Lies.com Podcast 30 is about the election, Prop 8, Harvey Milk, Lynndie England, Dan Savage, and lots of Russell Brand. It’s also about Obama, but he doesn’t actually say anything in the episode (hence the title), except for a little bit at the end, and he really doesn’t say anything then either. Mostly, it’s about how something I’ve imagined for such a long time can seem so different when it finally arrives.

Enjoy, and feel free to let me know what you think in the comments. Thanks.

Notes and sources follow…

part one: celebrity endorsements

• Lies.com podcast #8, on the possibility of an Obama presidency
• Tom Hanks endorses Obama
• McCain on Obama not being an Arab, but a good family man
• Colin Powelll endorses Obama
• Russell Brand in New York City on his MTV VMA monologue
• Russell Brand’s VMA monologue

part two: election day

• Music: Ulrich Schnauss: Between Us and Them
• Savage Love #107, in which Dan Savage threatens curses for non-voters
• Beyond Prop 8 from KCET’s “SoCal Connected”
• “Yes on 8” ad #1
• “Yes on 8” ad #2
• MSNBC calls Ohio for Obama
• Music: Chapterhouse: Pearl
• Glen Laury on Barack Hussein Obama
• Grant Park countdown #1
• Grant Park countdown #2
• South Park’s version of Obama’s acceptance speech

part three: harvey’s big feet

• Sam Harris’ vlog on the passage of Prop 8
• Tom Hanks on acting in “Philadelphia”
• Fresh Air interview with Duncan Lance Black, screenwriter of “Milk”
• The Times of Harvey Milk
• Harvey Milk: To be played in the event of my death by assassination
• Music: Sigur Rós – Hoppípolla

part four: lynndie

• Dan Savage on centaur sexbots
• Russell Brand on Fresh Air talking about opiate addiction
• Lynndie England from the This American Life episode “Fall Guy”
• Russell Brand from “The Treatment” on the little girl being punished
• Helen Thomas gets the first question at Obama’s first presidential news conference
• Music: Antje Duvekot and the Peter Malick Group: Opium

I tried to resist, but like the Obama campaign, I was unable to prevent my narrative from being hijacked. So in the end I gave in and made Lies.com Podcast 29 the All-Sarah Palin edition.

A recurring theme is how everyone (Sarah herself, Obama, me) can’t help likening her to various animals. By which I mean no disrespect; I think she’s a perfectly nice person. (Or pit bull. Or pig. Or post turtle. Or maybe, if you listen to the podcast and squinch your ears just right, a rabid skunk.)

Anyway, here’s a list of the content I ripped off for this episode:

• Sarah Heath, sportscaster
• Pastor Muthee blessing Palin
• Palin on Pastor Muthee
• McCain spokesperson Tucker Bounds on Palin’s qualifications. Sort of.
• Palin’s RNC acceptance speech – hockey moms, pit bulls, lipstick, community organizers
• Music: I Am Jen, “Broken in All the Right Places” from The Broken EP
• Obama and McCain on community organizers
• Palin with Hannity on community organizers
• Palin with Hannity on the bridge to nowhere
• The McCain campaign’s “sex ed for kindergartners” ad
• The campaign turns ugly / “lipstick on a pig” ad
• McCain on negative campaigning
• Music: Brian Eno, “An Ending (Ascent)” from Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks
• Palin’s Charlie Gibson interview: “you can’t blink”
• Palin’s Charlie Gibson interview: energy
• Palin’s Charlie Gibson interview: the Bush doctrine
• Palin’s Katie Couric interview: Israel
• Palin’s Katie Couric interview: “I’ll try to find ya some”
• Palin’s Katie Couric interview: the bailout, healthcare, etc.
• Jack Cafferty on Palin’s qualifications
• Music: Jenny Owen Youngs, “Fuck Was I” from Batten the Hatches (warning: unexpurgated version)
• John Horgan & George Johnson on John’s rabid skunk
• Benny Perkins on the “Hands on a Hard Body” contest, from This American Life #62
• Music: I Am Jen, “At the Same Time” from The Broken EP

Lies.com Podcast 28 is about Beatlemania, Obamamania, the love of a good adversary, and learning to man up and commit already. Warning: includes foul-mouthed sex-advice columnist Dan Savage.

Feel free to help me get more listeners by casting a vote at Podcast Alley. You could also post a customer review at iTunes, if you’re feeling really motivated.

