I'm a part of the cult of fans for the musical Chess, originally a concept album...

...with music written by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus (lyrics by Tim Rice) who were the songwriting half of Abba.

This is "Endgame," from that original score.

22 years after first hearing, it still makes me tear; the hairs on my arms stand up.

How can you be anything but lowdown saggy and blue?

Here's another scene from the Williams Raggedy Ann & Andy. Corey Klemow sent me a DVD for my birthday. Watching the whole movie again for the first time since I was little...it hasn't aged all that well.

But it does have a sweet moment or two. Like this one featuring character animation by Art Babbitt, a name known to all lovers of animation.



When I was little I felt sorry for the blue camel, now I identify with him.

lindsey buckingham's "Go Insane," as performed on the Fleetwood Mac "Dance" tour.

a totally frivolous opinion

Teri Hatcher is one of those women who looks better in soft focus and from far away.

Well, I see the writing on the ol' wall. It's time to check myself into the funny farm (Edited w/addition)

John McCain was finally asked some hard questions on television.

It was on "The View."

I suppose you gotta give the (now) anti-choice senator credit for going into the lions' den...but then again, no, you don't. You really don't.

PS: Remember when I was pissed at McCain for making me think something Paris Hilton did was (deliberately) funny? Now Sarah Palin's making Pamela Anderson look like a genius.

ETA: I agree with just about every word of this opinion piece published in The Nation (unsigned, but presumably written by the editor or editors)

An awesome night for gay (and gay-friendly) geeks

Former Star Trek cast member George Takei will wed his longtime partner, Brad Altman, Sunday evening.

The wedding party includes two of Takei's former Star Trek castmates – best man Walter Koenig, who played Chekov on the series, and Nichelle Nichols, who played Uhura. (Takei played Mr. Sulu.)

Watch this clip.

Not because it's a Republican boob lying about the money for the "Bridge to nowhere." At this point, that doesn't really shock any of us. Not even because he gets called on it (although Norah O'Donnell, I think I love you).

Watch it because of the way that the truth just bounces right off him. He hardly even blinks.

George Carlin, may he rest in peace, used to talk about people who had "Kind of a neutral zone around their heads"...

and a well-thought-out, wise plan at that

The Obama campaign seems to be stepping up their attacks on McCain--slowly but surely, almost as if they had a plan. Please god, let 'em have a plan. One example is this statement by Obama spokesperson Bill Burton (via TPM Election Central):

"We will take no lectures from John McCain who is cynically running the sleaziest and least honorable campaign in modern Presidential campaign history. His discredited ads with disgusting lies are running all over the country today. He runs a campaign not worthy of the office he is seeking."

Another is this ad, which I kinda like.

The rollin' Coasters

I feel the need for something out of left field. I mean, I don't know about you, but I'm thinking all I'm saying about politics and stuff needs to be leavened with a little pure entertainment. Now. It is well known that I "Just Can't Get Enough" of New Wave Hits of the '80s.

But did you know that I also have a love for '50s and '60s recording artists The Coasters?

This is their 1958 single, "Sorry But I'm Gonna Have To Pass."



According to the liner notes of the compilation I have, this song was originally written for Johnny Cash (or at least, with Cash in mind as a model). You can totally hear it.

Ok, McCain's right about something--listen to what Joe Biden said...

Clearly I think John McCain and Sarah Palin's accusations against Barack Obama and Joe Biden are (among other things) hugely unethical. However, in the spirit of even broken clocks being right twice a day, and considering myself a fair-minded man, it falls upon me to acknowledge things that I think they get right.

Look at this statement that Joe Biden made yesterday.

"I have had a strong and a long relationship on national security...I understand the issues, I understand and appreciate the enormity of the challenge we face from radical Islamic extremism," the Senator declared. "I am prepared. I am prepared. I need no on-the-job training. I wasn't a mayor for a short period of time. I wasn't a governor for a short period of time."

This statement is clearly disrespectful, unpatriotic, and sexist. Just because Biden served on the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee for three decades, becoming chairman this January, he thinks he is more on top of the issues than Palin. He is--if you will forgive the vernacular--trying to wave his great, big dick in her face.

