'Best of TBH Politoons'
Baron Dave Romm
Quick Thoughts '08 Part I
By Baron Dave Romm
Shockwave Radio Theater
podcasts
Note: I just redid all the podcasts and
added two (Paul & Storm, Gilligan's Island Theme Song)
if you're
having problems with Shockwave podcasts let me know.
The political season is upon us
The conservative news media has been covering the horserace for months, perhaps a year. They have to make every minor thing sound immediate and important. In doing so, they manage to miss a lot of news that's actually important but requires real journalism and an expectation that their audience has an attention span longer than a can of beer. This abrogation of responsibility is why blogs are the major source of news for many people.
Including you.
Here are some items, some deliberate attempts at humor, some true stories that are darkly humorous, reported in the style of News of the Weird, sort of.
Satire or Prescience? We report, you decide
On December 19, 2007, Fire damages Cheney's ceremonial office, "Flames did not reach Cheney's office, but it sustained smoke and water damage". Given the White House's refusal to answer subpeonas and millions of "lost" e-mails, we don't know what was actually lost on the fire. Excuse me: We don't know what was "actually" lost in the fire. Evil vs. incompetence. Satire (presumably) from DailyKos blogger Reality Bites Back: White House confirms the following records destroyed in the 3rd floor fire. Partial list:
All records of clients of the DC Madame
All IMs and emails between Republican congressmen and underage Congressional staffers
Secret Service records of all people having meetings with the President and Vice President since January 2001
All recorded promises, affirmations, and statements by Democratic Congressional leaders to hold the Administration accountable
GOP Plan to Coordinate the Hate. Satire from Talking Points Memo Dec. 10, 2007, but rings too true.
"Huckabee's surge is just the latest symptom of the problem," said one analyst. "Before this, it was the attempt to cast Thompson as Mister Excitement. The root problem is that we have an array of niche candidates who offer intense, concentrated hatreds of one group or another, but no 'big tent' candidate capable of hating everyone at once. We need to coordinate the hate for 2008."
Satire? I'm still holding out hope that someone is serious about Project Pterosaur from Objective Ministries, which I've talked about before. They claim to be hiring a Videographer/Documentarian. I could do that, and be Fair and Balanced.
Couldn't Possibly Be True
NYTimes on money being stolen from National Republican Congressional Committee by the treasurer, who was also treasurer for Swift Boats for Truth. NYTimes (requires free registration) 3/6/08:
Hundreds of thousands of dollars are missing and presumed stolen from the chief fund-raising arm of House Republicans, according to party officials who described the findings of emergency internal audits.The MSM, of course, has been told to only blame Democrats.
The financial records of the group, the National Republican Congressional Committee, may also have been falsified for several years, Republican officials said. The campaign committees of several Republican lawmakers may also have been victims of a scam that is now under criminal investigation by the F.B.I.
GOP Obstructionism DailyKos post by Kagros X from June 26, 2007 and still not covered by the conservative news media. The GOP is filibustering stuff that has already passed.
Yet more procedural roadblocks were in evidence today on the bill to implement the still-not-enacted recommendations of the 9/11 commission, and the ethics and lobbying reform bill -- both of which have already passed the House and the Senate.
How, then, were Republicans able to obstruct bills that have already passed? Good question!
The House and Senate have each passed different versions of the bills, which means the discrepancies have to be resolved in conference. That's just what it sounds like: a conference of House Members and Senators get together and settle on one version -- known as the conference report. Then, that conference report gets voted on in both the House and the Senate, so that each chamber eventually passes exactly the same language.
Iraq Veterans Banned From Veteran's Day Parade. Many newspaper articles have expired, so this is from Soldiers Voice Forum, Nov. 11, 2007. You see, they' weren't soldiers in the conservative sense of dying and injured in the line of duty. They weren't veterans in the "AWOL" and "draft deferment" Chickenhawk sense. No, they were veterans who served their time and did so with distinction, patriotism... and intelligence. They are a Republican's worst nightmare: Antiwar veterans.
Police concerned about order to stop weapons screening at Obama rally Dallas Star-Telegram 2/21/08. Apparently the Secret Service ordered security to stand down when the Democratic frontrunner came to town. Shades of JFK.
DALLAS -- Security details at Barack Obama's rally Wednesday stopped screening people for weapons at the front gates more than an hour before the Democratic presidential candidate took the stage at Reunion Arena.
The order to put down the metal detectors and stop checking purses and laptop bags came as a surprise to several Dallas police officers who said they believed it was a lapse in security.
