Q: What do you get when you cross a media sensation with a guy who loves to see his name in print?

A: A letter from Jack Thompson to Sarah Palin.

Facing imminent disbarment, the Miami attorney has written to the Republican vice-presidential candidate, urging her to take a stand against violent video games. And, of course, offering his own services in that regard.

In a letter to America's best-known hockey mom, Thompson writes:

The McCain-Palin campaign, with all respect, is missing the boat on this issue. I strongly urge your campaign to tell American parents that if elected you will present to Congress a bill that prevents the sale of adult games to kids while fully protecting the First Amendment. 

 

I have this crucial, constitutional legislation drafted and ready to go.  You will see voters flock to your proposal.  The American entertainment industry’s assault upon our children and our values must stop, and you are the person to stop it. 

Thompson's previous attempt at "this crucial, constitutional legislation," however, was declared unconstitutional in stinging language by a federal judge in Louisiana. Utah's Republican attorney general also dismissed a Thompson-drafted bill as a violation of the First Amendment. State legislatures in Delaware and Massachusetts have likewise passed on Thompson's proposal.

Full text of the letter after the jump... 

A group of 28 teens gathered in Second Life for last night's presidential debate, reports The Click Heard Round the World:

The teens were fairly bored during the economy and health care portion of the debate.  But they perked right up once the candidates starting talking foreign policy.  Several of them were interested in Darfur and human rights.  A couple were concerned about college tuition costs. 

 

All in all, I thought this was an effective way of getting teenagers to be more engaged with the political process. I think they felt more comfortable being in a setting with a bunch of their peers rather than in a roomful of adults.  Several of them seemed genuinely concerned about certain issues and got to express that to each other over the text chat.  And they got to have fun, often at the expense of one of the candidates, but that's to be expected.

Holymeatballs has expanded coverage, including some of the students' reactions to the debate as expressed via SL's chat feature.

Surprisingly, only one of the teens seemed to take notice of McCain's bizarre reference to Obama as "That one."

UPDATE: A World of Warcraft player mentions that the debate was also a hot topic in the general chat on the Silvermoon server.

Accusing your opponent of being a flip-flopper? Why, that's practically Politics 101.

But calling out a challenger for playing Halo and blogging? Must be a sign of the times.

In Maricopa County, Arizona, Republican incumbent Fulton Brock has rolled out those allegations and more by way of slinging mud at his Democratic challenger, Ed Hermes (left). Both men are vying for the job of county supervisor.

As Joystiq reports, a campaign mailing sent out by Fulton uses the Halo referenced in an attempt to portray Hermes as young and inexperienced:

Skilled player of popular video game Halo. Hermes was quoted in the ASU student newspaper as saying, "I am addicted to Halo and play almost every night."

 

The anti-Hermes ad also accuses the Democrat of being a student mascot at football games as well as a blogger and a video gamer.

Pwn or Die serves up new Sarah Palin images in which the Republican Veep candidate is Photoshopped into various video game shots. 

You'll recognize GTA IV, Tomb Raider, and others

Personally I found the GTA IV lollipop girl image (hit the link) the most entertaining, but the big, huge Pwn or Die watermark across the center is a buzz kill.

We are seeing more and more Palin parody material of late. Fidget finds it no surprise that Palin is getting so much attention in gaming circles, citing this RNC-time post on The Atlantic

In addition, I predict a bonus unintended consequence for McCain among middle class/educated/post-college/pre-adult white males. A demographic label that follows many into their late 30s and currently trends for Obama. Basically the gamers/Gen-Xers/Seth Rogen/Will Farrell crowd..."Sarah Palin as Lara Croft" will leave these guys drooling like zombies.

Bush's Billions, the latest news-oriented, online game from T-Enterprise parodies the current bailout crisis in the U.S. financial markets.

From the game's description:

US President George W Bush has an imaginary shoot out with the speaker of Congress to get his hands on the $700 billion bail-out cash, in this weeks FAB game.

