John McCain: When all else fails, channel the ghost of Joseph McCarthy.

Desperate to hang onto "the base", John McCain smears both Barack Obama and THE LOS ANGELES TIMES: http://news.aol.com/elections/article/los-angeles-times-obama-khalidi-tape/230765?icid=200100397x1212447352x1200793185

McCain/Obama: When campaign reporters get too embedded in campaigns.

Here's a link to Glenn Greenwald's latest SALON column about Maeve Reston of THE LOS ANGELES TIMES bemoaning the winds of change in the relationships between John McCain and stenographer journalists on the Straight Talk Express: http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/10/29/reston/

And, correspondingly, here's a link to a LA TIMES article by Peter Nicholas about the Obama campaign where the author complains about Obama being too guarded and not chummy enough with the boys and girls of the press:http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-peter28-2008oct28,0,6187999.story

All you need is lots of cash: new Beatles clothing at Bloomingdales.

Yes, I know it's Bloomingdales. But, with the current economic crisis, it seems a rather inopportune time to introduce a pricey line of Beatles clothing (some of it done by Name designers): http://www1.bloomingdales.com/search/index.ognc?SearchTarget=*&Keyword=Beatles&KEYWORD_GO_BUTTON.x=9&KEYWORD_GO_BUTTON.y=10

For those of us who balk at the idea of paying more than $25 for a Beatles T-shirt (some of the Bloomies items can be found in less expensive versions at The Fest for Beatles Fans site), a more cost-effective alternative would be to buy or rent the current ALL TOGETHER NOW documentary about the creation of the Cirque du Soleil show LOVE.

My new favorite poet: Canada's David McGimpsey.

A few weeks ago, I was in Austin, TX for my sister-in-law's graduation from an acutherapy school; during that time, I stopped at local chain Book People and found a book of poetry called SITCOM by David McGimpsey. McGimpsey--based in Montreal--is also a writer for the GLOBE AND MAIL, as well as an occasional musician/stand-up comic. His poetry is amusing, thoughtful and not afraid of affectionately referencing pop culture--something that's still considered anathema in the poetry circles I dwell in. And it's accessible and "good" clever without being plate-spinning overclever (i.e. Jeffrey McDaniel's hit-and-miss recent volume THE ENDARKENMENT).

SITCOM is published by the Toronto house Coach House Books. Please order it from your favorite online bookseller.

Karl Rove escapes citizen attempting to perform citizen's arrest.

In an environment where the Democratic Party doesn't want to call for impeachment or prosecution of GOP wrongdoers (remembering Dennis Kucinich being muzzled at the Democratic convention for wanting to say a line about certain Republicans deserving "five to ten"), a heroic activist decides to citizen's arrest Karl "MC" Rove in San Francisco:
http://news.aol.com/article/protester-tries-to-handcuff-karl-rove/220765

Naturally, it didn't happen. And Nancy Pelosi can be heard breathing a sigh of relief.

Robert Novak predictably calls Colin Powell a traitor to GOP.

It had to happen: Robert Novak, making one of his periodic visits to THE WASHINGTON POST's editorial page, throws a conniption fit over Colin Powell's endorsement of Barack Obama for President:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2008/10/post.html

Oliver Stone's W.--if you saw NIXON, you know what to expect.

Since most film reviews are done in a vacuum now, it should be said that Oliver Stone's W. (*** on a **** scale) can be evaluated in terms of WALL STREET (Stone even brought in the same writer, Stanley Weiser, to revisit the father/son ethical behavior conflicts of the earlier film) and NIXON (which was a relatively evenhanded take on Richard Nixon).

Unlike the overstylized NIXON, Stone's filmmaking approach to W. is reasonably straightforward. And Josh Brolin does the best inhabitation of George Butch Jr. since Timothy Bottoms' work for filmmakers as diverse as right-wing firebrand Lionel Chetwynd (D.C. 9/11: TIME OF CRISIS) and SOUTH PARK majordomos Trey Parker and Matt Stone (the series THAT'S MY BUSH, quickly aired on Comedy Central in 2001 and canceled way before 9/11).

Barry Levinson's WHAT JUST HAPPENED?--surprisingly not bad.

WHAT JUST HAPPENED?, the Barry Levinson/Art Linson showbiz docucomedydrama (based on Linson's autobiography) is getting a limited theatrical release (don't know if it's also on pay-per-view) and, surprise, it's not at all bad (**1/2 on a **** scale). It's a welcome improvement over Levinson's 2006 MAN OF THE YEAR (an attempt to recapture the good old days of GOOD MORNING VIETNAM), with a decent straight-man performance from Robert De Niro and two primo comic turns from Michael Wincott as a "difficult" British director and John Turturro as a spineless agent of Bruce Willis (the latter doing a takeoff of Alec Baldwin's alleged prima-donna behavior pre-filming of THE EDGE, which Linson produced). Only major debit: the scenes between De Niro and Robin Wright Penn as a soon-to-be-ex-wife, which periodically kill the film's comic and serious momentum.