Obama: "I've been called worse on the basketball court."

So good.

So good.

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Natalie Portman's Shaved Head

Their video, Sideways Ponytail... oh, and it may cause seizures, so...


natalie portman's shaved head - sophisticated side ponytail from thatgo on Vimeo.

Why do people lie?

Desperation makes us do silly things. Take the Republicans, for example: After watching last night's "speeches," it has become blatantly obvious that they have chosen to lie. Pure and simple. If it were a street fight, Palin would've kicked Obama in the balls, knowing that was the only weapon available to her.

Or if the lies don't work, blame the media. The liberal media. Laughable.

(From the AP) ST. PAUL, Minn. — Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her Republican supporters held back little Wednesday as they issued dismissive attacks on Barack Obama and flattering praise on her credentials to be vice president. In some cases, the reproach and the praise stretched the truth.

Some examples:

PALIN: "I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending ... and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. I told the Congress 'thanks but no thanks' for that Bridge to Nowhere."

THE FACTS: As mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to Washington annually to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million. In her two years as governor, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation. While Palin notes she rejected plans to build a $398 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport, that opposition came only after the plan was ridiculed nationally as a "bridge to nowhere."

PALIN: "There is much to like and admire about our opponent. But listening to him speak, it's easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform _ not even in the state senate."

THE FACTS: Compared to McCain and his two decades in the Senate, Obama does have a more meager record. But he has worked with Republicans to pass legislation that expanded efforts to intercept illegal shipments of weapons of mass destruction and to help destroy conventional weapons stockpiles. The legislation became law last year. To demean that accomplishment would be to also demean the work of Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, a respected foreign policy voice in the Senate. In Illinois, he was the leader on two big, contentious measures in Illinois: studying racial profiling by police and requiring recordings of interrogations in potential death penalty cases. He also successfully co-sponsored major ethics reform legislation.

PALIN: "The Democratic nominee for president supports plans to raise income taxes, raise payroll taxes, raise investment income taxes, raise the death tax, raise business taxes, and increase the tax burden on the American people by hundreds of billions of dollars."

THE FACTS: The Tax Policy Center, a think tank run jointly by the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, concluded that Obama's plan would increase after-tax income for middle-income taxpayers by about 5 percent by 2012, or nearly $2,200 annually. McCain's plan, which cuts taxes across all income levels, would raise after tax-income for middle-income taxpayers by 3 percent, the center concluded.

Obama would provide $80 billion in tax breaks, mainly for poor workers and the elderly, including tripling the Earned Income Tax Credit for minimum-wage workers and higher credits for larger families.

He also would raise income taxes, capital gains and dividend taxes on the wealthiest. He would raise payroll taxes on taxpayers with incomes above $250,000, and he would raise corporate taxes. Small businesses that make more than $250,000 a year would see taxes rise.

MCCAIN: "She's been governor of our largest state, in charge of 20 percent of America's energy supply ... She's responsible for 20 percent of the nation's energy supply. I'm entertained by the comparison and I hope we can keep making that comparison that running a political campaign is somehow comparable to being the executive of the largest state in America," he said in an interview with ABC News' Charles Gibson.

THE FACTS: McCain's phrasing exaggerates both claims. Palin is governor of a state that ranks second nationally in crude oil production, but she's no more "responsible" for that resource than President Bush was when he was governor of Texas, another oil-producing state. In fact, her primary power is the ability to tax oil, which she did in concert with the Alaska Legislature. And where Alaska is the largest state in America, McCain could as easily have called it the 47th largest state _ by population.

MCCAIN: "She's the commander of the Alaska National Guard. ... She has been in charge, and she has had national security as one of her primary responsibilities," he said on ABC.

THE FACTS: While governors are in charge of their state guard units, that authority ends whenever those units are called to actual military service. When guard units are deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, for example, they assume those duties under "federal status," which means they report to the Defense Department, not their governors. Alaska's national guard units have a total of about 4,200 personnel, among the smallest of state guard organizations.

FORMER ARKANSAS GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE: Palin "got more votes running for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska than Joe Biden got running for president of the United States."

THE FACTS: A whopper. Palin got 616 votes in the 1996 mayor's election, and got 909 in her 1999 re-election race, for a total of 1,525. Biden dropped out of the race after the Iowa caucuses, but he still got 76,165 votes in 23 states and the District of Columbia where he was on the ballot during the 2008 presidential primaries.

