Sarah Palin as VP candidate

I don't think any of us saw that coming.

Still, it's SMART. Western reform Governor, wooing the Hillary vote. Also, announce it immediately after the DNC.

of course, iut's condescending to think that this will woo women voters just because she's a woman. Or that it'll woo reformists just because she's new at her job and [sic] calls herself a maverick. Still, it's an interesting pick.

I call myself all sorts of things. I'm not certain that maverick has ever been one of those. Except for a weird Top Gun phase in the late 80s. But that was different.

Sitting in an empty house, getting ready for the big speech tonight, getting ready for Casey's speech, and even more, Sebelius's speech. And then the bug event. Columns? I still need to see it to believe it, but surely by now Obama's people have heard the grumbling about the columns and have figured something out. But none of that has started yet. Right now we're still outside the building, watching the nutjobs and the weirdos and the commentators.
-There's a woman pulling for McCain in the parking lot, and I think Chris Matthews almost snapped when she tousled his hair.
-Glenn Beck interviewing Bob Barr. yikes.
-A guy in the background of MSNBC with a bullhorn, repeating "9/11 was an inside job" over and over and over while David Gregory pretends not to notice. It's that guy's right to protest. Hell, I truly believe he's got the right to be out there and say whatever he wants. But I also firmly believe it's everyone else's right in that parking lot to take that bullhorn away from him and punch him in the adam's apple. Seriously.
I'm trying to figure out who makes the party look worse, the yahoos with the buttons and shit on the inside of the building or the nutjobs with the bullhorns on the outside. I'm gonna say the latter, but not by some huge stretch.
I think that the press should really be covedring the protests outside of the building. I do. Because they truly are talking about some of the important and overlooked issues (what's up with that Blackwater contract? Remember that telecoms scandal?), but when some idiot with a bullhorn can effectively neutralize a major news outlet for 40 minutes... well, that's kinda awesome. But still, someone shoulda taken him out.
Now they're interviewing will.i.am. Shut.up.
sigh.
i think i need a drink.

40 years ago today: listen to it. Refamiliarize yourself with it. Use it for context. Sure, nothing's been fixed. But at least remember how far we've come. What can I say I'm big on optimism at the moment. I promise it won't hold up long.


Speaking of context, now listen to JFK giving his nomination acceptance speech at the L.A. Coliseum 48 years ago. Of course, you probably won't see these until long after Obama gives his speech, but it's not going to hurt you to listen to these speeches again.

My comic book tattoo has nothing on these guys' comic book tattoos.

Link Vs. Gannon

Scott Belcastro via I Am 8-bit

Travelling Pantsuits!!??????

Are you wondering Why it still doesn't seem over for Hillary? Yeah, that's because it isn't. She's doing the right thing, mind you, rallying around the reunification of the party and rejuvenating the entire party. She's rallying her base behind Obama and praising Michelle Obama, but she's also addressing the ideas that Obama was voted in on and knows that he won't be able to put a dent in within a term. She's talking about her candidacy as much as she is about Obama's.
Listen, I like Obama. and I think he means the best. But, with luck, he'll be able to tackle half of that in his first term. If he's really lucky, he'll be able to undo half of the truly scary shit that Bush did in his 8 years. The odds of Obama running 2 terms are ridiculously low. and she knows that. Do you think Obama will Get every American covered in healthcare? Do you think he'll end either war? SPOILER: He won't. He won't come close. She knows this, and so should you.
Which isn't to say there's no difference between him and McCain. Nor is this to say that Hillary could, either. Frankly, there isn't a person in the world that we could elect as our next president that will do either of these. And Hillary knows this. She also knows that in four years we'll still be yearning for these things. So she brings them up. After all, Youtube will still be around in four years. Obama's speech at the last DNC is what got him here, why can't it work the other way?
I don't blame her, mind you. I mean, she's angling for the next election. This is what politicians do. With the amount of speculation up about what her supporters will do, she needs to rally them behind the Democratic party. But she also needs to keep them in her pocket. Hence, this speech.
There's a reason she's still giving stump speeches, because she's still on the stump. Or at least a stump. I feel like this should be a new day. I feel like this should be the brightest moment in American politics in a long time. But as I watch AT&T thanking the Dems that immunized them from prosecution, as I watch the Captain Morgain chillout tent (sponsoring both conventions), I feel just as disheartened as I did earlier. I want real change in this country. I don't want some shitty neoliberal agenda just like I don't want some shitty neocon agenda.
So in the end, I can only swallow my bitter pill and hope, truly hope, that in the end, this is a beginning of change. I can only hope that the rest of this country won't give up on politics when this great experiment doesn't work in the first four years. So hope with me. Pray with me. Maybe this is it. Maybe politics hasn't gotten smart enough to fool everyone, but the idealists are finally in power. Because honestly, what else are you gonna do?

