Ad Wars – Going Negative

John McCain released a new ad this week that looks to criticize Barack Obama’s celebrity-like popularity.

The 30-second spot, called “Celeb,” flashes video from Obama’s Berlin rally alongside images of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, while a narrator says “He’s the biggest celebrity in the world. But is he ready to lead? With gas [...]

Stevens and the 2008 Elections

Alaska Senator Ted Stevens was indicted today and is charged with making false statements on financial disclosure forms. You can find the story all over the internet, but I want to talk about the impact of this case on November, and what it means for the Presidential and Congressional elections. Stevens is considered one of [...]

New Heights of Mediocrity

I was at the Oakland A’s game Monday night. Not very many people can say that – there were just 12,464 of us, or about a third of McAfee Coliseum. The crowd was so abysmal that stadium operators didn’t even bother putting “Guess the Attendance” on the scoreboard. It would be one thing if the [...]

Sports and Politics

No, that title isn’t a list of my two favorite things in the world – it’s the reason why John McCain and Barack Obama should announce their Vice-Presidential picks in the next two weeks. On August 8th, the 2008 Summer Olympics begin in Beijing, and will basically dominate the news until the closing ceremonies on [...]

No, YOU’RE hipster!

Hipster: The Dead End of Civilization
We’ve reached a point in our civilization where counterculture has mutated into a self-obsessed aesthetic vacuum. So while hipsterdom is the end product of all prior countercultures, it’s been stripped of its subversion and originality, and is leaving a generation pointlessly obsessing over fashion, faux individuality, cultural capital and the commodities [...]

SWoS Friday Roundup

Well just like I did on the politics blog, today I’m relinquishing my “blogger who actually gives analysis” role in favor my much easier “blogger who just links to strange/funny stuff they found online today” persona. Enjoy
- Eggycam.com, a website with a streaming webcam showing a group of unhatched eggs, where visitors are invited to [...]

Hey Everybody, It’s 1987 Again!!!

So I thought I would do some serious analysis today. There were some big issues to go after – Politico just had a good article on the blogging “Commentocracy,” I could do a reaction to Obama’s speech in Berlin, or I could talk about the McCain speech at the Schnitzengiggle… or wherever he was yesterday. [...]

The Downside to Obama’s Trip

According to a new Quinnipiac poll out today, Barack Obama leads in Minnesota by just two points (down from 17 in June), John McCain has retaken the lead in Colorado by two and (according to a Rasmussen poll from earlier this week) Ohio by six points. (It should be noted that another poll from Public [...]

McCain Veepstakes Buzz Update

I know it’s only been a few days since I ended my coverage of the race to be John McCain’s Vice-Presidential nominee, but this week has seen a few big stories emerge about the Senator’s choices. First, there was the rumor from columnist and scourge of Washington DC pedestrians Bob Novak, who said Monday that [...]

Bartman’s Back… Kinda

Steve Bartman, the infamous Walkman-sporting Chicago Cubs fan whose inference in a play was blamed for the Cubs’ collapse against the Florida Marlins during the 2003 NLCS, has been offered $25,000 to sign one autograph at a memorabilia show in Rosemont, Illinois. Bartman has been incredibly reclusive since the incident: he has declined every interview [...]