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Tuesday, April 15, 2003
Time for my Spring Break
It's time for me to take a little time out to attend to other things I need and want to do. At least until next Monday. Maybe longer...who knows.
I'm halfway through three different books and I want to finish them and move on. When I have an extended amount of time to read, I'm reading Philip Roth's The Human Stain. At night, when I don't know how long I'll stay awake, I'm reading Anthony Lane's Nobody's Perfect. When I'm stuck in traffic or waiting in the car for some reason, I'm reading a copy of Bruce Chatwin's In Patagonia that I keep in the glovebox.
Being a compulsive book-buyer I have Robert Stone's Bay of Souls, Russell Bank's Cloudsplitter, Richard Kramer's Joe DiMaggio: The Hero's Life, The Selected Stories of Philip K Dick, and Greg Palast's The Best Democracy Money Can Buy all sitting on the "read me, dammit!" shelf.
Seven hundred pages of John McPhee's Annals of the Former World can also be heard screaming "I'm not going to be ignored!". Nicholas Shakespeare's biography of Bruce Chatwin sits next to the McPhee, muttering under it's breath, while The First Man by Albert Camus sighs and waits and waits.
So I have my work cut out for me.
Earlier today I mentioned At Play in the Fields of the Lord as recommended reading. Here's a few more books that I strongly recommend for various reasons (avoiding the obvious ones):
The Origin of the Brunists...Easily the best work of fiction that I have ever read. Hands down.
Underworld
Collected Fictions of Jorge Luis Borges
Winners and Losers
The Fatal Shore
Edwin Mullhouse: The Life and Death of an American Writer 1943-1954 by Jeffrey Cartwright
Becoming a Man : Half a Life Story
Going After Cacciato
A Massive Swelling
Continental Drift
and Attack Of The Snow Goons
If you decide to read any of these (and you really really really should read Origin of the Brunists) remember to purchase them either at an independent bookstore or, if you must use Amazon, get them through Atrios, The Hamster, or any other like-minded blogger.
And remember...there's going to be a quiz.
One last thing...as you know I have a petition up here regarding J-Lo and her boy-toy du jour. Because of it, I received the following e-mail which I hope you will find as amusing as I do. Enjoy:
i did not sign this petition....i think who ever puts this much effort into something that will clearly go nowhere should get a life.....and on top of that....stop being such a hater....oh..and one more thing...think about it.....if youre so convinced that these people hold no talent...why do i know who they are yet ive never heared of you....
kirby
Bless his sloping little forehead....
See you all next week...
posted by tbogg at 9:09 PM
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Sit, Ubu, sit.
President George Bush shows Tony Blair how high he wants him to jump.
posted by tbogg at 3:42 PM
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Life imitating art...and not in a good way
As I was reading this in Salon:
Stanley serves as pastor at Atlanta's First Baptist Church, a 15,000-member congregation, and is the founder of In Touch Ministries, which claims to broadcast his sermons in 14 languages to every country in the world, and which, according to Americans United for Separation of Church and State, has $40 million in assets. Since Stanley founded In Touch in 1974, he has not shied from using his ministry's resources to bring his voice to bear in the political arena. His most recent example of activism came in February when he delivered a sermon titled "A Nation At War," placing him among a minority of mostly Evangelical Christian leaders to endorse Bush's plans for an attack on Iraq.
[snip]
Though Stanley's bellicose sermon targets an American audience, it was almost certainly heard across the Arab world, as his sermons are translated into Arabic by In Touch and beamed from Benghazi, Libya, to Tehran, Iran, each week by satellite TV and radio. But while Saddam maintained his iron grip, In Touch could broadcast to Iraq only by shortwave radio; now that the regime has fallen, the ministry could be presented with a bevy of opportunities. The opportunity for broadcast expansion in postwar Iraq is "phenomenal," says Don Black, vice president of communications at In Touch. "It would be one of our goals to be able to have a platform to tell the truth as we understand it, as any communicator should have the right to do."
Even before victory has been formally declared, In Touch is just one phalanx in an army of Christian soldiers who see Muslim Iraq as an extraordinary new marketplace for their theology. Already, churches and ministries on the religious right are poised to send in missionaries and to amp up broadcasts to the region. Like advance troops before the invasion, some U.S. military officials in Iraq have already staked out the country as a natural place to spread the Christian Gospel.
I started thinking about this.
If you haven't read it, you probably should.
posted by tbogg at 2:56 PM
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That letter of recommendation from Neil Bush probably helped
Joe Conason points out that Ahmed Chalabi is a BushCo kind of guy.
His friend Richard Perle, the influential Defense Department adviser, notes that Mr. Chalabi, a very wealthy man with an American education and British citizenship, "could have lived comfortably without spending a day on the effort to liberate Iraq."
That last remark is surely true. Just how Mr. Chalabi came to be fixed so comfortably remains a matter of grave concern in neighboring Jordan. Eleven years ago this week, he was convicted in absentia on more than 30 counts of embezzlement, theft and fraud after the mysterious crash of Petra Bank, a large financial institution he founded and ran in Amman. (In some profiles, this episode is described discreetly as his "controversial past.") By the time he fled, Jordan’s central bankers were trying to uncover what had happened to about $300 million in missing deposits.
[snip]
Among the doubters is the impeccably conservative journalist Arnaud de Borchgrave, author of a thoroughly unflattering Chalabi profile for the Washington Times last December. Quoted in that article is the "widely respected" former governor of the Jordanian central bank, who said that after a full examination of Petra’s books, he concluded that "they had been cooked and that Ahmed Chalabi was the master cook …. Chalabi was one of the most notorious crooks in the history of the Middle East."
I'm not even suprised anymore.
posted by tbogg at 2:24 PM
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Professor Glenn says:
IS THERE A DICTATOR, ANYWHERE, WHO HASN'T SHAKEN JACQUES CHIRAC'S HAND? And recently?
Probably not. But then some dictators have a different way of reaching out and touching someone.
But thanks for asking.
posted by tbogg at 1:33 PM
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Onward Christian soldiers....but not you ragheads over there.
Not that this has the trappings of a Crusade or anything, but....
Pentagon Muslims Angered by Rev. Graham Invitation
Muslims at the Pentagon (news - web sites) are incensed by what they say is an insensitive invitation to evangelist Rev. Franklin Graham, who has called Islam an "evil religion," to preach on Good Friday at the Defense Department.
In letters to the Pentagon chaplain's office, Muslim office workers complained strongly about Graham's plans to lead prayers on Friday, one of the most religious days in the Christian calendar.
The Muslim employees urged officials to find a "more inclusive and honorable" religious leader to replace Graham, son of the Rev. Billy Graham and head of a Minneapolis-based evangelist association in his father's name.
Army spokesman at the Pentagon, Lt. Col. Ryan Yantis, told Reuters on Tuesday that Graham was invited several months ago to deliver the homily at the Good Friday service and that the chaplain's office would not rescind the invitation.
"We are in a balancing act between accommodating the interests and requests of many faiths and we will do our utmost to keep that balance in mind in providing religious support to workers in the Pentagon," said Yantis.
Don't those Muslim Americans know that they're a defeated people?