And--

Ok, yes, I'm setting you up.

No, Joe Biden did not say that.

But it was said.

By whom? Well, that's a funny story.

By John McCain. When he was running against a mayor (Giuliani) and governor (Romney).

I hope they're right

From an editorial headlined "Campaign of lies [Hey, they used the L word!--BV] disgraces McCain," in the St. Pertersburg Times:

McCain's straight talk has become a toxic mix of lies and double-speak. It is leaving a permanent stain on his reputation for integrity, and it is a short-term strategy that eventually will backfire with the very types of independent-thinking voters that were so attracted to him.

Black is white. Night is day.

Via Americablog, this is from an email that is apparently making the rounds. It's the kind of thing that should be "viral'd."

Let me see if I have this straight.....

* If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you're "exotic, different."

* Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers, a quintessential American story.

* If your name is Barack you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.

* Name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you're a maverick.

* Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.

* Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you're well grounded.

* If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.

* If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you're qualified to become the country's second highest ranking executive.

* If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian.

* If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a Christian.

* If you teach children about sexual predators, you are irresponsible and eroding the fiber of society.

* If, while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state's school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you're very responsible.

* If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America’s.

* If your husband is nicknamed "First Dude", with at least one DWI conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that hates America and advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.

OK, much clearer now.

Leave "skirt facts" to Coco Chanel, John McCain tells lies

Ok. I should be writing my daily entry over at my other blog right now. But once again, something in my iGoogle Most Popular Yahoo! news box has caught my eye. It is this:

Analysis: McCain's claims skirt facts, test voters

McCain's persistence in pushing dubious claims is all the more notable because many political insiders consider him one of the greatest living victims of underhanded campaigning. Locked in a tight race with George W. Bush for the Republican presidential nomination in 2000, McCain was rocked in South Carolina by a whisper campaign claiming he had fathered an illegitimate black child and was mentally unstable.

As glad as I am that this news is getting out there...you know what really tests voters (especially this one)? The number of excuses which the press--Associated and otherwise--can come up because they're skittish about saying a plain, simple truth.

John McCain tells lies. He doesn't "stretch the truth." He doesn't make "dubious claims."

He tells lies.

(I know this isn't the first time I've vented about this, and I'm not the first or only person to do it either. But I wanted to get it out.)

On the other hand, some show people can write about politics quite artfully.

Paul Reiser, for example.

This is work by a photographer named Michelle Sank

I saw it at this blog.


From Young Carers.


From Tidal.


From Celestial Echoes.

I think what I like about her work is the reality.

Oh yes, I'd been wondering about this.

In her recent ABC News interview, Sarah Palin was asked if she'd ever met a head of state. She replied that she had not, but that she reckoned most of the other VP candidates in living memory hadn't before they got the job, either.

I suppose I can't say I'm surprised that she is (again) totally full of shit...

Based on their pre-veep resumes, only Agnew jumps out as a possible candidate for Palin-level isolation.

I admit it, I like posting Agnew and Palin's names close together. But it's true:

every veep in the last 32 years has met a head of state before taking office.

Not only sexy actress-models, they're sexy actress-(role)models!

This is just cool:



Gisele Bundchen wearing nothing but water and sandals to promote (it says here) the preservation of fresh water in Brazil. There's 14 more supermodel types using their powers for good at that link, BTW.

Meanwhile, Sophie Monk goes for a bike-ride.



Ah, the benefits of exercise.

Observation

Sarah Palin has been to exactly one more foreign country than I have--and I've only been to one. And that was Canada, which is one of the two she's been to as well, and is as close to north America as makes no odds. The other? Mexico.

A scene from "The West Wing: The Movie."

Ok, really it's The American President, the movie which started my devotion to Aaron Sorkin's writing. Going along with my found theme today of fantasizing about what it would be like to have a smart president.



One thing: The bit at the end about guns stands out to me as out-of-place, somehow. Not because I don't agree with the position, I do. But because, well, I think I have a pretty good ear for Sorkin dialogue (it warms my heart) and that doesn't sound like him.

