The most exciting vice presidential pick of my lifetime

I overheard no fewer than three conversations about Sarah Palin today on the streets of New York. There is a buzz about this pick like I've never seen before. I thought announcing it on the Friday before a long weekend (though Obama's announcement on a Saturday was no better--where are the PR people?) was a bad idea but it seems not to matter as it's all people can talk about. Palin!

My thoughts exactly

Jonah Goldberg sums up:

Quick, and provisional bottom line: The upside: She's the best of the dark horses because she's an exciting, exotic (yet heartlandish) female pick. The base will love her. She's a true outsider and the only person in the race with serious executive experience. This will have to mean McCain's flipping on ANWR, which will make gas prices a central issue.

Downside: She may not be ready for primetime. The heartbeat-from-the-presidency issue is a real one.

Palin!

I would've preferred someone from a blue or swing state, with slightly more experience than she's got, but Sarah Palin is a solid conservative and a solid choice. And she'll make Biden look like a Washington-entrenched grandpa. Bring them on.

What election?

I baked a three layer chocolate peanut butter cake yesterday for the IC's birthday. I got the recipe from the awesome, phenomenal, seriously-I'm-moving-into-her-place Deb at Smitten Kitchen, the most beautiful cooking site in all the land. And it was good:

Conversation of the Yesterday

Me: Theresa Heinz Kerry thinks Kerry won the election in '04.

Dawn Summers: Oh yeah? And that she's First Lady right now?

Uninvited

From a sad little article about John Edwards supporters:

Robert Groce, 40, of Summerville, S.C., said he still supports Edwards -- proudly and defiantly -- even though he understands his candidate's political career is almost certainly finished.

If he understands that Edwards no longer has a political career, what exactly is he proudly and defiantly supporting him doing?

Groce fled New Orleans when Katrina's floods hit and he was forced to move away. He had landed in Summerville when he saw Edwards launch his campaign from New Orleans's Lower Ninth Ward.

"That touched me very much," Groce said.

I've heard his dedication to his dying wife touched people very much too.

Via Hot Air Headlines.

Comment of the Day II

"Sometimes your resume is so short you actually have room to put "from earth" on it."

My friends are funny.

Comment of the Day

"I’ve heard the theory that he is second guessing the original plan, to descend from a roman mountaintop or something, so he wanted to be more traditional and diffuse the situation."

- Pretty Numbers in response to a post on Clareified on why Obama got to the convention early.

Song of the Day

"No One" by Alicia Keys.

Video here.

Quote of the Day

The Democratic Party has just blown almost one-quarter of its convention on some of the most tepid personal-trivia testimonials and no-really-they-watched-Brady-Bunch crapola I have heard since my last Amway convention. Only with much less spirit. Wait, your mother loved you? IZ VOAT DIMOKRAT!

-Matt Welch.

That, Dawn, is a buuuuuuurn

"And please clarify for me, which is worse, not knowing the amount of homes you own or how many states we have?"

-Ari

This explains the permanent line to get into their store

Employees say Abercrombie & Fitch is judging workers based on looks

Mad about Men

I just came across, via Nichelle Stevens, these amazing illustrations from the show Mad Men (I haven't seen the latest episode yet, so don't tell me anything), made by Dyna Moe . I would totally put this one on my wall:

Adventures with Karol and Dawn

# 1035.

No to Huck

Huck-obsessed commenter Larry sends along this post on NR's Corner by Rich Lowry on how maybe Huckabee should be McCain's VP.

I say no.

Here's the thing, Rich's argument is sound, Huck would, in theory, bring a lot of things to the ticket which it lacks. Huck is a solid social conservative, he is a good speaker and he is liked by the press.

In practice, a McCain/Huck ticket is a losing one, and not just because the press will sour on Huck so fast if he tries to take on The One. McCain has to convince conservatives, both social and fiscal, that he's one of them. Huck may have a lock on the social-cons but the fiscal-cons have heard his "Club for Greed" comments as well as his support for big government programs like paying college tuition for the children of illegal immigrants.

Huck's social-con credentials include his comment that the Constitution should be amendeded to better reflect the bible. Larry the Huck nut will argue that Huck was just pandering and doesn't really mean it. That won't make people like me feel better about it.

Lastly, Huck puts no additional states in play. McCain will already romp in Arkansas and Huck does nothing for the swing states. He may redden already red states but who needs that? McCain needs a solid conservative, preferably from a swing state or with ties to a swing state, who won't anger either wing of the Republican party. We're going to need the fiscal and social cons together to win this one. Huckabee won't cut it.

Song of the Day

"Love Sponge" by Buju Banton

The beginning of my relationship with IC is marked by bittersweet music. We were best friends who fell in love, obviously it couldn't work out. This wasn't a movie, this wasn't The O.C., it couldn't really be this easy. We kept each other at arm's length, it was too scary otherwise, and pretended it wasn't happening. "I want you" by Common, "Do You" by Ne-Yo, "Homecoming" by Kanye were some of our songs, we'd torture ourselves with songs of longing and loss, and relationships that just couldn't be.

When we gave in to it, decided to be together, told our surprised families and friends, well, it was, and is, magic. The music we associated with our relationship got happier. We'd listen to "Hot Thing" by Talib Kweli, "Let Me Know" by Collie Buddz, "Good Life" by Kanye West, among others. Somehow along the way, this Buju Banton tune became "our" song. Happy birthday, baby, I never know you would really feel so nice/with you I'm in no hurry.

You're racist if you don't vote for my guy

In the year 2008, there are few heroes. But there is one man, one Leonard Greene, who tells it like it is:

"The biggest issue in the 2008 presidential election is the color of one man's skin.

