Terry McMahon's Awesome Blog

I'm sorry, this Family Guy clip is impossibly funny.

Posted by Terry McMahon at 7:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

• Morning network TV shows like Today and Good Morning America make fun of Stephen Colbert for the dumb questions he asks on his show, so Colbert graciously concedes that he's got nothing on morning news.

• Now, listen, I enjoy reading Bill Simmons, though I understand not all my readers do. So if you're wondering what all this hubbub is about, I recommend reading about his decision of which English Premier League soccer team to support. It's hilarious, insightful, and like the best Bill Simmons columns, you become completely engrossed in a topic you never considered caring about fifteen minutes before.

• It's striking how many anti-war activists were completely accurate in their pre-war predictions. First read one of Tom Tomorrow's hilarious cartoons here (from April 2003), and then follow the links from one of his recent blog posts. They certainly showed us!

• Here's a pretty interesting Ask Slashdot on why movies are so bad these days. You know, honestly, there are a ton of movies I want to see, but very few that I regret missing. I mean, Mr. and Mrs. Smith? I'll wait for the sequel. On the other hand, hasn't it always been this way? I still think we're going to have day-and-date simultaneous releases of movies on all platforms (theater, DVD). TVs are getting to the point where the hassle and expense of a theater trip is no longer worth it, people will still wind up spending a fair chunk if they want to see a blockbuster its opening weekend (the rentals will probably sell out - rent out - pretty quickly), and the theaters can sell the same movie twice when they put out the special-features edition four months later.

• I think my current boss Eliot Spitzer is awesome. For a less favorable but more in-depth opinion, check out a couple reviews of his new biography here and here. The one from the member of the Wall Street Journal editorial board is ... not positive.

• I thought I was the only one whose Firefox crashed when linking to PDF files. Here's how to fix it.

Finally, to my two private bloglines subscribers: you freak me out.

Posted by Terry McMahon at 12:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Two links while we're waiting for my next actual post:

• Bronson Arroyo, rock star and pitcher ordinaire, makes his first commercial for the Cincinnati Reds. I'm not sure how all those words showed up on air.

• More proof the liberals are taking over: "Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia on Thursday repeated his strong opposition to invoking foreign law in Supreme Court constitutional decisions -- but he said Congress should not legislate against the practice." LINK

Posted by Terry McMahon at 12:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A couple things I don't want to let slide:

• First off, Mom, I'm joining the Navy.

• Next, I'm pretty sure I'm the only person I know who has ever valued the beauty of city skylines. In any event, this guy came up with a list of the top 15, with nice photos to boot. I like Shenzhen.

• Finally, you guys know I like following politics, but sometimes I think negative attacks go too far. It's hard to find the exact point where a legitimate complaint crosses the line, and I think it's this. What a dick.

  Posted by Terry McMahon at 12:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

• Sometimes when politicians lie it's really upsetting and sad. Other times though, it's simply hilarious. What's great is the arrogance of the accompanying statement - we're right, the terrorist sympathizers on the left are misleading you. I love when political hacks try to prove counter-intuitive claims by making stuff up out of thin air. Wasn't with you before, dude, sure not now.

• Anybody recognize the signature on this drawing? I'll give you a hint: if you haven't spent much time at a certain house in South Kingstown, RI, you didn't need to read that last sentence.

• Continuing my theme of annoying commentary on how successfully my law school career is going without me doing anything, the new and infallible US News law school rankings came out. Whereas NYU used to be #5 to Columbia's #4, in an earth-shattering shift NYU and Columbia are now tied at #4. And to think I had thought I got smarter on Tuesday just because I had done the reading.
  (On a side note, if any of you buffoons out there want to talk to me about why I chose NYU Law, email me or leave a comment.)

• I saw Thank You For Smoking last weekend, and I'm going to see it again tonight. On the one hand, winning arguments has been an interest of mine for some time (maybe I should say "getting into arguments" ...), but on the other hand, I strongly recommend reading this Roger Ebert review, which should convince all but the biggest moron to go see it. You're not a moron, are you?

• Speaking of being a moron for liking something, I read this American Prospect piece on Al Gore and I almost want him to run for president in 2008. Fortunately, the piece isn't really about politics much at all. Apparently he's an updated version of the Al Gore he was when he was in the Senate; i.e. on the cutting edge of all the issues and generally awesome. There are historical reasons to support him too: the last time a former House and Senate member spent two terms as Vice President before losing a disputed presidential election and then successfully ran for president eight years later was Richard Nixon, and literally everything about that administration was good.

• This is too funny not to watch: a short film (~6 minutes) of every cliche from 80s movie endings. It's called, bear with me here, "80's Ending." Thanks to Galvin for sending me the original link years ago, and for putting in the hours necessary to track it back down.

• Finally, if you're one of those people complaining about the Democrats not having any policies of their own, they just put out "Real Security: The Democratic Plan to Protect America and Restore Our Leadership in the World," which seems halfway decent, with one flaw: no bullet points. People, seriously, come on: we want 3-5 bullet points of the main parts of the plan. We can read the rest, you know, later.

  Posted by Terry McMahon at 5:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

• Sometimes when politicians lie it's really upsetting and sad. Other times though, it's simply hilarious. What's great is the arrogance of the accompanying statement - we're right, the terrorist sympathizers on the left are misleading you. I love when political hacks try to prove counter-intuitive claims by making stuff up out of thin air. Wasn't with you before, dude, sure not now.

• Anybody recognize the signature on this drawing? I'll give you a hint: if you haven't spent much time at a certain house in South Kingstown, RI, you didn't need to read that last sentence.

• Continuing my theme of annoying commentary on how successfully my law school career is going without me doing anything, the new and infallible US News law school rankings came out. Whereas NYU used to be #5 to Columbia's #4, in an earth-shattering shift NYU and Columbia are now tied at #4. And to think I had thought I got smarter on Tuesday just because I had done the reading.
  (On a side note, if any of you buffoons out there want to talk to me about why I chose NYU Law, email me or leave a comment.)

• I saw Thank You For Smoking last weekend, and I'm going to see it again tonight. On the one hand, winning arguments has been an interest of mine for some time (maybe I should say "getting into arguments" ...), but on the other hand, I strongly recommend reading this Roger Ebert review, which should convince all but the biggest moron to go see it. You're not a moron, are you?

