Great moments in history (the pretend version)

This one's worth a try. Ignoring or bombing each other aren't really working out. Via Hallmark magazine. (I was stuck in the doctor's office waiting room. Limited reading options.)

Great Historical Events That Never Happened:
Two world leaders agreed to settle their differences with a spelling bee.

Slackers Unite!

Michael Moore's new movie, Slacker Uprising, is coming out next week. You can download it for free on 23 Sept (only in the U.S. and Canada). Sign up here to get an e-mail when it's available for download. The trailer.



Michael Moore can be over the edge at times but we need people like him to poke hypocrites in the eye and roust things up in general. The beauty of free speech. (Most of the time I agree with him.)

Palin & Clinton

Saturday Night Live ran this sketch of a faux Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton press conference. It's priceless! Tina Fey, playing Palin, is dead on with the accent (she really does sound like she stepped out the movie Fargo). Amy Poehler brilliantly captures Clinton's underlying rage. The script is great, particularly the first part which includes:

Clinton: I believe that diplomacy should be the cornerstone of any foreign policy.
Palin: I can see Russia from my house!

Funny smartman

Jon Stewart was on Larry King Live a few months back talking about the primary elections. He's tired of pundits saying:

"‘Is America ready for a woman or a Black president?' I can understand saying, 'Is America ready for a moron?'… Will people flee as if Godzilla is attacking the cities?"

It's about 1/2 through the video below.

He also said about superdelegates, "What are those? Delegates that got bit by a radioactive spider?"

And about that vacant Mitt Romney. "[Mitt Romney] Who by the way, is that guy a Pixar character? He looks like an alien pod had created him to be a president."

Who's being coy?

Great story on NPR this morning about Michael Bloomberg, mayor of New York City. There is speculation that he'll run for president as an independent. He hasn't announced. Yet.

Robert Smith's story offers up Candidate Bingo, a game to discern who might be running for office but is keeping it under wraps. Read or listen to the story, or not. A link to the bingo card (a PDF) is half way down the page under "Presidential Candidate Bingo." Some of the tell-tale signs: eat junk food, kiss babies, visit State Fairs.

Obama takes Iowa!

I hope Barack Obama's win in the Iowa caucus is a foretaste of the future!

It's been a long time since I've been excited about a political race. The first time since Senator Paul Wellstone -- the first and only political candidate to whom I've given money -- died in a plane crash a few days before the 2002 election. I'm not superstitious about backing another political candidate but I am, in the words of Rhodes Scholar Michael Scott, "I am a little stitious."

Endlich! (Finally!)

Goodbye Donald Rumsfeld. Hooray! The Defense Secretary, one of the architects of the disaster in Iraq, resigned today. However, his replacement, Robert Gates, used to be the former head of the CIA. Great.

Democrats took control of the House and the Senate is about split between Democrats and Republicans. Maybe something can get done now. Some highs and lows from yesterday's voting:

• High -- South Dakota struck down the ban on abortion.
  
• Low -- Wisconsin approved a measure to amend the state Constitution to prohibit same-sex unions. Aren't constitutions designed to protect rights, not restrict them?
  
• Low -- Minnesota is stuck with the passive aggressive Tim Pawlenty for another four years. He of "I don't raise taxes." However, your taxes go up because he cuts funding to cities to balance the budget. He didn't raise taxes but he did.
• High -- Minnesota is finally sending its first woman to the U.S. Senate: Amy Klobuchar.
  
• High -- Nancy Pelosi, a real fighter, will likely be the first woman leader of the House of Representatives.
• High -- Minnesota is sending Keith Ellison, a big fighter for the poor, to Washington. He will be the first Muslim in Congress!
  

Another look at the Middle East

Terry Gross, host of Fresh Air on NPR, is such a fabulous interviewer--particularly when she interviews authors. A recent guest was was Jeffrey Goldberg, a writer for The New Yorker. He has a new book that sounds fabulous: Prisoners: A Muslim & A Jew Across the Middle East Divide. Goldberg is an American who served in the Israeli Army and ended up as prison guard, guarding Palestinians. It traces his experiences from emigrating to Israel as a committed Zionist through his friendship with a Palestinian prisoner, Rafiq. A very good listen. Excerpt from chapter 1 here.

Ted Turner at the Press Club

Ted Turner, founder of CNN, has an ego as big as the former Soviet Union. But I do love what he's been doing lately with regard to the United Nations and philanthropy. He's an extremely successful businessman who is pushing others to make the world a better place.

He gave a very interesting talk at the National Press Club which was on Word for Word. He does say "aah" a lot which gets a tad annoying, but it's a good listen. In talking about the Iraq war he says that it doesn't make any sense to bomb people who hate you. It just makes them madder. "We can see in Iraq and even before that Vietnam, that war just isn't the way you get things done any more."

Der Spiegel

I usually don't do more than glance at Der Spiegel, the German news magazine. It's very tough reading for one of my skill level. (Horrifyingly, I find myself moving my lips when I read something difficult in German.) Here's the latest cover. The cover story is "Power and Lies: George W. Bush and the doomed war in Iraq."

I remember being England and Germany in the '80s. Looking back at the U.S. and thinking, "Wow, we're a bunch of bullies." It certainly turned my worldview upside down. I imagine that's even more so now.

Another shot at Bush

Oh my. It's like a dream come true! Two writers from The Onion have written a biography of George W. Bush, Destined for Destiny. Listen to a preview at Audible. I'm likely to intersperse my laughter with sobs. Nice job with North Korea by the way.