Wow. This is the first day of the third month of this garbage: I started on 13 August 2010. I still don’t know what the point is.

Byron Williams: Pawn

You may remember Byron Williams as the guy who engaged in a 12-minute shoot-out with the California Highway Patrol in Oakland on 18 July of this year. It turns out, he was on his way to assassinate people at the Tides Foundation. Most people don’t know the foundation, unless they watch a lot of Glenn Beck. They are a good group that gives money to grassroots and environmental causes. Of course, they are something far more nefarious to Beck and his followers—especially Byron Williams. Media Matters for America has an excellent article about Byron Williams, but you will get most of the information you need from this eight-minute video:

The W-Word?!

The San Jose Mercury News has a good overview of last night’s third and final debate between Brown and Whitman. What most struck me in the debate was Tom Brokaw’s assertion that the word “whore” is the same as the n-word to some women. Whitman, of course, pushed this idea—as did her supporters in the audience. This is ridiculous. If there is one word that almost every woman I know hates, it is the c-word. No one says “the w-word” in polite company. In fact, the word “whore” isn’t overwhelmingly associated with women; it is often used in reference to men. The Whitman campaign is just trying to make an issue out of this where none exists.

Another aspect of this will likely strike many as an unimportant detail, but it bugs me. People keep saying that a Brown aide called Whitman a whore. This is not the case. An aide suggested that Brown call Whitman a whore because she was willing to exempt firefighters and police from pension reform in order to get their support. The exact line was, “What about saying she’s a whore?” If we substituted “socialist” for “whore” would anyone be saying the aide called her a socialist? I don’t think so. Obviously, the Brown campaign can’t make such fine distinctions. But can’t the rest of us? Shouldn’t Tom Brokaw be clear on this point?

Eric Cantor on The Daily Show

During the on-air part of the interview of Eric Cantor on The Daily Show, he was given a lot of latitude with the truth. It sounded almost like a commercial for him. It was only during the Internet-only 18-minute interview where Jon Stewart hammered him. Unfortunately, Stewart had to end on a sour note about not being able to have philosophical conversations with Democrats. When was the last time Stewart had someone on the left who is as extreme as Cantor is on the right?

Maybe Ann Can Be Carl’s Second Mistress

Although I think Bill O’Reilly is an offensive guy with some real anger issues, his politics are more varied than you would think—he is pro-choice, for example. Ann Coulter was on his show Monday defending Carl “Gays are disgusting! Check out this video of a woman doing it with a horse!” Paladino. Bill demurred.