• Speaking of being a moron for liking something, I read this American Prospect piece on Al Gore and I almost want him to run for president in 2008. Fortunately, the piece isn't really about politics much at all. Apparently he's an updated version of the Al Gore he was when he was in the Senate; i.e. on the cutting edge of all the issues and generally awesome. There are historical reasons to support him too: the last time a former House and Senate member spent two terms as Vice President before losing a disputed presidential election and then successfully ran for president eight years later was Richard Nixon, and literally everything about that administration was good.

• This is too funny not to watch: a short film (~6 minutes) of every cliche from 80s movie endings. It's called, bear with me here, "80's Ending." Thanks to Galvin for sending me the original link years ago, and for putting in the hours necessary to track it back down.

• Finally, if you're one of those people complaining about the Democrats not having any policies of their own, they just put out "Real Security: The Democratic Plan to Protect America and Restore Our Leadership in the World," which seems halfway decent, with one flaw: no bullet points. People, seriously, come on: we want 3-5 bullet points of the main parts of the plan. We can read the rest, you know, later.

  Posted by Terry McMahon at 5:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

More exciting things in a week ago in politics, and in life:

• As recently as earlier this year, Washington insiders thought that Virginia Senator George Allen was the most likely Republican nominee in 2008. All of a sudden, though, his prospects don't look so good: John McCain seems to have taken the inside track, thanks to his aggressive courting of conservatives, and George Allen might actually have a serious challenge for reelection to the Senate in 2006. Former Virgina Gov. Mark Warner's choice for the Democratic nomination seems to be a guy named Harris Miller, but personally I'm most intrigued by Ronald Reagan's Secretary of the Navy, Jim Webb, who's running as a Democrat on the same rural strategy that got Warner himself elected in 2001.

  So Allen's getting a more spirited challenge than everyone expected. His situation actually directly contradicts that of Hillary Clinton: Clinton has no serious challenger, but always talks in terms of winning her 2006 reelection, avoiding any discussion of her potential 2008 presidential candidacy. Allen, who admittedly has to build up his national profile if he wants to have a serious presidential shot, has two potentially serious challengers, rarely talks of his 2006 reelection and aggressively works the 2008 Invisible Primary scene (another blog post in itself). This means we get New York Times stories like this:
  

  George Allen makes little secret that he is bored with life in the Senate.

  "I made more decisions in half a day as governor than you can make in a whole week in the Senate," Senator Allen said earlier this month.

  
  Smooth. I mean, if/when Allen loses his presidential run, Virginia would be stuck with him as senator until 2013, unless we beat him now. Fortunately the DSCC has a good idea to resolve Allen's intellectual ennu:
  

  Since we presume Allen will be taking his name off the ballot so that he can look a job that will hold his interest, DSCC Executive Director J.B. Poersch is sending a letter to the NFL today recommending Bored George to succeed outgoing NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue.

  
  See, George Allen's dad is a Hall of Fame NFL coach too, and George Allen fils uses too many football puns when talking about politics. It's a perfect fit.

• Next, what matters is not that I'm going to graduate law school, go work at the firm, and make a ton of money. No, what matters is that I'm going to make a shit-ton of money:
  

  The biggest New York firms in February leapfrogged the others and bumped first-year pay to $145,000. Since then, the walls have crashed in, with firms headquartered in London, Washington, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Chicago, Houston and elsewhere all adjusting upward.

  
  That doesn't include the $35,000 bonus at the end of the year if I sufficiently never leave the office. All told, my first job out of law school could very well pay me exactly ten times as much as my first job out of college. Yes, I'm rubbing it in. No, I don't care. Let's also not forget the $200,000 of debt.

• Speaking of not caring, Maddox just launched his book website. If you don't know who Maddox is, he's the only person on the internet who runs The Best Page In The Universe and might actually be right. I may find myself intentionally buying a book called "The Alphabet Of Manliness."

• We all know at this point that Bob Novak is a disingenuous, partisan hack, but I like pointing it out anyway, so, here's a good example of how Bob Novak sounds objective when he's really not:
  

  Rep. Rahm Emanuel, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, has taken the unusual step of targeting his Republican counterpart, Rep. Tom Reynolds, for defeat in his upstate New York district. There is no record of a House campaign committee chairman ever being defeated for re-election by the opposition party.

  
  Wow! Why do we tolerate letting Democratic leaders campaign against their Republican counterparts? Don't we want bipartisanship in Washington? Well, I'll tell you this: if you're the first person to find me an example of Bob Novak disparaging Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist for going to South Dakota in 2004 to campaign against then-Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, I owe you a Coke. Asshole.

More fun to follow!

Posted by Terry McMahon at 12:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For some reason I don't quite feel like discerning, iTunes has a hard time playing audio when I've got video files open on Firefox ... sometimes. So since I want to listen to "The Bad Touch" before I head off to Florida tomorrow, here are the videos I currently have open:

• First off, someone (I hear the BBC) did a live version of the intro to the Simpsons. It is terrifically well done, but it would still be worth seeing otherwise: the alternate version of the same intro you've seen for years is striking.
  
• So Saturday Night Live doesn't exactly seem up for letting people post their sketches online, but they do seem to put stuff up on their own site. Thank goodness, since they just did a new Lazy Sunday-style rap video, in which Natalie Portman shows us what she's really all about. I know it's crazy, but I still think Andy Samberg (the guy who wrote this, and appears at the end in a viking costume) is going to change the face of rap. Also check out the audio-only TheHeist mp3.
  
• I've never been into comic books at any point in my life - I don't even think I've read one the whole way through - but for some reason a good superhero movie totally drives me insane with awesomeness. Combine that with how great movie trailers have gotten these days, and I shouldn't have been surprised that the trailer for X-Men 3 has me so excited. I hear this is the last movie with all the X-Men together, and a lot of them don't make it out. Nonetheless, this looks great. Check it out.

  Posted by Terry McMahon at 1:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I knew once I made a post with not enough hot links on them that I would suddenly discover a new series of hot links. So here we go!

• First off, I received requests to write on the UAE ports deal, and the only problems were that I was unsure of my position and uninformed of the details. What could go wrong? Thankfully, Robert Reich (whose book I read!) wrote an essay on one of my favorite sites, politicalwire.com, which explained why it's not a big deal. First, he points out that it's a money issue, not a nationality issue:

  About 80 percent of American ports are already run by foreign companies. These companies usually hire Americans to do the day-to-day management. After all, global companies want the best talent they can get. Dubai Port World’s chief operating officer is Edward Bilkey, who's an American. Its former American executive, David Sanborn, was just nominated to be U.S. Maritime Administrator.

