Let Them Eat Cake

“It just wouldn't be appropriate to have a festive occasion while a near-tragedy or a terrible challenge is presented in the form of a natural disaster,” McCain told Chris Wallace of “Fox News Sunday” in an interview taped for Sunday.


We so agree John, now eat your birthday cake and shut up!

Obama Responds to Fey, Uh, I Mean, Palin

40 Years Ago Today From DC Comics -- Bat Lash #1

Bat Lash #1 (On Sale: August 29, 1968) has a cover by Nick Cardy. I never cared for the coloring on this one, maybe the weakest of all the Bat Lash covers.

"We're A-Comin' ta Get You" is plotted by Sergio Aragones, scripted by Denny O'Neil and drawn by Nick Cardy. Bat Lash leaves No Hope Junction to avoid a lynch mob. On the road he meets a monk named Sebastian who offers him kindness. Sebastian has one piece of a marker that leads to the lost fortune of Don Sergio Aragones. After parting ways, Sebastian is killed by outlaws seeking the marker. Bat Lash is wounded while fighting them.

Bat Lash recovers in the town of Wormhole not far from the monastery where Sebastian was headed. He tells the monks there that Sebastian was killed, but the monks are really the outlaws. They then frame Bat for Sebastian's murder.

Bat escapes from jail and locates another traveling monk who carries another marker to the treasure. He takes the monk's place and returns to the monastery. He then sells the crooks the second marker. The sheriff catches Bat on the way out, but he talks his way out of trouble. While romancing Sebastian's niece, he discovers a third marker needed to find the treasure. He allows the sheriff to take the fortune after capturing the outlaws. Bat keeps the money he made from selling the second marker and leaves town. Shamelessly never reprinted.

Edited by Joe Orlando.

One for the Centuries!

He knocks it right out of the stadium!

40 Years Ago Today From DC Comics -- Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #115

Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #115 (On Sale: August 27, 1968) has one of my favorite Neal Adams' covers of all time. I know that so much of my appreciation is due to the masterful color work on this, but I also like the almost Wally Wood inspired Superman figure and the wonderful staging of the scene fore which Adams was so well-known.

"Survival of the Fittest" is by Leo Dorfman and Pete Costanza, In a very rare-for-the-time crossover, Aquaman guest-stars. In some even rarer-for-the-time continuity, Aquaman's quest for Mera (Aquaman #40-#48) is mentioned. DC was changing folks, slowly but surely. While reporting on the maiden voyage of a new atomic submarine, Jimmy Olsen rescues the crew when the sub is caught in a whirlpool. Aquaman then arrives to help save the submarine. The whirlpool was caused by Captain Bane, the disguised identity of the Old Man of the Sea.

Seeking revenge against Aquaman and Jimmy, the Old Man of the Sea arranges for Jimmy to gain Aquaman's powers. Then disguised as Superman he arranges for Jimmy and Aquaman to prove which is the best by taking them into the desert. Jimmy is barely able to stay alive, but Aquaman appears to die. The Old Man then strands Jimmy in the middle of the ocean without powers.

When he returns to Earth, Superman apprehends the Old Man, taking the trickster to a lifeless water world where he can't trouble Earth again. Superman also reveals that Aquaman survived when his body was returned to the ocean, the water revived it. Jimmy is also still alive having found a life preserver from the Titanic floating in the ocean.

The back-up is "The Kid Who Unmasked Superman" by Dave Wood and Pete Costanza. Duncan Brite joins the Jimmy Olsen Fan Club with the intention of discovering Superman's secret identity. When Superman visits the club, Duncan gets an impression of Superman's ear, a footprint, and a strand of his hair. Duncan then compares the evidence to men at the Daily Planet. He suspects Clark Kent, but Clark realizes that Duncan's motives.

Edited by Mort Weisinger.

Wake Up America!

Just beautiful!

What I Love About the Olympics, Part IV

Did I mention the volleyball cheerleders?

McCain's Housekeys

He Was Just Biden His Time!

