It’s about time the New York Times recognized that this race to the White House will be shaped more than ever by You-Tube and bloggers on the advertising front.

I mean how many college students really watch television or would be influenced by the sort of adds run with the 5 o’clock news? TV is so passe!

Elizabeth Edwards’ op-ed in the NYTimes Sunday makes a strong case against the broken political media and the terrible upshot that it creates.

Everyone should read this:

Did you, for example, ever know a single fact about Joe Biden’s health care plan? Anything at all? But let me guess, you know Barack Obama’s bowling score. We are choosing a president, the next leader of the free world. We are not buying soap, and we are not choosing a court clerk with primarily administrative duties.

Matthew Yglesias seems inclined to believe that the news media’s double mission of “objectivity” and “toughness” leads inevitably to not caring about the issues. Taking an “issue” would require sacrificing “objectivity,” while all “tough” questions must be distributed evenly among the candidates.

I’m not sure if that alone is enough to make reporters into trivia hawkers. I think a third component is essential: Contempt. No one can get away with hating its consumers as much as the media does. “We’re just giving the people what they want!” they say, despite all the evidence to the contrary. It should be unsurprising, then, that political reporting’s short-term gains (we’ve got more viewers for the “gotcha” debates!) will become long-term folly (crap, all TV news is tanking!).

My take on the political media mishaps here.

When I read a story like this one, I can’t fathom what kind of “American values” these idiots envision for themselves. A bunch of nudniks are calling on the Arizona state legislature to ban textbooks which go against “American values,” because of a book which teaches Hispanic history and particularly U.S.-Mexico relations. Normally, crank state legislature bills kill themselves in committee, but this one has had staying power, pushing past an initial committee hurdle on its way to the floor.

A notable passage from the article:

Rep. Peter Rios, D-Dudleyville, said that kind of attitude ignores the United States as a “culture of diversity.”

“What is the downside of students learning about their culture along with the American culture, value and mores?” he asked. Graves said nothing – as long as it’s not just Hispanic culture being taught.

So… Hispanic culture =! American culture, even though Hispanic is a term entirely constructed to label immigrants from “Latin America.“ Honestly, I understand the urge to fortify “American values,” but one of those values has to be tolerance and acceptance of immigrant values into our own. I would feel more sympathetic to such indoctrination factory suggestions if their proponents were not so blatantly racist.

This whole nebulous idea of “American values,” which underlies every political argument our nation has – from gun control to abortion, from judicial review to interrogation of suspects – is just too vague to force into legislation. What if I decide “American values” involve aboriginal genocide and forced relocation, prison camps and nuclear warfare?

One supporter of the bill puts it more generously…

Biggs, however, conceded the language of what would be prohibited is “somewhat vague” and probably needs work.

Yeah, you ain’t kiddin.

So, we felt an earthquake early this morning, and just felt an aftershock a half-hour ago or so.

But since it was pretty early, I wasn’t fully conscious when my bed started shaking. The first thing I thought was earthquake. The second thing I thought was this:

If you’ll recall, the rumbling of approaching alien spaceships felt like an earthquake. “Independence Day” was a formative experience as my first taste of “disaster film” and also a movie that I thought was the greatest movie ever made. It’s still the standard by which lame destruction-porn movies should be judged. In any case, my conditioning by the movie forced me to consider all options. I was momentarily concerned that I’d wake up to a humongous flying saucer over Bloomington.

Then, deciding that an alien invasion could be no worse than the system of government we have now, I went back to sleep.

Nevertheless, welcome to Urf.

Barack Obama responds to the debate backlash with a cultural dog-whistle. Get (get) that (that) dirt off your shoulders!

Again, though, I wonder whether Obama’s coolness hurts him among older voters. “I may not be ‘hip’ to all the ‘new’ stuff the ‘kids’ are doin’ these days, but I like a gritty, tough character like that Clinton or McCain.”

In any case, hard to fault a man who gives a Jigga reference.

So, the Elections Commission ruled, and Kirkwood still wins. Hooray!

Now, IUSA, which students didn’t care about already, has essentially no legitimacy as a profound liar now assumes the position of “President.”

My question is, “What recourse can students take?” What will a protest do? Little to nothing, as IUSA has shown time and time again to not care about student opinion. What will complaints do? Little to nothing, as IUSA’s insular nature prevents outside complaints from having much impact.

So is IU just doomed to having an ineffective and corrupt student “government”? God, I hope not.

The only way to get at them is to get at their money, but frankly, I’m not sure how you go about that. The only way I can think of is refusing to pay the student fee, but there’s no way you could get the whole campus to do that. Unless IUSA’s own mechanisms prevent this, no one outside will care about it, and they’ll just continue bumbling away and wasting our cash.

“What’s troubling is the gap between the magnitude of our challenges and the smallness of our politics—the ease with which we are distracted by the petty and trivial.” – Barack Obama, The Audacity of Hope

ABC News decided last night that the issues that Americans need to care about are flag pins, gaffes, the Weather Underground, and which candidate hates America more. Honestly, I try not to watch the debates because they make me dumber. ABC did not fail to do so. I honestly think that if Bill O’Reilly and Rush Limbaugh ran the show, it could not have been any more outrageous. (Better reaction here from Greg Mitchell and here from Michael Grunwald)

On points, it’s obvious that Obama lost big time, since the whole debate was one attempt to “get” him and Hillary. I don’t get it. Here’s the national news media: they can talk about whatever they want. After an hour, I had not heard one question about… the economy, health care, the war in Iraq, taxes, infrastructure, terrorism, national security, education or mortgage bailouts. That’s when I turned off the television.