 

You control "Dubya" hiding behind a patrol car after robbing a bank, and must fire guns at Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Bush comments on game progress during play, using real life audio clips of the President.

Strauss Zelnick, chairman of Take-Two Interactive and John Riccitiello, CEO of Electronic Arts, might not be able to get together on a merger, but they seem to agree on at least one thing: Barack Obama.

Both game biz execs have contributed to Obama's presidential campaign.

In fact, in research conducted by GamePolitics of publicly available records, A-list video game industry types seem to be leaning in the Democratic direction. Of 16 donors we found, only three had given to Republican candidates. Meanwhile, 13 had donated to Democrats (although only 9 of these gave to Obama).

While our survey can't in any way be considered scientific, we looked at several dozen other prominent industry figures, but did not find any presidential campaign contributions that met our guidelines. The ground rules in use dictated that we would only consider 2007-2008 presidential contributions. In some cases, however, donors gave substantial amounts to congressional races or non-candidate-specific political action committees. Those aren't listed here.

Among the biggest names we found were Rockstar's Sam Houser (Obama), Spore designer Will Wright (McCain) and Ultima designer (and space traveler) Richard Garriott (Hillary Clinton). Here's the list:

Republican contributors:

• Will Wright: (Spore, The Sims) $3,000 to McCain; previously donated $2,350 to Giuliani
• Bobby Kotick (Activision CEO) $2,300 to McCain; previously donated $2,100 to Romney
• Curt Schilling (38 Studios) $2,300 to McCain.

Democratic contributors:

• Strauss Zelnick (Chairman, Take-Two) $2,000 to Obama; had previously donated to $2,500 to Edwards, $1,000 each to Biden & Richardson
• Ben Feder (CEO, Take-Two) contributed $1,000 to Biden in 2007
• Sam Houser (Rockstar) $4,600 to Obama
• Patricia Vance (president, ESRB) $2,000 to Obama
• John Riccitiello (CEO, EA) $4,600 to Obama
• John Smedley (Sony Online Entertainment) $2,300 to Obama
• Richard Garriott aka "Lord British" (Ultima series, NC Soft) $2,300 to Hillary Clinton
• Alex Rigopulos (CEO, Harmonix) $32,900 to Obama
• Kathy Vrabeck (president, EA Casual) $2,300 to Obama
• George Lucas (LucasFilm) $33,100 to Obama
• Doug Lowenstein (former ESA head) $2,300 to Hillary Clinton
• Kenneth Doroshow (new ESA general counsel) $2,500 to Obama
• Gabe Newell (pres., Valve) $2,300 to Dodd

GP: We will update the list as additional donors are located.

UPDATE: Adding links for each donor. Just click on the name for details. Also, removed a couple of mistaken entries on the Democratic side. Specifically, we had initially listed a John Carmack, but further review indicated that it was not the game desgner.

techPresident has uncovered some tinkering with Spore's Creature Creator utility by politically-minded gamers.

By way of example the site points to Spore-rendered versions of George W. Bush, John McCain (at left) and Sarah Palin.

To be fair, the Palin creature is bit of a stretch...

So, is the union of Spore and politics called Sporitics? Spolitics?

Over at The Click Heard Round the World, Second Life devotee Rik Panganiban wonders why Democrats seem to far outnumber Republicans in SL's online world.

Panganiban, who goes by Rik Riel in-game, is a self-identified Obama supporter and notes that the Democratic presidential candidate topped a recent SL poll by a 2:1 margin over Republican John McCain.

Panganiban also notes that McCain's SL presence, "Straight Talk Cafe" is usually deserted and seems to be malfunctioning. He writes:

Looking at the Second Life resident-organized groups, there does appear to be a larger support base for Obama, with 1,300 residents in the "Obama for President" group, compared to only 300-some residents in the largest McCain for President group...

