The Weekender: Folsom Street Fair Edition

The Folsom Street Fair edition...to listen, click here.

Salmon Dance - Chemical Brothers
Everyday - Kim English
Keep Warm - Jinny
Sugar Walls - Sheena Easton
Justify My Love - Madonna
Read My Mind - The Killers
Eyes Without a Face - Billy Idol
Closer - Nine Inch Nails
You Shook Me All Night Long - AC/DC
Finish What Ya Started - Van Halen
Cradle of Love - Billy Idol
Fingered You Out - Nickelback
The Stroke - Billy Squire

Whoop, Whoop

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame goes disco: Madonna, Donna Summer, and Chic are among the nine nominees for induction into the hall.

The other nominees: Afrika Bambaataa, songwriter Leonard Cohen, the Dave Clark Five, the Ventures, the Beastie Boys, and John Mellencamp.

The top five vote-getters will be inducted at a ceremony in March.

Dum Fuk, Part 2

President Bush, earlier this week, to a group of fourth and fifth graders from P.S. 76 in New York City:

...childrens do learn.

And our president doesn't.

Calif. Electoral College Initiative Dead

A proposed California ballot initiative that would have changed the way the state allocates its votes in the presidential Electoral College was on life support Thursday night. Republican backers have been unable to generate enough money to begin a speedy petition signature drive; and two of its key consultants quit yesterday, declaring the initiative "all but dead."

It's the end of that for now but they'll try again, I'm sure. Especially if the Democratic ticket wins the presidency next year.

Scenes From New York, Part 2

From Central Park...



















Photos: Brent Sutton/Sutton Communications

Next up...D.U.M.B.O.

File Under "What the Fuck!?"

Quote of the Day #2:

I'm just a little bit shocked myself that a college in good standing would back up students who insist that people who have been through college and have a master's degree, a couple actually, have to teach that there were such things as talking snakes or lose their job.

-Steve Bitterman, a professor at Southwest Community College in Red Oaks, Iowa, who was fired after he told his students that the biblical story of Adam and Eve should not be literally interpreted.

Next up on the syllabus: Chapter Two: Harry Potter and parseltounge! And then in Chapter Three, we'll discuss how to make the perfect man from mere rib marrow!

When Republicans Marry

Quote of the Day:

I was quiet. He said, 'Are you excited?' I was like, 'I don't know!'"

-President Bush's daughter, Jenna, to People Magazine, on her reaction when Henry Hager asked her to marry him.

I give it a year before Henry dumps Little Girl Lush and is showing off his wide girth in an airport mens room, YaKnowWhatImSayin ?!?

Bush Is Nasty

I advertised this t-shirt on an old blog a few years back, and even though ol' George has only a little over a year to go, I figured I'd post a link to Watson's Closet one more time. With the Folsom Street and Castro Street Fairs coming up, and many 2008 festivals on the calendar, their t-shirts are perfect for the warm weather.

Purchase yours by clicking here.

What A Hunk of Junk

Early last week I ordered up the pilot episode of the new "Bionic Woman" series from Comcast On-Demand. It was being offered free of charge, and since I was bored I thought I'd give it a look. I was expecting it to be marginally bad, but boy was I wrong.

It was one of the biggest pieces of garbage ever produced for TV.

"The Bionic Woman" is the most horribly written piece of trash since "Flyboys." The cliche-filled script was, at best, lifeless and unimaginative; the acting was...well...lifeless and unimaginative; and the special effects were laughably bad.

This has to be the worst show to air on TV in a long, long time. And it would surprise me greatly if NBC still had it on the air come November sweeps.

Don't waste your time with this hunk of junk.

Scenes From New York, Part 1

On the Brooklyn Bridge...





The hole in the skyline is still there...


A view of the Manhattan Bridge...


Near Wall Street...


Tomorrow...Central Park

(Photos: Sutton Communications)

Dum-Fuk

Apparently we are at the point where the White House now has to write the names of international countries and the names of their leaders in their phonetic pronunciation for the teleprompter off of which Little Boy George reads his speeches.

I shit you not.

When Bush addressed the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, the White House inadvertently showed exactly how it's done:

French President Nicolas Sarkozy was spelled "sar-KO-zee" in the President's text.

