As a native Hoosier, the Quayle family has a special place in my heart. The same way that red meat has a special place in my colon.

From what I've found, it's tough to determine exactly what ol' Ben Quayle has been doing for a living up till now. There's been some sweet financial industry gigs, and something involving a site called "TheDirty.com," which apparently involved scantily clad women, a porn pseudonym, and more scantily clad women. All that sounds fine, and now that he's to be a super-serious congressman candidate guy, I'll take his gig instead. If that's cool.

It's hard to even know what's going on with that campaign. Is it a birthday present from a generous relative? A vanity piece, like Glamour Shots for the ultra-wealthy? A nationwide fever dream? Whatever it is, it is a Beautiful Thing To Behold, and it should be treasured. You don't get to see a young douchebag flame out often--not this hard, not this fast. Let's enjoy the weirdness till November.

CBS, NBC Refuse To Air Church's TV Ad World Faith Network

United Church of Christ ad highlighting Jesus' extravagant welcome called
'too controversial'

CLEVELAND -- The CBS and NBC television networks are refusing to run a 30-second television ad from the United Church of Christ because its all-inclusive welcome has been deemed "too controversial."
The ad, part of the denomination's new, broad identity campaign set to begin airing nationwide on Dec. 1, states that -- like Jesus -- the United Church of Christ (UCC) seeks to welcome all people, regardless of ability, age, race, economic circumstance or sexual orientation.
According to a written explanation from CBS, the United Church of Christ is being denied network access because its ad implies acceptance of gay and lesbian couples -- among other minority constituencies -- and is, therefore, too "controversial."
"Because this commercial touches on the exclusion of gay couples and other minority groups by other individuals and organizations," reads an explanation from CBS, "and the fact the Executive Branch has recently proposed a Constitutional Amendment to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, this spot is unacceptable for broadcast on the [CBS and UPN] networks."

Similarly, a rejection by NBC declared the spot "too controversial."

"It's ironic that after a political season awash in commercials based on fear and deception by both parties seen on all the major networks, an ad with a message of welcome and inclusion would be deemed too controversial," says the Rev. John H. Thomas, the UCC's general minister and president. "What's going on here?"

Negotiations between network officials and the church's representatives broke down today (Nov. 30), the day before the ad campaign begins airing nationwide on a combination of broadcast and cable networks. The ad has been accepted and will air on a number of networks, including ABC Family, AMC, BET, Discovery, Fox, Hallmark, History, Nick@Nite, TBS, TNT, Travel and TV Land, among others. More

First, the monster ratings:

The Obama special was seen by 26.3 million viewers across broadcasters CBS, NBC and Fox, according to preliminary Nielsen ratings. If you add Spanish-language broadcaster Univision, that total climbs to 29.9 million.

The entertainment programming that usually runs in the slot on those three networks has averaged a cumulative 23.1 million viewers each week since the start of the season -- 12% lower than the Obama ad total. Put another way, the time period averages about 7.7 million viewers and a 2.4 adults 18-49 rating per network. In the preliminary ratings, the ad pulled an average of 9.2 million viewers and a 2.7 average rating per network -- boosting the advertiser-friendly adult demo by 13%.

Looks like voters were pretty damn interested in what Obama had to say. It would be nice to see the breakdown of Dems/Repubs/Indies.

Now some reviews from the nation's top TV critics.

"Obama uses his TV time well ... There was talk about tough issues but no harsh attacks on the other side and no flashes of anger. It was if the campaign had adopted a new political mantra: Speak softly and carry a big ad." -- USA Today

"There was barely a whisper of negativity in the half hour, but the almost Palinesque call to self-reliance that ran through the show from start to finish undercut both the GOP vice presidential candidate's and McCain's complaints that Obama's big-government philosophy borders on socialism ... Without a wild-eyed college kid in sight, the youthful candidate made his pitch not for change into some newfangled tomorrow, but back to the values of the past. He certainly lost nothing from the infomercial, and it's likely he found more than a few buyers." -- Jonathan Storm, Philadelphia

A reader at TPM makes a great point:

Obama can go on TV for 30 minutes and not mention John McCain even once.

