The Truffle

Ditzy Democrats has a question for Ralph Nader. What are you on, man? When they said anyone in America could grow up to be President, they weren’t talking about you, Ralph! You’ve tried and failed and tried and failed! And don’t give me this “I’m making a statement” crap. We have a new environmentalist-who-is-trying-to-be-relevant-through-environmentalism now. His name is Al Gore, and he’s like, three times as annoying as you are. [And he's not even running!--Truffle] You even fail at being annoying, Ralph Nader. I do disagree with that last part. Nader is still kind of annoying.

And the major labels wonder why they're floundering: Although he says on his Web site that it was meant to remain a secret, Perez Hilton is today facing a leak regarding himself rather than the celebs he has made a business gossiping about. Not that it’s a bad thing for Perez; the New York Times is reporting that the blogger is negotiating a deal that would give him his own imprint at Warner Bros. Records. The deal would see Mario Lavandeira--Perez’s real name--receive $100,000 a year as an advance against 50% of any profits generated by music artists he discovers and releases through Warner Bros. The talks are preliminary, and an agreement is not certain, people close to the deal told the New York Times. However, on his blog today, Lavandeira writes, “Let's hope (the article) doesn't jinx things. It's not a done deal yet! But, we're very, very excited about the possibility. It will happen. It will!” Call me underwhelmed. Aside from posting gossip about Britney, Je...

Am I the only one who things Congress shouldn't be wasting its time with hearings about steroid use in baseball? Or is it un-American to say that?

Oh goody. Another nutcase radio talk show host is mad at McCain. And for once, this guy is a McCain supporter. No, it's not Michael "Gay Penguins" Medved. Now that even the Republicans are, well, at least pretending to distance themselves from these lobotomized zombies, expect to see more anti-McCain rage in their ranks. I still think McCain's going to pick a bona-fide, raving loon of a rightie as a running mate. Maybe it'll be Sam Brownback. He'll pick a wingnut so that the wingnuts will like him again and in tacking to the right, he'll alienate any independents or Democrats who haven't yet realized that the Straight Talk Express is now permanently derailed.

If you're not outraged, you're probably just waiting for January 20, 2009. I can relate. Hang in there, everybody!

...Courtesy of Farnsworth : The genius of the framers of the Constitution is that they were able to construct a completely secular document in spite of their religious beliefs, not because of them.

Much as I've been enjoying Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles , I've never seen the Terminator films. You can shake your heads in disbelief now. Oh, and Lena Headley? Is an awesome actress. Summer Glau isn't too shabby either. Summer even got to display her dance skills in this week's eppy (she is actually a trained ballerina).

Who's advising this guy, anyway? I ask because trying to tie your success to that of an unpopular, disastrous war is a stupid idea. John McCain said Monday that to win the White House he must convince a war-weary country that U.S. policy in Iraq is succeeding. If he can't, "then I lose. I lose," the Republican said. He quickly backed off that remark. "Let me not put it that stark," the likely GOP nominee told reporters on his campaign bus. "Let me just put it this way: Americans will judge my candidacy first and foremost on how they believe I can lead the county both from our economy and for national security. Obviously, Iraq will play a role in their judgment of my ability to handle national security." "If I may, I'd like to retract 'I'll lose.' But I don't think there's any doubt that how they judge Iraq will have a direct relation to their judgment of me, my support of the surge," McCain added. "Clearly, I...

I've been listening to the Small Faces, precursor of Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood's band. They were called "Small" Faces because they were all, well, kinda short. When singer Steve Marriott left and the somewhat taller Stewart and Wood joined up, they dropped the "Small." Here they are performing their biggest hit in their "Small" incarnation, "Itchykoo Park." And here's the Move, precursor to ELO, singing "California Man." Awesome stuff.

When you get your tax rebates, courtesy of our Preznit, you can celebrate by sending some money to the candidate of your choice. That's what I plan to do.

William Bratton, formerly of the NYPD, currently chief of the LAPD, comments on new, anti-paparazzi laws. Basically, he thinks they're bullshit and has an easier solution. What we need is Britney Spears to stay home instead of traipsing all over town. That would solve the problem. We don't need additional laws.... I've got laws coming out my ears to deal with this issue.... What you have is several young women in this town and several young men basically making fools of themselves and tying up not only my resources but the resources of the media that would do better covering legitimate stories instead of a bunch of airheads running around out there.... Quite clearly some of these characters so favored by the paparazzi are clearly in need of services. Not police services, but psychiatric services. You tell 'em, dude. Via Celebitchy .

I really hesitate to even think about the latest example of manufactured outrage from the wingnutosphere, but The Catharine Chronicles has managed to break it down for the clue-challenged. Meanwhile, Bill O'Reilly spoke of retiring a few years ago, and Bob Cesca suggests he make good on that statement. Meanwhile, I'd like to make some controversial statements of my own: 1. I agree with Michelle Obama. 2. I think Michelle Obama is right on. 3. I think Michelle Obama loves her country, even though she may not have always been proud of its government. 4. I feel the exact same way. 5. I think Michelle Obama would make an awesome First Lady.

