Interesting things from today....

The first 2 minutes of this
A nice story about Mrs Palin's buddies in florida
and a nice story sliding under the radar that, if it continues, will see all american troops OUT of Iraq by Jan 1

elseways i'm hot and tired from standing around in a parking lot watching people drink beer - ahhh, the joys of labor day weekend...

EDIT: those stories weren't happy enough - so here are a couple more about children
Teaching life lessons to your children
Innovative problem solving techniques
Making time for yourself

we live in a sick sick world...

Palin.... an interesting choice...
it has a chance of working - it'll certainly attract the FSM crowd

Obama's Speech



Well, it wasn't bad. If I weren't approaching his candidacy with an air of cynicism it might have been inspiring... but from my vantage a great deal of it was crap i've heard from him before, crap that i dont believe he'll deliver on, and silly platitudes (like equal pay for equal work) that have been around longer than i've been voting. Al Gore gave a better speech - and it wasn't until the end when he started to hit the echo of MLK that he REALLY hit his stride (but somehow his cadence lost the crowd - it took them 30 seconds to rev up to him and by then he was done).

A week of democrats in denver... a week of the Clintons sitting regally in their box looking down disdainfully on all the little people who'd come not to praise them but to annoint another (i watched camera footage of them exclusively during Biden's speech)...

You see... we have come to a time when the strongest nation on earth – a nation of unbelievable military might, of never before achieved economic prosperity, of freedom and privilege so pronounced the very name of the nation was synonymous… we have come to a time when that nation lives in fear from a tiny minority of religious zealots who live in caves and third world hardscrabble mountain villages. It could have been different. If George Bush had stood upon the wreckage, had come on the television after the felling of the two towers and said ‘we are a strong nation – strong enough that we will not live in fear of what some bigoted and backwards barbarian might thrust upon us… we are, by and large, a Christian nation and today we mourn not just those 5000 dead in the attack, but that there are those in this world who would commit such a horrible act against people working in an office building, with families and hopes and dreams, people of every race and every faith… we mourn the deaths of everyone in that tragic act - even of the terrorists as well. We will seek justice. We will find those that perpetrated this act – and we may well serve justice upon them – but in my faith as a Christian man I know that vengeance is best left to the creator.’ IF he had been strong – strong enough to TAKE it and not lash out – not see it as an opportunity to do evil things under the cover of fear – then he would have been the greatest president we’d ever elected.

But he wasn’t.

He was a self-centered weakling… the wimpy son of a wimp… snippy and short tempered his actions did more harm to this country than any thousand kamikaze 767s could have hoped to accomplish. Since that day I've hoped we'd find someone who'd stand up and take on the fearmongers... someone who'd say 'America - sleep soundly at night - there are no goblins under your beds' - because, we, as a nation, seem incapable of discerning this fact for ourselves. But Wednesday night Joe Biden went off on how there were terrorists lurking in Afghanistan - rebuilding - aiming to strike at us... and 3 months ago Barack Obama stood tall and voted for cloture on a filibuster of a bill indemnifying those who illegally monitor and listen in on our correspondences. These are not the droids i am looking for...

John McCain is worse - by far. I'll not argue that in the least... but I am sick and fucking tired of voting for 'less bad' candidates. A Democratic sweep of the halls of government will not result in a panacea of good government. More likely - it would result in the same corporatist masters simply changing the 'to' field in their check disbursements. So no, I'm not buying Obama's 'I'm different' bullshit. And though unlike Mrs Clinton I will not be happier with a McCain victory in November, I do not go into this election season with hope. Instead, I'll be participating in my own distraction while the rest of you busy yourselves with choosing which asshole will captain the ship of state on it's now inevitable decline down the toilet.

Here on the anniversary of MLKs 'I have a dream' speech we have a historic moment - a black man giving a speech accepting the nomination of his party at a major convention...



It's good to see CBS has it's priorities in order - pre-season football is, afterall, much more important in the long run.

