onfocus

Some stuff about the election that, if you read my blog, you've probably already read; but I'm posting here anyway:

• David Weinberger: Terms we need to re-own
• Matt: 5 stages of coping
• Greg Knauss: There is a divide in this country...
• Harper's: Electing to Leave
• Mena: Canada 2.0
• Leonard's reaction roundup: Nov 3

I feel terrible. My first resolution under the final reign of Bush: watch much less TV. I've already been cutting back, but I think it's time to eliminate the box from my daily life as much as possible.

nope, it was the obscenities.

What this site lacks in actual posts, it makes up for with thoughtful silence. I'll be holding my breath all day tomorrow. Hopefully when I finally exhale it'll be a sigh of relief instead of a steady stream of obscenities.

ps. what matt said, vote.

You know all those political video clips you've downloaded over the past couple of months? The group of folks at Internet Veterans for Truth has a good collection of them in one place. Let's Blogroll!

More info at waxy: Internet Vets for Truth.

The Newshour with Jim Lehrer is the only nightly newscast I've seen that tries to seriously cover the media itself. (And they do it infrequently.) Last night they had a segment about fact checking. It mentioned that being "balanced", or having 1 fact-check for one side and then 1 fact check for the other side in coverage isn't accurate if one side is actually lying or exaggerating more than the other. It's great to see this kind of critique happening on a major newscast because it helps viewers evaluate future news coverage they see (including Newshour coverage).

Related? Bush Supporters Still Believe Iraq Had WMD.

Thanks to Oregon's mail-in ballot system, I voted early last night. (Actually, I dropped it in a ballot-box at the courthouse.) The only drawback to Oregon's system is that I don't get one of those "I voted" stickers.



(And I didn't vote for Kodos this time.) It was especially gratifying to vote for Kerry and against Oregon's Measure 36.

As I was describing Jon Stewart's appearance on Crossfire with sk, I was comparing him with Andy Kaufman because he's pushing the boundries of the audience. And David Weinberger's post—Stewart on Crossfire—compares him with Lenny Bruce and Richard Pryor. I think Stewart is making the leap from great comedian to icon.

What country do we live in, again?

"President Bush taught three Oregon schoolteachers a new lesson in irony - or tragedy - Thursday night when his campaign removed them from a Bush speech and threatened them with arrest simply for wearing t-shirts that said Protect Our Civil Liberties..."

Bend.com: Teachers' T-shirts bring Bush speech ouster. [via Jack Bog]