Picture of the Day -- 31 August 2008

A picnic on the Labor Day weekend. Looks like Gustav isn't going to be as bad as thy thought last night or earlier today.


_John

Picture of the Day -- 30 August 2008

Del ray farmers market again, where they have begun the slow transition from summer to fall produce. Sigh.


_John

Bracing for impact

Gustav. It doesn't look like isn't going to end well. Luckily it looks like the politicians are paying attention this time around and ordering people to safety.


_John

image from NASA/JPL

Picture of the Day -- 29 August 2008

It was just one of those work weeks. Thank goodness for a long weekend.


_John

Gut reaction

He hit on everything he needed to tonight. He defined himself and his ideals without coming across too strong or looking defensive. It was not broad and soaring, nor was it divisive and ideological driven. It was a speech to define the hope, potential, and common bonds of America and how he is the candidate who make us reach and strive to achieve it.

More on Obama this weekend.


_John

Picture of the Day -- 28 August 2008

The weekend is almost here.


_John

Picture of the Day -- 27 August 2008

ALL DAY.


_John

It's the Economy Stupid Wednesday

A little reading and some more A/V this week because I will not be anywhere near a computer most of the day. Also staying on what wrath this mortgage debacle is still creating.

Good thing FDR was elected president, though I didn't think he ever thought the FDIC would have to flex its muscles this hard.

This isn't a sign of a healthy bank.

And then this makes sense. Small banks are closing at a frightening clip this year.


Although I don't agree with all of this (and also putting aside that anyone can make charts with what look like staggering increases and decreases if you don't really see the raw data), the Greenspan appearance is classic. History is not going to look kindly on him. And you gotta love The Band any chance you get.



Not directly an economic story, but less cars on the road is a good thing for everyone. And I have to give dc credit now and again.


_John

image: "a cardboard house!" from flickr methyl_lives

Picture of the Day -- 26 August 2008

And today I bring you Dorian. I have know him since he was a wee kitten, and he is very sweet in his own way. Unfortunately, he has never shown Sophie his sweet side.


_John

The Scar got served

He he. Glad the Scar got his, he has been due it for some time. Bet he hates when facts get in the way of his narrative.

(Keith Olbermann's line, which I bet he thought was off mic, is: "Jesus, Joe, why don't you get a shovel?")


_John


(h/t Attytood)

Picture of the Day -- 25 August 2008

I am cat sitting Dorian and Sophie this week. This is Sophie, who is a love bug that actually enjoys getting brushed. As you can tell she was a little worn out after a brush-a-thon. (The fur I brushed off is next to her cheek.)


_John

Busy week ahead

Very busy week ahead for me, so expect light and/or very late night posting until at least Labor Day. (I have an Obama post I have been working on at the request of a friend. I hope to have it finished and posted before his speech on Thursday.)


_John

image: "City is busy" from flickr mookio

Picture of the Day -- 24 August 2008

Don't know exactly what tree these are falling from, but falling they are.


_John

Picture of the Day -- 23 August 2008

The best picture at the del ray farmers market was of the mushrooms, but since I don't like mushrooms I had to balance it out with my weekly apple turnover at the market. Now that is good eating.


_John

The Press on Biden -- AP edition

Beyond the creepy OJ-esk teevee reporting of the every movement of Biden this morning, I think the press has been pretty fair with their coverage thus far, with the exception of Fox News which I tried to watch to understand where the attacks might come from. It was comical and nonsensical, so not much new from that front.

I had written earlier about the dc bureau of the AP and how Ron Fournier, the new managing editor, was taking it in a dangerous new direction. Since that post it has been reported that Fournier was offered and deliberate taking a press job in the McCain campaign. (To the best of my knowledge he has never written about this and its potential conflicts of interests his "accountability journalism" at the AP.) Fourier it also turns out e-mailed Karl Rove in 2004 telling him to "keep up the fight," during the House investigation in to the death of Pat Tillman. He has since given a poor apology for this.

That leads up to today's piece by Fournier on Obama's choice of Biden, which is entitled "Analysis: Biden pick shows lack of confidence." It is not so much an article written by a reporter as it is a long op-ed rife with speculation and little fact. If this is "accountability journalism," then maybe Fox News should adopt this as their new slogan and hire Fournier. I really hope smaller newspapers around the country don't pick this story up and republish it.


