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Best part about listening to CNN's convention coverage on XM Radio? Trying not to swerve off the road laughing when you hear a woman in the crowd screech out, "I LOOOOVE YOUUUUU ANDERSONNNNNNN!" Lady, he's too busy drooling over Barack to pay you any attention. (To be fair, so was everyone else on the CNN news team, even those that don't live in Chelsea.)

I'm honestly not surprised that McCain didn't know that the Anbar Awakening began before the surge even started. Because, really, the man has recently demonstrated that he doesn't know that Iraq and Pakistan don't share a border, that Al Qaida and the Revolutionary Guard aren't exactly best buds, that Czechoslovakia hasn't existed in 15 years, or that Somalia and Sudan are different countries (themselves separated by a country that's approximately twice the size of Texas).

No, what I'm shocked by, and PISSED about, is that CBS actually edited this huge mistake right the fuck on out of the interview. They show Katie Couric asking a question about the surge, and then air McCain's response to an ENTIRELY different question. That is an egregious lack of journalistic integrity. Can we officially stop talking about the damn liberal media now? Or are we just going to keep piling on the New York Times for not letting McCain publish an op-ed with no actual content other than taking potshots at Obama?

I'm angry about the state of our political system these days, obviously. But I'm ashamed by the state of our media. Especially when Bob Novak's going around slamming into people with his Corvette. Douchebag of Liberty, hit-and-run perpetrator, indictment avoider, and gainfully employed Fox News commentator. God bless America. (Don't even get me started on Michael Savage and Jack Cafferty right now. Sheesh.)

The podcast that I mentioned earlier is now up and running, with the audio fixed and the domain working. Yay! There's now also space for comments, so if you like it, let me know! To listen on the web, click here. To subscribe, head to the main page. To see the playlist, refer to the earlier post. Boogie!

I will be posting a new link to the new episode of Radio Free Misanthropy as soon as the DotMac to MobileMe transition finishes tomorrow. Until then, here's a sneak peak at what you'll be listening to...

No Sex For Ben-The Rapture
Every Day Is Exactly The Same (Sam Fog vs. Carlos D. Mix)-Nine Inch Nails
Everyone Nose (All The Girls Standing In The Line For The Bathroom) [Remix]-N*E*R*D f/Kanye West, Lupe Fiasco and Pusha T
No Pause-Girl Talk
Hounds of Love (Phones Wolves At The Door Remix)-The Futureheads
Mercury-Bloc Party
Bright Red Helmet-Styrofoam
When You Go Out-Sebastien Grainger
Element of Danger (MSTRKRFT Remix)-Services
Get Lucky (MSTRKRFT Remix)-New Young Pony Club
Epic Last Song (Lifelike Remix)-Does It Offend You, Yeah?
Hearts On Fire (NT89 Remix)-Cut Copy
That's Not My Name (Doctor Werewolf's Bmore Mix)-The Ting Tings
A Cause Des Garcons (VaVan Treaxy Remix)-Yelle
Konichiwa Bitches-Robyn
Break The Ice-Britney Spears
Heart Beat Rock (Benny Blanco Mix)-Kyle Minogue f/Spank Rock
A Milli (Remix)-Li'l Wayne f/R. Kelly
Snap Yo Fingers (Harrison Schaaf Remix)-Li'l Jon
Go Girl (Chu Fu Mix)-Pitbull f/Trina and Young Boss
Chick Lit (Danger TV Remix)-We Are Scientists
Golden Star (Alias Remix)-My Brightest Diamond
Tron-Foals
Running Up That Hill-Placebo

Wes Clark is being lambasted for his comment on Face the Nation about McCain's military service. Let's do an instant replay, shall we?

CLARK: He has been a voice on the Senate Armed Services Committee. And he has traveled all over the world. But he hasn't held executive responsibility. That large squadron in the Navy that he commanded — that wasn't a wartime squadron. He hasn't been there and ordered the bombs to fall. He hasn't seen what it's like when diplomats come in and say, "I don't know whether we're going to be able to get this point through or not, do you want to take the risk, what about your reputation, how do we handle this publicly? He hasn't made those calls, Bob.
SCHIEFFER: Can I just interrupt you? I have to say, Barack Obama hasn't had any of these experiences either, nor has he ridden in a fighter plane and gotten shot down.
CLARK: I don’t think getting in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to become president.

Wes Clark has shown himself to be awfully shitty at playing politics. This was obvious during his halfhearted presidential run in 2004. (Full disclosure: I voted for him in the New York primary.) But regardless of whether I agree with his sentiment here (which I basically do) or whether it was a dumb thing to say in our soundbyte-centric society (which it was), what I was struck by was the structure of this conversation. Bob Schieffer was the one who actually said the offending phrase first: "ridden in a fighter plane and gotten shot down." People are treating this like Clark was the one who came up with this phrase, because it's the PHRASING, not the sentiment, that is causing the trouble here. As others have pointed out, John McCain himself has said in the past that his hostage experience alone does not qualify him for the presidency. That's fair game. What people are pissed about is that the phrase is casual and almost dismissive, even making it seem like becoming a hostage was HIS FAULT for just riding along and getting his dumb ass shot down. That's the problem. So it's ironic that Clark was just parroting what Schieffer said first. I don't think Wes Clark on his own would have classified John McCain's experience in Vietnam as just riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down -- that particular linguistic turn wouldn't have even occurred to him, as a lifelong military man. I mean, honestly, do people REALLY THINK that Wes Clark, of all people, would piss all over a fellow soldier like that? What he's pissing on is the idea that military heroism itself is a good enough qualification to lead the free world. He doesn't think it is, and I don't either.