Details:

• Jack Paar narrates a pre-Ed Sullivan Show clip of The Beatles
• Bush in his February 28 press conference tells the press “nice try” for asking about the people’s right to know
• Dana and Helen go at it (again) on torture
• Bush’s March 8, 2008, radio address on his veto of the anti-torture bill
• Snuggly the Security Bear
• Stephen Payne offers to set up meetings with top administration officials in response to big donations to the Bush Library
• Dana struggles to explain the Stephen Payne video
• Music: “She Said She Said” by the Beatles from Revolver
• Tucker Carlson lectures journalist Gerri Peev about journalistic ethics
• Hillary’s 3 a.m. ad
• Hillary’s campaign conference call: When has she been tested by crisis?
• Music: “Come Together” by Joe Cocker from the Across the Universe soundtrack
• Beatles are introduced in Indianapolis, 1964
• Beatles are introduced at the Cow Palace, 1964
• Beatles are introduced by Ed Sullivan at Shea Stadium, 1965
• Obama’s acceptance speech, June 3, 2008
• Robert Redford in The Candidate: “Marvin, what do we do now?”
• Richard Bausch reads from his story, “Letter to the Lady of the House” (from TAL #349)
• Music: “Blackbird” by Evan Rachel Wood from the Across the Universe soundtrack
• Dan Savage on commitment from Savage Lovecast #71
• Music: “Hey Jude/Sgt. Pepper’s (reprise)” by the Beatles from the Love album

Lies.com Podcast 27 is all about the explicit-content rating: Grown-up talk about pre-marital (or extra-marital) sex of various skeezy varieties. Oh, and a nice long chunk on the Hillary-and-Bill-versus-Barack stuff from the campaign trail. Details below.

Special thanks, by the way, to Sven for turning me onto the Tool song, Adam for turning me onto the Patty Griffin song, and Dave for turning me onto Mute Math. My Robot Friend I came by on my own.

By the way, if you like these podcasts, please consider helping me get more listeners by casting a vote at Podcast Alley. You could also post a customer review at iTunes, if you’re feeling frisky.

• Dana Perino on the Canadian torture designation
• Dana on treats and the CPI study
• Dennis Kucinich at the Nevada debate: Impeach them now
• Kucinich on the House floor: The state of the union is lies
• Music: Tool, “Right in Two”, including some mixed-in fun from nice young Mormon girl Elna Baker on the subject of rejection and her giant vagina
• Dan Savage from Savage Lovecast #64, talking about what a fucking politics junkie he is (F-word alert! Oops, too late.)
• Bill Clinton, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman”
• Hillary in New Hampshire, courtesy of Talking Points Memo.
• Obama on Reagan
• Hillary radio ad on Obama on Reagan
• Bill Clinton in Nevada on the teacher’s union lawsuit
• Rep. Clyburn: “Bill Clinton needs to chill”
• Obama: “Bill Clinton is troubling” on Good Morning America
• Obama and Hillary at the South Carolina debate
• Bill Clinton gets snippy with the press
• Obama’s South Carolina victory speech
• Bill Clinton on how Jesse Jackson won South Carolina twice
• TPM’s “Sunday Show pile on” on Bill Clinton
• Music: My Robot Friend, “One More Try”
• From This American Life #347, “Matchmakers” – Elna Baker on Baby Nubbins
• Music: Patty Griffin, “Sweet Lorraine”
• More of Dan Savage from Savage Lovecast #64, apologizing to a caller for the behavior of her closeted gay ex-boyfriend
• Music: Mute Math, “Stall Out”

The newest podcast is available: Lies.com Podcast 26. This one features the following:

• Bush’s December 4, 2007, press conference on the Iran NIE
• Dana Perino’s December 6, 2007, press briefing
• Lux Toilet Soap commercial, from the 1947 radio broadcast of It’s A Wonderful Life
• Dana Perino’s December 19, 2007, press briefing
• Music: Sneaker Pimps – “Post-modern Sleaze”
• Barack Obama’s Iowa caucus victory speech
• Music: The Weepies – “Stars”
• Bill Moyers interviews Desmond Tutu in 1999
• Music: Tears for Fears – “Secrets”
• Jill Wolfson’s story of Sarah, a 10-year-old heart-transplant recipient, from This American Life episode 345, “Ties That Bind”
• Music: The Cinematic Orchestra – “That Home”

I really like how this one turned out, especially the part where I followed (sort of) listener pelonpelon’s suggestion and played around with mixing in a little Bush at the beginning of “Post-modern Sleaze”. Anyway, check it out.

