Push-polling?
The Crooks and Liars guys are reporting that someone either with or friendly to the McCain/RNC campaign is engaging in the unethical practice known as “push polling,” when under the guise of an opinion poll a campaign seeks to give misinformation to the person answering the poll. In this case, the targets are Jews. File…
Ask and ye shall receive
SPHC by Hishighness
Today in campaign ads
A bunch of new ones from all over the place. Some of them are good, for once. Planned Parenthood: Defenders of Wildlife: Obama campaign’s new “Lobbyist” ad, which I couldn’t get to embed but you can see here. Oh, and here’s McCain getting owned by â?¦ The View! Have a nice weekend.
Knife to a gunfight
So yeah, there’s a bit of trepidation on the progressive side that we might actually lose to Grandpa McMaverickâ?¢ despite how terribly the Republicns have performed these last eight years. And it occurred to me, watching the last series of ads play out, why that is: McCain is vicious. Obama isn’t. McCain makes shit up…
Lies, more lies and the lying liars who tell them
Sarah Palin, telling Charles Gibson that she never said global warming isn’t man-made: GIBSON: But I, color me a cynic, but I hear a little bit of change in your policy there. When you say, yes, now you’re beginning to say it is man-made. It sounds to me like you’re adapting your position to Sen.…
Kim Gordon? Is that you?!
UPDATE: As expected, I’ve heard from the Happy Hollows’ publicist and their manager re: my dickishness, and I’m happy to report that everyone involved with the band seems to ‘get’ what we do here and couldn’t have been cooler. They believe passionately in their fledgling babes. In response, I’ll say that I’m not feelin’ the…
America: John McCain thinks you’re stupid.
Here Grandpa Maverickâ?¢ is giving an interview to some guy in Maine, and he’s asked about Sarah Palin’s foreign policy credentials. After hemming and hawing a bit, he mumbles something like, “She’s was right about the issues,” and then, “She understands energy.” (Watch it here.) We’ll take his word for the latter, even though this…
GuitarTown weirdness
In less than 10 days, the infamous GuitarTown project makes its public debut — 3 p.m.-8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 20, in front of City Hall. I know this because I called the head honchos and was given the above info though I had to agree not to quote my corporate source (who was not able…
MOUTH BY SOUTHWEST
Paxia’s kitchen sends forth a slew of savory faves
POPULAR CULTURE
When it comes to guilt-free sweets, nonfat frozen yogurt has been a go-to treat among health nuts since the 1970s. In recent years, a sugary adulteration eliminated the natural flavor of the cool indulgence, replacing it with a cloying sweetness. But thanks to a resurgence in the popularity of fro-yo, the tart is back. Flavors…
SEVENTH WHEEL
N.W.A. outcast Arabian Prince, reconsidered
FIRST SHOT
Everything’s a movie these days, even stuff that isn’t. Sarah Palin had barely wrapped up her introductory address to the Wasilla Department of Public Works Republican National Convention when bloggers and TV talking heads began to pounce on her allegedly eerie resemblance to a certain big-screen icon: Tracy Flick, the cutthroat student candidate played to…
WHO’S WATCHING THE KIDS
My love of the Euro-cheese fantasy epic The Neverending Story is no secret. So imagine my excitement upon learning that the Orlando Repertory Theatre was opening its family-friendly season with a stage adaptation of Michael Ende’s original 1979 novel. The basic beats of the story will be familiar to fans of the 1984 film adaptation:…
TEMPORARY WORLDS
Last weekend, I visited three exhibitions: Private Spaces: The Kansas & Florida Project at the Crealdé School of Art, Migration 2 at Julio Lima’s Orange Studio and Mixed at the Pound Gallery. A process of narrowing the field ensued and essentially came down to which art left a significant impression in my memory and why.…
OUR DUMB STATE: THE CASEY ANTHONY EDITION
On July 18, the world stood still. That morning, the Orlando Sentinel splashed a headline on its front page asking, “Where is Caylee Marie?” Ever since, the disappearance of 2-year-old Caylee Marie Anthony has dominated the local news, depriving everything else of oxygen. In June, Caylee went missing. Her mother, Casey Anthony, didn’t tell anyone…
WE DODGED A BULLET
While progressives spent the last few months attacking Amendment 2 — a proposed constitutional amendment that would enshrine anti-gay discrimination in the state constitution by banning same-sex marriage — conservatives were, largely under the radar, pushing an equally controversial but innocuous-sounding amendment called, simply, “Religious Freedom.” In reality, the pleasant title was a ploy meant…
BLISTER
“Abandon hope all ye who enter here” is not scrawled in blood on the side of the Waverly condo at Lake Eola, but as the glass door swings open, surely the desperate handprint smudges of failed exits prior can’t be a good sign. This tower of glass-paned transparency, after all, isn’t the Chemical Bank of…
FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
ARIES (March 21-April 19) Some people would like the world better if it didn’t have oddballs, freaks, black sheep, misfits and crackpots. Personally, I’m very much in favor of these types and I celebrate the entertaining diversity they add to the world. I hope you share my attitude, because you’re going to need to have…
SAVAGE LOVE
I’m a middle-aged guy. My boyfriend has just left his teens. We originally got to know each other because I like to tie up muscular young guys and he’s a muscular young guy who likes getting tied up. But he’s a smart, funny kid and after a few months we started actually liking each other.…
THIS LITTLE UNDERGROUND
While all those poor, deluded souls at the Republican National Convention were swooning over GOP veep candidate Sarah Palin last week, one fellow Alaskan, John Gourley, wasn’t so bowled over. Co-founder of ambitious indie rock band Portugal the Man, whose new album, Censored Colors (out Sept. 16), is one sweet soul trip, Gourley posted a…
LIVE ACTIVE CULTURES
Looking for a relaxing way to while away a weekend? Try this: Take Blue Man Group, Cirque du Soleil, Orlando Opera Company, Orlando Ballet and Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra, plus a dozen more of the best-known performing arts organizations in town. Put them together on a Sunday in the Bob Carr Performing Arts Centre for a…
COUNCIL WATCH
It had been ages — OK, five unbearably long weeks — since the last opportunity to sit inside the city machine and listen to progress slowly ticking, but from the looks of things it must have been much longer. Posted over the parking lot outside was a giant orange flag reading “2012,” because, obviously, four…
POLICE BEAT
Aug. 29 (2008-372695) 1:01 p.m.: A 42-year-old battered an Old Navy rent-a-cop who busted him shoplifting. Officer Baker concludes his report with the following bit of redundancy: “The arrestee was arrested.” (2008-373288) 9:07 p.m.: The cops found some rich man’s aspirin and related paraphernalia on a suspected armed robber. Jail. Aug. 30 (2008-373599) 12:27 a.m.:…
HAPPYTOWN
You know what happens when knights get angry? They don body armor, jump on a horse, grab some kind of sharp instrument and gallop toward one another trying to poke the other guy’s guts out. Or at least they used to do that. Nowadays they organize via electronic message boards and concoct publicity stunts meant…
COMMENTS
Circus confidential Hooray for the Orlando Weekly and their front-page coverage of Ringling Bros. and their dirty secrets `”Dirty secrets under the big top,” Sept. 4`. This was a story that needed to be told, since much of the public may be unaware of what goes on behind the glitz and glamour of the circus.…
POPULAR CULTURE
When it comes to guilt-free sweets, nonfat frozen yogurt has been a go-to treat among health nuts since the 1970s. In recent years, a sugary adulteration eliminated the natural flavor of the cool indulgence, replacing it with a cloying sweetness. But thanks to a resurgence in the popularity of fro-yo, the tart is back. Flavors…
NO DESPERATE HOUSEWIFE
The scene at Sound Generation studio in New York’s West Village was one of anticipation as Mexican newcomer Ximena Sariñana prepared to make her live American radio debut on public radio mainstay KCRW. A crew from the Santa Monica, Calif., station was on hand, both as the official radio sponsor of the Latin Alternative Music…
Yes, it is exactly this pathetic
More from the increasingly funny and kinda sad John McCain campaign (and once again, no comment necessary): John McCain, not so long ago. “Weâ??re not going to spend $3 million of your tax dollars to study the DNA of bears in Montana. I donâ??t know if that was a paternity issue or a criminal issue,…
Hey white people! Barack Obama would like to have sex with your children!
America, John McCain thinks you’re stupid. According to the polls, he may be right. Basically, McCain has given up talking about anything, mainly because he has nothing good to talk about. So instead, his campaign is making shit up about Barack Obama, the scary liberal (cough: black dude: cough) Democratic candidate for president – who…
MORE (!) Palin stupidity – now with update
Swear to God, I’m going to stop beating this horse â?¦ when she stops delivering such effin awesome material. If her crazy church doesn’t bug you, nor the fact that she’s lying her ass off about the Bridge to Nowhere, even when she’s being called on it left and right, nor the fact that she…