In the end, nothing. Vote for who you want and hope it works out in the end. Maybe that's what's so sad to me in the end....

The Best Video Game of All Time

Holy crap I forgot how much I loved this game. Play the whole thing here.

St. Petersburg, 19th Century

A beautiful group of photos.
via English Russia

sigh

quick question:

Does anyone have a copy of these mixes?

Pop Smear
Rock, Flag & Eagle
I Was at the Mall When It Happened

because I don't. and I can't remember most of the songs on them at this point. My ipod can't seem to hold contents for longer than a few weeks at this point, which means I'm just gonna start setting up mediafire accounts all over the damned place.

I know, a pretty weak update. I'm sorry about that. Things have been...complicated. I hope everyone is doing great.

In any case, I'll try to post something realistic as soon as I can.

In the meantime, yes, the Olympics have been awesome. Yes, I'm more excited for the Sixers' upcoming season than ever.

BEWARE

via Bighappyfunhouse

Not to take anything away from the US teams, but my favorite moment so far of these Olympics has been this guy from Togo winning that country's FIRST EVER MEDAL! The dude broke his paddle over his own boat!
I will say though, that the US Men's Gymnastic team winning the bronze, then running around flexing and loudly exclaiming "This is how we do it!" was a little demoralizing. The swimming... well, you probably already know about that.

I will say one thing, though. When did fencing opt for these shiny electronic suits? Call me nostalgic, but now it looks like you're watching robots fight. and we all know there's been enough robot bloodshed. or oilshed.

and Russia... sigh.
(Hey Condi, nice vacation?)

"not every wrong, or even every violation of the law, is a crime"

wait......what?

Another Bernie Down

Damn

Stark Landscape of Being

1. "Afro Father's Fight" - RZA
2. "Mercy" - The Lucky Dragons
3. "American Hearts" - A.A. Bondy
4. "Love Barge" - Big Dipper
5. "Open the Door" - Clive & Naomi
6. "Abandon" - The French Kicks
7. "Old Old Fashioned" - Frightened Rabbit
8. "Captain Tennille" - From Bubblegum To Sky
9. "I've Seen Better Days" - I Love Math
10. "There Is a War" - Leonard Cohen
11. "Moanin' the Blues" - Lucky Millinder
12. "Faraway From Cars" - Mercury Rev
13."I Wonder If They Ever Think of Me" - Merle Haggard
14. "In the Pineys" - Strapping Fieldhands
15. "Count It Off" - The Saturday Knights
16. "Long Agos and Far Aways" - The Small Faces
17. "New Country" - The Walkmen
18. "Blue Against Sky" - The BellRays
19. "Adam and Nathan Totally Kick Ass" - El Ten Eleven
20. "The World is In the Terlet" - Ted Leo & the Pharmacists
21. "Thought I Was a Gun" - Tim Fite

download HERE

dunno what else to say. Some of this I've been listening to for months. Some is newer. It's not exactly the most upbeat mix I ever made, but that's because of the universes of shit I've been going through. Try to bear with me. Anyway, that's all I got. The Ted Leo song is kind of a curiosity, written and recorded over one episode of the Best Show on WFMU, with the lyrics written by callers and strung together by Leo.


http://www.megaupload.com/?d=UJZSHBNS

Greg Palast puts McCain's Nuclear Energy Plan in terms I can finally understand: The Simpsons.

Get Your War On, the SHOW

I almost forgot, there's a Get Your War On animated show. I guess it's coming out weekly, so go here and check it out. It's absolutely as funny as you should be hoping it is...

Bernie Brillstein R.I.P.

