I doubt many of you are as interested in this as I am

...so I'll try to keep this brief, but we have more promising casting news about the most anticipated (by me anyway, and that's all we're really concerned with around here) TV show of next season, Aaron Sorkin's "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip."

"The West Wing" co-star Bradley Whitford has joined Aaron Sorkin's new show, "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," with Sarah Paulson and Timothy Busfield also coming on board the NBC drama.

The WBTV-produced "Studio 60" is set behind the scenes of a fictional broadcasting network's flagship late-night sketch comedy show. Whitford will play a producer-director and recovering cocaine addict who has come back to run the sketch show he used to work for. Paulson plays a Christian fundamentalist, while Busfield will play the control-room director.

Busfield, who also enjoys a successful career as a TV director, also will serve as a producing director on "Studio 60."

Whitford won an Emmy in 2001 for his role on "West Wing."

Busfield often has collaborated with Sorkin. He starred in the Broadway run of Sorkin's "A Few Good Men"; was a director on the writer-producer's comedy for ABC, "Sports Night"; and recurred on "West Wing."

As noted in an earlier post that Blogger ate in a meltdown, they'll be joining Nate Corddry of "The Daily Show," Amanda Peet of my obsessive daydreams, Matthew Perry of "Friends," Evan Handler, also a recurring on "West Wing" and Stephen Weber of "Reefer Madness."

Now that's what I call a cast.

God I love Johnny Rotten

A.K.A. John Lydon. Not so much for his music, especially with the Sex Pistols. For me the best thing about punk is that it gave birth to the new pop, post-punk and post-post-punk groups like Thompson Twins and Pet Shop Boys.

(There is a direct connection-for details and further reading, see Like Punk Never Happened by Dave Rimmer, Pet Shop Boys-Literally by Chris Heath and The Best of Smash Hits, edited by Neil Tennant before he became a pop star.)

Pil was more to my liking--especially "This is Not a Love Song," "Don't Ask Me," "Seattle," the groundbreaking collaboration with Afrika Bambaataa "World Destruction," and "Disappointed." But he just seems like such a laugh, and he's so emminently quotable.

Case in point. The Pistols were recently announced as being among the next entrants into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. Well, it seems Johnny is just not having that, as evidenced by this official announcement...

Sigh. I tell you people, if I were a teenaged girl, John Lydon is exactly the kind of bad boy I would get hung up on.

Hmm...

To Do Today
posted by Thesaurus Rex Monday, February 27, 2006


Find a Republican.

Confirm that they voted for Bush in 2000 and 2004.

Say, "This whole Iraq thing? Thank you for that. Heck of a job."

Walk away.

I have a good friend who voted for Bush in 2000, now bitterly regrets it, actually went so far as to vote for Kerry in 2004, and tends to hang her head in shame when I remind her of her initial horrendous mistake.

Think I should let her off the hook?

We take no position on paper

Blogger Harry McCracken has a post about a recent visit to Pixar held as a benefit for San Francisco's Cartoon Art Museum. Lucky guy.

Unlike the earlier benefits, the bulk of last night's presentation was done by one guy--Michael Johnson, a Pixar technical guy who's also a board member at the museum. That was fine; he did a great job, giving a talk that was about both Pixar's film-making process and its perspective on the world.

I find some bits of that perspective really inspiring.

He began by stating three Pixar rules of success:

1. Casting, casting, casting. (ie, nothing is more important than the team you hire)

2. Hire people smarter than yourself.

3. Art as a team sport. ("51 percent is plays well with others.")

* Johnson said that all Pixar productions begin as 2D ideas. Some of the artists who work on ideas like to use real-world art materials; others work digitally, using Wacom's Cintiq tablets. That's fine: "We take no position on paper."

* He showed a great little film about all the work that went into giving The Incredibles' Violet plausible long hair. It had never been done before and was a huge technical challenge: "Violet's hair brought this production to its knees."

* Random quote: "We don't want real-looking humans--they're kind of creepy...reality is just a useful measure of complexity."

Tell it, brother.

More fun with polling data (Updated)

In case you hadn't heard, Bush's approval rating is now at 34 percent. Breaking into the 20s is beginning to seem more and more like a real possibility. All it would take, quite frankly, is just one more flame-out of incompetence. Just one more port deal, or Iraq continuing its slide into civil war.

I'm not rooting for those things to happen. I just think they're going to.

And Republicans get overwhelming support from our military. Except, of course, when they don't. From AmericaBlog:

72% of US troops in Iraq want us to withdraw in a year
by John in DC - 2/28/2006 11:19:00 AM


That's the Murtha plan, a Democratic plan, that our troops are supporting. Remember that, oh Democrats who were afraid to support Congressman Murtha (Mr. Hoyer, uh hum). Democrats represent mainstream American values now. Believe it, and trumpet it. You don't get credit for coming to the party late - embrace these policies now.

From the NYT via E&P:

A poll of U.S. troops currently serving in Iraq—reportedly the first of its kind—shows that 72% advocate a U.S. pullout within a year, with only 23% for staying as long ”as necessary,” reports Nicholas Kristof in his New York Times column today.

Boy, it would be nice if the Democrats didn't have their head up the symbol of their party, wouldn't it?

What?

On the February 24 edition of MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, host Chris Matthews joined Weekly Standard senior writer Stephen F. Hayes in praising President Bush's handling of the controversial agreement to turn over control of six U.S. ports to a company owned by the government of Dubai. Matthews compared Bush to Atticus Finch -- the Alabama lawyer who "represents morality and reason" in Harper Lee's 1960 novel To Kill a Mockingbird (Warner Books).

Matthews's comparison of Bush to Finch -- a character portrayed by Gregory Peck in a 1962 film adaptation (Brentwood Productions, Pakula-Mulligan, Universal International Pictures) of the novel, and voted the number one movie hero of all time by the American Film Institute -- is just the most recent example of his over-the-top praise for Bush.

-- Media Matters for America

Talk of impeachment

...is growing slightly more serious. Via Shakespeare's Sister, Harper's has just published an article making the case. Cynic that I am, I still think it far more likely that George W. Bush will be fragged by his own troops (metaphorically speaking) than that Democrats will do anything. Even if they do retake the house.

But, I just want to see Bush forced to leave office before his term is completed; at the moment I'm not picky about who ushers him out.

And I like this guy too...

It starts out introducing our favorite man, John Conyers, and questions him on just what he was thinking by introducing a resolution "to make recommendations regarding grounds for possible impeachment” in a Republican-majority House, given how the neocon Congress are nothing more than lemmings (slight paraphrase). Conyers goes to brass tacks in answering why:

“To take away the excuse,” he said, “that we didn't know.” So that two or four or ten years from now, if somebody should ask, “Where were you, Conyers, and where was the United States Congress?” when the Bush Administration declared the Constitution inoperative and revoked the license of parliamentary government, none of the company now present can plead ignorance or temporary insanity, can say that “somehow it escaped our notice” that the President was setting himself up as a supreme leader exempt from the rule of law.

Why The Internet Was Invented, Part Three

So we could have web pages like this one, an entire page devoted to dishing romance novels in hilariously bitchy fashion. All at the greatest web page name ever (deposing the only recently crowned My Boyfriend Is A Twat), Smart Bitches, Trashy Books. Example:

I don’t know where to put my eyes first, or where to avert them from. Her neck is broken. Her head’s too big for her body. Her sleeve appears to be as wide as my ass.

And he has a bleeding rose in his crotch.

Trust me, go, read, you'll laugh your tits off. I may have to write that romance novel after all, just for the sheer pleasure of watching these ladies take it apart.

No. I'm a vaudevillian.

Mark's writing about Abbott & Costello's signature "Who's On First" bit reminded me that of all the riffs other comics have done on it (Wikipedia has a list), my all-time favorite is the Kids in the Hall Bad Straight Man sketch, which goes a little something like this...

Anticipation (Updated)

Update: Stewart is the guest today on Larry King. As I write this the live broadcast is almost over, but CNN being CNN, it should be repeated about three more times tonight. I'm looking forward to the Oscars more and more.

The Los Angeles Times has a good piece on Jon Stewart's upcoming Academy Awards gig. I'm psyched. Here are some of my favorite bits from the article.