  And if this deal goes through, Dubai Ports World will probably keep most of the American executives who have been working for the British company that now runs the six ports in question because they’ve made the company lots of money, which is why Dubai Ports wants to buy it.

  Whatever the arrangement, the day-to-day operations at the ports will still be done by American longshoremen, clerks, and technicians. And control over port security will remain with the U.S. government, the Coast Guard, Customs, harbor police, and port authorities, who make and enforce the rules.

  
  Then he points out the real port security issue:
  

  I don’t mean to minimize the real danger that a terrorist might sneak into an American port or plant a nuclear bomb in a container heading toward an American port, or a container mounted on a truck that crosses an American border headed for Kansas City.

  But if that happens it won't be because of the nationality of the company that has a contract to run a port, or of its managers, or even its workers on the ground.

  It will be because this nation didn't want to pay for the gamma-ray monitors and radiation scanners and inspectors necessary to oversee more than a tiny percent of containers heading into America. ...

  You see, the real issue here isn’t about nationality. It’s about what we’re prepared to pay for our security, and whether we pay mostly for a war in Iraq or we finally get serious about security here at home.

  
  Again, I still don't really know what's going on, but Robert Reich is liberal and an economist, so he couldn't be wrong, right?

• You want to know what's a good-looking headline? Try The Hill's recent "House Republicans could see 10 to 15 more retirements." Open seats are always much easier to win, and they can turn a safe Republican seat into a toss-up in the blink of an eye. Once again I have to confess ignorance: I was under the impression that House incumbents have all decided by now whether or not to say (it's certainly true in the Senate), but that seems contradicted by sentences like these:
  

  Referring to the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), New York Rep. Tom Reynolds, the aide said: “Tom Reynolds is literally begging people not to retire. Everything we hear coming out of their side is every caucus [meeting] is a lecture from Tom Reynolds begging people not to retire, saying, ‘Please stay, please stay, please stay.’”

  
  I still have no idea if we can take back Congress this fall, but as days go by I see fewer reasons to think there's no chance it could happen. A Wall Street Journal piece a few weeks ago pointed to 30-40 Republican-held seats that are theoretically in play, and if we have the wind at our backs Democrats could conceivably only lose 1-2 seats. Can we pick up 15 to make a majority? On the micro level, just a couple of days ago the New Hampshire House Democratic Leader announced that he was challenging the two-term Republican incumbent. On the macro level, it turns out President Bush was specifically warned of the danger faced specifically by New Orleans specifically as a result of Hurricane Katrina? Yikes. If the news keeps sounding like that, I think we can do it.

• Continuing with more substantive matters, the WWE stopped by DC the other day, and the good folks in our modern-day traveling circus decided to get involved politically. Here's a photo of three-time WWF Champion and two-time #1 New York Times bestselling author Mick Foley with a bunch of Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee folks. (The narrow site here crops out a guy on the right, Jon Vogel, was one of our consultants for the Kentucky campaign in 2004.)

  

  We also get this gem from the Hotline On-Call story (from where I also ripped off the photo):
  

  RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman, ever alert to targeting opportunities, loves the WWE's outreach and particularly its demographic appeal.

  
  So true! I think WWE should be a great opportunity for both parties to reach voters, but then again, I'm biased because I still remember the days when their storylines made sense. Sort of like the Democratic Party!

• Downside of National Journal stories is that they cost a bundle to look at (assuming you're not on a law school ethernet like some of us) and they have no static links. So, if this doesn't work, I found an amusing political anecdote:
  

  Here's what we do know: Whenever a candidate or political party starts trying to claim that congressional elections are going to be decided on local issues, it really means they know the current climate stinks for them. More importantly, the word "local" is also code for "we're going to turn an election so negative as to drive turnout down and make the alternative unelectable."

  
  I'm always hesitant to publish my position on what political strategies "really mean," mostly because there's never just one reason for a politician to do anything. Here they may be so unpopular as to be forced into a negative campaign, but, presumably, all the negative stuff they're saying about the opponent will be true, and hopefully important. So it's hard to say. Nonetheless, that's still pretty funny.

• I also don't want to say that political analyst Stu Rothenberg is kind of a moron, because he's not, but he and I certainly have differing views of what makes a good candidate. Rothenberg seems to think it's "institutional support," which is fine, since his sources are all institutional and he probably doesn't want to be seen as too supportive of outsider candidacies. Nonetheless, his commentary on a Matt Brown dustup (about which I have no knowledge or opinion) is pretty ridiculous. How about this: since Stu Rothenberg is such an independent and unbiased journalist, if I threaten to boldface all the loaded words he uses, I wouldn't be able to boldface anything. Right?
  

  Rhode Island Secretary of State Matt Brown (D) has been desperate for media attention.
  [Saying "desperate" for anything implies the campaign is about to collapse. This is not true.]

  Brown is in the center of a huge controversy ...
  [A huge controversy gets you mocked on the Daily Show. Rothenberg decides that the issue of how this incident is any different from any other product of op research is not worth discussing. I would disagree.]

  ... with political opponents and journalists questioning whether he used Democratic state parties in Massachusetts, Maine, and Hawaii to launder funds that he otherwise would not have been able to accept.
  [Again, I have no idea how this incident plays on the merits. But "people are talking" is the weakest argument I can imagine this side of John Cornyn's "there are those who would say." In politics, "questioning" usually means "attempting to make political gains from." I mean, Matt Brown's political opponents are going after him? Really? They're not just hoping he self-destructs?]

  His outsider/reformer message is at least compromised...
  [See, if this were really true, Rothenberg could just say "His outsider/reformer message is compromised," without the sinister implications of "at least" that Rothenberg has no way of backing up. Then it would just be bad writing. Also, if anyone can tell me how his outsider message is compromised by a campaign finance issue, I would love to hear it. Wouldn't screwing up his campaign finances make him seem less like a guy who knows how to handle the DC institutions?]

  That’s not a message that an alleged “reformer” wants to deliver.
  [OK, this is my favorite. We already know Matt Brown is a reformer, since he reformed Rhode Island's Secretary of State office and state lobbying enforcement. Those are facts. But alleged "writer" Stu Rothenberg is a smart guy: he knows that if you put "alleged" before a word, and then put that word in quotation marks, it sounds like a joke to assume the guy's serious, even though those are just stylistic tricks that provide no evidence.]

  
  Now, I understand, since I support Matt Brown my independence is "at least compromised." But Rothenberg was a dick to Tony Miller, too, and I'm starting to get sick of his attempts to ruin good candidates with bias and rhetorical flourish. Seriously though, I bet he's great to have around.

