"A gay-loving elitist Muslim"

Obama Runs Constructive Criticism Ad Against McCain

Letterman rips poor lil' old McCainypoo.

If you aren't aware, John McCain was scheduled to appear on The David Letterman Show last night, but canceled at the last minute, saying he was needed immediately in Washington to assist with the negotiations regarding the 700 billion dollar Wall Street bailout. Letterman was absolutely fuming and the results are hilarious! John McCain should be very sad today.



The Washington Independent wrote a succinct but apt article comparing Letterman to Walter Cronkite in his condemnation of the Vietnam War. Read the article here.

And just as a little side note, I decided to look at Obama's myspace page... whatever, looks cool and everything. So then I thought to look at McCain's myspace page. Curiously, his page didn't even work. A couple pictures popped up and then rest of the page was just broken. I found it to be a bit amusing. Oh, and Obama has about five times as many friends as McCain has, too. What a loser. I probably have more friends than Johnny has.

The Placemats

The Replacements' 1984 release Let It Be has a special place in my heart. My dad used to listen to Pleased To Meet Me when I was a kid, I guess I was 11 at the time, and I liked it, but I never totally latched on to it like I did some of the other music he listened to when I was young (Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, The Stones, Talking Heads, etc.). But years later when I was working at Music Trader, a German guy named Marc told me about this record and he said in a heavy accent, "You have to listen to it. It's badass," or something to that effect. So I bought it, as well as the two albums preceding it, Sorry Ma..., and Hootenanny. Out of the three, Let It Be struck deep with me and stayed there. These songs are so manic and loose, so trashy, so funny, so gut-wrenching, and just plain exciting. This is definitely shower/morning music for me. Songs that you can't help but sing along to and wonder how Paul Westerberg came up with such awesome and simple melody. Let It Be is definitely their finest achievement.

Here is a free download of the newly re-released version of Let It Be, with bonus tracks and everything. If you already have this album, you may want to download it for the extra material anyway. Here's the track list:

- I Will Dare
- Favorite Thing
- We're Comin' Out
- Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out
- Androgynous
- Black Diamond
- Unsatisfied
- Seen Your Video
- Gary's Got A Boner
- Sixteen Blue
- Answering Machine
- 20th Century Boy
- Perfectly Lethal (Outtake)*
- Temptation Eyes (Outtake)*
- Answering Machine (Solo Home Demo)*
- Heartbeat - It's A Lovebeat (Outtake - Rough Mix)*
- Sixteen Blue (Outtake - Alternate Vocal)*


download LET IT BE here

A Mention in the SF Weekly

Our friend Jamie Jams has been receiving a fair amount of attention for his 90's night at The Knockout called Debaser. I have never been able to attend because I'm never in San Francisco when he does it, but everything I've heard is good. Anyway, they got another write up in the SF Weekly, and the reporter mentioned us in the article. Pretty cool. Read the article here.

Free Floating Agression 9/23/08

Shitty commercial time!

Last Sunday I got a text message from my friend reading, "The NFL is using a Smiths song." Incredulous, I asked, "Which one?" He replied, "Everyday Is Like Sunday." I couldn't believe it. It's actually a Morrissey song, but anyway, I was watching tv last night and the very commercial comes on. But it's a really shitty cover version. I wonder if Morrissey gave his consent or if that's even required?



The next one is a Snickers commercial for BBC that was pulled off the air because it is perceived as being homophobic. You tell me what you think.



And here's a little blurb I found on Youtube with some more gay-bashing rant from our buddy, Mr. T.

Great job!

This weekend I play records for some fools.

Oh, and I'm happy to say that Duh Boody Bassmens won the award for Best Hip-Hop Nightclub For White People in the San Diego Musics Award. Congratulations, guys! Great job!



Great job!

Obama Promises To Stop America's Shitty Jobs From Going Overseas

Obama Promises To Stop America's Shitty Jobs From Going Overseas

Palin/Clinton parody on SNL

We have all been waiting for Tina Fey's Sarah Palin, and it is AWESOME-

Stripper Shit

I was reading the Skull Knotrol blog today and I pept the Am I Demon video by my mans Danzig, and it made me think of the She Rides video. We show the old Danzig video collection video at Booty Bassment in San Francisco sometimes and I always love when the She Rides video comes on because it looks so much like a Booty Bassment flier to me: scantly clad young ladies, metal dudes, and a stark background... perfect. I especially love the beginning of the video with the swaying thoia-thong over the bad 80's butt tattoos. This is the ultimate lap dance song, right? And Glenn's hair? Incredible. Danzig wishes he was still this cool.

