20 Lego Album Covers

From the toy zone website, lego album covers. Check them out here.
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Pamela Anderson weighs in on Governor Sarah Palin: "Suck it"

Pamela Anderson, a PETA member, and anti-fur model, weighed in on Sarah Palin after she heard about the Governor's bear-skin rug.

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George Jones' 77th birthday commemorative heater

WFMU's beware of the blog reprinted a copy of this advertisement today, honoring the country legend's 77th birthday. And, even better, they have two downloads of George songs: Wino The Clown, and Relief is just a swallow away. Jump here to download the tunes.




click the ad to enlarge
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On the road to California

After my travel over the last two years--around 140 flights--I've been pretty landlocked since returning from Asia and Europe, aside from one quick trip to Oregon. Six weeks on the ground! You may recall how at the beginning of all this traveling, I was still needing extremely heavy medication to even approach a plane. I made B.A. Barackus looks like a seasoned traveller. These days I start getting restless when I am planted on the ground too long! Today, I am once again off to San Francisco/Berkeley, and will probably hit Southern California, Boston, and maybe even England and India, in the next short while. Quick trips like this are nice. You can go pretty much alpine style. [Editor's note: Three days later, we read the article/post and the first thing that struck us is Jack Brummet's laughable claim he was going alpine style, as he carried a spare pair of contact lenses, an Apple iPod Nano, Nintendo DS and dozens of games, a Blackberry Curve telephone/palmtop computer, and a real computer (laptop) with a satellite connection, about five different wall chargers and USB cables, two books, art supplies, a change of clothes--and extra clothes even!!!]

My bag will include

• Contact lens stuff (along with a spare pair) and a pair of glasses (just in case everything goes wrong), a toothbrush and paste, floss, and medicine.
• Two pairs of socks and drawers.
• Some pants a/k/a trousers.
• A button down shirt.
• A swimsuit and goggles.
• A quarter zip sweatshirt.
• One t-shirt.
• One iPod Nano.
• One Nintendo DS, five games, and a CyclopsDS cart filled with games.
• One Dell ultralight laptop, parts, and accessories.
• One BlackBerry curve 8130.
• A translation of Grimm's Fairy Tales and High Crimes, an Everest expedition book.
• Sunglasses, pens, pencils, a poetry and sketching notebook

And to make it all even sweeter, I was upgraded to first class on both legs of the trip.

It's always great to get back to the East Bay, although I rarely stay long enough to spend any time in my old Berkeley stomping grounds. I always want to go up into the Berkeley Hills to visit where Claire, Keelin, and I first lived together, in the UC married student's housing, just above the deaf school, nestled in Eucalyptus, and sitting directly on the Hayward fault. We used to feel little tremors and earthquakes daily there. Deer walked down the hills into our yard, and we had a view of the Golden Gate from our window.

Maybe this is no politics Wednesday. It's been a political orgy lately, and today it still feels a little like we've had a surfeit of political news. But that could change any minute. . .
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No Politics Tuesday

This Presidential race is about to make me huck.
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Weekend surprise visit to Afghanistan: Candidate Palin pilots a bomber and bombs Taliban cave hideouts in Tora Bora

...Click to enlarge...

By Pablo Fanque
All This Is That National Affairs Editor

The McCain campaign (quite likely rightly) decided they did not want VP nominiee Sarah Palin appearing solo on the rounds of Sunday talk shows, going head to head with the pundits and tastemakers; not this week anyway. So, they did the next best thing. They put her on a jet to Afghanistan, where she arrived Saturday morning and hooked up with the military heavies on arrival--two Majors and a Brigadier General were new Pail fans, as it turned out. The three commanders convinced the Governor to come along on a bombing mission over a potential Al Qaeda target holding at least a couple of the Al Qaeda high command.

The self-described "pitbull in lipstick" readily agreed to the ride-along. Nine minutes into the flight, Major John Newton, urged Palin to take the controls. She piloted the bomber for 17 minutes, until they were nearing the "hot zone." As they arrived at the targets, Newton again sought Palin's participation, and the Governor pushed the button on six SmartBombs
® as the attack planes neared their targets.

