Cancel the Debates?

This is priceless.


McCain Postpones the Debates from Tremendosaur on Vimeo.


How could I say more than this? Except to urge you to chase the video down at vimeo itself, to see it in all its HD loveliness.

We NEED a damaged President

Yes, we truly need another four years of general panic and fear-based decision-making, because it's so clear how much good that has done for everyone who still has a job. Look at how strong out reputation is among the nations of the world! Look at how strong our dollar is in worldwide currency markets!

I swore I would keep my service record out of this election cycle, but, following the example of our Great Statesman of Straight Talk, I see now that commitments and past convictions are not nearly as important as doing everything possible to see that John McCain gets a chance to be our Final Finalist in the Panoply of P!$$-Poor Presidents.


I seriously doubt I will live through the next president's term, whether that president is Obama (my true preference, should it be unclear to the irony-impaired) or McCain, whose campaign I've decided to try on for size here, since I'm dead anyway and won't have to live with the consequences. At least I hope that's the case, but then I've been unlucky before. Still, a lot of things would need to change very fast and very dramatically in this country to ensure I would make it to 2012.

Some background first. I served in the U.S. Army on active duty from May of 1980 through May 1984, and then for 2 years of inactive reserve before getting an honorable discharge, including a Good Conduct medal and some other bolo badges in 1986. It is very likely that the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) diagnosis that is part of why I doubt I have 4 more years to live, came in large part from that period of service. But unlike McCain, I'm not claiming that as a qualification for high office. Heck, I'm too depressed to even go through the pointless humiliation of trying to get the Veteran's Administration to reject my claim for disability payments. And now I understand that this was probably my personal failing all along, not considering my greatest personal liability as my greatest selling point for the Presidency. I too should have decided that my ex-spouse was too ugly and damaged and that I needed to trade up for someone with better hair, more money and no need for a back brace.

I no longer have access to meaningful health care, though that may not be a bad thing, since I really don't relish living through the aftermath or the cleanup period made necessary by the past eight years of executive mismanagement and outright theft of the American Dream, or the principles that it -- however imperfectly -- was once based on.

What I have to wonder is this:

Why is a jerk-off fighter jock, who never got along with his fellow service members, who has never been respected or carried much weight at his present day-job as U.S. Senator -- why is this sort of record considered a qualification for the Presidency? Why is anyone -- press or public citizen -- taking this jerk seriously? Maybe that's the true mystery behind McCain's enigmatic smile? Or perhaps the world ended years ago and we're all actually in Hell.

That's it! The Rapture came, I was Taken, and this is all just a bad dream. Thank you, Jeezus!

Do you really want 4 years of this?

Funny. Scary. True. Really, really scary.



Discuss war policy. Pick your city.

Glacialmelt Reggae - the new big chill

Alaska Prays to Become Arabia (Cry Cry Cry) (Glacialmelt Reggae Remix)

This is now a second rough entry in the Johnny Cash remix thing, building off a little from the more subtle invention of Alaskan Reggae in that less "on the nose" entry.

Here, Johnny Cash counterpoints with "Cry Cry Cry" as Sarah Palin states her faith and exhorts prayer to build her favorite pipeline, sell Alaska and rid the world of community organizers once and for all. Remapped to a defective reggae beat. Not enough skank (guitar) I realize now. Here's the rough cut of the music video. VH1 (or MTV), I'm waiting to hear from you.


Alaska Prays to Become Arabia (Cry Cry Cry) from Toomb Paine on Vimeo.

This mix is a refinement of several earlier versions. Palin vocals have been rebalanced somewhat, and some of the repeats have been thinned out to be a little less annoying. Most of the samples of Palin that were not from the RNC come from the full speech from which the following video is an excerpt:



This may be my final revision on this particular remix. That doesn't rule out adding more mixes that are derivative of this basic track, however.

I was listening to a radio interview with Tom Friedman as I was making the final adjustments to the video for this remix. Here's a Tom Browkaw interview where he likens the "Drill Baby, Drill!" chant at the RNC to a convention of executives chanting "IBM Selectric Baby, IBM Selectric" at the dawn of the microcomputer revolution. For investors, though, this brings up the question -- just where is the Microsoft or Apple of alternative energy production? Enjoy the movie.

PUMA Petulance

Can these individuals really be Democrats? Hint: Search "PUMA" on YouTube (or most anywhere else for that matter -- their websites are a real hoot). After you recover your balance and your appetite, ask yourself just how likely it is that more than a tiny fraction of these people are what they claim to be.





At least a few members of the media have noticed how absurd these shills are, and how threadbare are their stated positions. Seems to me those signing up to play the traditional Republican games of distraction from a corrupt and destructive platform are even more transparent than usual?

Then again, I have a habit of voting for lost causes. Something tells me, though, this time at least will be different.

Shockingly Bad Speech

Here's an evaluation of the John McCain convention speech from Jeffery Toobin, on CNN.



Jeffery Toobin is a CNN legal analyst, writer for The New Yorker and former federal prosecutor.

Raising (Mc)Cain

I'm surely not the only person to think, while hearing McCain's convention acceptance speech that all this talk about "stand up and fight" stood in stark contrast to the facts of McCain's wartime service.

I feel sympathy for the man's pain, but let's face it. His claim to fame is based in large part on being a prisoner.

And it seemed to me that, during this speech he again looked like a prisoner.

Check out this excerpt on the BBC site to see whether you agree or disagree.

This time though, he appears to be the prisoner of the right wing fringe elements that have largely taken control of the Republican party, especially in these "last days" when moderate Republicans seem to be largely unenthusiastic about his candidacy.

I suppose this was inevitable, given how split Republican kingmakers were about his candidacy in the first place.

For some other perspectives please follow the links to one of my favorite Kos entries of the moment.