May 31, 2008

May 30, 2008

It Moved Me

Can I just say that last nights Lost season finally was a stellar ending to some stellar work of a season?

"Time Traveling Bunnies!"

May 29, 2008

Checkmate

The King of Nepal is no longer King. Even better, Nepal has no more King. Robert Farley has the details. Well done, Nepal, well done.

Don't Frear

They may hate you now Scotty, but they will change their tune one they put out there own ass-covering tell all.

May 28, 2008

Well, What do You Know!

Looks like the good people of California are surprisingly OK with gay marriage. They just needed a little push from the friendly neighborhood judge.

Company He Keeps

John McCain's leading economic advisor, the guy who comes up with McCain's policies on the mortgage crisis, is a lobbyist and Vice-President for one of the leading banks behind the mortgage crisis.

May 27, 2008

Rat! Ship!

Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, the guy who's job was to tell us all that every was going good when it...wasn't is telling us that it was, in fact, going all wrong. He's writing a tell-all book. Key's to the kingdom. Interesting facts include such gems as the Secret Service code name for the press secretary is "Matrix." Also LIES, LIES, IT WAS ALL LIES! Rove and Libby were in on the exposure of Valerie Plame and lied about it. The Iraq war was sold on “propaganda.” The Administration didn't have a clue during Katrina. All this from the guys who's job it was to tell us that Rove was not involved, the Administration has the situation well in hand, that Iraq was a real threat.

LIES!

Brokered Convention!

Well we didn't get the Republican brokered convention I was hoping for and its unlikely the Democrats are going to have one, no matter how stubborn Hillary will be. But the Libertarians, God bless there small, cold, government-hating hearts, had themselves a big to-do. Seven votes! Deals! Drama! Speeches!

And Bob Barr wins it, and he just might steal some Republican votes this year.

Good times.

May 26, 2008

Tis the Season

Nothing marks and honors the sacrifice of our fighting men and women like showing 12 continuous hours of CSI:Miami. I mean some channels have the decency to show war movies all day, but CSI:Miami, really?

May 23, 2008

Stay out of Church

Preachers are trouble.

Now McCain is caught up in nutty preacher-gate and is forced to denounce his supporters. I'm pretty sure that this is going to be a pattern in politics going forward. With the Reverent Wright/Obama dust-up, looking at the religious figures of politicos is becoming standard. Which is a real change in this game. America is a very religious Country. The media and people in general have given religious folks lots and lots of leeway. Preachers say crazy stuff all the time. But no one wants to mess with God, so no one calls them on it. They have a freedom of movement that politicians just don't have. But the right, in its eagerness to get at Obama, have now made what's said behind the pulpit fair game. And right-wing preachers say a lot more offensive stuff, sermon for sermon, than left-wing preachers.

May 21, 2008

May 20, 2008

Are We There Yet?

Everybody gets their chance. Leave no State behind. Clinton takes Kentucky, Obama takes Oregon. Bigger win for Clinton, so she takes the night on points, but not enough points to change the standings. Hillbilly country is just not for Obama, but people should be clear why.

Escalation

You know, campaign rhetoric is going to to escalate as the season drags on. What shocks and impresses in week 1 isn't going to register on week 25. So words get punched up a lot as things go on. "Pro-choice extremest" in July becomes "baby-killer" in October. So what does it say that the field for November isn't even officially set yet, and already McCain is getting compared to Jesus and Obama is getting attacked as an unamerican half-breed who lacks the "heritage" to be President. We have five months left and nowhere to go but down.

Buffy Still Saving People

Heard this on the radio yesterday, got the link from Attackerman. NPR's Baghdad reporter Jamie Tarabay talks about how Buffy the Vampire Slayer kept her alive and sane while she reported from Iraq. The story quotes my favorite lines from the whole series:

Buffy: Does it ever get easy?
Giles: You mean life?
Buffy: Yeah. Does it get easy?
Giles: What do you want me to say?
Buffy: Lie to me.
Giles: Yes, it's terribly simple. The good guys are always stalwart and true, the bad guys are easily distinguished by their pointy horns or black hats, and, uh, we always defeat them and save the day. No one ever dies, and everybody lives happily ever after.
Buffy: Liar.

