The International House of Bacon

Coming soon, a final word (for now) on Obama stuff, and an angry rant about John McCain. Ran out of time for now for those.

* If you ever needed to know why I consider John Kyl one of my favorite Senators, check out his back-and-forth with Larry Kudlow. Kyl’s awesome, and I’m hoping he makes a run for President sometime.

* If John Kyl is one of my favorite Senators, Jeff Flake (also from Arizona) is definitely in my top 5 politicians in Washington. Flake’s been spending a lot of his time railing against the earmark system and entitlements in general, and he’s been trying to get a seat on the Appropriations Committee, but is getting stonewalled from all sides. The most ridiculous note from this yet appears to come from the House, where Kay Granger, who’s a top Republican in the House, would rather the seat go to a Democrat. I mean, really - the perception of corruption via earmarks is one of the reasons the GOP lost Congress in 2006. Either get the message or get out.

* Populists of the world, rejoice, for Ralph Nader is here! You’d think the guy would learn by now…

* Reason’s Hit & Run points us to GovernmentAttic.org, a compilation of Freedom of Information Act documents. I have a feeling this will become a staple of my reading.

* Also from Reason, an article on ESPN.com about the disconnect between the NFL’s position on human growth hormone (HGH) and HGH’s possible benefits in regards to healing from head injuries. A very fascinating read.

I can’t remember the last time I’ve done a post like this. Probably because I haven’t bought much in the way of music lately.

* Kate Nash - Made of Bricks: In a way, Nash completes the trifecta of female British singers that started with Amy Winehouse and Lily Allen. Winehouse’s life choices aside, she’s probably the most talented of the three, and I’m wondering what happens to Allen now that Kate Nash has come along. The disc is really fun - even though it’s very angry and bitter in places, it has a very down-to-earth, conversational tone to it, and the kiss-offs in some songs are much more biting than “Smile” is, in retrospect. “Foundations” is still haunting me, though.

* Robert Plant/Alison Krauss - Raising Sand: I know I raved about this plenty when I did my top CDs of 2007 list, but I’ve gotten more time with it lately and found it to be really endearing in a lot of ways. It has a very subtle existence to it that comes unexpected, and to think of Robert Plant as subtle for any reason is bizarre enough. “Gone, Gone, Gone” is what attracted me to the record, and it turns out that it’s the song that’s most out of place.

* Calvin Harris - I Created Disco: “Acceptable in the 80s” hooked me in, but the rest of the album is just bad electropop that tries to hide its gimmick with equally gimmicky oddball lyrics. Maybe I’m over irony? I dunno. I still like Art Brut…

* Chris Walla - Field Manual: I’ll put it this way - had this album come out a month earlier, I think it may have made a serious run at album of the year for me. It’s equal parts what I know Death Cab for Cutie to be, what I expected DCFC to sound like when I first heard of them, and something completely different. It’s really quite a nice album, and I’m pleasantly surprised by the whole thing. I’ve already listened twice since picking it up yesterday, and I can’t imagine it getting shelved anytime soon.

* Vampire Weekend - s/t: It’s hard to make a snap judgement on them, hearing the single a few times and the album all the way through once. I definitely get the whole “Paul-Simon-doing-Graceland” thing I keep hearing, but it honestly feels more like what you’d expect twentysomethings who love Talking Heads and the Arcade Fire at the same time to put out. I’ve never responded well to world music or world music influences, so it’ll be interesting to see how I feel about this album later, but it’s more interesting than a lot of stuff I’ve heard lately.

* Future of the Left - Curses: McLusky is possibly my favorite “loud” band. They broke up and that made me sad. Future of the Left is McLusky with a new bassist and the purchase of a keyboard that no one knows how to play. It’s harder to take as a result, but it’s an interesting record in the way that it goes from a lot of difficult noise to some pretty awesome melodic passages. I would have never expected this had it been the follow-up to The Difference Between You and Me is That I’m Not on Fire, but being a new album/band…

* From Shawn, quite possibly the best video ever. The Onion does it again.

* California’s version of government health care was soundly rejected this week. Good for them.

* Australia’s left does what even our right couldn’t accomplish, cutting taxes AND spending at the same time. Why can’t we be this smart?

* The big news of the morning? No, not that Rudy lost big and that he’s likely to endorse McCain (more on that later), but that John Edwards has dropped out. Good riddance, and this probably locks up the nomination for Obama.

* Gaming geeks: Check out the new proposed Team Fortress 2 achievements. Via Something Awful’s photoshop contests.