Washington Interns Gone Bad

Dig! This

2008-07-22T09:58:00.000-07:00

Wow, I am really slacking off on blogging lately. While I don't have anything in the way of original content today, I have just been made aware of a really cool site called snagfilms which streams full length documentaries and allows you to put them on your blog. So instead of my usual rantings, here's perhaps my favorite music documentary ever. It's called Dig! and it's about the Brian Jonestown Massacre and the Dandy Warhols. Even if you've never heard of these bands before, you should see this film. It has a better story and more interesting characters than any screenwriter could have come up with.

Mongol

2008-07-17T06:34:00.000-07:00

Years back there was supposed to be an epic film about Genghis Khan featuring Steven Seagal in the title role (scroll down just a little bit). And while the jury is out on whether it was because it was a ridiculous idea to have a white guy playing a Mongolian warlord or because Steven suddenly thought it would go against his Buddhist beliefs, this film died in a contract violation situation with some mafia guys or something and now Steven is lucky to go straight to video with anything. And it's a good thing this film never got made because now there's a real Genghis Khan film out, the first in an epic trilogy, and they really got it right. Granted, I know absolutely nothing about the real Genghis Khan, but I know about film and Mongol was an amazing film, and there was no bad acting white guy in the lead. The cinematography was incredible and the action was furious. There were times when it dragged a little, but the brutally bloody battles and the aerial shots that looked like they were straight out of a nature documentary made up for it.

This film starts with the young Temujin picking his bride from the wrong Mongol clan and starting a chain of events that puts him in a lot of trouble at a young age. There's a huge amount of ass that he needs to kick along the journey from being a kid from the wrong side of the steppes to conqueror of Asia, and without giving anything away, lots of asses are indeed kicked and kicked hard. Throughout the film they mention the rules of Mongols which are a lot like the rules of Fight Club, but the obvious one they left out was that Mongols don't fuck around. I highly recommend this film, just make sure you see it in a comfortable theater and don't be squeamish.

I also saw some really good trailers for upcoming films like the new Cohen brothers movie and this one which I can't wait to see...

Remember When Andy Dick was Funny?

2008-07-16T11:29:00.000-07:00

What can I say about Andy Dick that hasn't already been said? His trainwreck hasn't been entertaining since the mid 90's and this mugshot just gives me the creeps. How baked do you have to be to look like that while being arrested for groping a minor?

My New Favorite Sport

2008-07-13T09:16:00.000-07:00

Anyone who knows me knows that I'm not much of a fan of sports. I was never much for playing them as a kid and never really got into watching them either. For me, music was my sports. I knew about bands like the sports guys knew about their teams and played in bands while the other kids were on the school teams. And when I got older, I started following politics as a sport which is far more frustrating since there are real world ramifications depending on who wins and loses. But last night I attended a live sporting event that really got me excited to the point where I even had a favorite player by the end of the first half and I really want to go again.
This weekend my inlaws picked up Stella and took her to their house for a week so Anne and I could have some nice grownup time together and get a few things done around the house. And then the other day I heard a mention that there was going to be a roller derby event in San Francisco on Saturday night. We had seen some episodes of Roller Girls when it was on and we liked the way this old carnival sideshow sport was being taken back in a DIY punk rock kind of way. Plus, it's fast and a little bit violent. So we decided to spend our first night of freedom with the Bay Area Derby Girls and it was a blast!

It was the Oakland Outlaws vs the San Francisco ShEvil Dead. Since our home team, the Richmond Wrecking Belles, weren't playing, we were rooting for Oakland as the East Bay choice. It was completely sold out and 2 of our friends almost didn't make it in, but luckily they let in a few more people. We were slightly skeptical going into it because this was flat track derby, played on the flat ground rather than the raised and beveled track. And then the first jam seemed very slow and tame and we were thinking that this was some seriously watered down and safe version of roller derby. The thing is, there were announcers, but this was in an old metal Naval building on a pier so anything they said on the speakers was muffled and echoed beyond comprehension. I think that might have been just a demo to show people the rules of the game, because the next jam was the real deal.

