Thank you, Dick.

DICK CHENEY: And in three days we'll choose a new steward for the presidency and begin a new chapter in our history. It's the biggest decision that we make together as Americans. A lot turns on the outcome. I believe the right leader for this moment in history is Senator John McCain. John is a man who understands the danger facing America. He's a man who has looked into the face of evil and not flinched. He's a man who's comfortable with responsibility and has been since he joined the armed forces at the age of 17. He's earned our support and confidence, and the time is now to make him commander-in-chief. I'm delighted to support John McCain and I'm pleased that he's chosen a running mate with executive talent, toughness and common sense, our next vice president in Sarah Palin."

Update: Obama responded by saying, "I'd like to congratulate Senator McCain on this endorsement because he really earned it."

(Political Wire)

A song by Leonard Cohen

I was thinking about this song because the movie Pump Up The Volume, in which it appears (though it's not on the OST), was on television last night.

The movie's not quite as good as I thought it was then, but then I'm no longer a teenager.

This version is by a YouTuber named Holly. Here's "If It Be Your Will."

As G.B. Trudeau goes, so goes the nation

There's a tempest in a teapot brewing about Trudeau's comic strip, Doonesbury. Trudeau has already submitted his strips for next week, and they assume an Obama w--.

The teapot comes in because

newspaper editors around the country are debating whether to publish the comic no matter the results of the election.

Trudeau's got steelier nerves than I have. Even with-

polling data giv[ing] McCain a 3.7% chance...

-you are not going to see the "W" word, the "L" word" or the "V" word on this blog until this thing has been called by at least one cable and one broadcast network; maybe even PBS, and maybe not even until I see the headlines the next morning.

Superstitious? Maybe. But there is such a thing as, what?

Tempting fate, that's right.

As I say, this is seriously meaningless, but it helps kill time until election day. In that spirit, I offer you the following pieces of information, and leave it to you to put them together.

Yesterday:

In March 1995, John McCain denounced Trudeau on the floor of the Senate: “Suffice it to say that I hold Trudeau in utter contempt.” This was in response to a strip about Bob Dole’s strategy of exploiting his war record in his presidential campaign. The quotation was used on the cover of Trudeau’s book Doonesbury Nation. (McCain and Trudeau later made peace: McCain wrote the foreword to The Long Road Home, Trudeau’s collection of comic strips dealing with BD’s leg amputation during the second Iraq war.)

"How cool is that?," Trudeau commented to Nancy Shute in U.S. News & World Report. "I thought his participation would underscore the point that caring for our veterans isn't a partisan issue."

In the foreword, McCain wrote,

"Biting but never cynical, and often wickedly funny, these comic strips will make you laugh, reflect, and--in the end--understand."

Today:

From the John McCain camp, spokesman Tucker Bounds said: "We hope the strip proves to be as predictive as it is consistently lame."

lame adj...Disabled so that movement, especially walking, is difficult or impossible

Good one, Tuck.

it's not just for Usenet anymore

Godwin's law, that is.

Since October 16, numerous media figures -- among them Jerome Corsi, Ann Coulter, Mark Levin, and Bill Cunningham -- have compared Sen. Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler or the Nazis.

John Cleese on Countdown

Bad movies for Halloween

the 10 worst "horror" movies I've ever seen:

(in no particular order)

The Fly II. One of the best things about the Charles Edward Pogue/David Cronenberg Fly was that the tension was so well maintained, and Jeff Goldblum's performance was so good. By the end when the transition is complete, you're still identifying with and thinking of the fly-creature, now completely SFX, as the man he was.

Not so The Fly II. When Eric Stolz transforms, all you're thinking is "Look! A rubber marionette!"

Most people have probably forgotten that Daphne Zuniga was in this movie, as I'm sure she would like them to.



All the Halloween sequels except 4. Shoddiest ever made.



Freddy vs. Jason. You know, I don't expect most of these films not to insult my intelligence. But FvJ actually stops its plot (such as it is) cold to look dead on at the camera, explain the plot again and then say "everybody got that?"

It does, I swear it.



The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (remake). I've recently come to realize that this is one of my "goto" films for worst movie comparisons. As in, "Saw IV was the least of that series to date, but compared to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake, it's Hitchcock's Rear Window."