And the award for the Worst Movie Ever goes to...

So, we all know that Johnny Knoxville is an idiot, but last night I watched a movie that really set him as the linchpin in the world of idiocy: The Ringer. If you haven't seen this movie, you absolutely must. It sucks so many sweaty llama balls that it makes I Am Sam look like Shakespeare.

The basic premise is that Knoxville is forced by unfortunate circumstance to enter into the Special Olympics (even though he is not technically "special") with the express purpose of dethroning the reigning champion decathlete, simultaneously winning his broke and gambling addicted uncle a large bet and earning enough cash to have the three fingers his gardener inconveniently lost in a lawn mower accident sewn back on. Yeah, it's stupid and offensive; always a good combo. As you who know me may well attest, I am not necessarily opposed to offending folks, but this one takes it there.

I must say though that for me, it's actually Knoxville's performance that causes the big stench. I know you're saying, "No big surprises there," but really, the sheer ineptitude of his "Jeffy" character is remarkable, as late as this review may be. Constantly referring to himself in third person is enough to drive anyone up a wall ("Jeffy likes you."), but to see him dancing around with a stunned-mullet grin at a Kids Of Widney High concert just takes the cake. It must be seen to be believed, so below is a montage of clips from the movie.



And here is the music video "Pretty Girls" by The Kids Of Widney High. A certified platinum hit, sure to get some play at this Thursday's Worst Music Ever.



I just had an epiphany- I think that this Thursday (September 18) at the Worst Music Ever at The Knockout in San Francisco we will start the night with a showing of the Worst Movie Ever, The Ringer. Yes, I think that sounds great. We shall start the movie at approximately 9 pm. Thank you.

And now for something completely different.

Thanks to Rebecca for this one... soooo good.

A nice lil' sweet article about our boy.

Today I got my daily newsletter from the Rasmussen Reports and it read, "The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday shows John McCain up by three points, his largest lead since Obama wrapped up the Democratic Presidential Nomination. " Needless to say, I began to have a slight anxiety attack. I really, really don't get it. Why on earth do people like Sarah Palin so much all of a sudden? It's such a sham and the Republicans (and swing voters for that matter) can't even see it.

Then I received an email from a member of the San Diego Obama campaign that made me feel a bit more at ease. This article in The American Prospect is very well written, and has enough links to occupy your paranoia riddled mind for at least an hour. A welcome respite in this, my hour or torment.

Please read this and pass the link along!

Read the article here.

And it would like to let it be known at this point, I am completely obsessed with the election at this point, and I will most likely be in a state of frenzy until November 5. Just sayin. Please bear with me.

On the Seven Year Anniversary of the 9/11 Attacks.

If you don't watch any other video on this page, please watch this one. This is a monologue by Keith Olbermann yesterday about the blatant disregard for the memory of those killed in the attacks on the WTC. Olbermann says it best-

"This is supposed to be a day of remembrance. Remembrance of the attack, remembrance of the national unity which followed it.

Most important of all, remembrance of the dead.

But 9/11 has become a brand name. A Republican campaign slogan. Propaganda of the lowest form. 9/11 has become 9/11 with a trademark logo."

Please watch this and pass it along!

MORE

I know I'm probably boring you all to tears with all this politickin' and shit, but goddamnit, this is the most important issue in America today and I want to be able to say that I actually tried to help Obama in the Presidency so that when McCain wins I don't feel bad about moving to Australia. I'm sorta just joking. But anyway, here are five more videos on McCain that every voter should watch.

The Real McCain Part 2-



Less Jobs. More Wars: What is this 'Iraq war' charge on my bill?



The Real McCain Part 1-



McCain's Spiritual Guide: The video that caused McCain to renounce Rev. Rod Parsley's bigoted endorsement-



Why Won't McCain Sign the GI Bill? Presenting the most blatant hypocrisy of the McCain campaign-



Please tell everyone you know about these double standards. Imagine what they would think of Senator McCain if they saw these videos!

More lies please! Thank you.

This is an article that appeared in the Washington Post about some fishy per diem fees Sarah Palin charged the state of Alaska while acting as governor.

Read the article here.

This next article in the UK Guardian talks about the false claims by the McCain campaign that Sarah Palin opposed the "Bridge To Nowhere" in Alaska.

Read the article here.

I don't know where the Guardian got their poll numbers from, but all the polls I heard about today read Obama one point over McCain.

