The piece had all the elements familiar to jam-band junkies: Anastasio’s wandering, whining guitar runs and spacey, nonsensical lyrics. When paired with the crisply performed orchestration, it came off sounding more like the theme song to a Disney film on ’shrooms. It was ambitious, strange and wholly entertaining.
The island to the left in this photo is Little Diomede Island, the point where Alaska is closest to Russia and thereby gives Sarah Palin foreign policy experience to be President of the US....many of these Alaskans had no idea who Sarah Palin was! It turns out they have no TV on the island, and therefore, many don’t follow the news.
...she seems like an okay governor, but exclaims she should probably pay a visit to Little Diomede sometime. It may not help her foreign policy experience says the mayor, but would definitely help her domestic policy experience.
"I think most people would take hiring someone for a summer job more seriously than Senator McCain took the choice of Governor Palin."Virginia Governor, Tim Kaine
"he's got a tremendous amount of experience and, you know, I'm the new energy, the new face, the new ideas and he's got the experience based on many many years in the Senate and voters are gonna have a choice there of what it is that they want in these next four years."Do you think she is aware of the dynamic at the top of the ticket. She is after all the running mate of the old guy, John McCain.
I've been quiet today as I've been working and I'll admit that the stock marketing and, the big subject for the day, the financial markets mess, is not my area of expertise. January 19, 2001: 10,587.59
September 29, 2008: 10,365.45
NASDAQ Jan 19, 2001 = 2770.38
NASDAQ September 29, 2008 = 1983.73
CPI, January 19, 2001: 175
CPI, September 29, 2008: 219
Dollar exchange with Euro, January 19, 2001: 1.068
Dollar exchange with Euro, September 29, 2008: .695
Not sure if I believe this but I wouldn't put it past the McCain campaign as they attempt to change the subject. From The Times of London:In an election campaign notable for its surprises, Sarah Palin, the Republican vice- presidential candidate, may be about to spring a new one -- the wedding of her pregnant teenage daughter to her ice-hockey-playing fiancé before the November 4 election.
Inside John McCain's campaign the expectation is growing that there will be a popularity boosting pre-election wedding in Alaska between Bristol Palin, 17, and Levi Johnston, 18, her schoolmate and father of her baby. "It would be fantastic," said a McCain insider. "You would have every TV camera there. The entire country would be watching. It would shut down the race for a week."
Here I go again, promoting a friend, but if you like great jazz, you won't want to miss Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band's new album called "Act Your Age," 
which comes out on Tuesday. You can check them out and sample their music here. The musicians are among some of the best musicians in LA, like trumpeter, Wayne Bergeron and saxophonist, Eric Marienthal. Plus, this album features classic performers like Patty Austin, Dave Grusin, Chick Corea and Lee Ritenour.
Until tomorrow. 
Paul Rosenberg, over at Open Left, has a post which attempts to put some focus on the most forgotten among us.Yet, for all the talk about being "a Christian nation" we seem utterly determined to ignore what Jesus said. This is not just a nice "spiritual" admonition. In the process of demonizing criminals, we feed a process of starving what is best about us. We legitimize a punitive state, in place of one that seeks to develop the best in each of us. The prison/industrial complex grows as the welfare state shrinks.
I missed this NY Times review of my friend Cathy's show at the Guggenheim in NY. Now I just have to find a reason to get to NY before January.Exclusion versus inclusion is one of Ms. Opie’s recurrent themes. After shooting freeways in 1995, she drovecross-country to photograph women living in domestic partnerships. The result was a group of deeply felt but unsentimental marriage portraits taken in living rooms, kitchens, bedrooms and back yards from San Francisco, to Tulsa, to New York; homages to families that America knew nothing about.
The bottom-line subject here, as elsewhere in Ms. Opie’s work, was community — elusive, longed-for, temporary, lost — and she addressed it again and with near-abstract subtlety in two landscape series. For one, she photographed a cluster of ice houses set up for fishing on a frozen lake in northern Minnesota. Two years later she took pictures of surfers waiting for waves to gather in becalmed California ocean water.
"John McCain showed up without running mate Sarah Palin, which is a shame because she actually has a lot of experience with financial matters. You know, she lives right next to a bank."--Jimmy Kimmel
I think people really are missing the point about McCain's failure to look at Obama. McCain was afraid of Obama. It was really clear--look at how much McCain blinked in the first half hour. I study monkey behavior--low ranking monkeys don't look at high ranking monkeys. In a physical, instinctive sense, Obama owned McCain tonight and I think the instant polling reflects that.
