Straight Up | Jan Herman

Can’t stomach the political campaign? The media spin? Neither can The Onion. Have a look: Gunman Kills 15 Potential Voters In Crucial Swing State Tip of the hat to a gimlet-eyed Straight Up staffer who sent it in.

Quick take on who won, besides Joe the Plumber. CNN poll: Debate watchers say Obama wins. Time magazine: McCain Threw the Sink — and Plumber — But Obama Doesn’t Falter. CBS poll: Uncommitted Voters Say Obama Won Final Debate. So anyone who believes the kind of horseshit being dished up by George Stephanopoulos that the […]

I mean McCain of course. Seems to me that Andrew Sullivan, live-blogging last night’s Nashville encounter between Obama and the overheated Gasbag, got it just about right: 9.51 pm. Why is McCain wandering around the stage .?. It’s weird. He looks like an old man pacing aimlessly. 10.33 pm. This was, I think, a mauling: […]

It’s no surprise that Ralph Nader makes more sense than anyone else in politics. What’s surprising is that, at 74, he is as smart and as principled as ever. Watch the video. It was recorded last week in San Francisco at The Commonwealth Club of California and runs a little more than an hour. Skip […]

… and the award for best exploitative photojournalism goes to … … this photo. It appeared yesterday on the front page of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The caption reads: “Panorama Towers is shown in Las Vegas on Sunday as a commercial airliner flies in the distance.” The excuse for running the photo was an FAA […]

The Rick Davis story continues to percolate with this New York Times headline, “McCain Aide’s Firm Was Paid by Freddie Mac Through August.” The disclosure undercuts a remark by Mr. McCain on Sunday night that [his] campaign manager, Rick Davis, had had no involvement with the company for the last several years. How long will […]

Before it’s too late, three cheers for the lead editorial in The Wall Street Journal on Friday, “McCain’s Scapegoat,” which began this way: “John McCain has made it clear this week he doesn’t understand what’s happening on Wall Street” — oh, wait a minute — “any better than Barack Obama does.” Hmmm … make that […]

… in the wake of yesterday’s Wall Street meltdown … …in case anyone needs a reminder.

It was up tonight — briefly. The techs must have been rehearsing.

Here’s a good friend, Carl Weissner, playing Chopin. He hasn’t played for, oh, about 50 years. “This is the schmaltzy version — Viennese,” he says. On top of that he’s combining two different pieces. “But,” he adds, “what the hell.” (Recorded on my new little gizmo, a Flip Video Mino. The image is sharper when […]

I went to the John Cage birthday celebration at St. Mark’s Church yesterday. Big crowd. Awful sound. A couple dozen people mumbled into a bad p.a. system. It was impossible to understand what they were saying, with a few exceptions. This guy came prepared, though, with his own music and his own setup. His name […]

I’ve been calling him the Gasbag, but Thomas Frank has come up with another description for him — the best I’ve read anywhere: John McCain is “a hood ornament on a hit-and-run machine.” Frank writes in his weekly Wall Street Journal column: The man no longer stands for anything. He has transformed himself from a […]

Aug. 12 — Did someone say war profiteers? Check out the top 25 and this private army.

The Gasbag’s latest McBullshit gets a review called “Changing Lanes” from Elizabeth Kolbert in this week’s New Yorker. She notes that “he’s opted out of truth altogether.” Really. As if the hype for his so-called “straight-talking days” was ever credible in the first place.