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Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Homo Nomo
I used to do the dick...but I got over it. 
From Gilliard:
Colorado Springs, Colo. – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, in bestowing eight Oscar nominations today on the controversial film Brokeback Mountain, is honoring a film that tells only half the story about the experience of homosexuals in American culture, according to Focus on the Family.
Mike Haley, director of gender issues for the ministry and a cofounder of its Love Won Out conference, said the movie would have audiences believe there is only one option available to those who find themselves attracted to someone of the same sex -- to identify themselves as homosexuals even if they choose to hide their same-gender attractions from their families and society.
"The real truth is that those who struggle with homosexuality, like the two lead characters in Brokeback Mountain, can leave homosexuality and the pain and emptiness that so often accompanies it," Haley explained. "Thousands of men and women have done just that -- have decided to come to terms with what lies at the roots of their same-sex attractions and to work diligently toward overcoming them."
Haley, himself a former homosexual who is now a husband and father of two boys, said there is no disputing that Brokeback Mountain is a well-made film filled with moving performances. But its message is dangerous, he added, particularly to teenagers and young adults who are questioning their sexuality.
This guy is so one buckaroo away from a relapse....
posted by tbogg at 11:06 PM
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Ladies and Gentlemen. We give you... The CondiMullet™ Must need it to cover up that big brain of hers.
posted by tbogg at 10:55 PM
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"...and I know triviality." ...but Jason Apuzzo wouldn't. Jason Apuzzo spots a "trend" in films and, in all honesty, I'm starting to feel embarrassed for him. But not so much that I wouldn't bring you this : Everyone in Hollywood loves to spot trends, myself included. So now that this year’s Oscar nominees have been announced, everyone around town is reading tea leaves or examining entrails - all wondering what this particular constellation of nominated films ‘means’ for the movie industry.
My sense is that the Academy’s selections this year will ultimately ‘mean’ very little. Why? Oscar season is no longer the rite of passage it once was for genuinely great films like “Gone With The Wind,” “On the Waterfront,” or “Lawrence of Arabia.” Instead, today’s Academy Awards have devolved into just another marketing tool for ‘indie’ films nobody’s seen. The tipping point in this process probably came in 1998, when Miramax’s low-budget “Shakespeare in Love” stunned the industry by beating out Steven Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan” for Best Picture. Oscar season hasn’t been the same since.
Nonetheless, a new trend is developing in what ‘indie’ films the Academy honors. This year the Academy is hot for left-leaning, ’social issue’ films: “North Country” (sexual harassment), “The Constant Gardener” (evil pharmaceutical companies), “Good Night, and Good Luck” (evil Republican Senators), “Syriana” (’it’s all about oil’), “Brokeback Mountain” (gay cowboys), “Munich” (the ‘cycle of violence’), “Transamerica” (sex change operations), etc.
Taken together these films embody an important new Hollywood trend I’d like to call: The New Triviality.
Hollywood, you see, has become a lot like the Democratic Party - namely, a loose coalition of aggrieved constituency groups requiring representation. And just as in the Democratic Party, these groups will now get to fight it out over the next few weeks over who gets Oscar gold.And let me tell you, if there is one aggrieved constituency group that you don't wasnt to fuck with come Oscar time, it's the gay cowboys. They can bring a studio head to his knees faster than you can say 'yippie-ki-yi-gay". But let’s back up for a minute. What characterizes a Trivial film? A good place to start is whether the film was produced by eBay co-founder Jeff Skoll’s Participant Productions ("Good Night, and Good Luck,” “North Country,” “Syriana,” the forthcoming “Fast Food Nation"). Participant’s films received 11 nominations this morning. And for those of you who don’t know, Participant’s avowed purpose is to produce films around which social activist (read: ‘left wing’) campaigns can be organized.
As Participant vice-present Meredith Blake put it in a recent interview, “Our product is social change, and the movies are a vehicle for that social change.”
Participant is essentially the MoveOn.org of Hollywood. So, for example, in the case of “Syriana” - an infinitely trite thriller about the ‘relationship’ between oil and terrorism - Participant uses its film to encourage the online purchase of ‘TerraPasses’ to help reduce auto emissions. If ‘TerraPasses’ aren’t your thing, Participant’s web site for “North Country” cheerfully encourages visitors to sign a “Women-Friendly Workplace Pledge” and “implement a sexual harassment policy at your school.” Yes, comrade! So, in Jason's world, what is a non-trivial movie? Glad you asked: I don’t recall whether David Lean bought any ‘TerraPasses’ while shooting “Lawrence of Arabia,” be he certainly made a better film than this year’s Oscar crop. And so, by the way, did George Lucas.
