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Sarah Palin Rumors

I complain about the media a lot, especially about journalism, but I try to keep an eye out for things that I think are done well. Here's an example of that.

I'm not a fan of Sarah Palin, but it's nice to see a new organization try to set the record straight on some rumors. Most of the rumors CBS News chose to examine were false.

Ron Paul's Endorsement

Paul is the man I'd vote for, regardless of what ticket he ran on, if he had any chance of winning or moving a third party toward legitimacy. I read his book, and while I didn't agree with everything, it more closely suits my personal philosophy than anything I've ever read.

I know this has been said for many generations before me, but I'm tired of having to pick between what feels more and more like two sides of the same coin. I'd like a legitimate third party.

From The Associated Press:

Republican Rep. Ron Paul, the libertarian-leaning Texas lawmaker who attracted a devoted following in the GOP primaries, said Wednesday he rejected an appeal to endorse John McCain's presidential bid.

Paul said the request came from Phil Gramm, the former McCain adviser and ex-senator whom the campaign jettisoned after he said the country was a "nation of whiners" about the economy. Gramm defeated Paul in the Republican primary for the Senate in 1984.

Speaking to reporters at a news conference, Paul said Gramm called him this week and told him, "You need to endorse McCain." The Texas congressman said he refused.

"The idea was that he would do less harm than the other candidate," Paul said.

Paul won no primaries in the Republican nomination contest but developed a strong following on the Internet.

He appeared at a news conference with three third-party candidates: independent Ralph Nader; former Georgia Democratic Rep. Cynthia McKinney, the Green Party candidate; and Chuck Baldwin, the Constitution Party candidate. Bob Barr, the Libertarian candidate, was invited but said at his own news conference later that he declined because Paul didn't endorse one candidate.

Pure Pizza

I've gotta check out Anthony Mangieri's Una Pizza Napoletana.

I love New York.

Why is a comedian the best journalist in America?

I would really like to know why "real journalists" aren't doing this kind of research.

From the Huffington Post:

Wednesday night on "The Daily Show," Jon Stewart hit Karl Rove and Bill O'Reilly with damning evidence of their hypocrisy regarding Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin.

While Rove recently praised Palin's experience as the mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, Stewart showed video of Rove trashing Virginia Governor — and former Richmond Mayor — Tim Kaine's executive experience, listing all the cities that are bigger than Richmond and calling such a pick "political."

Then, after recent video of O'Reilly describing Bristol Palin's pregnancy as a family issue, Stewart showed a clip of the Fox News host blaming Jamie Lynn Spears' parents for her teenage pregnancy.

Finally, after showing video of Dick Morris complaining about the rampant sexism in the media coverage of Sarah Palin, Stewart unveiled a clip of Morris saying that Hillary hides behind the sexism defense, and that anytime "the big boys" pick on Hillary, "she retreats behind the apron strings."

"In Dick Morris' defense," Stewart said, "he is a lying sack of sh*t."

No wonder Stewart is the most trusted man in America.

Some on the Right say choice of Palin was wrong

I guess Democrats aren't the only ones who have problems with Sarah Palin as John McCain's running mate:

Peggy Noonan, speechwriter for Ronald Reagan and columnist, interjects: “It’s over.”

Asked whether Ms. Palin is really the most qualified woman Mr. McCain could have picked, Ms. Noonan responds rather incredulously, “The most qualified? No. I think they went for the — excuse me — political (expletive) about narratives. … Every time the Republicans do that, because that’s not where they live and that’s not what they’re good at, they blow it.”

And here's another reason why the pick was bad: Now when Rudy Giuliani attacks Barack Obama's lack of experience, it really doesn't carry any weight. Especially when he's leveling the same arguments against Obama as he did against McCain:

Mr. Giuliani, the former New York City mayor, began making the argument early Wednesday. “Barack Obama has never governed a city, never governed a state, never governed an agency, never run a military unit, never run anything,” Mr. Giuliani said on the CBS “Early Show” in an interview the McCain campaign sent to reporters.

If his formulation sounded a little familiar, it is because it was one of the few criticisms that Mr. Giuliani aimed at Mr. McCain during the heat of their primary fight, saying that he had “never run a city, never run a state, never run a government.”