Mathematicians at UCLA have discovered a 13-million-digit prime number...I tried to write the number out for you to see but I died trying.
...one wonders what the McCain campaign would be doing to Obama today if Obama, instead of McCain, had made the major foreign policy factual errors of the debate--calling Pakistan a failed state when Musharraf took over and screwing up the name of Pakistan's new leader. (And, once again, McCain continued to insist that the flagrant Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was the leader of Iran, even though there's another guy, Ali Khamenei, was actually has the title Supreme Leader and controls Iran's foreign policy and nuclear program. But then, as ever, McCain seems unwilling to change his locutions in this campaign, even when they are proven false.)
"I'm 65 and I've been covering politics for a long time. That is one of the most pathetic tapes I have ever seen from someone aspiring to one of the highest offices in this country. And that's all I have to say,"- Jack Cafferty on the Couric-Palin interview
Pet infidelity. Phyllis DeGioia didn’t mean to become the other woman.
It started innocently, with a kind gesture. The Madison, Wis., woman offered to care for a friend's cat for nine months while the owner, Susan Shalaby, was out of the country. DeGioia had every intention of returning the cat when her friend returned, but Chelsea had other ideas. After Shalaby came back, she moved in with DeGioia until she could find a place of her own and expected Chelsea to resume her place on her bed.
McCain now boarding plane at DCA with Cindy, Salter, Rudy Giuliani, wife Judith, and other aides plus pool.
Heading to Memphis, 1:50 minute flight, then motorcade to site
General atmosphere is utter confusion.
Mickey Kaus summarizes McCain's reaction to various crisis.No convention today! ... OK, it's on! ... The economy's sound... No, wait, it's going to fall apart unless I go to Washington tomorrow! ... We need a commission! ... We need to fire somebody! ... Get me Andrew Cuomo! ... I want ten more debates! ... But let's postpone the one we've scheduled! ... Do you get the impression a McCain presidency would be a bit exhausting? ...
When Russia was invading Georgia, McCain rushed in, we're all Georgians, let's rumble with Russia! As Hurricane Gustav bore down on New Orleans, he partially cancelled the Republican convention. When Obama fared well at his convention, McCain's response was to throw the ultimate hail Mary pass and choose Sarah Palin, an inexperienced governor, even though his entire campaign was built around criticizing his opponent's inexperience. Economy in chaos? Wall St. in turmoil? McCain now says let's fire the chairman of the SEC in the middle of the crisis. And now that there's a big proposed Wall St. bailout plan, McCain has out hail-Mary'd himself. Suspend the campaigns! post-pone the debate!If you haven't watched Rachel, or even if you have, read this profile in today's NY Times. She is a breath of fresh air for progressives.
"What are you going to do if you're elected and things get tough? Suspend being president? We've got a guy like that now!"--David LettermanSeptember 24, 2008
This could be The Onion news story tomorrow.Saying the issues confronting America "are too important for partisan politics," Senator John McCain today suspended the 2008 presidential election and said he would assume the presidency on Monday to begin the hard work of governing.
"At this time of domestic and foreign peril, the American people deserve better than a nasty partisan campaign," McCain said in a statement today. "That is why I am suspending this race with Senator Obama and moving into the White House this weekend. My friends, it is time to put governing ahead of petty politics once and for all."
Coming on the heels of George Will's devastating assessment of McCain's temperament, I wonder if an impression is hardening that McCain is too much of a risk-taker to be trusted as president. McCain's romaticism and flair for the dramatic is fun and thrilling, but kind of scary.
Can you see a foreign country from Delaware? I don't think so.
We forget that McCain has no executive experience, just as Obama has no executive experience. But in terms of judgment, of selection of a running mate, of calm in crisis, of a smooth operation, it is McCain who is revealing his total inexperience and unreadiness for the job, not Obama. In fact, there is no comparison. One campaign is chaotic, secretive, impulsive, unpredictable and losing. The other is supremely well-run, as transparent as a campaign can be, unflappable, very predictable, and winning. I know which man I'd prefer to be runing the country in a crisis. Not hotheaded, mercurial, impulsive, gambling McCain.
You cannot trust a word she says. On anything.
Longtime conservative columnist, George Will, provides his take on the two candidates reaction to the fiscal crisis. And, it's a doozy. Under the pressure of the financial crisis, one presidential candidate is behaving like a flustered rookie playing in a league too high. It is not Barack Obama.
