Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me....Aren't you?

Mike Nichols on why he cast Dustin Hoffman, instead of Robert Redford, in "The Graduate":

"I asked [Redford] if a girl had ever turned him down, and he replied, 'What do you mean?' [Redford] just couldn't play a loser."

Benedict showed 2 sides after pope's death

There's more being said on the 'hardliner' side of the new pope. the thing that stood out to me was his statement, or homily rather that was sharp edged and seemingly aimed at liberal catholics. it centered on his view accepting little else other than strict obedience to the church doctirne. this is also a pope whom, while cardinal worked hard against the acceptance or recognition of other Christian denominations. I found the statements, given shortly after the funeral of the pope...well, inappropriate. I also don't think that sort of thinking is what the church (or world) really needs right now. here's some comments i've collected and edited down from the links above:

Paul Lakeland, professor of Catholic studies at Fairfield University (DEAD ON)

Every time a new pope is chosen, whoever the predecessor, it is a moment of hope for the Church, a chance to grow and move forward. Today the cardinals of the Catholic Church dashed those hopes by electing a man who, however talented, is a figure who looks backwards to the past rather than forward to the future. The cardinals lost their nerve and settled for continuity. Faced with the challenges of Islam in Africa, Protestant evangelicalism in Latin America, hunger around the world, declining numbers of priests and churchgoers in Europe and North America, and calls for flexibility in teaching and adaptabilty in the search of new ways to preach the gospel, they chose a man who just lectured them on secularism, materialism and hedonism, who thinks the solution for the European church is to settle for a smaller and more faithful community, and who was and is a hardline centralizer. Benedict XVI was the closest thing they could find to a clone of John Paul II-- without the charisma. It was John Paul's charisma that let people forgive him for many of his authoritarian ways. But Joseph Ratzinger is a very clever man, and there is always hope for conversion.

Father Andrew Greeley, sociologist and author of "Priests: A Calling in Crisis"

Women -- and not only in the United States -- are very angry at the church. It is no exaggeration to say that many of them, devout Catholics to the core, will tell you they hated John Paul because he hated women. If the new pope wants to win them over, he will have a very hard sell on his hands. Similarly, gay and lesbian Catholics will find it difficult to forgive him for his comment that they are "objectively" disordered. He will have to put off his persona as stats professor and put on his persona as a parish priest.

Frances Kissling, president of Catholics for a Free Choice

I can no longer delude myself about these princes’(The Cardinals) almost total lack of interest in healing the divide in the Church, in showing compassion for or even in listening to the voices of the suffering. The time for nuance is over. Let the unholy war begin.

Mary Segers, professor of political science at Rutgers University

He believes in the idea that Europe is a kind of base for Christian civilization, and he apparently thinks that an admixture of that with a Muslim country is not a good thing. Last year he stated that he was opposed to the admission of Turkey to the European Union because of its Islamic history, even though Turkey has been secular since the 1920s. Ratzinger thinks that since Europe has Christian roots, by definition you can't admit a Muslim country into the European Union. That worries me more than anything else...

James Martin, Jesuit priest, associate editor of America magazine and author of "In Good Company"

While I trust that the Holy Spirit will be helping Pope Benedict XVI over the next few years, I would be lying if I didn't say how disappointed I was by the cardinals' selection of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as pope. To my mind, there were many other candidates who had more pastoral experience, who have been more open to dialogue with other religions, and who have demonstrated more sensitivity to the thoughtful questioning that has always characterized Christian theology. But the cardinals quickly settled on a man who would forcefully continue John Paul's approach to governing the church. I can only pray that Pope Benedict proves to be more tolerant and open-minded than Cardinal Ratzinger was.

Amy Sullivan, Salon contributor and editor for Washington Monthly

As tears of joy filled the eyes of Catholic nuns standing in St. Peter's Square on Tuesday with the announcement of Joseph Ratzinger's election to the papacy, tears of anger and frustration stung the eyes of progressive Catholics around the world. The election of Ratzinger signals a decision to stick with the failed policies that have led millions of Catholics in the developing world to leave the church for Pentecostalism(CREEZUS), and millions of western Catholics to simply leave religion altogether. The choice Ratzinger has posed -- between the tyranny of relativism or the triumph of orthodoxy -- is false. The church will continue to suffer for his lack of imagination.

Rabbi Michael Lerner of Beyt Tikkun Synagogue in San Francisco, editor of Tikkun

Ratzinger has been the leader of an internal inquisition in the church against any voices that sought to hold on to the message that came out of Vatican II. Instead, he has pushed the church away from social justice and peace concerns. This guy has a history -- from his short time in the Nazi youth organization and service in the army to his authoritarian and anti-gay perspective -- of fighting against the liberalization of the church that occurred under Vatican II. He has taken fundamentally repressive stands on homosexuality and on women's right to make their own reproductive choices. He has denounced anybody in the church who was willing to give equal validity to other faith traditions, including Jews.

Andrew Sullivan, columnist and blogger

I'm still reeling, am still in shock. Given the church's internal debate, the choice could not have been more polarizing. Coming so swiftly, and after Ratzinger's pre-conclave rant about "the dictatorship of relativism," it's a statement of where the church is headed: toward more retrenchment, insularity and retreat.
Benedict has no pastoral experience, scant knowledge of the developing world, a terrible reputation in Europe as a full-bore reactionary, and no real comfort as an actor on the world stage.
In other words, he offers all the drawbacks of JPII and none of the advantages. He does have an interesting mind. But the more deeply you read, the scarier it gets: He even backs a pre-modern view of the conscience, which holds that you can only have a good conscience if you agree with him.

Dr. Matthew Fox, founder of Wisdom University and author of "Original Blessing"

Ratzinger will be the inquisitor general of the 21st century. He led the assault on theologians and women, yoga (calling it "dangerous" because it gets you too much in touch with your body), homosexuals (who are "evil"), liberation theology, ecumenism and interfaith, and now he's been made the spiritual head of 1.1 billion people. Cardinal Ratzinger is living proof of the dictum coined by Catholic historian Lord Acton after the First Vatican Council's declaration of papal infallibility: "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Ratzinger does not support movements of justice, and has committed his career to silencing those who do. He is also committed to elevating the rich and powerful, such as Escriva, fascist sympathizer and founder of Opus Dei, to sainthood. It is a sad day and a decisive one for the Roman Catholic Church.

--
it seems i'm not alone in my thinking. Jeez, i've spent a lot of time on this for someone that isn't a Catholic. i guess i really was hopefull that this was an opportunity for the world and now i fear it may be an opportunity lost. i'd love to be wrong.

Pope trivia: Benedict was the name taken by he pope during the 1st world war. he was actually a calming force after hardliner predcessors. ALSO, this is the first German pope since around 1055 if i recall correctly.

The New Pope Spells Trouble for Catholics

Against my non-existant judgement, the Cardinals have selected Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany as the new Pope. at 78, one would expect his reign to be relatively short. I believe this this Pope may spell trouble for the Church. He is one of the Arch-Conservative Cardinals that has done much to push away from the modernization of the church. As a Non-Catholic, this impacts me little on a personal level, but in a worldly sense, this will likely do much to (further) drive the industrialized world away from Catholicism--Europe in particular.

The Pope took the name Benedict XVI. He was Theological advisor to pope John Paul II and greatly responsible as the conservative influence on JPII's hardline decisions. From CNN:

As a young priest he was on the progressive side of theological debates but shifted to the right after the student revolutions of 1968.

In the Vatican, he has been the driving force behind crackdowns on liberation theology, religious pluralism, challenges to traditional moral teachings on issues such as homosexuality, and dissent on such issues as women's ordination.

I believe a more liberal pope would have created an influx into the Catholic church, in light of the positive attention being paid after JPII's death. A Catholic Church still calling condom use a sin, in light of their influence in Sub-Saharan Africa (and in light of the AIDS crisis there) is just irresponsible and hopelessly out of touch.

A Day Later and a New Pope!

Seems a new pope was selected today. i was a bit surprised to see it happen in, what? 24 hours? There must have been little debate.

Fox News Host Coaches Conservative Guests on What to Say.

From the NY Daily News:

Fox News host: Repeat after me

If the conservative guests on Fox News' 'Hannity and Colmes' sound especially on-message, that's because they're being coached by the best:

Sean Hannity himself.

On the March 31 installment of the shouting-head show, the guests included two of the late Terri Schiavo's former nurses, Trudy Capone and Carla Sauer Iyer, arguing that their patient wasn't brain-dead.

Between commercials, according to an off-air audiotape obtained by investigative comedian Harry Shearer for last Sunday's episode of his weekly radio program, 'Le Show,' Hannity coached the women on exactly how to respond when liberal co-host Alan Colmes cross-examined them.

'Just say, 'I'm here to tell what I saw,'' Hannity can be heard instructing his guests. 'No matter what the question, 'I'm here to tell you what I saw. I'm here to tell you what I saw.''

