Morning Briefing

Ah ha ha ha ha. Metallica’s Death Magnetic (my review here) has gone platinum. It was the band’s fifth consecutive album to debut at No. 1 on Billboard, breaking a record held by the Beatles, U2, and Dave Matthews Band–which is pretty much the short list of bands I fucking can’t stand.

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In other news of bands I can stand–and in fact love–Wilco is working on its new album.

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BREAKING: The Onion predicted this Joe the Plumber bullshit way back when Nirvana wasn’t classic rock.

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Winning the youth vote: McCain campaign kicking out college-y types from its rallies.

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Everyone who was 13 years old in, like 1993, will want to read this interview with the creator of NBA Jam.

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Turns out those absinence pledges work … if nobody takes ‘em.

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Please refrain from dressing like Sarah Palin tonight because it’s dumb. Thanks.

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Salon’s Andrew O’Hehir has your list of the 10 scariest movies ever, and then his list of the 10 scariest movies you’ll probably never watch but should know enough about to discuss them with people whom you’ll want to convince that you did, in fact, watch them instead of Dancing with the Stars.

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MTV now has ever music video ever on its new website except videos made by Black folks pre-1991ish because MTV was unaware that videos such as these exsisted sorry about that.

A post in which the sound of dead air is a reasonable stand-in for the honesty of the McCain campaign

Dude. You are a professional flack. Employed by a national presidential campaign.

You are paid not to have shit like this posted all over the Internet.

Dude. Come on.

As usual, TNC has the best take so far:

Lrn2Nixonpls. Either that or go back to playing Tetris. In your basement. With your kid sister.

Afternoon Classic Rock

Have I posted “DWYCK” yet? I haven’t?

Please forgive the oversight. Check Guru’s verse.

“Lemonade is a popular drink, and it still is / I get more props and stunts than Bruce Willis”

Why am I not surprised this is from Martinsville, Indiana?

Ask anyone who’s ever had the misery of driving through this Hoosier shitsville (or worse, playing a basketball/football/etc game at Martinsville High School). It is a town at a loss for a frontal lobe.

From the Reporter-Times, via Ben Smith:

People in the world of politics, however, are talking quite a bit about the display in their front yard and the perceived mixed message it presents. The front yard has a flag pole with the United States flag on top and below it a Confederate battle flag. A few feet from the flagpole is a sign supporting the presidential candidacy of Sen. Barack Obama, the first African-American running as a major party’s presidential candidate.

Stuff journalists like

If you are a former colleague of mine, this is for you. Stuff Journalists Like.

It has the usual fare: scandals, free food, awards. And of course, this.

While the majority of journalists will never get to report on a “New Hamsterdam,” where drug use is legalized, they like to think such a story is right around the next corner.

However, as good as seasons one through four are, it is season five that journalists really love. Going inside the Baltimore Sun’s newsroom for season five, reporters feel smug hearing terms like “main art,” “double truck,” or “below the fold.”

Journalist like telling their non-journalists friends what these words mean, and that they really use those terms in their own newsroom.

The appeal of “The Wire” to journalists ultimately comes down to another like they have – journalists just like seeing themselves on TV.

“Post-racial?”

Here are two great stories as we stand poised to possible elect the first Black president of the United States of America.

First, this story in the WaPo: “For Obama Volunteer a Solitary Sense of History.”

Stewart believes the election of Obama would be “utterly life-changing,” fundamentally transforming the way blacks think about themselves. “There is a depth of meaning to this election that can only be grasped by African Americans,” she said.

Yet her journey sometimes has left her feeling like an outsider among the tens of thousands of young volunteers in the Obama campaign, a fast-moving mini-world where the term “post-racial” is batted around and colorblindness is a goal of many. For Stewart, the goal is advancing the black community. She has trouble understanding how this election could mean to those young workers anything close to what it means to her.

And from The Austin Statesman: “Daughter of slave votes for Obama.”