He is bummed too that the academy did not nominate "Grizzly Man" for best documentary, because of the high-concept commentary he might have wrung from Werner Herzog's existential rumination on the bear lover eventually eaten in the wilds.

Stewart explains, "I very much wanted to do a bit where the bear from 'Grizzly Man' and one of the penguins from 'March of the Penguins' came out to present best documentary. Only the bear would come out and I would go over and go, 'YOU PROMISED ME! YOU PROMISED ME! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU DID IT! WHAT ARE WE GONNA TELL HIS WIFE?'

BRUCE VILANCH, the wild-haired gag writer and gay activist celebrating his Oscar "Sweet 16," has his own ideas for a "Brokeback Mountain" bit ("I was hoping for a seminude kick line, but I lost") and for dealing with Clooney ("With a bottle of wine and some date-rape drugs").

"The show could end with gay cowboys and Truman Capote and a 'tranny,' " a.k.a. a transvestite from "Transamerica," Vilanch says. "Not what the red states are used to."

You know, when I say "Man, that's gay"...you've crossed a line.

Stewart says he consulted Crystal, Steve Martin and Rock and all advised him not to try to outthink either the academy or the audience, just trust his instincts and have fun. That and, "Chris said, 'Go there with a passport, $10,000 and a fake beard. And if you have to head to Mexico, you head to Mexico.' "

"I'm not doing this for posterity," he says of hosting Oscar night. Stewart leans back behind his desk and explains how these awards are a 78-year-old entity and a pretty sweet franchise and he'll be borrowing interest from it, not the other way around. Can he bring a slightly different atmosphere? "That may be," he says.

"My impulse is always to start with absurdity, either the absurdity of me doing it, or whatever the absurdity may be of this year's films … I'll do that or I will come up with a song parody that somehow figures out a way to rhyme 'Syriana' and 'Capote,' which is not going to be easy,"

Still having trouble finding that special someone, ladies?

Well, as one or two of you from the old days may remember, Sean Hannity has your back. In addition to being an idiot and a liar, Hannity is a matchmaker via the "Hannidate" section of his website.

The General has found an example of the kind of fine young man who is out there for the having.

The thanks of a grateful blogger

...can be earned by looking over to the right there and clicking the View my complete profile link where you'll find, among other things, a link to my Amazon.com Wish List.

If any of you wish to earn the thanks of a grateful blogger, that is.

A lament for libertarians

...posted by Arthur Silber, described by a self-proclaimed liberal blogger as

one of the blog world’s authentic voices: a free-market capitalist, Ayn Rand-quoting libertarian who isn’t awed by power or transported by dreams of Middle Eastern empire.

He writes:

At one time, libertarianism represented a serious and vital intellectual tradition, one that included thinkers and writers of great significance such as Hayek and von Mises. The faux "libertarians" of today, who are especially and annoyingly numerous among bloggers, have rendered genuine libertarianism unrecognizable. For the moment, libertarianism's reputation has been almost entirely destroyed and deservedly so, if one considers only its loudest contemporary advocates. These phony libertarians have no understanding at all of the principles they claim to be defending, and genuine liberty can find no place in their world view.

Incidentally...

Remember that idea of mine? About how if the Democrats don't start opening up their mouths and saying something the Republicans are going to swoop in and claim credit for "saving" us? Well, it's gaining currency in much more popular and powerful forums like AmericaBlog, where in noting that even William Freakin' Buckley, Jr now says the war is a failure, John adds:

It's over, folks. Cong. Murtha's "extreme" position of only some three months ago is now mainstream conservative conventional wisdown. Only time will tell if the rest of the Dems join in, or whether the conservatives will get credit for "saving us" from Iraq. And only time will tell if the Dems are smart enough and crafty enough to label the Republicans as abject failures.

If Iraq was key to the war on terror, as Bush has said so many times, then his failure there has put our country at even more risk. Just like the Dubai ports deal, George Bush is making life in America and this world more dangerous by the day.

That would be fun, but...

Philip Seymour Hoffman, best actor nominee (for Capote), says

"The director of the film (Bennett Miller) and I went to college together and the writer (Dan Futterman) of the film, we all met when we were 16.

"We had this friend at the time, Steven, and we all made this drunken pact that if one of us ever won the Academy Award, that we would bark the whole acceptance speech."

"We were very serious," he continued. "Literally, we were like: 'I'll do that. I will definitely commit to that.' Bennett and I met with Steven recently in Los Angeles and he said: 'So remember we made this pact that you have to bark?'

"The thing is you can't just bark, you have to bark until they pull you off (the stage). Let's hope I don't have to get up there."

That's still not the Oscar Moment I Most Wish We Could See. When William H. Macy was nominated for his work in, I believe, Fargo, he once said, his friend the writer and director David Mamet offered him a huge bribe to, if he won, begin his speech by taking out a small piece of paper and saying...

"These two lesbians are shopping for power tools, and...I'm sorry, I have the wrong speech."

Right early, right often

Firedoglake's Jane Hamsher shows once again why she and Redd are the right-on chicks of the blogsphere with an entry about the importance of remembering just who was wrong, and who was right, about the Iraq conflict.

Read it, and follow the links she provides to Wolcott and BTCNews, but here's her conclusion:

Until someone can point out the inherent logic to me of the John Dickerson's of the world who have concluded that we early opponents of the war were wrong to be right even as the warmongers were right in their wrongness, I think it's valid to keep harping on the scorecard. If not only to knock the struts out from underneath the GOP's plan to run on "national security" in 2006, then surely to figure out who should be listened to from here on in based on who has had a clear-eyed vision of this mess from the start, as distinct from those who most certainly have not.

On the other hand, maybe I'll write that one next

Someone I'm asking to be a "beta reader" of the new draft of My Girlfriend's Boyfriend just asked who I envisioned as its audience. I replied:

Anyone who cares about a true romance. And by that I don't mean the kind of novel in which buxom redheads with names like "Wylde" are captured by scruffysexycool pirates and tied to the mast.

Well I'll be

Rest in peace, Don Knotts.

Cartoon Brew reminds us of his vocal performance in the underrated "Cats Don't Dance" animated movie. The obits are mostly hitting Barney Fife, of course, but there's also mention of "The Incredible Mr. Limpet," a film I remember fondly and was always kind of glad they never remade. There was talk of it a few years ago with Jim Carrey or-gulp-Mike Myers. And "The Apple Dumpling Gang" which, I only recently learned, is based on a novel by someone whose writing how-to books have recently been useful to me. And who else could have been the "TV Repairman" in the overrated "Pleasantville?"

To my generation, though, Knotts was first-and-foremost Mr. Furley on "Three's Company," a series I probably shouldn't have been watching as early as I was. I'm not sure, but I think some of the jokes might have been about some sort of sex-related misunderstanding.

ETA: As I kinda suspected he would, Mark Evanier has a couple of good personal anecdotes about the man he calls "The most beloved person in all of show business," here and here.

If only they did sell it in stores

John from AmericaBlog is in Amersterdam at the moment and has been posting photographs from his trip. This one struck me, for some Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind-type reason.

music to decompress by

there's a light on the corner
it says I wish you'd come in,
unless you've got a place to go
so through the lines on the left
i can't hear what you say,
all i hear are the tom tom drums,
there's a drive by the lake where
the fields get white,
with the smell of the drum,
and through the lights
there's a calm that i wish i could see
but we got to go go go
well, we never played it right,
and we will never play it right...
there's some lines in the songs
that i never get tight,
i can't rely on the good past leads
-Starflyer 59, "night music"

let's go around the table

Completed Sunday, December 04, 2005: 179 pages. 36, 293 words. 32 chapters.

My Girlfriend's Boyfriend, a novella in four parts and an epilogue.

Completed Friday, February 24, 2006: 201 pages. 38, 669 words. Still 32 chapters.

My Girlfriend's Boyfriend, still a novella in four parts, but now with a prologue, interludes, and one whole new character-well, partially. It's someone who's mentioned in most of the previous versions but we've never "seen" them before.

I might be dismayed that I'm still more than a thousand words shy of a novel, but I choose to see it as reinforcement that I'm not padding the story out just to meet a word count. Everything I've added I've added for one reason and one reason only: Because I saw it.

Besides, this is a process, and as long as I keep discovering things that tell me about Keitha and Colley and Annabel, it's an ongoing process that I'm committed to. (Yeah, like I have a choice.)