The deal is that a pack of skaters from each team starts skating around the track, and then a jammer from each team follows them 20 feet behind, catches up with them, tries to get through the pack, and then has to lap them and start making their way through again to score points. And the pack tries to keep them from getting through.

The first half ended with San Francisco up a few points, but Oakland dominated the second half. Toward the middle of the first half, one player really stood out from the rest. Oakland's team captain Kitt Turbo was incredible. She would haul ass down the track swinging her arms and cruising fast and then just start whooshing past the pack before they even knew she was there, often leaving a trail of fallen skaters in her wake. One of Oakland's other jammers, Grr Lee Burly, was pretty good too, but as my friend said, Kitt made it look easy and cool.

This was so much fun and as much as I really want to go again and again, the reality is that we rarely can splurge for a sitter as it is, so once Stella is back it's probably no more derby for us. But last night, we were derby fans and it was great!

Shocking News about McCain!

2008-07-10T11:18:00.003-07:00

Opposition research has just dug up incredibly shocking new information about John McCain. Sure, we know he's a big old right winger masquerading as some kind of maverick. But we didn't know that he's a FRAKKING TOASTER! That's right, we have reason to believe that John McCain is a cylon skin job. Don't believe me? Just look at these two pictures of the 4 skin jobs in the colonial fleet...
If McCain's uncanny resemblance to Col. Tigh isn't enough, what about both men's legendary tempers and foul mouths? Both men were POW's. Both military officers. But wait, there's more. Who is this that McCain is all buddied up with?
I don't know either, but he sure looks a whole lot like a certain former president of the colonies and known toaster-lover...
More resistance operatives have been doing research on this. More info is here. And More. And More. Citizens of the 13th Colony, we cannot afford to elect a toaster president. Vote human. Vote Obama.

OK, many of you might have reached the end of this post asking WTF I'm talking about. You people need to run not walk to your local video store, start renting Battlestar Galactica, and forget about this huge spoiler you just read. Seriously, it's one of the best shows on TV right now and you have a few months to get caught up before they start the last 12 episodes.

What's Left to do Now But Crack Jokes?

2008-07-09T08:45:00.000-07:00

It looks like things are getting worse in the Middle East. After months and months of US and Israeli saber rattling towards Iran, they just showed their card, a long range missile. The prospect of an all out war in the Middle East has all the apocalypse-crazy fundies making sure their rapture clothes are perfectly pressed and starched for their joyride in Jesus' big UFO to the great big mega-church in the sky. I could go on and on about how this is the ultimate failure in diplomacy or how this may effect the upcoming election, but none of my readers care about that.

So instead, I turn to the fact that Iran's general's name is Hossein Salami. Where have they been hiding him? Are we going to have to call Colonel Mustard to cover him? The US is going to eat that guy for lunch! Oh man, the Iranians just gave humorists the biggest gift since President Unpronounceable Guy said that they don't have any gays in Iran. I expect to see the achievements of this general thinly sliced and piled high.

Republican Implosion in 3... 2...

2008-07-07T06:40:00.000-07:00

There are few things in the political world I like to see more than republicans fighting amongst themselves. When democrats fight amongst themselves, it's usually either over minor annoyances or petty power grabs within the party. When republicans fight, it's over the issues and it lets Americans see just what a vile bunch many of them really are. Take the upcoming shitstorm over the convention platform for instance...

Conservative activists are preparing to do battle with allies of Sen. John McCain in advance of September's Republican National Convention, hoping to prevent his views on global warming, immigration, stem cell research and campaign finance from becoming enshrined in the party's official declaration of principles...

A platform fight at the convention could disrupt that carefully choreographed effort by highlighting the stark differences in vision for the party separating McCain from some of the GOP's most dedicated activists.

