Celebrity

Daddy Yankee supports John McCain. Here's Rompe:



Catchy eh? My Spanish is not the best, but that is not family friendly material right that. I am shocked, shocked that John McCain would attach himself with such a person. I think it just cost him my vote.

Attention

Krissi is cute.

That is all.

Pretty Governor Lady

I figured I'd sleep on McCain's VP and see if it made any more sense in the morning. Sarah Palin, really? A very odd pick. Big gamble, almost Shoot the Moon territory. No more attacking Obama on the experience question, that's for sure. Very transparent play for women, particularly of the disaffected Hillary supporter type. But Palin is rabidly anti-choice and generally very much of the right, so I don't see many of Hillary's women crossing over. Pure blind support of the sisterhood doesn't go that far. Alaska's three electoral votes are now out of play, a smart counter to Obama locking up Delaware's three with the Biden choice. Speaking of Biden, he's going to pick his teeth with Palin in the VP debate. The biggest challenge for Biden is not to seem like he's picking on a girl.

Oh and she hates Polar Bears. Lady is going down.

Enough

When people asked me "why Obama?" my first answer is always "talent." The man is a supremely gifted speaker. That speech shows it as clear as day. Blew the doors off the place. That speech did everything it need to do. Nailed McCain in half a dozen ways. Rallied Democrats, grabbed independents. Disarmed the GOP talking points. Set out a substantial agenda. Sent the rhetoric soaring. A floor polish and a dessert topping. Oh hell, that speech had Pat Buchanan quoting his favorite parts.

Color me pleased.

Meet Your New Vice President

I would also recommend the speeches by the Big Dog and John "Not taking any more shit" Kerry. We now have a very specific ritiual everyone must go though before ripping up John McCain. First you must state how honorable and brave he is, how he's your friend, and how much you respect him. Then you gut him.

The stagecraft has been very well done, with State roll call vote handled very well, and the 'surprise' appearence of Obama at the end.

Big finish tonight.

Your Moment of Zen

All my passions come together.

Lady Brings Her A Game

Very good speech. About as full an indictment of McCain and endorsement of Obama as one person could manage. "Twin Cities" and "No way. No how. No McCain." are going to enter the lexicon. There will be those trying to stir up a Obama-Clinton rift, but after tonight it will all just be Republican punks trying to stir up trouble. If any Clinton supporters go with McCain, it will not be Hillary's fault.

In other speech notes Governor Schweitzer from Montana is a jolly warrior, all round-faced smiles as he sinks the shiv into McCain. He should have gotten the "keynote" designation, not Mark Warner's serviceable tech-babble about jobs and small towns.

Fox News Gets Punked

Poke the anarchists with a stick, and this is what you get.

The Lion in Winter

Screw Cancer

Spooky

More West Wing-Real Life parallels emerge. I'm pulling out my season 7 DVD tonight. Warning: the next major West Wing campaign event is a Southern California nuke plant going critical right after the debates. If McCain offers a bold defense of nuclear power at the debates, Run!

Party Time

Democratic Convention Time. All the speeches you could want. Protests. Balloons. Funny Hats. Movie Stars.

Fun Times.

Ah Ha

It's Biden

Where's my text message? I was promised a text message. Did anybody get the text message?

Decent pick. Biden is a governing pick, someone to help run the system once Obama get into office. Like Cheney, only not evil. Biden's got a mouth, so we can count on him sticking his foot in it a few times before this over. He also unleashes great lines like there’s only three things Rudy Giuliani mentions in a sentence — “a noun, a verb, and 9/11.” We are going to get a lot of mileage of that mouth.

Are We Done?

Maybe.

For the Record

I know exactly how many homes I own.

That would be none.

Maybe John McCain would give me one. He doesn't seem to be keeping track.

Not the Horses!

Oh no. Four horses banned from Olympic jumping for doping.