Hookers & Blow

I think this piece is unfair to the GOP. What were they supposed to do, just shut everything down because of Gustav?

But it's worth watching just to catch the name of the band that played at a party for the NRA, Lockheed Martin and the American Trucking Association, thrown by a lobbyist who was a longtime aid to Tom Delay. It's about 1:30 into the video.

Let's face it, the GOP knows how to party better than the Democrats.

It's nice to see a journalist doing her job

Even if it cost CNN's Larry King an interview with John McCain. From the New York Times:

"... Ms. (Campbell) Brown had sharply questioned Tucker Bounds, a campaign spokesman, after he said that the role of Mr. McCain’s running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin, as commander in chief of the Alaska National Guard was an example of executive experience that Senator Barack Obama of Illinois did not have.

"Can you tell me one decision that she made as commander in chief of the Alaska National Guard, just one?” Ms. Brown asked.

Mr. Bounds responded, “Any decision she has made as the commander of the National Guard that’s deployed overseas is more of a decision Barack Obama’s been making as he’s been running for president for the last two years.”

Ms. Brown pressed again, saying: “So tell me. Tell me. Give me an example of one of those decisions.” To which Mr. Bounds said, “Campbell, certainly you don’t mean to belittle every experience, every judgment she makes as commander.” The argument devolved from there, with no real resolution."

I know the Right will say that she was hounding him, but all Bounds had to do was answer the question. He couldn't or wouldn't, so he tried to spin it that Brown was somehow "belittling" Palin. It was a legitimate question and voters deserved an answer -- and answer that could have possibly strengthened Bounds' argument. If he really had an argument.

I'm usually the last to hold television journalists in high regard, but Brown did well. I wish there were more like her.

bk at the Technocrat calls the election

Here's a taste of what he has to say:

So pardon me for calling the election on September 2 but within the last day the first polls showing Obama with 50%+ started showing up. I’ve long held that lots of America’s choose not to decide until after Labor Day. They can’t be bothered to, it’s just not in their blood like us partisan types. Every cycle just as the decidedly undecides starting tuning in to make their decision they use two events to judge the candidates - the convention acceptance speech and the Presidential candidate’s first executive decision on VP candidate. ...

Click here to read the rest.

From Wasilla to the White House

Two years removed from being mayor of Wasilla, Alaska (pop. 5,470), Sarah Palin could sit a heartbeat away from running the United States of America. So now everyone who attacked Barack Obama for his thin resume needs to be silent. Never mention it again.

But some of these same people are actually claiming that Palin, who has been governor of Alaska for the past year and a half, has more experience than Obama. (She was a city councilwoman before she was mayor, you see.) I don't know why I find this so surprising. After all, this noise is coming from the same camp that thinks the past eight years haven't been so bad.

So here's the Hail Mary pass, Palin. It's tossed up there for you bitter Hillary Clinton supporters to grab, those of you who say you refuse to support Obama. I wish I had more confidence that this angry mob couldn't possibly be so blind that they would vote for a woman whose reproductive organs are all she has in common with Clinton. But McCain clearly thinks they can be swayed.

It was going to be a close race for the presidency, and I think it still might be. Palin could help win Alaska, and it probably will sway a few disgruntled Hillary supporters. But it should move rational moderates away from McCain. Should.

I have a lot of admiration for McCain, and there was a time when I even considered voting for him. He is an honorable man. But should anything happen to him, we would be saddled with someone two years removed from being mayor of Wasilla, Alaska (pop. 5,470). If this is what it takes to be vice president, then this country is in more trouble than I ever imagined.

Jackson Pollock Widget

Drink a bottle or three of whiskey and let the artist free by clicking below and dragging the mouse around. It changes color every time you click.

Philippines Seeks MILF Disarmament

Updating a previous story, more MILF news.

Personally, I really hope the MILF's do put their arms down. Don't fight it, baby.

Riss is Back!

Check her out at Tequila Shots for the Soul.

MILF Rebels Stall Philippine Peace Pact

Nice to see the MILF faction taking matters into their own hands. Check out the guy's name in the caption.

Planet B-Boy

The hottest ish around. Still.



(I wish they'd release the soundtrack already.)