And I kind of knew this was going to have to go through the old Microsoft Word at least one more time.

I also cut a few lines, and the entire epilogue from the last version, on the grounds of what was I thinking?

I'll be asking some of you to read the new draft soon, so now's the time to check that your spam filters are in place.

Because when you hear Jaime Pressly, you think clothes

At least that appears to be the rationale behind giving the star of Journey: The Absolution, Poison Ivy: The New Seduction and Tomcats (no subtitle) her own clothing line.

You'll need to scroll down the link.

Let's see if I can make a meme that anyone else will take up

Assignment:

Name five albums that were the soundtrack to your teen years, preferably your high school years.

The Pacific Age, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. This album is full of quiet ghosts. It was also the last full album to feature "OMD proper"...although word has it that a reunion is in the works. There's a sense in which, for me, that's like the Beatles getting back together.

Black Celebration, Depeche Mode. I'll drink to that.

Louder Than Bombs, The Smiths. Escape. This album was made to be listened to on a walkman (it's what we called iPods, kids) as you sit in a corner of the room.

Substance, New Order. Among other things, the best title for a collection of dance remixes ever.

Decade, Duran Duran. Before Duran became a product-generating pale shadow of its former self, they were, genuinely, one of the most significant and influential artists of the '80s. Listen to this compilation, which has almost* every song you could possibly need, and deny it if you dare.

*Although one or two later singles, like the remixed version of "Sunrise" are quite nice too.

Anyone else?

FBI and British intelligence: Priorities

They apparently questioned the author of this blog's current signature quote, the pope of pained pop, Miserable Steven...Morrissey himself. Because of "some comments he made that were critical of the Bush administration."

Now, granted, he hasn't done much for me musically since his first solo album, apart from the odd single or two, but I think that's a bit of an overreaction.

Let's review, with the help of John in AmericaBlog:

The Bush team couldn't save New Orleans, bumbled Iraq, let Osama go, can't even shoot straight, and now they want us to trust them regarding the nuclear threat when we already know they've dropped the ball regarding setting up a plan to effectively stop terrorist nukes from being snuck into the US through our ports.

But by God, harassing a gloombox of a perennial moper pop star, that they can do.

I can see where being a Democrat in Ohio would give one a finely tuned sense of sarcasm

Case in point:

State Sen. Robert Hagan sent out e-mails to fellow lawmakers late Wednesday night, stating that he intends to “introduce legislation in the near future that would ban households with one or more Republican voters from adopting children or acting as foster parents.”

Hagan said his legislation was written in response to a bill introduced in the Ohio House this month by state Rep. Ron Hood, R-Ashville, that is aimed at prohibiting gay adoption.

…To further lampoon Hood’s bill, Hagan wrote in his mock proposal that “credible research” shows that adopted children raised in Republican households are more at risk for developing “emotional problems, social stigmas, inflated egos, and alarming lack of tolerance for others they deem different than themselves and an air of overconfidence to mask their insecurities.”

However, Hagan admitted that he has no scientific evidence to support the above claims.

Just as “Hood had no scientific evidence” to back his assertion that having gay parents was detrimental to children, Hagan said.

Why Australia's Next Top Model is a much better show than America's

Three words: Nudity, nudity, nudity. Did I mention nudity?

Headlines designed to give me a heart attack

Anne Hathaway gets 'Knocked Up'

a picture very small, A photograph I took some years ago

The New York Times Magazine has put together an interesting collection of portraits of the performers that that they consider to have given the best work of 2005 (in films). Here are a few of the ones that really jumped out at me.


If I were playing analyst, or pretentious art critic, I would say: I think that the point of the picture of Reese Witherspoon with stars all over her bared neck is that her apparent vulnurability in performance is what makes her a star. Good thing I'm not, huh?


I like the way that Penélope Cruz manages to be very sexy (IMO) while clothed almost head-to-foot.





Is it just me, or does anyone else think Michelle Williams is starting to look a lot like Kim Basinger?

What I said about the Cruz photograph above remains true, however, I also support any decision Charlize Theron makes not to wear clothes.














I also like the way they've made it look as though George Clooney's next film will be V: The Movie.

You can see all the pictures at the NY Times Magazine website, registration is required but free.

Does anyone else remember a series of Peanuts strips...

...in which Lucy circulates a document for the other kids' signatures?

Lucy: Just sign it... that's right... thank you. No matter what happens any place or any time in the world, this absolves me from all blame!

Charlie Brown: That must be a nice document to have.

(Quote via this nifty page of Peanuts quotes)

I'd say Lucy is now working in the White House, but I don't want to insult such a treasured part of my childhood.

Another republican beats Dems to the "Let's get out of Iraq" position

As you may recall, one of my big bugaboos lately is the idea that if the Democrats don't get it together, draw a firm line and stand behind it, the republicans will sweep in and take their issues.

And just in time for the midterm elections. As ludicrous as it sounds, we are going to have republicans running on ethics, we are going to have republicans running against the war. And if Democrats try to say anything about it, republicans are just going to say,

"How strange that you did not have anything to say in the past three years, but only now, when you want to get re-elected. Me, I've learned from my mistakes, I've evolved, and I think the American people will forgive me."

And they probably will.

BTW: Bill O'Reilly now thinks it's time to get out of Iraq.

Something you could easily have missed about "portgate"

...especially if you rely on the "traditional media." I mean, I missed it, and I don't rely on the TM. Fortunately, I have Media Matters for America looking out for things like this:

CNN repeatedly referred to Dubai Ports World simply as a foreign or Arab company, without noting it is government-owned

CNN anchors and reporters repeatedly described Dubai Ports World -- the company set to assume control of six U.S. ports -- as an "Arab company" or a "Dubai-based company." However, in describing the company as such, these reporters are ignoring a key factor in the bipartisan controversy surrounding the takeover deal, which is that the company is a state-run business in the United Arab Emirates.

Emphasis mine. Is this beginning to seem less and less to you like a good idea?

This is almost creepy

So, on a whim, I requested a collection of Wonder Woman comics from my local library. It's a storyline written by novelist Greg Rucka, whose mysteries I've enjoyed. Here's the thing. There is a supporting character named Jonah--like my character, Jonah Colley. There is mention of a city named Kithira--which is not a hundred miles from the name of my character Keitha. Then there are passing appearances by people named Mary-the name of Jonah Colley's girlfriend-and Kimberly-the name of Keitha's mother.

As if that weren't enough, part of the storyline is about Wonder Woman publishing a book and touring with it. At one point she makes an appearance at a lesbian bookstore.

Get the feeling I was destined to read this book?

This is too cruel. This is vicious.

This is perfect.

(via AmericaBlog)

Turns out there is one more person who thinks selling our ports to Arabs is a good idea

Joe Lieberman, come on down!

ETA: Mark Evanier sez-

this thing about outsourcing the operation of several U.S. ports to an Arabian company -- seems like errant criticism. One can make a good argument that we shouldn't be handing a job this sensitive over to an outside supplier at all...that it should be done by the United States government. But none of the folks yelling at Bush today seem to be making that case. They weren't bothered when it was a British company that was running the six U.S. ports...but now that the company's being acquired by a state-owned business in the United Arab Emirates, all Hades is breaking loose.

As always, Mark is a clever guy and I encourage you to read his side. But I think perhaps the NY Times said it best:

The issue is not, as Mr. Bush is now claiming, a question of bias against a Middle Eastern company. The United Arab Emirates is an ally, but its record in the war on terror is mixed. It is not irrational for the United States to resist putting port operations, perhaps the most vulnerable part of the security infrastructure, under that country's control. And there is nothing in the Homeland Security Department's record to make doubters feel confident in its assurances that all proper precautions will be taken.

"Mixed" is a way of saying implicitly what Forbes went and made explicit:

Menendez and other critics have cited the UAE's history as an operational and financial base for the hijackers who carried out the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. In addition, they contend the UAE was an important transfer point for shipments of smuggled nuclear components sent to Iran, North Korea and Libya by a Pakistani scientist.

And via Think Progress:

– The UAE was one of three countries in the world to recognize the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan.

– The UAE has been a key transfer point for illegal shipments of nuclear components to Iran, North Korea and Lybia.

