digital art: Warren Beatty

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Keith Olberman offers $1,000 a second to see Sean Hannity Waterboarded

Sean Hannity had actor Charles Grodin on his show this week. Hannity asked Grodin if he'd ever accept a book from Hugo Chavez or listen to a speech by a "murdering dictator like Daniel Ortega."

Grodin's replied "I'd listen to anybody. I'm listening to you."

Grodin also asked Hannity if he was wearing mascara and if he plans to marry Ann Coulter.

Then, we get to the red meat of the show:

GRODIN: You're for torture.
HANNITY: I am for enhanced interrogation.
GRODIN: You don't believe it's torture. Have you ever been waterboarded?
HANNITY: No, but Ollie North has.
GRODIN: Would you consent to be waterboarded? We can waterboard you?
HANNITY: Sure.
GRODIN: Are you busy on Sunday?
HANNITY: I'll do it for charity. I'll let you do it. I'll do it for the troops' families.
Obviously, this has to happen. For the troops, I mean! Not merely for my amusement!

Keith Olberman offered to pay $1,000 "for ever second he lasts while being waterboarded." I think we'd all pay something to see Sean Hannity waterboarded. . .especially if he cried like a baby, came out of it and recanted.


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The Two Bobs from Office Space Interview Sarah Palin

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Alien Lore No.152 - Astronaut Edgar Mitchell speaks up once again

Edgar Mitchell - "Cosmic Activist"

Once again, former Astronaut Edgar Mitchell this week reaffirmed his longstanding claim that there "is no doubt we are being visited."

Mitchell, who few on the 1971 Apollo 14 moon mission, said early this week that extraterrestrial life exists, and the truth is being concealed by the U.S. and foreign governments.
Mitchell spoke at the National Press Club following the X-Conference, a meeting of UFO activists and researchers studying the possibility of alien life forms.

Mankind wonders if we're "alone in the universe. [But] only in our period do we really have evidence. No, we're not alone," Mitchell said.

"Our destiny, in my opinion, and we might as well get started with it, is [to] become a part of the planetary community. ... We should be ready to reach out beyond our planet and beyond our solar system to find out what is really going on out there."

Mitchell, believe it or not, grew up in Roswell, New Mexico, which many UFO believers say is the site of a UFO crash (and along with the Mount Rainier sightings around the same time are the events that really triggered this while alien lore story. Mitchell says that people in his hometown "had been hushed and told not to talk about their experience by military authorities."

The resident of Roswell, Mitchell says, "didn't want to go to the grave with their story. They wanted to tell somebody reliable. And being a local boy and having been to the moon, they considered me reliable enough to whisper in my ear their particular story."

Ten years ago, an admiral working for the Joint Chiefs of Staff promised to uncover the truth behind the Roswell story, Mitchell said. The stories of a UFO crash "were confirmed," but the admiral was then denied access when he "tried to get into the inner workings of that process." The admiral now denies the story.

"Those who are doubtful: Read the books, read the lore, start to understand what has really been going on. Because there really is no doubt we are being visited," he said. "The universe that we live in is much more wondrous, exciting, complex and far-reaching than we were ever able to know up to this point in time."

A NASA spokesman, Michael Cabbage, denied the cover-up. "NASA does not track UFOs. NASA is not involved in any sort of cover-up about alien life on this planet or anywhere else -- period."

"There is a third rail [in American politics, and that is the UFO question. It is many magnitudes more radioactive than Social Security ever dreamed to be," said Paradigm Research Group head Stepgen Basset.

Other All This Is that articles on Edgar Mitchell:
Alien Lore No. 135 - More on Edgar Mitchell's alien revelations - an interview with Moonwalker Dr Edgar Mitchell
Alien Lore No. 134 - Moon-walker claims alien contact cover-up
Alien Lore No. 77: Celebrity sightings and thoughts on UFOs
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Painting: Ronald "Dutch" Reagan

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A random (but good) collection of Paul McCartney videos...

His band Wings performs Jet (with their strongest band lineup):




Band on the Run:




Paul sings Please Please Me:





Paul Tells A Raunchy Joke:






Drive My Car:






Sgt. Pepper/and a smoking version of The End



The studio version of Band on the Run:


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Rudy Giuliani & Republican Family Values

By Pablo Fanque
All This Is That National Affairs Editor

It almost snaps my brain-pan from its moorings to hear Rudy Giuliani come out against gay marriage. . .or try to speak with any authority at all on marriage period--straight or gay.

