What if John Woo, Kevin Smith, and Wes Anderson directed political attack ads?
Hit play or watch Hollywood Director Attack Ads on YouTube.
I’m not much of a John Woo fan, but the other two were right on.
A Brighter Day
The Vote for Hope video was created at Ursa Minor Arts and Media in San Rafael, CA with chief animator James Curtis, using designs and direction from M.C. Yogi. It’s is an extremely well crafted video funded and supported by grassroots donations.
MC Yogi – Vote For Hope from MC YOGI on Vimeo.
Hit play or watch Vote for Hope on Vimeo.
About the video:
With the 2008 presidential election, Americans face a pivotal choice between not just two candidates, but two paradigms. We need someone who understands the complexity of our time. Someone who believes in investing in renewable energy, in education, in women’s rights, in civil rights, in healthcare for Americans. Someone who believes in dealing with global issues with diplomacy so we can restore our respect in the world. Barack Obama represents the change we need and can lead us into a brighter future.
Vote For Hope was written to encourage and inspire the hip hop generation and everyone to get involved, and contribute their time, energy, creativity, and other resources to be the change they want to see in the world. We have been inspired by the artistic and musical contributions that have been pouring out across the nation in support of Barack Obama’s campaign. Vote for Hope is our offering to this creative movement. It is our way of adding our small voice to the collective voice of millions of Americans calling for a change.
(via)
The Canadian Election 2008
I went to the Environment & Education Forum at the Lethbridge College yesterday evening for the “last chance to grill [my] federal election candidates”.
I was unimpressed with the fact that only three parties showed up to debate (how does the green party expect to be taken seriously, when their candidate doesn’t show up).
The NDP’s Mark Sandilands was clearly the top candidate, with his well considered responses and comprehensive knowledge of the issues.
Incumbent candidate Rick Casson on the other hand, did not fair so well. The other candidates, specifically Mark Sandilands, poignant questions had him stumbling time after time. I can’t believe the polls indicate that Casson is going to be re-elected, his campaign basically consisted of admitting that his party has made lots of mistakes and that, “that’s something we should do better at”. It’s like he’s not even trying because he knows that running in a conservative stronghold means it doesn’t matter what he says.
The Conservative Party is destroying our environment, wants to reduce funding to the arts, gives tax cuts to the rich, and they refuse to support the Kelowna Accord which was intended to improve the lives of aboriginal people.
And they don’t want to let the Canadian people know their plans, refusing to publish their platform until a week before the election. Local candidate Rick Casson told us last night, a week is plenty of time to talk about the plan, and besides, it’s basically like our previous plan anyway. He didn’t notice any changes worth mentioning. As I mentioned, tonight was THE LAST PUBLIC FORUM WITH THEM BEFORE THE ELECTION.
Why would the people of Lethbridge vote for such a callous uncaring party?
One more thing that bothers me is their desire to introduce copyright legislation that is harmful to everyday citizens making the copyright system here more like the one in the US—even though the US law is seriously out of touch. The new law would, among other things, bring into action a fine of up to $500 for copying legally purchased CD’s onto MP3 players, not to mention it would make it illegal to try and circumvent anti-copyright software, making it illegal to engage in the practise of Fair Dealing (Fair Use in the USA).
The conservatives want to remain in Afghanistan. In 2006 they made it a campaign promise to be out by 2009—I learned last night that they’re now planning to wait until at least 2012, even though the Senlis report on Canadian development in Afghanistan has stated that we are “making no headway. On the ground in Kandahar… CIDA’s efforts are non-existent.”
I could go on!
But I won’t. I’ll just hope that when Canada goes to the polls on Tuesday that we vote for the party most likely to beat out the conservatives.
The NDP Bike
Lethbridge artist and activist Andy Davies shows his support of local MP candidate Mark Sandilands with his modified bike.
Andy is a friend of mine and asked me to shoot a few photos for him.
Barack—Up Close
My cousin Amie and her husband Matt got up early this morning to attend one of Barack Obama’s rallies, this one just a few miles from their house. They got some great photos of the future president!
Sarah Palin 1984 Miss Alaska Pageant
I came across a youtube video this morning that shows Sarah Palin (Sarah Heath) sporting a swimsuit in the 1984 Miss Alaska Pageant. The video was pulled shortly later, but in the meantime I contacted Waxy.org’s Andy Baio and he, having more foresight than me, made a copy and is now hosting it himself.
Obama / McCain Wordle
I downloaded the transcripts of all of Obama and McCain’s speeches from their respective official websites from March 25th, 2008 to the present and then put them each into Wordle.
Wordle gives greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text.
I used 51 speeches by McCain and 61 by Obama.
McCain’s site only had transcripts from March 25th to the present and I figured that was plenty of data for my purposes.
Sarah Palin Hockey Mom
Matt Damon condemns John McCain’s choice of hockey-mom Sarah Palin for Vice President. He compares the situation to a “really bad Disney movie” and says it’s crazy that this woman could become President.
Hit play or watch Damon Condemns Palin at YouTube.
It’s one of those situations that is funny because it’s true (albeit also frightening). The geniuses at CollegeHumor have taken the idea and run with it. Here is the fictional trailer to her, unbelievable, real life story:
[Sarah Palin Disney Trailer on YouTube]
Naomi Klien on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher
I went to the Naomi Klien speech at the U of L last Monday and was entertained and enraged (both at the same time) as she talked about the situations and events unfolding in the world right now and the influence that free market ideology has on the world at large. She also emphasized that new policy applied after a crisis has often been waiting for the opportunity, for people too shocked by the event to stand up against bad laws.
Here she is on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher (September 19):
[Naomi Klien on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher – YouTube]
She wrote an article for the Guardian last week which contained many of the points she made in her speech.
Continue reading “Naomi Klien on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher”
The Dilbert Economy
Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert, wondered why someone wasn’t doing something that would give American voters useful and unbiased information about which candidate has the best plans for the economy.
Then he realized that he was someone.
He commissioned a survey of over 500 economists, drawn from members of the American Economic Association, a nonpolitical group, that had previously agreed to be surveyed on economic questions.
The economists were asked to rank the most important economic issues and pick which candidate they thought would do the best job on those issues.
Here are the results:
| Rank | Issues | Obama | McCain | No Diff. |
| 1 | Education | 59% | 14% | 27% |
| 2 | Health care | 65% | 20% | 15% |
| 3 | International trade | 26% | 51% | 23% |
| 4 | Energy | 61% | 22% | 17% |
| 5 | Encouraging Technology/innovation | 43% | 23% | 34% |
| 6 | Wars and homeland security | 58% | 30% | 11% |
| 7 | Mortgage/housing crisis | 41% | 18% | 41% |
| 8 | Social Security | 40% | 24% | 35% |
| 9 | Environmental policy | 72% | 9% | 19% |
| 10 | Reducing the deficit | 37% | 29% | 33% |
| 11 | Immigration | 33% | 29% | 38% |
| 12 | Increasing taxes on wealthy | 79% | 14% | 7% |
| 13 | Reducing waste in government | 16% | 38% | 46% |
Adams is quick to point out that even though economists favour Obama in 11 of 13 of the most important issues (as decided by the survey) 48% of economists are Democrats and only 17% are Republicans.
It makes you wonder, are liberals more likely to go into economics, or are economists more likely to become liberals? Or is it just the simple fact that educated folks tend to be more progressive?
You can check out the full report (in Power Point format).