Part 1

Part 2

We’ve come to a point where every four years this national fever rises up & this hunger for the Saviour, the White Knight, the Man on Horseback & and whoever wins becomes so immensely powerful, like Nixon is now, that when you vote for President today you’re talking about giving a man dictatorial power for four years. I think it might be better to have the President sort of like the King of England & or the Queen & and have the real business of the presidency conducted by… a City Manager-type, a Prime Minister, somebody who’s directly answerable to Congress, rather than a person who moves all his friends into the White House and does whatever he wants for four years. The whole framework of the presidency is getting out of hand. It’s come to the point where you almost can’t run unless you can cause people to salivate and whip each other with big sticks. You almost have to be a rock star to get the kind of fever you need to survive in American politics.

A Stars Hollow Gazette Tradition

Solidarity Forever

Oh how the mighty have fallen, which would be just about everyone after Jenson Button on pole.  Webber and Rosberg (both on Renault) had gearbox problems that dropped them 5 positions and Maldonado had a mix up with Hulkenberg that put him back 3.

Lewis Hamilton put on the wrong wing yesterday and now he’s stuck with it, Vettel and Massa were just slooow.

Tires today are Hards and Mediums.  Button has a set of unused Mediums in the bag over the rest of the field.  The weather is expected to be dry and perfect.  At 4.35 miles it is the longest circuit in Formula One and is considered twisty, hilly, and fast.

• Formula One Official Site
• Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps
• Belgian Gran Prix
• Guardian Interactive Circuit Guide
• Speed Racecast
• F1 2012: Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps Qualifying

Speed coverage starts at 8 am.  Repeat at 12:30 am.  Pretty tables below.

A person who built that (:30)

A person who built that (Full)

Part 1

Part 2- Ann

There are times, however, and this is one of them, when even being right feels wrong. What do you say, for instance, about a generation that has been taught that rain is poison and sex is death? If making love might be fatal and if a cool spring breeze on any summer afternoon can turn a crystal blue lake into a puddle of black poison right in front of your eyes, there is not much left except TV and relentless masturbation. It’s a strange world. Some people get rich and others eat shit and die.

This weekend I’m going to be featuring some of the analysis and interviews from The Daily Show and The Colbert Report related to the Republican National Convention.

You may think it’s odd that an old greezer like me (and at 120, I’m much older than Clint Eastwood) gets his news online from a basic cable comedy show.  Well let me tell you Emily and Richard are so old that they got their news from the Post Office Gazette.

In colonial times overland communications was just beginning to get established and even before Ben Franklin an enterprising man named John Campbell had set up a delivery service from Boston to New York.  Local Postmasters, who were frequently Innkeepers too, would scan the letters before passing them on and print up the juicy bits which they would sell as newspapers.

The sudden popularity of sealing wax led to more formal arrangements for obtaining content, but the tradition was well established.  Indeed one of the onerous (and intended) effects of the Stamp Act was to penalize the publication of information and restrict communication as well as raise revenue.  Fortunately the alternative press had not been forgotten and soon ‘British’ Postmasters were under a serious commercial threat.

Oh and sometimes the boys at the bar would get all liquored up on Sam Adams and bust the place up a bit just for fun.  Our founders were Revolutionaries, dont forget that.

So yeah, I consider it as newsy as anything else on basic cable.

The TV business is uglier than most things. It is normally perceived as some kind of cruel and shallow money trench through the heart of the journalism industry, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs, for no good reason.

Journalism is not a profession or a trade. It is a cheap catch-all for fuckoffs and misfits — a false doorway to the backside of life, a filthy piss-ridden little hole nailed off by the building inspector, but just deep enough for a wino to curl up from the sidewalk and masturbate like a chimp in a zoo-cage.

There are 3 basic divisions in content- Interviews, Commentary, and Correspondant Reports.  I’m going to try and highlight some of the web-exclusive material, but I’ll not attempt to be comprehensive.  Visit their sites for complete episodes.

