Amazing.

Best Onion article in a while.

Back from Minnesota

Lots to write about, but I can safely say that Duluth, MN is one of the more beautiful cities in the country. Had a good time up there.

Thank God Paul Berman has the guts to stand up to other liberals' constant Che Guevara worship. The guy was a Soviet-style autocrat who favored firing squads, suppression of civil liberties, and the rounding up of gays. When I see Oliver Stone et al. hanging out with Castro it makes me sick. How can us lefties decry the Bush administration's assault on civil liberties while wearing Che Guevara t-shirts? Cuba is an abject failure in nearly all respects except for education, and though I don't like the US Cuba policy, I have to admit that I'm uncomfortable with an anti-Semitic, anti-homosexual, anti-freedom sociopath like Castro (and, posthumously, Che Guevara) getting off so easily. Screw Che Guevara.

Soviet-style communism was an utter failure, and us liberals need to distance ourselves from it as much as possible, not embrace one of its most ardent supporters.

Bad news for boob lovers.

Russ Meyer died.

In other news, I got an email today from one Sassafrases J. Mitosis concerning "Big Gray SWEET LATINA heels." Intrigued by the subject, I read on, only to be greeted by sheer poetry:

rowdy picks helps roads added jolly newly reset skill bound cloak hasty under

William Carlos Williams...eat your heart out!

Busy Bee.

Not the rapper, silly people...me! I'm feel like I can't keep anything together these days. Between weird job offers, two shows in three days (which went very well), and running a publicity department, I've noticed that my life is starting to fray around the edges.

To top it all off, I'm going to be going to Minnesota this weekend to perform a wedding for my cousin. My St. Louis County wedding credentials have not yet been verified, so I'm sort of freaking out. I think this will be the end of blogging for a week or so.

Sorry.

Hey, Louisiana!

Up yours!

Creepy

I probably wouldn't want to send my children to a place called Peachy Poo-Poo's Daycare. On general principle, I think that the word "poo-poo," in any iteration, should be left out of the titles of businesses.

I hope everyone's safe out there.

A tornado supposedly just touched down on the corner of Whitehall and Milledge!

Semi-gay post of the day

I watched Regis and Kelly this morning and watched a NASCAR fashion show featuring the top ten drivers in the Nextel Cup, and I've gotta say: that's a handsome bunch of guys. I mean, they've really ditched the Richard Pettys of the world for some drivers who don't look like rednecks. Matt Kenseth's teeth are a little weird, but besides that...damn!

I'm not usually like this...

...but it serves him right.

Neat!

Athens is listed on the MSN Travel site as one of the top ten places to see the leaves change (well, technically, the drive on 441 from Athens to the NC border) and I can attest to that fact. Athens itself is gorgeous and then the road after Commerce on up to Cherokee is pretty breathtaking when the leaves are changing. I went hiking up there by myself a few years back for no reason. It was a great day.

I hope to see some great fall foliage in Duluth, MN when Mame, The Agent, and I head up there next week for my cousin's wedding.

Today is your day!

Fibromyalgia got you down? That pesky brain tumor won't go away? Can't hear very well?

Well, Benny Hinn can heal you lickety-split with the power of Jesus Christ!

Every morning and a lot of late nights I watch this ethnically ambiguous (he's everything to everybody!) charlatan lay his hands on people and knock them over with the power of Our Savior, curing them of some pretty serious stuff. At first, I thought it was pretty funny stuff--it is entertaining television--but I've come to realize that most of those people up there on stage aren't actors, and he hurries them off before they get a chance to say "my back still hurts."

Here's a great expose courtesy of Rick Ross that was written by none other than Joe Bob Briggs himself, Mr. John Bloom (who writes for The New Yorker and stuff, by the way). It's pretty disturbing and fascinating stuff, and, in the end, it pissed me off really badly. I already have a lot of problems with the way the Catholic Church conducts business. This goes waaaaay beyond the call of duty into downright evil territory.