And speaking of the Saw films...



Hostel is everything I thought the Saw films were before I saw them: Thoughtless, poorly acted "torture-porn."


Beyond Re-Animator. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. And by mighty, I mean Jeffrey Combs, who owns this movie, but even he can't hold it up.

At least Bride of gave us the line, talking of a group of monsters: "My god! They're using tools!"

The Funhouse. This movie is just seedy. And not in a good way. For more, see here.

A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge. Gayer than a Pet Shop Boys concert but not nearly as lovable. Do not let this movie, which gives both horror and camp a bad name, taint your mind.

Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan. He's back. And this time, it's a pleasure cruise.

Jason X. Monstrously bad, though featuring an actress I'd like to see more of, Melyssa Ade, in a supporting role.

A little gossip, a little chat

Should Barack Obama do as well as I am hoping he will on Tuesday...here (via Political Wire) is some speculation as to who he might choose to be his Chief of Staff.

Please note my use of the words "should" and "might." Again, I am absolutely not saying this will happen. Because there's a little thing called tempting fate...

This is almost as bad as when people were comparing Sarah Palin...

Kim Kardashian cheapens everything she touches.

There are no peace talks baby, No quarter given

Rick Springfield's "Honeymoon In Beirut." A review from when this record came out (I believe it was in Billboard) has always stuck w/me, it said it was like: "If Hall & Oates had collaborated with George Schultz."

I'll go along with that.



Anyway I think it's excellent. The 1988 album from which it's taken (Rock of Life) has one of the best first sides I've ever heard--the flip is, unfortunately, another story.

This speaks for itself

Prop 8 Spokesman Says Defeating Gays is Like Defeating Hitler

There's nothing I can add, really.

Something to fear but fear itself

Danny Elfman, of the old “alternative”—back when that word meant something—pop/rock band Oingo Boingo and the composer of scores for many motion pictures, started a group (political, not musical) to stop Sarah Palin.

This is the online version of an ad they're trying to get on the air over the weekend.



Spread it around.

We pause at this time for an unpaid commercial announcement

Be sure to watch the "Fun-E" videos. They really are.

(My favorite is the 6th)

Samantha Bee is such a MILF

Pretty lofty talk for somebody whose biggest claim to fame remains playing "Weird Al" Yankovic's love interest in a movie*

Victoria Jackson thinks Barack Obama resembles the Anti-Christ.











*A movie which, by coincidence, also starred the also possibly racist, but definitely brain dead Michael Richards.

Have I mentioned...

Today has been dubbed "Write to Marry" day. The idea is that if you oppose California's Prop 8, and by extension any attempts to deny gay people the rights that, well, human beings should enjoy...

...today would be a great day to say so.

I do oppose such attempts; my problem is I think most of you know that, I think most of you agree with that (if you don't, frankly, I can do without you). So what can I say about it that's new?

I don't know, but one thing I do want to do is repost this Salon.com opinion piece from four years ago, when some were asking whether SF Mayor Newsom's* decision to begin allowing gays to marry had cost the Democrats the election.

“Putting the blame on gays and lesbians goes against our own core values. We can’t sell our souls to take back the White House…until Newsom went on his marrying spree, I thought Democrats needed to move very slowly on gay marriage. Then I had friends and neighbors who got married — and a few whose weddings got cancelled when the California Supreme Court stopped the ceremonies in March — and my worldview permanently shifted. Now I don’t know how the party can turn its back on gay people who want to marry…I believe we’ll survive four more Bush years and recover the White House. But we won’t do it by selling out gay people.”

I agree with this. It's indecent to blame our electoral losses on any part of the gay and lesbian community...unless of course it's the loveless husks of The L Word...but I digress.



*Newsom's wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, is an actress w/a recurring role on Life.

Everything is connected, have I mentioned that?

This is lovely

A black mother talks about what this election means...to her son, to all black children, and...well just about everyone, I guess. The pictures alone will make you fall in love.

Note to self:

If you ever have the chance, kidnap the Hansen brothers, shackle them to pipes in a bathroom, and force them to listen to "MMMBop" over and over again for 90 minutes straight.

Here's why.

Hot schoolgirl? Ok, so maybe it's a little made for me...

There's this movie called The Haunting of Molly Hartley. It might be good, it might not be, either way I'm unlikely to see it (but it's so not made for me).

I'm interested to see how it does in release, however, only because one of the actresses in it is Shannon Marie Woodward, who played Di Di Malloy on The Riches, where she was the very image of my character Keitha.

But I've been noticing something about the ads for the movie that have been showing up on blogs. The picture shows the hot schoolgirl of the title (Haley Bennett) on her hands-and-knees, with some guy from Gossip Girl standing behind her.

You tell me: Is it just my filthy mind, or are they trying to (not all that) subliminally suggest...

You know how "Joe the plumber" looks like a racist skinhead?

Well, funny story...

Larry Gelbart.

Playwright, screenwriter, personal hero. Most recent reason (following a quick diversion to deal with Linda Bloodworth-Thomason):

In a room full of television industry executives, no one seemed inclined to defend MSNBC on Monday for what some were calling its lopsidedly liberal coverage of the presidential election.

MSNBC star Keith Olbermann was criticized by many who attended Monday's luncheon sponsored by the Caucus for Producers, Writers & Directors at the Beverly Hills Hotel. The event was dubbed "Hollywood, America and Election '08."

...writer-producer Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, a self-proclaimed liberal Democrat...added that she would prefer a lunch date with right-leaning Fox News star Sean Hannity over left-leaning Keith Olbermann.

That's inexplicable to me. Unless you shared his politics, why would anyone prefer eating with an idiot like Hannity to a sharpie like Olbermann?

Unless, of course, you're the sort of person who's so dangerously loyal to your best friend (which in Bloodworth-Thomason's case is Hilary Clinton) that you'd defend...

Bloodworth-Thomason even suggested a defense of [Sarah] Palin and her supporters should be written into TV programming, just as she went out of her way to portray Southern women as smart in her hit TV show "Designing Women."

Oh.

And now, back to the inspirational Larry G:

Attendee Michael Reagan, the radio talk-show host and son of President Ronald Reagan, said he no longer will appear as a guest on MSNBC because "I actually get death threats."

"I'll stop sending them," joked Larry Gelbart, the writer, producer and director best known for the "M*A*S*H" television series and such movie screenplays as "Tootsie" and "Oh, God!"

Bill O'Reilly still hasn't gotten over the fact that Al Franken embarrassed him and made him look stupid.

In this story, obstensibly about "America moving to the left," and how well it looks as though Obama is gonna do, it takes O'Reilly exactly three paragraphs to put all his anger on Al Franken. It's kind of amazing.

But it just goes to show you, that nothing hurts a blowhard like taking the wind out of their sails.

Not to worry: They're still idiots.

"An Obama victory will galvanize social conservatives for 2010 and 2012 and they will look for a standard bearer they can rally around," said Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, the public policy arm of America's largest evangelical group.

Land told Reuters the candidate most likely to "rally the troops" under an Obama administration looked to be McCain's running mate Sarah Palin.

William Donohue, president of the conservative Catholic League which opposes abortion rights, said religious conservatives were bracing for a new phase in the "culture wars."

"I've been on the phone the last couple of days with some of my friends ... and we're getting ready for the biggest culture war battles ever," Donohue said.

As always, the value of William Donohue is that anything he bashes (gays) or is against (Jews), you can be assured of its being a good thing...

The McCain Women's Clinic

Real American heroes

From TPM Election c:

Some three dozen workers at a telemarketing call center in Indiana walked off the job rather than read an incendiary McCain campaign script attacking Barack Obama, according to two workers at the center and one of their parents.

Nina Williams, a stay-at-home mom in Lake County, Indiana, tells us that her daughter recently called her from her job at the center, upset that she had been asked to read a script attacking Obama for being "dangerously weak on crime," "coddling criminals," and for voting against "protecting children from danger."

You know, these days, I'm not having as much fun bashing Tennessee as I used to

Federal agents have broken up a plot by two neo-Nazi skinheads to assassinate Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and shoot or decapitate 102 black people, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives said Monday.

In court records unsealed Monday in U.S. District Court in Jackson, Tenn., federal agents said they disrupted plans to rob a gun store and target a predominantly African-American high school in a murder spree that was to begin in Tennessee. Agents said the skinheads did not identify the school by name.

