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Shout to Roy Zimmerman

Last night I had the honor of opening for political satirist and musician Roy Zimmerman. I often find the musical comedian genre annoying -- not as annoying as hypnotists and prop comics -- but up there on the list. Roy Zimmerman is anything but. This man's songs are sophisticated, complex, pointed and most importantly, hilarious.

One song about Bush was called "Don't Make Fun of the Crippled Boy" and had me rollin!

He had a great draw last night at the Cornelia Street Cafe (possibly my new favorite NYC venue) with most of the crowd knowing his material. He's based in San Fran for those who want a chance to see him more regularly.

I strongly urge you to buy his CDs and support my other artistic picks on my new Amazon aStore.

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Obama's Blackness

photo by FUNKYAH via Flickr

I'm having a hard time with all this talk of Obama not being black enough. There are many stories and blogs I could link to, but enough is enough. Here's the deal. The mainline story goes like this:

Black people don't consider Obama black enough because of his heritage (actual African + white). He's an unknown quantity and didn't come up in the civil rights movement, etc.

That's nonsense. Black people embrace all sorts of shady black characters depending on the context.

  • We embraced OJ Simpson after he killed his damn wife
  • We embraced R. Kelly after he peed on a child and video taped it
  • We embraced Bill Clinton and actually had the nerve to call that white dude the "first black president" but only after he cheated on his wife

No, black voters haven't quite signed up for Team Obama because more than anyone else, they know America can't handle a black president. Hell, America can't handle black people in horror movies. We're still the first to die!

America doesn't know how to deal with a black clubgoer. America shoots these black people 50 times!

America even has trouble with fictional black presidents. On 24 they tried to kill President James David Palmer three times and finally succeeded on the fourth attempt when he wasn't even president anymore! Why would you write that into a script? I can imagine the writer's group:

"I don't know. He's not president anymore. What's the point of killing him?"
"Well he's still black right?"
"True, cap that fool."

Then, get this, Palmer's brother Wayne becomes president. Yes, we now have Brotha President. And you know what? They try to kill him too. America is sending a very clear message: yes, there can be a Black president, but we're gonna kill him.

Maybe Black america just prefers a living senator to a dead president.

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Mitt Romney is Campaigning Against France

Romney to Run Against France Image via Flickr. Originally from The Boston Globe. Click for more info. Today the Boston Globe reported on an internal strategy memo leaked by former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney's campaign. It sounds pretty interesting, but I don't want to get into all that. Just two things. First, I just found the closing lines of the article are incredible:
Like every Republican in the race, Romney faces the delicate task of how to talk about President Bush, whom the country gives low job-approval ratings . But the plan lists two ways Romney can set himself apart from Bush. The first says, simply, "Intelligence."
That's messed up. Your own party is calling you a dumbass. Still, how much you wanna bet that the second point listed is also "intelligence"? Second, look at that image of the slide above. This dude is running against France? Really?? Are you serious?? I stay pretty informed on political things, and I know there are a lot of folks in the campaign, but I had no idea France was running for US president. In their favor, they could have the best slogan ever. Vote Freedom for President.

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A Moment of Silence for Molly

I loved Molly Ivins' work.

I read Bushwacked a few years ago, and the spirit of it brought me to tears on several occasions.

Molly Ivins, the hell-giving, hilarity-spewing, story-telling activist and writer died at age 62 today. She had breast cancer.

Her death saddened me because I lost my own mother at 65 to colon cancer, because I didn't even know Ms. Ivins was sick and because she was a true soldier who reminded me a lot of my mom. She took nothing from nobody and gave a lot of grief to the people who deserve it most: the powerful.

She was an inspiration, saying, "There are two kinds of humor: [the kind] that makes us chuckle about our foibles and our shared humanity. The other kind holds people up to public contempt and ridicule. That's what I do."

If you love any part of this country or what it could be, please take moment to remember one of its great citizens, and please, please watch this video.

