Sean Penn's Oscar acceptance speech

I know some of my right-leaning friends don't much cotton to Sean Penn for his extra-vehicular, globe-trotting activities. But I love this guy--he's smart, loud, and talented. His personal life has been amusing to watch. Mostly, 'though, his heart is in the right place, and you have to admire someone who Stands Up. I liked his speech.





From Jeff Spicoli to Harvey Milk is a serious leap. . .but with Sean Penn, I like the extremes, and the passages in between.



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Painting: 44

click to enlarge
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A Street Sign In San Pancho

This photo shows a street sign in San Pancho a/k/a San Francisco, Nayarit in Mexico. San Pancho is maybe ten miles from Bucerias, where we've stayed many times. . .I could live there.



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Five Tattoos people may live to regret

Statististically, and otherwise, we are in the midst of one King-Hell tattoo boom. From 1995-2005, more tattoos were needled on than ever before, and more tattoo parlors opened than in any ten year span.

A Harris poll conducted in 2003 found that 16% of all adults in the U.S. have at least one tattoo. [1]

From 2005 on, it has possibly even increased...I just can't find any data past 2006. In late 2006, Flumesday.com collected the ten most pathetic categories of tattoos:

• The tramp stamp - the tat above the buttocks that skyrocketed to popularity with the rise of thongs and low-rise jeans.
• The Jailhouse tat.
• The teardrop
• Anything on the ankle
• Barbed wire "Nothing says, "I got a tattoo in the late '90s" like the barbed wire arm band."
• Anything on Mike Tyson's body. He has a Maori face tattoo and a picture of Mao on his arm.
• Something tribal
• Something misspelled (awsome for awesome for example)
• Your lover's name
• Chinese characters

Flumesdat also mention in their article that, unlike horn-rim glasses, beehive hairdos, and other fashion statements, tattoos are a bit more permanent.



Where do these folks even work? I mean, we're used to seeing 7-11 clerks and baristas duded up with tats and piercings, but not quite to this extent. . .

[1] I'm pretty sure the number approaches 100% in prisons:


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President Clinton tells President Obama "Speak up!"

click to enlarge POTUS 42

By Pablo Fanque,
All This Is That National Affairs Editor

Former President Bill Clinton spoke to ABC News' Chris Cuomo this week, giving President Barack Obama a grade of A on his first month in office, but also told him Obama needs to put on a more positive face when speaking to the American people about the economy, and perhaps even more importantly, must turn up the heat on the Republicans trying to derail his plans. [Ed's note (JB): This has to be a little weird for BHO, Pablo. . .I know how I've felt in the past, when the spouse of one of my employees told me how to run my business. But, then, none of those spouses were President for eight years either.]

"Look, the American people, I think, know The President has tried to reach out to Republicans."

Clinton said "it takes two to tango. I think there are some of them who really believe that just-say-no politics is good politics." He added "sooner or later, I think if he just keeps chugging along, just keeps the door open, invite 'em to every economic conference, invite 'em to every meeting, eventually, he'll start getting some votes [in Congress]."


click to enlarge BHO

In a showdown vote this week, only three Republicans in the Senate and none (!) in the House of Representatives voted for the Obama-endorsed $787 billion economic stimulus proposal.

Clinton said, "I like the fact that he didn't come in and give us a bunch of happy talk. I'm glad he shot straight with us."
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Alien Lore No. 149 - "Fireball" spotted over Dallas and Austin

A large fireball was spotted by hundreds Austin and Dallas citizens on February 15th, but local authorities have found no evidence as to exactly what the falling object might be.

Police from Dallas to Austin were barraged with calls describing a large egg-shaped fireball in the sky. Sonic booms were also reported. but authorities claim to have not been able to locate any debris on the ground.

Authorities confidently state that the "fireball" was "not a result of last week’s US and Russian satellite collision." No authority has, so far, come out and said the object was NOT of extra-terrestrial origin.


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Talking Heads and Laurel & Hardy mash up Slippery People

This is an incredible mashup of the Talking Heads playing Slippery People, mashed with video clips of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy dancing. Who'd have thunk?

The Tom Tom Club play Genius of Love

The Tom Tom Club (Tina and Chris from Talking Heads, and friends and family) play Genius of Love at a Talking Heads show (this may well be from Demme's Stop Making Sense film). When I lived in NYC, we saw the Talking Heads many times at CBGB, at the short lived CBGB Second Avenue, and in Central Park. I always loved watching Tina play bass. And she had great legs.


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Exclusive: Bombshell transcript leaked in Bush-Cheney dogfight over Libby pardon that never happened

Today's New York Times expands upon details of the deep rift we first learned about in a NY Daily News article yesterday:

"Dick Cheney spent his final days as vice president making a furious last-ditch effort to secure a pardon for his onetime chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby Jr., leaving him at odds with former President George W. Bush on a matter of personal loyalty as the two moved on to private life, according to several former officials.