Posted by Terry McMahon at 7:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yep, time for another exciting affaire des linques.

First off, if you showed up here from my shout-out on the DailyKos home page, expecting to find content updated more than once every two weeks, well, your mistake. But I'm back, with another set of the latest websites I haven't been closing until I post them on the blog.

First off, I've heard great things about the beta of Internet Explorer 7, but for my money, nothing's better than Firefox, not least because of the user-created add-ons. You can find them here, and they're remarkably easy to install. My favorite is SessionSaver, which reopens your tabs when you close and reopen Firefox. For a guy like me who keeps 27 tabs open at all times, this is flippin' unbelievable. There's plenty of cooler stuff around there too. (Like the Bugmenot extension.)

While not the first to make the "Cheney's Got A Gun" pun, this Flash video that's been going around is both a) pretty funny and b) a dead-on impersonation of Aerosmith. (Mom: they did a song in 1990 called "Janie's Got A Gun.") I love it when parody lyrics sound unforced, and this one is pretty good.

Next, my cousin Jamie is a simply outstanding lacrosse player. Check out this summary of the seven (!) goals he scored against Providence College last week: look at the photo of him, then look at the photo next to all the pages for "Dartmouth College Lacrosse." He's literally the face of the organization!

On the topic of online video clips, this story from the CBS Evening News shows the tape of a game where the coach let the autistic team manager suit up for the last game of the season. Not to spoil what happens, but let's say it's great that they got it on tape. I wish I could say I was touched, but really it's just awesome. The fact that the crowd loves this kid so much really makes it special.

You know I can't post a series of links without talking about campaign politics. This one is more personally compelling than most: Ned Lamont, the guy from whom my uncle rents his office is running for Senate and challenging Joe Lieberman in the primary. Lamont is going to run largely (though by no means entirely) on the issue of Iraq, though the blogger types oppose Lieberman on broader grounds: there are plenty of conservative Democrats in Congress, but Lieberman is the only one who constantly disparages the Democratic Party. Amazingly, Republican Congressman Chris Shays just endorsed Lieberman and said the state Republican Party may follow suit. Even if that's not true, it's terrible for Lieberman's reputation as a Republican in Democrat clothing. In any event, I think Ned Lamont may be able to make this a serious race; he's got a lot of money, he sounds well versed on the issues, and blog folks love him enough to make me think he'll have buzz right through the August primary. This story in the Yale Daily News is pretty slick.

Finally, it's been some time since I pasted in an old SNL transcript. Thanks to snltranscripts.jt.org, you can find the 1992 presidential debate sketch in "extended entry" under the fold.

Continue reading "Links" »

Posted by Terry McMahon at 1:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Two items of note today. One, Democrat Brad Ellsworth is making a serious challenge to Republican U.S. Rep. John Hostettler of Indiana. Hostettler is an interesting guy because he basically does no fundraising and has an outstanding get-out-the-vote effort. Also he says there's a connection between breast cancer and abortion and he tried bringing a gun onto a plane post-9/11.

Anyway, some IU law student found photos of Ellsworth's 19-year-old daughter drinking on her Facebook site. See, the idea is that Ellsworth is the county sheriff, and here's his daughter breaking the law. Hostettler's campaign is even making light of it.

At first I thought this was a major problem, since Ellsworth is one of our best recruits, and one of his best attributes is that he's tough on crime. Then I realized that this should wind up being a major mistake from Hostettler. Say it's mid-October, and this race is a huge slugfest, as it's expected to be. Brad Ellsworth goes on the air and decries Hostettler's tactics, then says, "he even went after my daughter." That is completely, absolutely, fundamentally true. And it would hurt Hostettler a lot. I hope the chick's strong enough to take it.

Next up is John McCain's recent letter to Barack Obama. See, recently, McCain suggested a bipartisan reform bill with Obama, who at first agreed and then sent McCain a letter backing off. Democrats really want to use reform as an issue in 2006, with cause, but McCain was not thrilled with Obama's withdrawal and wrote him a letter saying as much. Thing is, you want to see a smackdown, it's this. Here's the first line:

I would like to apologize to you for assuming that your private assurances to me regarding your desire to cooperate in our efforts to negotiate bipartisan lobbying reform legislation were sincere.

UPDATE: Obama responds. Well reasoned.

Posted by Terry McMahon at 10:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (1)

Some thoughts on a lazy Sunday:

• To get this party started right, first off, apparently MTV is starting a pro wrestling federation. You may think to yourself, "wow, if that's a success it'll be from the high production values and name-brand stars they can bring in." Answer, no. If they succeed, it's because of this:

  It is being produced hand-in-hand with Big Vision Entertainment, should have an "MTV"/"reality" feel to it, and booking is reportedly already mapped out and approved by MTV.

  See, underline means it's important. Something else important is booking your pro wrestling circuit out months in advance. Storylines grip people, in wrestling, politics, and King Kong, and wrestling promotions who book shows on the day of the event tend to start sucking. A cohesive storyline that lasts months convinces fans that they need to keep tuning in. In any event, I'm optimistic.

• Speaking of institutions in decline, my high school is apparently going into the toilet. The principal supports a renewed school spirit, so I guess my idea of actually finding out what people want out of their careers, and helping them get there, might not have been working. Blame the Bush economy?

• Moving into politics, U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana is reporting that he has over $9 million cash on hand in his Senate account, all of which can be transferred into a presidential campaign. For the record, Bayh's strategy seems to be that the only way to beat Hillary (uh, Senator Clinton) is to have a comparable amount of money, so he spent 2005 fundraising instead of sucking up to the establishment in DC or going every weekend to Iowa or whatever it is you're supposed to do if you're running for president in three years. For comparison, the highest cash transfer in the 2004 Democratic primary was $2.4 million from Dick Gephardt, and that was after the end of the midterms. In other words, Bayh has another year to go, and he's already going to transfer in three times as much money as anyone did in 2004.

• Speaking of 2008 presidential candidates, GQ has a lengthy profile on John Kerry's role in the Democratic Party. I remember in 2004, being really impressed that disappointed Democrats weren't blaming Kerry for the loss. Everyone generally seemed to think he was a good guy and a flawed candidate who gave it his best shot and lost when the GOP turned out to have had an amazing turnout effort. Then once it became apparent that Kerry was planning to run again in 2008 (and more importantly, that he thought his 2004 performance obliged us all to make him heir apparent), his tenuous support just crashed. This piece, which I found fascinating, does not feature a lot of good feeling towards John Kerry.

