More dishonesty from a Bush campaign that thrives on illusions.

The text of their new scare ad, "Wolves," begins with something along the lines of "Even after the first terrorist attacks on America, Kerry voted to cut intelligence funding."

They're referring to the attempted WTC bombing in 1993, of course, but millions will assume (wrongly) they mean 9/11. This deception is plain and intentional.

The conclusion of the ad, that such cuts would have made us more vulnerable, is also not necessarily supported by the facts. FactCheck.org reports that Kerry's proposed cost-savings amounted to a 1% cut, and that similar measures were advanced by Republicans.

Baseless fearmongering seems to be the 9th inning strategy for team Bush, while the Democrats seem to be resorting to a plea for sanity. The DNC has responded with a lighter ad comparing Eagles to Ostriches; soring high with sharp vision vs. head in the sand. It's a nice contrast, and makes sense to me, but my gut tells me the dishonest scare-ad will be more effective. Hope I'm wrong.

Young voters turning to fake anchor for insight / Comic Jon Stewart scores points with rant on 'Crossfire':

"Here is someone who is ridiculing the system, yet he will be part of the system and vote," said Josh Koenig, a co-founder of Music for America, a year- old effort based in Redwood City to engage young voters. "When he did that on 'Crossfire,' we were jumping up and down. That's exactly how young people feel. "

Hey! I got a quote above the fold on the front page of the SF Cronicle! Saw that when I walked into my downstairs coffee shop. Cool!

Maybe I should start a new category explicitly for "self aggrandizement."

Just a quick shout out to all the Massholes I know and love who read this website from time to time. Hope you tie one on good tonight. I can only imagine the sloppy phone calls flying all over the New England area. The Red Sox made a comeback of epic proportions: returning from a 0-3 defecit with two extra-inning wins and clinching it on Yankee turf...

I'm not really a Sox fan -- I'm more of a Mets man: You Gotta Believe -- but I've never liked the Yankees. Seemed like rooting for Microsoft or something. Now I can only hope that the Astros don't take it tomorrow or else we'll hear nothing from the talking heads but "Texas vs. Massachusetts" in sports and politics. I don't know if I could take it, though I'm sure the Daily Show would do something great.

Cheers to you all!

Our Vision, Our Future

Billionaires for Bush, at it again. Great stuff!

They call it community plumbing; and you can all me a plumber. This software rules: it's got literally millions of dollars worth of engineering in it, and it's all been done by volunteers. Oh yeah, and it's the basis for the hottest little project in the poli-web.

I'm going to move this website to drupal after this damned election is over; a step upward and outward in projecting myself into the ether.

The really cool thing is that it will let you readers and friends make more of everything. I know so many people who are gifted writers and thinkers who should be recording and sharing more of their genius with the world. I've been thinking of moving to a different domain, because what I want to build is a community site and building a community site around what is essentially an egocentric "brand" is a little bit suspect. Likely I'll stick with OJ.com for a while and then transition the whole thing to something -- a resurrection of Axiomlab.org, perhaps? -- which is more supportive of communal effort. Then I can make outlandishjosh.com into pure personal journal, agenda, and aggregator of my other writings which are feed-able.

Any thoughts from those of you following along at home?

Look Out Your Window! What Time Is It? Awesome Time!!

Found via iTunes radio. It's good. I just listened to a guy play great old rock music, then talk about the great old rock music in language worth of Nick Hornseby, then get upset in a delightfully hipster-esque way about Ohio State loosing to Iowa. It's great. Now they're back to music.

Yeah; it is great. I've got to listen to good radio more often!

Could have gone different; could have been about the farm gril from North Carolina who bought me a beer at the bar. Instead was about arguments over class-action lawsuits and the meaning of opt-out vs. opt-in in relatively meaningless circumstance. Led to great dissent with me and one of Nick's law-school friends (previous reference), all of us, I presume, with a buzz on.

And that's the thing; most people who are getting the shaft right now do not have the consciousness of a 2nd year law student. A lot goes on off their radar. And so one must imagine outside oneself to forsee possible future circumstances. And I shout a lot; used the resulting awkwardness as an excuse to head home. Hopefully no hard feelings.

...

On an unrelated note, here's that Bush and Busey (Gary) cartoon I've been talking about. Hillarious! It's so weird and not dorkily political, and pomo and genius!. One of the funniest things I've seen all year.

Hootnanny!

Bill O'Reilly hit with arassment suit by female producer. This will probably be a he-said/she-said, but the very idea that men actually act this way with women is enough to put me in a bad mood.

SICK!

A big part of my job, I realize now, is writing. I think I wrote about 4 or 5 thousand words today. I feel a little guilty that this makes me tired.