more than a million times.

In November 2006, DAM released their first album, Dedication. DAM's lyrical language is Arabic. But Dedication's single, "Born Here" was released in Hebrew, in the hope of spreading their message. Their music serves as a window into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

On the Web:
DAM's official Web site
DAM's MySpace

DAM - "Born Here" (with English subtitles)


DAM - "Meen Erhabe?" or "Who's the Terrorist?" (with English subtitles)

Culture Vulture: 10/11/08

♥ Second virgin-birthed shark pup escapes cannibalism. [WTOP]

♥ Lithuanian designer Jonas Jurgaitis' furniture evokes anthropomorphic pom-pon creatures, Legos, and extraterrestrial life. JJ Design [via io9]

♥ Sexologist Destin Gerek encourages Obama supporters to come together for change. O's for Obama [via Fleshbot]

♥ Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Cinematic Scourge or Quintessential Muse? [NPR]

♥ Gmail unveils drunk-mailin' safety feature. [Gmail]

♥ Weird Al Yankovic satirizes economic downturn in parody of T.I.'s "Whatever You Like". [YouTube]

Love It: "True Blood"

Love It: Alan Ball's new black dramedy True Blood.

I'm enjoying the series so much, in fact, that I now want to read the books that inspired it. If author Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire Series is as authentic, contemporary, Southern, sexy, and witty as True Blood, consider me a Harris fangirl.

I have a crush on at least half the cast already: Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin); Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer); Tara Thornton (Rutina Wesley); and Diane (Aunjaneu Ellis), for starters. Like Ball's previous forays into film and television, American Beauty and Six Feet Under, it's character-driven, smartly written, and visually transfixing. I'm thirsty.

True Blood trailer:

Creator Alan Ball's True Blood POV:

On a semi-related note, I'm anxious to see Ball's new allegedly challenging, controversial, and wildly satirical new film, Towelhead. Apparently, it had a very limited U.S. release on Sept. 12 and another is scheduled for Sept. 26. Please, please, please come to Albuquerque, Towelhead.

Towelhead trailer:

Culture Vulture, v. 1

• A new study out of the University of Georgia finds that:"... the number of Facebook friends and wallposts that individuals have on their profile pages correlates with narcissism. Buffardi said this is consistent with how narcissists behave in the real-world, with numerous yet shallow relationships." [EurekAlert!]

• If the shoe fits, god help us. Want to check out some of the least attractive and most impractical shoes in the history of footwear? Click on. [HuffPost]

• Have y'all seen "The Gits"? The multi-award-nominated documentary chronicles the vibrant and poignant life and death of artist, poet, lyricist, and vocalist Mia Zapata and Seattle punk band, The Gits. Pitchfork.tv is currently screening "The Gits" for your pleasure. The week-long streaming download feature will end Friday, Sept. 26. Get your Gits on, y'all.

• George Michael asks fans to have faith after his second toilet arrest; this time his illegal cottaging turn included possession of coke and weed. After displaying "remorse", Michael was not charged on possession or any other, er, counts. [MailOnline]

Proposed Conscience Clause to Restrict Reproductive Healthcare Access

Hilary Clinton co-wrote an editorial with Planned Parenthood Federation of America's President Cecile Richards for Thursday's New York Times that rails against the proposed Department of Health and Human Services "Provider Conscience Clause" rule which would allow employees of any health care provider that receives any federal funding to refuse to participate in any medical procedure they might find objectionable.

Clinton and Richards opine: "Laws that have been on the books for some 30 years already allow doctors to refuse to perform abortions. The new rule would go further, ensuring that all employees and volunteers for health care entities can refuse to aid in providing any treatment they object to, which could include not only abortion and sterilization but also contraception...

The definition of abortion in the proposed rule is left open to interpretation. An earlier draft included a medically inaccurate definition that included commonly prescribed forms of contraception like birth control pills, IUDs and emergency contraception. That language has been removed, but because the current version includes no definition at all, individual health care providers could decide on their own that birth control is the same as abortion.

The rule would also allow providers to refuse to participate in unspecified 'other medical procedures' that contradict their religious beliefs or moral convictions. This, too, could be interpreted as a free pass to deny access to contraception.

Many circumstances unrelated to reproductive health could also fall under the umbrella of 'other medical procedures.' Could physicians object to helping patients whose sexual orientation they find objectionable? Could a receptionist refuse to book an appointment for an H.I.V. test? What about an emergency room doctor who wishes to deny emergency contraception to a rape victim? Or a pharmacist who prefers not to refill a birth control prescription?"

The full text of the proposed clause is here. Public comment is being sought prior to Sept. 25. Send your comments via e-mail to: consciencecomment@hhs.gov
For more explicit instructions on comment submission, click here.

Pass it on.

Panegyric for Polaroid

A B&W '60s ad featuring Ali MacGraw and a swingin' soundtrack:


An '80s ad featuring Hugh Laurie:


An '80s ad featuring James Garner and Mariette Hartley:

Smoke-Filled Room, v.1

● National interest in the presidential campaign is up at 63 percent, from a pre-convention 52 percent. That's also up from 52 percent in September '04. [via NY Times, The 2008 Campaign, Now Even More Interesting]

● Palin plays it safe on the campaign trail. After her Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac taxpayer gaffe and her televised ignorance of the Bush doctrine, is she better off not taking questions? Yeah, probably. And is it just me or does it sound like she's describing a Shake 'n Bake solution to our economic crisis? [via NY Times, On the Road: Palin Plays It Safe]

● A sign of the impending apocalypse? You decide. [via Salon's Broadsheet]

● "Voting machines in several critical swing states are causing major problems for voters. A Government Accountability Office report and Common Cause election study [PDF] has concluded that major issues identified in the last presidential election have not been corrected, nor have election officials been notified of the problems. How long can we afford to trust our elections to black box voting practices? From the article: 'In Colorado, 20,000 left polling places without voting in 2006 because of crashed computer registration machines and long lines. And this election day, Colorado will have another new registration system.'" [via Slashdot, Voting Machines Routinely Failing Nationwide]

● It's the end of the financial market as we know it. And I feel fine... Well, actually, I'm understandably freaked, but that doesn't have that R.E.M. sound. [via NY Times, Congressional Leaders Stunned by Warnings]

● McCain Camp takes Rovian advice on new ad; HuffPost's Sam Stein reports: "On Thursday evening, the Senator's campaign released an advertisement declaring that [former Fannie Mae executive] Frank Raines was an Obama economic adviser. 'Shocking,' declared the ad, citing the mismanagement that occurred under Raines' reign, as well as his large compensation package. Shocking, indeed. The Associated Press and other news outlets reported hours later that the claim was not honest. Raines had even told a senior McCain aide, in a private email, that he was not an Obama adviser." [via Huffington Post, New McCain Attacks Echo Rove Advice]
"Advice":