_John

PS. Note to Chris Matthews, you need to touch up your hair color again, or just stay gray.

image: "High Contrast Newspaper" from flickr GiantsFanatic

Me on Biden

I am from the Philly suburbs, so at time Biden seems more like my Senator than the Pennsylvania senator not named Arlen Specter. And before I ever really got into politics – it really took my move to the metro dc area for grad school for that to kick in – the story that endeared me to Biden as a person is the following.

Biden made it work. He won, and became the youngest senator. But before he could even take office, Neilia, his two sons, and their baby daughter were in a brutal car accident in Delaware. Neilia and the baby were killed and the boys, Beau and Hunter, were badly injured. Biden stayed by their side during their recovery and initially refused to return to D.C. to take his Senate seat, acquiescing only after then-Majority Leader Mike Mansfield pushed him to take it. Biden vowed to remain a fixture in his sons' lives. Valerie became their surrogate mother, and Biden began the daily commute from Wilmington to Washington that made him an Amtrak champion for life. Even after Biden met and married his second wife, Jill, five years later, he didn't surrender the back-breaking schedule. "Kids keep a thought in their heads for 12 hours," he says at one campaign stop. "They aren't gonna keep it for 24 hours." He's been rewarded with two now-grown boys who are loyal to him with every inch of their being, who stump in Iowa for him, and who speak the same language of electoral politics that he does, and a surrounding extended family that remains just as beholden - and just as active. For Biden, it all comes back to his home base.

The article this is taken from is a bit dated, but hits on all of the pertinent aspects of his life. In my eyes it is quite fair and worth a read.

As for Biden, I think he brings Obama a lot of cred in a few aspects, the most obvious is his vast foreign policy experience most recently on display with his trip to Georgia (the country not the state). The others are just as important to the Obama campaign: he is a foreign policy centrist; he is a pit bull and will not back down when confronted; he is an excellent debater; he has shown great loyalty to causes and people; though he represents Delaware in the Senate, he originally is from a working-class family from northeastern PA, and, as I said in my opening of this post, he is well known in southeastern PA; he has the ability to talk and connect to anyone, especially working-class people; Biden loves Amtrak; and he is Catholic.

The pit bull nature of Biden is important because Obama seems unwilling (or unable) to fight back until very recently. Biden will not have this problem against McCain or his veep choice. On the electoral college, this makes Obama even more palatable to SE PA and gives him needed inroads to the NE part of the state. As much as I love Obama's thoughtfulness and intelligence, his inability to connect to working class whites, especially in rust belt states, has befuddled me. I am still not so sure that his religion will mean anything when the final votes are tallied, but Obama's supposed weakness among middle-aged working Catholics (a favorite topic of Chris Matthews) is something that the talking heads obsess about with every new poll. (These are essentially the working-class voters that made up Hillary's base in rust belt states.) As for backing causes he believes in, I heard a story this morning in an interview with Richard Holbrooke that Biden worked closely with conservative Senator Jesse Helms of all people to create a bill (the Biden-Helms bill), which would have paid off our billion dollar debt to the UN in exchange for the UN make some substantial reforms to prevent corruption among other things. The bill never passed, but to get Helms, who actively despised the UN until very late in his lie, to coauthor the bill shows me something. The second to last thing seems insignificant, but is something that we have not had any recent modern presidential campaign address with any conviction. The creation of more and major improvements in mass transportation are needed in the country now. I am not advocating for government run mass transportation, though I think they should subsidize it on equal footing to highway subsidies, but I believe that this ticket will be the first in a long time who focuses on mass transportation. (Obama, as a city dweller, has spoken occasionally about the need for better mass transportation.)

As for Biden's drawbacks. Well he is, how to put this kindly, loquacious. Screw it, the man loves to talk – he can easily give a 30 minute answer to a question that could be answered in 5 minutes. This leads directly to my second problem: he is apt to make horrific verbal gaffes, as he put on display during the primary season a couple of times. Biden ran against Obama in this year's primary and so his words against Obama are going to be used by the McCain campaign. (Well there we go, there is already a McCain ad up doing just that. The power of the internet.) There is the horrific 2005 bankruptcy bill that he sponsored, which the credit card companies based in Delaware pushed hard for. He has some ghosts in the close that might reappear, the two that come to mind quickly are the statements that were made when he was chairman of the Judiciary Committee during the Clarence Thomas confirmation and the plagiarism problems from his first run for president in 1987. And finally there is the real chance that he could be running for both VP as well as senator from Delaware. I really hated when Joe Lieberman did this in 2000, and I am not going to be a big fan of Biden doing it.

