oh boy... this needs to spread around the internets like wildfire!

(via slog)

another reason why Obama's my candidate:

“Where’s my beer?” [Obama] asked, loud enough for the reporters to hear.

What’s your pleasure, Mr. Candidate? He eyed an array of mighty fine micro brews on tap, from the loverly amber Maharaja IPA to the “naturally cloudy” Blanche Bruxelles. He zeroed in on the mass market.

“PBR [Pabst Blue Ribbon, for the unitiated],” he said.

The man recognizes a winner when he sees one... it is an award-winning beer, by the way. (NBD)

Arrested Development

I've been going back in time lately and re-discovering the grooves of Arrested Development, exhibit A:

Frank Miller, you visionary...

Frank Miller (of 300 and Sin City fame) has a new movie coming out sometime soon... and, you guessed it, it's based on a comic book.

It's called THE SPIRIT and it stars Gabriel Macht as a film noir-ish cop/superhero who 'mysteriously' comes back from death to watch over his city and protect it from the likes of villains - none other than Samuel L. Jackson, thank you very much - and a who's who of leading ladies - including Scarlett Johansson and Eva Mendes. The trailer has definitely whetted my whistle.

Exactly.

Bill Moyers breaks down the Wright media debacle of the past month plus and gets it - in my opinion - exactly correct.

Note particularly the double standards that the media, and many others in their tread, are employing:



I've been fascinated by the way everyone and their cousin condemns Reverand Wright's words and ideas, but everyone tacitly accepts the bigotry and hatred contained within Hagee and Robertson's words.

a little dose of musical theater...

in honor of the first day of the lusty month of May! :)

fun test

This is a fun little awareness test that's been around the internets for some time now... still worth posting on the blog:

yes, please...

Ed Norton is... The Incredible Hulk.

At first I was a skeptic, then I saw the trailer. Now I'm intrigued. I mean, Ed Norton.

'lessons learned'

This is up over at the dailykos and I think it sums up quite nicely where things stand now that we're 7 months away from the general election in November:

Things I have learned during this campaign season:

In a race that includes a former First Lady of the United States and a multimillionaire Republican senator rumored to share up to eight residences with his wife, the black guy from Chicago is unforgivably elitist.

Racism in America is caused primarily by black Chicago preachers.

The guy who keeps getting confused over the relationship between Iraq, Iran, and al Qaeda is the foreign policy expert.

The guy who goes to campaign stops on his wife's private jet aircraft is the most down-to-earth.

The guy who changed his stance on tax cuts, Roe v. Wade, immigration, gun control, the confederate flag, torture, public financing, and his own anti-earmark rhetoric is the "straight talker".

People in the heartland don't like it when you call them bitter, but they do like it when you explain to them that they're too dumb to understand issues more important than whether or not they like to be called bitter.

Arugula is the measure of a man.

Bowling is the measure of a man.

Orange juice is the measure of a man.

Flag pins are the measure of a man.

Success in Iraq consists of any reduction in violence, except when violence increases that's good too.

A recession is only a recession if you call it one.

Bill Kristol, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Karl Rove, Maureen Dowd, David Brooks, David Broder, Charles Krauthammer and Bob Novak are all intensely interested in giving advice to the Democratic candidates because they just want to be helpful.

There are people in this world dumb enough to believe every one of these things.

Obama in 30 seconds

MoveOn.Org has put together a cool campaign. They've solicited 30-second advertisements from the general public to introduce the general election crowd (those who haven't fully tuned in to the primary season, though it's tough) to Barack Obama, the probable Democratic nominee. It's a pretty cool campaign and they have some nice entries. Here are a couple I like, but you should check out the rest of the finalists on MoveOn.org's website and vote for which one best represents the message of the Obama campaign.

they said he was unprepared...

join me

playground politics

Scalia on torture

before the race

For perspective on just how long the Democratic contest has gone on, consider that gas was $2.20 a gallon, Eliot Spitzer was a rising star and neither Manning had won a Super Bowl in October 2006. (NYT Caucus Blog)

but it was all part of the intelligent design, right?