You may remember George Lucas. Some thirty years ago he made a little film called “Star Wars” that revolutionized filmmaking, inspired a new generation of filmmakers, and saved Hollywood’s finances. Lucas recently revolutionized filmmaking again by pulling Hollywood kicking-and-screaming into the digital age. In 2005 he made a little independent film called “Star Wars Episode III” that was the year’s box office champ, received some of the warmest reviews of Lucas’ career, and successfully rounded-out the most popular and influential film series in movie history.
George’s thanks for all this? “Star Wars Episode III” got one nomination this morning, for Best Makeup. Lucas wasn’t nominated for Best Director, although George Clooney was for “Good Night, and Good Luck.” “Star Wars"’s Ian McDiarmid, playing the deliciously wicked Chancellor Palpatine, wasn’t even nominated for Best Supporting Actor.
So sorry, George Lucas. If your film doesn’t get us angry at Bush, Oscar just doesn’t care. Why? Because we’re now in the era of film as social activism, The New Triviality.Oh. It gets better. The Trivial film, you see, is merely an occasion for social activism or celebrity posturing. For example, on accepting a Golden Globe for his role in “Syriana,” George Clooney used the occasion to make an untoward crack about Jack Abramoff. A friend of mine angrily remarked that the comment had “nothing to do with the film” for which Clooney was being honored. I politely demured. “It has everything to do with the film,” I said. Why?
Because “Syriana,” as its creators proudly admit, is really just a ‘platform.’ Just as Hollywood views films like “Lord of the Rings” as ‘platforms’ from which to sell merchandise, so too are films like “Syriana” or “Good Night, and Good Luck” or “The Constant Gardener” now viewed as ‘platforms’ from which to sell politics, to pontificate about the world we live in. After all, there really is no ‘point’ to a film like “Syriana” unless it’s to enable a George Clooney to deliver political cheap shots on TV during awards season. He does it in the film, so why not on TV?
Of course, all of this Trivializes the cinema - turning it from an art form into something much smaller, more polemical. That’s why this year’s Oscar nominees are truly films for the era of the iPod, with its 2-inch video screen. These new films make ‘points’ but constrict the imagination into something trite and pedantic - something with which we’re supposed to be edified, rather than entertained.Sooooo.... a film that "pontificates about the world we live in" is trivial, but a film with lots of cool special effects, bad acting, and wooden dialog that attracts the kind of people (you know who you are) who dress up as their favorite character and camp out for a week in advance is the seed from which the art form blossoms. Which helps to explain the crapulence of Gentleman's Agreement, Dr. Strangelove, The Best Years of Our Lives, To Kill A Mockingbird, The Grapes of Wrath, Meet John Doe, Paths of Glory, Z, The Battle of Algiers..... Trivial, trivial, trivial, trivial. And Jason wonders why he can't find work. ( Thanks to Chicago Jeff for the link) ( Added): Jason complains about Saving Private Ryan being bested by Shakespeare in Love. Outside of the opening sequence Ryan was a rehash of every war movie I saw growing up as a kid. Other films that year (1998): Elizabeth
American History X
Gods and Monsters
Central Station
The Truman Show
Out of Sight
Babe: A Pig in the City
Pleasantville
A Bugs Life...all better than Ryan. In my opinion of course.
posted by tbogg at 9:48 PM
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T-Shirts of Mass DestructionCould they be any more thin-skinned? Sheehan, who was invited to attend the speech by Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif., was charged with demonstrating in the Capitol building, said Capitol Police Sgt. Kimberly Schneider. The charge was later changed to unlawful conduct, Schneider said. Both charges are misdemeanors.
[...]
Schneider said Sheehan had worn a T-shirt with an antiwar slogan to the speech and covered it up until she took her seat. Police warned her that such displays were not allowed, but she did not respond, the spokeswoman said.
The T-shirt bore the words “2,245 Dead — How Many More??” in reference to the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq, protesters told NBC News.
Police handcuffed Sheehan and removed her from the gallery before Bush arrived. Sheehan was to be released on her own recognizance, Schneider said.Guess this one was in the laundry: 
posted by tbogg at 9:39 PM
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Live-Blogging the Not Watching the State of the Union6:15 PST - Waiting for a job applicant to show up so I can make her an offer. She calls : stuck in traffic. I offer to wait. 6:20 - Read ESPN.com. No interesting baseball news. 6:40 - Applicant shows up. I explain the terms of employment and make an offer. She obviously wants the job and will get back to me tomorrow. 7:05 - Casey shows up from rehab and we go have Brazilian food down the street. It's very good. 7:40 - We leave the restaurant and Casey goes home to do homework while I go to the pharmacy to pick up the fertile and gonna-stay-unpregnant mrs. tbogg's birth control pills. Pharmacist does not look at me funny. I am oddly relieved. 7:48 - Back home. Take dogs out. Satchmo leaves a steaming load on the front lawn and I am suddenly reminded to check and see what John Hinderaker has to say about the SOTU. 7:53 - Steaming load. 7:54 - Check ESPN.com for baseball news again. 8:28 - Think Progress calls Bush a liar. 8:29 - Martha Alito cries. 8:31 - Still no baseball news at ESPN.com
posted by tbogg at 9:12 PM
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Not an Onion articleFrom MSNBC: The Case for Joe Biden
A long time political consultant argues that the senior senator from Delaware is the Democrat’s best shotWe are so doomed.
