It’s an okay ad that makes a point that I can’t help but believe will resonate with voters, the majority of whom already start out at least a little suspicious of Dino Rossi, but what really strikes me about this ad is the new ground it breaks in citing PubliCola as a source to back up one of its claims… and in a U.S. Senate race, no less.
See, the power of a daily newspaper monopoly like the Seattle Times to influence elections comes not as much from the initial coverage of any one story, but from their role as an allegedly credible, unbiased and independent source that the political campaigns can cite to back up their campaign ads. For example, the bullshit Darcy Burner diploma story would not have had nearly the impact it did if the Reichert campaign had not spent a million dollars citing it.
That’s an advantage the Seattle Times will always have over me, for while I am at least as good a writer as any of their editors, and all of their editors are at least as biased and partisan as me, nobody’s going to put hundreds of thousands of dollars behind an ad attempting to cite HorsesAss.org as a credible source. I just don’t have the brand.
But apparently, PubliCola now does, and after only a year and a half of publication. Congrats Josh and Erica.
And to be fair, a little bit of self-congratulations to me, for while Josh et al downplayed my involvement in PubliCola’s startup for arguably good reasons, I put a lot of effort into getting it off the ground, and used HA to promote the hell out of it for its first year. To be absolutely clear, I’ve never had any editorial role in PubliCola, and I’m not always happy about the editorial direction they’ve taken — Josh is simply wrong a lot of the time — but I still believe PubliCola plays an important role in our local political media landscape that would remain unfilled without them.
And with this citation they’ve clearly proven that even relatively small scale new media ventures can quickly break the credibility monopoly formerly held by newspapers like the Times.
I guess we’ll have to wait for the “..‘Fuck you, I don’t need your votes! I can win with 33 percent.’” ad citing PubliCola’s story.
Too bad.
Two THUMBS way up!!!
Well … if God approves, what more can a mere Jew say?
Goldy–
You seem a bit needy. Needy to be accepted as someone who really is making a difference in the media world. Have you ever read the Little Engine that could? You are trying so hard. I applaud you for that.
But your tens of readers really don’t make that much of a difference.
I hate to break it to you Goldy and burst your self-induced bubble. I’m sure giving yourself a little quiver is commonplace for you.
But I digress…..
There are too many left-wing whackjob Blogs these days. Your’s, unfortuately, lingers in the cesspool somewhere.
But I give you credit for trying hard.
Don’t give up….Mr. Spunky!
But please, leave your considerably fragile ego at the door. It’s kind of pathetic.
SJ–
Do you really truly think your God charade is fooling anyone? I busted you on that months ago. But alas, you continue. But it’s all in fun anyway…so proceed.
PS-
The other thing that busted you was the numerous times you posted immediately (within 1-2 minutes) of God.
But have fun sj!! errrrrrrr…I mean God.
Whatever.
Cynical @4,
And yet, you’re still here… in my comment threads. However desperate for attention I may be, what does that say about you?
Goldy–
I’m occassionally bored??
I like to anger your crazy lefty posters so they fling out vile garbage and ruin thread after thread??
I don’t go out of my way Goldy.
If I’m at my laptop, I’ll check in…and read the same tired Progressive garbage.
I love it when Progressives talk & talk…it’s your worst nightmare.
@7 as a nightmare to all within earshot, you are an acknowledged expert on the subject.
Hey Mr. Cynical, did you know that according to PubliCola, Kathryn Serkes said something that Rossi meant to you that I agree with?
‘Fuck you!‘
still bitter after not getting hired by the Times?
damn goldy, get over it already…..
Mr. Cynical ..
You “busted me??” Sorry, but you need to do a lot better. I think I remember a post before where you said something like that and gave a link. I was curious so I followed the link. Went nowhere that made any sense.
As for whether God and I post at similar times, I don’t think that is true. I do see Her or His posts, but usually they appear at times very different from when I post or even when I am awake.