Hannity adds helpfully: 'Say, 'I'm not going to be distracted by silliness.' How's that? Does that help you? Look into that camera. Look at me when I'm talking.'

On the air, Iyer performs beautifully. 'I don't have any opinions or judgments. I was there,' she declares

After the segment ends, Hannity gushes off the air to the nurses: 'We got the points out. It's hard, this isn't easy. But you did great, both of you. Thank you, guys. Those nurses are powerful, aren't they?'

On his radio show, Shearer injected: 'Yeah, especially when they do what you tell 'em to do. Very powerful when they follow instructions from the host!'

A Fox News flack didn't respond to Lowdown's detailed message yesterday.

Hitting Bottom?

Polly & the Mooch readers may recall Mr. Mooch's rant recently about judges and the extreme behavior of the GOP in appointing judges. the fact that a handful of Bush's judicial picks weren't rubber stamped is just too much to stand (less than 5%). that handful of judges was blocked by (or threat of) the filabuster. This has so enraged the GOP leadership that they are considering what's been called "The Nuclear Option" of getting rid of the filabuster all together. this would eliminate the oldest, most powerful tool of the minority party to protect minority interests (regardless of party).

Apparently Sen. Bill Frist (R, TN) will soon be leading the charge on this matter. so just HOW do they plan to push the PR on this? they already have the AM radio screech boxes going, so what's the next step?

Accuse Democrats of ATTACKING CHRISTIANITY!

you heard right! The Senate Majority Leader is joining the Right Wing Christian group called The Family Resource Council and their leader Dr. James Dobson for a telecast concentrating on how the Democrats use "the filibuster against people of faith". They would like to convince enough supporters that the Democrats are using the filabuster to stop judges that operate using "Christian Values", as if that were the case and as if those judges were, in fact, godly. Neither is true.

Dr. Dobson has a vivid political history in the last decade and a half. Unfortunately, his Christian organization is little devoted to acting on the actual teachings of Christ, but more to the conversion of people and ideas to their version of what is holy and godly. In the last decade they've tended to value working for prayer in school, ending abortion, and fighting homosexuality more than providing christian charity to the needy, desperate, and helpless in our society. the least among us. today, headlinging their website, you can see how instead of humanitarian aid to the tsunami victims, they're distributing a million booklets (to the non-christians) about "when god doesn't make sense". a hard look at this 'Family' oriented website shows that they ignore the most basic of family needs (in this country or others): food and shelter. Evidently, to these people, fighting over judges and senate rules is more of a family value than fighting hunger.
(thanks to Swirly for her input).

Interesting Thought

It seems that Scalia appeared at NYU this week to speak to students and faculty:

The room was packed with some 300 students and there were many protesters outside because of Scalia's vitriolic dissent last year in the case that overturned the Texas law against gay sex ... One gay student asked whether government had any business enacting and enforcing laws against consensual sodomy. Following Scalia's answer, the student asked a follow-up: 'Do you sodomize your wife?' The audience was shocked, especially since Mrs. Scalia [Maureen] was in attendance. The justice replied that the question was unworthy of an answer. [NYPost]

On its face, i do agree that the question was inappropriate. However, it gets to the REAL meat of the matter. This gay man doesn't like the idea of the government inquiring about his sexual activities so that it can pass judgement and mete out punishment for those activities. This question, to Justice Scalia was so inappropriate that it did not dignify the an answer. That is a question, on the other hand, that he would allow the government to ask--daily. Of course, he--as a straight, married man--never has to worry about the issue. The government would never inquire into his sexual life and he's quite happy with that.

FOX News to the Rescue!!

As you read below, Tom DeLay has caught some heat for taking trips funded by lobbyists for foreign agents. add that to the fact that his family, including his wife, are being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by the same people, you might think the press is ready to eat him alive...well...not all of them.

At the home of quality journalism, we're seeing these gems from the top anchors at Fox News:

Brit Hume: "Here in Washington, the press is after Tom DeLay again, but wait 'til you hear the facts," and, "speaking of Tom DeLay, the mainstream media were out after him again today." (Uh...so, is this Fox FINALLY admitting that they aren't mainstream but rather a fringe, wingnut outfit?)

John Gibson: "The liberal media is hammering 'The Hammer' - Tom DeLay under a microscope and under the gun. Is this simply a media hit job?" (To get the fair and balanced answer to this, he interviewed Rich Lowry, editor of the right-wing National Review. Oddly enough, they DID think it was just the media ganging up on him.)

Sean Hannity: referring to what he called the "liberal allegations," all he wanted to know was, "Is he the target of a smear campaign?" (the funny thing is that they actually AREN'T allegations. they are statements of fact that DeLay himself hasn't even denied. He's just said there's nothing wrong with it all.)

I'm actually tired of the media tip-toeing around this. he DID it. it is clearly illegal and unethical, and he's not denying it didn't happen. He is taking money from political interests he openly serves via his elected office and funnels it into the pockets of his wife and daughter. He doesn't deny it. what the hell is the point of a free press and governmental ethics rules when you can do things like this and defend yourself by saying there's nothing wrong with it. what is wrong is that the press says "ok, sure" and rolls over.

GOP House Majority Leader Taking Pay-Offs by Foreign Agents

Now, let's see how craven the Republicans can be. Currently, the GOP House Majority leader--Tom DeLay--wields much power due to his ability to raise money for other Republicans and ease their re-election process by working to gerrymander the districts in favor of the GOP. Recently some interesting facts have come out regarding that money.

Last Wednesday, the Washington Post and the New York Times both sink their teeth into the Republican leader. It seems that he took a THREE trip overseas, which was paid for by foreign agents. The trip was part of a $440,000 lobbying program based outside of the country working for foreign interests. Additionally, these lobbyists have been paying his wife and daughter to the tune of HALF A MILLION dollars.

Are We in the 100 years off?

In the NEWEST twist to conservatives trying to insert themselves into people's lives, we are seeing more and more self-identified 'conservative pharmacists' refusing to fill prescriptions for birthcontrol. what is strange is the fact that this is often NOT being done by Catholic pharmacists. It has been decades (since my birth) that there was a public movement against women's access to birthcontrol. i have to wonder if this is getting press because of the oddity of it all, rather than the existence of an actual movement.

SOMEBODY'S Old Porn Stash!

Archaeologists have found the oldest porn ever in a 7,200 year old statue!

More on the Judiciary from Harper's Weekly

Republicans held a conference to discuss ways to reform the federal judiciary, which they say has "run amok." Senator Tom Coburn's chief of staff said that "mass impeachment" of judges might be necessary, and Tom DeLay, who is under investigation for illegal fundraising, gave a pre-recorded speech entitled "Confronting the Judicial Waron Faith."

Evidently a "War on Faith" comes when judges won't brush aside constitutional rights to allow standing any law that congress feels like passing. Notice how often these folks talk about judges as if they were something in the way of their laws and views rather than a seperate, co-equal branch of government. Notice how LITTLE these folks concern themselves with the rights and interests of others. This comes greatly from the notion among evangelicals that what they are doing is sanction by god and somehow should not be second guessed by mere mortals.

Recently Madcap was posting here about some of the things the GOP Religious Conservatives are doing, and I have to point to this above. The Republicans have controlled the appointments of well over half of this nation's judiciary. maybe 2/3. what more could they want? I'll tell you. they want a dissolution of any real, meaningful seperation of church and state as well as a court that will serve to exert power on social issues they like, as opposed to judicially weigh the laws of congress against the rights protected in the constitution. the cry is often to find no right which is not spelled out exactly in the constitution. The notion that NO INFERENCE may be drawn from the constitution. if it doesn't SAY the words, it isn't actually a right. Stepping beyond the MIRIAD of arguments against that line of thought, think upon what would be lost. Abortion rights, protections against discrimination, the right to privacy...the list goes on and on. This, no matter what principle is asserted, is a tool to undo much of the social progress made over the last century. I'm not saying that the religious right are all commited to undoing these protections (though many are). what i am saying is that they don't mind losing ANY of these as long as the courts allow them to have more religious control over our daily lives. that is a theocracy and THAT is what they are pushing towards...whether they realize it or not.

Mr. Mooch Crunches the Numbers for You and I Run it All Down for You.

Have you heard the moans of complaint over how the MEAN ole Democrats are blocking President Bush's judicial nominees? This has agitated the GOP to such a degree that they have considered doing away with the time honored Senatorial tool, the filabuster (See Mr. Smith Goes to Washington). This has been nicknamed the "Nuclear Option" because of how serious and final such a decision would be to the Senate.

Well, here's a rundown on just how "bad" it has been for our poor President and his judges:

The Federal Judiciary has 871 judges. The Senate has approved 205 of Bush's nominees. How many have they blocked? 10. TEN!

So, let's get this straight. the GOP is upset because they only got their way 95% of the time! More importantly, this president, in his first 4 years, has filled nearly 1/4 of the Judiciary with his own conservative judges. The disgust I have isn't because this is happening, it is because (to the GOP) this is simply NOT ENOUGH! at this rate, you could see (by 2008) 1/3 to 1/2 of the US Judiciary installed by ONE MAN. I don't like the looks of that at all (regardless of political party).

Along the same line, it is important to note that GOP appointees currently dominate all of the Judiciary. The US Supreme Court has 7 GOP appointees and 2 Democratic. There are 13 Federal circuits and the GOP nominees dominate 10 of them. It is predicted that 12 of the 13 will be dominated by GOP appointees by the end of Bush's term. The real concern for me is that the more recent GOP nominees are MUCH more ideologically bent than, say, an appointee from the Nixon era. Our judicial system is being hijacked.


10 of the 13 appellate circuits. By the time Bush's second term ends, Republicans will almost certainly dominate 12 of the 13 circuit courts, leaving only the Ninth Circuit in Democratic control.

Unrest at the GOP Convention Proves to be Crackdown on Protesters

As you may recall, there were a LOT of protests in and around the GOP National Convention in 2004. There were 1,670 arrests during that time. Well, it turns out that 91% were dismissed or found not guilty...and get this, this is MOSTLY due to the surveilance video tape showing the people arrested weren't actually breaking the law.

The Green Wave!

Tulane's baseball team is #3 in the Nation! Miss. State, unfortunately has fallen off the damn poll completely (and the hated Ole Miss is #13).

In theocracy they trust

this is a very important article to read...looking at where MANY are working to send this country. the alarming part is the deals being made with the devil. the GOP'ers that will take in the extremists to get their votes. the problem is that if you take these people to the dance...the expect a turn on the floor.

read this article and see where we are.

Think Progress » Video: Cornyn Justifies Violence Against Judges

Texas Senator John Cornyn wonders aloud from the Senate floor about whether violence against 'activist' judges is based on frustration over their lack of accountability (as in when they disagree with the religious right on things like the Schiavo case). Now pair this up with Tom Delay, who just last week--from the House Floor--said of the Judges that disagreed with him (on the Schiavo case):

"The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior..."

There's your 'law and order' republicans.

Gallup: Bush Approval Rating Lowest Ever for 2nd-Term Prez at this Point

Bush's approval rating is lower than any since 2nd term President since WW2. Gallup lists the next lowest as still ahead of bush by 10 points (Reagan at 56% in March 1985).

The ALWAYS Great Weekly Review from Harpers.org

WEEKLY REVIEW

Militants in Iraq attacked the Abu Ghraib prison, wounding
forty-four American soldiers and twelve prisoners. Britain
announced that it will pull 5,500 troops from Iraq and
increase its presence in Afghanistan, to help with the
hunt for Osama bin Laden. Syria vowed to be out of Lebanon
by the end of April, and Canada decided not to deport a
flying squirrel. An earthquake off Sumatra killed at least
one thousand people, and five American soldiers were
arrested for trying to use military aircraft to smuggle
cocaine from Colombia into the United States. A Russian
court found a museum director and an artist guilty of
creating blasphemous art and fined them $3,600 each. The
piece in question depicted Jesus on a Coca-Cola
advertisement with the words "this is my blood." In
France, radical wine producers threw sticks of dynamite at
a state agriculture office and demanded that the state
take action to stop the depression in French wine
prices. Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's party won a
two-thirds majority in a rigged election, and Malawian
President Bingu wa Mutharika insisted that he was not
afraid of ghosts but did not comment on reports that one
of his predecessors had often been visited by mysterious
dwarfs. A British sex festival was cancelled because not
enough people wanted to go, and the European Union placed
a 15 percent duty on American trousers and sweet
corn. Fifty-nine former American diplomats were planning
to send a letter urging the Senate to reject John
R. Bolton's nomination as ambassador to the United
Nations, and a Saudi Arabian princess was arrested for
keeping slaves in Winchester, Massachusetts.

A former scout master in Houston, Texas, resigned from the
Lion's Club and turned himself in for sexually abusing a
blind nine-year-old boy, and a former policeman was
arrested for flying to Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, in order to
molest boys. Scientists in California developed a scale
that can measure the mass of a cluster of xenon atoms. It
turns out that they weigh a few zeptograms. Harvard
students were upset that the brand-name cereals in their
dining halls had been replaced with generic brands, and
Terri Schiavo's parents authorized a direct-marketing firm
to sell a list of those who contributed to Terri's
cause. New York State legislators met their budget
deadline for the first time in twenty-one years. Cambodia
privatized the Killing Fields at Cheoung Ek; a Japanese
firm will plant flowers near the tower of eight thousand
skulls and will raise admission rates. Laura Bush spent
six hours in Afghanistan and said that she and President
George W. Bush both have living wills. A federal judge
refused to let the Bush Administration, which opposes
torture, send prisoners from Guantanamo Bay to other
prisons abroad without granting the prisoners access to
the courts. The United States announced that it will
establish nine new military bases in Afghanistan, bringing
the total to twelve; Afghanistan announced that it will
once again postpone parliamentary elections. Taliban
militants killed nine policemen in southern Afghanistan.

A new report on American intelligence failures concluded
that the Bush Administration's evidence of biological
weapons in Iraq was almost entirely derived from reports
made by an Iraqi defector code-named "Curveball," who was
described by those who knew him as "crazy" and "a
congenital liar." An investigation determined that the
rate of malnutrition in Iraqi children under five has
nearly doubled since the U.S. invaded, and the U.S. Army's
Psychological Operations group was developing propaganda
science fiction comic books for distribution in the Middle
East. Nearly ten years after the Oklahoma City bombing, an
FBI search found explosives in a crawl space in Terry
Nichols's former home, and Pakistan successfully
test-fired the Hatf II, a short-range nuclear-capable
missile. In Mecca, a man stabbed his father to death after
the father threatened to tattle on the man for not
praying, and in Israel, someone spray-painted the words
"murderous dog" on Yitzhak Rabin's grave. Noting their
mutual hatred of Jews, a neo-Nazi in Florida called on Al
Qaeda to join forces with the Aryan Nations, and Olga, the
first Siberian tiger ever fitted with a radio collar, was
believed to have been killed by poachers. Robert Creeley,
Terri Schiavo, Johnnie Cochran, Frank Perdue, Mitch
Hedberg, and the pope died, as did the man who wrote the
theme song to "Gidget." Turkeys attacked elementary school
students in Indiana, and the Boy Scouts' Director of
Programming was arrested on child pornography charges. A
Minnesota man threw a toddler at a policeman, and a huge
naked screaming Wisconsin man was shot as he threatened
his equally naked children with scissors. Ms. Wheelchair
Wisconsin was stripped of her title after she was caught
standing up, Hamas and Islamic Jihad announced that they
would join the PLO, and a handicapped man used a computer
chip implanted in his brain to control a television. The
Marburg virus was still killing people in Angola. Paul
Wolfowitz was confirmed as head of the World Bank, and a
Toronto man attempted to pass a Breathalyzer test by
stuffing his mouth full of his own feces. In Shanghai, a
man stabbed and killed another man for selling their
jointly owned imaginary cyber-sword without sharing the
proceeds, and after four years of hard work, 1,300
researchers in ninety-five countries concluded that humans
are destroying the world.

--Paul Ford

Who'da thought they'd lead ya...back here where we need ya? Yeah we tease him a lot, 'cause we got him on the spot...Welcome Back.

Clocks are forward, margaritas are blended, the top is down on the 'Demcrat'-mobile and Mr. Mooch and I are about to sit out back and break the rule about liquor after beer.

It's spring, Jackson Azaleas are topping 10 feet tall in some spots, and I'm day dreaming.

cheers.

Republican Tom DeLay ponders impeachment against Schiavo judges

WASHINGTON (AP) -- House Majority Leader Tom DeLay on Thursday blamed Terri Schiavo's death on what he contended was a failed legal system and he raised the possibility of trying to impeach some of the federal judges in the case.

'The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior,' said DeLay, R-Texas.

Yeah. This from the guy who let the doctors pull the plug on his father when there was NO evidence at all on whether his would have wanted that to happen. THIS is last Republican i want to hear on the Schiavo issue.

Now This is Pretty Nice, Especially for $15.

DC will be presenting a trade paperback collection of every Batman adventure, in color, in chronological order!

BATMAN CHRONICLES VOL. 1 reprints Batman stories from DETECTIVE COMICS #27-37 and BATMAN #1, featuring the earliest adventures of the Dark Knight by Batman creator Bob Kane, Bill Finger, Gardner Fox, Jerry Robinson and Sheldon Moldoff. Future volumes in this series reprint stories from DETECTIVE COMICS, BATMAN, WORLD'S FINEST and other titles throughout the character's history, all presented chronologically based on publication date!

Old Friends, New Spaces

Readers of this site should note that 2 new entries have been listed under the LINKS banner on the right side of your screen. Several of our great friends (and Mississippi State Alumni) have set up their own digs.

First there's Vindauga Gallery which is a collection of work, thought, and words from 2 artists (wah & jah) here in Jackson and their contributor from out in the hinterlands...Dr. Wagner.

Next is Pretty Fakes from Gorj. (see the Bill Clinton, Kid President toon below). I hear there may be posts by axxion makeout girl-reporter, Hot jaxxie on this site. we'll see.

check them out often!

Where Have All the Comics Gone?....Long Time Passing.

Once upon a time there was a blog called Catoptric, and on that blog was a writer named Gorj. He used to draw some of the best cartoons, often getting his most clever thoughts out through images rather than just plain ole text. He came up with an ongoing series, loosely referred to as "Bill Clinton, Kid President". I have one of his original sketches, which i post for you here today. maybe ONE DAY Captoptric will have awesome cartoons again, and maybe one day Gorj. will draw for us again. 'Til then, nobody's gonna be all up ons.

Dirty Doctors

In a deposition today i had a doctor say he didn't like his patient picking a doctor by name because he assumed the client's attorney (guess who) would be picking doctors that skew their results to favor plaintiffs. he said that was a problem (in Mississippi).

I asked that asshole to list for me the name of EVERY doctor he's EVER seen in ANY field that shaped his records to favor plaintiffs and lawsuits.

he couldn't name one person.

I then asked him if he'd ever heard of doctors slanting their views for DEFENDANTS. he said he'd NEVER HEARD of such a thing.

of course.

Who Coulda MADE This!

Good lord! who designed this thing! look what you press to make him squirt! now look where you fill the water gun! NO WAY this was an accidental concept.

See Something You Don't Like? Ignore it!

Pollution is FINE...as long as they donated to the Republicans. Don't believe me? see the Post.

"When the Environmental Protection Agency unveiled a rule last week to limit mercury emissions from U.S. power plants, officials emphasized that the controls could not be more aggressive because the cost to industry already far exceeded the public health payoff.

What they did not reveal is that a Harvard University study paid for by the EPA, co-authored by an EPA scientist and peer-reviewed by two other EPA scientists, had reached the opposite conclusion."

When public opinion doesn't matter

I've been greatly disturbed by the Terri Schiavo situation down in Florida. i'm bothered that her wishes are being ignored. i'm bothered that the Anti-Abortion movement has hijacked her life to use for their own ends...namely to tie a tenuous cord between those who want to die and abortion. It should be noted that most do NOT extend this to the logical connection to ban the death penalty. I'm bothered by the Republican in congress is using this issue, not in the interests of this woman, but in the promotion of their own political fortunes with a section of evangelical christians. i'm bothered by the GOP willingness to ignore their own 'values' about Federalism when it suits their (or their donor's) whim.

That being said, I'm sorta happy that these Jackasses got it wrong. ABC news commissioned a poll that shows the nation nearly 70% in AGAINST the GOP on this one. further, those identifying themselves as "conservative Republicans" are 58% against it, and 67% of the public sees this as a political stunt for the GOP.

Despite the public being against it in THESE numbers, the Networks barely mention the public opinion numbers. Some say it's because they have a tendency against aggression with the GOP on hot-button issues for the party.

...Maybe. I think they hope for better ratings w/ a controversy and presenting it as a lopsided issue of public opinion wouldn't pull that off. The real debate is between the GOP and the public that doesn't want their meddling in private lives. now THAT is the story the press is afraid to touch.

MISSISSIPPI STATE KILLS STANFORD!!!

93 to 70. not bad at ALL!

HOLY CRAP!

NEW YORK (AP) - Bernard Ebbers, who built WorldCom from a humble Mississippi long-distance firm into a telecommunications titan, was convicted Tuesday of engineering the colossal accounting fraud that sank the company.

A federal jury in Manhattan deliberated eight days before returning guilty verdicts on all charges including one count of conspiracy, one count of securities fraud and seven counts of false regulatory filings - crimes carrying up to 85 years in prison.

I wasn't expecting this. MCI Worldcom was one of Mississippi's biggest employers. for a while, anytime i spoke w/ someone, they seemed to be working there. Now they are substantially gone. It seems the guy that brought the business here also brought the company down. I wonder if he'll do any real time? My bet is that this guy, orchestrating the largest instance of fraud in the history of the WORLD won't serve the same time as a guy convicted of armed robbery.

In Happier News

Edgar Killen, the Baptist minister and Klansman on trial for the 1964 murder of 3 civil rights workers had his legs crushed by a falling tree. Mr. Killen, where ever you are, I hope the pain is unbearable and that you soon find your way to a fresh new hell (thanks Ms. Parker) that you so richly deserve.

Blessed Are the Peacemakers

Evidently there's going to be a new cartoon coming out in April about Ace the Bat-Hound, Krypto the Superdog and Streaky the Supercat. Hmm...

My Eyes Are Wide Open, by Patricia Mack Newton

A memorial/Installation for the 1500+ who've died so far. Somehow seems more meaning ful than a yellow ribbon bumper sticker. and that's another thing. the tying of the ribbon is to signify rememberance of those who are away...so why doesn't anyone actually use a ribbon instead of buying a sticker that looks like one? And you manufactures of these stickers...how about a little less war profiteering? ...please?

Comics Out of Context

again from the archives of DC Comics and snipped for you by Warren Ellis. This time, like the last, Superman finds 'strange love'.

Forgotten Academy Award FOUND!!!

Most Surreal Use Of Homophobic Propaganda:

USA Next!

These are the same guys that brought you the SwiftBoat Veterans for 'Truth' back in the election last year. this time, they're aiming at their new foe...THE ELDERLY!!! Seems they have an online ad targeting the AARP for choosing not to LUUUV the President's retirement account plan (HEY, conservatives! YOU know, the one that costs the TRILLIONS we don't have!?! yeah, THAT one! good thing you conservatives are in charge of the country's wallet! ...jackasses)

Anyway, USA Next's add lets us know about the REAL AARP: hate the military and support queer marriage! YEAH, you know the AARP...always hating the soldiers and loving the gays! I'm beginning to get tired of Republicans talking about gay love. gay people don't talk about gay love as much as Republicans. You'd think that 'morality' begins and ends with what Penis's and Vagina's do...well, i guess it does...for them.

So THAT's What's Going On...

Bush explains why we haven't found Osama Bin Laden:

"We're keeping the pressure on him, keeping him in hiding."

OH! NOW i get it.

No New Taxes...well, except for the soldiers--tax them!

Leave it to the Republicans in congress for the freshest hypocrisy...picked for you, fresh from the vine. Seems tax cuts aren't necessarily the order of the day...at least if you're a soldier. Bush proposed and GOP congress/senate approved, this would put an annual 'enrollment fee' on soldiers eligible for Veterans Administration healthcare. Bush was also trying to 'support our troops' by raising their co-pay. that one failed.

Trailers

Damn. pretty nice. It comes out 6-17-05.

Tom the Dancing Bug

Another GREAT Judge Scalia cartoon.

Firefox - Rediscover the web

Firefox is a Mozilla based web browser. I encourage everyone to STOP using internet explorer and go to THIS browser instead. it integrates the best of IE and Netscape. it has an email program like Outlook. It is LESS receptive to spyware. It's faster. it's a smaller program.

GET THIS PROGRAM! you'll never use Explorer again.

Terrible.

A Fulton County Superior Court judge was killed and three other people were wounded Friday when a defendant grabbed a gun from a deputy sheriff and opened fire, officials said.

Yahoo! News - DeLay Treated for Heart Condition

not to be too harsh, but i hope he dies and rots in hell.

The Demon: BLOOD OF THE DEMON #1

Normally I'd welcome a comic with a character I've liked for years. However, it seems that John Byrne is writing it and drawing it. As good as he was in the past, he's just been awful in the last 5-10 years. I have no expectations here.

Ex-Marine Says Public Version of Saddam Capture Was Fiction

A former U.S. Marine who participated in capturing ousted Iraqi President Saddam
Hussein said the public version of his capture was fabricated. Ex-Sgt. Nadim Abou Rabeh, of Lebanese descent, was quoted in the Saudi daily al-Medina Wednesday as saying Saddam was actually captured Friday, Dec. 12, 2003, and not the day after, as announced by the U.S. Army.

“I was among the 20-man unit, including eight of Arab descent, who searched for Saddam for three days in the area of Dour near Tikrit, and we found him in a modest home in a small village and not in a hole as announced,” Abou Rabeh said.

“We captured him after fierce resistance during which a Marine of Sudanese origin was killed,” he said.

He said Saddam himself fired at them with a gun from the window of a room on the second floor. Then they shouted at him in Arabic: “You have to surrender. … There is no point in resisting.”

“Later on, a military production team fabricated the film of Saddam’s capture in a hole, which was in fact a deserted well,” Abou Rabeh said.

I guess this version would be a little more inspiring to the insurgents...shockingly, the trumped up version gives bush better PR. too bad that one was made up. (thanks to span for the Link).

Will Eisner, RIP

Will Eisner died. The giant still casts a long shadow.

The Seattle Times: Couple's final photos "an echo from the grave"

This is pretty sad. A camera was found documenting a families final days before the Tsunami, including shots taken on the beach of the water coming in. The clearly had no idea what was about to happen to them.

Bringing Up Baby (1938)

One of my favorite Hollywood Classics is FINALLY on DVD, and a Special Edition to boot! It stars Cary Grant, Kathrine Hepburn, and is directed by (perhaps) the Greatest Director of all time: HOWARD HAWKS!

if you don't buy it, at least RENT it!

Comics Out of Context

*Ahem*

If You Were Wondering What to Get Me for Christmas...

I'd like this. I predict this to be the 'must have' gift for the season.

*ahem*

A Rainy Night in Georgia -- Or, Why I Won't Live or Practice Law in Georgia

Georgia has just passed new "Tort Reform" legislation which is probably the most restrictive anywhere in the nation. A verdict must now be 25% more than the offer of judgment (the defense's last offer to settle). If not the Plaintiff pays all of the defense costs. All ER and OB-GYN Doctors are now immune from lawsuits UNLESS Plaintiff can show wilful and wanton negligence (an incredibly tough burden of proof).

Currently, if you get an attorney to handle your case, they weigh its merits to see if it is worth footing the bill up front for you and spending years handling your case before they take it. Now the risk isn't just that the attorney is out time and cash if they lose, they (and you) will have to foot the bill of the defesne attorney's firm if they lose.

Now, any corporation can hire a room full of $500/hour lawyers from the outset and stack the deck against you so badly that you will not be able to find counsel in any but the most attrocious matters. Citizens of Georgia, you have now effectively been barred from the courthouse. i hope you enjoy your republican leaders. they have taken your rights away.

Remarks from a Georgia attorney:

Just a few days ago Ga. passed the toughest, most sweeping tort reform bill in America. I have been studying it for days now. The GTLA had a meeting/seminar on SB3 yesterday. It is not bad----it is an outrage to Americans and Lawyers everywhere!! Our REPUBLICAN-CONTROLLED (makes you think of Washington,
DC, Huh?) GA. legislature declared war on all plaintiff's lawyers and even shot down the defense firms in the process. The "loser pays" rule applies to ALL TORT ACTIONS, not just med mal! It is devastating to all of us who have spent our careers learning to beat Goliah. Goliah, in the form of control-addict Republicans, have killed the GA. civil litigator! If you voted Republican----your day is at hand in Ga. And your day is at hand in Washington as I write this.

My practice, which WAS primarily med mal, PI, and criminal is NOW criminal! The law was applied retoactively to all pending cases and signed into law instanter. The people of Ga. have lost their constitutional right to litigate when harmed. I have lost two-thirds of my 27 year law practice effective immediately. Pretty tough to take.

Let me warn those of you who don't believe the Republicans are serious in their sick hatred of attorneys---THEY ARE!!! Fight back NOW or they may bankrupt you. If you voted for these people---Please wake up! Call a Ga. lawyer! We know what THEY will do to you!

This is one of my toughest days ever and I have known some tough days.

These tactics might soon come to haunt the insurance industry. In Texas the 'tort reform' system has become so protective of Doctors, they have stopped buying INSURANCE. they just pay into an insurance pool, as they have no risk of loss if they commit mal practice.

An Unpleasant Milestone

When a roadside bomb exploded today, our troop deaths topped 1500.

Appearing out of the Swirl

A good friend sent me this from The Daily Show

Jon Stewart:

"While hope still reigns following last months successful elections, the violence in Iraq shows no signs of stopping. Last week a car bombing killed over 100 people in Mosul. And last night on NBC 'Nightly News,' Brian Williams led his newscast with this disturbing story. [clip of Williams: 'The presiding judge in the trial of Saddam Hussein has been assassinated.'] The presiding judge in the trial of Saddam Hussein's death would be a crushing blow to Iraq, had it been true. But apparently it wasn't. Which apparently NBC didn't know. ... Wow, Brian Williams ran a story he said was confirmed that turned out to be false. Welcome to network news baby! But, really, is this error noteworthy? After all, someone was assassinated it just wasn't the lead judge. No harm, no foul, right? ... Yeah see here's where the foul part comes in. We're showing you the judge with his face blurred. But NBC thinking he was dead, they no-blurred him. So anyone who watched NBC last night now knows what the man who is responsible for determining Saddam Hussein's fate looks like. Ooops" ("Daily Show," Comedy Central, 3/2).

U.S. Cites Array of Rights Abuses

The State Department put out its annual report on human rights abuses. Oddly enough, its cites many forms of torture that the U.S. currently uses under the Bush administration.

*ahem*

No More State Killings of Minors.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the Constitution forbids the execution of killers who were under 18 when they committed their crimes, ending a practice used in 19 states.

The 5-4 decision throws out the death sentences of about 70 juvenile murderers and bars states from seeking to execute minors for future crimes. The executions, the court said, were unconstitutionally cruel.

It was the second major defeat at the high court in three years for supporters of the death penalty. Justices in 2002 banned the execution of the mentally retarded, also citing the Constitution's Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishments.
The court had already outlawed executions for those who were 15 and younger when they committed their crimes.

Tuesday's ruling prevents states from making 16- and 17-year-olds eligible for execution. Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the majority, noted that most states don't allow the execution of juvenile killers and those that do use the penalty infrequently. The trend, he noted, was to abolish the practice. 'Our society views juveniles ... as categorically less culpable than the average criminal,' Kennedy wrote.

I think this is long overdue. I have a problem with the idea that people under 18 aren't responsible enough for decisions like drinking and voting, but somehow they are responsible enough to make decisions that result in their execution. you can't have it both ways. In this world, only a few nations have (in recent years) executed their young: Iran, Pakistan, China and Saudi Arabia. Yeah, what a stellar list! once more ALL of those countries have now gone on record against executing minors.

I believe that at 18 you should become a citizen in full. That means you can do anything allowable under law. Get married, run for President, go to a bar, go to war,...or be executed. we're moving there.

Note: I'm not against the death penalty. That being said, i think it is sinful for Christians to support the death penalty and I'm a Christian. ultimately I support the death penalty because i know i am a vengeful person and I don't mind it. At least I admit it, and I don't pretend to pervert the bible to justify my beliefs here.

You Make the Call

In case you were wondering if global warming is real...take a look at these pictures of the same location. what do you think? 

77th Annual Academy Awards

I saw very few of the films this year so i won't comment too much. I think all the winners are pretty fair. I thought The Aviator was outstanding and VERY deserving of its many awards tonite. Beyonce, on the other hand, was just overkill. 3 of the 5 songs sung by her? i guess this is just such a low rent affair they couldn't find anyone else? She's OK, don't get me wrong, but i don't want to see ANYONE doing 3 of the 5 nominated songs. that just sucks. I think Beyonce is fine--in general--but she was a poor fit on a couple of songs.

DC Comics In the Seventies and Their Place in my Head

I got out my copy of "Batman in the 70s" TPB yesterday. DC has done a series of these with Superman and Batman. 50s, 60s, 70s. a kinda taste of each decade. the 50s stuff seems interesting to me as a novelty. DC in the 60s is very hit or miss and stands DEEP in the shadow of marvel. the 70s, however are a different story. Like Denny O'Neil or not (and i have mixed feelings), he did much to put DC on the path to 'interesting' and off the expressway to 'dated'.

For me, this is the era where i discovered super heroes. the super friends, mego toys, etc. all of this came from this era. also the drawings that were constantly used for merchandising were often Neal Adams or Dick Giordano. My Superman curtains were done by neal adams, NOT Dick Sprang. this is how i came to identify these characters. my mom likes to tell a story about how she made this awesome superman cape, but when i put it on, it was the wrong length and the only reason i knew this to be true was the work of these and similar artists which taught me what these characters looked like, and in my mind, that was gospel.

Anyway, this really created a tie for me...the root, in my early childhood. I find that these stories hold up remarkably well compared to many before and after, especially to my modern eye. By the 80s i was a Marvel fan. if you asked me who my favorite characters where, you'd get a list of DC characters, but if you looked at what i bought, it was marvel. Gorj. and i have talked about how in the Mid 80s Marvel and DC did a collection of comics outlining their characters and their various histories and abilities. this was a real education for me, and as i looked at both, i found the DC stuff to be remarkably more interesting and the marvel characters (except for the big guns) to be mostly clownish. While i read marvel almost exclusively, the history of comics to me seemed to be all about DC. when i thought back to the comics i remembered from Stuckey's grab bags, they were all 70s DC. they all seemed dark, ominous, and interesting. House of Mystery, House of Secrets, Detective Comics, Brave and the Bold, World's Finest. it was like someone had discovered dark ink. These are the comics i seem to covet most. Fortunately for my wife, there are nearly none of these at my local comic shop, so i rarely get to buy any, even just to read and give away.

The First in a Series...

Big Gray tipped me off to these. Writer Warren Ellis has posted a few gems on his site. bizarre comic panels that certainly tell a story. These are all, real, vintage comics from the 30s-60s. most are pretty damn funny.

I call this one "The Joker and his Problems":

Hunter S. Thompson On President Bush

From Salon:

Thompson claimed to know a thing or two about the president's partying past. In
an interview with The Independent in 2004, Thompson said he remembered meeting Bush at Thompson's Super Bowl party in Houston in 1974. He said that Bush was "with a guy who had come to sell . . . " but then cut himself off. "Look, I'm
not going to put this next sentence on the record. Let's just say that 'a friend of mine' was buying cocaine. I have friends in Houston from all walks of life. Lawyers. Professional men. Bush was hanging around with this crowd of what you might call gilded coke dilettantes."

Thompson's memory wasn't always the most reliable, and his story about his Houston encounter with Bush evolved over time. But in the 2004 telling of it, at least, Thompson said the future president had left an indelible impression on him. "He knew who I was, at that time, because I had a reputation as a writer," Thompson said. "I knew he was part of the Bush dynasty. But he was nothing, he offered nothing, and he promised nothing. He had no humor. He was insignificant in every way and consequently I didn't pay much attention to him. But when he passed out in my bathtub, then I noticed him. I'd been in another room, talking to the bright people. I had to have him taken away."

Not Dark Yet, But It's Getting There

There have been 2 occasions where I was upset with the death of someone I didn’t know. The first was Sinatra in May of 1998. I’d really become a big fan in short period of time...you know, the way art finds you, and not you it. The second occasion was yesterday when Hunter S. Thompson died.

Like most other people, I’d heard of him and of his work and never cared one way or the other. It wasn’t time. I started reading his first volume of letters in 2003 when I was spending more time in airports. I thought a book called "The Proud Highway" was remarkably appropriate. I was taken with the idea that there was something important out there for me to read I knew it was going to be by an American, and I knew it was probably going to be a Southerner. The final thing I needed was for it to be utterly modern and utterly relevant. How the hell do you go to the bookstore with THAT description and possibly get something you really want?

You don’t. The books pick you, my friend.

So I buy the book. As Hunter would say (about life), "Buy the ticket, take the ride". I knew I was onto something because of the way it FELT in my hand as I walked through the store. I was buying THIS book and some how it was a big damn deal. I better get two.

2003 fell into 2004 and I entered into perhaps one of the worst years of my life. At the same time, spirits were kept afloat by the Good Doctor. I couldn’t get my hands on enough HST books. Often reading them in and out of order. Often simultaneously, 3 at a time. For a man who’s writing is both fractured and inspired, I think I found this method indispensable. A HST book is rarely a story about "A" who does "B" and the resolution of that is the story. Its more like sitting for a spell in his head. I couldn’t decide if his work was reporting, editorial, or fiction. The answer is "Yes, it is". It’s being inside of someone’s head rummaging through the impulses, twists, and lies we all give ourselves. He just put his on paper, in a continual stream for his whole life. Books, articles, letters, thoughts...DAILY. He couldn’t get enough of it out of his head. I won’t tell you he’s influenced my writing. That’d be a lie. I know very well the difference between influence and ape.

I found something in his work because he wrote like I think. I’d never seen something show me myself so well. All the wonderful urgency and all the lurid wandering we allow ourselves when no one else can listen in on us. Sometimes the words seemed so remarkably honest that you’d be left thinking "no one would actually TELL you these things if they thought or DID them. Right?"

In 2004, HST was one of my lifelines to the world. It was my new discovery, and this was someone that still walked the earth. A tactile presence. I could meet him. I swear I could. I won’t.

One of Hunter’s favorite songs was "Ballad of a Thin Man" by Bob Dylan. I think of Hunter when I hear the words. They’re more his than Dylan’s to me.

"Something is happening here, but you don’t know what it is...
Do you, Mr. Jones?"
–Bob Dylan

I'm grateful Doc. Mahalo.

Take a LOOK at THESE!

This site has a bunch of AWESOME 50s style TV sets with Modern hardware. I think i've found what will go in my FUN room one day!

Popular Frontiers!

I've added this site to my select list of frenquented sites that i both read and recommend. Very insightful commentary on some of the most important topics in the work...heh. well, at least to me.

I know some of you guys out there also deserve a link and i hope to add you on soon. in the meantime, i offer my apologies.

Navy to Commission Attack Submarine Jimmy Carter

President Carter is a veteran of the US Navy's Submarine fleet. He has, since leaving office, done more than nearly all other former Presidents in working to spread fair elections and democracy around the globe. A true Statesman.

The Quotable Martini

I've been thinking about a re-do of the blog here. maybe even a name change. Mr. Mooch suggested the title above. you may see that around here soon enough...

Until then, I'll leave you with a few quotes:

**"The Sandwiches came and I ate three and drank a couple more martinis. I had never tasted anything so cool and clean. They made me feel civilized."
--Ernest Hemingway, A FAREWELL TO ARMS (1929).
--------------------------------
**"We shall drink to our partnership. Do you like gin? Its my only weakness"
--Dr. Pretorius in THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935).
--------------------------------
**"I lived near the main street of the quarter which is named Royal. Down this street, running on the same tracks, are two streetcars, one named Desire and the other named Cemetery. The indiscorageable progress up and down Royal struck me as having some symbolic bearing of a broad nature on life in the Vieux Carre--and everywhere else, for that matter."
--Tennessee Williams (1940).
-------------------------------
**Nora: Now how many drinks have you had?
Nick: This will make six Martinis.
Nora (to waiter): All right. Will you bring me five more martinis? line them right up here.
--Myrnal Loy & William Powell in (The BEST damn movie of all time) THE THIN MAN (1934).
-------------------------------
**"I should have never switched from scotch to martinis."
--Humphrey Bogart's last words.
------------------------------
**SALES MANAGER
intangible experience, must be able to move effectively at top management level and unerstand "Big Business" problems. Should be able to handle twelve martinis
--Want Ad(!), NEW YORK TIMES (1956).
------------------------------
**"The Affliction that is cutting down the productive time in the office and destroying the benign temper of most of the bartenders is the thing called the very dry martini. It is a mass madness, a cult, a frenxy, a body of folklore, a mystique, an expertise of a sort that may well earn for this decade the Glazed Fifties...Along every stretch of polished mahogany in public places in countless living rooms, there is no talk of the world crisis...only of how to get a martini really dry."
--C.B. Palmer in the NEW YORK TIMES (1952).
------------------------------
Here, here my boy. here, here!

Some News from the Martini Republic

Bowing to pressure from the "moral values" constituencies which fueled Bush's
narrow electoral victory last November, the Justice Department has issued guidelines on the handling and treatment of rape victims which do not include nformation on how to avoid being impregnated by rapists and being forced to either abort the fetus or carry it to term. Apparently it is now a "moral value" to conceal medical information from powerless victims.

These people can go straight to hell and you can tell them I said so.

GOP against America

More White House Sleaze:

The credentialed fake news reporter "Jeff Gannon" from fake news agency "Talon News" was recently outed as being a sham in the press. seems he was planted to toss softballs to the White House in press conferences. Well, it turns out that he was cited by the Washington Post as having the only access to an internal CIA memo which outed Joseph Wilson's wife (Valerie Plame) as a CIA spy (Doing his part for america!). Gannon, in questioning Wilson in an October 2003 interview, referred to the memo. The post reports that no other News outlet had access to this memo, soooo..... Gannon has been subsequently subpoenaed by the federal grand jury looking into the Plame outing. So now it comes out that a GOP plant in the press was being fed info that exposed a WORKING spy for the government. all to get back at her husband for publicly saying the President was lying...? again...just WHAT do you have to do around here to get impeached?

Mulletastic, Tony Stark!

I had no IDEA that Millionair Industrialist Tony Stark (aka Iron Man!) actually was with Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam in the 80s!

This Makes Me Happy

Bush wants to break the bank and 'overhaul' social security. given his record for fiscal responsibility, i think we'd all be better if he kept his damn hands outta the pot. well, it looks like it may just work out that way.

Rep. Charlie Rangel (D) of New York on Meet the Press:

"There is no Democrat in the House of Representatives, on my committee, that this president has reached out for. I'm telling you now, Social Security reform by the president is dead, and he killed it."

The Aviator -- Extraordinary

I've wanted to see this film for months and it was certainly worth the wait. I think it was done as well as anyone could have hoped to do in every possible way. I think Leonardo DiCaprio is long overdue for his oscar nomination here and (so far) has my vote. I will have to say that Hotel Rwanda might pull me away, as i'm a big Don Cheadle fan, but I tend to think pulling for those sorts of films can be somewhat of a cheap shot.

At any rate, Howard Hughes is someone i've always known bits and pieces about and most of what i knew, i didn't care for. I found the film's story sad, funny, scary, and sometimes triumphant. the film was outstanding down to EVERY last detail. I highly recommend it.