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Painting: The Endorsement

Click the image to enlarge.

We are entering the season of endorsements, most of which are not worth the oxygen or ink used to emit them.

On the other hand, it's always to nice to know what your local newspaper or alderman or labor union is thinking.

The NRA in particular, finally has an excellent poster-child in Governor Palin. I don't think John Kerry's quail hunting ever really rang their bells. They undoubtedly liked Dick Cheney, but then when he shot his hunting partner, that had to have cooled their ardor somewhat (Dick Cheney incidentally is under extremely deep cover this election season...the kind into which they wish they could slip George Bush).
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Republican Vice Presidential Gestures: Saran Palin's air kiss and VP Rockefeller's middle finger to protestors

Here are two favorite photos of Vice Presidential/Vice Presidential wannabe gestures. I did like the Sarah Palin air kiss, and my absolute favorite ever was Nelson Rockefeller, grinning broadly and giving the finger to some hecklers

click Nelson to enlarge

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Obama Photo: "Is it just me, or is it getting hot in here?"

Oprah is not telling the truth about the Sarah Palin-Oprah controversy

Oprah Winfrey has come out and attempted to refute recent articles (which leftists are calling Republican propaganda): "The item in today's Drudge Report is categorically untrue. There has been absolutely no discussion about having Sarah Palin on my show. At the beginning of this Presidential campaign when I decided that I was going to take my first public stance in support of a candidate, I made the decision not to use my show as a platform for any of the candidates. I agree that Sarah Palin would be a fantastic interview, and I would love to have her on after the campaign is over."



Lie One: "I made the decision not to use my show as a platform for any of the candidates." Obama appeared on her program just before he announced his candidacy, and once prior to that--when we all knew he would be running. In his 2007 appearance, Oprah Winfrey asked him if he would announce a presidential bid on her program."I don't think I could say no to you," Obama replied. "Oprah, you're my girl." She offered his show for the announcement; he chose to make it elsewhere.

Lie Two: "There has been absolutely no discussion about having Sarah Palin on my show."

An Oprah show insider said that "Half of her staff really wants Sarah Palin on. Oprah's website is getting tons of requests to put her on, but Oprah and a couple of her top people are adamantly against it because of Obama."

Does that really sound like "absolutely no discussion" to you? I'm pretty sure that Sarah Palin would just sit on the couch, Oprah, not jump on it like Tom Cruise.

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Republican convention was most-watched convention on television--ever

Closing night of the GOP convention - click to enlarge


By Pablo Fanque
All This Is That National Affairs Editor



Party unity, a TV ratings bonanza, an "energized base," and the Democrats on the run have resurrected what might have been a moribund convention. A few months ago, John McCain almost dropped out of the race, and the party was in shambles. The Republicans leave Minnesota with a new lease on life and the stunned Democratic Party once again playing catch-up.


According to Rasmussen Reports polls, the choice of Sarah Palin as VP candidate is only slightly more popular that Obama's choice of Joe Biden. However, the buzz seems to belie that, when coming off the convention Obama/Biden seem--for the moment--to be little more than a footnote, and an irritating presence to disposed of later in the fall.


The Rasmussen Reports now say that Palin’s favorable ratings are .a point higher than either man at the top of the ticket. As of Friday morning, Obama and McCain are each viewed favorably by 57% of voters. Biden is viewed favorably by 48%.


Senator Obama, however, vowed yesterday to fight back: "We're not going to be bullied, we're not going to be smeared, we're not going to be lied about," Obama said. "I don't believe in coming in second."


Unlike McCain, Obama is still madly fundraising. Last night, Obama attended a $2,300-per-person party at the .home of party fundraiser Phil Murphy. About 200 people, including the Bon Jovis and New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, attended.


Republican nominee John McCain can raise no more campaign money because he accepted about $84 million in public funding and the restrictions that go with it. Obama turned down the public funding (and broke an earlier pledge to the voters), in hopes he can raise and spend more on his own.


This next eight weeks promise some excellent political theatre.
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Oprah Winfrey refuses to have Sarah Palin on her show. Sarah: Give All This Is That a call!

