And if Colin Powell's endorsement wasn't enough...

I give you the great Stephen Colbert!

Happy Halloween!

I figure some of the Gang will think this is funny, but my guess is that Firecracker George will find it to be in bad taste.

I can't believe who's in the news these days...

Actually, I don't really know who he's decided to vote or not vote for:

I miss the days when MTV actually showed music on TV...

Back in the day when I was kid that watched endless hours of TV yet had no cable to feed my addiction, I had to resort to watching Friday Night Videos on NBC to keep up with the latest and greatest music videos of the moment. This meant I probably missed seeing a video every so oftent and maybe that's why I never realized that Toto was kind of a dorky looking band. Anywho, now MTV MUSIC has posted a number of classics and new releases on the Internet so I can catch up with all the cheesy 80's videos I missed.

Toto |MTV Music

Damn, I forgot to write-in Brad Esposito...

So I early voted today. What does that mean? I don't have to read or listen to any of the political rhetoric until 2009 when the next President is sworn into office! WOOHOO!

I'm not sure I like these electronic voting booths, though. I don't think you can even call it a booth. Just a little screen with a six inch divider on either side. I'm pretty sure I could have seen who the woman next to me was voting for if I looked over. What ever happened to the full privacy booths with currents and such? I miss my hanging chads!

It's Time We Put a Kitten in the White House.

I think it's high time we gave voting rights to stem cells, and dismantled our military completely. Frank Tambenili will ruin this country. Brad Esposito all the way.

Check out both candidates here.

The 80's will never go away...

Is it just me or does this new song "Human" from The Killers sound kind of like something that could have been on the radio 15 years or so ago? Nothing wrong with that. I kind of like this tune even though I haven't quite figured out what the lyrics mean:

Man, I've missed this guy...

F yeah!

Damn liberal media...

I figure Wander might have an interest in this op-ed piece from one of his favorite authors (I think--maybe I'm remembering wrong), Orson Scott Card. Apparently, he writes a column for a paper up in Wild Willie's neck of the woods and had a few choice words to say about the journalist coverage of this whole financial meltdown and takes a different angle than what I was expecting before I started reading this:

This housing crisis didn't come out of nowhere. It was not a vague emanation of the evil Bush administration.

It was a direct result of the political decision, back in the late 1990s, to loosen the rules of lending so that home loans would be more accessible to poor people. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were authorized to approve risky loans.

What is a risky loan? It's a loan that the recipient is likely not to be able to repay.

The goal of this rule change was to help the poor — which especially would help members of minority groups. But how does it help these people to give them a loan that they can't repay? They get into a house, yes, but when they can't make the payments, they lose the house — along with their credit rating.

They end up worse off than before.

This was completely foreseeable and in fact many people did foresee it. One political party, in Congress and in the executive branch, tried repeatedly to tighten up the rules. The other party blocked every such attempt and tried to loosen them.

Just goes to show you that no one's hands are clean in this mess.

Say "hi" to your mother for me...

As Wild Willie mentioned on a comment post, last weekend's SNL had some winners, including a couple of guest appearances by Sarah Palin and this cameo by Marky Mark:

You guys would be so proud of me.

My brother needed someone to go to the Texans game yesterday, so he gave me a call. Everyone knows how much I like watching sports, but Hermano de Pertardo Jorge figured I might like it. I also thought that I might, and even if I didn't it would be good to hang out with my brother.

But as it turns out it was fun watching the game (mainly because Houston beat Detroit 28-21). It was also cool just watching and talking with the fans. The scenery was excellent as well; there were of course the cheerleaders (whose teeny tiny shorts and Wonder-Woman boots were about to give me a heart attack), but even just walking around the stadium was good for the circulation.

Anywho, I think I'm actually interested enough in watching the game next week, or at least finding out what the score is.

Vince who?

AP Photo/Eric Gay

C'mon.  Admit it.  You were surprised at how lopsided last night was. Heck, I was amazed at some of the passes Colt McCoy was threading into his receivers. And the Texas defense actually looking dominant? Muschamp must be a defensive coordinating genius.

And now, of course, the top ranking in the initial BCS poll of the season.  I don't know about you, but I'm kind of scared. I'm just waiting for the wheels to fall of this thing. 

Boy, I hope I'm wrong.

Not that you really needed another reason to vote Obama...