 

Given the fact that Obama and McCain have been in a virtual deadheat in the real world polls, what is the deal with Second Life?  Are there more progressive, liberal folks flocking to the virtual world?  Is it the age group that tends to dominate SL, the late-20s / mid-30s demographic? 

 

I found this all kind of sad.  Although I'm an Obama supporter, I would love to talk with McCain boosters about his policies, particularly his positions on foreign policy and the United Nations. Does McCain support closing Gitmo?  Would he fully fund efforts to stop the scourge of AIDS in Africa?  I really want to know, and I would want to know if his supporters care about these things.

Impact Games' Play the News is currently offering a chance to weigh in on the upcoming vice-presidential debate between Republican Sarah Palin and Democrat Joe Biden. The debate will take place on October 2nd at Washington University in St. Louis.

If you're not familiar with Play the News, Impact CEO Eric Brown describes it as "where fantasy leagues meet the evening news." Players can check out background information, select optional courses of action and make predictions. PTN tracks your score and allows you to level up and earn achievements.

On Tuesday GamePolitics took note of the release of a Sarah Palin action figure and wondered how long it would take for a Palin-based game to hit the web.

Answer: Three days.

Today, U.K.-based T-Enterprise has unveiled Polar Palin.

In the game the player controls a dynamite-equipped polar bear who attempts to blow up Palin-driven "campaign tanks" as well as oil rigs.

What's it all about? Here is the explanation given on the game site:

The U.S. recently classified the Alaskan polar bear as a threatened species because of the destruction of its natural habitat. It is predicted that the population of bears could be reduced by two-thirds by the year 2050 due to pollution and global warming.

 

The state of Alaska, led by Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, is to sue the U.S. interior secretary to reverse the decision amid fears that it will hinder oil and gas development.

A new video trailer which shows off the cooperative mode in the upcoming Saints Row 2 features likenesses of presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama engaging in full-on gameplay.

And in Saints Row, of course, that means full-on violent gameplay...

The other day I called out God of War creator David Jaffe for a vlog in which he referred to Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin as "the perfect definition of a MILF." (see: God of War Designer David Jaffe Reduces Sarah Palin Candidacy to Lowest Common Denominator).

Apparently, Jaffe took notice - and took the heat. He has posted a new video which addresses the MILF issue:

There's this website out there, pretty good website in terms most of the content it covers. Pretty smart and I'm glad it's out there. But it was like... this accusatory tone of me being sexist or crass when I called Sarah Palin a MILF. I'm like, Oh my, god! ...Your Victorian sensibilities are very easily offended... I'm not sexist. I have two little girls. I respect and love women. I think we're all pretty much equal...

 

And I think that's just really f*cking nit picking and ultra-politically correct to the point of just being absurd to assume that because I look at a woman and I say the only thing I can see she's good for is f*cking... It's not sexist because I'm not saying that's what I see in all women when I look at all women. I'm saying when I look at her, that's the only redeeming quality I can find in her...

While I concur with Jaffe's position that there are more questions than answers about Sarah Palin, he and I will have to disagree on this one. Referring to Palin in public statements as a MILF reduces her - reduces any woman - to the level of a sex object.

I certainly don't think he's a bad guy - far from it. But Jaffe needs to realize that the level of candor which may be acceptable in a frat house or local pub doesn't play quite so well when delivered as public, on-the-Net-forever commentary. As the head of a respected game design studio, Jaffe has employees (some of whom may be women) who could be offended. He has key business relationships with corporate types who by nature are not eager to hand a ready-made issue to special-interest groups. Is that politically correct? To an extent, sure. But that's the nature of business today.

Beyond that, however, there's just something wrong about reducing a woman to the sum of her body parts.

Video game columnist Dave Davies of the San Antonio Express has tongue firmly planted in cheek as he ticks off a quartet of video games that he says can increase one's understanding of Republican VP nominee Sarah Palin.

In what amounts to a series of micro-reviews, he writes:

Before we jump to conclusions about Palin, we should get to know her a little better — walk a mile in her snowshoes. Video games can help us do that.