Does John Ashcroft know that there are Muslims working at the Pentagon?
Of course he does......
(Thanks to Jeff)
posted by tbogg at 1:26 PM
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He's just one Karl Rove away from the Presidency
Poor, hapless Rodney King.
Rodney King, whose videotaped beating led to the deadly 1992 riots in Los Angeles, was hospitalized with a broken pelvis after he lost control of his sport utility vehicle while weaving through traffic at 100 mph and crashed into a house, police said.
Considering another person's history of driving under the influence, being so pissed off at his wife that he drove his car into the garage wall, and a history of drug use, there is no reason why King shouldn't be able to put this all behind him and become President one day.
Supreme Court willing, of course.
posted by tbogg at 1:13 PM
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I wouldn't go putting that on the old resume....
They say confession is good for the soul. Good to see that President Osama's Saddam's Assad's Nemesis is fessing up:
The president sought to answer skeptics in Congress and in the public who fear ballooning deficits.
“In two years’ time, this nation has experienced war, a recession, and a national emergency, which has caused our government to run a deficit,” he said
Yeah. It's been a great two years under BushCo. Not like those eight years of peace and prosperity under the President who got blowjobs from someone other than Howard Fineman. Too bad the Steely Eyed Rocketman didn't remember that the deficit was also caused by an ill-advised tax cut, but then, that would defeat the purpose of today's speech for another tax cut.
posted by tbogg at 12:57 PM
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Hollywood officially announces it's "out of ideas"
'Knight Rider' coming to big screen
The 1980s television series "Knight Rider" and its crime-busting, talking car are revving up for the big screen.
The drama starred David Hasselhoff as Michael Knight, owner of the high-tech Pontiac Trans Am known as K.I.T.T. The car's voice was supplied by William Daniels.
The film is planned as an action comedy, Daily Variety reported Monday.
Somehow I didn't think it was going to be a Merchant/Ivory production....
posted by tbogg at 9:55 AM
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Happy Birthday
...to the Rittenhouse Review. One Year Old.
Meanwhile...in Philadelphia it's 67 degrees. In San Diego it's 54.
But we have fish tacos.
posted by tbogg at 9:39 AM
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Red Line riders
Amy over at Rubber Nun shares a few moments spent with the unholy spawn of Ann Coulter and Peggy Noonan.
posted by tbogg at 9:33 AM
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Either this is a joke...or this guy worked for Enron
Steven E. Landsburg makes the case for looting over at Slate.
In Iraq, the main looting ended when the coalition troops arrived. Sure, there's been some pilfering of food, appliances, medical supplies, and historical relics. But by the standards of a country whose rulers have routinely expropriated billions in oil revenue and seized whatever property struck their fancy, walking off with a jar of peanut butter and a fridge is more petty mischief than looting.
Even if you insist on calling it "looting"—in which case, I have no idea what word you'd use for the depredations of the old regime—the question remains: What, exactly, is wrong with it?
I honestly don't know if he's serious or not.
posted by tbogg at 9:30 AM
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Looks like all the players are in place
From the New York Times:
A White House envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad, told delegates that the United States has ``no interest, absolutely no interest, in ruling Iraq.''
Participants included Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites from inside the country and others who have spent years in exile. American officials invited the groups, but each picked their own representatives.
``It's critical that the world understand that this is only the fledgling first meeting of what will hopefully be a much larger series of meetings across Iraq,'' said Jim Wilkinson, a spokesman at United States Central Command, in Doha, Qatar.
Wilkinson link via Digby, who has lots of stuff you should be reading.
posted by tbogg at 9:12 AM
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Tin soldiers and Nixon's Bush's coming
No More Mr. Nice Blog points out that Kent State is opening a satellite campus in Iraq. The US Military is acting accordingly:
At least 10 people were killed and scores wounded in shooting in Mosul, a hospital doctor said, as other witnesses alleged US troops had opened fire.
"There are perhaps 100 wounded and 10 to 12 dead" following the shooting near the local government offices in a central square, Dr Ayad al-Ramadhani said Tuesday at the emergency department of the city hospital.
Three witnesses questioned by AFP and casualties who spoke to hospital staff said US troops had fired on the crowd which was becoming increasingly hostile towards the city's new governor, Mashaan al-Juburi, as he was making a pro-US speech....
Apparently the freedom we brought to Iraq isn't that one that contains the right to dissent.
posted by tbogg at 9:01 AM
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Modifying behavior through gentle persuasion and the threat of death.
Nothing quite gets the chickenhawk's testosterone oozing like a little victory and a little bloodshed...other's blood, mind you. Take Frank Gaffney...please. Here's a nice little piece of twisted logic:
The Bush Administration is obliquely serving notice on Syria that it could be the next country liberated in the war on terror. Mr. Bush's critics at home and abroad are horrified at the possibility that this conflict might take such a turn. If they wish to avoid such a step, however, they should learn a signal lesson from the now-nearly-accomplished liberation of Iraq: War is more likely to be made unnecessary if would-be critics support the President, than by their opposing him. (my emphasis)
And here's proof that the whole Middle East is just one big Skinner Box to the nonfighting neocons:
Should the Syrians fail to end such hostile activity forthwith, the United States and a coalition of the willing should bring to bear whatever techniques are necessary -- including military force -- to effect behavior modification and/or regime change in Damascus, as well. By so doing, freedom stands to get a two-fer: liberating both Syria and Lebanon, the country Hafez Assad rapaciously colonized in the mid-1970s and that Damascus has brutally dominated ever since, despite a formal, international commitment to relinquish it some twenty years ago.
Few steps would do more to create an opportunity for a real, just and durable Arab-Israeli peace than to accompany the liquidation of Saddam's support for suicide bombers and other forms of terror with the elimination of the Syrian/Lebanese base of operations of and much of the support for Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), which Attorney General John Ashcroft has described as "one of the most violent terrorist organizations in the world." The region's transformation -- and its hopes for a more peaceable future -- could be decisively advanced if behavior modification and/or regime change were to follow in Iran and Saudi Arabia.
It should come as no surprise that there will be other fronts in the war on terror. As George W. Bush made known shortly after September 11, 2001, this is a global conflict that will take years to wage. With luck, by making an object lesson of Iraq to other enemies in that war and by garnering the broadest possible support for doing so, we can accomplish the conditions required for the Free World's victory without further resort to large-scale military operations.
War everlasting......
posted by tbogg at 8:49 AM
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Savor it like bloodied candy, we will!
A little dose of Mark Morford to start off your morning:
There was never a shred of doubt the U.S. would "win" Shrub's vicious little war. The world's richest superpower, the most deadly and potent high-tech military on the planet, all aimed at a pip-squeak, ragtag nation whose bedraggled, barely trained military was but a fraction of what it was 10 years ago, when we wiped most of them out in a week. Oh yeah, we bad.
It was never a contest. It was only a matter of time. It is, basically, a fierce and bloody U.S. steamrolling that hit a few unexpected speed bumps. And we've still got a long, difficult way to go.
