Review in the style of Gene Shalit:
I just saw the new scare-a-minute thrill-fest featuring the star of such feel-good classics as The Journey of Natty Gann and Fat Man and Little Boy, and let me tell you, the only Identity John Cusak is going to have to worry about this year is OSCAR!.
(Post dedicated to old college chum, Mike Stone)
For the record, Identity was an enjoyable whodunnit/horror movie. I give it the get donkey! pre-summer blockbuster stamp of approval.
Mark Morford rocks, beeyatch:
Why, look what a nice, bloodless war we just executed. So fun, so easy, so painless, so made-for-TV. Almost makes you wonder why we don’t just keep right on going, maintain that momentum, some sort of ultraviolent mutation of Newton’s law — i.e., a rabidly power-mad body in motion stays in motion — only with more decapitations and limbless children. Cool.
Damn, if only Syria were acting up just a little bit more. We’d take those sumbitches down, boy! Lebanon, too! And Egypt. North Korea. Who’s next, baby? Who wants a piece of this? Bring it!
True enough, the actual battle in Iraq barely lasted a month. Take that, lame hippie war protesters! Take that, losers who said it would drag on forever but let’s not mention the months and years and thousands of American soldiers and billions in taxpayer dough it will take to try to stabilize this ultraviolent U.S.-hating region from now on!
Let us not mention that no one ever doubted the U.S. military could destroy Iraq. Let us not mention the war the peaceniks referred to all along was about hate, and religion, and power, and was far larger and deadlier and more culturally deleterious than any meager battle for Baghdad. No no no. Bush rules! We won! Just wave the flag right in the face of the damn peace-lovin’ hippies!
(BTW, the Hamster rulez too)
Don Carty “apologizes” for being a slimy Jackhole:
Transport Workers Union leader Jim Little said his union would revote on $620 million in concessions it had previously agreed to.
The decision comes after a deal with the airline’s executives sparked outrage among workers and union leaders who said they new nothing of the large pensions and bonuses before they voted to accept concessions themselves and keep the airline from filing bankruptcy.“As far as I’m concerned, the tentative agreement was not put out to our members with full disclosure,” Little said.
Representatives of the Allied Pilots Association had no comment.
After the meeting, company CEO Don Carty (pictured) publicly apologized to airline employees and union leaders for what he called mistakes.
Carty said he had failed to fully inform the union leaders about executive compensation.
“I want to offer my sincere and most heartfelt apologies to the men and women of this airline,” Carty said. “It was never, never my intent to mislead anybody and I hope my apology can begin, at least, to heal the hurt I’ve caused.”
“And I would have gotten away with it too if it wasn’t for you meddling kids,” Carty did not mumble under his breath.
Buried in Janet Walls gossip column is this little tidbit:
George W. Bush has raised some eyebrows by nominating a former V.I.P. from the Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church to a top government position.
FOR HIS NEW Deputy of U. S. Trade, Bush has selected Josette Shiner, a longtime member of the Unification Church, whose members are sometimes derisively called “The Moonies.” Shiner was also the managing editor for Moon’s Washington Times newspaper.
In December, Bush gave another longtime Moon follower a plum appointment. He named David Caprara to head AmeriCorps at VISTA, leading some to question whether Bush is paying back the reverend for his generosity to the Bush family.
Shiner joined the Unification Church in 1975, and although she has said that she became a practicing Episcopalian in 1996, she has never publicly repudiated Moon, whose followers believe that he is the true Messiah.
If appointed, Shiner will have tremendous influence over trade in Africa and Asia, including, of course, Moon’s homeland of Korea, where he has extensive business interests
While I enjoy Janet, I have to ask why this is appearing in a gossip column and not on the frikkin’ front page? Could it be that Ms. Walls is the only responsible journalist in the entire NBC News organization?
From the WaPo (via MSNBC.com):
With little to show after 30 days, the Bush administration is losing confidence in its prewar belief that it had strong clues pointing to the whereabouts of weapons of mass destruction concealed in Iraq, according to planners and participants in the hunt.
AFTER TESTING SOME — though by no means all — of their best leads, analysts here and in Washington are increasingly doubtful that that they will find what they are looking for in the places described on a five-tiered target list drawn up before fighting began. Their strategy is shifting from the rapid “exploitation” of known suspect sites to a vast survey that will rely on unexpected discoveries and leads.
Late last week, the U.S. Central Command began moving urgently to expand security around a wider range of facilities in an effort to preserve evidence that defense officials fear is melting away. That imperative grew from intelligence suggesting that Iraqi insiders have stolen files, electronic data and equipment from nonconventional arms programs under the cover of recent looting. Analysts said they believe that former Iraqi officials hope to conceal their culpability, barter for status with the U.S. military government or sell the technology for private gain.
If such weapons or the means of making them have indeed been removed from the centralized control of former Iraqi officials, high-ranking U.S. officials acknowledged, then the war may prove to aggravate the proliferation threat that President Bush said he fought to forestall.