The men also sought to go on a national killing spree after the Tennessee murders, with Obama as its final target, Cavanaugh told The Associated Press.

Ted Stevens, come on down!

You're the next disgraced loser of the republican party!

But don't worry, you won't be lonely long.

It's so crazy, it just might work

Via Goddard's Wire:

Former Bush speechwriter David Frum: "There are many ways to lose a presidential election. John McCain is losing in a way that threatens to take the entire Republican Party down with him... I could pile up the poll numbers here, but frankly... it's too depressing. You have to go back to the Watergate era to see numbers quite so horrible for the GOP."

You see what's missing from that idea, don't you? McCain is getting the bill for every crime the Republicans committed while they were in power. I don't know whether to feel sorry for McCain, because as much as I think he's dishonored himself, he doesn't deserve the entirety of that check...well, yes I do.

Of course I don't feel sorry for him, because I want the Democrats to win, and if this is the way, so be it. In fact, I might speculate that is the reason why Pelosi took impeachment of Bush and Cheney off the table:

An electorate that wants to kill the GOP just to watch them die finally gets their hands on the ballot box just in time for the election.

Yes, if I thought Nancy Pelosi was some kind of a political genius, I might speculate that this has been her plan all along.

But it was probably just luck.

A new venue II

FYI:

I've created another new blog, for my more...aesthetic pursuits. The name of the new blog is dancing girls (subtlety, thy name is Ben). It's where you'll find naked girls and other flattering photographs, as well as my 125th observation that Anne Hathaway is reason enough to believe in god.

This blog will remain a repository for whatever I think of to say about news, pop culture, movies and/or music; this will probably cut my already minimal traffic here by another third.

This is not to say that all the naked girls, etc will all be over there and none over here now. There will still probably be some crossover, such as the High School Musical 3/ Saw V entry below.

That's not an entry about naked girls, but I put a couple of naked girls in it because...well, if you have to ask...

I prefer to think of it as Vanessa v. Betsy

As expected, High School Musical 3 topped the box office this weekend, but (again as I thought) Saw V was a solid second place.

On an unrelated note, here is a fun article in New York magazine:

Why High School Musical 3 might be scarier than Saw V

Doughnuts

We're back!

Doughnuts
Originally uploaded by Andreas Schwab

12-4200 studio

It's the triumphant return!

12-4200 studio
Originally uploaded by stellarvisions : communication architects

It's only fear

The return of what, did you ask?

It's only fear
Originally uploaded by Millan Photography

4200 + Views! Sonoma County Vineyard

The Return of the Son of Night of the Living Random Flickr-Blogging, of course.

4200 + Views! Sonoma County Vineyard
Originally uploaded by OceanRudy

olam haba

No quips this time, just a handful of photos I thought were good.

olam haba
Originally uploaded by n+s

Grace Jones singing good and looking better.

Lovely version of this beautiful song.

John McCain: 1936-2008

From a lengthy-but-useful piece in the NY Times magazine:

Then the speechwriter [Mark Salter], who is not known for his dispassion, began to yell: “We’re talking about someone [McCain] who was willing to die before losing his honor! He would die!”

He must be dead.

Wow...this is hilarious.

Reagan Appointee and (Recent) McCain Adviser Charles Fried Supports Obama

Charles Fried, a professor at Harvard Law School, has long been one of the most important conservative thinkers in the United States. Under President Reagan, he served, with great distinction, as Solicitor General of the United States. Since then, he has been prominently associated with several Republican leaders and candidates, most recently John McCain, for whom he expressed his enthusiastic support in January.

This week, Fried announced that he has voted for Obama-Biden by absentee ballot. In his letter to Trevor Potter, the General Counsel to the McCain-Palin campaign, he asked that his name be removed from the several campaign-related committees on which he serves. In that letter, he said that chief among the reasons for his decision "is the choice of Sarah Palin at a time of deep national crisis."

ETA: This is also extremely funny. An (unofficial) Obama spot as it might have been done by Dr. Seuss...

The Vet Who Did Not Vet



Fun!

Anne Hathaway

Thinking, "If Viper comes near me, he's getting a sweeping kick to the face."