Lies.com Podcast 25 is the “fucking jail” edition, featuring:

• Bush on torture
• Dana Perino on torture
• more Dana Perino on torture
• Music: The Weepies – Suicide Blonde
• Dana Perino on Condoleezza Rice being called a war criminal by Code Pink
• A different recording of Rice being called a war criminal; this one from Rice’s microphone, so you can hear her reaction
• Sean Penn on how George Tenet et al. should be in fucking jail
• Lawyer Candace Gorman on Guantanamo
• Lawyer Clive Stafford Smith on Guantanamo
• Capt. Pat McCarthy, the U.S. government’s lead counsel in Guantanamo, responding to Smith’s charges
• Music: Godspeed You Black Emperor! – Dead Flag Blues
• Act V, Jack Hitt’s piece for This American Life on the production of Hamlet performed in 2002 by inmates at the Missouri Eastern Correctional Center
• Music: Mute Math – Reset

In response to the feedback offered by Sven, I’ve cut back on the music (but the music I included is pretty badass). No Aly and AJ; I promise.

Join me in exploring my obsessions in Lies.com Podcast 24: lying politicians, in-the-moment actors and reporters, and teenage girl pop stars.

I don’t know what people think of this format I’ve been using for the podcasts lately; people are downloading them and presumably listening, but the number is small and I don’t get a lot of feedback.

I mostly make these as audio journals of the more-interesting stuff I’ve been listening to on my commute. When I hear something that makes me think, huh, I could listen to that again, I make a mental note to throw it in a podcast. Then I try to add some music that seems appropriate, either in terms of mood, or in terms of a specific lyrical commentary.

I don’t know that there are many other people doing podcasts like this, which may be trying to tell me something. But I find it interesting, and I enjoy listening to them myself (re-listening to them) during the commute.

Anyway, if you’ve listened to these recent ones and have any comments pro or con, feel free to pass them on. Thanks.

• Bush on “36 nations with troops on the ground” in Iraq
• Ken Olbermann and Chris Matthews wonder what Bush was thinking
• Music: Invisible Day – Chris Whitley / War Crime Blues
• Tony Snow and CNN’s Suzanne Malveaux arguing about Bush’s poll numbers
• Obama on Bush on Meet the Press
• Music: Nebulus – Fluke / Puppy
• Charlie Savage on Fresh Air
• Music: One Very Important Thought – Boards of Canada / The Campfire Headphase
• Al Gore on SNL
• Colin Powell on Obama on Meet the Press
• Music: If I Could Have You Back – Aly and AJ / Insomniatic
• Iraq veteran Sam Slaven recounting his time in Iraq on This American Life
• Music: The First Noel / Mary Mary – Sara McLachlan / Wintersong
• Radio reporter Herb Morrison describes the arrival of the Hindenburg
• Poet Robert Bly on Bill Moyers
• Music: Dayvan Cowboy – Boards of Canada / The Campfire Headphase
• Garry Shandling and Christopher Monger remembering Roy London with Elvis Mitchell on The Treatment
• Music: Closure – Aly and AJ / Insomniatic

Some Alberto Gonzales, some Larry Craig, some Miss Teen South Carolina… Lies.com Podcast 23 has something for everyone.

• Gonzales’s goodbye announcement.
• Bush on Gonzales’s departure.
• Music: Drugs – Talking Heads from Fear of Music.
• Larry Craig’s interrogation.
• Larry Craig’s 8/28 statement denying wrongdoing.
• Larry Craig’s 9/1 announcement of his resignation.
• Music: Mea Culpa – Byrne/Eno from My Life in the Bush of Ghosts.
• Bush with new homeowners on the second anniversary of Katrina.
• 18-year-old Ashley Nelson on the Katrina aftermath – from This American Life.
• 18-year-old Caitlin Upton (Miss Teen South Carolina) on another disaster’s aftermath – from the Today Show.
• Music: The Difficult Kind – Sheryl Crow & Sarah McLachlan from Live in Central Park.
• Fresh Air interview with photographer and journalist Paul Watson.
• Music: One Perfect Lie – Gary Numan from Pure.
• Noah Adams interviews 8-year-old Betsy Walter (and the 29-year-old Betsy-from-the-future) on her parent’s divorce – from This American Life.
• Music: Wake Up – Love Spit Love from Love Spit Love.

