Friday Saturday Frank: Welcome to The United States; With Ensemble Modern, 1992

This was one of FZ's last appearances on stage, conducting Ensemble Modern in a rousing rendition of his witty Welcome to the United States.

As someone who appreciates all of Frank Zappa's musical incarnations--the comedy songs, the guitar albums, and the classical creations alike--I loved this piece for its deliberate overlapping of genres and its gentle (and not-so-gentle) jabs at the risible pompousness of the INS--an agency that, in name at least, exists no longer, having been absorbed into the Department of Homeland Security after You Know What.

Forgive the light posting these past couple of weeks, by the way--a combination of family events, school-related matters, viruses, cat mutinies, car-in-the-shop days, teenager angst, domestic chaos, stock market anxiety, insomnia, exhaustion, and a nasty art-class-related Exacto-knife wound (sustained by Son Two, not me) have kept me from sitting down and actually writing anything of length or substance. I'll be back, older and wiser, shortly. There is, after all, an election going on, right?!

Bon Weekend, everyone.

XXX
D.

"For Thoose Joe Sixpacks Out There Playin' a Drinkin' Game at Home: Maverick!"

Sometimes, by 11:30 on Saturday nights, I'm already in dreamland--and I'm a serious night person, which should tell you something about the life-altering properties of Having Children. Other times, I'm distracted or busy or even (gasp) out painting the town blue (no, I haven't converted any of the die-hard 19%-ers I know--not yet--but I'm working on it.) Since we're not yet dialed-in with a Tivo setup out here, I'm sooooooo glad (sorry!) that there's YouTube embeddable video at NBC: Tina Fey knocked another one out of the park here. And Queen Latifah as Gwen Ifill is hands-down brilliant. Enjoy! this before it gets pulled.

Friday Frank: The Mammy Anthem; Bolzano, Italy, 1982

The picture quality and sound aren't quite what you'd hope for, but Frank's extended guitar solo makes this one worth watching over and over. Honestly, I'd never seen it before today, when I happened to be musing on the events of this past couple of weeks, wondering what Frank would think about it all.

Strike that: I already know what he'd think because he told us as much a long time ago. What would Frank do about it, though?

Make art seems as good an answer as any.

Bon Weekend, everyone.

Also at Cogitamus.

Babies For Barack

[Adorableness warning]

As someone who's been there, done that (having babies, I mean, not running for the office of President), may I just say--again--how genuinely warm and real a human being Barack Obama is. And as far as being a loving and devoted Dad, something you've undoubtedly read over and over by now? Well, observe how he mirrors the babies' various expressions and how he engages the babies and manages to ignore the crowds and cameras in order to connect with the actual person within all these fierce little creatures. And he makes face after goofy face, too, while doing that intuitive swaying thing* I recognize and remember all too well.

You know, I was rather mother-cat-like with my babies--I had to fight the urge to swipe them back from the arms of their own pediatrician--but I'd have trusted Senator Obama to hold any of my newborns: besides the fact that he's supremely natural with the wee bairns and has an obvious ability to charm them, he clearly knows to extend his index and middle fingers to support that heavy little bobble-head they tend to have when very tiny.

Enjoy.

This very sweet Ramones-accompanied piece goes out to my wonderful Queen Mum.

Also at Cogitamus.

* Here's Part Two, which has movie footage--lots of kissing, hugging, and swaying--along with the still shots:

Letter to Ezra

Dear Ezra,

You know we love you--hell's bells, we wouldn't exist if it weren't for you.

But as one of the resident word-wonks around here, I am compelled to at least attempt to parse your use of certain words regarding that which, since yesterday afternoon, I've taken to calling A Wailing Boehner of a Failed Bailout.

It wasn't a "failure to communicate". It wasn't a "failure of leadership". And--hear me out, as I have a fair bit of ad agency and marketing experience to back me up here--it most certainly was not a failure to package things nicely.

[Let's say someone gives me birthday present (it's October 11th--thanks for asking!), and when I tear open the wrapping paper, I see before me a horrible, scratchy, puce-colored sweater that's not only several sizes too big, but also riddled with moth holes, splattered with unidentifiable stains, and suffused with the unmistakable odor of rotting rubbish. Well, let's just say I'm unlikely to be any happier about my "present" if all said gift-giver does is re-fold the sweater, wrap it in pretty gilt-colored tissue with a satin bow, and hand it back to me.]

No, what we saw yesterday was actually--in terms of politics if not economics--a success of sorts. Call it A Success of Democracy, if you like.

Do I think the House Republicans were really representing the much-vaunted will of the revered People? Oh for goodness' sake, of course not--not in the pure sense that they care so much about the people, they simply had to stand their ground, contributors and their portfolios be damned. No, it was a success of democracy in the broader sense. To paraphrase an old movie title: Fifty Million* e-mails Can't Be Wrong.

Did all of those cranky constituents have Economics degrees? I'm guessing no. But they did, and do, have voter registration cards. And they expect their representatives in government to listen to their concerns, even if they have to subtly (or not-so-subtly) threaten those representatives with the loss of their jobs in order to get their attention. In short, democracy worked.

And now, if it's to keep working, Congress must go back to the workbench wherein a decent, already-built armature awaits its clay layering and a bit of kiln time; confer with the experts; craft something muscular and task-specific that benefits the whole country as opposed to a moneyed few--meaning, leave out any capital gains tax crap for now and focus on building in not only the safeguards and oversight, but also some serious provisions for enforcement of the law; and create a program to help homeowners avoid foreclosure (which will, in turn, keep those debt instruments nice and healthy).

Stop by and visit the left bank sometime soon, Ezra. Life is sunnier, artsier, and infinitely more enjoyable over here.

Cheers,
Deborah

* Give or take a few

Also at Cogitamus.

"Technically, I Don't Know..."

Posted without comment.

*BIG sigh.*

Friday Saturday Frank: Don't Eat the Yellow Snow*

This is Son Three's favorite Frank Zappa song. As it's his ninth birthday today--and given that a certain arctic-animal-killing person has been dominating the news of late--I am posting this for the animated enjoyment of all.

Happy Birthday, beautiful Baby Doll Boy--may your sweet soul and megawatt smile take you to extraordinary places.

