Romney Hates Animals

Wow... this is nauseating, but um... wait, no, just nauseating.

It's funny because it was a family joke of ours growing up... someone misbehaving in the car? Strap 'em to the roof!

Holy crap, a Presidential candidate did that to their pet, and for whatever reason, we all now know about his insanity. Can't wait to hear some explanations for this ridiculousness.

Griffey returns to the sounds of Journey's, "Open Arms"

Leave it to baseball to knock me out of my political blogging rut here. It's been a week with lots of political crap to blather about. Wait, that's every week, right? Anyway, not everyday do you catch up with this kind of story:

A Welcome Sight, Griffey Returns to Seattle

If you grew up in the 90's loving baseball like I did, well, then you need to read it. If not, you will likely still enjoy it. Regardless, here's a little preview:


"There's a wonderful "Seinfeld" bit in which Jerry says that because players change teams so often, fans find themselves rooting for the uniform and not the athlete. "When you root for a team these days," he says, "you're mostly rooting for laundry." This is almost always the case. But Seattle fans were most definitely not rooting for laundry over the weekend. They were rooting for the player."

Enjoy

Jon Stewart Vs. Dick Cheney

Who do you think will win? I mean, Jon Stewart is cool and all, but Dick Cheney has the whole super-evil thing going for him.

Daily Show Coverage of the Cheney Redonkulousness.

Save Internet Radio

The record companies like to rake in money, and your government wants to help them do so hand-over-fist. There's a shift that's supposed to take place mid-July of this year that would in effect make it incredibly difficult for many internet radio providers to keep doing what they do. Why? Because the change in law/rules about internet radio would dramatically increase the amount of money an internet radio outfit has to pay the record companies every time they play a song.

Bottom line: the pending changes would line the pockets of record execs. Don't be fooled by anyone who wants to tell you this has anything to do with paying artists for their work. I for one am fairly certain this is far from related to that. The big loser, anyone who wants to tune into the internet and catch some of the variety that record companies and corporate radio has all-but whitewashed from broadcast radio.

So, if you're a big fan of top 40 and really care to hear nothing else, forget you ever read this post. Otherwise, visit here to take action:

http://www.savenetradio.org/act_now/index.html

OR here to learn more:

http://www.kurthanson.com/dos/

Thanks, Adam, for bringing this to my attention.

Bare Knuckle Politics

Did you realize that Dick Cheney was not part of the executive branch of our government? He argues that on odd Tuesdays, Thursdays, and whenever else he makes a secret hand movement he magically is not part of the executive branch... or actually he just generally wants to be considered whatever is expedient, at any given moment. At such expedient moments he will fluctuate between acting as President of the Senate and occasionally moonlighting as Captain Kangaroo (that last bit is unconfirmed, but I think it will eventually come to light).

Anyway, in a kick-ass response along the lines of, "Well, if that's the way you want it," Rahm Emanuel has introduced a motion to limit Mr. Cheney's funding to the funding set aside for his non-executive activities... which should drastically limit the massive staff he has, etc.

You know, I'll be honest. It's pretty ugly, but it makes me smile. The slimy bastard deserves to take some heat for his ridiculousness... and it's frankly long overdue. To my eye Dick Cheney is a dangerous man.

Fun related links:

• TPMCafe's article Rahm's Moment
• Salon War Room's blurb, "Tit for Tat"
  

More Interesting Than the You Tube Stare

I think if anyone takes a fair appraisal of the current state of political debate surrounding Iraq, they'll come away feeling like the staked out sides ring so hollow it's maddening. I know that I often feel frustrated and annoyed by the fact that supposed leaders are selling us analysis that is on its face just simple, if not completely backwards and wrong.

Anyway, it's funny that in a presidential race that's so bizarrely early, mind-numbing and sure to be protracted you really need the bizarro candidates to get anything said. Case in point:

Mike Gravel's Commentary on Huffington Post this week.

His article has to do with ways that Senator Clinton (as I hear it's most appropriate to address her) scares him, and the reason I re-post it to my blog is this: I share his fear of her, and the reasons for it. I also think that he's got good reason (as he points out) to fear any number of the other candidates who share adjacent views, make similar statements, etc.

I think there's a real failure of will to face down just how difficult this Iraq mess is, certainly from the current administration, but also from the Democrats. Perhaps this results from the fact that calling it as ugly as it really is, would come off sounding incredibly pessimistic next to the Tony Snows and Bill O'really?s of the world... but I dunno. I could be blathering now. Anyway, no solutions really, just a moment where I felt like the crazy guy who throws rocks in the water (wait for it... wait for it) had some interesting bits to contribute to the discourse.

Now Hear This

So nobody should be surprised to hear that America's radio waves are dominated by conservatives spewing ickiness... I'm sure not, but here's a study that drives home the point:

I saw it in this article on Crooks & Liars

Now THAT's what I'm talking about

I've been telling people that I think a really strong case any candidate for President should make given the climate in DC these days is to say clearly and loudly, "My administration will be about competence, objectivity, professionalism, etc." or something along those lines. As though designed to appeal directly to me and folks who think in similar ways, here is a very inspiring article from the Boston Globe regarding recent comments by Obama.

Here you go, the article is here.