Bernie Brillstein died last night from a chronic obstructive pulmonary.
You might remember Bernie Brillstein as the crazy-looking beardo in the card games of The Sopranos, or maybe from that documentary about Saturday Night Live. But the Truth is, Bernie Brillstein had just as much to do with the face of comedy than half of the comedians or actors you love. Without Bernie, "Mr. Show" would never have made it on the air. Nor would "The Larry Sanders Show". Ditto "Newsradio". or "Just Shoot Me"*. Oh, and "Saturday Night Live". This isn't even going into the movies he worked on, serving as executive producer for The Blues Brothers, Ghostbusters, Spies Like Us, Summer Rental... and a little movie called DOCTOR DETROIT. Yeah, it's a stupid movie, but it was 1983 and neede to serve as the sober yang to Trading Places' raging Yin.
Anyway, for Newsradio and Mr. Show alone, I owe this man a huge debt of gratitude. Thanks, Bernie.

*While it's not as funny as the other two, I still think this show has its merits. David Spade, however, does not.

More of Cotton's Irrrational Frears

I'm not quite certain where my fear of gasmasks came from, but it almost certainly stems from the The Wall movie and and the Wilfred Owen poem, "Dulce Et Decorum Est". It's pretty surprising how deep of an influence both of these had on me, and both around the same time.
The first time I saw The Wall I was in 5th grade and more or less walked in on my siblings watching it excitedly. I remember thinking I was probably too young to be watching it, but the only things that really disturbed me were the animated scenes of fascists in gas masks beating people with sticks and the scene where young Pink finds himself on a World War II battlefield and encounters some sort of sanitarium escapee*. Both of these scenes terrified me, and years later it was the first VHS tape I ever bought.
The Owen poem was one that I memorized and recited in front of my 6th grade English class. It was part of my requirements that I had to do this with 2 poems (the other being the old standby "Stopping By the Woods on a Snowy Evening"). I think it first it was just the imagery that drew me to the poem, first stark and bleak, followed by this frantic burst of activity, and finally this dreamlike terror. It still sort of freaks me out. It wasn't hard to discern that the voice was one opposed to war and its tactics, but upon learning the translation of the title**, as well as the fact that Wilfred Owen died just one week before the Armistice, never seeing an end to the war he was so mired in.
Anyway, yeah, I'm terrified of gas masks. This was only exacerbated later with movies like E.T. and (oh, man) Outbreak. So you can imagine when I saw the Oobject topic for the day. Yikes.
I was thinking that the one above would be the gas mask that scared me the most, but that honor, obviously, goes to the British mask from 1915. I honestly shuddered when I saw it.


*I can't seem to find any sort of reference to this anywhere. Di d I make this up? h, God I hope not.
** "How sweet and fitting it is to die for your native land"

Groups Predict Spike in Prostitution at the Republican National Convention

I just thought this was a funny story. Surely Denver would face the same problem, right? Which makes me wonder whether Pros from other cities would be bussed into the Twin Cities and Denver or if the residents would just be working overtime.

huh.

I was walking down the street today and lying there, next to an auto body place -I wish I'd thought to take a picture of this- was a pair of sneakers and someone's clothes. Laid out like that and everything. It was sort of unsettling, for a minute I was thinking that someone was probably just walking down the street and boom. Spontaneous combustion. How neat would that be? I'm not going to even pretend to know stuff about spontaneous human combustion, and frankly, I don't want to*. But I do like the idea of a guy just zapping out in front of you as you walk down the street. Maybe a really bewildered-looking dog, its leash untethered, trying to figure out what the hell to do now. Or maybe you, the passerby, would be showered with burning chunks of fatty tissue. Actually, that would pretty much suck. I can think of few punishments worse than that.
Oh, and someone would die.
So maybe neat isn't the best word to use.
but still, it'd be a pretty wild site.
Later I figured out that of course nobody combusted on my street. It was some kids that stole somebody's clothes at the community pool a few blocks away and ran off with them and threw them in the street. So yeah, no combustion.
Still, it was a pretty neat scene.

*I actually started to look it up, and then realized I definitely prefer my own idea of how something like that would happen over the quasi-established methods of human combustion.

turning 30

is very samey as turning 29.