For Crying Out Loud, Eff All Holidays!

When are we gonna get another alb outta Testface? I dunno, but we're getting serious prose in the interim. I mean, this has gotta be the equivalent of Truman Capote's A Christmas Memory for the David Yow generation.

Corgan Update

This guy won't stop. Now he's calling out Eddie Vedder (h/t, Cosloy).

And you didn't mention this why?

Smaller media markets, like, say, Eugene, OR, tend to have... let's call it quirkier on-air personalities for their local shows. Like the newscasts. Eugene has some memorable weathermen; John Fischer, Tim Chuey, and the bald guy on the NBC affiliate - you tend to remember the face of the guy telling you the forecast for the next 200 days is some variation of "rain." I still encounter Joe Giansante if I happen to catch a Ducks game on some bar's satellite feed. And who can forget the woman who looked like Ally McBeal when the FOX station tried to put together a local newscast (didn't she end up reporting at some other local channel?)(is it wrong to admit that I had a crush on her?)?

The anchors, on the other hand, are a little less memorable for me. I can see faces, but couldn't give you names. Except for one, who was exceptional in that he offensively and unapologetically embraced his role as "the anchor," whose faux gravitas dripped with cheese, whose bright human interest stories were gaggingly cloying... for some completely irrational reason, I could not stand the sight nor sound of this person. It was the one network whose local newscast I would actively avoid.

And now Rick Dancer is running for statewide office? As a Republican? And no one bothered to mention this? Had I known this I would've been donating to Kate Brown a long time ago, just to spite him.

on the other hand

On the "substance" front - let me say that I'm interested by (but unsure how to approach) the issues tied up in Ezra Klein's recent work on the mainstream media's consensus that the U.S.A.'s an intrinsically "Center-Right" country.

On the other hand, on the "sonics/phonics" front - it is kinda nice to hear the word "socialism" tripping off so many Americans' lips, these days.

Beware: Run-on Sentences, Cursing, and Ill-formed Thoughs Below

Bush is not an economist, he's an optimist. Great. He thinks the economy is on a solid footing. It's only psychologically that people are worried. This is fine. We don't expect our presidents to be economic experts. We expect them to hire guys who know this shit. Then we hope that they listen to these men. No such luck, apparently.

While we're here, several men have taken pains lately to assure me that speculation has little to no role to play in the recent increase in the cost of oil. I'm not going to link, as you've either read it or you haven't, and I've got a couple bay breezes in me ('cause I'm a girl) and I don't want to look that shit up. But the President has told me just today that if we agree to let oil companies "explore" the shit out of the deep continental shelf and the Alaskan wilderness, then people will be assured and the price of oil will come down. In other words, the oil futures market would come down and we would pay less at the pump oil company revenues would drop slightly.

Also, the President also thinks that it's hilarious to not know how much gas costs. Fuck me. And the magic wand. How's this for a magic wand...any gas station that charges more than $3 for a gallon of gas will pay 120% tax on all income derived from charging more than $3. I bet that would bring the price of gas down right quick. Oh, I know, Exxon would only make $7 billion next year instead of $40 billion. Bet they'd stop selling gas altogether, only making $7 billion and all.

If said it before, I'll say it again, fuck me.

The Obama-Powell Ticket. Yeah, That's the Ticket!

NPR was floating the idea of an Obama-Powell ticket today in the context of a discussion about the possibility of Powell endorsing Obama. For some reason, I like it. I don't think Obama is going to do any great shakes in his selection of VP. I mean who could it be that would get me whooping? Johnny E.? Maybe. The governor of Kansas? I don't even know her name, although I'm half convinced I had a rather elaborate dream about her the other night. Phil Knight? Bill Gates? Lee Iacoca? (He's still alive. I looked it up.) You name me a VP pick you think will get my juices flowing and I'll give it some serious thought. (Anyone suggesting Andy Stern will be put on probation. That's right probation.)

I'm not saying I'm in love with Obama-Powell, but it would be popular. It would prevent Hillaryites from saying he skipped over her to select someone weaker. It firms up (in popular perception) his foreign policy cred. It would also more than trump any kind of bipartisan credibility the McCain camp might derive from Lieberman crossing over. Lastly, Powell has demonstated a complete willingness to betray all his principles if the president tells him to, which is a pretty nice quality for a VP to have. (I'd like to take this opportunity to apologize to Colin Powell and his entire family for that last shot, which was a cheap one, below the belt. I have long believed that shots like that have no place in American political discourse.)

When Powell takes the steps to distance himself from any possibility he would serve as Obama's VP (3-2-1), then I wil give you my super secret VP pick that will blow your freakin' minds! (Not really). (I mean, not really will it blow your minds. I really will post my super secret pick.) (Which is pretty neat. But not mind blowing). (As long as we're here in parenthetical land, sorry about the 15 year-old reference in the title. And the bad pun.)