posted by tbogg at 5:39 PM
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Monday, January 30, 2006
Bloggorhea...or why Jeff Goldstein only has a writing gig at PeePee Pants Media, which ain't no gig at all: One of the benefits of an hysterical, adversarial, and sensationalist media is that, blessedly, its inevitable and predictable insistance on the implied importance of every al Qaeda missive as a nail in the US imperialist’s coffin is viewed by most in the US as simply that—a way to gin up fear and ratings—although sadly, this speaks less to the media’s continued importance in framing stories from their position of advocacy than it does to the length of time between attacks proving tentatively dispositive to our successes, and the sense Americans have that, regardless of how the AP spins it, a man bragging that a unmanned airstrike narrowly missed him (while killing other terror leaders) is a bit like Randall Tex Cobb bragging that he’d never been knocked out, even while he lost fight after fight.Later Jeff will attempt to snatch a pebble from Victor Davis I Claudius Priapus Hanson's hand while being admonished to not reference pop culture trivia when so many deserving Hellenic Macedonians are woefully ignored...
posted by tbogg at 10:52 PM
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One more reason to live one more week Due 2/7 If you're new to Orton, this is a great collection, and if you want to download just one song I highly recommend I Wish I Never Saw The SunshineTour information
posted by tbogg at 9:54 PM
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Little bits of pleasureVia Feministe a list of the 100 Best First Lines from Novels. I am inordinately proud of the fact that my favorite book is listed (#73) as is what I consider to be the greatest novel ever written (#4), as well as a few other favorites (#3, #14, and #80). I think this one was the birth of snark: 47. There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it. —C. S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952)...and as much as I love Sinclair Lewis, #90 is a disaster.
posted by tbogg at 9:24 PM
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A short history of unhinged folksGuess who said it: KENNEDY UNHINGED: LIVEBLOGGING THE MELTDOWN
I am watching Sen. Ted Kennedy on C-SPAN unraveling before my eyes. He is screaming. The face is fire-engine red. The fists are waving furiously. Okay. Give up? Here's a clue  You're getting warmer.  Hotter....  Very hot.  Yup. It's Michelle Malkin pre-tranquilizer dart.
But wait a spell and she calms down.  All better now. Okay. You can let the kids and the dogs back into the room. The scary lady is gone.
posted by tbogg at 7:25 PM
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SchlusselrifficThis link (sent to me by Jonathan) is not a parody. Honest. Today's New York Times details a Japanese scientific on earwax and body odor in Asians vs. Europeans and Africans. There is actually an "earwax gene" in DNA that determines this.
But the paper glosses over the most important finding. The study found that Europeans and Africans tend to have wet ear wax, sweat more, and have more under arm body odor than Asians, who have dry ear wax and don't sweat much. But the study also found that "Native" Americans have dry ear wax and body odor similar to Asians, proving they migrated here from Asia.
So who did THEY steal the land from? Somebody else, obviously. Yet, no "Dances With Wolves" and "Into the West" from Hollywood about that.She is nuts.
posted by tbogg at 10:44 AM
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Sunday, January 29, 2006
Since nobody asked me....I was reading John's comments over at Crooks & Liars about Katrina Vanden Heuvel's criticism of blogger criticism over the selection of Tim Kaine to respond to Tuesdays State of the Union, and I was reminded of 2003 when Gov. Gary Locke of Washington was chosen to give the response. It was, in a word, disastrous. Just gawdawful. He made George W. Bush almost look competent. Since this is an election year it should have been incumbent upon the Democratic Party to select someone who would actually attract viewers to hear their message (as long as it's not something along the lines of "We're almost like Republicans. Try us!") as opposed to playing it safe and bland and inoffensive. If people want safe, bland, and inoffensive they can always watch PAX TV. So who would I have chosen? Bill Clinton. Articulate. Passionate. Beloved. Always draws a crowd. And, rumor has it, chicks dig him. Conservative pundits would have blown a fuse and spent the next 48 hours complaining about what a political stunt it was and then they would have hardly had time to tell us how masterful George Bush has become and how he has grown in office (Peggy Noonan only). Bush's message (which will be bullshit anyway)? Gone, as if it never happened. That would have been the first SOTU response that outdrew the actual SOTU. I know I would have watched. Unless that one episode of Seinfeld was on. You know, the one where Elaine dances....