By way of powering up your Palin I.Q., Davies suggests the following games:

The Deadlist Catch (360):  According to her official biography, Palin worked with her husband, Todd, on a commercial fishing boat. So playing the game you can see what tough work this is. And playing this game is a lot like work.

 

Kawasaki Snowmobiles (Wii): Todd Palin is the five-time champion of the world's longest snowmobile race... So what's it like to be a snowmobile champ? Play the game  and find out — not! Even with all the distractions, Palin's political career is having an easier time staying on track than the snowmobiles in this simulation.

 

Cabela's Alaskan Adventures (PS2): Sarah Palin loves to shoot her some of that moose and you can, too...Despite Sony's promise of backward compatibility, this game did not run on my PS3 — but I've still got the PS2.

 

Arctic Tale: Palin doesn't want federal protection for the polar bears and she doesn't believe in global warming. But if we could get her to play this game, she might change her mind.

Cnet's Declan McCullough reports that former Minnesota Vikings star Cris Carter was on hand at the Republican National Convention this week to hype Financial Football. The free game, created by Visa and the NFL, is designed to teach money management skills to young adults.

Said Carter:

Young people need to know how to make smart money management decisions before heading off to college and entering the workforce.

Former Broncos receiver Rod Smith performed similar duties at the DNC in Denver last week.

In addition to the PC version, Financial Football is a free D/L to mobile phones. Text the word VISA to 24421.

In an article titled, Who Is The Gamer's Candidate?, Edge Online has recapped the positions of both parties' presidential tickets as they relate to video games.

It's good to know that none of the four candidates have ever gotten behind a video game ban, although Republican VP nominee Sarah Palin gave consideration in the past to censoring books. Of the four, Barack Obama has said and done the most in regard to games.

While the EO piece offers no new information, it is a worthwhile summary.

David Jaffe, creative genius behind the God of War and Twisted Metal series, isn't one to keep silent, but sometimes he probably should.

Jaffe posted a stream-of-consciousness video to his blog on Saturday from his office. At 3:40 into the video he segues into a rant about Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin:

The VP pick... I think she's, you know, kind of cute. She's the perfect definition of a MILF. Not to, you know, disparage her or anything. I'm not trying to sort of make it about that, but it's like that's what I see when I look at her. I didn't love Hillary but I looked at her and I saw experience and intelligence... you look at this woman and you see a MILF. That's what you see.

 

Her experience doesn't really seem to indicate that she would be all that great as a vice-president and certainly not a president. What are they thinking...

GP: Palin's lack of experience is certainly subject to discussion. Her attempted book banning, definitely. However the MILF comment is rather far beyond the pale, especially for someone of Jaffe's stature.

While we've yet to hear of any connection between Republican VP nominee Sarah Palin and video games, the New York Times reports that she explored a book banning campaign as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska in the late 1990's:

Shortly after becoming mayor, former city officials and Wasilla residents said, Ms. Palin approached the town librarian about the possibility of banning some books, though she never followed through...

 

Ann Kilkenny, a Democrat who said she attended every City Council meeting in Ms. Palin’s first year in office, said Ms. Palin brought up the idea of banning some books at one meeting. “They were somehow morally or socially objectionable to her,” Ms. Kilkenny said.

 

The librarian, Mary Ellen Emmons, pledged to “resist all efforts at censorship,” Ms. Kilkenny recalled. Ms. Palin fired Ms. Emmons shortly after taking office but changed course after residents made a strong show of support...

Politico offers this on Palin's book banning attempt:

According to the Frontiersman newspaper, Wasilla’s library director, Mary Ellen Emmons, said that Palin asked her outright if she "could live with censorship of library books.” Palin later dismissed the conversation as a “rhetorical” exercise.

Time has more:

Stein says that as mayor, Palin continued to inject religious beliefs into her policy at times. "She asked the library how she could go about banning books," he says, because some voters thought they had inappropriate language in them. "The librarian was aghast." That woman, Mary Ellen Baker, couldn't be reached for comment, but news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire Baker for not giving "full support" to the mayor.