There, it's been said. No more denials. No more world records in verbal gymnastics. No more elephants on the convention floor."

Wow. He's so brave. I've only blogged about like 8 other articles just like this one (except, seriously, they were mostly better written). We're all racists for not lining up behind the candidate he feels we should support.

He continues:

"How else do you explain a race tighter than Michael Phelps' swim cap?"

I explain it by saying Barack Obama is a weak candidate with limited experience and not a lot of depth. To put it in Olympics terms, the election is a marathon, not a sprint. He can hope-change it up at the start, fire up the crowds, go on a tour of Europe. But all of that gets old if he can't provide specifics on his numerous plans and farfetched ideas.

The fact that it's the NY Post publishing this Greene character is more than a little embarrassing. His article reads like a blog post, except not nearly as thought out.

Hat-tip Ari.

Get outta town

From a fairly solid op-ed about how race just isn't that big of a deal in this election (in the New York Times!):

Ever since 2000, a lot of so-called progressives have proudly displayed a healthy contempt for less-educated white voters who cast ballots in defiance of their “economic self-interest,” as Thomas Frank argued in “What’s the Matter With Kansas?” (The widespread acceptance of Mr. Frank’s thesis is how John Kerry largely escaped the scorn that is ritually visited upon losing Democratic presidential nominees; the members of his party directed their exasperation at the voters instead.) But surely caricaturing a large subset of voters as ignorant has made those voters even less inclined to pull the lever for the Democrats this time around. All this talk about racism isn’t likely to help.

If you believe they're "seekers of peace", I've got numerous lovely bridges to sell you

Israel frees prisoners as goodwill gesture to Palestinians

Two hundred of them, in fact. Obviously the Palestinians are happy about this, right? Nope:

'We will not rest until all the prisoners are released. The names of all the prisoners are engraved in our hearts,' Abbas said in a speech at an official ceremony in his Ramallah headquarters compound, welcoming the returning prisoners.

'We are seekers of peace, but there can be no peace without the release of all prisoners and the implementation of all final status issues,' Abbas said.

Are the scientists Obama supporters?

Political flip-flops not necessarily dishonest, scientists say

Don't mess with Hill-Bill

Awesome:

One senior Obama supporter said the Clinton associates negotiating on her behalf act like “Japanese soldiers in the South Pacific still fighting after the war is over.”

Via Hot Air headlines.

Did Barack Obama approve this message?

I was on the beach yesterday in Sandy Hook, New Jersey when one of those ad planes flew by pulling a message behind it. It read "John McCain wants to put oil rigs out here, do you?" I couldn't grab a photo in time, unfortunately. Doesn't the lack of attribution for the ad, not to mention that it's plainly a lie, go against some campaign finance rules? We do still have campaign finance rules, right?

Killer

Dawn Summers woke me with the information that Obama had picked Joe Biden for his VP. Then she told me McCain has already released an ad with Biden praising McCain and saying Obama isn't ready to lead. I say the ad is genius, probably McCain's best yet, Dawn thinks it's meaningless because obviously Biden doesn't think that now. What say you?

Nope, still seems like paradise to me

Waaaaah, I find it hard to travel with my spouse:

It may seem like paradise - getting away from it all with your loved one to that beach hotel on the Cote d'Azur or an idyllic island in the Greek archipelago for a glorious week or two.

And that's the rub. Periods of unstructured time - the break from routine - can play havoc with relationships. If you are used to having time apart, being together all day, every day, for several days can send the best relationship into an acrimonious tailspin.

I can't help but think "rich people problems" when I read stuff like this, although perhaps it's more likely that vacations exacerbate problems already present in a relationship. But a happy relationship that sucks when on vacation? That's just sounds like problem-free people needing to complain.

How dare you be rich?

Gosh but Obama's new style politics seem an awful lot like old style politics.

The word...

...is that McCain's VP is Tim Pawlenty or Mitt Romney. My money is on Pawlenty.

If you need wiki database hosting, use this one

The awesome Yaron Koren has started a site for wiki databases called Referata. It "offers hosting of semantic wikis, allowing you to add, structure and store data so it can be managed, shared, browsed and analyzed in as many ways as you choose", if that's what you're into.

“American boys like mojitos because they all want to be Hemingway.”

John Carney's story of Catalan girls and Clintonian intervention make me want to go to Spain.

No, no, please no

From the Spectator:

Three Republican state party chairmen have confirmed that within the last 36 hours they received calls from senior McCain presidential campaign advisers asking for their feedback on a McCain-Sen. Joseph Lieberman Republican ticket.

Where are they now?

Kerry returns to stump 4 years after nomination

Sen. Joe Lieberman to speak at GOP convention

Who's Your Daddy? Why John Edwards' Sex Life Is Our Business Too

Al Gore's incredibly expensive campaign to solve the climate crisis by enriching the advertising industry is still going strong!

You're dumb, vote for me!

During a political exchange this weekend, my liberal counterpart said "I want to punish the current administration for the last 8 years." I reminded him that Bush/Cheney had not seized power (I don't bother arguing with the kind of people who think Bush stole the election in both 2000 and 2004 because, well, those people are dumb as rocks and what's the point?) and had been elected by a majority of Americans (don't start with the popular vote in 2000, just don't). The liberal said "I know! American people are stupid." (he would later clarify that he thinks all people, humans in general, and not just Americans, are stupid) "And that's exactly the Democrat's problem," I said. You can't think people are stupid and then expect them to vote for you.