posted by tbogg at 11:49 PM
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Every time you say "fuck" - the terrorists win. Perfectly acceptable discourse. Bruce Kesler: a middle-aged former Marine who actually uses the term " potty-mouth" sans irony:
Baby Killer! Nazi! Gulag! Genghis Khan! Khmer Rouge! Torturer! And more! These are the charges and shouts heard by Americans against the U.S. military during the Vietnam War and now. Sadly, they're spoken and yelled by Americans, who should know better. During Vietnam, some radical college students used this offensive and hurtful language. Now, these defamers have graduated into positions of power and influence throughout America's institutions. They're at it again….John Kerry and Ted Kennedy’s posts grace DailyKos, leading far-left blog and home to repeated slurs and vulgar language, John Dean fulminates like a drunken Blue redneck, Nancy Pelosi channels Haight-Ashbury, and their Hollywood contributors echo their onscreen filth. The other leaders of the Democrat Party and its allies in the mainstream media don’t chastise them but look the other way.
[...]
Recently, I washed my 5-year-old son's mouth out with soap. His potty language quickly stopped, and has not been repeated. I suggest the same be administered to those leaders who are now using such potty language to slander the American military and Americans. They deserve public shame and strong criticism. If other Americans do not, especially others in positions of responsibility, then they are complicit in the degradation of America. This destroys our future as a civil society. It also does give aid and comfort to our sworn enemies abroad.Let the forced mouth-washings commence! Oh, and Bruce? It's the Democrat ic Party. Fucktard.
posted by tbogg at 10:54 PM
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The Incontinental Op Half-wits half-price. Debbie Schlussel, the Princess PeePee of the Bedwetter set is scheduled for The Intelligence Summit where she will be giving the annual Annie Jacobsen Terror In The Skies Booga-Booga address. This year's topic: Terror on the Tarmac. BREAKING SCHLUSSEL EXCLUSIVE: Bomb Found on Detroit Plane Pre-Superbowl
Printer Friendly
By Debbie Schlussel
***SCROLL DOWN FOR UPDATES from Northwest Airlines & Federal Air Marshal***
DETROIT--Just over a week before the Superbowl takes place here, reliable law enforcement sources say local and federal authorities are trying to keep quiet a story about a bomb found on a flight at Detroit Metropolitan Airport.
Sources say that a week ago, Thursday or Friday, a bomb inside a small black box was found on a departing Mesaba Airlines flight, after passengers had boarded (Mesaba is a commuter airline that partners with Northwest Airlines on connections). The bomb, found on a seat, contained shrapnel and ball-bearings, the sources said. Reportedly, passengers were deplaned after the device was found.
If this story is correct, it once again calls into question the ability of TSA screeners to prevent explosive devices from getting past airport checkpoints. It also raises questions regarding whether terrorists are testing the system just prior to the Superbowl, here.Wow! Besides the fact that they are objectively pro-terrorist, why isn't the MSM covering this? Oh. *** UPDATE: Northwest Airlines Vice President of Government Relations Andrea Fischer-Newman called me to say that it was not a bomb but a kid's science project. She said she will send me e-mails (with the names removed) proving it. Have not gotten them yet, but will post when I do. I have heard of other, previous similar incidents at DTW (Detroit Metro Airport) from reliable sources in a position to know, as were the sources for this one.But wait...That Andrea Fischer-Newman might be in cahoots with the terrorists: *** UPDATE: Northwest Airlines VP Andrea Fischer-Newman sent this e-mail from Mesaba Airlines security personnel, but asked that I remove certain names. So was there a bomb? Or wasn't there? Hopefully, there was not. But, as FOX News would say, I report; you decide. It should be noted that Ms. Fischer-Newman was one of the University of Michigan Regents who allowed Islamic Jihad terrorist Sami Al-Arian to speak on campus (as well as other terror and murder supporters) at the 2002 "Divestment Conference" (in the name of "free speech").
From:
Sent: Fri 1/27/2006 4:31 PM
To: Ramsay, Scott B [Northwest Airlines Security]
Cc:
Subject: Re: Suspicious Item on board XJ Flight 3521 in DTW 18JAN06
Scott,
FYI
Wayne County determined it was not a threat. They tracked down the inbound passenger and found that it was part of a young kid's science project for his school.
