MoveOn.org is broadcasting messages from the future, and the message is: Get off your ass and vote.

Check it out:

In related news, Sen. Al Franken, a Democrat from Minnesota, expounds on President Obama's drive-time analogy. (You remember it, right? "D" equals drive — as in forward — and "R" equals reverse, so vote for the D's if you want to see some progress.)

"I think the analogy that the economy was a car in a ditch when he took office that he uses is just a little too static. Here's my analogy, which in my opinion is both more kinetic and, frankly, far more accurate.

When the president took office not only had the car gone into a ditch but the car had flipped over and was rolling down a steep embankment. We, the American people, were in the back seat and the Bush administration had removed all the seat belts. So we were all flying around the interior of this car, as it was rolling and flipping and careening down this steep embankment heading to ...a 2,000-foot cliff. And at the bottom of that cliff were jagged rocks and alligators.

Now at noon on January 20th, 2009 as the car was careening toward the cliff, George W. Bush jumped out of the car. President Bush jumped out of the car and President Obama somehow managed to dive in through the window, take the wheel, get control of the vehicle, just inches before it went over the precipice. And he and Congress starting inching this wrecked (car) back up the embankment.

Now, you can't push a car up an embankment as fast as it careens down an embankment. But we got it going in the right direction and slowly we've gotten ourselves up that embankment, passed the ditch, up on the shoulder of the road. That is what happened. That's where we are today. "

In other words, don't let anyone fool you: Progress is being made, even if it's slow going. And, don't convince yourself it's cool to sit this election out ... because it's not.

Oh, I'm sorry. Is that headline too demanding? Well, I'm sorry: I meant it.

From Politics Daily:

"I'm sorry." Two little words that have come to mean . . . almost nothing.

It was a good week for demonstrating just how vapid the apology has become. First, Ginni Thomas called Anita Hill and left a voice mail asking her to apologize for saying that Ginni's husband, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, sexually harassed her nearly two decades ago. Then the Wall Street Journal wrote about the cultural significance of the apology: We apologize more to strangers than we do to loved ones or family, according to new research from the University of Waterloo (in Ontario).

To make matters worse, the Canadian research team has put into words what most of us probably suspected: Women apologize more than men do. It's official. We are so sorry!

Read the rest of this article, by Alison Fairbrother, here.

Watching television on a computer isn't my thing, unless you count NetFlix, and even that's rare. But, apparently, I'm in the minority on this one. Problem is, so many people are watching TV online that broadcasters are wringing their hands because you're not watching shows when they air equals less advertising revenue for them. So instead of finding ways to appease their customer base, they're going to make watching your favorite shows online much more difficult. (And these are supposedly expert marketers. Bahaha.)

But, shrinking television audiences are nothing new:

Other than live event programming like the Super Bowl, however, the days of a single television show pulling in the vast majority of American TV households are over. The broadcast networks are long past their peak. Their audience — in absolute numbers, not relative numbers — has been shrinking since the early 1980s.

Read the rest of this GigaOm article, by Mike Hudack, here.

That's why every viewer, and every penny they generate, counts:

Television is losing ground in one of its most lucrative strongholds: Thursday nights.

Fewer people in the U.S. are watching Thursday prime-time TV so far this fall, as changing viewing habits, weaker shows and more varied competition take a toll on a night that for decades has showcased some of TV's most high-profile programs, and priciest commercials.

Read the rest of this Wall Street Journal article, by Sam Schechner, here.

And this is why broadcasters are trying to figure out ways to make the Internet less attractive.

Broadcasters took a big step toward eliminating free TV shows on the Web after they blocked access to their programming online this month to enforce their demands to be paid.

Recent actions by Fox, ABC, NBC and CBS in two separate fee disputes suggest that after a few years of experimenting with free, ad-supported viewing, broadcasters believe they can make more money from cable TV providers if they hold back some programming online.

That could mean new limits on online viewing are coming: Broadcasters might make fewer of their shows available to begin with, or delay when they become available — say, a month after an episode is broadcast, rather than the few hours it typically takes now.

It would make it tougher for viewers to drop their cable TV subscriptions and watch shows online instead. If cable and satellite TV providers can hang on to more subscribers, broadcasters can then demand more money from them to carry their stations on the lineups.

Read the rest of this Associated Press article here.

Of course, there are plenty of examples of companies looking to maximize, and please, their online viewers, making the networks look like a bunch of antiquated, out of touch crybabies.

Who do you think will win this battle? My money's on the Internet. And, let's get real: Money is what this battle is all about. Everyone wants your eyeballs on their annoying advertisements. Meanwhile, we're getting better at ignoring them.

But, what is advertising really? I think the documentary "The Corporation" got it right when they called advertising "perception management." Check it out:

So, last night I couldn't sleep. I was up late worrying about Hurricane Dick, er, Richard. You see, I've been madly in love with Belize for more than a decade and that's the country Dick was dumping on. For me, it's a place that feels like home. I study its history, culture and government. If all goes well, I'll retire there.

Because of my love for the country, I was up late last night watching hurricane news trickle in on Twitter. I learned the country lost power, the hurricane didn't totally annihilate it ... and a bunch of American dumb asses have no idea what countries are part of our continent. Not only do they not know which countries share a land mass with us, they're too fucking lazy to Google a map.

So, let me help:

You can even drive there, contrary to the belief of the twitterer who suggested the country is an island. See for yourself: Plug in your address and find out how long it will take you to drive to Belize here.

I've decided to rail on this topic, not just because of Hurricane Dick, but because, a couple weeks ago, it became clear people don't fully understand where Afghanistan is ... you know, the country we've been warring in for a decade? When the news broke that our troops' fuel was being blown up in Pakistan, people were all *shrug*. Not cool, dudes. I don't even want to know how many citizens of this country can't find the 50 states on a map.