But they expect just that, don't they. Take Frank Rich's column from a few days ago on why Obama isn't doing better in the polls (and sidenote, the piece is called "The candidate we still don't know" and, laughably, Rich is talking about 22-years-in-the-senate-and-on-his-second-presidential-campaign John McCain):

Obama has also been defeated by racism (again). He can’t connect and “close the deal” with ordinary Americans too doltish to comprehend a multicultural biography that includes what Cokie Roberts of ABC News has damned as the “foreign, exotic place” of Hawaii. As The Economist sums up the received wisdom, “lunch-pail Ohio Democrats” find Obama’s ideas of change “airy-fairy” and are all asking, “Who on earth is this guy?”

Yes, the problem, my friends, is that we're too stupid to vote for a guy from Hawaii and not that we're smart enough to see that he has a laundry list of "change" and not a single way to pay for it other than "hope".

Much like my ipod

What does Michael Phelps listen to on his ipod? (Via Gawker)

About two minutes prior to the start of a race, Phelps sheds the iPod along with his warm-ups. So, what is he listening to?

Podcasts of NPR's This American Life and Dylan live at The Supper Club. No wait, that's my iPod. Phelps listens to hip-hop music on his. He says it helps motivate him before a race.

While his pre-race tracklist varies, Phelps has said that "I'm Me" by Lil' Wayne has been on his playlist in Beijing. The track, off Weezy's EP "The Leak" features the line:

Yes I am the best/and no I ain't positive I'm definite/I know the game like I'm reffing it

That's about the only lyric that's printable on a family blog.

Other artists that populate Phelps' iPod include: Jay-Z, Young Jeezy, Eminem and Outkast. (What, no 'Pac?)

That's 'cause 'Pac sucks.

Awk-ward

Check out the hug between Hillary Clinton and Bill "Judas" Richardson.

I owe someone a hat-tip for this but can't remember where I originally saw it.

#2

As everyone knows, I love me some Rudy Giuliani. But as McCain's VP? I don't think so. McCain has to pick someone more conservative than he is, not less, and though Rudy would bring a rockstar quality to the ticket (the fact that he barely participated in the primary process insured his star power remained intact), he would not put NY in play (c'mon, now) and he would further piss off the already pretty pissed off social conservatives.

I agree with Allah, I think it's Tim Pawlenty. He makes a lot of sense. He puts Minnesota in play, he's conservative enough and he has no obvious marks against him. Plus, the convention is in his home state. That's a bonus.

That's so gay

Jonathan Crutchley, chairman of popular gay hookup site Manhunt, has been outed...as a John McCain supporter. Oh, the horror. Check out the hysterical statement from the site's founder:

I was arrested at the Supreme Court and FDA in Act-Up actions, and was the founder of the Grass Roots Gay Rights Fund, which over the years has raised more than $800K. I was the Treasurer of Out Week magazine, which was a powerful force in its time. I began giving Obama donations in March 2007, and I have sent several checks that have yet to be reported. The hat and t-shirt I wear say 'Obama for President', as does the sign in front of my house. I refuse to live in a country that is so marred by war and hate. To me, Barak (sic) is by far the best candidate, probably better than we deserve.

Newsflash: Obama opposes gay marriage. Just like John McCain. So we're clear, that's apparently better than gay people deserve.

Crutchley resigned as Chairman and everyone involved in this shameful debacle should be, um, ashamed.

Hat-tip Petitedov.

Song of the Day

"If Winter Ends" by Bright Eyes.

I've written before about my mild fascination with Conor Oberst (I should note that I wrote about not liking his album "Wide Awake It's Morning" when it came out and now I love it so much, it's likely my second favorite Bright Eyes album after "Lifted...") and this is the song that began it all. It was the first Bright Eyes song I ever heard and I remember being extremely impressed that it was made by an 18-year old. Listening to it now, though, it certainly sounds teenage. Only an 18-year old can give themselves three days to feel better or else they're driving off the f*cking cliff. Still, I like it and it's today's Song of the Day. Enjoy. And don't drive off any cliffs.

Celebrities are stupid

Kyle Smith on Madonna:

Of her film on Malawi, which includes scenes about a young widow who must submit to being raped three times a day to "cleanse" her, Madonna said, "It's not my place to judge that tradition. But to have a conversation with a village headsman and say, 'Do you realize this is spreading a deadly disease?' and have him say, 'Yes, but there's nothing I can do' is mind-bogglingly frustrating. But we drop bombs on children during wartime, so you think, 'Who's practicing black magic?' " So ritualized rape is OK if you use a condom, and anyway the real horror story is the United States.

Listen to her discussing something she finds really horrible: "It was painful and a big struggle and I didn't understand it. But in the end I rationalized that when a woman has a child and goes through natural childbirth she suffers an enormous amount. So I went through my own kind of birthing pains, dealing with the press on my doorstep."

Them's politics

Obama is "a leader that God has blessed us with at this time."- Nancy Pelosi.

But of course, Obama blames McCain for messianic imagery.

The old coot beats the rockstar

Democrats chose a guy who speaks well and connects with the public and John-old-boring-white-guy-McCain won their first townhall-like appearance? That's...surprising.

On a related note, the IC says that he is amused by how excited people get to see me. No, he doesn't mean they're excited because I'm so charming and adorable which, duh, I am, he means because for so many people in New York I'm the only Republican they know. They remember me from a party three years ago or they've heard about me ("the Republican") from their friends. They see me and their eyes light up and they can't wait to tell me all the things they've thought about since our last meeting. The thing they all have in common, and have since, oh 2002, is that they all think the Democrat is going to win and they can't wait to tell me so. They were all completely shellshocked when Bush was re-elected in 2004, obviously, but nothing will compare to the devastation if Obama loses. There is a uniform smirk that they all have these days, almost like "silly Republican friend of a friend, can't you see Obama can't lose?" I mostly nod and smile and tell them that I consider Obama a 4 on a 1-10 scale and McCain a 5 so, y'know, I'll live. Blue states should have smelling salts and anti-depressants on hand if somehow, some way, John McCain pulls this thing off.