But we have taken Baghdad and the regime has fallen, the headlines scream, as if this is something unexpected or miraculous or blessed, and not, as most astute observers have been saying all along, a bittersweet inevitability, a desperately volatile power prize for the Shrub regime to wield over neighboring Arab nations like a bloody hammer.
posted by tbogg at 8:28 AM
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Things I know, didn't know, and wish I didn't know
Lloyd Groves is just a wealth of info this morning:
I already knew that Bill O'Reilly was a racist:
Emceeing Saturday night's Best Friends rock-and-roll gala at the Marriott Wardman Park -- which raised $800,000 for the 15-year-old charity benefiting inner-city schoolchildren -- the Fox News Channel star was trying to fill dead air during a lull in the entertainment.
Members of the "Best Men," as the sixth-to-eighth-grade boys in the program are called, were delayed getting onstage to perform a lip-synced rendition of the Four Tops standard "Reach Out (I'll Be There)." O'Reilly ad-libbed: "Does anyone know where the Best Men are? I hope they're not in the parking lot stealing our hubcaps."
Many in the audience -- which included Cabinet secretaries Tommy Thompson, Gale Norton and Mel Martinez, Mayor Tony Williams and business types Fred Malek and Jim Kimsey -- apparently didn't hear about the hubcaps amid the hubbub. A witness spotted attendee Bo Derek's jaw dropping, and yesterday she confirmed that she did hear it, but declined to comment further. Channel 9 anchor Andrea Roane was overheard murmuring: "Unbelievable."
I didn't know that Sidney Blumenthal had a book coming out. Of course it was okay for Michael Kelly to trash Blumenthal, but apparently Blumenthal can't return the favor since Kelly went and got himself killed:
But the buzz around town is that "The Clinton Wars" will contain an unflattering portrait of Blumenthal's nemesis Michael Kelly, whose life was celebrated last Friday in an emotional Washington memorial service.
The 46-year-old Kelly, a Washington Post columnist and Atlantic Monthly editor-at-large, was killed in Iraq on April 3 -- too late for Blumenthal to revise or soften his book in light of Kelly's death.
Blumenthal -- a former Washington Post reporter who clashed with Kelly when both worked for the New Yorker during Clinton's first term -- declined to comment yesterday. The book is still under wraps. But the two were widely known to have disdained each other.
"I worked with Blumenthal at the New Yorker and didn't like him," Kelly wrote in a 1998 Washington Post column in which he derided Blumenthal as "formerly a journalist cum amateur Clinton knife artist." A January 2000 Boston Magazine profile of Kelly by Blumenthal pal David Brock -- timed to Kelly's becoming editor of the Atlantic -- recounts that he accused Blumenthal of "reporting back to the Clintons on the New Yorker's internal deliberations. Blumenthal hotly denied this." Brock quoted Blumenthal: "I have no idea why Michael Kelly behaves the way he does."
Lastly, I could have gone one hundred years without knowing that Larry King was in a Victoria's Secret helping his wife pick out things:
The CNN talkmeister and his wife, Shawn King, made the scene yesterday at Victoria's Secret at Georgetown Park, chatting up the sales staff as they shopped for sexy underwear. "They seem really happy and they're really nice," saleswoman Adrienne Williams told us. "He was helping her pick out underwear. I asked if they needed help. They said, 'No, we have it all covered.' " They spent $56 on "six mesh thongs -- pink, blue, yellow -- all the new spring colors," Williams said
On behalf on the whole civilized world, I'd like to say, "Ew".
posted by tbogg at 8:20 AM
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Monday, April 14, 2003
The buck stops over there somewhere.
Many thanks to Media Research Center's resident Sex Machine, Brent Baker for providing to this wonderful exchange between Tim Russert (who plays a journalist on TV) and Donald Rumsfeld (who's really a "big picture" kind of guy.)
During the April 13 Meet the Press, Russert inquired of Rumsfeld: “Let me turn to the situation, the non-military situation, if you will, in Iraq and that is the whole issue of looting. This was the scene with the Museum of Antiquities, which housed treasures dating back thousands and thousands of years from the beginning of civilization. And it was ransacked and destroyed, about 170,000 items. The head of the museum said, 'Our heritage is finished.' What happened there? How did we allow that museum to be looted?
Rumsfeld: “'How did we allow?' Now, that’s really a wonderful, amazing statement. No, let me-”
Russert and Rumsfeld tried to yell over each other: “But, how are we-”..
Rumsfeld: “-just say a word, here.”
Russert: “No, no. Wait, wait.”
Rumsfeld: “Wait a minute. Wait a minute.”
Russert: “No, let me be precise, 'cause it’s an important point.”
Rumsfeld: “But we didn’t allow it. It happened. And that’s what happens when you go from a dictatorship with repressed order, police state, to something that is going to be different. There’s a transition period, and no one is in control. There are periods where, there was still fighting in Baghdad. We don’t allow bad things to happen. Bad things do happen in life and people do loot. We’ve seen that in the United States. It’s happened in every country. It’s a shame when it happens. I’ll bet you anything that if they, when order is restored, and we have a more permissive environment, that there will be opportunities to ask people to return some of those things that were taken. We’ve already found people returning supplies to hospitals.”
Russert: “What the heads of the museum will say is that they actually asked for the U.S. to help protect it, and that the U.S. declined. Is that accurate?”
Rumsfeld: “Oh, my goodness. Look, I have no idea. We’ve got troops on the ground, and who do you know who he asked, and whether his assignment that moment was to guard a hospital instead? Those kinds of things are so anecdotal. And it always breaks your heart to see destruction of things.”
No wonder the press loves him. He's such a straight shooter.
posted by tbogg at 3:21 PM
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Sorority girls behind bars
Okay. So I'm reading this piece of schlock in the MassNews by blonde harpy-in-waiting Georgia Pellegrini who writes:
Hillary Clinton's fourth visit to Wellesley in ten years began with the Senator offering snide remarks about George Bush and his administration.
The junior Senator from New York was in town to accept an Alumnae Achievement Award and to attend an event honoring retiring professor Alan Schechter, who changed her from a Republican to a Democrat.
The audience of assembled Clintonistas eagerly lapped up Madame H's every word at a gathering for Professor Schechter prior to the Alumnae Awards ceremony.
Please note that Ms. Pellegrini never mentions the fact that she previously worked in Rick Lazio's campaign. But the MassNews is a freebie, so who cares. Anyway, then I got to this part:
"I think that Hillary has brought nothing but shame to Wellesley College," said Claire Ashington-Pickett '04, president of the Wellesley College Republicans. "Her status as an alumna of my school is embarrassing. She is a deceptive, dishonest, dangerous public figure. Her advocacy of women's choice is limited solely to the issue of abortion, which is nothing more than her support for women to choose to murder their children. She has not championed women's rights; women were doing just fine before she came along. Hillary has given a bad name to women in politics. She is a criminal who should be behind bars, not on a stage accepting a prestigious award."
Now, the delightfully named Claire Ashington-Pickett (who, I'm sure, was pinned by Princeton senior Todd "Skippy" Harold Warrington III right after Cotillion) seems to believe that Senator Clinton is a criminal and should be behind bars. Perhaps "Muffy" would care to join her. A quick search found this:
WHEN CLAIRE ASHINGTON-PICKETT missed a September concert by the
Dave Matthews Band -- one of her favorite groups -- she opted for the next
best thing. Using Napster, she downloaded all the songs the group had
sung at the concert, and then invited friends over to her room in one of
Wellesley College's first-year dormitories to listen.