One last thing. I think that Biden's past may be an issue, but the McCain campaign will have to tread lightly to avoid McCain's own past from coming back to light. With the state of the economy and the number of lobbyists in his campaign, do you really think that the McCain wants to discuss his role in the Keating Five again? Well he could always use the POW defense again.


_John

AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

Broken News

I was wrong. Biden in as veep according to NBC News and CNN. I am going to bed. Let's see if they are still correct tomorrow. I will have comments on Obama's choice tomorrow as well.


_John

image: Mark Wilson/Boston Globe Staff

Picture of the day -- 22 August 2008

TJ memorial at night from 395.


_John

Mental break day

Some eye candy today.

My friend Brannon in the Philippines

Mauban, Philippines from b shiflett on Vimeo.

And a found skateboarding video

skate - shot on red - 120 fps from opus magnum prod. on Vimeo.

Enjoy.


_John

One more before bed

Looks like the IOC is finally tired of being embarrassed about the age questions swirling around Olympic female gymnast and gold medalist He Kexin. I am sure China could care less that they got caught red handed forging the passport of at least one gymnast.

Right now I view the IOC as analogous to the dc press corp. They live in their own little happy bubble and don't really know what life is like outside unless and event pops it. And they only deal with the event begrudgingly and then only to get it behind them so that they can pretend it never happened tomorrow.

I am sure I will have more on this tomorrow.


_John

image: Phil Walter/Getty Images

Picture of the Day -- 21 August 2008

I had a late day at work and my normal route home had football practices of multiple age divisions.


_John

The real story today

So I was hoping that there wouldn't be much political news until the one of the veeps was chosen. Today I was nowhere near a computer until I got home around 6:30pm, and to my amazement the tubes were abuzz with the McCain house story. I deal with that in a post below. The real news today was that the US agreed to a timeline to remove all troops from Iraq. Today Sec. Rice made a surprise trip to Iraq yesterday and although President Maliki demanded that U.S. combat forces leave by 2010, the tentative agreement calls for US troop withdraw in 2011. Rice kept referring to the agreement as containing "aspirational timetables." Any chance that type of Bush spin is playing well in Iraq? Judging by the McClatchy report, I think the momentum is growing in Iraq to have us withdraw, and the sooner the better.

This is not good news for McCain since he has repeatedly attacked anyone who has recommended or called for a timeline of US combat troop withdraw. It would be interesting to see what his reaction was today, if it wasn't for all the house-porn. Hope we can get to policies soon, pretty please press.


_John

image: "Timeline" from flickr flattop341

Making it easy

The Politico reports that McCain doesn't know how many houses he owns? [Audio here.] This is a comical in one respect, and extremely important in another. First, why this is comical: it has nothing to do with being president. It is not related to any policy decisions or even leadership. But it is extremely important because McCain was trying to (and I would say succeeding) paint Obama as elite and effete. It is really hard to do that when you and your wife own 7 (and possibly more) houses. Despite his military service, he can no longer act like a man of the people. It is clear that he is not financially, and what more both he and Obama both the ability to empathize with poor and working class voters. The elite argument is now hypocritical.

Update: the McCain camp needs to get their shit together. These responses to the number of houses he owns are digging him deeper and deeper into this mess. So you can't really call Obama elite anymore, how about arguing policies...oh right, that isn't a good idea either.

Here are the three excuses for not remembering (not in chronological order):
1. The McCain owns four houses and most are an investment, but Obama lives in a mansion. Take a look at the McCain estate.
2. Marc Ambinder reports that an unidentified McCain official said that the difference between Obama's mocking McCain for his wealth and his shaky answer on the number of homes he owns was that McCain's charge "reflects an existential reality," where Obama's charges "attack Cindy. She owns the homes. I thought he said the wives were off-limits."
3."This is a guy who lived in one house for five and a half years -- in prison," McCain spokesman Brian Rogers told the Washington Post.

Rogers also told the Post, "In terms of who's an elitist, I think people have made a judgment that John McCain is not an arugula-eating, pointy headed professor-type based on his life story." You are correct.

McCain is a noun, a verb, and POW.

As Josh Marshall points out the campaign has used the fact that McCain was a POW to explain a lot of his gaffes recently.

