Blogging on Meds

So, most pundits think that Obama beat McCain in last night’s debate. That clearly didn’t sit well with the McCain campaign, so they unleashed Cindy McCain, who could be the future First Lady. Here’s a gem from her speech today:

I’m proud of my sons, but let me tell you, the day that Senator Obama decided to cast a vote to not fund my son when he was serving sent a cold chill through my body.

I’m curious to know if Cindy felt that same chill when her husband also voted not to fund the troops. From CNN:

The vote Mrs. McCain is referencing came in May of 2007, when Obama was one of 14 senators who voted against a war-spending plan that would have provided emergency funds for American troops overseas. He, like many Democrats, was pushing for an end to the war in Iraq, and the legislation included no provisions for that. Before that vote, Obama did support and vote for a funding proposal that included a timeline for withdrawal from Iraq — a troop funding bill McCain opposed.

This line of attack from the McCain campaign is getting ridiculous, mostly because they’ve been called out on it so many times. The point is a simple one: Obama voted against one funding bill that didn’t have a timeline, and McCain voted against one that had a timeline. Period. Neither guy opposes funding the troops. Their disagreement was over the timeline. Of course, with Obama surging in the polls, don’t expect to hear McCain ditch his dishonest statements on this topic.

McCain loves to talk about how he’s going to take care of veterans and he knows how to do that because of his service. Well, the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America released a report yesterday grading members of Congress, including McCain and Obama, on how they voted on 22 key Veterans issues that the IAVA supported. McCain got a “D,” while Obama and Biden both got a “B.”

TAGS: attack, bill, Boston, Campaign, Congress, debate, dog, ep, Iraq, mccain, NATO, obama, political, Politics, Poll, polls, pundits, timeline, Vice, war

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The Palinator (an author published in a couple dozen countries whose agent would hang him for revealing his name) takes you with him on his train-of-thought ride through last night’s debate (complete with brief detours into tales of fatherhood and beach balls).

Enjoy:

(Author’s note: I got home late and watched the debate delayed, so all times are local, as recorded in my living room.)

9:38 – Ooh.  Bad color on Gwen…an emerald green muumuu?  She looks like she was just kicked out of Oz.

9:39 – Sarah Palin asks Biden: “Can I call you Joe?”  Are you fucking serious?  How about, “No, just call me VP.”

9:40 – Coin toss?  It’s like football?

9:41 – I hate the requisite “Thank you’s.”  So stupid.  No doubt Palin will thank and thank and thank and thank St. Louis trying to run out the clock.

9:42 – Shit, I’m already bored by Biden.  Gimme Palin.  I want blood.

9:42 – Joe got me back.  He seems relaxed and coherent.  Someone must’ve slipped him a valium.

9:43 – Here’s Sarah.  Holy shit, one minute in and she already mentioned “soccer” and said “betcha.”  Okay, first impressions – she seems coherent, but robotic.  Maybe she is a robot.  No, a fembot, like in Austin Powers.  I think she’s gonnna shoot Biden w/ her breasts.

9:44 – Biden’s hair is really weird.  Not just now, but always.  A woman I know took a train w/ “Amtrak Joe” during what she described “the plugging years.”  Hair plugs = bad.

9:45 – Weird; when Biden talks, he doesn’t move his body.  Just his head.  Weird.

9:46 – My god, Palin just winked at me.  Shit, she said “mavericks.”  So fucking lame.  She’s looking right at the camera like a deer in the headlights.  Maverick count = 2.

9:47 – HA!  Gwen called them on not answering the question.  But then didn’t press them on it.  Why?

9:47 – Palin: “Darn right, it was the predator lenders.”  Yeah, wouldn’t expect any Americans to do simple math on what they could afford.  Sure, American’s have got ingenuity, but don’t expect them to add.  That’s just wrong.

9:48 – Fuck.  She used “hockey moms” AND “Joe Six-pack” in the same sentence.  Double fuck – she’s not blazingly incoherent.  But she doesn’t believe in using the “g”s God put at the end of words.  Everythin’s hurtin’.

9:49 – This format sucks.  It’s too fast, all bullet-points, not enough follow up by Gwen.  I don’t see this getting contentious at all like Obama vs. McCain got.  That’s good for Palin.

9:50 – Boorrrrrrring.  Talkng points, talking points, talking points.  I think Biden is actually talking, Palin is just spewing.  But she’s doing well.  Fuck.  Fuck, fuck, fuck.  I hate her.

9:51 – Nice rebuttal, Joe.  Ooooooooh, McCain voted 477 times to raise taxes.  AND the governor didn’t answer the question!  Yeah, you go Joe!

9:52 – Palin: “I’m still on the tax thing.”   And then: “I may not answer the questions like the moderator wants”??  WTF?  Why not just go Faulkner on our ass and do the stream of consciousness “thing.”

9:53 – SNAP!  Gwen cuts Sarah off for time.  HA!

9:53 – Joe seems empathetic.  Nice, I feel like he’s talking to me.  I like the “value set” comment.  Joe seems to be better at timing his answers.

9:55 – Oh, here it comes.  Lambasting Biden for the “patriotic” paying taxes comment.  Oh right, McCain’s always been in the middle class.  Son of an admiral.  Right.

9:56 – I hate this smiling bitch.  And I think that’s the biggest flag pin I’ve ever seen.  I’m surprised she can stand.

9:58 – “ULTIMATE BRIDGE TO NOWHERE!”  Biden gets the first laugh and first “moment.”

9:59 – Biden wants to slow down doubling foreign assistance.  Good answer.  Americans hate foreigners.  I think Biden’s hitting his stride.  Or as Palin would say “hittin’ his stride, you betcha.”

10:00 – My wife is yelling at me.  She wants me to stop blogging.  I have to blow up an insanely large beach ball for my son’s second birthday.

