Fey Skewers Palin

Thanks to Matt T for a link to this future classic:

Congress Shows its True Stripes?

There's apparently a deal afoot on the Wall Street bailout. Details are still a little fuzzy, but after reading this article several times I still see no mention of limiting executive pay. That was to have been the holy grail of this deal - keeping the very miscreants who created this mess from benefiting financially. And the Democrats seem to have sold us out on that.

UPDATE: 7:05 PM PST:
Details are still sketchy, but it appears that Congress included some limits on executive bonuses. Let's hope it's true...but I'm skeptical until I see the details.

That OTHER Corrupt Alaska Politician

Nevermind Caribou Barbie...Ted Stevens is much more entertaining these days. Kickback Ted's corruption trial started yesterday. He's got an uphill battle to fight these charges:

Stevens' home remodeling job was unusual on many fronts. Workers from VECO Corp., an Alaskan oil pipeline company that does not do residential construction, managed the project. Employees were pulled off other jobs and worked 60-hour weeks on the house.

Now Ted's not charged with corruption per-se...he's charged with knowingly failing to report these renovations on disclosure forms. He claims he knew nothing about the renovations...maybe he has 10 houses like John McCain?

I've said this before...when corruption is an integral part of your and your party's ideology, you don't have much room to argue ignorance.

Best of Craigslist

Some hillarious Best of Craiglist:

Autographed copy of the Bible - $1,000,000,000 OBO
Girlfriend Potential Test

Troopergate Begins...

Several of Sarah Palin's top aides defied subpoeanas to testify today at a legislative hearing into her firing of a state Public Safety Commissioner who refused to fire Palin's former brother-in-law:

Palin fired Walt Monegan, the public safety commissioner, in July. He claims he was fired for refusing to fire a state trooper who had gone through a nasty divorce from Palin's sister.

He claims he was pressured by Palin, her husband and members of her staff to fire the trooper.

Ah, but this is the excuse-heavy God-Obsessed-Party we're dealing with, so they have a ready-made answer:

Palin denies the charge, and says he was dismissed over budget disagreements.

Palin claims that the Commissioner travelled to Washington DC without authorization. Just one problem with that, Sarah...it's a lie.

When will people stop believing these prevaricators?

If There's Grass on the Field...

This had me almost speechless:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/26/AR2008092600417.html

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- Evangelist and convicted tax evader Tony Alamo says the age of consent is puberty and there's a mandate in the Bible for girls marrying young.

...

And so once again, the one-time rock promoter and street preacher that former President Clinton likened to "Roy Orbison on speed" will return to federal court.

Roy Orbison on speed...classic.

Not Bad for 3 Weeks of Work

Alan H. Fishman's world just changed drastically. He's the CEO of Washington Mutual, but not for long. The feds just brokered a deal for the failed commercial bank, selling its banking assets to JP Morgan for a song. This came as a surprise to Fishman, who was on his private jet flying from New York to Seattle at the time...and what a nice surprise it is...for Fishman:

Mr. Fishman, who has been on the job for less than three weeks, is eligible for $11.6 million in cash severance and will get to keep his $7.5 million signing bonus, according to an analysis by James F. Reda and Associates. WaMu was not immediately available for comment.

$19 million for three weeks of work? Not a bad gig, if you can get it. Where do I sign up? Oh yeah, that's right: you can't become a CEO unless you know the right people. Why is it that the rich can fail miserably and still make money, while the rest of us suffer even when we succeed? Could it be that the rich believe in Socialism for themselves? We know Henry Paulson does. He was the CEO of Goldman Sachs before becoming Treasury Secretary. And to pursue this noble career in public service, Paulson had to sell over half a billion dollars in Goldman stock. And according to some, he got to avoid paying capital gains on that sale:

One of the things they say is that, in leaving Goldman for government service, Paulson made the greatest trade of his life. Not only was he required to sell his half-billion dollars in Goldman stock near the high, but also, as Treasury Secretary, he was exempt from capital-gains taxes. By getting out of Goldman while the getting was good, the guy may have doubled his net worth.

WTF? I repeat: WTF? Paulson helps build Goldman's portfolio of bad loans built on a highly unregulated and speculative market, gets out while the getting is good, and avoids paying any capital gains taxes? WTF? I'm trying to verify that this is true...if so, it's an even greater outrage from the worst administration in American history.

Play That Fiddle, Nero

Scroll to 2:40 in the video to hear George W Bush's acute analysis of this economy...


