i recently changed my hair style and i was worried that my hair looked like this guy’s!:

from the chicagoist:

Inspired by a commenter on Fark who called our soon-to-be-former Gov. Blagojevich a “living Lego man,” (as well as our previous South Park-itizing of the Gov.) we decided to do a side-by-side comparison and by god, the resemblance is uncanny:

In fact, Lego has announced a new play set, available just in time for Christmas:

Legoman image by dunechaser

By Prescott Carlson

*****************

even more to worry about! i knew that he was crazy and delusional!

and from knx1070.com

Blagojevich’s Hair: Sign of Mental Illness?

( courtesy of suntimes.com/wonkette.com ) - Gov. Blagojevich’s glossy locks — perfectly sculpted in rain or snow — may be an indication of a sickness beneath his scalp, said one local psychologist.

“It’s all part of managing his image, managing his image of being without a blemish, without a flaw,” said Scott Ambers, who has practiced clinical psychology in the city for more than two decades.

Several psychologists interviewed one day after the governor’s arrest agreed that he might be suffering from an affliction known as narcissistic personality disorder.

“This grandiose sense of self . . . doesn’t carry the implication that [Blagojevich] is a raving lunatic, crazy and out of touch with reality, but it does suggest he has a really overinflated view of his own importance,” Ambers said.

Those who bandied the term “delusions of grandeur” when talking about Blagojevich have missed the mark, Ambers said.

“I have a patient who is firmly convinced the FBI, the CIA and [the Department of] Homeland Security are following her . . . as she drives on the expressway,” Ambers said. “It’s all delusional.”

Perhaps Blagojevich suffers from the opposite problem?

“I think he felt a certain kind of immunity,” Ambers said. “It’s part of the grandiosity — ‘They are not going to be able to punish me because I’m above the law, I’m smarter, I will outfox them.’ ”

***************************

but luckily….my hair “parts” the other way…and i don’t really have a part! phew! i don’t want lego hair or the issues associated with it!

as i enjoyed a slow, lazy long weekend during christmas, others in palestine/israel were enduring a different kind of long weekend. having spent a summer in israel and palestine, the news stories from the region are never just (disposable)news.

both sides will blame and accuse…in this case, the israelis are bombing gaza in response to rockets…the palestinians are promising more violence…..the details matters little to me…i subscribe to the theology of “their lives were bigger than any big idea”. so i mourn. i pray. i pause. on the christian sabbath after one of the main christian holy-days, i pray that people will turn from their violence…learn to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with their God.

our true violent selves have risen above the surface….

unfortunately, more to come….

Posted under a different world, politics, prophet

earlier this year, governor of new york, elliot spitzer was brought down by a call girl service. here’s the summary.
recently, one of the girls he was linked to, ashley dupre, came out with a publicity blitz to promote her other wares and was universally slammed. but the analysis bothered me and i’ve been meditating on why. here are a few examples:

i can’t tell if these guys(or our society)are sympathetic toward sex workers or if they sneer at them. as i listen to these news experts analyze, is ashley dupre a victim or a dumb dumb? eliott spitzer clearly is portrayed to be a villian in the discussion but ashley is…a little lost lamb? tragic figure? someone to be saved? co-conspirator? just as guilty? or evil manipulator?

how are prostitutes viewed?

the issue maybe deeper: we are schizo about the way we treat and talk about women. we will decry about the impossible beauty standards we place on women and later in the conversation apply those standards to old, fat or even average women. we agree that rape is horrid but allow most rape perps to serve only 3 years. we show(lip service)disapproval of the sex industry(including sex slavery)but wink at lap dances and bachelor parties as acceptable and even integral parts of our societal practices.  we cannot decide whether to love or hate women…so we talk and act juggling those ideas in tension. that tension can be summarized between tupac’s lyrics and his life….knowing that he rapped lofty standards and yet had misogynistic episodes.

