Watching • Human Rights School, Gossip Girl Endorsement, Joe the VP

A human rights PSA delivered in a quasi High School Musical fashion is strangely compelling. There are no colorful songs about the status quo—it’s a boring gray reality of in-school cops, and CCTV—but we can enjoy the same ratio of school-yard hunk to out-cast girl to feelgoodness, and it’s educational!

Next thing you know the Gossip Girl cast members will suggest children have The Talk with their parents about voting for McCain (Yes—it’s below). Triple-points for the Right’s scorecard; they get to tick them off for the satire of the anti-Drug message, they can condemn them for brainwashing America’s youth, and through the inevitable causal connections, palling around with terrorists. Possibly fictional ones. Sex terrorists, perhaps.

Is nothing sacred?! If you’ve cut-it-out and kept-it you should move Gossip Girl a little further to the left of South Park Republicanism on Gawker’s political persuasions infographic—be sure to keep them far to the left of the staunchly conservative 24.

In these strange times even 24’s fictitious President Palmer endorses Obama. His message is slightly dulled on second read as he credits himself for all the side-changing Obama-cons as he drops subtle hints of a run.

“I still, even after three seasons into ‘The Unit’ playing Sgt. Maj. Jonas Blaine, I’m still asked by people on the street to run.”

Main Street, we can only presume. And knowing their expertise in the world of international finance system and political affairs, they’ll certainly indulge my 2016 wish: Ex-fictious attorney Fred Thompson vs ex-fictious-President Palmer vs fictitious-plumber Joe, please.

Though, if a plumber did run for office, we’d be up to our necks in strangely persuasive analogies regarding refitting, unclogging the piping in Washington—to which we, in conventional style, would nod, ponder, weigh in unconvincingly, eventually agreeing with his expert analysis and handing over our money. We would only realize two months after the election that dependable, really smart politicians are essential when a country needs saving. Not cowboys…or cowgirls. —Mike Smith, Oct. 20, 2008

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Watching • Punk Ghandi, Aragorn’s Pax Americana, Palin the White Witch

Bono is blogging about bureaucracy, manga comics, and celeb spooting, tag-teaming Jeffrey Sachs, beating world poverty and global injustice with a steel-chair on a blog for The Financial Times. At the same time ‘Lil Wayne is blogging about sports for ESPN. After a decade with the internet, the cognitive dissonance is there still there—especially in the viral video world. Celebrity columnists are not unusual, and ads always want to shock, but across the internet, the playing field has been levelled. Or maybe there was a pitch invasion. And as we invade the space, celebrities must do more to get noticed. And this stuff in these places just seems weird. A little equalizing, I guess.

Snoop D-O-DOUBLE-G, represent the Punjabi.” sings the title track for the film Singh is Kinng (the extra ‘n’ is there for superstitious reasons). It’s looks like a strange and wonderful film. And thanks to global culture, a waning tide does indeed sink all ships in a film taking its cues from Frank Kapra and, er, Jackie Chan.



So, who knew Sir Bin Kingsley, an Oscar Winning portrayer of Ghandi does a mean Minor Threat impression? The video—crowd an all—it’s not part of any huge campaign or stunt, it’s not a sketch, it’s not topical: the web has eyes that wants to see things like this, Sir Ben brings Shakespere to straight-edge, Mean Magazine get a bit of promotion at the end, fine by me.



Aragorn, son of Arathorn, House of Isildur? The rightful heir to the throne of Gondor! Your voice, Howard Zinn’s graphic-novel version of A People’s History of The United States. Wired. Though in a post-conflict, post-modern world, all we want to know is which character-class is going to persevere? Log in now! (Buy yourself a nice office chair; slight back-pain and RSI are the new trench-foot of the digitial-conflict world.)



You forget it was Aragoran, didn’t you! I knew you had it in you. It’s good isn’t it. As someone who’s never read A People’s History, it’s the sort of introduction that has benefitted from the name attached to it. I ordered it straight away.

We know, as Pat Buchanan has told us, that John McCain isn’t going to be a peace-time president: 100 years in Iraq, etc. But this is the Age of Men, not wizened Ork-Dwarves. To win it for Gondor Obama should really be focusing on the votes of the Shire folk. Mordor isn’t much of a battleground state in this age.



Now then, Sarah Palin The White Witch of the Hockey Arena is probably hiding in Narnia blaming Intelligent Warming for melting her ice palace, and disrupt hunting with/for polar bears. Oh no, silly me, there she is, on the Disney Channel—where she belongs.



Order is restored. —Mike Smith, Oct. 9, 2008

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Watching • Kucinich for the Win

Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) is my favorite congressional representative. He’s intelligent and thoughtful, he’s vegan, and he doesn’t seem to have ever compromised his integrity during all his years in politics. Furthermore, the answers he’s always demanding from the Federal government are the same ones the rest of us want to know: What are you accomplishing? Have you actually read that bill we’re voting on? From what I’ve seen, Rep. Kucinich is the only guy on Capitol Hill willing to call out the crooks and liars on all their bullshit, as illustrated in today’s video. Though we can’t all live in his district (thankfully), you can be sure he represents our national interests in the House, too. Barack Obama is great and all, but he’s no Dennis Kucinich. —Meave Gallagher, Sep. 30, 2008

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