GP: If Sarah Palin would ban books, would she also ban video games? It's certainly a valid question.

The saga of Republican VP nominee Sarah Palin continues...

In the latest revelation, British newspaper The Telegraph reports that the father of pregnant 17-year-old Bristol Palin's baby is Levi Johnston, a self-described "redneck" hockey player.

The couple have been dating for a year, according to officials in their home town, and Bristol regularly cheers on her man at games...

 

On his MySpace page, since removed from the Internet, Johnston describes himself as a "f****n' redneck" and reveals: "I live to play hockey. I like to go camping and hang out with the boys, do some fishing," before warning that of anyone annoys him, he will “kick ass".

 

Poignantly, in the one part of the site where it asks about children, he wrote, "I don't want kids."

Meanwhile Hollywood Celebs Gossip picks up The Telegraph's report and adds in the the gamer bit (source not immediately clear):

Since Bristol Palin’s pregnancy news was broken out, those profanity-laden words have been withdrawn from the social network site, replacing with “I enjoy hanging with my buds and playing a good video game. Thanks for looking at my site!”

GP: A look at MySpace seems to indicate that at least three pages have created in Levi's name. Some or all are obviously fakes. For now, we're taking all of this info with a large grain of salt.

UPDATE: A GP reader wrote in to object to the story as not appropriate for the site. Here are my thoughts on that:

I agree with [the reader] to a point. I don’t love the story, either. However, I can guarantee you that *every* mainstream news organization is going to cover the “father of the baby” story by tomorrow morning, and on that basis alone I do not have a problem being early with it. And, I always seek to bring any connection between politics and gaming to the forefront. He’s reportedly a gamer, this is a high profile story.

 

Nor do I have a political dog in this fight. Personally, I don’t think the pregnancy is politically relevant. But, absent my beliefs, it has become an international story. So, it gets covered.
 

He may have lost out on the Republican party's vice presidential nod, but Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty recently had a memorable ride in an Xbox-equipped van inadvertently stolen from the band Everclear.

As GamePolitics has previously reported, Gov. Pawlenty signed Minnesota's 2006 "fine the buyer" video game law into effect. The measure was later deemed unconstitutional by a pair of federal courts.

As reported by TwinCities.com:

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty spent Sunday riding around Pennsylvania in a stolen van. The theft was inadvertent; his Keystone State driver was told to pick up the keys to the vehicle in which he was to shepherd the governor at the Holiday Inn in Allentown, Pa.

 

"He did exactly what he was told, except it was the wrong Holiday Inn and the wrong van," said Pawlenty... The van the driver picked up was a tricked-out touring vehicle, complete with an LCD video screen, an Xbox and video games and an iPod-ready, six-speaker stereo system.

The van retrieved by Pawlenty's driver was full of beer cans and had been used to to transport Everclear to their hotel. Ironically, the band was enroute to the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

When the driver mistakenly showed up at Everclear's hotel, he was given the keys to the van by front desk personnel. Later, when the van turned up missing, owner Sharky Laguana reported it to local police as stolen. When the mystery was finally solved, Laguana said:

I've had a lot of crazy things happen in our vans. I don't know that this is even the craziest thing that's happened in our vans. ... This is the funnest thing...

GP: Actually, the funniest thing would have been for the police to spot the "stolen" van and perform a takedown on its occupants.

CNN is now reporting that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will be John McCain's running mate.

Palin, 44, who has been governor for only two years, appears to have little track record with video games - or much of anything else.

She was a city council person in Wasilla, Alaska from 1992-1996 and was later mayor of that town. She failed in an attempt to become Alaska's Lt. Gov. in 2002, and won the top seat in 2006.

Palin has two sons and three daughters. Her oldest son, age 18, is scheduled to be deployed to Iraq later this yer.