For me it's like listening to a Beatles song and suddenly Ringo Starr takes over for John Lennon. I don't know this for a fact, but it wouldn't surprise me to hear that section of the speech was dropped in by director Rob Reiner or maybe Michael Douglas.

PS: For a West Wing fan, the weirdest thing is having Martin Sheen standing at the back of the room...

PPS (ETA): This editorial from WaPo seems to go well with that speech. It begins:

IT'S HARD to think of a presidential campaign with a wider chasm between the seriousness of the issues confronting the country and the triviality, so far anyway, of the political discourse.

Why I can't support McCain, #232 in a series

He doesn't think children should be protected from sexual predators.

I approve this message

A blessing, and why I don't give up

One: God bless Halle Berry's child.


Here's a question...would it be more racist or sexist of me to make a "chocolate milk" joke? I'm gonna say sexist, but whada you think?

Two: See? See? This is why I don't give up on Tara Reid.

Sure, she's had some scary taste in men (Carson Daly?). Yes, she bumbled her career, and though I don't think she was always a ditz, she may have snorted her brains out. But just when I'm ready to give up on her...I see pictures that remind me what a cute little hottie she is.





(Both as seen at Celebslam)

Ahem.

There's something in this about all women.



To coin a phrase.






# 19

Is it me?

Or does this dress look like it's made out of black crepe paper and streamers?

Y'know, sometimes my conscience kinda bothers me. Like when I called Sarah Palin "dumb, malicious, unpleasant and selfish."

Obviously I think she's such an irresponsible choice for VP as should cause panic, mostly because she's such a fucking lightweight. But really, did I have to say that?

As I say, sometimes my conscience kinda bothers me.

But not this time.

Sarah Palin (and her family) had to be warned by a court judge--repeatedly--to stop speaking poorly of her sister's ex in front of their children. Reportedly the attacks were so disturbing they threatened to affect Palin's sister's custody rights; the judge proclaimed them "A form of child abuse."

Now: Obviously I don't know the details of Palin's sister's marriage, nor do I care to. I'm not interested in painting the ex-husband as a hero. However: He is the state trooper Palin tried to strike at after she became governor, firing another man when he wouldn't help her do so. (Allegedly)

But what does it tell us if Palin was willing to ignore a court's warning and use the power of her office for spite? Well I don't know about you, but that sure settles it for me:

This is exactly who I want having their "finger on the button".

She also likes quoting a writer who said he wished an assassination attempt on FDR had been successful, and that Bobby Kennedy would be assassinated (before he was).

Nice.

And when I say nice, I mean dumb, malicious, unpleasant and selfish.

You say that as though it were a bad thing

A new McCain ad says Obama is a wolf.

I must be listening to my "better angels."

Because I can't even enjoy this.

Anne Hathaway's ex-boyfriend--heretofore known as the unworthy swine--is going to prison.

Art

1. I know, but aren't they all?

2. If I didn't know better, I'd say there was something phallic about that...


3. I have nothing funny to say about this...


...it just makes me "happy."

If I've said it once, I've said it a dozen times

Alec Baldwin is in the top five (at least) of those who prove an old adage that I made up:

Actors...shouldn't...talk. He just has an absolute gift for saying the most astonishingly stupid things. As you might have guessed, I have a recent example.

This time he's not hauling the dirty laundry of his former marriage before the public, nor is he proving again that as a political spokesman, he makes a great host for Saturday Night Live.

Baldwin is, however, getting into an insult match with Greg Garcia, who created the television series My Name Is Earl.

It seems that Baldwin complained in print that NBC pays more attention to Garcia's show than it does to 30 Rock, on which Baldwin stars. And maybe they do, I don't know.

But I gather that Earl gets almost nine million viewers a week. While 30 Rock -though, as they say, "respected in the industry"-suffers from the fact that outside of the industry (and critics)...virtually no one wants to watch it.

I'm not saying this means one is better than the other, personally, I don't watch either. I tried Earl and found it not for me; I can't and won't watch 30 Rock. But so far as I gather, that does appear to be the truth. So maybe that's why NBC pays Earl more attention, if in fact they do.

Following Baldwin's complaint, Greg Garcia was quoted calling Baldwin "a psychotic narcissist." (All together now: He could've just said, "actor." Boom-tish!)