That self-important battleaxe Oprah refuses to have Sarah Palin on her show. She HAS had any number of celebrities, felons, junkies, and liars on, but somehow the Republican VP candidate doesn't make the cut. Come on, Oprah! Aren't you a little bigger than that? Yeah, your man Obama is starting to sweat bullets. . .but you acting like this just plays into the hands of what the Republicans were saying all week. We've at least got to act bi-partisan!

Dear Governor Palin:

Consider yourself lucky to avoid The Oprah Show. We may disagree with you on just about everything, but we'd love to have you here for a chat.

Yours,

The Editors

All This Is That

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John McCain's acceptance speech: "We have failed you. Re-elect us."

John McCain's acceptance speech at the Republican Convention, after kudos to the unnamed 41st and 43rd Presidents, and even Barack Obama and Joe Biden, was less a celebration of the G.O.P. than an admission of failure. He hammered away at the failures of the Bush administration over and over and over. After this speech, it's hard to imagine George Bush ever campaigning for McCain/Palin. I've never heard anything like it. It wasn't a great speech, but then John McCain is not a great orator. He didn't offer a lot of substance, but he probably got the job done. And he left the democrats an incredible array of sound bites on failed Republican policies.

Even his own party blanched at the excoriation and abuse he heaped upon the Bush Administration and all of their enablers (including, of course, many Democrats):

Of the 67 paragraphs in his speech, six focused on Barack Obama. One of those paragraphs praised Obama, and five took issue with his policy. But the most interesting paragraph was one that was met with near silence from the assembled multitude.

He did mention his predecessors, George Bush, although he could not bring himself to actually name them:

"I’m grateful to the President for leading us in those dark days following the worst attack on American soil in our history, and keeping us safe from another attack many thought was inevitable; and to the First Lady, Laura Bush, a model of grace and kindness in public and in private. And I’m grateful to the 41st President and his bride of 63 years, and for their outstanding example of honorable service to our country. "

And then, McCain began to talk about his own President, his own party, and the failed policies of the last eight Republican, years.

"I fight to restore the pride and principles of our party. We were elected to change Washington, and we let Washington change us. We lost the trust of the American people when some Republicans gave in to the temptations of corruption."

"We’re going to recover the people’s trust by standing up again for the values Americans admire. The party of Lincoln, Roosevelt and Reagan is going to get back to basics."

"We need to change the way government does almost everything"

"I know some of you have been left behind in the changing economy and it often seems your government hasn’t even noticed."

"We have to catch up to history, and we have to change the way we do business in Washington."

"All you ever asked of government is to stand on your side, not in your way."

"when we tell you we’re going to change Washington, and stop leaving our country’s problems for some unluckier generation to fix, you can count on it."

"I’ve fought corruption, and it didn’t matter if the culprits were Democrats or Republicans. They violated their public trust, and had to be held accountable. I’ve fought big spenders in both parties, who waste your money on things you neither need nor want, while you struggle to buy groceries, fill your gas tank and make your mortgage payment.
"

"I’ve fought to get million dollar checks out of our elections. I’ve fought lobbyists who stole from Indian tribes [Jack note: coincidentally, yesterday, Jack Abramoff received an additional four years in prison]. I fought crooked deals in the Pentagon. I fought tobacco companies and trial lawyers, drug companies and union bosses."

"We lost their trust, when we valued our power over our principles."

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John McCain blows a metaphorical kiss to Barack Obama in the McCain acceptance speech

"...to Senator Obama and his supporters. We’ll go at it over the next two months. That’s the nature of these contests, and there are big differences between us. But you have my respect and admiration. Despite our differences, much more unites us than divides us. We are fellow Americans, an association that means more to me than any other. We’re dedicated to the proposition that all people are created equal and endowed by our Creator with inalienable rights. No country ever had a greater cause than that. And I wouldn’t be an American worthy of the name if I didn’t honor Senator Obama and his supporters for their achievement. "

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Kisses at the GOP Convention

The Republicans have become the party of the air kiss.

Last night, Rudy Giuliani and Sarah Palin fired a couple at the attractive crowd of Republicans.

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