"The officials said Tuesday that Mr. Cheney’s lobbying campaign on behalf of Mr. Libby was far more intense than previously known, with the vice president bringing it up in countless one-on-one conversations with the president. They said Mr. Bush was unyielding to the end, already frustrated by a deluge of last-minute pardon requests from other quarters.

“The biggest myth of the presidency is that Vice President Cheney always got his way.”

"[Cheney believed] Scooter Libby was ill-served by a president who, in their view, failed to return Mr. Libby’s loyalty and sacrifice. And it points up the distance said to have grown between the two men as their worldviews, once largely in sync, seemed increasingly to diverge in their second term as Mr. Bush took a less hawkish stance.

". . .in an interview with The Weekly Standard last month [Cheney said] that “I strongly believe that he deserved a presidential pardon,” and that “I disagree with President Bush’s decision.”

Last week, Pablo Fanque, the national affairs editor of All This Is That received a transcript--from a GOP political operative who worked in the West Wing until January 20th--of a phone conversation between the former President and Vice President on January 18th, two days before they left office. We reprint the conversation here:

Cheney: You just about have things wrapped up George?

Bush: We're getting there Dick. Honestly, I'm ready to get on that plane and remember what life is really like.

Cheney: Mr. President, I am calling about what I feel is some unfinished business.

Bush: Jesus F***ing Christ! Again? The Libby bulls**t? We've talked about it. We've talked about it again. Nothin's changed Dick. The answer is no. I commuted his sentence. And you both should be happy about that.

Cheney: I am talking about loyalty here George.

Bush: Don't you DARE f***in' lecture me about loyalty. I've considered it and I've reconsidered. The answer is still no. I commuted his sentence. You and your pack don't even give me credit for that. You know what kind of heat I took on that one, Dick?

Cheney: Do you think it's going to hurt your g**d***ed legacy to pardon an old and loyal friend? What that man did for us. He could have thrown us all under the bus. And now in his time of need, you turn your back.

Bush: Enough! You bring this up every f***in' time we talk now. I am The President. And the answer is no. I am not going to change my mind. I've taken plenty of motherfu**in' heat for you over the last last 7 years and 363 days. Shootin' your buddy. And that c***suckin' Haliburton mess. And all the rest of it. Now give it a f***in' rest Dick. I don't want this to cost us our friendship. I don't want this to mess up all that we have accomplished here! Let it go.

Cheney: But Mr. President, no one was ever more loyal to us.

Bush: G**da**it! Shut the f**k up and drop it. From what I read in the briefings, your little buddy brought in millions this year. He doesn't need a f***in' pardon. And he's not getting a f***in' pardon.

Cheney: But George. . .

Bush: Don't you f***in' remember what kind of s***storm he brought down on us? Enough![click]

Cheney: G**damnit! Nobody hangs up on me! [aside to aides: "Who the f**k does he think he is? Well, that's all she wrote. I don't know who or what got to him, but he's hung Scooter out to dry."]
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Editorial: The Double Secret stimulus package

By Pablo Fanque

All This Is That National Affairs Editor

If President Obama learned anything from his study of history (and believe me, he did), he knows that for all the talk of the "First Hundred Days" and The New Deal, nothing FDR did fully turned the economy around until after that moment December 7, 1941, when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor.

From December 8th onward, boys flooded recruiting offices, a recalcitrant and isolationist Congress voted to spend massive $$$ on the war, and the U.S. cranked into full wartime production mode. Shuttered factories were re-opened, under-utilized plants went into 24/7 production mode, and virtually every single person in the country--save the feeble, lame, crazy, and elderly (and even some of them)--went to work, planted victory gardens, and bought into commodity, fuel, and tire rationing.

In the midst of a moribund war in Iraq, President Obama has ordered his first major deployment of U.S. combat troops. He has okayed 17,000 additional soldiers and Marines for Afghanistan in what he described as "an urgent bid to stabilize a deteriorating and neglected country. "

Is war the real, double secret Stimulus Package for which we have all been waiting? Already, the far left is screaming. I'm not quite sure why. Obama was clearly against the War in Iraq from the get-go. And yet, in general, he has behaved, more or less, like a Scoop Jackson or JFK "defense Democrat." And with the lure of kick-starting a sluggish economy, one has to wonder if 17,000 troops aren't just a drop in the bucket, and how long will it be before we see 100,000 troops in Afghanistan? Is Obama getting a fantastic twofer here: priming the pump AND keeping the world safe for democracy?

It's something to think about.