10:01 – Oh fuck, Palin’s referencing the stupid “telling one thing to one group and another thing to another group.”  Right out of her stump speech.  Bitter, ain’t she?

10:02 – Oh, if Biden doesn’t go after her for the—

I stopped blogging for five minutes to blow up the beach ball.  It’s enormous.  I’m not sure if I made any progress.

10:07 – Palin: “Your ticket’s energy ticket.”  Nice quote, Sarah.  Shit, “East coast politicians”?  You know what she means, don’t you, middle America?  Jews!  She means Jews!

10:09 – Ooooh, she’s the governor of the “nation’s only Arctic state.”  Is that good?  Maybe she should be president of Canada.  Though I todn’t think they have presidents.  I don’t know, I hate Canada.  Blah, blah, blah.  Palin doesn’t want to argue about the causes of global warming.  Right.  Okay, so far, absolutely no answer.

10:10 – Biden: “[Climate change] is man made.”  Nice answer, Joe.  Simple, makes Palin’s answer look like what it was – a non-answer.

10:12 – “Drill, baby, drill!”

10:13 – Did Palin just call him “Senator O’Biden?”

10:13 – What is this “All of the above” bullshit?  Do you lead the country by taking a multiple-choice exam?  If so, I think I’d do really well.  I’m great at multiple-choice tests.  I’d kill to find out Palin’s SAT scores.  Do they even have SATs in the “Arctic”?

10:15 – Fuck, going into gay rights.  I’m pro-gay marriage, but it’s a loser from an electoral standpoint on the Democratic side.  Can’t wait to see what Sarah says.  Okay, nice gay-bashing, Sarah.  Ooooh, she’s “tolerant.”  Wow, she has friends that DON’T EVEN AGREE WITH HER!  Amazing.  No, she doesn’t know any gay people, but she does know non-gay-haters!  How tolerant.

10:17 – Fuck, could Gwen press Sarah on her answers?  So far, I give Gwen a C-minus.

10:18 – My wife’s still blowing up the beach ball.  It’s insane.  Christ, now it’s my turn.

10:25 – Okay, I’ve been blowing up the ball for seven minutes, mostly w/ this pump we have.  We’re not sure it’s working.  Okay, I’ve checked and it IS working, but slowly.  Jesus, this is ridiculous.  It shouldn’t be this hard to prepare for a two-year-old’s birthday party.

10:26 – Oh crap, the stupid “preconditions” comment.  So tired.

10:27 – Right, Sarah.  B/c who’s more passionate about diplomacy than Kissinger?

10:29 – Ah, the stupid McCain won’t meet w/ Spain comment.

10:31 – Ooh, Joe Biden’s referring to himself in the third-person, Bob Dole-style.  He’s goin’ old school, bitch!  Remember Norm MacDonald’s Bob Dole impression?  Fucking priceless.

10:32 – I don’t think ANYONE has mentioned Bush yet.  Why not?  Gwen, Joe, wake the fuck up.

10:33 – Palin: “Finger-pointing backwards”?  How the hell do you finger-point forward?  Christ, another maverick comment.  Maverick count = 3.

10:34 – Biden’s saying “George Bush’s” every other word.  It’s like he read my mind.  Jeez,  Joe’s goin’ to town.  Never noticed this, but it sounds funny when you say “George Bush’s” again and again and again.  Try it, you’ll see.

10:35 – Palin: Nuclear weapons would kill “too many” people?  So, other weapons would kill “just enough” people?

10:37 – Joe’s doing a nice job making McCain seem extreme.

10:38 – Okay, I know I’m biased, but Palin just sounds like she’s reading off cards.

10:42 – I hate the way Palin says “Americans”.  Sounds like “Amerhikens.”  And I hate her smile.  Goddammit I hate her smile.

10:43 – Biden does a nice job of conflating McCain-Cheney.

10:45 – Shit, Palin is doing well.  Oh Christ – McCain “knows what evil is.”  What the fuck does that mean?  Oh, and McCain “knows how to win a war.”  How?  Did he win in Vietnam?  Or is he just really good at World of Warcraft?

10:47 – Palin on whether she & McCain agree on everything: “What do expect?  We’re two mavericks!”  Maverick count = 4.  Oh, and Palin’s gonna get rid of greed on Wall Street.  That’ll be easy.  We can just replace all those greedy people that work in banks with money-hating socialists.

10:49 – Yeah!  Evidently Joe spends TONS OF TIME in Home Depot!  He practically lives there.  Ask Joe where the nail guns are, he’ll tell ya.   He knows Home Depot.

10:50 – Palin says “Doggonit.”  Makes me wonder if she ever saw Deadwood.  Cocksuckers.  Okay, so Biden’s wife’s reward for being a teacher is in heaven.  Cuz she ain’t getting’ a raise!  That should be the new recruitment policy – become a teacher, go to heaven.  Oh, and a shout out to 3rd graders.  Awesome.  And here’s to my dead homies.

10:51 – My wife just finished blowing up the beach ball.  Halle-fuckin-lujah.

10:52 – Shit, Palin’s hit her stride.  She’s in the home stretch.

10:53 – Oh no.  There are 10 small beach balls that also need to be blown up.  We’re fucked.

10:57 – Palin references Reagan’s “Shining city on a hill.”  My wife says Reagan didn’t say it first, that John Winthrop said it on some boat.  I just Wikipedia’d it – my wife’s right.  Winthrop said it in 1630 on the Arbella.  Learn something new every day.

10:59 – Shit, real human moment from Biden about his dead wife and daughter.  Joe just won.

11:00 – Oh god, Palin response to Joe’s human moment was to call McCain a maverick.  Great response.  Maverick count = 5.  Whoa, there’s another maverick.  Maverick count = 6.  Oh, wow, McCain’s even got the support of the biggest fascist in the world—Rudy Guiliani!  Awesome!  What a maverick!