BTW ,,, while you are looking for candidates for who God@HA might be .. I suggest you consider Puddy and Lee. At least to me, that is small m and SJ, these characters as they appear on HA seem pretty much fictional. Whoever is insertinghis her hand up the nether regions of those sock puppets might well be “going” your God too?
I do have one question. You claim that accepting Jesus is important because if not bad things will happen. For the most part, God@HA seems to make sense. Wouldn’t it be safe to just accept Him or Her?
Narcissism, its whats for dinner..
“I like to anger your crazy lefty posters”
The reason we laugh our collective asses off at you is because you’re the dumbest fucking KLOWN on the entire fucking planet.
Mr. C.
Now, that is a Christian statement if I ever heard one!
heh- Like there’s nothing vile about being a psycho-KLOWN.
You want credibility?
Teabagging teatards protesting. Teabonics August 2010.
sj–@10
Charade is over sj.
As for your statement–
Bad things happen in this world even if you accept Jesus.
You are missing the point sj.
How can an intelligent guy like you look at the beauty & majesty thru out the Earth and not think beyond it to who was the Creator of all of it???
All you can say apparently is it was random.
God chose me because He loves me…same reason He chose you SJ.
God made us and he bought us.
He is our Creator and Savior.
We owe Him everything sj.
Everything you see and treasure on this Earth sj will be taken away from you someday. Everything.
So what do you have left?
Did you ever watch Bridget Jones Diary?
She was struggling with various Resolutions.
The one that hit me and reminds me of the Atheist Progressive Movement is when Bridget resolves to get a “sense of myself…from myself??” That can’t be right!
It’s spot on.
The only true Dignity and Purpose we have is because we were made in God’s image.
Everything else is sinking sand.
We are surrounded by many majestic mountain ranges. Those were created from dust on God’s fingernails..
I forget the Scripture reference but it’s probably in Genesis discussing Creation that man is created “a little bit below God” so we look up to Him. And above all the other animals. And then there is a verse where it says. “And He also created the Stars”.
It’s hysterical. Like an afterthought of the power.
Sj–\
There are something like 100 million Galaxy’s and Sun’s all bigger than us.
Feel small enough yet?
Allow your brilliant mind to not be constrained by what you can see or rationalize.
Let the games begin!
Rossi’s toast.
With all due respect to bloggers, the credibility gap and the disappearing media form of newspapers have more to do with changing demographics than with blogs growing in credibility.
Part of an enjoyable Saturday morning for me is a good breakfast and a newspaper on the patio. As a young guy just starting to drive, Car and Driver fueled fantasies about European sportscars I’ve still not quite outgrown. A quiet winter evening at my cabin with good wine, a fire and a good book are sure cures for the distractions and disappointments of daily life.
Point is, I gravitate towards print as the means of conveying information or entertainment.
For most anyone I know even a mere 10 years younger than I print media doesn’t figure into their lives much, if at all.
It isn’t that Publicola is more credible, it’s their format.
@4: Pathetic? Goldy?
No, YOU Klynical are the pure definition of pathetic.
A “person” who dispenses vitriol and claims to be a “Christian”.
A demonstrated LIAR who mouths right wing talking points and is totally unable to defend a single position when challenged – who then resorts to name calling.
Yes, we laugh at you BECAUSE you are pathetic. Goldy can at least reason and think – skills you have not mastered yet.
Anyone who reposts known falsehoods is bascially committing a SIN – in the bible it is known as slander and gossip of false information – and you should be asking forgiveness for all the SINS you have committed.
Lost @ 17: As a news-delivery device, the newspaper is flawed. Sure, it’s a part of the daily ritual for many. My father used to come home from work, kick off his shoes and read the afternoon paper while my mother finished dinner. But afternoon papers are now gone for good, and the morning paper might be gone soon, as well. They just aren’t efficient news delivery vehicles anymore.