I had fun with the last one, so I kept going. Lies.com podcast 22 follows the same approach, only moreso: Most of it is captured audio from YouTube (the new Napster), interspersed with shamelessly stolen music. I speak exactly 10 words in the whole thing.

• Bush on accountability
• Bush insults radio reporter
• Bush on Dean on 9/11
• Music: The Orb – Little Fluffy Clouds
• Leahy and Gonzales on Maher Arar
• Specter and Gonzales on death penalty reviews
• Tony Snow on Gonzales
• Music: The Orb / Alan Parker – Grey Clouds
• Cheney in a radio interview on Gonzales
• Go fuck yourself, Mr. Cheney
• Cheney in 1994 on the appropriateness of Bush 41’s decision not to invade Iraq at the end of the Gulf War
• Music: Genesis – Fly on a Windshield
• Karl Rove being interviewed by Dan Rather in 1972, as part of a piece on college Republicans working for the Nixon re-election campaign
• Letterman on MC Rove
• Rove speech about the 2004 election
• Rove interview by Rush Limbaugh
• Rove goodbye on the South Lawn
• Music: Crowded House – Silent House

If Lies.com Podcast 21 were a person, it would be old enough to buy alcohol.

• A Bush press conference, in which the first question went to Helen Thomas.
• Jon Stewart on Bill Moyers on Alberto Gonzales.
• Sara Taylor’s loyalty oath, and Sen. Patrick Leahy’s response.
• Clips from Bill Moyers’ “Tough Talk About Impeachment” episode, with Bruce Fein and John Nichols.
• Cindy Sheehan in Alabama, including taunting by self-professed Bush lover Chris Vucovich.
• Music: The Edge / Sinead O’Connor – Heroine theme from Captive
• Jack Hitt tells a story about his daughter, and Jesus, and Martin Luther King as part of the Kid Logic episode of This American Life.
• A story about a’lul’quoy, and bird watching.
• Music: Rachel’s – Rhine & Courtesan
• A Radio Lab clip about the first western zoo to house gorillas in a large, naturally landscaped enclosure: Zoos.
• Music: godspeed you black emperor! – Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven.

This show is dedicated to my mom.

It’s Lies.com podcast 20, including:

• Bush’s good week, what with rebounding polls, blowing up Zarqawi, a chance to play preznit in the Green Zone, and Rove’s non-indictment.
• The Republican playbook for the midterm elections, in which I bone-headedly say “Republicans” (twice!) when I mean to say “Democrats”. See? The Republicans are everywhere! Aiyee!!
• Julia’s imminent graduation from Santa Barbara Middle School, and a sneak preview of the speech I’ll be delivering in her honor tomorrow.
• Some sailing I’ll be doing in the next month or so.
• An extended paean to the Keith and the Girl podcast, including a description of why I think they’re so good for each other.

Here’s Lies.com podcast 19, in which I talk about:

• The Haditha massacre, and Craig and trg34221’s comments about it.
• Moral relativism, right-wing style.
• Blue Grosbeaks and White-tailed Kites at the Carpinteria Bluffs.
• Audio of my real-time reaction to an almost-accident when some paintings fly off the roof of a car in front of me.
• The odd paradox of feeling like I’m not talking to anybody, really, so I can talk about anything I want, while realizing that actually, I’m publishing my comments for the entire world to download, should the world be foolish enough to want to.
• Apropos of that, some (possibly too personal) detail about a visit to the doctor’s office that I made this week.

Get it while it’s hot.

I actually recorded this a week ago Friday, but didn’t get around to posting until now. Apologies for the delay. Anyway: Lies.com podcast 18.

In this installment:

• The recent announcement by the Cornell team of this past winter’s non-findings regarding the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, and my response to some of the discussion that has been taking place at Tom Nelson’s Ivory-bill Skeptic weblog. Note that at one point I refer to him as “Wilson”, and at another point as “Tim Nelson.” Sorry about that. Misidentifications everywhere you look!
• Seeing Lazuli Buntings and Blue Grosbeaks, woo hoo.
• Podcasts I’ve been listening to lately: The Hollywood Saloon, Filmspotting (née Cinecast), and Keith and the Girl.
• The joys of vicarious domestic surveillance via the Internet.
• The psychology of the long-distance commuter.

Enjoy!

