who knew Republicans were THIS COOL !?!

the long road beckons

so enjoy this musical interlude.
Sufjan Stevens - Lord God Bird

lazy Sunday thought

watching Fox News is like going to the zoo & watching the primates throw shit at people. only the primates are more elegant & succinct in their delivery, & more accurate in hitting their targets.
(neither is a very pretty picture, though)

Saturday Night Special

Death Cab for Cutie - Cath

Today's House Hearings

this being TGIF, you may not have been aware that there were hearings conducted in the House of Representatives on the limits of Executive power. they were fairly extensive & heated. There are loads of videos floating around today that are worth the viewing, but I want to highlight this portion of Bruce Fein's testimony as particularly good & well worth seeing.
Any man who compares George W. Bush to Caligula
is aces in my book.

H.O.P.E.S.

Owen is an intrepid young 13 year old, who has taken it upon herself to do some good in the world. She has started a nonprofit called H.O.P.E.S. - Helping Our Planets Endangered Species with the goal to raise money for the World Wildlife Fund by auctioning her artwork, as well as others works. She also takes donations. so head on over to her site & either donate $$ or artwork for her auctions, & help spread the word.

more BushCo. shamelessness today

Jacob Heilbrunn over at the Huffington Post is reporting that the State Department barred it's employees from attending Barack Obama's speech today in Berlin.

In a flagrant political act, the State Department has barred its employees from attending Sen. Barack Obama's speech in Berlin tonight.[...]
The U.S. embassy, which is headed by ambassador Robert Timken, a businessman and crony of George W. Bush's from Ohio, who is widely reviled in Germany for his ignorance of foreign affairs, has instructed officials not to attend the rally. The American Foreign Service Association has complained about the edict but there's not enough time to dispute it.

I would say this is pretty unbelievable, but where BushCo. is concerned, it's just par for the course.

Live - from the Cheese Aisle...

McCain is losing it. I defy anyone to make sense of his ramblings in this segment from tonights Countdown. his staff must be at Defcon 1 at this point. maybe that's why they've canceled his public appearances for the rest of the week.

radiohead - house of cards

this video has been making the rounds recently, so bear w/me if it's all too redundant for you. in case you don't know the back story, no cameras were used in the making. all the imagery was created digitally, from real world environments.

"...two technologies were used to capture 3D images: Geometric Informatics and Velodyne LIDAR. Geometric Informatics scanning systems produce structured light to capture 3D images at close proximity, while a Velodyne Lidar system that uses multiple lasers is used to capture large environments such as landscapes. In this video, 64 lasers rotating and shooting in a 360 degree radius 900 times per minute produced all the exterior scenes."

(go here to find out more)

joy division doc

I have to admit that although I am a big Joy Division fan and had been eagerly anticipating the release of the film Control for years, the film was more than a bit disappointing. The elements were all there, fine acting, wonderful cinematography, captivating story. Still the film fell flat for me & was...well, quite honestly a bit boring at times. A far better film is the 2007 documentary by Grant Gee. The documentary format just seems to do the band, & Ian Curtis in particular better justice. In addition the viewer gets a great feel for Manchester & that time in British history. (be forewarned though, Peter Hook still comes off as a bit of a prat, other than that...a very fine film)

(Netflix it here)

Saturday Night Special

the Feelies - Away

loose lips sink ships

they also get Presidential candidates killed:

Republican presidential candidate John McCain said on Friday that his Democratic opponent, Barack Obama, is likely to be in Iraq over the weekend.

The Obama campaign has tried to cloak the Illinois senator's trip in some measure of secrecy for security reasons. The White House, State Department and Pentagon do not announce senior officials' visits to Iraq in advance.

"I believe that either today or tomorrow -- and I'm not privy to his schedule -- Sen. Obama will be landing in Iraq with some other senators" who make up a congressional delegation, McCain told a campaign fund-raising luncheon.

(h/t TPM)

McCain is an Idiot, but still the MSM will ignore his gaffes as:
a) quaint
b) that's just McCain being McCain
c) whatta' Maverick!
d) all of the above
(hint, for those who haven't been paying attention in class,...
the answer is d)