With masses of kisses and a big Terrorist Fist Bump from Mama to you,

And a Bon Weekend to everyone!

*Don't watch if you're easily offended or given to PC-purity, ahem.

Palin et. al. and Another Witch

Following up on Stephen's post about Sarah Palin's Black Preacher Problem, I present another, much more widely-broadcast witch confrontation. (And thank you, Keith Olbermann, for showing that laying-on-of-hands-in-Wasilla video last night--too bad more news programs haven't done likewise.)

UPDATE: Right on cue, Bill Donohue starts wailing because many Americans find the whole witch-protection racket to be, well, equal parts amusing and unsettlingly fantastical. He writes:

“Witchcraft is a sad reality in many parts of Africa, resulting in scores of deaths in Kenya over the past two decades. Bishop Muthee’s blessing, then, was simply a reflection of his cultural understanding of evil. While others are not obliged to accept his interpretation, all can be expected to respect it. More than that—Muthee should be hailed for asking God to shield Palin from harmful forces, however they may be manifested. And for this he is mocked and Palin ridiculed?

“We know that many cultural elites have a hard time embracing religion, but is it too much to ask that they at least show some manners when discussing subjects which most Americans hold dear?”

You know what? Famine and civil warfare--waged with arms and ammo that are all-too-often provided by 'Murican interests, and if you want to know how that works, watch the movie Lord of War--result in countless numbers African deaths every year (millions, I'm certain, but I'm not sure where to get reliable stats right this second). But every time a cultural élite liberal brings this up, he or she is ridiculed for being a bleeding heart who's surely out to to shrink the military budget from its current bloated ten-times-the-combined-budget-of-every-country-in-the-world condition (okay, yeah, guilty as charged--I'd love to see a bit of that money go toward feeding the hungry as well as education and health care).

So anyway, quitcha bitching, Bill. It's so unbecoming, though I'll admit you looked pretty good, as though you'd lost some weight, last time I saw you on teevee in that South Park episode--Jesus is wicked-accurate with a throwing star, huh?

Fighting Deadly Malnutrition: This Time, A Morally Imperative Rescue

When every day brings fresh horror stories about the state of the American economy--stories that could easily be summed up by the phrase The Greatest Transfer of Wealth From the People to the Wall Street Ruling Class in the History of the Nation--it's easy to lose sight of those nearly-forgotten human beings around the planet who never had any wealth or power to begin with.

Hungry, malnourished children are quiet little things, aren't they? You don't see them on the news too often, and they don't make a lot of noise and fuss--no, they just sort of slip away, dying silently in parts of the world where famine or political strife, oftentimes in tandem, can tear through a country hurricane-like, leaving its most vulnerable citizens with no sustenance and little hope for help.

Fact: Hunger and malnutrition kill more people, worldwide, than do HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria--combined.

There are lots of ways to help, though. I'm calling your attention to a project sponsored by American Express, in particular, one organization that has been selected and stands to gain critically-needed funds, if enough people vote for it. Read, on, and then go here to vote for International Medical Corps* [You needn't have an Amex account to vote; simply follow the links and sign in as a guest--Ed.] :

International Medical Corps has been matched to one of the Top 25 in American Express’ Members Projects, ‘Saving the Lives of Malnourished Children.’

Chosen out of 1,190 projects, “Saving the Lives of Malnourished Children” is now eligible to receive up to $1.5 million in funding. The project with the most votes receives $1.5 million, 2nd receives $500,000, 3rd $300,000, and 4th and 5th $100,000. The funding – made possible by your votes – would bring a vital lifeline to hungry and malnourished children around the world.

We need your help between now and September 29th. Voting is easy and doesn’t cost a thing! In just a click, you can save the lives of thousands of malnourished children. Click here to vote.

For severely malnourished children, we offer a step-by-step treatment program that gives them what they need to recover, including nutrient-dense food supplements like the peanut-based product, Plumpy'Nut. Our comprehensive monitoring system saves more than 90 percent of children being treated in our feeding centers. Being one of the Top 5 would mean our nutrition could reach more children around the world who need our help.

International Medical Corps is an extraordinary and vital organization, readers--one I hope you'll agree is worth the moment of your time it'll take to nip over to the Amex site and vote for them today. And tell your friends. Thank you, as ever.

*About International Medical Corps: International Medical Corps (IMC) is a global, humanitarian, nonprofit organization dedicated to saving lives and relieving suffering through health care training and relief and development programs.

Established in 1984 by volunteer doctors and nurses, IMC is a private, voluntary, nonpolitical, nonsectarian organization. Its mission is to improve the quality of life through health interventions and related activities that build local capacity in underserved communities worldwide.

By offering training and health care to local populations and medical assistance to people at highest risk, and with the flexibility to respond rapidly to emergency situations, IMC rehabilitates devastated health care systems and helps bring them back to self-reliance.

Also at Cogitamus.

Friday Saturday Frank: My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama + Willie the Pimp/Montana Medley; Lund, 1988

Hooray! Finally. This is the only version of My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama with Maestro Zappa playing the solos (as opposed to Dweezil, Vai, Satriani, or Johnson) that I've ever found on YouTube. If readers know of any others, links are always appreciated--please leave them, and any requests, in comments.

Obviously I'm a day late with my Friday Frank--again!--but since this is a triple-header, you're going to forgive me, right?

I'm off to raise up my little (and not-so-little) spools of dental floss, then.

Bon Weekend, everyone.

Wednesday Frank: Prague; 1991

I'm sure you already know it,
but this is just the beginning of your new future in this country.

And I hope that your new future will be very perfect, very perfect.

-- Frank Zappa

Today in Shameless Self-Promotion

Staff Pick, Best Local Blog: litbrit

I am blushing.

Thank you, Michael Hussey and Wayne Garcia, for your support; thank you, Creative Loafing, for the recognition and terribly kind words.

And of course,

Thank you, readers, for being part of the conversation.

NOW Makes Rare Presidential Endorsement: Obama/Biden

Well, I don't know about you, but I was rather glad to hear this good news on the Tuesday after the Monday after Black Sunday:

The National Organization for Women (NOW) said Tuesday it had been pushed by the Republicans pick of Sarah Palin as vice presidential nominee to back Democrat Barack Obama for the White House.

