At some point, people other than policy wonks are going to have to start asking whether Google is really the “open innovation” company it wants to be or whether, by partnering with Verizon, it’s actually limiting innovation to its own platform. One day before the release of Droid, Verizon and Google’s presumptive iPhone killer, CNET reports that Verizon is going to keep all of their Droid customers tethered to Verizon by doubling its early termination fee for “advanced devices” to $350. Very strange bedfellows indeed.

Just discovered this album via Pop Matters and downloaded it immediately.  Seamlessly good electronica albums are extremely rare.  On the go, it’s an instant walk through Soho/TribeCa, wherever you are.  If working late, it’s the perfect soundtrack to keep the creative juices flowing without putting you to sleep.  It’s centuries ahead of it’s time.  Nice & chill.

A new Washington University study concludes that half of American kids/90% of black kids will get food stamps at some point during their lives.  Funny there was no “breaking news” alert–too important, I suppose, no one cares, or both. Yeah, both.

In recognition of the Ghost Adventures Live Broadcast from the Trans-Allegheny Penitentiary on the Travel Channel tonight from 8PM to 3AM, here are the Top 10 spookiest ghost adventures between Washington, D.C. and New York City.  MUAHAHAHAHA!

1.  Washington Square Park, Manhattan, NY:  Washington Square Park is located on the site of a former gallows and burial ground.

2.  Brinton Lodge in Douglassville, Pennsylvania: Site of a former lodge/tavern built in the early 1700s.  Haunted by former patrons.

3. Chestnut Lodge, Rockville, MD: Site of a former insane asylum.

4.  Gettysburg Battlefield, Gettysburg, PA

5. The Devil’s Tree, Bernards Township, NJ:  Deface this tree and bad things will happen!  Legend has it, the tree is a portal to hell!  (So if anyone tells you to go to hell, a pithy response might be, “Bernards Township?”  Nevermind.)

6. Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia, PA: This now-defunct prison where Al Capone was once held, is said to be teeming with ghosts.

7. Chelsea Hotel, Manhattan, NY: This literary haunt is said to still be home to Eugene O’Neill, Thomas Wolfe, and Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious, among others.

8. The White House, Washington, D.C.: The White House is reportedly haunted by Abigail Adams and Dolley Madison.  Lincoln’s ghost has been reported in the Lincoln Bedroom.  Mamie Eisnehower’s ghost has been spotted in the kitchen.

9. Amityville Horror House, Amityville, NY: OK, so LI isn’t really “between” DC and NYC, but it’s my blog.

10. The Dakota Apartment Building, Manhattan, NY: The Dakota, completed in 1884, is said to be haunted by the ghost of John Lennon, who was assassinated directly outside the building, and the ghosts of 19th century children.

Not a single African-American, Latino, Asian-American, or American Indian prime time talk show is currently being broadcast on any of the major broadcast or cable television networks.  This is despite the fact that these groups make up 34% of the population.  But Glenn Beck, et al. want us to believe they’ve been victimized.

Hiring Glen Beck is by design, of course.  It doesn’t matter if he’s right or wrong.  Fox simply wants to galvanize their core audience to save a withering right-wing attack machine.

The most recent of a series attacks being orchestrated by Beck and his followers is against Mark Lloyd, the FCC’s Associate General Counsel and Chief Diversity Officer, to whom Beck and others refer as the diversity “Czar.”

Zogby engineered a biased poll to promote a book it’s selling on how the Obama administration is supposedly trying to curtail free speech.  Mischaracterizing a statement Lloyd made about the difficulty of balancing competing interests when promoting diversity, the poll falsely asks survey respondents whether it’s ok that the FCC wants to “force good white people out for African-Americans and gays.”  This interpretation of Lloyd’s statement is utterly inaccurate.

The prevalence of Glenn Beck’s views, and the dearth of viewpoints, outside of blogs like this, of people who make up over a third of the population, is precisely why we must not back down from demanding a media that represents us all. This means that we demand enforcement of equal opportunity laws and policies designed to improve broadband adoption rates in neglected communities.  We must ask ourselves, “Who’s really suppressing free speech? The handful of companies that have a stranglehold on content and media ownership, that employ dimwitted poltroons like Glen Beck, while hiring few, if any, qualified non-white hosts? Or an administration seeking to enforce a Congressional mandate to promote media ownership diversity and counter discrimination?”