I Love New York, v. 1.1

A city with a sense of humor. Enjoy the slideshow.

It's Hard to Keep Caring About Fantasy Baseball

But I'm trying. For real. I want to care. I definitely need to have more ridiculous e-mail conversations debating the value of Mark DeRosa (who is a goddam fine ballplayer!!!).

But I just can't keep it going. After I won the league last year, and got that pewter trophy in the mail. Very unexpected. The trophy, I mean, but the feeling I had was unexpected, too. I felt like a loser. Like I now had to put this thing on the wall or display it somehow, so that all my friends could see how fucking awesome I am at fantasy baseball, a testameent to how little I do at work and how little I care about my wife and kids. (I don't even have a wife and fucking kids!!!) Like there was some other career I could have had telling everybody all the right moves on the diamond.

Fuck Joe Torre!!!

Actually, I really like the guy and hated to see him go. But nobody listens to me, even with my goddam trophy. (We won 108 fucking fantasy games!!!)

...

...

...

((Yes, three goddam exclamation points.) I love parenthesis.)

Good Job Michael Phelps, But Usain Bolt is the Man

And he has a waaaaaay cooler name. Sorry. It's true.

And, yeah, he's probably on steroids, but if you're not on drugs, then you're a fucking cyborg, so whatever. I give up. Cheat away.

Electric Fly Swatter

You don't think you want this. But you do. Even if you don't have flies or mosquitos, buy one of these and go find some.

It will bring more joy to your life than it should, and maybe more joy than you deserve. You can kill pests with a nasty backhand slice, or give them the full force of your serve. And when you catch a juicy fly on the sweet spot, it pops like a firecracker, and sometimes sizzles a little.

Only $12. I bought two.

50 Children Died -- Think About This

It's easy to dismiss the numbers from a war. The casualties. Even the dead children. In this country, we like to draw some imaginary distinction between our "intentions" and the "results" of the endless war we willfully propagate.

So maybe it's easy for you to see this headline, and gloss over it:

Afghan President Assails U.S.-Led Airstrike

Maybe it would matter to you if "terrorists" had killed 50 children. But if we did it, by mistake, maybe you can go back to your life, your TV shows, your mortgage, your prescription medication, the yellow ribbon you put on your gas-guzzling SUV to support our troops, who are protecting our oil interests in the name of democracy so you can pay four fucking dollars a gallon.

(Note that there are no photos of this atrocity.)

Fixing Inflation

There are a few less billionaires in Zimbabwe today.

Obama Is My Slave

If you wear a T-shirt that says "OBAMA IS MY SLAVE," you should be ready to kiss a few fists. And after that happens, if you sue the person who made the T-shirt, you probably deserve another beat down.

But if, on top of all that, you pay $69 for that ridiculous T-shirt (made by someone who actually believes Barack Obama is a Muslim) then maybe we should be a little more forgiving. You are obviously retarded and not responsible for your actions.

Look on the Bright Side

"Feeling good about government is like looking on the bright side of any catastrophe. When you quit looking on the bright side, the catastrophe is still there."

~P.J. O'Rourke

Top Story

I finally made it on the local news. Top story, too.

Robert Muraine is the coolest mime ever

It's like if Marcel Marceau could dance. Skip the intro on the first video and go straight to the good stuff at the 1:00 mark.

Follow Your Heart

This was spotted on a gritty street in Oakland. The sidewalks must be trying to tell us something.

Sydney Pollack Dead at 73

From the Bloomberg obit:

The connection between man and woman is "a metaphor for everything else in life," he told Newsweek in 1985. In a 1990 interview with the Los Angeles Times, he said he was drawn to "love stories in which the obstacle is too great to finally be overcome."

Here's an interview with Pollack about one of his best films, "Jeremiah Johnson."

Big Booty Benefit

Some good news for people with big butts: it might help prevent diabetes.

Weather Molester

Check out the chyron. Let's hope that's a typo.

Stand Here

Screw the airlines. Just stop by the northbound R, W subway station at Prince Street.

An Amazing Mind

Definition of black

From Morehouse's first white valedictorian: "I've been here for four years and yet, I cannot give you the definition of black. I cannot tell you what a black man is. I really learned to look much deeper. It takes a lot of effort to know people."

