voice

Andrea Fay Friedman, the voice actress who played the role of “Ellen” –the character depicted as having Down syndrome on the Valentine’s Day episode of Family Guy , has responded to the criticism of sometime-Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. Of special significance, Friedman herself has Down syndrome. Palingates has Friedman’s complete response : My name is Andrea Fay Friedman. I was born with Down syndrome. I played the role of Ellen on the “Extra Large Medium” episode of Family Guy that was broadcast on Valentine’s day.

The other day, Sarah Palin announced that she will be working for Fox News. She said one of the reasons that she is excited about working there is because it is a place “… that so values fair and balanced news.” As an opinion columnist, nobody expects me to be “fair and balanced,” but news shows were once. But she actually called today’s Fox News “fair and balanced?” Obviously, the people at Fox may represent the conservative, right wing viewpoint if they want just as MSNBC presents the left wing, liberal viewpoint.

President Obama’s most enduring political weakness has been his relative difficulty connecting with working class white Americans. He won the Democratic nomination in 2008 by building a coalition based around African Americans and white liberals. The economic collapse and the widespread anger at President Bush, pushed a lot of working class white voters towards Obama in November of 2008, but this was a brief alliance, rather than a strong gesture of support.

One day in the middle of my first-ever book tour, a thought woke me up early in the morning. I’d just had an event at a popular L.A. bookstore. I saw old friends, answered great questions, sold a good amount of books. But that next morning I realized: I hadn’t tweeted it. My book is related to Facebook, so I’d created a Facebook event page, told all my book’s fans there, as well as my own friends. I’d e-mailed people I knew in the area who might not be Facebook-friendly. I spread the word as much as I could.

Questioning the media’s priorities is a full time occupation for online denizens — and an undeniably important one, as media coverage shapes our views. The complex tensions between the press and online commentariat, the symbiosis between content producers and consumers, newsmakers and opinion-makers, the gradual morphing of one into the other, these are the defining characteristics of the modern political era. In that vein, it’s worth looking at the story of the moment, the arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr.

However one feels about the passing of Michael Jackson - international superstar, childhood hero, or childhood thief - here’s what I can’t help believing: His death would not have occurred, not in the same way (taking speeding taxis into account) had he lived in Manhattan. What happened to Michael Jackson could only happen in Los Angeles - a city where elegant, moneyed suburbia, and its favorite accessory and most insidious symptom - the elaborately gated community - isolate its residents.

When SarahPAC sends out “Governor’s Statements”, I cringe. Sarah Palin is as predictable as Alaska weather; random, erratic, and dangerous. Her full run embrace of RNC Chairman Michael Steele must be in response to his statement, “We have turned the page. We have turned the corner. No more looking in the review mirror.” Palin translation? “Enough about Reagan, what about ME?!” Alaskans know if you lick steel in the cold, your tongue sticks. As Governor, Sarah Palin has passed the largest budgets in state history.

Full disclosure: I have a hard-on for Bristol Palin - and I don’t mean the good kind. If you’ve read anything I’ve written, this isn’t a huge surprise. Yesterday morning I woke up to Bristol spewing messages of abstinence on the morning news shows. On The Today Show, she talked to Matt Lauer while she sat next to her father and rocked her baby. (Levi wasn’t there. Big surprise.) On GMA, she talked to Chris Cuomo, alone. Why, you ask, was Bristol all over the media?

Perhaps the best innovation in the 2008 presidential campaign was the advent of the post-debate snap poll. For years, we had heard the usual lineup of right-wingers on cable news tell us how bold and impressive their candidate had been in the debate, and somehow, these jokers were allowed to determine the winners and losers of the debates. In 2008, those snap polls made fools of the talking heads until the last debate, when they finally shut their traps and let the snap polls determine the winners. Because according to them in the previous three debates, McCain, Palin and McCain had won.