I started flashing back to the "Jurassic Park" days of my youth when I read that scientists were able to extract DNA from a (surprisingly) preserved piece of Tyrannosaurus soft tissue. What did the scientists conclude when they did the phylogenetic analysis on that DNA? That the closest living relative of the Tyrannosaurus Rex is... the chicken.

Just another prediction made by using Darwin's crazy theory proven to be correct... almost 150 years later!

Science is cool, man...

the Clintonite hypocrisy runs deep

The Daily Kos has done a bit of digging into Terry McAuliffe's past. Apparently this whole scrap about Michigan breaking the DNC rules isn't a first, McAuliffe had to deal with it back in 2004 when he was the chair of the DNC.

From McAuliffe's book "What a Party":

"I'm going outside the primary window," [Michigan Sen. Carl Levin] told me definitively.

"If I allow you to do that, the whole system collapses," I said. "We will have chaos. I let you make your case to the DNC, and we voted unanimously and you lost."

He kept insisting that they were going to move up Michigan on their own, even though if they did that, they would lose half their delegates. By that point Carl and I were leaning toward each other over a table in the middle of the room, shouting and dropping the occasional expletive.

"You won't deny us seats at the convention," he said.

"Carl, take it to the bank," I said. "They will not get a credential. The closest they'll get to Boston will be watching it on television. I will not let you break this entire nominating process for one state. The rules are the rules. If you want to call my bluff, Carl, you go ahead and do it."

We glared at each other some more, but there was nothing much left to say. I was holding all the cards and Levin knew it.

[Source: McAuliffe, Terry. What A Party!, p. 325.]

That's Terry then... let's see what he thinks about this whole mess now that his candidate's potential nomination rests on seating delegates from a state who broke the rules set out at the beginning of the process:

Terry McAuliffe: I'm saying they've already voted, let's count the votes. I’m saying that the state parties in those states need to work with the national party and figure out how we count the votes that have already been voted.

Sometimes it's downright painful.

Obama and Faux News

So, I'm not sure how many of you have been tuned into the whole Obama vs. Fox News thing over this past election cycle. Here's a brief rundown:

Obama, rightfully claiming that Fox isn't at all 'fair and balanced', has repeatedly denied invitations to appear on any Fox News programs. This is much to the chagrin of Fox News which, due to the growing national disapproval of the Bush administration and their policies(69% disapproval, the highest in history), has seen a not-so-bright future. And since January, when the Obama started hitting the fan (so to speak), Fox has been drooling to get a piece. They've also been attempting to tear him to shreds since he so soundly discredits them and their "news" organization. They've hit the "OMG his middle name is Hussein!!", the "didn't he go to a Muslim school as a child?", the "is he too black/black enough?", and the "is he patriotic enough because he doesn't wear a flag pin/have his hand over his heart during the pledge of allegiance?" buttons often and hard. And since the whole Jeremiah Wright flap and Weather Underground associations broke, they've been lapping it up!

(To clarify the above points, in order: so what?; yes he did - for one year while living abroad; what does that even mean?; it was the national anthem, not the pledge!)

Then, five weeks ago (or so) came this - Chris Wallace (host of Fox News Sunday) initiated what they started calling an 'Obama watch', complete with '24'-style clock. Ultimately Wallace's problem is that Obama (in 2006) had agreed to appear on his program, and then after the network attempted to politically smear him he didn't really feel like giving them a ratings boost.

Now, today, comes word that this Sunday Obama will appear on Wallace's Fox News Sunday. This has upset a lot of people on the blogosphere (and elsewhere) who were hoping Democratic candidates would continue to snub/boycott Fox News. However, I imagine that the candidates realize that this is a politically untenable scenario and so we, as liberals, must face our demons head on.

However, this doesn't mean complimenting them up and down (as Terry McAuliffe, senior Clinton advisor did Tuesday night - so much so that they turned it into a promo!). Rather, they must be challenged to report the unbiased truth, without resorting to smear jobs. Someone must hold them accountable. Apparently that's Obama's goal. One of Obama's advisors was in communication with a blogger over at TPM and claimed that Obama plans to "take Fox on" when he appears on the program:

We are clear-eyed about Fox’'s role in the dissemination and amplification of Republican talking points this election. They have been the tip of the spear when it comes to repeatedly broadcasting some of the most specious of rumors about Obama. He is going on their Sunday show to take Fox on, not because we have any illusion about their motives or politics in this election.