"NOW is going to be endorsing the Obama-Biden ticket," NOW head Kim Gandy told National Public Radio (NPR), referring to Obama and his running mate Joseph Biden.

The 500,000-strong women's movement, which "very, very rarely endorses in a general election", broke with its tradition of neutrality after "the addition of Sarah Palin gave us a new sense of urgency," said Gandy.

"She is being portrayed as a supporter of women's rights ... as a feminist when in fact her positions on so many of the issues are really anathema to ours," Gandy said.

Everyone knows anathema is a Bad Thing. You can't even put lipstick on it.

(H/T oddjob)

New Obama Ad: Calling Out McCain's Lies and Actually Calling Them LIES

Yes. What an absolutely superb ad.

More like this, please, Senators. Lots more.

And again. Keep going...

Playing the Fear Card, Now With Attached DVD!

At lunch with friends yesterday, Robert and I were discussing (what else) the presidential campaigns and musing on what desperate stunt the rightwing might pull next.

"Oh, it's a big one," said Michael. "On our way out, let's pick up a St. Pete Times--there's supposedly a DVD in the Sunday papers. Something about the threat of Islamofascism, you know, the usual. It's going to be in every major swing-state newspaper."

"A DVD?" I said "Do you have any idea how much that would cost? I mean, putting one in every St. Pete Times, even--you do know how big their circulation is?"

"Well, someone spent the money," said Robert.

We stopped at a convenience store and bought the paper. Sure enough, a four-color postercard with an attached Obsession DVD was tucked into its pages:

Apparently, this was a huge project on the part of the filmmakers, not only in making the piece--first shown on FOX in 2006, just before the elections--but also, this time around, in placing the free DVD preview 60-minute movie into tens of millions of hometown newspapers in swing states (bolds mine):

NEW YORK The arrival of tens of millions of DVDs of a controversial film on doorsteps around the nation -- but almost exclusively in election "swing states" -- via newspaper home delivery continues this weekend, with explanatory articles and subscriber feedback appearing on some of the papers' Web sites.

The DVDs of the 60-minute film, made in 2005, and titled "Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West," arrived Saturday with, among other papers, the Charlotte Observer and the News & Observer in Raleigh, with delivery with the Miami Herald and other papers set for Sunday. [...]

Despite some protests from Muslim and liberal activists, the newspapers -- all hard hit by drops in ad revenue in recent months -- have explained that the DVD does not violate their usual standards; see our exchange with The New York Times below. A spokesperson there said the Times last Sunday inserted 145,000 DVDs in its papers delivered in the following markets: Denver, Miami/Palm Beach, Tampa, Orlando, Detroit, Kansas City, St Louis, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee/Madison. Note: These are all in swing states. [...]

E&P asked New York Times Co. spokeswoman Diane McNulty about the policy on this insert. She replied:

"We believe the broad principles of freedom of the press confer on us an obligation to keep our advertising columns as open as possible. Therefore our acceptance or rejection of an advertisement does not depend on whether it coincides with our editorial positions. In fact, there are many instances when we have published opinion advertisements that run counter to the stance we take on our own editorial pages.

I'm sure I'm not the first to say this, so let it be my contribution to the chorus:

SHAME ON YOU, St. Petersburg Times and New York Times, and shame on every other newspaper that is helping Clarion to deploy this fearmongering political clusterbomb.

For shame.

Also at Cogitamus.

Friday Saturday Frank: When The Lie's So Big; Barcelona, 1988

Was Frank Zappa ahead of his time (again) with this excruciatingly appropriate song, or is it just that the more things change, the more they remain the same? I have to say, I listen to this and can't help but admire FZ's prescience.

Also in this clip: Planet of the Baritone Women. (Yes, there's oxygen as well as water here, and yes, B♭ below low C.)

Bon Weekend, everyone.

When the Lie's So Big

They got lies so big
They don't make a noise
They tell 'em so well
Like a secret disease
That makes you go numb


With a big ol' lie
And a flag and a pie
And a mom and a bible
Most folks are just liable
To buy any line
Any place, any time


When the lie's so big
As in Robertson's case,
(That sinister face
Behind all the Jesus hurrah)


Could result in the end
To a worrisome trend
In which every American
Not "born again"
Could be punished in cruel and unusual ways
By this treacherous cretin
Who tells everyone
That he's Jesus' best friend


When the lie's so big
And the fog gets so thick
And the facts disappear
The Republican Trick
Can be played out again
People, please tell me when
We'll be rid of these men?


Just who do they really
Suppose that they are?
And how did they manage to travel as far
As they seem to have come?
Were we really that dumb?


People, wake up
Figure it out
Religious fanatics
Around and about
The Court House, The State House,
The Congress, The White House


Criminal saints
With a "Heavenly Mission" --
A nation enraptured
By pure superstition


When the lie's so big
And the fog gets so thick
And the facts disappear
The Republican Trick
Can be played out again
People, please tell me when
We'll be rid of these men!

(H/T Zencomix, via Fred in comments)

The New York Times: All the Euphemisms That Are Fit to Print?

McCain Barbs Stirring Outcry as Distortions reads the headline over a front-page article that details the various and many lies set forth by John McCain, his campaign, and his running mate.

Forgive me--it's early and I probably need to ingest another vat of espresso--but I'm assuming that NYT writers Michael Cooper and Jim Rutenberg speak the same language, though perhaps not quite the same dialect, as I. You know, the one in which they can tell another speaker or reader of said language that, say, the sky is blue and the grass is green, and he or she will immediately understand which bit of nature is which pretty color.

So, Paul Krugman's excellent editorial aside, why do the New York Times writers say barbs and distortions when they mean LIES? Anyone?

Way to work that dog-eared copy of Roget's, gentlemen (emphasis mine):

Harsh advertisements and negative attacks are a staple of presidential campaigns, but Senator John McCain has drawn an avalanche of criticism this week from Democrats, independent groups and even some Republicans for regularly stretching the truth in attacking Senator Barack Obama’s record and positions.