Which is about as good a summery of Iraq, and the world we live in today, that has ever been said.

May 19, 2008

Behind the Scenes

Juicy behind the scenes gossip about the Bill O'Reilly-Keith Olbermann feud. Apparently, this was discussed at the highest levels by the heads of their respective media bosses. Is this really the way this stuff works?

May 17, 2008

Stay Cool

Its a hundred degrees out and just paid four bucks a gallon for the first time, but still, its all good.

May 16, 2008

Weak Game

Tell me again how John McCain and the Republicans are so tough on national defense policy. McCain's Iraq policy is nothing more than a fantasy wish list for the year 2013. Hey by 2013 I want to Rolling Stone's political corespondent and a champion MMA fighter, lovingly supported both by my wife Eliza Dushku and my mistress, Gina Carano. Or maybe Gina will marry me. Anyway, the point is, hope is not a plan. My hope/no plan approach is kind of funny and a little sad, but that kind of hope is dangerous stupid in a President.

And just repeating the word "appeasement" 20,000 times will not win this argument either. First, know what you are talking about. Here's a right-winger that doesn't even know what happened at Munich. Funny. Also, if you consider negotiation "appeasement" than don't advocate talks with Hamas.

Weak.

May 15, 2008

Gay Day

The California Supreme Court just overturned the law banning gay marriage. Which means we now have gay marriage in California. How long it lasts... well it is California, so we get to vote on it. Again. The gay marriage ban won something like 60-40 in 2000, but a lot of old fundy-dudies have, um, left the voter pool and many enlightened youngsters have entered. So this issue is still in play. But gay people are going to get married for next few months, and the world isn't going to end. So maybe that turns some people around.

Ahhh, Panic

Good signs of Republican panic. Bout time.

May 14, 2008

Ender

Edwards endorses Obama



Did he get his jet-ski?

Sense of Impending Doom

Along with Hillary's West Virginia thumping, the other, more interesting result was another Democratic Congressional pick-up, this time in Mississippi. That's three such wins in as many contests, each one in a more Republican - leaning district than before. Last night the Dem won by 54 percent to 46 percent in a district that Bush carried by 25 points in 2004. If Republicans can lose this seat, there isn't a safe place for them anywhere in the Country. This is so bad, it's resulted in spin failure from the GOP.

It's time for Republicans to start panicking. I wonder if they know that?

May 13, 2008

Who Has the Problem

Not for nothing, but Obama is doomed in West Virgina today. I keep hearing a lot of talk, like this shows Obama's weakness with "working class whites" which I assume is just a euphemism for "hillbillies." Obama doesn't play well in hillbilly country. He's going to lose big in Kentucky as well. Its not that he can't get white votes. Or rural votes. He's won Iowa, Nebraska, Idaho, North Dakota and Utah, which are all states that have nothing but white votes. Its a certain kind of white voter he can't win. Namely, racists. If in 2008 your "man on the street" is willing to tell a reporter that he can't vote for a guy because he's black, I would take that man at his word. So its not a shortcoming of Obama that causes him to lose Appalachia. Its a shortcoming of the voters. I know the gold rule of this game is that you shall not speak ill of voters, from who all good things come. But sometimes you just got to tell the truth.

May 11, 2008

Happy Mother's Day

Not to be partisan about this, but Republicans hate mothers. Sad but true. Its right there in the voting record.

May 10, 2008

May 9, 2008

Bastards

The bastards running Burma are now seizing food aid shipments. This isn't even suppression that makes sense. Sure beat and shot monks who protest against your rule, that makes sense with evil dictator logic. But to what kind of points is it to starve people after a natural disaster? That's just evil for evils sake.

May 8, 2008

You Know

I really think these guys want to go to war with Iran. I strongly believe that it is important to get this guys as far away from power as possible.

For all our sakes.

May 7, 2008

Old is the new hope

Secret McCain Campaign Slogan Memo Leaked

Obliterating the Middle East is on his bucket list.