Sidenote:

I've been pretty wowed by the Previews for Kingdom of Heaven. click the link and watch the trailer.

Even Though Its Friday...

...It's been a Long Day. I spent much of my day giving other attorneys what for. Cases settled and arguments won. A good day but i'm glad its done.

Phone it In!!

This week there was a BIG Anti-Abortion rally right in front of the White House. The president was actually AT the White House at the time, but evidently couldn't be bothered to step outside, and PHONED the crowd to give his remarks.

You gave him the votes...but my dear...he doesn't respect you in the morning.

The Eye of God

This was taken by the Hubble Telescope. its been nicknamed "The Eye of God". It's actually a composite photo of the Helix Nebula.

Salon.com Technology -- Hallelujah, the Mac is back

I've been so struck with this new notion: having my computer work (well) all the time. that i'm seriously considering moving on to an Apple iMac for my next computer purchase. This will also help me to stop feeding the Microsoft beast. There's an interesting article above on this machine.

Weekly Review (Harpers.org)

Some of these are too good to just snip. read it all and know what happened in the world in one week:

Approximately eight million people turned out to vote in Iraq. International monitors gave the election their seal of approval, though all 129 of them stayed
inside Baghdad's Green Zone. [The New York Times] Security measures included
sealing the country's borders, banning travel between provinces, prohibiting private vehicle traffic, and imposing curfews in cities. [Reuters] Fake polling stations were set up with snipers positioned to guard the real ones, which were revealed 24 hours before opening. Many of the candidates kept their identities secret until election day, though two had made it known they were direct descendants of the Prophet Mohammed. [The New York Times] Iraqi insurgents, who had been promising death to anyone who came within five hundred yards of a polling station, [The New York Times] succeeded in carrying out nine suicide bombings, one of which was performed by a handicapped child. [Associated Press] Prominent Sunni leaders who boycotted the election said they would be happy to help the elected National Assembly draft the new constitution. [The New York Times] "Two of the great ironies of history," said President George W. Bush, "is there will be a Palestinian state and a democratic Iraq." [New York Times] World leaders gathered in Poland to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, where Dick Cheney was criticized for wearing a green parka with fur trim instead of the more somber black coats everyone else had on. [The Chicago Sun Times] Vladimir Putin noted that "as there were no good and bad fascists, there cannot be good and bad terrorists. Any double standards here are absolutely unacceptable and deadly dangerous for civilization." [The Globe and Mail] A group of Russian legislators demanded that Jewish organizations be investigated, and possibly closed down, for carrying out ritual killings and hate crimes against themselves. [The New York Times] Commercial flights opened between China and Taiwan for the first time in 55 years, [Reuters] and the government of Nepal shut down the Dalai Lama's offices in Kathmandu. [BBC News] More than 250 people were trampled or burned to death during a Hindu festival in western India when a stampeding riot was triggered by pilgrims slipping on spilled coconut milk. [The New York Times] China overtook the United States as Japan's biggest trading partner, [The Washington Post] and scientists discovered that drinking green tea turns mice into better swimmers. [CBC News]

An international task force of scientists, politicians, and business leaders warned
that the world has about ten years before global warming becomes irreversible. By then, average global temperatures will have risen two degrees Celsius since the start of the Industrial Revolution, resulting in major droughts, increased disease, and the termination of the North Atlantic Gulf Stream. [New Zealand Herald] Meteorologists were forecasting record thinning of northern Europe's ozone layer in the coming weeks, [BBC News] and astronomers concluded that Saturn's largest moon had all the ingredients for life. [Associated Press] Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist declared that biological warfare is "the greatest existential threat we face today." [Reuters] The world's first mad goat was diagnosed in France. [United Press International] At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Tony Blair and Bill Gates shared the stage with Bono and Bill Clinton and called for more aid to Africa. [The New York Times] Sharon Stone raised a million dollars for mosquito nets, [BBC News] and a
special dinner was organized to promote dialogue between the U.S. and Iran; the idea backfired when Senator Joseph Biden, the American representative, showed up
an hour and a half late, and wine was served to the Muslim guests. [CNN] Scientists solved the mystery of the Venus Flytrap. [The Boston Globe] Swaziland's King swati chose his thirteenth wife and sent her to South Africa for an AIDS test. [BBC News] Researchers found that fidgety people are less likely to be obese, [The New York Times] police in Rome were cracking down on unlicensed tour guides, [The New York Times] and Joseph Massino, the "Last Don" of New York, snitched on the mob. [The New York Times]

President Bush ordered his cabinet to stop paying off journalists after syndicated olumnist Maggie Gallagher admitted she had a $21,500 contract with the Health and Human Services Department to endorse the agency's marriage initiative. [The Washington Post] Two days later, another columnist admitted he'd been paid $10,000 for the same purpose. [The Globe and Mail] Scientists synthesized a pheromone produced by young women that helps post-menopausal ladies attract men. [The Globe and Mail] Social Security Administration workers testified that they had been ordered "to promote the idea that Social Security is in crisis and that Social Security privatization is the answer." [Reuters] Christian groups were threatening to withdraw their support from any privatization scheme whatsoever
unless Bush tries harder to ban gay marriage, [The New York Times] and chimpanzees were found to have a sense of fair play. [BBC News] Condoleezza Rice
was sworn in as secretary of state, despite Senator Mark Dayton's objection during her confirmation hearing that "I really don't like being lied to repeatedly, flagrantly, intentionally." [The New York Times] The Justice Department threw a going away party for John Ashcroft. His term in office, said one assistant, "served as a full employment program for cartoonists and pundits." [The New York Times] The Bush Administration requested an additional $80 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan this year, [The New York Times] totaling 13 times the Environmental Protection Agency's allotment, [Swissinfo] and making the 2005 budget deficit the biggest in history. [The New York Times] The State Department offended Mexico by issuing a travel warning along the border; [CNN] U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza tried to ease tensions by clarifying that "the wave of border violence is a result of successful efforts by President Fox's administration in the fight against organized crime." [Reuters] The Sudanese government dropped bombs on women and children in Darfur, [Reuters] and the European Union reestablished diplomatic ties with Sudan for the first time since 1990. [The New york Times] Commercial airlines were told they should be worrying about shoulder-fired missile attacks, [The New York Times] Human Rights Watch declared meatpacking to be "the most dangerous factory job in America," [The New York Times] and Ringo Starr was planning to become a cartoon superhero.

Iran says it Will Never Scrap Nuke Program and the State of the State of the Union

Iran will never scrap its nuclear program, and talks with Europeans are intended to protect the country's nuclear achievements, not negotiate an end to them, an Iranian official said Wednesday.

So, does this mean we're going to attack Iran since they're terrorist sponsors and openly developing WMD? Of course not! this president doesn't deal with nations who actually HAVE WMD's. that's not as good an election year PR stunt as a Manufactured crisis out of IRAQ!

Next manufactured crisis? Social Security! According to Bush, its on its last legs, and...wait...can you guess? it's a crisis! Actually, members of this agency testified under oath last week that the White House has been pressuring them to call it a crisis...Oh, did i mention 3 more conservative pundits/columnists have come out as being PAID by the White House (tax dollar$!) to promote the Bush political agenda in the media?

Just don't ask Bush why he's been raiding the Social Security Trust Fund to pay for his debt exploding budgets. And of course, no one wants to call this 'conservative' on his having the largest US debt in history. He must be busy fretting over gay marriage...i mean, its hard to keep up with that AND the whole future of our country and economy at the same time!

As for the State of the Union...lets keep it brief, shall we? Yay for elections in Iraq. now lets just see if this is the Bush cue to say 'thanks for a lovely evening' and dart in the house before we have to stay any longer. The problem with the bush speech, as well as the policy is that it is incoherent. we get righteous arguments (justifications) for wildly irresponsible policies and the reverse action on situations that clearly fulfill their claimed policy rationale. Think about it. Iraq MUST be invaded b/c they have WMD's...only they don't. when countries, some truly dangerous, are developing such weapons, we stick our heads in the sand (North Korea, Iran). What does this mean? the rationale was a lie. we don't go into Iran and North Korea because there IS a real danger of our boys (and girls) or innocent people being killed by such attacks. we went into Iraq w/o that fear because the threat of those weapons was a lie. not bad intel, and not imperfect data. it was a goddamned lie.

In Touch With America

This today from drudge. see how this fool sees the working poor:

BUSH: HOLDING THREE JOBS 'UNIQUELY AMERICAN'
Tues Feb 8 2005 9:27:01 ET

Last Friday when promoting social security reform with 'regular' citizens in Omaha, Nebraska, President Bush walked into an awkward unscripted moment in which he stated that carrying three jobs at a time is 'uniquely American.'

While talking with audience participants, the president met Mary Mornin, a woman in her late fifties who told the president she was a divorced mother of three, including a 'mentally challenged' son.

The President comforted Mornin on the security of social security stating that 'the
promises made will be kept by the government.'

But without prompting Mornin began to elaborate on her life circumstances.