I've always admired Colin Powell and I've told Lemon repeatedly if he ever even considered running for President, I'd fill out my ballot and give him my vote right on the spot.  He always appears very calm, intelligent, and nonpartisan in any of his appearances and seems to look at things in a very thoughtful, logical manner. His argument before the United Nations that was instrumental in our invasion of Iraq will forever be a black mark on his career, but I still give the guy credit for admitting he was wrong.  That's what I call honorable.

Of course, Powell has said he has no ambition for the highest office in the land, but I still like to listen to his opinion as to who he's voting for come November:



I think political historians will look back on McCain's campaign in a pretty negative light. The whole "lipstick on a pig" crap they were trying to hype up was just the beginning. Since then, his campaign has sunk lower and lower into the mud. I used to think McCain was a pretty honorable man himself, but there's only so much your military career history can stretch to give you a pass. In just a few months, he's gone from someone I admired in the Republican Party to one that's joined the worst of them. He's been saying in all his stump speeches and debate rhetoric that he and his fellow congressmen were "elected into office to change government, and instead it changed us." It's sad that he let the far right change him in this way. Sure, you have to get elected first to get into office before you can change anything, but this negative strategy is not what America wanted or needed right now, and certainly it's not what he needed to get elected.  Some have said that McCain's presidential aspirations will be looked on in a tragic light as a man whose ambitions were squashed twice by George W. Bush. The first being the 2000 Republican primaries and the second being Bush's abysmmal approval ratings making it difficult for any Republican candidate to get elected. Unfortunately, I don't think McCain can blame W. on this one--he'll lose this one all by himself.

The Final Debate

Just in case you missed the final debat last week, the SNL Thursday night primetime special pretty much nailed how it went.

Hey Pimp, I need shoe help.

Work doesn't let me access my webmail (the bastards) and I don't feel like typing this with my thumbs, so I'm entering my plea here. Swany, I need new shoes - something pimptastic that I can wear with nice jeans. I'd like to avoid something so metro it borders on homo (i.e. no roach killers), and I'm looking for something that I don't see on ever other pair of feet when I go out. Any suggestions? CAN YOU HELP A BROTHER OUT?

If you can't, I may just have to get Crocs.

Actually, I've been kicking around (tee hee) the idea of braving black and white wing tips for about 15 years now, but I've always been too chicken. Maybe it's time to set a new trend.

It's been a long time since I was excited about Star Trek...

Here are a couple of pics from J.J. Abrams' version of the early years of Star Trek that doesn't come out till May 2009. I was wondering how Karl Urban would work as Dr. McCoy, but damn if he doesn't look kind of like Bones.

I'm disappointed, though, that I see no Felicity alums nor any evidence that Greg Grunberg will make a cameo in this film.  Maybe J.J. has finally cut the cord.  More links to other pics here.

I'm sure the regular TV watchers have seen this...

... but it's a new one for me.

Although, associating C-3PO for C and Luke for L probably would have made more intuitive sense...

Well, I figure Wild Willie may be thinking about ways to make teaching his kid the ABC's in a fun way without having to watch endless hours of Sesame Street, so I found the perfect solution--STAR WARS ABC FLASHCARDS!

Every so often, I kind of fear for my life...

I don't mind people criticizing a candidate's experience, policies, or overall character, but it's so depressing (and a bit maddening) to see Americans who still have such a narrow-minded and racist view of their fellow citizens here in the United States.  I'm actually almost worried about a second Civil War if Obama is elected in November based on the almost hatred these people have for the guy.  

To be fair, if you had a Republican blogger going to a Democratic rally and pulling a "Michael Moore" kind of interview like this, I'm sure Obama supporters would have some critical things to say about McCain and Palin that may look a bit fanatical.  Still, their rants would probably have something grounded in things that they did or did not do.  It would have nothing to do with what their ethnic background was nor with what their name sounds like.  

This video is downright disgusting.  I'd almost classify it as NSFW because it'll just leave you in a foul mood for the rest of the workday.  Be sure your desk is free of things to throw at your monitor before viewing:

It's around 1:30 PM on a Sunday, and guess what?