• Speaking of those dark days of November 2004, I'm always amazed at the ability of Republicans to spin 180 degrees on whether or not an issue is important. Here we have the Michigan Republican Party putting up a "jobs clock" for the number of Michigan jobs lost during Gov. Jennifer Granholm's administration. Now, this is ridiculous on its face: when Bush was the first president since Hoover to preside over a net loss of jobs (which, for the record, is no longer true as of January 2005), did the Michigan Republican Party think job loss was a big issue then? Of course not. Even more brazenly, they feature Gov. Granholm saying, "If you are somebody who has lost a job, you need to vote for a change." Want to make one guess when she said that? Exactly: November 2, 2004, better known as Election Day, or The Day We Learned To Ignore Exit Polls. The only conceivable reason Granholm could have made those comments is that Bush can't create jobs either, yet the Michigan Republican Party still focuses on her quote like a laser. Frankly, I'm impressed.

Posted by Terry McMahon at 3:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm not even kidding. These are three in a row:

Let's Make Her Our Next Mayor

Cabbie: Are you going this way? I'm not turning around!
Chick: What the..? I'm not hitchhiking, I'm fucking paying you, and if I tell you to turn around you damn well better turn around!

He drives away.

Chick: Yeah, fuck you too, cunty Mr. Crack Whore.
Hipster guy: Lady, you need therapy.
Chick: Man, you need to stop sucking dick. And a haircut.

--34th & 7th

We've Found Her Running Mate

Bike guy: Hey girl, I really like your red hair
Chick: Yeah, me too. That's why I dye it. But I don't like it nearly as much as I like not being interrupted when I am tryng to talk to someone.

--St. Marks & 3rd

More Like 2-3 Weeks

Queer: But wait, is English a race?
Guy passerby: Holy shit, that's going on Overheard tomorrow.

--Bleecker & 6th Ave

Posted by Terry McMahon at 11:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The best blonde joke ever.

Posted by Terry McMahon at 3:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

This one is for my mom and Harrison Breuer, who have both brought up the idea before: How weird is Florida? This is why we have the AP.

Posted by Terry McMahon at 4:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yeah, OK, so I'm working on more entries. I have too much of an essay mentality on here. It's probably poor taste for me to post my answers for the contracts and civil procedure exams on the web, right?

Anyway, here are some links to bide the time:

"Lazy Sunday" - this is, hands down, the funniest thing I saw all year, and the funniest thing on SNL in the past five years at least. It's one of those videos that where you miss a lot the first time because you're laughing too much. I can't stop watching this clip, and it's starting to scare me.

Chappelle Theory - I am a natural sucker for this one, since I love conspiracy theories and anything with the "_____ Theory" format. (Groove Theory? Excellent. Ewing Theory? Insightful!) This one alleges that African-American leaders organized to shut down Chappelle's Show on Comedy Central. There are all the classic elements of a conspiracy theory: assuming that people in power have their fingers in literally everything that happens, taking a casual approach to grammar, taking an even more casual approach to sourcing, and my favorite, going on over and over without any coherent structure. Do I buy the argument? On the record, no. Off the record, not really. But I love conspiracy theories, and it's a solid tour through the history of Chappelle's Show and black leaders in America. Good times. Can't we just get the show back?

Here are my two favorite Penny Arcade posts.

Finally, I buckled and got an account on MySpace, if you're into that sort of thing. God, I'm such a dork on breaks. Do I have any other interests?

Posted by Terry McMahon at 3:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I had an hour between class yesterday, and so me and a friend wound up in a lounge on the second floor of Furman, sitting in couches across from each other, our laptops flipped open, reading the same Bill Simmons article on espn.com. We sit there, we snicker, he tries sending me his favorite clips, I keep telling him I read Simmons articles slowly to savor them, and... ok, read this:

While we're here, two other highlights from my draft:

� Thinking he was out for only four weeks, my friend Nick took Amare Stoudamire with the ninth pick of the first round, followed by stunned silence, followed by everyone glancing around with "Should we stick him with Amare?" looks, and then me finally chiming in, "You know he's out until March, right?" and Nick turning purple. As Jim Nantz would gush, "What a moment!" Since he hadn't paid yet and obviously could have just fled from the room and started running, we allowed him to repick (he took Dwyane Wade) and immediately named his team, "Thanks For The 165 Bucks."

� About five rounds later, Nick took Donyell Marshall ... followed by an awkward silence ... followed by our friend Hench thumbing through his sheets and saying, "In this CBS SportsLine draft sheet I printed out, Marshall went 29th" ... followed by us making the "Oh, that's good news" sounds and Nick smiling happily ... and then Hench quickly following that up with, "The draft took place three years ago though." Brought the house down. And you thought you had heard every fantasy draft putdown. Poor Nick had to be helped to his car after the draft.

Him: Oh, the new Simmons article? I read that already.
Me: The NBA preview? Part II?
Him: Yep.
Me: But it's only been out for about two hours.
Him: Yeah, I read it during our last class.

Posted by Terry McMahon at 8:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

• Some folks over at DailyKos are hashing out an illuminative discussion on what it is Democrats should stand for. You can sum up the Republican philosophy, the saying goes, in eight words: strong defense, family values, low taxes, small government. What do Democrats stand for? I would argue you can't really say, since the premise of a conservative vs. liberal political system is that one party wants things to stay the same (so they have a static value set) and one party wants things to change, to various extents depending on the person.

  In any event, while I enjoy "Not leaving people to die" as a good slogan, the Kossacks seem to be around "Strong Families. Strong Communities. Strong Nation." which I find not as vague as some stuff that's come before, but still pretty nondescript.. It's a work in progress.

• Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo of Colorado does not have a chance of winning the presidency in 2008, but that won't stop him from running if the other Republican candidates aren't saying enough about illegal immigration. Tancredo is apparently getting terrific reactions to his anti-immigrant stump speech, and he recently challenged another likely 2008 candidate, Bill Richardson, to a debate on immigration. Apparently Richardson's on the other side of the illegal immigrant debate. Whether this turns into a debate or not (i.e. it won't) this issue won't be going away.

• It sounds cool to say it now, but I really don't think recent flavor-of-the-month George Allen is going to make a very good presidential candidate. Whereas Bush talked about compassionate conservativism in a way that revitalized the Republican Party, Allen looks like he's got nothing new to say, and his "common-sense conservativism" doesn't work when you think about it. In other words, isn't "it's common sense" the last stand of a defeated argument? If it's so blatantly obvious, why can't you prove your case another way? Frankly, most of what he says just seems like warmed-over early-'00s conservative mush. You know, the stuff that's been demonstrated not to work?