More technologically-amplified meat flapping: Lies.com podcast 17. Includes:

• Audio of the Ray McGovern/Donald Rumsfeld debate.
• Commentary on same.
• A little about the Moussaoui verdict.
• A mind-boggling amount of detail about the new birds I saw at the office this week.
• Watching a missile launch from Manhattan Beach.
• Ranting about Bush’s emotional problems.

Enjoy!

I was feeling pretty low-energy when I started recording this, and I think it shows. For what it’s worth, though, here’s you go: Lies.com Podcast 16.

• A mention of coming attractions: The as-yet-unposted Lies.com Tenth Anniversary Reader (sitting in my Drafts queue staring at me as I write this, waiting for me to find time to finish it).
• A digression on why I’m really not interested in debating people who aren’t willing to accept even the possibility that they might be wrong. (I don’t state it that clearly in my comments, but in hindsight I think that’s what I was going for.)
• An extended revisiting of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker controversy, this time with me providing more specifics about my objections to the approach taken by Sibley et al. in their criticisms of the rediscovery evidence.

That’s it.

I was so jazzed about getting the last podcast successfully completed that I turned right around and recorded one the next day. So here you go: Lies.com podcast 15.

This one covers:

• Listening to Disney obsessives, especially Jesse O. of the MousePod.
• Again with the new Pride and Prejudice adaptation. In this installment, I realize that my resistance to crediting Keira Knightly with the stunning performance she actually delivered was simply a recapitulation of the story’s main theme: It was my own pride and prejudice that prevented me from doing so. But I’ve come to appreciate the error of my ways.
• Arguing with Andy and John of the Hollywood Saloon that they really ought to give chick-flicks a try.
• More Austen adapations: Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion, Emma. Must-see chick flicks all.
• Kick-ass podcast special effects: I’m interrupted by the sight of an actual whale.

So. There it is.

Woo! I finally managed to record one and save it to disk without my battery expiring first: Lies.com podcast 14. Featured drivel:

• My bonehead consumerism with respect to the poorly named Belkin Universal Microphone Adapter.
• A musical interlude from Rx of The Party Party, with his awesome mashup My name is Rx (mp3 file; streaming versions also available from his web site). Note that in the podcast I mistakenly say that the song is titled “Will the real Rx please stand up?”
• The Ivory-billed Woodpecker rediscovery, David Allen Sibley, Guy McCaskie, my own history of obsessive birding, and how I was re-introduced to the hobby by my wife, Linda.

It won’t actually do you any good, but I wanted to mention that I’ve tried — twice now, dammit — to record a podcast for y’all. Both times I’ve suffered a lockup of my powerbook (I’m guessing due to my sleeping it, then shutting off/unplugging the USB mic; I think that’s exercising some bug or other), which has prevented me from saving the thing before the battery runs out.

It’s actually been fairly depressing. Those weren’t half-bad podcasts, at least by my standards.

Anyway, today I ordered a recording adapter and a new microphone for the iPod, and with any luck I’ll be able to use that to record the podcasts more reliably.

Anyway, keep the faith. More lies.com goodness shortly. Thanks.

If you’re dying to hear me go on (and on) about the usual stuff, here you go: Lies.com Podcast 13. Among the usual stuff in this installment:

• My take (at last!) on the Cheney shooting accident.
• Some chatter about the Claude Allen shoplifting (sort of) story.
• Gushing fanboy love for Paul Hackett, the Daily Show, and Ed Helms, and corresponding scorn for the Democratic party generally and Iraq-war-supporting tools in particular.
• A (too brief) account of my (too brief) encounter with kickass Congresswoman Lois Capps (D-CA).
• A shout out to the Best Podcast Evar: The Hollywood Saloon.

Valued Lies.com reader Bob writes to ask:

Hey,
Where’s the Podcast? C’mon

Bob, this is for you: Lies.com podcast 12. It was recorded three weeks ago, so it has nothing at all about Cheney’s shooting accident, Katrina-related recriminations, and the Dubai port deal, but I finally got around to editing out most of the ums and pauses and loud bangs when I doofishly smacked the microphone into something.

Left in are all of the following:

• Extended discussion of my addiction to the game Halo. (Note: At one point I’m talking about the different enemy races in the game’s campaign mode, and I inadvertantly say “Covenent” when I meant to say “Flood” — and I don’t notice it as I’m talking, so I’m correcting myself here. Anyway, listen for that.)
• A (very little) bit about George Bush and domestic eavesdropping.
• Movie talk about Brokeback Mountain, Sense and Sensibility, Saving Private Ryan, and Rumblefish.

Knock yourselves out.