Fresh Politics, New Media

Each month, I'll be picking the 5 best political comedy moments and blogging about them as a guest over at Luke Broadwater's The Ridiculous Report , a blog sponsored by  The Baltimore Sun/b the site. Check out my picks for June here:  Class is in session: Towson professor picks June's best political comedy.   What do you think was June's best political comedy moment?

Stephen Colbert appeared before the FEC today in order to get permission to talk about his political action committee, "Colbert Super PAC" on The Colbert Report . The 5-1 decision by the FEC only allows Colbert to promote the PAC on his own show, not on other Viacom or Comedy Central Programs.  According to the NYT , here's Colbert's response after the FEC hearing: “There will be others who say, Stephen Colbert, what will you do with the unrestricted super PAC money?” Mr. Colbert told reporters after the F.E.C. hearing. “To which I say, I don’t know. Give it to me and let’s find out.” And for those who can't get enough Stephen Colbert, here's a video of his statement after the FEC hearing.

Nate Silver has a new post over at 538  on the future of same-sex marriage and civil unions ballot initiatives at the state level. In this updated analysis, Silver works to predict the likelihood that various US states will approve bans on same-sex marriage and civil unions. Using data from the 2008 National Annenberg Election Study (yay Anneberg!), Silver incorporates three key state-level variables: median age, ideological orientation (balance between liberals and conservatives), and religiosity. Silver is correct to incorporate these three considerations -- previous research ( my own work included ) shows strong and significant negative relationships between conservative political ideology, religiosity, age, and opinions toward same-sex marriage. Also included are two time-trend or time series variables that measure different approaches to changing public opinion on the issue: a linear trend and an accelerated trend that is set-up to match national shifts in public opinion...

Three interesting stories on same-sex marriage appeared in the NYT  today, signaling that the debate is indeed a large focus of the national media agenda. ** In Rhode Island, legislators approved a civil unions bill with strong religious protections for those opposed to extending the benefit. Apparently, the goal was to pass a same-sex marriage bill but there simply wasn't enough support in the state for such a policy and Governor Lincoln Chafee lacked the political muscle of Cuomo to push a same-sex marriage bill through the Providence state capitol. So is this incremental progress or a victory for the opposition? ** President Obama's position on same-sex marriage apparently continues to "evolve" according to  this story by Sheryl Gay Stolberg in today's NYT. During a press conference yesterday, Obama came a bit closer to endorsing gay marriage, but yet again stopped short.  According to the NYT: "Mr. Obama later held a Gay Pride reception at t...

Will Google+ revolutionize the world of social media with it's promise of increased privacy or will + be just like Buzz and Wave? Anyone out there remember Buzz or Wave? The tech blogs are all talking about + and Gizmodo offers a useful preview of three of Google+ unique features: Circles, Spark, and Hangouts. Also discussed, Google+'s Mobile features. Over at Wired, Steven Levy offers a longer review of the new effort by Google to take a bite out of Facebook when it comes to the world of social networking and the top-secret effort code named "Emerald Sea" that fueled this large-scale, collaborative development. For the non-tech savvy, the NYT  offers a more newsy summary of Google's new effort. For now, those wanting to try out Google+ will need to be invited by a fellow Google user. It will interesting to see whether Google+ can impact the reach of Facebook and/or whether the outcome of Emerald Sea will wash away smaller social networking sites like P...

Yesterday Bachmann traveled to Waterloo, Iowa (her hometown) to "officially" announce her bid for the 2012 GOP nomination. As predicted, she is already providing some entertaining commentary. Yesterday, she suggested that John Wayne (the actor) is also from Waterloo, Iowa and in referring to Wayne suggested,  “That’s the kind of spirit that I have, too.” The problem -- she got the wrong John Wayne. As  Jeff Zeleny noted in an article in today's NYT: " The actor was actually born in Winterset, Iowa, which is about 150 miles southwest of Waterloo. It was John Wayne Gacy, known as the killer clown who raped and murdered 33 teenage boys in the 1970s, who lived in Waterloo." Let's hope Bachmann doesn't possess the same spirit as John Wayne Gacy. For the record, this is John Wayne: And this is John Wayne Gacy: Let's hope that Michele Bachmann quickly learns the difference.

Michele Bachmann, Congresswoman from Minnesota, has been getting a fair amount of attention as the race for the GOP nomination for President kicks into "higher" gear. A favorite of Tea Party voters, Bachmann is doing better in the polls ( in Iowa at least ) and pundits have taken note of her recent performance in the GOP candidates' debate. There are others, including Chris Wallace of Fox News, who aren't ready to take Bachmann so seriously. On Sunday's broadcast, Wallace called Bachmann a "flake." Here's a video of the now viral clip: Bachmann found the comment offensive (with good reason) and Wallace later apologized for his actions. Steve Kornacki over at Salon offers a good summary of the incident and the potential boost in popularity it may actually give Bachmann amongst her most dedicated supporters. Flake or not, Bachmann's past public performances will be an important factor to address as her campaign moves forward. Remember her...