The Mother of All Freudian Slips

From CNN.com:

President Bush offered up a new entry for his catalog of "Bushisms" on Thursday, declaring that his administration will "never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people."

Now I'm sure that his defenders/apologists will attribute this to an innocent slip of the tongue, but I find it terribly revealing. I mean, it's TRUE, isn't it? The hilarious thing about this slip is that it is so damned ironic. Bush IS harmful to our country, and given another four years, I am CERTAIN he and his handlers will indeed "never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people." Someone should really, really, really use this in an anti-Bush ad. Really.

FactCheck.org: Internet "Whispering Campaigns" Falsely Accuse Teresa Heinz Kerry

Just in case you've heard about, or received, one of those emails purportedly detailing claims that Teresa Heinz Kerry supports "radical" groups, check out FactCheck.org's, well, fact-checking of this whispering campaign here.

The gist, just in case you are click-averse:

"Bogus e-mail messages claim she's given millions to "radical" groups, some linked to terrorists, and located Heinz factories overseas. Both claims are false."

Media Matters for America: FOX aired significantly less of Dem convention speeches than other cables

During the Democratic National Convention, Media Matters for America monitored coverage by FOX News Channel, CNN, and MSNBC and calculated the amount of time each aired convention speeches live. FOX News Channel aired one hour and 16 minutes less of speeches from the convention live than did CNN and one hour and 47 minutes less than did MSNBC.

Here is the report.

Whole Lotta Swelling Goin' On

Paul Krugman gets it. He's one of the few journalists who either sees the proverbial forest for the trees, or is honest enough to let us in on it. In this op-ed piece, he details, and decries, the horribly slanted coverage by the cable news nets of the Democratic convention.

I worry that what I did, watching the convention every night via C-SPAN, is unusual. I worry about this because while I saw stirring, riveting, right-on speeches, the coverage and punditry I read about afterwards depicted another convention altogether. I think it's a shame, for example, that most people are only HEARING about Barack Obama's career-making speech. And I am disgusted that Al Sharpton's rousing (to put it mildly) speech is being so belittled.

But one thing they couldn't do (so far) is marginalize Kerry's home run. I think it's particularly telling that, days later, 20,000 people came to see him in nearby Grand Rapids, while less than a quarter of that showed up to see Bush when he was there just a few days before. Grand Rapids, BTW, is considered one of the most conservative, Republican areas of this mostly blue state.

And during my run last night, I lost count of the Kerry lawn signs I spotted. But I didn't see a single Bush sign (of course, if I DID, I would destroy it quite joyfully). In fact, I also look for car stickers and I have only seen three so far (margin of error: +/- 1 sticker). Of course, I wasn't running through the $200,000+ per-year neighborhoods, but rather was close to campus, passing student and faculty homes. Still, my heart swelled at the sight of each and every Kerry sign. And there was a lot of swelling going on.

Boy, that sounded naughty.

I ordered my own lawn sign last week, but my last experience with demstore.com leads me to believe I'll likely receive my order in mid-November. Last time, I ordered a bunch of Howard Dean stuff in late December, and I received it a month later. And, of course, this was the four week period where he went from presumed nominee to screaming also-ran.

Still, I give them 50-50 odds of getting this stuff to me sometime before the election. I am...optimistic.

Fresh Air Interview with Bill Maher

This afternoon, Terry Gross had a terrific interview with Bill Maher on NPR's Fresh Air. And thanks to the good old Internet, you can listen to it here.

Tips: You will need to have RealOne Player installed and have your sound up, but not too loud. :)

For Sale: 1978 Chevrolet Scottsdale Pickup

Short notice, but if you are in the market for a like-new, yet 26-year-old pickup truck, my dad has listed one from his collection on ebay. Check it out here.

Jibber Jabber

So I was sitting out on the front porch this afternoon, lost in a somewhat bored reverie, if there can truly be such a thing, and I was thinking, among other things, about all the pre-school year purchases I've made over the last few weeks. And it occurred to me that a great deal of it, i.e. any purchases not dedicated to stocking up for the coming school year, contribute either to attempts at attracting women or reverting to childhood. If I'm not buying cologne or clothes, it's Puma Clydes, analog video games, or eighties concert shirts. Call it a breakthrough. I guess. Oh well. Whatever. ...She blinded me with science?

I'm also trying to decide if I want to go to Chicago next weekend. My friend Jason is kind of up for this trip, and it's been over a year since I've spent any time at all there, other than driving in for a concert and immediately driving back home again. I lived there for four years, but I now have mixed feelings about the city. It amazes me that it was NINE YEARS AGO that I moved there, especially as I already felt, even then, in the twilight of my youth, as Ryan Adams puts it. But my years in Chicago were positively filled with the requisite struggle and turmoil and depression that are de rigeur for one's twenties. And the ghosts of my unhappiness from those times lurk around every corner. Just like when I go up to Cadillac to see my dad, I feel like my unhappy, adolescent self, when I am in Chicago, I do not feel like the 2004 model of myself. Instead, I feel like 1996 Andy, fronting like he's not. I like the current model and am quite happy with it. But I am still drawn to the thought of visiting Chicago, perhaps for the same reason we listen to the Smiths (or whatever) when we are sad. Because it hurts...wait for it...so good. Heh.

In other news, John Kerry's going to be in Grand Rapids tomorrow morning, but I am needed here. Luckily, since our fair state appears to be evenly divided between intelligent, aware, informed voters and fucking retards and/or assholes, I'm sure it won't be his last visit before November. A visit to Mount Pleasant seems, of course, highly unlikely, but Lansing seems like a sure bet. And that's nothing! Hell, I was there Friday even!

Only 499 hits to this blog during the month of July. The previous month it was twice that. Must've been a busy month. There was all that TCW traffic, I suppose. Oh well. Whatever. ...Talk about! ...pop muzik!

I just spent $335 on books for this, my last semester. And people are beginning to move back to town already. Classes start in four weeks. Woo? Yeah, I suppose. I am certainly enjoying my summer, but this promises to be an eventful year and I look forward to getting into the thick of it.

Hasta!

Soundtrack: Her Space Holiday - Manic Expressive

Straight Talk! from the White House West

Ho boy! Check this out. Yessiree, that Will Farrell sure is funny.