Al Franken has been doing a great job of laying down the law as applies to corporate rape cover-ups and healthcare issues lately.

Besides his intelligent and learned opinion on these subjects, there is another element to his congressional hearings which are just somewhat – oh I dunno, so easy to watch.

Either its general adminission seating at these hoedowns, or Al has taken a few clues from Charlie Wilson in ‘stacking’ his talent pool.

Originally appeared on: StationStops - Metro-North Train Schedules and NYC Commuting Blog See the original post here: Al Franken’s Superhot Entourage

Originally appeared on: StationStops - Metro-North Train Schedules and NYC Commuting Blog See the original post here: Obama Finally Drinks His Own Kool-Aid

If the first question you asked yourself after reading this headline was ‘who the hell is Michael Mukasey?’, then GOOD.

Because US Attorney General Michael Mukasey is the sleepy old guy Bush hired so people would stop thinking about former AG Alberto Gonzales, wiretapping, perjury, and – well, the Justice Department in general.

So, if you didn’t recognize the name, then “Mission Accomplished!”

Unfortunately the 66-year-old closer choked in the 9th inning – getting topped on YouTube by a transient brain fart.

He’s fine now, and CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta said it might have been a minor TIA or something, so I’m just gonna put him on a baby aspirin regimen and tell him to avoid long flights until Eric Holder takes the mound in January.

Originally appeared on: StationStops - Metro-North Train Schedules and NYC Commuting Blog See the original post here: Michael Mukasey OK After Collapsing During Speech

The metaphorical force in this one is strong, young Jedi.

Originally appeared on: StationStops - Metro-North Train Schedules and NYC Commuting Blog See the original post here: Sarah Palin’s Thanksgiving Slaughterhouse Photo-Op

Is this is a sneak peak at a future Obama cabinet meeting?

Earlier today we discussed how life imitated art with Obama’s election in the wake of Dennis Haysbert’s portrayal of an African-American President on the TV show 24.

Well, today its happened again (well, kinda – ok not really) – Illinois congressman Rahm Emanuel has accepted the helm of Obama’s Chief of Staff. Emanuel’s older brother, Ari, was the real-life inspiration behind the fictional Ari Gold character on HBO’s Entourage.

On the show, Ari Gold (portrayed by Jeremy Piven) is a successful ball-busting Hollywood talent agent in charge of the career of (fading?) superstar Vincent Chase.

Here is Rahm introducing his brother, the real Ari (who appears at around 4:45 intot he video), for an award:

Originally appeared on: StationStops - Metro-North Train Schedules and NYC Commuting Blog See the original post here: Ari Gold’s Brother To Be Obama’s Chief Of Staff

I was thinking today about how much actor Dennis Haysbert’s role on the extremely popular Fox series ’24′ played in helping Barack Obama get elected.

On the show, Haysbert played African-American President David Palmer.

In Googling this, I found out its obviously been discussed before, and that Haysbert has indeed noted that his role ‘paved the way’ for Obama, and that he was asked ‘every day’ on the street to actually run for office in real life.

Which is unsurprising, as President Palmer was young, good looking, honest, practical, liberal, fearless, effective, patriotic, intelligent, a great speaker and live presence. He could also kick some ass when need be. In later seasons he was contrasted against his conservative successor, who was an evil Bush/Nixon mashup.

In short, David Palmer was a fantasy president.
Who happened to be black.

Its no wonder that Insurance Company State Farm chose Haysbert for its spokesman – his character background exudes trust. This has only been reinforced in his role as an exceptionally adept special forces commander on the CBS show ‘The Unit’.

Although Barack Obama does not have the impressive physical presence of Palmer (I hope he never actually has to kill a terrorist with his bare hands), he otherwise plays to most of Palmer’s strengths.

Millions of Americans watched Palmer for a few seasons of ’24′ – it seems unlikely that this mediated reality of having a model black president didn’t substantially help America turn that into reality.

Well done Mr. Haysbert.

Maybe Obama’s election will see a future return of President David Palmer to 24 – that would be great, because he was a cornerstone of the show’s appeal.

Update: As a side note, I just remembered that actress Geena Davis helmed the oval office about the same time in the ABC series ‘Commander In Chief’ , which was cancelled after one season. Had it lived on, perhaps we would be crediting Davis with Hillary Clinton’s election.

Nah.

Originally appeared on: StationStops - Metro-North Train Schedules and NYC Commuting Blog See the original post here: Dennis Haysbert’s Role In Obama’s Election

Check out the photo the New York Times chose for Barack Obama in its election section logo graphic! He looks like he is about to grind out a rock video in the rain!

Meanwhile, the McCain shot still makes him appear to be the condo association president of Del Boca Vista.

Originally appeared on: StationStops - Metro-North Train Schedules and NYC Commuting Blog See the original post here: New York Times Election Graphic Promotes Obama’s New CD!