Friday, October 24, 2008

McCain Campaign Coming Apart at the Seams
Less than two weeks to Election Day and Palin's giving depositions in her abuse of power scandal, Joe McCain is illegally harassing a 911 operator, and we're finding out the highest paid staffer in the campaign is Palin's hairdresser (nice follow up to the $150K shopping spree news), and ... what a shock ... Ashley Todd turns out to be a race-baiting fraud.

Fox News' John Moody:

If the incident turns out to be a hoax, Senator McCain's quest for the presidency is over, forever linked to race-baiting.

At least that hack Drudge has the decency to fess up to his shoddy reporting ... well, it's currently under the huge banner that reads, "JOE THE PLUMBER 'SCARED FOR AMERICA' IF OBAMA PRESIDENT"

Is this not the most surreal election season we've ever lived through?

Labels: Conservative Goons, crime

23:31 cdogzilla

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Forty foot snake found! Oh wait, fossil of a forty foot snake found. Still, pretty cool.

Labels: cryptozoology, non-monkey animals, science

21:19 bone daddy

I Want To Believe
Because everybody loves creepy gnome footage.

Labels: cryptozoology, non-monkey animals, youtube goodness

18:39 bone daddy

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Whoo-Hoo!
Anyone notice how McCain has claimed, several times now, that if Obama had accepted his offer for ten townhall style debates, he would not have been forced to go as negative as he has? (And even with this, McCain doesn't get his facts straight.)

Republicans really are thin-skinned these days, aren't they? A few weeks ago we were all told that House GOP'ers rejected the urgent bailout that would have saved our country because Nancy Pelosi was a big meanie. Now, because Obama didn't want to debate precisely the way McCain wanted, McCain had to question his patriotism and call him a big pervert.

I would like to thank Senator Obama for rejecting the ten debate proposal. One, it brought out Mr. Crankypants and that's just great. Two, it spared me from having to watch seven more of these awful things. Debates have become horrid events. The moderators are tepid. The questions, when they aren't dodged entirely, are predictable. It's an excercise in returning to your talking points. The contemporary debates matter for two reasons - the big gaffe and style. Now that they are concluded I can fully appreciate how smart Obama's approach was. Obviously, I wanted every McCain lie smacked down hard. I wanted Bush mocked. I wanted sharp facts and sharper sarcasm.

But these debates aren't for me. I'm voting for Obama even if he sighs too much or claims communist-occupied Poland is Freedomland. (Gee, which one of those gaffes was more important?) The general population doesn't want much in the way of attacks and finger-pointing. Obama simply needed to remain gaffe-free (yep) and appear presidential (big-time).

McCain has shown a surprising tin ear of late. The hard right wants him to get nasty and go all smear all the time and he doesn't recognize that this advice is turning a squeaker into a bloodbath. (And Senator, if you think the hard right will take the blame for your loss, you don't know them like I do.) The most telling moment of last night's debate came when they talked about the negativity. McCain brought up Ayers, after saying he didn't care about him. Then McCain complained about Representative John Lewis' comments. He accused Obama of "not repudiating" the comparison between himself and George Wallace.

What did McCain think would happen next?

First of all, you've pointed out that a civil rights hero has criticized you. Then, you hand Obama an opportunity to point out that you're wrong again, Obama did repudiate the comparison. And who didn't know that the next step in this conversation is the hateful, violent crap shouted at McCain/Palin rallies? Obama talked about hearing "Kill him" and "terrorist" shouted about him. Who looked calm and reasonable during this exchange? Who looked thin-skinned and, well, erratic?

McCain spent time in an earlier debate complaining that Obama would go after bin Laden in Pakistan. Did he think that would score points with the American people? Obama is going to be too aggressive pursuing bin Laden? "I'll follow bin Laden to the gates of Hell ... unless, you know, we have to cross some sort of border to get there." Tin ear.

Time to close the deal.

Labels: 2008, Conservative Goons, Obama, TV

16:20 bone daddy

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

For those of you who watched the debate:
Can I form a band called Joe the Plumber? Or is it too late?

Labels: Conservative Goons, music

23:10 bone daddy

Friday, October 10, 2008

Yah Us!
This just in: Connecticut Supreme Court rules that gay marriage is constitutional. For those of you keeping score at home, we finished third in the fifty state race to common sense.

Labels: local flavor

17:18 bone daddy

Turner Classic Movies will air a 24 hour Paul Newman marathon starting Sunday (Oct. 12th) at 5 a.m. (schedule here). Newman has always been one of my favorites, and he makes a roasted garlic salsa that I can pretty much eat with a spoon. The marathon is a pretty nice list, obviously they couldn't get the rights to everything. No Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, no The Hustler, two of my (and everybody's) favorite Newman movies.

On this list, I'd put a plug in for Hud, which is probably one of Newman's "classic" movies that few have actually seen. Torn Curtain is a bit slow for Hitchcock and for Newman, but it's worth seeing. And if you haven't seen Cool Hand Luke, really, isn't this the time?

Enormously cool and enormously generous, willing to be goofy on Letterman, Newman has inspired a bunch of tributes. If you've seen the classic movies, I'd put a plug in for a trio of modern movies that show Newman lost none of his aura and charm in old age. The Hudsucker Proxy is always regarded as a lesser Coen brothers movie, but I loved it. Tim Robbins really should do more comedy. Newman is great as the evil robber baron. In Where the Money Is, Newman embraces his age, playing an old con man lured back in for one more big hit by a younger generation. It's a low budget sort of crime movie and worth seeing. And Nobody's Fool is probably mentioned too often to be considered overlooked, but if you can bear to look at Bruce Willis and Melanie Griffith in a drama, this is worth seeing. It's about a guy getting ground down by life, who may not know what kind of legacy he is leaving his town and his friends. Unlike Newman, who left a hell of a legacy behind him.

Labels: movies, obit, youtube goodness

11:15 bone daddy

Saturday, October 04, 2008

What makes me return from blogging hiatus? I wish I could tell you it was something insightful or highbrow but it's justthe possibility of Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars coming to TV. As a movie it seemed like it would be desperately cramped so I like the idea of a TV series and since I'm (yeah, just now) getting into Mad Men I don't have a problem with AMC either.

Labels: Books, sci-fi, TV

16:45 bone daddy