Pinko Magazine Hedonism + Activism

Over the past eight years a dark, shadowy figure has quietly roamed the venerable halls of the White House.  It has observed great events and small, national crises and family birthdays, the highs and lows of the most powerful office in the world.  Through war and peace, prosperity and poverty, love and hate, a beloved yet unknown presence is now gone from this august executive seat of power.

President Bush sought to cross barriers in his administration, the first black woman Secretary of State, the first Spawn of Satan as Vice President, the last war of our empire in Iraq.

Yes, India “Willie” Bush, an American short hair cat, has passed to the great litter box in the sky.  Also black and female, undoubtedly she reminded the President of the importance of tolerance and inclusion of all sexes, races and species through his trials of leadership and ignorance.

Or did she?  Perhaps it was she who found the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and hid them later.  Or she who prevailed upon Congress for tax cuts for the wealthy.  Is there not an element of mysterious malevolence possessed only by felines?  Can they not occupy all spaces and none at the same time?  See all and hear all while smugly guarding their own secrets?  Is it she who peered deeply into the soul of the President and twisted Compassionate Conservatism into the bestial nepotism of the last eight years?

Hmmm…

PINKO DAILY BRIEFS: Back to it right? Us too. Stirling and I have declared 2009 “Year of the Pinko,” so you actually reading, commenting and existing is pretty important to that. Let’s get to it. A few political stories we’re following this week: (1) Senator Al Franken? Totally. (2) OMFG the Obama girls are starting school. I’d actually never considered the idea that a tabloid would pay some kid to go to Sidwell Friends and pretend to be friends with them to get dirt, but it could totally happen. (3) Uhm, Israel isn’t fucking around here are they? Yikes. Also: The stimulus campaign starts this week. I wish it had a better name than the “American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan,” but maybe they decided that naming it something in an LBJ “Great Society” way would open them up to attacks as big spending liberals? I don’t know. I’m just glad the name can’t be turned into a silly acronym. Pinko hates silly acronyms. 

Other stories today? How about some onion goggles!? They are pretty fabulous. Into graphic design or know somebody who is? My roommate got a copy of SustainAble over Christmas, and despite it’s obvi title it’s a beautiful book, covering green and sustainable materials and applications for graphic designers and their clients. Lastly, I’m totally confused about John Travolta’s son. Is the culprit scientology, gay sex, a mixture of both, or just an unfortunate tragedy? Oh! And … President who?

Don’t name something this.

When the recipe is for raw vegan mashed potatoes and gravy you need to really work to sell it. Mashed potatoes and gravy fall into the category of foods that I think you just have to give up if you choose to be raw or vegan, and not bother creating a knockoff. But if you are going to try it, and you want other people to enjoy your recipe as well, you just have to take better pictures. This might be the worst photograph and the least appetizing image I’ve ever seen in my entire life. 

Ann Coulter slams Michelle Obama in her new book. We would NEVER do something like that!

Here is Barack Obama’s latest fire(fox)side chat! It’s depressing! Actually it’s his opening salvo in what should be a massive pr campaign to pass the economic stimulus bill, but he could still throw us a bone here. He goes from “all the blessings that make life worth living” to “two million lost jobs,” in literally 12 seconds. Enjoy! For fun we’ll tag this post with some of the zany Obama tags from the primary season, back when Barack Obama was a fist bumping terrorist. Won’t that be fun?

So: Barack Obama said he’d close Guantanamo and stop all of the shady shit George Bush pulled. And liberals, plus lawyers, plus the rest of the world, want him to follow through. But if I’m understanding this New York Times article correctly, keeping his promises on detainees and torture might also mean setting free a suspect who — while arrested under shady Bush means — might actually be mad dangerous. So, does he follow through but let the maybe really bad person back out into the world, risking some down-the-road terror attack that could bring down the Democratic Party and open them up to charges of being soft on terrorism? Or does he change positions, take a new line and argue that, well shit people I’ve seen the intelligence and some of what Bush did we actually need to do. How fucked up would that be?

PINKO DAILY BRIEFS. The Israel/Palestine debate isn’t just heated. It’s odd, and a complete anomaly in American politics. Glenn Greenwald explains, arguing that “what is most notable about the ‘debate’ in the U.S. over Israel-Gaza is that virtually all of it occurs from the perspective of Israeli interests but almost none of it is conducted from the perspective of American interests.” Also odd? The world’s biggest rubbish island. In other news, is Obama’s (stimulus) package too small to get the country going? Here’s one view; here is another calling for a trillion dollar package. Lastly today, Hendrik Hertzberg has another take on the Rick Warren affair … and a great link to a terrifying staged college theater publicity photo. 

Oh! Holy shit! Christa turned us on to Garfield minus Garfield, a site dedicated to removing Garfield from the Garfield comic strips in order to reveal the existential angst  Jon Arbuckle.

via SFist.

The organization One Laptop Per Child has a new ad running featuring … musician John Lennon. With the approval of Yoko Ono, the organization used Lennon’s likeness and voice from nearly 30 years ago to advocate for a very modern cause, creating “educational opportunities for the world’s poorest children by providing each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop with content and software.” The ad is after the jump. Is the “Imagine” message the best way to get this done? Is it weird or awesome? (more…)