Denver...
A place where the democrats can show how they're different.

Ask that code-pink protester, or the ABC News reporter who went to jail for taking pictures, or Joe Biden and his 'we will hold Russia accountable for Georgia and we need to send MOAR troops to Afghanistan' (excuse me while i use the bathroom to retch - i need to hurry before someone spews 'god bless america' again and i'm not allowed.)

If the DNC isnt enough to make you give up on america...

One giant absurd public circus has ended in Beijing - with a 2 hour almost comically over the top extravaganza... only to be replaced by another in Denver.


Yes - that's right - get out your blockbuster card and turn off the news because all you're going to hear the next 4 days is platitudes and lies (dont get me wrong, Sept 1-4 will be worse). What makes this absurd is 'who the hell is undecided at this point' - i mean really. If you're going to vote for Obama, does the fact that Joe Biden wants to spend a billion dollars going after P2P filesharing networks really change your mind? I mean - Obama pretty much has to pull a Sheriff Bart and McCain has to be caught banging Paris Hilton to change any minds on this one at this point.

I'm not saying that a week's delay of America's Biggest Loser is really a travesty... I'm just saying that listening to these horrible people spout off for hours on how much better they are than that other group of horrible people is something I can do without.

I was pretty disappointed by the DNC opening ceremony... no torch lighting, the only acrobatics coming from the DNC folks attending the AT&T party, and there's no tower of hairy granola chicks in the middle of the convention center floor singing kumbayah. I know the Chinese really set the bar pretty high for these circuses - but not to try? sad...

So around the time Bill Clinton took office, a navy veteran decided that he needed some supplies. He appropriated some material from work - put it into a padlocked suitcase - where it sat for 15 years waiting for, well, something... some trigger that only he was aware of.

The rusted, padlocked suitcase sat alongside a porcelain coffee service set, decorative enamel-finished eggs and a vintage gas-powered model of the 1965 Chaparral II race car prototype. Auctioneers got the suitcase open just before the sale on Saturday and found three blocks of military-grade C-4 plastic explosive, two tubes of a similar plastic explosive, a blasting cap and some dynamite.

Now... he was ex-navy, so i'm sure law enforcement will just gloss over it... point out that the man is dead so what's the point of worrying about it...

Which leaves me with just one question... how would we be reacting right now if his name had been Mohammed... and should we start questioning all ex-navy people to find out if they also have suitcases of explosives under their beds (in any of their 8 houses).

Remember England... if you outlaw Bat'leths then only the Klingons will have them. Be sure to get yours now before it's too late.

Heghjaj Harbe'wI'pu'
Qapla' batlh je

I gotta say... Obama coulda done a lot worse than this one. Biden isn't a 'regional target' pick - which might hurt depending on what McCain does - but there's a gravitas to this one that doesn't suck. Of course, that wasn't the big news yesterday.

---

In other news how about that story out of the bronze medal match in taekwondo.



Gotta say - it almost makes you wanna be a ref...


in Rhythmic Gymnastics...

So CNN ran a huge front page story on the Chinese Gymnasts and whether they're underage. This is bullshit. To call a spade a spade - it's racism - nothing more. So there's some website somewhere with different information on it - well - this is a website - and according to it the IRS owes me $100,000,000 by next thursday. I'll take it in Euros please, since the dollar really is a hunk of shit.

Do you see the US out there complaining about the Japanese girls who're just as small? or the Koreans? The reality is that asian girls are SMALL compared to american girls - and not just in the frame sense - i only remember seeing ONE overweight person in china while i was there. The IOC went through a thorough vetting process before the games... and in the end Americans are just being very very very poor losers in this whole scenario. If I were the parent of one of these kids i'd be irate.

