Bloviators, Comedians & GOP Leadership

Before Michael Steele came along we only had Rush Limbaugh as Bloviator/Comedian/Head of the GOP in Residence.

Now don't think for a moment that Steele can replace Rush - the former(??) Oxycontin Head still has a huge listening audience comprised of 60+-year-old angry white males - but the 50-year-old Steele is offering up some serious competition.

Steele is promising a “hip-hop makeover” that would attract even “one-armed midgets” to his party. Seriously. He said that.

In true GOP tradition, Mr Steele is a born actor and a former high school drama star. He recently gained lots of media attention when he accurately described Rush the Comedian's show as "ugly" and incendiary."

That pissed Rush off. Not a good thing for an obese former drug addict. Getting his blood pressure as high as his picture seems to indicate may be a death sentence.

Which is kind of the same thing he wished for Sir Senator Ted Kennedy this week when he said Kennedy would be dead when health care reform passed.

The Steele comment sent Rush rushing to the hustings where he gave a jugular-vein-popping speech that prompted the White House to name him the face and the voice of GOP leadership.

The sweaty, swollen man in the black, half-buttoned shirt ranted for nearly 90 minutes at the Conservative Political Action Conference. He reiterated his desire to see the president of his country fail. He misstated the Constitution’s intent while accusing President Obama of “bastardizing” the document. He made fun of one man’s service in Vietnam, to laughter.

David Letterman compared him to an Eastern European gangster. But he looked more like a bouncer at a strip club who spent all his tips on one bad outfit.

But for the Republican Party, Limbaugh has become very much a vice. Rush is as addictive as those pain-killers he used to take. And angry white men on the fringe just can't seem to get that monkey off their backs.

But wait a minute, there's a new drug on the street. And new comedian doing Hip-Hop shtick. Is that Michael Steele I see around the corner, trying to "apply conservative principles to urban-suburban hip-hop settings?"

Yep, it sure is.

Michael Steele who offered the "friggin' awesome" Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal some "slum love." (yes, that Bobby Jindal, you know, the Tom Sawyerish, 14-year-old Gov of Louisiana who gave the worst speech in history in response to Obama's Joint Congressional Address - Bobby Jindal - the former next best thing in the GOP).

Michael Steele is the GOP's new fix/ation.



Anyway, have fun with all of this. Don't take any of it too seriously. And remember, it will only be about 3 years before Romney and Palin reappear - reestablishing their rightful claims as Comedians in Residence for the GOP.

CNBC Finally Gets Called Out for Their Bullshit

I always wondered why I haven't read or seen or heard more about CNBC and their unique brand of corporate pimping and their extraordinary failure in seeing the financial meltdown even while we were in the middle of it.

Now, thanks to Jon Stewart, we at last see what bullshit CNBC and their overpaid anchors engaged in while the country was going south.

I wholeheartedly agree with Mr Stewart's last comments....

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

CNBC Gives Financial Advice

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Political Humor
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Why I Bought A Kindle

As the market falls below 7,000, to it's lowest point in 12 years, I find diversions of almost any kind welcome - especially diversions involving technology.

So I'm going to write a little about technology and specifically why I spent almost $500 on the new Kindle 2, a leather cover, a cool Mighty Bright reading light and 3 books I had whispernetted to the thing while it was still in transit.

As enamored as I am with technology, I'm not an easy mark. I don't accept or subscribe to never-ending technological developments just because they exist.

Technology that doesn't in some way enrich and improve my life, or lives in general, is of no value to me. Developing means to robotically kill opposing forces is evil. Developing means to robotically vacuum my carpet is good.

And technology has to be very user-friendly for me to adopt it. The days of my attempting to read hundreds of badly translated pages in a "User Manual" are long gone. I don't have the time, aptitude or advanced engineering degree to cope with that.

Remember the first versions of videocassette recorders - VCR's of the 1970's - and the subsequent VHS vs. Betamax formatting battle? My brother-in-law Dave could write a book about it as he was working on the leading edge of marketing those devices back in the day.

