Thoughts While Holding My Breath

It's Tuesday so there must be some people voting somewhere... Guam? Nope, already happened. But today there's a Carolina and an Indiana full of folks punching their votes in, and a nation of Democrats crossing their fingers about the results. While you wait (if you're a political spaz like me) why not read about some good/fascinating stuff?

• Andrew Sullivan has a post up about Nigerian rebels contemplating a cease-fire based mainly on an appeal from Barack Obama... interesting. I also found his link between Obama's past as a community organizer, the bottom-up approach his campaign has taken and this news bit. Thoughts on this welcome... need to ponder a bit more myself.
• Hilarious and random, a post on Wonkette yesterday about Ben Smith offing all the other reporters at Politico made me chuckle. Sure, that sounds morbid, but I swear, really, it's some funny.
• Turns out, spell check is a right-wing nutjob afterall! Who knew? After the initial piece that makes me sad, the second bit about Klingons is pretty amazing.
  

Finally, Purple State had yet another amazing Daily Diversion yesterday, and while I hate to feel like I'm just co-opting their fun, it's below. Feel free to send them some hits by watching the video through their own post here, or just hop over to their main page for some interesting political writing.

Anyway, For anyone who spends too much time on Facebook (like me, he admitted, feeling like a dweeb) or for anyone who doesn't precisely because they're freaked out by the whole thing, this little British video wonder is pretty amazing:

Lazy Weekend Video Break

Here comes the weekend! Know what you need? Some video to inspire, entertain, and stupefy. With that in mind, I've got two little things to get you started. From the joyous world of You Tube viral wonderment, I present you the following:

1. My buddy over at Stamford Talk posted this one as a comment, but I liked it so much I wanted it out here in the light of day as a main page post. In the video below Michelle Obama talks about one of the main reasons she thinks her husband offers something unique among the presidential contenders. I've seen some tiny snippets of this larger video played on news shows this week, but the whole thing is well worth the whopping 6 minutes it will take you to watch.



2. Purple State Blog is the first place I saw the following video mash-up of the primaries, Star Wars... and all sorts of other wonderment. Now, I've got to say that the amount of play You Tube is getting this election cycle is incredible, but when it results in videos as entertaining as the one below I say it's a blessing. The editing in this one is pretty remarkable.

Party Goes On as Monkey Humps Death Star

Party Goes On as Monkey Humps Death Star, originally uploaded by Chambo25.

This past weekend I was in Atlanta for birthday celebrations and you know... strange things can happen at birthday parties. You sorta never know what you might come across. For example, you might come across a monkey piñata humping the broken shell of a Death Star piñata. Now, if you're me, when you see such a spectacle you stop and take a few quick pictures. Most other people didn't seem bothered that this was going on. Anyway, as we all head towards the end of our work days this beautiful Thursday afternoon... I thought I would share one such picture.

'Cause nothing says Thursday like a monkey piñata... humping a Death Star... piñata.

Things That Do (Suck): Abstinence Only Sex Ed

or... does abstinence mean it can't suck.

Anyway, if there is any upside to the Bush administration's bizarro world obsession with abstinence only education it is this bit from the Daily Show, an update on the Global War in Your Pants:



Hat tip to Meredith whose Facebook post tipped me off to this!

Things That Don't Suck: King of California

So, at the end of my last post... earlier today, I promised my next post would be apolitical, and here goes. Last night I saw a pretty enjoyable movie, King of California. Evan Rachel Wood (open question: who names their daughter Evan?) plays Miranda, the 17 year-old daughter of an eccentric man who we see picking up her father, Charlie (Michael Douglas), from a mental institution in the first few scenes of the film.

Over an hour and a half we follow them on a treasure hunt filled with some goofy incidents, recollections of Miranda's youth, and exploration of a dysfunctional but interesting relationship between father and daughter. The journey is inspired and guided by readings Charlie found while he was in the loony bin. Wood plays an over-mature young woman pretty well, we meet her first at her job behind the counter at McDonalds. Her scrappy story of surviving while her father was locked away sets the stage for the distance she displays throughout the movie. Still, she can't resist following and eventually helping her hapless and goofy father, Charlie as he embarks on a garbled adventure.

I wouldn't say Douglas is brilliant, but his character sure is fun. The movie overall was enjoyable if not groundbreaking. It was relatively simple, smart but not preachy and inhabited by characters that were interesting enough to draw you in, accessible and fairly believable.

