Trekkies Bash New Star Trek Film

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Obama Has ‘Em Laughin’!

President Barack Obama brought the house down at the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner, in sharp contrast to the efforts of his predecessor:

Obama’s routine gathered pace with jokes about the rightwing press, the Bush administration and his erstwhile presidential adversary Hillary Clinton. He told the assembled journalists: “Most of you covered me. All of you voted for me.” Acknowledging dissent from one table, he hastily added: “Apologies to Fox.”

Obama also apologised for the absence of Dick Cheney, explaining that the former vice-president was hard at work on his memoirs which, he said, were provisionally entitled “How to shoot friends and interrogate people” – a reference to Cheney’s hunting mishaps and the ­evidence-gathering techniques of George Bush’s security services.

His swine-flu inspired shot at secretary of state Clinton, was, by comparison, relatively tame. “These days we could not be closer. In fact, the second she got back from Mexico, she pulled me into a hug and said I should go down there myself.”

Officially More Progressive Than California

Jon Stewart’s take on the Iowa State Supreme Court’s decision on gay marriage:

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I heart Jon Stewart.

Time For Some Campaignin’

The election may be over, but I just couldn’t resist reposting this animation on this blog.

Gays Should Protest Black People

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No, of course I don’t mean it. It’s a satirical line from the Colbert Report, all the more stinging given the number of news reports Colbert references which unquestioningly lift the misleading CNN exit poll data about homophobic Californian ballot measure Proposition 8.

Dan Savage raises some interesting points in the exchange, but I can’t help but wonder whether his flippant comment about older people is part of the problem. If you just sit by and say you’ll outlast your opponents because they’ll simply die off, how surprised will you be (in an aging society) when they last quite a long time indeed?

Obama won his election in part from having reached out into religious and racial communities not historically attuned to a black candidate for high office. The gay community should follow his example, whether or not the California Supreme Court strikes Prop 8 down. Social change is not embedded through legal evolution alone – hearts and minds have to be won. Dan Savage is very funny talking to Stephen Colbert, who identifies many of the issues in play between Mormons and the gay community, but Savage ignores the fact that his argument of ‘you can’t be pro-gay and anti-gay-marriage’ needs to be justified to many people. Just because he can see the automatic logic in that statement doesn’t mean everyone else can, particularly if they have a religion interfering with their judgment.

Hillary: Obama Has Failed to Deliver Change!

Obama’s only been president-elect for five days, but Hillary’s on the attack already!

“My fellow Americans, I admire Barack Obama, but in his first 20 minutes as president-elect, he has failed time and time again to deliver the change he promised,” the former Democratic presidential candidate said at a small rally in Harlem.

…continues…

Palin vs McCain

In the runup to their inevitable defeat a week on Tuesday, things are getting tense between angry John McCain and his crazy running mate Sarah Palin:

Even as John McCain and Sarah Palin scramble to close the gap in the final days of the 2008 election, stirrings of a Palin insurgency are complicating the campaign’s already-tense internal dynamics.

Four Republicans close to Palin said she has decided increasingly to disregard the advice of the former Bush aides tasked to handle her, creating occasionally tense situations as she travels the country with them. Those Palin supporters, inside the campaign and out, said Palin blames her handlers for a botched rollout and a tarnished public image — even as others in McCain’s camp blame the pick of the relatively inexperienced Alaska governor, and her public performance, for McCain’s decline.

“She’s lost confidence in most of the people on the plane,” said a senior Republican who speaks to Palin, referring to her campaign jet. He said Palin had begun to “go rogue” in some of her public pronouncements and decisions.

“I think she’d like to go more rogue,” he said.

It’s hard to see the woman going more rogue to be frank. This isn’t about the wardrobe, this isn’t about the moose shooting or even Troopergate (which hasn’t had anywhere near the impact it should have). This is about a candidate who is utterly unqualified to be president, should the man at the top of the ticket die (and he’s still refusing to release his medical records). She’s memorised talking points, but abundantly clearly doesn’t have a clue what she’s talking about – she still doesn’t even know what the Vice President does. The Republican Party thought Rovian identity/wedge politics would work again this year in their pick, McCain didn’t even give the pick any thought, and the whole strategy turned into a mess. Justin Webb puts it quite well:

The interviews have been awful: that’s not media bias, it’s incompetence, hers to an extent but the party’s for letting it happen.

Anyway, John McCain’s response to the Palin insurgency can be seen in the video below:

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The Vet Who Did Not Vet

(via Andrew Sullivan)

“Sarah Palin – WTF?”

Priceless.

Bush and Palin Fun

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Tina Fey, in what must be one of her final regular appearances as Sarah Palin – the VP pick now destined to destroy the McCain candidacy, which so many months ago looked viable (if unwelcome). It’s not a Bush endorsement which has sunk them – it’s McCain’s recklessness and Palin’s ignorant megalomania which have together helped position Obama to take the presidency in just over a week’s time.

Sarah you’ve been entertaining in the most absurd way, but you’re just not electable (even though the current Mayor of Wasilla thinks she is too…):

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Simon’s Cat

For those of you who don’t already know, I’m Cosmodaddy because I’m the daddy of a two year old kitty named Cosmo. And I just bumped into the funniest kitty animation in history.

It couldn’t be more true if it tried – it might as well be my Cosmo. Tell all your friends about this – they’ll die with laughter too, I promise! I’m off to watch the others in the series…