LIMBO LOWER NOW

How low can she go?

Hillary Clinton dismissed calls again today to drop out of the race, and shocked the world by bringing up the assassination of Senator Robert Kennedy in defense of her decision!

"My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. I don't understand it," she said.

So let's understand this, shall we? Mathematically out of contention, Hillary is now saying that she is going to remain in the race just on the off chance Obama happens to get shot and killed. I mean holy mother of all things disturbing is that not one of the most fucked up rationales for ANYTHING that you've ever heard?

I can't beat you, but I am going to keep up the fight just in case you are killed. Wow. That's got to make Obama wonder just a little bit, don't ya think?

Time for the superdelegates to step forward and end this thing already. They are her last hope. She needs an overwhelming number of superdelegates to buck the trend and vote against the will of the people in order to wrest the nomination away. Something that's not likely to happen. Why don't these superdelegates go public right now so we can move on already? The drama isn't good for anyone. Pick a side already.

And let's not forget the influence of my friend Ed, who claims to be a "Super Duper Delegate." Apparently his vote counts the same as 100 superdelegates. And then there's the mega mega super duper delegate, the ultra mega mega super duper delegate, and the grandpappy of them all, Carlos Delegado. Whatever happened to voting anyhow? This whole democratic republic thing is complicated!

SAY CHEESE!

I'm sure you're familiar with Google Street View by now. If not, it's time to wake up for work...you're late! And smile when you do, because Google Street View may be cruising with a camera near you.

Basically, those ambitious Google folks decided that mapping the entire world wasn't good enough - they wanted to show pictures of what it looks like wherever you go. So they've been driving around with special cameras photographing the streets and adjacent facades of communities all over the country. In fact, you may be able to see YOUR house right now!

Needless to say, some people aren't too thrilled about the idea of giving the world instant access to images of private residences - even if the images are captured from public streets. At issue is the level of detail afforded by these pics. You can see and identify actual people in many of them.

Check out some of these scenes captured by the Google cam. We always thought it would be the government spying on us. Turns out our our Big Brother is Google nation.

TECHNOLOGY. ENTERTAINMENT. DESIGN.

If you've never seen TED, I encourage you to do so. It's one of my favorite sites and a place you will find great hope for humanity. TED is this think-tank conference that's held every year in Monterrey CA where the best and the brightest from around the world get together and share ideas. Architects. Scientists. Inventors. Musicians. Doctors. Entrepreneurs. I've been watching these short, entertaining speeches for a year now and can't get enough. There's something here for everyone.

Want to get a look at the future? See TED.

OILAHOLICS ANONYMOUS

Is anyone else LOVING these high gas prices? Fuck yeah. I hope they keep rising. Yes, seriously. Because we need to get pissed as a people. We need to open our eyes and understand what's going on in the world - and nothing gets people to open their eyes more than making them open their wallets more.

There have been voices for years telling people to drive smarter. DECADES. There have been calls for car manufacturers to develop more fuel efficient cars. There have been demands of government to explore renewable and alternative sources of energy to subsidize our national addiction to oil. But does anything ever really change? Hasn't had to...until now.

As long as there was cheap gas, all these voices were drowned out by the revving of our nation's complicit economic engine. Lawmakers continued accepting tossed salads from the oil lobbies. Carmakers ignored the worldwide trend toward fuel efficiency, promoting size and power over miles per gallon. Consumers insisted on buying Hummers and other behemoths that get 12 miles to the gallon so they could feel more powerful on the road. In today's world, it's not a comfort thing or a safety thing - it's an ego thing. And the sooner we get over ourselves, the better off we'll be.

Because today people are pissed off.

Finally.

And the American carmakers are concerned because foreign carmakers are way ahead of them in the fuel efficiency fight. And politicians are taking note that their jobs may be at stake if they don't start forcing industry to invest in alternative energy. And people are only now realizing that when they bought that massive suburban palace 45 miles from where they work, they were tethering their future economic well-being to the price of oil.

I sit in traffic on 90/94 every day to go a lousy three miles. It's a crawl, but still faster than negotiating surface streets. And while I'm idling forward at the speed of a man recovering from hip replacement surgery, I can't help but look around and think of all the poor souls who are driving far longer distances than 3 lousy miles. And they do it twice. Every day. I pass a good three or four neighborhoods to get home everyday, but most of the people I share that same road with will keep going until the city ends, then pass three or four entire suburbs before finally getting off and heading home. Meanwhile, I've had a good jog, a warm shower, and the burgers on the grill are almost done.

These high prices are a wake up call to America. Do not hit the snooze bar. Some analysts are on record as saying $12 a gallon is "inevitable." Reread that if it didn't sink in. We keep expecting the price will go down at some point - but why would it? World demand for oil is increasing as foreign economies require more to fuel their growth. And we've shown little ability to lay off the black sauce - no matter how high prices climb. Some say we can't - we built our urban and suburban communities on the availability of oil. We spread out.