– According to the FBI, money was transferred to the 9/11 hijackers through the UAE banking system.

– After 9/11, the Treasury Department reported that the UAE was not cooperating in efforts to track down Osama Bin Laden’s bank accounts.

So there are reasons why "all Hades is breaking loose." But the thing is that even if there weren't, this would still have been a politically stupid thing to do. How politically stupid? So politically stupid not even Tom DeLay thinks it was a good idea.

For almost five years President George W. Bush has warned Americans to fear terrorism, but now those words may come back to bite him.

"Politically, for the president, it is a huge mistake for him to be defending this decision. The president will be overturned," said U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, the former number two Republican in the House of Representatives

It's so stupid...that the cynic in me thinks maybe it's a setup to let Republicans show they can stand up against Bush and be their own men. Remember: Even paranoids have enemies.

Actually, except for Roger Rabbit, I'm cool with this

China has just banned human-animation hybrids. Not human-animal hybrids...animation. Fortunately, most of 'em suck.

Words to live by

From William Goldman, in Which Lie Did I Tell?:

And if you manage to suck it up, if you decide you must get your stories down, then there is one other thing that's crucial: don't talk about it. Tell no one.
Once others know, they will look at you strangely, they will question you, they will ask you terrible questions-
-how's it coming?
-is it fun?
-when is it going to be finished?
-I bet it's fun
-when can I see it?
You don't need those words buzzing around your ears.

I never thought I'd say this, but I miss Nancy Reagan

Via TGW, a Kristof column on the need for an "extreme makeover" of the Bush presidency. Excerpts:

The obvious model for Mr. Bush is Ronald Reagan's presidency when it was in a similar tailspin in 1987. The Iran-contra scandal, the failure of the Bork nomination and the stock market plunge left the Reagan administration "paralyzed" and "dead in the water," pundits wrote. A National Journal headline said, "Reagan Now Viewed as an Irrelevant President."

So Mr. Reagan systematically overhauled his presidency. He reached out to Congressional Democrats and appointed a bipartisan commission of three respected statesmen — John Tower, Ed Muskie and Brent Scowcroft — to investigate Iran-contra. He fired or accepted resignations from two national security aides, John Poindexter and Oliver North. He also fired his chief of staff, Donald Regan, and replaced him with Howard Baker, who was respected by both parties.

But Mr. Bush today is not retooling; he's hunkering down in the bunker. Instead of the Reagan approach of 1987, it's the Nixon approach of 1973. It just increases the national polarization and doesn't help Mr. Bush.

Unexpected anal sex

This is great!

A Mr. Frey of Iowa, currently facing charges of kidnapping his own wife and a separate child pornography charge, drew up his own marriage contract for said wife. Said contract, which said wife apparently never signed (for some reason) contained stipulations such as that

Unexpected anal sex will get Frey’s wife 14 Good Behavior Days.

You can see more here. The bits dictating exactly-

• How she should trim her...well, trim...
• What kind of underpants she should wear (garter belts and thongs only, please)
• How she should sleep (naked, unless instructed otherwise)
• How she is not to argue with him, but be cheerful and adoring and not condescending

-are themselves worth the price of admission. And they're all just on the first page, the thing goes on for three more! It's excellent! Me, I just love the idea of "Unexpected anal sex." It brings to mind images of,

"Oh, baby I love you so much...hey! The hell?"

I wear my sunglasses at-what?

My entry in Shakespeare's Sister's "caption this photo" contest.

Okay, the "giving control of six US major city ports to a company owned by a nation with a history of financing Al Qaeda" thing

You may have heard about this. If not, firedoglake can tell you about it. In short, all you need to know is that basically: No one thinks it's a good idea. Except, of course, the Bush administration.

And why does the Bush administration think it's a good idea? I'll give you two guesses. One word. Rhymes with "phonies."

The Dubai firm that won Bush administration backing to run six U.S. ports has at least two ties to the White House.

One is Treasury Secretary John Snow, whose department heads the federal panel that signed off on the $6.8 billion sale of an English company to government-owned Dubai Ports World - giving it control of Manhattan's cruise ship terminal and Newark's container port.

Snow was chairman of the CSX rail firm that sold its own international port operations to DP World for $1.15 billion in 2004, the year after Snow left for President Bush's cabinet.

The other connection is David Sanborn, who runs DP World's European and Latin American operations and who was tapped by Bush last month to head the U.S. Maritime Administration.

Bush reportedly thinks it's such a good idea that he is threatening to veto any bill Congress might approve to block the agreement.

What distresses me most is learning that David Sanborn is involved. Oh, David, isn't being a jazz saxophone legend and smooth jazz music artist enough?

Read this

Excerpt from the new Digby. Read the whole thing.

The grassroots of the Democratic Party see something that all the establishment politicians have not yet realized: bipartisanship is dead for the moment and there is no margin in making deals. The rules have changed. When you capitulate to the Republicans for promises of something down the road you are being a fool. When you make a deal with them for personal reasons, you are selling out your party. When you use Republican talking points to make your argument you are helping the other side. When you kiss the president on the lips at the state of the union you are telling the Democratic base that we are of no interest or concern to you. This hyper-partisanship is ugly and it's brutal, but it is the way it is.

It's so true, sadly

You Are a Dreaming Soul

Your vivid emotions and imagination takes you away from this world So much so that you tend to live in your head most of the time You have great dreams and ambitions that could be the envy of all... But for you, following through with your dreams is a bit difficult You are charming, endearing, and people tend to love you. Forgiving and tolerant, you see the world through rose colored glasses. Underneath it all, you have a ton of passion that you hide from others. Always hopeful, you tend to expect positive outcomes in your life. Souls you are most compatible with: Newborn Soul, Prophet Soul, and Traveler Soul

What Kind of Soul Are You?

I suppose I should be happy; I was half expecting a result that said "judging from the disco-pop and post-punk in his record collection, this man has no soul."

Dear Winona: The goth look is dead. Much love...

About this "GOP as the party of church-goers" thing

In Daily Kos, a blogger calling her-or-himself Georgia10 has come up with a couple pieces of information, one quite disturbing, the other grimly satisfying. First, quoting from the Washington Post:

The North Carolina Republican Party asked its members this week to send their church directories to the party, drawing furious protests from local and national religious leaders.[...]

Georgia10 adds:

This isn't the first time North Carolina's mix of church & politics has made the news. Recall that last year, it was a church in North Carolina that purged all its liberal members who voted for John Kerry. But as the Reverends quoted in the article prove, the churches realize that the actions are improper. Maybe they're also starting to feel a bit used, you think?

Second (emphasis mine),

...the American delegation of the World Council of Churches came out strongly against Bush administration policies this week. The WCC has 347 member churches covering 500 million believers. The U.S. Conference issued a stinging rebuke of administration policies:

It said the U.S. government turned a deaf ear to the voice of the church in the country and in the world, using God's name instead "in national agendas that are nothing short of idolatrous."

"We confess that we have failed to raise a prophetic voice loud enough and persistent enough to deter our leaders from this path of pre-emptive war. Lord, have mercy," the letter said.

Hmmm. Is the GOP sure it wants to get churches involved in politics this time around? They sound pissed. Really pissed.

It's been said before, and it makes a nice bumper sticker, but that doesn't make it any less true: The moral majority is neither.

There's a way to be a person about these things

Via TGW, here's Paul Krugman's latest. He takes the rather bold position that the people currently in charge of America are not very nice people. Excerpts follow.

"Be a mensch," my parents told me. Literally, a mensch is a person. But by implication, a mensch is an upstanding person who takes responsibility for his actions.

The people now running America aren't mensches.

Officials in this administration never take responsibility for their actions. When something goes wrong, it's always someone else's fault.

Was it always like this? I don't want to romanticize our political history, but I don't think so. Think of Dwight Eisenhower, who wrote a letter before D-Day accepting the blame if the landings failed.

President Bush is definitely not a mensch; his inability to admit mistakes or take responsibility for failure approaches the pathological. He surrounds himself with subordinates who share his aversion to facing unpleasant realities.

The greatest blog name ever

My Boyfriend Is A Twat

Sentences that I never want to see in another blog posting for the rest of my life

Via Jesus General:

From the Kentucky News:


When police officers arrived at the fraternity house at 1436 Chestnut St. at 2:25 a.m. Thursday for the party complaint, the goat was found in a small basement storage room where it had no food or water, according to the BGPD report.