*****
Conservatives who insist that electing McCain is crucial usually start, and increasingly end, by saying he would make excellent judicial selections. But the more one sees of his impulsive, intensely personal reactions to people and events, the less confidence one has that he would select judges by calm reflection and clear principles, having neither patience nor aptitude for either.
It is arguable that, because of his inexperience, Obama is not ready for the presidency. It is arguable that McCain, because of his boiling moralism and bottomless reservoir of certitudes, is not suited to the presidency. Unreadiness can be corrected, although perhaps at great cost, by experience. Can a dismaying temperament be fixed?
While McCain's positions on animal protection have been lukewarm, his choice of running mate cemented our decision to oppose his ticket. Gov. Sarah Palin's (R-Alaska) retrograde policies on animal welfare and conservation have led to an all-out war on Alaska's wolves and other creatures. Her record is so extreme that she has perhaps done more harm to animals than any other current governor in the United States.
"I want to be done playing this lady Nov. 5. So if anybody can help me be done playing this lady Nov. 5, that would be good for me."
Tina Fay, September 21, 2008
As of now, the Bush Administration has only offered a concept with a staggering price tag, not a plan. Even if the U.S. Treasury recovers some or most of its investment over time, this initial outlay of up to $700 billion is sobering. And in return for their support, the American people must be assured that the deal reflects the basic principles of transparency, fairness, and reform.Is this enough? We can't just give away tax payer money to banks without protecting the people.
First, there must be no blank check when American taxpayers are on the hook for this much money.
Second, taxpayers shouldn’t be spending a dime to reward CEOs on Wall Street.
Third, taxpayers should be protected and should be able to recoup this investment.
Fourth, this plan has to help homeowners stay in their homes.
Fifth, this is a global crisis, and the United States must insist that other nations join us in helping secure the financial markets.
Sixth, we need to start putting in place the rules of the road I’ve been calling for for years to prevent this from ever happening again.
And finally, this plan can’t just be a plan for Wall Street, it has to be a plan for Main Street. We have to come together, as Democrats and Republicans, to pass a stimulus plan that will put money in the pockets of working families, save jobs, and prevent painful budget cuts and tax hikes in our states.
When I first saw the clip, I couldn't help but think, once again, of Sarah Palin's big-screen doppelgänger, Eve Harrington. Remember, she's the struggling and striving actress who befriended star Margo Channing, and used that association in an aggressive climb to the top of the theater world, in the 1950 movie "All About Eve." And if Palin is Eve, McCain is most definitely Margo.
the number one pickup line for use on International Talk Like a Pirate Day is
1. Prepare to be boarded.
Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation.
"I met one older Republican man who was voting for McCain because he thought he’d been to the moon."
So, to clarify matters for McCain: Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero is the lefty prime minister of Spain. The Zapatistas are armed revolutionaries who have declared war on the government of Mexico. Zippy is an irascible non-human character in the children's TV series Rainbow, and Captain Zep was the star of an awesome 1980s British children's sci-fi drama. Franco Zeffirelli is a celebrated Italian film director who I once pretended to know the first thing about in order not to look stupid in a conversation in a restaurant.
If you are in NY between September 26, 2008 and January 7, 2009, go see my friend Cathy's show at the Guggenheim. I traveled to Japan in 1994 with Cathy and had a great time. She teaches at UCLA, is a terrific person and world class photographer. I'm lucky to have a portrait she did of me hanging in my home.Since the early 1990s, Catherine Opie has produced a complex body of photographic work, creating series of images that explore notions of communal, sexual, and cultural identity. From her early portraits of queer subcultures to her expansive urban landscapes, Opie has offered profound insights into the conditions in which communities form and the terms in which they are defined. All the while she has maintained a strict formal rigor, working in lush and provocative color as well as richly toned black and white. Influenced by social documentary photographers such as Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, and August Sander, Opie underscores and elevates the poignant yet unsettling veracity of her subjects.You won't be disappointed.
Sarah Palin likes to tell voters around the country about how she "put the government checkbook online" in Alaska. On Thursday, Palin suggested she would take that same proposal to Washington.
"We're going to do a few new things also," she said at a rally in Cedar Rapids. "For instance, as Alaska's governor, I put the government's checkbook online so that people can see where their money's going..."
There's just one problem with proposing to put the federal checkbook online - somebody's already done it. His name is Barack Obama.
Late Wednesday night, news made its way from the other side of the Atlantic that John McCain, in an interview with a Spanish outlet, had made a series of bizarre responses to a question regarding that country's prime minister.