One more thing to add and I don't think the Obama campaign is going to run with this, but the media may start picking up on it especially with McCain's birthday on August 29th, when he will turn 72. Watch the number of times that McCain answers a question that can't "remember." That and I wonder if the press will call him out on the hypocracy of calling Congress back in when he hasn't voted since April 4. Yeah, and there might be unicorns and leprechauns.

More Updated: Jake Tapper seems to be one reporter holding McCain's feet to the flames. Let's see how long this lasts.

More More Update: The McCain cribs.

More More More Update: Politico has decided the McCains own eight houses, and from 2006 to 2007, the McCain's budget for household staff went up just over 50% from $184,000 to $273,000.

Man this story needs to die...I know that it won't because it real political legs.


_John

image: "Monopoly Houses" from flickr Anna-B

Se7en

The Obama camp is not wasting any time with McCain's house gaffe, and I must say it is about time that they start dictating their narrative. I have been pretty pissed that the Obama campaign has let the McCain campaign paint him as elite, effete, and unpatriotic. The Dems have taken the high road and lost too many times. Welcome to the muck O. Next tell your story loud and clear. It sure beats finishing fourth from the bottom of your college class, cheating on your first wife,* and being ungodly rich.


_John

*If you were wondering why the Edward's affair never got past the talking heads yapping about it for a couple of day, it is because McCain cheated on his first wife. If this became more public than it already is – and I give credit to McCain for the way he mentioned it at the Saddleback Forum on Saturday – it would be a disaster for McCain among the dyed in the wool conservatives who are already unsure of him. Not that I believe they would vote for Obama, but they might vote for Barr, or just stay home.

Picture of the Day -- 20 August 2008

Fall must be soon, the fields are beginning to be lined for football.


_John

It's the Economy Stupid Wednesday

I love FSA photography, and thought I would stop borrowing from flickr for at least this week. By using this or any other FSA photos, I am not trying to hint or insinuate that we are headed for a depression. Just love them and they are free use.

Not much for analysis this week, so it is a heavily A/V week.

The housing market is still a mess. To borrow my friend's baseball metaphor, we are in the late innings of the game, but what people don't understand is that we are playing a double header.

To wit, Tom Toles came through this week with his own visual metaphor of the housing market:







Some unfun housing starts charts (via The Big Picture)

Barry on the bottom of the housing market. (run time: 5:43) Shorter: Wake up, we are not near the bottom and credit is tight.


The WaPo had a good piece yesterday on Fannie Mae's pursuit of subprime loans. It's worth a serious read.

Wholesale prices keep creeping up.

And finally, at least we aren't Zimbabwe. The winner of Lewis Black's Evil Dictator Awards!



_John

image: "Sign on old bank building which now houses office of Bureau of Reclamation. Nyssa, Malheur County, Oregon." by Dorthea Lange, c. 1939 Oct., from the America from the Great Depression to World War II: Black-and-White Photographs from the FSA-OWI, 1935-1945.

Veep stakes

My older brother asked me for advice on his veep pool for the Dems this year.

Here is what I told him yesterday before the Biden whispers became the talk de jour of the yapping heads in the evening:

Hi Chuck, I am really not sure because what the media is guessing is so uninspiring. Guess it depends if he wants to play it safe or not. If a gun was to my head I would waffle between Kaine and Biden and then shout out an answer when I heard the trigger click back. Biden if he feels like he needs "experience" and a pitbull, Kaine if he wants someone outside of the Beltway. (Kaine has been a huge Obama supporter from the beginning, but lacks any charisma and executive experience – the later will be grist for the Republican spin machine. Biden has been the most hard hitting of Obama's supporters, but he comes with some baggage and is also from the Senate. It worked for JFK, right? Also note that Obama dispatched Biden to Georgia (the country, not the state) after McCain sent his emissaries and keystone cops Graham and Liberman.) Darkhorse (and a choice I love): Chuck Hagel, though he says he doesn't want it. If it were my money I would double down on Hagel knowing that it is a fools errand, but it would make me feel good when I lost. (Not sure this analysis is any good, but it is fresh today.) Here is Time's general take on the Obama's choices and who is being ruled out and why.

A day later, I still stand by my analysis. Just wanted to put it out there before Obama makes his selection in the next few days.