Police were told the goat was in the house because pledges were going to have sex with it, according to a city police report.

The male goat was taken to the Bowling Green-Warren County Humane Society for an examination Thursday afternoon by veterinarian Consuela Reinhart.

"At the bottom of the rectum there was a small abrasion,"; she said.

In some ways this is a terrible thing to do to a timeless classic

...but it's really, really, really funny.

(Graphic credit: Dark Black via firedoglake)

I believe the children are our future (or, on the other hand...)

Those of you who have read My Girlfriend's Boyfriend in one or another of its forms may have seen that I work pretty hard trying to justify a few references to '80s pop songs. Though I hope you didn't notice too much, because if you did I'm not doing it right.

My problem is that it's the music that I love, and that informs much of what I write. To one degree or another both of the main stories of Girlfriend's Boyfriend owe their lives to things I've thought of while listening to music. If it's good enough for Aaron Sorkin, it's good enough for me.

And I like to put references to some of it into the work; I know when I'm reading something that mentions songs I happen to have, I put them on the CD player as soon as I can. I like the feeling that the writer has provided me with a "soundtrack."

I see my story taking place in this century, but I'm writing about characters who are mostly almost 10 years younger than I am. Colley & Mary are even younger. So I use characters like Giovanni, who is my age, and Keitha's older brother, who's a little younger, to get some references in. Plus putting Keitha to work in a "hip" record shop I hope justifies without the sound of too many gears grinding things like that she would like Morrissey and Kirsty MacColl.

Still, I worry, because occasionally you see TV shows and movies where characters make references to things you wouldn't necessarily expect them to get. So you can imagine my relief when, at Burger King this evening, I heard a young woman who couldn't have been more than 16 (if that) announce "I love this song," as Time After Time by Cyndi Lauper began to play.

So maybe I've been worrying about nothing. Wouldn't be the first time.

Words of Advice for Young People

"People often ask me if I ((cough)) have any words of advice for young people."

Well...here are a few simple admonitions for young and old.

Never interfere in a boy and girl fight.

Beware of whores who say they don't want money. The hell they don't. What they mean is they want more money, much more.

If you are doing business with a religious son-of-a-bitch get it in writing. His word isn't worth shit--not when the good Lord taught him how to fuck you on the deal.

Avoid all fuck-ups.
You all know the type.
Anything they have anything to do with no matter how good it sounds turns into a disaster area.

Do not offer sympathy to the mentally ill.
Tell them firmly:

I AM NOT PAID TO LISTEN TO THIS DRIVEL.
YOU ARE A TERMINAL FOOL!

Now, you may encounter the devil's bargain if you get that far. Any old soul is worth saving, at least to a priest, but not every soul is worth buying--so you can take the offer as a compliment.
They try the easy marks first--you know, like money (all the money there is)
but who wants to be the richest guy in some cemetery?
Money won't buy it.

In order to feel something you have to be there...
You have to be eighteen...
You're not eighteen...
You are seventy-eight.

"You always wanted to be a doctor, well, now's your chance."

"You could become a great healer and benefit humanity."

What's wrong with that?

Just About Everything.

There are no honorable bargains involving qualitative merchandise, like souls, for quantitative merchandise like time or money.

-William S. Burroughs-

Okay, important question time

Which of these things is more likely to happen?

1. Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen pose for Playboy.
2. Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen star in remake of "The Shining" as those horrible twins.

Because the way I see it, they're going one way or the other.

Only 10 disasters to go before Voldemort

Via TGW.

My luck was spent, The floor opened up, down I went

Yes, it's another post about the Democrats tendency to metaphorically wander about with their shoes off approaching strangers and asking "are you my mommy?" Robert C. Koehler has a column in which he identifies two figures that he thinks have turned the 'Crats white as sheets:

One is George McGovern, who taught them that only Republican values matter in a national election. The other is Ralph Nader, who taught them who the real enemy is.

In my opinion he left out a third: Bill Clinton, who taught them they should step on their dicks.

As someone who voted for Ralph Nader in 2000, and has been defending my right to have done so ever since, I think it’s time to have it out about this preposterous state of affairs. It has turned mainstream Democrats into ballot bullies, convinced that their party’s future can only be secured by denying voters legitimate choice at the polling place. Indeed, this is the only fight they seem to wage with any animation.

In 2004, John Kerry cravenly conceded to Bush while the enormous irregularities in the Ohio vote were being contested by the Greens and Libertarians, and said not a word about the disenfranchisement of untold numbers of would-be (mostly Democratic) voters nationwide that probably cost him the election. Yet he managed to wage a vicious, resource-wasting campaign of harassment to keep Nader, and his message, off the ballot in as many states as possible. It’s the only fight Kerry won.

The myth that Nader cost Gore the 2000 election remains a virulent component of what passes for conventional wisdom among mainstream Dems. This is an outrageous simplification of what really happened. First of all, there’s no moral ground for claiming that Nader took any votes away from the stumbling, pandering Gore, who, like Kerry four years later, campaigned as though the only votes he had to “earn” were Republican votes.

Like this guy, I voted for Nader in 2000. I can tell you why in two words: Joe Lieberman. Although, had Washington State actually been in play for Bush, I might have done differently.

I think Nader did a lot of stupid things in the years since, and I was in no way tempted to vote for him again in 2004. But the one thing he said that I think was absolutely dead-on came shortly after the 2000 race had finally been decided, and he was beginning to face the "cost Gore the election" question.

He said (this is approximate), "Nobody cost Al Gore the election except Al Gore. Al Gore and George Bush--we're talking about the only two candidates in America who couldn't beat each other."

The night The Daily Show ran that clip, they cut back to Jon Stewart, who opened his mouth to say something typically funny, and then went--"He's right. Funnyman got nothing."

I don't know how many more floors the Democrats have to crash through before they finally stop opening them up beneath themselves, but it looks like it's not over yet.

Whee!

Another picture I like but know nothing about

(Source)

Uh-oh

Date Movie, starring Alyson Hannigan, is being released without benefit of critic's screenings. This is frequently a big old warning sign. Too bad, the idea of spoofing the conventions of a romantic comedy has promise.

Possibly it's an idea that would have been better in the hands of a Richard Curtis or Jim Brooks, people who know how to make date movies in the first place. Rather than "two of the six writers of Scary Movie."

What's more of a shame is that this is, unless I'm mistaken, the first film in which Hannigan is first-billed, and it's probable failure will keep her in TV. Hannigan is the rare actress who can play comedy or drama while also being a beautiful woman.

Yet apart from (arguably) American Pie, go prove that by the movies in which she's been cast.

The greatest pick-up line ever

"If I were an enzyme, I'd be DNA helicase... so I could unzip your genes"

Found in hot_nerds.

I'll believe it when I see it

As I think most of you know, the wonderful Kirsty MacColl, my favorite female singer, was killed in a powerboat accident while swimming in Mexico in the year 2000. Since then Kirsty's fans, family and friends have had reason to understand why there are so many jokes about the Mexican justice system. For the past two or three years her mother Jean has been waging a Justice For Kirsty campaign.
You see, Kirsty was torn in half in front of her children and the man who did it was fined the equivilent of $110.

Well, we're closing in on the bastard with some high-profile help in shining a spotlight on the case:



At a recent U2 concert in Mexico, Bono, a longtime friend of Kirsty's (he once tried to pick her up in a Dublin pub), dedicated a song to her.

"I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For."

The next night the Mexican Government issued a statement promising "justice." Like I say, I'll believe it when I see it, but I figure it always helps to have Bono on your side.

My man (or woman, I'm still not sure) Mariano is back

...with some new drawings. One or two of you longtime readers will remember that Mariano is the unofficial official "mystery artist" of Dictionopolis in Digitopolis. In that I still know almost nothing about him or her but enjoy his-or-her work.

So here's some more of it.



Is it me or is this Lisa Loeb?

When Prince disses your little shout-out to him, it's a sign of something

Poor, poor Paris Hilton. That girl just can't catch a break. First her millions of dollars keep her from seriously pursuing the career of her dreams (that of porn star), now this.