Tampa- The Greatest City In America

Who knows? If there is in fact, a heaven and a hell, all we know for sure is that hell will be a viciously overcrowded version of Phoenix & a clean well lighted place full of sunshine and bromides and fast cars where almost everybody seems vaguely happy, except those who know in their hearts what is missing… And being driven slowly and quietly into the kind of terminal craziness that comes with finally understanding that the one thing you want is not there. Missing. Back-ordered. No tengo. Vaya con dios. Grow up! Small is better. Take what you can get…

I have always believed that a man can fairly be judged by the standards and taste of his choices in matters of high-level plagiarism.- Stockton

Hard to believe it’s already been 5 weeks since Hungaroring but for the first 2 we had the XXX Olympiad to amuse us.  They take their vacations seriously which is why there was a lot of development work just before mid-season most of which they’ve still been unable to test except during racing because of the execrable weather.

Practice at Spa was just like that with very little track time at all and that using the Wets and Inters.  Lotus has a new passive F-Duct (spoils the airflow over the rear wing reducing drag and downforce) they’ve never gone fast enough to use.

So qualifying as always is a crapshoot, Spa itself is considered one of the fastest tracks on the circuit when it’s not raining which it usually is.  Rapid elevation changes can starve the engines of oil and cause failures.  Massa’s engine blew up in P1, but it was race used and there was no penalty.

While it’s fair enough to call this mid-season, the majority of races have already been run and there is a certain urgency for Teams that feel they are in contention to improve their positions or stave off rivals.  To me the story line at the top is whether Alonso can continue to make that piece of junk he’s driving look good and Red Bull will continue its malaise.  McLaren as always could be great if their race management wasn’t so damn stupid and Lotus is putting a ton of work into breaking the top 3.  Mercedes waves it’s hands in the air and just dosn’t care, Force India keeps thinking they can steal one.  The announcers will continue to sentimentally root Williams but they are years away.

Counting this there are 9 races left in 13 weeks before the end of the season on November 25th.  Spa and Monza next week are the last ones in Europe.

The full slate of Speed support broadcasts, Debrief, Practice, and Qualifying will be repeated Sunday morning from 12:30 to 4:30 with the GP 2 race starting at 6 am and the Belgian Gran Prix at 8.

• Formula One Official Site
• Speed Racecast

In 10 pretty painless minutes.

Well Ann Romney is still the best speaker overall with Huckabee clearly second and Rice and Ryan about tied.  Christie slides to 5th just ahead of Pawlenty.  Everyone else is reality show bad or worse.

Remember my points are given on presentation not substance so the fact that Ryan’s speech was such a comprehensive compendium of lies that even inoffensive little words like ‘a’, ‘and’, and ‘the’ were overwhelmed by the onslaught is immaterial to the score.

Of course tonight we have our special super secret guest speaker which rumors say will be Clint Eastwood.  I must say if true I consider this a mistake from 2 standpoints.  Firstly I’m not sure ‘Dirty Harry’ Callahan is sufficiently ardent for the Party at this particular stage and secondly he’ll make Romney look bad.  He’s already going to have competition enough from Jeb Bush who wouldn’t even be on the stage except for his institutional strength.

I think actually that will be the speech to watch tonight.  Jon is not kidding when he calls this a rehearsal for ’16 because no one with any brains (and I had to set the bar that low to include the Villager Idiots) thinks there is a path to electoral victory for Mitt.  What we have seen so far is the chaotic evil of the id raging anti-fairies (Fairly Odd Parents, I stand by my metaphor), Jeb is the face of the soul sucking pixies and they own this town.

There are reports that ratings are tanking and the enthusiasm among the delegates distinctly down.  Other factors are contributing (Isaac) and will no doubt be blamed by those looking for excuses, but what I’m feeling is a huge emotional black hole at the center of all of this and his name is Barack Obama.

Reagan was sunshiny optimism and hope on a hill.  He had goals, evil goals but still goals.  These guys have nothing but hate, resentment, and fear.  They won’t talk about their program for America because people justifiably don’t like it.  Huge majorities, even in their own party.

However Democrats are just as bad.  One of the reasons Paul Ryan is an evil hypocritical liar is that he voted against the Bowles/Simpson report.  We should be thanking him instead.

The politicians are afraid of democracy.  Since 2006 every election has been a “change” election and attrition has replaced many of the less firmly entrenched.  There is no reason not to expect this trend to continue until conditions improve.

I’ve been watching the action on CSPAN and I highly recommend it as complete and mercifully pundit free.

