My most feared opponent in the race to be your next governor of California has dropped out of the race. I don't think he'll be baaaaack. Some reports are saying that his wife, Maria Shriver, wouldn't let him run. I don't believe it though. I think he was intimidated by my candidacy and sizable warchest of campaign contributions.

I just posted some mp3s from 3 of my old bands. I answered a bassist wanted ad and needed to get some samples of my playing up, so I've posted some songs spanning from my old band in upstate NY from 96 to the very last Captain Paradox gig with Dirtpatch in between. I still have a cassette of Amethyst, my high school metal cover band, but I'm not sure if anyone really wants to hear 14 year olds doing Crazy Train, Aint Talking About Love and Stairway to Heaven played without the slightest bit of irony.

Caption this picture (NSFW) Want more? Anne found this strange sitefor this strange performance artist with his own cable access show on the Squidlist. Not for those offended by naked hippie wheelchair performance sex art and other weirdness.

Possibly the most chilling thing I've read in ages. Salon reports from a national meeting of Hitler youth college republicans, and they're even worse than I would have ever given them credit for. I've been given some flack lately for using nazi metaphors for republicans, but now there's a scholarly study out to back me up on that. A team of researchers have just put out a study that ponders the similarities between Reagan, Hitler, Mussolini and Rush Limbaugh and looks further into what exactly would cause ordinarilly decent human beings to embrace the political dark side. Here's a story on it by ultraconservative Worldnet Daily. Do you think they like the results of this study? (via metafilter)

OK, if I'm even going to consider a novelty gubernatorial run, I need a few things. I need a slogan. I need a capaign theme song. And I should probably put together some campaign ads to make myself look good and to trash my opponents. Anyone who posts any ideas that I use will be appointed to some position if I win. I also need to figure out whether this campaign should be just a big middle finger to the political establishment and publicity stunt for Washington Interns Gone Bad or if I should even bother trying to get some point across while I'm at it, or a combination of all of these things. Or do I get my name on the ballot and then not bother doing any sort of campaigning, just so I can put "gubernatorial candidate" on my résumé? Then again, I'm not exactly fully employed at the moment so I have plenty of time to run for public office, and that governor salary. Hell, I bet I could pull a much higher hourly rate for my freelance work if I was governor. Who wouldn't want to get their website or postcards or brochures done by the governor?

Should I run for governor of California? Apparently, all I'd need are 10,000 signatures (or far less signatures and $3500). For one thing, I think it would be a cool thing to put on my résumé that I ran for governor of the most populous state in the country. Also it might be interesting to see just how many people I could get to vote for me based on a zero-budget campaign and an insane platform. I'd have to pull off some crazy publicity stunts and guerilla campaigning. What would my party be? Could I have my own party? I could call my party BAATH and have it stand for something silly like Buckley's Angry Ass Theater from Hell. That would pick up some press, especially if I grew a mustache and give fiery speeches against the Bush regime and their weapons of mass destruction. What could I promise the voters? To have California secede from the US and become the People's Republic of California? To deport republicans to Arizona? Lowering the drinking age? Could this whole thing somehow play out as a publicity stunt for Washington Interns Gone Bad? Of course I'd need a campaign manager, since my wife sure wants nothing to do with it. I just mentioned the idea to her and she was not the least bit pleased and thinks I'm a complete idiot for even giving it a second thought, but I'm sure she'd have a change of tune once she was first lady of California and redecorating our lovely Sacramento mansion! But then again, I'm sure that would just give me a far greater scale on which to embarass her than I have already just by being my unkempt, goofy, troublemaker self.

Some scary stuff on Salon today: The first is on the harassment of activists at airports: "Activists on the left and right -- including a 71-year-old Milwaukee nun and an art dealer who told other passengers that President Bush 'is dumb as a rock' -- have long complained they were being hassled by airport security. After months of silence, the federal government says: It's true." The second is an up close and personal interview with Ilsa: She-Wolf of the SS Ann Coulter. Q:Who do you admire who is dead? A: Joe McCarthy.

I bet you never thought you could do this in Photoshop. (NSFW - via metafilter)

A video of Lou Reed performing Walk on the Wild Side isn't particularly newsworthy, unless of course his backup band consists of Dana Carvey, Adam Sandler, Conan O'Brien, Jack Black and Jimmy Fallon! Check it out. (via I Like American Music)

While our economy stays in tatters, unemployment rates and deficits rise, chaos continues to rule in Iraq and the web of lies that led to the war are being exposed, Bush's priority is helping the media companies become one great big monopoly.