_John

image: from Time

Picture of the Day -- 19 August 2008

I've been past it more than a few times in a car, but never stopped to look around the Alexandria National Cemetery. I didn't spend much time there today and should really go back.


_John

More on McCain

Updating something I mentioned in an earlier post about John McCain's story as a POW and a cross being drawn in the dirt by one of his captor on Christmas day.

What we know now:

1. McCain never spoke or wrote about this incident until 1999 as he geared up for the 2000 presidential run.

2. The story was not stolen from Alexander Solzhenitsyn's time in the Soviet gulags, though the history of this piece of fiction seems to have started in Republican circles in the early 1980s.

3. McCain's story can never be verified only disproved since it was only him and his guard who were present when it happened. No fellow POWs can prove or disprove McCain's claim.

Speaking of POWs, one of his fellow prisoners at the Hanoi Hilton wrote a blistering op-ed on Monday. Go and read.


And here is the latest reaction from the McCain campaign concerning the cross story.


_John

image: "The Cross (Portra 400:001:31)" from flickr kukkurovaca

Maverickiness

So if you have been paying attention to McCain on the stump he has been cranky like an old neighbor in saying that Congress shouldn't have such a long vacation and should be called back to work. Okay, let's ignore the fact that the Senate Republicans have shattered the record for cloture votes (ie the new filibuster), and the fact that most of these Congressmen would like to spend significant time with families, and they need to raise money, and they need to campaign in their district. Funny that McCain never made a big deal out of this in previous years when he could spend around a week in each of the six or seven houses that he and his wife own.

Anyway, that is not what exemplifies true maverickiness. The fact that he has missed every vote in the Senate since April 8, and has voted only once since March 14 is nearly the pinnacle of maverickiness. (The one vote he did cast, drumroll please, was a cloture vote.) That's 76 straight votes and 86 of the last 87 votes that he couldn't be bothered with. For goodness sake, Sen. Kennedy came back from cancer treatment to make one of the votes during this period. The Post is following the candidates voting here.


John McCain leading by example in classic maverickiness style.


To be fair, Obama cast only 18 of the possible 76 votes since April 8, though he isn't calling for Congress to come back early. You know, just so the Senate Republicans can filibuster some more and nothing still gets passed.

Want to know the incredible pace the Senate Republicans have been setting in using the filibuster in the 110th Congress*. I'll let Sen. Durbin tell you:

Why are we in this stall? Why do the Republicans want to slow us down? It is part of a strategy. Republican filibusters this Congress, as of today, went up to 66; 66 Republican filibusters this Congress and still counting. Is that a lot? Historically, the Senate has never had more than 57 filibusters in any 2-year period. We have had 66 in a matter of a year and 3 or 4 months. So they are about to break all records with filibusters in an attempt to slow down the Senate. They can't even come to a bipartisan agreement on a technical corrections bill. The Republicans insist on these filibuster rollcalls on a technical corrections bill. Why?

If you want to know why, read the rest here. And by my count since Sen. Durbin spoke these word the Senate Republicans have filibustered 14 more times, for a grand total of 80. They aren't just sitting on their hands in the Senate, the Republicans are bringing bills to a screeching halt in record fashion. (The 107th Congress held the record of 61 total filibusters.) McCain is still a Senate Republican, maybe he should use his vast influence among his party members and actually work to get a bill passed. I can feel the maverickiness leadership, can't you?


_John


*Quick fact: Congresses are for two years, with each year noted by the "session," either first of second. For example our current Congress is the 110th Congress, 2nd Session. The first session of this Congress lasted from January 4, 2007 – December 19, 2007, and the second session, which we are currently in, began on January 3, 2008 and does not yet have a last day assigned.

image: unknown

Picture of the Day -- 18 August 2008

I vaguely remember taking this picture of metro Monday, but I crashed on my couch after I got home. I have a very long weekend at my parents' house, so sue me.


_John

Maverickiness

Since the McCain campaign hired (was taken over by?) Rove acolyte Steve Steve Schmidt as a senior adviser, I have noticed a growing trend of character assassination against Obama as well as a Bush-like blurring of and obfuscating the truth. That and the fact that the dc press establishment can't or won't call any candidate on half truths or lies, which is always an advantage to modern Republican candidates because they play politics for keeps and will sink the level needed to win. It's time to document the atrocities.

Andrew Sullivan asks, what is the true story of the the "cross in the dirt story?"