Mr. Obama has also been accused of distortions, but this week Mr. McCain has found himself under particularly heavy fire for a pair of headline-grabbing attacks. First the McCain campaign twisted Mr. Obama’s words to suggest that he had compared Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, to a pig after Mr. Obama said, in questioning Mr. McCain’s claim to be the change agent in the race, “You can put lipstick on a pig; it’s still a pig.” (Mr. McCain once used the same expression to describe Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s health plan.)

Then he falsely claimed that Mr. Obama supported “comprehensive sex education” for kindergartners (he supported teaching them to be alert for inappropriate advances from adults).

Those attacks followed weeks in which Mr. McCain repeatedly, and incorrectly, asserted that Mr. Obama would raise taxes on the middle class, even though analysts say he would cut taxes on the middle class more than Mr. McCain would, and misrepresented Mr. Obama’s positions on energy and health care.

And on it goes. The word "lies" doesn't actually appear until you're near the bottom of the article's first page, and even then, it was quoting someone else--in this case, Joy Behar, host of The View, when she addressed Senator McCain directly and he replied with yet another lie followed by a deflection:

“We know that those two ads are untrue,” Ms. Behar said. “They are lies. And yet you, at the end of it, say, ‘I approve these messages.’ Do you really approve them?”

“Actually they are not lies,” Mr. McCain said crisply, “and have you seen some of the ads that are running against me?”

Well, of course they're not lies, Joy, you silly goose: they're barbs or attacks or distortions, or--if you're really feeling ballsy--misrepresentations, just like the nice newspaper folk say. Surely you didn't expect McCain to call a lie a lie? And indeed, why should he, when hardly a soul in the mainstream press dares to utter or type the word.

Via TRex, an obvious choice for the new McCain campaign song* presents itself:



*The copyright of which, as with various McCain-appropriated songs before it, clearly calls out for Republican infringement. Bush Doctrine, etc.

Also at Cogitamus.

John McCain's Ads Are Lies

Brave New Films' latest video methodically calls out the lies--and how varied and many they are!--that Senator John McCain tells and personally approves in various campaign ads currently airing. And one by one, the reporter or pundit, armed with the facts, proves the statement to be not only false, but also deliberately fabricated in order to smear Senator Barack Obama.

I'm John McCain and I approve this message:

(A lie. Followed by a lie. And, oh hey, another lie.)

For my taste, the soundtrack is a bit overly boomy and ominous-sounding, but my ongoing heat headache might have something to do with that perception. Watch this, seriously.)

Want Sarah Palin's Religion to Control What You Read?

Further to Stephen's excellent post about the unbelievable extremes to which Sarah Palin's fringe Christian church routinely goes, most chillingly in their efforts to draw converts, dominate communities, and dictate public policy, I'm posting this footage: it's ABC News (!) investigating (!!) Sarah Palin's book-banning attempt in Wasilla and even speaking to the librarian whom Palin fired and then rehired after a town-wide protest (she would later resign), as well as reporting (!!!) on the extremist religion that's behind Palin's wish to censor public libraries, among other things.

More like this, please, ABC. And everyone.

Via Brad at Sadly, No!, who says: "The Republicans are insulting your intelligence, America. Please do not prove them right."

Common Sense Prevails: Florida Anti-Gay Adoption Ban Ruled Unconstitutional

Three cheers for Judge Audlin, and three more cheers for this, from my state:

KEY WEST, Fla. -- A circuit court judge has ruled unconstitutional Florida's 31-year-old gay adoption ban, one of only two such statewide bans in the country.

The Monroe County judge's ruling allows a gay foster parent here to adopt a teenage boy he has raised since 2001, but does not mean there will be any statewide change in policy.

Circuit judges in Florida have twice before found the statute unconstitutional, both in 1991, though both challenges stalled. A case in Miami expected to be heard next month could also challenge the law.

Mississippi is the only other state to forbid gays from adopting.

The case here in gay-friendly Key West involves a 13-year-old boy with learning disabilities and special needs and his 52-year-old foster father, neither of whom are identified in court filings. A home study by a social worker highly recommended the guardian and his partner be allowed to adopt the boy.

Judge David J. Audlin Jr. wrote in his ruling, which has not yet been formally published, that the Florida law forbidding gay people from adopting children is contrary to the state Constitution because it singles out a group for punishment.

"Contrary to every child welfare principle," Audlin wrote, "the gay adoption ban operates as a conclusive or irrebuttable presumption that ... it is never in the best interest of any adoptee to be adopted by a homosexual."

(H/T oddjob)

Just Say it, Media

Just say it.

It's a nice, plain, easy-to-pronounce, and eminently clear word.

L-l-l-l-l...love lesbians lipstick LIE.

There you go. That wasn't so hard, was it? LIE. When a Senator or a Governor running for the nation's highest offices builds his or her speeches, not to mention attacks on the opposition, around LIES --indeed, when key components of a campaign platform itself are, provably, LIES--you need to do your job and say it loud and clear, every time: This is a LIE.

Forget untruthfulness, inaccuracy, falsehood, and (Heaven help me), mistatement.

If you're in doubt about the importance of using clear, straightforward words, may I refer you to the wisdom of the late English professor, semanticist, and Republican Senator S.I. Hayakawa, who, in his wonderful book Language in Thought and Action, wrote:

Euphemisms are paraphrases or lexical choices made in order to avoid the unpleasant or taboo connotations of words referring to certain (culture-conditioned) categories of meaning.

So yes, using plain, unembroidered language to report that trusted leaders are LYING--about the casus belli for invading Iraq, about the real cost of running up our nation's Chinese credit card ad infinitum while continuing to issue tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, about someone being a maverick and a fiscal conservative when he or she clearly isn't--will bring about uneasiness and even confusion among the comfortably numb.

Say the word anyway: LIE. The strapping, not-so-innocent-lately geopolitical teenager that is America can handle the truth, and She needs to hear it now more than ever.

Also at Cogitamus.

John McCain, Sarah Palin, and Lipstick on Bridge Problems

The fatal collapse of Minnesota's I-35 Mississippi River Bridge in August, 2007 drew attention to the issue of America's crumbling infrastructure.