11:01 – Whoa, Biden just countered Palin and personally threw out FOUR MAVERICKS IN A ROW (as in “John McCain’s not a maverick”)!  There’s another maverick!  Biden’s on a tear!  Another one!  That’s six!  And another one!  And another!  We’re at eight mavericks, folks, do I hear nine?  YES!  A NINTH MAVERICK!  In one fell swoop, Biden exceeded Palin’s maverick count by a stunning 50%!

11:02 – My wife has officially declared Biden the winner (and last debate she said McCain won, so she’s not as crazy-biased as me).

11:04 – Sarah Palin claims she’s never compromised.  Well, except for that time Todd convinced her to do anal.  But that was the only time.

11:08 – Nice shot across the bow at the mainstream media from Sarah Palin.  Yeah!  Fuck you, Katie Couric! You… you… mainstreamer!

11:09 – Another Reagan shout out by Palin.  That’s two Reagan’s and six mavericks.  Ooh, in the future, “we’ll tell our children how once we were free” before the robots took over.  But John Connor will save us.  I know he will, b/c I’ve seen all three Terminator movies (T3 sucked) AND I watch The Sarah Connor Chronicles.  Seriously, though, are we really heading to a time when we’re not free?  Is someone going to enslave us (besides the robots, I mean)?  And what IS Sarah’s Robot-policy.

11:11 – Nice ending monologue by Joe.

11:12 – Sarah’s thanking everyone.  Thank you, thank you, thank you… she’s so fucking thankful that she didn’t fuck up.  Holy shit, looks like she’s going to kiss Biden.  What is wrong with this woman?  Oh look, there’s little baby Trig.  They really love trotting out that kid.  I’ve got to say, as a father of two, if I know one thing it’s that babies love debates.

11:13 – Commentary: David Brooks is “amazed” at Palin’s performance and thought she came across as Joe’s equal.  I hate to say it, but I agree.  She didn’t win, but she held her own.  Bitch.  Mark Shields says that he bets Democrats are disappointed that Palin didn’t “implode.”  True dat.  True dat.

Okay, I’ve got to go.  I’ve got beach balls to blow up.

TAGS: Babies, banks, bullshit, Bush, climate change, David Brooks, debate, dog, ep, fascist, free, George Bush, global warming, god, Jesus, Joe Biden, John McCain, mccain, Movie, NATO, NSA, obama, President, Rap, Sarah Palin, war

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The Senate passed the bailout bill by a 74-25 margin (Senator Kennedy, who’s being treated for brain cancer, didn’t vote), and it now goes back to the House. The House will apparently take up the 400+ page bill on Friday morning. The members of the House who voted against the bill had some fear struck into them on Friday when the Dow tanked 777 points, so you would think that the bill would now pass the House with the requisite 218 votes. However, the Senate bill was larded up with pork, and some of the fiscal conservative Democrats, known as the Blue Dogs, are grumbling that some of the tax breaks weren’t offset in other ways. There’s a lot of arm-twisting going on in the House tonight, and it’s not clear if the bill will pass the House right now. The bill, even if it passes, isn’t a fix-it-all for the economy or for the markets, but if it doesn’t pass, then things won’t get any better anytime soon.

TAGS: bailout, bill, dog, economy, NATO, Sentate

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So this is the caliber of discourse that we’ve come to expect from our Vice Presidential candidate, huh?  Yikes.

Watch that and tell me that you don’t experience all of the following:

a) Shock and awe that that woman might soon represent you to the world.

b) A curiosity as to when Couric hosted SNL, and how they made Fey look so convincing.

c) A strange new appreciation of George W’s eloquence.

But hey, hats off to McCain for managing to make her seem a viable candidate.  Of course, he’s had to shield her from the media almost entirely (3 interviews — if you include the new CBS interview — to Biden’s ~80 since being named VP candidate)…and they certainly fought hard and won to change the format of the VP debates so she can stick to the script.

But whatever, McCain’s been able to play the media effectively for years.  More recently, think back to how effortlessly he pandered and parlayed the impending disaster of Gustav into a non-photo op with George W at the opening of the Republican National Convention. Think I’m being too harsh?  Consider his relative non-response to the far more devastating Ike (sure, we got a couple press releases, but I didn’t see/hear of any preparation-assessment roadtrips before ol’ Ike came to Texas…).

Or how he half-succeeded this week in attempting to cancel the first presidential debate to “Put Country First” and fix the economy (nevermind that it wasn’t close to broken as far as McCain was concerned as recently as last week).

Oh, right — but he did it so he could rush back to help “break the deadlock” in Congress.  Except there wasn’t any deadlock…and no one asked for/wanted/needed his help.  I mean, what could they need from the guy who’s missed so many damn senate votes anyway?

Or wait…maybe he’s just not ready for the debate itself?

What’s important here is that McCain has taken a time out.  Kinda.  Sure, his surrogates are still out there bashing Obama (…time out?).  But this move attempts three things:

1) McCain “looks” like a leader.  Sort of.  Actually, as far as I’m concerned, he looks like a confused old man taking orders from his handlers.  But, hey, that’s just me.

2) McCain further shields Palin.  As David Letterman ranted about last night (brilliant video below), the campaign shouldn’t just stop…administrations can’t just call time out.  What should be happening here is that Palin should be out pounding the trail while McCain attends to business.  But nope — this distraction even lessens the amount of time they’ll have to keep her away from the press between now and the election.

3) McCain saves the “Foreign Policy” debate for later.  It’s clear at this point that McCain is perceived (however incorrectly) as the foreign policy guy, and Obama is the economy guy — at least according to the polls.  So, what’s bad for the foreign policy guy?  Having the foreign policy debate during an economic crisis so massive that no one cares about much else at the moment.  So, this move saves that point for later.

But, whatever — it’s all nonsense.  What Americans need right now are two things: the democratic process and leaders.