I heart Kobe

I keep threatening to become a LA Lakers fan and this might just push me into their camp. NBC's Chris Collinsworth interviewed Kobe Bryant and is genuinely surprised to find that Kobe loves America (via Hot Air). Also, did you know it was not cool to be patriotic? I love the way Kobe responds, it's cool to him fooooool.

The lowest of the low

On Monday, or so, I wondered "so when exactly is that Edwards interview going to air?" Turns out, of course, it aired last Friday. I don't know how I missed it but I just caught a clip on Hot Air and it's pretty damn classic. Allah sums up:

As for Edwards’s performance, it’s vintage Silky. Turns out he didn’t just betray his wife, he betrayed the poor son of a country mill worker he really is at heart, his huge mansion and ego notwithstanding. He also heroically asked Elizabeth not to appear with him for the interview, because after a year of siphoning off Absolute Moral Authority from her illness to help his campaign, he suddenly decided it wouldn’t be right to use her as a “shield.” Tapping his heart and claiming she’s in there “all the time” even when she’s not physically present is an especially Silky touch considering that the whole reason so many of his supporters feel hurt by the news is because they’re no longer sure how true that is.

A heartfelt thanks...

...to whatever religion is responsible for the holiday that has 'alternate side parking' suspended in NY today. And an even heartier thanks to Hot 97 for giving me that tidbit of information right when I got into the car.

Update: "Feast of Assumption". That sounds Catholic.

Zabood

"Russia's foreign minister declared Thursday that the world "can forget about" Georgia's territorial integrity, and officials said Russia targeted military infrastructure and equipment — including radars and patrol boats at a Black Sea naval base and oil hub."

Let's be frank, the world is made up of 3 major superpowers, the U.S., China and Russia. Two of them are straight out their ever-loving minds. They exist on their own terms, as if they are not part of the greater world and they exist only in the present with nearly no eye on the future (I mean, do you see that smog in Beijing? Do those seem like people who care what the environment will be like in 20 or 200 years?). They answer to no one. They harm their own people and think nothing of harming others. And yet it's the third, America in case you were wondering, that gets the bulk of the world's criticism and complaint. I guess I understand it. It's easier to stand up to the superpower that won't crush you with its full weight for looking at it the wrong way. But it isn't particularly brave either.

Where are the Edwards defenders?

Kathryn Jean Lopez (via Hot Air):

The reaction of the American Left to John Edwards’s sex scandal is nothing short of flabbergasting. Since when is sex outside of marriage a disqualifier for merely speaking at a political convention? Since when is having sexual relations with that woman in your office anything wrong? Since when do we judge?

The difference here seems to be that Elizabeth Edwards has cancer. So only fatal disease makes the bonds of marriage sacred?

I was thinking recently how after the Spitzer fiasco there were a few articles by men saying "well, it's hard to have sex with just one person forever, I can relate to Eliot Spitzer" and yet no one is coming out and saying they are like John Edwards. I guess cheating on your dying wife and denying your obvious child are things we just don't accept in our society. And sanks G-d for that.

I'll bake you a cookie

I swear this is not going to become a cooking blog, swear, but I need some help and, well, you guys know everything.

As if this cookie recipe isn't hard enough (it makes a total of six cookies, it has to be made 24 hours ahead of time and don't even get me started on the fèves), it calls for two different kinds of flour: cake flour and bread flour. My local Food Emporium has no less than a dozen brands and types of flour, none of which are the kind that I need for this recipe. So, I guess my question is do these flours go by another name (for example, my supermarket has "self-rising flour" which I figured might be another way of saying bread flour) and, if not, where do I get these fancy flours?

UPDATE: After an excruciating visit to Fairway (sidenote: there's one guy in the entire store than knows what planet he's on, he works in the cheese department and he is awesome. Actual conversation I heard him having with an old pissed-off Upper West Side woman: "We love working here and seeing people flip out while shopping. It's what makes our jobs worth doing." And then he showed me some cheese, actually having information on the product he's selling and everything, and there was like a pie someone just left on the cheese rack and he said "and this is the other fun part".) I have officially given up on this recipe, sorry IC. They have like 40 different kinds of flour, none of them called "bread flour" or "cake flour". Chocolate chip cookies shouldn't be this hard. I quit.

No, he didn't

Did he? Really?

Maureen Dowd writes:

Obama also allowed Hillary supporters to insert an absurd statement into the platform suggesting that media sexism spurred her loss and that “demeaning portrayals of women ... dampen the dreams of our daughters.”

Hillary didn't win because of sexism, if Obama doesn't win it's racism, can McCain at least say ageism if he loses the election?

Not me

No seriously, who would cheat on Adrien Grenier:

with Shia LaBeouf?:

Song of the Day

"Straight to You" by Nick Cave.

I woke up this morning with this song in my head and a cranky mood. And I thought, "no, this is like one of Nick Cave's happiest songs, this won't do at all." So I fired up youtube and listened to all the Nick Cave sad ones. "Weeping Song", "Nobody's Baby", "Henry Lee", "Where the wild roses grow". But I kept coming back to this one. Straight to him, as it were. On a separate note, how did things not work out with him and PJ Harvey? Does the world have a more perfect couple?

The phone rang at 3am and they got his voicemail

Jonah Goldberg on the fake presidency of Barack Obama:

The campaign significance for Obama is easier to calculate. He has been playacting at being presidential in order to convince voters that we live in a "new moment" with "new challenges" -- and that he is the president we need for this new era.

