A really interesting piece in the NYT today about the growth of Iraqi talk radio. Though it sounds like they’re only beginning to tread on political discussions over the air, I’m curious to see how it develops. (Is there an Iraqi Rush out there somewhere??) And I’m also somewhat surprised that the station doesn’t sound like it’s getting a lot of anti-American feedback (though that could just be something omitted in this report).

Same night, same speeches, two views:

Christopher Caldwell in the Weekly Standard:

Giuliani should have been the oratorical silver bullet of this convention. Bush’s response to September 11 is the basis on which his presidency

(rightly) will be judged. The one person with unimpeachable authority to say what he wants about it is Giuliani, who–manna from electoral heaven–is a pro-Bush Republican who got elected by swing voters. So why was Giuliani chosen to speak on Monday night (when the networks weren’t present) while the novelty-act Georgia “Democrat” Zell Miller gets to go before a national audience to heave red meat at Southern conservatives who’ll vote for Bush anyway?

Giuliani’s speech was not what it could have been. A magnificent 18-minute kernel of post–September 11 reminiscences, humor, anti-Kerry invective, and skillful courtship of the Jewish vote (by linking decades of terrorism against Israel to contemporary terrorism against America) was bloated into a 45-minute shaggy-dog story by Giuliani’s own extemporizing. Some editor failed to stand up to him. The speech collapsed under the weight of attempting to do two incompatible things: (1) woo liberals conservative on defense with the same commonsensical appeals he used as mayor to woo liberals conservative on crime and disorder; and (2) fling invective at the Democrats (implying they swear a lot) that played well in the hall but will keep crossover voters from crossing over in the first place.

William Saletan in Slate:

More egregiously than McCain, Giuliani equates the plotters of 9/11 with the butchers of Iraq. He recalls Bush’s vow that the terrorists who attacked America would “hear from us.” “They heard from us in Iraq,” says Giuliani. To get around the absence of WMD, he adds that Saddam “was himself a weapon of mass destruction.” Please. There’s nothing less suitable for strained metaphors than weapons of mass destruction. They’re horribly literal. Don’t insult the gravity of these weapons by suggesting that even if the country you invaded didn’t have them, the guy who ran the country is sort of like one of them.

The twist Giuliani adds to McCain’s argument is an obsessive repetition of two opposing concepts. Giuliani calls them “offense” and “defense.” Defense is what lily-livered liberals advocate: waiting for terrorists to attack us. Offense is what Bush is doing: hitting the terrorists before they can hit us. The offense/defense metaphor treats the use of force as a football game, in which the enemy is clear, and every attack we launch is an advance. This eliminates the salient complication of reality: Al-Qaida and Saddam were distinct adversaries, and attacking the latter wasn’t necessarily an advance against the former.

For the record, I thought McCain’s speech hit the right notes for the most part, arguing for unity and constancy as a strategic move, but Giuliani dragged the party’s rhetoric back to the overly simplistic black/white, on/off, us/them worldview that’s turned off a lot of people, myself included. Three more nights to go, though…

I’ve been quiet these last couple of days because I’ve been listening to obsessing over some great music I dumped on to a CD. Felt like annotating the setlist, for no particular reason than to do it:

• The Flaming Lips — Fight Test
  
  I don’t know if YOSHIMI BATTLES THE PINK ROBOTS is as good an album, start to finish, as THE SOFT BULLETIN was, but it’s still an album full of songs about scientists, robots, and… more scientists, I think. How can you not like a song with a line like “I don’t know where the sunbeams end/and the starlights begin/it’s all a mystery”? (Listen to the stream at their website)
  
• Yeah Yeah Yeahs — Y Control
  
  Listen to this on my lousy radio at work with only one working speaker, and I still get hooked by the guitar drone/whine at the outset. I think I’m listening to old Killing Joke for some odd reason before Karen O’s voice shatters that illusion. (and I still say she sounds like Chrissie Hynde.) (Video for “Y Control” here)
  
• New Pornographers — The Electric Version
  
  I blame this one on the Han/xtop/Chu/Fraction Gang of Four. The damn thing is addictive — it moves so much. Pity that more modern pop/rock doesn’t have the same kind of bright sound this song puts out. (mp3 clip here)
  
• Franz Ferdinand — Take Me Out
  
  More to blame on the radio station. Why does the last two-thirds of the song sound like a lost track from the Eighties by Rockwell? (clip)
  
• Pixies — Bam Thwok
  
  I am a latecomer to the glory that is the Pixies, so I don’t have fond memories to compare this new track by the reunited band to — to me, it’s just one more piece of their catalog. Dig it, though I have to agree with those who’ve said that they wish Frank Black’s voice were more upfront. Black’s last tour through Columbus with the Catholics was probably the single best live show I’ve ever seen, and if that’s how he sounds now that he’s “all grown up” beyond the juvenilia of the Pixies, I can’t wait to hear how they sound now that they’re back together. October 4, baby. (“Bam Thwok” and iTunes)
  
• My Morning Jacket — One Big Holiday
  
  This show was like watching Cousin It play Skynyrd and Creedence covers. It was awesome. (Amazon clip here)
  
• RJD2 — Through the Walls
  
  Columbus boy who apparently got bored being ignored by the city. Undefinable indie rock/DJ/sample stuff (well, maybe undefinable by me — I don’t have the vocabulary to describe how many different themes he works through in the space of about four minutes, but it works.)
  