Regards,
Director of Safety, Security and Emergency Management
Mesaba AirlinesOkay then...but still, it coulda been dangerous: *** UPDATE: Here is what a Federal Air Marshal in the know wrote in response, and I agree (but feel a tad safer knowing there are people like this person protecting us):
I trust NWA [Northwest Airlines] to give me the truth...not. DTW [Detroit] is as porous as it can be. We search every plane that we get on no matter how long it has sat. Then the crew are like, "Nobody has access to the plane but crew, cleaners and caterers." Riiight. Caterers and cleaners with names like Habib, Jamal, Rafiq....Yeah. I feel safer too knowing that a white supremacist is looking out for us all. He's the one in seat 12C highlighting passages in The Turner Diaries. Next week - Terror at Avis Counter: Swarthy People Renting Dodge Neons and Making Them Into Car Bombs.
posted by tbogg at 8:57 PM
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Taranto teabags Dick Next time send your letter on twin-ply.
Single-ply makes my ass bleed. Dazzled by his crooked grin, his profound gravitas, and that weird dying old man smell, James Taranto interviews Dick Cheney and can't seem to get a handle on the concept of saying something along the lines of, " But didn't you just say...?": Mr. Cheney says key members of Congress--the chairmen and ranking members of the House and Senate intelligence committees, and sometimes both parties' top leaders from each chamber--were fully informed. "These sessions with Congress, most of which I presided over . . . answered every question that they wanted to ask. We've always said, look, if there's anything else you need to know, just let us know."
[...]
Yet after the Times broke the story, Democratic members of Congress changed their tune from the one Mr. Cheney says they had sung in private. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, the top Intelligence Committee Democrat, released a handwritten July 2003 letter to Mr. Cheney in which he said he was "writing to reiterate my concern regarding the sensitive intelligence issues we discussed." We asked Mr. Cheney if he remembered Mr. Rockefeller iterating his concern in the first place. "No, I recall the letter just sort of arriving, and it was never followed up on."For those who parse words for a living you will note that Mr. Cheney explicitly said: "We've always said, look, if there's anything else you need to know, just let us know."He makes no mention of ever responding. Hence the expression: It can't hurt to ask.
posted by tbogg at 5:56 PM
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Or we will all go down together...George Bush's political career will be over in 2008 when he will retire to Rancho Borracho and spend his autumnal years clearing brush, golfing, and racing Our Dear Laura to see who drink themselves into oblivion first before Jenna and NotJenna start squeezing out another generation of old money gypsies, tramps, and thieves. But other Republicans want to hang onto their phoney-baloney jobs, at least until they can secure a high-paying job where they can trade on their putative "pull" in Washington for a high-paying gig like notorious failure John Engler from Michigan. Which leads us to Republicans hitting the airwaves and urging President Drunky McLameduck to draw off a little Abramoff fire while they run for cover: Republican legislators urged President Bush today to make public photographs and information about contacts that he or his top aides had with the lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who has pleaded guilty to felony charges of conspiracy and fraud in an influence-peddling scandal.
Speaking on the Sunday morning television programs, the lawmakers also called for greater White House cooperation with a Senate inquiry into the federal response to Hurricane Katrina.
"Get it out, get it out," Senator Chuck Hagel, Republican of Nebraska, said of the Abramoff material. He suggested on ABC television that photos of Mr. Abramoff with Mr. Bush were likely to emerge anyway and that "disclosure is the best and most effective way to deal with all of these things."
Senator John Thune of South Dakota and Representative Mike Pence of Indiana, both Republicans, echoed that thought. "More is better, in terms of disclosure and transparency," Mr. Thune said on Fox.
President Bush discussed the photos — and his reluctance to release them —at his news conference last week, after White House officials acknowledged their existence. He said they were among thousands of such souvenir "grip and grin" pictures taken of visitors of varying importance, and were essentially meaningless.
"I've had my picture taken with a lot of people," he said. "Having my picture taken with someone doesn't mean that, you know, I'm a friend with them or know them very well." Just another Bush pioneer.... "I'm also mindful," he added, seeking to justify the White House decision not to release the pictures, "that we live in a world in which those pictures will be used for pure political purposes."Damn right. It's Karl Rove's world and we all have to live in it.
posted by tbogg at 3:07 PM
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Friday, January 27, 2006
And somehow we are not surprised...Thank you Gawker for this:  I can't think of a better thing to leave you with this weekend
posted by tbogg at 7:41 PM
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I need a postponement. Jonah said something stupid....AgainCourt today which means I don't have time for this. Have at it in comments. (Just click on the timestamp) (Added): ...and the verdict is: the judge is taking it under submission. Swell. We should have just put out a hit on him then gone and had a nice chianti. I mean, what good is it being Italian and not getting to have people killed? Might as well have been born a fucking Estonian...
