Happy Birthday and Mourn the Disaster

Sixty years ago on this day, the British Mandate of Palestine ended and Israel gained its independence. So Happy Birthday Israel. I'll admit I'm a bit of an interesting case with Israel. I'm not Jewish, nor am I from Israel, nor am I an evangelical Christian who seems to think that Israel is needed for the return of Jesus due to an apocryphal text that people take too seriously and was actually written much after the Book of Revelation. I support Israel for a lot of reasons and its remarkable that the state has survived this long. Israel is a democracy that is the last refuge place for Jews in the world in case the worst happens again. It also needs to be the beacon of hope for those people who have no where else to go. Their free press is as remarkable as ours can be. They develop high tech advancements for the world. I admire their courts for challenging their executive branch when they need to but that doesn't mean I support their decisions all the time. For Palestinians, this day begins the Al-Naqba (Disaster). Its people's ability to view history, deny others' history, and create their own, that drives conflict. The settlements, dehumanization of people, and militarization in order to secure peace are all things I can't see helping. Two-state solution is the hope. Its funny that Ehud Olmert, once a right of the right wing of Israel, has become the hope for a two state solution. Its also ironic that he'll be brought down by a scandal that is the norm for the Bush Administration hacks. So wow 60 years and we'll probably be back to square one in a few months when crazy settlement hungry fools take over.

1. Mississippi 1! Holy crap, another goes Dem where honestly we shouldn't be winning. Congrats Travis Childers. He won big too. I would not want to be in RNC meetings today.

2. The new slogan for the Republican Party is "the change you deserve." Really? I mean Really? I don't get it. I mean, the change from the disaster you created? Over at other liberal leaning blogs, because we're all pill poppers and who need to solve their problems through medical wonders (okay not really...I mean I'm probably the only one at MBKUND that thinks pills are great and those liberal bloggers aren't pill poppers) anyway back on topic, at the other blogs, they've found that "the change you deserve" is the slogan of an anti depression med called Effexor XR aka Venaflaxine. Its supposed to help with anxiety, depression, and panic attacks. The FDA has taken issue with Effexor not being able to substantiate its claims. I find this hilarious because this Effexor can't substantiate its claims nor can the Republican Party. I love it.
3. Next presidential cycle, I want to put up a lawn chair in West Virginia and just interview people on their voting choice. Yeah Hillary won West Virginia. But these people's responses were just amazing. Hearing about not voting for the "colored" candidate or not voting for the woman is just priceless.

4. Bill O'Reilly flipping out in some old Inside Edition clip made my week. Its been removed from youtube because god forbid, you find out that Bill O'Reilly is an ego maniac wackjob with weird sexual fantasies about producers whom he pays off and assumes he's innocent because he paid her off.

5. Racist? You bet it is.

6. So, yeah, I saw a preview for Woody Allen's new movie where Scarlett Johansson and Penelope Cruz get it on...yup...you finish this on the list.

7. How does Britney Spears have a license? She hit another car again. Honestly, I don't understand this. She had her license taken away (GOOD) and they gave it back later (BAD).

No, I haven't watched How I Met Your Mother this week yet where she came back.

8. Drew Barrymore is a bad ass...okay not really but this is a bit crazy. Apparently, someone hit and run her car and she took off after him. I keep envisioning French Connection/Bourne Identity car chase. Now, is this a good idea to chase someone down after an accident? Probably not since that person might be crazy. Crazy meets crazy and boom Amy Winehouse!

9. Someone should monitor my blood pressure when HBO airs the movie Recount about Florida in 2000. Anyone sitting near me might suffer collateral damage when I throw stuff at TV and yell things that'll ensure my place in hell.

10. PLAYLIST!

1. Our House (Cover) by Jacaranda. Look for the Top Gun reference in the song.
2. Living Well is the Best Revenge by REM. Its off the new album Accelerate that's pretty good.
3. Ready to Go by Republica. I just watched the music video recently and though I get a headache watching it but I forgot I liked this song.
4. Seed 2.0 by the Roots. Yeah, I know but Olker keeps bring up the Roots.
5. Kill the Director by the Wombats. The line of "this is no Bridget Jones" is a hilarious line.
6. Switches by Drama Queen. Its good, trust me.
7. Ca Plane Por Moi by Plastic Bertrand. French rock at its best. Its actually from Belgium but its all the same...
8. New Transmission by the Lostprophets.
9. Such Great Heights (Cover) by Iron and Wine. They turned a poppy fast song into something sweet and melancholy.
10. You Can't Break a Heart and Have It by Frank Black. See it in Forgetting Sarah Marshall for a second.
11. Too Much, Too Young, Too Fast by Airbourne. Yeah it annoys me how much they rip off AC/DC. I mean seriously, no originality. That said, the song is really catchy.

Finally, go watch Doctor Who. Netflix the first season and you'll enjoy it. Its not the same doctor as it is now but its great. The Doctor is pretty much the character I'd love to be most.

Frank Sinatra died 10 years ago on this day. Swing on a star for him.