Palin has outright lied with her "Thanks, but no thanks," mantra a total of seven times, even after being confronted with the fact that she did not oppose the bridge, but endorsed it. What the fuck? Why do they think they can just say whatever they want and people will just take it as truth?

Also, she did not stop the building of the bridge, as the McCain campaign claims. Congress stopped it, and then Governor Palin neglected to give the money (223 million) back! What a maverick!

In the words of my room mate Ryan,

"Why does it take The Daily Show to give us the truth?" No shit, man. Here are a couple videos which CANNOT be denied by anyone. Silliness aside, the clips they use speak for themselves.

More stupid bullshit.

Blah blah babble yabble boo.

THANK GOD FOR ANNE KILKENNY

I was listening to NPR the other day, and they had an interview with a woman named Anne Kilkenny from Wasilla, Alaska, the same small town that Sarah Palin is from. She was busy fielding calls and emails (hundreds per hour) because of an email she had written her friends about Sarah Palin, who she is on a first name basis with since school. I was naturally intrigued, so I looked it up.

Here is her letter, in full, for your enjoyment. And don't forget to forward this along to anyone you know who wants to know more about our political candidates!

A note to all by Anne Kilkenny

Dear friends,

So many people have asked me about what I know about Sarah Palin in the last 2 days that I decided to write something up . . .

Basically, Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton have only 2 things in
common: their gender and their good looks. :)

You have my permission to forward this to your friends/email contacts
with my name and email address attached, but please do not post it on
any websites, as there are too many kooks out there . . .

Thanks,
Anne

[ Note by web_admin: This was already posted on Washington Independent

comments area and was meant by the author to be read by many, but
readers need sourcing. The NY Times has talked with Anne since. ]

ABOUT SARAH PALIN
I am a resident of Wasilla, Alaska. I have known Sarah since 1992.

Everyone here knows Sarah, so it is nothing special to say we are on a
first-name basis. Our children have attended the same schools. Her
father was my child's favorite substitute teacher. I also am on a
first name basis with her parents and mother-in-law. I attended more
City Council meetings during her administration than about 99% of the
residents of the city.

She is enormously popular; in every way she's like the most popular
girl in middle school. Even men who think she is a poor choice and
won't vote for her can't quit smiling when talking about her because
she is a "babe".

It is astonishing and almost scary how well she can keep a secret. She
kept her most recent pregnancy a secret from her children and parents
for seven months.

She is "pro-life". She recently gave birth to a Down's syndrome baby.
There is no cover-up involved, here; Trig is her baby.

She is energetic and hardworking. She regularly worked out at the gym.

She is savvy. She doesn't take positions; she just "puts things out
there" and if they prove to be popular, then she takes credit.

Her husband works a union job on the North Slope for BP and is a champion snowmobile racer. Todd Palin's kind of job is highly
sought-after because of the schedule and high pay. He arranges his
work schedule so he can fish for salmon in Bristol Bay for a month or
so in summer, but by no stretch of the imagination is fishing their major source of income. Nor has her life-style ever been anything like that of native Alaskans.

Sarah and her whole family are avid hunters.

She's smart.

Her experience is as mayor of a city with a population of about 5,000 (at the time), and less than 2 years as governor of a state with about 670,000 residents.

During her mayoral administration most of the actual work of running
this small city was turned over to an administrator. She had been pushed to hire this administrator by party power-brokers after she had gotten herself into some trouble over precipitous firings which had given rise to a recall campaign.

Sarah campaigned in Wasilla as a "fiscal conservative". During her 6
years as Mayor, she increased general government expenditures by over
33%. During those same 6 years the amount of taxes collected by the
City increased by 38%. This was during a period of low inflation
(1996-2002). She reduced progressive property taxes and increased a
regressive sales tax which taxed even food. The tax cuts that she
promoted benefited large corporate property owners way more than they
benefited residents.

The huge increases in tax revenues during her mayoral administration
weren't enough to fund everything on her wish list though, borrowed
money was needed, too. She inherited a city with zero debt, but left it
with indebtedness of over $22 million. What did Mayor Palin encourage
the voters to borrow money for? Was it the infrastructure that she said
she supported? The sewage treatment plant that the city lacked? or a
new library? No. $1m for a park. $15m-plus for construction of a
multi-use sports complex which she rushed through to build on a piece
of property that the City didn't even have clear title to, that was
still in litigation 7 yrs later--to the delight of the lawyers
involved! The sports complex itself is a nice addition to the
community but a huge money pit, not the profit-generator she claimed it
would be. She also supported bonds for $5.5m for road projects that
could have been done in 5-7 yrs without any borrowing.