"Would you be willing to meet with the head of our government, Mr. Zapatero?" the questioner asked, in an exchange now being reported by several Spanish outlets.
McCain proceeded to launch into what appeared to be a boilerplate declaration about Mexico and Latin America -- but not Spain -- pressing the need to stand up to world leaders who want to harm America.
"I will meet with those leaders who are our friends and who want to work with us cooperatively," according to one translation. The reporter repeated the question two more times, apparently trying to clarify, but McCain referred again to Latin America.
Finally, the questioner said, "Okay, but I'm talking about Europe -- the president of Spain, would you meet with him?" The Senator offered only a slight variance to his initial comment. "I will reunite with any leader that has the same principles and philosophy that we do: human rights, democracy, and liberty. And I will confront those that don't [have them]."
"John McCain wants to take on the Old Boys Network. The Old Boys Network? In the McCain campaign, that's called a staff meeting."
Barack ObamaSeptember 17, 2008Elko, Nevada
"Churches today are not agents of change, they are agents of conservatism."Watch the video.
Doug Kmiec is a former Reagan administration official and Catholic pro-life scholar. He recently endorsed Barack Obama on the grounds that Obama cared more about the full range of "life" issues and because Kmiec believes that Obama's "abortion reduction" agenda will have more impact on abortion in the short run than the traditional battles against Roe v. Wade. He was recently denied communion by a Catholic Priest for his views. Read his account of this here.But I was not to receive the Eucharist that evening. The couples who stood in line before my wife and myself received the body of Christ in their hands or on their tongues and returned to their seats. My wife received. My hand outstretched, the priest shook his head from side to side. Was that a no? It was Judgment Day, and I hadn't made it. LSAT Insufficient. Inadequate GPA. Do not pass GO...go directly to Hell.The bold highlighted text is mine and, speaking for me, a big reason I am so strongly supporting Barack Obama.
*****
From the back of the Communion line someone shouted out, "Are you judging this man, Father?" I was grateful for the intervention. Will the Last Day be like this? One friend making an appeal for another? The response was cold: "He has judged himself and been found unworthy."
With no further appeal possible and with my wife exiting in confusion, tears, and offended embarrassment, I returned to my place along. My place? Did I have a place any longer? Was I expected to leave? The double significance of losing the body of Christ--of not having ingested and no longer standing among "the body"--was suddenly all I could think of. Condemned for announcing to the world that I intended to vote for a man who I thought lived the Beatitudes. A black man; a caring man; a talented man. A man different from conservative self and yet calling me to find the best of that self. A man who, in so many ways, asks to care for the least advantaged as he seeks the public responsibility to carry with him, as if it was his own burden the plight of the marginalized and unemployed worker, the uninsured, the widowed mother grieving over a son lost in Iraq. Their hurts, far worse than mine. It was wrong to be damned; to be excluded from the grace of the sacrament of the Lord Jesus Christ, and all I could think was the old Tolstoy folk wisdom "God knows the truth, but waits."
Sarah Palin is touring rural America in a chauffeur-driven Lexus. Suddenly a cow jumps out into the road, they hit it and the car comes to a stop.
Mrs Palin, in her usual charming manner, says to the chauffeur: "You get out and check - you were driving."
The chauffeur gets out, checks and reports that the animal is dead.
"You were driving; go and tell the farmer!" says Mrs Palin.
Five hours later, the chauffeur returns disheveled, drunk out of his head and with a big grin on his face.
"Goodness! What happened to you," asks Mrs Palin.
The chauffeur replies: "When I got there, the farmer opened his best bottle of whiskey, his wife gave me a slap up meal and their daughter made love to me.
What on earth did you say?" asks his boss.
"I knocked on the door, and when they answered I said to them, 'I'm Sarah Palin's chauffeur and I've just killed the cow.'"
When a gazillionaire who insists on being IDed as "Lady" can call a black dude from the South Side, whose mother had him as a teenager an elitist, the word has no meaning.
On Thursday in Nashville, Baez will receive the Spirit of Americana Free Speech award from the Americana Music Association in recognition of her half-century of contributions to American music and the First Amendment.
So why would a pro-life woman choose the procedure that could lead to the death of her unborn child rather than the safe, less invasive procedure? I don't know. It's one of many mystifying weirdnesses in Palin's own account of her pregnancy. Why do you need to know for sure that your baby has DS (Down Syndrome) when it could mean a small risk of killing the child that you're determined to keep alive?