The debates are part of the democratic process.  That’s something we don’t suspend, and we don’t cancel.  Democracy first.  If not, what’s next?  Suspend the election?  Just push it back a bit?  Nope.  Remember when “not shopping” was “letting the terrorists win”…?  Right…so who wins if we “suspend our democratic process”…?

And leaders.  Not figureheads — leaders. We need people we can believe in and trust to go out and offset a national crisis like this.  Not with band aids or promises to be broken at a later date, but with real solutions that come from honest — even sometimes unattractive — answers.  That’s why Obama’s push to debate is not only the right move, it’s the patriotic one too.  In times of trouble, we need our government to stand before us and take the heat — to present solutions and to take action, but all within the context of openness and transparency.  Even if it means taking a couple hours away from the closed-door sessions.  Now more than ever, accountability matters — McCain wants none of it…and Obama, on the other hand, is ready to deliver.

Consider this: McCain’s attitude towards the debates is clear…he finds them superfluous.  He cast aside national discourse — the two candidates first chance to spar on the most important issues of our day — as though it were the finale of American Idol.  Fitting, given his American Idol running mate, but nonetheless insulting, and cynical.

In fact, McCain’s posturing proves him to be exactly what he so desperately tries to convince everyone he hasn’t become — a power-hungry figurehead who considers an active, participatory democracy just a cheap popularity contest.

That’s un-American, my friends.

TAGS: Campaign, Congress, contest, debate, dog, economy, election, Gustav, Interview, mccain, obama, Politics, Poll, polls, Texas, Vice, Video, war, youtube

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It’s screenshots like that (from RealClearPolitics.com) that call to mind this op-ed from last week.  Goddammit.

Of course, all the pollsters are by-and-large overlooking the cell phone generation — a huge statistical problem, given that more and more young Americans are dropping landlines all together over the past few years — and that could certainly skew the results they’re coming up with.

Something like that would make me feel better.  The virtual tie with Republican leanings really just strikes me as odd, especially given that the Democrats are far out-registering the Republicans this year…so the polls falling back in McCain’s favor, with seemingly no buffer for the size of each party’s voter count, seems to belie common sense (though perhaps the sampling of the voting population has something to do with that).

Further, beyond the numbers, I find it hard to believe that that many Americans are prepared to fall in line for a Busy-Cheney extension at the hands of Father Time and the Bulldog in Lipstick (…which sounds like the shittiest bedtime story ever).  At this point, I was fully expecting (or at least hoping) American voters to find the McCain-Palin ticket about as appealing as Gary Glitter.  Curse my perpetually broken sense of the whims of a large chunk of the American electorate.

Whatever the reason — truth or skew or passing fancy — it would be something of an understatement to say that the numbers are currently a bit uncomfortable.

So I’m thinking it’s time to hunker down and not lose this thing.  The idea of a “President Palin” makes bile well up in the back of my throat, and four years of that would end badly (President McCain was bad enough…this latest thing?  Unprecedented horror).

Step One: point any of your agreeable-but-generally-lazy friends over to this website to get them ready for November 4th.

TAGS: dog, mccain, NPR, obama, political, Politics, Poll, polls, Republicans

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Hey all. This is my last post here at Medicine. I had a great time writing about dumb shit for the past 8 or so months. Thanks to John for giving me such a great experience in cyberspace.

I started a new site with Inigo, Jeff N, and a few others called Shiite Happens. (Below is the first post.) For now, it will be a political, arts, and culture blog with a young-ish voice, much like Medicine, but with more original video content. We’ll have a redesign and hopefully our own url soon. Please ignore the generic design for now. There won’t be any ads or commercial aspect and it will operate as a cooperative. We’re looking for writers, so give me a shout at wormetheperm {at} hotmail(.)com if you’d like to contribute.

Anyway, I’ve been out in Denver and Minneapolis for the Conventions with Inigo Gilmore, a filmmaker friend. And tomorrow we’re going moose hunting in Alaska. Despite our being robbed twice over the past two weeks, a video diary of the RNC was still able to be cut for Britain’s Channel 4. Note the shot of Inigo getting shot at by police (with rubber bullets of course) during a riot in St Paul.

 

Sarah Palin and the Re-Rise of the Republicans: An RNC Diary

1
I’m in Minneapolis, having arrived from Denver on Sunday night. With me: Inigo Gilmore, a British journalist and filmmaker who recently relocated to New York after a year’s stint in Bangkok for Channel 4 UK. That morning, we’d awoken to find our rented SUV had been broken in to, and someone had stolen the tapes from Obama’s stadium coronation. The video and still cameras were safe, but everything else—chargers, bags, tripod, batteries—gone.

So our arrival at the Republican Convention came without glory. Luckily we were staying at a nice loft in downtown St. Paul, just blocks from the Xcel Center. To forget about our Denver loss, we trekked across St. Paul’s quaint downtown looking for a bar. It’s 10m. The bars, which normally close at 2am, are supposedly open until 4am all week, but few people are out.

“The thing about St Paul is that it’s only a few hundred thousand people,” says the local who’s guiding us. “It may be the smallest city to ever hold a national Convention.”

We stop at a dive-y bar on 7th Ave, St Paul’s pedestrian mall. Neon beer signs dangle on the windows. Dart boards and pool tables are visible inside. Sitting outside, we realize 20 or so Texas delegates surround us. Clustered around two pitcher strewn tables, the Texans meet every cliche: loud, foul mouthed, cross bearing, light beer loving, and cigar chomping. They wear orthopedic shoes, unrevealing dresses, snakeskin, denim…

Our next stop was another bar filled with boozing Texas delegates. Third stop: booze, Texans. Later, we even stumble on a hotel with a sign reading, “WELCOME TEXAS DELEGATION! Crowne Plaza Hotel…”

Aside from cowboy hats and generic clothing, what else did these Texans have in common? A shockingly passionate love for Ron Paul and his post-libetarianism. Few of the Texans we meet even like John McCain.