If this is true, it ought to be fun to watch. If not, it'll be another sad day of pandering. I'm excited to find out which it is...

SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY!

Conan's on a roll!

Not only did he have Grizzly Bear on earlier this week (doing an awesome version of their new song), he also got She & Him (featuring M. Ward and Yo La Tengo accompaniment) and Radiohead - check it! (via Yellow Stereo)

War on Science: Part II

So this is not the first case of a scientist working for the EPA reporting political pressure regarding his/her scientific findings... just the latest.


Oh... and btw... look at what NOAA has to say about CO2 emissions in 2007... I'd say that's the opposite of improvement. Good work Bushie, you're doin' a heckuva job!

sad but true...

A study by UNC recently found (and UPI reports) that most U.S. women have disordered eating.

"~40% report concerns about what they eat or weigh interfering with their happiness..."

We need to seriously take stock of what (about our society) drives so many people to this state.

ho... ly... shi...

Talk about "working on my roar!":


(effing cute baby videos always get me... I couldn't wait until Caturday!!)

Wired readers respond

When Wired did a story about the Nature article in which it was reported that 20% of researchers use 'performance enhancing drugs' (such as ritilin, aderall, etc.), apparently they got quite the response. There's even a handy how-to...

I think I'll stick to my coffee...

Jon Stewert breaks down the Clinton logic

nice.

Fascinating!

I look forward to watching all of this when I've got an hour to spare... for now, it's on the blog!

slick willy

Bill Clinton has some amazing political abilities. I remember the phrase "slick Willy" from the 90's, but perhaps didn't appreciate it at the time. Here's a late-breaking iteration of it.

Yesterday on a PA radio station (WHYY), Bill Clinton was interviewed and had this exchange about the fallout after his comments comparing the Obama campaign strengths to those of the Jesse Jackson campaign in '88:

Ms. Phillips: Do you think that was a mistake and would you do that again?”

Mr. Clinton: “No, I think that they played the race card on me. We now know, from memos from the campaign and everything that they planned to do it along.”

…If you go back to what I said at the time. There was a conversation that I engaged in that included two African-American members of Congress who were standing right there …. and I said that Jesse Jackson had run a good campaign with overwhelming African-American support and white supporters. And this was started off because people wanted to act like — for reasons i didn’t understand — that Senator Obama didn’t have his African-American support or they thought his white support was better because Jesse Jackson had blue-collar working people and most of Senator Obama’s support was upscale cultural liberals. And it was like beneath them to be compared to Jesse Jackson….

Ultimately it really doesn't matter. There was a small bit of a backlash to the comments at the time (back in January), but in political terms this is ancient history. The memos to which he's referring were generated within the Obama campaign in an attempt to compile a list of all of the racially charged attacks Clinton surrogates (and others?) had made on Obama at the time.

Here's where the political double speak comes out. This morning Bill Clinton was asked by a reporter about the comments he made on air yesterday and this is what he had to say:

Mr. Memoli: “Sir, what did you mean yesterday when you said that the Obama campaign was playing the race card on you?”

Mr. Clinton: “When did I say that, and to whom did I say that?”

Mr. Memoli: “On WHYY radio yesterday.”

Mr. Clinton: “No, no, no. That’s not what I said. You always follow me around and play these little games, and I’m not going to play your games today. This is a day about election day. Go back and see what the question was, and what my answer was. You have mischaracterized it to get another cheap story to divert the American people from the real urgent issues before us, and I choose not to play your game today. Have a nice day.”

Mr. Memoli: “Respectfully sir, though, you did say …”

Mr. Clinton: “Have a nice day. I said what I said, you can go and look at the interview. And if you’ll be real honest, you’ll also report what the question was and what the answer was.”

While this may be a diversion from the important issues, it's the latest example of how effective Bill Clinton is as a politician... for better or worse. Amazing.

(via the NYT blog The Caucus)

it's official...

grad school is turning me grey.

Grizzly Bear on Conan