Amanda Jones, 109, the daughter of a man born into slavery, has lived a life long enough to touch three centuries. And after voting consistently as a Democrat for 70 years, she has voted early for the country’s first black presidential nominee.

Morning Briefing

“Saying Obama will “rob” you of your healthcare isn’t as racist as saying he’ll rob you of your healthcare when you just have to go into the big, crime-ridden city to buy Christmas presents for your family and get a little lost and end up in one of those neighborhoods where everyone plays loud, strange music and–oh my!–was that person just making a drug deal!” — Marc Ambinder

“Also, putting a “B” in front of “lacks” isn’t very subliminal, John McCain.” — The Colonialist

“Screw you, Mr. Obama, for killing what cynisicm is left in my little black heart and making me cry during your goddamn infommercial.” — Me Watching this Obama spot

“Axl Rose is still kind of a dick, but I’ll listen to his new record that took a million years to make, but only if one of my roadies goes to Best Buy because I don’t go to Main Street, pro-American stores, due to I’m a Jack Daniels-swilling elitest.” — Slash

“In which I will write yet another column about why I hate John McCain and the reasons he will no longer be invited to our Cool Conservative Clubhouse.” — George Will

“Checked your credit card debt lately, pal? Because them little plastics will make good hobo stabbin’ tools if you shave ‘em down just right during the Greatest Depression Ever.” — The New York Times

“My friends, if you’ll just turn your attention from the hole in the ground that use to be your 401(k), you’ll see these big, scary terrorists. Boo! Bogity-bogity!” — John McCain

“Dear liberal elites. Stop being so goddamned scared, you bunch of whinning magots.” — Ta-Nehisi Coates

“We’re voting for the n—–.” — Racists for Obama

Afternoon Classic Rock

The Boss. The Recipe.

I bought the single on cassette. But only because Sam Goody at Lafayette Square Mall didn’t have the album.

The logical conclusion of the prosperity gospel

Look, I’m no Biblical scholar, but isn’t there some story in some book of the Bible where bad shit happens when people start worshiping, oh, say, GOLDEN BULLS OR SOMETHING?

Via the 700 Club:

For these and other reasons Cindy is calling for a Day of Prayer for the World’s Economies on Wednesday, October 29, 2008. They are calling for prayer for the stock markets, banks, and financial institutions of the world on the date the stock market crashed in 1929. They are meeting at the New York Stock Exchange, the Federal Reserve Bank, and its 12 principal branches around the US that day.

Photo and creepy h/t to Wonkette.

Dept of: How in the Hell Did You Get Those Pictures?

UPDATE: Just heard from a friend at the Star. Turns out the photog was doing a ride-along in a police cruiser for an unrelated story. That cruiser ended up being the third car in the chase. Beautiful.

Check out this series of pics from my hometown rag, the Indy Star.

Three men allegedly robbed a bank and eluded police in a high-speed chase. Right up until the car crashed into another car, the driver shot apparently himself, and officers arrested the two other men in the car.

And a Indy Star photog was right behind the entire motherfucking thing. Incredible.

Sarah Palin’s odd lie, number … oh fuck it

Andrew Sullivan is tired … so tired.

Palin ups the ante and describes this Republican activist who’s voting apparently on the Israel issue as a veteran and an Alaskan. Why the fuck not, I guess? I’d make this Odd Palin Lie Number XXI, but I’m too tired. She’s a loony person. Just remember that, ok? And keep an eye on her sister, Heather Bruce.

New Obama ad features Sarah Palin

I think Wonkette says it best here:

Basically, every time Sarah Palin opens her mouth — or briefly closes one eye — it’s comedy gold.

Morning Briefing – Woolly Mammoth edition

So I have a meeting this morning and don’t have time to kick around the internets right now so I am giving you a Woolly Mammoth or elephant or something that I may or may not explain later so there:

And in a semi-related note, here is the blog of Greg Oden’s beard.

It’s on

Afternoon Classic Rock

Never has so much pop culture been squished together so deftly. In a sewer no less.

Yabado, hippity-hoo, grab a brew.