Interactive Election Night

Hey there kids and kids at heart! Are you looking for ways to amuse yourself while watching the election results come in? Election night is incredibly exciting but it does involve a lot of waiting around and listening to news anchors fill time with discussion. If you have a little ADD like I have, then you may enjoy filling in your own US map as the networks call states.

Here is a great printable map of the USA. Just buy some crayons and color Obama states blue and McCain states red. Don’t forget that Maine and Nebraska split their electoral votes so there could be some purple!

Here are some other political fun and games from MSN.

~Ferosha

November 3, 2008. Election 2008, Media. Leave a comment.

SNL’s Sarah Palin Rap!!!

Yes, you read that right.  Saturday’s episode of Saturday Night Live featured a Sarah Palin rap.  No, the Alaskan governor didn’t actually perform the rap – Amy Poehler did, but it was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen:

Watch Amy Poehler's Sarah Palin rap!

Watch Amy Poehler's Sarah Palin rap!

All of the lyrics were great, but here’s my favorite: “In Wasilla we just chill baby chilla / but when i see oil let’s drill, baby, drilla.”

Watch the opening sketch of SNL, in which Tina Fey does another masterful job of impersonating Palin.  It was funny, but nothing beats “drill, baby, drilla” with Sarah Palin grooving along to the music.  With sketches featuring Mark Whalberg (he’ll always be Marky Mark to me) and Alec Baldwin, SNL just keeps getting better and better.

~Vulcanella

October 19, 2008. Election 2008, Media, Sarah Palin. 1 comment.

Republican Party Spreads Hate

In another example of the hate-spewing and fear-mongering associated with this year’s presidential campaign (some of which Ferosha has already blogged about), the Republican party is at it again.

First, the Sacramento County Republican Party chose to smear Barack Obama by adding a picture of Barack Obama and Osama Bin Laden saying that the only difference between the two is “B.S.”

B.S. indeed. Unfortunately, that was just one of many pieces of misinformation and hate that the Sacramento County Republican Party has been spreading about Barack Obama.  But, wait.  The Sacramento Republicans aren’t alone in California when it comes to spewing hate about Barack Obama.

Also in California, the Chaffey Community Republican Women depicted Barack Obama on a food stamp along with images of fried chicken, watermelon and Kool Aid.  Yeah, they went there.  Nuff said.  Needless to say, the Chaffey Community Republican Women have come under fire for their offensive mailer.

And in an example that even I couldn’t have made up, radio show host Bob Grant mistook the Ohio state flag for an Obama flag.  Yes, an Obama flag.  People, there is no such thing as an Obama flag!  Thankfully, Media Matters has gotten to the bottom of this craziness.

Update: In my original post I forgot to mention the statement Virginia Republican Party Chairman Jeff Frederick made while giving talking points to 30 McCain volunteers who were going to canvas neighborhoods in support of the McCain-Palin ticket.  Here’s a part of what he and some of the volunteers said on the connection between Barack Obama and Osama Bin Laden:

“Both have friends that bombed the Pentagon,” he said. “That is scary.” “And he won’t salute the flag,” one woman added, repeating another myth about Obama. She was quickly topped by a man who called out, “We don’t even know where Senator Obama was really born.” Actually, we do; it’s Hawaii.

How nice to know that McCain and his republican compatriots are running a respectful and honest campaign.

~Vulcanella

October 18, 2008. Barack Obama, Election 2008, Hypocrisy, Media. Leave a comment.

What are you doing?!?

There are only 30 days left until Election Day.  Are you registered to vote?  Have you volunteered with the Obama campaign?  Are you talking to your friends, parents, grandparents and co-workers about what makes Barack Obama such a great presidential candidate?  Have you contributed to the campaign?

I know we all lead busy lives, but we have to work together to do everything we can to make sure Barack Obama is elected as our next president.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I can bear to see yet another presidential election end like the 2000 and 2004 elections did.  One thing we need to remember is that, while it gets the most attention, the presidential election isn’t the only thing we’re voting for on Election Day.  We also have to make sure that other Democrats are elected to office this year.

Am I not enough inspiration for you?  Well, today’s your lucky day.  Leonardo DiCaprio, will i. am, Halle Berry, Dustin Hoffman, Ellen DeGeneres, Forest Whitaker, Ashton Kutcher, Jennifer Aniston, Sarah Silverman and a slew of other stars have joined to film a public-service announcement on the important issues that are at stake in this year’s election and exactly what it is that we’re all voting for.  Watch it now.  And then send it to all of your friends.

~Vulcanella

October 3, 2008. Change, Election 2008, Media. Leave a comment.

Facebook and the presidential candidates

In an article on Facebook and older users, Salon.com has some insight into the presidential candidates and their use of the growing social network.

An excerpt:

While Barack Obama has adeptly harnessed the power of social networking…John McCain has stumbled. A report released by the Pew Research Center this month indicated that Obama had 1.7 million Facebook supporters and 510,000 MySpace friends; McCain has 309,000 and 88,000 respectively. (The report did not mention that the Facebook group ‘I Have More Foreign Policy Experience than Sarah Palin’ has nearly 122,000 members.) McCain’s highest visibility via Facebook came in July, when he was busted by the New York Times for the GOP’s creation of a fake Facebook page for Obama. (The Internet is, after all, not Ohio — the manipulation of technology isn’t so easily concealed.) The Pew report praised Obama’s early adoption of social networking, and concluded that McCain had been too slow to the table.

While these numbers are compelling, I wonder what, if any, impact the size of each candidate’s Facebook following will have on the election’s outcome.

October 2, 2008. Barack Obama, John McCain, Media, Sarah Palin. Leave a comment.

Elite media

Speakers at the Republican National Convention wasted no time in bashing the so-called “elite media” for the early criticism Sarah Palin took in the days after she was nominated as the Republican Party’s vice-presidential nominee.

Notwithstanding the facts that (1) few people had heard of Sarah Palin prior to the announcement that she would be a heartbeat away from being president if John McCain wins, and (2) that members of the media were well within their rights to ask questions about what qualifies her to be Vice President, the McCain-Palin ticket has claimed an elite media bias and key staffers say Paln will talk to the people, not the media.

Well, the Washington Post has put out a cute a day-in-the-life video of what it’s like to be a member of the elite media.

~Vulcanella

September 10, 2008. Election 2008, John McCain, Media, Sarah Palin. Leave a comment.

It’s all in the approach

Apparently, John McCain’s proposals on taxes, Social Security, health care and the environment aren’t all that different from President Bush’s policies, according to McCain campaign manager Rick Davis. I guess this isn’t all that surprising, since McCain voted with President Bush 95 percent of the time in 2007.  The real difference, Davis said on Fox News Sunday, is in the approach.

According to Davis, President Bush’s approach was to tell Congress, “take it or leave it.” McCain, in contrast, will invite Congress to the White House to discuss the same Bush policies. I guess the McCain-Palin ticket is more of the same, but with a different approach.

Hmm, that doesn’t sound like a maverick to me.

~Vulcanella

September 7, 2008. Change, Election 2008, John McCain, Media. Leave a comment.