tombiro.com

On Wednesday night, I was scrolling through my RSS reader and checking out some articles of interest when I came across this post on ReadWriteWeb where Sarah Perez discussed a copyright infringement issue on photo sharing site Flickr. The issue at hand was a “Jokerized” photo of President Obama – “Jokerized” meaning made to look like “The Joker” in “The Dark Knight” flick – being pulled off the service for copyright concerns, namely that the familiar TIME magazine cover layout was built around the photo. Now I’m certainly not going to argue that particular issue here, but a main point in Perez’ article was whether this “transformative” photograph / artwork was something that would make it past a legal review. What happened next is the fun part.

As I continued reading the article – I typically read my posts in RSS if full feeds are available and click through to comment or read comments – I found a fascinating advertisement that took me to a poll on NewsMax.com, a well-known news organization typically identified as being on the conservative side of the political spectrum. The ad, as you’ll see below, might be considered a “parodied” look at Barack Obama with a medical cap on, with the link taking you to a poll focused on his health care policies.

So while we’re here, I think it begs us to ask the question as to whether this item (transformative or derivative – you decide!) would pass the same legal “test” as the “Jokerized” image.

I’ve seen a lot of horrible things being thrown around in political campaigns, but this news is pretty terrible. It seems that some individuals shot a black bear in the head in Cullowee, North Carolina, took it to the campus of Western Carolina University, and draped its body with Barack Obama campaign posters that appeared to be stolen from someone’s property.

Seriously, people – is this where it’s at? We’re at the point where killing an animal (and yes, I’m aware that bear hunting season is apparently open there) and making it “represent,” apparently, a political candidate to make your feelings known is the way to go? Forget people talking about racial issues for a minute here, and let’s talk about reality checks that clearly need to be grasped before we can ever be realistic about progress as people in this country. I just don’t understand people, at all. Or, as Jon put it ever so perfectly, this morning, “WTF is wrong with people?”

That’s what I’d like to know.

Now I don’t discuss politics here very often, even with all the fun and excitement I could have trashing my least favorite presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, but I’m going to drop a quick mention today because it has to be said. Unfortunately, my mom lost her special-election effort on Tuesday to Republican Paul Buccellato, whom she had tied with in election day results after all provisional ballots were counted.

While I’m definitely bummed that she didn’t win, after quite decidedly defeating her opposition a couple of years ago after more than 40 years of Republican mayoral wins in a town that, frankly, isn’t that “conservative” in my eyes, it’s pretty clear that at least *someone* wanted a change in structure, and it wasn’t that they just wanted Bea Duffy out of office. We all know about close races and ties and whatnot, and if the runoff is anything to speak of, the town hasn’t changed dramatically one way or the other since Election Day, with about 50 more votes going towards the new mayor. That said, part of the reason I’m even posting this today is in response to the second comment on the Asbury Park Press article I linked to above, where “nutmegffa” said “Thank God! Matawan is saved!” I find it fascinating that someone would throw that out there, almost as if there was some massive outpouring of support for the Republican candidate, so much so that it was the evil Democrats thrown out of office. It’s like anything else, election-wise. It’s always been my experience that if you have a massive voter turnout – at least in the areas I’ve lived – the Democrats tend to get a bigger chunk of the votes. The Republican base consistently votes, while the other party tends to be less consistent, sadly enough. Thankfully, “nutmegffa” didn’t say that this was a mandate, otherwise I would have started screaming my head off, but that’s a whole different discussion.

I’m all for whatever is going to improve a town, county, state, whatever, and if Paul Buccellato can do that for Matawan, then great. If there’s anything I know about my mom’s efforts and interest in politics in the town, it had a lot less to do about her getting herself elected, and a lot more about she, along with the council she’d been behind, changing the way business was getting done there. It just frustrates me so that – on both sides of the party system – that everyone’s so hung up on the “overthrowing” and whatnot that every little detail is completely blown out of proportion. THAT is the reason, beyond a lot of other things, that many people can’t stand the political process and would rather hide out. If people were more concerned about making things happen, or progress (PLEASE don’t confuse that with “progressive,” I beg you), it would be a lot saner of decision, Republican or Democrat, every time we went to the polls. While I might have a (D) next to my name when I go to the primary, when it comes to major elections I always vote on the candidate that I think can do the best job. Apparently, not everyone works that way, and it’s all about “my way or the highway.” If that doesn’t go away, our voting will continue to be dominated by frustration with candidates, hate-speak, and negative marketing efforts.

