Hiatus.

Exhausted by political vitriol, rankled by the failure of our elected officials to adequately safeguard the mechanisms of the American democratic process, and ever more surprised by the lengths to which those in power will go to keep that power, The Malcontent is on vacation through Nov. 1.

The political dialogue.

Ah, this is what politics is all about: neighbors talking with neighbors about why they support their candidate.

No wonder Jon Stewart is a little worked up.

(A little note to Novak and Carville. Stewart is brilliant, you guys are a-holes, and your 15 minutes are way, way up. James, go back to running campaigns and quit jumping into the goddamn spotlight. It is unbecoming. Bob, scamper back for the cover of the rock that you crawled out from under, and just hope that Valerie Plame's colleagues aren't waiting for you in the tall grass.)

The Devil Walks Among Us....

....and his name is Ralph Nader.

--Look, we here at the Malcontent, where our motto is "We're not satisfied," clearly think that ol' Uncle Ralph could not be engaging in his narcissistic games if the Democrats had been taking care of their base and crafting a vision of governance that is something more that the trite pseudo-populist crapola they have been shoveling. (In fact, we hereby declare the Democratic "populist" non-vision--and you know who we're talking about, Shrummy-- to be "poopulism.") Still, knock it off, Ralph, you f***ing f***.

Male Bass in Potomac Producing Eggs.

Well, I'm no ichthyologist, but this is clearly f***ed up.

I'm mad as hell!

And I'm not going to take it anymore! (What?!? Am I the only person under 40 who saw Network?)

Hold Sinclair responsible for their breach of the public trust. Challenge their ability to hold a public broadcast license. The license to broadcast carries concomitant responsibilities.

Cross-posted on MSD.

Critical Scientific Question of the Day.

Science finally discovers something that matters. (Hey, screw penicillin and DNA!)

The empirical data about the 5-second rule.

(Also, the dangerous risks of country music were revealed! ...Or is it just a government plot to reduce the numbers of rednecks in the U.S.?)

Thanks to AIR and the IgNobel Posse for bringing forth the knowledge.

Surrealist theater.

The Washington Post's Tom Shales takes apart the debate--with a critic's eye, not a pundit's spin--and we all benefit from his insight.

Shales points out the monotony, the irrelevancy, and the generally low caliber of the answers.

(The Malcontent thought he might have suffered a stroke and lost his ability to understand language while watching the debate--but no, the candidates are just surrealist masters of the nonresponsive answer. Particularly true of the President: Asked about minimum wage? Talk about education!)

Shales notes Bush's flip, grinning, cheap approach to last night's debate:

When Schieffer asked a question about jobs, Bush took his cheapest shot of the evening, ignoring the question to say to Kerry, "There's a mainstream in American politics, and you sit right on the far left bank," then adding that Kerry was so liberal he made Kennedy look like the conservative senator from Massachusetts.

It was crummy behavior for a president of the United States, the kind of thing better left to lap-dog pit bulls such as vice presidents.

Well said, Tom.

The smirking, giggling, bizarre affect of the President made The Malcontent wonder if he was over-medicated--but then his snide, vacuous statements made him appear to be his usual self.

Kerry, trying hard to appear to have a pulse, was adequate, if completely uninspiring. The President, on the other hand, seemed unhinged, which makes us here at The Malcontent Home Office a little more uneasy than usual.

Sinclair: We're Political Whores! (and it shows!)

Sinclair Broadcasting, which owns both the Fox and WB affiliates in Baltimore, is pushing an anti-Kerry "documentary" to be broadcast during the next two weeks, encouraging affiliates to pre-empt their regular programming.

This is fierce partisanship by a major broadcaster (a problem, because the airwaves belong to the public and play a critical role in a free democratic discourse--see Reed Hundt's letter on Josh Marshall's Talking Points Memo for a nice succinct take on this), completely ethically inappropriate, and potentially illegal.

Sinclair's defense of their plan has also been completely foul--their VP Mark Hyman referred to those opposed to show the propaganda as being akin to Holocaust deniers, drawing a rapid rebuke from the ADL.

The blogosphere is on fire with this one. ( Josh Marshall has been blogging this pretty intensely, so The Malcontent thanks him for doing most of the legwork for what is linked in this entry.)

The Malcontent is based in Baltimore, and watches Fox for morning news and The Simpsons. Not anymore. We'll be boycotting advertisers, AND we'll be letting the local stations' sales managers know this. Some advice on effective boycotting can be found here and here. Contact email for Sinclair executives? Here.

So what can The Malcontent add? Well, there was a boycott website, but it is either down or overloaded. So if you live in the Baltimore area, please feel free to comment with the names of advertisers on Baltimore's Fox 45 or WB affiliate. (That way, when you call the sales manager, you can let them know exactly which businesses you will be contacting to inform them that you will no longer be buying their services or products.)

Some local businesses that I know advertise on Fox?
Sylvan Learning Centers/Laureate.
Antwerpen Auto.

Sounds like a little slice of heaven.