These guys are all chumps, but last night’s performance by both Stephanopoulos and Gibson was brazenly irresponsible journalism.

Clinton had it no easier than Obama, in my book. They kept trying to paint her into a corner, either forcing her to essentially say that she’s an unviable candidate or putting Obama-bashing words in her mouth. I’m an Obamaniac, but honestly, how many times does Clinton have to answer for Tuzla? What, are they going to bring up Norman Foster again too? Hillary Clinton will probably go down in the end, but if she goes down because of trivial crap, it won’t be much consolation.

This is the game we must stop playing if we want our political discourse to rise above “Nuh-uh!” “Yuh-huh!” screamfests. Except, of course, that’s exactly what these infotainment types want. The whole debate, billed as “Hillary vs. Obama,” confuses public debate with a boxing match. Even the scoring of the debate – who “got” who, when a candidate gets “stumped,” etc. – is absolutely intent on finding a “winner” rather than outlining any of the ideas behind the debate. Basically, we need to burn down the news media system we have now, because it doesn’t work.

There have now been 26 debates. And we do not know anything at the end of #26 that we wouldn’t have found out anyways.

The only people who can end this charade are the candidates themselves. When the moderators go after Clinton, Obama has to interrupt and say “Look, there is no value whatsoever to that question. No candidate deserves this trivial crap. You should be ashamed of yourselves.” When they go after Obama, Clinton should interrupt and tell them to piss off. Neither candidate looks willing to go that far… yet.

Can we give these back to the League of Women Voters already? Geez.

His finest film moment, from Wayne’s World 2.

It’s just so easy to get worked up about John McCain, isn’t it?

Wait, did that guy just imply that Barack Obama was Tiger Woods? I mean, I don’t get the analogy is all I’m saying. I mean, Woods is the best golfer on earth. Maybe the best golfer ever. Do you really want the best ever against your guy? It just makes no sense.

Please, continue inserting your foot in your mouth.

Mark Penn Kind of Fired!: Mark Penn, long hated by everyone (much like Nickelback), finally got his comeuppance when he was ousted as Clinton’s main campaign strategist, for doing back-handed consulting deals with Colombia for a trade deal Hillary is against. Uh, but he’s still doing polling. And some other unmentioned stuff. So, is he fired? Maybe?

I feel like we need a refresher: Seriously, have we already had to sit through Obama’s bowling, Clinton’s Tuzla lie and McCain’s, uh, age? I guess he hasn’t quite gotten the press time necessary to slam him, but I think he’s been inoculated by being a “strong Republican,” because everyone knows Democrats are wimps. Greenwald’s extended and far-better-written take here.

Oh, look, a real issue: Will America come to its senses and leave Iraq? (Support the Responsible Plan for withdrawal here.) Or will a never-ending circus of “well, let’s stay just a little longer” dig us into Iraq forever? Uh, looks more like the latter. Best quote from John McCain:

“I do not believe that anyone should make promises as a candidate for president that they cannot keep if elected. To promise a withdrawal of our forces from Iraq [...] is the height of irresponsibility.”

OK, did you get that? The Democrats, by promising to leave Iraq, are the height of irresponsibility, because they will not actually follow through on their promises of withdrawal. John McCain, though, promises that he will keep the troops in, no matter what! Those shifty Democrats, promising things that they can’t deliver as long as John McCain and the Foreign Policy Experts stand in their way! When I read things like this, I die of stupidity inside.

Is this the logical endpoint of the ironic t-shirt?: I mean, once you’ve put this on a shirt, haven’t you taken the whole public confessional thing to its conclusion? Plus, if you weren’t actually raped, wouldn’t this be the most inappropriate shirt to wear ever?

Letting kids ride the subway: I don’t care that you let your kid ride the subway alone, lady. I’m pretty sure bringing the little brat onto the Today show did him more damage than letting him hang out on the 4 train. This story has caused all sorts of hubbub, but I don’t get it. I wouldn’t do it, but it’s her kid; it’s not neglect.

Greatest name in history?: A combination of two superheroes in one!

Another age limit on NBA draft?: I’ll blog more about this later, but it appears that the NBA and NCAA are hammering out a sneaky little agreement on the NBA draft. Could college ball be a bigger joke, please?

A frightening info-graphic: Which brings up an interesting point. I mean, how scary are those numbers, really? It appears that a lot of these foreclosures are not actually subprime mortgages. In fact, they make up a small fraction of overall foreclosures. Why is this crisis being referred to as the “sub-prime” crisis, if it doesn’t necessarily appear that sub-prime loans are the huge culprit behind mortgage failure?

The Olympic torch’s shadowy past: While calls not to politicize the Olympics continue, alongside protesters heckling the Olympic flame in Europe, I’m reminded that the romantic Olympic flame was cooked up by Nazis and that the Olympics have always been political. If it’s not political, why do they put the nationality next to the athletes? Shouldn’t they be racing for themselves, RickyBobby-style? If it’s not political, why do we tally our medals by country and why do countries pour tons of money into their athletes for maximum medals? If it’s not political, why does China really want to show off? They have always been political; they always will be. To treat them as some pure representation of sport is to be blind to the real reasons for having a modern Olympics in the first place.