I LOVE this! The people who still support the failed policies of a failed president are desperately clinging to those failed policies at the risk of making their convention an ugly fiasco (that is to say an uglier fiasco than just your run of the mill gathering of a mob of angry old white men) and further sinking the candidacy of their already all but doomed nominee! And all for policies that are bad for America no less. They have a candidate who is still incredibly conservative only not in the usual fucktarded dogmatic way, and the dogmatic fucktards are ready to lose an election (which they're going to lose anyway) over issues of ignorance, racism, anti-science and pro-corruption. Please bring this fight all the way to the convention. The majority of Americans who are not blog reading politics junkies need to see the republicans that those of us who pay attention already know all too well.

No More Kings!

2008-07-04T09:07:00.000-07:00

Happy 4th of July everyone! While you're busy roasting weenies and blowing stuff up, let's remember what this day truly signifies. On this day in 1776, our founding fathers decided to really stick it to the man. And this wasn't like sticking it to the figurative man of today but probably the most powerful man in the world at the time, the King of England. They had enough of his oppressive rule from afar and told him so with one of the most radical documents in history. Of course, there were certain ironies about our founders, the main one being that a bunch of slaveholders would consider all men to be created equal, but attempting to judge history in the context of the present doesn't really work.

So as you enjoy the barbecue and fireworks today, remember that these people put their lives on the line to create a country with freedoms never seen before, and that as we party it up we have a government who are intent on chipping away at those freedoms.

Now go out there in your red white and blue, wave flags, get drunk, eat lots of tasty food and then forget about the founding fathers and their radical vision again for another whole year.

As a footnote to this post, this is really an appropriate day for a man who had built his career on extreme authoritarianism, racism and divisive politics to finally kick the bucket. Jesse Helms, your death came 50 years too late as far as I'm concerned. May your brand of politics follow you to the grave.

UPDATE: Here are some brave Americans who would have made our founding fathers very proud today.

The Election Season of Discontent

2008-07-01T06:50:00.000-07:00

This is always the least comfortable time in the election process. The primaries are over and the candidates stop playing to their own base and try chipping away at the other side's base. It's all just part of the way the game has been played, at least since I've been paying attention to it. But that doesn't make it any more comfortable to watch. Back when I still considered the democrats to be good rather than just less bad and I was working behind the scenes at the democratic convention in LA cringing the whole time I heard this spokesman or that talking about how great free trade was (before Bush gave us so much more to be against, corporate globalization was my big cause).

Now I knew eventually I'd get that cringe moment with Obama because he is, after all, a politician. I got that cringe today when I read this...

Reaching out to evangelical voters, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is announcing plans that would expand President Bush's program steering federal social service dollars to religious groups and � in a move sure to cause controversy � support their ability to hire and fire based on faith. [full story]

Obama, this is seriously not cool! While the loonie evangelical crowd is fairly lukewarm on McBush, they're not going to vote for a pro-choice candidate. This kind of pandering is not going to sway any moderates, and it just makes secular progressives like myself a bit more skeptical of you. We'll still vote for you because we would rather not have a third Bush term, but you've really got to knock this shit off right quick.

But at least the liberal base is not alone in our discomfort. The right wing base has never been too crazy about McBush. While he's vowed to continue just about every last Bush blunder if elected, he's not religious enough for them, he supports a more humane immigration policy than building a wall around the country and pouring hot oil over the savages who try to storm it, and he has even talked about (gasp) at least looking into global warming.

I think that this period of mutual discomfort could be a golden opportunity for those of us on opposite sides of the fence to bond. Whatever happens this fall, a lot of people are going to be really unhappy and then most of the rest will wind up being slowly disappointed over the next four to eight years.

UPDATE: Apparently the article I quoted got much of it entirely wrong. Details here. Whew!

