In case anybody still believes John McCain is a moderate

Republican presidential candidate John McCain said President Bush should veto a measure that would bar the CIA from using waterboarding and other harsh interrogation methods on terror suspects.

McCain voted against the bill, which would restrict the CIA to using only the 19 interrogation techniques listed in the Army field manual.

His vote was controversial because the manual prohibits waterboarding — a simulated drowning technique that McCain also opposes — yet McCain doesn’t want the CIA bound by the manual and its prohibitions.

McCain clarifies:

“I think I can show my record is clear. I said there should be additional techniques allowed to other agencies of government as long as they were not” torture.

There. Clear as mud…

Stop by my news & media blog, Media Vulture, for this and more

Returning to my roots

Media Vulture is circling once again

Look. I’m an opinionated m@#%*!f&?%@!. I’m really good at expressing things verbally, but when I go to write something, I end up editing more than I write. This is probably due to the fact that I studied writing with Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winners at a young & tender age. They were trying to turn me into John Updike when I really hadn’t done anything worth writing about yet.

When I started college (a year early) at the age of 17, I declared myself a Journalism major, and tool exactly one Journalism class. My instructor later became famous– as a hostage in Beirut. I have another blog that I started before this one, which was supposed to examine politics, culture & media (under the name of Max LaCosse, my noirish alter-ego) titled Media Vulture, and which I have neglected for far too long. I intend to remedy this by treating it as a job, forcing myself to spend a certain number of hours each day, researching my subject, and filing a story every day.

Let’s see if I’m able to do this. I’m not sure about you, but I wouldn’t advise anyone to hold their breath.

A special Valentine…

…for the rest of us

b2ap3_thumbnail_biteMe.gif

Happy Loving Couples
Joe Jackson

I’ve just been to see my best friend
He’s got another girl
Says she’s just about the best thing
In the whole damn world

And he says can’t you see what the little lady’s done for me
Says it like he thinks I’m blind
But the things that you see ain’t necessarily the things you can find

Happy loving couples make it look so easy
Happy loving couples always talk so kind
Until the time that I can do my dancing with a partner
Those happy couples ain’t no friends of mine

People say I’m too damn fussy
When it comes to girls
Happy couples say I must live
In a lonely world

Wanna be, wanna really be what my friends pretend to be
Be it in my own good time
Being kind to myself till I become one of two of a kind

Happy loving couples make it look so easy
Happy loving couples always talk so kind
Until the time that I can do my dancing with a partner
Those happy couples ain’t no friends of mine

You ain’t no friends of mine

You know what I mean
Happy loving couples
In matching lamb turtle-neck sweaters
Reading ideal homes magazine
Yeah!

Wanna be, wanna really be what my friends pretend to be
Be it in my own good time
Being kind to myself till I become one of two of a kind

Happy loving couples make it look so easy
Happy loving couples always talk so kind
Until the time that I can do my dancing with a partner
Those happy couples ain’t no friends of mine

You ain’t no friends of mine
You ain’t no friends of mine
You ain’t no friends of mine
You ain’t no friends of mine
You ain’t no friends of mine

Right, that’s enough

–Cupid pilfered from angel292005 (Sarah) – sorry, I couldn’t resist…

Tagged!

Actually, I got tagged by two people:

Leena Claudette

Sorry about taking so long to get around to doing this, but I just got my laptop out of storage, and I haven’t had much uninterrupted time on a computer for awhile. Anyway, here it goes:

The rules:

Link to the person that tagged you.
Post the rules on your blog.
Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
Tag six random people at the end of your post by links to their blogs.
Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.
(make this easy …copy˛˛paste˛˛change up a few things here and there…)

1. I once went to all my classes blindfolded, for a full day (in college)
2. I used to have a recording studio
3. I went to Idaho in the dead of winter to see a total solar eclipse
4. I refuse to wear anything from Nike or The Gap (including its subsidiaries, Old Navy or Banana Republic)
5. I was a vegetarian for five or six years
6. In my life I’ve owned five computers and four automobiles, yet only one television set (and only had that for less than a year)

And I’m going to try to tag only those who have not been tagged (once, twice, or more):

Bryan (Wezall) – my apologies if you’ve been tagged already, and are just trying to ignore us
gloria_20
tatora
byronmacias
David (Ravo) see this blog for good postings about science & the environment
Eli Urbex (aka “the Elephant”) Eli: I miss you posts. Write soon!

There. I know I got tagged twice, but I’m only doing this once. Apologies ahead of time if anyone should be moved to tag me yet again.

Two by Kirsty MacColl

Don’t Come the Cowboy With Me, Sonny Jim

 

In These Shoes?

recorded in Cuba (2000)

This was recorded just before her untimely death in Mexico. Bette MIdler later recorded a cover of this song.