I'm finding the media bias for Sen. Obama and against the Republicans nearly unbelievable right now, even in a media climate that makes it difficult to doubt the depth of the unbelievable liberal bias.

    This week, in report after report, and story after story, we hear phrases like "...the big winner last night was Fred Thompson. He had the right mix of red meat and McCain biography that sold well..." and "under the weight of Gustav , speeches were light on red meat rhetoric" and "Then came the red-meat portion of the program" and "Now back to the red meat."

    I could go on and on finding quotes (these were all just from MSNBC and NYTimes) but how come I didn't hear about the Democrats getting speeches filled with "red meat"?

    I guess it's because the Republicans are a bunch of ravenous wolves and uncouth hicks, and the Democrats are classy organic vegetarians.

    I mean, for fuck's sake, could it be any more obvious?  These are the moments that it's sickening to see the mainstream media in operation.

    If you happen to support Sens. Obama and Biden in this election, as I do, this is your wakeup call.

    Just because you and most of the people you talk to are supporting Obama, that has nothing to do with the totality of the picture across the country.  Sen. McCain's choice of Gov. Palin, assuming she does well in the VP debate against Biden, might go down as one of the smartest picks ever.  People are flocking to his campaign right now, and the Obama team had better figure out a way to stem the tide.  She is being greeted like a rock star right now, and, hey, I thought Obama was a rock star... doesn't feel that way right now, does it?

    Whether you want to or not, whether you like what's being said or not, read this from the Washington Post:

The lines to gaze upon Sarah Palin formed early and stretched for more than a mile along Old Lee Highway, as thousands and thousands made their way to the park's grassy hills, and chanted over and over: "Sarah! Sarah! Sarah!" Parents ditched work, and kids skipped school, and the souvenir hawkers did a brisk business working the lines with buttons like: "Hot chicks vote Republican." Many came by foot, many others by shuttle bus from a nearby mall. The size of the crowd was difficult to determine. Police and the McCain campaign estimated it at 23,000.

Celebrity is its own momentum. "It was so cool watching all the people get in line," said Vicki Hoffman, an artist who lives in the neighborhood. "It was like Woodstock."

Those who came were there to take their own measure of the collage of Palin images they had embraced from a distance: hockey mom, field dresser of moose, grandmother-in-waiting, champion of social conservatives, battler of good ol' boy Republicans, historic running mate. Here was a composite version of stardom they could get behind.

"She exemplifies what a genuine feminist is," said Elizabeth Hauris, who owns a company that manufactures cloth diapers. "She's pro-life, pro-family, nurses her son, carries him in a sling, which epitomizes the idea of close attachment." Hauris said she has seen photos of Palin signing bills, baby Trig in tow. "And that thrills me."

    So here's the thing:  Sen. McCain made a bet by choosing Gov. Palin that he'd pick up enough women who would have voted for Hillary to win him a couple of swing states, because that's all he needs to do.

    "Smart" women everywhere said: that's stupid, women aren't that dumb, they won't switch parties just because there's a woman there, they'll see through this pathetic attempt at pandering, etc.

    Let's not forget that these are the same "smart" women who wanted to force a floor vote at the Democratic convention, and who were still protesting that Hillary should be the nominee even while the convention was going on, two months after the last votes were cast.  In other words, women who were willing to do everything they could to lose the election for Obama just because they were angry that a woman wasn't going to win the nomination.

    And now some of those "smart" women are flocking over to Sarah Palin's ticket.

    It makes me wonder how smart those women are if they'll choose a candidate who has significant policy disagreements with them just because she has a womb.  And it makes me think that McCain just might be smarter than we all think he is, if he can do this sort of calculus about the situation and do something that's working this well.

    For now, spare me any talk of the "wisdom" of women in general.  There isn't any... no more than the "wisdom" of men, anyway.

    Don't buy iPods.  Don't buy iPhones.  Don't buy Macs.  Stop funding the second most evil company in the world.

    From ZDNet:

A poorly written program can crash itself but not the entire system. So how can a supposedly simple software update cause a fatal crash?

Maybe because this isn’t a simple software update. Once again, Apple is using its automatic update process to deliver massive amounts of new software to users, including a device driver that has a long and checkered history of causing the Blue Screen Of Death to appear. And it’s delivering this massive payload without even a pretense of proper disclosure and without asking consent from its users.

    Apple knows what's good for people.  People will obey.  Non-conformity will be punished.

    Well, yes, she's definitely hotter than Dick Cheney, but that's not what I'm talking about.

    The New York Times gives a thorough picture of her behavior in office, both as mayor and governor, in this well-researched piece:

But an examination of her swift rise and record as mayor of Wasilla and then governor finds that her visceral style and penchant for attacking critics — she sometimes calls local opponents “haters” — contrasts with her carefully crafted public image.

Throughout her political career, she has pursued vendettas, fired officials who crossed her and sometimes blurred the line between government and personal grievance, according to a review of public records and interviews with 60 Republican and Democratic legislators and local officials.

    So, this is who John McCain chose to be his running mate.  It's really, really difficult to maintain the level of respect I had for him when this choice is so transparent.  On one hand, as I've said before, he had no good choices, and this probably was the one that gives him the best chance to win.  On the other hand, Sarah Palin is simply not ready to be President.  She has no international experience, she has no foreign policy thoughts in her sexy librarian head, and she's running her state like a personal fiefdom.

    I'm not saying that she's not smart (she is) or that she's not capable of making difficult decisions (I have no doubt that she is), but that's not enough to make me want to see you as President or Vice-President these days.

    I don't believe in the golden shadow stories about the candidates from either party; nor do I believe in the negative portrayals given by the opposition.  I do believe that fundamentally John McCain wants to shake up Washington, and that he views himself as loyal opposition to the fucked-up nature of things in a Congress run by Baby Boomers.  I don't think the world would end if he were elected... worse things have happened in the world, and he's not stupid.  But I really, really would prefer to see Sens. Obama and Biden get sworn in and start to run things in a more even-handed, responsible manner.

    To me, this isn't a 100% Obama - 0% McCain decision... and if you think that way you have issues you need to work through in terms of seeing our political system more clearly.  At the same time, this isn't really a close decision, either.  Obama is clearly the better choice right now.