Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to interview Jillian Michaels, a woman whose abs are sharp enough to shave my husband's face and who has, in the past, forced Biggest Loser contestants to bench press her. I'll admit, considering the persona put...
Dave Johnson | Posted October 10, 2008 | Politics
The Republican noise machine is going absolutely full-force after ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), accusing them of committing vote fraud on a massive scale. You can't turn on the radio or TV without hearing that millions of illegal votes will be cast for Obama because of ACORN's...
The reason that the Democrats have become experts at losing the Presidency is that the Republicans have become experts at the dirty win. Or so the mythology goes. This idea gained traction with the smear campaign run against Michael Dukakis in 1988, when the patrician George Bush played the part...
Isabel Macdonald | Posted October 10, 2008 | Media
In the midst of remarkably cynical election-time mud-slinging, the Obsession campaign is truly in a class of its own.
Over the past weeks, 28 million copies of the anti-Muslim propaganda film Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West have been delivered to the doors of newspaper subscribers in swing...
Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman | Posted October 10, 2008 | Politics
The GOP assault on American voters has hit full stride as the economy and John McCain tank in synch.
With just over three weeks until election day, the Republicans have mounted an all-out attack against newly registered voters and the organizations working to sign them up. As many as...
Dennis Perrin | Posted October 10, 2008 | Media
Man oh man -- Bill Ayers must be one happy cat. Even when he was trying to spark a Prairie Fire, his cocksure pose on FBI wanted lists, Ayers didn't get this kind of national attention. For a guy who believes that the Weather experience was more right than wrong,...
William Bradley | Posted October 10, 2008 | Politics
If only there were a tape of one of the Obamas talking like this. Say, Michelle Obama. Ranting about "whitey."
It's come to this.
I've spent a lot of time talking this week with some top Republican...
Megan Shank | Posted October 10, 2008 | Business
Another behemoth info tech company is buying majority shares of its Chinese counterpart.
Monster Worldwide buys 55 pct of ChinaHR for $174 mln BEIJING, Oct 8 (Reuters) - Employment website company Monster Worldwide Inc said on Wednesday it had completed its full acquistion of ChinaHR by purchasing a...
Robert D. Stolorow | Posted October 10, 2008 | Politics
In this radio interview I discuss my ideas about emotional trauma (RD Stolorow, Trauma and Human Existence, Routledge, 2007) and extend them to the collective trauma of 9/11 and the "portkeys" (a term borrowed from Harry Potter) that transport us back into that devastated state. Bush and now McCain and...
Joanne Bamberger | Posted October 10, 2008 | Business
Over the summer, I took my eight-year-old daughter to see the Meet Kit, American Girl movie.
For the uninitiated, Kit is the Depression-era girl whose dad loses his job, moves away to look for work and the family ends up taking in boarders and keeping chickens to sell eggs...
Cross-posted at OpenLeft.com
As the 2008 campaign enters the final sprint toward the November 4th finish line, both campaigns are framing their final arguments to voters. As McCain's poll numbers in key states across the country continue to erode, we've seen his campaign tactics change. They have gone into...
Mark Weisbrot | Posted October 10, 2008 | Politics
It is now clear the approval by Congress of President Bush's $700 bailout package on Friday October 3rd has done nothing to ease the current financial crisis. Credit markets have worsened for several days after the bill passed the Congress. The stock market also plummeted to nearly ten-year lows.
So...
Theresa Darklady Reed | Posted October 10, 2008 | Media
James, Sean and Brian Gunn think they've done something sexually daring - but not too sexual and not too daring - by creating what they call "PG Porn." If its first offering is any indication of what viewers can expect from the future, male porn fans will probably call it...
I recently joined WebTalk Radio host Paul McLoughlin for a wide-ranging interview addressing the anxieties currently gripping the nation and how to navigate a host of changes.
Adapting to change is the number one life skill we can cultivate right now. During the interview, Paul asked "What gives...
Stefanie Michaels | Posted October 10, 2008 | Green
Hotels are looking for new ways to run more efficiently and looking to nature to give them some ideas. The latest in green technology is allowing hotels to push the eco-envelope and create energy efficient roof systems that also help the environment, and provide a visually beautiful space for their...
Lea Lane | Posted October 10, 2008 | Politics
One statement at a recent McCain rally in Wisconsin caught my attention: "I am begging you, sir. I am begging you." That was the plea of McCain supporter James T. Harris, an African-American radio host in Milwaukee. He was asking McCain to go after Obama's Reverend Wright connection.
But McCain...
Alan Patricof | Posted October 10, 2008 | Business
The comments made by the partners of Sequoia Capital at their recently held "CEO Summit" have been widely covered by leaks to numerous bloggers. These bloggers have disseminated the details and spread the contagion of the sentiments to the public at large, unfortunately running the risk that the...
John Ridley | Posted October 10, 2008 | Politics
Back in the days of Willie Horton and the Jesse Helms "hands" ad, a healthy garnish of racial fear would almost guarantee an election victory for the offending party. Flash some dark flesh in an ad, allude to white girls put in jeopardy by the colored menace, and you could...
Eric Schmeltzer | Posted October 10, 2008 | Politics
In a new low, not just for this campaign, but for the history of American politics, Senator John McCain's campaign today defended threats against Senator Barack Obama.
Says campaign spokesman Brian Rogers:
Barack Obama's attacks on Americans who support John McCain reveal far more about him than they do...
Mary Tomer | Posted October 10, 2008 | Style
Forget lay offs and mortgage foreclosures, the real tragedy of this recession is the impact on our wardrobes.
The tall, tanned leather boots, the thick wool sweaters - their price tags just seem a tad steep this season. Coveted? Yes. Responsible? No.
But don't go into hiding just yet....
David Brooks spoke frankly about the presidential and...
Writing for the Daily Beast, Michael Kinsley relays a disturbing story about John...
You got to give credit to the American people, who managed to get through an...
In Debate II, John McCain twice laid out the criteria for how the American...
In 2004, America's malleable mainstream media allowed itself...
We've come to lower our expectations for real debates in the...
The insta-polls, which provide viewers with a somewhat skewed but important insight into how each...
Madonna went on VP candidate "Sarah fucking Paling" at her Madison Square Garden show Monday...
In her "No Bias, No Bull" segment Wednesday night, Campbell Brown pleaded with the...
NEW YORK — A runaway train of a sell-off turned the anniversary of...
In the past week of campaigning, Sarah Palin's famous...
Since our last...
The view from a hovering...
Leslie Goldman | Posted October 10, 2008 | Living