• If you didn't know it already, his new book should be proof that Al Franken is readying himself for a serious run for the Senate in 2008. Quick refresher: Franken, from Minnesota himself, was a huge fan of Paul Wellstone and devoted the most effective (and most poignant) chapter of his last book towards disproving the notion that Democrats politicized Wellstone's death (and showed just the opposite). So Franken had been rumored to be gunning for that Senate seat (now held by Norm Coleman) for a while, and it looks now like he's going for it. Note first the cover: very serious. That looks like a politician. Then note the title, an attempt to transition seamlessly from bombthrowing pundit to credible visionary. As opposed to Lies (and the lying liars who tell them), we now have The Truth (with jokes). He's still funny. And now he's advocating a positive message. I say that's really smooth.

• Katie Holmes is pregnant. I point you again to the Wikipedia entry on Xenu.

• My favorite political writer is Matt Bai of the New York Times Magazine. He writes really long articles that are unbelievably fascinating, and I eagerly await his book on the state of the Democrats. In last weekend's NYT Magazine he has an article on the present of future in an article he calls "Mrs. Triangulation." (He never explains, though, what triangulation is. Thank goodness for this blog.)

• I don't hate Texans. I really don't, either individually or en masse. Well, maybe one or two Texans. But a lot of Texans seem to have a hard time figuring out why everyone doesn't love them, and I think I found a story that might help explain why.

  This is a column from Fox News correspondent Brian Wilson, unfortunately not the former Beach Boys impresario, who wrote, apparently, on the sole topic of how great Texans are, as evidenced by their awesome reaction to Hurricane Rita. Now, see, I would say that the impression I got from most Texans about the hurricane was that we should all be impressed it happened to them, but that's not what Brian Wilson says:
  

  Never ask someone if they are from Texas. Because if a person is from Texas, they will tell you in short order. If they are not from Texas, asking will only make them sad that they had the poor fortune to be born someplace else.
  ...
  Even though I haven't lived in my home state for more than 20 years, this is why I still want to be known as a Texan. The people are just the kindest, friendliest, most decent people you are likely to find anywhere. Sure, as a group, we're a little loud. We love our pickups and our SUVs and, Lord knows, we love to talk trash about how great we are. "You can always tell a Texan," the old saying goes, "but you can't tell 'em much."

  But in times of trouble or despair � it's the Texans you want standing at your back.

  
  I will assume that last quote is true. But someone do me a favor and clarify something for me. How is the rest of that quote above (especially "we love to talk trash about how great we are") any different, or any better, from that northeastern elitism that supposedly precludes the viability of any of our presidential candidates? Seriously. I want to know what we're doing wrong here. Is calling people elitist snobs nicer than calling Texans cowboys or dumb or right-wing Christians? I really would like to know this. (That said, I can't believe how much Texas-trashing goes on in my Big Apple law school, even in front of proud Texans. I assume none of the reverse happens at schools like Baylor.)

• Do you remember currently incarcerated former Congressman Jim Traficant? I don't really either. But this collection of his quotes will make you wish you did. My favorite is this one:
  

  Mr. TRAFICANT. Mr. Speaker, the endangered sucker fish is living up to its reputation, sucking the livelihood from 1,400 farmers in Oregon. That is right. This protected bottom feeder now has more rights than farmers out there. If that is not enough to fry your mackerel, this region has now been without irrigated water since April, turning 200,000 acres of farmland into near desert.

  Beam me up. Stop this sucker fish crusade. Free these farmers.

  I yield back the fact that this sucker fish sucks.

• I really couldn't tell you whether Paul Hodes is going to beat Charlie Bass in New Hampshire's 2nd congressional district on his second try in 2006, though I suspect the national climate and Hodes' increased experience will help. So I'm not inclined to say it's necessarily bad that he's getting a challenger, but I just don't like the idea of the scion of a prominent New Hampshire Democratic family moving back to the state just to run for Congress. I even understand the idea of people moving somewhere, or moving back home, to run for office, and I certainly understand how people who grew up in politics would be into it. The combination, especially for a seat somebody else in the party is already running for (and has been for two years) is not so cool. I can't say I'm really cool with this. But good scoop by all-star James Pindell, the first reporter I ever went to dinner with.

• The Alabama governor's race next year is shaping up to be about as interesting as it gets. Incumbent Bob Riley, a wicked conservative Republican, got a bit of fame in 2003 for trying to pass an ultimately failed voter referendum on a big tax increase. At the time, he said caring for the poor is the Christian thing to do (which is true) but it failed, and now he's in trouble. There are two interesting Democratic challengers: the lieutenant governor is a woman, and frankly I'm always intrigued when a Democratic woman has a real shot at winning a major statewide office in the deep south. The second Democrat is former Gov. Don Siegelman, who some say was robbed of an election victory in 2002, and Riley's not even a legitimate governor at all.

  Now, for a political dork like me, that would suffice for a good race: see who wins a neat past-vs.-future Democratic primary, then see who can beat a semi-innovative but embattled Republican incumbent. Why should you care? Well, Riley's getting a Republican primary challenger. And, that's right, it's Roy Moore. If you thought that issue about the Ten Commandments in the courtroom was dead, you're completely wrong. This one's going to get wild.

• Apparently it's really buggy still, but AOL is coming out with a massive update of AIM (currently in beta) that lets you do IM, email (two gigs of storage), voice chat, video chat, and text messaging. Plus tabbed IMing! That last one is really going to help. Keep an eye out for this one.

• I know I harped on this yesterday, but the GOP blowback on Harriet Miers is astonishing. As recently as last week I never would have expected this kind of open revolt within the party. I mean, even Trent Lott says he's leaning against supporting her. When the Manchester Union Leader starts an editorial about a Bush decision with "America is not supposed to work this way," you are in deep shit. The UL then says that Miers "is no more or less qualified to sit on the Supreme Court than thousands of other attorneys with similar career highlights. What separates her from the others is a single attribute: friendship with the President."

  But the really good stuff is from George Will, who is a huge conservative and yet just gets really brutal. Here's one choice quote about Bush:
  

  He has neither the inclination nor the ability to make sophisticated judgments about competing approaches to construing the Constitution.

  
  Here's another:
  

  In addition, the president has forfeited his right to be trusted as a custodian of the Constitution.

  
  Wow! The whole thing reads like it's from an alternate universe. I mean, I knew Republicans were good at pretending they all got along until after election years, but this is just amazing.