posted by tbogg at 7:58 AM
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Thursday, January 26, 2006
The Swiftboating of Upton Sinclair Me sloppy? Unpossible... Jonah Goldberg, a man who finds CliffsNotes tediously long, admits that, well, he just wrote about something he heard about from this guy whose friend read something in some newspaper and, well, you know, it kinda gave him an idea for his LA Times column and, you know, the deadline was coming up and he still hadn't finished watching all of the DVD release of Time Tunnel season 2 and...well, you know how these things happen: SACCO & VANZETTI & SINCLAIR [Jonah Goldberg ]
Reuters has an interesting follow-up on the LA Times story about how Upton Sinclair was told Sacco & Vanzetti were guilty, but went on pretending they were innocent. It seems the full letter which implicated Sinclair is more complicated and there's a new biography coming out which helps the pro-Sinclair crowd. The reporter for Reuters seems particularly interested in debunking my column which relied entirely in good faith on the LA Times story. The reporter may be right that I would have been better served if I'd read the full letter or had perused the as-of-yet unpublished book, but as neither of these things were available to me at the time, I'm not going to lose sleep over the issue. I'm not sure any of this is dispositive, but it's worth noting that it now seems the case against Sinclair is less clear cut than the facts indicated at the time I wrote the column. However, I still think the record is pretty clear that Sacco & Vanzetti were guilty (though some claim Vanzetti was merely a conspirator-after-the-fact) and the larger point of that column remains perfectly intact. I'll follow the story as it unfolds. Next week - Pop Rocks & Coke: People Splodin'!
posted by tbogg at 11:53 PM
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It's Almost Friday Random Ten Did I mention that James Blunt sucks? Last week was kind of oldies week. Let's see what happens, 'kay? Black Satin - Miles Davis Spunky - Eels Peel Me A Grape - Diana Krall Heart Failed ( In The Back of A Taxi) - St Etienne The Noise of Carpet - Stereolab Summer - War My Mathematical Mind - Spoon Hiding All Away - Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds So What - Miles Davis Chinese Cafe/Unchained Melody - Joni Mitchell Someone at work gave me James Blunt's CD, Back To Bedlam to listen to. When I asked what it was like, she said, "I had enough money to buy either this or the new Nada Surf.... I fucked up bad." Awful. Just awful. He is every bad sensitive poet you have ever heard rolled into one whiny package. Although I have to admit that track #4, Goodbye My Lover, did cause me to actually laugh out loud. I'm just not sure that was the response he was going for. ...and the new Nada Surf is really good .
posted by tbogg at 11:34 PM
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Thursday Night Basset Blogging $5000 a day and I want my own hairdresser and makeup artist.
Now, as for the kid.... Since I have some stuff to do and don't have time to dig through the files, here is a golden-oldie from Casey's modeling days (an outtake from the Chevrolet catalog) with my buddy, the late great Cooder. I also have a great one somewhere of Cooder yawning. For some reason they didn't want to use it...
posted by tbogg at 6:07 PM
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Okay. This time I'm going to take it really,
really, really, really, really, really seriously. Hmmmmm. I think I remember reading something
about this. Ooooo! They have crayons! Fool me once... won't get fooled again: After a tour of the National Security Agency, Bush said employees there who are secretly monitoring phone calls and Internet traffic are learning what terrorists are plotting against America. Bush said they are taking Osama bin Laden seriously when he says he’s going to attack again.
“When he says he’s going to hurt the American people again, or try to, he means it,” Bush told reporters after visiting the NSA, where the surveillance program is based. “I take it seriously, and the people of NSA take it seriously.”The fire last time.  On his watch... Heck'uva job, Bushie.
posted by tbogg at 12:09 AM
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Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Something is missing.... and yet, I can't put my finger on it. These guys look like they could use a nice email.... Not to pick on the Crazy Ass Racist Bitch, but in her list of twenty-five things that you can do to support our troops (short of providing them with something useless like armor) she was missing the following links: These guys. and these guysOh yeah, these guys could use some help. I'm sure it was an oversight on her part. I mean, what self-respecting American Patriot who reads Michelle Malkin and is between the ages of 18 and 39 and stands at least a 25% chance of fixing some faulty communications equipment wouldn't want to go over to Iraq and relieve one of our heroes who is quite likely to be on yet another tour of duty? Unless, of course, that same virile von Clausewitz-reading hunk of NRA man-meat just wants to stay home and, say, crochet a blanket or fire off a message of support... when they're not downloading porn and playing Rainbow Six. So here is a good question: When was the last time one of the 101st Fighting Keyboarders used their extraordinary influence (because the new media is the wave of the future, so sez Jeff Jarvis) to encourage their readers to enlist in this clash of civilizations as we fight them over there so we don't have to fight them over here...or at least in Michelle Malkin's neighborhood? Maybe we could provide them with a recruiting graphic of Victor Davis Bring Me The Head of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi Hanson playing the part of Uncle Sam. That would totally rock.