As for myself, I get my news online, from multiple sources. But my reading for enjoyment comes from reading history books. I’ve always got one in progress at home, and another in my car I keep for whenever I find myself waiting. I just finished reading “The Secret War for the Union”, about the progression of intelligence gathering and organization in the Union army during the Civil War. It’s a bit tediouis, but extremely informative.
The book in my car was “SeaLion” by Peter Fleming (Ian’s brother), about the German plans for invading Britain in 1940. I just finished that one as well. I’ve got a few more books on SeaLion I still have to read, I’m making it a special project of mine.
I’ve just started “The Horse Soldiers”, a book my daughter gave me for father’s day about the early days of the war in Afganistan, focusing on the CIA and U.S. Special Forces teams. I still need to pull out another one from my “to be read” stack for me to keep in the car.
Two things: 1. Goldy, I do like (mostly) what you write, but, again, you keep giving The Times way too much influence. They’re not that important anymore. Seriously, pick 1000 random people in the Seattle metro area and ask if they read The Times that day AND if affects their opinion making. I don’t think those numbers will be very high.
2. For the last time, Burner’s mistake WAS HER OWN. She could have easily got around her degree statement, but she instead thought digging the hole deeper was the answer. She made a minor misstatement, but then compounded the error. Reichert made hay out of her on video compounding her mistake; the Times nor Reichert weren’t to blame for that.
I enjoy reading PubliCola, but their website redesign a few months back hurt its readability…
@16
Damn, a man is actually admitting to watching/staying awake during Bridget Jones Diary? Then you make reference to it?
Are you sure you’re a Mr?
So sad on many levels./
Publicola is about the best, and they suck ass.
The swirling rumor chasers, coupled with the halfassed ST reporting, fuck! They cite each other because they are too fucking thin and lazy to get real sources.
Now, if you are done jerking off, how about some journalism.
Lastly, Dino is out of his league. There is so much money at work here and so many adds will run that it will look like the new Fall tv line up will have a series called, “Dino, the scumbag”.
Goldy, if you think Publicola is credible, you’re beyond help.
Cynical
No problem .. you pick the creator and tell me which one is It?
Jesus
Raven
The Aztec God@HA
Kronos ????
And you? What if you have made the wrong choice?
No. Is this where you hear from Jesus?
Always! Does your belief makwe you feel big?
It seems to me that God@HA may have lesso0ns for you .. maybe you need them?
@27 “No problem .. you pick the creator and tell me which one is It?
Jesus
Raven
The Aztec God@HA
Kronos ????”
How come the Great Mother Rabbit Spirit isn’t in this list? Is there some reason you left Her out?
I’ve wrestled intellectually with the question of whether God exists. It can’t be proved one way or the other. All religions teach us that one must take the existence of God on faith.
I do see the rationalistic scientist’s point. The universe began as space filled with hydrogen atoms. Fortunately (or not, depending on your point of view) for us, the distribution of atoms through space wasn’t perfectly uniform. (One could argue here that if the universe was created by an intelligent and superintending deity this imperfection wouldn’t have occurred.) The disparity of dispersion of hydrogen atoms, however slight, allowed gravity to do its thing and pull hydrogen atoms together until there was a concentration of them. So now you have a localized gang of hydrogen atoms clumping together and this creates pressure and heat until some of the hydrogen atoms turn into helium atoms. This created stars. (Hey you physics trolls, how am I doing so far?) The extreme heat and pressure inside stars created the more complex atoms, including oxygen and carbon, which we’re made of. Matter, of course, gets recycled over time (a great deal of time, when you’re talking about astronomical time). The atoms that make up your body were literally created in the center of ancient stars! You are stardust!!!
Okay, so the question is, was all of this created by an intelligent entity or did it just happen through the mechanics and/or an accident of physics? Hell, I don’t know! Nobody does. Even the Pope doesn’t know; like the rest of us, he has to take the notion of intelligent design completely on faith!