This moment calls for more than playacting, yet Obama looks lost without a presidential script. Events in the Caucasus -- and, for that matter, in Beijing -- suggest that the times aren't so new after all. Two powerful antidemocratic foes are once again flexing their muscles at a moment when America seems weak and distracted.

That is not a new challenge but a very old one. Perhaps this is not a time for a novice spouting grand rhetoric about a new page in history, but for someone who's actually read the pages of some old, but still relevant, books. Perhaps this is not the time for playacting.

Perhaps it is not the time for body surfing?

People I know (or, alternately, "3 conservatives and a little 'lady'"

***Dawn Eden saw something truly remarkable on the House floor: our elected officials actually working for us despite the lack cameras and lights (don't ask, Nancy Pelosi is nuts). Well, the Republican elected officials anyway.

***Jim Pinkerton has a great piece about the situation in Georgia. A snippet:

Let’s start with the United Nations: What’s the U.N. Security Council going to do? Well, we know the answer, of course: Nothing. If the five permanent members (the US, Great Britain, France, Russia, and China) can each veto anything coming out of the Security Council, then nothing negative about any of them will ever emerge from the Security Council.

***I somehow missed this incredible article by Kyle Smith on China and the environment but saw it noted on Todd Seavey's blog today. About Kyle's piece Todd writes "in an ideal world, every article every day would be a bit like this one, until big government was no more." Yep.

***I've written before (about the second link, I realize it was only 6 years ago but wow do I sound young in that post. I would scold 25 year old Karol today for being so silly) that I was quite into the NYC club scene during my teens. It was dominated by drag queens back then, they were the celebrities of clubland. Sophia Lamar was one of its main rockstars. She was very sweet to an awkward teen me and would always let me into the private party room at Webster Hall. According to NY Mag:

Transsexual party promoter and downtown fixture Sophia Lamar has saved eighteen years’ worth of tissues used to remove her makeup. Her favorites, below, have been mounted as a collage and installed at the gallery Asia Song Society, where a group show opened last Saturday.

Pretty. Funky.

In other me, me, me news

***I'm going to try to be at the Lolita debate tomorrow (I say try because I'm going to Richard Blakeley's Media Meshing party beforehand and I hear those are drunky affairs), though I'm somewhat saddened by the fact that Pamela from Atlas Shrugs had to drop out. I was looking forward to the show. I'm sure Hannah will fight the good fight too, though. The info:

Aug. 13, 2008 8pm: Debates at Lolita Bar present: "Is Israel Oppressing the Palestinians?" Yes: Muhammed Rum, writer/director/producer of the film _Jihad!_ No: Hannah Meyers, formerly of the John Faso campaign, the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, and the Hudson Institute. Hosted by Todd Seavey and moderated by Michel Evanchik. On the basement level of Lolita Bar at 266 Broome St. at the corner of Allen St. on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, one block south and three west of the Delancey St. F, J, M, Z subway stop. Free admission. Audience votes and settles issue for all time.

***Ever since returning from Italy I've been slightly obsessed with Italian food. Last night I made Marcella Hazan's bolognese sauce and loved it. I mixed it with gnocchi (next step, making my own gnocchi and other pasta from scratch) and froze the rest to use in a lasagne. I also recently made and loved her regular red sauce. That woman is a genius. The only change I made, to both of her recipes, is to add garlic. What's pasta sauce without it?

***Side memo to cooking NY'ers: Fairway sells these huge basil bushels for like a dollar fifty. And while I wouldn't normally encourage anyone go into that nightmare of a store, I've really never had basil quite that good.

***I have been loving the new Shifman Reviens Belize mattress. I'm sleeping really well and waking up painfree. I also got the tempur-pedic pillow (the weirdly shaped one) which has done wonders for my neck. I was put off by the foam and odd shape but IC swears by it and got me one of my very own. Love it. By the way, if you're in the market for a new mattress I have a great tip on how to get a good price on a great one.

***I can't stop thinking about a very, very expensive dresser. It has these great handles and it makes a woosh sound when it closes. Anyone have a recommendation for a similar dresser (woosh sound now a must) or any idea where I can get this one (a lot) cheaper?

***And, finally, my little brother is going to Rao's tonight and not taking me. Life is not fair.

Drink up

I sometimes get sent free booze for review (I know, I know, how awesome is blogging?!). The truth is most of it is not very...reviewable. And so it is that I've never reviewed any of the bottles I had been sent before. But recently I received a bottle of Matusalem Gran Reserva 15 Year Old Rum and it was phenomenal. Like, wow, amazingly delicious. The IC and I are not big drinkers, except for the wine we have with dinner a few times a week, but we finished this bottle in just a few days.

Some background on the rum:

Earlier this year, Matusalem Gran Reserva won the title of "Best Rum" and was proclaimed the "Double Gold Medal Winner" at the San Francisco Spirits Competition – the most prestigious competition of its kind in the U.S.

Matusalem Rum was Cuba's best-kept secret until Fidel Castro came and kicked it out of the country. After all these years, Gran Reserva has retained its rebellious spirit, as well as its rich Cuban heritage and history. It's award-winning and appealing to the "outcast" in all of us.

They probably hate Communism. Bonus.

I bought some fresh mint and sugar cane sticks and we mojito'd it up on the Pitt with friends. Turns out that, among his many other talents, the IC makes a mean mojito, my favorite drink. The Matusalem rum was so good it's going to become the standard drink around here. Highly recommended.

Update: Check out their anti-Fidel ad:

Here a racist. There a racist. Everywhere a racist, racist.