40 Years Ago Today From DC Comics -- Superboy #151

Superboy #151 (On Sale: August 22, 1968) has a pretty damn cool cover by Neal Adams.

"D.O.A. – in Cold Blood" is by Frank Robbins, Bob Brown and Jack Abel. While on patrol Superboy checks out a light in the Smallville High School office. Momentarily blinded by a beam of light while flying through an open window he reaches out blindly and grabs someone. When his sight returns, Superboy finds that he grabbed Lana Lang and killed her. He also finds evidence that she was stealing mid-terms from the office.

Superboy brings the body to the police station and turns himself in to Captain Hall. The police show him a note from Lana that tells them she is afraid of Superboy. An examination of the school office doesn't match Superboy's story about the accident. The Boy of Steel is then locked up.

Superboy begins to suspect Lana is still alive after he receives a note that disintegrates, and after Lana's body is missing from the coffin. Using his x-ray and telescopic vision from inside his jail cell Superboy locates Lana in the hands of Anton Lumar, a photographer who has found a method of making three dimensional photo duplicates that disintegrate.

Edited by Murray Boltinoff.

VP Observation III

Kaine he string us along for much longer?

VP Observation II

Time is quickly going Bayh, and still no VP.

What I Love About the Olympics, Part III

Kerri Walsh.

VP Observation I

Obama is Biden his time on this VP announcement.

Question of the Day

Will our goading of Russia back into a cold war stance extend the life of the Space Shuttle? Do you think the US will want to rely on Russia for all its rides into space for five to six years?

What I Love About the Olympics, Part II

Brazilian Women's Volleyball!

40 Years Ago Today From DC Comics -- Metal Men #34

Metal Men #34 (On Sale: August 20, 1968) has another interesting cover by Mike Sekowsky and Jack Abel.

The Metal Men star in "Death Comes Calling" by Robert Kanigher, Mike Sekowsky and George Roussos. Continuing from last issue, the police attempt to apprehend the Metal Men after the robots have lost the public trust. The chase is interrupted when an alien from another galaxy is attracted to Earth by unusual volcanic activity. The Metal Men attempt to stop the alien, but they only succeed in endangering the authorities. The Metal Men decide to return to the lab until the authorities ask for their help. However, Tina remains in the alien's hands.

The police are unable to harm the alien either. When the alien animates store mannequins into an army, the police are forced to summon the Metal Men again. While the robots battle the wax army, Tina lures the alien into an active volcano.

Edited by Jack Miller.

Oh, We're All So Worried!

So the big story yesterday and today is...

McCain Lead Obama in New Poll

Oh, I'm so frickin' frightened! NOT!

What are they not telling you, while they ignore every other poll that says Obama is still ahead of McCain? You need to remember, and you heard it here first, all the way back in March, Zogby polls are always wrong. They are like the crap movie reviewers that stay in business because they can always be counted on to love the latest crappy film. Zogby is around to boost news rating with screaming headlines making predictions that turn the latest political contest on its ear, but which will eventually be proven to be wrong. But gosh, the news networks all get a slight bump in ratings for a day or two.

Remember, never ever get yourself worked up over a Zogby poll.

What I Love About the Olympics, Part I

The cheerleaders at the beach volleyball arena.

40 Years Ago Today From DC Comics -- Star Spangled War Stories #141

Star Spangled War Stories #141 (On Sale: August 18, 1968) has a not so impressive Enemy Ace cover by Joe Kubert. It is also the last issue to use this lack-luster Enemy Ace logo.

Inside we have Enemy Ace in "The Bull" by Robert Kanigher and Joe Kubert. This story was reprinted in DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest #7, Enemy Ace Archives Vol. 1 HC and Showcase Presents:Enemy Ace Vol. 1 TPB.

Edited by Joe Kubert.

John McCain, Putting Family First!

The McCain ad we would like to see...