The infamous pork-funded Bridge to Nowhere is everywhere this week, and rightly so. It seems that Governor Sarah Palin was indeed for the bridge before she was against it, and even then, she only turned against it when public (and eventually, media) criticism of excessive government earmarks highlighted that spectacularly wasteful project as Exhibit A. Yet Palin clings to the myth and the soundbite alike--"I told Congress thanks, but no thanks for that Bridge to Nowhere up in Alaksa...". David Schuster reported that even yesterday, Palin repeated the lie twice while on the stump; by Chris Matthews' count, she's repeated the lie seven times in public appearances, as John McCain stood by her side.

Of course, Palin didn't mark the federal funds Return To Sender, but rather, "reappropriated" them for use in her state (no wonder she's popular in Alaska--hell, if Governor Crist gave all Floridians a few grand apiece to help with the cost of keeping our houses at liveable temperatures, he'd have an approval rating even higher than he does without giveaways).

What hasn't been mentioned too often is that Senator John McCain was clearly against Palin before he was for her. And before he chose Palin as a running mate and inexplicably began to call her a "maverick" and a "fiscal conservative", McCain went on record speculating that the hundreds of millions of dollars set aside for building a bridge that so few would use actually helped drain the federal budget of funds that should have gone to repairing existing bridges, and therefore contributed to the disastrous collapse of the I-35 Mississippi River bridge in Minnesota earlier that year.

Say what?

Well, let's just go to the record. From CNN, September 2007 (emphasis mine):

U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens and Rep. Don Young, both Republicans, championed the project through Congress two years ago, securing more than $200 million for the bridge between Revillagigedo and Gravina islands.

Under mounting political pressure over pork projects, Congress stripped the earmark -- or stipulation -- that the money be used for the airport, but still sent the money to the state for any use it deemed appropriate. [...]

Just last month, presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, said pet projects could have played a role in a Minnesota bridge collapse that killed 13 people earlier this year.

"Maybe if we had done it right, maybe some of that money would have gone to inspect those bridges and other bridges around the country," McCain told a group of people in a town-hall style meeting in Ankeny, Iowa.

"Maybe the 200,000 people who cross that bridge every day would have been safer than spending $233 million of your tax dollars on a bridge in Alaska to an island with 50 people on it."

Did McCain even remember saying this when he impulsively named a flashy, attention-drawing, and totally un-vetted person as his running mate less than two weeks ago? And, much more importantly, is anyone in the establishment media paying attention, damn it?

(H/T Group News Blog)

Also at Cogitamus.

Whoa--More Like This, Please

Check out this excellent new Obama ad. As Joe at Americablog says:

This latest ad, titled "No Maverick" is exactly what the campaign needed. It's crisp. It's tough. It doesn't hold back -- and right now, they can't hold back. Lots of great lines for just 30 seconds.

Yeah!

Samantha Bee on Sarah Palin: Choice for Mine But Not For Thine

The brilliant Samantha Bee, of The Daily Show, scours the Republican Convention in search of someone who can explain the intricacies of this whole choice thing to her.

Sarah Palin's hypocrisy with regard to reproductive rights--not to mention her extreme, religion-based position, one that would force even the victims of rape or incest to bear their attacker's child--is reason enough to vote against the McCain-Palin ticket. (Not that there aren't many, many other reasons, too--this is just one post.)

Watch this, have a laugh, be shocked by the hypocrisy, and then, circulate like mad, Dear Reader.

Indoor Sunshine: Your Saturday Reads

Three Four of My Favorite Guys edition, spotlighting worthwhile (and fresh!) bits and pieces to inform and amuse you.

Read something fabulous, funny, or infuriating today? Do tell! Comments are open for link-leaving and general, you know, commentary. As ever.

Anyway, start by heading over to TRex for some righteous anger and cautious hope about the state of the Fourth Estate (plus video evidence of the McCain camp's sneering disdain toward the public and, especially, toward the press whenever they actually try to do their jobs):

In my life, I figured “I’ve been obsessively refreshing ‘Swampland’ all day” would be something I’d be about as likely to say as “another tour de force from Rupert Everett” or “a vocal performance of stunning restraint and exquisite taste by Mariah Carey”, but there you go. I’ve been poised like a hawk on a wire all day waiting to see what Carney’s next move would be.

Sometime around the five o’clock whistle, we got this carefully worded bulletin. [...]

He’s right, of course, but exactly how is it all that different from what has been steadily streaming out the roof and down the rain gutters of the Bush White House for the last eight years? Hot and cold running propaganda. That aside, though, I salute this new found journalistic passion over at Time and wish them well on their quest. Seriously, Jay Carney shouldn’t have to be explaining “why it matters” to anyone. It should be completely self-evident why it matters.

Next, check out Bob Cesca's Goddamn Awesome blog; he has several things up today, including this, about the responsible, Amurika-lovin' fiscal conservative that is Sarah Palin:

Imagine if the Obamas were directly connected to a fringe political party whose founder said, "[T]he fires of Hell are glaciers compared to my hate for the American government." Talk radio would be screaming about this every day. The tapes would be aired on cable news over and over and over. The election would be over.

And in one of the comment threads, this:

His Rudeness on Rudy. Another classic.

Finally, here's Jon Stewart of the Daily Show tearing up the gender card this week:



Bon Weekend, everyone! And yes, Friday Frank will return next Friday--I'm giving the Magic YouTube Fairies a chance to refill the pipeline a bit, since everything I was finding lately was something I'd already posted.

XXX
D.

McCain and Walter Reed: The Greening

The green screen was all-too-familiar, but when the camera panned back, worshipful Republicans watching John McCain's acceptance speech were at a loss to explain what the building in the backdrop had to do with...well, anything.

As Lee Stranahan discovered, savvy Walter Reed Middle School graduates knew what was up, though. Surely this was intentional, this not-subtle reminder of the Republican plan to impose martial law and have complete unfettered power over the citizenry vision for the future: public schools that look all purty and fertile and green on the outside while operating as little more than overcrowded, book-deprived, mind-numbing, social obedience-instilling cannon-fodder factories on the inside.

(You know the McCain camp thought that deeply about it, too.)

Also at Cogitamus.

Governor Palin--You Remember Katrina, Don't You?

New Orleans, three years ago.

Oh, come on, yes you do.

No? Okay, I think I've got some photos...I'm sure they'll jog your memory. I mean, I thought the whole world remembered Katrina:

She was a wirlwind, to say the least.

But then came floodwater...

...and Blackwater.

For a huge venue like the Superdome, the excitement level was unfortunately pretty low:

Honestly, I'm surprised that here we are--three years to the day, in fact!--and all these breathless reporters like Maria Bartiromo keep chattering about your state's rich oil reserves and how wonderfully helpful it will be for John McCain to have someone who knows all the ins and outs (and downs and downs) of the oil-drilling business (you do, don't you?) by his side.

But no-one's mentioned Kyoto, or the carbon thing. I do think Maria said "caribou" once.

Anyway, forgive me for stating the obvious, but ferocious, city-drowning hurricanes will only increase in severity and intensity as the oceans warm up courtesy of fossil-fuel emissions contributing to an already-carbon-choked atmosphere. (We're Number One! by the way.) By forestalling a national commitment to investing in and developing clean alternative energy (and forestalling it is what drilling here or anywhere will accomplish)--and since American LSC is just as carbony as the Saudi variety--the oil companies, their employees in the federal government, and the media organs who love them are guaranteeing that Earth continues on its disastrous path toward melting ice caps, violent weather, and all manner of far-reaching disasters.

So when Ms. Bartiromo said that in a very recent interview, you explained that you were thrilled to bits (so to speak) about drilling in the ANWAR, because hey, it's only an itty-bitty percentage of the overall land mass you were talking about, so the environment wouldn't be harmed, I realized you must have completely forgotten about Katrina and all the warming stuff. But don't feel too badly--I think most of the press have, too.

Anyway, I'm happy to remind you.

Also at Cogitamus.

McCain and a Red October August Surprise?

Freshly breaking via the Moscow Times. To whom do you suppose Prime Minister Putin is referring *cough* when he says "a U.S. presidential candidate"?

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Thursday accused the United States of orchestrating the military conflict in Georgia in order to boost the chances of a U.S. presidential candidate.

In an interview that was to air on CNN late Thursday, Putin said Washington had encouraged Tbilisi to attack South Ossetia to give one presidential candidate an edge in the hotly contested U.S. election, CNN said on its web site.

Republican John McCain, a weathered foreign policy hawk and a staunch critic of Russia, is in a neck-and-neck race with Democrat Barack Obama for the White House.

Putin did not specify a candidate. Reached by telephone, Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to say which one he was referring to.

McCain is an ally of outgoing U.S. President George W. Bush. Following Russia's invasion of Georgia, McCain lashed out at Russia, calling on the Bush administration to pull out from a joint space exploration project with Russia and repeating a demand that Russia be kicked out of the Group of Eight.

The White House press office had no immediate comment on Putin's statement.

Yeah, I bet the White House had no bloody comment. To paraphrase Dear Husband, Follow the money lobbyist.

For Daddy litbrit*: Jennifer Hudson Sings the National Anthem

Goosebumps in August. *sigh* What a gorgeous voice.

* Who is a serious Dreamgirls fan.

(H/T Petulant)

Dennis Kucinich Says Wake Up, America!

I don't know if the networks aired Dennis Kucinich's rousing and righteous speech--if they did, I must have missed it--but here it is, as shown on C-Span, via the magic of YouTube.

Wake Up, America, indeed!

Please Unplug My Arrogance

And Please Untangle My Arguments.

Via Rumproast:



"He hasn't earned my vote...he never calls...I'm a tiny bit open...my ballot box is closed." I mean, really. How much power do you think these Power Chicks for Hillary would have under a McCain presidency? Here are a couple of clues: about as much as one would get from a wall socket in a foreclosed and abandoned house. About the same amount of power a hungry, homeless child has.

I completely agree that the two-party system sucks, and furthermore, will state that the Democratic party does not come close to representing all the ideals and policies dear to my heart.

To paraphrase Greg Palast, though, while the Dems' behavior may all too often be a slap in the face, the Republicans are coming at you with a sock full of bricks to the back of the head.

Certain bloggers would do well to remember this.

Turning a blind eye toward the practice of vote-withholding or spite-voting--or, Heaven forbid, encouraging one's followers to engage in it--and supporting a general You Can't Tell ME How to Vote attitude while failing to drive home the point that such behavior, particularly in swing states, can and will lead to a McCain inauguration in January, is to my mind the height of irresponsibility, at best.

And at worst, it's blatant ratfuckery. As progressives who care about things like not having our children sent to fight and die in Iran (or Georgia, or infinity and beyond), not having our reproductive choices curtailed even more than they already have been, and not having our nation fall further behind the rest of the world on matters like health care, alternative fuel development, and education, we must fight this petulant, juvenile mentality at every turn.

As Senator Clinton said in her wonderful speech last night: No way, no how, no McCain.

It's time to Put the Unseemly Manipulativeness Away.

(H/T TRex)

Also at Cogitamus.

Richer, Younger, and Did I Mention SeriouslyF*ckingRich?

How to deal with our economic woes? Mr. Stranahan says Americans should follow John McCain's lead and get hitched to the owners of countless--seriously, no-one seems to be able to count them--er, tastelessly decorated palaces and...hey, Lee, teensy problem: they don't believe in beer over there.

Also at Cogitamus.

I Beg Your Pardon

Afghan citizens love their children too.

It's hardly an exotic, abstruse concept. Nor is it a new one. And yet:

US-led coalition forces killed 76 Afghan civilians in western Afghanistan yesterday, most of them children, the country's Interior Ministry said.

The coalition denied killing civilians. Civilian deaths in military operations have become an emotive issue among Afghans, many of whom feel international forces take too little care when launching air strikes, undermining support for their presence.

"Seventy-six civilians, most of them women and children, were martyred today in a coalition forces operation in Herat province," the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

Coalition forces bombarded the Azizabad area of Shindand district in Herat province on Friday afternoon, the ministry said. Nineteen of the victims were women, seven of them men and the rest children under the age of 15, it said.