• Speaking of New Hampshire's conservative paper of record, the Union Leader is not subtle about its support for Steve Forbes' flat tax. In fact, they say in an editorial the other day that "It should go without saying that a flat tax makes sense."
  

  For those familiar with the flat tax argument, there is not much new in Forbes' new book. The big twist is that this time he would have the federal government offer Americans a choice: Pay taxes under the current system, or pay under the flat tax � whichever benefits you most.

  
  Doesn't that just make it a flat tax for everyone above the flat tax percentage (Forbes says 17%) and keep it the same for everyone else? Why would anyone in the rich tax bracket pay more than the flat-tax rate? I don't get economics.

• In the past 20 years, Rhode Island, despite being one of the most Democratic states in the country, has had a Republican governor for all but four of them. The one exception was Bruce Sundlun, a former businessman who was governor from 1990 through 1994, back when that was two terms. Certain pregnant sisters of mine have taken Sundlun's subsequent class on politics at URI, but you know what he's up to now? He's trying to become the next town manager of Coventry. The former governor! Now a town manager! And no, he's not from Coventry, and he's never lived or worked there. Seriously, why isn't he trying to run for U.S. Senate or something?

  While I have the opportunity, I have to mention the last time I mentioned town managers, because it was at a bar the other night. I was getting approached by a beautiful woman, per usual, but this one was different. That's right, she wrote her thesis on South Kingstown and Narragansett, Rhode Island (and something about the water systems thereof.) I asked her if she met with the town manager; she hadn't. (Look, I was curious.) Am I the only one who thinks it's crazy that I met a chick at a bar who wrote her thesis on my hometown?

• 70s songwriter Andrew Gold (you owe it to yourself to check out "Lonely Boy") comes through in the clutch.

• The nice thing about Bush's collapsing presidency is that reporters are finally getting a spine. Look at this great WaPo article on Karen Hughes' assertion that Bush is the first president to advocate for a Palestinian state, and the copious and lengthy ways in which that is demonstrably false, and how the Bush administration has said it's not true.

Posted by Terry McMahon at 10:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

So I met my new friend Tara (at a bar last night!) and she gave me the bright idea of putting up a list of my favorite posts on this here blog, so that new readers can discover how fantastic I am whilst waddling through "links of the day" and failed one-line left-wing catchphrases.

So, anyway, it's in the left column, near the bottom. Thanks Tara!

Posted by Terry McMahon at 5:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I'm sorry, this is the funniest Onion headline in a long time:
"Bush Braces As Cindy Sheehan's Other Son Drowns In New Orleans" [The Onion]

All right, segueing ever so slowly back into reality, which story is the joke, and which is real?
"Fuck Everything, We're Doing Five Blades" By James M. Kilts, CEO and President, The Gillette Company
"Gillette Unveils 5-Bladed Razor" Associated Press, 9/14/05

We're good? Next, staying with entertainment, see how you can find a Tivo easter egg to give yourself a 30-second skip. That's right, commercials ain't shit when you steal links from Bill Simmons.

I want to make two points with this political link, concerning Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher's imploding political career. First, the quote, originally from crappy Louisville TV network WHAS but brought to you by Bluegrass Report:

Republican Party insiders tell WHAS11 News Fletcher�s support in his own party is eroding, and they claim Republican U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell is in a not-so-private fight with Fletcher. The governor denies this, saying that he has been hurt politically, but he�s nowhere close to dead.

The other point I'd like to make is more of a question. I apparently was visiting Bluegrass Report for the first time, because I had no idea it was fully owned and operated by native San Franciscan, horse racing enthusiast and onetime Tony Miller for Congress general consultant Mark Nickolas. Is there a general etiquette for saying hello to someone who you haven't spoken with in a year once you discover their blog? I shouldn't just post in the comments, right?

Also, I found this piece to be pretty compelling. I think the author went to my high school and/or is the sister of one of my favorite random new Friendster friends of the past week.

Finally, please find the SNL transcript of the day under the fold.

Continue reading "Links: Deal with it" »

Posted by Terry McMahon at 2:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I think it goes without saying that my linking ability is such that you should assume these are entertaining, fascinating and personally illuminating sites. This will be quite the magical journey, promise.

• First off, apparently Greenwich Village has like the world's awesomest Halloween parade. Please look at the official site and help me come up with an idea. You may say I've got a month and a half left, but you know as well as I do I'm going to wake up on October 29th (happy birthday, Mom!) with no idea what to do.

• Good thing America's such a conservative country: with two Supreme Court vacancies, we'll finally be able to overturn Roe v. Wade and pass state and federal laws banning abortion, finally living up to the will of the people. Except, minor detail, America turns out to be pro-choice by about 56-38. [SurveyUSA]

• Turns out last year the New Yorker took a long look at Al Gore's life these days, and it's pretty interesting. The article, I mean, though Al Gore seems to be doing okay. [New Yorker] And check out the song linked from the story.

• Rush Holt, Matt's former congressman in New Jersey, is awesome. How awesome? Well, not only was he a research scientist at Princeton before running off to Congress, but he is the legislative branch's only five-time Jeopardy! champion. So when he tells you what's wrong with teaching intelligent design, you know it's good. My favorite scene goes like this:
  

  Sure, evolution is a theory, just as gravitation is a theory. The mechanisms of evolution are indeed up for debate, just as the details of gravitation and its mathematical relationship with other forces of nature are up for debate. Some people once believed that we are held on the ground by invisible angels above us beating their wings and pushing us against the earth.[TPM Cafe]

• Mike Myers' reaction to the Kanye West Incident a few weeks ago was priceless, not least because this exact kind of incident was the subject of an SNL sketch he did in 1994. Read the transcript.

• You tried so hard to get the suit, only to be so disappointed. Now, finally, a use for Hammer Mario.

• Snopes today is pretty funny: what happens when a company like Experts Exchange wants to register its name as a .com? [Snopes]

• The dumber of the Hurricane Katrina quotes, just so you have them all in one place. [About.com]
  [Side note: Is anyone else a little unnerved by how much original content is on about.com, given how little role they seem to play in the national consciousness? It's all Google/eBay/Yahoo/Amazon, but these guys have been around forever and apparently they write a ton of stuff. What gives?]

• The imminently pay-to-play New York Times Op-Edster John Tierney has a weird yet pretty funny column on what Senate Democrats should ask John Roberts to get him out of his comfort zone. The funniest by far is this:
  

  How would you edit this sentence to make it grammatically correct?: "I swear I ain't never gonna overturn Roe v. Wade." [New York Times]

  Good times.

