John McCain claims he is responsible for the BlackBerry. From AP:

At least that's the contention of a top McCain policy adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin. Waving his BlackBerry personal digital assistant and citing McCain's work as a senator, he told reporters Tuesday, "You're looking at the miracle that John McCain helped create."

We don't know which is funnier. The fact that McCain's top policy adviser said McCain who has admitted he doesn't know how to use a computer or send email helped create the BlackBerry or that the BlackBerry is a miracle.

Still this is coming from people that claim being close to Siberia gives you foreign policy experience.

Watch for all the analogies that McCain is like the BlackBerry and Barack Obama is the iPhone.

Both LAT and NYT ran stories about Republican Veep Nominee Sarah Palin's 'rapport' with the press.

NYT's wonders why John McCain is turning on his base.

LAT's James Rainey thinks that the tabloids digging up alleged dirt 'hurts the public'. We argue that not getting the John Edwards affair hurt newspapers.

Politico's Roger Simon lists the reasons why the liberal media should apologize for Sarah Palin coverage:

Fifth, we should stop reporting on the families of the candidates. Unless the candidates want us to.

Sarah Palin wanted the media to report on her teenage son, Track, who enlisted in the Army on Sept. 11, 2007, and soon will deploy to Iraq.

Sarah Palin did not want the media to report on her teenage daughter, Bristol, who is pregnant and unmarried.

Sarah Palin thinks that one is good for her campaign and one is not, and that the media should report only on what is good for her campaign. That is our job, and that is our duty. If that is not actually in the Constitution, it should be. (And someday may be.)

The official theme of the convention's third day was "prosperity," but the unofficial theme was "the media are really, really awful."

Barack Obama described his first year in the Senate using the phrase 'like drinking from a fire hose'. That's Comic Con after sitting on the 5 freeway for six hours. We got to the convention center and wasted no time trying to find the Kevin Smith panel we were supposed to attend. We were told it was in one place and then told it was in another. Finally we found what we thought was the hall where the panel was. Our glide to the doors was intercepted by tall humorless guy (the one in black pictured below).

We explained to him that we were on the list. He explained to us that we needed to stand in the line.

"Everyone has to enter the hall from the outside where the line forms." He informed us. "Press, professionals, those on the list - it doesn't matter you still have to come in from the outside - that door right there where the line forms." We were being detained. Shamed. Put in our place. This went on for a good 10 minutes. Until finally he said,"Now if there *was* a line you'd have to go out there but since there isn't a line then you can just go in. But you always have to go outside in order to come inside."

It was like being at the DMV only with more pointless bureaucracy doled out by people proud of the fact they can recite the rules.

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According to the LA Weekly's cover story Grand Old Party and their huge tent have been going to the gym and getting their chests waxed.

Not really, we just liked the visual. But the Republicans did have a major role in the California Supreme Court ruling earlier this month, as the Weekly reports.

We think that a California Republican is akin to a Texas ultra liberal...or an Alabama total commie.

Victoria's Secret at The Grove is inviting women to try on their new "It" bra and pose for photos with super-underthingies-models Heidi Klum and Marisa Miller tonight at 7 p.m. As if the lighting in the dressing rooms at that place didn't make us look fat and flat enough, now they're going to pose us next to two of the most beautiful women on the planet?

Are they insane or just sadistic?

As one FBLA source put it, "Yeah, by 4:30, you should be power-ralphing that pint of Haagen-Daaz you scarfed just to make yourself feel loved..."

FBLA found a job on Craigslist that sounds so fun, and yet has the potential to be so awful. It pays $100K, and you earn every penny, we're guessing.

Executive Luxury Gift Buyer

EMPLOYER/FAMILY DESCRIPTION:
Executive/CEO and wife
(this is where the un-fun part starts)

Special Projects
Review 26 magazines monthly for ideas, inspiration, and new information--maintain library of back issues. Produce a monthly "luxury lifestyle" binder for Mr. and Mrs. that keeps them informed of current events, what's hot in wines, cigars, cosmetics, travel, electronics, cars, luggage, clothing, jewelry and accessories.
(Twenty-six magazines? We're guessing that this isn't one of those.)

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How low-tech? This low-tech.

User-created content is all the rage!

Heinz, as in ketchup and Mrs. Kerry, is looking for amateur ad types, but it's expensive to wade through crap. And they should know.

ABC offers I-Caught, a magazine show using video captured by the unwashed and massaged into stories by those trained professionals at ABC News. David Sloan is the EP.

CNN already has I-Report up and running.

Topix gets some daily 40,000 posts since adding discussion groups and comments and local "editors". The Los Angeles news is still 3 days old, alas.

And then there's the downside: one nasty worm in a MySpace page can infect a million users.

Digg started taking down posts that broke the DMR encryption code for HD-DVD movies. Those users generated revolt; Digg backed off.

(Illustration from Wild Women Jewels.)

ClearPlay is very, very proud of itself. After distancing itself from companies that create "family-friendly" versions of hit films, the DVD manufacturer sent a press release with this headline:

ClearPlay 1, Steven Spielberg 0

Powerful words, little company. The press release goes on to tout ClearPlay as the stick-our-fingers-in-your-eye victor of a Congressional law.

As the company explains, the DVD players don't alter the movies people pop into their players -- that would violate copyright laws. Instead, they skip over certain scenes ... much in the same way, say, a broken DVD player would.

The press release follow:

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