The Michelle Obama "action figure" comes in three versions, depending on how you would like to see her dressed. (Jailbreak Toys)

by Linda Holmes

That's right, people. It's not Barbie, it's not Bratz: it's the Michelle Obama action figure. With eight points of articulation! She will come with three different dresses!

She comes from Jailbreak Toys, which also made the Barack Obama action figure last year, and on November 15, you'll be able to pick up "The Michelle" so that they can have action-figure dinner dates. (The company also makes a variety of other action figures, including Salvador Dali, so you'll be able to set up some seriously interesting dioramas.)

And I would encourage you to play with it, too, because the only political action figure I personally own has failed to appreciate in value at all in the entire time I have possessed it, which is going on ten years now. Can you guess?

Proof of my former state of residence, after the jump.

Continue reading "Michelle Obama Is Now An Action Figure" >

Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, seen here at a news conference in January 2009, dropped by The Daily Show last night. (Scott Olson / Getty Images)

by Linda Holmes

On last night's The Daily Show, Rod Blagojevich sat down to talk to Jon Stewart about the charges against him, the incriminating tapes made of his conversations, and more. Blagojevich's basic argument is that he did attempt to trade President Barack Obama's Senate seat for something, but he was trying to trade it for public policy victories for the people of his state. Stewart had a little bit of trouble with this claim.

After the jump: the video.

Continue reading "Rod Blagojevich Visits Jon Stewart" >

Tom DeLay is going on Dancing With The Stars, and there's more precedent for the move than you might think. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)

by Linda Holmes

Until now, the answer to the question, "What do Melissa Joan Hart of Sabrina The Teenage Witch and former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay have in common?" was probably "Not much." But now, they are both set to appear on the upcoming season of Dancing With The Stars.

The potential for this to be highly bizarre is not to be underestimated. Do not think only of DeLay doing the regular tango, which I like to think of as the dirty dancing of the very sophisticated. Think of him doing the tango to "Beat It" or the Star Wars theme -- because in seasons past this show has set tangos to both.

Or perhaps he'd like to try the Lindy Hop dressed in gym shorts?

You get the idea. If DeLay sticks around, this could turn into a fairly spectacular spectacle. (And he's throwing himself into it, too, if his Web site is any indication.)

Still, DeLay is hardly the first politician (or former politician) to dabble in pop culture -- not by a long shot. Let's take a look back at some other "classics."

Arsenio, Nixon, Tip, and other single-namers, after the jump...

Continue reading "Tom DeLay Does The Tango, And Other Great Moments In Political Pop Culture" >

Rock the Vote: There's a special mayoral race underway, and you can vote in this one. iStockphoto.com

 

by Glen Weldon

UPDATED WITH ELECTION RESULTS: SEE THE (VERY!) END OF THIS POST

This summer, the DC-based New Organizing Institute, which trains aspiring wonks in the ways of netroot campaigning, has introduced a program that's attracting attention outside the two-fisted, thrill-a-minute world of voter data management. Which, of course, is pretty much the idea.

They've brought 53 college seniors to the nation's capital for a weeklong workshop on online organizing and social media, and given them an exercise: Pick a candidate to run in a simulated campaign for mayor of Washington, DC, complete with website, platform, email solicitations, the whole cyber-electoral schmear.

That's not the bit that's attracting attention. No, what's gotten the geekosphere -- and several DC blogs -- twittering (and Twittering) is the fact that the candidates are superheroes.

But the campaign ends today. This page contains links to the web pages of all eight super-candidates. You can vote for the hero of your choice between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. Eastern Time.

But you don't have to make that choice alone. Your trusty comics blogger is both a hardcore superhero nerd and a longtime DC resident -- so it's impossible for him to ignore the siren song of this particular exercise in virtual democracy. That's why he's taken a good hard look the platforms of these municipal marvels, these candidates-in-capes, these powered pols.

After the jump: Meet the candidates - strengths, weaknesses, oppo research, and where they come down on DC voting rights.

Continue reading "In 'D.C.,' A Mayoral Race That's Every Bit As Tight As Spandex " >

by Linda Holmes

Perhaps you are a little surprised that President Barack Obama made jokes about Dick Cheney's hunting accident and marrying David Axelrod when he stepped up to the microphone at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner on Saturday night.

(Interestingly, I thought one of his more successful jokes got one of the more modest laughs: "In the next hundred days, I will strongly consider losing my cool.")

So step up and judge for yourself: was he funny? Part One of his presentation is above, and Part Two is after the jump.

Continue reading "Step Right Up And Judge The Hilarity (?) Of Your President" >

by Linda Holmes

You know by now that Kal Penn is headed to the White House. Great news for him; bad news for everyone hoping for the next Harold And Kumar movie.

Now that we know another sequel is not in the works, it's time to place some of the other fine cast members of the Harold And Kumar movies in government positions. He is doing his part; they should do theirs.

John Cho Noel Vasquez/Getty Images

 

John Cho: Strange Beings Liaison, NASA

Since his days as Harold, Cho has made a number of TV appearances -- including one on House -- and popped up in a few movies. But the biggest things are right around the corner, because he's playing Sulu in the new Star Trek movie that arrives on May 8.

