There’s a reason that you probably haven’t heard of Vincent Bugliosi’s new book The Prosecution of George Bush for Murder which is #12 on the New York Times bestseller list right now. That reason is he’s been blacklisted from the mainstream media because they apparently find his message too risky. Since I’m a fan of free speech and an independent press, I’m going to go ahead and post information about this book because he’s a brilliant (and determined) man. Here’s info via Bugliosi’s agent PMA:

In The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder Bugliosi presents a tight legal case against President Bush as being criminally responsible for the deaths of more than 4,000 American soldiers in Iraq. In a searing indictment of the President and his administration, he sets forth the legal architecture and incontrovertible evidence to put George W. Bush on trial for murder in an American courtroom for taking this nation to war under false pretences. In his groundbreaking book, Bugliosi also has outlined a legally credible pathway to holding our highest government officials accountable for their actions while in office. The book was published on May 27, 2008, by Vanguard Press, a member of the Perseus Book Group. The mainstream media has black listed this book in the U.S. and the book became a NY Times bestseller without one single review. The feature film adaptation of the book, presently entitled MAD AS HELL (working titles), is presently being edited and we are hopeful it will be distributed in theatres October.

Here Bugliosi describes the media blackout of his book:

There is something about this KIA commercial that is really disturbing. Sure, they’re allowed to use any pop cultural reference they want to sell their cars, but this seems a bit extreme. It’s like they’re stealing cool vibes from Obama while at the same time sullying his image with smarmy car salesman germs. Not to mention, those cars are crappy (visit mykiasucks for details). Not that I want to honor the video with an embed but you do need to see for yourself:

The Daily Show made fun of it a little while ago:

I have to agree with The Founder over at the Tribble Ad Agency who says,

This is the worst, the absolute worst TV ad the world has ever seen. So freaking wrong to do this.. It’s an insult to Obama.. I want to know who their Advertising Agency….. feel free to contact Kia and give them your thoughts on this ad.

The Trailhead blog on Slate posted a funny roundup about the way media outlets tried to describe Barack and Michelle Obama’s fist pump on Tuesday night. No matter what they call it, it was pure hotness:

Now that the democractic presidential contest seems to be winding down (we hope), progressive organizations like Moveon.org are focusing their efforts against McCain. Their latest venture is the Bush vs. McCain Challenge which uses an amusing interactive game to link the two men and their policies in the player’s mind. Ofcourse it does get a bit ridiculous by the time you get to the McCain-Carrot Faceoff…
Here’s the partner video created by Progressive Media USA:

Over the course of his campaign, Obama has managed to capture the attention of the online world through official and unofficial viral videos, articles and photos (he’s definitelyshown up on our blog quite a few times). Last month the campaign struck internet gold again by teaming up with Moveon.org to create the “Obama in 30 Seconds” video ad competition. After over 1,000 submissions and 4.7 million votes, 15 finalists are now being featured on the website for the last round of voting. The winning ad will appear on national television.

Here are some that I particularly liked, starting with the compelling ad by John Duerler and Blake Adams that depicts a life-long republican who is voting for Obama:

Here’s one with great production quality by More Dust Than Digital out of Seattle:

And a fun and creative animation by Reggie Schickel:

The New York Times headlined today with an expose of the effort by the Pentagon to spread the Bush administration’s Iraq talking points by briefing supposedly independent retired commanders for television appearances. Examination by The New York Times has found that hidden behind an appearance of objectivity, “is a Pentagon information apparatus that has used those analysts in a campaign to generate favorable news coverage of the administration’s wartime performance”, and that “most of the analysts have ties to military contractors vested in the very war policies they are asked to assess on air”. The NYT is featuring an in-depth multi-media presentation titled “How the Pentagon Spread Its Message” which provides audio, video and primary documents that show how the military’s talking points were disseminated.

Here’s a clip we found of General Montgomery Meigs (one of the Pentagon’s “experts”) who appeared on Meet The Press on August 28, 2005. Notice his Freudian slip while making the case that this war is going far better than what the media is portraying.

