Can someone put McCain's head on this guy below for me? Thanks!

Random, but: speaking of pauses...

Context:

Earlier this week Carly Fiorina, one of his most accomplished surrogate liars, brought up how many insurance plans cover Viagra but not birth control. McCain, of course, voted against legislation that would have mandated birth control to be part of insurance coverage. When he was asked for comment, deer in headlights[:]

Q: Earlier this week Carly Fiorina was meeting with a bunch of reporters and talked about it being unfair that insurance companies cover Viagra but not birth control. And -

McCain: I certainly do not want to discuss that issue. (uneasy laughter)

Q: But apparently you’ve voted against (McCain laughter continues)

McCain: I don’t know what I voted -

Q: Voted against coverage of birth control, forcing health insurance companies to cover birth control in the past. Is that still your position?

McCain: I’ll look at my voting record on it, but I have, uh, (5 second pause) , I don’t recall the vote right now. But I’ll be glad to look at it and get back to you as to why, I don’t -

Q: I guess her statement was that it was unfair that health insurance companies cover Viagra but not birth control. Do you have an opinion on that?

McCain: (after 8 second pause) I don’t know enough about it to give you an informed answer because I don’t recall the vote, I’ve cast thousands of votes in the Senate. I will respond to - it’s a, it’s a (nervous) [full context]

New Jersey GOP website runs a graphic that says "Obama loves America like OJ loved Nicole." This is a four-fer: Obama as murderer, Obama as incognegro, Obama as lover of white women, Obama as race-manipulator.

"Republicans wear sneakers, too." - Michael Jordan on why he wouldn't endorse Harvey Gantt in Gantt's run for Jesse Helms' senate seat. h/t Christopher Chambers for the reminder.

According to the LAT:

Vice President Dick Cheney
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell
Sen. Elizabeth Dole
former Republican presidential candidate Kansas Sen. Bob Dole
GOP Sen. Richard Burr, sat nearby.
Chris Dodd of Connecticut
Joe Biden of Delaware
Gov. Mike Easley
Cindy McCain

I get a lot of mail from Chris Dodd, asking me to call my congressman or send an email, and as such it was sad to see him on the above list. In much the same way that I refuse to EVER use any of Firedoglake's activism tools or to participate in any action sourced from them, I'll be unsubscribing from Dodd's list and action alerts. There are lots of ways for me to reach out to Congress without having to tacitly endorse Dodd by giving him my data or allowing him to bundle me into an aggregate list of people he can claim to have activated or corralled. As far as I'm concerned, unless you are Helms' bastard child, there's no reason for a progressive to be crying in the front row at his funeral. And even then...

But into the Book of Racial Grudges, Dodd! Right next to Hamsher!

You can think about a song - a good song - as a miraculous moment when all the dissonances that frame a person’s life drop out of sight long enough to see how it looks without them. So when a band you like hits that groove, sometimes all you can do is listen, because that moment will be leaving. - jace

Shorter Joe Lieberman:

You're next

Transcript Joe Lieberman:

LIEBERMAN: That’s up to Israel obviously, but I would say that obviously Israel is first in the line of Iranian fire. And it represents an existential threat to Israel. But you know who is next? The Arab countries in the Middle East and they’re worried about the Iranian program and want us to ask strongly to stop it. And we’re next! Because Ahmadinejad in Tehran constantly leads the mobs in shouts of death to America. And they mean it.

Youtube Joe Lieberman:

Joe Lieberman Existential Threat Undergarments:

h/t Think Progress

May he rot there for all eternity.

Tee shirt sold on conservative site explains they call it the White House for a reason.

Go to the Virtual Obama Racism Museum.

Got a racist image of, about, or relating to Barack Obama that should be included in the Virtual Obama Racism Museum? Send it to ebog at ebogjonson dot com.

Tee shirt sold on conservative site depicts noose with the words "Swing State."

Doesn't depict Obama directly, but does depend on the existence of a black presidential candidate in order to scan legibly and timely, thus referencing/threatening Obama and his supporters.

Go to the Virtual Obama Racism Museum.

Wayne of wayneandwax sends this along the old-fashioned way: via email!

The source of the image is obscure, although Andrew Sullivan offered it up on his blog as an example of anti-Obama slurs. Wayne also points out that this image is actually (as WW aptly described it) "a ginned-up version" of this cartoon.

Over the next 2 months I'll be doing some consulting work for NPR's Day to Day. My gig involves helping the Day to Day team think through a new blog called Daydreaming, which, as the show describes it, will look at the state of the California Dream:

Daydreaming is Day to Day's official blog. Over the summer we'll be showcasing the people, stories and issues featured in our new series, "California Dreamin'." The Golden State has brought the world new trends, new ideas, and new ways of life, but what happens to the California Dream when the economy's sluggish?

My own goals are pretty straight-forward: build a blog for the show (check); develop policies and procedures for said blog; develop a content and community strategy; work within the framework of NPR's existing tools and digital policies, as well within the more abstract framework of "NPR-ness." Come visit every now and then, and leave me a comment. Or, better yet, subscribe to the feed.

hey team,

As many of you know, I attended the Clarion West Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Workshop last year. It was an amazing experience, and I walked away with great affection for the workshop and (strangely enough) Seattle, where the Clarion has been held for the 25 years.

Clarion is a non-profit, and the tuition students pay doesn't begin to cover the costs of putting up and feeding attendees (student and teacher) for almost 7 weeks in rather nice digs on the UW-Seattle campus. In order to offset costs, Clarion engages in the usual fundraising gambits, one of which involves getting alumni to shadow the workshop in what has been dubbed The Clarion West Write-a-thon. Over the next six weeks, a number of alums (including your droog and humble narrator) will be writing away in parallel with this year's workshop.

If you'd like to support/sponsor me over the next 6 weeks, you can do so here. My Write-a-thon goals are pretty modest - I need to revise 6 old stories and complete first drafts on 3 more - as are my fundraising goals. If 20 of you were to donate a buck a story - 9 in total - I'd be golden. (Those of you looking for more bang for your donated buck should consider supporting Michael Swanwick, who is on some kind of crazy streak that involves 80k+ words a Write-a-thon.) In addition to helping out an organization that has come to mean a great deal to me, you'd also be helping me out personally, as I would be more likely to stop procrastinating on these stories if I knew people I knew and liked had paid 9 dollars for them. As an added inducement, I'll be sending out the finished/revised stories to sponsors on a weekly basis.

Thanks in advance for your help, and for forgiving this intrusion into your blog-reading day. And (again) the donations page is here.

best,

gary/ebog

Apparently a piece I worked on while consulting at NPR's News & Notes last year won an LA Press Club award for Best Multimedia Package. Who knew?

The package is here. Congrats to my co-winners: Tony Cox, who hosted the radio segment, and Anthea Raymond who produced it.

I completely slept on the tracking-shot echo in BSG's mid-season finale until I read this very neat post by Chauncey De Vega at We Are Respectable Negroes:

I don't understand why these people have jobs, especially in a weak economy.