While Mayor, City Hall was extensively remodeled and her office
redecorated more than once.


These are small numbers, but Wasilla is a very small city.

As an oil producer, the high price of oil has created a budget surplus
in Alaska. Rather than invest this surplus in technology that will
make us energy independent and increase efficiency, as Governor she
proposed distribution of this surplus to every individual in the state.

In this time of record state revenues and budget surpluses, she
recommended that the state borrow/bond for road projects, even while
she proposed distribution of surplus state revenues: spend today's surplus, borrow for needs.

She's not very tolerant of divergent opinions or open to outside ideas
or compromise. As Mayor, she fought ideas that weren't generated by
her or her staff. Ideas weren't evaluated on their merits, but on the basis of who proposed them.

While Sarah was Mayor of Wasilla she tried to fire our highly respected
City Librarian because the Librarian refused to consider removing from
the library some books that Sarah wanted removed. City residents
rallied to the defense of the City Librarian and against Palin's
attempt at out-and-out censorship, so Palin backed down and withdrew
her termination letter. People who fought her attempt to oust the
Librarian are on her enemies list to this day.


Sarah complained about the "old boy's club" when she first ran for
Mayor, so what did she bring Wasilla? A new set of "old boys". Palin
fired most of the experienced staff she inherited. At the City and as
Governor she hired or elevated new, inexperienced, obscure people,
creating a staff totally dependent on her for their jobs and eternally
grateful and fiercely loyal--loyal to the point of abusing their power
to further her personal agenda, as she has acknowledged happened in the
case of pressuring the State's top cop (see below).

As Mayor, Sarah fired Wasilla's Police Chief because he "intimidated"
her, she told the press. As Governor, her recent firing of Alaska's top
cop has the ring of familiarity about it. He served at her pleasure
and she had every legal right to fire him, but it's pretty clear that
an important factor in her decision to fire him was because he wouldn't
fire her sister's ex-husband, a State Trooper. Under investigation
for abuse of power, she has had to admit that more than 2 dozen
contacts were made between her staff and family to the person that she
later fired, pressuring him to fire her ex-brother-in-law. She tried to
replace the man she fired with a man who she knew had been reprimanded
for sexual harassment; when this caused a public furor, she withdrew
her support.

She has bitten the hand of every person who extended theirs to her in
help. The City Council person who personally escorted her around town
introducing her to voters when she first ran for Wasilla City Council
became one of her first targets when she was later elected Mayor. She
abruptly fired her loyal City Administrator; even people who didn't
like the guy were stunned by this ruthlessness.

Fear of retribution has kept all of these people from saying anything
publicly about her.

When then-Governor Murkowski was handing out political plums, Sarah got
the best, Chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission: one
of the few jobs not in Juneau and one of the best paid. She had no
background in oil & gas issues. Within months of scoring this great
job which paid $122,400/yr, she was complaining in the press about the
high salary. I was told that she hated that job: the commute, the
structured hours, the work. Sarah became aware that a member of this
Commission (who was also the State Chair of the Republican Party)
engaged in unethical behavior on the job. In a gutsy move which some
undoubtedly cautioned her could be political suicide, Sarah solved all
her problems in one fell swoop: got out of the job she hated and
garnered gobs of media attention as the patron saint of ethics and as a
gutsy fighter against the "old boy's club" when she dramatically quit,
exposing this man's ethics violations (for which he was fined).

As Mayor, she had her hand stuck out as far as anyone for pork from
Senator Ted Stevens. Lately, she has castigated his pork-barrel
politics and publicly humiliated him. She only opposed the "bridge to
nowhere" after it became clear that it would be unwise not to.

As Governor, she gave the Legislature no direction and budget
guidelines, then made a big grandstand display of line-item vetoing
projects, calling them pork. Public outcry and further legislative
action restored most of these projects--which had been vetoed simply
because she was not aware of their importance--but with the unobservant
she had gained a reputation as "anti-pork".

She is solidly Republican: no political maverick. The State party
leaders hate her because she has bit them in the back and humiliated
them. Other members of the party object to her self-description as a
fiscal conservative.

Around Wasilla there are people who went to high school with Sarah.

They call her "Sarah Barracuda" because of her unbridled ambition and
predatory ruthlessness. Before she became so powerful, very ugly
stories circulated around town about shenanigans she pulled to be made
point guard on the high school basketball team. When Sarah's
mother-in-law, a highly respected member of the community and
experienced manager, ran for Mayor, Sarah refused to endorse her.