The lead singer to the viral “Raining McCain” music video has posted a video response to unprecedented attention the video received in the past week. Given her tone (she uses cuss words!) and that she addresses it to “the haters,” I think this video settles once and for all the question of whether or not “Raining McCain” was an earnest appeal to vote for John McCain. This girl is clearly annoyed with the volume of negative comments and video responses she has received, “especially because nobody gives a crap about half or an eighth of what the fuck you have to say,” she says.

The good news, though, is that we can look forward to future McCain Girls videos — although it’s unlikely that they’ll ever be able to top the original.

The latest news from the campaign trail involves DNC Chairman Howard Dean’s plea that Barack and Hillary stop fighting for the good of the party, so as not to jeopardize a Democratic win in November.

I imagine the press is praying the candidates don’t take that advice. After all, what else will fill the Election ‘08 special pull-out section of the paper? Articles about town-hall meetings? And how on earth will Wolf Blitzer fill those three hours on “The Situation Room”? Human-interest stories and interviews with the candidates about their platforms? Nooooooo!!! This can’t be happening!

Sure, if Hillary and Barack start braiding each other’s hair, things will get a little dull around the blog-o-sphere and the nation’s newsrooms. We’ll turn back to celebrity gossip and investigate Hollywood’s new baby bumps. But eventually, I admit, something else will inevitably come up to keep the chief political consultants on CNN doing what they do best. The big surprise, of course, is what could possibly pop up in a potential political ceasefire.

As a news editor in college, I hated when everyone was getting along on campus. The pro-Palestinian group was hosting “Interfaith This-and-That” with the pro-Israeli organization… Or nobody had been mugged in a week… Or the university acquiesced to student demands. B-O-R-I-N-G.

It’s a rather perverse notion to want something to go awry. The adage, “If it bleeds, it leads,” is frighteningly true. But it’ll be interesting to see how the press handles a relatively peaceful campaign after all the hoopla that’s preceded it. Will reporters wish for a better time? A time when campaign supporters and surrogates said really offensive stuff? When folks like Rev. Jeremiah Wright made Don Imus look like Gandhi? Or will there be some much-needed innovation to how the real political news gets reported?

For everyone’s sake, I hope the media doesn’t get what it wants.

About a month ago, I wondered whether or not a couple of unimaginably horrible YouTube music videos supporting Hillary Clinton had actually been created by her detractors. The videos were just so comically bad that it seemed like a practical joke, or worse. Now, a similar karaoke-style music video is making the rounds, this one supporting John McCain, and it raises the same question: Can they be serious? Either way, there’s no way this thing can help his campaign.

The video, Raining McCain is a music video featuring three overweight women singing a song about John McCain to the tune of It’s Raining Men. And again, the singers are so off-key that it seems intentional, and the content of the video is so ridiculous that it seems like a spoof (the older woman’s body actually disappears in front of the green screen for most of the video).

This video raises a bunch of questions, but the biggest mystery to me is the meaning of this line, which recurs a couple of times in the course of the song: “I’m going to go out and let myself get ab-so-lute-ly John McCain!”

What the hell does that mean? The line from It’s Raining Men is, “I’m gonna go out to run and let myself get absolutely soaking wet!” But substituting “John McCain” for “soaking wet” is so meaningless it makes the song even more ludicrous than it already is.

Here’s another choice line: “He taught every angel to rearrange the vote, so that each and every American could find John McCain.” Whoa, that’s deep.

It’s been four days since HBO debuted its critically acclaimed mini-series, John Adams, but only after watching it again last night did I notice some curious parallels to a certain Illinois senator running for President.

I’m not really going to review Sunday night’s episodes; for that, check out the New Yorker’s and New York Times’ thorough recaps and reviews.

Although it wasn’t really the talk of the town (thanks a lot, Ashley Dupré!), the series did draw about 2.5 million viewers for each of its two premier episodes, making it the best mini-series debut for HBO since 2004, according to Broadcasting & Cable.

But as one of those 2.5 million viewers, I hope I’m not the only one who felt a peculiar connection between John Adams (as portrayed in the script) and Barack Obama.

First, there’s the series tagline: “He United the States of America.” Read into it what you will, but I could just as easily see that slogan on an Obama ‘08 bumper sticker. Continue Reading…