We need to contract. We need to come together. Love thy neighbor again. Live closer to work. Learn to share again. Give up some of that precious space. Buy my condo - it's probably a little smaller than the master bathroom in your current house, but it's close to the beach and you might be able to walk to work.

Weaning ourselves off of oil is going to require making sacrifices. It's not going to be easy, but it's going to be necessary. I just hope you didn't hear that here first.

SPOILED ROTTEN

Wouldn't this make a sweet fucking t-shirt? That's what I'm talking about, Willis.

SWEET FADE AWAY

I am LOVING the media coverage of the Democratic Primary tonight. Apparently, Clinton is claiming to have received more total votes than Obama. Sounds like an episode of Mythbusters may be in order. Last I checked, two of the states she's trying to count in her total, Michigan and Florida, were disfuckingqualified well before the first vote was ever cast. But she's going to go ahead and count those votes anyhow - even though Obama wasn't even on the ballot in Michigan! Nice. Further she's decided not to count the states that held Caucuses instead of elections because Caucuses don't give people an opportunity to actually cast a vote. And maybe also because Obama won HUGE in the states where they held Caucuses!

What irks me to no end is how any otherwise intelligent, rational person would be able to, at least with a straight face, get up in front of thousands of people and make a claim so transparently contrived and inaccurate! How does she do it? With conviction! Meanwhile, she's thanking the Kentucky Fried Working Class voters for another big victory. She's been campaigning there all week...I'm actually surprised she didn't do better. The headlines on all the news channels report "Hillary wins big in Kentucky." That's not news in a state full of old, white, working class people. We just saw her lean on that same base in West Virginia.

Here's some news: "Obama blows off Kentucky and still gets 30% of the vote." Amazing, really.

Here's a question for you. Do you suppose there are more people who won't vote for HIllary because she is a woman than people who won't vote for Barack because he is black? This keeps me up at night. Do the two cancel each other out? How can you poll something like that? Would anyone actually admit to NOT voting for someone because of their ethnicity or gender? We know it's happening - but how much of it is really going on? We also know people are voting FOR Hillary because she is a woman and FOR Barack because he is black. Do these votes cancel out? And why do only a third of Clinton supporters say they'll vote for Obama if he wins the nomination? Who are the other two thirds and what's their issue with the O Bomb? Would they really abandon the ticket out of spite and sentence America to another 4 years of Republican misdirection? Pull your heads out of your asses and get with the program. We're bringing change, people. And he's got a sweet fade away jumper.

OVER THE HILL

Hillary Clinton proved herself Mountain Mama of West Virginia with a landslide 2-to-1 victory over Barack Obama Tuesday night. To pull of this crushing victory, Clinton relied heavily upon her base of poor, undereducated white racists.

Again and again, state after state, Clinton has proved her appeal to this important segment - a large group of democratic voters many believe will not support for Obama when he is crowned the party's nominee, no matter how white his mother was.

Indeed, Clinton's strategy in recent weeks has been to stress the importance of capturing the broken hearts and polluted minds of poor, undereducated white racist voters - going so far as to say Obama cannot become president without their blessing.

The numbers actually support her.

In contest after contest, poor undereducated white racists overwhelmingly support Clinton. Better educated people of all races, meanwhile, have been gradually gravitating toward Obama.

Obama's campaign admits his appeal to downtrodden whites with ties to the Klan is not where they would like it to be, but says he will continue reaching out despite their generations-old bias against people of color.

The Clinton campaign also issued a statement saying that their victory in West Virginia was not the work of poor, undereducated white racists, but rather thanks to her two other key constituent groups, older Americans and blue-collar workers.

But according to a well-known democratic strategist who wished to remain anonymous, "That's just another way of saying the same thing. In West Virginia, 98% of older Americans and working-class people happen to be poor, undereducated white racists."

So there you have it.

MOW BETTA BLUES

Mow, mow, mow your lawn...gently down the stream.

Now that's dedication, friends. Or OCD.

OIL IS A NON-PROFIT VENTURE

According to big oil, no one is making a dime off those astronomical prices, so I guess we should all quit our bitching...

INTERNATIONAL ESTATES

Location, location, location. Have a look see at what your money will get for you in the U.S. real estate market versus other places in the world. It's no wonder homes here aren't selling - look what you can get if you think outside the country!

HILLARY MEANS CHANGE!

And cash. If this guy gets a contactless reader he'll be processing credit card transactions at the speed of latte.

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BARACK

BIG NEWS!