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Other views on the Mooninite Invasion

from some people I respect. Comedian Tim McIntire thinks the buzz marketing is to blame and Turner should pay for the law enforcement fees. I disagree, and we go at it in his comment section. Update: I've pasted an excerpt of my comments below the fabulous video below The Zebro kids put together a video. Because their response had clearly a lot more effort than Tim's, I vote them the winners of the debate whose side I already declared a winner: mine

Me on Tim's site:
I see yesterday's snafu as solely an overreaction to terr threats. The city and media did not have to react in the way they did. As was mentioned, this campaign happened in 10 other cities with not a hint of panic or paranoia. I can't believe that Boston got something right that 10 other major metros missed. I blame boston and I blame a system of "homeland security" which has to justify its existence (and budget) by overreacting to any and all "threats." I mean they blew up LED signs. The news referred to these as "devices" and "packages" just to justify their existence (and budget). In this case, the anti-terror INDUSTRY is at fault way more than buzz marketing which happens all the damn time. When Menino invokes 9/11, he is doing his own buzz marketing for the military industrial complex. As if all overreaches of state power and aggression are issued a waiver by the memory of ONE act of violence? All the bloviating and lawsuit-threatening are weak attempts to pardon a mistaken response to an absolute non-threat. The fact that the backers of the campaign were cable network folks doesn't mean anything to me in THIS case. *I* could have an idea to promote some psychic waves in the populace by placing signs around the city. that's not a terror threat. it may be a public nuisance, but the overreaction by the state, to me, is the real offense in yesterday's story.

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My Middle School Essay on "Violence" adapted

Photo "gummy murder 1" by John Carleton via Flickr

I just got back from doing a cool show at The Comedy Studio. Sundays are run by Erin Judge, and she's got some people together to do sketches every few weeks. Tonight, one of the pieces included essays on a theme we had written from our childhoods. I really wanted to read "The US Propaganda Machine" which I wrote in 7th or 8th grade, but I couldn't find it, so I went with "Violence: An Historical Perspective."

Given time constraints, I had to cut a lot out of the original, but the basics are all still there. I'll try to get and post the video in the next few weeks, but in the meantime, enjoy the virtually printed words...

Violence: An Historical Perspective

With the current frenzy over violence in America, people are blaming TV, music, movies and even journalism for its proliferation. It is important, though, to stop and examine the causes and effects of violence throughout history.

The British arrived in South Africa on their way to Asia, but they decided it wasn't enough to simply rest there. They wanted to own it. Along with the Dutch, they used automatic weapons to subdue the Africans and get the land.

Columbus stumbled across America looking for India. After discovering the vast natural resources here, he and other Europeans decimated the native population with disease, slavery and wars.

During the 1940s, Hitler and others wanted Jews out of Germany, so they killed them. As a result, most Jews died or fled, thus Hitler achieved his goal.

It's not the news or video games or the media. History proves that violence works.

That's why, when I saw Wendy had a nicer lunch than me, I hit her in the head with my backpack and took it. I learned it from history.

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It's nice to see the return of democracy

The Christian Science Monitor had this headline:

US senators feel weight of Iraq vote

The Democratic-controlled Congress must decide if resolutions opposing Bush's war strategy will be stern ... or bipartisan.
....
As the resolution moves to the full Senate next week, it's clear that deep disagreements exist within each party over how best to express doubts about the Iraq war. The result is a vivid -- and very public -- grappling over the terms of their disagreement.


Grappling.
Disagreement.
Public.

I admit it's a bit late, but better late than never really.

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Well I gotta say SOMETHING right?

Yo folks, i've slipped on my daily posting goal. Sorry!

So it's a day today, and this is a post technically. What to talk about?

The State of the Union merits a few words.
I watched it with about 40 other people from Drinking Liberally Boston and took a sip of wine every time he mentioned 9/11, nukular, terror and other buzzwords. That part was fun.

I was annoyed by his reference to "the Democrat majority." The word is "democratic," you ass. That is so irksome! Apparently, it's a new conservative tactic to annoy Democrats. That is so damn childish. So I've decided to refer to Republicans as the Upblic Party. See how stupid that is? Let's move on.

The president pushed for what sounds like No Child Left Behind II: Picking Up Those We Left Behind.

He continued his obsession with wood chips and grasses as a source of energy. At least he didn't bring back the animal-human hybrids. I'm sure Toyota is working on that though.

He also proposed the creation of some sort of civilian reserve corp. I think we had one of those. It was called the National Guard before you destroyed it.

Finally, he acknowledged global "climate change." That's one small step for mankind. One giant leap for Dubya.

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