No way would the reverse be true.

Exactly. I'm of the mind that while Obama ought to fight back against McCain's desperate last-minute smears, he should construct his closing message around the themes of unity and a brighter future, much like he did in his incredibly successful Olympics ad. Americans are sick of the divisive politics of old. They're looking for solutions, not scapegoats.

The McSame campaign releases a campaign commercial on the importance of domestic surveillance.

Our buddy, Cenk Ugyur of The Young Turks appeared on CNN's Headline News yesterday to defend Wes Clark's statement about John McCain's experience with the brave Ben Ferguson, who never saw a conflict he was afraid to send other people's sons to. The purposeful and obtuse willingness on the part of CNN/HLN's Mike Galanos to further the narrative started by his colleague Rick Sanchez that Clark was "swiftboating" McCain by questioning his experience, his patriotism and his sacrifice as a veteran and POW is stunning. There's not even an attempt to see it from the other side. Note even the chyron headline is that Clark is questioning McCain's "service," a shorthand that spins it in a far more malevolent way.

Cenk does what I think all of us have to do when confronted with this kind of illogical and intractable meme, especially when you're outmanned by both the pearl-clutching media host and the indignant conservative "balance": he laughs at it.

FERGUSON: You have a man that was shot down, stayed in captivity as a POW for five years and your guy-if you want to talk about experience-had 147 days in the Senate before he decided he wanted to be President of the United States of America. So it's pretty dumb for Wesley Clark to go out there and yes, it ticked off everyone in the military because this man-I mean, I'm sorry, being shot down, to say that doesn't qualify you to be President-this man has been around war, been in actual war zones while Wesley Clark was sitting in an air-conditioned room, telling people what to do with NATO, so I don't know if he's exactly the right guy to go out there.

It ticked off everyone in the military? Really? Care to back that up, big man? And what's with the disrespect of Clark's service? A retired general who spent his career in command doesn't merit the respect you demand for a pilot? Was he in an air-conditioned room during Vietnam? Bosnia? Not so much. Maybe little radio talk show hosts sitting in the comfort of their air-conditioned studios might want to think twice before castigating any military man for his service.

UPDATE: Cenk reminds me that there was a second part to the segment after the commercial break and you can see both parts here. Cenk got in some good digs too.

In her Wall Street Journal column last week, Peggy Noonan lamented the fact that religion was quickly becoming too important to Republican voters. “[T]here is a sense in Iowa now,” she wrote, “that faith has been heightened as a determining factor in how to vote, that such things as executive ability, professional history, temperament, character, political philosophy and professed stands are secondary, tertiary.”

Noonan added that “things seem to be getting out of kilter, with the emphasis shifting too far” towards over-valuing religious faith over secular qualifications. She warned that if this trend continues, Republicans may soon find themselves in “a different kind of party.”

Noonan raised a related point today, noting the “famous floating cross” in Mike Huckabee’s TV ad this week, the former Reagan speechwriter called the commercial “creepy.”

Note to Noonan: you helped create this mess; it's too late to complain now.

Hey folks, it's Blue Gal with another round up of blog posts you might have missed...

Street Prophets: Memo to the Democrats: you can't be pro-torture and claim to have any Christian or American values. And Mr. Huckabee, a reminder to you that Jesus was just a gol'darn liberal, bless his heart.

Gin and Tacos: War is not a sacrifice for the Neocons. Honest to God, sit back and try to picture a commercial in which the government asks Hannity's listeners to drive less.

BlueNC: Not all Presidential Candidates are alike....

Monkey Muck: Best (recaptioned) cartoon of the week...

President Bush announced that he was opening up the military airways to help ease air traffic congestion for the holidays and Fox & Friends was jumping for joy. Finally, Bush did something that they could celebrate, right? Wrong....