Sick to death of the RIAA and MPAA going after file sharing? Got a website? Why not ban their IPs? (via Joanne) Here's an article that goes into more detail on the background of this mass banning.

As Bush's poll numbers slide, republicans start admitting that they're worried. "Of course it alarms me to see his poll figures below the safe margins," said Ruth Griffin, co-chair of Bush's 2000 campaign steering committee in New Hampshire. "If he isn't concerned, and we strong believers in the Bush administration aren't concerned, we must have blinders on." Could he not be concerned because he's, oh I don't know, planning on stealing the damn election again?

Watch as the republican brownshirts continue to attempt to silence the critics of their beloved leader and stifle honest debate: GOP Warns TV Stations Not to Air Ad Alleging Bush Mislead the Nation Over Iraq. Apparently the only station to go along with this was a Fox affiliate. Big surprise. (via metafilter)

Indymedia wackiness again. Zoe posts a piece on poverty, street crime and social programs and the dogma police go postal on her. Of course, Washington Interns Gone Bad gets mentioned twice. Now some other DC activist who won't even use their real name and who probably never even saw the film says "remember 'interns go mad' zoe----how many 'people of color' were in that pretty self-indulgent use, or waste of money, which could be taken as an advertizement for the cool gentrifying shaw hood?" Gee, I thought I was making a political comedy that mocked post-9/11 Washington and raised the issues of corporate globalization to a whole new audience beyond the usual preach-to-the-choir wonky documentaries, but aparently it was just a commercial for gentrification. Oh well, you can't please all the people all the time.

SWEET! Ween are playing an all-request concert to their fans online in just a few minutes.

TAKE ACTION! Fax your congressperson to strip the Patriot Act from being able to snoop on what you read. Click Here to help declaw Ashcroft.

Cool comics alert: I read a story about Y: The Last Man at Salon yesterday. The premise sounded interesting enough, a plague wipes out every male on the planet except for one guy and his pet monkey. What sold me on it was a reference to Tenacious D in the excerpts. So I picked up the first trade paperback collection and tore through it in about an hour and found some great postapocalyptic scifi with a cool premise. The next one should be out in about a month, but I may have to find another comic book store and buy the back issues because I'm not sure I can wait a month. While at the comics store, I also found out that one of my favorite comic artists/writers has a new book out. Peter Bagge who did my alltime favorite comic, Hate, has a book on DC called Sweatshop. It's about this guy who does a daily comic strip and his staff. I haven't had a chance to read it yet. I'm sure it will be funny, though he's not going to be able to get away with half the shit he did when he was at Fantagraphics. Since the end of Hate a few years ago and the beginning of Sweatshop, he's been doing comics for the now defunct Suck.com (many of these have recently wound up in the Hate Annual, a sort of postscript to what has been happening to old Buddy Bradley since Hate ended) and even Reason magazine.

The perpetrator of the Metallica Chord Progression Lawsuit hoax speaks.

Democrats start anti-Bush ad campaign! Great ad, but it would probably have more impact coming from a nonpartisan source.

Anne and I are happy campers this morning! We got Radiohead and White Stripes tickets! This will be my third attempt to see Radiohead, and I'm hoping for better luck than the last two times. The first time was day one at the Tibetan Freedom Concert in DC, which got cancelled after lightning struck a person in the stands right in the middle of Herbie Hancock and the Headhunters' set (which was the first set from a band that I really wanted to see that day). The second time was when they were playing at the Bull Run State Park in Centerville, VA which got flooded out. We had friends come from out of town for the show and we didn't have a backup plan, so it wound up being a pretty washed up weekend all around. So I'm hoping that I'm not suffering some Radiohead curse because I really want to see them live. The White Stripes show should be great. I saw them once before when they opened for Sleater Kinney and nobody had heard of them yet at that point. They completely blew the whole crowd away. I'm hoping that they still put on a great show now that they're all big and famous, and that Jack's broken finger heals in time. We're also going to be seeing Victims Family and Alice Donut at Bottom of the Hill in a few weeks. Anne used to be flatmates with the Victims Family guys and one of the former members of Alice Donut when she lived here before and she's psyched because she hasn't seen these people in years. I'm psyched because Alice Donut are legendary for having an insane stageshow and I never got to see them in NY. But that's not all. The next couple of months are going to be jam packed with live music because we're also going to see Steely Dan in Saratoga, NY when we're back there for my sister's wedding over Labor Day weekend. I'm really pumped for that because I'm a huge fan, but Anne doesn't know much of their stuff so she doesn't really care that much.

