If you have been paying attention, you may have noticed that the United States government has reached a level of [choose your favorite] stupidity, ludicrousness, lack of institutional memory, brazen disregard for anything resembling reality, inferred hallucinogenic drug use, soul crushing asshattery, and intelligence insulting rhetoric that has surpassed any and all measure. I lament for our descendants and am redefining the upper bound of contemptuousness for the Federalist system.

Case in point, as beautifully and satisfyingly portrayed on Mr. Stewart’s lovely show:

I hope there will be a return to accountability and common sense within my lifetime. I also hope to live forever. I think the chances for both are just about equal.

BONUS: Pictures from the conflict zone taken by a local. [EnglishRussia.com]

ACM = Alliance for Community Media

In my capacity of general community media support and a bit of Telecommunications Commissioner, I was in attendance at the ACM-Midwest’s annual conference held at the lovely Columbia College in Chicago.

I’m in the video below (web video guy).

I got to talking a little fast. Sorry.

The powerpoint I talk about is here.

I just find this beyond awesome.

Here’s a link to the original source.

Via a DKos diary, I’ve come across a speech rivaling that of Mr. Stephen T. Colbert. That of Mr. Tim Robbins, actor and ‘traitor’, as the keynote speaker for the NAB’s annual meeting.

Please listen and enjoy. [.mp3 format]

Here is a couple videos, in case that’s more your bag.

Part 1

Part 2

This definitely gets its own entry. From a public access show in Atlanta. Probably not suitable for youngin’s. [H/T Josh]

It’s back. And just in time for you to read it. Aren’t you glad? You are now!

• And then there were 4 – Turned out how I expected, although I underestimated Mr. Hayek’s percentage. Here’s John Deeth’s take.
• Riverboat era ending – While I’m not big on casino’s in general, I did have an appreciation for the riverboats [I was a passenger on the Casino Belle at one point, couldn’t gamble (14) but it was still worth the trip]. I wish they had stayed with the ‘it has to move on the water’ clause instead of legalizing land-based gambling by increments.
• The Press-Citizen says “business is set to grow” in Iowa City. A day later, it says “business is booming” in Iowa City. How’s that for a prediction! I wonder what tomorrow will bring…
• In the same vein as above, the local realtors [with an assist by the P-C] are claiming “The Local Market Is Strong“, but the commentors [rightfully] didn’t buy it. I had the same feeling as most just from the headline, but I didn’t put the ‘largest advertisor’ together until reading iowahawkeye‘s comment.
• Complete Internet Census taken. Watch for the shoutout to the xkcd webcomic for the mapping algorithm.
• Microblogging? Google owns some now.
• Tin whiskers? New one on me.
• Bit-Torrent assisted streaming video is on the horizon.
• “It is not a cost overrun. It is an additional contract requirement.”
• King Corn – Just got my hands on a copy and will be viewing it this evening, may try to provide it on PATV.

Today’s Vocab word(s): deep linking

but its nice to have someone say it to you.

It is worth noticing though, the backlink to the SEO site. Even that site could end up being about money. [Update] See this post’s comments. Seems the backlink was just part of the counter code.

Via Digg

AND this type of crap is also part of our problem.

The Net Neutrality debate just got alot more interesting…

LOLLAPALOOZA WEBCAST: SPONSORED/CENSORED BY AT&T?

After concluding our Sunday night show at Lollapalooza, fans informed us that portions of that performance were missing and may have been censored by AT&T during the “Blue Room” Live Lollapalooza Webcast.

When asked about the missing performance, AT&T informed Lollapalooza that portions of the show were in fact missing from the webcast, and that their content monitor had made a mistake in cutting them.

Found via a DKos article, which including the following observation:

That’s right. AT&T, like other telcos who say you can “just trust them” not to censor content in the absence of mandatory net neutrality, just did exactly what everyone who’s worried about net neutrality always believe they would do.

What’d that take? About ten seconds?

For more information on net neutrality and ways you can help protect expression on the internet, click thru to Save the Internet.

More Articles:
http://machinist.salon.com/blog/2007/08/08/pearl_jam/index.html
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6466942.html

Zeropaid, ever the champions of P2P/Torrents, has a quick piece on the leaking of the Simpsons movie and the effect on ticket sales. Good discussion fodder.