Profiles in Asshattery - Summer Edition

2008-06-24T17:58:00.000-07:00

Every now and then, I like to round up a whole bunch of asshats and profile them so that you, my dear readers, can point your fingers and laugh.

Don Imus - You'd think after losing his job for making a boneheaded racist comment (whether he meant to be a racist or not, at least that time), he wouldn't touch race issues with a 10 foot pole. But he's gone and said something incredibly racially offensive again, and says he was just being sarcastic. Sure, it's hard to tell since he's a freakin' mush mouth and all, and perhaps he's so senile that he forgot the whole nappy headed ho's incident. Wouldn't it be funny if he also forgot how screwed he was after throwing himself to the mercy of race extortionist Al Sharpton (who truly deserves his own spot on this list) that he'll go and do that all over again? The best thing about any Imus brouhaha is always Howard's reaction.

Charlie Black - Ever since 9/11, the republicans have learned to play fear like a fiddle and use it to their political advantage. But this guy forgot that Americans don't actually want to think that republican fearmongering is on purpose, even when part of them know it is. This asshat McBush campaign aid actually came right out and said that a domestic terrorist attack would help his candidate. That's like if the republicans admitted that they raised the threat level every time Bush needed a boost in the polls or that they held their last convention in NYC as close to the 9/11 anniversary as possible to try to milk that for all it was worth. Political junkies know these things, and many other Americans probably suspect them, but admitting it is tactless to say the least.

George W. Bush - It wouldn't be a list of asshats without President Asshat himself. If you have to ask why, please add yourself to the list. But if you need a specific reason, today's reason is the politicization of the Justice Department.

James Dobson - Technically more of a douchebag than an asshat, this theocratic jerkoff has figured out how to justify extreme authoritarian oppression with his interpretations of the bible. His holier than thou panties are all knotted up over a speech that Obama gave 2 years ago about how our laws must have a secular basis. Jimmy may talk the theocratic talk, but he doesn't walk the walk. His Islamic counterparts would have blown themselves to bits for their cause long ago. Please join them, Jimbo!

(dis)Honorable Mention - This guy. And speaking of people who try to justify every sort of asshattery with the bible, this guy seems to think that Jesus was a libertarian.

The World is Less Funny Today

2008-06-23T07:06:00.000-07:00

Today we lost the elder statesman of comedy, George Carlin. I remember first seeing him host Saturday Night Live for the debut of the Billy Crystal/Martin Short cast. My friend Alan had a bunch of old records and we would listen to some of George's old albums where he'd go through a list of sports and say why each one really wasn't a sport. Carlin was not only a really funny guy, but an incredibly intelligent critic of society.

While it's far too early in the morning for me to get out a halfway decent blog eulogy for George, I think it more fitting to post a bunch of his great clips.

Here's possibly his most famous one, Seven Words:

Stuff:

Drugs:

Education, Critical Thinking and Wage Slavery:

White People:

Religion is Bullshit:

Touched by an Atheist (Mad TV):

And Lastly, Carlin on Olbermann on the ridiculousness of our society today:

Listen To This

2008-06-21T19:53:00.000-07:00

First Gnarls Barkley covered the Violent Femmes' song Gone Daddy Gone. Now the Femmes are back covering Crazy. Unfortunately, you have to go to MySpace to listen to it, but I promise it's worth a trip to Rupert Murdoch's internet pedophile pickup joint. Seriously, they took a really great song and made it even better. Check it out.

The Great Debate on...

2008-06-20T06:34:00.000-07:00

...the Massachusetts Teen Pregnancy Pact! Apparently seventeen girls at one high school got it through their brilliant teen minds that all having babies together would be a super fun way to bond. These dumbasses have obviously never changed a diaper at 3AM, but they sure can't wait to go to each others baby showers and buy cute little clothes.