As Governor, she stepped outside of the box and put together of package
of legislation known as "AGIA" that forced the oil companies to march
to the beat of her drum.

Like most Alaskans, she favors drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge. She has questioned if the loss of sea ice is linked to
global warming. She campaigned "as a private citizen" against a state
initiaitive that would have either a) protected salmon streams from
pollution from mines, or b) tied up in the courts all mining in the
state (depending on who you listen to). She has pushed the State's
lawsuit against the Dept. of the Interior's decision to list polar
bears as threatened species.

McCain is the oldest person to ever run for President; Sarah will be a heartbeat away from being President.

There has to be literally millions of Americans who are more
knowledgeable and experienced than she.

However, there's a lot of people who have underestimated her and are regretting it.


CLAIM VS FACT
-Hockey mom: true for a few years
-PTA mom: true years ago when her first-born was in elementary
school, not since
-NRA supporter: absolutely true
-social conservative: mixed. Opposes gay marriage, BUT vetoed a bill

that would have denied benefits to employees in same-sex relationships
(said she did this because it was unconsitutional).
-pro-creationism: mixed. Supports it, BUT did nothing as Governor to
promote it.
-Pro-life: mixed. Knowingly gave birth to a Down syndrome baby

BUT declined to call a special legislative session on some pro-life
legislation
-Experienced: Some high schools have more students than Wasilla has
residents. Many cities have more residents than the state of Alaska.

No legislative experience other than City Council. Little hands-on
supervisory or managerial experience; needed help of a city
administrator to run town of about 5,000.
-political maverick: not at all
-gutsy: absolutely!

-open & transparent: ??? Good at keeping secrets. Not good at
explaining actions.
-has a developed philosophy of public policy: no
-a Greenie: no. Turned Wasilla into a wasteland of big box stores
and disconnected parking lots. Is pro-drilling off-shore and in ANWR.

-fiscal conservative: not by my definition!
-pro-infrastructure: No. Promoted a sports complex and park in a city
without a sewage treatment plant or storm drainage system. Built
streets to early 20th century standards.

-pro-tax relief: Lowered taxes for businesses, increased tax burden on
residents
-pro-small government: No. Oversaw greatest expansion of city
government in Wasilla's history.
-pro-labor/pro-union. No. Just because her husband works union
doesn't make her pro-labor. I have seen nothing to support any claim
that she is pro-labor/pro-union.

WHY AM I WRITING THIS?
First, I have long believed in the importance of being an informed
voter. I am a voter registrar. For 10 years I put on student voting
programs in the schools. If you google my name (Anne Kilkenny +
Alaska), you will find references to my participation in local
government, education, and PTA/parent organizations.

Secondly, I've always operated in the belief that "Bad things happen
when good people stay silent". Few people know as much as I do because
few have gone to as many City Council meetings.

Third, I am just a housewife. I don't have a job she can bump me out
of. I don't belong to any organization that she can hurt. But, I am no
fool; she is immensely popular here, and it is likely that this will
cost me somehow in the future: that's life.

Fourth, she has hated me since back in 1996, when I was one of the 100
or so people who rallied to support the City Librarian against Sarah's
attempt at censorship.

Fifth, I looked around and realized that everybody else was afraid to
say anything because they were somehow vulnerable.

CAVEATS
I am not a statistician. I developed the numbers for the increase in
spending & taxation 2 years ago (when Palin was running for Governor)
from information supplied to me by the Finance Director of the City of
Wasilla, and I can't recall exactly what I adjusted for: did I adjust
for inflation? for population increases? Right now, it is impossible
for a private person to get any info out of City Hall--they are
swamped. So I can't verify my numbers.

You may have noticed that there are various numbers circulating for the
population of Wasilla, ranging from my "about 5,000", up to 9,000. The
day Palin's selection was announced a city official told me that the
current population is about 7,000. The official 2000 census count was
5,460. I have used about 5,000 because Palin was Mayor from 1996 to
2002, and the city was growing rapidly in the mid-90's.

Anne Kilkenny
August 31, 2008

Youtube magically solves all of your political questions.

The Daily Show exposes the secrets of Small Town Values-



A little wake up call about Palin-



McCain tries to sound Presidential, but ends up sounding like your grandma-



Bush tours America to survey damage caused by his disastrous Presidency-



Obama sets the record straight-