All Blues

One of the greatest jazz tunes ever. Miles Davis with the second quartet. This is from the Steve Allen Show in 1964. Burt Lancaster is hanging out on the set. The quality is not so good, but it shows this quartet at the height of its powers. Watch Ron Carter's fingers fly over the bass.

McCain has found his Veep

John McCain put out a new ad comparing Obama to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. The truth is, when you look at Britney's political views, she agrees with him; you should support the President. Since none of the other Republicans would be a good fit for him, he should pick Britney! She's young, photogenic and needs a job.

On a more serious note, this ad is part of an increasingly vicious update of Nixon's Southern Strategy. Presumptuous is the new uppity. Karl Rove is hard at work.

Are we Presidential yet? Final score

Obama over McCain 200,000+ to 6. Obama speaks to a throng of people in Berlin, McCain speaks to a half-dozen businessmen in front of a "Fudge Haus."

In France, Obama acquires a new fan in French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who is a conservative and should be stumping for McCain.

They love Obama in England, too.

McCain shows himself to be a sore loser by whining for attention, trying to steal Obama's plays, and making shit up.

That was supposed to be an away series for Obama and he swept. Next up? The economy, stupid. This should be good.

Are we looking Presidential yet?

I was going to wait until Obama's world tour was over to blog about it but there's just too much juicy stuff happening. It's already clear that this trip has been an unmitigated disaster for... John McCain. Earlier this spring McCain had belittled Obama for not going to Iraq and Afghanistan to see for himself the conditions there. So Obama went.

Obama first landed in Afghanistan, where he met with Hamid Karzai and stated that more troops were needed there to combat the resurgent Taliban. McCain, on the other hand, thinks Iraq borders Afghanistan, and didn't get the memo that Czechoslovakia is no longer a country.

In Iraq, Obama met with Maliki, who agreed with Obama that 16 months would be a good timeline for the troops to leave, deftly puncturing one of McCain's main assertions, the famous Hundred Years.

Then Obama went to Israel and met with both the Israeli government and Palestinian leaders, meanwhile, stateside, a new poll has him more popular among Jews than Joe Lieberman.

Obama now heads over to Germany where a projected million people are expected to hear him speak. Then on to France and England, where he is also wildly popular. It will take a long time to repair the damage Bush has done to America's image abroad, but if this is any indication, electing Obama will get us off to a running start.

At the same time, John "Offshore Drilling Now!" McCain had to cancel an appearance on a Gulf oil rig due to an approaching hurricane and since all the press is on Obama's plane anyway, canceled his famous press availability. McCain needs a vacation.

Supporting the troops

If you want to see how well our government treats soldiers injured in combat, look here. This is why calling oneself a patriot rings hollow for me. A real patriot wouldn't allow this to happen.

Use me while you can

I just had to include some live stuff by Bruce Cockburn. He's my favorite songwriter. He's also a terrific guitarist and a great live performer. This is off his Breakfast in New Orleans, Dinner in Timbuktu album. If you dig him as much as I do, check out the fan site over in the sidebar.

Family tree of cats

If you've ever wondered how closely related your cat is to the king of beasts, The World We Don't Live In has a post that shows the tree, and typical of cats, shows how much they've wandered during that evolution. An interesting fact is that mountain lions are very closely related to cheetahs. Also, lions are most closely related to jaguars. Ligers, which are hybrids of lions and tigers, are trippy-looking animals. I wonder what a lion-jaguar cross would look like. Or a tiger-snow leopard one.

If you have an interest in this sort of thing, check TWWDLI out. It's another one of my favorite paleo/bio/evo blogs.

Time 4 sum campaignin'

The latest from JibJab

The garden so far

The tomatoes are starting to fruit. I planted some more lettuce and cilantro. The basil I got is growing slowly but I can harvest from it now. I pick leaves of the lettuce for my workday lunch sandwiches. The peas are still producing, but not a lot. The shriveled potato I stuck in the ground is growing like crazy but I have no idea how or when I'm supposed to harvest it. I'm not using any fertilizer or pesticide other than snail bait.

It's not particularly impressive, but I'm learning.

Quit whining, losers

Yeah, I mean you. And me. And just about everyone I know. That's the message that Phil Gramm, John McCain's economic advisor has for all of us:

"We have sort of become a nation of whiners," he said. "You just hear this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness, America in decline" despite a major export boom that is the primary reason that growth continues in the economy, he said.

"We've never been more dominant; we've never had more natural advantages than we have today," he said. "We have benefited greatly" from the globalization of the economy in the last 30 years.

That's some straight talk, all right. McCain's economic policy in a nutshell- STFU and get back to work. My yacht needs a new GPS.

Total capitulation

Our 9% approval Congress killed the 4th amendment today. Just about everyone, including Clinton and Obama have blood on their hands. Good places to share the misery are here, here, and here. I'm going to stand in the hot sun for a couple of hours and try to get people to vote for Obama. The thing to remember is that, even though he let me down today, he's still much better than McCain. However, we still have a long way to go.

McCain jokes about killing Iranians...

...with cigarrettes. This, along with "bomb, bomb Iran" should give you an idea of what his foreign policy will be. He can't wait to get his hands on The Button.

McCain calls Social Security a disgrace

Of course he does. He'll never need it. All the poor people can go to hell.

A reminder

We'll be at the Chevron on the corner of Mendocino and College for MoveOn's Rally for an Oil-Free President tomorrow from 5-7 pm. We'll be waving signs and passing out flyers contrasting Obama's and McCain's positions on energy. It's supposed to be 104 degrees tomorrow so hopefully we won't pass out.

What a picture is worth

This story about global warming really brings home what is happening. The above picture was taken today at the North Pole. What's the big deal? There's open water. At the North Pole! This hasn't occurred since the Pliocene. The NOAA webcam is here. Tell your kids there'll be no more presents for Christmas, ever. Santa's workshop and all the elves are at the bottom of the ocean.

John McCain's lobbyist crew

A handy list from TPM.

July 4th liveblogging from Belmont

We're here at LeeJ's parents' house in Belmont for Independence Day. I had tickets from my boss to see the Giants play the Cubs (8-3 Giants) and drove south afterward to spend the 4th down here. We watched the parade in Redwood City in the morning. In my opinion, the first marching band, which was a local drum corps, whose name I forget, was the best. They played a funky, hip-hop-inflected beat with a lot of tommy-drum and cowbell action. We checked out LeeJ's brother's pad afterward and came back for the traditional backyard BBQ.

My in-laws are having the house painted and I had to connect their computer back together so I could blog this. Does this mean I have a problem? LeeJ thinks so. Fortunately, my in-laws don't mind me playing with their computer. One fun thing is that LeeJ's parents are also staunch liberals so political conversations are among kindred spirits. It's worth the cross communication because I get most of my politics via the blogosphere and they get theirs from TV and we can compare the two. The consesus is that libereals are kinder, smarter and just plain better than conservatives.

Drug policy is... Dude, what was the question?

We are a nation of stoners. 16.2% of us have tried cocaine, 42.4% have smoked weed. That's just the ones who admit it. By contrast, 1.9% of Dutch have used coke and 19.8 have smoked weed. That's from a country where marijuana is legal and is supposed to be like a permanent Dead show. Shows how well the War on Drugs has worked, hasn't it?

MoveOn action July 9

Rally for an oil-free President. It'll be on the sidewalk in front of the Chevron at Mendocino and College from 5-7 pm. Bring your best sign and if you're driving by, honk if you hate gas prices!