Hiatus? What hiatus?

On January 2nd, 2008, I decided to toss out some predictions for the New Year. 11.5 months later, I wonder how I did…?

Please note my disclaimer from that post,

“I’d like to make my first post of the year one where I can look back and say, “Why the hell did I put that in writing? I’m an idiot.” So, let’s make some predictions!”

The idea of American exceptionalism doesn’t extend to Americans being exceptional. If you excelled academically and are able to casually use 690 SAT words then you might as well have the press shoot video of you giving the finger to the Statue of Liberty while the Dixie Chicks sing the University of the Taliban fight song. The people who want English to be the official language of the United States are uncomfortable with their leaders being fluent in it.

–Jed Bartlet on what Americans want

I’m not one to nit-pick about small screw-ups, but this one brought up some bad memories.

For those of you who watched John McCain’s acceptance speech at the Republican Convention last night, you may have noticed that, at times, it looked like McCain was behind a bright green background. Turns out that was not a green screen.

Here’s the full photo:

So what building is that? This one.

That’s right, Walter Reed Middle School in California. In other words, some moron wanted to put a picture of Walter Reed Army Medical Center on McCain’s backdrop (McCain is a veteran, after all), but didn’t bother to double-check his Google image search. Adding a touch of funny to the fail, the principal of WRMS has issued a cheeky statement on the school’s web site acknowledging the mention.

I know this backdrop of photos was obviously put together by some intern a few days before the show, and he’s probably never heard of Walter Reed before in his life up until last week…but the irony of this gaff is just infuriating.

This is the same Walter Reed Army Medical Center that created a national scandal last year because US troops injured in Iraq were being cared for in deplorable conditions and bureaucratic morass. Here’s a quick flashback from the WashPost:

Behind the door of Army Spec. Jeremy Duncan’s room, part of the wall is torn and hangs in the air, weighted down with black mold. When the wounded combat engineer stands in his shower and looks up, he can see the bathtub on the floor above through a rotted hole. The entire building, constructed between the world wars, often smells like greasy carry-out. Signs of neglect are everywhere: mouse droppings, belly-up cockroaches, stained carpets, cheap mattresses.

I still get angry whenever I think of this mess. I can’t begin to imagine how hard it must have been for our soldiers to deal with the trauma of battlefield injuries and then be ignored and neglected when they returned home. To me, this severely damaged the credibility of the Republican Party.

It wasn’t just that the troops were being kep in terrible conditions, its that they were ignored - there were seemingly no plans in place for how to deal with the with serious impairments (mental and phsycial) soldiers were bringing back from the war zones. The Walter Reed scandal was a national travesty, and someone in the Republican Party didn’t bother to care what the place looked like.

For those of you who were curious, this is Walter Reed Army Medical Center:

Thanks LA Times.

Kudos to The Huffington Post for leading me to this. Peggy Noonan, the current Wall Street Journal columnist and former Ronald Reagan speechwriter, was caught on a live mic yesterday calling the choice of Sarah Palin “political bullshit.”

I couldn’t agree more.

This has nothing to do with Palin being a woman (although it wouldn’t surprise me if some Johnny-come-lately feminist comments on here that I am a sexist because there is no other defense of her pathetic record). This has everything to do with McCain’s selection being a political blow job to the conservative right.

Slated to be the surprise headliner at a politically-charged concert in St. Paul this week, Rage Against the Machine was met with a barrage of riot police and cut power cables just before they were set to take the stage. According to this article, they were too late for the 7pm curfew and lacked the proper permit to perform, but they gave the fans pretty sweet a capella versions of “Bulls On Parade” and “Killing In The Name Of” before the crowd marched toward the RNC.

Despite Morello looking a little bored during his vocal-guitar-riffing, this is still pretty rad, if you ask me. This vid was shot by Minnesota Public Radio:

Full video of the performance after the jump.