"When John McCain returned from Viet Nam to find his wife suffering lingering injuries from an automobile accident, he immediately began having affairs. Finally he found a beautiful woman worth tens of millions of dollars, and deserted his first wife to marry her."

"John McCain, putting his family first! His second family, that is! It's never to late to betray your promises to get what you want."

Exclusive! China Prepares to Dominate Animal Olympics!

In an effort to dominate the upcoming Animal Olympics, China is forcing day-old panda bears into a strict routine of calisthenics, including push-ups. Will their insidiousness never end?

40 Years Ago Today From DC Comics -- Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane #87

Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane #87 (On Sale: August 13, 1968) has a cover by Neal Adams. This one just doesn't work for me; the Superman figure seems distorted and unnatural looking due to the angle and the Cor-Lar figure in green is only in this bizarre position so that her legs do not extent off the cover.

We begin with "Feud of the Super-Femmes" by Leo Dorfman, Irv Novick and Mike Esposito. Continuing from previous issues, Lois has gained super-powers with the help of Kandorian scientist Cor-Lar. However, the scientist forces Lois to retrieve a rare bird from another world. Lois brings the bird back to Kandor, but is told that Earth's atmosphere is now poisonous to her. Cor-Lar then takes Lois's place on Earth while Lois remains behind as a super-hero in Kandor.

Lois rescues a Kandorian archaeologist and discovers a secret cache of Jor-El's inventions. Inside the cache is a supply of Kandorite, a mineral that can remove super-powers from anyone native to Kandor. She also learns that Cor-Lar lied about Earth's atmosphere being poisonous. She returns to Earth and exposes the scientist to Kandorite to remove Cor-Lar's powers. Lois's powers wear off, and Cor-Lar is returned to Kandor to pay for her crimes.

The back-up is "The Jealous Lois Lane" from Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane #31 and is drawn by Kurt Schaffenberger. Lois Lane agrees to test a special emotion detecting device for Professor Potter. When Lois becomes jealous a bell will sound. As the girl reporter follows Superman around, she becomes jealous, but she prevents the bell from ringing. When she returns to the Planet, Superman is there, and the building fire alarm accidentally sounds. Everyone believes it is the bell from the emotion detector. Lois is upset because she had tried hard to make the Man of Steel believe she was not a jealous person. Wow, and they saw fit to reprint this one.

Edited by Mort Weisinger.

Too Old To Be President?

Decide for yourself. This might help.

McCain's Flip-Flop On Off-Shore Drilling A Week After Hess Fundraiser

The first three sentences say it all...

On June 10, John B. Hess, a top executive at the oil company with his family name, summoned friends to the 21 Club, a former speakeasy in Manhattan, and delivered $285,000 to John McCain and the Republican National Committee.

A week later, McCain traveled to Texas and announced his support for offshore oil drilling.

Hess Corp. is an East Coast gasoline retailer with major refining and exploration operations, some of which happen to be offshore in the Gulf of Mexico.

What a whore. Or is that giving the hard-working women of the street a bad name?

Science Fiction Becomes Fact!

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

McCoy: Where are we going?
Kirk: Where they went.
McCoy: Suppose they went *nowhere*?
Kirk: Then this will be your big chance to get away from it all.

Those Star Trek guys always were ahead of the curve!

Ya Think?

PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE, Manitoba - A man accused of beheading and cannibalizing another passenger on a Greyhound bus in Canada pleaded Tuesday in court for someone to "please kill me," and was ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation.

Wow, they are the masters of understatement in Manitoba.

40 Years Ago Today From DC Comics -- Secret Six #4

Secret Six #4 (On Sale: August 6, 1968) has only a so-so cover by Jack Sparling.

"Escape for an Enemy" is plotted by E. Nelson Bridwell, scripted by Joe Gill and drawn by Jack Sparling. This issue focuses on King Savage. The Hollywood stunt man had been a fighter pilot during the Korean War. After having been shot down and captured by the North Koreans, he escaped imprisonment and made it back to his own lines in time to warn U.N. forces of an imminent Chinese ambush. But while imprisoned, under torture, King revealed valuable information about American forces. As he reveals here, it was Mockingbird who provided King the tools and weapons which enabled him to escape prison in time to warn the U. N. troops of the North Korean ambush.