What they all had in common was an impossible-to-read operating manual. Badly translated from the original Japanese, Korean, Mandarin or what-have-you, by the time it reached your hands it was incomprehensible.

The inability to set those babies up to actually record has become part of popular lore.

Another major "advance" was audio cassette players for your car that required turning over the vehicle to 2-or 3 guys who looked like they just stole all the equipment they were about to install in your car - they had to cut holes for speakers, run wiring, stick the player in the dashboard and then turn it back to you so you could figure out how in the hell to operate it while driving 70-miles-per-hour on the freeway.

Or how about car phones? That was fun - especially when they didn't melt from the heat and sun or more likely, get stolen on a frequent basis.

I'm not a first adapter either. I really believe that someone else should be the guinea pig for Version 1.0 of anything. The only time I failed to adhere to that was with Vonage - I bought in as soon as it was introduced and it was a miserable failure from the get go. Every time it rained I lost phone service. I got rid of it fast. And I still have a land line - just in case I need to call 911 and have them actually know from where I'm calling.

I haven't jumped for HDTV (yet). I have a Dell desktop PC with a cable ISP - no cool Apple laptop - no WiFi. I do have a pair on noise-cancelling headphones because I don't want to lose anymore hearing than I already have. And I have an iPod 4GB Nano that's a couple of years old.

But in the last few years my love affair with new technology has really kicked-in. First it was the proliferation of on-line tools that made a neat connection between my personal and professional life - blogs, blogging, facebook, twitter, etc.

It just made sense to me to be able to express myself both personally and professionally through those forums. It has helped me enormously in keeping in touch in brand new ways with my friends and business colleagues. And it has provided me a means to reconnect with people I want in my life.

Then my applemaniac friends introduced me to the new iPhone 3G and the whole wide world of apps.

I was smitten! So in love! Never saw anything like it. The iPhone offered me compatibility, portability and connectivity that I didn't have. And in such a small, sexy package to boot.

The iPhone actually enriched my life. It made communication possible on a whole different plane. It also made it possible to have fun on a whole different plane. How else can you flick bowl in the palm of your hand?

One of the first things I did after putting my favorite music on iPhone and hooking-up my personal & work e-mail, and getting all those must-have apps, was to download audiobooks and e-reader to my iPhone.

Once again, it was the seductiveness of portability and convenience that drove me in this direction.

I live in Brooklyn and I commute via the subway to work. On weekdays the "F" train is frequently overcrowded and finding a handhold while simultaneously holding a 300-page book and turning pages in nigh impossible. As is actually finding a seat during prime commuting times. And after years of hauling heavy books around in my messenger bag I was beginning to feel like a pack mule - plus my shoulders would ache by the end of the day.

So I started to listen to audiobooks with my noise-canceling headphones while riding the subway. The very first one I listened to was Camus' The Stranger narrated by acclaimed voice actor Jonathan Davis. The experience was transformative. I had forgotten how much I missed having someone read to me. It was heaven, and I was forever hooked on the experience.

About this same time I was also downloading free e-reader apps on the iPhone. Mostly "classics" such as Moby Dick, Paradise Lost, The Time Machine, etc. You can change the font color and size, and the background "paper" color. You can "turn" pages with just a flick of your finger across the screen and the sound made is actually that of a page being turned! Very cool and very readable - and again, all in the palm of your hand. I also downloaded books from Beamitdown.com - they allow you to scroll the pages to your reading speed. That's pretty amazing! I have Benjamin Button, a biography of Lincoln and a couple of Sherlock Holmes tomes in this format.

I'm thrilled with this new reading freedom. And not having to lug books around anymore during my daily commute is wonderful.

Now don't get me wrong. I love "real" books. But I live in a typical NYC apartment - meaning I have finite space limitations to deal with. Right now I have numerous places to display and stash books - bookshelves, under tables, on tables, in little niches, books on top of books, etc. I find it hard to part with my books, so I keep them around. But I'm running out of room.

So it wasn't much of a jump for me to look to Amazon and their launch of Kindle 2.0.

I didn't pay much attention to the first Kindle - it was clunky looking, had some issues that needed to be dealt with and just didn't make an impression on me.