FORMER MASSACHUSETTS GOV. MITT ROMNEY: "We need change, all right _ change from a liberal Washington to a conservative Washington! We have a prescription for every American who wants change in Washington _ throw out the big-government liberals, and elect John McCain and Sarah Palin."

THE FACTS: A Back-to-the-Future moment. George W. Bush, a conservative Republican, has been president for nearly eight years. And until last year, Republicans controlled Congress. Only since January 2007 have Democrats have been in charge of the House and Senate.

___

Associated Press Writer Jim Drinkard in Washington contributed to this report.

(From Politico)

Why the media should apologize

By ROGER SIMON | 9/4/08 12:15 AM EST

ST. PAUL, Minn. — On behalf of the media, I would like to say we are sorry.

On behalf of the elite media, I would like to say we are very sorry.

We have asked questions this week that we should never have asked.

We have asked pathetic questions like: Who is Sarah Palin? What is her record? Where does she stand on the issues? And is she is qualified to be a heartbeat away from the presidency?

We have asked mean questions like: How well did John McCain know her before he selected her? How well did his campaign vet her? And was she his first choice?

Bad questions. Bad media. Bad.

It is not our job to ask questions. Or it shouldn’t be. To hear from the pols at the Republican National Convention this week, our job is to endorse and support the decisions of the pols.

Sarah Palin hit the nail on the head Wednesday night (and several in the audience wish she had hit some reporters on the head instead) when she said: “I’m not a member of the permanent political establishment. And I’ve learned quickly, these past few days, that if you’re not a member in good standing of the Washington elite, then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that reason alone.”

But where did we go wrong with Sarah Palin? Let me count the ways:

First, we should have stuck to the warm, human interest stuff like how she likes mooseburgers and hit an important free throw at her high school basketball tournament even though she had a stress fracture.

Second, we should have stuck to the press release stuff like how she opposed the Bridge to Nowhere (after she supported it).

Third, we should never have strayed into the other stuff. Like when The Washington Post recently wrote: “Palin is under investigation by a bipartisan state legislative body. … Palin had promised to cooperate with the legislative inquiry, but this week she hired a lawyer to fight to move the case to the jurisdiction of the state personnel board, which Palin appoints.”

Why go there? What trees does that plant?

Fourth, we should stop making with all the questions already. She gave a really good speech. And why go beyond that? As we all know, speeches cannot be written by others and rehearsed for days. They are true windows to the soul.

Unless they are delivered by Barack Obama, that is. In which case, as Palin said Wednesday, speeches are just a “cloud of rhetoric.”

Fifth, we should stop reporting on the families of the candidates. Unless the candidates want us to.

Sarah Palin wanted the media to report on her teenage son, Track, who enlisted in the Army on Sept. 11, 2007, and soon will deploy to Iraq.

Sarah Palin did not want the media to report on her teenage daughter, Bristol, who is pregnant and unmarried.

Sarah Palin thinks that one is good for her campaign and one is not, and that the media should report only on what is good for her campaign. That is our job, and that is our duty. If that is not actually in the Constitution, it should be. (And someday may be.)

The official theme of the convention’s third day was “prosperity,” but the unofficial theme was “the media are really, really awful.”

Even Mike Huckabee, who campaigned for president this year by saying “I am a conservative, but I am not mad at anybody,” discovered Wednesday night that he is mad at somebody.

“I’d like to thank the elite media for doing something,” Huckabee said, “that, quite frankly, I didn’t think could be done: unify the Republican party and all of America in support of John McCain and Sarah Palin.”

And could that be the real point of the attacks on the media? To unify the Republican Party?

No, that is simply the cynical, media view.

Though as Lily Tomlin says, “No matter how cynical I get, it’s just never enough to keep up.”

I couldn’t resist that. For which I am sorry.

Who's up for some irony?

By Paul Kane (Washington Post)
ST. PAUL -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee who revealed Monday that her 17-year-old daughter is pregnant, earlier this year used her line-item veto to slash funding for a state program benefiting teen mothers in need of a place to live.

After the legislature passed a spending bill in April, Palin went through the measure reducing and eliminating funds for programs she opposed. Inking her initials on the legislation -- "SP" -- Palin reduced funding for Covenant House Alaska by more than 20 percent, cutting funds from $5 million to $3.9 million. Covenant House is a mix of programs and shelters for troubled youths, including Passage House, which is a transitional home for teenage mothers.

According to Passage House's web site, its purpose is to provide "young mothers a place to live with their babies for up to eighteen months while they gain the necessary skills and resources to change their lives" and help teen moms "become productive, successful, independent adults who create and provide a stable environment for themselves and their families."