Not Again

More labor trouble for Hollywood, this time its the Screen Actors Guild. Do the producers really want to have another strike? The writer's strike didn't work out for them at all and actors are so much sexier than writers.

I Like the Quiet

Down day for both candidates today. Rest for Obama, hard choices time for Clinton. Who is going to tell her that its over?

May 6, 2008

The End?

I keep waiting and waiting for a final result to come in so I can tell you all what the result means. At the start of the night it seemed pretty straight forward, a big win for Obama in North Carolina and a small win for Clinton Indiana. A bad result for Clinton, but enough of a wash for team Clinton to keep things going. But as the night has gone on the margin in Indiana has gotten closer and closer. Now its on the verge of an Obama win, and a double win tonight will rip away the last peace of duck tape holding the Clinton campaign together. Which brings us to that last 8% of the vote in Indiana and a margin of 19,000 votes. Watch and learn.

Magic

So now apparently Obama is so amazing he's able to negotiate a ceasefire in Nigeria without even talking to any of the parties involved.

Ooooohhhhhh.

Women's Work

Why is Laura Bush out in front on diplomatic efforts to help Burma in the wake of the cyclone disaster? Laura Bush doesn't do or say much of anything. No really, name me one thing Laura Bush has done or said in the last eight years? She just kind of stands there with that slightly drugged-out smile. Could none of the real players in this Administration be bothered with a humanitarian project? Is it only war that gets the manly men of the Bush Administration out of bed in the morning. It be one thing if this was a Hillary Clinton or Eleanor Roosevelt-type first lady, an activist with real pull inside the Administration and a high profile with the press. But putting Laura Bush on the case is a pretty clear signal that they don't care.

May 5, 2008

Good Title

The woman who challenged and destroyed the ban on interracial marriage in this country was named Mildred Loving. She has died.

Bad Idea

Compare -

Some idiots have the idea that building a "massive American-style amusement park that will feature a skateboard park, rides, a concert theatre and a museum." in downtown Baghdad is a good idea. Or how about "luxury hotels, a shopping center and even condos"

I have an idea of lighting stacks of 100 dollar bills on fire to keep my apartment warm this year.

Which do you think is better investment?

At least I will have something to show for money you invest with me. Mmmm warmth.

May 4, 2008

Iron Man

I have seen the future, and it contains lots and lots of power armor suits. And lots of movies about guys in power armor suits. Robert Downey Jr. does great work as billionaire supra-genius playboy hero Tony Stark. The plot I won't bother to summarize here, seeing as you seen the trailer and know the gist. Interestingly enough the movie carries a pretty strong critic of the international arms industry. The morality tail goes astray however, as the answer to high tech weapons seems to be even awesome weapons. But still awesome, none the less. The other message of the movie seems to be don't trust anyone without hair. Gwyneth Paltrow seems to have wandered in on those great legs of hers from some 1950's workplace romantic comedy.

But all told I must recommend this movie. Well done.

Results

In the "win is a win" catagory, Obama has won the Guam caucuses by 7 votes. Yes
Guam. Yes, seven votes.

Also, Democrats have won anouther Congressional special election, this time down in Louisiana in what is normally a very Republican District. The Democrat is Don Cazayoux, which is a very Cajun name. So say election like Adam Sandler's Cajun man.

Finally, people of London have elected a complete ponce for Mayor. Voters, what can you do?

May 1, 2008

GTA

Mostly, the world of video games escapes the attention that TV and Movies get. These day we spend just as much time wasting time with video games as anything else, but a lot less ink gets spilled on the subject. But the release of Grand Theft Auto IV, that all changes. Nothing gets attention like the GTA games. Ultra-fun and ultra-violent, these games are wide-open sandboxes of violence and mayhem. Thus are responsible for the end of civilization as we know it. Sadly, I will lagging behind the coming anarchy, because the PC version seems lacking right now. But Kotaku is filled with good GTA coverage. I also recommend GamePolitics for great coverage of all the moral preening and messed up politics that go with GTA.