You know it makes me unhappy (what’s that)
When brothas make babies, and leave a young mother to be unhappy
And since we all came from a woman
Got our name from a woman and our game from a woman
I wonder why we take from our women
Why we rape our women, do we hate our women?
I think it’s time to kill for our women
Time to heal our women, be real to our women
And if we don’t we’ll have a race of babies
That will hate the ladies, that make the babies
And since a man can’t make one
He has no right to tell a woman when and where to create one
So will the real men get up
I know you’re fed up ladies, but keep your head up

***********

i’m going to side with the words of tupac(here)and not how he lived.

i do cry for ashley dupre and all sex workers, naive or calculated.

as we hurtle toward the new year, new albums, new episodes and new tours of our favorites are coming….

the new u2 album is delayed but a new single is out this week and will be released as an exclusive on (red)wire, the new music service affiliated with product red that donates part of the profits to fight the aids epidemic in africa. its only $5 a month for 2 songs per week with half the proceeds going towards meds for those afflicted in africa. don’t like u2? how about jay z, coldplay, the killers, the police, elton john or john legend? they are all (red)wire artists. check them out here.

from billboard magazine:

U2, Coldplay, Killers help launch digital magazine

U2, Coldplay, Killers Help Launch (RED)WIRE
by Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.
Some of the biggest names in music are contributing exclusive songs to RED(WIRE), a new digital music magazine launching on World AIDS Day (Dec. 1).

U2, Coldplay, the Killers, the Dixie Chicks, John Legend, R.E.M. and Bob Dylan are on board for the initiative, which is an outgrowth of the Bono-reared activist organization (RED). All proceeds from subscriptions will benefit HIV-infected people in Africa; MSN.com will host a kick-off party on Dec. 1.

For $5, users will receive a new issue of RED(WIRE) every Wednesday, featuring an exclusive song from a major artist, a song from an artist (RED) aims to showcase, a multimedia piece that could encompass video or photography and a look at how proceeds are directly benefiting Africans in need. The materials will be downloaded to a custom player and automatically loaded into iTunes.

Users can send two free issues to friends, and will be rewarded if they join RED(WIRE). “Artists are already saying, ‘I want to give you a track for those people who brought friends in,’” (RED)WIRE founder Don MacKinnon tells Billboard.com. “That’s the biggest idea: using social networking to actually change the world in a unique way.”

U2’s track was recorded just last Wednesday, while the Killers, Elton John and the Pet Shop Boys’ Neil Tennant teamed up for the Christmas song “Joseph, Better You Than Me,” which MacKinnon describes as “like a power ballad.” This is the third year in a row the Killers have penned a holiday song and donated proceeds to (RED).

Meanwhile, John Legend’s take on Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song” finds him eschewing piano for a
stripped-down arrangement with guitar, bass and backing vocalists, according to MacKinnon.

Also coming is the first new Dixie Chicks song since the group’s Grammy sweep in 2007, “Lucky One,” and Elvis Costello and the Police jamming on “Watching the Detectives” and “Walking From the Moon,”
taped during Costello’s new Sundance Channel show “Spectacle.” Additional (RED)WIRE offerings will
be announced in the coming weeks.

MacKinnon is particularly enthused about the creative directions open to (RED)WIRE, especially with such high-profile artist participation.

“I had a meeting with Jay-Z, and he wants to talk about artists to be featured in that spotlight slot,”
he says. “Big artists may curate an issue. The whole goal was to create a creative platform. When somebody says, ‘I do all this photography and I want to put it in as an extra,’ That’s when I go, this is going to be really cool.”

from usatoday.com:

Subscriptions to (RED) Wire digital music will fight AIDS

MSN will host Monday’s kickoff event for (RED) Wire, an extension of the (RED) organization founded by the U2 frontman and Bobby Shriver to combat AIDS in Africa. New songs and videos from U2, Coldplay, Death Cab for Cutie, Dixie Chicks, Jay-Z, John Legend and Sheryl Crow will be available at red.msn.com.