Bowling is officially not a sport

Regardless, a blind man bowling a 300 is still a pretty cool story.

Kill Your TV

Sling.com is starting a blog about TV. Check it out here.

If you're not familiar with Sling, it is the company that invented the Slingbox.

If you're not familiar with a Slingbox, click this link. Buy one or two or three or four or five or six or seven or eight. Or nine. (Ten?) You won't regret it.

Forgotten but not gone

I didn't realize that the old Tiger Stadium has been abandoned for nearly a decade. I just assumed they tore it down, as Yankee Stadium will be when the new one is built.

Public Art

Terry Richardson is the artist behind the camera for this Belvedere vodka ad, and Vincent Gallo is allegedly the artist behind the belt buckle in this spectacular public art collaboration.

Richards' photograph forces the viewer to contemplate the causal relationship of Belvedere vodka and BJs in nightclubs. His master stroke, however, is the look of surprise on her face, which hints at the ever-increasing likelihood that the paparazzi will catch you in the act, leading to your own reality show.

But Richardson is asking a fundamental question here, as well. He's challenging the viewer of his art with what is unsaid: Were the pants just pulled up or is the buckle about to be undone? Richardson's lines here aren't as clearly drawn, demanding that the viewers to fill in that space for themselves.

Compared to other art campaigns Richardson has done, the suggestiveness is more subtle, more introspective.

Gallo is restrained in his performance here, as well, to which anyone who saw Chloe Sevigny oblige him in "The Brown Bunny" can attest.

That this gift of public art is being bestowed upon the straphangers at Broadway and Lafayette speaks to the generosity of them both. More people will pass it in a day than will attend most gallery shows in a month.

Bravo.

I miss the South

I never thought I'd say it, but I miss the South. Especially after a friend sent me this video, in which a young lady in Atlanta spits some Soulja Girl rhymes and threatens to kill an elderly woman.

Stuff like this happens in New York, no doubt, but it just has a delectable, deep-fried, smack-your-lips flava below the Mason-Dixon. Too bad the video doesn't have subtitles. She speaks a dialect known as Imbecile, which I haven't studied since high school.

The first minute is great, then it drags a little, but stick around for the ending. Well worth it. I was even able to decipher her rant at the end: "Somebody gimme my hair so I can go! Somebody gimme my hair so I can go! Somebody gimme my hair so I can go! Did anybody see my hair? I'm pressin' charges! I'm pressin' charges! I'm pressin' charges! I'm pressin' charges! I'm pressin' charges! Where my do-rag at?"

Broken Bats

I read this story on how maple bats suck and are dangerous. Then I caught the last few innings of the Yankees game on the tube and saw a bat break in the seventh, eighth and ninth. Hmmm.

I think the story needs a stronger nut graf, and the lede is a little sensational (even if it's true), but it raises an interesting issue.

Hillary Clinton has lost it

Some people would say that happened a long time ago, but if there was any doubt, enjoy her latest: "Senator Obama's support ... among working, hardworking Americans, white Americans, is weakening again. I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on."

Desperate. And sad.

There's also been a lot of squawking that "Hillary Democrats" might back John McCain if she doesn't get the nomination. I just don't buy it. Americans are pretty stupid, but Hillary's clan can't be that bitter.

Other People's Stuff

Mark May 15 on your calendar.

Interesting post from my buddy Matt Duffy on a study of "The Daily Show"

Bedbugs on the subway?

As if you could date New Yorkers

Someone please please please please please get me a reservation

And here's a little something extra. R.I.P. Freddy Soto:

Bronx Bombers

Caught my first game of 2008 at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday night, and the two guys who sat behind me were more interesting than the Bombers, who looked like a bunch of bums against Cleveland. They lost 3-0.

My girlfriend and I had upper-deck seats right behind the foul pole where that squirrel watched the playoffs last season. When these two guys sat behind us, I thought they were going to spend the rest of the game annoying the crap out of me.

It's no crime to be drunk and loud at a baseball game in the Bronx. It actually helps you fit in. But the guy closest to me stumbled while sitting down and I thought I was going to have to catch him with my face, but he managed to right the ship. No harm, no foul.

