Journalism is dead. Sean Hannity told me so. Next week, ABC News will cover a town hall meeting from the White House where Barack Obama plans to discuss health care. It will be a policy meeting where Obama will field questions on his proposed health care policies. Presumably, both supporters and skeptics will have a chance to speak. Sean Hannity, among other outspoken pundits on Fox News, think this is nothing more than an infomercial for health care policies they don't agree with disseminated by a complicit media outlet under the guise of news to a public not saavy enough to know when someone is feeding them a line. So basically, they're accusing ABC News of being copycats. It's not the opinions expressed on Fox News that offends me so much, I believe there's a place in the media for all voices, even those as disgusting as some of the garbage pettled by the likes of Beck, O'Reilly and Hannity. Government, business and social leaders need a strong, dissenting voice, and these days we're sure as heck not getting it from MSNBC. That said, the twisted nature of Fox News' reports, pushing obviously biased reports off as news, twisting comments and spinning news and ...

Stolen from my friend Justin, who I'm sure stole it from someone else. 1) Being gay is not natural. Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning. 2) Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall. 3) Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract. 4) Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn't changed at all; women are still property, blacks still can't marry whites, and divorce is still illegal. 5) Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of Brittany Spears' 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed. 6) Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn't be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren't full yet, and the world needs more children. 7) Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children. 8) Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the ...

George W. Bush (via last.fm) I had a couple weird dreams last night. In the first, my father and I were at a newspaper where I was recently on site. We were trying to cut through the building to save time on our way somewhere. We got lost and I fell into the press while it was running. The weirder dream had me trying to hear a speech by President Bush. I drove up to where he was speaking — it was a big, outdoor affair on the water. People were gathered around the edges of a lake, watching him on the opposite shore on a large stage. I bounced around in a little, red convertible, trying to find a place to watch. Eventually, he spoke and I missed it. Suddenly, as I was leaving the grounds, there was President Bush in the seat next to me. As we drove around looking for something to eat, we discussed how media coverage of his administration and the Obama administration has differed. He recounted all the things the mainstream media should have nailed Obama on but didn't and just kept saying "It's not fair! They were so much more critical of me than they are ...

Image via WikipediaWith Barack Obama and Joe Biden making history, John McCain heading back to the Senate and Sarah Palin hopefully becoming a distant memory, it's time for the powers-that-be in the Republican party to figure out how they're going to regain power and deal with newly energized Latino and African-American voting blocs. I don't think anyone is surprised by how well Obama did with minority voters, but what's truly scary is how poorly the Republican ticket did with college-educated whites, particularly those under 30. The fact of the matter is, in a time when people are more worried about how they're going to make their mortgage payment (if they still have a house), the whole culture war nonsense that is Sarah Palin's bread and butter — and what got W. his two terms — just doesn't resonate as it once did. Those elements of the base hijacked the GOP and left people like me behind. If Republicans are too short-sighted to see that this election has awoken millions of voters who — by seeing Obama elected — are only going to want more, then we may be seeing the beginning of the end. Republicans need to go back to the principles ...

As the clock ticks down to election day, if you're still on the fence even just a little bit, allow me to tell you why I'm voting for Barack Obama and I think why you should as well. Taxes While both candidates have proposed tax plans that would give cuts to large groups of Americans, according to the Tax Policy Center, a joint project of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution, Barack Obama's tax plan would give a majority of those cuts to those who make the least, while John McCain's would give a larger percentage of the cuts to the wealthiest Americans. John McCain has gone around calling Barack Obama a "redistributionist," which is funny, because you know who else was a "redistributionist"? Mark 12: 38-44 — But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything— all she had to live on. If progressive taxes — which have been the foundation ...

Image via Wikipedia Just when I had lost all hope in the McCain campaign, the Republican party and the entire southern and midwestern United States, I saw this video: I used to be a Republican, and in many ways I still like what Zombie John McCain has to say moreso than Barack Obama — especially when it comes to dealing with Iraq and Afghanistan — but I was appalled at the behavior by many of his supporters, campaign workers and his running mate. I knew John McCain was better than this, and I'd always hoped his supporters would be too. I firmly believe the Democratic party has become the Big Tent party, as it seems many on the right are intent on excluding minorities and non-Christians. Hell, not even all Christians are welcome. Try being Catholic and walking into a GOP meeting in the south. Anyway, it's heartening to see that not all McCain supporters are like this. I was glad to find this video on the same day I got two e-mails from different people containing as vile anti-Obama language as I've ever heard. Here are some excerpts: He has no real identity. He is half-white, which he rejects. The rest of him is mostly Arab, ...

Image by AFP/Getty Images via Daylife It's been a trend for years, perhaps starting with W., perhaps even earlier with Dan Quayle, but whatever the case, why have we become comfortable with -- nay proud of -- the fact that we are all becoming a real-life Idiocracy? If you're wondering how we got this close to Vice President Sarah Palin, it's because of the all-out attack on intellect. In the few days since the debate, I've heard nothing but praise for Sarah Palin's shrewdness, blithely side-stepping questions she didn't want to answer, sticking to her guns (and the outline in front of her) so as not to get herself into any hairy situations. Really, she didn't do anything but duck and dodge, proving once again that she doesn't have what it takes, and that many Americans aren't smart enough to recognize it. Why should it be OK that much of what she says doesn't make any sense? Why should it be OK when she says that it doesn't matter whether Global Warming is a natural phenomenon or man-made? Wouldn't it be easier to solve the problem if we knew the cause? By refusing to answer questions during the debate about changes in the bankruptcy laws ...