This is the perfect issue on which our candidates can grandstand. People are sick of hearing about how badly we're getting raped at the gas pump. We're saddened by the Iraq war. We're tired of the insipid gotcha bickering. Does anyone outside of the beltway give a rat's ass about public financing? If the two campaigns went to a guy who really knows what Americans want to hear, Dr. Phil, and asked him what they should focus on, he'd tell them that exploitative stories of personal drama and misery with the choice of a sex or drugs side order is what gets him through sweeps months so well. As long as you approach a potentially titillating story as showing how wrong it is, you can exploit all the hot underage sex you can cram into a behind the scenes segment.

So how can our presidential candidates seize this golden opportunity and exploit it for all it's worth?

McBush needs to play the tough guy on this one, while throwing some bones to a religious right who are skeptical about him. He should bash liberal gay Hollywood (gotta throw gay in there to really ratchet it up a few notches for the base) for glorifying pregnancy in movies like Juno and Knocked up. He should promise that as president he would send Judd Apatow and Diablo Cody both straight to Guantanamo Bay, along with Ellen Page and Katherine Hiegle for good measure.

Obama would have to respond by saying that McBush's reaction is just more of the same divisive politics and how as president he would offer new ways for dealing with problems like this. He would also like a chance to speak personally with the girls about his experiences growing up with an absent father and offer them free abortions if they choose that after talking to him.

McBush would then quickly call Obama naive about the birds and the bees, and reaffirm his stance that despite how wrong these pregnancies are, these girls must be forced to have these babies. Then, if he really wants to get more air time on the issue, he would go into near-pornographic detail of just how wrong it is for two young people to engage in hot sweaty sex with their smooth skin and perky body parts and fully functioning organs and young bodies flexible enough to get into positions that the Bible says are evil. He would close this speech with a Girls Gone Wild montage to further demonstrate how our country is becoming Soddom and Gamorah thanks to liberal gay Hollywood and the liberal gay Democrats.

Obama would then call McBush a dirty old man who would rather talk in detail about teenagers doing the nasty instead of looking at bigger problems like education.

McBush would then say that Obama was being ageist. He would then go on to say that Rap music glorifies out of wedlock pregnancy and that he had heard on Fox News that Obama had a baby mama of his own.

And it could go on and on like this for days! Come on, candidates! Give the people what they want!

Summer's Here and the Time is Right...

2008-06-18T15:46:00.000-07:00

...for using Google Earth to find people's swimming pools! This is why I was born 20 years too late:

Teens begin by surfing Google Earth�s satellite images to find houses with swimming pools - or at least paddling pools. Once a target has been identified, sweaty swimmers then use Facebook to arrange an organised, but uninvited, pool-crash. [full story]

No Time For a Post Today

2008-06-17T07:27:00.000-07:00

I don't have time to offer a full post today. We just got back from a long weekend with the in-laws and missing just one day of work has the potential for a backlog o' crap for me to deal with today. Plus I'm still working on getting into a band, conceptualizing a couple of different music videos and finding an extra hour so I can see the last frakkin' episode of Battlestar Galactica. So instead of any original content, here are two posts from other blogs that I really enjoy. First is the story of Creepy Johnny from Politi-Gal. Next is a video for those of you who are unsure how to vote in November (via Couchmouse's Corner). Just watch it.

what What WHAT!?

2008-06-13T13:54:00.000-07:00

Tim Russert just dropped dead in his office of a heart attack. He was only 58. Say what you will about bias, softball questions, etc, this guy revolutionized the Sunday morning political talk show. Although I'm probably the only political junkie who never watches the Sunday shows, I'm really bummed and my heart goes out to the Russert family. And needless to say, I am rather curious to see who the new host of Meet the Press will be. It's going to be a weird election cycle without Tim there.

And now for a completely unrelated mini-rant...