Look at how the freepers reacted to that son of an illegal immigrant who won gold in wrestling(he was small too btw) - it was very 'you dont belong here' and 'why isnt he waving a mexican flag instead'. It wasn't about the accomplishment of an individual to be the best in the world at his sport, a person who came to and loved his adopted homeland - no - it was 'he's not white - he should go home'

The reality, as CNN knows - which is why they run a story like this on the front page and why NBC keeps harping on it - is that there are a LOT of white Americans who are racists. Not a few. A LOT. A WHOLE LOT. A lot more than anyone wants you to believe. They may hide it when given cover - but the truth is still there under the surface. This - more than anything else - is why Obama is going to lose. If he isnt up by 10 or 15 pts on election day then it's over.

Continuing in my long line of olympic snapshots is this from the Japanese team in the Rhythmic Gymnastics competition...


They may not win a medal from the judges, but they sure get one from me.

I've posted a lot of pictures from the olympics... and though Danny's shot of the olympic stadium is better than anything i'd have shot, i think NBC wins the gold in this event.

Ahhh Kuma-chan... i gather your seal of approval is on every package of these. I mean - i can only imagine a disney executive wondering if there's a market for '8's too late' training bras....

My favorite olympic sport was on last night...
it's been on most nights this week and i've taken to falling asleep with it running (i dont think i know any race results at all to be honest). The Olympic sailing competition out of NBC's online environment is just spectacular. No announcers... no one telling you about America's Sweetheart or questioning the age of the people on the boats or showing highlights of announcers doing Dick Vitale impersonations (because, afterall, the newscasters have to be the news in this day and age)

So what happens when there's no wind? Well, they show flags... and the boardwalk... and the spectators... So with that in mind, I give you Olympic Sailing - day 6 highlights. Sorry i missed the race again...

I give the president shit all the time - and his antics at the olympics are no different. John Stewart said it well monday - saying he's 'adorable, he shouldn't be president, he should be our mascot' - and that pretty much sums it up. The republicans chose a guy in a furry costume to be their leader - and the rest of the nation followed along.


That said - this is way up the list when it comes to pictures of the president - not for the president himself... he's just being the same loveable goofball moron he's always been... but look at the 2 women in his life... to his right, Laura with the 'there he goes telling that fishing story again - that's why i married him'... to his left Barbara with the 'there he goes telling that fishing story again - god help me'

One for Simon...

Timothy Shriver, chairman of the Special Olympics, admits to NPR that he actually didn't see "Tropic Thunder." But he's calling for a boycott of the Ben Stiller film — the one he hasn't seen — because its use of the word "retard" causes "suffering, injustice and exclusion."

Timothy Shriver - you're a retard.
It's a movie.
Get over it.

Arkansas Pride

The Olympics has begun.
If you missed that opening ceremony - well - you're a tard. Freaking spectacular. The NBC coverage blew goats - with all the idiot explaination crap, but then, Americans are morons and they need a pablumified version.
It's midnight - and i've got the NBC Olympics site up in Firefox - but no matter what i do the feed dies within a minute and fails to rebuffer... i dont know what kind of morons they hire at NBC to set these things up (oh yeah... they're americans...) but someone should be fired. It's absolute shit. How is it that a company can blow 3.5 billion dollars securing the rights to this event - push the online aspect hard in their tv coverage - fill the page up with GE ads that ironically talk up GE's 'cool technology' - and then fail so miserably in the execution. I'd click to reengage the feed - but every 4 or 5 times i do that the thing insists on showing me yet another crappy ad telling me how great GE is (it's day one and it's already annoying).

Funny - the ad never fails to buffer... I hope they fix this - because honestly it's the best way to watch the olympics. No announcers... no commentary... no human interest stories... just sailboats or fencers or cyclists racing through beijing with the soft whupping blades of the chase copter. The visionaries at NBC get it - but guys, when you're buying streaming video software you dont deploy a BETA software from Microsoft for your Olympics... this silverlight shit stinks worse than a Baghdad morgue in August. And I ask - when did microsoft ship a product that worked as a RELEASE CANDIDATE, much less a freaking beta. You want to stream video - call the porn industry. QED.

