He and Elvis are tragic figures, pampered and flattered by sycophants and parasites, burned by the relentless heat of a media spotlight that they demanded be shone on them 24/7. But, at the end of the day, these man-boys chose their fates. As is sometimes our lot, perhaps they chose by not choosing.

MJ made some fine pop music and was a hell of a dancer. He was also terminally screwed up.

By the way, I know some folks of a certain age who think that KISS was a great rock band... Nostalgia is a bitch.

and maybe a new man. This is not honest employment. If you don't feel for the people who are being made homeless, it may already be too late for you.

Please google "Pinkerton strike breaker". That's the company you are keeping.

Kill your dog?

Call them, Kanye. You're an ugly drunk. It's a problem.

for this fight, or perhaps any other fight. I'm very sad to say it. The village is eating him alive.

My framed inauguration invitation hangs precariously on my wall...

TV celebrities second. Journalists? Please!

They could make a huge, Fox-fueled ideological donnybrook out of each and every increment of reform and utterly demoralize what progressive support Obama has left.

The president can SELL a comprehensive plan, particularly on healthcare, to the people. He could let some folks know privately that he might support primary opponents for those who can't get with the program. It will take directness and a willingness to be tough.

This ain't no disco.

Palin wore her kids like costume jewelry throughout the campaign, including her pregnant, unwed, teen daughter. (Her constituency is probably more judgemental about the latter than I am.) Now she truly doth protest too much.

Letterman's joke wasn't very funny, although his jokes frequently are. He's a comedian and a lot of his material, by the way, is written for him.

High on the list was foreign policy.

Fooled again...

A guy gets life under three strikes for stealing a couple of slices of pizza, and people who commit uncounted murders and rob the country blind go scot free and are in fact celebrated, rewarded with speaking fees and book deals.

We've come a long way since 1776.

...Who were the inhabitants of this once beautiful home? They hover around it like ghosts. Do they - did they - have faces, names, dreams, fears?

Our kids and these phantoms pay the price for the stupidity, the venality, of the past two decades of US foreign policy.

Bring. Them. Home.

I believe Toby Keith is voting for Obama:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/08/19/toby-keith-praises-obama_n_119930.html

Junior had better stock up on weed. It's going to be a long decade for him!

is thinking with little Camille.

But he is certainly playing to his constituency back home, which is as bone-headed and xenophobic as Bush's constituency is in Murca.

We have no choice but to wait and see what Obama does and says after January. I share Professor Cole's hope that it will differ from today's electoral rhetoric.

are trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear... Are either of these closet fascists qualified for high office. In a pig's eye!

The MSM ain't gonna cover the true Sarah Palin unless someone does the leg work and the dirty work for them... that is until they can formulate the usual "some people are saying" type questions. We don't need them to question Palin. We need them to go to Alaska and ASK QUESTIONS.

tested lately for heavy metals - lead in particular? Or perhaps you should have the air tested. Maybe there's a slow carbon monoxide leak somewhere...

Otherwise, I'm at a loss to explain the sheer loopiness of some of the stuff I've read here over the past couple of months.

the biggest creep to run for president since Nixon. He gets a pass because he flatters pantywaists and sycophants like Brooks.

But - oh the humanity - Obama actually lived in a furrin country! Saints preserve us!

Absolutely! Watching The First 48 you can almost hear the flourescent lights buzzing at 3 AM and taste the bad coffee reflux. You also get an all-too-sad sense of what life can be like on the mean streets of our cities, where even relatively good intentions can end up in gun play and unimaginable loss.

The Wire for uncompromising writing and D'Onofrio for uncompromising acting.

I also think Edward James Olmos has been doing remarkable work on Battlestar Galactica.

I had to find a hack to change the regional setting on my dvd player so I could have The Office shipped to me from the UK.

If I could ask him one question, I would ask him if he was at all influenced by the work of Tony Hancock, a brit comic who worked in the 50s and 60s. I see a bit of Hancock in Gervais' work. Alas, Tony Hancock took his own life in 1968.

can be just plain dumb at times... like the rest of us.

Here's a project for you:

A film about the Tuskegee airmen. Spike and Clint create separate protagonists and story lines and just do their thing, 50 minutes for each. If anyone pitches this, send me a few bucks!

that most of the steerage passengers - the poor and the working class - were trapped below decks. In fact, many of the hatches and passageways were locked down to prevent McCain's constituents from having to rub shoulders with the hoi polloi.

Thanks for exploding tweetie's stupid metaphor, Ms Walsh!

Editorial Board? Someone?

at which - if there is a McCain victory in November - the Clintons and their high-profile supporters will bear significant responsibility.

Thanks in advance, Joan. Love, John and Cindy

for any number of reasons. If it's now considered sexist to say so, then we really have gone round the bend...