Begin transcript:

MS. MORNIN: That's good, because I work three jobs and I feel like I contribute.

THE PRESIDENT: You work three jobs?

MS. MORNIN: Three jobs, yes.

THE PRESIDENT: Uniquely American, isn't it? I mean, that is fantastic that you're doing that. (Applause.) Get any sleep? (Laughter.)

Developing...

Filed By Matt Drudge...

The Super Bowl

I'll say this. the game wasn't half bad, but the ads...the much talked about super bowl ads...well, they really weren't very impressive at all. admittedly i did not see 100% of them, but i was shocked at how boring many were. I'd go so far as to say that there were more innovative and interesting ads on The Simpsons following the game.

hmpf

Iran Rejects What It Calls Rice's 'Threats'

Iran said on Sunday it was impervious to remarks by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice who accused Tehran's 'unelected mullahs' of a dismal human rights record and covering up efforts to build a nuclear bomb.

In remarks on Thursday, Rice made clear Washington was unwilling to become involved in European negotiations, which resume on Tuesday, to broker a deal that would offer economic incentives to Iran if it agreed to drop nuclear fuel production.

'Such threats will not have much effect on the Islamic Republic and we will continue our path of sovereignty, independence and saying no to hegemony,' Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told a news conference.

OK, so does anyone want to tell me what our policy IS in Iran? Rice recently said diplomacy over invasion (this week) but now says we're not to be part of the diplomacy that's going on. so what's the plan now?

OH CRAP! i forgot! we're talking about the BUSH White House here...They don't use plans.

The Wall Street Journal's fog of War

From Salon, snipped here:

The Wall Street Journal features a science column today that points out one of the dangers -- or, depending on your perspective, benefits -- of spreading false information: Even if you retract it, people sometimes believe it.

The Journal's Sharon Begley previews an about-to-be-released "international study" on perceptions about the Iraq war. Its conclusions: People believe what they want to believe. Researchers showed people a list of stories from Iraq. Some of them were true, but two of them -- stories saying that Iraqis had engaged in an uprising against Saddam Hussein's Baathist party in Basra and had executed Coalition prisoners of war -- were retracted as untrue shortly after they were first reported in the press. As Begley writes, the researchers found that people who were skeptical about the war discounted the false stories, while people who supported war didn't. "People who were not suspicious of the motives behind the war continued to rely on misinformation," one of the researchers said. Begley writes that people sometimes hold fast to false information when it "fits with their mental model," which people seek to retain "whatever it takes." She says it's a cautionary tale for journalists -- if you put out false information, people will continue to rely on it even if you later retract it.

We wonder if the Journal's editorial board is listening.

As the Columbia Journalism Review reported last year, the Journal's editorials in the run-up to the Iraq war were "hawkisk without a shade of doubt." The Journal said
that the war would be "above all about American self-defense," and that, if the United Nations wouldn't do it, the United States would have to act to "prevent the emergence of nuclear- and biological-armed chaos." When Colin Powell briefed the United Nations on the WMDs that turned out not to exist, the Journal declared the case airtight. "The Powell evidence will be persuasive to anyone who is still persuadable," the Journal wrote. "It proves that Saddam is defying the will of the U.N. one more time, hiding his weapons in the hope that the world will again lose its will to stop him. "

In her column today, Begley bemoans the fact that, "six months after the invasion, one-third of Americans believed WMDs had been found, even though every such tentative claim was disconfirmed." We wonder how they got that idea.

Lords of Order

Umm...for a Dr. Fate Fan, this is about as good as it gets.

Iran Tests Nuclear Trigger Mechanism

So by the Iraqi Rules of procedure, shouldn't we go ahead and invade? imagine that...suppose they gave a war, and no one comes.

*Ahem*

A Slovak man trapped in his car under an avalanche freed himself by drinking 60 bottles of beer and urinating on the snow to melt it.

Rescue teams found Richard Kral drunk and staggering along a mountain path four days after his Audi car was buried in the Slovak Tatra mountains.
He told them that after the avalanche, he had opened his car window and tried to dig his way out. But as he dug with his hands, he realised the snow would fill his car before he managed to break through. He had 60 half-litre bottles of beer in his car as he was going on holiday, and after cracking one open to think about the problem he realised he could urinate on the snow to melt it, local media reported.

He said: 'I was scooping the snow from above me and packing it down below the window, and then I peed on it to melt it. It was hard and now my kidneys and liver hurt. But I'm glad the beer I took on holiday turned out to be useful and I managed to get out of there.'

Parts of Europe have this week been hit by the heaviest snowfalls since 1941, with some places registering more than ten feet of snow in 24 hours.

The Dominoed Dare-Doll!

DAG yo! everybody knows!

Time HAS Come Today.

Moses lead his people and mine shall be let too.

Time has come today
Young hearts can go their way
Can't put it off another day
I don't care what others say
They say we don't listen anyway
Time has come today
(Hey)

Oh
The rules have changed today (Hey)
I have no place to stay (Hey)
I'm thinking about the subway (Hey)
My love has flown away (Hey)
My tears have come and gone (Hey)
Oh my Lord, I have to roam (Hey)
I have no home (Hey)
I have no home (Hey)

Now the time has come (Time)
There's no place to run (Time)
I might get burned up by the sun (Time)
But I had my fun (Time)
I've been loved and put aside (Time)
I've been crushed by the tumbling tide (Time)
And my soul has been psychedelicized (Time)

(Time)
Now the time has come (Time)
There are things to realize (Time)
Time has come today (Time)
Time has come today (Time)

Time [x11]

Oh
Now the time has come (Time)
There's no place to run (Time)
I might get burned up by the sun (Time)
But I had my fun (Time)
I've been loved and put aside (Time)
I've been crushed by tumbling tide (Time)
And my soul has been psychedelicized (Time)

(Time)
Now the time has come (Time)
There are things to realize (Time)
Time has come today (Time)
Time has come today (Time)

Time [x4]
Yeah

one of my favorites

such a good story and a better cartoon.

Hide-A-Way Bar Party at the Starlite Room

i'd straight up kill somebody for this bad boy.

Fantastic Four Movie

The trailer is out. I like it. the Thing stuff looks great and very FF #1-4 Kirby style! i'm pleased so far.

For Christssake!

You probably need to see this.

WWJD?

Sin City!

Sin City is coming. Check out the trailer. the look is DEAD on. As I understand it, Robert Rodreguiz felt he should share directing credit because of the massive input of Frank Miller in this project. when The Director's Guild protested, he resigned his membership rather than slight Miller. You'll know if you've seen the comic that this looks pretty amazing.

Here's some Trivia from IMDB:

After a poor Hollywood experience in the early-'90s, Frank Miller refused to relinquish the movie rights to any of his comic works, "Sin City" in particular. Robert Rodriguez, a longtime fan of the comic, filmed his own "audition" for the director's spot in secret. The footage, shot in early 2004, featured Josh Hartnett and Marley Shelton acting out the "Sin City" short-story "The Customer is Always Right". He presented the finished footage to Miller with the proclamation: "If you like this, this will be the opening to the movie. If not, you'll have your own short film to show your friends." Miller approved of the footage and the film was underway. Rodriguez also screened the footage for each of the actors he wanted to cast in the film - all of whom are reported to have been instantly amazed.

Based on the graphic novels "Sin City" (this was the first of all the stories and originally had no title, but Miller has since re-named it "The Hard Good-Bye"), "The Big Fat Kill" and "That Yellow Bastard", by Frank Miller. The infamous "opening footage" with Josh Hartnett and Marley Shelton is from the Sin City short-story "The Customer is Always Right" from the "Babe Wore Red" collection.

'Robert Rodriguez' scored Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004) for $1. Quentin Tarantino said he would repay him by directing a segment of this movie for $1. Tarantino, a vocal proponent of film-over-digital, has said that he was curious to get hands-on experience with the HD cameras which Rodriguez lauds. When asked about his experience, Tarantino merely replied, "Mission Accomplished."

Before We Start Talking About the Oscars in Earnest...

Can anyone tell me why the Academy overlooked Fahrenheit 9/11 but included TUPAC: RESURESCTION which was released in 2003!?! What a snub! they're including films over a year out of date!

A quick look at the nominees shows that nearly all came from the latter half of 2004.

Bono on the Presidents

Bono on showing up at the White House the first time, years ago, to meet with President Clinton:

"I think [the staffers] thought I was there [to do the] carpentry. I thought ... [Clinton] looked more like a pop star than I did. And I thought he might be thinking that, too."

On Bush:

The U2 front man still laughs about the meeting where Dubya had to pound his fist to distract the rocker from his own eloquence about the AIDS crisis.

"He banged the table at me once when I was ranting at him about" AIDS drugs," Bono recalls. "He banged the table to ask me to let him reply.

"I was very impressed that he could get so passionate. And let's face it, tolerating an Irish rock star is not a necessity of his office."

another Tidbit:

Growing up, Bono ate airline food every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner - because his brother worked for an airline.