Voting With the Little Hood

Okay, okay, I'm sorry for the seriousness of the previous post, and to make it up to you, offer this instead...

Quiet Sunday Morning Daily Double of Head-Exploding News

As a public service on a quiet Sunday morning, I present two under-reported bits of news that you haven't heard, but may have liked to:

1. Bizarre stories are circulating that Palin's 4-month-old son may actually be her grandson. If true, did Palin really think this would remain hidden while running for VP?! This is a huge story with lots of sympathetic characters. It's also a story that should, by all rights, remain private and within the family. However, the office Palin seeks does not allow such secrets to remain so private (i.e. Bill Clinton). Thus, any news media that chooses to pursue this had better get all their facts straight, their Ts crossed, and their I's dotted. The story is the lies and deception by a hypocritical politician choosing to be a heartbeat away from the Presidency and the terrible vetting process by a presidential campaign desperate for a woman on the ticket, not the fact that mothers protect their daughters, or that 16-year-old girls have sex.

Update: The McCain campaign has told the world that the daughter is five months pregnant. So anyone who can do MonthMath should figure out that the infant, who was born in April, couldn't be hers. Of course, we all should hear that she gave birth four months from now, and not six months... or seven... [oooh, how cynical!]

2. Remember that assassination plot on Barack Obama's life that was reported last Tuesday to be non-credible because it was hatched by meth heads? Wrong. It was a very serious plot hatched by right-wing racists and career criminals with rifles and scopes and ambitions. Why was it downplayed by Bush's US Attorney, who briefed the press and spewed skepticism and dismissiveness, which then deep-sixed the story? I have some ideas, but will leave the speculation up to you.

Both of these stories should receive more attention over the coming days... though the RNC/Hurricane Gustav tag-team will suck up all the oxygen in the room. Don't hold your breath...

Update: It now being suggested that Palin was a "straw-woman" choice to draw attention away from Barack Obama and his spectacular speech Thursday evening. After a few days of gradually increasing media mania, this "black helicopter" theory goes, Palin will withdraw from the race, martyred and famous, and McCain will appoint his main man, Tim 'Milquetoast' Pawlenty, who wasn't going to distract the media quite like Palin could. Just a theory. Let's watch...

Update to the Update: The McCain campaign appears to be digging its toes in on Palin, and the odds that Palin will withdraw before the Nov. 4 election are now 8:1 -- pretty good, actually. Hopefully, the cynicism behind these kinds of theories dies an unnatural death.

I Believe

Ever since my years at University of Arizona's College of Architecture, where I learned about landscape architect Lawrence Halprin and how he carried around a notebook that he would jot thoughts into -- thoughts he called TIBs for "This I Believe" -- I've loved that particular phrase.

Here is a new political ad scheduled to debut in Oregon soon that relies heavily on the phrase, "I believe..."

One, Two, Three -- Yup, Three

For those of you who have been asking for Howard to update his blog, I present a photo from the 2008 Olympics. I call it Three Great Asses:


And what the hell is W doing? Could he be making... shadow puppets?! And what's up with that pose by Beach Volleyball Gold Medalist Misty May-Treanor?!

I don't WANT to know. In this case, ignorance is bliss. Hence, the appropriateness that our Prez is involved.

Casting shadow puppets on the lower back of a Gold Medal volleyballer in front of an international audience. Yeah, it's good to be king.