Interlinks...

After almost 8 years, you'd think I'd be used to the ineptitude of George W Bush. But these days, I almost pity him...the same way you take pity on the retarted kid just trying to keep up without special ed. George is just lost...he's in a job he can't do, he's been a marionette of Cheney and the corporate interests for too long, and the puppetry strings have become tangled just as the stage and set go up in flames. We never should have let that idiot kid play with a lighter.

Rome is burning, George. I hope you took a few music lessons.

I'm John McCain and I Approve This Message...

The girlfriend had the local evening news on tonight, and John McCain's idiotic (and arguably racist, as it was obviously photoshopped to make Obama look blacker than he is) ad came on. Perhaps it was a quirk of national ad buys, but this one appeared in the bluest of blue states, during a San Francisco-based newscast. Talk about a waste of dollars...

From Matt T today:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/9/23/17555/0985/283/607893

A portion of the 2008 Republican Platform:

We do not support government bailouts of private institutions. Government interference in the markets exacerbates problems in the marketplace and causes the free market to take longer to correct itself."

So as Republicans in the Administration and Republicans in Congress want to hand $700 billion of taxpayer money over to Wall Street executives, without limits on executive pay and without any oversight or relief for homeowners, we'd do well to remember their party's own words.

You Can See Russia From There

Caribou Barbie got her first lesson in diplomacy today. McCain campaign operatives shuttled her around Manhattan to meet with GOP-friendly leaders like Hamid Karzai and Alvaro Uribe. Said Karzai:

"I found her quite a capable woman," Karzai said later. "She asked the right questions on Afghanistan."

What...you mean the scripted questions? Of course they're the right questions...you probably wrote them, Hamid. Or maybe your former employers at Unocal did.

Palin's living in a bit of a glass house these days, being sheltered from anything but softball questions:

John McCain's presidential campaign has shielded the first-term Alaska governor for weeks from spontaneous questions from voters and reporters, and went to striking lengths Tuesday to maintain that distance as Palin made her diplomatic debut.

The GOP campaign, applying more restrictive rules on access than even President Bush uses in the White House, banned reporters from the start of the meetings, so as not to risk a question being asked of Palin.

Control the media environment, only let supporters into your "town hall" meetings, and cut off the mic of anyone who dares ask a difficult or unflattering question? Yeah, sounds like the Gestap-O-Party to me. This next one's just plain embarrasing:

But Palin, who got a passport only last year, no longer has to own up to a blank slate when asked about heads of state she has met.

No longer? My ass. She's met two heads of state...after she was picked by the Senile Senator from Arizona...and under completely scripted and controlled circumstances. But she's got George W Bush beaten...he didn't get a passport until he became president.

McCain/Palin 2008: Incompetence, Lies, and Graft...but Country First!

Trust Your Congresscritter?

Representative Spencer Bachus (R-Alabama) is an important man. He's the top Republican on the House Financial Services Comittee and, apparently, he's very good at timing the markets:

In a single transaction on Dec. 10, Rep. Spencer Bachus of Alabama made up to $15,000 off an investment he had held for just two weeks, according to his congressional financial disclosure statement. He sold on the same day that the company, Focus Media Holding Ltd., got a market bounce off its announcement that it would acquire a competitor.

The trade was among dozens made in 2007 by the powerful congressman, whose public statements alone can influence markets. Most of his trades were short-term options in which Bachus bet that a stock price would rise or fall and made a quick profit or loss accordingly. Sometimes, he made several trades in the same week, supplementing his $165,200 annual congressional salary with up to $160,000 for the year.

So Bachus is trading puts & calls while "representing" the people of Alabama...and he made some suspicious trades, possibly with insider information. Should we chalk this up to bad personal decisions by a Washington insider? Or perhaps it's yet more evidence of the Republicans' ideology of corruption. You decide.

Jonesing for a Hit...

It's been 26 hours since IT ordered my iPhone 3G, and it's still not here. I don't know what I'm going to do: I still don't have that glorious touch screen, the visual voicemail, the maps and positioning features, or even the digital level. I can't get push email with my crappy KRZR, guys. How do I even get out of bed in the morning?

Hellooooooo? Mr. UPS man? Hurry up and ring the bell. That's not a mere package, it's a sea change in my life.

Maybe I can go by the store and play with their display model...that might tide me over...