And here's a quote from it (from Obama):

"It's easy to be cynical -- to believe that change isn't possible; that the odds are too great; that this year is bound to be no different from the last. But I also know what I've seen and what I've done," he said. "I know that for me, reform isn't just the rhetoric of a campaign; it's been a cause of my career."

I saw the article on Democratic Underground... and I recommend checking it out highly. This is the kind of thing candidates should be talking about, namely REAL reform that will have an impact on making government work well. People can squabble all they want over how much government should be involved in this or that, but my thing is this: whatever the government does, it should aim to do extremely well.

Some people act like business is somehow specially endowed with the capability of achieving lofty goals like efficiency, innovation, etc. by nature of competition, but I think this notion is crap. Accepting this argument completely undermines the idea of a government in the first place by in effect saying that anything government does is damned to be mediocre from the start. I believe competition has a value and a place, but also that society can build institutions designed to demand excellence in both execution and results. Anyway, let's get outside crap arguments and stay in the realm of talking about achievable reforms that we should all rally behind.

Cheers, and happy Friday.

Gazing through the Flowers

Matt Mieko Wedding 15
Originally uploaded by Chambo25.

So... at Matt & Mikeo's wedding Lyndsey came up with a brilliant plan. There were these fun floral centerpieces on the tables... and we convinced many people to have their picture taken peeking through them... as though they were in the midst of an overgrown... well, flower patch.

Here's the first of a few I intend to blog up a storm with, so STAY TUNED for that excitement!!!

Newsish Enough for you?

How long will it be before either of these get mainstream media coverage:

Cheney Exempts His Office from Protecting Classified Info

Giuliani blows off the Iraq Study Group to make some quick cash at Speaking Engagements


Just wondering!

Wedding Photography

Matt Mieko Wedding 12
Originally uploaded by Chambo25.

A couple weeks back (Memorial Day weekend, to be exact) I wandered up North with Lyndsey to attend the wedding of my good friend and college roommate Matt and his bride Mieko. It was a great weekend in which I snapped ridiculous numbers of photos... many of which were sadly compromised by my camera's inability to deal all that well with low-light conditions.

Still, many good pictures did emerge, and I'm slowly but steadily working on Photoshopping them to color correct, crop, etc. Above is a fun picture that shows Matt & Mieko's gift table. On it they had photos they got taken in Japan where they were both wearing traditional kimonos. I've got about 15 pictures up on Flickr now... and you can check them out by clicking on the link below this picture.

Busy Couple Weeks

Landen Up Close BW
Originally uploaded by Chambo25.

Wow it's been a busy couple weeks. Memorial Day weekend Lyndsey and I went up to NH for Matt and Mieko's wedding. It was a good trip, lots of fun, great to meet her family, and fun to meet one of Matt's close friends from teaching in Japan (who happens to also live in Asheville). Being out in the woods of NH for a weekend was also nice. His parents have a beautiful home, and as a bonus we got to meet Matt's new niece!

It was really a trip. The next weekend I followed up on that by hopping in the car with Matt and driving out to Geneva for our 5th college reunion. We stayed with Heidi and Landen (who you see above) and had good fun catching up with a number of folks we haven't seen or heard from in years.

A couple days after returning from Geneva, I headed up to Boston for work, and while I was there for three days and two nights I ran into a friend from HWS who I had not really gotten much of a chance to catch up with at reunion. Literally I drove past him on the street one morning, and then ran into him that evening, learning that he lived about 3 blocks from my boss! All in all, it's been a travel intensive period, but it's also been good fun. I've taken lots of pictures, many of which I intend to Photoshop and post... and I'm starting along that line by posting the above macro picture of Landen. I took a bunch of pictures while we were hanging out with him and Heidi, but I think this one is far and away my favorite. I snapped it in an instant really quickly and somewhat randomly, but I'm so pleased with how crisp it is.

More soon, and hopefully a slight increase in the amount of sanity!

Africa, Good News

Hi Friends... I've been away for awhile... a week? More??? Meanwhile, life has been going on. I was cleaning up a bit today, and watching Last King of Scotland on DVD while doing so. It's pretty great so far. I'm only half way through.

Funny thing happened later in the evening, though, I came by my computer and stumbled across a very cool post on Daily Kos about inspiring news out of Africa. The post is really worth your time, and basically highlights two very interesting and cool things happening in some of the most war-ravaged and difficult places on the planet today. Give it a glance, if you have a few minutes, it's really not a very lengthy read.

Also, big this week for me, is the new Paul McCartney single. I think it's pretty great, and if you haven't seen the video, directed by Michel Gondry (who has also done brilliant videos for Bjork, Daft Punk, and the amazing Lego video for the White Stripes). I've just actually looked up the video on You Tube... so that will be posted just after this! Yay for You Tube!!!

Insight!

So, I really like Obama a lot, and I've been thinking a lot about why that is. Don't get me wrong, I'm not completely in one boat or another. I've really liked Edwards recently, even though I can't seem to get over my persistent disappointment from his performance in the 2004 election. Anyway, Daily Kos has a pretty great post up right now that provides some interesting discussion of the Obama phenomena. It delves into some of the reasons why he's exciting, but it also provides two really solid points about questions he (or we all) needs to figure out about what he wants to accomplish and how to realistically go about achieving the lofty and inspiring goals he sets forth. I found it to be a very good read, and I hope you do to:

Obama, Selma, and Conflict (Daily Kos)

Enjoy!