7:00 p.m.

• Convention convenes
• Call to order
• Introduction of Colors US Central Command Joint Forces Color Guard Team
• Pledge of Allegiance by Dylan Nonaka
• National Anthem sung by SEVEN
• Invocation by Ken and Priscilla Hutchins

• Remarks by U.S. Rep. Connie Mack (FL)
• Reagan Legacy Video
• Remarks by Newt and Callista Gingrich
• Remarks by Craig Romney

8:00 p.m.

• Remarks by Governor former Jeb Bush (FL)
• Remarks by Bob White, chairman of Romney for President campaign
• Remarks by Grant Bennett
• Remarks by Tom Stemberg

9:00 p.m.

• Remarks by former Massachusetts Lt. Governor Kerry Healey
• Remarks by Jane Edmonds, former Massachusetts Secretary of Workforce
• Remarks by Olympians Michael Eruzione, Derek Parra and Kim Rhode

10:00 p.m.

• Remarks by U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (FL)
• Remarks by presidential nominee Mitt Romney
• Benediction by Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan
• Adjournment

C’mon, Victoria Jackson, Dennis Miller…

The Real Romney

By DAVID BROOKS, The New York Times

Published: August 27, 2012

The Romneys had a special family tradition. The most cherished member got to spend road trips on the roof of the car. Mitt spent many happy hours up there, applying face lotion to combat windburn.

The teenage years were more turbulent. He was sent to a private school, where he was saddened to find there are people in America who summer where they winter. He developed a lifelong concern for the second homeless, and organized bake sales with proceeds going to the moderately rich.

…

Some have said that Romney’s lifestyle is overly privileged, pointing to the fact that he has an elevator for his cars in the garage of his San Diego home. This is not entirely fair. Romney owns many homes without garage elevators and the cars have to take the stairs.

Dear Paul

Why I’m breaking up with Paul Ryan.

By William Saletan, Slate

Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2012, at 8:56 AM ET

My friends said I was crazy. They said you weren’t who I thought you were. Paul Krugman said you were a fake fiscal conservative. Scott Lemieux called you a standard-issue right-winger. Jim Surowiecki compared you to Barry Goldwater. I didn’t believe the naysayers. Sometimes they said you were too extreme. Sometimes they said you were a squishy hypocrite for supporting TARP and the auto bailout. It seemed like they just wanted to make you look bad one way or the other. I thought they were just playing politics.

I knew you weren’t perfect. I didn’t like your vote against the Simpson-Bowles debt reduction plan. I worried that your weakness for tax cuts would squander the savings from your budget cuts. But I should have studied your record more carefully. I didn’t understand how pivotal you were in sinking the budget deal between President Obama and Speaker Boehner. I paid too much attention to what you said about cutting the defense budget and not enough attention to what you did. You accused the military of requesting too little money-a concern that makes no sense to anyone familiar with the acquisitive habits of government agencies. You also objected to setting financial savings targets and forcing the Pentagon to meet them, even though that’s how you proposed to control domestic spending.

…

I hate to admit it, but Krugman nailed me on this one. I was looking for Mr. Right-a fact-based, sensible fiscal conservative-and I tried to shoehorn you into that role.

That’s where you let me down, Paul. Since Mitt Romney tapped you as his running mate, you haven’t stood for fiscal restraint. You’ve attacked it. You warned voters in North Carolina and Virginia that cuts in the defense budget would take away their tax-supported jobs. And I cringe when I recall what I said about you and Medicare. “Ryan destroys Romney’s ability to continue making the dishonest, anti-conservative argument that Obamacare is evil because it cuts Medicare,” I wrote. “Now Romney will have to defend the honest conservative argument, which is that Medicare spending should be controlled.”

I couldn’t have been more wrong. Four days after Romney put you on the ticket, you began parroting his Medicare shtick. You protested that Obama’s $700 billion savings in the future growth of Medicare payments to providers-a spending reduction that any sensible conservative president would have sought, and that you had previously included in your budget plan-would “lead to fewer services for seniors.” You depicted a horror scenario: “a $3,600 cut in benefits for current seniors. Nearly one out of six hospitals and nursing homes are going to go out of business.” You assured seniors that the Romney-Ryan agenda for Medicare “does not affect your benefits.” And you promised future retirees “guaranteed affordability” of health care.