I wish people would wake up to this guy and other sophists like Rev. Moon, who holds big sway with the GOP. Sure, the Dems have vaguely sleazy guys like George Soros, but the Republicans have a false messiah in Moon. Fitting.

I bet Benny Hinn gives mostly to the GOP.

The Ol' 96er

Even I think this is gross, and I do love a tasty burger.

I'm so sick of talking about politics.

I feel like I've never been so angry in my life. I'm afraid that I'm so mad at the state of this country that I'm eating myself alive. So...no more for a while.

I will say this: I'm listening to the re-recording of SMiLe and it sounds pretty damned good. Brian sings very well on it, and the production is solid. The "Heroes and Villians" on this album is nearly five minutes long. I want to go see him in October, but I gots no money.

I knew they thought it...

But I never knew they would just come out and say it. Dick Cheney on a John Kerry win:

"It's absolutely essential that eight weeks from today, on Nov. 2, we make the right choice, because if we make the wrong choice then the danger is that we'll get hit again and we'll be hit in a way that will be devastating from the standpoint of the United States," Cheney told about 350 supporters at a town-hall meeting in this Iowa city."

Shameless.

Another reason to hate the Yankees.

The Evil Empire wants the poor Tampa Bay Devil Rays to forfeit a game they missed (the first in a doubleheader) because of travel delays resulting from Hurricane Frances. Can we finally acknowledge the fact that the Yanks are no longer the team of yore? Will the East Coast-biased sports media finally come out and admit that the Yankees are nothing more than high priced-ringers, a Frankenstein's monster assembled from the best parts developed by other teams? I love the Yankees of old. That's why this classless group of jerks makes me so angry. George Steinbrenner speaks reverentially of the Yankees' legacy, but obviously he doesn't really give a damn. All he cares about is winning, whether it be on or off the field. Sure, the Yankees are in a tight division race. But in this case, a little compassion seems necessary. Give the Devil Rays a break...they made the right decision and picked being with their families over playing a meaningless game (for them) in NYC. Screw the Yankees.

The Croom era begins!

Thank God. Mississippi State, 28, Tulane 7.

ESPN ran it front page on their website. That's pretty hot.

Oh, and go to hell, Ole Miss!

I get it.

No one will comment here anymore because of those stupid Blogger comments. I don't blame you. Sorry. I changed the template and was stuck with 'em.

Anyway, here are two good op-eds on the Republicans and their campaign of fear and obfuscation:

#1
#2

Thank you.

Another must read.

This time from Fred Kaplan detailing Zell's (and the GOP's talking points') lies. Just trying to give you ammunition. I can honestly say that this may be the most important election of the last fifty years. Usually, the difference between presidential candidates is quite small because presidents have traditionally followed similar foreign policies.

One of the things that Weber liked about bureaucracy was its ability to weather transitions between leadership changes. Well, the bureacracy of the Depts. of State and Defense have been weakened and hijacked, respectively, and their couldn't be two more different foreign policy paths than the ones presented for us this election. Honestly, Clinton and Bush I and Clinton and Dole didn't have very different foreign policies. Domestic agendas set them apart, and even then, not by much. God, what a difference a couple of elections makes, eh? I almost wish that Dole had one, so we wouldn't have ever had W. Seriously.

The Bush group's assault on democracy, portraying criticism of the president as weakening this country, is so disgusting...well, I just can't even talk about it without getting sick.

Man, it's weird...

...but me and Andrew Sullivan: we're like this now. And what's even better is that I haven't even had to move my positions one iota. He's finally figured out what some conservatives have feared: the GOP is no longer the party of personal responsibility, small government, fiscal prudence, more freedom, and a healthy skepticism of governmental meddling, including nation-building. Plus, they don't like gay folks too much.

Welcome aboard. I win! It's a pretty hollow victory, to tell you the truth.

I heard a rumor...

...that Banarama kind of sucks. You know who doesn't? The Concretes.