  Posted by Terry McMahon at 11:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I'm torn. I want to make fun of Gawker for - this is true - resorting to recapping New York Times book reviews on its website. This review is funny, this review is weird, this review is really dull. The article itself is really dull, so instead of that direction, I'll just say, it's been done before, and better. Yes, I have more political posts coming, eventually.

(Again with the beach. Beavertail lighthouse enthusiasts will note that the rock formation in the background is the flip side of the rock formation you can see by looking from Jamestown to the mainland.)

Posted by Terry McMahon at 1:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I think this is the type of thing that used to be like eight posts. I'm right not to be concerned.

First off, Gawker reports that the staff of High Times beat the staff of the Wall Street Journal in softball yesterday. Best part is the headline.
[Gawker: Softball: Stoners vs. Neocons]

Evan Bayh, whose nascent presidential campaign I've criticized before, wins major points here. A recent internet poll found him the hottest senator (don't forget, Edwards is now a free man), though they eliminated Barack Obama before the contest even started, because Obama would obviously beat everyone. Bayh's response:

I surprised members of my staff by saying when the (online poll) results came out (that) I wanted to challenge Barack to a walk-off. They were surprised I'd heard of "Zoolander" (in which Ben Stiller is a clueless fashion model). I said, "I want a walk-off, baby." (Laughs)

Next, I can't believe this whole situation is working according to some plan, but here's how Political Wire cites the Arizona Republic on next year's Arizona governor's race:

Political insiders say Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano's (D) decision "to turn down a $65,000 pay raise last year already has had an impact on the 2006 governor's race," the Arizona Republic reports. "Republicans are having trouble recruiting a candidate, and some say the salary and the lack of a governor's mansion are part of the problem."

The decision could be "one of the shrewdest political moves" Napolitano has ever made.

California U.S. Rep. George Miller rents out space in his DC house to other members of Congress, a practice that's not that rare because, I mean, how are you supposed to have a house in your district and in DC? These guys threw away any money they had the first time they ran. But examinations of these living arrangements is the height of journalism. Here's the funniest line from the entry on Miller's congressional hostel:

"My son was interning at the State Department one year and he stayed with us," said Panetta. "The poor kid used to buy cereal to have in the house because we didn't have much food. Schumer used to eat his cereal. If there was any food around, Schumer would eat it."

Now, I always thought the world of baseball GMs was a genteel place of friendly competition and public smiles. Not so Nationals GM Jim Bowden:

MLB.com: The team has hit a dry spell during the last 18 games. What has been the main problem?

Jim Bowden: A dry spell? I feel like I'm in the desert. We are in a horrible slump. Never have I seen a team collapse after the All-Star break and pitch very well. The team's ERA is better than any other month all year, and we can't win a game. It has been an embarrassment, it has been frustrating. There are no excuses.
...
MLB.com: Recently, you have made it clear that you want Barry Larkin to come out of retirement and play for the Nationals. How much of a difference would he make?

Bowden: Larkin's leadership is important. He is a veteran guy that has been there. I think his presence in the clubhouse and on the field would help this team.
...
MLB.com: What kind of job has he done for you in the front office?

Bowden: He has done a good job for his first year. He would be doing a better job if he takes the field the last couple of months of the season.

Finally, I was worried today that I would have to come up with a way of expressing my feelings on the major AFL-CIO split that went down today. Thank goodness DailyKos came through in the clutch, and I can just cut and paste:

While a lack of unity in the labor movement may seem to bode ill for its future, it's probably the best thing to have happened to it in a long time. The AFL-CIO was bleeding membership and clout and wasn't prepared to enact the sorts of reforms -- heck, any reforms -- designed to reverse the trend.

Among its set of reforms, SEIU has been pushing for redirecting political money back into organizing based on a simple principle -- union members are far more likely to vote Democratic than non-union members. So much so that Mondale actually won the southern, white, male union vote en route to a catastrophic nationwide loss in 1984. So why not make more union members? Rather than invest directly in races (something SEIU clearly still plans to do, given its current efforts to take over the San Antonio city government), it plans on diverting some of that direct assistance into organizing and growing union ranks. That investment will mean 1) more money for future political engagement, and 2) more Democratic-leaning votes.

Whether it works or not remains to be seen, just as whether Teamsters and the other four (dissident) Unite to Win unions (and anyone else) joins a new federation. But fact is, the AFL-CIO is broken and there was no will to reform. And when the status quo won't budge, sometimes it takes drastic measures to shake the establishment out of its inertia.

(The Point Judith Country Club, as part of my rockin' country club summer. Look at all them golf carts!)

Posted by Terry McMahon at 12:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Because you're going to need something to read tomorrow at work.

Apparently Eminem littered Encore with clues that his last album is, in fact, his last album. Besides the fact that it wasn't any good? [Detroit Free Press]

Closure on a major issue from my college days: that SOB who kept spamming me with inane and extended rants on the Phillies just got his ass sent to jail. Good riddance. [Philadelphia Business Journal]

Rumor has it the Red Sox are trading for Marlins ace AJ Burnett and signing him to an extension. I will be thrilled with this trade as soon as it becomes apparent how it's going to fix the bullpen. [New York Daily News]

Confidential to LLMK (right?): Apparently Scholastic spent Friday turning my soon-to-be street into Harry Potter Place. As long as this stuff continues through winter, I won't mind losing the beach. [Yes, I read Gawker.]

The photo shows New Hampshire's Lake Winnipesaukee at sunset.

Posted by Terry McMahon at 7:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Because I love great headlines:

It's reining cats, dogs at meeting

Dog waste at Rose Larisa Park and the spaying of cats adopted at the animal shelter occupy City Council.

Thanks Projo!

Posted by Terry McMahon at 9:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Because I didn't get that part of Family Guy either:

Also points for Family Guy for their shout out to The Herculoids � used to watch those on Cartoon Network back in the day.

Posted by Terry McMahon at 1:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Bill Maher wrote this great book after 9/11. Actually, it's more of a picture book: he looks at old wartime posters and updates them for how they can apply to the war on terrorism. Some of them are compelling, thought-provoking and sad, but my favorite was "Put a flag on your car - it's literally the least you can do," with the accompanying essay "Empty Gestures Don't Win Wars."

http://www.supportourribbons.com/detail.php?id=8&PHPSESSID=737cdf3c22fc7b47f7b9f88b958219e5

So true.

Posted by Terry McMahon at 11:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)