posted by tbogg at 10:38 PM
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People let me tell you 'bout my best friend Just two guys talking 'bout killing people Just so Jesse's girl doesn't get too nipply about Galloway & UdayWell, that took about two minutes...
posted by tbogg at 9:28 PM
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Any reason to use this picture No mo "o" face... Susan Estrich and the PodHonest to jeebus, PodBoy. One more crack about someone elses looks and I break out the swimming pool shot again...
posted by tbogg at 8:34 PM
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I'll start the bidding at I'll give you $5 just to take itThere is still gold in them thar domain names: Sex.com, long coveted as potentially one of the most lucrative sites on the Web because of its catchy name, has been sold for about $12 million in cash and stock, a source familiar with the deal said on Monday.
A group of anonymous buyers, Boston-based Escom LLC, said in a statement it had acquired the Web address Sex.com from Gary Kremen, chief executive of Grant Media LLC and the founder of Match.com. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Sex.com is seen as one of the most recognizable and therefore financially most promising Web domain names but does not currently have much content.I could have registered sex.com but instead went for broke with hotnakedlynnecheney.com instead. Thus are fortunes made and lost....
posted by tbogg at 3:40 PM
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Burying my heart at wounded kneeThe lovely and talented Casey goes under the scope today so we're only a little less nervous than Roger Simon when he hears a strange noise outside. Of course it didn't help when we met with the surgeon yesterday and his paperwork said 'right knee'. It's the left. Her right knee is the one she dislocated last summer. True story. Anyway, I'll be back later. (Update): Surgery went well. A clean tear and the tendon transplant went very well. Yea. And, yes, they did mark the correct knee. Yea. Again.
posted by tbogg at 8:54 AM
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Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Shorter White HouseTo admit to fucking up on Katrina would only embolden the terrorists who wish to destroy us. Did we mention 9/11?
posted by tbogg at 8:39 PM
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Miss Kitty at the Battle of Rancho AlitoOh, puh-leeze: Republicans and Democrats are preparing to use the partisan battle over judicial nominations as a campaign issue in the midterm election this year. Republicans say the Democratic filibuster of lower-court judge helped them knock of former Democratic Senate leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota two years ago.
If Democrats want to make judges a campaign issue, “we welcome that debate on our side. We’ll clean your clock,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.While I have no doubt that Republicans will throw an epic bitch-fit if the Democrats attempt to filibuster Alito, they would probably have a bit more 'bring it on' street cred if they sent out someone a tad more butch than the sissy-boy homunculus from South Carolina. I mean, if, and a very big if, the Democrats manage to sucessfully filibuster Alito, Graham will run shrieking from the Senate floor crying like a four year-old girl who just snapped the head off of her favorite My Little Pony.
posted by tbogg at 11:40 AM
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Bless The BeastThanks to a link from comments, we present The BEAST 50 Most Loathsome People in America, 2005. Samples: 43. Rush Limbaugh
Charges: Rather than engage in the admittedly difficult task of justifying GOP policies rationally, the key to Limbaugh’s success is attracting an audience that actually yearns to be lied to. It doesn’t matter how many righteous fact-checkers assail him in print and on the web, because dittoheads don’t care that he’s lying, as long as the lies justify their prejudices. Limbaugh’s program is not just hypocritical; it is a celebration of hypocrisy for ignorant crackers, angry at smart people and strung out on the dwindling sensation that they are better than everyone else by virtue of their race, sex, nationality or level of bluster, because their character and accomplishments don’t warrant such feelings. If political discussion were sex, the Limbaugh audience would be a horde of virgins beating off to deranged rape fantasies.
Exhibit A: Started out in sports radio; hasn’t changed his approach one bit.
Sentence: Starved to death in full view of glazed ham; ACLU mistakenly bestowed entire estate due to barbecue sauce stain on last will and testament.
[...]
31. Rita Cosby
Charges: Unholy pastiche of fearmongering and celebrity ringworm with the brain of a moth, the integrity of a tapeworm, and the appearance and larynx of a sugar-addicted, glass-eating drag queen.
Exhibit A: Her banter with Joe Scarborough kills children.