Anyone want to move to Loving County, Texas? (The Malcontent would, but then that would ruin their big draw.)

Free Speech?

Fugghedabouit.

Federal Prisoner No. 55170-054 reports to prison.

It's a good thing.

Attack of the clones!

Here they come!
(And they only cost $50,000. This will drive the anti-technologists wild.)

If you are missing little Snowball and are rich, desperate, and a little off kilter, click here. (Though we here at The Malcontent House of Ghoulish Sympathy hope your wee kitten hasn't been dead too long--see "How long after death can you obtain viable DNA?" in the FAQ.)

Pinocchio W. Bush

Look, and you can see the puppet's strings! But who is the puppetmaster?

Cross-posted to Minimum Safe Distance.

51.375% in favor.....

If you like polls, this is your kind of website.

Not only do they have all the political race polls, but they have little nuggets like the June 2004 ABC news poll on whether people favor replacing Hamilton's face on the 10-spot with Reagan's.

Hmm....Hamilton, a founding father, author of the Federalist Papers, first secretary of the U.S. Treasury or Reagan, mindless advocate of trickle-down voodoo economics? It's a tough call.

(A wise 54% opposed it, 11% were clueless as to the nature of their own minds. A shocking 36% said they wanted Reagan's wrinkly mug on the 10-dollar bill--I can only assume because they hate America.)

Dear Applicant....

Sorry, but here at The Malcontent Amalgamated Business Enterprises, we just ain't hiring.

That New York Times--they're always looking for the next wave. It's cute, in an Old Media sort of way.

We here at The Malcontent want to get in on that whole prognosticatey vibe. Here we go....

Next trend?

Business consultants to help you created the right kind of blog to attract the best applicants and thus maximize your human capital!

Please note: The Malcontent is available for this very purpose for a very reasonable fee.

Also note: The previous note is crap. Don't take business advice from the kind of people who waste endless hours on fripperies like this blog. What are you, an idiot? Oh! You say you used to head up Enron.....

Peer pressure wins.

OK, OK, in today's food post, The Malcontent crumbles under the pressure of public opinion like a sweet, buttery cookie!

The new Gourmet Cookbook is out, it's awesome, and it is definitely not just good looking.

All hail the glamorous culinary goddess Ruth Reichl! She also writes a damn fine memoir.

You just won't be happy without a recipe? Fine, try this one. (Hey, we here at The Malcontent Test Kitchen warned you that we are obsessed with apples.)

Dubya: Good for Art?

Any regular reader (though frankly, we suspect most of our readers are irregular, in one fashion or another) will know that The Malcontent is no fan of the truth-disregarding, profligate-spending, religious-pandering 43rd president.

However, in presenting such a smug, callous, imperial approach to governance, he appears to be firing up artists in a way that we haven't seen in a long while. Among the examples:

Sam Shepard has a new play.

The Beastie Boys are afire with political rhymes on their new album.

Tony Kushner's new work, Only We Who Guard the Mystery Shall Be Unhappy. (OK, maybe T.K. would be blowing up regardless, but still.)

Philip Roth's new book, The Plot Against America (which spawned an insanely long review in the Times.)

Playwrights, novelists, musicians, visual artists, and filmmakers, of course.

Hmmm... He is a uniter!

Well, maybe "potty-trained" was what he meant....

Josh Marshall catches Bush out on the 100,000 "trained" police officers in Iraq.

Really, it's just too easy. When the emperor doesn't care if anyone knows he's lying.....

What?!? No Diana Ross?

That's right, folks. It's the first monday in October, and that means the Supremes are gettin' the band back together!

Linda Greenhouse breaks down the 2004-2005 Supreme Court's docket (so far) for you in the NYT.

Remember, some of these Honorable cats will be retiring in the near future, so whoever is elected in November will likely have an opportunity to appoint some new folks--so, go register to vote!

OK, the debate.

Despite The Malcontent's pledge to avoid the debate (mindless pageantry! yet another meaningless spectacle!), all eyes were on CNN last night at La Casa de los Malcontents.

Here in The Nation's Crapitol...I mean, CAPitol...everyone seems to be endlessly parsing the debate. Who won? What did it mean? What about W's expression? What about Kerry's message? Blah, blah, blabbity, blab, blab.

But there was one thing on TV last night that was new. Something that you haven't seen before.

It was this: you saw someone--in this case Senator John Kerry--holding the President accountable for his actions--for his lies, half-truths, incompetencies, and inactions.

And since this President never allows anyone near him to question his actions, to contradict his inanities, to call him out on his blatant lies, or to criticize his clear failings as a leader--well, the debate was a real, breaking, television moment.

As this President only allows scripted questions from the faithful, avoids the press, and personally disparages people who dare to question any leader's decisions (other than those cats in the Axis of Evil), it is probably the first time IN YEARS such a thing has happened.

It was actually not the same old, same old--it was the news. And, well, I'll be! I'm glad I watched.

Ars longa, vita brevis.

It's October. The Malcontent turns two years old.

It's like a monument to wasted time.