The Six's mission is to rescue a North Korean general from the Red Chinese before he can be executed as a traitor and to turn him over to the U.S. authorities for interrogation. This general just happens to have been the commandant of the prison camp where King was held during the war and the one who forced King to betray his country.

This issue has another example of Dick Giordano's "hands off" style of editing, giving his writers and artists pretty much free reign to create as they saw fit, causing mistakes to be made.

In this issue Joe Gill wrote a thought balloon for Carlo that says, "If Doc is Mockingbird…I had to make this look good!" Now since the underlying gimmick to this entire series is that one of the members of the Secret Six is actually Mockingbird, and nobody knows who he is, this little faux pas just eliminated Carlo from suspicion and therefore weakened the basic premise of the entire series.

I wish I was home and could get hold of my Secret Six issues as some people on the net say this "mistake" actually took place in issue #2, not issue #4. Argh! Who to trust, who to trust?

Edited by Dick Giordano.

A Perfect Definition of Republicans

"They're very good at negative campaigning. They're not so good at governing."

-Barack Obama

The Next Camaro

I may not want to fill the tank, but I sure like the way it looks.

Registration Changes Are Bad News For Republicans...

...but also a clear warning to Democrats.

The bad news for the Republicans:

In several states, including the traditional battlegrounds of Nevada and Iowa, Democrats have surprised their own party officials with significant gains in registration. In both of those states, there are now more registered Democrats than Republicans, a flip from 2004. No states have switched to the Republicans over the same period, according to data from 26 of the 29 states in which voters register by party. (Three of the states did not have complete data.)

In six states, including Iowa, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania, the Democratic piece of the registration pie grew more than three percentage points, while the Republican share declined. In only three states — Kentucky, Louisiana and Oklahoma — did Republican registration rise while Democratic registration fell, but the Republican increase was less than a percentage point in Kentucky and Oklahoma. Louisiana was the only state to register a gain of more than one percentage point for Republicans as Democratic numbers declined.

The bad news for the Democrats:

Over the same period, the share of the electorate that registers as independent has grown at a faster rate than Republicans or Democrats in 12 states. The rise has been so significant that in states like Arizona, Colorado and North Carolina, nonpartisan voters essentially constitute a third party.

The Democrats need to think long and hard as to why voters, after the absolutely disastrous eight years of Bush, are wary of embracing them the way they should, as the only viable alternative. When you are on the big stage you can't get stage fright and the Democrats have cowered in the wings for so long now, afraid to attack Bush and the thugs he brought into government, that there is now a major shift in the country to belong to neither party. Most Americans hate the Republicans, but can't quite trust the Democrats, and that distrust is solely the responsibility of Reid, Pelosi and their ilk; if you won't get rid of the crooks, why should we think you are any better than they are?

Seeing the Light

"A few months ago, I wrote that John McCain was an honorable man and he would run an honorable campaign. I was wrong."

-Joe Klein

This I Would Pay to See

LOS ANGELES - Lindsay Lohan said Friday that police have no business getting involved in her personal life, a day after the police chief explained that the paparazzi were no longer an issue — in part because the 22-year-old actress had evidently "gone gay."

Call me a dirty old man if you like, but I would pay to watch Lindsay Lohan and her girlfriend do "the deed."

I'm just sayin', that's all.

Arghh! This Guy Is Really Beginning To Piss Me Off

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Friday he would be willing to support limited additional offshore oil drilling if that's what it takes to enact a comprehensive policy to foster fuel-efficient autos and develop alternate energy sources.

Shifting from his previous opposition to expanded offshore drilling, the Illinois senator told a Florida newspaper he could get behind a compromise with Republicans and oil companies to prevent gridlock over energy.