Bur when I started to read about the new Kindle 2, saw pictures and read critical reviews, I was sold.

Based on a heads-up article written in the NYTimes, I ordered a Kindle before the new one was announced. The article assured me that I would receive a new one and not the obsoleted version. And sure enough the e-mail from Amazon arrived telling me that I would be among the first to receive the new Kindle 2.

2 days after it was officially launched - I took receipt of it and have hardly put it to "sleep" since.

The one thing that describes the great technology available today is ease of operation - it's linear, coherent, and crystal clear. You can start using it almost out-of-the box.

That describes the Kindle 2 perfectly. I quick turn through the user guide and I was ready to go.

And, I ordered 3 books while it was on a UPS truck and when I turned it on all 3 books were already downloaded and ready to read.

The Kindle pages remind me of newsprint and the size of the page reminds me of a paperback - so there's absolutely no disconnect for me re a real reading experience. And the page turns are super fast.

I love it. And once again I feel I have engaged a new technology that will help enrich my life.

And nothing can compete with it's convenience and effectiveness.

I do not believe that Kindle and e-readers will replace books - I believe it is but another tool to aid the reader in accessing books and authors in the formats that make the most sense for the readers lifestyle. And if you commute by train and travel often like I do then having something like the Kindle makes a lot of sense.

Publishers need to stop whining about technology and find a way to participate. Old business models, circa early-to-mid 20th Century simply no longer work - whether it's book publishers or newspaper publishers.

Purist critique of technological advances seems pathetically rooted in a longing for a world that longer exists.

It's participate or perish. And everyone wins when everyone participates.

Freak Show/s

I was going to devote this post entirely to Mickey Rourke, but recent events demand that I also include the bizarro tale of Sandra Herold and Travis the chimp - but more on that in a bit.

First, Mickey Rourke.

OK, someone has to say it. Mickey Rourke is a one-man freak show. I mean what is up with the royal blue velvet slippers with crest? And that hairdo? And that Paris-Hilton-like-dog (rest it's poor soul).

Maybe I'm just pissed because I think this guy is going to steal the best actor award from Sean Penn. Or more accurately, the "Academy" is going to deny the award to Penn because he's already been there and done that and, god knows, Hollywood loves a good redemption story.

But Rourke's story is too weird. And The Wrestler was just Rourke actually being himself - what's "acting" have to do with it?

And am I the only one who thinks The Wrestler is a panegyric to steroid use and self-abuse? When asked if he took steroids, Rourke replied “When I’m a wrestler, I behave like a wrestler."

Yeah, right, I think I hear you.

Plus, I think the film is both bad and bogus.

Now, for Travis the chimp.

I'm sure you've already heard the horrible incident where Travis the chimp mauled a women, his loving owner tried to stab his ass to death, failed, and finally the cops had to shot him to death.

But did you know that Ms Herold treated Travis as both surrogate child and husband?

Too weird!

Look at that picture above for a few minutes. Let me know what your reaction is.

What A Bad Week Looks Like

1. Tax evader and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner danced through a major speech on Obama's new-and-improved bank bailout plan on Tuesday, raising many more questions in the process. I agree totally with the New York Times Editorial Board, that "his speech invited, at best, healthy skepticism from the markets, the public and lawmakers — and at worst, more mistrust."

2. Geithner's performance prompted comedian Bill Maher to go on the Larry King Show and say that he believed that things are a lot worse than we are being told as evidenced by Geithner's "vagueness." This does not make me hopeful. Is Maher an economist by the way?

3. My financial advisor (actually my super-smart financial wizard sister) advised me to get out of all markets - I'm now parked in an account earning so little it's hard to compute. But at least I'm not losing more $$.

4. The Republican party voted NO in the House and Senate on the stimulus package . I am convince that the Repugs are bent on bankrupting this country. What makes Obama think reaching out to them is prudent? The big question now is what is Obama's follow-up game plan. This stimulus package is relatively small potatoes, where's the grand plan. I am not confident.