Congrats to Paul Buccellato on winning in Matawan, I most certainly hope you can keep Matawan going in a forward direction, rather than put it back to the stagnant place it had been for a large part of the 20+ years that I lived there.

Check out this gem of a letter-to-the-editor in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, written by a colleague of mine. Scroll down about 3/4 of the way down the page, to “Mr. Ravenstahl, you are not the average 27-year-old.”

Anna is responding to the comments of Pittsburgh mayor Luke Ravenstahl, who says that his actions, including using a vehicle paid for with Homeland Security dollars to attend a Toby Keith concert, were justified, and that as a 27-year old, he shouldn’t be expected to not “go to concerts like I always have, and go to have a drink with my wife in bars.” Apparently he neglected to add “in cars paid for by the government” to that statement.

Okay, if you know me personally, you probably know that I have zero tolerance for Hillary Clinton. Whether I’m registered as Democrat or not (I am), I’m generally fairly social on the Democrat side and fiscally conservative on the Republican side, as a lot of people these days are. I’m becoming significantly less tolerant of the political correctness trash that is happening on the left, and you’ll hear me comment on that here going forward. That said, when voting, I tend to vote the person. In any case, I can’t stand Hillary Clinton. Did I mention I truly hope that the Democratic Party is smarter than to think that this polarizing figure is not the “hope” for the party.

So when Hillary Clinton was quoted as saying:

“-is this vast right-wing conspiracy that has been conspiring against my husband since the day he announced for President.”

What? I think that by saying it’s a conspiracy says they’re conspiring. Way to sound like an idiot. Aside from the fact that bringing up the VRWC in the first place raises the hairs of just about anyone who has a clue what you’re talking about, don’t use words to describe what a group that has that word in its “name” does.

I just caught on MSNBC that Dick Cheney is believed to have deep vein thrombosis as of today when he apparently had some pain in his leg, and IMed Chris with these details…

[15:29] tom: cheney has a dvt
[15:30] chris: if “dvt” is code for “soul” than i think you’ll find that’s some sloppy journalism

Nice.

Okay, if there’s one podcast out there that everyone should be subscribed to, it’s the Onion Radio News. Check out today’s funny, including Dick Cheney’s need for new human hearts.

I’m about done hearing about how Hillary Clinton is thinking of running for president in 2008 (no shit, ya think?). Thankfully, other people that most certainly don’t make me be aghast at being an American might have their hands in the fray as well, and that’s awesome. Because I’ve got to tell ya – if the Democratic Party were to nominate Hillary Clinton and *honestly* believe that she was a) the best choice for this country and b) actually capable of beating anyone from the Republican side that wasn’t an axe-murderer, then I think we need to all stop and think about things a little bit.

Additionally, a Clinton being put forth would leave me no choice but to set in motion the wheels to allow us as Americans to no longer have to take the “least of the worst” route when voting, and allow for “anti-votes,” that would take votes away from a candidate, rather than actually voting for the other one, just to serve them right.

If you’re listening to Condoleezza Rice’s testimony this morning, then you might notice that she sounds like she’s going to break down sometimes. I can’t tell if that’s just how it sounds when she speaks for long periods of time or not, as most of the time she is in Q&A sessions with reporters, not giving flat out statements. Anyone else notice this?

Otherwise, nothing shocking so far, and I’m not sure if we’re going to hear anything dramatic today.

So, on the way home tonight I see this bumper sticker with a red “no” symbol like Ghostbusters used, with a “W” inside it.

The text says: “Let’s not elect him again in 2004!”

Kinda funny.