YOU'RE BUSY, YOU'VE GOT THINGS TO DO

Drop everything! EV Nova's out for the PC!

THE HIGHLIGHT OF THIS GUY'S (OR ANYBODY'S) CAREER

"Have you lost your mojo?" CNN's Jamie McIntyre asked Rumsfeld during a Pentagon briefing.

BARRISTAS DON SCARIEST COSTUMES

Must report a frighteningly subtle costume my local indy cafe barristas donned this morning at Still Life Cafe; with Fremont infested by no less than three of the green unholies (in the form of Torrefazione, Peets, and La Bete itself), they all put on Starbucks bibs. It was perfect - took about five seconds to realize our sweet, cheerful latte-slingers sported the mark of Starbucks (insert appropriate german word) , and just as the dawning horror began to grip you they spilled the beans, so to speak. Scared the crap out of everyone.

NEWS EVENTS GETTING IN WAY OF NEWS REPORTING

Drinkie McDumbass blames bias in the media for weaking Americans' support for the war in Iraq. To help remove the "media filter" he's got a great idea to filter the media.

Bill Hemmer from CNN (you know, the one with the dreamboat eyes that open all the way to the back of his head and the brains of a bag of hammers) got off more breathtaking stupidity when talking with NPR reporter Anne Garrels and later with TNR editor Peter Beinart (full transcript for those with strong stomatch) including this gem:

"Peter, I think there's two sides of that coin. If you're saying it's actually worse than being reported, could it also be better than what's being reported also, if you consider that these reporters, many of them tell us they want to go cover the new school opening, but they can't because there's another bombing or shooting and that prevents them from sending that story? "

[ It's sad when you go to the tailor but can't show off the clothes... -MF ]

QUIZ TIME: WHO WROTE THIS?

"The terms of the current debate are skewed. Environmental protection and economic growth are not mutually exclusive. In fact, in the long run, they are mutually reinforcing. Understanding this requires that we transcend the current zero-sum thinking about climate change and make the correct cost comparison. The question is not whether the costs of doing business will rise if emissions caps are imposed. The real question is how much it will cost business - and the American people - in the near future if we fail to tackle this growing threat now."

Hint: Answer is to your right.

I'LL BET NO CURRENT WESTERN LEADER COULD EVEN NAME THE PLAY

Speaking on the eve of his retirement, Mahathir was modest about his place in history.

"As Shakespeare said, the evil that men do lives after them and the good is oft interred with their bones."

HOLD MY CALLS

I'm in ninja training.

TECHNOLOGY AGAIN IMPROVES LIFE


Israel, Responding partly to the Death of Rachel Corrie, Goes for Robot Bulldozers on Auto-Destroy

Next, you can expect Remote Operated Orthodox Rabbis (ROORS), Self-Destroying Suicide Bomb Regulators (also known as "Clocks") and replacement of actual Mideast Leaders with the Cycle of Violence and Stalled Talks AI (Artificial Intransigence) Simulator.

[The German language is great at providing Eerie Moments. Totungsautomaten were marvels of Teutonic linguistic and engineering efficiency. These "automatic killing machines" used to line the border between the old GDR and FRD. Perhaps Israel could pick up a few on the cheap. SE]

MAHATHIR: MY COUNTRY IS AN ETHNIC TINDERBOX, GOODBYE

"We have seen how many other multi-ethnic societies have failed because each race places its own interest first before the interest of the nation. If we are not careful we too will fail and be destroyed," he said.

FORMER GE CEO: ECONOMIC RECOVERY IGNORED BECAUSE OF DEMOCRATS, MEDIA

Taking a break from Harvard Business Review staff-diddling, he writes in today's WSJ:

"Guess what? There is an economic recovery under way, but you never would have known it last week when earnings reports came out. Even though many companies from battered sectors - including some companies left for dead just two or three years ago - recorded positive results, their successes were almost universally reported with the word 'BUT' prominently featured... The fact is, a recovery will be a lot harder if we keep saying 'but' about damn good news.

"[In the bubble] many people in the media had hyped companies that flamed out because they were based on unrealistic business models or turned out to be rotten to the core. They felt burned too. Today, when the media reports good news, it feels safer to stick "but" in every sentence.

"And frankly, what would be worse for the Democrats right now than an economic recovery? That's an awful big battle to lose as the election approaches."

DR. Z USES THE WORDS "JOHN KITNA" AND "PRO BOWL" IN THE SAME SENTENCE

Break up the Bengals!

NELLY'S "BLING-BLING" REDUCED TO JUST "BLING"

MINERS SAFE, OTHER MINERS NOT...

OK, this is inspiring. But this take a little bit of the sheen off.

Putin apparently called to ask why rescue efforts were going so slowly. No word on whether they mentioned to him that they haven't been paid since March.

IT'S VIAGRA DAY

Big celebration at HQ.

WATCH OUT FOR THAT CLOUD...

PERHAPS...A LETTER-WRITING CAMPAIGN?

Yahoo! News - Saudis Spending to Improve Image in U.S.: "WASHINGTON - Saudi Arabia has spent $17.6 million on public relations, advertising and lobbying since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, hoping to convince Americans it is committed to fighting terrorism although 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi citizens, Justice Department (news - web sites) records show. "

WTF!? AGAIN

AIDS, sex scientists on federal list fear their research is in jeopardy.

[This list was obviously generated in response to extensive studies demonstrating that limiting knowledge of sexuality to rumors among 7th graders prevents AIDs. -PWP]

IT'S NOT OFTEN I LAUGH OUT LOUD AT SOMETHING NOT ABOUT POOP OR FARTS
A bit off topic, I apologize, but I had a real need for this after today's news.

Quantas Airline pilots' Problems and mechanics' Solution reports.

P: Left inside main tire almost needs replacement.
S: Almost replaced left inside main tire.