For Legend, signing on “was a no-brainer. (RED) has proven an effective vehicle. And the lineup of artists is exciting company.” The singer recorded a new version of Bob Marley’s Redemption Song, “which just felt right for this project and for the time that we’re in.”

The premieres also include a live track from the upcoming Sundance series Spectacle, pairing Elvis Costello with The Police, and a new Christmas song recorded by The Killers and Elton John. Bob Dylan and R.E.M. are on deck for future editions.

“The goal was something that wasn’t just a one-off CD, but an ongoing service that would generate an ongoing flow of money,” says Hear Music founder Don MacKinnon, who conceived the project.

as for the new u2 full album, here’s the latest from mojo:

U2 Album Still Not Finished

But Edge confident as deadline looms, learns MOJO’s Danny Eccleston.

With the release of U2’s 12th studio album delayed until February, and the band still mixing furiously in a London studio MOJO are unable to name for fear of an instant fan-siege, guitarist the Edge has called the MOJO office with a progress report.

In line with U2’s late preference for enigmatic titles, the album seems certain to be called No Line on the Horizon — although Edge insists that anything can still change (U2 have even been known to record backing vocals in the mastering suite).

He goes on to reveal that they’ve shelved the songs recorded with Rick Rubin in 2006 and that much of the material dates from sessions with stalwarts Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, who co-write.

Confirmed track titles include “Moment of Surrender” and “Unknown Caller.”

There follows the director’s cut of the interview reported in the issue of MOJO magazine that’s on the shelves right now…

MOJO: Well, my first question has to be, have you finished yet?
Edge: [Coolly] Not quite. That’s why we’re here.

So, why finish up in London?
Well, it’s good to get out of familiar surroundings when you’re looking for a different perspective. Get out of the comfort zone.

If you’d stayed in Dublin, would you have just carried on producing material rather than bringing everything to a conclusion?
Maybe. Also, a good mix room is always important. Our studio in Dublin is more like a glorified rehearsal room really. It doesn’t have proper acoustic treatments for mixing and whatever. So we always mix in a studio that’s properly set up for that process.

Is the album still going to be called No Line on the Horizon, or is that a red herring?
It’s not totally firmed up but it’s still the working title.

So, what the hell does it mean?
It’s an image. It’s an image, Bono tells me [laughs]. It’s like when you’re moving forward, but you’re not exactly sure what you’re heading towards — that moment where the sea and the sky blend into one. It’s an image of infinity, I suppose — a kind of Zen image.

Is it a metaphor for how U2 make their records? No deadline on the horizon?
[Laughs] Guilty your honour! We were talking about this. Our work process is all about allowing inspiration to arrive at any time during the process. So there’s no finality, there’s no formality, until it’s in the shops. U2 albums never get finished; they just get released.

So do you think that helps the record? You can use material you started months ago, but as long as you’re re-examining it right at the last it can still sound contemporary?
Yes, I think that’s true. Song titles, lyrics, melody lines can change right up until the last minute. I think our records are always…it’s the last few weeks when things really come into focus. It might take us a long time to establish the basis of the record musically, but then a lot of stuff will change.

Famously, Chris Blackwood came down when we were doing Achtung Baby and with a week to go he said, “There’s just no chance you’re gonna finish this album; I’ll come back in a month’s time and check on your progress.” So he left town, and sure enough we finished at the end of that week! It’s like this ground rush. You seem to be going nowhere and then suddenly you hit the last period and then everything starts to move and everything clicks into place. It’s just the way we do it because I suppose inspiration is the ultimate thing for us. It’s not craft. So when things start to really get close, it’s a really inspiring time and everyone just gets onto a whole other level of creativity and we go into overdrive and all these ideas start coming through.

Has anything survived from the first bout of sessions [from September 2006], the Rick Rubin material?
We actually laid all that stuff to one side. Really out of deference to Rick and that set of songs we just said, Ok, that’s that, and we drew a line. So none of the Rick material went into this project. Everything has been written subsequently.