Let's see, what's Bill O'Reilly up to these days? He mentioned "Michelle Obama" and "lynching" in the same sentence. America has reached a saturation point with O'Reilly and his fellow yahoos. I can't even be shocked by them anymore. I would only be shocked if they turned into keen, insightful analysts who treated their opponents with respect. Maybe O'Reilly's credit card will be declined somewhere and he'll blow a gasket on the supermarket line. That would be funny. Meanwhile, he is simply no longer outrageous.

From NY Post's Page Six of all places: Ann Coulter suffered a serious embarrassment over the weekend when her credit card was declined in Palm Beach. According to our spy, the nutty arch-conservative was caught at 9:45 p.m. Saturday night in the 10 Items or Less line at the local Publix when her card was rejected. "She was embarrassed but didn't make a scene," our witness said. "She just paid with cash and ran out of there. But at least she's eating." When the New York Post is calling you "nutty" and your credit card is declined, you know there are some problems with your life.

I really can't get too worked up over John McCain shtupping Ms. Iseman. It's just that when you think of pols in bed with assorted lobbyists, you never imagine anyone would take that literally. Compared to other scandals, this is pretty tame stuff. Please note that McCain married his current wife about a month after his divorce from Wife No. 1 became final. You know the expression: "If he cheats with you, he'll cheat on you."

Here's some X for you.

Guess, what, kids? As of today, 3,963 Americans have been killed in Iraq. Some out-of-touch wingnut think-tanker or neocon yahoo will claim that there's something good about "only" 4,000 or so dead Americans. Said yahoo will repeat the dumb excuse that "we're fighting them over there [in a country, that had nothing to do with 9/11] so we don't need to fight them over here." It's really easy to think that way when your house is still intact, your loved ones are still alive, and you don't have foreign troops in your country for a purpose even they can't figure out. It's even easier when you don't take into account the dead Iraqis. "Only" 4,000 Americans. I can't wait to see how the Kristolhammer contingent spins this one.

It's the Go! Team, from the UK. They put on an awesome show at South By Southwest two years ago, and here they are in a video for the song "Ladyflash."

Thus far, Mike "More than a Feeling the GOP Doesn't Like Me" Huckabee refuses to bow out of the race. Yosemite Mitt has agreed to endorse McCain, even after saying he's a liberal. Speaking of Mitt, Le Sweetie believes that even know, he's sitting in front of a calendar, marking off the dates until Election 2012. Maybe Huckabee will go the third-party route, since he's willing to see this through to the end. Do we dare hope?

Asia has reunited with all four original members. They and their egos went into the studio to make a new record. Now they're touring. Note to the RNC: Don't you think "Only Time Will Tell" would make an awesome campaign song? Please say yes.

In 1996, Sam Moore, of Sam and Dave fame, came out in support of Bob Dole, performing "Dole Man," a rewrite of "Soul Man." Trouble is, Moore didn't write the song. Isaac Hayes and Dave Porter did, and they put a stop to "Dole Man." Eight years later, John Hall of the band Orleans flipped when he heard Bush and Cheney were using "Still the One" a campaign theme. Today, Hall is a Democratic congressman (and I actually donated to his campaign). Now Tom Scholz of the band Boston is miffed that "More than a Feeling" has become Mike Huckabee's anthem. But it gets weirder. Former Boston memeber Barry Goudreau has been performing the song with Huckabee at campaign stops. Only Scholz wrote the song, not Goudrea. And Scholz does not heart Huckabee. "Boston has never endorsed a political candidate, and with all due respect, would not start by endorsing a candidate who is the polar opposite of most everything Boston stands for...

Gone from the GOP, everyone. Looks like they finally learned. Looks like they finally learned. Anyhow, former GOP senator and current independent Lincoln Chafee has endorsed Barack Obama. He joins another sadly marginalized moderate, Susan Eisenhower (granddaughter of Ike) in supporting a Democratic candidate for president. Meanwhile, Chafee has a book coming out in a couple of months, titled Against the Tide: How a Compliant Congress Empowered a Reckless President . Chafee was the only GOP senator to oppose the Iraq war and while his votes often left a lot to be desired, he is a decent guy. The book could be interesting. He's certainly a cut above Colin Powell and Christine Todd Whitman, in my opinion.

This is Arthur Baller, retired NYC cop and member of the Greatest Generation, weighing in on the current president.

I'm talking, of course, about Colin "I'm SOOOOO ashamed of that UN presentation" Powell . Now he's being coy on whether or not he'll vote GOP in November, while saying nice things about Barack Obama. Powell, who has largely steered clear of politics since leaving the administration in 2004, noted that the next president will need to work to restore America’s standing in the world. “I will ultimately vote for the person I believe brings to the American people the kind of vision the American people want to see for the next four years,” he said. “A vision that reaches out to the rest of the world, that starts to restore confidence in America, that starts to restore favorable ratings to America. Frankly, we've lost a lot in recent years.” With the help of enablers in the Bush administration. Needless to say, the handful of losers still working for President 30 Percent can't be happy about this. What next--Scott McClellan going all Zell Miller at the DNC...