Dallas Deputy Police Chief T.W. Lawrence, head of the Police Department's homeland security and special operations divisions, said the order -- apparently made by the U.S. Secret Service -- was meant to speed up the long lines outside and fill the arena's vacant seats before Obama came on.
George W. Bush: He would be a joke if lives weren't being lost
Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco Formed to Honor George W. Bush Looking to honor the forty-third President of the United States of America, George W. Bush, the recently formed Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco is looking to change the name of the Oceanside Wastewater Treatment Facility. It seems the group would like to rename the SF Zoo adjacent facility to the "George W Bush Sewage Plant." SFist March 31, 2008.
Embattled Veterans Official Resigns Post . Daniel Cooper resigns after not doing his job. Praying to Jesus and his religion are more important than helping soldiers. 2/29/08. Another high-ranking Bush administration figure resigns in disgrace.
AN FRANCISCO, Feb 29 (IPS) - Another high-ranking George W. Bush administration official has resigned. The Department of Veterans Affairs Undersecretary for Benefits Daniel Cooper quit Thursday amid mounting criticism over a backlog of disability claims for injured veterans that runs six months long and an appearance he made in a fundraising video for an evangelical Christian organisation where he said Bible study was more important than doing his job.
Cooper has been under fire for using his office to proselytize for evangelical Christianity ever since he appeared in a 2004 fundraising video for Christian Embassy, which carries out missionary work among the Washington elite as part of the Campus Crusade for Christ.
In the video, Cooper says of his Bible study, "It's not really about carving out time, it really is a matter of saying what is important. And since that's more important than doing the job -- the job's going to be there, whether I'm there or not."
Cooper's declaration inflamed veterans who saw the number of veterans waiting for the Veterans Administration (VA) to decide their disability claims balloon to 400,000 on his watch, with the average veteran waiting six months for a decision from the government.
"He was clearly a fundamentalist Christian first and essentially a government paid missionary for his particular world view of the gospel of Jesus Christ," said Mike Weinstein, who runs the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. "The fact that he's gone obviously is good."
Spokespersons for the Department of Veterans Affairs refused to grant an interview for this story.
Cover up or stupidity? From Bush, both are believable: White House: Hard Drives Tossed. USA Today 3/21/08. The administration that keeps permanent tabs on everyone else to such an extent that Sky Marshals and Nobel Peace Prize winners are on the No Fly List just callously tosses away incriminating evidence. And gets away with it: "The White House revealed new information about how it handles its computers in an effort to persuade a federal magistrate it would be fruitless to undertake an e-mail recovery plan that the court proposed."
Protection from terrorists? What about protection from Mad Cow? U.S. government fights to keep meatpackers from testing all slaughtered cattle for mad cow. Herald Tribune Americas, May 29, 2007. This is why we need liberal judges, not Federalist Society sycophants:
A federal judge ruled in March that such tests must be allowed. U.S. District Judge James Robertson noted that Creekstone sought to use the same test the government relies on and said the government didn't have the authority to restrict it. - A federal judge ruled in March that such tests must be allowed. The ruling was scheduled to take effect June 1, but the Agriculture Department said Tuesday it would appeal, effectively delaying the testing until the court challenge has played out.Rick Perstein calls this cowtowing... er, kowtowing to the beef industry E. Coli Conservatism. So much for keeping us safe, eh?
Most Incompetent Criminals
Chertoff says fingerprints aren't personal data. Homeland Security Chief shares fingerprint databases. Think Progress report 4/16/08
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia says that "torture isn't punishment". YouTube of MSNBC covering 60 Minutes interview.Baron Dave Romm is a conceptual artist and a noble of Ladonia who produces Shockwave Radio Theater, writes in a Live Journal demi-blog, plays with a very weird CD collection and an ever growing list of political links. Dave Romm reviews things at random for obscure web sites. You can read all his music recommendations from Bartcop-E. Podcasts of Shockwave Radio Theater. Permanent archive. More radio programs, interviews and science fiction humor plays can be accessed on the Shockwave Radio audio page.
Thanks to everyone who has sent me music to play on the air.
--////
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
PAUL CONSTANT: Am I Man Enough? (thestranger.com)
I'm a straight guy with no interest in sports and almost no body hair. What makes a man masculine? The question led me to a doctor's office, a therapist's couch, and a drag bar in Tacoma.
BONNIE FULLER: I Miss You Mom! (huffingtonpost.com)
Friends who've lost their moms say that it will feel a little less painful in about six months. But you never forget your mom. My friend Judy was planting pansies in her garden this week because her mom, who died four years ago, loved them. And another friend Bobby recently finished his first book manuscript - "And the first thing I did, was tell my mom, who passed away eight years ago, that it was finally done!"
Helen Thomas: People Can Handle the Truth About War (commondreams.org)
Some readers resented The Washington Post for publishing an Associated Press photograph of a critically wounded Iraqi child being lifted from the rubble of his home in Baghdad's Sadr City "after a U.S. airstrike." Two-year-old Ali Hussein later died in a hospital. As the saying goes, the picture was worth a thousand words because it showed the true horrors of this war.
Jim Hightower: CORPORATE GREED STRANGLES HEALTH CARE (jimhightower.com)
When drug company arrogance combines with insurance company avarice, look out for an explosion of gouging.
Mark Morford: Raise a mountain in your pants! (SF Gate)
Kick-up porno for mmorford!! See her get instantly geeked. Hello! I am bored this evening. Internetttapoooootheke!
CONNIE TUTTLE: Why are Christianity, Islam and Judaism all so patriarchal? (tucsonweekly.com)
I was thinking about Mother's Day recently, and the next thing I knew, I was wondering what would explain why three major religious traditions--Judaism, Christianity and Islam--were all started by men.
SUSAN ESTRICH: Rockstar? (creators.com)
Rockstar is the name of the company that is rolling wheelbarrows of money to the bank this week, projected to rack up something on the order of $400 million in revenue from the sale of six million copies of its newest video game sensation, Grand Theft Auto IV.
Annalee Newitz: Who's Afraid of Grand Theft Auto?
If the controversial video game were a movie, we'd all be mightily impressed by its dark, ironic vision of a world at war with itself.
Dave Weich: Alison Bechdel Meets Craig Thompson (Powells.com)
Let's start here: The most acclaimed book of 2006 is a graphic novel. Fun Home, Alison Bechdel's illustrated memoir, has been showered with starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, and Booklist, and breathless raves from Entertainment Weekly ("Grade: A"), Salon.com, and the New York Times Book Review besides.
Roger Ebert: AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL (R; 3 stars)
The documentary "America the Beautiful" is not shrill or alarmist, nor does it strain to shock us. Darryl Roberts, its director and narrator, speaks mostly in a pleasant, low-key voice. But the film is pulsing with barely suppressed rage, and by the end, I shared it. It's about a culture "saturated with the perfect," in which women are taught to seek an impossible physical ideal, and men to worship it.
Roger Ebert: Son of Rambow (3 stars)
I liked "Son of Rambow" in a benign sort of way, but I was left wanting something more. Drama, maybe? No, that would simply be manufactured. Comedy? It is technically a comedy, although the limited laughs are incredulous. Fantasy? That it is, in a bittersweet way. After the movie, I imagined its writer-director, Garth Jennings ("The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy") being more than a little like Will, and the movie uncannily similar to one of Will's comic epics.
Roger Ebert: The Answer Man
Q. Readers want to know if the Movie Answer Man is too PC to review "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed"?
A. The last I heard, it is not considered Politically Correct to agree with Darwin. I think it is more like, oh, intelligent.
Hubert's Poetry Corner
Wailin', Willie - and ME?
75 and Counting?
A: Majel Barrett 23 February, 1932
Reader Comment
The is-is annoyance
Hi Marty,
For some time now, I've suspected that I, and my circle of friends and family, were the only people in the world who noticed and frowned at the pecular is-is grammar hic-cup. This is apparently being pushed as the norm among those who speak publically - entertainers, pundits and politicians.
Who started this? It's just damned annoying.
Thank goodness, I happened upon this You Tube video that suggests there are others out there who'd like to have a constructive little chat with the is-is folks. Yea !!!!!
Love ya,
JenCin
Thanks, JenCin!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
A little bit more sun today, but mostly overcast and cool.
Received Diploma
Vanessa Williams
Vanessa Williams has received her bachelor of fine arts degree from Syracuse University, nearly 25 years after she dropped out to become the first black Miss America.
The 45-year-old actress-singer, who stars in ABC's "Ugly Betty," also delivered the convocation address Saturday to graduates of Syracuse's College of Visual and Performing Arts.
Williams attended Syracuse's drama department as a musical theater major from 1981-1983. She earned the remaining credits for her degree through industry experience and performances on stage and screen.
Vanessa Williams
Nobel Win 'A Disaster'
Doris Lessing
British author Doris Lessing has said that winning the Nobel Prize for Literature was a "bloody disaster", adding she has now stopped writing, the BBC reported Sunday.
Lessing, whose works include "The Golden Notebook" and "The Good Terrorist", said she spends most of her time now being photographed and giving interviews.
Asked about her writing on BBC radio, she said: "It has stopped, I don't have any energy any more.
"This is why I keep telling anyone younger than me, 'don't imagine you'll have it forever.'