In short, you adopted every tactic in the liberal playbook. You framed a reduced rate of growth as a draconian cut. You inflated the likely impact of the reduction. You denounced any loss of services as unacceptable. You promised not to touch seniors’ benefits. And you reaffirmed a fiscally unsustainable guarantee. By my count, you’ve now done this in at least six speeches and rallies. Every day, you’re reinforcing the culture of entitlement and making it harder to rein in retirement programs.

Oh, Paul. And I thought you were so rugged.

Ok, you’re right.  There is no such thing as conservative humor.  The funny (in the sense of disconcerting or odd) part is that there is already a “Mr. Right-a fact-based, sensible fiscal conservative” who supports all that gutting of our social insurance contract.

He calls himself a "Democrat" and his name is Barack Obama.

Madam Zelda!  Madam Zelda!

I don’t think anybody could have predicted that these people…would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile.

Debt of Honor (1994)

Ah, Condi the Pianist, how predictable.  And by ‘predictable’, I mean completely… um… dictable, I guess.  The point being that I hope all of you are finding this as excruciatingly boring fun and exciting as I am.

Call me when they say something factual.  It will be man bites dog.

Yesterday’s highlights in my estimation were of course the Ron Paul floor fight and Roll Call snub.  I also liked the ‘Parade of White Guys’ from the Afternoon session.  Of the evening program about all I have to say is that Janine Turner as a blonde looks like Julia Duffy and Neil Boyd in that hat looks like Sam Kineson.  Santorum was just creepy with the hands and family values thing and got chosen to deliver the big welfare work waiver lie.  Kelly Ayotte is in fact a poor public speaker and did need a crutch.  Kasich, McDonnell, and Walker are surprisingly bad for supposed heavyweights and established the “Me, me, me” meme (oh, and that Mitt guy too) that Christie epitomized.

I’m told by those who’ve seen more of him that this is the nice Chris.

I don’t have anything bad to say about Ann Romney at all except that her Nancified look was a little obvious.  If any of the men around her were half as good they’d be the nominee and Mitt would be strapped to the outside of his Gulfstream like Rafalca headed for a fun time playing Hot Wheels in his garage.  As it is he’ll have to wait until November.

Tonight’s highlights look to be Ron Paul hour at 7 (at least instructive).  I doubt McSame can come up with anything David Gregory hasn’t already slobbered over.  Jindal will be asking the evil Zionist Occupation Government for more money than he deserves and justifiably absent.  If Mike Huckabee is smart he’ll just play the banjo, but nobody has ever accused him of that.  When he does open his mouth he’ll show you why he’s now a pro instead of a politician, because he’s wacko insane but also that good.  Maybe he’ll jam with Condoleezza who should be hiding underneath her piano.

And then the big show, Ryan himself.

Conservative Humor.

7:00 p.m.

• Convention convenes
• Call to order
• Introduction of Colors by Amputee Veterans of America Support Team (AVAST)
• Pledge of Allegiance by Brigadier General Patrick E. Rea, US Army (Ret.)
• National Anthem sung by Ayla Brown
• Invocation by Ishwar Singh

• Ron Paul Video
• Remarks by Senate Republican Leader and Convention Temporary Chairman Mitch McConnell (KY)
• Remarks by Senator Rand Paul (KY)
• Remarks by Christopher Devlin-Young and Jeanine McDonnell

8:00 p.m.

• Remarks by Senator John McCain (AZ)
• Remarks by Attorney General Pam Bondi (FL) and Attorney General Sam Olens (GA)
• Remarks by Governor Bobby Jindal (LA) (Jindal will not be attending- ek)
• Remarks by Senator John Thune (SD)
• Remarks by Senator Rob Portman (OH)

9:00 p.m.

• Remarks by Governor Luis Fortuño (PR)
• Remarks by Governor Tim Pawlenty (MN)
• Bush 41, 43 Film
• Remarks by Mike Huckabee

10:00 p.m.

• Remarks by Condoleezza Rice
• Remarks by Governor Susana Martinez (NM)
• Remarks by vice presidential nominee Rep. Paul Ryan
• Benediction by Archbishop Demetrios
• Adjournment