A gamerpic we can believe in

This headline won't make any sense in a month and a half when I change my gamerpic back to Silver Centurion Iron Man.

Good political comedy that isn't the Daily Show

If you have HBO (or the means to steal its programming), check out Real Time with Bill Maher, which we've found to be consistently funny. This week Maher talked to Chris Rock about the debate.

Last week Maher unveiled FreeLevi.org:

Letterman miffed by McCain snub

McCain, dropping everything to save our economy, cancelled on David Letterman. Never cancel on a comedian.

SNL skit almost comes to life

From SNL's cold open, Saturday Sept. 13:

FEY AS PALIN: "Good evening, my fellow Americans. I was so excited when I was told Senator Clinton and I would be addressing you tonight."

POEHLER AS CLINTON: "And I was told I would be addressing you alone."

About 48 hours later:
Clinton Blindsided By Scheduled Event With Palin

Another foreign policy goof from the McCain ticket?

Talking Points Memo has been focusing on a bizarre McCain interview gaffe for the past couple of days. In an interview with Radio Caracol Miami, after a series of questions about Latin American leaders, the interviewer tried to switch gears and talk about Spain's PM, but McCain seemed to think they were still talking about Latin America. Unlike the so-called Bush Doctrine Gotcha Moment, McCain's interviewer is pretty forthcoming with the facts...

Interviewer: "But what about Europe? I'm talking about the President of Spain."

McCain: "What about me, what?

Interviewer: "Are you willing to meet with him if you're elected president?"

McCain: "I am wiling to meet with any leader who is dedicated to the same principles and philosophy that we are for humans rights, democracy and freedom. And I will stand up to those who do not."

Current interpretations in the Spanish-language press is some combination of:
1.) McCain is not aware that Spain is, in fact, in Europe
2.) McCain doesn't know who Prime Minister Zapatero is
3.) McCain knows exactly who Prime Minister Zapatero is, and that he has weapons of mass destruction and must be stopped at all costs, in Latin America if possible.

Why Palin's Bush Doctrine gaffe has legs

I've seen a lot of defenses of Sarah Palin's botched response to Charles Gibson's question about the Bush Doctrine. (Her response in a nutshell: "Doctorin'?! Is he sick?! Yeeeeeee-haw!!!!")

The defense of choice seems to be: there really is no one definition for "Bush Doctrine," but in fact many, so it's no wonder she was confused. Ehhrrrm, not quite. Palin's response appeared to indicate that she's never even heard the term. Basically anything you could think of would have been a better response:

1.) She could have said "which Doctrine" for the win.
2.) Based on what I've been reading, she could have guessed almost any aspect of Bush's foreign policy and been correct -- "Oh, you mean Bush's belief that democracy will spread in the MIddle East? Well I think..."
3.) How about a general statement that doesn't pull punches (and thus throws Gibson off): "I'd like to say I agree with the Bush Doctrine, Charlie, but look where it's gotten us."

Instead, she looked like a deer in the headlights of a helicopter full of hunters who are totally allowed to shoot her in the abdomen.

John McCain: Pedophile?

DID YOU KNOW: When John McCain was 30 years old, his current wife was only twelve. Can we afford to elect a pedophile?

Makes you think, right?

Eyebrowgate

Full disclosure: I did not listen to the entire McCain speech last night. But I did see just enough to reaffirm my long-held belief that John McCain is among the worst public speakers in politics.

Why? Because right after he delivers this line -- "we will encourage the development and use of flex fuel, hybrid and electric automobiles" -- he involuntarily raises his eyebrows for a half-second as if to say "yeah, we'll do that."

See the subtle tic yourself by skipping ahead on this video to 33:25 or so.

Apparently this was all just a beautiful dream

Okay, you can shut off the Matrix now. I am hereby fully aware that my sensory experiences are mere illusions.

How did I find out that my mind was being controlled by super-technology in the distant future? Well, it's quite simple, Possibly-Extra-Terrestrial Overmind: your misunderstanding of our human politics has led to a situation so hopelessly impossible that it has shaken me to the point of full awareness.

My first clue, of course, was the appointment of creationist, pro-life Alaska governor Sarah Palin as John McCain's vice-presidential running-mate, some kind of twisted through-the-looking-glass Hillary Clinton surrogate. Palin, who has less experience in politics than I do in blogging, is of course woefully unprepared for the likely scenario of four-time cancer-surviving older-than-dirt famously-tortured McCain's sudden death.

I confess, Mad Hatter, that even such an obviously false twist went right over my head. The idea that McCain would make such an obvious mistake seemed almost reasonable, even as you kept revealing strange scandals that would have disqualified any VP candidate during the vetting process.

So what specifically tipped me off, finally? It was a flaw in your extra-dimensional logic. Faced with the rumor that Sarah Palin's four-month-old baby actually belonged to her own 17-year-old daughter, McCain's people released a stunning rebuttal: "that CAN'T be her four-month-old daughter, because she's FIVE-MONTH'S PREGNANT! HAH!"

Robot abductors, let it be known: that makes no sense whatsoever. I was hoping that my sudden realization of my own mental imprisonment would short-circuit your brain-control machine and allow me to return to consciousness. But certainly whatever scientific understanding and/or perverse thrills you enjoyed during my extended delusion must be shattered by my knowledge. It's time to unplug me from your dark machine, spacemen.