Is that because you weren’t that keen on it in retrospect?
I think there are some fantastic ideas there and they will, I’m sure, be finished off and see the light of day. We just felt like we wanted to put off the decision about what kind of record we wanted to make. And then we went in with Brian [Eno] and Danny [Daniel Lanois], literally just as an experiment to see what would happen. And suddenly there was this excess of stuff, ideas…and we just thought, OK, this is clearly where we are at our most potent at this moment, working with Brain and Danny, so let’s follow that idea down the road and we’ll get back to the material we started with Rick at some point.

What were the Rubin tracks like? Were they unusual for U2? He’s quite hands-off isn’t he, as a production “entity”?
Rick’s just an amazing intelligence and a guy with a huge love of music and an instinct for it. He gave us great advice as much as anything. His whole thing is, Don’t go near the studio until you know exactly what you want to do…which of course is the opposite of how we usually work.

But we were following Rick’s approach with Rick and we were working on songs and working on ideas and they’re still there. So I’m still excited by the possibility of trying that approach. It reminds me of what happened on our first album [Boy, 1980]. We went in, we had all the tunes — although even then we didn’t have all the lyrics — we had all the arrangements down to the point where we could just go in and record the album. We could have done it in a day, and of course the backing tracks had a great completeness, because we knew exactly what the tunes were.

The way we do things now, there are drawbacks. I feel for Larry [Mullen, drums] sometimes. He’ll be playing drums to Song A and then somewhere along the line the whole song gets thrown out, but we keep the drums, and then something else happens over those drums. Then sometimes we’ll replace those drums at the very end because he plays differently depending on what the vocal is. So even if it’s the same tempo, the same backbeat, the same chords, if the vocal’s different, the drums don’t feel quite right. So, there is something to Rick’s approach and it just means you make all your decisions early…for better or for worse. Ultimately, I feel, for us, it is those last couple of weeks when you get those amazing new ideas.

How would you describe the overall personality of the new album?
It’s a record of two halves. One half is songs that came virtually fully-formed out of sessions we did with Brian and Danny — stuff we’ve only played once or maybe twice and that’s it: just the raw moment of creation. Then the other half is material we’ve kicked around a while and went through the usual cycle of versions and incarnations. It sounds like a U2 album but it doesn’t sound like anything we’ve done before and it doesn’t really sound like anything that’s happening at the moment.

Can you talk about a couple of specific tracks?
There’s a song called “Moment of Surrender,” which is seven and a half minutes long. Brian got the ball rolling with a suggestion for some chords and then we made a few adjustments and got to this set of changes that we really liked and then just kicked it off and we immediately realised there was something powerful going on. And when that happens, it’s like you don’t have to say anything in the room; people know it’s going off. Then Adam came up with this incredible bass part and Bono had a couple of melody ideas on the spot, so it was really quick. There’s something really thrilling about a piece that comes together like that, because you really don’t have time to think. There’s something great about that. It’s the purest moment, often, when you don’t have an opportunity to step back and consider anything; you’re just in it.

So it’s a trance-y thing?
It’s hard to describe really. It’s very 21st Century. It’s a beautiful song, amazing rhythms, great lyrics and [laughs] fantastic guitar playing!

And then there’s another one from Fez [Morocco, where U2 recorded in May/June '07]. Similar kind of situation, in a session where we’re just trying out ideas and this piece of music just came through and we all knew at the time that it was good. It seems to be everyone’s favourite or second favourite tune on the album. It’s called “Unknown Caller.”

Can you hear the influence of Fez?
To some degree. A couple of the tunes were recorded there. We had some local percussionists come down one day — but I’m not sure that the tune they did has made the record. With “Unknown Caller” the sound of Fez is there because we were recording in this riad [town house]. The way they are constructed, they have this big atrium and that’s where we were set up. So the roof was open and the swallows were flying into the atrium and nesting, so at the beginning of the tune you can hear these swallows. So it really has this very tangible atmosphere of the space that we recorded it in. So Fez is there in that sense. But we’re not into musical tourism. It’s the same with Achtung Baby, there was something in there but it wasn’t overtly German, you know, and this isn’t overtly Moroccan…It’s just a flavour.

Lanois has been quoted a couple of times recently in the Canadian press and the word he seems to be favouring with regard to this record is “innovative.” After all these years with the same team can U2 still be breaking boundaries?
Well, that’s what we get off on — hearing something that we’ve never heard before. It’s so great to work with Brian; he’s always doing things that are completely fresh, and we as a band don’t really come alive unless we feel like we’re exploring some uncharted territory. So, it’s not easy to get something that you’re really excited about, but once you do, you know, and that’s everything for us. We wouldn’t want to be working with anyone else on that front. Both Brian and Danny are hugely inspiring to work with, breaking us out of our comfort zone in our writing or playing.

Your relationship has endured longer than almost any other band/producer match-up, but it’s more than that this time. Did I read that Brian and Danny were writing with you?
We decided at the beginning of the project that we would make that offer to Brian and Danny to see what it might lead us to and I think it was really great. I think they were both flattered and I think it gave them a great boost of affirmation and confidence. So those sessions had this great atmosphere; everyone was in a great mood and we got some great shit out of it. That doesn’t mean that we didn’t have to go off and write as U2. Bono and I did a lot of work on material on our own as well, but it was those sessions that set the tone for the album and they wouldn’t have panned out as they did if we hadn’t asked Brian and Danny to co-write with us.

After a couple of straight-ish rock records in All That You Can’t Leave Behind and How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, was it time for U2 to stretch out again? Does knowing you’re in a position of strength mean you can do something wilder?
I think for us it’s really about keeping it fresh. Making All That You Can Leave Behind and How to Dismantle… inspired us at the time. This time we wanted to try something different and we didn’t really know what it was. We just knew that we wanted to fall in love with the process of making music and see where it led us. So, initially, we didn’t really think about where the music was going to go; we were just playing together and seeing what happened. And, by not concentrating at all on making an album I think an album started to emerge. So, it’s really us following our creative instincts. In some ways it’s very uncontrived. People tend to think of our music as being a manifesto of a kind but this is really organic; it’s just what is interesting to us right now in music and going for that.

What’s Bono banging on about this time?
I think there are some interesting third person characters in the songs. It’s giving Bono an opportunity to change his perspective in the lyric writing. I think the last two albums were really personal and first-person. But I think this one has a more panoramic scope lyrically, so it’s still personal and it’s still ultimately written from experience and Bono’s perspective, but he just has more freedom.

Did his piano lessons come in handy?
Yeah! He’s been working a lot on material on his own and that’s fed into various different projects that we’re working on. It’s cool. We’re all still in a phase where we can learn, develop and change. I don’t think we’ve actually stopped that process of being born, so to speak. And it’s very inspiring for me to see Bono coming up with very strong musical ideas. That’s what being in a band is all about.

You always manage to find — in every record — a piece of technology that you engage with immediately, and that throws up a song. “Where the Streets Have No Name” came out of your dabblings with the Infinite Guitar box, and this time you mentioned your Death By Audio pedal…
It’s this particular kind of 21st Century distortion. Guitar is such a versatile instrument, but it’s very easy to get in a cul-de-sac in terms of how it sounds. I love anything that just gives it a different personality and this particular set of distortion pedals I think, are a different colour. It’s like a different personality and that, for me, is a great jumping-off point. I used Death By Audio’s Supersonic Fuzz Gun on the song “No Line on the Horizon,” and a couple of others I think. It was Ben Curtis who turned me onto them. He’s one of the Curtis Brothers from Secret Machine — he’s got a new band now called School of Seven Bells, who are pretty interesting.

So how much work is left to do?
Way too much, as usual, but we will get there. We’re not f**king around this time. This is personal!