“We support McCain because we are Republicans,” one says. “But Ron Paul is beyond partisian politics.” Then comes a detailed Paul “Revolution”-ary spiel, which I block out. Yet as Convention eve came to a close, the Paul insurgency made clear that this year’s GOP was indeed a fractured party.

2
Monday. The Twin Cities got hit by twin bombshells. First, due to Hurricane Gustav, day one of the Convention was canceled, meaning no President Bush. Second, Sarah Palin, the dark horse Alaskan Governor McCain chose for VP, has a 17-year-old pregnant daughter. Some Convention so far, eh GOP? No opening night and so much for the whole family values and no sex before marriage thing.

Around noon we hear about a anti-war protest. Venturing from the loft, on 4th Street, up a block or two, we quickly realize this is no mere protest. On a street corner stood fifty plus cops in full riot gear—helmets, bulging pads, gas masks, sticks and tazers at the ready. The police surround about twenty black-clad, masked anarchists. The anarchos are backed against a building and all have their hands up, but they yell to the few onlookers and journalists on hand.

“We did nothing!” one kid in googles yells.

“These are our streets!” they chant.

A few blocks away we spot a beat-up blue Volvo blocking a major intersection connecting St Paul to the highway that leads to Minneapolis. About two dozen cops cordon the area. Inside the car I see a black clad youth chained to the steering wheel. A big yellow forklift arrives. I hear a buzzsaw. The cops are cutting the anarchist out of the car. Once he’s been removed and arrested, the forklift removes the car and dumps it on a grass lot.

Pushing further downtown we cross paths with about two hundred “direct action” folks. They even have a trance/techno soundtrack (c/o a red wagon with a stereo and “Funk the War” signs). But the mostly black wearing bandana crew seem confused as to where they’re headed.

“C’mon, this way,” yells one.

“No, this way,” shouts another, who eventually wins out.

But the confusion ends when it comes to the marchers’ intent. These folks want nothing short of destruction of the capatilist state. I’ve witnessed a few dozen riots in my day—mostly sports related—but I’ve never seen such a long, uncontested orgy of smashed windows, popped tires, trash can flipping, road blocking, and wreckage. Inigo captures a long shot of people running up the road by a big Macy’s, where a black woman sits on a bench smiling, Macy bags at her feet. Just then, two anarchists charge from behind with a metal grate. It takes a few tries, but they smash the windows.
(more…)

TAGS: 2000, 2004, Amy Goodman, beer, BOOKS, Bush, Campaign, Congress, contest, Denver, dog, Fox News, free, GOP, Gustav, Hillary, iPod, Iraq, John McCain, kids, mccain, Music, New York, New York Times, NPR, nypd, obama, political, Politics, Pregnant, Race, Rap, Republicans, RNC, Ron Paul, Sarah Palin, Shiite, Soundtrack, spin, Sports, Texas, the Replacements, Trade, Video, war, williamsburg, youtube

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Hot on the heels of Obama’s brilliant speech last night:  Sarah Palin is John McCain’s running mate (CNN reports).

Seriously?  Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin?  You mean the same Sarah Palin that is currently under “a $100,000 investigation to determine if Palin dismissed Alaska’s public safety commissioner because he would not fire” State Trooper Mike Wooten, Palin’s ex-brother-in-law?

Nice.

I get it — use a female candidate to sop up whatever remaining bitter, diehard Clinton stragglers there are (I’m willing to bet that number is in the ballpark of 10 to 15 post DNC).  I suppose the GOP bonus here is that the woman in question is already ahead of the curve as far as questionable practices and cronyism goes.  Nice to see that they’re really going for that Bush/Cheney ‘08 feel even at the VP level.

For more on the investigation, here’s former Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan on KUDO-AM 1080 (the guy she fired).

(Photo Credit:Win Mcnamee, Getty Images)

*edit: The Dems are out in full force on this (phew), and — in an ironic turn of events — are highlighting her inexperience (for example: up until last year all she’d ever been, politically-speaking, was mayor of a town of 9,000, and now she’s ready to be a “heartbeat away” from the Presidency?) — HuffPo has lots more.  This is really going to put a damper on McCain’s ability to call out that “ready to lead?” crap, as she’s both younger and far less experienced than Barry.

It may be premature, but I’m already seeing some compare this to the Dan Quayle selection.  All I can say at the moment is that I agree with Schumer…I can’t wait for the Biden-Palin debate.

Also, god bless wikipedia (in fairness, this is definitely cropped out of context, but that in no way mars its entertainment value):

TAGS: Bush, debate, dog, election, GOP, John McCain, mccain, MSNBC, obama, political, Politics, Practice, Sarah Palin

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Waiting for the inevitable spectacle of Bill, considering Hillary…

OK, so I’m still a bit bitter that Obama / Clinton couldn’t bury the hatchet enough to get her a ticket invite.  And I’m also peeved at Budget Clinton’s antics in the close down of the primary race — she said some things she shouldn’t have, and she handed the Republicans a couple loaded guns.  Though ultimately, let’s be honest — so did Biden.  It’s politics — the GOP can and will spin it into oblivion…along with everything else.  We should take care to not follow suit.

And, as a further caveat, I could never wholeheartedly back Clinton for the top spot on the ticket, as oligarchies really freak me out (go figure).  But that’s of no consequence here.

What does matter at the moment is that, last night, Clinton proved why she was such a contender in the first place — not for her relations with a former President, but for her own skills as an orator, leader, and politician.  I may not make friends in some circles with a statement like that, but those are pretty pedantic circles anyway.

