No Joke, It's Friday!

Yaaaayyy! It's Friday at last, and things are NEVER dull:

1) Sound Disturbingly Familiar?: John McCain hasn't even been officially crowned king , 'er I mean nominated for the GOP and already he's on shaky ground, this time over an alleged improper relationship with a telecomm lobbyist (is there any other kind?) whose company later benefited from McCain's doing favors. Well folks, keep this in mind, McCain was part of the original Keating Five, a bunch of miscreant Senators that acted illegally on Charles Keating's behalf during the Savings and Loan Crisis of the late 80's and early 90's and if the current allegations are true, it shows that Insane McCain hasn't changed one iota! McCain did serve his country nobly as a soldier but that does NOT mean that he is fit to be President. Quite frankly, my opinion of McCain is that he'll be a COMPLETE Bush clone, granted with more brain cells, but we CANNOT afford another GOP presidency riddled by unhinged and shameless brazen incompetence, idiocy, corruption, arrogance and undue influence by lobbyists, corporations and unfriendly foreign interests like Saudi Arabia or China. Story HERE Another one where McCain defends his lobbyist ties HERE GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

2) Meanwhile, On Safari With George Bush--: Our Hapless Buffoon In Chief is currently on a five country swing through Africa, and as you can guess, he's VERY out of his element. Coming to Liberia, good 'ol GWB thought that they'd welcome him like a conquering hero. First thing he sees, a good number of people with "Obama '08" signs (ROTFLMAO!!). And as that wasn't enough, check out this VIDEO of GWB trying to "bust some moves" (or more like busted moves).

3) Vote For World's Oddest Book Titles: It's down to 6 finalists in the British publishing industry magazine "The Bookseller" contest for world's oddest book title,, for example, "Cheese Problems Solved" by P.L.H McSweeney; or "If You Want Closure in Your Relationship, Start With Your Legs" by Big Boom; see HERE for more details.

4) Bizarre Ironies #687: In Ottawa Canada, a notorious drunk driver saved his local police department a fair amount of trouble and expense by actually parking his car RIGHT AT THE POLICE STATION and wandering into the nearly empty lobby! This is CLASSIC, see story HERE

5) RIP Teo Macero 1926-2008: A jazz composer, saxophonist but most notably, a record producer like no other. Teo will be best remembered as the producer of a number of groundbreaking recordings from the late 60's to early 70's by Miles Davis. Teo and Miles worked together in a fashion that outraged some jazz purists but was truly original in the jazz realm. That is, Miles and his cohorts would record voluminous improvisations, sketches and ideas, then, with Mile's vote of confidence would edit, reassemble and reconstruct these recordings into a cohesive whole., essentially using the studio as a compositional device. Teo died after a long illness, more details HERE.

6) Further Proof The GOP As A Whole STILL Doesn't Get It: Republican Rep. Rick Renzi of Arizona got himself a nice little 26-page indictment today on extortion, wire fraud, embezzlement, money laundering, kickbacks and other charges relating to a land swap scam in AZ. OK, now let me see, this guy gets paid beau coup bucks for supposedly representing the electorate and that's STILL not enough for him? Just add him to the lengthy list of GOP criminals, miscreants, traitors and losers we've all come to know and expect. Story HERE. And a side note, I am NOT a fan or defender of the Democrats either (who I find equally as corrupt and largely amoral as the Republicans), it's just that I come down a lot harder on the Republicans because they STILL loudly and FALSELY boast that they're the good guys who stand for morality and decency. Yeah sure, and oil mixes with water.

7) The Special Circle In Hell Award-- Goes to Karl Rove, the icy, amoral, ruthless, arrogant, manipulative pile of horsecrap that was often called "Bush's Brain" (the results speak for themselves) and now, a pundit/commentator for good 'ol False News of late (not unexpected by any means). Karl has proven himself the near complete embodiment of evil time and time again between getting away scot-free in the Valerie Plame case (he was in danger of facing obstruction of justice charges among other things), his closed door speeches to college students where no media coverage is allowed whatsoever (the students and parents alike are largely reported to be none too impressed with Rove on much of anything), his hateful and arrogant reply to a question that singer Sheryl Crow asked at a White House event ("I don't work for you, I work for the American People"), and more recently, allegations surfaced from a former Republican campaign worker that Rove demanded that she get photos of former Alabama governor Don Siegelman (currently incarcerated on bribery and corruption charges) in a compromising sexual position, going to desperate lengths to prove that Siegleman was having an extramarital affair. Rove of course denies this, and no evidence of an affair was ever found. All this came to my attention by way of an AP News report by Ben Evans dated 2/22/2008. Whether Siegleman was guilty or not is not really the central issue here, but rather, the issue is that one such as Karl Rove seems to feel that it's his God-given right to manipulate, control and interfere with criminal investigations and other undertakings that could produce a favorable outcome for his whims or that of the hopelessly corrupt (and in my mind CRIMINAL) GOP. For this he definitely deserves A Special Circle In Heeeeeelllllllllllllllllllllllllllll!! More HERE

8) OK, You Can Put Your Umbrellas Away Now: Late Wednesday/early Thursday, our boys in the Navy succeeded in blasting to smithereens, the dead bus-sized spy satellite that was threatening to plummet Earthward. Great work everyone and thanks for making our skies just a bit safer! Story HERE

HAPPY FRIDAY Y'ALL!