Just in case you needed further proof that any friction can be removed by a little black crude, we bring you the story of a very famous match:

George and Abdullah.

Bill Frist did his best rendition of what, by today’s GOP standards, is considered moderation. In distancing himself from Tom DeLay, he boldy came out in favor of not kicking the shit out of judges:

When we think judicial decisions are outside mainstream American values, we will say so. But we must also be clear that the balance of power among all three branches requires respect—not retaliation. I won’t go along with that.

Isn’t that decent of him?

Let’s get to the more basic question: Why judges?

It actually makes perfect sense.

Let’s review the way the GOP has masterfully managed their ascension over the past three decades or so. The core idea was that they needed to deliver a honed message directly to the American people. They began by massively funding think tanks that were tasked with repackaging the Party. Getting that new message out was critical: Direct mail helped, talk radio helped a lot, the internet has been quite useful.

The next step was to remove obstacles. If you are trying to get your message to the masses and you don’t want that message to be in any way challenged, you need to begin to discredit those who could it.

Who can do that? Well, journalists tend to be pretty skeptical. So you need to begin an intense and ongoing campaign to position them as liberal. Then there are those nasty academics who question the reality of your statements about the economy and foreign affairs. How can you convince people what’s good for them if really smart people keep introducing data that suggests the opposite? So you need to discredit academics as the liberal and intellectual elite.

But wait. How do you discredit people for being intellectually elite when all of you are rich and went to Ivy League schools? That’s an easy one. Just discredit those smart enough to bring that up before they do. Who will believe them?

Messaging is everything. And that’s why the GOP has successfully discredited the media as being liberal in the age of Fox and discredited the elite while electing a Yale graduate, son of a president.

When you look at things this way, it becomes pretty obvious why judges are the next targets. They are the next group of pretty powerful and pretty smart folks who can stand in the way of your definition of the Constitution and values. In a country where our jails are filled with poor black people, you’ve got to admit that it’s pretty amazing to see rich, white dudes railing against the judiciary.

How bad are judges? They are so terrible that the head of the Senate must give a speech in which he makes it clear that “retaliation” against them – while tempting – would not be becoming for a man who seeks the Oval Office.

Media. Check
Academics: Check
Judges: In progress

I guess with the money spent on coverage, it shouldn’t really surprise us that the news nets have gone absolutely berserk with their coverage of everything Papal. I haven’t seen this much of a frenzy around a plume of whitish smoke since I attended a Day on the Green concert at the Oakland Coliseum in the late 70s.

So much for the ungodly press. Even a degloved, baby-dangling, Jacko in pajama bottoms doing the moonwalk across a jury box can’t break into the Vatican coverage.

But does it strike anyone else as odd that there has been a bit of shock and a lot of disappointment created by the fact that the Catholic hierarchy picked a new pope who is really into, well, the pretty hardcore religious stuff about being Catholic? I mean he seems pretty into the strict old school rules and has on several occasions implied that he’s definitely bought into this whole Jesus Christ as savior line of thinking. If you read between the lines, he seems to outwardly prefer that theory over, say, being Jewish (I hear that he never even briefly considered being a rabbi or doing the whole L Ron Hubbard thing). Were you really expecting someone who thinks that condoms and birth control make sense and that atoning for the crimes of the American priesthood is of utmost concern? Or maybe the nominee would’ve refused to walk out onto that balcony until women had their chance to vote on the matter? Is it that shocking that this will be a rigidly faith-based Papal tenure?

Does it ever seem like there’s one story happening and another one being covered?

In an entry where he wonders “Why did traffic on nytimes.com rise?”, Jason Kottke gets right to an all too often ignored point about blogs and newspapers.

By some counts, the number of blogs is doubling every few months and the NY Times, despite their content being behind a registration wall and their links expiring after a few days (unless you know the secret code), is a favorite source that bloggers link to. During the 2004 Presidental campaign, the Times was the #1 most cited media source and was cited equally by both sides of the political aisle.

In the words of Ben Kingsley’s character Don Logan in the movie Sexy Beast: Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

Blogs are the best thing to happen to newspapers in over a decade. The never-ending storyline of blogs vs journalism totally misses this point. And so have plenty of newspaper executives.

What we have here is a group of thousands of virtual paperboys, all over the world, who are shouting “extra, extra” at the top of their lungs.

We know that mainstream media finds it nearly impossible to report stories that are neither hot nor cold, but warm. A story that suggests that blogs are both a bit a challenge to some parts of the newspaper industry and the most important marketing channel they’ve had in years just doesn’t make for good reading. We need enemies and harshly opposing views to make for good mainstream headlines.

Is the same nonsense going to infect the blogosphere?

A dude from California is trying to pressure state officials to change the name of Mount Diablo because the word devil is offensive to his religious sensibilities.

Se Habla Loco.

From the complainant Art Mijares: “Words have power, and when you start mentioning words that come from the dark side, evil thrives. When I take boys camping on the mountain, I don’t even like to say its name. I have to explain what the name means. Why should we have a main feature of our community that celebrates the devil?”

A couple of thoughts.

First, letting your kid go camping on Mount Anything with this guy makes about as much sense as agreeing to a Neverland slumber party.

Second, if the current political and cultural trends in this country continue apace, Art Mijares will soon be considered a moderate.

Hey, what do you think of when I say the word audioclouds?

My guess is that it’s probably not a head motion that can change a song on your iPod.

Thankfully, this body talking tech is still in the hands of scientists. The marketers still have a shot to come up with some alternate branding.

In the boom, a company called Audioclouds would’ve been able to raise 10 mil at a 20 post with nothing but the name.

(And damn, I miss it so …)