Palin's own daughter, Bristol, is five months pregnant and has plans to wed.

"Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realize very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family," Palin said in a statement released by the McCain campaign. "We ask the media to respect our daughter and Levi's privacy, as has always been the tradition of children of candidates."

Earlier today the Associated Press reported that Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, opposed funding to prevent teen pregnancies, a position that Palin also took as governor. "The explicit sex-ed programs will not find my support," she wrote in a 2006 questionnaire distributed among gubernatorial candidates.

Reporters asked McCain in November 2007 whether he supported grants for sex education in the United States, whether such programs should include directions for using contraceptives and whether he supports President Bush's policy of promoting abstinence.

"Ahhh, I think I support the president's policy," McCain said.

Obama Convention Video

Overcome With Emotion; Or, I Got Something in My Eye

It has been a while since I cried. In fact, I can't remember the last time... But yesterday something happened.

I came home from work and immediately took Leia outside for her afternoon/evening walk. Then we came back in. So far, it was a usual weekday.

Typically, we leave the TV audio on during the day for the dog. And Leia especially likes to listen to CNN.

As you know, the Democratic National Convention is going on this week. CNN is covering it. Last night, I sat down to watch the roll call of all states, districts, and territories. For a few seconds, each state gets to represent itself as it submits its delegate votes for presidential nominee.

The roll went on for about thirty minutes until it reached New Mexico. New Mexico yielded its vote to Illinois, who had passed on its vote earlier in the roll call (I have no idea what any of this means).

Illinois, represented by Chicago's Mayor Daley, after first proclaiming Illinois to be the home of the 2008 World Series between the Chicago White Sox and Chicago Cubs, then yielded to the state of New York.

At this point, the hall was chaotic. There were people everywhere yelling and screaming and pushing and shoving. Then it became apparent that there was a small group of people trying to make their way from the back of the hall to the area where New York was positioned.

Eventually, Hillary Clinton appeared out of the mass of humanity and moved to suspend the rules of the convention and halt the roll call thereby nominating Obama by acclimation.

The hall went nuts.

Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, recognized the motion by Clinton and asked if anyone seconded the motion... and every hand went up with the sound of a thousand people yelling the same thing: "I second the motion!"

I hadn't realized what I was witnessing until I saw images of grown men standing in that hall with tears streaming down their faces. It was official. Our country, our Democrats, nominated an African-American man to run for president.

Regardless of what you think of his policies, it was difficult not to realize we had just been a witness to a truly historic event. I am more full of hope for our country now than I have ever been.

Stories of P

There I was sitting in the bathroom stall eating my lunch (don't ask) when all of a sudden a man (hopefully) burst into the bathroom and not 1.5 seconds later let loose a pony keg of urine so forceful I thought I'd certainly feel some splash-back twenty feet away from behind the stall wall. I mean, this guy must've been unbuttoning his pants halfway down the hall as he was walking (running?) toward the bathroom. That, or he's wearing sweatpants today. Because, you know, with sweatpants you can just pull 'em down in front and access to the wang is less than 1.5 seconds away. We're probably talking about hundredths of a second between deciding to whip out the wang and the wang seeing light of day.

But I reckon this guy isn't wearing sweatpants. Which means A. His pants were unzipped and hanging off his hips before he walked in, and B. He really, really, really had to go. Hence the fire hose strength stream he unleashed.

On a side note, what's up with those power streams? Is there a pelvic muscle I'm not exercising? Am I less of a man if the strength of my stream rivals that of a little girl spitting milk out of a straw?

Oh, and the dude didn't wash his hands either. He didn't even fake it by turning on the water for a few seconds to give me, the guy in the stall, the illusion that fellow coworkers/toilet users aren't disgusting slobs. So as far as I'm concerned, there's pee all over the fax machine and conference table.

One more thing: I didn't eat lunch in the bathroom. I lied. Because lies make stories better. Face it, we'd all be much more entertained if we all lied to each other.

Christianity Explained... Finally

Regret

(Every Star Wars fan just chuckled.)

Monday Versus Terrible Malfunctioning Giant Robots

Things I did over the weekend:

1. Helped Lynette find a sewing machine.
2. Read comic books.
3. Took Leia to the park.
4. Made baked ziti.
5. Watched the Olympics.
6. Wore clothes.
7. Ate food.
8. Stood up and sat down several times.