Baldwin responded in turn by taking to The Huffington Post--which website I have come to like, but wish they wouldn't publish Baldwin's crap--and asking Garcia

"Why are you Scientologists always rendering these medical opinions [like calling Baldwin psychotic] you aren't qualified to give?"

And Mr. Garcia replies...

"Alec, ...I'm unable to answer your question about Scientologists because, although I respect anyone's right to their own beliefs, I am not currently nor have I ever been a Scientologist."

Hoo!

If I've said it once, I've said it a dozen times.

And one other thing....never piss off a writer.

This just in...

Women capable of being just as dumb as men.

Question: Why don't the Democrats just hire Robert Greenwald to make ads for them?

Is it because before he became a political activist, he directed Xanadu?

I mean, I understand why that would make you hesitate...

The Vagina Monologues is not one of my favorite pieces--though granted, I've only read it, I have not seen it performed.

But the author of that piece, Eve Ensler, has written an excellent article about why Sarah Palin should not be a role model--I'd say for any woman at all, but certainly not for any woman who considers herself a feminist or a liberal.

Which is more, incidentally, than Hillary has done.

Sarah Palin does not believe in evolution. I take this as a metaphor. In her world and the world of Fundamentalists nothing changes or gets better or evolves. She does not believe in global warming. The melting of the arctic, the storms that are destroying our cities, the pollution and rise of cancers, are all part of God's plan. She is fighting to take the polar bears off the endangered species list. The earth, in Palin's view, is here to be taken and plundered. The wolves and the bears are here to be shot and plundered. The oil is here to be taken and plundered. Iraq is here to be taken and plundered. As she said herself of the Iraqi war, "It was a task from God."

What the hell kind of a linkline is that?

So I click over to the Yahoo! home page, as I do several times a day, to look something up. As I also do several times a day, I glance down at the little list they have of half-a-dozen or so popular news items. This one catches my eye:

Obama tries to steal Nebraska electoral vote from McCain.

Here's the thing, though: If you click on that linkline, the item to which it leads you says not one word about "stealing." Actually, it's about the fact that Obama hopes to win one electoral vote in Nebraska, which has been going all-Republican since 1964.

Can he do it? Maybe, maybe not. But it's got nothing to do with trying to "steal" anything.

Gee, um, to coin a phrase, What Liberal Media?

ETA: I see that they've updated the linkline to

Obama tries to take Omaha's electoral vote from McCain

(Emphasis mine)

Which is better than "steal," but not by much, because "take" still implies the Omaha electoral vote rightly belongs to McCain. And it doesn't.

It's times like these I wonder which McCain/Palin Obama thinks he's running against

"I know the governor of Alaska has been saying she's change, and that's great," Obama said Saturday. "She's a skillful politician. But, you know, when you've been taking all these earmarks when it's convenient, and then suddenly you're the champion anti-earmark person, that's not change. Come on! I mean, words mean something, you can't just make stuff up."

Psst! Senator!

...Oh, but they can. Oh, but they have. Oh, but they will.

Have you even met the McCain/Palin campaign?

Monk and Bell in bikinis.

Sophie Monk wearing a leopard-print string bikini is a good thing.



Damn, Kristen Bell has a sexy ass...

Demi Moore has officially reached "What did you do?" status. Or: Meditations on the loss of face

1986:



1992:



1996:





2008:

Oh. My. God.

In Wasilla, Alaska, under Mayor Sarah Palin, if you were raped...you had to pay for your own forensic exam. Why burden the taxpayer?

Not that it really matters, but via Conservative Truths,

The highest rate of Forcible Rape in the country is found in Alaska with 81 per 100,000.

Oh, to be in Santa Cruz, now that the yoga girls are in bloom and reaching towards the sun.

Boy, I hope you saw the second-season premiere of The [Cameron] Chronicles

Because it kicked ass. One hell of a fucking payoff from last season's cliffhanger--it honestly played like the second part of the same episode. Here's a promo, then I'll be back to talk about it a little more.



(There will be no spoilers in this post. Nor is there anything that I would consider a spoiler in the articles to which I link)

It took 'em a few episodes to find their feet in the first season, but this year they're hitting the ground running.

Reportedly they have a bigger budget now, and it shows, but if you know me (or even if you've been paying attention at all), you know that's not why I'm watching it.

Josh Friedman, who adapted the James Cameron films into the TV show format, comes closer to why I watch it when he talks about how

"It's a great show for women, in terms of having so many kinds of strong women. John is just coming into his own and watching these women protect him and mother him -- how much of themselves do they lose? I was talking to Lena about this idea that Sarah is always at risk of losing herself. She is a great pillar of strength, but always struggling with her maternal side -- she almost becomes a Terminator herself. And Cameron is ...learning how to use ["traditionally feminine"] skills. She's either learning how to be be human or just getting better at portraying one."

A word: If you're not watching the show but think you may (whether because you trust my recommendation or not), find and watch the second season premiere ASAP to avoid spoilers.

You'll thank me later.





And while I'm trying to get you primed, here's a brief talk with (Terminator) Summer Glau and (John Connor) Thomas Dekker.

If you read that after watching tonight's episode, you realize that Glau drops a very cute hint about a BIG spoiler...and I won't say any more.

Steven Spielberg named in a lawsuit charging that the film Disturbia was a rip-off

...of the story that was the basis for Hitchcock's Rear Window.

Also named in the suit are

Dreamworks, its parent company Viacom Inc, and Universal Pictures, a unit of General Electric Co's NBC Universal

That the 2007 movie was a high-tech take on the 1954 classic is obvious to anyone who saw it--and probably to anyone who didn't see it but just heard the premise.

Still, I'm not sure how easy a time the plaintiffs are going to find proving an injustice has been done. For one thing, Disturbia is hardly the only movie to rip off Rear Window, in whole or in part.

For another, Spielberg has been virtually untouchable in Hollywood for at least a quarter of a century. If you think about it it's kind of scary. He never even had to testify in court after three people (including two children) were killed on the set of one of his productions.

I wish the plaintiffs luck--if only because I was openly rooting for the killer when I saw Disturbia. And I resent it for helping to make Shia LaBeouf an action hero...

Good news, Corey. Your ship has come in.

Group dangles $50K for Jews who move to Ala. town

Excuse me miss, your pants have slipped a bit

I knew we'd get here eventually.

I suppose it's time I accepted it: One of my favorite shows is a kids' program.

And I guess I always knew that, but this really says it.



With a tip o' the hat to M. Klemow.

Like him, I'd totally want these if I were 12...

Anybody else think the campaign won't exactly be trumpeting this endorsement?

Bush says Palin has experience that would allow her to serve well

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush and Vice President Cheney each say there's nothing to stop Sarah Palin from serving well in the White House.

Bush tells Fox News Channel that Palin has "had executive experience" -- and he says "that's what it takes to be a capable person" in the executive branch in Washington.

And he should know.

My heroine

Roger Ebert once observed (in his review of Halloween: H2O, of all things) that he thought Jamie Lee Curtis was one of the smartest people in Hollywood, and that he could not wait for her autobiography.

I think this is the kind of thing he was talking about.

Looks like that, thinks like this...what's not to admire?

Bush yet again feeds truth into the shredder

If you believe Bob Woodward's latest book* (via Media Matters & Eric Alterman), Bush, even while repeatedly claiming that he listened to his military advisiors...wasn't listening to his military advisiors.

He was, in fact, imposing strategies upon them that they didn't approve and in at least one case, knew nothing about 'till they saw it described on television.

And by god, let's remember:

Fake bumpersticker by Ripley at Zencabin.

*And truthfully, I totally understand if you don't. He's a sensationalistic writer, and not as good a one as his former partner, Carl Bernstein.

"24," season seven: Hopes are not high

Production is being shut down so the writers can come up with better scripts. I suppose there's a way that this could be seen as a good thing--better, at least, than just rushing into production with scripts they know aren't good.

But still, it doesn't exactly inspire confidence. And "24" needs to inspire a lot of confidence, at least if they want to get me watching again (and as we all know, that is in fact their deepest wish).

(Ever since it became clear to me--sickeningly so--that the show had become about promoting the idea that torture is a workable way of dealing with terrorists, I've found it unwatchable.)

16 08 08 10:35 am

16 08 08 10:35 am
Originally uploaded by fogjournal

Same here, this is another one that I just like.

Mulholland Drive

Mulholland Drive
Originally uploaded by EncinoMan

Nothing much to say, this one just struck me.

RFFFB (Random Fabulous Fop Flickr Blogging)

Chris was in no way insecure about the size of his penis.

Credit.

Oh my head...

One of the first "grown up" movies I ever remember seeing was Norma Rae. I would've been about seven years old, maybe eight. Maybe I didn't understand everything about it at the time (blue collar politics and whatnot). But even then I knew it was about someone doing what they felt needed to be done to help others, even if there were pressures from without.

So perhaps you can understand why it makes my head hurt just a little bit to read that Chris Matthews is describing Sarah Palin as

"a conservative version you think perhaps of some movie heroes like Norma Rae, the factory worker fed up with minimum wage, who did whatever it took, even jail time, to get the union organized." ..."[B]eing mayor of little Wasilla got her ready for some big fights, a strong female up against the odds fighting for justice. It's a familiar theme."

"A strong female up against the odds fighting for justice."

"A strong female up against the odds fighting for justice."

Let's just remember: Sarah Palin, claiming sexism, is representing the party of sexism. And counting on sexist assumptions to keep Joe Biden from being able to make her look like the dumb, malicious, unpleasant and selfish person she is.

Sarah Palin, claiming (falsely) her family is "under attack," is representing the party (indeed, one of the very men) who really do attack the families of politicians they don't like.

Sarah Palin, who took so much pork she could choke.

Sarah Palin, who supported the "bridge to nowhere" until it became a laughingstock, and now lies about it.

Sarah Palin, whose ethics are currently under investigation but has the audacity to say she's a "reformer."

Sarah Palin, who wants to be, as they say "a heartbeat away from the presidency," has no experience in foreign policy whatsoever. At a time when we're at war on two fronts. More if you count the ever indefinable "war on terror."

Sarah Palin.

"A strong female up against the odds fighting for justice."

I've seen that--they were called The Dixie Chicks.

Sarah Palin has nothing to do with that..

Ok, Corey, what's the word this week?

(Well nobody else seems to be playing...)

When Jeff Koons paints a yacht

Call me crazy (or tasteless), but I think it's rather wonderful.

How'd I miss this?

Anne Hathaway in Venice.

Picture One: Sugar and spice and all things nice...



Picture Two: "I know something you don't know."



Via PJ.

ETA: Wait, there's more:

Picture Three: What's better than Anne Hathaway looking demure and thoughtful? Anne Hathaway looking demure and thoughtful in a green dress.



Picture Four: What's better than Anne Hathaway looking demure and thoughtful in a green dress? Anne Hathaway looking like a demure and thoughtful swan in a green dress that shows off her legs.



Have I mentioned that Anne Hathaway is reason enough to believe in god?

Now this is just funny. I'd even go so far as to say it's freakin' hilarious.

What is it? It's Triumph the Comic Insult Dog taking down the RNC. Good dog!

You have got to be ratfucking kidding me.

Via Josh Marshall :

McCain campaign manager Rick Davis ...says Palin won't give any interviews until she feels "comfortable" giving one. And this morning he added that she wouldn't give any "until the point in time when she'll be treated with respect and deference."

Respect is earned. Speaking personally, I'll respect Sarah Palin when she respects a woman's right to choose (other than her daughter) and a gay person's right to marry. I suspect she'll be waiting for my respect for a long time.

As for deference, it should have no place when questioning someone who could be president of the United States. We've seen what happens when we have a press corps which "drank the kool-aid," and it ain't pretty. Actually we've seen it at least twice in my lifetime: Under W. Bush and Reagan.

For the record, yes, my "no deference" policy applies to Obama and Biden as much as McCain and Palin. The difference is, Obama and Biden, being big boys, seem to have no trouble stepping up and taking questions.

McCain and Palin, on the other hand...and especially Palin. As Marshall also points out:

she's such a lightweight, they can't risk letting her answer a few questions. Not even on Fox.