• The Postal Service — The District Sleeps Alone Tonight
  
  This one’s McKeever’s fault. I borrowed it, I listened and enjoyed, I returned and forgot — and then heard “Such Great Heights” on the radio one afternoon. Remembered, went out and got it myself. This track’s better. The unconscious association I make with “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” is probably intentional and to this song’s benefit, even though there’s really no relation of any kind. (download the mp3 from SubPop here)
  
• Sam Roberts — This Wreck of a Life
  
  I saw this guy with Casey at Little Brothers’ last summer. Nobody was there. Sam didn’t care and gave us a great Rock Show. This was one of the most affecting tracks of the evening.
  
• The Thorns — Blue
  
  Cover of the Jayhawks’ standout by the Matthew Sweet/Edwin McCain/Pete Droge CSNY pastiche. Best part is that I can’t figure out which one of ’em’s hitting that top note. (listen to a clip here)
  
• The Beatles — Yesterday
  
  If you don’t like this song, you are a Communist.
  
• Snow Patrol — Run
  
  I had gotten home the other night from work and was in the basement putting a load of laundry in the washer when my cell phone rang. It was Val: the only thing she said was “Snow Patrol.” “So, yeah…Snow Patrol.” When she says she likes a song, I have to go find it, because it’s like a no-hitter: doesn’t happen that often, and when it does, hoo boy. (play the video for “Run” here)
  
• The Whiles — Lonesome Reply
  
  Local kids. Wait for the build at the end; the wall of sound is crushing. Sounds better in the recording than it does live, though that might have been just the lousy setup at the Newport. (download the track here)
  
• Turin Brakes — The Optimist
  
  I’m not even sure how I first stumbled across this, but it’s pretty in a spacey-Nick-Drake kind of way. (clips from THE OPTIMIST LP available here)
  
• The Finn Brothers — Edible Flowers
  
  Heard on, of all things, NPR last week. A beautiful, beautiful arrangement, and that harmonization! (stream from their website — click on audio/video)
  
• The Last Hotel — Buried
  
  Yet another Columbus band. Listen to this and you might hear the Jeff Buckley influence — but is that really such a bad thing, after all? (stream it here)
  
• The Secret Machines — Nowhere Again
  
  There’s something about this that, I swear, makes me nostalgic for my first year in Columbus in law school. I can’t explain it, I have no idea why it does, but the images conjured up are all neon-lit nighttime scenes set in smoky downtown bars. Weird. (mp3 for you here)
  
• Modest Mouse — Float On
  
  I keep thinking the lead singer’s voice is just gonna break in the middle of one of those yelps. (here’s the video)
  
• Wilco — The Late Greats
  
  I was reading a review of A GHOST IS BORN (okay, it was probably on Pitchfork, and there goes all my cred when I tell you I tended to agree with at least this notion): Wilco’s most direct antecedent is, in all probability, The Band. Listen to this track and you get that. Not so much with the rest of the album, no — but I think it’s the jangly piano near the end of this. (stream the whole damn album for free here)

I don’t know whether to cry about this story or to be physically ill… but how intoxicated do you have to be not to notice that you just killed your passenger?

Ok, I realize it’s stupid to be annoyed by this, but WHY does the Washington Post insist on referring to John Kerry as “John F. Kerry”? I noticed this a few weeks ago, and since then, EVERY story I’ve seen refers to him this way. I know the Senator idolizes JFK (the REAL one), but does the Post have to indulge him on that?

Need a new car? How about two? Apparently, a dealership in New Jersey is offering a used Nissan with every new Nissan purchase. You just have to wonder… are they hiding something in the trunks or what?

My friend Bill was on hand this morning to ring the opening bell at the NASDAQ. Awesome.

Until recently, much of the discussion among tech enthusiasts about a controversial anti-piracy bill known as the Induce Act has focused on the proposed law’s improbability.

…But since its introduction, nine co-sponsors have signed on, both Democrats and Republicans.

And significantly, that list of co-sponsors now includes two of Congress’ most influential members: Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tennessee) and Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-South Dakota).

…In an apparent reaction to widespread criticism of the current draft of the bill, Hatch solicited help in drawing up alternative language. A number of groups have responded: One coalition proposed a counterpoint “Don’t Induce Act,” and a wide array of technology and free-speech advocates have developed others.

Entertainment industry organizations which back the bill in its present form, including the Recording Industry Association of America and the Motion Picture Association of America, have not submitted alternate proposals.

“There’s no way this is passing in its current form — it can’t go anywhere if you have everyone but content industries against it,“, said Public Knowledge President Gigi Sohn, whose group was among those who released alternatives to Induce this week.

###

…and yet, according to the same story, Hatch is planning (and likely will be able to) report some kind of legislation out of committee before the end of this Congressional session. The question is, given that kind of time frame, what kind?