Ka Pow

Speaking of Olympic bodies, because they are all five foot nothing and wear glitter in their hair, one has a tendency to forget that the female gymnasts are made of muscle as well. Here a clip that's been going around, which shows that prime example of American manhood, the shirtless frat boy, giving silver medalist Alicia Sacramone (5' 1'', 117 lbs) a free shot.



Oh man, that never gets old.

In other Olympic punching news, the tastefully named Charlotte Craig has lost her Quarterfinal Taekwondo match and is out of the competition. But Charlotte's a prodigy and only 17, she'll be back.

Maddow Gets Her Show

Liberals on TV. Welcome to the new world.

Question

Are mohawks back in fashion? I keep seeing them. On tv and here in the real world. Are they back? Was their a memo or something?

Too Far

Now the McCain campaign has insulted D&D players! However, the campaign has issued an apology. The nerd vote is just too important to insult like that.

Bodies in Motion

The thrill of competition is all well and good, but really we watch the Olympics for the great bodies. I love how each sport pushes it competitors into a different shape. Distance running strips away everything but the bare necessities, while swimming can leave you looking pretty fearsome. So the discussion question is which body would you have if you could skip the whole lifetime of dedication? Phelps is a wonder, but his proportions are off - torso too long, etc. I figure its the side effect of the fish-human hybrid experiment. For my money the male gymnasts win the best body overall, male division. Tyler would like to remind everyone at this time that I am not gay. Now on the women's side beach volleyball get all the attention (Six foot girls, in bikinis, and the hug all the time!) But that may be a function of the lack of cloths. I'm pretty sure that women fencers, judoka and soccer players are pretty killer, but they just wear too many dam clothes to get a good read.

So what say you gentle readers? What kind of body would you want, if you could skip the work? And what kind of body would you want, should you find yourself cruising the Olympic Village late one night? Purely an intellectual discussion, and feel free to include pictures or links to support your point.

Sound of Silence

Good roundup on this Daily Kos post on the number of musicians who are stopping the McCain campaign from using thier music. John Mellencamp, Frankie Valli, Chuck Berry. Heck, Jackson Browne filed suit over the use of "Running on Empty." Mike Myers stopped the use of a Wayne's World clip in an attack ad. The GOP has been largely striking out with creative class types for...well ever. Usually the Republicans turn it around by running against the evils of Hollywood. But when you can't get any music to play at campaign events or in your commercials, that's got to hurt.

Musharraf is Done

That's President/Dictator Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan. He's resigning. This is one of those hugely important events in world affairs that I am uncertain of the implications of, so I will simply note the event without additional comment. Till I know better.

Trippy

I never get tired of watching this one.

Jamiroquai - Virtual Insanity

Make Me Your VP

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

All Talk

Turns out we can't even send humanitarian aid to Georgia:

President Bush Wednesday promised that U.S. naval forces would deliver humanitarian aid to war-torn Georgia before his administration had received approval from Turkey, which controls naval access to the Black Sea, or the Pentagon had planned a seaborne operation, U.S. officials said Thursday.

As of late Thursday, Ankara, a NATO ally, hadn't cleared any U.S. naval vessels to steam to Georgia through the Bosporus and the Dardanelles, the narrow straits that connect the Mediterranean and the Black Seas, the officials said. Under the 1936 Montreaux Convention, countries must notify Turkey before sending warships through the straits.

The Bush administration coming up short in disaster relief? Unprecedented.

"The president was writing checks to the Georgians without knowing what he had in the bank," said a senior administration official.

Interesting

Meghan McCain, foxy daughter of you-know-who, is releasing a children's book on her father. There must be like twenty jokes I should make here, but nothing is coming to mind.

Bloody Days are Here Again

See Andrew Sullivan on Krauthammer urge to return to Cold War. These guys do not look back at those years as bad, or the post-cold war years as better. War is always better.

Best Bad Idea

Dick Morris pitches Joe Lieberman as McCain's VP. Oh Please, Oh Please, Oh Please. The only thing they agree on is the war. The unpopular war. Lieberman will renew all the fears that the right-wing already has about McCain. Lieberman doesn't bring any Dems with him - in 2006 he lost his primary race and won as an independent on the strength of Republican votes.

I totally support this idea.

Decency Gap

Even when Democrats turn out to be cheating cads, we can depend on the Republicans to open their mouths and be even bigger assholes.

Georgia On My Mind

Go read Belgravia Dispatch on McCains's rush to really get us involved in the Georgia crisis. As in war with Russia involved. That's what making Georgia part of NATO would entail.

The Georgians are taking it on the chin, but the solution is not war with Russia. The solution was not to encourage Georgia to poke a finger in the eye of Russia. And to have not invaded Iraq on a lie, and thus set the valuable precedent that any Country can invade another and just make up crap as to why. A precedent that the bastards of the world will dine out on for the next twenty years.

Don't let the idiots who brought us the Iraq war bring us a new cold (or hot!) war with Russia. They really want it.

Question

So while Georgia and Russia went to war, Bush spent the weekend going to Olympic events and, um, interacting with the athletes. This is is not a rhetorical question: Is it better that Bush is isn't paying attention to the crisis? Would it really be better if he focused his attention on events, and not the shapely ass of beach volleyball team? Wouldn't he make the situation worse? As still yet another Bush foreign policy ends in a bloody fiasco, and the usual suspects start pimping for more war, maybe its better if Bush stays happy and out the way for the rest of the Olympics.

Ok, Do You Like This?

This is good stuff.

Warning

This video will turn you into a lesbian.

Katy Perry - I Kissed a Girl

Chicks with Swords

US women sweep the Sabre.

Love of Sport

I love the Olympics. I neglect my love for long stretches of time, but every time the games roll back around I fall in love again. I love the whole world watching one thing. I love that all these sports are getting their chance. Track and field, gymnastics, swimming all become important for two weeks. I will not rest till fencing gets it due. I love seeing what the athletes can do. Do you realize how high the high jump is these days? That marathoners run at a faster pace for 26 miles than I can keep up for one lap around the track? How narrow that high beam is? Or that female weightlifters can now lift twice their own body weight over their head? I love that ping-pong and badminton, played at this level, stop being games and become superhuman feats of reflexes and skill. I love watching the medal count, to see if China can catch the US and Russia at the grand game of being good in everything. I love the Countries who have one shot with one athlete in one event or its nothing. I love Countries that are so poor and war torn and generally messed up, that even getting a team to the Games is a triumph. I love that world is growing so small that one of the lost boys of Sudan is going to carry the American flag in the opening ceremony. Or that the Russian basketball team is going to field an African-American émigré. That's right, a black Russian. I love it when the American scores the huge upset. I love it when the Americans completely dominate. Softball is going to going to get kicked out of the games in 2012, the US is so dominant. I love American getting upset by some Country you couldn't find on a map, its so small. I love nationalism that doesn't come from war, or racism, or fear, but a nationalism that's just about "Run you magnificent bastard! Faster! He's catching Up!"

I don't love it all. There's the drugs. The judging. NBC trying too hard. Tape delays. The fact that China has the games this year. That the Olympic truce is not going to hold in way too many places. Heartbreaking injuries. The interpretive dance portions of the opening and closing ceremonies. We need as a nation a better chant than "U-S-A, U-S-A" The Australians have "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oy, Oy, Oy" which is so much better.

But trying to hate this stuff never works. Because in the end, I love the Olympics. They get me every time.

Oy

Oy

The Games Begin

I always love the parade of Nations. You can keep the rest of the opening ceremony (2,000 Chinese school children dressed as snow flakes! 24 giant dancing paper lanterns! This light is the symbol of peace!) But I always dearly love the sight of the athletes marching in to stadium.

Now What?

It appears that a war is breaking out between Georgia and Russia. Not "down south" Georgia, "Former Soviet Republic" Georgia. The dispute is over the separatist region of South Ossetia.

How about a little Olympic truce, eh folks?

Pray for Rain

The enthusiasm gap, highlighted by Steve Benen:

McCain is lagging in enthusiasm. Forty-nine percent of Obama voters describe themselves as “very enthusiastic,” compared to just 21% of McCain backers, and a full 27% of the Republican nominee’s supporters say they are either “not very” or “not at all” enthusiastic about him, compared with 10% for Obama.

Pray that it rains on election day in the swing states. Obama people will go through fire and flood to vote for him. McCain people? "Eh, its raining, best just stay home."

The Political Games

Gold medalist (speedskater) and Darfur activist Joey Cheek has been banned from entering China for the games. The Chinese can't help being the heavy-handed authoritarians that they really are.

The Day in Quotes

“I don’t know if you know this, John McCain is looking for someone for vice president who has more economic expertise than he does. So congratulations to all of you, you’re on the short list.”

John Kerry

"Now two points, one, they know they're lying about what my energy plan is, but the other thing is they're making fun of a step that every expert says would absolutely reduce our oil consumption by 3 to 4 percent. It’s like these guys take pride in being ignorant."

Barack Obama

"But then that wrinkly white-haired guy used me in his campaign ad, which I guess means I'm running for president. So thanks for the endorsement white-haired dude, and I want America to know I'm, like, totally ready to lead."

Paris Hilton

Forgery

The latest revelation:

A new book by the author Ron Suskind claims that the White House ordered the CIA to forge a back-dated, handwritten letter from the head of Iraqi intelligence to Saddam Hussein.

Suskind writes in “The Way of the World,” to be published Tuesday, that the alleged forgery – adamantly denied by the White House – was designed to portray a false link between Hussein’s regime and al Qaeda as a justification for the Iraq war.

The author also claims that the Bush administration had information from a top Iraqi intelligence official “that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq – intelligence they received in plenty of time to stop an invasion.”

You know, if the outrage gland in my brain wasn't drained dry by the last eight years, I'd be pretty outraged right now.

That Will Improve Things

The Green Bay Packers are bringing in former White House Spokesliar Ari Fleischer to help out with public relations for the Brett Favre saga.

I'm sure he will be a big help. I mean if you need someone to say everything is going great while the building burns down around him, Ari is your guy.

Petty

The McCain campaign gets petty. Really petty. These are the former Bush folks taking over, bringing the art of attack and smear. Which is fine if you got a drunken legacy of candidate, but less so if you have a noble crusading reformer. Bush didn't win by fighting people's cynicism about the system. He won by confirming it. McCain has always had a noble appeal. But now he is throwing it away with little petty crap. Yes, this stuff will hurt Obama. That's never the question with negative attacks. The question always is, does it hurt McCain more. I believe it does.

Where's My Lighter

Metallica - Nothing Else Matters

Retro Saturday

Don Henley - All She Wants To Do Is Dance

Rogue Scientist

Everyone remember the anthrax attacks? How's this for an plot twist:

A top government scientist who helped the FBI analyze samples from the 2001 anthrax attacks has died in Maryland from an apparent suicide, just as the Justice Department was about to file criminal charges against him for the attacks, the Los Angeles Times has learned.

Bruce E. Ivins, 62, who for the last 18 years worked at the government's elite biodefense research laboratories at Ft. Detrick, Md., had been informed of his impending prosecution, said people familiar with Ivins, his suspicious death and the FBI investigation.

Ivins, whose name had not been disclosed publicly as a suspect in the case, played a central role in research to improve anthrax vaccines by preparing anthrax formulations used in experiments on animals.

Regarded as a skilled microbiologist, Ivins also helped the FBI analyze the powdery material recovered from one of the anthrax-tainted envelopes sent to a U.S. senator's office in Washington.

The government expert did it? The very expert who was brought in to investigate the anthrax? The man was part of the team that worked on the anthrax vaccine that our troops use. Its a closed loop. One man discovers the threat, counters the threat, and is the threat. Who watches the watchman indeed.

Glenn Greenwald has more.