Oh, and I watched the Saddleback forum this weekend (and will comment on that later), but it appears that McCain is pissed that it is even hinted that there is an outside chance that he possibly cheated because he arrived late and was not in the "cone of silence." Read about it here, here, and here. Glad Andrea Mitchell softened this possible accusation by stating on MTP that "The Obama people must feel that he didn't do quite as well as they might have wanted..." When asked about the McCain campaign's letter this morning to NBC, Mitchell replied "I wasn't expressing an opinion, I was reporting what they were saying." It's "facts" like insinuating that Obama lost (or underperformed) at the Saddleback forum that that make Fox News fair and balanced. Kudos Andrea.


_John

image: from Ben Baker / REDUX

Picture of the Day -- 17 August 2008

Homeward bound.


_John

Picture of the Day -- 16 August 2008

Welcome to my Saturday. More chores and driving tomorrow.


_John

Picture of the Day -- 15 August 2008

On the road again this weekend and haven't had time to post until today. Sunset over the Knickerbocker landfill. Superfund sites rule!


_John

Picture of the Day -- 14 August 2008

It was just one of those days.


_John

Picture of the Day -- 13 August 2008

The path I took.


_John

It's the Economy Stupid Wednesday

A bit late today, got a bit caught up in dissertation and work matters and finally. With a solution of OTC medicines to finally tamp down my allergy-induced sinus headaches, I think might be a bit more productive all around for the rest of the month. This week's post will be short and sweet because it is all kinda grim at the moment.

The retail sector is taking a nosedive.

The shitty mess in the credit market will further fuck NYC and NY as the losses pile the amount of corporate taxes goes down...to just about nothing. How we all feeling about deregulation? Heck of a job Bushie.

In more housing news: Almost one-third of U.S. homeowners who bought in the last five years now owe more on their mortgages than their properties are worth. Gulp.

In still more housing news: Wave two of defaults might be in the offing. I don't think we have reached the bottom. Greenspan disagrees with me, though I won't trust him until he takes some (or any) responsibility for this mess.

Banks are tightening credit, so it is even harder for otherwise low-risk borrowers to get loans, such as mortgages.

In no shit news: Sec. Henry "Strong Dollar" Paulson* says he won't stay at the Treasury past January. What happens on January 20th again? It really makes my head hurt.

However, the dollar did improve against the Euro this week. Not sure what that means in the grand scheme of things. The rise might be temporary anyway.


I'll leave Zimbabwe alone this week. We can all buy a house for $1 (yes, one dollar) in Detroit.


_John


*As my friend has taught me, we are actually carrying out a weak dollar policy (or are we floating it? Is there a difference?) for some very good reasons. Paulson, however, kept repeating like an idiot parrot that we were carrying out a strong dollar policy. He fit in so nicely with the reality based Bush administration.

image: "paper_house_2" from flickr sachiebade

Picture of the Day -- 12 August 2008

Haven't been over to the Jefferson Memorial in over a year and had some extra time before my season ending softball game, so I wandered over. The wall around tidal basin near the Jefferson has slowly been sinking, and as a reaction to flooding of this sidewalk next to water the NPS has put in a temporary paved walkway around the flooding area. They also put up these cute signs. My personal bet is that the temporary walkway is there in ten years (if not indefinitely) and that they far outlast the high tide signs. Anyway, Dips win, Dips win.


_John

Picture of the Day -- 11 August 2008

More postcard looking shot for an atypical non-metro Monday.

Picture of the Day -- 10 August 2008

Up early for a soccer game, we lost. I live in a city that does sleep. It was quiet on the metro and downtown where I met my ride. I don't ride the yellow line much anymore, but love the view of the Potomac it provides, especially on clear mornings.


_John

RIP Weekend edition

Bernie Mac died of a respiratory problem on Saturday, and on Sunday Isaac Hayes was found dead next to his treadmill. I found Bernie Mac really funny most of the time and it is a shame that the lasting impression in some people's mind might be the the awful performance – as relayed by the press – of his recent performance for the Obama campaign. The following Bernie Mac clip is NSFW.


Hayes will be remembered mainly for two things (at least to me): Writing and performing the "Theme from Shaft"; and his voice over work as Chef on South Park. I would say something nasty about Scientology here, but it is best to let the dead rest in peace. So instead I'll let South Park do it.


Oddly they had both finished working together on the movie Soul Men.


_John

Picture of the Day -- 09 August 2008

Shocking, at the del ray farmers market again on a Saturday morning. Fresh organic (?) sausage. Tasty, but very expensive.


_John

Picture of the Day -- 08 August 2008

The Olympics have begun, and I must say that the opening ceremonies were excellent.


_John

Picture of the Day -- 07 August 2008

I had a few good pictures today, so instead of posting two I really liked I am only posting one. The second picture is my first dedication to my buddy who is teaching me ECON 101.John'sanIdiot, and getting married this fall. Let's see if I learned anything today...Why don't you take your Keynesized Laffler Curve and stick it where your Milton Friedman doesn't shine or Toby Keith will stick his boot in your ass. How's that for interpolation? Just kidding. Hopefully what he is teaching me will stick to my dense brain enough for me to make some sense of it to include it in my Wednesday posts in the near future.


_John

Picture of the Day -- 06 August 2008

White picket fences still exist and still have a place, including del ray.


_John

Entertainment round up: July edition

I didn't finish any non-dissertation related books, so no Literature section this month.

Music
It was a good month for me an music. Maybe this year is turning around. Here is the music from my shuffle in alphabetical order.

Frightened Rabbit, The Midnight Organ Fight

One of the best albums of the year so far this year. A complete album where the songs seems to flow effortlessly into each other that helps tie together the large themes of the album, namely relationships from a decidedly male perspective. At times the album is hard driving and other times hauntingly soft, with a couple of the songs containing extremely raw lyrics. Best tracks include "The Modern Leper" (the best opening song on an album I have heard in a long time), "Good Arms vs. Bad Arms," "Backwards Walk," "Keep Yourself Warm," and "Poke." I now regret missing their recent show in dc.

Bottom line: 4.5/5, Strongly suggest you go get it.

Mike Doughty, Golden Delicious

The lead singer of my beloved Soul Coughing produced a much more organic album than his past solo efforts. Although I applaud him for going back to his roots, this album contains more bad songs than good. The good ones are really good, but just aren't enough to warrant buying this album. Those tracks are "Fort Hood," "Wednesday (Contra La Puerta)," the very danceable (and I don't dance) "I Just Want the Girl In the Blue Dress," and the haunting "Like A Luminous Girl." I think I might be skipping his appearance at the Birchmere this fall.

Bottom line: 2.5/5, Purchase by songs only.

My Morning Jacket, Evil Urges

This album took me a while to understand and fully appreciate. The initial reviews I read trashed the album because it was not as good as their previous album Z, which it isn't. It isn't because the band clearly decided to go in a new direction. A Rolling Stone review compared the album favorably to Kid A and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot as albums that took their respective bands in such a new direction as to alter the genre that they helped create. (Note to RS: Evil Urges is no YHF or Kid A for that matter.) After reading the RS review, I decided to do what I did with YHF and listen to it over and over again, and I had a similar reaction as the album grew on me. My initial disappointment in the album diminished, but I realized that the album was not the clean break that YHF or Kid A represented. Evil Urges points to a new direction, but does not fully commit. I am glad that the entire band was used more to create atmosphere and sound than in past albums. The tracks flow nicely into each other with the end of the album flexing it muscle. If I were to ever own a bar this album would be in high rotation at the end of the night. It has a classic rock flavor with moder sound. There are very few tracks that I would continually skip, and the best tracks include "Evil Urges," "Sec Walking," the rockin' "Remnants," and my favorite "Smokin from Shootin." (Smokin from Shootin actually blends seamlessly into the last two tracks, "Touch Me I'm Going To Scream Pt. 2" and "Good Intentions," for a potent ending to the album.

Bottom line: 4.5/5, Great album if you love good music and alt country and/or classic rock. Make sure you give it a few spins before making your final decision on it.

N.E.R.D, Seeing Sounds

I must be upfront and admit I am not a huge N.E.R.D. fan, but I appreciate what they do musically. This album is an improvement over their last effort, and points to the different directions that hip-hop can go. Their performance of "Spaz" on Late Night with Conan O'Brien last night was amazing. The best tracks are "Spaz," "Yeah You," "Sooner or Later," and "Lovebomb."

Bottom line: 3.5/5, Good, but a bit uneven for me.


Cinema
Didn't have a lot of free time for the cinema this month.

The Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan

This was a fantastic movie, and all of the reviews about Heath Ledger's performance were not over the top. Ledge deserves serious Oscar consideration for his portrayal of The Joker. The reinvention of this genre has been great for Batman, but I worry about all of the the other comic and graphic novel based movies. Hollywood seems to have run out of new ideas again, and their is nothing like too many sequels and copycats to kill a genre, bury it, dig it back up, and then kill it again. I fear that is what is happening now with this genre.

Bottom line: 4.75/5, Go see it. If I have a to see this in IMAX, I will post an update.


Television
This category will appear sporadically if I see something on the boob tube of note.

Mad Men, AMC, Sundays at 10pm
I have been trolling for a show of my own after the unexpected and untimely death of Deadwood. I think I have just found it in Mad Men. The show recently began its second season on AMC and I was lucky enough that Comcast has season one On-Demand. (Season one is also out on dvd if you don't have it On-Demand.) I am all caught up now, and have to say that this show should sweep the Emmy's and Golden Globes. It is by far and away the best written and acted show on television at the moment. It amazes me that the networks don't have a show like this on their schedules. A pitch perfect period show (set in 1960 NYC), with no violence or foul language. Yes, it has some adult movements, but no more than other shows at 10:00pm. Guess they need a new reality show more.

Bottom line: 5/5, Go watch it. It is on basic cable, so what are you waiting for?

It's the Economy Stupid Wednesday

The Fed held interest rates at 2%. I am sure Ben Bernake is not sleeping well at night with the spectre of inflation (and dare I say stagflation) looming. Between my last economics post and this one the Fed also decided to hold open the discount window for banks. I would try to explain exactly what this means, but I will let wikipedia do it for me. (Here is where the Fed's website directs you to understand the discount window. Headache inducing.) There was a recent protest of the discount window down here in dc, and though I didn't see it, here are some pictures.

William Engdahl at Global Research, examines the real state of the US economy. Note the amount of retail stores shuttering their doors.

Can someone please tell me with unbridled success of the Bush tax cuts and regulatory policies, why on God's green earth should we continue them? How does it make any logical sense to McCain with our economy, at best, sputtering along that continuing and possibly increasing tax cuts will rebound the economy? Where in the world has this ever been successful? My head hurts.

At least we aren't Zimbabwe, though it would be cool to just hold a 10 million dollar bill just once in my life.


_John

Can you smell what Barack is cooking?

If you missed the pop culture reference of the title, I am truly getting old.

If you were wondering what McCain was yelling about on Tuesday, check out Countdown's take. (Sorry for the link, but I can only embed so much in one day.)


_John

Picture of the Day -- 05 August 2008

I grew up outside of Philly and there is some great sculptures and art around the city. Beyond memorials, monuments, statues, and building architecture, dc is pretty crappy for street scape art. Like this thing, whatever it is.


_John

Breaking News from the Old Man Bureau

See more Paris Hilton videos at Funny or Die

Never thought Paris Hilton would appear on this blog, but McCain opened the door and Paris kicked it in.


_John

Breaking News from the Departmet of Badass

I was never a huge RATM fan, but I always respected what they did. (I never own an album, but back in the day I did borrow their self-titled album from my older brother when he wasn't looking.) More artists need to speak out for what they believe in and what they stand for. It's call the First Amendment, and since the current administration couldn't curtail it we should all sing in our own voices every chance we have.

The reason for the post is that it is being reported that RATM is playing in Minneapolis at Target Center on Sept. 3, which not so coincidentally is the same week as the Republican National Convention in St. Paul. (The RNC is September 1-4.) That is the definition of badass. I think they will have something special the Rs that night.

I picked the video for "Sleep Now in the Fire" because it seems as relevant today, if not more so, than it did when it was released in 2000. Wall St.'s a mess, and I am left pondering if there are any adults left on The Street? As for RATM, I do wonder if they regret the tone of this video.


_John


PS. Sorry for the size of the video. This embed is not playing along nicely with me resizing it.

Dips softball, catch the fever.

Here are some pictures of our heroes, including yours truly, taken by their favorite manager. (Thanks Christine.)

Working on a few longer posts, but I keep getting backed up with other things.


_John

Picture of the Day -- 04 August 2008

Metro Monday continues.


_John

Picture of the Day -- 03 August 2008

The best weather day of the summer, and more Villagers soccer. We tied, and this official sucked.


_John

Picture of the Day -- 02 August 2008

A basil jungle at the farmers market this morning.


_John