So Much for Usability

Like many, I think some of Apple's consumer products are fairly slick. The iPod is an undeniable boon to my entertainment...and I'll hopefully have an iPhone 3G in the next couple of weeks. Apple is renown for its products' slick form factors and, more importantly, their usability. They made the iPod dead-simple, and following in the long tradition of the idon-driven MacOS, the iPhone's interface is simple for a smartphone. I recently lost my beloved Belkin travel router, and replaced it with an Apple Airport Express. The results have been severely disappointing.

Like many technologists, I'm fairly well-versed in setting up home and travel networking equipment. Linksys products, for all their flaws, helped revolutionize home networking by providing a fairly intuitive web interface to routers, hubs, and access points. Along the way, a fairly standard set of terminology developed. I understand terms like SSID, 802.11, bridge, hub, etc, and I've become accustomed to using them when setting up my equipment. So it's not surprise that I was in for a bit of a shock when I installed and tried to use the Airport Express configuration utility. Apple has tried to dumb down networking, hiding the important details from the person configuring the router. After 3 days of trying, I still can't get the Airport Express to work. Reading the manual doesn't help: it doesn't go into nearly enough detail. That's another pet peeve of mine: manuals that were written by marketers, instead of technical people with writing skills.

Worse yet, Apple's configuration usility seems to have taken over control of the computer's wireless card, and is preventing it from connecting to non-Apple 802.11 networks...I guess it's all rosy in the world of Steve Jobs until you decide to mix platforms...

Kettle, Pot, Black...McCain Style

I think the Senile Senator from Arizona doth complain too much when it comes to Fanne Mae and Freddie Mac. After accusing Barack Obama of being in the mortgage firms' pocket, we found that McCain had taken twice the amount Obama did from the companies' employees. And now an even uglier truth comes out: McCain's campaign manager used to lobby for both Fanne Mae and Freddie Mac, and received nearly $2 million from them over five years:

Senator John McCain’s campaign manager was paid more than $30,000 a month for five years as president of an advocacy group set up by the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to defend them against stricter regulations, current and former officials say.

That's $30,000 per month. But by McCain's standards, that doesn't make you rich...no, you need at least $5 million for that. And seven houses.

Robbing Peter to Pay Paul

John McCain wants you to buy health insurance. If your employer doesn't provide health insurance, McCain would like to give you a $2500 (and perhaps $5000) tax credit to buy your own...money McCain would pay directly to the insurance companies. And he wants to pay for it by eliminating the tax break employers take for providing health insurance.

Yes, that's right...McCain wants to dis-incent your employer from providing health insurance in order to pay for the transfer of individuals' tax money directly to insurance companies. Talk about a bad idea...and completely inadequate to address the growing health care crisis in America. But I suppose it's to be expected from a campaign that's being advised by market fundamentalist free marketeers and failed CEOs...like Carly Fiorina, who was fired from HP for mismanaging the company:

"We know competition and choice drive down costs," said Carly Fiorina, a former Hewlett-Packard CEO who is advising the McCain campaign.

That's a tired old canard, Carly. McCain and his Republican ilk (plus a great number of Democrats) have been telling us for 30 years that the magic of competition on the free market will solve all that ails us. But 30 years of these policies applied to health care have resulted in 46 million uninsured, millions more underinsured, drastically increased out-of-pocket expenditures for most, and thousands of medical-related bankruptcies every year. 30 years of those same policies applied to credit and equity markets have given us the largest financial crisis since the Great Depression (which, by the way, was also the result of insufficient regulation and laissez-faire economic policies combined with government inaction). It's time our nation stopped buying into that kind of bullshit.

Bailing Out the Miscreants

I've been trying to formulate an opinion on the massive financial upheaval in US markets this week, but it hasn't been easy. On Monday and Tuesday came news of collapsing firms in the insurance and banking/brokerage industries. Then the guv'mint stepped in and rescued AIG...the very same government that for so long has shoved the idea of "free" markets down our throats. And now comes word of a $700 billion plan for the Treasury to buy up troubled mortgage holdings from banks.

The plan is huge in size, and is alarming in its lack of transparency:

The proposal was stunning for its stark simplicity: less than three pages, it would raise the national debt ceiling to $11.3 trillion. And it would place no restrictions on the administration other than requiring semiannual reports to Congress, allowing the Treasury to buy and resell mortgage debt as it sees fit.