© MOJO, 2008.

the recent buzz on the internet amongst nerds is that barack maybe one of us. it started with a top 50 list of unknown facts about barack. then came the analysis…….

from pwbeat, heidi mcdonald’s comics blog:

This 50 facts about Obama article has spurred considerable hopes that the incoming US president might, at last, be the one to truly represent a long-oppressed minority in the White House. Eight simple words that spell hope for the world:

He collects Spider-Man and Conan the Barbarian comics.

Note the use of the present tense. While it’s a well known fact that young Barack was an avid comic book reader, and certainly no stranger to superhero imagery on the campaign trail, this one verb would have us believe that he still keeps a long box, or perhaps some trendy graphic novels, in his reading pile. Something like, CONAN: BORN ON THE BATTLEFIELD by Kurt Busiek and Greg Ruth, maybe? Or maybe he’s more of a Bendis fan?

We’ll leave the parsing of this particular truth to others. What with administrative transitions, and global recession and nukes in Iran, he’s got a lot on his plate, and to expect him to weigh in on the Clone Saga is just a bit much. Frankly we found this factoid just as interesting.

He has read every Harry Potter book
Maybe the president-elect is just, you know, kind of a nerd.

Developing?

*******************

here’s the rest of the list from the telegraph.co.uk

Barack Obama: The 50 facts you might not know

• He collects Spider-Man and Conan the Barbarian comics

• He was known as “O’Bomber” at high school for his skill at basketball

• His name means “one who is blessed” in Swahili

• His favourite meal is wife Michelle’s shrimp linguini

• He won a Grammy in 2006 for the audio version of his memoir, Dreams From My Father

• He is left-handed – the sixth post-war president to be left-handed

• He has read every Harry Potter book

• He owns a set of red boxing gloves autographed by Muhammad Ali

• He worked in a Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop as a teenager and now can’t stand ice cream

• His favourite snacks are chocolate-peanut protein bars

• He ate dog meat, snake meat, and roasted grasshopper while living in Indonesia

• He can speak Spanish

• While on the campaign trail he refused to watch CNN and had sports channels on instead

• His favourite drink is black forest berry iced tea

• He promised Michelle he would quit smoking before running for president – he didn’t

• He kept a pet ape called Tata while in Indonesia

• He can bench press an impressive 200lbs

• He was known as Barry until university when he asked to be addressed by his full name

• His favourite book is Moby-Dick by Herman Melville

• He visited Wokingham, Berks, in 1996 for the stag party of his half-sister’s fiancé, but left when a stripper arrived

• His desk in his Senate office once belonged to Robert Kennedy

• He and Michelle made $4.2 million (£2.7 million) last year, with much coming from sales of his books

• His favourite films are Casablanca and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

• He carries a tiny Madonna and child statue and a bracelet belonging to a soldier in Iraq for good luck

• He applied to appear in a black pin-up calendar while at Harvard but was rejected by the all-female committee.

• His favourite music includes Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, Bach and The Fugees

• He took Michelle to see the Spike Lee film Do The Right Thing on their first date

• He enjoys playing Scrabble and poker

• He doesn’t drink coffee and rarely drinks alcohol

• He would have liked to have been an architect if he were not a politician

• As a teenager he took drugs including marijuana and cocaine

• His daughters’ ambitions are to go to Yale before becoming an actress (Malia, 10) and to sing and dance (Sasha, 7)

• He hates the youth trend for trousers which sag beneath the backside

• He repaid his student loan only four years ago after signing his book deal

• His house in Chicago has four fire places

• Daughter Malia’s godmother is Jesse Jackson’s daughter Santita

• He says his worst habit is constantly checking his BlackBerry

• He uses an Apple Mac laptop

• He drives a Ford Escape Hybrid, having ditched his gas-guzzling Chrysler 300

• He wears $1,500 (£952) Hart Schaffner Marx suits

• He owns four identical pairs of black size 11 shoes

• He has his hair cut once a week by his Chicago barber, Zariff, who charges $21 (£13)

• His favourite fictional television programmes are Mash and The Wire

• He was given the code name “Renegade” by his Secret Service handlers

• He was nicknamed “Bar” by his late grandmother

• He plans to install a basketball court in the White House grounds

• His favourite artist is Pablo Picasso

• His speciality as a cook is chilli

• He has said many of his friends in Indonesia were “street urchins”

• He keeps on his desk a carving of a wooden hand holding an egg, a Kenyan symbol of the fragility of life

• His late father was a senior economist for the Kenyan government

john mccain showed a ton of humor and class in his first interview post defeat on jay leno. while the media feeds on the more negative and mind numbingly sensational stories coming out of the palin camp, john mccain’s character and cheer will likely go largely unnoticed.

here are some snapshots of his interview:

In his 14th appearance on “The Tonight Show,” McCain joked about how he’s been holding up since his loss.

“Well, I’ve been sleeping like a baby. Sleep two hours, wake up and cry. Sleep two hours, wake up and cry,” he said.

******

McCain said he and his wife, Cindy, went to get coffee together on the day after the election.

The crowd laughed as McCain said he got coffee and “not the newspaper.”

“I knew what it was going to say,” he joked.

*******

Asked why he thought he lost to Barack Obama, McCain said, “I think personality flaw.”

“Personality flaw?” Leno asked.

“Maybe too many people saw me on the Jay Leno show,” McCain responded.

*******

McCain said he could talk about “a lot of things that we made mistakes on,” but did not go into detail.

“I’m honored by the friends we made. I’m honored to have had the opportunity. I know it sounds a little repetitious, but that’s what I’ll take with me,” he said. “Sen. Obama inspired millions of young people, and I think we inspired some people too. And that’s really what I think was important, that legacy.”

*******

As for his future, McCain said he is excited about returning to the Senate.

“One thing I think Americans don’t want is a sore loser. And I’ve got a great — I get to go back to the United States Senate and work on a lot of issues and continue to serve. That’s been my life,” he said.

*******

i always loved this version of john mccain and was disappointed that this mccain was not seen during the campaign and was heartbroken to see him ridiculed as an out of touch old man….when in fact he is an american hero with a terrific sense of humor. he was always great on snl. i admire his desire to simply serve the country as he humbly returns back to work:

Asked if he’d be up for another presidential run, the 72-year-old senator seemed doubtful.

“I wouldn’t think so, my friend,” he said. “It’s been a great experience, and, you know, we’re going to have another generation of leaders come along, and I’ll hope that I can continue to contribute.”

here are the full interview clips:

in the early fall i made some political predictions. i’ve updated once before but let’s see how i’ve done since then.

10) sarah palin will avoid any more interviews correct! for the most part…though she did talk more to the media when she started going “rogue” in the last few days to set up her next political step. now she can’t shut up and wishes she did more interviews during the campaign. i’ve never seen the losing veep get so much attention.

9) colin powell will endorse obama correct!

8)osama bin laden will be captured and/or a major stateside terrorist activity will be averted in time for the election

fail! this was my cynical side thinking that the republicans would unleash something to keep themselves in power. i wonder if al qaeda held back until after the elections to get the hawks out of power. i was also thinking bush wants to get bin laden before he gets out of office. who knows if he will…….

7) whatever lead obama has on election day will shrink resulting in a very tight race.

part correct…part fail. the lead did shrink a bit…it was as high as a double digit lead at one point…but that’s polling. however, it was not a close race at all…when ohio and pennsylvania went to obama, it was over….unless mccain won california!

i was expecting this country to be very very racist and simply not vote for obama because! but maybe that new day has arrived. maybe mlk’s dream has broken through.

6) riots will happen whether obama wins or loses

fail! and i am happy that i was wrong about this. i thought people would not know what to do with themselves in victory. its like philly or detroit or chicago when they won championships……they went nuts and turned over cars and burned things. come to think of it….maybe after winning those titles, they got it out of their systems and didn’t have to act the fool.