Zimbabwe leader Robert Mugabe ("moo-GAH-bee")

Kyrgyzstan ("KEYR-geez-stan")

It's embarrassing, it's sad, and I just want him to go away.

Role Reversal

News Item 1: Noam Chomsky says Richard Nixon was the "last liberal president" the United States has had.

News Item 2: Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan calls President Clinton the "best Republican president we've had in a while."

Who Knew?

...that Howie Michael Smith, the lead puppeteer in the Broadway cast of "Avenue Q," was such a hottie!?

Obama's Overture

An email from my friend, Larry:

I've had my doubts about Obama for a while with all his "unity above partisanship" shit, but after today not a chance in hell I'll come around to supporting him in the primary. I'm so sick of this sanctimonious crap. I can't believe I'll support Hillary Rodham Clinton before Obama, but I will. He's just not ready [and] I simply don't want what he's selling. He gives a good speech but that's about it as far as I'm concerned. I still lean Edwards but I'm not actually open to Hillary. Did I just write that?

I'm still on the fence with the Democrats. It's still early and I'll probably make a decision sometime after the holidays. That said, one of the reasons Sen. Obama is so attractive right now is, as the Sunday Times of London put it this past weekend:

Democrats will realise he has a much better chance of winning a real national majority in the general election than Clinton does. Clinton polarises the way Bush polarises. She can hope for a Karl Rove-style [48% plurality or] 51% majority in a deeply divided country. He’s aiming for 55%.

Clinton, in other words, represents payback for the Democrats and liberals after the Bush era, just as Giuliani is emerging as the inheritor of the Bush legacy of divide and rule. Right now, Obama remains to the side, offering Americans something else: not payback, but a new page.

(My italics.) One of my major complaints about George W. Bush, both after the 2000 election (in which he lost the national popular vote) and - more importantly - after 9/11, is that he remained radically partisan. Following the skewed result of that first election, a true patriot would have shown the country and the world that he respected the majesty of the voice of the people by naming members of the opposition party to key posts in his administration. George W. Bush didn't, of course (well...he named one to the Transportation post). Following the terrorist attacks of 9/11 Mr. Bush had a historic chance to correct that blunder and bring the opposition into the fold as the nation moved to war footing. Once again, the President sold the country up shits creek.

In one of the most unpatriotic moves in American history Mr. Bush and his political guru Karl Rove used 9/11 and the war to advance a fascist right-wing agenda. And for what? A country divided as it hasn't been since the Civil War, and a minuscule 51% of the popular vote at reelection. And now the country is more than ready to close the book on this guy's presidency. Americans have finally had enough of the divide and conquer mentality that defines their form of government.

The next president needs to be the healer America so desperately needs. And as much as my progressive and liberal friends will want a new Democratic president to enact serious revenge for eight dark years of Bush rule, the most important thing that president will need to do is clean up George's mess.

That will mean a unity government, with Republicans in a few key posts. I don't mean the blind Bush-backing Republicans, not by a long shot. Their blind trust in a failed president prove them unworthy of a place at the big boys table. I'm talking about a few moderate Republicans.

But Republicans none-the-less. Because another term of divide and conquer, of blue versus red, is the wrong path to take. A president entering the White House with that mindset in January 2009 is guaranteed one term.

Can the Democrats really afford that?

Can America really afford for them not to?

Dow Then, Halliburton Now

More Iraq/Vietnam parallels from Chicago Sun-Times columnist Carol Marin.

To Trevor...

...feel better my friend. Healing thoughts being sent your way.

Back From New York

A few pictures, plus my thoughts on a couple of shows ("Avenue Q" and "Spring Awakening") and a restaurant in Greenwich Village called Perilla, are forthcoming.

"Quotation" Marks

Take a look at this hilarious new website. I was "peeing" my pants!

Memo to Clinton Kelly

...the men of New York City need to stop. wearing. pleated. pants.

They were everywhere! The Village, Chelsea, the Upper East Side. It was absolutely ghastly!

Iran

Columbia University President Lee Bollinger, introducing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad...



Beelzebub eventually went on to prove himself a fool...



"We don't have homosexuals in Iran because we hang them...even the teenagers," Ahmadinejad failed to add.