As mentioned in the comments of my previous post, not only is it a triumph for this country's justice system that the supreme court upheld habeas corpus despite the continued attempts by the Bush-Cheney crime family to do away with one of the oldest cornerstones of a justice system in a free country, the fact that Bush was obviously unhappy with it made that decision all the more sweet. Now John McBush has come out and called this �one of the worst decisions in the history of this country.� No, Senator Asshat, this decision keeps our country from sliding further into becoming an authoritarian banana republic. There was no habeas corpus at the Hanoi Hilton, was there? Oh, but it's not fascist when we do it, right? Now if you want to see a bad court decision, try this one on for size.

The Art of Kicking 'Em When They're Down

2008-06-11T21:07:00.000-07:00

House republicans have perfected the art of screwing the downtrodden, and in an election year no less! The economy is going south, jobs are disappearing, we're getting raped at the gas pumps, and what do these compassionate conservatives do? They vote against extending unemployment benefits. To quote Casey Kasem, "Boy, is this fucking ponderous man... ponderous, fucking ponderous!" What are these people thinking? After flushing trillions of dollars down the toilet of an unnecessary war and every expensive pet project in their home districts, when it comes to Americans who need help through a really bad time they all of a sudden decide to be fiscally conservative? And this is going to help them win what could be their hardest election cycle how? Of course, so much of their base are like the frat boys getting paddled and saying "thank you sir may I have another" but I really hope that at least some of the working class rank and file who are struggling through this recession that supposedly isn't really a recession but really is finally realize that the people they keep voting for don't give a damn about them. Oh, I forget, this is supposed to build character for those rugged individualist types. Aaaaarrrgggghhhh!!!! And if this isn't bad enough, when Americans could most use a drink, John McBush now says that he will veto every single beer. From my cold dead hands, Mr. Senator!

Someone Take These Dreams Away

2008-06-10T09:13:00.000-07:00

I've been really into Joy Division lately. I'd been a casual fan for years, mostly through a compilation CD I had and the brief segments of the film 24 Hour Party People that told the abbreviated version of their story. Now there are 2 movies about this band, one documentary and one biopic. The documentary is simply called Joy Division and it features interviews with the surviving members of the band (for those living under a rock for the last 20 years, they are now New Order) and others from the Manchester post-punk scene. It also features lots of great performance footage. The biopic is called Control, and it was directed by one of Joy Division's photographers and written from the memoirs of Ian Curtis' widow (who did not participate in the documentary). Both films did an excellent job of highlighting the timeless music of this incredibly influential though tragically short lived band. The documentary helped flesh out some of what you see in the biopic and the biopic helps put the viewer back into the time and place where it all happened. If you know anything about this band, you know it didn't end well. Whether you're familiar or not, I highly recommend these films to anyone who likes music.

My first introduction to Joy Division was Nine Inch Nails cover of Dead Souls on the Crow soundtrack which you can see here. And below is Radiohead covering Ceremony (which was later re-recorded by New Order).

The Lexicon of This Blog

2008-06-07T09:00:00.000-07:00

While his inspiration couldn't come from a lamer source, I kind of like the idea that JSF had of posting an explanation of who or what you might see mentioned on his blog. I liked the idea so much that I ~~blatantly ripped it off~~ did the same thing here. So here is the lexicon of Washington Interns Gone Bad in alphabettical order...

Anne - My sweet and beautiful wife who is dreadfully embarrassed by the sometimes angry tone and sometimes colorful language on this blog, yet for some reason tolerates me anyway.

Artie Lange - My favorite comedian/personal trainwreck. See also: Howard Stern, Baba Booey

Asshat - Kind of like an asshole, only more laughable. See also: douchebag

Asshattery - The behavior of an asshat, or asshat-like behavior from a person who might not ordinarily be considered an asshat. See also: douchebaggery

Baba Booey - A nickname of Howard Stern's producer, Gary Dell'Abate, but the name has taken on a life of its own as a prank code word for Stern fans. There's always a challenge to get that name on the air of mainstream broadcasts, such as walking past a live newscast on the street and shouting "Baba Booey" at the top of your lungs hoping it makes it on the air. See also: Artie Lange, Howard Stern

Battle of the Blogs - A popularity contest on Blog Explosion. You go up against another blog and 15 people decide which one is better. So far I have a decent margin of wins to losses. There are some blogs that I don't mind losing to, and some losses that make me feel like jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge. See also: Blog Explosion

Battlestar Galactica - The best frakkin' show on the frakkin' TV, period. No, not the cheesy 70's one with Lorne Green and Face from the A-Team. The new one with Edward James Olmos and a real budget.