5. My friend Dallas and I discussed how a capitalistic system based on hyper-consumerism is doomed to fail - especially when millions of jobs disappear and salaries are severly deflated and depressed.

6. Less than 1 in 4 people believe in evolution. America appears to becoming dumber. Gallup showed a "linear correlation between education level and (dis)belief in evolution." We need a poll for that?

7. A good friend needs a hip replacement. When asked how soon he should he have it done, the doctor said, "when the pain gets unbearable."

8. Another plane crashed, this time killing all aboard. I knew one of the victims - Alison L. Des Forges - a dedicated human rights activist who documented the genocide in Rwanda.

9. Another woman decided to be a martyr and blew herself up in Iraq, killing 50 - many of them women and children resting from a pilgrimage.

Tough to be optimistic or confident right now.

Can An Unrepentant Holocaust Denier be Rehabilitated?

After Pope John Paul II made reconciliation between Catholics and Jews a key feature of his papacy and after he publicly apologized for the sins of the Church and Christians over the past 2000 years, you would think that the Church would continue seeking common ground with Jews.

Rev. Thomas Reese, Jesuit author and the former editor-in-chief of America, said in an interview with Ray Suarez of PBS in Feb of 2000, "I think that the Pope has talked about the Holocaust in the past, the failure of so many Christians to reach out to help the Jews and to protect them from the Nazis. The Pope has put on a back burner the whole question about the canonization of Pius XII. Clearly this is a pope who wants to have reconciliation with the Jewish community and is asking for forgiveness of all the sins, all the sins. And there are lots of sins that the Christian community has committed against the Jews."

So wouldn't you think the Church would want to continue to examine it's relationship with Jews and continue to seek the truth? (With the exception of course of Pius XII's complicity with the Nazis).

Evidently not.

Pope Benedict XVI has just recently announced the "rehabilitation" of Holocaust Denier Richard Williamson, a member of the ultraconservative Society of St. Pius X whose excommunication was lifted by the Vatican last month. The decision sparked outrage because Williamson had said in a television interview he did not believe any Jews were gassed during the Holocaust.

What on earth can this Pope be thinking?

How can Joseph Ratzinger, the ultra-conservative former German Cardinal, a former member of Hitler Youth, a former member of a German anti-aircraft unit, who's zeal in enforcing Church orthodoxy attracted labels such as "The Hammer," "Cardinal No" and "God's Rottweiler," bring Holocaust denier Williamson back into the Church's fold?

It's disgraceful. It's sinful. It's a retrograde step that underscores the continuing influence of far right-wing, ultra-conservative thought and policy in the Roman Catholic Church - especially by secretive groups like Opus Dei and the Society of St. Pius X (which was founded in opposition to the modernizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council.)

Israel’s highest religious body sent a letter to the Vatican asking to postpone an annual bilateral meeting and voicing “sorrow and pain” at the pope’s decision to welcome the bishop back into the fold.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel strongly urged that the Pope make a “very clear” rejection of Holocaust denial.

Under such pressure and criticism the Vatican is now demanding that Williamson recant his denial before he can be readmitted as a Bishop in the Roman Catholic Church.

Remember, this is the guy that said only 200,000 to 300,000 Jews were killed during World War II and none was gassed.

This is the guy who refuses to visit Auschwitz and see the truth.

Williamson's response to the Vatican? "...I must look again at the historical evidence.'' It is about historical evidence, not about emotions,'' he added, ''And if I find this evidence, I will correct myself. But that will take time.''

Isn't that the same thing as saying "fuck you?"

By the way, Williamson lives in Argentina. Isn't that where a lot of Nazis escaped to after WWII?

The only moral response from the Vatican now is to tell Williamson not to bother. Let him remain excommunicated. Let him remain in Argentina. Let him remain outside the Church.

To do otherwise would be to lay waste to the progress made by John Paul II and to forever taint the Church's relationship with Jews around the world.

The person who needs to recant now is Benedict.

Is Cheney Dr Strangelove?

I was too struck with the image to mention it at the time, but I think Dick Cheney is actually Dr. Strangelove.