Surely, all that he has learned about talking to the pointy-eared would make him useful to the space program. How different can fictional outer space be than real outer space? Unfortunately, he would spend his first month on the job telling NASA guys they don't need to do the "live long and prosper" thing every time.

Neil Patrick Harris, Rob Corddry, and more, after the jump...

Continue reading "Public-Sector Jobs For More Of The 'Harold And Kumar' Corps" >

Roquefort: We've got bad news for those of you who think this looks delicious. AFP/Getty Images

 

by Todd Kliman

And you thought "freedom fries" was the most shockingly egregious example of ugly Americanism.

Now comes word that the Bush administration, in its final days, waged a holy war against stinky cheese.

According to a front-page story in yesterday's Washington Post, the administration "imposed a 300 percent duty on Roquefort, in effect closing off the U.S. market. Americans, it declared, will no longer get to taste the creamy concoction that, in its authentic, most glorious form, comes with an odor of wet sheep and veins of blue mold that go perfectly with rye bread and coarse red wine."

If you like that sort of thing.

Of course, if you do, you probably also have a fondness for French truffles, Irish oatmeal, Italian sparkling water and foie gras ("fatty livers of ducks and geese," in the words of U.S. officials), all of which were slapped with prohibitively high tariffs.

What this is all about, after the jump...

Continue reading "The War On Openness Becomes The War On Stinky Cheese" >

Geek in Chief? Comics artist Alex Ross may have been prescient about the President-elect. © Alex Ross. Used by permission.

 

by Glen Weldon

So yeah, as previously noted, there was this article in Britain's Daily Telegraph, entitled "Barack Obama: The 50 Facts You Might Not Know." Here's another fact you might not know: That article created a bit of a stir last week among one specific and defiantly geeky sector of the populace.

Across the vasty funnybook blogosphere, that article's very first item — just eight little words — sent hearts to fluttering, tongues to wagging and computer pixels to ... um, doing whatever it is that computer pixels do. Phosphoring, let's say.

The eight little words? "He collects Spider-Man and Conan the Barbarian comics."

Actually, it wasn't all eight of those words. It was just the second one.

Collects.

That one verb sent a thrill up the leg of many a funnybook fan, and got us parsing away like so many Talmudic scholars. (If Talmudic scholars wore XXL X-Men tees.)

To wit:

Well, let's just start with that verb tense. As in: Present! As in: Continues-to-this-very-day!

To say nothing of the word choice itself. To collect, after all, is a fundamentally different prospect than, say, to read. Because packed neatly inside collect is the notion of cataloging, of alphabetizing by publisher, title or lead character.

The word collect is redolent of the chase, of the perpetual, never-to-be-slaked thirst for completeness that is the very engine of full-on geekery.

So yeah, it's an intriguing prospect, a fanboy POTUS; I get that.

But I hereby caution my geek brethren and sistren to curb the collective enthusiasm until we know more.

After the jump: We coldly examine the evidence ...

Continue reading "A POTUS Among Us: In Obama, Comics Fans Spy a Fellow Traveler " >

The President-Elect: Can't get enough facts about him, even if you have to write them yourself? We're here to help. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

 

by Glenn McDonald

The UK Telegraph recently ran an intriguing piece called "Barack Obama: The 50 facts you might not know." As you may be aware, a certain percentage of Europeans -- the technical term is Pretty Much Everybody, I think -- was overjoyed at the notion of an Obama presidency. So the list runs down some rather endearing facts about our next president.

For instance, he collects Spider-Man and Conan the Barbarian comics. His favorite music includes Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, Bach and The Fugees. And he took Michelle to see the Spike Lee film Do The Right Thing on their first date. (All true.) (According to the Telegraph, anyway.)

Here at NPR HQ, we decided to apply our vast editorial (and, um, creative) resources to the task, and have come up with a bonus 25 More Facts You Might Not Know About Barack Obama.

- He can not only turn water into wine; he turns it into 1787 Chateau Lafite.

- A renowned spot shooter at Chicago pick-up basketball games, his specialty is a 3-pointer made by bouncing the ball off Mayor Richard M. Daley's forehead.

- His tears can regenerate severed limbs.

- Whenever a Republican strategist cries, Obama gets $10 richer, somehow.

A lot more facts we totally do not stand behind, after the jump...

Continue reading "You've Got Obama Facts; We've Got Space For Them" >

Tell 'em, Coach: Denzel Washington is the sum of all metaphorical things. Walt Disney Pictures

 

by Trey Graham

Aaaaaand the post-election film geekery begins in 3, 2 ... no, wait, it started hours ago.

Both Slashfilm and the MTV Movies blog weighed in this morning -- earrrrrrrly this morning, for MTV Movies' Shawn Adler -- about the music the McCain and Obama campaigns used to play their principals off the stage after their big speeches last night.

There's some it-wasn't-that-it-was-this sass in the comments at Slashfilm, but the verdict seems to be: themes from Crimson Tide and Remember the Titans.