Admittedly, the speech intermittently threatened to tumble into self-aggrandizement (which the Democrats needed like I need my ex-girlfriend’s status updates), but she managed to steer clear of an egregious error — recognizing her own accomplishments, embracing her millions of supporters, and promptly pushing and connecting that phenomenal energy straight over to Obama based on the issues (while getting in a few effective digs at McCain).  She didn’t address her prior attacks on Obama point-by-point — or that ad of McCain’s that uses her words — but she made it pretty fucking clear that a McCain presidency would be a disaster, and that Obama was the only way to ride… ’nuff said as far as I’m concerned.

Again, this is politics — she doesn’t need to paint him as the second coming, she needs to outline the case for his presidency.  And she did just that.  Let sleeping dogs lie on the personal front.

In the process, she cemented her position as a matriarch of both the Democratic party and the women’s movement in general (if she wasn’t both already), but she did it with a strange grace and style that left me feeling like she was just up there doing us all a favor.

Also, as an aside, Hillary was back in the character that she has historically been known and loved for.  Gone was the scheming and pandering of a desperate candidate on the stump — the overly placating and phony presentation of a woman dancing awkwardly between an air of disbelief at imminent failure and a tenuous hope in some sort of inevitable triumph.  And thank god she got that out of her system.

The best news?  The Democratic party came out of the primary season with not one but two powerhouses.

Watch her slide from a whole load of “I’m awesome, thanks” over to “Barack Obama for President”:

“I ran for president to renew the promise of America. To rebuild the middle class and sustain the American Dream, to provide the opportunity to work hard and have that work rewarded, to save for college, a home and retirement, to afford the gas and groceries and still have a little left over each month.

To promote a clean energy economy that will create millions of green collar jobs.

To create a health care system that is universal, high quality, and affordable so that parents no longer have to choose between care for themselves or their children or be stuck in dead end jobs simply to keep their insurance.

To create a world class education system and make college affordable again.

To fight for an America defined by deep and meaningful equality — from civil rights to labor rights, from women’s rights to gay rights, from ending discrimination to promoting unionization to providing help for the most important job there is: caring for our families. To help every child live up to his or her God-given potential.

To make America once again a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws.

To bring fiscal sanity back to Washington and make our government an instrument of the public good, not of private plunder.

To restore America’s standing in the world, to end the war in Iraq, bring our troops home and honor their service by caring for our veterans.

And to join with our allies to confront our shared challenges, from poverty and genocide to terrorism and global warming.

Most of all, I ran to stand up for all those who have been invisible to their government for eight long years.

Those are the reasons I ran for president. Those are the reasons I support Barack Obama. And those are the reasons you should too.”

Welcome back, Hill.  And thanks.

TAGS: attack, Barack Obama, dog, economy, global warming, GOP, Hillary, Iraq, mccain, obama, Politics, Race, Republicans, spin, Vice, war, youtube

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Anarchy sucks!!!

If I recall correctly, New York Mag’s Jada Yuan smoked a blunt with Snoop Dogg for a blog post earlier this year. Now she’s hitting democracy’s frontlines, documenting the squelching of free speech via Denver police tear gas. Classic:

…cops used pepper spray and 100 protesters were taken into custody. Reports have focused on the police’s use of force (they claim protesters were carrying rocks), but it’s perhaps more disturbing that no one, including those who were watching the action, could articulate what the protest was about in the first place…

…other than bandannas, though, the protest didn’t seem to have any organizing principal. James and his friends weren’t with any group; they’d just come to meet fellow anti-capitalists. Their goal: to create a new society that eliminates greed and corruption. It would’ve helped if James and his friends had actually found their comrades. But they’d gone on a side trip to counter-protest a protest by the right-wing anti-immigration group the Minutemen, and by the time they rejoined the original protest, they couldn’t find it, and the cops were blocking their path. So they stood in the intersection and did charades, “just three of us, maybe five people at most,” surrounded by twenty journalists and around 100 armed officers.

TAGS: Denver, dog, free, immigration, Nas, New York

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Wah, wah, Vice is suspeneding their letters section because they don’t get enought real letters:

No letters page this month. You know why? Because we aren’t receiving enough real letters. We mainly get emails now, and people don’t think when they write emails.

Then Vice goes on to decry technology, like something out of a Delillo novel from 82. But maybe the problem isn’t email or technology, it’s Vice itself. Maybe Vice gets dumb letters because of its legacy as a really, really dumb magazine.

Vice Magazine hit its zenith in 2001, right after 9/11, when everyone on earth wanted to know what it felt like to be young and vulnerable in downtown NYC. Back then Vice was a crude, honest, and pure reflection of the coked-out Billburg/LES axis of sleaze. No magazine had ever so perfectly mixed art with ignorance.

Around 2003, when Vice fever peaked, the magazine had a grand opportunity to become more than a post-puberal text. By this point, Vice had almost single-handedly redefined fashion and art photography. Its aesthetic and image were so cool, so New York, that the company’s marketing arm exploded—and seemingly every booze and shoe were re-branded by Vicers.

2003 was also the year Bush and co illegally invaded Iraq under false pretense. It was the year America began it’s decline from hyper- to merely super-power. What did Vice do? Nothing. Instead of using its new $$$ to become a real magazine, covering real events, Vice kept on pushing tits, drugs, and farts.

It wasn’t until 2006 or so that Vice woke up and realized the world was on fire. They did a cool story on Bin Laden, written by an AP correspondent. They publsihed an Iraq issue. They started a TV network, VBS, that did “gonzo” reporting on poison frogs and politics. But it was too late. No one took them seriously. And by the time Vice’s first film, Heavy Metal in Baghdad, was released this year (complete with Converse co-branding), Vice had pretty much lost it’s cultural capital. That’s a shame because Vice has done a lot of great work in the last few years. But by failing to cover that crucial moment in American life, circa 03-04, when the country really went mad (kaos in Iraq, Abu Ghraib, Bush Redux) Vice missed it’s chance to transcend farts and become authoritative journalistic documentarians. And that’s why they continually get stupid letters. 