So the Treasury gets a blank check to buy troubled mortgages and mortgage-backed securities from the largest and most powerful financial institutions in the country...the very same institutions that lobbied for the repeal og Glass-Steagal, the creation of the securitized mortgage market, and almost total deregulation of financial markets. In other words, the very same firms that created this mess in the first place. And the free market idealogues like Bush, McCain, and the Grover Norquist types infesting Washington are looking more and more like complete idiots every day. Taking the hands of government off the marketplace didn't lead to freedom and prosperity for all...it led to disaster, while those who were already rich got away with even more money. Simply put, they were wrong.

The next question is how we're going to pay for all of this. That problem will likely fall to the next president...and it certainly means higher taxes, but for whom? If McCain is elected, my bet is on the middle class and poor shouldering the entire burden through fewer deductions, increasing use of regressive taxes, and perhaps even an increase in their tax rates. Under an Obama administration, I'm not sure what would happen, but I suspect the burden would fall more heavily on those who can afford it. Another option for footing this bill? Stop the Iraq war. From the article:

A $700 billion expenditure on distressed mortgage-related assets would be roughly what the country has spent in direct costs on the Iraq war and more than the Pentagon’s total yearly budget appropriation. It represents more than $2,000 for every man, woman and child in the United States.

Can we afford to continue the pointless war of choice in Iraq with a financial crisis breathing down our necks? Should I have to pay $2000 for the mistakes of rich people and an administration I didn't elect? Or should we simply end this idiotic adventure in Mesopotamia, cut our considerable losses, impeach George W Bush, and focus on our own significant problems? The writing's on the wall, folks. We ignore it at our own peril.

Troopergate, Redux

By now you've heard the story of Troopergate. As governor, Sarah Palin fired Alaska's Public Safety Commissioner. Many say he was fired because he refused to fire Palin's ex brother-in-law. Palin claims that he was fired because of insubordination, for taking an unauthorized trip to Washington. Earlier this week, several Palin-connected witnesses refused to testify after being subpoenaed in the probe, risking contempt citations from the Republican-controlled legislature.

Today comes news that the Public Safety Commissioner in question had authorization to travel from Palin's Chief of Staff Mike Nizich. Another week, another set of lies from the McCain-Palin team.

McCain's Own Idiotic Reality

John McCain is a fucking idiot. I'll repeat that: John McCain is a fucking idiot. In yet another example of Republicans trying to create their own reality, McCain attacked Barack Obama for taking campaign contributions from employees of Fanne Mae and Freddie Mac. McCain must not even know who he's getting his money from...because he's taken more than twice as much from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac employees as Obama. He's also taking money from many of the failing Wall Street firms that helped caused our current financial panic. Obama holds the overall advantage in raising money from individuals in the financial industries, but McCain's bundlers clearly show who pulls his strings.

Kettle, pot, black. Maverick? My ass...

Caribou Barbie Roundup

Some hillarious and downright worrisome stuff in the wind recently.


First up, Anne sent me this link recently.


Caribou Barbie comes with:

• Dead Caribou
• M-16
• Snowmobile
• Sexi Librarian Glasses

Matt found the Palin Baby Name Generator. If I'd been born to Sarah Palin, my name would be Commando Coalfire Palin. Sounds downright unelitist and fairly pseudo-patriotic.

And finally, Robert Haaland has a long list of everything wrong with MILFie McMooseBurger. Disturbing stuff.

Apocalypse 9/11 Redux

It’s that time of year again. All the TV stations had to run their 9/11 "tributes" yesterday, paying homage to what was our nation’s greatest intelligence failure, and the beginning of the greatest failure of leadership in our 232 year history. The corporate news stations ran nonstop footage from that day, making sure the horrible images of folks jumping to their death out of burning skyscrapers got prime billing. The History Channel ran nonstop memorials. Another station ran Cops™.

I found myself flipping channels trying to avoid the 9/11 shows. I know enough about it already, and I don’t need to be reminded. But at times (mostly during ads) I flipped back to the 9/11 news coverage. It’s like a giant car wreck on the side of the road; you can’t help but look. I was surprised at the sheer amount of disinformation put out by supposedly responsible "journalists." I can forgive more innocuous mistakes, like identifying the large twin-engine plane that hit the tower as a 727. But some of the more egregious errors (e.g. we’ve heard that a plane will hit the towers every 30 minutes) are unforgiveable. It wasn’t long after that when the major networks started incorporating flags into the logos they ran constantly on the screen. And the flags only got bigger as George W. Bush invaded Afghanistan and then Iraq. Do you really trust a network so easily swayed by jingoism to give you news?