I got this button at a yard sale today! I used to have on like it in high school, and I had it on my suede floppy hat (yes, you could say I was a bit of a post-Touch-of-Grey deadhead for a few years) and everyone always called it the Buckley hat. Now there was this kid named Chuck and he and I had a bit of a competative thing going on for some dumb teenage reason or another. We both got the same floppy hat that summer at the Dutchess County Fair, and Chuck really hated it when people would say "hey Chuck, cool Buckley hat." He'd get all red in the face and talk about how he got his first and it's not a Buckley hat and that people should be telling me I had a nice Chuck hat. My first week of college, I left the Buckley hat on the roof of my roommate's car before taking off and I never saw the Buckley hat again. Oh yeah, who is this Buckley who ran for Senate in NY in 1970? Was it my dad? Uncle Don? William F? Nope, just some conservative single term Senator who said he was for campaign finance reform in a debate but then turned around and won a Supreme Court case against campaign finance reform. Anne and I saw some other cool stuff while yardsale-ing today. She got 3 pairs of shoes for $10. I also got an original printing of None Dare Call It Treason, a classic tract of blatant McCarthyist propaganda. It's the inspiration for Ann Coulter's latest piece of trash. We saw this full set of Avon ruby glass formal diningware set with service for 12 from the late 40's/early 50's. We almost bought a bookshelf. It was nice, but a bit rickety and it didn't have enough shelves. I almost bought a playstation and a box of games for $50 but I realized that I would never get anything done if I had one of those. They had a Sega Saturn too. I was disappointed to see that there weren't many records available, and started looking through cassettes when I remembered the crate of those that I never listen to anymore. We also got to check out some neighborhoods that we haven't seen before which is always fun.

If anyone reading this really loves me, you could buy me this.

The hoax about Metallica suing over the use of E chord has made national news after the original hoax page got 200,000 hits in 2 days and was picked up as real news all across the blogosphere and even by Jimmy Kimmel. I thought it was real when they quoted Metallica's lawyer, Jill Pietrini, who I have a lovely cease and desist letter from over some T-shirts I used to have for sale. But then I noticed that the URLs of these stories did not match where the news was coming from.

Here's a great article about Friendster that I found posted on Zoe's blog.

Finally, a democrat is talking about IMPEACHMENT over Bush's lies about WMDs, and weapons grade nuclear materials. Too bad it's looney Bob Graham instead of somebody who people take a bit more seriously.

Wow, I'm blogging like crazy about this dumb intern email scandal, but I can't help it. I saw the picture of the guy and it's as if he stepped right out of my film. See for yourselves.

As posted yesterday, another Washington Interns has gone very bad indeed. And here's the offending email that kicked it all off. This guy fits the mold that Dubya set for Texas republicans. His command of the English language is less than stellar. He's arrogant and vindictive. And he doesn't "care about beating people and lying to get to the top." And now he's emailed his way to the top of the shit pile. Nice work, asshat. (link via freakgirl)

Just when you thought that Pat Robertson couldn't get any wackier, he has just launched a 21 day prayer offensive to help stack the supreme court with more fanatical religious right fascists conservatives. (via metafilter)

More Washington Interns going bad in the news!

TAKE ACTION! Bush is trying yet again to screw the workers of this country by taking away overtime pay. Don't let him do this. Click the link and tell your Senators to block the Bush overtime take away.

Worst. Thinktank. Ever. Metafilter poster Ignatious J. Reilly has posted his primer on just how bad the neoconservative Project for a New American Century really is. Be very affraid. These are the people pulling Bush's puppet strings. (via metafilter)

Next batch of honeymoon pictures are up. These are from our day trip to a raicilla distillery and a restaurant in the jungle called Chico's Paradise.