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Poem: “lead, follow, or get out of the way”

Following can go either way. . .
Depending upon whom you elect to follow.

If you're an individual contributor
Playing follow the leader,

You may just be wisely holding back,
Allowing the boss

To receive the first barrage
Of arrows and fusillades.
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Painting: Hira & Todd

click to enlarge

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Photo: jack brummet in the hoosegow

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President's Day -- Poppa George and Lanky Link: George Washington and Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln built the (now demonized) Republican Party into a strong national organization and brought the northern Democrats into the Union fold. With little choice, he went to war against his own countrymen.

In 1863, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation to free the slaves in the Confederacy. In reality, that would take a while, and many people think we're still working at it. He made a few jokes about his face, and truth be told, in many of those daguerreotypes he looks like he is carrying the weight of the world.

The contemporary painter Mark Ryden often includes an image of Lincoln in his paintings. Abe never got to fully preside over the peace, because he was assassinated on April 14, 1865, by a deranged actor and supreme P.O.S., John Wilkes Boothe.



More nonsense has been written about Washington than any other President (except the conspiracy theories around Jack Kennedy and LBJ, about whom more even gibberish has been written because his murder, and LBJ's alleged role in the "conspiracy" literally sparked an industry of conspiracy theorists.

Did young George chop down the cherry tree? Was he lying when he said "Father, I cannot tell a lie," which may be the biggest whopper of all time? "Father, I cannot tell a lie. I cut the tree," George says when asked by his father. This story elevated him into the pantheon and onto Rushmore. It is also bunk, bogus, hokum, flim-flam::::::::::100% ca-ca. Parson Mason Locke Weems concocted the story in a biography of Washington. In The Moral Washington: Construction of a Legend Weems wanted to humanize Washington after a less than flattering earlier biography of him as 'cold and colorless." Weems book was very popular with the public and they equated Washington with honesty.

Did he wear wooden teeth? No. He actually had hippopotamus teeth--from rarely visited Africa. How they became his teeth is a mystery.

His tight-lipped grimace is often attributed to the wooden teeth. We do know that his false teeth has springs that made them adhere in place, but that is not the reason for the tight-lipped grin.

The raconteur, humorist, and radio legend Jean Shepherd talked about Washington on his Washington birthday show on February 22, 1973. Shep tried to bust a few of the myths around The General. In particular, some of the notions that have arisen from Gilbert Stuart's portraits.

We remember President Washington as tight lipped and aloof because as Gilbert Stuart wrote "When I painted him, he had just had a set of false teeth inserted, which accounts for the constrained expression so noticeable about the mouth and lower part of the face." However, we now know that Stuart disliked George Washington and many people speculate this led to the tight lipped portrait, as well as the air of aloofness we sense in Washington. Stuart also wrote that when he would sit for him: "an apathy seemed to seize him, and a vacuity spread over his countenance, most appalling to paint."

Thanks to the portraits, we also think of him as a dandified man, wearing flouncy shirts, an ornate doublet and knickers. We think of his hair as being bright white. As was the fashion at the time, that was a powdered wig!

We tend to also think of him as a genteel and gentle man of restraint (again, partly due to the portraits). However, he was a man of large appetites who enjoyed copious flagons of Madeira wine (and would have no doubt enoyed bourbon, had it been invented yet). He was not afraid to take a another officer out for a round of fisticuffs, and usually won. Martha Washington indicated in more than one letter to friends that "George is at it again," which some have speculated refers to extramarital affairs.

George was a big man. In that time, the average height of a Continental Army soldier was five foot six inches. George Washington stood six foot, two inches. He was literally a giant among men.

Washington was also an incredible horseman, by all accounts, both in peace- and in war-time. He was a strong man, and tough as nails, as he showed in the war, living under-equipped in the appalling climate of Valley Forge and the other battles of the revolution.

Washington State is the only state named for a President. When I grew up in the 50's and 60's, Washington's birthday was still a state holiday (before that abomination known as President's Day). On February 22, in celebration of the event, cherry pies were on sale in the stores and at bake sales by the Rotary, the Civitan Club, Kiwanis, and others.
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Poem: Chasing the ghosts

1
I cheer the scenery whizzing by.
Every day it accelerates;

Every day, I slow it down
And watch the show unravel

Into a multi-colored, quadrophonic
Parade of flora and fauna

Spinning Venn Diagrams
Around each other.

2
I think about the Chinese poets
who left some words for me--

A joke or fine riposte
Drunkenly dashed off--

On a piece of frayed silk
With a bamboo brush and ink.

3
I don't chase ghosts any more
But every once in a while,

On a walk along the sound's tideflats,
Or on a street in Istanbul or California,

I look over my shoulder
And catch one following me.

I see a face in the crowd,
With a sad smile and a halo.
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