War on Judges

Apparently the NEW republican thing, attempting to attack, eliminate or destroy Judges that don't agree with them, up to and including maybe splitting up the 9th Circuit, reducing the number of Supreme Court judges, and preventing federal judges from deciding on cases such as Defense of Marriage Act and partial birth abortions.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7529447/site/newsweek/

Leading the charge is DeLay (of course) and his 200+ conservative groups building up the funds etc to attack and "remind" congressmen that to not pick the judge they want could hurt their political career. To be fair, it doesn't seem like mainstream repubs nor Bush is involved in this...but I don't see them stopping them either, which they could. Its almost like they letting others test the water, and if it gets traction dive in with them, rather then making a decision on whats best now.

And for the repubs out there who will ra-ra this, think how would you like if Democrats attempted to toss conservative judges and prevent federal courts from making decisions on ideas they hold dear.

My point, once again some lawmakers are attempting something that all Americans should find repulsive, regardless of what party they support.

Only one thing happened today

Once again, if going by Fox and CNN, you would assume that only one event occured in the entire world, in this case the tragedy of murder of a young girl in Florida. Its sad and horrible that happened, and hopefully the person responsible will be given the death penalty.

However, this story continues to illustrate the media's desire to make everything an "EVENT!!!" for ratings. Even a year ago, this wouldn't be national news to be discussed all day long. It would be a top story of day at the local and state level and maybe a quickly 10 second mention on Headline News. It should tell you something when local news doesn't break in to discuss it but CNN and Fox go on all day long about it. In the fight for new supremecy, one news service decides this is the event of the day and so in fear the others tag along.

Now I am not saying it shouldn't be on the main news networks, but it shouldn't be the only story of the day or really the main story. It may sound callous, but children are murdered everyday. Making this the event of the day only illustrates just how damn picky the media is on discussing these topics. After all, why not mention all the other children killed in the country or the rest of the world. Why only this florida girl? If, god forbid, another child is murdered in say Wisconsin tomorrow, is that going to be the story of the day? I seriously doubt it, unless slow news day of course. If going to give this such airtime, shouldn't all other murders get the same coverage? Its just seems so arbitary, based on no logic or rules and basically just highlights to everyone why no one really takes the new media seriously anymore.

Amusing Links

Watching G4's Attach of the Show today (god that name sucks) and for once, it was a great show with lots of useful links and crap.

My favorite was a link to Experimental Gameplay which is a site of games put together in one week of work. They are suprisingly creative. I could see many of these being great for WarioWare style games on the DS. My recommendations are The Crowd and Tower of Goo.

Another useful website is GimpShop which seems to be a free, open source version of Photoshop. Probably doesn't have all the bells and wistles but seems good enough to do some sweet pics with.

Lastly, a site that deals with the sexual humor on comic book covers, ie, lets make sex jokes at old comics.

"Pope Not Dead"

Isn't that a creepy headline for fox to put up yesterday during the Pope deathwatch? Is it me or are the news stations just getting more and more desperate. Instead of seeking out the news and telling us as it happens, the manufacture it, manipulate it, and beat it to death. 20 years, hell 5 years ago, all that would have occured would have been an update during the normal news cycle on his condition and a break in if he died. Now, the stations want bragging rights that now one cares about.

"Ooh fox was behind by 30 seconds, can't trust em, guess I'll have to watch CNN." I seriously think the news executvies are scared shitless that is what would happen even though there is zero proof to backup such an assumption. Even worse, that assumption is a bit insulting, like saying Americans have no attention span so better keep this crap up just in case.

The end result of all these deathwatches, one story a day appraoch that 24 hour news services are taking is that not only are we all going to get sick of watching them, but we are now much less informed. There is an entire world out there, the news doesn't stop because a pope may die, or some bulimic idiot, or cause jackson showed up in pajamas. Where is the information i want about the rest of the world? Why are viewers not demanding that we get that information? We need to learn that we have the power. When these stations keep insisting on the one story a day approach to news...turn them off. Force them to understand that their jobs are to report on the news as it happens...not wait on such as this sickening Deathwatch being conducted on the Pope. There is not even dignity in a death like that.