US-led coalition forces denied killing any civilians. They said 30 militants had been killed in an air strike in Shindand district in the early hours of Friday and no further air strikes had been launched in the area later in the day.

Air strikes took place after Afghan and coalition soldiers were ambushed by insurgents while on a patrol targeting a known Taliban commander in Herat, the US military said in a statement.

Explanation of Women for Neil, Part Quatre

Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things
are corrupt without being charming.
This is a fault.
Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things
are the cultivated. For these there is hope.
~ Oscar Wilde

Native American Ballerina Maria Tallchief

British Ballerina Margot Fonteyn

As I read through the comments following Lisa's most recent Explanation of Women For Neil, I noticed a disturbingly common theme: Shoes are silly, therefore any discussion, analysis, appreciation, or outright coveting thereof must also be regarded by sane members of society as frivolous, if not downright harmful, physically as well as fiscally.

This is nonsense, of course. All art is expensive, relatively speaking; all art can be termed "quite useless", as indeed Mr. Wilde himself did. But that is because art exists for its own sake--just as truth, its parent, and beauty, its child, do. It is; therefore we feel.

Shoes, then. Any decent series of attempts to Explain Women ought to touch on our motivations, especially the ones that lead us to make seemingly incomprehensible choices in footwear and more. And that necessitates an understanding, or at least some foreknowledge, of the archetypes and motifs that guide our imaginations.

I'll share a few of mine: Doll, princess, firebird, swan; dancers, all, ever dying and reborn. The ballerinas, three of my idols, at the beginning and end of this post.

Accordingly, those delicate, high-heeled, feather-light shoes I love (and I know I'm not alone in my obsession) remind me of the sculptures and paintings and gowns I will make--not to mention the dance classes I will once again take--when my currently-family-centered real life resembles my dream one. You see, I stand on my toes, which you have to do in my favorite shoes, and in the shoes of Lisa's post, and although I may be readying myself for something drearily quotidian, it all comes back: I imagine I'm airborne and free and quite small.

Beauty. It trumps reality most of the time. Watch:

Italian Ballerina Alessandra Ferri performs to Bach, played by Sting

Also at Cogitamus

Fickle McCain-icane Fay

So, TRex and I were talking on the phone this afternoon.

Me: Did you see the track this hurricane has been following? It goes one way, then quickly changes its mind and goes in the other direction. It's a McHurry-cain.

T: A McCain-icane!

Me: Exactly. A McCain-icane. It flip-flops...

T: It's making sure it covers every single part of the state of Florida...

Me: ...while leaving a mess for others to clean up.

T: Yeah.

Me: It's full of hot air and spin...it developed from depression into disaster...it was bad news for schools everywhere and pissed off teachers and parents alike...it came with a huge cone of uncertainty...for a while, it looked as though it was going to pick up speed, but then it fizzled out.

T: I think the McCain-icane is over.

Also at Cogitamus.

Shorter Roy Den Hollander, Esq.*

"When my Russian mail-order bride divorced me in 2001, it had absolutely nothing to do with my shriveled, undersized...brain."

Le Sigh gigantesque.

Looks like the NYT has seen fit to publish yet another dispatch from the Department of Frustrated Old White Guys:

Roy Den Hollander is a Manhattan lawyer and a self-described antifeminist. Over the past year, he has sued Manhattan nightclubs for favoring women by offering ladies’ night discounts and has sued the federal government over a law that protects women from violence.

And now Columbia University has come within his sights. On Monday, he filed a lawsuit in United States District Court in Manhattan against Columbia for offering women’s studies courses, which Mr. Den Hollander sees as discriminatory toward men. His class-action suit accuses Columbia of using government aid to preach a “religionist belief system called feminism.” [...]

“Federal financial aid, state funds and other assistance help proselytize feminism at Columbia,” in violation of equal protection safeguards of the Fifth and 14th Amendments, claimed Mr. Den Hollander, who said, “Columbia has thrown its influence and prestige into violating the rights of men by offering a women’s studies program but no men’s studies program.”

Mr. Den Hollander devotes much of his private practice to representing men in civil cases — “antifeminist cases or guys’-rights cases,” as he puts it - and said his bitter 2001 divorce from a woman he married in Russia helped tweak his anger toward feminists and laws he sees as favoring women.

In July 2007, Mr. Den Hollander filed a class-action suit against prominent Manhattan nightclubs like Copacabana, China Club, Lotus and Sol, claiming they discriminated against men with their ladies’ nights offering free or reduced admission, which violate the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection under the law, the suit said.

In February 2008, he filed a suit against the federal government calling parts of the Violence Against Women Act unconstitutional.

Yeah, that's right: Bring teh bitchez over here to the States, and pretty soon they're all, "Roy Den, I want half." **

-----

Since I doubt that any of his organs, withered from disuse as they obviously are, could handle the stimulus, I won't bother pointing out to this sad excuse for a human being the hard facts and statistics showing, over and over and over, how men abuse, batter, rape, and murder women and get away with it. To wildly disproportionate degrees. And yes, right now, in the twenty-first century. Wealthy men, "educated" men, famous men, too.

* A deep and respectful curtsy to the gentlemen of Sadly, No!, who are pioneers in the emerging science of Shorterificationizing.

** According to my laptop calculator, that would be 1.25 inches.

(H/T Sir Charles)

Also at Cogitamus.

Posted Without Comment

(H/T lolpresident)

Monsanto to Dump rBGH

Chalk one up for us intrepid consumers: biotech giant Monsanto is selling off its Posilac (rBGH) division. In other words, though the battle against scary, unproven, and oftentimes carcinogenic food additives is hardly won, at least there's one less to worry about in America. Finally. It took more than a decade of consumer backlash, grassroots organizing, and raising awareness (and oh yeah, fighting lawsuits and lobbyists). But with time, the word got out--rBGH was banned in Europe in 1994; further, its producers were issued a formal notice of non-compliance and disapproval for all future sales in Canada in 1999, and it was ruled unsafe by the United Nations Food Safety Agency that same year.