The long version -- plus an analysis that ends with the observation "This confirms what many of us already suspected: Denzel Washington embodies every politically compelling narrative known to man" -- over here and here.

The ongoing saga that is Saturday Night Live's remarkable 2008 season continued this weekend, as you have probably heard, with John McCain's appearance in both the opening sketch about QVC fundraising and Weekend Update. Here's the QVC piece, including -- for perhaps the last time -- Tina Fey as Sarah Palin.

Stephen Colbert: He's both a suck-up and an arch-conservative on his show; which means more to him? Comedy Central

 

by Marc Hirsh

Elections are easy. Comedy is hard. Especially comedy that hinges more or less directly on the outcome of elections. Jon Stewart has repeatedly mentioned, both recently and in 2004, that he would much rather struggle to fill four half-hour shows every week than have current events provide The Daily Show with the easy material it's had for eight years. For her part, Tina Fey has said that she'd like to pack up her wickedly brilliant Sarah Palin impression after November 4.

Stephen Colbert, of course, has it a little bit easier. Where Stewart plays the role of the last sane man in a world gone mad, Colbert takes it in the other direction, mocking the lunatics by out-crazying them as much as possible. The fact that he's clearly playing an outsized character on The Colbert Report (unlike Stewart, whose on-air persona seems to be distilled, at least to some degree, from his actual attitude and political leanings) gives him the ability to ride out the election to whichever outcome and overreact accordingly.

If McCain wins, of course, then it's business as usual. But the prospect of an Obama victory raises a much more interesting dilemma: how will "Stephen Colbert" react?

Continue reading "Your Principles Or Your Obsequiousness: Which Would 'Stephen Colbert' Choose?" >

by Trey Graham

We've lost Studs Terkel, that magnificent animal. You'll find Cheryl Corley's story on him over here.

And because there's no point in parochialism at times like this, I want to make sure you see this, from the Chicago Tribune:

There's much more, including several more videos, from the Tribune on this page.

Need more? Try Studs On a Soapbox, a half-hour bio that originally aired on WTTW's "Chicago Stories" back in 2000. (Credit Tom Weinberg and the online video archive MediaBurn.)

And because no good sendoff is complete without a little Patti LaBelle, here's the number "Cleanin' Women," from the Broadway musical based on Terkel's quietly marvelous here's-what-we-do-all-day book Working. This take is from a 90-minute version that aired on PBS in 1982, in the first season of American Playhouse:

by Linda Holmes

Somebody really put a lot of work into this remarkable video, which rather powerfully suggests a certain lack of spontaneity in the three presidential debates. By which I mean, "It will really make you feel like you could have spent two out of three of them doing something else."

Oh, Internet. How you do ruin everything.

Here they come to save the day: McCain, Palin and Obama get bio-comics. And there's a fourth — but it's not about the candidate you'd expect. IDW, Bluewater

 

by Glen Weldon

How do I love [preferred candidate]? Let me count the swag:

With lawn signs do I love him. With baby tees, and hoodies. And buttons. And with bumper stickers, desktop wallpapers, magnets (refrigerator/car), lapel pins, hats (baseball/ trucker), coffee mugs, water bottles and funnybooks.

Wait: funnybooks?

Funnybooks.

Four different candidates vying for national office are now the subjects of their own comic-book biographies. But they're not necessarily the four candidates you'd imagine — and you'll never guess which one got snubbed.

After the jump: Profiles in four-color courage, and the identity of the mystery snubbee ... REVEALED! ... (Yeah, okay, it's Biden.)

Continue reading "Cue the (Word) Balloon Drop: A Presidential Comix Cavalcade" >

by Trey Graham

Just a quick hit to make sure you've seen this post over on the Vox Politics blog: The Obama campaign is buying ad space in ... video games?

The cookie polls prove it: Voters go on gut instinct. Karmacamilleeon/Flickr

 

by Todd Kliman

Thanks to the ceaseless "news cycle" and a growing horde of media outlets, there is no end to polling data, and tracking of the candidates has become a daily and sometimes hourly activity.

Witness the aftermath of this week's faux-town hall debate, when a flurry of polls that night and the next morning showed Barack Obama had edged John McCain, and appeared to gain a bit of separation from his Republican rival. Or did he?

What the cookie metrics suggest, after the jump...

Continue reading "Forget The Polls; Track The Candidate-Cookie Numbers" >

by Linda Holmes

What's fun on Friday? Debate humor! Saturday Night Live has an odd tendency to excel in particular areas while tanking in others, and one of its strengths has been -- oddly -- debate sketches.

The clip above features Dana Carvey's George H.W. Bush (before it got over-exaggerated) and Jon Lovitz's Michael Dukakis (which came down to one highly quotable line).

But the secret weapon is Jan Hooks as Diane Sawyer -- because Diane Sawyer is exactly like that, with that winking, smiling, syrupy delivery and all that reveling in the discomfort of others.

More debates, and a prediction about the weekend, after the jump ...

Continue reading "Debatable Humor: 'SNL' and
the, Um, Art of Political Parody" >