Ladies and Gents

I am confident that this will make the rounds and you'll see it elsewhere, but regardless, I give you Rep. Anthony Fuckin' Weiner.

Here's the bill that went down in defeat. All Republicans are fuckers.

Friday Random Ten

The Deepest Blues Are Black -- Foo Fighters
It's Over -- Tom Waits
She Speaks -- Paul Weller
Nausea -- Beck
Country Mile -- Camera Obscura
At Least That's What You Said -- Wilco
Colossal -- Wolfmother
California English -- Vampire Weekend
A Man In Love -- Nick Lowe
Rollercoaster -- Sleater-Kinney

Bonus low humidity cut:

At The Chocolate Bon Bon Ball -- Leon Redbone

Ben Keith

Neil Young's pedal steel player for dozens of years passed away this week. He also played on this cut with which you you might be familiar.

Hey, you oil rich kids!

Get offa my lawn!

Ebert explains my sentiment.

Why We Fight

We fight so that cheating, lying fuckwads like this guy can scam investors, blow it all on hookers and outrageous extravagance and ride the scree of blood and war to soil the treasure they used to call America.

Howzat for a run-on sentence, eh?

Plus, his name is actually David Brooks. It's like a double word score of fail.

James Franco

As many of you may be aware, I have a funny bone soft spot for stoner dudes in movies. My most recent fave is James Franco's performance in Pineapple Express. Go rent it.

In any case, GG and I are big fans of his and New York Magazine has a terrific profile of Franco in his month's edition. He's a scream.

Frank Rich

Nobody does it better than Frank Rich.

Frankly, (pun intended), I was tired of the Shirley Sherrod story before it began so I wasn't going to post anything about it. It just gives further false cover to the Faux News crew and their ilk.

But when Frank rolls in a nice Mad Men reference, how could I resist?...

Sarah Palin

Bloody feckin' brilliant!

Barry Crimins

Thanks to a link from good old Jim Wolcott, I found this simultaneously comedic and horrifying account of the state of health care in this nation from Barry Crimmins.

I've read his stuff before in the online version of the Boston Phoenix and on Salon and he's one funny M-F. Sadly, this piece is nearly too sad to laugh, but fortunately, they haven't taken that capacity away from Barry just yet.

The horror...the horror

The thing that would not leave.

Friday Random Ten

My Chemical Romance "Teenagers" from Logan Hefflefinger on Vimeo.

Blink And You'll Miss It -- Paul Weller
Modern Love -- David Bowie
Ziggy Stardust -- David Bowie
I'll Work For Your Love -- Bruce Springsteen
Come Back Jonee -- DEVO
Right Now -- Mark Knopfler & Emmylou Harris
Yesterday -- The Iguanas
Lose To Win -- Colin Hay
Teenagers -- My Chemical Romance
Outsiders -- Franz Ferdinand

Bonus muggy day cut...

Love At First Sight -- XTC

Paint It Black

A Nation turns out the lights...

Juan Cole

Dr. Cole "refudiates" the former Governor of Alaska. It's like shooting fish in a barrel.

Heathers

simpsons parody of mad men | izlesene.com

I've been reading Heather Havrilesky for a while now on Salon. She's an okay writer but her stuff really shines when she's decoding the mysteries of AMC's Mad Men.

Here's her guide for the beginning of Season 4...

Give 'em enough rope

Thankfully, Frank Rich is still on the payroll of the NYTs and can distill humor and insight from the dross that is Mel Gibson.

I distinctly recall Mel's hatred of Frank Rich during that whole Passion of The Christ shtick and it's great to see it bounce back hard on ol' Mad Max and his band of right wing goons.

Friday Random Ten

Problems -- Sex Pistols
Learnt My Lesson Well -- Kaiser Chiefs
Big Weenie -- Eminem
Punchlines -- Mates Of State
Wild Honey Pie -- The Beatles
The Bird That You Can't See -- Apples In Stereo
Vision Of Division -- Strokes
Dark As The Dungeon -- Johnny Cash
Sister Disco -- The Who
Tragedy By Definition -- John Doe

Harvey Pekar...American

My pal, Mike, over at Prospect Music, sent this to me this afternoon.

Funnily enough, Anthony Bourdain was among the first things I thought of when I heard that Harvey has passed yesterday. If you haven't seen the No Reservations episode where Bourdain visits Michael Ruhlman in Cleveland, you should, it's terrific. I can't find the whole thing online so here's a taste from the utoob.

I've always been a fan of the anti-hero. Kerouac, Bukowski, Tom Waits, Nelson Algren, Billy Bragg.

Harvey Pekar was among, if not at the top of that list.

I think I read my first American Splendor around '80 or '81 and have read most, if not all of his work and own several of the books. Harvey Pekar was a very funny man and as Bourdain says in his quite brilliant coda to Harvey's life, "He was famed as a "curmudgeon", a "crank" and a "misanthrope" yet found beauty and heroism where few others even bothered to look. In a post-ironic and post-Seinfeldian universe he was the last romantic--his work sincere, heartfelt, alternately dead serious and wryly affectionate. The last man standing to wonder out loud, "what happened here?"

So long, Harvey. Sniff.

Harvey

I'm crushed. Very sad day for the Cleve...

Why we will lose

No way the United States has this kind of foresight.

Dr. Juan Cole documents the intellectual muscle of the Germans and the continued slide of 'Murka into the abyss...

Matt Taibbi

Brother Dave hipped me to this blistering assessment of The Decision.

Wow. Taibbi nails it now and forever.