Time for all the oldschool metalheads to throw your devil fingers in the air... "With Halford back, Judas Priest aims to start recording a new studio album this fall for a spring 2004 release, followed by a world tour in honor of its 30th anniversary. A retrospective box set is also in the works."

Second batch of honeymoon pix are up. These are all of downtown Puerto Vallarta along the beachfront boardwalk.

First pictures from the honeymoon are up. These are of our suite and the view from the balcony. More pictures of other stuff is coming once I scan them. Yeah, no digital on this trip. We broke it a few weeks ago. D'oh!

OK, we are back. We've actually been back since Wednesday night, but we've had a lot to do since our return. Yesterday I dropped off 8 rolls of film to be developed (we busted our digital at my brother in law's college graduation, and I dug out this big clunky crappy old 35mm that I had lying around since college with no zoom or any other frills) and we'll be picking those up today. I also had to go pick up all of our held mail from the post office. A bunch more wedding presents showed up in the mail, including a cool red toaster from my cousin and the coolest Afghani wool hats and brass vases from my old college roommate who just finished a tour in Afghanistan. We got to talk last night on the phone for the first time in close to 10 years and it was like no time had passed. I had tried to contact him to invite him to the wedding and I got in touch with his dad who told me he was in the Army and would pass along my number, but I never heard back until about a month ago when he had found me on classmates.com without ever getting my message from his dad. Anyone who knows me or reads my blog knows that I'm no big fan of US militarism, the Iraq war or sending our troops to enforce the neoconservative world order of unfettered global corporate capitalism. So talking to a good friend who has spent his time in the military with the unwavering goal of helping people who have been suffering from human rights nightmares was a breath of fresh air compared to the blatant insincerity of the same kind of talk coming from the lying mouths of politicians and right wing thinktank types. Back to the wedding gifts... last night I got to use our new crockpot for the first time with delicious results. I used a preseasoned pork roast, a few cloves of garlic, half an onion and a bottle of Bass Ale and put it on overnight. Incredibly yummy and tender. Also, when Anne saw that I had mentioned that she was "a bit sick" from the fruit in Mexico, she wanted me to clarify that she was much more than just a bit sick. Without giving the gorey details, we'll just call it full-blown Montezuma's Revenge and leave it at that. She's made a quick recovery and we ate pizza from North Beach the night we got back.

News from the honeymoon: Anne's a bit sick after eating some bad fruit last night (I'm OK because I bypassed all of the fruits and veggies and went straight for the taquitos) so I'm spending a little bit of time in the hotel business center to check email and blog. So far, we've had a blast. Puerto Vallarta is really nice and we've enjoyed the beach, the pool, the food and the entertainment. We sampled the local booze called raicilla, which is like tequilla only a million times better. It's 100% agave and made in small batches. We got to eat in this jungle restauarant near the place where they shot the Predator movies. We went to a silly Mexiacn fiesta. We got to experience their 2 day alcohol prohibition for the elections (perhaps if they try that in the states, nobody would be dumb enough to re-elect the bozo). While it's total paradise here, we're just about ready to come back to the sick reality of the real world. The one thing that totally sucks here is all of the high pressure sales. You can't go anywhere without people constantly bothering you to sell you something. The absolute worst was the timeshare pitch we went to just to get cheap tour tickets. These bastards would not take no for an answer and really put on the pressure. After telling our sales rep no, we had to tell the manager no, and then the give us this guy who is supposed to just have us fill out a survey of what the salsepeople did wrong. All was fine and good until this asshat started to try to continue the salse pitch. Anne went postal on him! That's it for now. Pictures and more will be up on our return to the states.

The airport shuttle is picking us up in a little bit, and while I'm waiting for the shower, here are a few more wedding pictures from my stepmom.

OK, we leave on the honeymoon tomorrow! The last couple of days have been very low key, just really relaxing around the house. My mom is coming over in a little bit to see us and then we've got all of our final errands to run before leaving the country. It'll be nice not spending the 4th of July in George Bush's America. But then we'll be back to try to find jobs in this shitty economy. So for the next week, we'll be forgetting about the reality of the world and just basking in post-wedding glow. Oh yeah, we have pictures for anyone who might be interested. The first person to send us their digital pictures was my new brother-in-law, Eric. He shot the rehearsal and dinner as well as the ceremony and reception, plus a great sequential burst of people dancing which I animated.