Rudy Giuliani was curb-stomped in his quest for the Republican presidential nomination. . .and yet, he seems to be pondering a comeback. NY Governor David Paterson is extremely vulnerable right now, and Giuliani may well swoop in and attempt to grab the job like a shark circling a wounded dolphin. In Monday's New York Post, Giuliani hinted that, if he did run, same-sex marriage would be a flagship issue.

Paterson introduced a bill that would, if passed, legalize same-sex marriage. In an interview, Giuliani came out very strongly against that idea, and said that it could galvanize New York Republicans in 2010. "This will create a grass-roots movement. This is the kind of issue that, in many ways, is somewhat beyond politics," the former New York City mayor told Post reporter Fred Dicker. "I think gay marriage will obviously be an issue for any Republican next year. . ."

He later said that that same-sex marriage "will be something that Republicans don’t have to use -- this is something that will bring a lot of people to the Republican Party because it’s such a basic challenge to what people believe is the way society should be organized."

Of course, an open attack like this will open up the subject of Giuliani's execrable conduct of his own family life. He's working on Marriage No. 3, and is estranged from his children. At least one of them, I remember, didn't even vote for him in the primaries. . .they voted for Obama. As his flame-out for the Republican nomination demonstrated, Giuliani just doesn't get a lot of traction on anything (except possibly "9/11"). He has gay friends. He has been known to dress in drag. One of his gay friends (in fact Rudy lived with two gay men when he was between wives in the 90s), Howard Koeppel, told the New York Post that Giuliani said that if same-sex marriage were to become legal in New York, "he would marry us himself."

It's hard to understand why we are even still talking about this. Rudy Giuliani, who moved his girlfriend into Gracie Mansion while his wife and children were still living there, who married and divorced his own cousin, and turned his back on his children, is just about the last person we should look toward for any wisdom about marriage. Or politics. Or national defense. However, that being said, I welcome Rudy to run for governor or for President again.
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Painting: Three Nudes

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Awesome White Album Era video of The Beatles's Revolution

It is so amazing to hear this song now with its dense layers of piano, bass, guitar, and top of his game Ringo. This is such a departure from the early music. Its density is an amazing leap from the earlier mono/4 track songs. I think playing music after The Beatles must have sometimes feel like writing a play in the 17th century after Shakespeare's departure...



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Oprah shouts on Twitter & Shaq notices

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poem: if we were us

If I were me
What would I do?

Would I see you
And you see me?

If we were us
Could we let it be?
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Nixon's back pocket speech in the event of a moon landing disaster

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Thanks to Jeff Clinton for pointing out an article and link to the speech I discuss below.

It was interesting to read the excerpts of the speech Dick Nixon would deliver in the event of a disaster during our moon landing. Only a few other speeches like this have slipped out over the years.

When FDR was commander-in-chief, he had a speech prepared in the event that the Normandy beach landings, a/k/a D Day, failed. Other events have triggered back pocket speeches over the years. Mostly, the President (or whoever) has not had to deliver them. But you can bet that every President has had a few of them drafted, waiting in their back pocket.

You may or may not recall an episode of The West Wing where President Bartlett's daughter had been kidnapped. His speechwriter Toby handed him a copy of the speech he would give when he daughter was safely released. The President asked him "what about the other speech?" Toby, said, yeah, he had written that one too. Bartlett asked for a copy. And then read it. He approved, but never had to use it.

Neil Armstrong memorably spoke “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” as he stepped onto the moon. But Nixon's two hundred and some other words, written in the event of a disaster, have been hidden away in an archive until now. Richard Nixon’s speechwriter, Bill Safire sent a memo to White House chief of staff Bob Haldeman, on July 18, 1969 – just days before the landing, that included this very brief speech Nixon would have delivered had something gone terribly wrong during our first moon landing in 1969:

If Armstrong and “Buzz” Aldrin had been stranded on the Moon, unable to return to Michael to the orbiting Apollo 11 command ship, Nixon would have called their widows, of course, and then addressed the nation.

“Fate has ordained that the men who went to the Moon to explore in peace will stay on the Moon to rest in peace,” he would have told the watching millions.

"These brave men know there is no hope for their recovery but they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice."

“These two men are laying down their lives in mankind’s most noble goal: the search for truth and understanding.

“They will be mourned by their families and friends; they will be mourned by their nation; they will be mourned by the people of the world; they will be mourned by a Mother Earth that dared send two of her sons into the unknown.

“In their exploration, they stirred the people of the world to feel as one; in their sacrifice, they bind more tightly the brotherhood of man.”

If you have any, or know of any other back pocket speeches, send them to us! One that comes immediately to mind was JFK's speech following the disastrous invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs.
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