Seven years ago, America had the sympathy of the world. A new president, albeit an unelected one, had the confidence of a shocked and horrified nation seeking justice...not vengeance, but justice. I grew up in a America that believed in justice...or so I was told. There was a fundamental fairness about Americans. That, combined with a can-do attitude and a gargantuan work ethic made us the most admired and prosperous people in the developed world. But I guess my peers, parents, and many others didn’t get the same education I did, because since those days America has impeached a President over a blowjob, put a complete dunce in the Oval Office, started several ill-advised and unnecessary wars of conquest, and has largely dismantled the middle class that once made it a great nation. It’s painful to think of what we’ve squandered.

Fucked up t-shirt seen today at O’Hare:
"Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms: it should be the name of a convenience store, not a government agency."

I hope Prophet Koresh and his cult members (including the ones he molested, then got killed) are gazing comfortably down from Heaven and are laughing at that.

T Boone Pickens...Retread

You might not have heard of T Boone Pickens before, but if you watch TV in this day & age, you've probably seen his ads on wind power and natural gas cars. He's also paid to get Prop 10 on the California ballot, which would mandate subsidies for natural gas vehicles.

If you've only seen the ads and the fluff news stories, you might think Pickens is a wealthy philanthropist who's trying to wean America off its dependence on foreign oil. But the truth is far from that. Pickens is a billionaire oil speculator who owns significant natural gas and wind power holdings, and he'd profit handsomely from passage of prop 10 and a widespread move to natural gas and wind power. He's also the money behing Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the group founded to slander John Kerry during the 2004 presidential campaign.

Do we really want a rich right-wing corporate raider from the oil industry using his petro dollars to gain undue influence over US and state energy policy? Seems to me he's unfit for command.

Our So-Called Liberal Media

Sarah Palin is about to get another prime time hagiography, this time from ABC's right wing lapdog Charles Gibson. A made-for-TV moment will have Palin's son ship off to Iraq on September 11 while the rest of the family cries for the cameras. MSNBC has fired Keith Olberman and Chris Matthews from coverage of Election 2008 after the Republican Party and its protofascist operatives complained. All this while Rush Limbaugh, Joe Scarborough, and the Entire Fox network still have jobs. The rest of the corporate media has latched onto any national poll showing a tight presidential race, no matter how bad the poll's methodology or how irrelevant national polls are. In an era where even Karl Rove's own electoral map polls show McCain going down to a sizeable defeat, they expect us to believe that the race is a dead heat.

After 8 years of Republican incompetence, graft, and downright malicious governance, Barack Obama is in a position to win an electoral landslide of Reaganesque proportions (thanks to JoeP and Matt for that term). But the MSM doesn't make money by practicing good (or fair) journalism, covering stories accurately, or standing up to right wing bullies. Instead, the MSM makes money by selling ad space to some of the very corporations that have benefited most from Republican policies. And much of the MSM is in fact owned by the military-industrial complex. Westinghouse owns CBS...GE owns NBC. Disney owns ABC. And Rupert Murdoch owns Faux News and the Wall Street Journal. And even in the newsroom, you dance with the one what brung ya.

So please, shut the fuck up about the media. It's only as liberal as the conservative businesses that own it.

Walgreens, Your Hypocritical Drugstore

A few weeks ago the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed an ordinance prohibiting the sale of tobacco in drug stores within city limits. It was a common-sense move: you don't go to a drugstore to buy something that harms your health and the health of others around you. So why is Walgreens suing the city to prevent the ordinance from being enforced?

From Walgreens' own site:

Blow the Whistle on Asthma
More than 25 million Americans are living with chronic lung disease. Every year, close to 361,000 (or one in seven) Americans die of lung disease, making it the nation's number three killer. Walgreens proudly supports the American Lung Association in its mission to prevent lung disease and promote lung health through research, advocacy and education. In the fall of 2003, Walgreens Health Initiatives sponsored several ALA Blow the Whistle on Asthma walks in Illinois to help raise funds for important asthma research and programs. Consumers with questions about lung health can call the ALA's free hotline at 1-800-548-8252. The lines are supported by registered nurses and respiratory therapists.

The page goes on to list its philanthropic efforts, including the American Cancer Association. So who's going to blow the whistle on Walgreens?

That Uppity Westmoreland...

Stephen Colbert absolutely rips Rep. Lynn Westmoreland a new arsehole. This is the idiot fundamentalist "Christian™" from Georgia who called Barack Obama "uppity."