“It’s a danger,” Douglas J. Feith, the undersecretary of defense for policy, said in a telephone interview. There are signs, he said, “that some of the looting is actually strategic.” Former Baath Party and Iraqi government officials appear to be “doing at least some of the looting” of government facilities, he said, “including those that might have records or materials” relating to weapons of mass destruction.”[emphasis mine]
One of the questions some of us “anti-american” folks who were against this war surrounded what the USA would do to prevent Iraqi WMD’s (if they even exist) from being proliferated as the Hussein’s regime was ousted. Looks like the answer was “not a thing.”
What was this war supposed to be for again?
Wild Is the Wind
Love me love me love me
Say you do
Let me fly away
With you
For my love is like
The wind
And wild is the windGive me more
Than one caress
Satisfy this
Hungriness
Let the wind
Blow through your heart
For wild is the windYou…
Touch me…
I hear the sound
Of mandolins
You…
Kiss me…
With your kiss
My life begins
You’re spring to me
All things
To meDon’t you know you’re
Life itself
Like a leaf clings
To a tree
Oh my darling,
Cling to me
For we’re creatures
Of the wind
And wild is the wind
So wild is the windWild is the wind
Wild is the wind
Nice piece written by Dean himself:
Our nation should be viewed as a moral and just power, a power that seeks to do good, one that has led by example and with a spirit of generosity, and one that works with the world community in advancing the ideals of human dignity and rule of law across the globe.
The people of this country must understand that this Administration has a far different concept of the role of America in the world. This concept involves imposing our will on sovereign nations. This concept involves dismantling the multilateral institutions that we have spent decades building. And this concept involves distorting the rule of law to suit their narrow purposes. When did we become a nation of fear and anxiety when we were once known the world around as a land of hope and liberty?
On day one of a Dean Presidency, I will reverse this attitude. I will tear up the Bush Doctrine. And I will steer us back into the company of the community of nations where we will exercise moral leadership once again.
And not only will I seek to heal the divisions this President has caused in the world community, but I would also begin the process of healing the divisions he has exploited here at home.
This President shamelessly divides us from one another. He divides us by race – as he did when he claimed that the University of Michigan uses quotas in its law school admissions. He divides us by class by rewarding his campaign donors with enormous tax cuts while the rest of us are deprived of affordable health care, prescription drugs for our seniors, and good schools for our kids. He divides us by gender by seeking to restrict reproductive choice for women. He divides us by sexual orientation by appointing reactionary judges to the bench, and as he did in Texas by refusing to sign the Hate Crimes bill if it included gay or lesbian Americans as potential victims.
It is a Bush Doctrine of domestic division, and I want to be the President who tears that doctrine up, too. I want to restore a sense of community in this country – where it’s not enough to worry whether your own kids have health care, but whether your neighbors’ kids have health care. I want to go to the South and talk about race. White southerners have been flocking to the Republican Party in recent years, but I want to offer them hope that their children will benefit from better schools and affordable health care, too. The Republican Party has done nothing for working people, black or white, and we need to remind Southern white folks that the only hope for better schools, and better job opportunities, and health care that is affordable is a Democratic President.
Since I don’t have much time to write any in-depth political commentary (like I ever wrote such things in the first place), I’m going to start to try to populate the online void that has become my blog with daily reports on the mundane happenings of my life. Of course if I come across another Talton story or a particualrly egregious move by the administration that angers me, I’ll post about it. To be honest, however, I haven’t been in the mood to really seek these things out.
Therefore, I give you the Daily donkey!. A somewhat daily post about the boring life of a Web Developer in Houston. Presented in the hackneyed style of Larry King and updated as time permits…
Good morning, gang. Springtime humidity in Houston is the best. This morning when I was walking the “kids”, I noticed how the moisture in the air allows the pleasant aromas of Jasmine and Lilacs to hang sweetly in the atmosphere. Of course my house is 2 blocks away from a McDonald’s so I get eau de Hash Brown.
In the tunnel today, I passed a sign on a vacant store front that read, “Coming Soon: Kajun Clown, Home of the stuffed wing.” How the hell do you stuff a chicken wing, gang? And what do you stuff it with?
A lot of people complain about Starbucks, but I have to admit I’m a reluctant fan. Where I work it’s either the Evil Empire of Coffe or the brown swill in the breakroom Bunn. Now that’s not saying I don’t support the independent coffee shops when away from downtown. On the weekends I frequent the Onion Creek Coffee House near my own house (they need a website) and it’s great and run by friendly folks. Anyway, if you work downtown and find yourself jonesing for the oily bean while in the McKinney tunnel, stop at the Starbucks next to the Rajin’ Cajun. It’s an experiemental Starbuck’s franchise, not a company-run store, and the person running it is a good guy.
Here’s a reason I don’t live in the Clear Lake area. I’ll take the city squirrels, pigeons and bayou rats over free-range gators any day. Glad to hear the scaly fellow is going to be okay, though.
I heard the following through the political grapevine…If you live in the Houston area, and want to catch a fleeting glimpse of Presidential hopeful, Howard Dean, show up outside the Intercontinental Hotel in the Galleria area at 5PM on April 24th. I hear there will be a group welcoming him to H-Town.
You know, I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, Burt Bacharach was right on when he wrote the sage words, “What the world need now, is love, sweet love” It really is the only thing that there is just too little of.
When I am in the mood for a cup of tea, I like to reach for the “Constant Comment” or the “Lemon Lift” from Bigelow. If I’m out of that I’ll go for the Earl Grey. Speaking of Earl Grey, I’ve always wondered what a bergamot was.
Do yourself a favor and grow some loquats, folks. They are in season now and they are fruit-tastic.
Someone in the local cube farm here has their cell phone ringer set to the Michigan fight song. As a Penn State Alumnus, that drives me to a Bruce Banner-like rage. I’m tempted to bring in my singing and dancing Nittany Lion to counteract the effects.
That’s all for now.
From the Chron:
When Rep. Robert Talton learned that the gay and lesbian lobby was coming his way last month, he had state troopers posted at his office door to keep them from coming in.
In 1999, the Pasadena Republican said, about 25 gays and lesbians confronted him about a bill he proposed to keep homosexuals from serving as foster parents.
“I just remembered the last time,” Talton said. “They stormed my office so I just got ready for them.”
Talton, who chairs the House Urban Affairs Committee, makes no apologies for his actions and stands by his decision to bar gay and lesbian rights activists from entering his Capitol office.
“I don’t think we ought to be teaching young people that homosexuality is OK, and I believe a vast majority of people, especially those in my district, feel the same way I do,” he said.
[snip]
Talton introduced House Bill 194, a bill similar to the one filed in 1999, which stipulated that homosexuals or bisexuals are prohibited from applying as foster parents. He also filed House Bill 1911, which “prevents the placement of a child in a foster home with any unmarried individuals.”
“It’s a waste of both of our times,” Talton said. “They have their position and I have mine, so I made a decision not to talk to them.”
He said he called the Capitol security office and asked for some Texas Department of Public Safety troopers to keep the activists at bay.
Capt. Charles Campbell, security detail commander, said the activists caught Talton off guard in 1999 and that the legislator wanted to be prepared for the visit.
“I don’t want any of them in here,” Talton said. “If they’re here for this they’re not welcome.”
That last statement smacks of pure homophobia. Oooh! I can’t have “them” in here. They might touch something and contaminate it with their gayness! Save me from the scary gay people!!
I can’t imagine the firestorm that would rain down on this guy if he set up Troopers to ban African-Americans or Latinos or *gasp* White Conservative Christians from entering his office.
The worst part is that this hate-filled jackhole wins with 87% of the vote.
Un-f|<’n-believable!
Right-wing, dissent-stifling, thought-police, assholes are trying to get ABC to scuttle Janeane Garofalo’s pilot because she has an opinion that they don’t like.
Will another anti-war celeb take a career hit? Bush supporters have been deluging ABC with calls and e-mails, complaining about a sitcom the network has in development starring outspoken war protester Janeane Garofalo.
ABC HAS reportedly been working on the comedy, in which Garofalo plays a producer at a TV newsmagazine.
The pro-war protesters are threatening to organize a major campaign against ABC, including a boycott of advertisers, if the network airs the show
“We do not wish to see the faces of liberal Hollywood, particularly those that provided aid and comfort to Saddam Hussein,” protester Jon Alvarez e-mailed ABC. “We will stand up and fight for our right to request their exclusion from shows and sponsors that seek our attention.”
Spokesmen for ABC and Garofalo had no comment.
I don’t know about you, Mr. Alvarez, but I think stifling public discourse, forcing one side of the issue on an entire public, and stopping someone whom you disagree with form working, is more akin to giving “aid and comfort to Saddam Hussein” than disagreeing with government policies. I mean, after all, the way you want this country run is the way Saddam ran things over in his country.
I am so sick of these pricks.
MSNBC.com claims to have found traces of botulin and ricin in Northern Iraq on the border with Iran and they are tooting their horn about it.
Of course buried deep within the article is the following:
The territory of northern Iraq where the traces of ricin were detected is not under the control of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
I am sure they will not be trumpeting that (Man, I am in a brassy mood this morning).
Marc sent me this brilliant piece from Slate about the poetry of Donald Rumsfeld:
Much of it is about indirection and evasion: He never faces his subjects head on but weaves away, letting inversions and repetitions confuse and beguile. His work, with its dedication to the fractured rhythms of the plainspoken vernacular, is reminiscent of William Carlos Williams’. Some readers may find that Rumsfeld’s gift for offhand, quotidian pronouncements is as entrancing as Frank O’Hara’s.
Here is a sample:
The Unknown
As we know,
There are known knowns.
There are things we know we know.
We also know
There are known unknowns.
That is to say
We know there are some things
We do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns,
The ones we don’t know
We don’t know.—Feb. 12, 2002, Department of Defense news briefing
Wow.
This is a blog that is trying to come back to life!