Sheesh! Won't National Review's writers quit crying about McCain already? Especially when he might--gasp--be right about something? Like, I dunno, torture? Of course, opposing torture really should be a no-brainer, and John "I Hate Torture" McCain still voted to confirm assclowns like Gonzales and Mukasey. Really, 2008 is turning into one big pity party for these wingnuts.

Now that McCain is the GOP frontrunner, the "We Heart Romney" crowd is despondent. They're searching for any glimmer of hope they can find in the possibility that perhaps an ill-tempered liberal RINO McCain will reassure them of his conservatism. (Like he hasn't tried to do so since 2004?) To quote, Sadly, No! You guys don’t seem to get it. The way things work in American politics is that you appeal to your base during the primaries and then tack toward the center once you’ve secured the nomination. McCain is mostly winning the primaries because a lot of people buy into the media-fueled notion that he’s a “maverick” conservative who’s fundamentally different from the Bushies. Now while in reality this isn’t true — McCain has the same disastrous foreign policy ideas as Bush does and he’s just as liable to appoint wingnutty judges to the Supreme Court, for instance — he and his pals in the press have done a damn good job of selling it to independents and Republicans w...

This is the first time I've ever voted in a primary. (I was an independent before switching to the Democratic Party in 2005.) All in all, it went very smoothly. Yes, I voted for Obama. Yes, I do think La Hill is a smart, pragmatic, hard-working politician. But I like Obama just a little bit better, mainly because I think we're ready to enter the post-Clinton/Bush political era. I would be perfectly happy with a President Hillary Clinton; I'm just ready for a change. Others' mileage may vary. Hillary won New York, as expected. So far, she has won six states and Obama has won eight. Among those eight states are...Kansas and North Dakota. Not exactly racially diverse. Not exactly liberal strongholds, either. That should tell you something. If La Hill gets the nomination, she should really make Obama her running mate. Just a thought. Another thought: there are a lot of wingnuts crying in their martinis today. Yosemite Mitt won exactly two states: Massachusetts...

All the wingnutospheric fawning over Yosemite Mitt reminds me of junior high school girls fawning over KEWT!1!! HAWT!!!1! SEXAY!!! ninth-grade boys. The boys in question may be crappy students who don't do much except fill space on the school baseball team. But somehow, they've managed to convince others of their kewlness and budding BMOC potential. They're the kinds of guys that make you look back decades later and say, "EW! What was I thinking? He was really gross!" Unless you're a right-wing true believer, of course. Case in point, Kathleen Parker, swooning over George Bush's obviously staged photo op on the aircraft carrier. As one-two punches go, the Byrd-Waxman sally was a bad day for nerds everywhere. Performing a whiney duet of the desperate, they managed to evoke images of skinny boys studying the quarterback's swagger for clues on cool. It's almost as painful to watch them contort in envy as it must have been for them to watch Bus...

Li'l Ricky Santorum still hasn't figured out he's irrelevant. Neither has the National Review . Ricky is supporting the Mittster. Even though he kinda sorta admits that Romney isn't really a conservative--in fact, he's just pretending to be one. “I think Romney, when he decided to run, he’s a smart business guy, and he sort of got his team together and said, ‘What do I need to do to be the conservative candidate?’ and give me the checklist and see if I can check them off,” Santorum said. “And I think over the course of this campaign, you know, I saw the migration from the checklist to his head and from his head into his heart and I really believe that’s where he is today.” So...Ricky. You're going to knowingly support a pandering GOP moderate, instead of an actual conservative Republican ? Dude, there's a reason you were voted out of office. Anyhow, Santorum is even starring in a series of automated phone calls courtesy of the Romney campaign. He is ...

The concept of taxes, and the raising of thereof, is not spoken without a deep shudder. Raising taxes is considered to be political suicide. A handful of yahoos even consider it to be legalized theft. The latter concept is both amusing and confusing. For example, police officers are paid for with tax dollars. So, if taxation is theft, what does that make the police? Accessories to a crime? Anyhow, Badtux is in a considerably higher tax bracket than yours truly and sees taxes as a necessity to keep the USA out of Third World status. Robert Reich, former Clinton labor secretary, takes it a step further in his book Reason , arguing that paying taxes is patriotic: "It's your money?" It's your country! If you weasel out of what you owe in taxes, either someone else has to pay more taxes to make up the difference or there's less of what's required--roads, hospitals, troops, cops, safety inspectors, teachers--to keep it great. So, you have to ask...why do...

...a friend pointed out something suspicious about this news item. It's coming out around the time Bush and his cast of idiots want to make their tax cuts permanent. Coincidence? With this administration? I seriously doubt it.

It's one of Kate Bush's coolest videos, "The Big Sky." Followed by Feist's "1 2 3 4." Yeah, it's in that commercial that's all over TV. So what? The song and video are great. And finally, Marnie Stern in 2007: