In doing research for my Linguistics paper on the metaphors used to talk about blogs (wee!), I came across this really interesting article that none other than Berkeley’s own Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, the Kos of Daily Kos, wrote for The American Prospect about a year and a half ago. Kos reflects on the time he spent in the army right after high school, and why he switched from being a presinct-captain Republican to a card-carrying Democrat. It struck me as incredibly poignant, especially with an election nearing, as people are evaluating their own beliefs in choosing a candidate to vote for. It’s a short article, so you should definitely check it out!

P.S. How meta is it that in the midst of writing a paper about blogs, I should be compelled to post one of my own? Oh, academia.

So you’re a member of Cal Dems and you want to make something of membership. THE BLOG! That’s the answer; but you don’t always have time. What do you do?

Easy, sift through the enormity of recent news and general interest articles and post something so we can share in what you have found. Like this:

Hey Democrats! Check this BBC article out.

“Citizens offer new take on news”

And for those weeks where you do have time give us your analysis.

When I arrived on the Berkeley campus this fall, I assumed everyone listened to NPR. I was wrong. I was shocked to learn that even many members of Cal Dems don’t listen to NPR! Now, I completely understand that radio is antiquated even by the standards of my parents’ generation, but NPR is quite possibly one of the best, if not the best, way of disseminating information—especially for people like college students who are always on the go. Podcasts make NPR more accessible than ever. For instance, on my way to class and to meetings I listen the greatest show ever, Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me: The NPR News Quiz. When other Cal students ask “What the hell is that?” I just about fall to my knees and pray to Carl Kassel, the famed and godlike moderator of Wait Wait.

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Ann Coulter calls John Edwards a “faggot” at CPAC.

“I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, but it turns out you have to go into rehab if you use the word ‘faggot,’ so I — so kind of an impasse, can’t really talk about Edwards.”

We already know she’s deranged, but her outstanding record of labeling Democrats as “fags” and “faggots” goes too far. I don’t know what’s worse: that her words are so violent and therefore are so denigrating the public discourse, or that Republicans and CPAC attendees are eating this shit up and loving it.

More here.

With the 2008 presidential campaign just barely begun, it’s entirely fitting that, already, things are getting nasty. While some (yours truly included) are waiting for a Lewinsky-size scandal to rock American politics and finally wake the nation up to something called the government and its workings, for now we’ll have to settle with yet another irritating billionaire stirring things up—in this case movie and music maverick David Geffen.

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Maybe you’ve heard of FOX News’s new show, The 1/2 Hour News Hour (THHNH). (There have been ads on Facebook, and also on FOX, if you’re the type who, like me, watches O’Reilly for kicks from time to time). The latest project of Joel Surnow, the producer of the FOX primetime hit 24, THHNH is billed as a conservative foil to The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, and as a more lighthearted version of other “news” programming on FOX News.

Most reactions I’ve heard have been to the tune of: “This has got to be a joke.”

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