Things that make you go hmmmm...

About that business of douche bag for liberty Robert Novak saying we should ask Bush who the leak is...Jane at firedoglake and one of her commenters sniffed around and came up truffles:

Number one—Novak does not lob a grenade like that casually, despite Kate O’Bierne’s protestations tonight on Hardball to that effect...Number two—Novak knows who he works for, Karl Rove. Why would Rove want that out there and Bush on the hot seat like that? Well the answer of course is that I have no idea. But the best guess came from Frank Probst today in the comments:

I think Rove is nervous, and he’s prodding Bush (via Novak) into saying something like, “I don’t know who the leaker was.” Or “Karl Rove has my complete support.” Bush knows damn well that Rove leaked this. This is Rove fishing for a public defense from Bush. He has to tie himself to Bush in order to save himself. Because he knows that if he doesn’t, his career—and possibly his freedom—is about to end.

And—voila!—today, like a trained monkey:

In an interview with Fox News, Bush said his relationship with Cheney had “only gotten better,” and he remained “very close” to Rove, who could face charges in the criminal investigation into the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity.

“We’re still as close as we’ve ever been,” Bush said of Rove, brushing aside reports he was angry at his deputy chief of staff, who initially denied any role in the Plame leak. “We’ve been through a lot. You know, when we look back at the presidency and my time in politics, no question that Karl had a lot to do with me getting here, and I value his friendship.”

Update: What Kevin said.

CONTEXT....George Bush gave a speech Wednesday in which he acknowledged that we got lots of bad intelligence about Iraq's WMD before the war but failed to take any personal responsibility for demanding that very intelligence in the first place and ignoring all dissenting views. Of the major news outlets, only Knight Ridder bothered to point that out:

"It's true that much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong," Bush admitted — omitting that he and top aides had ignored warnings from midlevel intelligence agents that some of the evidence was suspect....

See how easy that is? Why can't they all do this?

Is it just me, or does anyone else think that when George W. Bush dies, Lincoln, FDR and Jefferson are going to be waiting on the other side...to beat the hell out of him?

ETA: And speaking of when Bush dies...here's how he sees his legacy:

I hope that first, as a person, I'll be remembered as a fellow who had his priorities straight: his faith, his family and his friends are a central part of his life.

"Secondly, I hope to be remembered, from a personal perspective, as a fellow who had lived life to the fullest and gave it his all. And thirdly, I'd like to be remembered as the president who used American influence for the good of the world: bastioning freedom and fighting disease and poverty, by recognizing to whom much is given, much is required and that -- that I wasn't afraid to make a decision."

For the good of the world? Really? Have you told the world? Not afraid to make a decision? Well, maybe not...even when it's a dumb one. But this reminds me of one of the dozens of things I will never understand about the way the Democrats ran their last campaign. Why didn't they simply buy air time to run the footage of Bush frozen in the classroom, reading along to My Pet Goat, when America was under attack?

Not afraid to make a decision? Right, George. When Karl the organ grinder plays and you know what dance to do. Dance, monkey, dance.


ETA, again: What? Also from The Washington Monthly...

Asked about the idea that our soldiers would be 'welcomed as liberators' in Iraq, President Bush said:

"I think we are welcomed. But it was not a peaceful welcome."

"That girl liked that I was raping her, your honor. Oh sure, you couldn't tell from the way she was kicking and screaming, but..."

Vote for me, I'm greedy

It's time for the Wampum blog's annual Koufax Awards again.

At the core, the Koufax Awards are meant to be an opportunity to say nice things about your favorite bloggers and to provide a bit of recognition for the folks who provide us with daily information, insight, and entertainment.

I'm eligible in several categories, so if you've a minute to spare, why not stroll over there and vote for me a couple of hundred times? You know I'd do it for you.

Frosty, the snow-

"We got some calls that people thought it was offensive," said New Windsor police Chief Michael Biasotti. "We assumed it was some kids who did it."

Officers found no one home. Assuming the snow sculpture was more prank than nod to Christmas' pagan roots, the police knocked it down. Beat it down with shovels, actually.

"We probably weren't 100 percent correct in going on the property and knocking it down," New Windsor Town Supervisor George Meyers said. "But our intentions were pure. Some people were offended. There are school buses going by there all day."

Many scholars, of course, trace the origin of the modern-day yule log to ancient pagan totems to virility and sun-god worship. Is that what [19-year-old scuptress Jessica Sherer] was going for?

"We just did it because we were really bored, and we thought it'd be funny," she said. "It was huge."

Happy birthday!

Via Shakespeare's Sister, who adds,

Seriously, I can’t remember a time in my childhood I would have been traumatized by a snowpenis. Collapsing into a fit of giggles, maybe.

I'm guessing Shakes didn't grow up in Ohio.

All right...

Accuracy in Media editor Cliff Kincaid is the fella who decided the reason why Tucker Carlson's show wasn't getting the ratings was because they regularly feature a short-haired lesbian.

Now he has a new campaign, for the good of us all. From Media Matters via AmericaBlog...

"Quit Gay Sex" Campaign
By Cliff Kincaid December 14, 2005

It appears that the homosexual lifestyle is as addictive as smoking.

Have you noticed that many news organizations, in honor of former ABC News anchorman Peter Jennings, have embarked on a quit smoking campaign? So why don't our media launch a campaign advising people to quit engaging in the dangerous and addictive homosexual lifestyle?

You know who I don't love as much as some people?

Margaret Cho. In the media and most liberal web sites Cho is quite well-loved; the following quotes come from her website:

Brilliant. One of the funniest comedians in America. - NY Times

Not since Richard Pryor..., has a comedian made me laugh through the tears the way Margaret Cho has. -3blackchicks.com

The most hilarious movie - the most hilarious thing - on planet Earth. - The Bergen Record

Gut-bustingly funny. - Variety

Surely every one of Cho's blow jobs is a blow for freedom. - Toronto Eye

...and I'm sorry, I just don't see it. Almost every time I've seen film of Cho's stand-up, she seems to me to be essentially just telling her audience what they want to hear: Right wing conservatives should be bitch slapped, racism and homophobia is bad, she shouldn't have been made to feel fat. It's not that I don't agree with any or all of that-which I hope is obvious-but I don't remember seeing her doing that many jokes about them.

I've probably said this one or two many times too many. But one of the reasons, I feel, that The Daily Show and Doonesbury have justifiably won so many awards and grabbed so many viewers/readers, is that they don't just tell their audience what they want to hear; they flame-broil sacred cows from the right or left.

It's easy (relatively) to get laughs hitting the other person's gang, can you get laughs hitting your own gang? In the films that I've seen, Margaret Cho's loving audience responds not with laughter, but with applause.

Well, shit, I could get applause going onstage and taking a few cheap shots at the approved targets of a self-selected audience of liberal weenies too. (Jeff Foxworthy says you shouldn't make fun of rednecks unless you are one. About the term "liberal weenies"...I are one.)

To me, truly brilliant comedians don't seek applause. You'll rarely see Jon Stewart more uncomfortable than when the studio audience reacts with applause rather than laughter. And I don't recall Richard Pryor's concerts being interupted by it too many times either.

It's not that nothing Cho has ever said has struck me as funny, it has. And as an actress she was part of the fine ensemble cast of one of my favorite movies, It's My Party. It's just that the hype of her as a social commentator/comedian seems to me way out of proportion to her actual gifts.

If you're wondering what brought this on, tonight I picked up the new issue of Bust magazine because I'd heard there was a profile of Samantha Bee of The Daily Show in it. Quick sidenote: The profile is excellent, and recommended to fans of Bee/TDS. Plus, I don't know about you, but I like a visibly pregnant woman-Bee-who poses for magazine pictures with a cigarette and glass of wine in her hand. (Feet on a stepladder...in heels, yet...can of beer on the top step, other cans strewn on the floor and counters of a sloppy kitchen.)

But anyway, elsewhere in the issue there's a short review of Cho's new book. The reviewer says Cho is "brutally honest" and "absolutely hilarious." And as I say, she's hardly alone in thinking that. But the first example she quotes is:

"Strange, there's so much religion in the world, but only enough to make us fight over who's right, not enough to make us love one another."

Funny, insightful, and clearly the work of one of the foremost satirists in the English language, yes? You're so right. It was even moreso when Jonathan Swift said it in 1711.

That's just one small fraction of the main attraction

According to a behind-the-scenes book about the making of the Terry Gilliam bomb "The Brothers Grimm," Gilliam clashed with the infamous Harvey Weinstein about many things. Especially what actress to cast in the female lead of the picture.

It seems that Gilliam, along with his stars Matt Damon and Heath Ledger, wanted Samantha Morton, but Weinstein forced Lena Headey upon them on grounds that Morton wasn't "fuckable."

Charming, no? Ironically, perhaps, when I saw the movie last August, I said of it here:

The main thing I came away with is a desire to see more of one of the supporting players, Lena Headey, an actress whose face is new to me...she seems, inasmuch as you can tell, to have the chops to embody a better character than this one. But although she starts out well and strong, in the end the film forces her into a box.

Far be it from me to take the side of Harvey Weinstein over Terry Gilliam; I just agree Headey is a very attractive woman. But there can be virtually no argument that Morton has more, or at least more proven, "chops." And not to put too fine a point on it...I would.

Would she have saved the film? I'm inclined to think not; it had more problems than just the director and stars second choice being cast in a key role.

But this definitely leaves me anxious to read the book, which has so far been published just in the U.K.

Personally, I preferred the "naked party" rumor

...when it comes to rumors about Jenna or Barbara Bush. But that's just the kind of cat I am, I'll always take sex over drugs...or for that matter, rock and roll. But this is pretty cool, too:

White House may have trouble explaining how a NYC coke dealer wound up with Jenna Bush's ID.

Jenna Bush’s infamous ID-gate videotape is raising more questions than the Zapruder film. According to a source who has seen the footage—which features a self-described downtown coke dealer relating his late-night run-in with the First Daughter, and brandishing her college ID as a souvenir—the man insinuates that the two shared more than just drinks.

By the way, if you missed the "naked party" rumor a couple of years ago, here it is.

She blinded me with science

There's a lengthy but well-worth reading essay by someone named Chris Mooney at the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal site. It takes as its starting point a review of a book called The Politically Incorrect Guide to Science, by Tom Bethell, and goes on from there.

Here are a few of my favorite paragraphs.

...Bethell's more general science policy arguments are...problematic. For instance, there's his concept of a "priesthood of science," an elite caste of scientific leaders whose words are taken as gospel and whose received wisdom never challenged. Alas, this mythic priesthood does not exist. The scientific process is inherently a contentious and antagonistic one, in which vast incentives exist for scientists to publish research that undermines what everyone thought was known and well established. In essence, the scientific process represents the institutionalization of doubt and skepticism. It is nothing like a priesthood.

Finally, Bethell sneers at scientific "consensus," noting that even if 99 percent of experts in a field accept a given theory, that doesn't make it automatically true. But this fact notwithstanding, consensus plays an important role in the scientific process. It is how our knowledge progresses. Scientific conclusions are eternally subject to revision, but when consensus develops, it is based upon repeated testing and retesting of an idea or theory--and that's hardly something to be taken lightly. In fact, when it comes to pressing matters of public policy where decisions depend upon a clear understanding of the underlying science (such as global warming), we ignore scientific consensus positions at our own peril.

All of these arguments made by Bethell--the scientific ones as well as the science-policy oriented ones--are very problematic. But what's most disturbing about The Politically Incorrect Guide to Science book is not the lack of scientific accuracy or its poor arguments. Rather, it's the overall message that it preaches to conservative readers--in essence the following: "Don't trust the nation's scientific community, they're a bunch of politicized liberals who are hooked on government funding."

As visions of sugarplums dance in our heads...

...firedoglake brings us the latest on just how deep is the black hole of law Karl Rove is probably in.

And the next time you hear some empty head on TV talking about how Fitzgerald will think twice before indicting someone as powerful as Karl Rove, don't believe it. I've spoken with people he's worked with in both the FBI and the justice department who say that while some US attorneys are reluctant to prosecute the high and the mighty for fear that as political appointees they'll ruin their careers, Patrick Fitzgerald is not one of them.

And...mark!

Update: If you want to see what Jon Stewart had to say about Ford on The Daily Show last night (and if you haven't, you do), Crooks and Liars has the video.

4 Dec 2005. Ford apparently caves in to a threatened boycott by the American Family Association (that's Donald Wildmon), pulling ads from gay-market publicatons like the Advocate. John from AmericaBlog is all over this like I'd like to be all over Reese Witherspoon.

He starts slapping the Ford Motor Company around and basically making them his bitch, and I write:

You longtime readers of my old blog may remember last April, when another major American corporation got John's dander up.

It took John just over a month to force that corporation to its knees. They reversed their position of abandoning gays and terminated the employment of Christian Coalition, "pro-life" homophobe Ralph Reed.

And that was Microsoft.

14 Dec 2005. John blogs:

Regarding that Ford thing? We just won.

The Ford Motor Company today released [a] letter...clarifying that whatever did or did not happen behind closed doors with the American Family Association (AFA) two weeks ago, the company is NOT backing off of its support for the gay community or gay advertising (in contrast to what was reported over the past two weeks).

10 days, and...boom.

A baker's dozen of CDs I've enjoyed in 2005

These are in completely arbitrary order and not limited to CDs actually released this year. Links are to reviews or old blog postings I've written about them.

Love Rocks

This two-CD set is in benefit of the Human Rights Campaign, “the largest national gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender political organization with members throughout the country.” Inasmuch as the music “rocks,” as per the title, it’s a gentle kind of rocking, with a handful of exceptions.

But there's enough new discoveries and old favorites, coupled with the good cause, to make it worth your while. Or mine anyway. But I still resent this CD for making me like a Mandy Moore record...

Piney Gir-"Peakahokaboo"

Swinging and simple.

Soft Cell-"The Very Best Of"

My Mann James sent me this off my Amazon.com wish list, although, he assured me, normally it would be against his principles to further the spread of Soft Cell in any way. I felt like such a failure as an "eighties man" without at least one of their CDs in my collection.

But I had also always felt as though I should like Soft Cell more than I did...and now I've done a complete 180. I fucking love this album.

Book Of Love-"Candy Carol"

I've been wanting to hear this 1991 CD ever since I read a review of it in The Trouser Press Record Guide:

The synth arrangements run from trite ("Butterfly") to subtle ("Candy Carol," which makes cute use of a melody that comes pre-programmed on every $30 Casio), as do the lyrics: "Quiver" is simple and dumb, while "Flower Parade" consists of an a cappella list of floral species, and "Orange Flip" is a kicky little ode to lipstick colors.

Yeah! Finally found it in a Half Price store for three bucks this year.

Mary Had A Little Amp

This is one of those "grownups doing songs from their childhood for other grownups" CDs. It's in benefit of a preschool education division of People For The American Way, a fine organization. Four words: "Rainbow Connection." Dixie Chicks. Music to my ears...

Lesbians On Ecstasy

On band name alone, I pretty much had to, didn't I?

Leonard Cohen-"Dear Heather"

I don't revere Mr. Cohen as some do, but I do like him, especially when he doesn't sink so deep into his depressions.

Dixie Chicks-"Top Of The World Tour Live"

I became an unabashed fan of the Dixie Chicks music in 2004, after seeing the "Concert For Change" on TV. Which I still hold is one of the best concerts you'll ever see, regardless of your musical taste or political beliefs. Pray god it'll be released on DVD or CD soon.

Prior to that, I was admittedly more of a fan of their cute, and their political feelings.








Erasure-"Nightbird"

Vince Clarke and Andy Bell are the Keith Richards and Mick Jagger of techno-pop, in both the good and bad ways. Genre pioneers who made some of the most definitive singles of a decade, and whose last albums haven't been much to go wild over.
But one or two of the melodic, gently rocking singles on this CD have really grown on me. Plus, check out that cover-is that lovely or what?

Pitty Sing-"demons, you are the stars in cars 'till I die"

Possibly the greatest hook of the year: "We'll fuck on the radio."

Maria Marquez-"Natures Princess (Princesa de la Naturaleza)"

A voice like the ghost of Billie Holiday living in the sax of a skillful player, lending the songs an ageless quality.

Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason-"Original Motion Picture Soundtrack"

I won't kid you-I never watched the movie, and I don't even like most of the songs on this CD. But it's how I got Kylie Minogue's "Can't You Out Of My Head." All together now: La la la, la la la la la la, la la la...

My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult-"Confessions of a Knife"

This was just replacing on CD a tape by a band of which the aforementioned Trouser Press said, "There's house music...and then there's Amityville Horror music."

Again: I suspected as much

Your Inner European is Irish!

Sprited and boisterous! You drink everyone under the table.

Who's Your Inner European?

Top of the morning to ye!

Just a quick shot

Quoted verbatim and in toto from Think Progress:

Don’t call it a comeback. President Bush’s job approval at 38%, according to a new Zogby poll. (Via Political Wire)

There's no denying it, they've got me there

Feh. It's a doddle.

You'd think they'd at least try to make it difficult.

Um...thanks...I think...

According to this quiz, my inner supermodel is Elle Mcpherson.

I don't believe in Beatles

As you may have noticed, a lot of people have been marking the 25th anniversary of the shooting of John Lennon. Mostly this takes the forms you would expect. Vaguely nauseating essays about "What John Lennon Taught Me."

Look, Lennon is a hero. He's one of my heroes. And I understand his place as an icon of the '60s. But what I can't stand is the Ono-approvoved, "Imagine"-documentary and "Rolling Stone" style deification of the man.

You may say he was a dreamer, I say he was also a woman-beating, family-abandoning drug addict. How do I know that? Because he was quite open about it in interviews and his own songs. I may be wrong, but I believe that a man who talked so much about insisting upon the truth would want the whole truth told about himself.

Those parts of the truth seem to get left out in all the attempts to enshrine Lennon and declare his songs "hymns" and "anthems". Even though that truth doesn't, to me, lessen his creative or personal accomplishments.

When I say he was and is a hero, I mean it in both senses. Artistically, obviously. If I could write one thing that meant as much to somebody as "Strawberry Fields Forever" has meant to me, I'd be a happy man.

But personally, too. This was a man who saw where his thinking was screwed and his behaivor was bad, and strove to correct them. That's fucking impressive. To paint a picture of his life with nothing bad or nasty in it, that's what lessens his creative and personal accomplishments.

And that's what seems to get lost in all the glory and tribute, as though he were placed on earth by angels, a Liverpool urchin whose feet never quite touched the ground.

Oh, come the motherfucking fuck on!

From Bush's speech in Philadelphia today:

Not far from here, where we gather today, is a symbol of freedom familiar to all Americans: the Liberty Bell. When the Declaration of Independence was first read in public, the Liberty Bell was sounded in celebration and a witness said, It rang as if it meant something.

From Suburban Guerrilla:

It’s believed highly unlikely that the Liberty Bell was rung at the reading of the Declaration, because the steeple was in such poor condition. But BushCo never lets a little thing like the truth get in the way of a good story, now, do they?

The man lies about everything. Somebody remind me: What is it that people who didn't like Clinton claimed was their reason for being upset about the Lewinsky affair? Oh right, he lied. Boy. I expect those self-same people will be starting an "impeach Bush" movement any day now.

Because otherwise, it would be like saying they just didn't like Clinton and were looking for any excuse to push him out, however threadbare. And I know they would hate anyone to think that.

I'm sorry, this still seems really stupid to me

As The Adventures of the Sisterhood of the Irritating T-Shirts continue...

The local teen organizers of a "girlcott" that led Abercrombie & Fitch to pull two T-shirts from its shelves will visit the company's headquarters today to pitch their own designs.
Fourteen girls from Allegheny County Girls as Grantmakers will take a bus this morning to the clothier's headquarters in New Albany, Ohio, near Columbus, for a 90-minute afternoon meeting with company executives and managers.

The young women are keeping mum about what designs they have in mind until they can make their pitch, and there is no guarantee Abercrombie & Fitch will use their designs.

And even less of one that their designs will be funny, which at least the irritating t-shirts were, in my opinion and that of a couple smart women I know. It's hard to be funny if you're trying to send a message.

I'm sorry, I'm just not as excited as, say, Feministing about what looks to me like an obvious attempt by A&F to exploit the young women for PR purposes.

Schenley High School junior Emma Blackman-Mathis, 16, said she is nervous and excited that her group might have a chance to spread its message through fashion.

"I'm really, really excited to think about the fact that in a year these empowering T-shirts will be in pop culture mainstream stores, and that's mindblowing," Blackman-Mathis said.

And maybe it's just me, but I don't think I've ever, ever felt empowered by a t-shirt that either I or anybody else was wearing. Is it a girl thing? And I ask that semi-seriously, from my position as a pro girl-power kind of guy.

But this whole thing continues to look to me like an example of women caring way, way too much about fashion.

Honor thy father

Okay. You know "60 Minutes" newsman Mike Wallace. And you may have seen elsewhere that, in an interview last week to promote his new book, Wallace suggested that maybe, just maybe, George Bush's presidency might have something "to do with the fact that the country is so [expletive] up."

Strong words, to be sure. And you would expect people of differing political belief to take exception to them. What you might not expect is for the man's own son, a Fox News anchor, to say that his father is a drooling idiot.

From AmericaBlog:

"He's lost it. The man has lost it. What can I say," the younger Wallace lamented to WRKO Boston radio host Howie Carr on Friday.

"He's 87-years old and things have set in," the Fox anchor continued.

Y'know, agree with him or not, the elder Wallace has won every major award in journalism. I saw him on "The Daily Show" not long ago, and he sure didn't come off like Grampa Simpson. He seemed fully in command of his faculties, and he made me want to read his book. I'm in the "hold line" for it at my library right now.

Surely he deserves better. How sharper than a serpent's tooth...

Jeepers Creepers

According to MyDD, Republicans are now saying that if Teddy Kennedy questions Alito's ethics during his confirmation hearings, they'll bring up Chappaquiddick. Gosh, I just love the way this White House has restored civility to the public debate, don't you?

Look, I'm not here to defend Kennedy's actions (or lack of same) in the Chappaquiddick incident. I've been skeptical about it for years, and have even been known to make dark-humored jokes about it once or twice.

But here's the thing. That event has been public knowledge since 1969. Whatever mysteries remain, the people of Massachusetts have seen fit to keep sending Kennedy to the Senate. I'm not expecting him to say if it doesn't bother them, it shouldn't bother anyone else, but at least he can say that it's out there.

Kennedy has been a very public figure for over 35 years, people know who and what he is and isn't. The trouble with Alito, though, is that his supporters are trying to slide him through with a sideshow rather than allow an honest debate about his beliefs, judical or otherwise.

Or they might have just said "you are a blogger" and left it at that

You Have a Melancholic Temperament

Introspective and reflective, you think about everything and anything. You are a soft-hearted daydreamer. You long for your ideal life. You love silence and solitude. Everyday life is usually too chaotic for you. Given enough time alone, it's easy for you to find inner peace. You tend to be spiritual, having found your own meaning of life. Wise and patient, you can help people through difficult times. At your worst, you brood and sulk. Your negative thoughts can trap you. You are reserved and withdrawn. This makes it hard to connect to others. You tend to over think small things, making decisions difficult.

What Temperment Are You?

National Treasure

Roger Ebert eulogizes Richard Pryor:

Although the obituaries will make much of his nearly fatal accident and his long battle with multiple sclerosis, the most significant entry may be this one: In 1998, he won the first Mark Twain Prize for humor from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He said in his acceptance speech he had been able to use humor as Mark Twain did, "to lessen people's hatred."

When you look again at his three great performance films, you realize that was exactly what he did: It was when he was live in front of an audience that the full range of his gifts was seen most clearly. Drugs muddled some of the early stages of his career, and his disease finally silenced him, but in the early 1980s, after he was clean and sober and before he fell ill, there was a flowering of genius. In 2004, Comedy Central placed him first on its list of the greatest stand-up comedians of all time.

He had about 25 starring roles, often opposite Gene Wilder, who would play the straight man when they did interviews together. This is from their visit to Chicago to promote their biggest hit, "Silver Streak" (1976):

Wilder: "What are you doing next?"

Mr. Pryor: "It's a movie called 'Which Way Is Up?' This Italian director, Lina Wertmuller ..."

Wilder: "No! Oh, my God! I'll kill myself!"

Mr. Pryor: "What you moaning about, man?"

Wilder: "You're going to work with Lina Wertmuller? She passed right by me and saw you and said 'I must have that young man'?"

Mr. Pryor: "You didn't let me finish. She made this movie called 'The Seduction of Mimi,' and this will be a remake, set among the grape pickers of California."

Wilder: "I would have killed myself out of envy."

Mr. Pryor: "And then I'm in a remake of 'Arsenic and Old Lace.'"

Wilder: "Oh, my God! My favorite play next to 'Hamlet.' All black cast, I suppose, nothing for me."

Mr. Pryor: "And then I'm doing 'Hamlet.'"

In "Silver Streak," they did their own stunts, including one where they hung out of a train at 50 mph, Mr. Pryor holding Wilder by the belt.

"I'm thinking, one slip of my foot, and goodbye, Gene!" Mr. Pryor said.

"What gave me a lot of confidence," Wilder said, "was that Richie promised me that if I went, he went, too. If I fell off the train and was killed, he would throw himself after me."

"Of course," said Mr. Pryor, "they had me wired to the train."

Read more here.

This, of course, comes as a surprise to no one

I wish I could remember who said this, but it's not original to me: Ask yourself how much progress has been made in rebuilding anything where the World Trade Center used to be. That's two buildings. New Orleans was a city.

An editorial in today's New York Times begins:

We are about to lose New Orleans. Whether it is a conscious plan to let the city rot until no one is willing to move back or honest paralysis over difficult questions, the moment is upon us when a major American city will die, leaving nothing but a few shells for tourists to visit like a museum.

We said this wouldn't happen. President Bush said it wouldn't happen. He stood in Jackson Square and said, "There is no way to imagine America without New Orleans." But it has been over three months since Hurricane Katrina struck and the city is in complete shambles.

My brain! My hot, steaming brain!

Okay. You guys remember the classic original run of Ren & Stimpy, and how arguably the funniest parts of any episode were the "Ren goes psycho" moments? Well, sometimes I run across news items that make me feel like a cross between that and John Cleese at his most mad. ("That's just the sort of blinkered, philistine pig-ignorance I've come to expect from you non-creative garbage.")

What brought it on now? Well, let me put it like this. I see from USA Today...

Guess who's coming for honey? As part of a barrel-full of Winnie the Pooh anniversary events, Disney is working on a new animated series that will replace Christopher Robin with a 6-year-old girl.

Arrrgh!

"We got raised eyebrows even in-house at first, but the feeling was these timeless characters really needed a breath of fresh air that only the introduction of someone new could provide," says Nancy Kanter of the Disney Channel.

But some fans no doubt will feel that Winnie's world was fine just the way it was. "This strikes me as a step too far away from the vision of the original books," says Kathleen Horning, who trains children's book librarians at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "Besides, growing up, I had no problem relating to Christopher Robin. He almost had a non-specific gender."

Disney's Kanter says the new cartoon represents not an abandonment of an old, familiar world, but rather an alternate universe for Pooh and his crew.

"Christopher Robin is still out there in the woods, playing," she says. "We hope people will fall for this new tomboyish girl. The last thing we want to be is the ones who brought the franchise down."

Okay. As a fan of the books, the original cartoons, and tomboyish girls, I feel the need to say: Are you out of your freaking mind? Timeless characters don't need a breath of fresh air. Thats why they're timeless.

(Deep breaths. Control.)

There is a special place in hell for people like Nancy Kanter. And I note with grim satisfaction and pleasure the Dickensian stature of her name: Kanter. Cant-er. As in: Can't think of any characters herself that would equal the ones people have been falling for since 1925, without her little attempts to "freshen up the franchise."

So she has to fuck up somebody else's. This is the worst slap in the face to generations of fans since the WB's attempt to "revitalize" Bugs and friends.

About freaking time, too, we might add

Prolific and irascible SF author Harlan Ellison has been named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and will be honored at the Nebula Award Weekend in Tempe, Ariz., May 4-7, 2006, the SFWA Web site reported. SF writer William F. Nolan will serve as the 2006 Author Emeritus.

Since his first sale, "Glowworm," to Infinity Science Fiction in 1956, Ellison has shaped and sometimes re-shaped modern science fiction, the SFWA said. As a writer and as an anthologist, his influence, though sometimes controversial, has been vast. Ellison won seven Hugo Awards; three Nebula Awards; many script-writing awards for his television work, which included episodes of the original Star Trek; an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America; and various World Fantasy Awards.

Always a champion for writers, Ellison led the legal fight against AOL with his "Kick Internet Piracy" campaign to hold Internet service providers responsible for pirate sites. He also helped to launch the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.

Actually, as any "Ellisonista" worth his-or-her salt knows, Ellison wrote only one episode of the original Star Trek, the acclaimed "City on the Edge of Forever." And for him, it was such a bad experience (his work was forcibly rewritten by other hands and Gene Roddenberry spent years lying about why) it was never repeated.

As noted here last month, Ellison is one of my favorite authors. It seems safe to make an educated guess that he has mixed feelings about being glorified as a science fiction writer, however high the honor. Given his justified insistence over the years on being identified as a writer, without categorization.

More memories of Richard Pryor

The obits are sure to be piling up-a lot of people loved Richard Pryor, and I hope he died knowing that. I'll be posting more good ones as I find them, so check back if you're interested.

Digby starts out by noting,

If you would like to have a surreal experience akin to the effects of downing ten shots of cheap tequila, tune in to FoxNews as they eulogize Richard Pryor. Apparently he invented dirty words. (It's going to come as a helluva surprise to Lenny Bruce --- not to mention Redd Foxx.) He rejected the comedy of the good comedian, Bill Cosby, and went down the "wrong path" that led us to where we are today with all this R rated badness. One of the commentators said that when he went on TV in the mid 70's he "wasn't ready for prime time." (Actually, prime time wasn't ready for him.) Another said that "every black comic owes him something."

And now for a commercial break

Credit: http://homepage.mac.com/leperous/PhotoAlbum1.html

Our guy has a bigger dick than your guy

New York Magazine...[via Josh via Susie]:

Bush-administration officials privately threatened organizers of the U.N. Climate Change Conference, telling them that any chance there might’ve been for the United States to sign on to the Kyoto global-warming protocol would be scuttled if they allowed Bill Clinton to speak at the gathering today in Montreal, according to a source involved with the negotiations who spoke to New York Magazine on condition of anonymity.

“The organizers said the Bush people were threatening to pull out of the deal,” the source said. After some deliberation between Clinton and his aides, Clinton decided he wouldn’t speak, added the source: “President Clinton immediately said, ‘There’s no way that I’m gonna let petty politics get in the way of the deal. So I’m not gonna come.’ That’s the message [the Clinton people] sent back to the organizers.”

At around 8:30 p.m., organizers called Clinton aides and said that they’d successfully called the bluff of Bush officials, adding that Bush’s aides had backed off and indicated that Clinton’s appearance wouldn’t in fact have adverse diplomatic consequences.

Oh, man

Richard Pryor, man. Richard Pryor.If there were a comedians' Mount Rushmore, he'd be on it alongside Lenny Bruce and George Carlin. Did you know he co-wrote Blazing Saddles? Mel Brooks said Pryor wrote the Jew jokes, and the Jewish writers wrote the black jokes. He was supposed to star in it too, but nervous executives vetoed the idea.

Incomprable yet hugely influential. Eminently quotable-"Who you gonna believe, me, or your lying eyes?" "Bitch was so fine, I wanted to suck her daddy's dick." There can be no question that Pryor was a genuine American classic, as important in his time as Bob Hope was in his.

Feeling the way I do, I'm always happy when one of Pryor's concert films turns up on cable, and always a little grateful that they exist, that we have that record of Pryor in his prime. My favorite is probably Live on the Sunset Strip, but if you wanted to say Live In Concert you wouldn't start a fight.

Sleep in heavenly peace, motherfucker.

Diamonds are a girls best friend

...an androgynous fellow like myself, however, gets along perfectly well with CDs and books such as you can find on my Amazon.com Wish List. If you're amazed at the quality of posts on this site (I know I am), please consider making a small donation to the Buy Ben Those Books And CDs He Can't Score Through The Ink 19 Gig Fund. I thank you.

I knew listening to all that Culture Club and disco music would come back to haunt me sooner or later

Androgynous You scored 63 masculinity and 63 femininity!

You scored high on both masculinity and femininity. You have a strong personality exhibiting characteristics of both traditional sex roles.

My test tracked 2 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 52% on masculinity You scored higher than 60% on femininity

Link: The Bem Sex Role Inventory Test written by weirdscience on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

On the bright side, according to that quiz I posted a couple of months ago, I was only 20% Boyish and 80% Girlish. So I've moved up a few.

Keitha: If you want to call it that...

Annabel: Shh!

Masters of Horror/Barney Miller

I've been meaning to say a little something about Showtime's Masters of Horror series. I thought Joe Dante's recent well-publicized Homecoming was arguably the best of the series so far. As political satire, I doubt it'll change anyone's mind, but judging from the interviews I've read with Dante and screenwriter Sam Hamm, I don't think they care to. It was a suitably creepy story with perhaps a little more bite than most, with just the right touches of Dante humor. Again a little darker than his usual, but some would not be surprised to learn that the director of Gremlins and the Howling has a dark side.

The runner-up would be Incident On And Off A Mountain Road, directed by Don Coscarelli, best known for the Phantasm series. This starts out seeming like it's just the best-shot, best-acted variant of the last act of every slasher movie you've ever seen. You know, where the young woman fights alone against a misshapen killer.

But there's a twist coming. And that twist, when it comes, is such a sharp blast in the face that it should not be given away. I'd recommend avoiding other reviews if you expect to watch it. The one I linked above is safe, but the first three I found gave too much away for my liking.

The other episodes in the series seem to be in the Hitchhiker/Tales From The Crypt vein, mildly creepy stories with recurring flashes of Hey, It's Showtime! nudity. But I should confess that I watched much of the others via On Demand with FF at the ready whenever I thought I could see an ending coming all the way up the track...

So don't take my opinion on those as an absolute. Also, regarding the nudity, I'd be a hypocrite if I said I didn't take my hat off to the casting department...

On an only semi-related note: On-Demand are junkie dealers. Over the past year, in a section of the On-Demand menu they call Tube Time, they've been showing the first three seasons of Barney Miller. In a handful of episodes at a time, you see.

Well, they've got me hooked. I was a little too young for this classic sitcom when it first aired (just a little too young-it started when I was four). Now I've grown increasingly addicted to the truly unique, conversational feel of the humor and the way the style of the show resembles a one-set stage play.

But, if you're not already way ahead of me, On-Demand hasn't updated with a new batch of episodes in weeks, maybe months. How can any human beings be so cruel? With the series not in syndication around here and only the first season availible on DVD...what is a man to do?

Junkie dealers...

Some afternoons you just feel more isolated from your culture than others

I want to draw a perhaps-thin distintion. I don't like to see anyone criticise things they don't know about; so I'm going to be trying not to do that in what follows.

What I want to talk about is why I find myself with surprisingly little interest in seeing The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. And I'll acknowledge up-front it's been getting generally good reviews, and it's entirely possible that I'm "wrong."

Certainly like many of you, I grew up reading the books by C.S. Lewis, just as I did Tolkien's Hobbit tales; each fired my imagination just as they did yours. Yet I was curious to see Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings film trilogy; anxiously so after I saw the first. But I don't seem to feel quite as great a curiosity to see this one.

I think the reason is that I haven't been able to shake an idea of mine, since I first heard the new film announced. I think it was born not of people who loved the books. But of people who saw the grosses of Lord of the Rings and The Passion of the Christ and put two and two together.

Given that one accepted reading of the Narnia books is as Christian parable (IIRC, this gets heavier as the books go on), I think they figured:

"If we could make a movie that appealed not only to the special F/X and sweeping saga storytelling crowd..."
"But also to the newly-discovered Christian market...we'd be on the gravy train for life!"

I don't quite know why this should bother me, though, when certainly the people who made Lord of the Rings (or any movie ever made) did so with some expectations of profit (expectations that were just-as-certainly realized).

I'm also bothered by the idea that New Zealand has now become the apparent default filming location for the aforementioned sweeping sagas. Narnia is not Middle-Earth. Not in my head, at least. But the ads sure make it look like it.

And I'm irritated by those ads for the film that trumpet "Directed by Andrew Adamson" at the end, in an obviously tacked-on voiceover. I don't believe if you asked any three people at your local QFC who Adam Adamson was, they'd know, so it's not like he's a selling point. This seems likely to be Mr. Adamson's ego speaking, possibly through his agent.

As it happens he's the director of the Shrek movies. So why wouldn't they just say "From the director of Shrek and Shrek 2?" This would seem a much more likely selling point. Answer? Because then the apparently anxious Mr. Adamson would not get to hear himself identified as the auteur of someone else's story, one that had only lasted over 40 years before he got his hands on it.

I may be wrong, but I don't recall any of the Rings pictures being promoted as "directed by Peter Jackson," and especially not the first.

Finally, glancing at the credit information, I note with numb resignation that it apparently took four screenwriters to bring to the screen what it only took one man to put in my head. This seems like a good time to cite what I think of as "(Harlan) Ellison's Rule," which states that if a film or television show has any more than two writers listed, odds are it's going to suck rocks as a story. There may be other compensations, and there are always exceptions that test the rule. But as a handy-dandy should I see this or watch this guide, that works a treat.

I'll close with the last paragraph from a review by Roger Ebert, who liked the film (and as I say, it's quite possible that he's right) :

...it's remarkable, isn't it, that the Brits have produced Narnia, the Ring, Hogwarts, Gormenghast, James Bond, Alice and Pooh, and what have we produced for them in return? I was going to say "the cuckoo clock," but for that you would require a three-way Google of Italy, Switzerland and Harry Lime.

Sometimes I feel like a motherless child

While most of her friends and neighbors are amusing themselves with Christmas decorations and holiday gifts, Patricia Arndt is fretting over far more serious matters.

The single mother from Medford has been unexpectedly pulled from the inactive Army reserve and ordered to report for active duty by Feb. 5.

As Christmas nears, Arndt, 43, is trying to sell the Medford home she says she will not be able to keep on an Army salary of approximately $60,000 a year, and is searching for someone to care for her 13-year-old son, Shane. She expects to train for an 18-month tour of duty that could take her to Iraq or Afghanistan.

Atrios reminds us of armchair warrior poster-child Jonah Goldberg's pathetic excuse for

why he won't go fight in the war he supported:

As for why my sorry a** isn't in the kill zone, lots of people think this is a searingly pertinent question. No answer I could give -- I'm 35 years old, my family couldn't afford the lost income, I have a baby daughter, my a** is, er, sorry, are a few -- ever seem to suffice.

They don't suffice because they're irrelevant, Goldberg. People older than you, poorer than you, with children who are just as special as yours are answering the call to duty. You're not. It's because you are a chicken. There is no other answer.

I don't have a problem with physical cowardice as a way of life, I just think you should admit it.

Let's give Ms. Arndt the next-to-last words:

Arndt, who never married, at first arranged to have Shane live with her sister. But those plans are in danger of falling through, she said, because of family problems. She said her son's emotional well-being worries her the most.

"He says, 'My father's not here, you're not here, why should I be here?'" Arndt said. "His life as he knows it is gone."

This is one of those times when I know with sickening certainty what the response of armchair warriors like Mr. Goldberg will be to this story, if any: If she had a man around...

Oh, Jesus Christ

On Think Progress:

Reporters Tom DeFrank and Dana Milbank were on MSNBC last night discussing the Rumsfeld resignation rumors.

They both said that Rumsfeld would have been fired long ago if things hadn’t been going so poorly in Iraq. Firing Rumsfeld now would simply be too embarrassing for the administration. It’s the key to Rumsfeld’s success: he’s so incompetent, it’s impossible to let him go –

MATTHEWS: Is anybody taking responsibility for saying we would be greeted as liberators?

MILBANK: No. The vice president certainly hasn’t. That’s not what anybody is doing. What is happening here is they’re hoping for an improvement, an uptick, in Iraq. That’s the sort of thing that could allow Rumsfeld to get out gracefully.

The snake is truly eating it's own tail. If things improve in Iraq then the administration will fire (one of) the guys who's responsible for making things go so poorly in Iraq, but as long as he's...

Aieeee!

Oh, would to that it 'twere

The movie "Rent" hasn't exactly been burning up the box office. I haven't seen the film (I wrote about my feelings on the stage version here last month), but the Rotten Tomatoes consensus was:

Fans of the stage musical may forgive Rent it's flaws, but weak direction, inescapable staginess and an irritating faux-boho pretension prevent the film from connecting on screen.

However, news comes today that there may be reason to appreciate it after all: It's driving a group of homophobic parents from Rhode Island positively around the bend.

A group of parents is calling a high school field trip a "promotion of homosexuality". The parents are threatening to pull their teenage children from a Ponaganset High School trip to see the movie "Rent" at a local theater.

"The lifestyles depicted in this movie are not the majority, not the lifestyles of 99.9 percent of the kids that live in these two towns," School Committee cochair Donna Mansolillo told a meeting of the committee this week.

Mansolillo then handed out a review of the film by the conservative group Focus on the Family that calls the movie "an in-your-face glorification of homosexuality and lesbianism."

My first response to this quote was the headline above. Then Pam pointed out something. Homosexuality and lesbianism?

Well, it's not like it's an exact science or anything

Your 2005 Song Is

Hollaback Girl by Gwen Stefani "This shit is bananas B-A-N-A-N-A-S)" For you, 2005 was the Best Year Ever.

What Hit Song of 2005 Are You?

The best year ever? Oh, please don't say that.

Subtle.

A few days ago, I posted a picture of Mariah Carey. One of my faithful correspondents suggested:

I think you could have found a more flattering picture of her.

I sincerely thought the first picture was flattering, but perhaps my correspondent was right. I could have chosen an even more flattering one. However, by the same token, I could also...

Well, all I need is a Bond girl and I'm all set

How intriguing. You are Ken & Barbie as 007 and the
*Bond Girl* Tres chic!


Which Ken & Barbie Couple Do You Belong To?
brought to you by Quizilla

I'll take Famke Janssen, Maryam d'Abo and Barbara Bach, please...shaken, not stirred...

All right!

Your Musical Tastes Match: Nicole Kidman

See her whole playlist here (iTunes required)

What Celebrity Matches Your Taste in Music?

'Tis the season

As mentioned previously, we here at Dictionopolis in Digitopolis are among those who feel that Daily Show host Jon Stewart is a god. Well, even gods need easy pitches now and then, and our dear friend Bill O'Reilly was good enough to serve one up recently.

As a demonstration of the alleged "war on Christmas," O'Reilly showed a clip from The Daily Show, implying to his television audience it was recent, and flat-out telling his radio listeners it had aired the day before.

Well, funny story. The clip was a year old. Like I say, easy pitch, but even an easy pitch is worth watching if Jackie Robinson's going to hit it out of the park. (Right now, certain of my friends are saying "Ben, that was a baseball metaphor! You feel all right?).

Media Matters has an item including a transcript of Stewart's response. It's not as good as seeing it, but I havent found a video clip yet (if I do I'll add it). Here, though, is Mr. Stewart's conclusion:

If Bill O'Reilly needs to have an enemy, needs to feel persecuted, you know what? Here's my Kwanzaa gift to him. Are you ready? All right. I'm your enemy. Make me your enemy. I, Jon Stewart, hate Christmas, Christians, Jews, morality, and I will not rest until every year families gather to spend December 25th together at Osama's homo-abortion-pot-and-commie-jizzporium.

The man's a god.

The Black Sea

On a ship to nowhere
On a dark and tranquil sea
I’m sinking with a cargo
Of the things that cannot be
On the far horizon
the final sunsets fall
And Tuesday becomes Wednesday
Becomes any day at all

Everything we do
Nothing remains true
I am frightened I’m a liar
And I’m tortured by desire
Every single day
In all the simple ways
I am torn apart inside
by the things I’ve tried to hide

~OMD, "The Black Sea"

Paranomia

Good post at The Anonymous Liberal. He starts with a post from John Hindrocket of Powerline in which it is noted that

Network coverage [of Iraq]has been over-whelmingly pessimistic.

Hindrocket goes on to conclude "logically" that this in some way indicates that the media has bewitched the poor American people into thinking that the way is going badly. Instead of that being something they concluded because they have eyes and a brain stem.

TAL takes off from there, beginning with:

You know, the capacity for insane paranoia among the wingnut crowd never ceases to amaze me. I know, I know, paranoia is rampant on the Left as well. But that's to be expected. Paranoia goes hand in hand with lack of power. With all the branches of our government under the control of conservatives, it's not surprising that many on the Left have succumb to the paranoid desperation that so often afflicts the powerless. But what excuse do conservatives have? It was one thing when they were sitting around discussing Vince Foster's murder during the height of the Clinton years. But now conservatives control both chambers of Congress, the Presidency, and an increasingly disproportionate swath of the judiciary. And conservative talking heads now dominate television and radio. Yet none of this has done anything to alleviate the persecution complexes from which so many conservatives appear to suffer. All Republican political problems are still best explained by pointing to some vast conspiracy of liberal elites.

Go read the whole thing.

Sometimes I feel so sad. Sometimes I just feel so sad.

In Think Progress:

In yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, deputy editor George Melloan advanced startling rationale for the Iraq war. In Melloan’s view, the invasion was about creating a home base from which the United States can launch future wars against Iran and Syria...

According to Melloan, we need to finish the job in Iraq quickly – not so we can send the troops home – but so we can get ready to fight Iran:

Nowhere is the antipathy toward America and the West more clearly manifested than in Iran…Getting Iraq under control is urgent because of what may be the next threat in the Middle East.

Don’t expect the string of wars to end anytime soon. Melloan concludes that the fight could last “30 years in the view of some analysts.”

Must not start drooling in anticipation...must not...

From today's edition of The Nelson Report about that grand jury meeting Pat Fitzgerald held today ...

The line between gossip and intelligence is too-often thin, as we’ve seen the past few years. With that caution in mind, Washington buzz today focused on reports of a three-hour grand jury meeting (presentation?) by Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, with no witnesses called. Our legal advisors confess no inside information, but say this sort of an event usually precedes an indictment being handed down.
If so, who...whom...might be the lucky winner this time? The afternoon betting line is White House political guru Karl Rove, who’s earlier “exoneration” was very much exaggerated by Republicans eager to have the whole Wilson/Plame case “closed” with the indictment of VP Cheney’s then-chief of staff, Lewis “Scooter” Libby.

Via Talking Points Memo.

More good news for our Hebrew friends.

Update: On the other hand, Gibson may be too busy running for Governor of California.

Original post:

From TNR:

Flory Van Beek, have you heard the news? Mel Gibson is going to take your self-published memoir--of how, as a Dutch Jew, you survived the Holocaust--and he's going to develop it into a four-hour miniseries for ABC!

Now, depending on how much you've heard about Mr Gibson and his father's views on the Holocaust, you may or may not smell the irony reeking from the headline above. Fortunately, Atrios is here to explain everything, in a post that begins:

I think people too often get this issue wrong and it's important that people understand. Neither Mel Gibson nor his father deny the holocaust exist in the sense that they claim it's a wholly fabricated story. While Papa Gibson has been more outspoken than his son, Mel has never (to my knowledge) distanced himself from his father's views and in fact in the interview in which he supposedly proved he wasn't a holocaust denier he in fact demonstrated that he really was one.

Holocaust deniers for the most part don't claim that it was entirely fiction. What they do is say that the numbers and intention were exaggerated, that World War II was a tragedy all around and the holocaust happened in the context of a war in which lots of people were killed.

There's tons more neat stuff. Mel Gibson directing a story about the holocaust is like George W. Bush directing a story about lesbians.

Fuck Hillary Clinton.

Seriously. That's all, just fuck her, and I don't mean that in the good way. I've defended her in the past, and yeah I think she's had to put up with too much shit because of sexism, but I'm sick of it.

I'm sick of someone who is supposed to be this big liberal Democrat supporting a neo-con, conservative war (while not, of course, encouraging Chelsea to enlist). Now she's signing on to meaningless right-wing issues like Flag-Burning legislation.

She's Co-Sponsoring a bit of Flag-Burning legislation with a Right-Wing Freak from UTAH. Never mind the hardcore Lefties AND Righties who happen to rather LIKE the First Amendment!

So, Hillary? Fuck you. Time to move to the back of the bus. Not because you're a woman. Because you're wrong.

Stupid, stupid Democrats

Oliver Willis has another one of those "I agree with every word" posts. Especially these paragraphs:

But if there’s one group of people who make the job of the modern conservative movement easy as pie, it’s the Democratic party. There are some people in the Democratic party - Senator Clinton and Senator Biden, for instance - who have this misguided notion that it’s still 1996 and we exist in an environment that simply being less evil than the Republican party is the cure for what ails us. I seriously wonder if these folks and the people who work for them were even awake for the last four years. There is no middle ground with the right. They do not care what Democrats think about anything — not just in the people in Washington, but in the entire country. George Bush considers himself not the President of America, but the President of Red America.

There are two responses to a President like this. One is to be Joe Leiberman, to become just another appendage of the right, sitting stupidly on Dick Cheney’s lap as he operates your mouth with his bloody hands. Or for once you can stop buying into the conservative propaganda that blankets the mainstream press and stand up for what is right.

Look, the Democratic party needs to pull its collective head out of its collective ass. Waging war in Iraq was a mistake, and while there is no way to bring back the lives lost, there is still ample time to end our mistakes there. I wish nothing but success for the people of Iraq, but to be blunt I care more about New York, Washington, Miami, Los Angeles, and Chicago than I do about Baghdad. And I think the Democratic party needs to realize that their jobs, the reason they are in D.C., is to stand up for America and to do what’s right. There is no moral victory or political gold to be found in simply being just a little less evil than the right - it’s a loser on all fronts. The Democrats have made themselves into losers for years now, offering milquetoast responses to Republican nonsense.

And unfortunately...you know, earlier I remarked upon what fun it was to see the big right-wingers stumbling around. It's not so much fun when it's the party to which I belong (if only by default).

From The Washington Post via Suburban Guerrilla:

Strong antiwar comments in recent days by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean have opened anew a party rift over Iraq, with some lawmakers warning that the leaders’ rhetorical blasts could harm efforts to win control of Congress next year.

Arghhhhh! As SG Susie points out, how can being on the side of most people in this country harm efforts to win control of Congress?

In HBO's documentary about the first year of Air America, there is a scene filmed on election night, when most there had been smugly confident the Democrats would win. As it becomes increasingly clear that events are not going their way, an unidentified young woman is seen tearfully throwing up her hands and saying "Have I been living in some Democratic bubble or something?"

I know how she feels, but in this case I feel like I, and other bloggers in the Democratic base, are the ones outside the bubble. It's like we're standing there, holding signs, screaming at the ones who are supposed to represent us. "Hey! Hello! Over here! The people are on our side! The facts are on our side! The law is on our side! We have actual information that will prove it if you'll just come over here and listen to us, for god's sake listen to us, instead of giving creedence (again) to proven incompetents and liars."

And they just go back to planning their bi-partisan cotillion.

Ladies and gentlemen, a self-hating Jew.

Sigh. The latest assault in this completely nonsensical "war against Christmas" is this shameful commentary on the right-wing WorldNetDaily by Burt Prelutsky, a writer of books and scripts for T.V. shows including MASH.

You know how I know this "war against Christmas" notion is completely nonsensical, as in, it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever?

Let me put it this way. I live in one of the bluest parts of one of the bluest states in America. I live in Seattle, Washington. Our state Senators are Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray. We chase army recruiters off campuses. Our Governor is Christine Gregoire. My Congressman is "Bagdad" Jim McDermott, who's so freaking liberal he's featured in Farenheit 9/11.

So you would think that if anybody had this "war on Christmas" stuff down, it would be us. So how come already twice since Thanksgiving, I've been in stores where they were playing not just Christmas music, but blatantly Christian Christmas music? And yet, those crazy Jewish nuts from the ACLU did not run riot.

If it's not happening here, it's not happening. There is no war on Christmas. It is a lie. But let's see what Mr. Prelutsky has to say anyway.

Schools are being forced to replace "Christmas vacation" with "winter break" in their printed schedules. At Macy's, the word is verboten even though they've made untold millions of dollars from their sympathetic portrayal in the Christmas classic, "Miracle on 34th Street." Carols, even instrumental versions, are banned in certain places. A major postal delivery service has not only made their drivers doff their Santa caps, but ordered them not to decorate their trucks with Christmas wreaths.

Gee I wish he'd source some of this stuff. But basically, these are all covered with one answer: It's called having consideration for other people, the idea that you might think of someone besides yourself.

I know this notion is foreign to right-wingers, but in a way, it's actually what Christianity (and hence Christmas) is supposed to be about. Caring for others. Compassion. But let's move on:

Although it seems a long time ago, it really wasn't, that people who came here from other places made every attempt to fit in. Assimilation wasn't a threat to anyone – it was what the Statue of Liberty represented. E pluribus unum, one out of many, was our motto. The world's melting pot was our nickname. It didn't mean that any group of people had to check their customs, culture or cuisine, at the door. It did mean that they, and especially their children, learned English, and that they learned to live and let live.

Although it seems a long time ago, it really wasn't, that people who came here from other places were welcomed with institutionalized poverty, racism and Red-baiting. They lived under the constant threat that the slightest deviation from the norm would be grounds for expulsion from society at best. Beatings and lynchings at worst.

Of course they learned to live and let live, they wanted to live! We're supposed to have made an advance.

But the dirty little secret in America is that anti-Semitism is no longer a problem in society – it's been replaced by a rampant anti-Christianity. For example, the hatred spewed toward George W. Bush has far less to do with his policies than it does with his religion. The Jews voice no concern when a Bill Clinton or a John Kerry makes a big production out of showing up at black Baptist churches or posing with Rev. Jesse Jackson because they understand that's just politics. They only object to politicians attending church for religious reasons.

This paragraph I dearly love-it may be more filled with patent untruths and bullshit than any other single paragraph I have ever seen. First of all, there is no rampant anti-Christianity. Second of all, the "hatred spewed towards George W. Bush" has everything to do with his policies.

Visit any or all of the Weblog Awards "best liberal blog" nominees, and see how much talk you find about Bush's religion vs. his polices. And third, note the "subtle" insinuation that when Democratic politicians attend church, everybody knows they're just kidding.

Even though one of the two Democratic presidents of the past 35 years, Jimmy Carter, now a respected statesman and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, is a deeply religious man. In fact a former Sunday school teacher, a religious scholar and a man who has plainly tried to live his life caring for others and showing compassion . (There's those words again.)

How disgusting to imply that his faith is a posture.

My fellow Jews, who often have the survival of Israel heading the list of their concerns when it comes to electing a president, only gave 26 percent of their vote to Bush, even though he is clearly the most pro-Israel president we've ever had in the Oval Office.

Well gee, maybe 74% of your fellow Jews were better able than you to see what A. Whitney Brown used to call The Big Picture. Maybe they saw that pro-or-anti-Israel makes little difference if otherwise he's a horror show who is driving our nation off a cliff.

They're clever folks, those Jews, with certain obvious exceptions.

Via Jill at Feministe, who has a couple of timely responses herself.

This is getting good

For reasons explained in a post below, John from AmericaBlog has been slapping the Ford Motor Company around and basically making them his bitch. It's a treat to watch. But now, the Ford Motor Company is fighting back! In subtle, covert ways.

Like trying to post pro-Ford propaganda in the AmericaBlog comments section anonymously. As John writes:

But someone at Ford really needs to take a lesson in Internet 101. First rule, don't use your Ford workplace computers to place your anonymous propaganda in our site's comments section because we know your IP adress

Oh me oh my. There is nothing like watching the big boys slip on a bananna peel, fall down and land with their face in a pile of shit.

Only a matter of time, really

Credit: uggabugga

Well, once again, these are special times for Democrats

The country still seems to be waking up with the hangover that comes after the Grand Old Party.

The CIA/Rove/Joe Wilson investigation ain't going away and Woodward' s incompetence has been exposed.

Bush's "plan" for Iraq ain't being bought by the voters-in fact most of 'em don't believe he really has one. And more and more credible people are coming forward to say that "Staying the course" will be disasterous.

Even Republicans admit Dems could well have a chance to take back the House and Senate in '06.

The complete and utter corruption of the modern GOP is becoming impossible to hide; the most serious charges against Delay were upheld.

Alito's supporters are worried enough to accuse his critics of being anti-god.

Bush's place in history, while obviously not assured, is looking none too good.

But I know what you're saying. You're saying, if only there was some way in which the Watergate hotel could be involved...

Well, guess what.

The Watergate hotel is involved.

It's beginning to look a lot like...

Now that's religion

A German church group has caused controversy by releasing a calendar using nude models to portray bible scenes.

The calendar, on sale for £8 in the Katzwanger church in Nuremburg, contains photos such as a naked Eve holding an apple between her breasts for Adam.

Another month shows a topless Delilah cutting the hair of a sleeping Sampson.

Other pictures portray the baptism of Jesus, Lot's daughters, the dance of Salome and the sacrifice of Isaac - many involving nudity.

I haven't linked to a E. J. Dionne Jr. column in a while, have I?

And that's odd, since he's one of my favorite columnists. Here he is on the way Republicans are "Dodging Debate On Alito." They accuse Democrats of having a "litmus test," when they clearly do, Alito passes it and Harriet Miers didn't.

But they can't say that...

I've never been so aroused in my whole entire life

"Oh, baby, I want you now", she said, "but just wait one minute while I..."

The contraceptive is an antiseptic foam spray that “forms a physical membrane inside the vagina, protecting it from infection, acting as a barrier to pregnancy and providing a lubricating effect.”

The company also says that “It can remain in the vagina for a long time without destroying the vagina's chemical balance.”

And you thought stopping to put on a condom broke the mood.

Via Feministing.

By god, I love the law

Via the good ole' conservative boys at RedState.org, a little reminder that it's all how you look at it. See, by most accounts, Tom DeLay suffered a blow today. Here's a selected roundup of how the major papers and blogs are covering the events in their headlines.

Houston Chronicle:
DeLay's hopes dashed for quick end to case Judge dismisses one felony indictment but upholds another

The Moderate Voice: Judge Dismisses One DeLay Charge But Upholds Another

Taegan Goddard's Political Wire: DeLay's Hope for Quick Case Dashed

Associated Press:
DeLay's Money Laundering Charges Upheld

TalkLeft: DeLay Money Laundering Charges Stick

New York Times:
Judge Upholds Most Serious Charges Against DeLay

Washington Post:
Felony Charge Is Upheld for DeLay — But Election Code Conspiracy Count Is Dismissed

Daily Kos: Bad news for DeLay

But in the world of RedState.org, have no fear! Some of DeLay Charges Dismissed
They also quote a story in the Austin American-Statesmen:

The defense still hopes to derail the prosecution by accusing prosecutors of misconduct in their handling of the grand juries that indicted them.

Well, I guess if you can't derail the prosecution by way of your client actually being innocent...

I think the proper response to this in net-ese is: WTF?

Organizers of this summer's Live 8 concert have filed a lawsuit against the Trimspa diet company over its "scantily clad" spokeswoman Anna Nicole Smith's "intoxicated" appearance and "erratic behavior" at the fund-raising event in Philadelphia.

Live 8's lawsuit says: "To add insult to injury, when Ms. Smith showed up at the Philadelphia concert ... she was intoxicated and scantily clad" in a such a way as that it "damaged Live 8's reputation," reports the Smoking Gun. Live 8 is seeking $500,000 in damages.

According to news photos of the July 2 concert, Smith's outfit consisted of a shiny pink vest bound by a string at her bust. Live 8's legal papers now categorize her costume as "totally inappropriate for a broadcast that would be seen by millions of people in the United States and then rebroadcast throughout the world."

Let me see if I've got this straight. You invite Anna Nicole Smith to your event...and you're surprised when she acts like a drunken floozy?

A Christmas image I can really get behind

Thank you! Goodnight! Drive safely!

Ha ha, ha, ha, ha! My people have come together to defend my honor!

Okay, so there's probably a less self-centered way of thinking about this. But when some duck-humping, homophobic, rock-stupid, anti-sex, illiterate hillbilly from the hated state of Tennessee gets into trouble in my beloved home of the Bay Area....

Rep. Harold Ford, Jr. (D-TN) thought he'd do some fundraising in San Francisco. But that was before word got out that Ford is one of only 36 Democrats in Congress who voted for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

The conservative Democrat has been holding fundraisers around the country for his 2006 bid for Bill Frist's senate seat.

After Mayor Gavin Newsom heard the news, the famed same-sex marriage champion backed out of the scheduled fundraiser and urged Ford to cancel the event.

...I choose to see it as the sincerest form of flattery.

I'm not normally one for political bumper stickers

But I gotta admit, this one I kinda like......for some reason.

A picture is worth 1,000 words

2005 Weblog Awards

Like it says up there, The 2005 Weblog Awards nominations are out. Vote early, vote often, or at least just stroll by and check out the nominees. It's a good way to see who the big fish in the small pond of the "blogosphere" are.

Yours truly voted for:

Talking Points Memo
Yellow Dog Blog
Pandagon
AmericaBlog
James Wolcott
Slashdot
Dlisted
Pam's House Blend
and Tim Worstall

...in their respective categories. Being as through some oversight, I wasn't nominated.

They aren't all my favorite blogs or even my most recent, but (of those nominated) they've got the best track record. There's also categories in which I didn't vote, including one for our friends to the great white north.

I note with some sadness that the one-or-two conservative blogs I've found to be civil did not make the cut in that category. Some sadness, but very little surprise.

179 pages. 36, 293 words. 32 chapters.

My Girlfriend's Boyfriend, a novella in four parts and an epilogue. Yes, friends, I'm moving on to new and interesting fields in which to fail. Those you on my "first reader comments" list: Don't get nervous. I anticipate at least one more major draft that I hope will bring the word count up to where it can be called a novel, albeit a short one, and then a polish. Both of these will happen next year. A lot of this draft was taken up by the simple mechanics of adapting something originally written for one medium into yet another.

However, I do want readers and comments. Of the former, especially those who haven't been with me on almost every turn of this road so far, and know or think they know the characters almost as well as I do.

But my feeling is that I want to make this round of readings and comments strictly voluntary. I realize that agreeing to read and remark upon on a major hunk of prose (even a comparatively short one as this one is) is a commitment. Morso than a screenplay, short story, or stage play (all other forms these characters have tried in their quest to get out of my head. And win the hearts and minds of their countrymen-and-women).

So, what I'd like is that if any of you would like to give this draft a "test reading" you'll let me know. If you don't already have my email, it's in my profile-or it's just benvarkentine "at" earthlink dot net.

Make it easy on yourself-I don't expect you to read this and get back to me within two weeks. What with Christmas or the non-Christian holiday of your choice bearing down on us like a two-ton truck and all.

But I do like at least a somewhat prompt reply. Shall we say, more than a month, but less than two? And now if you'll excuse me, it is time for my traditional recital upon completing a new work...

There's a part of you always standing by,
Mapping out the sky,
Finishing a hat...
Starting on a hat...
Finishing a hat...

Look, I made a hat...
Where there never was a hat...

--Stephen Sondheim, "Finishing the Hat," from Sunday in the Park with George.

PS: If I haven't heard from anybody else in a week, then, my "first reader comments" list, you can get nervous.

A little more something something about Samuel Alito

Quoted in toto and verbatim from Think Progress:

In a 1984 memo, Samuel Alito wrote that “he saw no constitutional problem with a police officer shooting and killing an unarmed teenager who was fleeing after a $10 home burglary. ‘I think the shooting [in this case] can be justified as reasonable.’” A year later, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the shooting represented an “unreasonable seizure,” and used the case to “set a firm national rule against the routine use of ‘deadly force’ against fleeing suspects who pose no danger.”

Have you driven a Ford...latent?

Ford has caved in to a threatened boycott by the American Family Association (that's Donald Wildmon), pulling ads from gay-market publicatons like the Advocate.

The Dearborn, Mich., automaker came under fire from the AFA in May for its longtime efforts to increase LGBT workplace diversity and support gay rights causes. Ford has long been a regular advertiser within gay media, including The Advocate, and has donated significant sums to LGBT causes and nonprofit groups such as the Human Rights Campaign.

However, this is not completely out-of-keeping with Ford's traditional values.

John from AmericaBlog is all over this like I'd like to be all over Reese Witherspoon. You longtime readers of my old blog may remember last April, when another major American corporation got John's dander up.

It took John just over a month to force that corporation to its knees. They reversed their position of abandoning gays and terminated the employment of Christian Coalition, "pro-life" homophobe Ralph Reed.

And that was Microsoft. If I were Ford, I'd be worried. And frankly, Ford had enough to be worried about without bringing this upon themselves...

Oh. My. God.

Okay. No doubt by now you've heard about the Pentagon paying to plant stories in Iraqi newspapers. NYT columnist John Tierney takes off on a little riff about this, imagining the rejection letters these articles might have gotten if they had been submitted by real freelance writers.

Since Tierney's columns are behind the "select" firewall at the NYT site, I'm quoting it here via a blogger named Tom Worstall. But the thing is, no matter how funny Tierney is trying to be, I'd describe the column as hit-and-miss.

He can't hold a candle to what one of the writers of the Pentagon-sponsored articles, in an apparently true excerpt, tried to get away with.

Teirney says:

You write that these soldiers ''fight for freedom, wherever there is trouble,'' a revelation that would indeed be newsworthy to our readers across Iraq, not to mention the American military advisers. But our readers would remain skeptical unless you could provide more evidence.

"Fight for freedom, wherever there is trouble." That sound familiar to anybody?

That's right, folks. Our goverment paid hundreds of millions of dollars for propaganda on the level of a cartoon/toy commercial from the '80s.

Sleep tight, America.

The email of the species is more deadly than the mail

Okay, if the names "Rove" and "Joe Wilson" mean anything to you, this post may be of interest, if not, move on. Some information is out there regarding an email that Rove's lawyers are trying to spin as proving that he didn't lie about trashing Joe Wilson via his wife.

But as the aforementioned lovely-and-talenteds at firedoglake draw our attention to, there are one or two places where the connections just don't hold up...

(First section is from an article by Michael Isikoff)

Why didn't the Rove e-mail surface earlier? The lawyer says it's because an electronic search conducted by the White House missed it because the right "search words" weren't used.

This new information about the email production just makes no sense. I can't even figure out why they would want to put it out there. And someone who knows more about document production can correct me, but based on my limited experience, the chain of events as sketched by Camp Rove is supposed to look something like this:

1. Abu Gonzales sends the an email telling everyone to turn over relevant documents regarding Joe Wilson, the Niger forgeries and any contact with media.

2. White House IT people do a document search that curiously does not contain the words "Wilson," "Niger" or "Time Magazine."

...Presuming we know even a fraction of what is going on, there are only two explanations I can come up with. One, they are going for something really weird like it took Luskin 10 months to read them all.

Or, we are in a situation like we were when the Dick Cheney leak got floated in the NYT four days before the Libby indictment: somebody may feel like indictment day is just around the corner and is trying to get information out there so its impact can dissipate before the boom lowers.

I imagine this comparision will be driven into the ground in the coming weeks, but I'd like to get it in early: Is it possible that email could be to this administration was tape was to Nixon?