Why...that's theft! Someone should really drop a dime to the RIAA. I hear they're looking for people like "Muffy".
Maybe she can get to Cellblock C before all the good spots are taken during Spring Rush...
posted by tbogg at 11:54 AM
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Behold the Lord, Jesus Christ, who tries so hard to get our attention
Well this caught my attention. Here are step by step plans to fight Planned Parenthood by those who would deny a woman the right to make a choice about her own body.
Interesting reading.
Oh. And who runs STOPP?
James W. Sedlak
Jim and his wife, Michaeleen, reside in Stafford, Virginia. They have three grown children and ten grandchildren. Jim holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Physics from Manhattan College (Bronx, NY) and a Master of Science in Industrial Administration from Union College (Schenectady, NY). He is a Third Degree member of the Knights of Columbus, Council 7877, Stafford, Virginia.
and Edward E. Szymkowiak
Ed started his pro-life activities while in college, volunteering at Birthright in Ithaca, N.Y. In 1988 he became a volunteer at Birthright's office in Woodhaven, N.Y. In 1989, as member of Operation Rescue, Ed experienced police brutality and imprisonment at the West Hartford II rescue in Conn. In 1995, he lost a teaching job after opposing Planned Parenthood workshops aimed at his students at the Sullivan County Alternative School in Liberty, N.Y.
Ed, with his wife Linda, also served as a Natural Family Planning instructor. They reside in Spotsylvania, Va. with their five young (naturally planned!) children. Ed holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in government from Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics from the State University College of New York in Fredonia, and a Master of Science degree in secondary mathematics education from the State University of New York in Binghamton. He is a Second Degree member of the Knights of Columbus.
Between Jim and Ed they have eight children. The have eight children...they didn't personally give birth to eight children.
Contribute to Planned Parenthood here.
posted by tbogg at 11:18 AM
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Crowd counts
From tinfoilhelmets via bartcop.
posted by tbogg at 10:58 AM
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Have the infidel twins bathed and brought to my tent.
In a better world this could have been a match made in heaven.
The Baghdad palace of Saddam Hussein's oldest son Odai is revealing more about his so-called "playboy" lifestyle.
Reporters said they've seen pages of downloaded pornography, expensive liquor, cigars, guns and ammo magazines, and love letters from girlfriends.
The palace itself is adorned with ornate gold and gilt fixtures, lighting and furniture.
There were also some unusual discoveries in Odai's palace.
In addition to finding a lot of liquor, electronics, Cuban cigars and porn -- U.S. soldiers say they found pictures of President George W. Bush's twin daughters, Jenna and Barbara Bush.
They say the pictures were hanging in one of Odai Hussein's gymnasiums.
Captain Ed Ballanco said soldiers took those pictures down.
I'm sure never in her wildest drunken moments did Jenna ever think that she would become stroke material for Son of Saddam. On the other hand, the going rate for Jenna pictures in the Texas Penal System is a pack of smokes and Dr. Pepper.
Also, thinking about the "downloaded pornography, expensive liquor, cigars, guns and ammo magazines" made me wonder what Odai's log-in name was over at Free Republic. Talk about hitting your demographic.....
(Thanks to Nina)
posted by tbogg at 10:52 AM
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Media whores
Today's Doonesbury.
posted by tbogg at 8:07 AM
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Sunday, April 13, 2003
The two headed thing that is J-Lo/Ben...
Hey. 748 signatures so far. Not bad.
On another note, reader Steve points out that writer/director Kevin Smith disputes the Jersey Girl story from below:
Yeah, use the Enquirer as a source. That's always smart.
I know it's only a gossip piece, but gossip or not, I thought I'd state for the record, that we have not re-shot, nor do we have plans to re-shoot, scenes for "Jersey Girl." Ben and Jen's chemistry in the flick is the exact opposite of zero. I'm not desperately (or even casually) rewriting dick. Both test audiences seemed to get why the two characters were together quite well. And there's no $3 million being spent. There - you now have it from a credible source.
I'd heard they were playing that Enquirer game on Stern the other day and this "Jersey Girl" $3 million re-shoot crap came up as a true story. I assumed (wrongly, I guess) that anyone who really gave a shit knew that it was "Gigli" that had done re-shoots, not "Jersey Girl."
Now I'm seeing this isn't the case.
In her (or his) haste to attack and damn Ben and Jen's relationship in any way possible (because it catches the interest of a news-reading public whose attention would be better spent on the war abroad), MSN's unfortunately named BeatBox Betty has dragged our flick into a spot of mud, alleging problems where there are none. I know she (or he) is only a gossip hound, but I'd ask that, in the future, she (or he) at least try to contact someone involved with a production she (or he) plans to besmirch, rather than lazily take her cues from the likes of a tabloid.
While I'm at it, though, I'd also like to point out that all this "Gigli" stuff is crap too. I've seen the flick with a test screening audience, and I haven't heard laughter like that in a movie theater since "American Pie" (or "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back"). And, mind you, the laughter was WITH, not AT, the movie.
Much as I hate to disappoint BeatBox, both movies seem like they're going to do just fine - quite like Ben and Jen's relationship.
Regardless, next time you're writing a story, even if it is for a gossip sheet, how about simply picking up a phone and doing a little research? Just because you've been reduced to the lowest rung on the ladder of journalism (manufacturing news where there really isn't any), it doesn't mean you have to conduct yourself like an asshole, know-nothing.
There you have it. Or not.
By the way, apropo of Kevin Smith. If there is a more over-rated writer-director (other than Spike Lee) than Smith, I haven't heard of them.
posted by tbogg at 11:41 PM
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Two bloggers walk into a bar....
Jim over at Rittenhouse informs us that a bunch of Philadelphia bloggers got together to for a meet and greet Saturday night. Apparently there is an impressive number of Philadelphia-based bloggers, caused, no doubt, by the high concentration of smart people combined with truly shitty weather that keeps them inside, thinking and seething.
Now me, I'm not much of a social person myself. Recently I had to attend a parent's get-together that I didn't really want to go to. When my daughter asked why I was going when I didn't want to, my wife jumped in and pointed out that " Your dad is only going to find out which people he's not going to like." While somewhat accurate, I added that I was also going to see which ones I could make fun of after we left. When it comes to socializing, Dominick Dunne, I'm not.
Fortunately being based in San Diego doesn't seem to have situated me in a hotbed of blogging. In fact I only know of two others. The captain of the USS Clueless, Steven Den Beste and Matt Hoy of Hoystory. Unless I'm kidnapped and forcibly delivered to a Magic: The Gathering convention held at the Mission Valley Christian Ministry, I think the odds are pretty slim I'll ever meet either one of them.
I got no complaints.
posted by tbogg at 11:13 PM
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Gonna be a slow week.
Maybe this will give me some time off, but I'm running out of my favorite pundits to harangue. First Michael Kelly goes and gets himself killed. Then Peggy Noonan decides to take time off to write her dementia opus: If I Can't Have the Pope, A Fireman Will Have To Do. Now Andy Sullivan, completely worn out from winning the war against Rainesian-inspired Islamofacism, is going to take the week off for "Spring Break" and ponder the amazing parallels between his life and George Orwell's.
This just leaves me with The Virgin Ben, who penned this remarkable statement last week:
The United States has achieved an important step in the war against terror: overcoming our own aversion to civilian casualties in order to achieve victory.
The kid would have fit in quite well at My Lai.
posted by tbogg at 10:44 PM
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Tom Toles
posted by tbogg at 10:16 PM
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Priming the pump
Any Iraqi connection to 9/11? Nope.
Any connection to Al Qaeda? Nope.
Find any weapons of mass destruction? Nope.
Hmmmmmm?
Let's get Syria!!!!!
The Bush administration and the Syrian government over the weekend traded allegations on whether Syria possesses weapon of mass destruction, and whether Syria is harboring fleeing members of Saddam Hussein's regime.
President Bush, in remarks to reporters, said "We believe there are chemical weapons in Syria" and that the Iraqi neighbor "needs to cooperate" with the United States and its coalition partners.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in a TV interview that Syria had been busing fighters into Iraq for a while, but coalition forces turned them away.
He also said "there's no question" that members of Saddam's regime fled to Syria.
"Syria's been on the terrorist list for years," Rumsfeld said.
Meanwhile, Secretary of State Colin Powell said in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation that, "Syria has been a concern for a long period of time. We have designated Syria for years as a state that sponsors terrorism.
We have always been at war with Syria.
When it comes to fulfilling the dreams of Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld, 9/11 couldn't have turned any better if they had flown the planes themselves.
No wonder they let it happen.
posted by tbogg at 10:09 PM
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Saturday, April 12, 2003
But it's not about oil.....but it's not about oil.....
Apparently looting hospitals and schools is okay, because, you know, "stuff happens". But some things are more precious than others.
U.S. forces reopened two strategic bridges Saturday in the heart of Baghdad and crowds of looters surged across - taking advantage of access to new territory that had not already been plundered. U.S. forces did nothing to stop them.
A firefight erupted Saturday evening outside the Palestine Hotel, where many journalists are based, by the Tigris River. Marines were running tree-to-tree as heavy machine gun fire and explosions could be heard near the river.
And the Information Ministry was on fire after being looted, according to Abu Dhabi television.
Iraqis expressed increasing frustration over the lawlessness that has gripped the capital since the arrival of U.S. troops and the fall of Saddam Hussein. Looters ransacked government buildings, hospitals and schools, and trashed the National Museum, taking or destroying many of the country's archaeological treasures.
[snip]
Looters were also seen coming out of the Foreign Ministry carrying office furniture, TV sets and air conditioners. Children wheeled out office chairs and rolled them down the street.
U.S. soldiers stood by at the presidential compound as looters some 400 yards away hauled bookshelves, computers and sofas from the Planning Ministry. Bands of men with tools plundered cars nearby for wheels or other parts.
"The Americans have disappointed us all. This country will never be operational for at least a year or two," said Abbas Reda, 51, an engineer and father of five.
"I've seen nothing new since Saddam's fall," he said. "All that we have seen is looting. The Americans are responsible. One round from their guns and all the looting would have stopped."
U.S. Army troops and armor blocked access to the main palace grounds. The Oil Ministry also seemed intact with a heavy U.S. military presence inside. Also intact were some of the power installations, power stations and power grids
But it's not about oil.....
posted by tbogg at 10:54 AM
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They're Republicans...hypocrisy is in their blood.
Looks like Baseball Hall of Fame's Dale Petroesky can be pretty flexible when it comes to politics at the Hall. It just depends on whose politics. According to Buzzflash:
BuzzFlash has learned that Petroskey hasn't always been so concerned about politics entering into the Hall of Fame's official programming. In fact, BuzzFlash.Com has unearthed a January 17th, 2002, Cooperstown Hall of Fame news release in which Petroskey announces the appearance of Ari Fleischer -- Yes, that Ari Fleischer -- at a National Baseball Hall of Fame lecture series on February 2 of last year.
In the news release, Petroskey glowingly praises Fleischer and details his political accomplishments. Petroskey writes that he is "thrilled" to welcome Fleischer for his Cooperstown lecture. Most significantly, Petroskey boasts that audience members will "hear his [Fleischer's] perspective on life in the White House and the current political scene which of course includes the war on terrorism." So much for keeping politics out and the war on terrorism out of the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Now we could be generous and say that Petroskey, as a former press secretary, was just extending a "professional courtesy" to a fellow weasel press secretary, but we're not feeling generous this morning.
H'e a liar and a hypocrite and he should be fired.
(thanks to Bill)
posted by tbogg at 10:01 AM
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Non Sequitur
posted by tbogg at 9:46 AM
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Friday, April 11, 2003
NY Times further erodes the "impact and power"
Looks like Howell Raines' Times is intentionally trying to get under Sullivan's skin:
The images of smiling children and cheering crowds in Iraq have been overtaken by a new, much more disturbing portrait of anarchy and fear. Looters, who began by going after the offices and homes of Saddam Hussein's henchmen, have moved on to stores, warehouses and even hospitals. At one site, thugs dragged away heart monitors and baby incubators. A prominent cleric returned from exile only to be murdered in one of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines. Frightened citizens have barricaded themselves in their homes in some places, or have begun shooting suspected robbers.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was understandably defensive but stunningly off message yesterday when he claimed: "Freedom's untidy. And free people are free to commit mistakes, and to commit crimes." That was not the vision of freedom the Bush administration was selling when it began this enterprise, and it is not necessarily one the Iraqi people would welcome.
Military officials have reason to be reluctant about performing police duties. Their troops are trained to fight a war, not to arrest bank robbers or stop muggings. They are unfamiliar with Iraqi culture and do not speak Arabic. There are bound to be threatening and unpleasant incidents, and the Arab world is likely to see American street patrols as the first step in a new American dictatorship.
But there is no alternative for the American military other than to restore order. It must police the streets, and above all make Iraq safe enough for humanitarian aid workers to bring in food, water and medical supplies, and it must work to restore electrical and water utilities. The military, which has performed so brilliantly during the war, is going to have to take up this second, and perhaps harder, challenge. This is not only its obligation under international conventions, but also a necessary step in the dismantling of Mr. Hussein's reign of terror.
The most worrisome part of the current crisis is that it seemed to take the American troops somewhat by surprise. Washington apparently presumed that it would be possible to remove Mr. Hussein and his associates while leaving civic structures intact. So far, that has not happened, and the bureaucratic and law enforcement services in Iraqi cities have melted away. From the beginning, the chief concern about the Iraqi invasion has not been the Pentagon's ability to prevail on the battlefield, but the Bush administration's ability to plan for the day after victory. So far, nothing has happened to alleviate that concern.
Why aren't they still writing about pulling down the statue? They're ruining the moment.
posted by tbogg at 10:50 PM
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Bush and Co....a limited liability corporation.
Just working for the Commander in Chief.
When American tanks opened fire on a car driving up Highway 1 on Baghdad's southern outskirts in the dusk of Monday evening, it was only one of hundreds of such incidents in the war in Iraq that changed the life of an Iraqi family in an instant.
But that moment also changed an American life, that of Cpl. Jeff Mager, 22, of Chicago, a gunner on an Abrams tank that carries the legend "Bush and Co." on its barrel.
Guarding an expressway overpass a few miles from Baghdad's international airport, the tank crew was waiting tensely for an Iraqi counterattack by massed suicide bombers promised by Saddam Hussein's top officials after American troops seized the airport last Friday.
Corporal Mager had fired some of the cannon shells that struck the Toyota sedan and other vehicles running up a slipway toward the overpass. He had seen the two men in the front seat of the silver gray Camry die in an explosion of blood and steel. But until this morning, he could not be sure who had been killed.
Then at about 10 a.m. today, Corporal Mager learned something about what he and the other tank crews had done that many soldiers in faraway wars, shooting at uncertain targets, remain blissfully unaware of. He and the other tank gunners had killed two Iraqi civilians, he was told, brothers who ran a family tannery that sold half-finished leathers to luxury fashion houses in Italy.
He learned, too, that incidents like the one at the overpass, in which hundreds of Iraqi civilians have been killed, however inadvertently, have generated a wave of bitterness that is eroding some of the gratitude that has swept Iraq for the American forces' role in ending 24 years of grimly repressive government by Mr. Hussein. How such confrontations are resolved is critical to how the American presence in this country will be viewed.
Hey. Like Rummy says "Stuff happens."
posted by tbogg at 10:36 PM
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Dale Petroesky strikes out.
Looks like Baseball Hall of Fame's Dale Petroskey bit off more than he could chew:
Sportswriter Roger Kahn has canceled an appearance at baseball's Hall of Fame after the museum scrubbed a 15th anniversary tribute to the film "Bull Durham" because of the anti-war stance of its stars.
Kahn sent a letter to Hall of Fame President Dale Petroskey on Thursday to protest the Cooperstown, New York, museum's snub of Tim Robbins (news) and his longtime partner, Susan Sarandon (news).
"By canceling the Hall of Fame anniversary celebration of "Bull Durham" for political reasons, you are, far from supporting our troops, defying the noblest of the American spirit," wrote Kahn, who was to speak there in August about his new book.
"You are choking freedom of dissent. How ironic. In theory, at least, we have been fighting this war to give Iraqis freedom of dissent. But here you, through the great institution you head, have moved to rob Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon and (writer-director) Ron Shelton (news) of that very freedom."
Petroskey, a former aide to President Ronald Reagan (news), had told Robbins in a letter that he canceled the April 26-27 event because "as an institution, we stand behind our president and our troops in this conflict."
Kahn's 17th book, "October Men," is about the 1978 New York Yankees. He is best known for "The Boys of Summer," about the Brooklyn Dodgers of the 1950s. That 1972 book has sold about 3 million copies.
If you're not really into baseball you have no idea how embarassing it is to the Hall to have Kahn cancel on them. Along with Mark Harris, he is one of the more beloved writers about the best damn sport in America. This one is going to leave a mark. Most baseball fans believe that Bull Durham is the most accurate film about the game, making Petroskey's stand a real slap in the face to true fans. While we can all write letters and call the Hall to complain, Kahn's stand is a real shot across their bow.
Good for him.
And for those who think that Eight Men Out is the better baseball film...it's a great movie, but it doesn't have this line:
"Dont' try to strike everybody out. Strikeouts are boring, besides that, they're facist. Throw some ground balls - it's more democratic." - Crash Davis in Bull Durham
More on Petroskey:
The baseball Hall of Fame president insisted Friday he was not politically motivated when he canceled a "Bull Durham'' celebration because of anti-war criticism by co-stars Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon, and said he had only one regret.
"I wish that the reasoning had been better articulated so it could have been better understood,'' Dale Petroskey, a former official in the Reagan administration, said from his office at Cooperstown, N.Y.
"What we were trying to do was take politics out of this,'' he said. "We didn't want people to espouse their views in a very public place, one way or another. The Hall isn't the place for that.''
" I wish that the reasoning had been better articulated so it could have been better understood"
Gee, Dale, didn't you use to be a former Press Secretary? The reasoning was "articulated" correctly...and you were wrong.
What a snivelling dumbass.....
posted by tbogg at 10:19 PM
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Hiding behind the First Amendment
When it comes to great comic relief in Congress there is no bigger clown than the apoplectic JD Hayworth (he's the potential stroke candidate on the left) of Arizona .If you've never seen him on TV you're really missing out. Imagine Mike Ditka having a massive cerebral hemorrhage...but funny. That's JD. The good people of the Arizona's 5th Congressional District in their wisdom thought the local news sports guy was the just kind of guy they wanted representing them in Congress based on his ability to intone important imformation like "The Diamondbacks lost a heartbreaker today, falling to the Reds 3-1 at the Bob...". As they say, you get the government that you deserve...
That's why I particularly enjoyed his letter to Lee Bollinger of Columbia University demanding that Bollinger fire assistant professor Nicholas DeGenova over his comments about the American military. I particularly enjoyed this quote from his letters to his "colleagues" asking them to sign too:
While Columbia President Lee Bollinger chided DeGenova for his comments, he is apparently not going to take any further action. Instead, he hides behind academic freedom and the first amendment, saying that, “Assistant Professor Nicholas DeGenova was speaking as an individual at a teach-in. He was exercising his right to free speech.”
Which prompts this question: So what? The question is not whether DeGenova has the right to make idiotic comments - he surely does as do we all - but whether he has the right to a job teaching at Columbia University after making such comments.
JD...the Patron Saint of Idiotic Comments
posted by tbogg at 1:38 PM
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The fact that you have a face built for radio and are untalented and obscure never entered into the decision
According to Drudge (yeah, I know):
Los Angeles-based talkradio sensation Phil Hendrie Thursday night charged that his passionate pro-war views may cost him a TV sitcom that has been in development at NBC.
Hendrie announced on his nationally-syndicated show that his war stand could result in a liberal Hollywood backlash against him and his current TV pitch.
"We did the pilot last week," Hendrie revealed. "Listen, everyone at NBC was great. From top to bottom. It has been a dream. But I am on the air everyday. I feel vulnerable expressing my pro-war point of view... Someone could ring up someone and say, 'Well, we're not going to do business with you.'"
"I am thinking outloud. Listen. Nobody at NBC has never said to me, don't express your political opinions. But if Janeane Garofalo is saying she is paying the price and not getting work [at ABC] for her anti-war views, it is just as valid for me to say what I am saying. And the anti-war point of view is much more popular in the entertainment industry."
Bear in mind, Hendrie hasn't actually been told his pilot wouldn't get picked up, regardless of his war views. Just that it might not be picked up. And you have to wonder what network wouldn't jump at hilarious hijinks like this:
Scribe Peter Tolan ("Analyze That") has been tapped to create an NBC sitcom vehicle for syndicated radio personality Phil Hendrie.
Tolan will pen the project, which stars Hendrie as a former city cop who moves to a gated community, where he encounters the crazy residents as its new head of security.
"The idea is essentially that we're creating for the TV viewing audience a slice of the new hyper America," Hendrie said. "In this post 9/11 era the world has changed. The new need is for absolute freedom and quality of life and absolute security."