To think I was expecting this to be sort of a rebuilding year for the 'Horns.  The legend of Colt McCoy will undoubtedly grow after yesterday's win over OU, but I was encouraged to see everyone on the UT squad step-up their game.  That was a pretty impressive team effort.  Who knows how the rest of the season will go--based on the upset win by Oklahoma State over Mizzou last night, it looks like the Big 12 may just beat each other up and right out of a place in the national championship game.  

But lets not think about the future, for now, and savor what was yesterday's awesome Red River Shootout! Hook 'em!

Addendum:  You know, this was almost turning out to be a great weekend.  Texas won and was vaulted into the top spot in the latest college football polls, I saw a relatively good movie (Body of Lies), I filled up on Costco gas at only $2.83/gallon, I had a really good waffle for brunch today.  Then the Cowboys lost...to Ari-freakin'-zona!  And then I had to watch the video from the post above.  Dammit!  

It's all funny money...

Random thought I had as I was reading about how every financial market around the world is tanking:  If stocks are dropping so precipitously everywhere, where is all this money going?  It seems that if there was all this "value" in the stock market, that somehow means that actual cash is somehow being redistributed.  If the stock market is falling, shouldn't that financial worth be making someone rich?

I don't know if I'm making any sense at all, but the bottom line is that it shows you just how imaginary all of this money is we're talking about.  I think we should do what Fandango proposed many years ago--let's go back to the barter system!

That's just plain depressing...

A random YouTube encounter.

This was pretty fricken' hilarious.

Last week's SNL was actually kind of funny...

Maybe it's because it's damn late or maybe it's because Andy Samberg sounds exactly like him, but I thought this was hilarious:

Not to worry, I think this is safe enough to watch at work...

Here's the first episode of a new series of shorts called PG Porn:

Nailing Your Wife | Girls | SPIKE.com

Penguin Dreams and Stranger Things

Berkeley Breathed is putting his penguin on ice. The 51-year-old cartoonist said he will pull the plug on his comic-strip career and “Opus” after Nov. 2.

In an e-mail to the Los Angeles Times, the 51-year-old Breathed wrote, “30 years of cartooning to end. I’m destroying the village to save it. Opus would inevitably become a ranting mouthpiece in the coming wicked days, and I respect the other parts of him too much to see that happen. The Michael Moore part of me would kill the part of him that was important to his fans.”

Sad, but at least Opus stopped before I did. I have basically been taken to pacing around the house in my underwear, muttering to myself about the entire collapse of the United States. Some hard changes need to occur in this country and nobody is prepared to make them. Mutter, mutter, mutter...

And this is why I wouldn't do well in the movie business...

According to Box Office Mojo, Speed Racer has pulled in a little over $93 million worldwide since its release back in May. Considering this was supposed to be a major summer blockbuster and the fact that it cost $120 million to make, that adds up to a definable flop. Critics seemed to hate it, too, which probably didn't help its abysmal numbers.  

I mention all this because I'm a bit perplexed as to why it did so poorly after watching it on DVD last night.  I happened to miss out watching it on the big screen only because Lemon had no interest in seeing it, and I never found an opportunity to sneak off to the theater to see it alone.  After finishing it, though, I was disappointed that I hadn't seen it on the big screen.  The visuals are amazing!  It was like tripping on acid without the acid.  I imagine this is what they were going for when they tried to bring Dick Tracy to the movies.  It was truly a live action cartoon.  

Sure, the physics were preposterous.  Sure, the script wasn't the most intricate thing ever.  Sure, other family-friendly cartoons like any of the Pixar movies probably have more heart and soul.  It was fun to watch nonetheless, and I felt was a pretty entertaining movie.  

So why did it do so horribly bad?  Is there something I missed?  Granted, this endorsement is coming from a guy that still enjoys Joe Versus the Volcano whenever it's randomly showing on TV late night, but still, the special effects of this movie alone should have gotten it to at least break even in it's box office sales.  Even some stinker sci-fi movies from Paul W.S. Anderson did better--that's kind of insulting.

In response to Swany's last post.

I saw this a few months ago on my favorite way to goof off at work, the Onion.

At first I laugh at it, then it makes me a little nervous. 2000 already demonstrated that who receives the most popular votes is moot.


Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 2008 Election Early

Perhaps the only way McCain is going to pull off a win this November...

Something tells me Wander doesn't think such a diabolical ploy is really all that preposterous:

Where did the last hour go?

I can't remember if I posted this before, but if you need some procrastination tools, here's a game that's highly addictive.