Funnily enough, this whole thing reminded me of my dad's episode of NYPD Blue. The scene that episode is most remembered for, a scene my dad actually didn't write but ended up being the crux of the whole plot, involved the following dialogue, between Sipowicz and an angry black community activist:

Kwasi: You're dealing with the one n***** in a thousand who knows what you can and cannot do.
Sipowicz: I'm dealing with the n***** whose big mouth is responsible for this massacre.

Boom goes the goddamn dynamite. Doesn't matter if Kwasi said it first, Andy was in for some shit as soon as that word passed his lips. There is a slight complication here in that Sipowicz was actually a total racist, whereas Wes Clark is hardly anti-military. But seriously, in this country, there are some things you JUST. DON'T. SAY. You don't get to say the N-word if you're white. And you don't get to talk shit on a war hero, even by accident. There are probably others, but those two should be self evident at this point.

FISA: Give me a friggin' break, Barack. If this is meant to be a political pander, it's a dumb one, like when liberals waffle on abortion rights even when the majority of Americans believe abortion should be safe and legal with few caveats. The independents you're trying to pick off in the general either don't know enough about the FISA situation to give a shit, or they're libertarians who are rightly horrified by expanded Executive branch power in the abstract and spying in particular. And then you manage to piss off your base. Trying to paint this bill as some kind of "compromise" is ludicrous, even beyond your token opposition to the retroactive immunity part. The few tiny impediments to rampant invasion of privacy stuck in there are so easily overcomes as to be practically made of, like, filo dough or balsa wood or fucking feathers. Basically, what your endorsement of the bill is basically saying is, "Well, if I'm president, you'll be able to trust me not to abuse this power." Which I PERSONALLY do trust you to stick to, but the principle you're running on here is deeply offensive to a country that's been watching our president run our liberty into the ground. Trust your judgment over the principles of the constitution? Pass. I expected much more from a damn Con Law professor. OK, I'm done yelling now. Let's move on to the Supreme Court.

2nd Amendment Decision: I actually don't see his stance here as much of a flip flop, because he hasn't subscribed to the originalist/"militia" stance in the past like many lefties (including myself, to a certain degree) do. And Scalia did end up having to grudgingly acknowledge that gun control programs are not themselves inherently unconstitutional, just that the DC ban in particular is. So, I'm OK with Obama's approval here, even if I personally come down more on the John Paul Stevens (god bless that man)/bobbies with night sticks side.

Child Rapist Death Penalty: Obama siding with the minority on this one doesn't surprise me, even from someone who has been so passionate in Illinois about protesting the inequities of our death penalty system. Again, like with gun control, Obama has consistently taken a more pragmatic stance, saying that the way the death penalty is currently implemented is egregiously unfair but not actually coming out against the act itself. And I understand where he, and others, are coming from. Dammit, if I were going to give the death penalty to any one group of people, it would certainly be child rapists above and beyond probably all others. (I mean, have you heard the particulars of this case? Oh my lord, it is so heinous. I may have been more horrified reading about that rape than reading the story of the Czech kid who was ritually cannibalized.) But I am 100% against the death penalty, legally and morally. The government has zero right and should have zero power to make decisions of life and death, even beyond the structural inequalities and inefficiencies of the policy itself as currently implemented. But Obama is consistent here, and I certainly emotionally get where he's coming from.

Oh, and Barack, stop stomping on all of Scarlett Johansson's hopes and dreams, or we may have to send you over to Jezebel's "Crap Email from a Dude" territory.

OK, bugs. I'm trying to have a nice evening here on the balcony, drinking a glass of wine and reading a disappointingly mediocre Matthew Yglesias book. It is time for you to stop flying in my face, getting confused and stuck behind my glasses, and deciding that your best route of escape is up one of my nostrils.

Seriously. Beyond time.

Saul Tigh: Can I play the piano anymore?
Doc Cottle: Of course you can!
Saul Tigh: Well, I couldn't before!

*tinkling ivories*

Yes, Galactica has finally gone full tilt Heston/McClure on us. I'm pretty OK with that, really.

Walter Mondale switched his endorsement from Hillary to Barack! (And he's an actual superdelegate, unlike poor George McGovern. That man gets no respect.)

So, out of the current living former Democratic presidents/presidential nominees:

McGovern: Obama (switched from Clinton)
Carter: Obama
Mondale: Obama (switched from Clinton)
Dukakis: No endorsement (but Kitty endorsed Obama)
Clinton: Mike Gravel (no, not really)
Gore: waiting with baited breath...

Also, Rahm Emmanuel came out for Obama this morning. As such, I believe it's the appropriate time to bust out this macro that pays tribute to his crazy-ass brother: