May 31, 2009

In honor of KWOD, which died last week at the age of 18, I'm playing nothing but Cake today:


May 29, 2009

That was a Line

Hey Tom Tancredo, you know that line you are not supposed to cross when atacking the first Latina nominated to the Supreme Court?

Look behind you.

May 27, 2009

No End

The world is not going to end in 2012. But I will admit the whole Mayan Calendar thing is pretty fascinating.

May 26, 2009

Prop 8 Upheld

The saddest think of all is that California has been lapped by Iowa of all places. Iowa!

Here. We....Go!

Obama To Name Sonia Sotomayor to Supreme Court.

There's no party like a SCOTUS confirmation party.

May 23, 2009

Duh

"Waterboarding" is torture. It's just drowning someone in a sophisticated, controlled way. Its the functional equivalent of sticking somebodies head in a toilet or hold them under in a pool. Water in your nose and mouth keeping you from breathing is drowning, no matter how fancy. Waterboarding just looks different so that torture advocates can pretend otherwise. Of course, for some, the only way to prove it is to do it to them. Do we really have to go around torturing people to convince people that torture is bad?

May 21, 2009

Rival?

Today Obama lays out his framework for dealing with gitmo, detainees, and not being evil. Cheney lays out the pro-evil case. Lots of torture. Maybe he will eat a puppy and say he did it to keep us safe.

May 20, 2009

The Economy is Trying to Make Me Fat

Erza Klein, blogging from his new home at the Washington Post, has a chart that explains my continuing failure to become svelte. Basically, the cost of fresh fruits and vegetables keeps going up over time, while the price of beer and butter actually goes down. So see, vast economic forces are standing in the way of my transforming into the Hugh Jackman-as-Wolverine-type body that I know is my destiny.

We Suck

Well, every proposition went down to defeat yesterday, except for the measure to limit legislator's pay when the budget is late. That will show 'em. So now we have an even bigger budget deficit to deal with, which means even more cuts, which the voters of California will also hate, even though they caused it.

I highly recommend this LA Time piece pointing out the obvious - voters are to blame for the budget mess:

In the Proposition 13 tax rebellion of 1978, Californians voted to require a two-thirds approval by the Legislature to raise taxes, a major obstacle to budget agreements. Over the last couple of decades, voters have also passed a patchwork of ballot measures directing billions of dollars to favorite causes, among them public schools and transportation projects.

On Tuesday, Californians showed they were unwilling to scale back their demands in tight times: Voters turned down propositions that would have freed up money that they set aside years ago for mental-health and children's programs.

...

The public's contradictory impulses were laid bare by a recent Field Poll. It found that voters oppose cutbacks in 10 of 12 major categories of state spending, including the biggest, education and healthcare. Yet most voters were unwilling to have their own taxes increased, and they overwhelmingly favored keeping the two-thirds requirement for tax hikes.


The voters of California vote themselves tax cuts and spending increases every chance they get, then blame the elected for not meeting their impossible demands. Someday they will have to chose, but that day wasn't yesterday.

In the words of the great Mo Udall " The people have spoken, the bastards."

May 19, 2009

Even I Have Trouble

Today is special election day, get to polls, important matter of state to be decided, every vote counts. You know the drill. I'm having a bit of trouble caring myself, and I a damn political junkie. Special elections should be banned. You want your ballot measure passed, you wait for the next regularly scheduled election like everyone else. In California over the last few years we have had 2 special elections just for ballot measures, a recall election, and a Presidential primary separate from the primaries for every office. This needs to stop. It hurts turn out, costs a lot, and makes everyone more cynical about the process. Two elections, primary and general, every two years, that's should be the limit. I'm going to get to work on the ballot measure right now.

But anyway, do you duty, can't complain if you can't vote, people died to get you this right, blah, blah, blah.

May 18, 2009

Voter Guide 09

Or Craig contemplates a shit sandwich.

In California we throw special elections and pass around ballot measures with the smallest excuse, and the current budget is certainly good enough. All the ballot measures are budget related, and none of them are good. They are all “bad” or “worse” kind of choices. There’s no “the lady or the tiger” choices. More like “the jackal or the tiger”

Here we go:

Prop 1A- Here’s the heart of the matter. Budget spending caps and a bigger rainy day fund in exchange for revenue, i.e. taxes. Look, California is in the hole, budget-wise. You can fight a lot of things, but you can’t fight math. And don’t give me that crap about how we can just target waste. Cutting the budget means cutting cops, prisons, schools, and firefighters. It means fewer teachers, longer response times and more criminals on the streets. Or you can raise taxes. Remember what I said about no lady being available. That’s what we have to pick from. The budget is going to get cut. Sure as sunrise. But with this measure, your taxes go up and we don’t have to cut as much. Suck it up. The Chant recommends Yes.

Prop 1B – More ballot bugeting of the same flavor that helped get us into this mess. More money to teachers. Not a bad thing, but not what we need right now. The Chant recommends No.

Prop 1C – Sale of Future Lottery revenue. No, No, No. This is basically a deal to borrow against future earnings from the California Lottery. More trouble down the road. We could use the money, but its like eating your seed corn. The Chant recommends No.

Props 1D and 1E – Stealing candy from babies. Or rather, taking money locked up for children’s health care and mental health services by previous ballot measures and giving it to the general fund. A small way out of the handcuffs the ballot measure process has put us in. Ugly, but needed. The Chant recommends Yes.

Prop 1F- Limits on legislator’s pay if a budget isn’t passed. Because the original idea, that we take one legislator at random each day the budget is late and beat them in the public square wouldn’t pass Constitutional muster. Look, if the California Assembly and Senate were filled with 120 angels straight from heaven, pure of heart and noble of intention, we would still have late budgets and a mess. This is a bad system. The 2/3rd vote requirement, all the restrictions the props put on the process – it’s a bad system. The legislators are only human. The Chant recommends No.

Girl Power

Feminism everywhere - A filly just won the Preakness.

This could really start to catch on. Next thing you know, lions will start to do their own hunting and give the lionesses a break for once.

May 17, 2009

Scenes I Love Part 2: Who is the Master?

For those of you who haven't seen The Last Dragon, I pity you, for you are missing out on 98 minutes of pure win. The most epic mid-80's kung-fu/Motown movie ever created. And it all comes down to the final confrontation between our young hero, "Bruce" Leroy and the baddest mo-fo in the town, Sho'nuff, the Shogun of Harlem. Its not over till somebody reaches the final level:



If you want the whole movie, you can watch it here. Why haven't you gone yet?

Jam On

May 16, 2009

Today's Moment of Zen

Just try and wrap your brain around the following image:

Dreams Come True

So lately I took some kick boxing classes and started following MMA. Which has created a new and interesting fantasy: train with Gina Carano, get some pointers, then spar a little and get my ass kicked thoroughly kicked by her. Is this strange?

Anyway, it turns out that somebody gets to live my dream. Sure its a funny little hairy dude from Maxim but still, hope springs eternal:

May 14, 2009

A Scene From My City

Five guys in a four-man car right outside my door, smoking the shit out of it. So much smoke they are nothing but shadows and the occasional flash of red when they draw.

The Porn Lobby

Dana Goldstein has the inside scoop. Their main target: a measure in California to require condoms in all porn.

Retire on Air

Social Security is in much better shape than your 401(k)

May 13, 2009

First Lady of Hot

So I'm scanning through the Maxim Hot 100, because I'm always interested in hotness and in new trends in hotness. So apart from the questionable call of dropping Megan Fox all the way down to number 2, the most interesting about the list is addition of the First Lady of the United States at #93, who kind of sticks out among the starlets. I'm pretty sure that is a first.

So historic debate - Hottest first Lady ever - Michelle Obama, Jacky Kennedy, or Elizabeth Monroe (Historic Hottie, look it up)

May 12, 2009

Scenes I Love

The first three minutes of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Jason Statham's street corner hustle, well practiced, which even includes an inside man to step up and say "That's a bargain. I'll take one." Just a great line of patter. "Handmade in Italy, hand-stolen in Stepney." Then the cops show up and they run away like the road-runner in a cartoon. Then the suitcase comes open in a beautiful slo-mo burst of hot merchandise. It's at this point I'm ready for wherever this movies going to take me.

Here's the whole thing, but really, it just takes those first three minutes:

You Hate What Now?

Political debates sometime turn out in funny ways. By chance and circumstance in the last few years, the official conservative position has been that torture is fine and not every vote cast in an election should count.

Well the debate over judges has now taken a similar turn, and the official conservative position is now that empathy is a bad thing.

Empathy.

Dahlia Lithwick has the rundown.

They Work for Him

The Obama administration just fired the General in charge of Afghanistan. Remember back in the days of the surge, when Petreus was the man in charge, not Bush. It was a load of crap, because the Generals work for the President. They do what he says, full stop. If they don't then the Generals get their walking papers.

This is Obama taking control.

May 11, 2009

Presidential Jokes

Obama at the White House Correspondents Dinner parts one and two:





For those who need help with the John Boehner color joke, http://images.politico.com/global/090105_boehner_oconnor.jpg is a visual aid. He's the leader of Republicans in the House.

May 8, 2009

The Important Story

Of all the inside the White House stories I crave, this is the story I love the most. Who's writing the jokes?

Turns out, the Obama Adminstration isn't bringing in outside pros to bring the funny. The usual team such High Adviser David Axelrod and speechwriter Jon Favreau are doing the jokes.

But if you guys ever need some help, I'm there.

Might I Suggest

The Ultimate Warrior for the Supreme Court

May 6, 2009

RIP, Dom

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May 5, 2009

Test Test Test

This post is a test. A test to see if I can post to the blog using e-mail. This is only a test. If this were an actual blog post, it would have a joke, or a deep poltical insight, or something.

May 4, 2009

Reward the Traitor

Remember that scene that always comes in movies, when the villain knocks off the traitor?

I'm getting the feeling that Arlen Specter is going to get caught up in some version of that little morality tale. Specter has ridden the fence so long anyone who actually believes in something, left or right, hates him. And his big party switch might save him from a right-wing primary challenge, but leaves him venerable to a challenge from the left.

It would just be grand if Specter threw off everything, and still lost his job. The Senate just doesn't have enough dramatic irony these days.

May 1, 2009

SCOTUS Time

Supreme Court Justice David Souter is going to retire at the end of the term. Which makes the next big deal and the next big Obama test a classic one: picking a new Supreme Court Justice. The balance of the Court is unlikely to shift, with Obama picking a fairly liberal judge to replace the fairly liberal Souter. And with the Senate firmly in Democratic hands and getting more secure with every passing day (Free Al Frankin!) its unlike the confirmation process will go anything but smoothly. But it will be interesting to see just how big a hissy fit the Republicans throw over Obama's pick.