"Use it while you've got it because it'll go, it's sliding away like water down a plughole."
Doris Lessing
The New Conan
Jimmy Fallon
Jimmy Fallon will officially be given the keys to NBC's "Late Night" franchise following Conan O'Brien's exit.
A person close to the negotiations who spoke on condition of anonymity because the announcement hadn't been made confirmed the widely rumored change Sunday and said a news conference was planned for Monday.
All that's left is an official date for NBC's transition: O'Brien moving out West to take over for Jay Leno on the "Tonight" show and Fallon following in the next time slot.
NBC could decide to back out of the plan and keep Leno on "Tonight," but O'Brien's contract calls for a penalty fee reportedly close to $40 million.
Jimmy Fallon
Hospital News
Roy Horn
Roy Horn, one half of magician duo Siegfried and Roy, was to undergo a knee operation this week in Graz, southern Austria, the local daily Kleine Zeitung reported Sunday.
The German-born illusionist, who was attacked by one of his white Bengal tigers during a performance in Las Vegas in October 2003, was to receive a knee cartilage transplant, the newspaper said.
A spokesman for Peter Panzenboeck, the surgeon who was to carry out the operation, confirmed the report to AFP, adding that Horn was currently undergoing medical exams at the Sanatorium Hansa in Graz.
Roy Horn
Arrested At LAX
Dennis Farina
Dennis Farina has been arrested at Los Angeles International Airport after a loaded gun was found in his carry-on luggage.
Police say the 64-year-old actor told them he forgot the .22-caliber handgun was in his luggage Sunday.
Sgt. Dennis Beacham says Farina was caught at a security checkpoint and booked for investigation of carrying a concealed weapon. Bail was set at $25,000.
Dennis Farina
Still Down In Wake Of Strike
TV Viewership
Television viewership is down, although it's hard to tell how much the strike is to blame. This week's "upfront" presentations by broadcasters outlining their fall schedules, which annually precedes a multibillion dollar ad buying binge, promises to be much different than before.
ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC had nearly 9 percent fewer viewers in April and May so far than during the same period a year ago, according to Nielsen Media Research.
Shows with ongoing stories seemed to lose the most momentum from the strike; ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" on May 1 had its smallest audience since moving to Thursday night. Decisions by NBC to keep "Heroes" for next fall and Fox to delay "24" until next season may prove prescient, unless people forget about the characters altogether.
Comedies were hurt least by the strike. CBS was so buoyed by the performance of their Monday night comedies that the network is considering adding comedies on another night.
TV Viewership
Film's Inspiration
Crystal Skulls
There is a legend that the ancient Maya possessed 13 crystal skulls which, when united, hold the power of saving the Earth - a tale so strange and fantastic that it inspired the latest Indiana Jones movie.
Experts dismiss the hundreds of existing crystal skulls as fakes that were probably made by colorful antiquities traders in the 19th century. But Mayan priests worship the skulls, even today, and real-life skull hunters still search for them.
The true story of the skulls stretches over continents and hundreds of years, and may be even more extraordinary than the tale portrayed in this fourth installment of the Harrison Ford franchise.
Crystal Skulls
Vienna Shoot
Spencer Tunick
Hundreds of Austrians stripped naked on Sunday for photographer Spencer Tunick at the stadium that will host the Euro 2008 soccer final.
Tunick, who regularly stages such mass nude events, arranged his subjects in the colored seats of the venue, having been told by organizers the grass was too precious.
The stadium stages seven matches of the Euro 2008 soccer championship, being jointly hosted by Switzerland and Austria next month, including the final on June 29.
Tunick told a news conference in Vienna last week that rules in the United States made it hard to organize his photo shoots there. "My work is a little edgy. It is tough for me to get permission to do things in the U.S.," he said.
Spencer Tunick
Weekend Box Office
'Iron Man'
"Speed Racer" was lapped in its opening weekend at the box office as "Iron Man" continued to fire its jets with $50.5 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday.
The anime-inspired race movie edged into the No. 2 spot with $20.2 million, slightly ahead of the 20th Century Fox comedy "What Happens in Vegas," which debuted at $20 million.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.
1. "Iron Man," $50.5 million.
2. "Speed Racer," $20.2 million.
3. "What Happens in Vegas," $20 million.
4. "Made of Honor," $7.6 million.
5. "Baby Mama," $5.8 million.
6. "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," $3.8 million.
7. "Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay," $3.2 million.
8. "The Forbidden Kingdom," $1.9 million.
9. "Nim's Island," $1.3 million.
10. "Redbelt," $1.1 million.
'Iron Man'
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