That new McCain ad, which again mocks Obama's celebrity, is, of course, racist. What? It features white women saying Obama is hot stuff. Which, because he's half black, means that McCain is trying to say that Obama is going to steal our white women! Our something like that. Asks Ace:

I'm just curious -- if, hypothetically, the McCain camp begins showing black people going bananas over Obama, how soon will the left begin claiming that by showing black people McCain is attempting to underscore the fact that Obama is (half) black and attempting to sow racial animus that way?

You can't show white women, you can't show blacks at all. Apparently the only politically correct Obama supporter to show is a white man, a cohort that does exist, of course, but is hardly his base.

But if we do, say, show an obvious stoner college kid in a P-Funk t-shirt singing Obama's praises -- why, that will also be racist because it's associating Obama with pot smoking, thus painting him as one of those hop-headed jazz Negros who are corrupting the morals of German society.

Rumour

Signs point to Barack Obama choosing Wes Clark as his VP. Please, oh lord, make it so. I really can't think of a better ticket for McCain to win against.

We're so racist

New York Magazine outdoes itself with not one, but two articles on how Americans are racist if they don't elect Obama:

Why isn’t Obama doing better in the polls? The answer no one wants to hear.

Although to John Heilmann's credit, he does end the article with the possibility that maybe it's not just race (but still mostly race) that may lose Obama the election:

For many Democrats, Obama’s eventual residence there has long seemed a foregone conclusion. But cast your mind forward twenty years and imagine looking back on this election. Would it really seem strange from that vantage point if the first black major-party nominee—a guy with a thin résumé, no foreign-policy credentials in an era scarred by terrorism, a background alien to much of Wonder Bread America, and the full name Barack Hussein Obama—lost? No, it would seem inevitable. That Obama has convinced us that the opposite outcome is even possible is testament to his many gifts. The next three months will show whether they include a talent that would serve him very well in the Oval Office: the ability to conduct a necessary, indeed vital, conversation that no one really wants to have.

"You kind of hate to say it aloud, but, Obama is an empty suit and John McCain is liberal enough for me."

Yet another example of those "Americans are racist if they don't vote for Obama" articles from NY Mag:

On a short flight to New York recently, I was sitting behind two white, well-dressed twentysomethings chattering loudly and uninhibitedly about going to clubs and travel plans and the possibility of living in New Jersey. Then came the question: “So who are you voting for?”

“I was for Hillary, but now … I’m kind of undecided,” volunteered the first woman.

“Are you a Democrat?” asked the second.

“Yeah. But I think I might go with McCain. It’s just that, well, I don’t know. You know.” Her voice dropped. I leaned forward to hear better. “You kind of hate to say it aloud, but … ” Here her voice dropped again, to a murmur lost in the roar of the jet engines, and I missed whatever came next.

Let’s start with this concession: I have no idea what that young woman actually said. In a perfect world, I suppose that would be the end of the story and I would go back to minding my own business. In the context of contemporary political discourse, however, it did cross my mind that if this conversation were presented on one of those “finish the sentence” cultural-literacy tests, then pretty much every American, of whatever creed, color, or class, would have exactly the same guess as to how the woman completed her thought.

What do you think?

Will all the people who wrung their hands over the "negative" ads from John McCain do the same now that the Obama team is essentially running the same ad back at him? Please see headline.

Give these people a state, and quick

Gosh, it's a good thing the Palestinians and Israeli have a ceasefire right now otherwise how could Hamas train kids to kill Jews? They couldn't!

Youths leaped through fiery hoops as gunfire echoed in an action-packed graduation ceremony for a Hamas summer camp aimed at preparing the youngsters for battle against Israel.

About 200 teens dressed in the uniforms of the Hamas military wing showed off their new skills Sunday in a sandy, ramshackle stadium in the eastern Shejaiyeh area of Gaza City. The goal of the Hamas camp was clear - train the youth in military tactics and impart the militant Islamic ideology that has characterized Hamas.

A truce that began June 19, halting Palestinian rocket barrages and Israeli reprisal raids, provided the calm for the camp to proceed unhindered.

And gee, isn't it great that Israel pulled out of Gaza? I mean, just because their own security dropped with the pullout is no reason to keep "occupying" the land, right? I'm sure Europe and America would do the same. Right?

"There's no doubt that the stability and calm has created a good atmosphere that has allowed us to make more summer camps, and oversee the youths," said Ismail Ridwan in a telephone interview to The Associated Press.

The Hamas legislator said when he was a child, Hamas was not able to hold camps because of Israel's occupation of the Gaza Strip.

Hat-tip I.C.

Quote of the Day

Allahpundit on the kid:

On the other hand, to believe that Andrew Young would move the mother of his love child into the same neighborhood — and possibly into the same house — as his actual family, you have to believe that he’s the most responsible adulterer who ever lived and his wife is the most understanding wronged spouse who ever lived. Which, in light of Fred Baron being the best friend who ever lived, would mean John Edwards is surrounded by a remarkably compassionate circle of people.

John Edwards tries the 'McCain did it too' route

But wants to say clearly, clearly, after he makes the McCain comment of course, that this is not about anyone else, it's all his fault.

One of these men are not like the others

Maureen Dowd just can't help Bush-bashing, even when writing about unfaithful asses like John Edwards:

For some reason, super-strivers have a need to sell what is secretly weakest about themselves, as if they yearn for unmasking. Edwards’s decency and concern for the weak in society — except for his own wife. Bill Clinton’s intellect and love of community — except for his stupidity and destructiveness about Monica. Bush the Younger’s jocular, I’m-in-charge self-confidence — except for turning over his presidency, as no president ever has, to his Veep. Eliot Spitzer’s crusade for truth, justice and the American way — except at home.