P: Test flight OK, except auto-land very rough.
S: Auto-land not installed on this aircraft.

P: Something loose in cockpit.
S: Something tightened in cockpit.

P: Dead bugs on windshield.
S: Live bugs on back-order.

P: Autopilot in altitude-hold mode produces a 200 feet per minute descent.
S: Cannot reproduce problem on ground.

P: Evidence of leak on right main landing gear.
S: Evidence removed.

P: DME volume unbelievably loud.
S: DME volume set to more believable level.

P: Friction locks cause throttle levers to stick.
S: That's what they're there for.

P: IFF inoperative.
S: IFF always inoperative in OFF mode.

P: Suspected crack in windshield.
S: Suspect you're right.

P: Number 3 engine missing.
S: Engine found on right wing after brief search.

P: Aircraft handles funny.
S: Aircraft warned to straighten up, fly right, and be serious.

P: Target radar hums.
S: Reprogrammed target radar with lyrics.

P: Mouse in cockpit.
S: Cat installed.

P: Noise coming from under instrument panel. Sounds like a midget pounding on something with a hammer.
S: Took hammer away from midget.

MAP OF THAT FIRE

Map from the LA Times.

FIRST GOP PUSH-POLL OF THE SEASON

Ah, good. Let's see here...(feel free to annotate with your own responses, gang!)...

DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL SECURITY
1. Do you support President Bush's initiatives to promote the safety and security of all Americans?
MF - Sure. But I wouldn't put pursuing a family vendetta with the U.S. armed forces in that category.
PWP - No. I believe we are becoming fat and lazy enough already.

2. Do you support the use of air strikes against any country that offers safe harbor or aid to individuals or organizations committed to further attacks on America?
MF - Yes. Unless you mean France.
PWP - Would this include Georgetown?

3. Do you continue to support increasing the amount of security at airports, train stations and all government buildings including monuments and museums?
MF - Yes, when do you plan to start? I also hope security can be increased in these additional places:
1) The world.
2) My house.
3) Baghdad.
Good luck on those.

PWP- You know, I was at the fucking COAST GUARD museum the other day, and there was so much FUCKING security it took three military escorts and two phone calls just to get in the FUCKING DOOR to see the FUCKING COAST GUARD stuff. Jeez! Like AL-FUCKING QAIDA'sgoing to blow up the motherfucking Seattle Coast Guard Museum. It's like some hyper-wicked paronia you might get if you were coming down from years of gargatuan OXYCONTIN ABUSE. What are we going to do, surround everyone, everywhere, with everything we've got? Frankly, I suspect you fascist cum dumpsters are going close off the Lincoln, Jefferson and Roosevelt memorials just so people will forget what a real president is like, and god forbid we might make it easy to blow up the Whitney. You can probably get a grant for that, anyway.

ECONOMIC ISSUES
1. Should the Inheritance or "Death Tax" be permanently repealed?
MF - Certainly, I believe the time is right for a thorough and systematic review of our tax system, identifying loopholes and irregularities that subsidize certain citizens at the expense of the majority, and I would hope that this would be comprehensive and undertaken in a bipartisan spirit with a view toward the long-term fiscal health of the nation. I'm assuming that's what you mean.
PWP-Yes, as soon as we cure death.

2. Do you support President Bush's tax plan recently passed by Congress to create more jobs and improve the economy?
MF - I haven't checked but I assume unemployment has virtually disappeared as a result of this initiative.
PWP- Was that the Resolution declaring National RV Week?

3. Should small businesses be encouraged to grow and hire more workers?
MF - Let me answer your question with a question. Should tax cheats get special benefits from the government?

PWP- As we all know, all small business are run by bored lawyer's wives or social maladroits who worked their way out of the upper middle class. I say, socialize key industries, like insurance, donuts, and furry-costume porn.

EDUCATION ISSUES
1. Do you support President Bush's plan to make our schools more accountable to parents and to restore local control of education?
MF - I know there are some people who will welcome this, particularly those who believe that:
1) Evolution is a fraud.
2) The value of Pi is exactly 3 (it's on page 60).
3) The earth is flat.
It is high time the government stopped interfering in these people’s efforts to bring up their children properly.

PWP- Yes, fine. Now lay down the Benjamins you promised, you lying Tool.

2. Should students, teachers, principals and administrators be held to higher standards?
MF - Yes, no child should be allowed to graduate from high school without:
1) Passing a test of elementary logical fallacies, particularly the appeal to authority.
2) Explaining in clear terms why the 1st Amendment is important.
3) Being able to find Panama and Iraq on a map.

PWP- No, lower standards. Everyone should just memorize "Bridges of Madison County." Life is too stressful.

3. Do you agree that teaching our children to read and increasing literacy rates should be a national priority?
MF - It worked wonders for Mao and Castro. Of course if you don't want a population of literate slave robots, I suggest you supplement this with a careful teaching of the pernicious methods used by the powerful to subvert democracy through history.

PWP - You mean it isn't?

SOCIAL ISSUES
1. Do you support President Bush's initiative to allow private religious and charitable groups to do more to help those in need?
MF - Sure, as long as they're not Moslems. Or atheists. Or have some kind of weird eco-feminist ideology…

PWP -Yes. Seize Salt Lake City and give it to the homeless.

2. Should we ban partial-birth abortion?
MF - If that's all it takes to put this divisive and bitter issue behind us, go ahead. Then we can get down to the real work.

PWP - With exceptions for extreme cases of the emotionally immature.

DEFENSE ISSUES
1. Do you think U.S. troops should have to serve under United Nations’ commanders?
MF - Certainly not! My men are still bitter over Montgomery’s patronizing demeanor at the Battle of the Bulge.

PWP- Serve what exactly?

2. Do you think that the U.S. should modernize our national defense to meet the challenges of the 21st century?
MF - Yes, I share Secretary Rumsfeld's concern that entrenched interests will twist the system to their own advantage, overemphasizing grandiose weapons systems and blocking attempts to develop an efficient fighting force.

PWP- Absolutely Not. I believe the greater honor lies in excellent cavalry and superior swordsmanship.

3. Do you support the President's plan to increase military spending to meet our defense needs?
MF - I think I've already answered the question.

PWP-Puppies for the Marines!

4. Should we build President Reagan's SDI defense shield against nuclear missile attack?
MF - Yes, but I hope Bush has better luck than Reagan did convincing the Russians to unite with us against the alien invaders.

PWP- Yes, using the secret laws of physics the Pentagon has been sitting on. (Thank you, wag at MIT.)

REPUBLICAN PARTY
1. Do you support the election of Republican candidates across the country and rebuilding our majorities over the next ten years?
MF - That sounds like compromising talk to me, and I don't like it one bit.

PWP- I support their election to the "Unholy Council of Robber Barrons and Inquisitors."


2. a. Did you vote in the year 2000?

MF - Yes, though it didn't help much.
PWP- Yes, but not apparantly in a democracy.

b. Did you vote in the year 2002?

MF-Oh yes. See you next year.
PWP- Yes, after a long day of crack use, communist advocacy, secularizing Seattle, striking work, and sexual debauchery, I voted for a number of anti-American traitors and seditious vivisectionists, all of whom, being in Washington, won.

THE BAND IS PLAYING SOMEWHERE, AND SOMEWHERE HEARTS ARE LIGHT...

"The Bengals beat NFC West-leading Seattle 27-24 because - get this - they knew they were going to win. 'I don't think there was any doubt in anybody's mind that we were going to walk off the field a winner,' decided Brian Simmons. It is as if the 2003 Bengals recently arrived from another planet."

["Kitna's Revenge" -CCPC]

HIGHLY APPROPRIATE WORK OF ART FOR SO. CAL TODAY

Ed Ruscha's Painting at the Hirshhorn

MORE GOOD PR

Sort of weird being opposed to religious extremism when you're a religious extremist...

DAMMIT, WE'RE OFF-DEMOGRAPHIC AGAIN

Research group Perseus says the typical blog is written by a teenage girl who updates it about twice a month.

SPEAKING OF ICEMEN

Allow me to recommend Njal's Saga, undoubtedly an original source for LOR, and full of fighting, sex, vengence, pirates and a surprising number of Priest-Warrior-Attorneys settling Viking lawsuits. Two excellent moments - bad sex caused by a well-aimed curse by the Queen of Norway causes a 300 year blood feud; and a particularly murderous cad looks at his arm, which has just been removed by an axe, and comments that his hand has certainly caused a lot of trouble and having it cut off was probably a good thing. Bloodthirsty, but thoughtful.

EXCELLENT NAME SUGGESTIONS (I particularly like Omnivorous, Trixie, and Insouciant);

A couple of others:

Ingenue

Nutmeg of Consolation

Phoebi (the original name, worn off)

And will, for the Kill Bill fans, regrettable rule out:

Pussy Wagon

YOU CAN ARGUE ABOUT DEFINITIONS OF MASCULINITY

But this guy qualifies.

MEMO TO HALLIBURTON

This attempt to improve your public image is bad for your public image.

[In a memo dated October 17, company President Dave Lesar lambasted what he called "unfounded" criticism against the company and asked its 100,000 employees to get out Halliburton's message "in a thoughtful, non-confrontational manner.

LOOK FOR "WINKY, THE HALLIBURTON SPOKES-BEAR" -PWP]

HELP NAME MY BOAT

Huzzah! I have a little sailboat! Now I need to name it. It's blue, wood, 14 ft, ancient, it surprisingly excellent condition, and I traded a study for a painting. It is both homely and grand, based on a LIDO 14, with actual canvas sails, and has two, count 'em, daggerboards which look exactly like the giant fake knives magicians with moustaches use to slice women in two. It spent time in the Bay, actually, before it moved here.

1. Indefatigable
2. Pookie
3. Meat Product (Water Added )

[A few ideas:

- Speedy (Lord Cochrane's brig that took the Spanish frigate El Gamo under the command of Russell Crowe)
- Omnivorous
- The Office ("tell the Dean I'll be at The Office")
- Annihilationator
- Pontificationist
- Insouciant (my favorite of these)
- Agamemnon (Nelson's first command)
- Defiant
- Badger (a good name for a tough boat, also a Nelson command)
- Constitution (no one else honors it, why not you?)

- MF ]

[ Huzzah, indeed! The other suggestions leave scant room for a topper.
- The Penetrator
- Prussian Blue
- Trixie
- Cockboat!

-CCPC ]

[ - Defatigable
- Napoleon Solo
and so obvious...Huzzah!. I mean, name the boat Huzzah. SE]

NO FOOD, NO HEAT, NO WATER, BUT...

...at least we've got gum.

MAXIDOUBLEPLUSGOODSPEAK

Demographers have discovered a group known as "cultural creatives" who are something like brights. (Insert Jeff Foxworthy here): "If yew've ever drunk a glass of water...and wondered if it was pumped from a rapidly-vanishing underground aquifer, further endangering our fragile ecosystem...then yew might just be a cultural creative."

(My favorite Jeff Foxworthy line is: "If your family tree....does not fork...then yew might just be a redneck.")

DOUBLEPLUSGOOD SPEAK

You may no longer refer to me by the perjoratives "agnostic" or "atheistic" or "secular humanist." I am now a "bright". Next up, "Truth and Meme-ing."

USEFUL PHRASES FOR AMERICANS IN PHRANCE

When we travel abroad, we're all ambassadors for our country.

Some people compare Bush to a cowboy.
Quelques gens comparent Bush à un cowboy.
But that’s an insult to real cowboys.
Mais cela’le s une insulte aux vrais cowboys.
Real cowboys have to work for a living.
Les vrais cowboys doivent travailler pour un habiter.
Real cowboys don’t lie about weapons and uranium.
Les vrais cowboys ne trompent pas des armes et de l'uranium.
I have a special name for our President.
J'ai un nom préféré pour lui.
It’s hard to translate. He’s a lame ass, like you might get at McDonalds.
C'est dur à traduire. Il est un cul inférieur, comme à McDonalds.
I call him Drinky McDumb Ass.
Je l'appelle D'idiot D'ivrogne McCul
I didn’t vote for him.
Je n'ai pas voté pour lui.
But then, most Americans did not vote for him either.
Mais alors, la plupart des Américains n'ont pas voté pour lui ou.
Once we had a democracy in America. Do you remember hearing about it? It was a while ago.
Nous avions anciennement une démocratie dans l'Amérique. Vous jamais l'avez entendu parler de? C'était il y a longtemps.
Before Drinky’s father chose the judges.
Avant du père de D’ivrogne McCul a choisi nos justices.
Do you remember his father? He was the one who sold weapons to Saddam.
Vous vous souvenez de son père? Il était le celui qui a vendu des armes à Saddam.
He used to run the CIA.
Il a dirigé anciennement le CIA
In France you have the Academy of Literature and Fiction. In the United States, we have the CIA.
En france vous avez l'Académie de Littérature et de Fiction. Aux états-unis, nous avons le CIA.
They are similar but the CIA costs more.
Ils sont similaires mais le CIA coûte plus.


[Tres Amusant, petite pomme de California -PWP

WHO NEEDS SPORTS...

When you've got San Francisco politics?

Willie just got out-Willied...

I'm sitting here with my absentee ballot working through the propositions (Borrow a lot of money to fix up schools? Umm, OK, but you're gonna pay that back, right?... Rewrite the city's ethics code? Why bother when you can't even enforce the damn corruption laws...? Lifetime taxi medallions? I don't think so...)

But the real fun starts when you go to the Democrat and Republican websites and get their soundbytes on the propositions. My particular favorite is the common-sensical Prop J, authored by Angela Alioto, which would keep homeless kids and seniors in separate shelter space from the rougher homeless types. The GOP knows there's something wrong with this because Alioto wrote it, but what? Their objection is that it provides "Mandated Separate Facilities for homeless". OIC - it shouldn't be mandated, that would be dictatorship. Let the free market decide where homeless children should sleep...

Meanwhile the Dems see no inconsistency between raising the minimum wage to $8.50 and opposing an anti-panhandling measure; and at the same time starting a commission to promote small business. Ten bucks says the commission's first report will observe that labor costs in the city are high and small business owners complain a lot about winos hassling the customers...


[It's worse than you think. The plan is not to start a commission on small business, it's to transfer some control of the existing commission from Da Mayor to the board of Supes. The arguments, of course, just talk about how much we need the commission, which begs about nine questions, one of which is, which lever do I pull to kill the whole damn thing. SE]

Michelle, Please Post Useful Phrases for Americans in Phrance.

PROJECT FUCKING WITH THE AI: GOING LEFT

Now we've got Kerry for Pres, and the Participatory Democracy plug. I say it was the hot teen cheerleaders.

THE SOONG REMAINS THE SAME

Here's a bit more on Madame Chiang's wacky, zany family. Her sister married Sun Yat Sen, and her son appears to have absconded with the Chinese central bank at one point... According to this book, they still control a good-sized chunk of the world.

THE 100 GRIT PHONEME

This contrasts somewhat with my intiial college class teaching instructions, about 15 minutes of "make sure you get these forms filled in on time," and " don't sleep with the students, at least not until grades are turned in."

[You mean you didn't get a copy of the same chart I did, showing which parts of students' bodies can be touched? SE Nota bene: From the second cervical vertebra to the seventh thoracic vertebra, including scapular processes but specifically excluding the triangle of auscultation]

ANOTHER REASON FOR MY CAREER DESPAIR

Amongst the plethora of nearly content-free requirements for public school teachers is a little exam called the "Reading Instruction Competence Assessment (R)." It's known as RICA (but oughta be RICO) in the field, where folks seem to think acronyms are adequate disguises for bullshit.

An exerpt:
Domain II: Developing phonological and other linguistic processes
Content Area 3: Phonemic Awareness
"...teacher promotes students' understanding that words are made up of sound and achieves this goal by delivering appropriate, motivating instruction, both implicitly and explicity, in auditory awareness and sound discrimination, phoneme awareness (rhyme, blend, substitute, segment, and delete using phonemes, onsets, rimes, letters, letter combinations, syllables and morphemes), and word awareness (recognition of word boundaries)."

How is this done? According to the sample exam question regarding Domain II, Content Area 3, students should cut letters out of sandpaper.

It costs $360 to take this exam.

As the CCPC aptly put it, "Some fields just shouldn't allow people to get a Ph.D."

SOLAR FLARE

Be advised, cell phone users.

I CAN'T BELIEVE HIS FEELINGS WEREN'T SINCERE

Brian Urlacher dumps Paris Hilton. Paris, broken-hearted, now dating the JV.

HOT NEW STREET EXPRESSIONS

"Slicker than Frank Quattrone."
"Sharper than Quattrone's lawyer."
"More confused than the Quattrone jury."
"He pulled a Quattrone on 'em."
"Easy Street? Hell, I'm on Quattrone Street!"

A MOMENT OF SILENCE

Love her or hate her, this woman was on stage for the whole show, and she was a major influencer of U.S. policy toward China after WWII. See also Jiang Qing, the "White-Boned Demon". Link to the Chinese propaganda poster pages added here and to the right (PWP check out the Huxian painters).

THE ECONOMIST: OIL TO SOON BE OBSOLETE

Hydrogen fuel cells and other ways of storing and distributing energy are no longer a distant dream but a foreseeable reality. Switching to these new methods will not be easy, or all that cheap, especially in transport, but with the right policies it can be made both possible and economically advantageous. Unfortunately, many of the rich world's governments—and above all the government of America, the world's biggest oil consumer—are reluctant to adopt the measures that would speed the day when the Saudis' worst fears come true.

[Energy has not been The Economist's strong suit, however. They had a cover with the caption "Awash in Oil" and an article about how oil would be cheap indefinitely, right before oil prices started climbing.]

DUMBSTRUCK

MEL GIBSON'S JESUS STRUCK BY LIGHTING - TWICE

[Geez guy, get the hint... -MF]

The Top Ad -

Probably the only GOP come-on also featuring a Dead Kennedys search.

INSERT YOUR OWN PUNCHLINE AT THE END THERE

When Orson Welles first saw Sam Peckinpah's Cross of Iron (1977) he cabled Peckinpah that it was the best anti-war film he had ever seen about the "ordinary enlisted man". Although Peckinpah's earlier film Major Dundee (1965) deals with some of the ramifications of the US Civil War, Cross of Iron establishes its story firmly in the front line of war, depicting its horrors and the psychological damage it inflicts on its participants. Made in Yugoslavia on a low budget, this sombre and claustrophobic film deals with a German reconnaissance platoon involved in the retreat from the Russian front. A commercial failure in America, it was released in Europe in the spring of 1977 to rave reviews. In Germany it was awarded a Bambi and, ironically, it became the biggest grossing film in Germany and Austria since The Sound of Music (Robert Wise, 1965).

["I am 17, going out Nazi-ing, Baby, no time to Vait-"] -PWP

SHAMELESS ATTEMPT TO LURE UMA THURMAN TO EISENGEISTE THROUGH LONG-SHOT GOOGLE SEARCH

ETHAN HAWKE WHACK-A-MOLE ETHAN HAWKE WHACK-A-MOLE

ETHAN HAWKE WHACK-A-MOLE ETHAN HAWKE WHACK-A-MOLE

ETHAN HAWKE WHACK-A-MOLE ETHAN HAWKE WHACK-A-MOLE

ETHAN HAWKE WHACK-A-MOLE ETHAN HAWKE WHACK-A-MOLE

ETHAN HAWKE WHACK-A-MOLE ETHAN HAWKE WHACK-A-MOLE

ETHAN HAWKE WHACK-A-MOLE ETHAN HAWKE WHACK-A-MOLE

AI BAITING II

Kung fu Action Grip Kung Fu Action Grip Kung Fu Action Grip Kung Fu Action Grip Kung fu Action Grip Kung Fu Action Grip Kung Fu Action Grip Kung Fu Action Grip

Wagner's Ring Cycle Shop Wagner's Ring Cycle Shop Wagner's Ring Cycle Shop Wagner's Ring Cycle Shop Wagner's Ring Cycle Shop Wagner's Ring Cycle Shop

Advanced Missile Delivery System Advanced Missile Delivery System Advanced Missile Delivery System Advanced Missile Delivery System Advanced Missile Delivery System Advanced Missile Delivery System

George F. Will Hot Tub Party George F. Will Hot Tub Party George F. Will Hot Tub Party George F. Will Hot Tub Party George F. Will Hot Tub Party George F. Will Hot Tub Party George F. Will Hot Tub Party George F. Will Hot Tub Party

Precious Moments Neo-Con Figurines Precious Moments Neo-Con Figurines Precious Moments Neo-Con Figurines
Precious Moments Neo-Con Figurines Precious Moments Neo-Con Figurines Precious Moments Neo-Con Figurines




Uma Thurman's Phone Number
Uma Thurman's Phone Number
Uma Thurman's Phone Number
Uma Thurman's Phone Number
Uma Thurman's Phone Number

TARANTINO VS. PECKINPAH SHOWDOWN

I say we get drunk and watch 'em all! Who's with me?

The Masterpiece Category: Pulp Fiction vs. Cross of Iron

The Unblinking Camera Category: Reservoir Dogs vs. Straw Dogs

Slaughterfest Category: Kill Bill vs. The Wild Bunch

Incoherent Road Movie Category: Natural Born Killers (Q was original screenwriter) vs. Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia

Embarrassing Television Episode Category: 1988 "Golden Girls" episode vs. 1961 "The Dick Powell Show" episode

[I'm there! - except physically, at the moment. I have plans. -Potentate]

GOOD INFO

If you need to over Niagara Falls, this chart highlights best technology. Note color-coded fatalities.

Case Study: Pulp Fiction.

I have never been one of those civil libertarians who said violence in art makes no difference; this is tantamount to say art makes no difference. But Kill Bill goes to enormous and entertaining lengths to demonstrate that it exists in a movie world - there is no comparison with such life-sucking drivel as TX chainsaw. The world it forms is beyond stylish, vritually CGI free, by the way (QT said that if he wanted computer graphiucs he'd go home and stick his dick in the Nintendo), and needless to say, one watches Uma Thurman committing the violence.

Pulp Fiction's considerable and shocking violence, really far more disturbing than Kill Bill, was ameliorated by this same technique: black and white rear-screen projection, "Red Apple" cigarettes. It's sort of a purification of this idea, extending to the dialogue-light script - like I tell my students, it helps to see what happens when you give up what you're good at.

What this movie does is carefull distill and perfect what is fasicnating and entertaining about Gung-Fu movies. I learned yesterday, by the way, that Bruce Lee used to lecture in philosphy at Berkeley.

I HAVEN'T SEEN KILL BILL BECAUSE I KNOW IT'S CRAP

I knew Sam Peckinpah. Sam Peckinpah was a friend of mine. And you, sir, are no Sam Peckinpah.

Just to keep the conversation fair and balanced, I've added a link to the Slashdot "Voices from Hellmouth" thread, here and to the right.

[I know you've never seen a Sam Peckinpah movie, either. -CCPC]

[I saw Straw Dogs, and it sucked. Tarantino makes Peckinpah look like Orson Welles. Not that I would ever provoke an argument about it, or anything. -MF]

NEW SPORT: AI BAITING (SEE POST BELOW)

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MY BLOG THINKS I'M GAY

Perhaps you've noticed that the Blogspot ad frame at the top of this page targets contents based on the content of our blog. Until very recently, Blogspot's ad-targeting software thought Eisengeiste was a Seahawks fan blog. Now, it thinks we're a bunch of Republicans.

It's this kind of thing that makes me think artificial intellegence is still a ways off. Then again, I went to Amazon.com a couple of minutes ago, and it was enticing me with a picture of the new DVD version of Once Upon A Time In the West, below the words "YOU KNOW YOU WANT IT."

[Yes, MF, I already ordered it.]

[Heh heh...I just went to Amazon and the featured recommendations for me were Scarface (Widescreen Anniversary Edition) and The Sound of Music... -MF]

FINALLY, A FILM THE WHOLE FAMILY CAN ENJOY!

A couple of weeks ago, Quinten Tarantino was encouraging parents to take their kids to see his new film, Kill Bill. see story

Last night, I finally had a chance to this this movie. In the opinion of the Lord Chancellor, it is, undeniably, a masterpiece.

Seeing it gave me an idea as to why Tarantino might make these bizarre comments. It goes like this: he's our age. He was a kid in the 70's and he suffers from quite a bit of nostalgia for that time. Do you remember when A Clockwork Orange came out? and it was considered to shockingly violent that, (as the hype went) if kids were exposed to it, or even exposed to adults that were exposed to it, that our society would surely degenerate into a free-form bloodbath?

I don't know about you, but that's how I remember it. And I wonder if Tarantino isn't nostalgic for a time when violence in movies could be scandalous, and hopes that his movie can prevoke the same reaction, if not on its own "merits", then with a little help from his public comments.

GET YOUR WAR ON
...is the name of a pretty funny political-cartoon-web-site. Check out page 24:

OUTBREAK OF COMMON SENSE IN GEORGIA

Why is it so hard to convince people to participate in a huge database of personal information about private citizens. Especially when it has a cool name like "The Matrix Project"?

YOUNG PEOPLE SUPPORT OUR PRESIDENT

Maybe it's all the crap movies they've been watching their whole lives.

Of course I view this as completely without merit.

TMQ IS NO MORE

A note on yesterday's ESPN Page 2 said there would be no more TMQ. Easterbrook's old columns have disappeared, and he has been airbrushed from the columnist roster with Soviet efficiency. It was apparently due to this review he wrote on Kill Bill. The offending passage:

"Set aside what it says about Hollywood that today even Disney thinks what the public needs is ever-more-graphic depictions of killing the innocent as cool amusement. Disney's CEO, Michael Eisner, is Jewish; the chief of Miramax, Harvey Weinstein, is Jewish. Yes, there are plenty of Christian and other Hollywood executives who worship money above all else, promoting for profit the adulation of violence. Does that make it right for Jewish executives to worship money above all else, by promoting for profit the adulation of violence? Recent European history alone ought to cause Jewish executives to experience second thoughts about glorifying the killing of the helpless as a fun lifestyle choice. But history is hardly the only concern. Films made in Hollywood are now shown all over the world, to audiences that may not understand the dialogue or even look at the subtitles, but can't possibly miss the message--now Disney's message--that hearing the screams of the innocent is a really fun way to express yourself."

Easterbrook's comments/apology on this appear here (see 10/16/03 entry).

[I think we have Rush to thank for this, too. -CCPC]

MOTORCYCLE DEATH AND UNITARIAN INTRIGUE IN FRESNO

Young Fresno officer on anti-terrorism fed-state task force ifresnobee.com | Group alleges police scrutiny">nfiltrates Unitarian peace group.

PETA'S MISSION:
Throw up some wiffle balls for right-wing shock-jocks.

FOR THOSE WHO NEED TO KNOW

Estonian for "Unhand that Ungulate, You Unctuous Fiend!" :

ainult: appi appi, sa oled hirmus mees!

K:aseta seda "ei-mees' sinu hirmus repa!
Minu eesti keelt olen ainult v:aga alementar.....

MOIST, THANK YOU

Records other than by Seahawks broken

GALENA, ALASKA MAY ENTER NUCLEAR CLUB

An adorable reactor...free!

Yet Another Reason to Avoid Class Photos

Particularly if you plan on creating a national incident.

HOT DOUBLE FLORAL BASKET ACTION

Don't stop 'til you get enough...

[This guy is like Micheal jackson with nuclear weapons.-PWP]

THEY SAID THEY'RE SORRY, NOW LET'S MOVE ON

Malaysia apologizes. There, now was that so hard?

Oops, no they didn't. Mahathir is a sly cat. This is worth reading through. My reading of the speech is: "[insert outrageous slur here]. Now that I have your attention..."

I haven't seen such religious/racial pandering and policy since...well, since the GOP primary in South Carolina. But I digress...

Fijians for Sensible Meat Alternatives

[I liked that they gave the "slightly chewed" boots back. - MoF]

MICROSOFT SECURITY ALERT

After how many hours of installing patches and updates would I have been better off spending a weekend installing Linux?

IF YOU CAN'T EVEN GET EXXONMOBIL TO SUPPORT IT...

...maybe there's a little too much pork in your pipeline bill.

I FINALLY TRUMP HILTON CEO IN GOOGLE

Go to google news and type in "Bollenbach". Still no Uma content, sadly. Also functions as my instant induction to the FBI's watch list.

I HATE ILLINOIS CONFEDERATES

Eighteen hockey players from Glenbrook South High School in Glenview will write a letter of apology to the community after a teammate displayed a Confederate flag during a weekend homecoming parade, a team official said Monday.

At a meeting late Monday, team officials planned to discuss other "rehabilitative" options with the players...

Multi-Million Togrog Seizure in Illegal Marmot Smuggling

37,332 marmot skins, worth an estimated Tg265 million, have been confiscated from the Chinese national Tergoonsod and the Mongolians Ts.Narantuya and D.Myagmarsuren. The three were trying to smuggle the skins across a state border when inspectors from the Nature and Environment Inspection Department of The Staete Specialized Inspection Agency caught them.
This was the second serious violation of its kind in recent months. A similar haul of marmot skins was recovered in September. (For more, please read The Mongol Messenger's issue No42)

GUYS, IT'S OVER - GO HOME

It just hasn't been the same since the Berlin Wall came down.

Kill Bill: The Correct Review

EXPERTS: GOP MAY NOT BE ABLE TO ATTRACT DONATIONS FOR THE UPCOMING ELECTION

Ha ha, just kidding.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush smashed his own campaign fund-raising record in the last three months, bringing in $49.5 million for his re-election bid and eclipsing the financial efforts of his Democratic rivals.

FEARS OF DESTRUCTION OF UNIVERSE TYPICAL LIBERAL ALARMIST CLAPTRAP

I GUESS THIS EXPLAINS WHY THE ALIENS ARE SO INTERESTED IN US

Why do I only learn about this stuff from TMQ?

"Any Physics Post-Doc Who Inadvertently Destroys the Universe Will Receive an Incomplete for the Course - Relativistic effects are rarely observed outside the particle accelerators found in physics labs. Sir Martin Rees, the noted British astronomer, declares in his new doomsday book "Our Final Hour" that it might be possible for an error at a particle accelerator to destroy the entire universe by converting all 50 billion galaxies into a single, minutely small "strangelet." Alternatively, Rees writes, an accelerator experiment might inadvertently create a zone of the mysterious nothing-anything condition that existed before the Big Bang: the inadvertently created not-anything would spread outward at the speed of light, eventually deleting the entire cosmos. A minor accelerator error, Reese muses, might merely convert the Earth into "an inert hyperdense sphere a hundred meters across."

LIMBAUGH, COURTNEY LOVE SHOOT UP FIREWORKS IN TORRID REHAB AFFAIR

DRUDGE: THIS PROVES HOW FASCINATING LIMBAUGH IS

"Ah, nobody knew, or nobody was willing to admit in the big media business how interesting, or how big Rush Limbaugh is in this country -- until this story broke!"


And note the rigorous logic here:

"...one of the side effects is you actually -- you have a euphoria of excelling in your craft on these pills. The effect, the opium lift, effect -- that's the danger of these addictions you actually can excel, as he did. Can you imagine how potent Rush Limbaugh would be -- off of the pills, if he's been this powerful on the pills?"

[Can you imagine how potent he'd be if he snorted coke -- or did a speed ball! -- before every show? -CCPC]

WTF? PT. 2

Strange how different GI's write the same upbeat letter to different newspapers around the country...

KAUTION: KRAUTS IN POLITICAL SCIENCE.

All very true. My poli-sci readings at Reed were filthy with "The State" which has a sort of culture potency in most of the world with a aristocratic past. It has a kind of quasi-spiritual quality even in the writings of Marxist critical theorists; it has never translated well to the U.S. where, if you are familiar with some American political scientists (see Bollenbach, Democracy and the Wild West, 1986) you will of course note that the point of orgin of political legitimacy in the US was often based on the will of the collection of individuals in a frontier-driven non-aristocratic society, rather than a collective will analagous to the individual will of a supreme ruler, and which, in practice, often lead to dictatorship, and which serves as the essential metaphor of the State shared by German Marxists and anti-Marxists, or especially, fascists, which, when adopted by early US academics, tended to discount native systems of political ideology for analyzing political legitimacy; an analogous problem occured in the arts, when art training was adopted into the University systems far more directly after WWII, and when Eurocentric art historical methodologies, orginating often with the very same critical theorists, were imposed on the interpretation of "high art" cultural products, when the great transformative powers were originating in the artwork, rather than the critical positioning.

There are still not nearly enough dependent clauses available here to really capture that style.

ALIEN TROPHY HUNTER THIRD STAR FROM "PREDATOR" ELECTED AS MAVERICK GOVERNOR....

THIS TIME OF CETAE-ALPHA PROTECTORATE FOUR, IN AN UPSET OVER GLARCH-MARCBOOG, heavily favored Prelate of Horgblunchia.

Sentence to out-recommend previous recommendation

Uma Thurman in yellow motorcycle leathers de-limbs 50 yakuza assassins with samurai sword - introduced by theme from "Ironsides."

[So what's so great about that? :) -CCPC]

One word: Umaliciousness. -pwp

MY HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION FOR...

School of Rock.

I HEARD SOMEONE WHISPER "DYNASTY"

The PI says: "With upcoming games against the Chicago Bears at home and the Cincinnati Bengals on the road, 6-1 is not out of the question."

[I heard somebody else whisper "first round playoff meltdown." -CCPC]

SURE, IF HE HAS A WARRANT

"So they're saying some bureaucrat can bug the mayor of the fifth-largest city in the country in the months leading up to a re-election?" asked Dan Fee, a Street campaign spokesman.

HILLARY OPPOSES MEDICARE DRUG BENEFIT

The drug companies really want this to happen now, when there's a chance it won't involve immediate extreme price controls. Our President got involved in the conference negotiations Wednesday last, telling the conferees he didn't like where they were going.

Meanwhile someone dies from not having affordable prescription drugs every {fill in the blank} seconds.

HOW DOES HE DO THIS?

Willie Brown's on the transition team...