Jesus

God and Big Tobacco made him do it.

Joe Conason has the goods on Zell Miller's conversion.

I couldn't watch Bush's speech last night because I was playing a show (which went pretty well, by the way--we played with a great "new" Polyvinyl band called the Headlights). I hope it was a lot less depressing than this year's downer of a State of the Union address. I haven't even read much about it, but I did find this interesting article about who will probably be leaving the cabinet next year. I never thought Ashcroft would, but if Bush wins, we can only hope.

You know, people always dis on USA Today, but they were one of the few papers to actually lead with stories that were critical of the Bush Administration and the war plans. I think that their reporting has dramatically improved.

I'm not the only one...

Josh Marshall links to this blog (from a Georgian Democrat), who has a remarkably similar take to myself on Zell Miller, further noting that we didn't hear more than a few sentences about any kind of domestic agenda. Amazing! The Democrats think that their convention should only be about the Vietnam War and the GOP makes their convention about the War in Iraq, when I believe that most people still care about what in the hell is going on with their pocketbook at the end of the day. A lot of empirical research suggests this.

Don't make me get out JSTOR!

Give 'em hell, Zell...and other rambling

More like "Give 'em bile and vitriol, Zell!"

Listen, I don't mind negative campaigning. I actually enjoy it quite a bit, and I feel it's absolutely necessary. When candidates talk about taking the "high road," they're talking about losing. They're talking about Dukakis, Mondale, and Carter. There is negative campaigning and there's dirty campaigning. There is a difference. God, our negative campaigning these days is nothing compared to some of the aspersions cast on Grover Cleveland, who sired a child out-of-wedlock; the rallying cry of his Republican opposition was "Ma, Ma, where's my Pa?" That was pretty much their only issue. What about the whole "Bloody Shirt" stuff: "Vote how you shot!" That's pretty heavy stuff.

Zell Miller probably doesn't even know John Kerry from Adam. Hell, the man hasn't been caucusing with the Dems for a while now. He thinks that the party has moved away from him. Who in the hell is he kidding? If anything, the lasting legacy of the Clinton era, much to my chagrin, is that the party got MORE conservative, not LESS. If Zell can't see that than he's an idiot. But let's face it, the man has always been a weather vane, whether it's going against civil rights in the 1960s to supporting Clinton in 1992 to trying to get rid of the rebel flag to jumping on the W. bandwagon. They call him Zig Zag Zell for a reason. Everybody changes their minds. I do all of the time. I used to hate Journey, for example. I like 'em now. But for conservative commentators to now chafe (like they've done this week on the radio: Boortz and Rush, I'm talking to you) at the whole Zig Zag Zell stuff as if all of us sudden he was a man with resolute, stolid opinions is being a little disingenuous, in part because it was conservatives and Republicans who came up with that nickname, and also because of the whole Kerry Flip-Flopper designation. Oh, so Kerry can't change his mind, but Zell can because he supports you now? Ridiculous.

Sure, I think that Kerry makes things overly complex. I think he's been strangely cagey with his own personality, not letting it come through. And he's been a pussy. He has sooooo much ammunition against Bush, and he uses about 2% of it. He's taking the "high road." The man needs to go on the offensive. Kerry needs to take Bush head-on. Some people call that stooping to Bush's level. I call it not @#$%#-ing losing the @$^@!-ing election!

Zell's speech last night might have done some damage, but my sense of it is that it might have turned a lot of people off as well. Look at the contrasting images of southerners here: Zell, the mean and angry Dixiecrat orator vs. Edwards, the hometown boy makes good.

I think that Zell fired up the base, but I'm not so sure that he converted a lot of other people. It was a nasty, nasty speech, filled with lies and generalizations. Not all Dems are "Blame America First" types. Not all of them are anti-war. Andrew Sullivan (who all of a sudden I'm in agreement with all of the time since Bush screwed gays over completely) has a great point about this section of the speech:

Motivated more by partisan politics than by national security, today's Democratic leaders see America as an occupier, not a liberator. And nothing makes this Marine madder than someone calling American troops occupiers rather than liberators.

