Webutante

Where do they find these people? Do they have to breed them, or do they spontaneously rise up out of the muck?

Something calling itself Webutante wrote a blogpost about Barack Obama which featured a photoshopped picture of Obama wearing KKK garb. When she was asked in comments what the point of the picture was, Webutante responded

Greg, Mr. Obama obviously put on that ridiculous garb as a spoof, and I picked the photo as a spoof because it reminded me of "The Man from Glad."

You can certainly make of it something much more sinister and politically incorrect, but that's not why I used it. Where's your sense of humor? Oh, we're not supposed to have a sense of humor anymore, are we?

Buck up.

When further commentors pointed out that the photo had clearly been doctored, Webutante bravely responded, "If you have to ask what the joke is...you wouldn't understand if I told you.

But thanks for your earnest input. It's time to move on now."

Yes, let's just pretend that either we knew all along that the photo had been doctored and it was irrelevant or that the photo is legit and Barack Obama really does have shoulders that are only three inches wider than his head. This creature will do well among the wingnuts.

See the Stick? See The Stick? Go Get the Stick!

Ya gotta love Republican and media priorities (I'm not at all sure there's a difference there); 3000+ dead American soldiers and hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis due to Republican lies and incompetence, and they've got their panties in a wad because Barbara Boxer is a meanie.

This is a classic case of Rice and the Republicans being unable to defend their indefensible policies and performance so they change the subject and the media just follows along.

More Support For Spocko

Following up on Kvatch's earlier post re Spocko's Brain v KSFO...

KSFO now has up on its web page this announcement:

KSFO TALK SHOW HOSTS TALK BACK TO THEIR CRITICS IN A NO-HOLDS-BARRED BROADCAST THIS FRIDAY
Lee Rodgers, Melanie Morgan, Officer Vic and Brian Sussman will address issues and concerns prompted by misleading information about the station on the Internet and in the mainstream media. The broadcast will air on KSFO Radio starting at 12 noon on Friday, January 12, 2007 and will continue as long as anyone has relevant questions of our hosts.
Both friends and critics of the station are invited to participate. Members of the news media and the blogging community will be encouraged to participate, as well.

Considering the timing, it's hard to imagine that this is anything other than a response to Spocko's efforts to inform advertisers of just what kind of a sewer they are wading in when they purchase spots on KSFO, as well as this story on those efforts in today's Chronicle. If you can stomach it and if you have the time, I encourage you to listen in and participate in the KSFO discussion tomorrow. Spocko can use the support, but even more than that the Bay Area needs to let KSFO know that its kind of hatemongering is neither welcome nor appreciated here.

Let's Show Some Support For Spocko

From Libby @ The Impolitic, Blognonymous gets word of the troubles that Spocko's Brain, a great blog that I really should read more often, is having with KSFO, Disney, and 1&1 Internet.

For those of you that haven't been keeping up, here's the skinny. KSFO, our local talk-radio affiliate of ABC, has some of the most offensive on-air personalities in the Bay Area--a little like Limbaugh only half as articulate and twice as offensive. Well Spocko got pissed and tried to do something about it. He ripped MP3's of a few particularly noxious KSFO programs, posted them to Spocko's Brain, and then called up some KSFO advertisers--companies that include Netflix, Mastercard, and Bank of America--to inquire if the station's programming reflected their corporate values. And guess what? A bunch of those same advertisers abandoned KSFO.

But the story doesn't end there. In steps Disney/ABC, only after the advertisers have already left, to take out their frustrations on Spocko. They file a cease and desist order, insisting that the recordings be removed as a violation of their copyright, and when Spocko refuses, muscle his Internet service provider, 1&1, to pull the plug on Spocko's Brain which 1&1 does.

Now Libby and Spocko have done an excellent job skewering Disney/ABC, so let me take a swipe at 1&1. Many of you may not know this, but Blognonymous is hosted at 1&1, and I've been preparing to leave them for a couple of months now. Why? Because where most ISPs maintain a service level of 99.9%, 1&1 can't even achieve 98%, and when they do go down--often during Internet 'prime-time'--they immediately do maintenance. Those stints in October when Blognonymous was off-line, sometimes for hours? 1&1 trying to recover from a disk crash. Apparently anticipatory hardware monitoring isn't something 1&1 engages in. (And they're arrogant mother-f*ckers too.)

So here's a thought for anyone who wants to show some support for Spocko: Post on this topic. Tell Disney/ABC/KSFO to go f*ck themselves. But in addition, if you host with 1&1, leave.