What. A. Hack.

Here, let me summarize Charles M. Blow's column today in the New York Times on the issue of racism in this presidential race: white people are racist and even when they say they're not racist they're probably racist anyway. Black people? Not racist, just very ideologically pure.

Look for "America is racist because Barack Obama might not win" articles becoming more prevalent as the election nears.

Though I find mostly Spanish guys whistling at me and calling me "mami"

From a NY Times article on my neighborhood, the upper west side, and its draw to Jewish singles:

“You don’t have thousands of Irish-Americans moving to Boston to try to meet someone Irish,” said a brunette from the Midwest, who declined to be identified because openly criticizing the community might hurt her own marital prospects. “I’ve met people who said, ‘I’m here for two months to date.’ In a way, it becomes too much.”

How stupid do they think we are?

Edwards ex-mistress refuses to DNA test her daughter

Dawn Summers writes:

And to think Edwards was all ready to take that test and prove he’s not the father…man, this is so unfair that Rielle is denying him that opportunity. So unfair. He’s just like the unluckiest politician since Gary Condit.

You know, you'd think cheating on your dying wife is the scummiest thing John Edwards could do. But denying his obvious child, well, it's like he's trying to outdo himself.

Yet another cheating sleazebag politician

"Yah. Of course the kid’s not his. He just goes to visit all the babies of his mistress’ in the middle of the night. What?"

"I think this President has shown a remarkable disrespect for his office, for the moral dimensions of leadership, for his friends, for his wife, for his precious daughter. It is breathtaking to me the level to which that disrespect has risen."

"The innuendoes and lies that have appeared on the internet and in the National Enquirer concerning John Edwards are not true, completely unfounded and ridiculous. My video production company was hired by the Edwards camp on a 6 month contract, which we completed December 31, 2006. When working for the Edwards camp, my conduct as well as the conduct of my entire team was completely professional. This concocted story is just dirty politics and I want no part of it."

"John Edwards' political appeal relied on a couple of things: his ability to get $400 haircuts while relatively convincingly playing the son-of-a-mill-worker concerned with economic inequality in America; and his ability to be a very attractive politician with a lovely but considered by some to be less-attractive wife with whom he seemed to have a healthy and affectionate relationship. What does he have now? A hippie pregnant mistress from whom, if she openly claims it's his child, he'll demand a paternity test? A mistress that he was (knowingly or not) "sharing" with his staffers while his wife was developing cancer? There's no way to come out ahead of this story, and prevaricating on the timing doesn't help."

Song of the Day

"Everyday Struggle/A Day In The Life"- Notorious B.I.G & Frank Sinatra. I've written before that I love the Biggie/Sinatra mash-up, called "Blue Eyes Meets Bed Stuy". It just works so well, this is one of my favorites on the album.

How awesome was that primary?

"I know Senator McCain has a lifetime of experience that he will bring to the White House. And Senator Obama has a speech he gave in 2002."

Man threatens to kill Obama, also some other guy

Uh-oh :

A man is being held in Florida by federal authorities on charges of threatening to assassinate Barack Obama.

Everybody panic. This is just like MLK. And JFK. And also RFK. But not like the attempt on Reagan cause that guy was mad old and not at all trying to like, change stuff. The man is trying to hold Barack back but we won't let him. O-ba-ma! O-ba-ma!

Except, turns out, the nutjob wanted to take out Bush too:

Another tipster said Geisel also threatened President George W. Bush.

Of course, he's just the president and doesn't have the oh-wow-shiver-down-my-leg star power of Obama so that little tidbit isn't mentioned until the third paragraph. Lead with the news, as they say.

Answer: so fast

Ken Wheaton talks to a woman on the subway who is carrying crazy glue to glue her husband's balls if he hits her again. How fast would I have run away from this conversation?

Bad scene

John Edwards mistress (alleged mistress) was mentioned in two Bret Easton Ellis books. If you've read Ellis, you probably know that's not a good thing. Gawker has a clip discussing her in the American Psycho movie. Not safe for work. 'Cause she's a bit of a slut. Allegedly.

My Watercooler

Anybody watching the HBO show "Hard Knocks"?

Every year they follow a football team through training camp and this year it's my team, the Dallas Cowboys (Sidenote for new readers: yes I'm a Cowboys fan, yes, in New York, yes, really, I went to a game last year, through the largesse of one Oschisms, and everything. Sidenote for old readers: Yes, IC--then referred to on the blog as SMVP-- is the one who got me my first Cowboys shirt but we were just longtime friends then. I would never have picked the Cowboys as my team if I knew he and I would date).

Anyway, yesterday was the first episode of the season and I quite liked it. Terrell Owens is amazing and gets such a bad rap. He plays so hard, you can just see his drive. So he's a little sarcastic and a little full of himself. I don't happen to think those are bad traits. He has the right to be confident, he's that good.

I'm looking forward to the football season. Anyone else?

Poker girls are hot, though

Max Gross, the writer of a new book "From Schlub to Stud", and someone I have played poker with on several occasions:

And speaking of locker rooms, there are plenty of sports in which a schlub can excel and look like a stud - even if he clearly isn't. Like, say, poker. Generations of writers - from Ernest Hemmingway to Norman Mailer - have made a mastery of poker a signal to their readers that their character is a tough guy.

That might have been the case long ago, when the game was peopled mostly by rough Texans. And, it's true, to be a good poker player you have to be courageous, hard nosed and gutsy. (Studly qualities, without question.)

But when was the last time you watched a game of professional poker players on ESPN? The most recent generation of poker players look like they've wandered into the casino straight from the men's shelter. And yet they inspire fear in much better dressed and better muscled men.