Sullivan writes that America can be both occupier and liberator, and it doesn't have to be one way or the other. This is way the Bush Administration has operated from day one--boiling everything down to oversimplified us vs. them, occupation vs. liberation-style arguments. I think that it is part of the reason that they have been so succesful, too. It's a lot harder for the American public to digest the complexities of international relations and the situation in the Middle East than it is for them to buy the whole "Saddam is a horrible human being who has it in for the US and that means you and your family!" line. Hell, Zell bought it. He started his speech of that way.

The problem with this that Bush and Co. refuse to see anything more than this dumbed-down view of things. They're stuck in the Cold War, when things were slightly more cut-and-dry. It's almost like the Hulk came up with our foreign policy: "Democracy good. Saddam bad. Iraq love democracy." The world is a complex place. That can't be denied, but it seems like extremists on both sides oversimplify things. Extremism appeals to people who want things always one way. It appeals to naivete. Ann Coulter, Noam Chomsky, Richard Perle: these aren't dumb people, but they are all incredibly naive, each in very different ways. The Bush administration prays on people's fears and plays to their need for order while failing to tell them the truth about the means to their excruciatingly simple ends.

In a way, I'm glad. I'm glad that Zell has brought the hatred to the foreground. Hopefully, he becomes the Pat Buchanan of 2004, showing people the real nastiness behind the GOP. The GOP may have shoved the Santorum camp to the side, but they had Zell to show that you don't need to be a crazy social conservative to be a vindictive, hateful, lie-spouting person. Jeffrey Toobin (of CNN and the New Yorker) agrees:

"That is the single most negative speech I have ever heard at a political convention," Toobin said of Miller's speech. "An all-out, bombs away attack on John Kerry. Whether people want to hear that, I don't know. But I've never heard anything like it. Few people will be persuaded by that rhetoric, but it will charge up the troops.

(snip)

With President Bush's speech set to cap the convention on Thursday, Toobin said he already had a ominous prediction of the coming two months before Election Day.

"Starting Monday, we're going to see this campaign at a new level of negativity and hostility and combat that will make the summer look like a student council election," Toobin said.

Like I said, there is a difference between being nasty and negative. Zell Miller took the GOP to new lows of nastiness last night. 6 years ago, I wouldn't have believed it if you had told me what was going to happen at this GOP convention. I was happy when Zell got picked. Talk about naive! Though the Republicans are kissing Miller's butt for right now, I'm not sure that the speech will come back to haunt them. Note the stern "rebuking" that NewsMax claims Miller gives to Chris Matthews in this transcipt. It looks to me like Miller didn't have much to say to defend himself. He lied and made straw man and compositional fallacies all through his speech. All of the homespun wisdom in the world can't hide the fact that the man is gone for good.

Show!

Venice Is Sinking is playing tomorrow night (Thursday, 9/2/2004) at the Caledonia Lounge in Athens, GA with the Headlights, who used to be called the Enemies. Or something. I hope to see everybody there as Alex has promised nudity and molasses or vice versa.

I was once like you.

I was once cool. Witness the evidence here.

This guy must be a mathmagician.

I found a weird quote in the Washington Post:

"We've just gone through 261/27 weeks of torture trying to get our lives back to some sense of order," said Punta Gorda retiree Tom Hamilton.

261/27? Let's see: 27 goes into 261 9.6 (with a bar over the 6) times. Which means somewhere in the realm of a little over 9 1/2 weeks. Which must mean that the guy is a big Kim Basinger fan or something because Hurricane Charley came through little over two weeks ago. I mean, that movie sucked, but she did get naked a bunch, so I don't blame him. Mickey Rourke had a lot of sex for someone who never actually took his pants off. It was hard for me to get my life in order when I happened to catch that movie on HBO when I was 15.

The Zen Master of Porn Emails.