Some might guess I was drawn to the movie by its bright yellow box, given that a) I like bright colors b) I loved Little Miss Sunshine which also comes in a bright yellow box and c) I'm much like a moth... unable to resist visual stimuli. Even if these people are right, I enjoyed hanging out last night with the King of California and I recommend checking it out.

Zinger VS Burns

Last night I watched a good bit of SNL's the Best of Alec Baldwin, whose presence has been amazing on 30 Rock, no matter what you may think of his voicemail messages and other nasty habits. Some fine laughs were had over the absurdity of the Zinger v.s. Burns skit featuring Seth Meyers and Baldwin. Today, I caught a couple stories out there that struck me as little blogosphere zingers on Camp Clinton... both interesting in their own way.

First, I saw a piece from Andrew Sullivan over at the Atlantic, describing a poll that shows New Jersey democrats, who voted for Hillary by a 10% majority are now demonstrating some buyer's remorse. I think polls like this one are really interesting, especially given how much recent political conversation has been focused on who is electable in the fall.

Then, this afternoon, a piece floated out across the AP wires about how fake Hillary's stop by a gas station was. Wonkette had a nice tongue-in-cheek (surprise there) piece on how hilarious it is for the AP to stress the fakeness of one photo op, when all the campaigns are pretty much daily engaging in little choreographed exhibitions... anyway, whether it's fair or not, I thought the piece was pretty interesting, if only for the fact that they give you a nice portrait of the staging that goes into a "casual visit to a NC gas station."

Is anyone surprised when politicians are playing fake-it-till-ya-make-it? It's old news that a large chunk of America's best informed citizens (or at least best informed young people) tune in more reliably to the fake news than almost any other news source. Still, if the scheduled conversation between BillO and Hillary tonight is any indication, I don't see the Democratic discussion in the next few days veering back towards the land of the sensible. I bet we'll be hearing more about useless "tax vacations" and crazy preachers. YAY!

Does all that sound... jaded? Be not jaded! Laugh at this (Hillary trying to figure out a coffee machine):



Ok... not sure that last one was entirely fair... but it is funny. Promise to you: my next post will be about something entirely apolitical.

Karl Rove: forgetful or worse?

So I came across an editorial on the WSJ today. It's written by Karl Rove and talks about what a swell guy McCain is and how Americans need to know this. It's mostly fluff, but it got me all riled up. I'd like to explain why. Consider this passage:

For example, in 1991 Cindy McCain was visiting Mother Teresa's orphanage in Bangladesh when a dying infant was thrust into her hands. The orphanage could not provide the medical care needed to save her life, so Mrs. McCain brought the child home to America with her. She was met at the airport by her husband, who asked what all this was about.

Mrs. McCain replied that the child desperately needed surgery and years of rehabilitation. "I hope she can stay with us," she told her husband. Mr. McCain agreed. Today that child is their teenage daughter Bridget.

It is a nice story isn't it? all warm and fuzzy. But shamefully, Mr. Rove leaves out a crucial part of the story, one that took place in the 2000 South Carolina primary. McCain was locked in a tight battle with Rove's former boss, the then-Governor of Texas, George W. Bush. During that primary, Bush supporters spread rumours that McCain had an illegitimate child with a black prostitute. He even had the nerve to appear in PUBLIC with this child. The proof was his daughter, Bridget. Photos of the two of them together were circulated. the rumours were considered very damaging and probably were part of the reason McCain lost.

Now, I'm not saying Rove had anything to do with this. really: I'm not. But he must have known. How could he not bring this up? Isn't it relevant to what he's talking about? For this failure alone, the editorial is deeply flawed at best and at worst is...something I'd rather not say.

Is this Blog Obamaganda?

Damn right! Ok... well, seriously though, sometimes I think I'm too much of a one-man pro-Obama stomping ground, but when I come across something like the video below, I just can't resist (plus it's not a one-man show anymore around here anyway).

I found the clip in the collection of amazing videos over at The Jed Report today. It shows a fired-up 82 year old lady, Mrs. Weiss is her name, I think, at an Obama rally asking a question, then being asked to be Obama's VP. The video is followed by one other interesting thing sent my way by Adam, who recently sent me the great "Skywalkers Crossing Han Solo" story.