Sentence: Kicked in the nuts.The whole thing should keep you occupied at work long enough to bring down the economy...
posted by tbogg at 7:31 AM
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Blow it out your ass, Special EdSpecial Ed (aka Captain Cubicle) is one big puss: The Left doesn't want people to hear what conservatives have to say, perhaps knowing that they have been intellectually outclassed and proven disastrously wrong by history and current events. Instead, they issue mindless attacks, childish insults, and do everything possible to keep people from having access to conservative thought.
That's not the actions of people who have confidence in themselves. Those are the actions of a fearful, small-minded, vulgar group of Neanderthals who have suddenly seen Homo sapiens and realized that their days are numbered. These mouthbreathers cannot offer any new ideas, so instead of trying to compete with conservatives, they're busy with the electronic equivalent of sticking their fingers into their ears and shouting, "LA-LA-LA-LA, NO ONE CAN HEAR YOU!!" as loudly as possible.
In short, the Left consists of ill-educated, ill-mannered children.Well, at least he didn't call us 'poopyheads'. That would have been a childish insult as opposed to "Neanderthals" and "mouthbreathers" which are the exclusive terms of the most influential call center manager in the Western Hemisphere... And I mean that with all of the respect I can summon up for middle-aged men who are call center managers.
posted by tbogg at 7:15 AM
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Monday, January 23, 2006
Haleigh You're a fine girl,
What a good wife you would be. Yeah. I can do sad.
Give me a minute to get into character... Mitt Romney mounts the body of an 11 year-old girl in an effort to get a little pre-Presidential run traction: The governor of Massachusetts has ordered an investigation into whether the state repeatedly failed a brain-damaged 11-year-old girl, long before she became the center of a right-to-die struggle.
Governor Mitt Romney says "errors in judgment were made" in the state's handling of Haleigh Poutre. Her adoptive mother and stepfather allegedly beat her into a coma last September.
The state commission will go through the girl's ten-year-old case log and look into whether case workers missed signs of abuse before the beating. Cue Mitt looking concerned. Cue Bill Frist cursing himself for prematurely blowing his Presidential wad on Terri Schiavo. Timing is everything they say...
posted by tbogg at 11:51 PM
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Sunday, January 22, 2006
What's the frequency Maglalang? Not chanting "Steelers #1". Jesse Malkin falls down again and lets his wife say something stupider than usual: Not only is Kerry engaging in Howard Dean defeatism of the worst kind (as well as abject cluelessness about our recent major successful strikes overseas), he is also implying that we will be less secure at home if our troops succeed abroad. What kind of message does that send to U.S. soldiers on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan?Her link to success goes to this: Among the senior al Qaeda operators believed to have been in the village near the Afghanistan border where an airstrike hit last week is notorious Egyptian scientist Abu Khabab al-Masri, who had a $5 million American reward on his head, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports.
Also known as Midhat Mursi, he specialized in chemical and biological weapons and once conducted nerve gas tests on tethered dogs.
The strike also may have killed al Qaeda's chief of operations for Afghanistan and Pakistan and another chief of operations for Afghanistan's Konar province.
A Pakistani intelligence official, speaking to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he's not authorized to speak to journalists, said authorities still did not know the names of the dead foreign militants but suspect one was a ranking al Qaeda figure.Successful in the war on terra? Maybe not so muchEvents along the ever-volatile Afghanistan-Pakistan border this month have exposed deep fault lines in the anti-terrorism alliance among the United States, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and officials on all sides say their joint efforts against militants in the region are now highly precarious.
The heightened tension comes as militant extremists and the United States have both become more aggressive in their tactics, with the Pakistani government caught in between.
Two incidents in particular, which each killed more than a dozen people, have revealed just how tenuous relations among the countries have become.
In the first, U.S. missiles struck a house in the Pakistani village of Damadola where Ayman Zawahiri, the deputy leader of al Qaeda, was thought to be having dinner. In the second, three days later in the Afghan town of Spin Boldak, a man drove a motorbike into a crowd gathered to watch a wrestling match and blew himself up.
Because the incidents took place on opposite sides of the border, they elicited responses with vastly different focuses. After the U.S. missile strike, thousands of Pakistanis took to the streets to condemn the United States. After the suicide bombing, thousands of Afghans took to the streets to condemn Pakistan.
[...]
Pakistani tribal leaders, for their part, look a few miles west for the source of their troubles: the American military presence in Afghanistan. Throughout the past week and continuing Sunday, tens of thousands of Pakistanis have participated in boisterous rallies at which protesters burned effigies of President Bush, chanted "Long live Osama!" and denounced the Pakistani government for cooperating with the United States.
"People are so angry that this could become a major movement against the American slaves who are ruling Pakistan these days," said Liaquat Baluch, a leader of Jamaat-e-Islami, the country's largest Islamic party.I guess she meant "major successful" if by major successful she meant "highly precarious".
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