We journeyed throughout northern Virginia this weekend to find the perfect sewing machine for Lynette. We found one. You can read about it on her blog (when she updates it). We also hit a couple fabric stores. She's got lots of projects in the works.

Also, I watched the Olympic closing ceremony last night and realized that I will truly miss it. I was enjoying the games. And Beijing did a wonderful job (regardless of what you think about their politics). I applaud China.

Edna St. Vincent Millay; Or, Cannonball!

This photo of Edna St. Vincent Millay was in the Post last week accompanying a great article about her estate. She prided herself on her garden which contained this swimming pool. The pool was hidden by various trees and overgrowth. Apparently, the poet and her liberal friends often frolicked naked here. I just can't get over the beauty of this photograph.

Things I Might Be Doing This Weekend

1. Reading comic books.
2. Walking Leia.
3. Eating and sleeping.
4.
5.
6.

(In other words, nothing.)

Astonishing.

Star Wars Invades San Francisco

Amazing. Simply Amazing.

Happy Friday, Everybody!

Gotta love the F days. Who doesn't love Fridays? If you don't love Fridays you can burn in Hell. Just kidding. Maybe you like Saturdays more. Whatever, Trevor.

Here's a list of neat things:

1. Comic books (Duh, haven't you been reading my blog?)
2. Girls competing for gold medals in bikinis.
3. Willie's Place on XM13
4. Yellow legal pads.
5. Vicky Christina Barcelona got great reviews. I might want to see it.
6. Taco kits (Just add meat!)
7.

How to Run a Business

Having no business education or experience of my own, I feel like I know a little something about running one. That's a joke, yes, but as a CONSUMER I know exactly what will get me to come back to a certain store.

(BTW, I kind of do know a little something about business - or rather keeping customers happy - because I was taught by the greatest businessman I have ever known: Steve Grechis, owner of The Huntley Dairy Mart, a small burger/ice cream joint I worked at when I was a teenager.)

Last night Lynette and I went to Nova Comics, our local comic book shop. (No, I didn't drag her there - she is showing an interest.) And the moment I walked in, Dave (shop worker and scarily knowledgeable comic book man) greeted me by name and handed me the comic books I had gone in there to get. The place was busy, too, because it was Wednesday, new comics day. And yet the guy still took the time to pull my name out of his head and retrieve the comic books I had ordered BEFORE I even reached the register.

THAT'S how you run a business. THAT'S how you get me to come back. Often. Treatment like that makes me want to go back for no reason. It makes me want to go there and buy something I don't want just to give the place more money. None of this closed on Sundays shit (RE: America Runs on Dunkin, July 21st post).

Another thing: customer service. Before I decided to jump back into the world of comics, I expected to deal with the elitist snobbery that one usually encounters at a comic book shop. But these guys at Nova Comics, they're friendly and helpful and generally enthusiastic about helping me spend my money at their establishment. I mean, duh, it's a no-brainer - it's about making money. Their goal is to make money.

And my money they shall have.

Supergirl

I recently made the decision to get back into comics. But this time I might not be alone.

Lynette has shown some interest in reading comic books. Especially, after picking up a new comic book titled Spiderman Loves Mary Jane, which is geared toward a young female reader. (For the record, it's a very good comic... men dig it, too.)

Yesterday, I was explaining to Lynette that I would need to make a trip to my local comic shop for new comics. Wednesday is the day new comics come out. And Lynette said she was excited to pick up the new Spiderman Loves Mary Jane. But I broke her heart a little when I explained that comics are only published monthly. Her new favorite comic just came out last week. She'll have to wait until the first week of September for issue #2.

Then she said something that made me realize that she might be hooked: "I'll have to get into a few more comics so that I have something to read while I wait."

Exactly.

And that's what reading/collecting comic books is all about. Filling up our time reading comics while we wait for more comics.

It's an addiction really. In the early 90s, I was heavily into comics. I couldn't stop. I needed more and more. But then I left home for Yellowstone National Park where there are no comic shops. I stopped cold turkey.

So today I'm going to a couple comic shops. I found one downtown where I work called Big Monkey Comics. It's a fifteen minute walk and it's a beautiful day. Then later tonight, Nova Comics, where I'll help Lynette get into a new title (or four). Maybe she'll enjoy X-men or Hellboy or even Superman.

Heck, it's no different than watching your favorite TV show. And Lynette loved Heroes on NBC.

Pretty soon we'll each have our own long box.

Spore!

It's coming! Less than a month away! From the creator of The Sims and SimCity, Spore is going to suck away many, many hours.