This brings me to another point. Let’s take an Afghan guerilla fighter who battled the Soviet invaders a generation ago … this guy prostrates himself on the ground five (5) times a day to worship some guy named Mohammed who lived a thousand years ago. He observes Ramadan, too, except I need to add a footnote here that quite a few of the mujahideen who fought the Russkies skipped Ramadan when they were involved in military operations on the theory that Allah wanted them to eat so their bodies would have enough strength to fight. This fucker has never heard of Christianity so you can’t really blame him for being Muslim. He’s simply doing the same thing his father did, and his grandfather, and so forth, for a couple thousand years, which is to till the soil and worship the god his culture and upbringing teaches him to worship and fight any foreigners stupid enough to want to grab a useless country like Afghanistan for god knows what reason. (The historic reason seems to have been getting access to warmwater ports, or something like that, but nowadays a lot of folks think there’s a shitload of oil, gold, and other valuable minerals under Afghanistan’s ancient tilled soil.) This dude doesn’t know a fucking thing about protons or gravity or stardust or any of that crap and wouldn’t care if he did. You ask him who made the world and he’ll tell you: “Allah Akbhar!” (“God is great!”) Never mind that the universe existed for several billion years before Mohammed came along and convinced a bunch of gullible peasants that he was divine. (This was probably just a strategem for getting laid. Guys have been trying to invent new ways to get girls to spread their legs for just about forever.)
So, now that we’ve established that Mohammed has been around for only a thousand years, and this Jesus guy for two grand, and the universe is billions of years old, what can we conclude about the existence of god? Pretty much not a goddam thing, if you ask me. The problem is still that you have to take Him/Her totally on faith.
That can create some problems. Mother Teresa, for example, devoted her life to serving god by taking care of poor people. At least, she thought she was doing god’s work. Unfortunately for her, she insisted that god show her a sign that He/She existed and never got it, which caused her to be depressed and question her faith and all sorts of unpleasant shit. We now know she was a damned unhappy woman … I would surmise for two reasons, one, God refused to confirm to her that He/She existed, and two, she wasn’t getting laid. Everyone needs to get laid! Even rabbits know that. That’s why I fuck as many cute female bunnies as possible! God told me to do it! That’s what I was made for! The only thing a stud rabbit is really good for is making more rabbits, which is a very good thing indeed! I know for sure God exists because She communicates to me through the Great Mother Rabbit Spirit, who whispers to me in dreams. What they’re telling me is all you Republicans are gonna go to Hell. So you better repent and vote Democratic before it’s too fucking late! You never know when your time is gonna be up, so you better buy yourself an insurance policy. I’m not kidding, God is real, and She doesn’t like what you teabaggers are doing! She doesn’t have any problem with homosexuality or smoking weed (after all, She created cannabis in the first place, and wouldn’t have created it if She didn’t want you to smoke it), but she goddamned sure as Hell has a problem with the way you fucking Republicans are treating workers, consumers, and taxpayers! So you better get your fucking act together if you don’t want to be roasted like a pig in a luai. Believe me, there’s a Hell, and if you vote Republican that’s where you’re going. Just ask all the dead Republicans if you don’t believe me. They’d give anything to be Democrats now!
Back to newspapers and credibility issues….
The Seattle P.I. is reporting that IRS agents conducted search warrents of Winston Bontrager, his girlfriend, and his son, Jason Bontrager. A maestro connection is alleged.
The focus is on the three of them living a life of apparant luxury while declaring only a small amount of income.
Of particular interest is that Jason Bontrager unsuccessfully ran for the state Senate as a Republican in 2004, and currently serves on the Snohomish County Republican Central Committee and as its representative on the state committee.
http://www.seattlepi.com/local.....ers23.html
A quick look at the Seattle Times website didn’t show that it carried this story (although it might be posted online at any time). Yet the Seattle P.I., which last year had to convert to a web-only paper, carried ths story.
Mr Cynical’s benchmark for beauty is a the ass end of a goat.