That would be Mr. Gazpacho A. Winterize (what were his parents thinking?) who sent me this sage advice in an email titled "Whatever Big Gray":

For whatever reason these ladies want to cheat on their husbands

http://else.hotladiestodate.com/381086/etc.


Take your wife's first advice.

Have fun,
Beauty is but skin deep.


http://real.my.hotladiestodate.com/381086/datelonelywives/etc.


Empty bags cannot stand upright. . Honesty is the best policy. . An open door may tempt a saint. . A journey of a thousand sites begins with a single click. . Familiarity breeds contempt.

Too many cooks spoil the broth.

no more? http://steps.yet.onlythebestbabes.com/emms/etc.

.The meek shall inherit the earth. . Once a task has first begun, never quit until it's done,. To add insult to injury. . He who rises late must trot all day. . He who wronged you will hate you. . Step by step one goes far. .

Stop beating around the bush. . Divide and conquer. . A spark can start a great fire.

Gazpacho, I have now achieved inner peace...thanks to you.

My city is burning!

As I walked to work this morning, I noticed about 6 different fire trucks in front of local pizza parlor/triva house Transmetropolitan. They had hoses run through the second floor windows, the street was blocked off, and a distinct smoke-like smell floated on the breeze.

More news as it comes in!

Whoops, there goes...

...another victory in the War on Terror. I wonder how much press this will get because it's pretty damaging to the Justice Dept. at a time when Bush is being huzzah-ed for his supposed "record" in the War on Terrorism at the GOP Convention. Remember, the Detroit Sleeper Cell incident was one of the first major victories in the WoT, with arrests coming just six days after 9/11.

22-0

That's how bad the Yankees lost to the Indians last night. 22-0. It tied the record for the worst shutout in baseball history. Steinbrenner has to be flipping out right now. His empire is crumbling before his eyes as the Red Sox are now only 3 1/2 games back in the AL East. That lead was 10 1/2 games just a few weeks ago. That's amazing. I hope that the Yankees not only lose their division but don't make it in on the wild card either. Of course, Joe Torre would probably lose his job considering he's managing the "most talented" team in baseball. The thing is: I think they're a paper tiger. Sure, the Yankees' hitting is great, but their defense is slipping, and their pitching has been rocky for a while now. I wouldn't want to go into the postseason with that kind of pitching roster, especially with that debacle of a pitcher Estaban Loiza playing on your side (who, by the way, gave up two 3-run homers last night in the ninth!). Too bad they can't bust him down to their farm system because they barely have one. They just buy their players. To be honest, so do the Red Sox, but their moves have been smarter this year, especially the Nomar trade.

The reason that the Braves have always been so appealing to me is that they manufacture their own stars, for the most part. Sure, last year we had Castilla (who hit well in a contract year-surprise!) and Sheffield and stuff, and the big offense was fun. But it didn't feel right. It didn't feel like the Braves, a bunch of well-playing no-names, for the most part, who were grown from the ground up in a well-developed farm system. Look at our stand-out players: besides J.D. Drew and Johnny Estrada, most everybody else has come from the minor leagues. I think that the Braves are ultimately a stronger team for it. There are no egos and more realistic expectations (which they've clearly shattered this year).

The Giants and Dodgers are literally being propped up by a handful of great players: Bonds and Jason Schmidt in the former and Beltre (amazing) and Gagne in the latter. And, honestly, the closer role is a little overrated anyway. The reason the Cardinals and the Braves have been so successful, even after rough patches, is that they are actual teams of players with an organizational personality and institutional memory. God, that St. Louis Cardinals lineup is scary as hell, and they're not all superstars, beyond Pujols and a few others. But they work together as a team. They have some intangibles. For all the talk about the Yankees and their sense of "history" and "legacy" (don't get me started on this), they're nothing more than a high-priced bunch of ringers, and they have begun to show their seams in the past few years.

Good. It couldn't happen to a "nicer" bunch of guys.

Go Sox!