Iiiiiinteresting

I little while ago I remarked about the Levi's ad using a recording of Walt Whitman's voice reading his poem "America." Apparently this ad, along with the "O Pioneers!" ad were directed by Cary Fukunaga, director of the excellent film Sin Nombre. The more I see these ads the more I like them. They are a reminder that advertising, while usually shallow, can serve as a great medium for artistic expression. Throughout history most great paintings and sculptures were commissioned by rich people, so what's wrong with them being commissioned by big corporations? Hell this is a good way for a director to earn money to finance more personal projects.

Get Motivated!

George W. Bush's debut as a motivational speaker in Fort Worth was a smashing success. I can only hope the show comes to Houston. I think it's worth a sick day to go hear the former President talk about dog poop.

A choice quote from someone who attended the event:

One attendee told the Washington Post that his lack of speaking abilities sounds "incompetent if you are president. But here it can be inspiring. It makes him seem like a regular guy, no better than me."

Battle of the Networks

I don't care about the cable news networks, i.e. MSNBC, Fox, CNN, or Headline. Hell, I don't even watch them due to my lack of cable. When I do watch the news, I watch the BBC on PBS in the evenings because it's one of the few clear channels I can get, and I'm definitely not watching Katie Couric - she scares me.

So this story about CNN coming in last place is fairly innocuous, but the reason I feel compelled to discuss it is that I love how CNN is being portrayed as the hard news network, not a bias or opinion network like Fox or MSNBC, two networks I am neither defending nor deriding here.

However, there are times when I see cable news, at the gym for instance when I run on the treadmill. It was during one of these runs that the 9/12 hullabaloo was gong on and Anderson Cooper quietly smiled and call the the attendees, ahem, "teabaggers."

As if he didn't know what he was saying.

Like I said, I don't really watch the stuff, I get my news from the internet,PBS, and the radio. But, reporting on how CNN is strictly a straight shooting network seems a bit skewed to me.

Public Option In

The Senate health care bill will contain a public option with the "opt-out" provisions I've discussed previously on this blog. Although there have been whispers that the public option was back for a few days now, this is still quite a turnaround for something most of the mainstream media declared dead a few weeks ago. This development shows that Harry Reid is confident that he has the votes to cut off debate and prevent a filibuster when the bill is introduced after it is scored by the Congressional Budget Office. With the public option included the bill will likely lose the support of the lone Republican, Olympia Snowe, who might have voted for health care reform. However, I don't think it really matters. This is a Democratic bill and getting one Republican to vote for it isn't going to change that. Maybe this means Democrats wont have to water the bill down and make it worse to please the Maine twins like they did with stimulus. It will be a close call and I'm sure there's much more health care kabuki theatre to come.

Environment craziness

It's official, any and all living creatures on the planet are bad for it.

They may be bloodsuckers, but...

I despise insurance companies. We all know they will screw anyone over to make dime. Of course, that could be said of any business. But, most other businesses aren't dealing with peoples' lives so directly. Nonetheless, they do serve a purpose. And according to the numbers, apparently being in the health insurance business isn't as profitable as everyone's making it out to be. This doesn't make me like them any more or less, I'm just cutting through the political rhetoric (and outright lies in some cases) is all.

BASEBALL: World Series 2009

So, the Yankees have secured their place in the '09 world series against the defending champs , National League Phillies. Watching the whole ALCS was a little hard for me because I don't like the American League. I'm a National League guy, the league the Astros play in. As such, I never really had a dog in the ALCS fight. I hate the Yankees. Buncha N.Y. bleach-toothed douches like Jeter and philanderer A-Rod. Plus, I can't stand the blatant bias towards the Yankees/AL of the broadcasters. But, I also don't care for California, or it's baseball teams, much less their American League team the Angels. At the same time, I love Andy Pettite (four time World Series Winner and Texas native) and I wanted him to win tonight, which he did, but he pitches for the Yankees. So conflicted. Either way, it was an awesome game and I'm looking forward to the 2009 World Series starting this Wednesday.

Hopefully the Astros will get their act together and realize that having a team that is essentially the retirement center of the MLB is not a good strategy.

Unbelievable

The New York Times pays Ross Douthat to write this crap.

It's hard to make progress in the middle east and all of our varied wars around the globe when idiots like this are all too happy to oblige Osama Bin Laden and act like we're on some new "crusade" ordered by the frickin' Pope.

Just Talking Shop

Well this is comforting.

Poor Dede Scozzafava

Republicans are busy torpedoing their chance to hang on to New York's 23rd congressional district. In November there will be a special election to fill the seat of former representative John McHugh, a moderate Republican who Barack Obama picked to be Secretary of the Army. Naturally, the Republican establishment nominated a moderate candidate, Dede Scozzafava, to replace McHugh, but she is loosing a lot of support to Conservative Party candidate and teabagger Doug Hoffman. Hoffman has the endorsement of such great Americans as former Alaska governor/current Facebook poster Sarah Palin and former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum. With a split center-right electorate it's no surpise that Democrat Bill Owens has taken the lead in the race. I feel a little bad for Scozzafava. She seems like a decent, non-crazy Republican, but the teabaggers are dragging her down.