I stopped an old man along the way; hoping to find some long forgotten words or ancient melodies

I'm taking a tip here from ReddHedd. She was seeking an antidote to the pessimism the week's events have engendered. (The Bush administration is so powerful they can actually shoot someone on a drunken bender and get away with it).

Redd says:

I know it is thoroughly nerdy, but in times like these, I pick up material from our nation's history and remind myself about what true obstacles really are -- and how much courage and conviction it took to overcome them at our nation's founding and throughout our history.

Here's what she found.

THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value.

From Thomas Paine. If you don't know who that is..Billy Bragg went out drinking with him once.

Looks like I finally have something in common with Congress

A fella named Petrelis writes:

The gay cowboy movie "Brokeback Mountain" continues to rake in the buck at the box office. According to BoxOfficeMoJo.com its earned more than $106 million in domestic and worldwide release so far.

If that kind of money isn't enough to persuade Hollywood to make more gay-themed movies for both the gay community and other moviegoers, nothing will.

Oh, would to that it 'twere.

Petrelis goes on to look at the response to the film in of all places Congress where, by an unbelivable coincidence,

> They swear it has nothing to do with “Brokeback Mountain,” but a group of Senators, mostly from cowboy country, has introduced a resolution designating July 22, as “National Day of the American Cowboy.”

Probably predictably, few members of Congress will comment on the film, and those that will all seem to make a point of mentioning that they haven't seen it. Of course, niether have I.

Fox News. Priorities.

At Shakespeare's Sister's, Thesaurus Rex had the same what did he say? moment as I did when I saw part of the FOX interview w/ Cheney:

THE VICE PRESIDENT: -- part of the shot. He was struck in the right side of his face, his neck and his upper torso on the right side of his body.

Q And you -- and I take it, you missed the bird.

And I take it you missed the bird?

Oh, my my my my my my my...

It's beginning to look a lot like the reason it took Cheney so long to speak is because he'd had a beer or two (at least) before shooting the man. Here's why. From an item posted on Yahoo! News:

Vice President Dick Cheney, who was forced to leave Yale University because his penchant for late-night beer drinking exceeded his devotion to his studies, and who is one of the small number of Americans who can count two drunk driving busts on his record, was doing more than hunting quail on the day that he shot a Texas lawyer in the face.

The vice president has admitted that he was drinking on the afternoon of the incident. He claims it was only a beer, according to the transcript of an interview with Fox New Wednesday. But the whole discussion about how much drinking took place on the day of the fateful hunt has been evolving rapidly since Katherine Armstrong, the wealthy Republican lobbyist who is a member of the politically connected family that owns the ranch where Cheney blasted his hunting partner, initially claimed that no one was imbibing before the incident.

And Alan Dershowitz asks:

What is the most likely thing to happen during a 14 hour delay that is worth the negative publicity? One possibility is that it takes approximately that period of time for alcohol to dissipate in the body and no longer be subject to accurate testing. It is fairly common for people involved in alcohol-related accidents to delay reporting them until the alcohol has left the body. There is no hard evidence that this is what happened here, but we are entitled to a better explanation. We should be told whether Vice President Cheney's victim had alcohol in his system when he was taken to the hospital. Was there any alcohol at or near the hunting area? Were any in the hunting party carrying flasks (which is apparently common among hunters)? What was Cheney doing just before he went hunting? Did anyone in the hunting party have a drink? We do know that Cheney had two drunk driving convictions when he was in his early 20s, but he has apparently been clean since then.

This is just such an encapsulation of the Bush administration way. They do stupid, hurtful things, and they never, ever take responsibility for them. I'd like to think the American people would finally rise up and make them-but the last time I thought that was early November 2004.

Always asking questions

Last night's Boston Legal, along with its usual witty banter and eloquent closing arguments, certainly raised some interesting questions. One of the featured cases in the episode was about an 18-year-old girl who is raped and becomes pregnant as a result. She now wants to sue the Catholic hospital where she was treated because they denied her access to "the morning after pill" until it was too late.

I thought the show did it's usual, expected good job of dramatizing such an issue without quite reducing conservatives to straw men. I also liked the story about Alan Shore (James Spader) bonding with a little girl who is unable to smile due to nerve damage following an accident. Neat little dig at Tom DeLay in that segment, too.

But I have to admit the most long-lasting question it left me with was...

...who is that amazingly cute girl they have playing the rape victim? The answer? Her name is Kelly Smith, she's a 26-year-old actress from Florida who has done a couple of movies and several episodes of various TV series. Including, perhaps unfortunately, one of the "Buffy" episodes with the worst reputation among fans, "Smashed."

Let me explain what I mean by amazingly cute before you all start thinking I'm just being a pig again. Or, you can see what I mean by her IMDb Publicity Photos here and here. K-thump, k-thump.

From a man's point of view (or at least this man), they couldn't have cast anyone better if they wanted to get an audience immidiately on a character's side. Not that I'm saying it would be that hard to work up sympathy for a character in such a position no matter who played her...

Shit, I have a feeling that by trying to explain myself I'm just digging in deeper. It's just that she activated all my paternalistic, somebody hurt you, baby? Let me know who it is, and I'll kill them! instincts (yes, I've got 'em, I can't help it).

It was also a really, quietly touching performance, I want to be sure to add. I was genuinely impressed. And as almost always when I see a young woman with talent, immidiately started thinking which of my characters I'd like to see her portray.

But I'm sorry (though only kinda), my most overwhelming response was...who is that amazingly cute girl?

It was only a matter of time, really

Via TGW.

Oh, no

I've just learned from Peter David's blog that the actor Andreas Katsulas, G'Kar on Babylon 5, has passed away. G'Kar was probably my favorite character on that fine series, and Katsulas was a big part of the reason why.

The range he showed in taking G'Kar from the lusty creature he was at the beginning of the series to the stillness he showed as the holy man (or Narn) he became was breathtaking. He was also a rebuke to anyone who would ever say that makeup would smother a performance; given the right actor (and the right makeup) a performance shines through.

A British friend once sent me video of a convention appearance he'd made there, which I'm even more appreciative of now. I remember watching it, my first lengthy exposure to him out of makeup, and having that weird feeling of "It's not G'Kar...but it is."

He had incredible presence. Makeup couldn't disguise it, and he didn't need the makeup to be recognizable as his character, he'd invested too much of himself in it, or so it seemed. I don't know if any of this is making sense to those of you who haven't seen the series, if you haven't, you should.

I also remember that he opened that convention appearance by singing the first two or three lines of "On Broadway." ("They say the neon lights are bright...")

He was another one of those actors who I'd always kind of hoped to meet and in my wildest fantasies, write for. If the man could deliver long, Shakespearianesque speeches dressed as a giant lizard and make them work beautifully, he could do anything.

I'm sorry I won't get to see more of his work in the future, and I'm glad I had a chance to appreciate a little of it in the past.

As you might have imagined...(w/additions)

...Jon Stewart and the boys at The Daily Show had some things to say about Dick Cheney shooting a 78-year-old-man in the face. If you missed it, Crooks and Liars' got the footage...

"Don't let your kids go hunting with the Vice President. I don't care what kind of lucrative contracts they're trying to land or-energy regulations they're trying to get lifted. He'll shoot them in the face."

Oh, and Bush is now at 39%.

ETA: Say, remember how some people pretended to be upset with Bill Clinton for setting a bad example for kids in this country? Because no kid in puberty ever thought about giving or receiving oral sex until Clinton was Lewinskied.

Well, as Redd Hedd points out,

I suppose it shouldn't come as a surprise, seeing that it is Dick Cheney and all...but still, what kind of message is [this] sending to the kids in this country?

"Go ahead and shoot your friends. Then blame them for getting in the way of the shot, and have a female friend deal with the press for you so you can hide behind her skirts and never have to accept any responsibility. Ever."

Nice.

How is the WH dealing with this mess? Apparently, the President, his Press Secretary and his staff have decided that when Dick Cheney shoots a man in the face, neck and chest with a shotgun, it's a laughing matter for the formal WH staff. Including the President.

Forbes:President Bush's spokesman quipped Tuesday that the burnt orange school colors of the University of Texas championship football team that was visiting the White House shouldn't be confused for hunter's safety wear.

"The orange that they're wearing is not because they're concerned that the vice president may be there," joked White House press secretary Scott McClellan, following the lead of late-night television comedians. "That's why I'm wearing it."

The president's brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, took a similar jab after slapping an orange sticker on his chest from the Florida Farm Bureau that read, "No Farmers, No Food."

"I'm a little concerned that Dick Cheney is going to walk in," the governor cracked during an appearance in Tampa Monday.

And as Joe in AmericaBlog says,

I expect Jon Stewart and Jay Leno to make jokes about this incident. That's their job. But, for Scott McClellan and Jeb Bush to make fun of the whole thing is just creepy and incredibly unseemly.

Redd was right, above, I don't know why this should come as a surprise. We've been shown time and again that to the Bush administration, putting people's lives in danger is funny, funny, funny.

Leaking the name of a government agent, that was funny. The WMD fuckup, costing the lives of thousands of soldiers and who knows how many wounded, that was funny too.

Funny, funny.

22 songs about 11 women

...who will remain nameless, but one or two of you may recognize yourselves or someone you knew.

The girl I lost my virginity to I associate with of all things, "Yellow Submarine", but that's because it had just come out on video at the time and we watched it...after. Later I would come to associate OMD's "The New Stone Age" with her, for entirely less charming reasons.

Then there was a girl I once spent a memorable evening with whilst listening to Tangerine Dream's Underwater Sunlight album and the soundtrack to Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom. I feel sure that the latter inspired me to new heights.

Had a girlfriend for a while who was crazy about Prince. I think I "sealed the deal," so to speak, when she asked me what I thought of him the first night we met and I was able to say (honestly) that I thought he was a musical genius. Of course, she herself turned out to be a little...kind of...let's just say confused about her sexuality. At least when I knew her. For all I know she's fine now. I often think of her when listening to Duran's samplejam, "Burning The Ground."

Split Enz' "Message To My Girl" is what I always think of as "our song" for another girlfriend. I also remember waking up the morning after we'd broken up to be greeted with Yaz' "Only You" on the radio. Frankly, I can do without those kind of cheap coincidences in my life.

Knew a girl once who, looking back it seems strange to say we had little in common-she was an actress. At the time I think I was running from my artistic inclinations, thinking I might be able to lead a simple life. Anyway, we were pretty good at sex, and one night I noticed that while we'd been, shall we say, "sharing a moment" my Pet Shop Boys b-sides tape was playing songs called "We All Feel Better In The Dark" and "I Get Excited, You Get Excited Too."

Slept with a woman who was in the early stages of pregnancy with another man's child once. For reasons which would take too long to explain I associate her with a Naked Eyes song called "Fortune & Fame" and the theme to Spike Lee's film Mo Better Blues.

I was stalked once by a girl who, after seeing Heathers, told me she'd planned to offer me her virginity in a game of strip croquet. Being stalked is not as much fun as it sounds. But the girl in question ended up buying the Thompson Twins In The Name Of Love album just because I'd told her I like the title song. If she'd asked me, I could have told her the rest of the album sucked and what she really wanted was the Greatest Mixes collection...but she didn't ask me. That may have been why the situation didn't last long.

Another girl I think of with INXS' "I Burn For You" (the live version) and Frank Sinatra's "Sleep Warm."

There was a girl out here in Seattle for a while; our relationship was best described by a two-word phrase, the second word of which is "buddies." We're "just" friends now. I remember two specific things with her and music. One is when she used her job at a record store to get sixth-row tickets for us to Joe Jackson, my second favorite musical performer. I like to think I showed her my appreciation. Then there was the weekend she crashed here while working days at an annual music festival. I like something she told me she told a friend later, "It was basically a whole weekend of nothing but music and sex."

Then we come to a woman whose lesbianism I think I confirmed, but along the way we did spend a nice day or two listening to Elvis covers and watching a Daria video.

And to end this list, a kind of crazy woman (trust me), but who did at least provide a heavenly activity to listen to "I Wanna Be A Cowboy" or Noel Coward covers with.

Random Confessions Of The '80s (and pre '80s) Man

Has anyone else ever noticed that The Human League's song "The Lebanon" is a complete and utter rip-off of Chicago's record "25 or 6 to 4?" I mean, I can't be the first one to notice this, but I don't remember seeing it anywhere.

Lisa Loeb explains "the thong incident"

I forgot people have freeze frame and internet sharing. I have a switch in my head where I just do things.

--in conversation with Better Than Fudge

We now pause for the following commercial announcement

The boys at Ain't It Cool are, shall we say, looking askance at the first poster images to be released from the forthcoming X3. And with a little doing, they've managed to visualize their dissatisfaction by turning the images into a series of tis-the-season cards, thus:



...as well as with a dandy comparison between the X3 poster art and that of Rent. Personally, I've been worried about the fate of X3 ever since I heard that Bryan Singer wasn't doing it. I don't go to the boys at AIC too often, but in this case, I think they may be dead on.

And by god, Harry was in the line of fire (w/updates & additions)

Update: Here's an item from two or three years ago that may shed some light on just what kind of a "sportsman" Cheney is.

Monday's hunting trip to Pennsylvania by Vice President Dick Cheney in which he reportedly shot more than 70 stocked pheasants and an unknown number of mallard ducks at an exclusive private club places a spotlight on an increasingly popular and deplorable form of hunting, in which birds are pen-reared and released to be shot in large numbers by patrons. The ethics of these hunts are called into question by rank-and-file sportsmen, who hunt animals in their native habitat and do not shoot confined or pen-raised animals that cannot escape.

That's digusting. (Empahasis mine.)

Update again: Firedoglake is all over this. One of the ladies who write it ("ReddHedd") and more of those who read it than I would have thought have some experience hunting. Redd writes:

A 28-gauge shotgun is a fairly specialized firearm. My dad called it a "ladies gun" when I learned to shoot as a kid -- it was the first gun I ever took out for target practice at the quarry. It shoots a fairly small pattern, compared to the spread you get from a 12-gauge, say, so the buckshot comes out in a fairly concentrated pattern, and there is little to no recoil -- which means you don't get that smack into your shoulder when the gun rebounds from the pressure of the shot like you would with a higher-gauge (stronger) shot. At least, that's what I remembered (it's been a while since I was a kid and went target shooting with my dad), so I did a little research and...yep, I remembered correctly.

She also notes something interesting about statements made by Katharine Armstrong,owner of the ranch where the shooting took place.

"Fortunately, the vice president has got a lot of medical people around him and so they were right there and probably more cautious than we would have been," she said. "The vice president has got an ambulance on call, so the ambulance came."

Well, this explains why Ms. Armstrong has been silenced now by the Cheney PR team -- nothing like reminding the public that Cheney has an ambulance always on call, is there?

Original post: Dick Cheney shot a man. And though I'd love to be able to add the words "in Reno, just to watch him die," it was, reportedly, an accident. Maybe. Via AmericaBlog:

Harry Whittington, 78, was "alert and doing fine" after Cheney sprayed him with shotgun pellets on Saturday while the two were hunting at the Armstrong Ranch in south Texas, said property owner Katharine Armstrong.
...
Whittington was in stable condition Sunday, said Yvonne Wheeler, spokeswoman for the Christus Spohn Health System.
...
"The vice president didn't see him," she continued. "The covey flushed and the vice president picked out a bird and was following it and shot. And by god, Harry was in the line of fire and got peppered pretty good."

He's the NRA.
(Picture via IronCity)

ETA and one more for the road: Mark Evanier, who's spent the weekend in the hospital due to a leg ailment (get well soon, Mark) has a final commentary.

I'll accept that too

Who Should Paint You: Andy Warhol

You've got an interested edge that would be reflected in any portrait You don't need any fancy paint techniques to stand out from the crowd!

What Artist Should Paint Your Portrait?

I'm a post-post modern man who belongs on a can of soup...

A Doonesbury apology

If you live long enough, you see everything. I've seen it snow in California. I've seen my country go to war over nothing at all. And now I've seen a Doonesbury character apologize to George Bush the first.

I almost had a witty pop culture reference

... to make about this Crooks and Liars entry, but I couldn't think of an entire one. All I know is, it's: Something something "Joss Whedon" something. Anyway, C & L has two or three articles saying how Bush conservatives really and truly are unwilling to hear criticism of their leader. They think America is George W. Bush, and vice-versa.

For them, even to be subjected to the idea that "Bush is off course" is traumatic and wrong. Such an opinion has no place at a "conservative" event, where only praise and reverence of the Commander-in-Chief is appropriate. One sees this time and again: "conservatism" these days very rarely has anything to do with actual conservative principles of government and has come to be distorted shorthand for "George Bush follower."

Things you only notice after seeing a great film a few times

A year ago or so my buddy Moya (hi Moya, call me) sent me a copy of the Special Edition Iron Giant DVD. I did a little review on the old blog that I also posted to Amazon.

I already loved the picture (and got off on the widesreen digital transfer) but the bonus features were truly spectacular for an animation fan.

That's "animation," not "anime," pls. note.

At the time, I watched the feature-length commentary, deleted scenes and such right away, but decided not to watch the "branching mini-documentary" version yet. I didn't want to reach a saturation point with a film that I like so much (I still tear up a little at the end).

So today I finally got around to it.

The "mini-documentaries" are as lovely as anything else on the disc. I especially liked hearing from composer Michael Kamen, now sadly deceased. Kamen scored Brazil, the Die Hard movies, Mr. Holland's Opus, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (with lyrics by Eric Idle) and the Lethal Weapon movies (with Clapton & Sanborn).

Looking like a cross between Billy Connolly and Peter Jackson, by most accounts (especially in books about the two Gilliam films) he was a genuine character. A studio minion for Columbia once insisted upon their keeping more than half of the monies he had secured to record the Munchausen score.

"If you saw the size of our payrolls, you'd understand our position." Kamen reached into his pocket and flung a few dollar bills and some change on the desk. "Pardon me," he said, turning to leave. "I didn't know things were that bad."
-Losing the Light, Andrew Yule

It's enriching to hear him talk a little about how he approached a score.

Oh, and one other thing. Near the start of the movie, the title character's crash landing in the sea nearly causes the capsizing of a boat.

The boat's name? The Annabelle.

Things you only notice after seeing a great film a few times.

This is really, really, really funny

Your Candy Heart Says "First Kiss"

You're a true romantic who brings an innocent hope to each new relationship. You see the good in every person you date, and you relish each step of falling in love. Your ideal Valentine's Day date: a romantic dinner your sweetie cooks for you Your flirting style: friendly and sweet What turns you off: cynics who don't believe in romance Why you're hot: you always keep the romance alive

What Does Your Candy Heart Say?

That's right-she is dangerous

Consider the problem of Gwyneth Paltrow. I've maintained for a while that she is not only not as good an actress as her mother, Blythe Danner, she is also not as hot. I'll admit she has had moments as an actress; I didn't like Shakespeare In Love quite as much as most people seem to have but I thought she was fine in it.

And I thought she provided some of the only genuinely touching moments in a film I mostly disliked, Alan Cumming & Jennifer Jason Leigh's actor circle-jerk The Anniversary Party.

(BTW, quick side-note having nothing to do with Ms. Paltrow whatever. I recently saw Bubble, Steven Soderbergh's non-actor starring, almost unwritten, experimental suspense film, on DVD. It works. For the first time in my experience, a film with, apparently, almost totally improvised dialogue worked for me. Why? I think because unlike movies like The Anniversary Party, this one wasn't cast with actors looking for an excuse to emote.)

And now back to Gwyneth. In interviews and such, she's come across as a perfectly nice person with a healthy dose of perspective. I support her decision to step away from Hollywood, at least for a bit, to focus on her daughter and forthcoming second child. I kinda wish she'd stop telling me she's stepping away from Hollywood to focus on her daughter, etc, but whatareyougonnado?

And then, then she goes and does something like this.

Gwyneth Paltrow has vowed not to make a big Hollywood movie - because they're "terrible".

Gwyneth, who is expecting her second baby with husband Chris Martin, said:

"Hollywood films these days are just so bad. They used to be kind of good like 'Top Gun' or something, but now they're just terrible.

She also doesn't think Americans are the smartest bunch in the world.

"Brits are far more intelligent and civilised than Americans. I love the fact that you can hail a taxi and just pick up your pram and put in the back of the cab without having to collape it. I love the parks and places I go for dinner and my friends. It's a pretty city, you know."

They used to be kind of good like 'Top Gun' or something.

Oh, it hurts...

Justin Timberlake is a hard, hard man

Really. Honest and for true. This is why in his forthcoming movie he plays "a drug dealer who became one of the youngest men ever to be on the FBI's most wanted list." For the part, he's been decked out with temporary tattoos all over his arms and torso, including one or two in Chinese characters.

What do the Chinese characters on the arm of this hard, hard man have to say?

Two words.

“Ice skating”

Hard, hard man.

Being married to Steven Seagal can do that to you

Kelly LeBrock, model, actress (Woman in Red, Weird Science) and, let's face it, a big part of the reason why I wear glasses, says she "doesn't have much sex drive."

And speaking of cartoons

Okay, the Danish cartoons thing

FWIW, and it probably ain't worth that much, here's the most sane thing I've seen yet on the issue. Fittingly, perhaps, it comes not from a Bush administration mouthpiece, or a knee-jerk "First Amendmenter" or from either side of the "blogosphere."

It comes from Doonesbury cartoonist G.B. Trudeau, who knows something about inflammatory cartoons, when asked about it by the San Francisco Chronicle:

Why has the U.S. news media (broadcast and print), almost universally refused to publish the cartoons?

I assume because they believe, correctly, it is unnecessarily inflammatory. It's legal to run them, but is it wise? The Danish editor who started all this actually recruited cartoonists to draw offensive cartoons (some of those he invited declined). And why did he do it? To demonstrate that in a Western liberal society he could. Well, we already knew that. Some victory for freedom of expression. An editor who deliberately sets out to provoke or hurt people because he's worried about "self-censorship" is not an editor I'd care to work for.

And:

Is there an echo?

If you mean a personal echo, not really. I have 600 client editors, and I don't for a moment expect them all on any given day to judge my work suitable for their wildly different audiences. We have editors for a reason. Just because a society has almost unlimited freedom of expression doesn't mean we should ever stop thinking about its consequences in the real world. If The New York Times had commissioned a dozen vicious, anti-Semitic cartoons, would we be having a comparable debate? I don't think so.

More in the link above.

Irony, some call it

Via Rising Hegemon:

Ken Starr, caught lying and trying to suborn perjury!

Lawyers for a death row inmate, including former Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth Starr, sent fake letters from jurors asking California’s governor to spare the man’s life, prosecutors said Friday.

Lying and suborning perjury is what Starr accused Clinton of, and what the whole impeachment "supposedly" was based upon, for those of you who had tried to erase it from your memories.

Tick...tick...tick...tick...

More good news for the soldiers Washington D.C. sent to war essentially on a bet. From Bob Geiger:

...up to one-third of Iraq war Veterans will suffer from some degree of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

120,000 soldiers have sought health care, and...31 percent of them are being reviewed for possible mental health disorders, with the prevailing diagnosis being PTSD. A big difference from previous wars...is that 13 percent of those soldiers are women.

PTSD, which commonly arises from prolonged exposure to combat and the ongoing threat of death or serious injury, is characterized by recurrent thoughts of trauma, reduced involvement in work or outside interests, hyper alertness, anxiety and irritability. Alcoholism and drug abuse are also common among Veterans suffering from PTSD.

...the Iraq war will create a whole new generation of mental health problems in America due to the unique conditions of this war – including that much of the conflict in Iraq, particularly since George W. Bush made his false claim that major combat operations had ended, has involved guerilla warfare and terrorist actions from ambiguous and unknown civilian threats.

They look like such big, strong hands, don't they?

Ooooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh yeah

On the other hand, every once in a while there is encouraging political news in this country. Last week, when Bush gave the State of the Union addess, I saw one or two talking heads saying it would no doubt give him a bounce in the polls.

This is so usual for Presidents at SotU time that the pundits authoritatively asserted it, as a coming fact. They didn't say it probably would happen, or that it happened for most Presidents, they said it would happen.

Well, guess what. Apparently, not so much. Via AmericaBlog:

The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted Feb. 1-5 among 1,502 Americans, finds that President Bush received no bounce from his Jan. 31 State of the Union address. Bush's approval rating stands at 40% ­ largely unchanged over the past month.

Aaahhh...