I don’t read Daily Kos too often, but I think pretty much the entire internet was enticed into checking out their site this weekend. I’m of course talking about the absolute storm that was set off by their posting of a libelous, incorrect article that alleged Sarah Palin had faked her own pregnancy to cover for her daughter’s secret, underage pregnancy. It’s a classic piece of hysterical, conspiracy-driven garbage that sensationalist blogs like Perez-Hilton and TMZ are famous for. Actually, that’s not true, TMZ usually has photos and reporters – DailyKos only has armchair (computer chair?) quarterbacks who browse Google News and pass it off as research.

mav·er·ick

1. Southwestern U.S. an unbranded calf, cow, or steer, esp. an unbranded calf that is separated from its mother.
2. a lone dissenter, as an intellectual, an artist, or a politician, who takes an independent stand apart from his or her associates.
3. (initial capital letter) an electro-optically guided U.S. air-to-ground tactical missile for destroying tanks and other hardened targets at ranges up to 15 mi. (24 km). [Origin: 1865–70, Americanism; after Samuel A. Maverick (1803–70), Texas pioneer who left his calves unbranded]

—Synonyms 2. nonconformist, independent, loner.

(h/t VentureBeat)

John McCain, an unbranded steer indeed.

I wonder if VECO was just as nice to her.

Read the rest of this article

If you think your pocketbook or wallet is hurting from the $4 per gallon gasoline that you have been buying recently, hang on to your butts. According to a Rice University study down in H-town, the U.S. could end up with gas costing over $6 per gallon if oil hits $200 a barrel.

Wow.

The IHT comes through for the second time this week with another great feature. This time its about China’s Olympic athletic machine, which, much like the country’s communist government, is more soulless and unrelenting than any corporation.

Its a great read, I suggest you take a look. It paints a shocking picture of how athleticism is perceived in China, and how the communist government has turned sports into a government-subsidized, factory-like system of hardcore training – dedicated to maximizing gold medal returns and pushing its athletes as hard as a possible.

“An astonishing amount of manpower, money and goods have been poured in, so much so that it’s inappropriate to be revealed publicly,” said Lu Yuanzhen, a professor of sports sociology at the Academy of Sports Sciences at South China Normal University. If the country’s athletes do not perform up to expectations, he added, “the entire nation and its people will lose face.”

I told him next time he does that I’m going to get my blade out and cut him. I’m a gangster. You go gangster on me, I’m going to have to get you. You do that again, I’m going to cut you right on the field.

–Jerry Manuel after his second game as Mets Manager

Looks like the Jerry Manuel era is starting off beautifully in Queens.

If you’re a Democrat who thinks everything that has happened since 2000 was just a nightmare, check out this analysis from Politico on the possibility of Barack Obama pulling an Al Gore–and I’m not talking about winning a Noble Prize.

What are the chances that Obama could win the popular vote but lose the election? Not very good, but for Democrats, if it were to happen again, especially after eight years of George Bush, I think the heads of roughly 50 million voters would explode the morning of November 5.

I came across this great article in the International Herald-Tribune about a free-speech case currently going on in Canada. The Canadian newsmagazine Maclean’s is under trial not for libelous or inaccurate articles, but for “hate speech.”

Under Canadian law, there is a serious argument that the article contained hate speech and that its publisher, Maclean’s magazine, the nation’s leading newsweekly, should be forbidden from saying similar things, forced to publish a rebuttal and made to compensate Muslims for injuring their “dignity, feelings and self respect.”

Wait a second, a magazine is “forbidden” by law from printing whatever it wants? It may have to pay restitution for injuring someone’s dignity? I’m sorry, but as an American I find this completely nuts.

Gerard Baker of the London Times wrote a great opinion piece this week waxing philosophical on Bush’s farewell tour of Europe. Baker (and myself!) both share the opinion that, for all the apparent heartache and suffering the Europeans went through during the Bush Administration, that whole continent is going to end up missing him a lot.

They’ll miss, first, having a villain in the White House. It’s a really convenient excuse to avoid doing anything yourself on pressing global concerns.

Baker’s article is a great read, check it out!

While i’m here, I’m going to touch on another beautiful aspect of US international relations - when we switch out the old president with a new one its a great excuse for a clean slate with foreign governments. People claim America’s reputation has been horribly damaged by Bush, but truth is about 50% of the problems are going to vanish along with him. If the Dems win the triple majority and we switch political parties, I’d raise that estimate to 75%. No one’s going to protest Obama’s motorcades, and college exchange students will be at least 50% less annoying starting next year.

Not that I really care too much about what Europe thinks. I suppose if it was America’s job to keep the Europe happy we’d have to ratify the Lisbon treaty and start smelling bad. Neither of these things really appeal to me.