Case in point: Our media has fucked up priorities. This is a screen cap from TODAY. This is why the Reverend Wright story gets so much play - the media has nothing else to report! They're now covering wildlife emergencies. At least they found something to focus on besides the controversial ramblings of a man with an opinion. Last I checked we're allowed to have those. And Obama has stated he does not agree with many of Wright's opinions. So let's fucking move on already. Do we really need 24/7 OpEd coverage on cable news debating the authenticity of his denouncement? Who's setting the editorial agenda over there every morning?

Here's what you need to know. Obama has sealed up the nomination. It's virtually impossible for Clinton to mount any kind of an argument for the nomination when he leads her in votes, pledged delegates, states, and coolness. There are dozens of superdelegates lined up to pledge their support to Obama - it's just a matter of time before the casket closes on Hill & Bill.

In the mean time, the media is forced to manufacture controversy. This is not a good thing. It keeps us from focusing on the important differences between what Obama is offering America and John McSame's tired talking points. McSame was recently asked on a Sunday morning talk program about universal health care coverage and why it wouldn't work here. He revealed his ignorance on the topic with the rhetorical retort: "Well, look at Canada." Actually, John, looking at Canada would be an argument in FAVOR of universal health care...not against it, because it WORKS QUITE WELL IN CANADA. In fact, it works quite well in EVERY country that has it!

But the Republican talking points memorandum on Universal Health Care is to make the presumptive argument that it's not working in other countries by saying "Look at [other country]." Very clever. But thanks to Michael Moore's brilliant documentary on the state of health care in this country, we're onto the lie.

Why can't the mainstream media spend more time uncovering the truth behind some of these political falsehoods instead of peppering our attention with manufactured controversies and breaking news stories about pelicans stuck in trees?

IF THE MEDIA IS THE MESSAGE...

...WE NEED TO KILL THE MESSENGER. Here's further proof that the 4th estate is complicit in our slow and steady collapse. They decide what is "news" and what to bury. The result is a blind, ignorant American population overdosing on a steady infusion of celebrity gossip and melodrama.

According to Media Matters:

"Since The New York Times reported on the hidden ties between media military analysts and the Pentagon on April 20, the three major broadcast networks -- ABC, CBS, and NBC -- have still not mentioned the report at all, according to a Media Matters for America search* of the Nexis news database. Times reporter David Barstow wrote that "the Bush administration has used its control over access and information in an effort to transform" these military analysts, many of whom have clients with an interest in obtaining Pentagon contracts, "into a kind of media Trojan horse -- an instrument intended to shape terrorism coverage from inside the major TV and radio networks." As Media Matters noted, the three networks also reportedly declined to participate in a segment on the April 24 edition of PBS' NewsHour regarding the Times story; Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC also refused to appear in the PBS segment.

"By contrast, during their April 28 evening newscasts, all three broadcast networks reported on the Vanity Fair photo of Miley Cyrus, star of Disney Channel's Hannah Montana: ABC devoted about two and a half minutes to that story, while CBS and NBC each devoted about two minutes to it."

Just wanted to bring that to the attention of a wider audience.

AROUND THE BLOCK

Here's a great timewaster. See how long you can avoid the blue blocks and black walls. Apparently 18 seconds is pretty amazing. I managed to get to 18.422 once after about a dozen or so tries. There's definitely a learning curve once you recognize the pattern.

THE WORDS OF THE PROPHETS...

...were written on the subway walls and tenement halls.

TWO WOLVES

Thanks to Greg for passing along this insightful bit of folk wisdom:

TWO WOLVES

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, 'My son, the battle is between two 'wolves' inside us all.

One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.'

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: 'Which wolf wins?'

The old Cherokee simply replied, 'The one you feed.'

TIMEWASTER OF THE WEEK

This game is addictive as hell.

You've been warned!

WHO TALL ARE YOU?

Love the concept here. And they put it on a mirror so you are sure to remember that, while you may be the same height as your favorite celebrity, you remain far less attractive. Go ahead...have a closer look!

TALK ABOUT THE PASSION

So I watched the Passion of the Christ this morning. Yes, this morning.

I get those Blockbuster.com DVD movies in the mail and it was kicking around, so I threw it in and gave it a go.

I have to say - good movie, but probably not the best way to get started in the morning. Wow. And definitely not with a glass of tomato juice. The savage brutality was hard to stomach. It was almost as bad as that cheerleader ambush video they've been glorifying on the nightly news.

Actually, toward the end of the gruesome flick I started recognizing a lot of parallels between the Passion of the Christ and the Crashing of the Spears. Britney, that is. Here we have this pop princess, widely revered as a cultural demi-god, held under a microscope, taunted and provoked by a bloodthirsty mob of paparazzi, collapsing under the pressure repeatedly and to the great satisfaction of the ignorant, unforgiving masses. And the relentless, bloodthirsty mob isn't content to see her suffer. No - they won't be content until the icon has been sacrificed to the great kingdom of Hollywood. And that day is coming.

But I digress. What I really wanted to say was, I recommend the film, but not at 8am. And not while you're eating.