Blog Explosion - A blog networking site which I haven't decided if I love or hate. See also: Battle of the Blogs

Bush-Cheney Crime Family - Some of you might know them as the current US President and his administration, but to me they're more like members of organized crime than members of government and hopefully some day they will be tried as such. See also: Worst Administration Ever, douchebaggery

Douchebag - Kind of like an asshat, only less laughable and more vile. See also: Asshat, Dick Cheney

Douchebaggery - The behavior of an douchebag, or douche-like behavior from a person who might not ordinarily be considered a douchebag. See also: asshattery, worst administration ever

Evil of Two Lessers - The Republican Party. Do both parties suck? Oh yeah! But do the republicans suck in a particularly evil kind of way? Usually, though sometimes they'll surprise you. See also: Lesser of two evils

Howard - All Hail the King of All Media! When Howard Stern started getting really big in the early 90's, I was an obnoxiously PC college student who thought he was horrible and ugly. Over a decade later he's still pretty ugly, but I was long over that PC bullshit and had to drive 45 minutes to work and I started listening. Now I'm obsessed and mention him fairly often on this blog. See also: Artie Lange, Baba Booey

JSF - A friend of mine who happens to be a conservative blogger. Despite being wrong on many political issues and using mind bogglingly poor logic and straw man arguments to try to bolster his points, he's a good dude and we sometimes even manage to see eye to eye on some things. We're both transplanted New Yorkers in California by way of Washington, DC.

Lesser of Two Evils - The Democratic Party. Do they suck? You bet! Do they suck slightly less than the republicans? Usually, though sometimes they surprise you. See also: Evil of two lessers

Opeth - An amazing Swedish prog-metal band who I am completely obsessed with at the moment. See also: Prog

Opiate of the Masses - Religion. Just like drugs, in the right hands it can be inspiring yet in the wrong hands it can cause endless misery, irrationality, oppression, violence and other not so nice things. Keep it out of my face and I typically don't have too much of a problem with it.

Prog - Progressive rock. This has nothing at all to do with progressive politics. It's the musical genre which I am really into at the moment. There are many sub-genres and a wide range of bands. I am currently looking to start playing in a prog band of some sort or another. See also: Opeth

Stella - My adorable little monkey child who will eventually grow up to be incredibly embarrassed by her daddy's blogging, burping, and all that weird music he listens to.

Washington Interns Gone Bad - Yes, that's the title of this blog, but before there was the blog, there was the movie. The blog started as a production diary for the movie. The movie was my reaction to living in Washington, DC and working in and around national partisan politics. Let's just say it doesn't paint a pretty picture of the political scene. You can watch it for free, broken down into 11 episodes on the top of the left hand column of this blog.

Worst Administration Ever - The Bush administration. Need I say more? See also: Bush-Cheney crime family, douchebaggery

Finally...

2008-06-03T22:24:00.001-07:00

Now go out there and beat that old man like he owes you money!

Our Lady of Who Gives a Shit

2008-06-02T08:42:00.001-07:00

So Obama's now former church is in the news again all weekend long and what can I offer but a big giant fucking yawn. I'm not trying to make excuses for some of the wingnuttery coming from that pulpit. The latest brouhaha over a guest reverend lashing out at Hillary Clinton would have been a complete nonissue if this guy didn't try interjecting race into it. Has Hillary acted entitled to the nomination? You bet your ass she has and still does. Is it because she's whitey trying to stick it to the black man? No, it's because she's a power mad egomaniac. There's nothing more cringe-worthy than watching some white guy telling the blacks that whitey is trying to keep them down. It bolsters the right in their stereotype of condescending liberal racism.

That said, why is it that there's all this attention being paid to the words of the wingnuts at Obama's church while for decades the wingnuts from the churches that have been backing republicans can barely get a headline? Our supposedly liberal media barely even covers the hatemongering coming from these far right evangelical churches while everything that comes out of one liberal church in Chicago is nightly news. These churches of the extreme right peddle their intolerance and hatemongering every week to the throngs in comfy stadium seating, telling them that natural disasters are God's revenge on the gays, that Harry Potter is the devil, that interracial dating is a sin, and that everything that everyone else believes is a lie, and this is considered mainstream Christianity. Yet the same right wing politicians who count on the members of these fire and brimstone mega-churches to vote for them come out and complain that churches are no place for political agendas when that agenda is not theirs.

It's time to put religion back where it belongs, out of the focus of national politics and back into the private lives of those who choose to practice it. But since that's not going to happen in this ever more insane society in which we live, it's time to put these nutjob evangelicals under just as much of a spotlight as this one little church in Chicago. Of course I'm not holding my breath for either of these things to happen, but it sure would be nice.

How I'll be Spending My Day...

2008-06-01T07:59:00.000-07:00

Today are the dental board exams, and I will be spending 4 hours in a chair with somebody like this...

So far this will be my forth and last time going to this student. It all sounded like a great idea at first, get free dental work and help a student become a licensed dentist. But so far it's been incredibly painful and all I'll have to show for it is that a quarter of my teeth will be cleaned. This is so not worth it.

Fess Up, People!

2008-05-30T08:25:00.000-07:00

OK, which one of my wiseass friends had a Chick Tract sent to me? This one isn't one of the funnier ones, but it has a pretty good punchline, if you could call it that.

Anne called me at work and told me that something really weird came in the mail and that she hoped it was a joke. As soon as I saw the shape of it I knew it was one of Jack Chick's famous comic tracts about people going to hell and I started laughing, but she was a bit unnerved by it. So if you're one of our friends and thought it would be funny, I get the joke. If you're one of our friends who thinks we need organized religion in our lives, no thank you.

While I obviously don't agree with the message, I do enjoy Jack's style. If he found Alfred E. Newman instead of Jeebus, he could have taken Mad Magazine to a whole new level.

WWII Vet: 1 - Right Wing Blogger: 0

2008-05-29T11:30:00.000-07:00

This is great! In an all too typically classless move, some right wing asshat gets it into his head to try to swiftboat Obama's ~~grandpa~~ great uncle who helped liberate a concentration camp in WWII. He takes it upon himself to try getting some dirt from a vet from the same unit. Hilarity ensues!

Seven Songs Meme

2008-05-29T08:46:00.000-07:00

I don't usually do memes, but I saw this one on another blog and I thought it would be right up my alley and a nice break from the politics. It's pretty simple. Here are the rules:

List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they�re not any good, but they must be songs you�re really enjoying now, shaping your spring. Post these instructions in your blog along with your 7 songs. Then tag other people to see what they�re listening to.

I have kicked it up a notch by including a YouTube link if there's one available. Enjoy the music!

Opeth - Windowpane
Transatlantic - All of the Above
3 - All That Remains
Opeth - Atonement
Liquid Tension Experiment - Osmosis
Stevie Wonder - Too High
Bud Buckley - Let Me Go - Please use the link at the bottom of that page to vote for that song and help make my dad huge in England.

As you can see, I'm on a big prog rock kick. I probably could have just filled the whole list with Opeth songs as they are my latest musical obsession, but I wanted to branch out a little bit. My policy for memes is voluntary tagging, so if any of my few readers decides to take this one on, please mention it in my comments. Thanks, and rock on.