Hendrie, who's known for creating and voicing wild characters on his KFI-based nighttime talker "The Phil Hendrie Show" pacted with the Peacock and NBC Studios earlier this year to build a primetime series. Separately, Tolan had landed a pilot script commitment at NBC.
Show will focus on Hendrie's character, who has recently remarried a woman with a sketchy past and a 14-year-old kid. Besides Hendrie's encounters with the weird local folk, the project will also revolve around his attempts at trying to forge a new family.
And let's not forget Hendrie's Hollywood good looks. And he's a fine figure of a man too.
And don't miss out on his droll and witty takes on world events. My favorites are:
Pizza Hut, France
Another Frog business to boycott
McDonald's France
See, the Frogs eat this slop too so screw them.
Congressional Medal Of Honor
Congressional Medal of Honor stories. Awesome. Your dick will shrink...
Stop...stop...you're killing me......I'm in the throes of a good old-fashioned Glenn Reynolds: " heh".
posted by tbogg at 1:16 PM
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MSNBC to carry first PrimeTime female orgasm live.
Tonight on Hardball.
Friday: Peggy Noonan
The latest on the progress of Coalition troops, plus presidential speechwriter Peggy Noonan on why George W. Bush is the right leader for America.
It's going to look a lot like the deli scene in "When Harry Met Sally"... except it won't be faked.
(Thanks Rob....I think)
posted by tbogg at 12:11 PM
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Sullivan thinks looting is "justice"
JUSTICE: "Among the attacks that had a strong political edge were those on the German Embassy and the French cultural center, both in east Baghdad. Few Iraqis were unaware, in the weeks preceding the war, that France and Germany were leading international efforts to force President Bush into accepting an extension of United Nations weapons inspections here, and to delay military action against Mr. Hussein. The French and German buildings were stripped of furniture, curtains, decorations, and anything else that could be carried away. At the French cultural center, where looters burst water pipes and flooded the ground floor, books were left floating in the reading rooms and corridors, and a photograph of Jacques Chirac, the French president, was smashed. French reporters said the French Embassy, also on the Tigris's east bank, appeared to have been spared because it remained under the protection of French military guards. The German Embassy was unprotected."
Wow. No wonder he can't keep a job in the mainstream press.
posted by tbogg at 11:45 AM
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Maybe they should have sent Lindsey Graham...
He could have "networked"
RNC Chief Draws Flak for a Meeting
Marc Racicot, chairman of the Republican National Committee, met last month with the gay rights group Human Rights Campaign -- the first time, it appears, that an RNC chief has addressed a gay organization. And that has left some of his party's conservatives fuming.
"When you meet with a group that holds values that are antithetical to those of your base, you're sending the signal that your base is being taken for granted or is not respected -- that's what Mr. Racicot has done here," said Robert Knight, director of the Culture and Family Institute, a think tank associated with the conservative Concerned Women for America. "It would be like Al Gore meeting with the John Birch Society."
posted by tbogg at 11:08 AM
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"At least that's what I've heard...."
Micky Kaus:
Car/sex metaphors are unavoidable, so let's get right to today's: Front-wheel drive cars are like bad sex. Rear-wheel drive cars are like good sex.
posted by tbogg at 10:58 AM
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Meanwhile....in the war for good taste:
The scoop on the latest, name-changing film from Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck is that in addition to having an identity crisis, it's just plain bad. Tough Love has had its name changed from Gigli, had its release date pushed back four or five times and had a $5 million rewrite after test audiences were left unimpressed. In fact, the original ending had Ben's character dying, but since audiences hated that, the studio had to re-shoot a new ending.
A quick review of the plot and it's easy to see why folks have freezer burn over this puppy. In a nutshell, Ben plays a lowlife thug named Gigli who kidnaps the mentally retarded brother of a federal prosecutor to save his mobster boss from incarceration. Staked-out in his apartment with his kidnapee, Gigli's soon joined by Ricki (Lopez), a gorgeous lesbian gangster who's sent in to assist. But as time goes by (and your life force drained from you) -- his feelings for Ricki grow, (and she of course, falls for him) and then they become concerned for their prisoner... blah, blah, blah.
Some say the fact that J.Lo and Ben met on set may be the only positive thing to come out of filming, while others claim that too is a sham. I'm betting both go straight to video. But wait, there's more! Reports are also coming in that Ben and Jen's romantic chemistry is zero onscreen. Nada. Zippity-doo-dud. According to the National Enquirer, producers of their other new flick Jersey Girl are desperately rewriting love scenes because test audiences don't get why their characters are even attracted to each other! Price tag for re-shoots? A hefty $3 million. The cost of having Ben and Jen turn up the chemistry meter? Priceless.
...and let's not forget this.
(Thanks Jon)
posted by tbogg at 10:19 AM
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If it weren't for "upskirt photography" most Republicans wouldn't have a date on Saturday night"
What does tort reform have to do with "up-skirt" photography? Well, if you're a Republican, everything.
Political infighting appears to have killed legislation that would make it illegal to film up women's skirts.
So-called "up-skirt" photography gained attention last year when the state Supreme Court ruled that, though "disgusting and reprehensible," filming up women's skirts isn't illegal because the state's voyeurism law was too broad and the photography took place in public.
Lawmakers in Olympia vowed to approve legislation that would withstand court scrutiny, and the House unanimously passed an up-skirt photography bill. But Senate Majority Leader Jim West, R-Spokane, has stalled the measure because its sponsor won't consider a proposal to limit medical malpractice awards.
[snip]
Rep. Pat Lantz, D-Gig Harbor, introduced legislation to make up-skirt photography illegal. In fact, the legislation was the second bill introduced in the House and the first bill to pass out of a House committee in early January.
Despite passing out of the House, the bill has since stagnated in the Senate by direct order of West.
West said he ordered all of Lantz's bills to be held until Lantz, chairwoman of the House Judiciary Committee, heard legislation on medical malpractice reform, which Lantz has refused to do.
The Washington State Medical Association has spent almost $150,000 lobbying the Legislature to place a monetary cap on the damages malpractice victims could sue over. The House had been pushing for a more limited approach. West said limiting malpractice judgments was one of his most important issues, and that's why he refused to hear Lantz' bill.
"I was trying to put pressure on her," he said.
Lovely.
posted by tbogg at 9:47 AM
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In the future
everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes have their own blog.
Billmon, formerly of the Daily Kos, has his own blog now.
Whiskey Bar
So many blogs to read...so little time.
Check him out.
...also added to the Hot Links:
Suckful
Neal Pollack
Oliver Willis
Soundbitten
Alas, a Blog
Mac Diva
Quit your job...read blogs.
posted by tbogg at 8:25 AM
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"It's not that there won't be some truth to these stories"
Which pretty much describes an average day over at Sullivan's blog. But he's talking about the New York Times. You know, those guys who won't employ him anymore? Here's what he has to say:
THE COMING SPIN: You can see it now. Chaos. Looting. Disorder. Losing the peace. It's not that there won't be some truth to these stories; and real cause for concern. The pent-up fury, frustration and sheer anger of three decades is a powerful thing, probably impossible to stop immediately without too much force. And the last thing we want is fire-power directed toward the celebrating masses. The trouble is that they could become the narrative of the story, especially among the usual media suspects, and erode the impact and power of April 9. By Sunday, or sooner, you-know-who will probably have a front-page "news analysis" that will describe the joy of liberation being transformed into the nightmare of a Hobbesian quicksand of ever-looming cliches.
It may come as a suprise to Sullivan that it is the job of newspapers to report.... the news. What is happening now in Iraq is.... the news. For Sullivan, history and news stopped with the stage-managed pulling down of Saddam's statue. In his world, everything that follows is just reporters trying to 'harsh his mellow'.
Life would be so much easier if after the fall of Baghdad, which still has yet to happen, we could just say "...and they lived happily ever after. The end." but in the real world things don't happen that way. Not even for the blog Pollyannas.
posted by tbogg at 8:17 AM
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More proof it's all a game
55 Card pick-up
The U.S. military has issued a most-wanted list in the form of a deck of cards, and Saddam Hussein is the ace of spades in the pack of 55 top figures in his toppled regime.
The cards, with pictures of the most-wanted figures, were distributed to thousands of U.S. troops in the field to help them find the senior members of the government. The names also were being put on posters and handbills for the Iraqi public, Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks said.
Collect 'em and trade 'em
posted by tbogg at 8:04 AM
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Hope is not a plan
Paul Krugman rightly points out that the Bush administration is like a child who gets bored with a new toy.
One has to admit that the Bush people are very good at conquest, military and political. They focus all their attention on an issue; they pull out all the stops; they don't worry about breaking the rules. This technique brought them victory in the Florida recount battle, the passage of the 2001 tax cut, the fall of Kabul, victory in the midterm elections, and the fall of Baghdad.
But after the triumph, when it comes time to take care of what they've won, their attention wanders, and things go to pot.
The most obvious example is Afghanistan, the land the Bush administration forgot. Most of the country is back under the control of fundamentalist warlords; unpaid soldiers and policemen are deserting in droves. (Remember that the Bush administration forgot to include any Afghan aid in its latest budget.)
President Hamid Karzai's brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, told an Associated Press reporter: "It is like I am seeing the same movie twice and no one is trying to fix the problem. What was promised to Afghans with the collapse of the Taliban was a new life of hope and change. But what was delivered? Nothing. Everyone is back in business."
The same pattern can be seen on the economic front. President Bush won a great triumph in 2001 when he pushed through a huge tax cut — claiming that his plan was just the medicine to cure the economy's ills. What has happened since?
The answer is that things have gradually fallen apart. There was one quarter of good growth, early in 2002 — and there were cries of triumph over the policy's success. After that, however, things went steadily wrong. Growth was too slow to create jobs: at the end of 2002, after a year of "recovery," fewer people were working than at the end of 2001.
And in the last two months the situation has deteriorated rapidly. In February and March the U.S. economy lost 465,000 jobs, bringing the total job loss since the recession officially began in March 2001 to more than two million.
At this point the employment decline has been bigger, and has gone on longer, than the slump that took place during the first Bush administration. And there's no sign of an upturn: new claims for unemployment insurance are still running well above the level that would signal an improving labor market.
posted by tbogg at 7:58 AM
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Thursday, April 10, 2003
Onion or Free Republic?
First, I think it is soooo important to support our troops 100 percent! All of them are sacrificing their lives for us, and we need to bolster their morale and show them we care, so that later on they don't scream at us for our spare change like the Vietnam War veterans.
Give up?
posted by tbogg at 4:12 PM
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Size matters
Kevin over at CalPundit gives a pretty classic example of
" Wagging the Dog".
I guess we shouldn't be too suprised by this. After all, the media has been humping Bush's leg for the last two years.
posted by tbogg at 3:40 PM
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White like me all of us
Barbara Cubin, the whip-smart Congresswoman from Wyoming, ran into a bit of flack over these comments she made on the floor :
The chief drama of the day turned out to be a dispute over a remark by Representative Barbara Cubin, Republican of Wyoming, while she was discussing a proposed amendment allowing a lawsuit against a dealer who sells a gun to someone who "uses or is addicted to illegal drugs."
Gun makers and dealers have long argued that they cannot be expected to recognize on sight which customers are dangerous, and that trying to do so would expose them to other kinds of lawsuits for illegally discriminating against people based on how they look or where they live. Ms. Cubin began to make that argument by mentioning her two adult sons.
"They're blond-haired and they're blue-eyed," she said. "One amendment said we couldn't sell drugs to anybody that was on drugs or had had drug treatment or something like that. Well, so does that mean if you go into a black community, you can't sell any gun to any black person? Or does that mean if my sons, because they look like — " whereupon she was interrupted by Representative Melvin Watt, Democrat of North Carolina.
Mr. Watt, who is black, asked that she be punished for inappropriate language. But his proposal was defeated, largely on party lines. Ms. Cubin later apologized on the floor for her remark.
Now we all know that there are not a lot of African Americans in Wyoming, so Ms. Cubin most likely draws her perception of them from TV (which is probably why she was always saying "Gimme some skin, Huggybear" to JC Watts). And if you need to see evidence of Wyoming's diversity, you need go no further than her official website (provided by Jesse over at Pandagon). A visit to her photo page will immerse you in the diverse amd colorful world of Ms Cubin that includes white, pale white, eggshell white, cream, bleached flour, whitish-pink, chalk, Dick Cheney's soft white underbelly, translucent white, and ghostly white.
She does exibit a lovely rictus smile, though.
posted by tbogg at 1:51 PM
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At the Masters
They might just as well have taken a "Hell No, We Ain't Forgettin'!" sticker off the back of a pick-up and wrote it up purtier as a template for the etching on the statue on Broad Street downtown that speaks to the time in the long-dead past when the "Masters" came into being.
The "Masters," and all horrors its name implies, was born akin to the statue that honors the Confederacy on Broad Street downtown. Its etching says, "No Nation Rose So White and Fair, None Fell So Pure and Free of Grime."
[snip]
For example, for years, the unwritten, understood rule at Augusta National and the "Masters" was, golfers were white, and caddies were black, and never the twain should meet otherwise. There was even a written Caucasians-only restrictive covenant that wasn't officially struck until 1961. Very odd in a way, because the whole place is crawling with blacks and women. I mean, literally crawling with them. But between the "Masters" and "Gone With The Wind," a semblance of honor could be regained for the Old South. It wasn't all bad. Some of it was ever so grand ...
[snip]
Lee Elder shakily stepping up to the first tee box was the first black man to play -- officially play --at Augusta National in the "Masters," in 1975.
Tiger Woods was not even born by then. In fact, if you look at it, he was born on December 30 of that same year, so he would have been conceived about the time of the 1975 "Masters," in which Clifford Roberts dryly shook hands with Lee Elder, and unbeknownst to him at the time, inspired Earl Woods, not to join a club, but to embrace his wife Kutilda. Now, not half a lifetime later, Tiger Woods is the "Masters" tournament's great champion of champions; his brown skin and the hint of epicanthic fold at his eyelids did not stop Life from happening, even out of chaos.
...and Tiger Woods won't say anything.
I guess he needs the money.
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