5) obama will win the presidency.

correct! in hindsight, these predictions look obvious but nothing’s really certain. even obama would point to new hampshire…and he did during the last few days as a call not to become confident…..

so i was parts prophetic and parts pathetic. 4 more to go! updated when they happen…or don’t happen!

while most of california’s political scene was centered around prop 8 and gay marriage, there was this other ballot initiative in san francisco….this sewage treatment plant in sf was proposed to be renamed to this:

from the sfist:

Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco Formed to Honor George W. Bush

Looking to honor the forty-third President of the United States of America, George W. Bush, the recently formed Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco is looking to change the name of the Oceanside Wastewater Treatment Facility. It seems the group would like to rename the SF Zoo adjacent facility to the “George W Bush Sewage Plant.”

The local grassroots movement, helmed by “Wayne Pickering,” is proposing an ordinance initiative for the November 2008 San Francisco ballot in order to get the poop/pee/vomit plant’s title changed. Why? To honor our current leader of the free world with an “appropriate and enduring legacy, for no other president in modern American history has accomplished so much in such a short time.

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from the nytimes:

An Honor That Bush Is Unlikely to Embrace

SAN FRANCISCO — Reagan has his highways. Lincoln has his memorial. Washington has the capital (and a state, too). But President Bush may soon be the sole president to have a memorial named after him that you can contribute to from the bathroom.

From the Department of Damned-With-Faint-Praise, a group going by the regal-sounding name of the Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco is planning to ask voters here to change the name of a prize-winning water treatment plant on the shoreline to the George W. Bush Sewage Plant.

The plan, naturally hatched in a bar, would place a vote on the November ballot to provide “an appropriate honor for a truly unique president.”

Supporters say that they have plenty of signatures to qualify the initiative and that the renaming would fit in a long and proud American tradition of poking political figures in the eye.

“Most politicians tend to be narcissistic and egomaniacs,” said Brian McConnell, an organizer who regularly suits up as Uncle Sam to solicit signatures. “So it is important for satirists to help define their history rather than letting them define their own history.”

Not surprisingly, those Republicans in a city that voted 83 percent Democratic in 2004 are not thrilled with the idea. Howard Epstein, chairman of the ever-outnumbered San Francisco Republican Party, called the initiative “an abuse of process.”

“You got a bunch of guys drunk who came up with an idea,” Mr. Epstein said, “and want to put on the ballot as a big joke without regard to the city’s governance or cost.”

The renaming would take effect on Jan. 20, when the new president is sworn in. And regardless of the measure’s outcome, supporters plan to commemorate the inaugural with a synchronized flush of hundreds of thousands of San Francisco toilets, an action that would send a flood of water toward the plant, now called the Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant.

“It’s a way of doing something physical that’s mentally freeing,” said Stacey Reineccius, 45, a software consultant and entrepreneur who supports the plan. “It’s a weird thing, but it’s true.”

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how would you have voted?…..only in america can you sully the sitting president’s name like this and not be disposed of……..well, this is how the city of san franscisco voted….

from the chicago tribune:

Bush Sewage Plant plan flushed

Posted under politics

in college, my groomsman william and i dreamed up a character called third world country guy and we said if third world country guy came to visit us in the states and saw the way we lived….while they ate rocks and bugs….he* would kick our @$$. price club would be an example. owning animals as pets instead of as potential food source is another. here is another:

no doubt that sarah palin is a doll…..literally. actually multiple dolls of sarah palin were available this election season: one g-rated and one g-string rated. read on….from the atlanta journal-constitution:

Cabbage Patch Palin doll gets the biggest bid

By Richard L. Eldredge

here are my favorite political videos from the past few days….funny for different reasons…..

and make sure to vote or you’ll end up like my sweet t! this video was sent to her in order to scare/remind her to vote.