Download | play Download | play (h/t Scarce for the vid)

"Great," said Steve Doocy a few times as he waited for Mike Boyd, an aviator analyst to agree....unfortunately, he quickly threw water on their happiness and called Bush's new measure a waste of time..

Doocy:...what's that going to do?

Boyd: What Bush said yesterday isn't going to fix anything.

Q: Yea, but isn't it going to open it up at least the people will not experience potentially some of the delays that we've all been experiencing in the last year. It seems to have gotten so much worse?

Boyd: It's not going to be any better or any worse, but the point is there is not much military air space that's going to make a whole lot of difference. Plus, we still have the dilapidated air traffic control system that can't handle weather, managing those airplanes, so we're just as vulnurable as we were last week. Not gonna be any better, but it might not going to be any worse.--but this is no solution. What I heard yesterday from President Bush was him reading off of a crib sheet. It was really embarrassing.

Doocy: Mike Boyd, who will not be going to the White House Christmas party this year...(laughter)

I'm sure Mike was anxiously waiting for his invite to appear....That'll teach him....

WaPo:

President Bush yesterday announced measures intended to curb airline delays during the Thanksgiving travel frenzy, including freeing up military airspace for commercial use. "We can do better," Bush said at a White House briefing. "We can have an aviation system that's improved."

The Federal Aviation Administration and the Defense Department will open military airspace from Florida to Maine -- creating Thanksgiving express lanes for commercial planes -- between Wednesday and Sunday next week.

I knew talk radio in this country skewed heavily to the far-right, but I had no idea it was this bad.

While progressive talk is making inroads on commercial stations, right-wing talk reigns supreme on America’s airwaves. Some key findings:

* In the spring of 2007, of the 257 news/talk stations owned by the top five commercial station owners, 91 percent of the total weekday talk radio programming was conservative, and only 9 percent was progressive.

* Each weekday, 2,570 hours and 15 minutes of conservative talk are broadcast on these stations compared to 254 hours of progressive talk — 10 times as much conservative talk as progressive talk.

* 76 percent of the news/talk programming in the top 10 radio markets is conservative, while 24 percent is progressive.

That’s astounding. America embraces progressive ideas on almost every issue of national significance, but according to this report (.pdf), prepared by the Center for American Progress and Free Press, progressive ideas have practically been wiped from the radio dials.

ZDNet: (link fixed)

Five of the largest ISPs in the US are to start charging businesses for guaranteed delivery of their emails, in a bid to combat spam.

Goodmail Systems, which provides a service called CertifiedEmail, announced on Thursday that it had signed up Comcast, Cox Communications, Time Warner Cable's Road Runner and Verizon as customers. Emails certified using the system are marked with a blue ribbon to show they come from a trusted source, thus bypassing spam filters - a privilege which will cost the sender a quarter of a US cent per email.

The voluntary scheme is aimed at large corporations and financial institutions whose mass mailings are most likely to be spoofed and caught in spam filters. Non-profit groups will be able to use the service for roughly a tenth of the commercial rate.[..]

According to Goodmail, seven US ISPs are now using CertifedEmail, accounting for 60 percent of the US population. Goodmail - which takes up to 50 percent of the revenue generated by the scheme - will for now only approve mail sent by companies and organisations which have been operational for a year or more. Ordinary users can still apply to be whitelisted by individual ISPs, which effectively provides the same trusted status.

I'm reading their justification, but...call me cynical, this just seems like a very dangerous slippery slope. In fact, I asked a few other bloggers their opinion and one directed me to this EFF statement:

Remember the famous email rumor that made the rounds in the 1990s: "Congress is trying to tax your Internet connection, write in now!"

Well what wasn't true in the 1990s is apparently coming true in 2006, only the beneficiaries won't be Uncle Sam -- it will be Yahoo, AOL, and a company ironically called Goodmail.

Cory Doctorow: There's an inverse correlation between the regulation of speech and the freedom of a society. Trying to filter the internet is ridiculous and dangerous.