The New Transmission

Well I'm back. It took awhile. I suffered through final papers, crazy primaries (that are still going), my quarterlife crisis began last week when I turned 25 on the greatest day of the year, and I'm still livin the dream....Anyway, you may be wondering what exactly got me to this point? Actually, it was an email that Domino's Pizza sent me...Recession buster deal is the title of the email...I mean seriously, Domino's is giving economic analysis with their pizza deals and the scary part is their probably more right than most of the Republicans in power. I was just baffled and kinda just stared at the email with sardonic amusement. I felt the need to spew out my random thoughts on the world and what I've been up to for the past month.
My family invaded DC and we ate the new restaurant attached to the Newseum. It was fantastic though a bit expensive. My table was right next to Rob Lowe's which I thought was hilarious considering my 80s binge going on right now. My brother and I debated on if we were to interrupt his dinner with something. I pushed for either a St. Elmo's Fire joke or a Wayne's World joke like to recommend the creme of some young guy. My brother wanted to go all out Wayne's World and ask about Tia Carrere.
If you don't know, I'm exceedingly proud of Barack Obama. Rock on and let's go. I've got two national ads up hitting John McCain on the economy and his 100 year comment. You can view them at here and here. And with that, onto the list.

1. I'll start with this. I don't hate Hillary Clinton. I actually like her. I think she's smart, tough, and would be worthy of being President if not for Barack Obama. I actually feel sorry for her. Watching her speak after Indiana and North Carolina was a tough thing to do. I don't think she should drop out now. I'd rather it happened after Kentucky since she has a commanding but futile lead there. That said, if she forces through the Florida and Michigan delegates as they stand via changing the rules, I will not vote for her if she somehow became the candidate. I also will be very pissed if she doesn't campaign hard for Obama and allows for McCain to win so she can run in four years again. I will campaign to the ends of the Earth to halt that. Read this, its a great understanding of where we (DemocratIC Party) stand.

2. I'm going to be something of a bipartisan on this thing. Myanmar "government" FUCK YOU. How could you? They began seizing the goods the UN brought in. There's this part of me that wants to give their junta an ass kicking. I know its not a good idea but my god, an official has said that it could be 100,000 people may be dead from the cyclone. So as I said HOW COULD YOU!?

3. On that note, I was watching the First Lady on TV as she was supposed to talk about that whole public diplomacy aspect of deploying aid and what she was going to do and such. Y'know First Lady stuff. Y'know what she talked about instead? Her daughter's wedding....I can't wait till they're out of the White House. It really represents a lot of what the Bush Administration has been. Everything is about them and nothing else.

4. In case you thought the world was getting better, Hezbollah has seized western parts of Beirut in Lebanon. The civil war that really has existed in Lebanon for most of the 20th century in some way and into the 21st century is something that either Barack Obama and John McCain will have to handle. Israel will need to confront this sadly again. Every decade it seems Israel has had to attempt to stabilize Lebanon through armed force and end up making it worse.

5. Speaking of Israel, most of you know that I have a lot of interest in the region, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is/was a positive force for peace. I mean, he really did want to work for it with Abu Mazin (Mahmoud Abbas) of the Palestinians. It looks like we're entering into the post Olmert era. He's being investigated for bribery and corruption charges and it looks like that's the last straw for left, center, and right in their political spectrum. The funny thing is that the next election will have all failed former PMs running...can you imagine if former Presidents decided to run again in the US? Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George HW Bush, and even George W. Bush all running on different parties?

6. PS. Barack Obama does not = Hamas douchebags. John McCain's statement is horrific and pathetic.

7. I wonder if the right wing will pick on Cindy McCain for not releasing her tax records like they did Teresa Kerry. For the record, I was against the hesitance to release Teresa Kerry's tax records. But isn't John McCain the maverick who is about open government? I'm also wondering which of his 8 houses I like the most but aren't on his tax records. That private jet is pretty sweet too.

8. Onto more important news, a moment of silence, Scarlett Johansson is engaged to Ryan Reynolds. Good for him. Sadness for everyone else. I'm still a Natalie Portman guy if I had to choose.

9. I saw Iron Man for my birthday. What the hell are you doing if you're reading this and haven't seen it? I loved it. A great comic book movie.

10. Band that I think you should be listening to and you're probably not. The Wombats. Kill the Director is really enjoyable as is Moving to New York.

11. Amy Winehouse got arrested again...yeah I'm almost bored with her now.

12. How did Britney Spears get more visitation rights for her kids? I mean so she's got a guest spot on How I Met Your Mother and looks less crazy. Don't care, she still hasn't quite gotten past the "hey I lost my kids to an out of work back up dancer who is king of the douches."

13. Erin Andrews shares my birthday I learned recently. Once again, my day is the greatest day of the year. ESPN even talked about it. If you don't know who Erin Andrews is....google image. She may be perfect. Hot and can talk about sports. Now if she can make nonsensical pop culture references...well god damn.

14. So someone asked me recently, "would you like a girl more if she were a Cub fan?" I said it helps.

15. I hate Cedric Benson.

16. One of my room mates looks like he could be in the movie American History X.

17. I have a video camera now...beware.