And other than getting smacked in the head once and some stomping on the empty seat next to me, they actually made the game a very enjoyable experience.

The guy who almost fell on me announced, "I know baseball!" to his buddy, whose dreads curled around his head like a turban (no, that's not a hat). Because he was missing his front teeth, he had a hard time pronouncing some words. “My father taught me. Jackie Robinson. Babe Roof. He played for Boston! I know everything. Joe DiMaggio.”

And the guy did seem to know quite a lot about the Yankees.

"Wang’s the best pitcher dey got!” he told his friend during the fourth inning. This is true.

“Well, the Yankees ain't doing nuthin’,” his dreadlocked buddy said. Also true.

“The other guy’s throwing a one-hitter, man!” he countered. And in fact Cliff Lee was shutting down the Yankees.

When a trivia question about perfect games by Yankees pitchers went up on the big screen, he started reeling off names. He called out, "Boomer!" then "Coney!" remembering the perfection of David Wells and David Cone in the late '90s.

A vendor yelled, “Peanuts, here! Peanuts!”

“I want some free nuts!” the guy without the front teeth yelled back. The vendor looked at him and kept walking. “Watch," he said to his friend, "I’m gonna get me some free nuts. Ha!”

Later in the game, the stadium speakers blared “YMCA” and the grounds crew did its dance while dragging the infield. The guy with the dreads went to the bathroom and the other guy said to a man nearby, "They made 'YMCA' into a movie. It was really, really good." He proceeded to give an in-depth review of the 1980 Village People film. He also informed him that “Mamma Mia!” is being made into a movie, too. Baseball buff, film buff, and a fan of Broadway.

The next peanut vendor that walked by yelled, “Sack a nuts here! Last chance for deez nuts!”

“You can’t say free nuts, then not give free nuts," he said. "That’s against the law! Ha, ha!”

During the sixth inning, a camera man showed up and started filming people dancing to Beyonce’s “Crazy in Love.”

A woman got up and began to swing her hips and her arms like she was falling out of a tree, hitting every branch on the way down. The guy with the dreads busted out some wild moves of his own, punching at the air and kicking his feet.

“You were battling her, man! That was a battle!” the guy told his friend. "Ha, ha! We’re going to Shea on Friday.”

Today's Buzzword: At the end of the day

OK, so that's not a word, it's a phrase. But still. In four hours of meetings today, I must have heard "at the end of the day" about 649 times.

Journalism Requiem: Headlines

(Found this here)

Copy editors love to say that more headlines get read on a daily basis that stories. And that's true. People flick through the paper and scan almost every headline but read far fewer stories. The same is true online.

Readers might think they are walking away with the essence of the story if they only read the headline and perhaps the lead paragraph. At least that should be the case.

But take this headline: Too Much, Too Little Sleep Leads to Big Belly

This would be fine, except that it's not true. Poor sleep is "linked" to being obese. It's not a causal relationship and the story even says as much. This type of mistake is common. And much worse mistakes are made all the time.

As news sources, especially newspapers, slash staffs and move away from copy editing, as if it's a luxury rather than a necessity to protect credibility -- which is the very the lifeblood of news -- more mistakes will be made, and they'll be made on much more important stories.

Journalism Requiem: Sean Bell verdict

When the Sean Bell verdict was announced, the homepage editor of a major television news Web site (the station has three letters and a B in the middle) was overheard saying, “Why aren’t they rioting?”

I recounted this story to a friend of mine, who is black. She laughed and said she was surprised they weren’t rioting, too.

But this same homepage editor went on to say that he didn’t know how big a story the verdict was unless “they” riot.

So, three cops being acquitted of murdering an unarmed man on his wedding day -- he was shot 50 times -- isn’t big news without this. Good to know.

Disney Magic

A bunch of Disney World employees dug through bags of trash and found three platinum and diamond wedding rings, which a Massachusetts couple accidentally threw away during their stay.

I heard about the story at the gym, where I'm force-fed the morning "news" show ad machines while I'm on the elliptical. The wife, Karen Campanale, recounted the story and ended by saying how wonderful the employees are and that "someone should doing something nice for them. They deserve a vacation."

Uh, yeah, someone should do something for them. And that someone is YOU, lady.