So on to the fascinating story Adam passed along, it's actually something that showed up a few days ago on the New York Times editorial pages. I enjoy it when people test out some of the narratives we see trotted around the Cable news punditry. In this case, the author takes the image of "The Guy Who’s Where He Is Only Because He’s Black" for a walk around the block to see what he looks like in the light of day. Ultimately, the piece is pretty enjoyable, thought provoking, and very readable. There are pieces of me that wishes the author had pushed the edges of this a bit further, but he certainly gives the reader enough to realize what a silly idea this is.

I post this because I think it's worth noting that in politics these sorts of caricatures, these easy simple 2-dimensional pictures play so large and so long. Just look at the whole Wright thing blowing up yet again this week. In that case, at least, it seems this week like Rev. Wright is trying to prove the boogey man is in fact 3-D, real, and is him... but that aside, I recommend the "Visible Man" story.

Check it out, let me know what you think. Once you're done reading, if you're feeling bogged down in some of the heavy issues this all brings up... go back and visit with Mrs. Weiss in the video clip again... she's a spark plug and sure to get you back to feeling a little encouraged.

The Love That is Forgotten

Have you ever loved something truly, madly, deeply, and then completely forgotten about it?

No???

Ok... maybe I'm all alone on this one, but I used to read the Best of Craigslist a few times a week. It was often good for a wee dose of hilarity in my day. Recently, not so much. I just completely dropped it from my internets routine. Today, however, in the midst of a project for work Craigslist came up... and a light bulb flicked on somewhere deep in the recesses of my consciousness. Memories of laughter in days-gone-by hit me like a wall of water and I pulled up a new window to revisit my long-lost love. What did I find?

Kissing Lessons (favorite line from this post, "Pick up the phone now! And then put it back down and send me an email for an awe inspiring experience!!"), a Cat Bus (amazing picture), and a hairpiece that inspires rage in animals.

Believe me, that's only the beginning. Ah, Best of Craigslist... I'm so happy you're back.

A Picture's Worth A Thousand...

So, I don't know about you, but I had a GREAT weekend. I was down in Atlanta, celebrating my brother's 30th birthday and his friend Chris's 30th as well (do you make a word that ends in s possessive with an apostrophe s or just an apostrophe? Thanks in advance, grammarians). I took a zillion and a half pictures and will spend the next 6 weeks cropping and color correcting in photoshop, then uploading them all to Flickr. Or maybe it will happen more quickly than that. We'll see, but suffice to say there are some hilarious pictures that came out of the birthday celebration/"Play All Day" in the park.

I returned to work today and dug into my pre-work political blog reading to discover something wonderful posted over at Jed Report... originally posted at The Craggle Post.

Can't Stop the Awesome

Sorry... after my last post I also caught a great clip over at Purple State Blog, part of their Daily Diversion series... a fun bit to catch, if you're into... you know, laughing.



(Oh, and yesterday's diversion is pretty enjoyable too.)

Skywalkers Cross Han Solo

Now, looking at the title of this post, you might think that you could only ever see it on a blog. If that's what you're thinking... check this out. My buddy Adam recently mentioned, and then yesterday emailed me a story he was blown away by... wherein the headline, "Skywalkers (in Korea) cross Han Solo" makes sense in a real world context. Thus begins today's post, themed FRIDAY AWESOMENESS. For more random, joyful, distract you from the democrats bashing eachothers' heads in, ridiculous, goofy awesome, read on below!

• This week in Taiwan, a lawmaker famous mostly for shouting and picking his nose in public will step down from his post. Bummer. I only wish we had been tracking his career these past few years.
  
• Ok, maybe you're not bummed about the nose picker, but you should be bummed out about the priest in Brazil who floated out to sea under thousands of helium party balloons as a fundraiser... for a trucker chapel (how much awesomeness can there be in one post???). Sadly the Brazilian authorities are calling off the search for him, saying there is little chance they will find him at this point. Now, my question is this: how can you miss the guy who's washing around in the ocean attached to over a thousand party baloons? Are the balloons all teal?
• Wow, is this post of awesome things turning into a post of sad things? NO! Here's some awesome for ya: Fictional President Josiah Bartlett endorses Barack Obama.
• Not awesome enough to kick off your weekend? How's this: Cartographer Hillary redraws the US to her liking... er... to the "will of the votes of the people who have voted..." or something like that.

Finally, we'll close out the awesome for now with the Superfun Video of the Week: I Was Told There'd Be Cake



The people who made it do such interesting stuff. You can check out another of their YouTube videos here.