The Best Pull I've Ever Had

I picked up some Stumptown Hairbender espresso beans from 4 Barrel to try out in my machine today. I've had inconsistent results from other beans in my Rancilio Silvia machine and Acaso Innova grinder. Trieste beans have been the most consistent, but they're somewhat bitter. At least I can get crema out of them most every pull. Blue Bottle is OK, but I find that I have to constantly adjust the grind...and they too turn out bitter. Ritual beans haven't given me any luck.

The minute I pulled my first shots of the Hairbender today I knew I had something special. Without adjusting the grind at all, I had a very long pull of crema...from start until finish. It never even started blonding, even after 17 seconds or so. The first taste wasn't bitter at all, so I decided to make a cappucino. For the first time, I didn't even have to add sweetener to drink one of my own caps. Incredible :)

Next up: I've ordered a bottomless portafilter for my Silvia. I saw them in use at 4 Barrel, and have been wanting to try one. Can't wait for the UPS guy to show up...

Eating My Way Through San Francisco, Part Deux

More days, more great eats. Big & Rachel treated us to Millenium on Friday night, their way of thanking us for loaning them my truck to go to Burning Man. We had the fixed price sampler with wine pairings, and it was nothing short of amazing. Several courses, inclusing dessert, paired with whites & reds of various types. Their faux Wellington was incredible, as was the chai masala tapioca. Interestingly, they produce their own sparkling water, which is a great idea. It's a hefty price tag for a meal, but the food was incredible.

Small Town Values...

Thanks to Matt T for pointing this one out. The Daily Show was in rare form last night:


I especially enjoyed laughing the obviously closeted self-hating fat guy in the cowboy hat. Wouldn't want to run into him in an airport bathroom stall.

In other news, here's what George W. Bush thinks of the US flag:

Finally, I've been tuning out from the radio all weekend. NPR seems to be running several hagiographic pieces on John McCain and Sara Palin. The corporate media is bad enough: do we really need the last bastion of journalism in the US to be running the party line?

Eating My Way Through San Francisco

Joe P and Traci spent the weekend visiting our humble City by the Bay, and we managed to eat at some phenomenal places. As do many tourists, we basically ate our way around, interspersing visits to local eateries with trips to interesting destinations. It made me appreciate the culinary excellence we have hear that much more. Joe and Traci's company was very much appreciated, and we spent a lot of time laughing about the somewhat sad state of our nation.

Among the eateries, there were some great highlights:

Ti Couz Creperie
French-style crepes and other dishes in The Mission. We're a bit spoiled here, with this place and Frjtz less than a block from each other. But I'm starting to prefer the smaller portions and more intense flavors available at Ti Couz. I had the Totale (mushrooms, cheese, tomatoes) with a basil pesto sauce...excellent, as usual. And the desert crepes were phenomenal. Add in a good wine list and excellent apertifs (I opted for the Armagnac) and you have the whole package.

Los Rosales
One of my favorites. This small, family-run Mexican place has great breakfasts: nopales, huevos rancheros, chilaquiles...you can't go wrong. And they recently built a juice bar, so it's perfect for a lazy Sunday morning brunch. Plus it's a hundred feet from my front door.

It's Tops
This late-night staple is also very good for breakfast, with 50's diner staples and a few surprises. It's not just for post-binge Zeitgeist trips anymore!

Firenze by Night
I've been here twice, and have been impressed each time. The sund-dried tomato penne was surprisingly good, and spicy. Joe P was happy with the wine selection, and the peach sorbet dessert, served in a hollowed-out frozen peach, was astoundingly good.

Sometimes you have to wonder how people who live hear avoid going broke when there are so many great restaurants to try.

You Just Can't Make This Shit Up

Joe P and Traci have been visiting for a few days, and we've had time to digest and discuss the news that Bristol Palin, Sarah Palin's 17 year old daughter, is 5 months pregnant...as in, pregnant out of wedlock. And for the curious, she's having the child and getting married. You know...she had to.

One consistent observation this weekend is that life is far more hillarious than fiction. We get an inexperienced, political lightweight, fundamentalist scandal-ridden MILF nominated for VP by a man who's a heartbeat away from dying. A consistent proponent of abstinence-only "education" whose teenage daughter is pregnant. I can't wait to hear Jon Stewart's take on this...

UPDATE: 2 Sep 2008
Palin was apparently also a member of the Alaskan Independence Party for two years before joining the Repugnicans. That means she was a secessionist. Absolutely amazing...