Forget that Obama is "flip-flopping" so much you would think his last name was McCain, he is now embracing the plans of the greedy oil companies that are duly embraced by the ignorant Republican masses.

Like I said, this guy is really beginning to piss me off!

Another in a Long List of Reasons to Hate Wal-Mart

We already have a long laundry list of reasons to hate Wal-Mart, from killing "mom and pop" stores, to using Mafia-like "persuasion" to get a better deal than anyone else, to treating their employees like serfs, to enforcing it's own morality on America through its censorship of products. I hate the bastards; they are nothing but corporate thugs and need to be dealt with accordingly.

I internally cringe every time I have to step inside one of these despicable stores (usually I am taking my parents to get something and it is the closest store to their house). I hate this company with a passion. Now I have another reason to do so.

(Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N) is mobilizing U.S. store managers to lobby against Democrats in November's presidential election, fearing they will make it easier for workers to unionize, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

In recent weeks, thousands of Wal-Mart managers and department heads have been summoned to mandatory meetings at which the retailer stresses the downside for workers if store workers unionize, the paper said.

About a dozen employees who attended meetings in seven states said executives stressed employees would have to pay hefty union dues and get nothing in return, and might have to go on strike without compensation, and warned that unionization could force the company to cut jobs as labor costs rise, the Journal reported.

The Wal-Mart human-resources managers who have run the meetings didn't tell those attending how to vote in the November elections, but made it clear that voting for the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Sen. Barack Obama, would be tantamount to inviting unions in, the Journals said.

Wal-Mart could not be reached immediately for a comment.

If I never step into another Wal-Mart it will be too soon.

40 Years Ago Today From DC Comics -- Challengers of the Unknown #64

Challengers of the Unknown #64 (On Sale: August 1, 1968) has a cover by Joe Kubert that I have always loved.

"Invitation to a Hanging" is by Robert Kanigher and Jack Sparling. The Challengers are invited to the execution of three criminals who vow to seek revenge from the grave. After the convicts are killed, the judge and district attorney who convicted them are killed by their apparent ghosts. The Challengers investigate and discover the grave of their boss Doc Hemlock is empty.

The Challengers are captured and taken to Hemlock's hideout. The crook is actually still alive and is using robot duplicates of the executed convicts to exact his revenge.

The back up story is the origin of the Challengers, "The Secrets of the Sorcerer's Box," a reprint from Showcase #6 by Dave Wood and Jack Kirby. Four men, Rocky Davis, Ace Morgan, Red Ryan, and Prof. Haley are scheduled to appear on the television show "Heroes". Ace is piloting the plane carrying the men to the show. The plane runs into poor weather, causing it to crash. The men miraculously survive. Red’s watch which should have been destroyed works perfectly, causing Ace to suppose the men are living on "borrowed time". At Prof’s suggestion, the men band together to take more risk as the Challengers of the Unknown.

A request for the daredevil services comes in from Morelian, an alleged descendant of Merlin. His assignment for the Challs is to open a mystic box that has four segments.

On a deserted island, Rocky opens the first compartment. Inside is a giant egg which hatches overnight into a giant humanoid creature. The creature walks across the ocean destroying ships and taking Red in the process. Ace and Prof. pursue the monster which eventually drops Red. Prof. eventually figures that the monster is composed of pure thought and wishes the creature away.

Red is returned to the island where Rocky has opened the second segment of the box. A freezing sun is inside which draws the heat from everything, freezing Rocky. Red manages to trap the sun in a vacuum sealed container.

Ace and Prof. return to the island, and Ace opens the third segment. A device which spins a web of plastic flies out at tremendous speed. The Challs follow the device to Australia, eventually gaining control over it with the container it was originally contained in.

When the Challs return to the island, Morelian has opened the final section of the box. Inside is a ring which supposedly gives him immortality. He flies off in his plane, but quickly crashes down upon the box. The box has what contained the immortality not the ring, which was sudden death.

Edited by Murray Boltinoff.