Family Ties

It’s Friday. But you knew that. I knew it too, and you knew that I knew that you knew and so on.

Nice.

Real nice.

I likes dat.

Lots.

Cousin’s in town, just finished her world tour. She wants to put the exclamation point on the trip with a visit to the Boogie Down BX, baby.

I want stories, wild tales from Tahiti and Hong Kong. What happened on the moped? She almost got taken out by a truck. She’s brave. Cuz has her ish together. She’s my shero.

I’ll tell her about Philly. And Frida Kahlo. And cheese steak. Saw the penitentiary, too. Al Capone had it made. Even behind bars.

Beer. 67 minutes away from a beer. Or 20. (Beers, not minutes.) Nice and numb. Loose.

I have a lot of family, but not a lot of ties. She a tie. A bow tie. Silk. And denim. With a funky pattern.

Hoboken Haircut

I got my hair cut at this barber shop in Hoboken. The sign says:

"If I find out who gave me this
pasted ten
"I'll cut off his ears and paste them
to his balls."

There something poetic about that.

War or the Gridiron?

It was not that long ago that Pat Tillman walked away from the NFL and millions of dollars to become an Army Ranger and fight the Taliban in Afghanistan after Sept. 11, 2001. He became a national hero, regardless of the outrageous aftermath of his death.

But the Army still can’t get its priorities straight when it comes to football players.

West Point’s Caleb Campbell won't have to worry about fighting in the same war that claimed Tillman's life -- at least not yet -- even though he's been trained as an officer. Because Campbell is good at football, the military thinks his time would be better spent battling running backs and quarterbacks in the NFL rather than the terrorists in Afghanistan or Iraq.

The U.S. Military Academy has spent four years and a considerable amount of money training him to do both, but recently decided to give extraordinary athletes a way to "opt-out" of their military commitment. It's good PR and it's also allows the school to recruit better athletes, perhaps a way to resurrect Army's football glory days.

I don't blame Campbell for pursuing a career (and a huge amount of money) as a professional football player. I blame the people in the Army who allowed this to happen. The Navy and the Air Force do not have such loopholes – yet.

The last time I checked, more than 4,000 U.S. soldiers had died. We are at war, and thousands and thousands of lives are being lost in the process. But somehow the Army has determined that what happens on Sunday in the NFL is more important that happens to human beings every day in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Mailer-McLuhan Debate (1968)

It's 40 years old, but Norman Mailer and Marshall McLuhan's thoughts on violence, alienation and the electronic envelope really stuck a cord with me. I'm pretty new to Norman Mailer (just read "Deer Park"), and I'd never encountered McLuhan until this video, but I'm now a pretty big fan of both.

I met Mailer at a wedding a few years ago. I knew who he was, but hadn't read any of his books or essays. He didn't say anything to me, we just shook hands and he nodded his head. He seemed much more interested in the woman I was with, my then-wife. Mailer always had an eye for the ladies.

Anyway, the video is almost 30 minutes long, but well worth the time. And I won't pretend I could wrap my head around all of it. I listened to a couple parts twice -- okay, three times -- because my brain is allergic to some types of knowledge.

Norman Mailer on Journalists

"If a person is not talented enough to be a novelist, not smart enough to be a lawyer, and his hands are too shaky to perform operations, he becomes a journalist."

~Norman Mailer

Love is a Choice

(Found this great photo here)

I don't consider myself a Christian -- I lean toward Buddhism, but am far from a Buddhist -- but I agree with the title of this sermon: Love is a Choice.

The sermon cites this passage from Kenneth W. Morgan's book "Reaching for the Moon":

“... a bitter altercation broke out between the two men. After an angry exchange of shouted insults, as the bicyclist moved toward the porter with a clenched fist, a tattered little man slipped from the crowd, took the raised fist in his hand, and kissed it. A murmur of approval ran through the watchers, the antagonists relaxed, then people began picking up oranges and the little man drifted away. I have remembered that as a caring act, an act of devotion by a man who might have been a Syrian Muslim, a Syrian Jew, or a Syrian Christian. ...”

The older I get, the more it seems that life is a fist and the punches keep coming. Here's how the sermon ends: "... kiss the fist and change the world."