 

TAGS: Bush, converse, dog, Drugs, Iraq, New York, Politics, Vice, Vice Magazine

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James Risen writes in the NYT that $100 billion has now been spent in Iraq on private contractors, the war profiteers formerly called mercenaries or dogs of war. Read this paragraph then go puke:

Contractors in Iraq now employ at least 180,000 people in the country, forming what amounts to a second, private, army, larger than the United States military force, and one whose roles and missions and even casualties among its work force have largely been hidden from public view. The widespread use of these employees as bodyguards, translators, drivers, construction workers and cooks and bottle washers has allowed the administration to hold down the number of military personnel sent to Iraq, helping to avoid a draft.

That’s right folks, the largest force in Iraq are corporations! Unlike national armies, corporate warriors don’t operate under the Geneva Conventions, or any rule of law for that matter. The worst of these “contractors” are armed guards providing “force protection.” Numbering some 30-60,000 thousand, these flag-less murder-for-hires have killed untold thousands of Iraqi civilians without a single prosecution. Their use will forever blemish America. 

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Really, Boston Dirt Dogs? You’re still going after “Yankees Suck” chants and tees?

Here’s some backstory. I started making the above shirts in 99. Around 02 or 03 a bunch of middle age weird semi-jocks wearing Oakley Blades and headphones started lurking around Fenway with Boston Dirt Dogs signs and t-shirts. They were trying to “Bring positivity to Boston’s fans,” one of the Dirt Dogs told me. Normally, someone treading on YS shirt turf would get handed a beatdown, but no one—and I mean no one—bought their shirts. (We had someone tail them and count shirts sold; tally: 0.) So they started a website, The Boston Globe bought in, and now they make $$$ on advertising. 

Today they post “Tis is the Season to Remind You That You’ll Look Like a Tool If You Wear Those Shirts and Chant That Low Rent Chant.” Actually, every Boston fan thinks the Yankees suck. And those 50,000-plus shirts sold were to fans of all ages, from all walks of life. Dirt Dogs, you’re just haters. Get over the fact that you never sold any shirts. You wanted to channel “positive” fan energy in a cynical city that takes baseball more seriously than life itself. If you think Derek Jeter doesn’t suck, you’re not a Red Sox fan. And your eight examples of the Yankees not sucking suck too. Curt Shilling? Bill Burt? Kevin Cullen? Where’s Sully McMurphy’s or Joey from West Roxbury’s opinion? 

Beckett vs Joba tonight at Fenway, 7pm. And Joba sucks.

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Dickheads

Jeremy Scahill, The Nation writer turned Blackwater book writer/expert, linked to a post of mine the other day. My post recapped an NYT blog write-up that said Blackwater, a North Carolina-based “security contractor,” was moving out of the mercenary biz, according to a spokesman. Blackwater’s comments came a day after Sec Def Gates wondered, “Why have we come to rely on private contractors to provide combat or combat-related security training for our forces?”

Sachill, in a piece headlined “Media Goofs Again,” says the story is a bunch of hype:

It seems that executives from Blackwater Worldwide, the Bush administration’s favorite hired guns in Iraq and Afghanistan, are threatening to pack up their M4 assault rifles, CS gas and Little Bird helicopters and go back to the great dismal swamp of North Carolina whence they came. Or at least that’s how it is being portrayed in the media.

Among the headlines of the past 24 hours: “Blackwater plans exit from guard work”, “Blackwater getting out of security business”, “Blackwater sounds retreat from private security business”, and “Blackwater to leave security business”. One blogger slapped this headline on his post: “Blackwater, worst organization since SS, to end mercenary work.” [The last one was my headline.]

Frankly, this is a whole lot of hype.

But I don’t think the Blackwater spokesman saying of security work, “If I could get it down to 2% or 1% [of total business], I would go there,” is a non-story. In fact, combined with Gates’ statement, this is great news.

I hate Blackwater and the entire concept of combat outsourcing almost as much as I hate Nazism. The fact is, US tax money is spent on Dogs of War who are not operating under rule of law—aka we support state sanctioned murder. We’ll be regretting allowing this to happen as long as we’re a nation.

Now, even the head of the Pentagon is angry about it. That’s damn good news to me. 

Of course, Blackwater has over the years become a multi-billion dollar defense contracting beast. Their CEO is from an old guard Michigan GOP familia. They’ve made enough cash and high-level State and Pentagon contacts to keep their business going.

Sachill writes, “Anyone who thinks Blackwater is in serious trouble is dead wrong.” I didn’t see anyone writing that. Unfortunately, as best outlined by PW Singer in Corporate Warriors (Cornell 2003), the privatization of war is here to stay.

But the fewer assholes with guns running around the better. And both Gates and Blackwater seem to be moving towards a mercenary downsizing. Sachill says this is in response to Obama’s 16-month withdrawal plan being celebrated by the world this week:

The company may be bracing for a possible shift in policy should Obama win in November. Blackwater could be contemplating resignation before termination. On the other hand, Obama has sent mixed messages on the future of war contractors under his Iraq policy. While he has been very critical of the war industry in general — and Blackwater specifically — he has also indicated he will not rule out using private armed contractors at least for a time in Iraq.

In a perfect world, US troops may be able to disengage from Iraq on large scale in the near future. I still don’t believe that’s possible. Iraq’s security gains over the past year are tenuous. If elected, Obama will likely have to keep a force of 80,000 or so in Iraq through his first term. How would he deal with providing diplomatic security for Green Zoners is unknown—will he keep the mercenaries or take MPs off the battlefield? Still, if Gates is trying to move away from privatized force protection now, the better the chances for a policy shift. And that’s not hype. It’s good news.