Since then, of course, Monsanto continued to pump the stuff into the American food supply (and thus our bodies), all the while insisting it was completely safe. Screw those puny foreign countries and their quaint health concerns and cancer fears! To hell with what concerned American consumers want! Man the torpedoes and send the lawyers over to Ben & Jerry's, those hippies. How dare they state that their product doesn't contain our product--what right do consumers have to know what they're buying and not eating?

So anyway, success.

Monsanto's divestment of rBGH is a direct result of 14 years of determined opposition by organic consumer, public interest, and family farmer groups. Since its founding, the Organic Consumers Association has campaigned against this cruel and dangerous drug, pointing out to organic and health-minded consumers that rBGH-tainted dairy products pose unacceptable dangers to humans from increased antibiotic residues and elevated levels of a potent cancer tumor promoter called IGF-1. OCA's "Millions Against Monsanto" campaign has generated over a quarter million emails and petition signatures on the topic of rBGH, helping make rBGH one of the most controversial food products in the world.

And as the Organic Consumers' Association says, let's keep the ball rolling:

Now let's break Monsanto's stranglehold over seeds and take away their mandate to force-feed genetically engineered food to an unwilling public. Help us push through federal legislation to require mandatory labeling and safety-testing of GMOs (genetically modified organisms.)

Crossposted.

Hear Me Roar

This complaint letter to Proctor and Gamble was selected for one of PC Magazine’s Editors’ Choice awards last year, and it's one of my favorites, too. Ah, how well I can relate. An excerpt:

Last month, while in the throes of cramping so painful I wanted to reach inside my body and yank out my uterus, I opened an Always maxi-pad, and there, printed on the adhesive backing, were these words: ‘Have a Happy Period.’

Are you fucking kidding me? What I mean is, does any part of your tiny middle-manager brain really think happiness - actual smiling, laughing happiness - is possible during a menstrual period? Did anything mentioned above sound the least bit pleasurable? Well, did it, James?

FYI, unless you’re some kind of sick S&M freak girl, there will never be anything ‘happy’ about a day in which you have to jack yourself up on Motrin and Kahlua and lock yourself in your house just so you don’t march down to the local Walgreen’s armed with a hunting rifle and a sketchy plan to end your life in a blaze of glory.

For the love of God, pull your head out, man! If you just have to slap a moronic message on a maxi pad, wouldn’t it make more sense to say something that’s actually pertinent, like ‘Put down the Hammer’ or ‘Vehicular Manslaughter is Wrong’, or are you just picking on us?

Hmmm...I'm inspired.

(H/T Karen)

Crossposted.

Sunday Evening Smooth

How awesome is Christopher Walken? This awesome:



I first saw this Fatboy Slim video last year and loved watching one of my favorite actors showing off his moves. I completely related to the urge to dance down the empty halls of a big hotel and hop onto the brass luggage cart so as to spin it around and ride it like a skateboard--surely you've felt that way? Hell, I still feel like doing that whenever I travel, and in supermarkets, if there is no-one else in the aisle, I run with the shopping cart to pick up speed, jump on, and pretend I'm surfing as I zoom past the shelves of paper towels and cleaning stuff (usually that's the least-populated section).

I never forgot how to pirouette, and I miss going dancing so much, it's not even funny (at some point, we will once again live within shouting distance of civilization, I keep hoping). Cheers to you for never growing up, Chris--I hear it's overrated, anyway.

What?

Vintage Fashion, Everlasting Style

The elegant American actress--and soon-to-be princess--Grace Kelly,
wearing ice-blue satin*

Oooh, the Huffington Post has definitely got my attention now--check out their inaugural Women of Style post, which features NYC resident Katherine Johnstone, a fellow vintage maven and thrift-store habitué:

The women selected for this feature must have no formal affiliation with the fashion industry; nor can they have a personal stylist. The clothes and accessories are part of each subject's personal wardrobe, and cannot be provided by a designer or sittings editor.

Our inaugural subject is Ms. Katherine Johnstone, a New York-born Francophile with a flair for dramatic nostalgia. She is a press attaché for the French Government's Tourist Office. Her primary job responsibility: "Making sure Franco-American love affair stays alive."

Ms. Johnstone's approach to fashion demonstrates that money doesn't make the girl. A true vintage goddess, Ms. Johnstone, 29, has amassed the stunning wardrobe of a 1950s film star - almost entirely from thrift stores and flea markets around the globe.

The money quote:

Q: Why should the modern, educated woman care about style?

A: If you put all that time and work into your education, your resume, and your job, why would you not want to put a similar effort into your appearance?!?

More like this, please.

(*The legendary costume designer Edith Head created this dress, which reportedly cost many thousands of dollars--in the 1950's!--for Grace. So its price tag is not exactly comparable to that of your typical Goodwill find. If you do happen across its like in a thrift store, though, perhaps you could be a love and e-mail me as to the whereabouts of that thrift store...).

Crossposted.

Teflon Dick Must Go

Really, Speaker Pelosi--stop whatever you're doing and pick up your Blackberry: you need to call Congress back from their various beach houses and holiday ranches and order them to get to work on this Iraq/letter fraud matter immediately. As Keith says, at least begin impeachment hearings for the Vice President. At least him.

And then, you must initiate a full-scale Congressional investigation to find out which unholy alliances private business/government-funded bioweapons lab(s) were the actual perpetrators of the anthrax terror crimes of Fall 2001. Start here, in Princeton NJ--if that sounds familiar, it's the same town from which the stuff was mailed six-plus years and two falsely-accused microbiologists ago. Imagine that.

After all, most of us can't afford to take a vacation this year, but we still have to pay you guys. Is it too much to ask that you do your bloody jobs?

Crossposted.

Friday Frank: Chunga's Revenge; The Mudd Club, NYC; 1980

This is a dark, fuzzy video of Frank Zappa and his crew playing at the Mudd Club in New York. At the end, there's a bit of fanboy melee going on in the dressing room.

Frank's guitar work alone makes the clip worth watching, however, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Ah...summer is almost over, meaning parents everywhere are looking at the calendar, dreaming of tidy houses and actually being able to get some work done. Dreaming, I said! Dreaming.

Bon Weekend, everyone. And to Florida readers: stay dry, and be thankful for these heat-quelling clouds.

XX
D.