Picture of the day

A full-on abaya, platform shoes and Steve Madden bag, in Brooklyn, New York. That's quite a look:

I also recently saw a woman wearing tight jeans, a low-cut top and a full head covering showing just her eyes on Manhattan's upper west side.

UPDATE: Julia Gorin has more funky Muslim fashion.

An unfunny joke

A 9/11 conspiracy movie, Able Danger, opens this week at New York's crappiest pizzeria (yes, the pizza place has a movie theater), Two Boots.

If you were to satirize a preview of a film about a 9/11 conspiracy, your preview would probably still look less like a joke than the one they've got now. The teary chick with a bad accent and bad wig, the suspenseful music, the earnest white boys. It's down right hilarious.

I think the guy I debated, Sander Hicks, is involved in this film because opens with a shot of his coffee shop in Brooklyn and the words "a maverick journalist in Brooklyn". The movie has government agents chasing the protagonist, giving him beatdowns, and generally trying to stop him. In real life, Sander will fix you up a latte and sell you his book, anytime you'd like over on Courtelyou Road in Brooklyn.

Hat-tip CCS178.

Three words: Get. A. Grip.

Saudi Arabia angered over mocking Nissan ad aired in Israel.

Hat-tip IC.

And yet you still can't get a cab or a dinner reservation

Party's over for jittery New York

Update

The tattered flag has been replaced:

Song of the Day

"Baby" by LL Cool J.

I'm still on the lookout for a summer song, though I have now heard "American Boy" on the radio like 3 times, and this LL song could be it. If only he didn't ruin it right at the end by saying he paid for the girl. Really, LL, Ladies Love Cool J, you shouldn't have to pay. Is it too much to ask that there be a mainstream radio song, or two, for when the sun is shining and the car windows are open, you say "oh yeah, that's my song" and turn it up?

My watercooler

I've been busy so have only seen about half of Season 2, Episode 2 of Mad Men, but just want to note that the Joanie I knew from last season would never show pain like that in front of doofus, pipe-smoking Paul. Insulting his girlfriend, and telling her that she was once with Paul, is so not Joan. Although I do love the part where she lists his pretentious characteristics and then ends with "which of those is untrue?" She's still a bad ass.

Oh, and Francine's husband makes me want to vomit.

Global warming hysteria doesn't help the environment

This was not written by a global warming skeptic:

Somewhere along the line, global warming became the explanation for everything. Right-thinking people are not supposed to discuss any meteorological or geophysical event -- a hurricane, a wildfire, a heat wave, a drought, a flood, a blizzard, a tornado, a lightning strike, an unfamiliar breeze, a strange tingling on the neck -- without immediately invoking the climate crisis. It causes earthquakes, plagues and backyard gardening disappointments. Weird fungus on your tomato plants? Classic sign of global warming.

Via Hot Air.

I love that country

Israelis prefer McCain even after Obama's visit

Me, me, me and John McCain

I'm quoted in a Politico story today about what McCain can do to seem more web savvy:

“For the love of G-d, don't let him be photographed using the web as if it's something to photograph him doing,” emailed a Republican consultant and blogger, Karol Sheinin. “It will just remind everyone of that time they taught their grandpa about email.”

Overheard at a party last night

"I'm not just assuming Obama is going to win. I remember when Dukakis lost..."

Spitting out the golden spoon

There's a great review, in the NY Sun today, of the book "Banished: 'The Forsaken' by Tim Tzouliadis". Writes reviewer Richard Pipes:

This is a very sad book, the story of thousands of Americans who, during the Depression, lured by sham Soviet propaganda and pro-Soviet falsehoods spread by the likes of George Bernard Shaw and the corrupt New York Times Moscow correspondent, Walter Duranty, migrated to the USSR in search of jobs and a role in the "building of socialism." It was, in the words of the author, "the least heralded migration in American history" and a period when "for the first time in her short history more people were leaving the United States than were arriving." Most of these expatriates, not intellectuals but simple working men, were quickly disenchanted and wanted to return home, only to find that Moscow considered them Soviet citizens and barred them from leaving. Ignored by the American government, many of them ended in the gulag.

There was a movie in 1999, Est-Ouest, on a similar topic; Russian expats, specifically, following Stalin's call to return to the Soviet Union for a glorified life, only to have them endure the miserable conditions of the USSR.

It's a complete mystery to me why anyone would ever renounce American citizenship, and there is a part of me that doesn't feel sorry for the people that chose to believe a Communist myth and actually move to the Soviet Union where most would eventually end up in the gulags and prisons. As the reviewer notes, though, the fact that the American press was lying about the conditions in Russia surely was a factor. On a tangential note, does anyone else think CNN should've been held far more accountable than they were for their admitted lying about Iraq before the war? How are they still in business?

Read

Occasional guest-blogger Dorian Davis is doing some blogging on a gay political site, Flaming Politics. Predictably he's the only Republican.

Song of the Day

"I'm Still Standing" by Elton John.

There is some Elton John that is not completely embarrassing. "Tiny Dancer", "Rocket Man", "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road", basically 70's Elton is somewhat acceptable. And it's hard to remember that before he became the cartoon singing "Can you feel the love tonight", he had a solid album in the early 80's called "Too Low For Zero". "I'm Still Standing" was on that album. I remember speaking very limited English and dancing around my parent's living room to this song (other songs that had me dancing in that living room "Baby Jane" by Rod Stewart, "Strut" by Sheena Easton and half of Hotel California--because it cut off at the end of the tape) singing "yeah, yeah, yeah!". The video, though, still completely mortifying. He was still Elton, after all.