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I’m not going to condone felony hit-and-run on the 55 in a monster truck. Nor am I going to make light of driving said monster truck (complete with a giant picture decal of yourself) down the wrong way of a crowded Balboa street “causing pedestrians to flee in terror.” Running red lights, crashing into cars, driving on the median and almost killing innocent people in Newport Beach… none of these things constitute normal behavior. I can’t even begin to speculate on what caused the UFC and PRIDE fighter, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson to freak out like this last Tuesday, but I sincerely feel for him.

It’s easy for even the most compassionate people to dismiss a guy like this. He beats people up for a living, he’s testosterone personified, a giant ego with a giant truck to match… I get it. They attribute his actions to steroids and/or drugs and claim it was his choice but don’t bother ask if there could be a bigger, more complex problem that not only made this possible but even probable.

I met Quinton after I moved to Huntington Beach, California around early 2000. I was running my gear company, called Next Level – designing and marketing merchandise and starting to sponsor fighters. I was also training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu almost full-time and backstage at a lot of fights. A bunch of gyms at the time were either in location limbo or wrapped up in partner politics, so I was a constant visitor to several simultaneously around Orange County and LA. Quinton had moved to HB recently as well, his goal was to become a professional fighter but he was basically living in his car he was so broke. But he was always a nice guy that never complained, he was never too good to learn from anybody smaller or less experienced than him, never too prideful to ask for help, never too egotistical to see his own flaws and never too tired to work. He got hyped when you caught him in a knee-bar and was quick to congratulate you, but he would only let it happen once (true story). When it became pretty obvious that all the pros were buzzing about him and those top pros that visited were starting to get their asses kicked by him in training, he still talked humbly about his aspirations and his kids. He later beat almost all of those pros in Pride and UFC rising quickly to the top.

It’s fair to ask if steroids or drugs were involved when it pertains to the mixed martial arts world - steroids are fairly common throughout the professional social ranks and the in-crowd of hobbyist fighters in the United States and even more in countries like Brazil and Japan where the sport is absolutely huge and winners are national heroes. Up until somewhat recently, MMA was considered an outlaw’s sport in the U.S. with ex-military fighters from fallen third-world countries (where drugs and roids are plentiful) and old-school juicers dominating the top international levels of the sport. Sympathizers of Baseball’s (or cycling’s) steroid problem take notice - all excuses apply, ie: the pressure is too much, everybody’s doing it, can’t be competitive without it, we’ve got hungry mouths to feed, etc. The most serious painkillers are around too; you just have to ask anybody on the mat if they know a good sports medicine doctor and you’ll soon be drugged up enough to giggle through arm-lock training with your torn rotator cuff.

See Mark Kerr shooting up opiates in the HBO documentary “The Smashing Machine” or Rico Rodriguez’s first episode on Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew for good examples.

A couple of weeks ago, Quinton lost the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship to Forrest Griffin. Then Tuesday something we don’t yet understand obviously triggered Rampage to freak out. We don’t know if it was drugs, roids, depression or some other serious problem but in time we will find out the truth. If you’re so quick to judge Rampage as guilty of his own vices and condemn him to bad karma, you should have your “compassionate” card pulled.

Dana White, President of the company that owns the UFC was on a plane reportedly in 17 minutes to help. To the best of my knowledge, companies don’t usually show that kind of love for their employees and that might just be what this industry and many others need. After being released on $25,000 bail on Tuesday, Quinton was 5150’ed (committed to a mental hospital) for a three-day mental evaluation on Wednesday. White mentioned that Quinton been fasting - drinking only energy drinks and effectively not sleeping for a few days straight.

Before we move on to labeling Quinton “crazy” let’s just slow down and compare this to other famous freak-outs. If Quinton were a comedian, where would your prejudices lean? After Dave Chappelle walked away from like $50 million with Comedy Central and went to Africa, the press and the public called him crazy only when they weren’t alleging hard drug abuse. After the dust settled, Dave came back for an interview on Inside The Actor’s Studio where he used the example of Martin Lawrence to put this subject into perspective. “The worst thing to call somebody is crazy, it’s dismissive,” Chappelle said. Dave asked how Martin Lawrence, having survived great success and a stroke with a smile ended up screaming on the street waving a gun? Seems like a valid question to me.

“These people are not crazy. They are strong people. Maybe the environment is a little sick.” Chappelle said

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Breaking the law at Beatrice

Did you know you can only legally dance at 181 places in New York City? Yup, the lamest and most violated law ever (besides pot’s illegal status) may finally end. Mayor Bloomberg’s office is moving to reverse the 1926 Cabaret Law that requires any venue with “more than three people dancing” to have a permit, called a cabaret license, of which there are less than 200.

In a city with 10,000 bars and 8 million insane horn-dogs, dancing’s illegality always made zero sense. Let’s all get drunk at 3am and…stand around staring at each other or talking about nothing. Drunken convos are so overrated. Of course, it was only after Rudy G’s “Quality of Life” campaign that the Cabaret Law started being enforced.

Cheers to Bloomberg! The end of the Cabaret Law would offer many more DJ gigs and cut down your pointless drunk conversations by at least 60%. Soon, I may never have to hear about the company or magazine or “eco-friendly sustainable co-op” you’re (not) starting—I’ll be able to just dance away.

Via NYDN:

“We either want to eliminate the license or establish a different license so that it would be less onerous for people to engage in dancing,” said a source close to the mayor.

The 82-year-old license “as it exists doesn’t offer a reasonable opportunity for New Yorkers to dance at clubs,” the City Hall source said.

As the 1926 law stands, three or more people can’t dance unless a bar or restaurant has a cabaret license - even if music and liquor are allowed.

There are 181 licensed cabarets in New York, according to Consumer Affairs, and most are limited to techno-thumping clubs in Manhattan.

But dancers have long complained the license process squeezes out small venues that might offer swing and salsa and even sued the city last year to reverse its Prohibition-era ban on social dancing.

 

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