EDIT - use IE instead of Firefox... in IE you have the option to use flash video instead and it works. That's for those of us who're at home watching... for those in Beijing for the events I'm sure they're all enjoying themselves immensely.

"Of course. I mean, for a lot of Americans -- including the family that I grew up with, I mean, it's fundamental to how you judge people and human character -- whether you keep your word, whether you keep what is your ultimate word, which is that you love your spouse, and you'll stay with them. ... I think the most important qualities in a president in today's world are trustworthiness -- sincerity, honesty, strength of leadership. And -- and certainly that goes to a part of that."
-- Edwards to CBS News anchor Katie Couric's question on infidelity last fall

"It is inadequate to say to the people who believed in me that I am sorry, as it is inadequate to say to the people who love me that I am sorry. In the course of several campaigns, I started to believe that I was special and became increasingly egocentric and narcissistic. If you want to beat me up feel free. You cannot beat me up more than I have already beaten up myself."
-- Edwards today

I can't beat you up? Ok.. let's see... You cheated on your cancer-ridden wife with a woman who, once she started taking the high hard one from you, was given $100,000 in a four-month span to direct the production of four Web videos showing you in a public speech talking about morality. You are everything that is wrong with politics in America - and just because I could tell you were a slick shitbag years ago when your only job in the 2004 campaign was to make sure Wes Clark lost (for which you were rewarded - but apparently you needed moar blowjobs than John Kerry was willing to give you). When I saw the interview after it was announced your wife's cancer had returned - and the both of you sat there and said you would continue your campaign 'because it's what she wants me to do' (sidenote: both of you were aware of the infidelity at that point) - i was appalled by the unabashedly egocentric decision making process... have we not had enough 'it's all about me' in the whitehouse these last 16 years? You, John, didn't think so... so you ran - and you couldn't win - but you stayed in... because it made you feel more special. Well the next time you want to feel special instead of cheating on your tumor-laden wife, how about you just beat the shit out of some autistic kids. People like you are why people like me dont vote. Die in a fire. I swear - maybe all men who want to take the role of president should be neutered - like post-yam Pak Protectors...

Spectacular opening ceremony by the Chinese at the Olympics...
NBC has the coverage locked up and, no doubt, filled with human interest stories about hot young American gymnasts (not that I have a problem with that, but it brings up painful memories of weeks of my life listening to a friend and his obsession with Mary Lou Retton's feet). So if you want olympic coverage online try JustinTV.

I'd link to another carmelldansen video for this but, well, i think i've found my candidate.

Things I Learnt on my Summer Vacation (in no particular order)
or how I managed to stop worrying and love the bomb

1) just because a website is called foreverakid doesnt make it safe for work
2) there ought to be limits to freedom - particularly involving sexual gratification derived from diapers (related to #1 in case you didnt know)
3) according to some, southern california has a lot of whores
4) movie studios have a lot of morons in positions of authority
5) movie studios are saved by the very bright people that lurk in the shadows of authority
6) Maid Cafes should not have surly maids - it defeats the purpose
7) When the kind voice in the GPS tells you you'll make it across LA on a Friday afternoon in 45 minutes, it's lying to you
8) I can cook better than anything i ate in any restaurant (though i doubt i'd do better than Nadine's delivery of Alaskan King Crab)
9) 'Lost? Try Hare Krisha' is an effective humor vehicle in a musical
10) Too many people from too many walks of life are afraid of what's coming re the economy... for good reason

ps - annoying people with the ultimate Sanrio quest is unbelievably fun

i dont get out on holiday all that often - so getting out to Laguna was a nice change of pace. Saw a lot of people I hadn't seen in too long - met some others who seem like the sort worth blowing lots of time getting to know better.

Typical vacation though... you come back tired....


(@ a great breakfast at Cliff's Edge in Silverlake via Jake's phone - can you tell who slept on a couch?)