SPENARD IS THE NEW BUDOKAN

"I'm not kidding, we came off the stage and looked at each other and said, 'That's the best show we've ever played,' and that's including the old days," Ballew said. "It felt like we time-traveled back 10 years. All the funny innuendo in the songs was working because the crowd was drunk and crazy. And we just played really well, the crowd was raging, the sound was good. We had goose bumps."

Wellman would not release attendance numbers from the Presidents shows, citing Chilkoot Charlie's policy, but did confirm both shows were sellouts. Wellman also said Chilkoot Charlie's would certainly entertain future Presidents shows.

LAST NIGHT ON LETTERMAN
Gray Davis appeared to read the Top Ten List.

NEW SEASON OF THE OFFICE IN THE OFFING

Here's some new, already classic David Brent:

"I'm an educator, I am a motivator of people, I excite their imaginations," David pompously tells the camera soon after uttering a joke to his employees that, as usual, is greeted by bewildered silence. "It's like a bloody Dead Poets Society sometimes out there, you know, at the end, when they all stand on the tables. I wouldn't want them to stand on the tables, literally, it's against health and safety, for one thing, but my point is this: life is about communication."

QUIZ TIME II
Which right-wing demagogue is addicted to "Hillbilly Heroin"?

The answer here.

QUIZ TIME

What religious extremist recently said 'If I could just get a nuclear device inside Foggy Bottom, I think that's the answer.'

The answer here.

DID SOMEONE SAY "VOTING IRREGULARITIES"?

wtf?!

GOOGLE SEARCH: "GERMAN POLITICAL THEORY"

The American students [of the late 19th and early 20th century] absorbed from Germany not only professional methods of academic research, but the authoritarian ideas within which these had been posed. German thought had long been dominated by a preoccupation with "the State," and that concept soon would become the primary organizing category of American political science. Most of the initial writings by American political scientists would be framed as inquiries into "the nature of the State"...

Men did not lose anything upon entering "the State," since there had been no natural freedom to give up. In Woolsey's terms, "the right of the state to be comes not from renounced power, but from the state's being, in the natural order of things, God's method of helping men towards a perfect life." Lieber and Woolsey labeled social contract theory "atomistic," "unhistorical," and "dangerous," favoring "tyranny and licentiousness" and "utterly destructive of political authority."

FROM THE NEW REPUBLIC

GRAY DAVIS--THE GOVERNOR WHO CRIED WOLF: Last week we speculated that Bill Clinton's various sex scandals had probably desensitized voters in California--where Clinton was and remains incredibly popular--to allegations about Arnold Schwarzenegger's serial groping. That's probably true to some extent. But in the aftermath of Arnold's victory, it's looking more and more like Gray Davis's penchant for slash and burn political tactics were the bigger factor here. As this New York Times story suggests, most voters were apparently so used to interpreting any attack on a Davis opponent as both emanating from Davis himself and as fictitious, exaggerated, or otherwise unfair, that by the time Davis stumbled onto an opponent with some truly disqualifying character flaws--flaws which the Davis camp wasn't even the first to point out--voters were all too ready to chalk it up to another malicious Davis smear-job. Go figure.

CAN'T BE ALL BAD, GEORGE WILL'S UPSET

"The odor of what some so-called conservatives were indispensable to producing will eventually arouse them from their swoons over Arnold Schwarzenegger. Then they can inventory the damage they have done by seizing an office that just 11 months ago they proved incapable of winning in a proper election under ideal conditions.

"These Schwarzenegger conservatives -- now, there is an oxymoron for these times -- have embraced a man who is, politically, Hollywood's culture leavened by a few paragraphs of Milton Friedman. They have given spurious plausibility to a meretricious accusation that Democrats are using to poison American politics, the charge that Florida 2000 was part of a pattern of Republican power grabs outside the regular election process. "

The whole rant is here.

Grizzly Entree....Eww- There's a Tape

MARK YOUR CALENDAR

LOTR marathon screenings will show all three movies in one sitting. Tuesday 12/16. Tickets available now...

WTF?
Yahoo! News - FBI Planted Bugs in Phila. Mayor Offices

NEW CALIFORNIA UBER ALLES LYRICS

John Easedale

CALIFORNIA UBER ALLES

Aside from vaunting the appropriateness of the classic Dead Kennedys (!) song, and the suggestion that Everyone Call And Request it from your local college station, and put in your cell phone ringtone I'll leave this debacle with an recurring aside about the latent potential to strain the national coalition of unholiness that keeps the GOP together - capitalists and baptists. Already today, national Republican pols were DISTANCING themselves from Arnold over the social issues.

There is potential here to unbuild the Reagan coalition - I will prognosticate a highly problematic relationship with the National GOP. He won with an old style Pacific Coast GOP coalition of populism and social moderation, and hijacked the pre-annointed right-wingers. This is more like Bob Packwood than Reagan, including the groping.

[I think the new Republican coalition is The Cynical and The Stupid. -CCPC]

And of course the Screeching Greedbrains.

REICH EXPLAINS ROVE

I'd missed this piece from February. Hadn't known Rove worked for Segretti, back in the day.

THE EMERGING TIGER PROBLEM

"In the past five years, at least nine people have been killed by tigers, scores have been attacked and many have suffered grievous injuries." And that's just at the Mirage. But seriously folks... Thank you, I'll be here all the week...

JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT POLITICS COULDN'T GET ANY MORE VICIOUS
You read about something like this.

MORGEN IN CALIFORNIA

Highest turnout in 20 years as Arnie rebuilds the Reagan coalition.

GOP needs to ask themselves: "why couldn't we beat this guy before?" Answer: No one electable can survive your litmus-test primaries. Bill Simon, last year's GOP challenger, got fewer votes than the porn star.

From the Washington Post: "Disaffection with Davis crystallized two years ago at the height of the energy crisis, and Tuesday the alienation was broad and deep, according to exit polls. It cut across some partisan and ethnic lines, and reflected the deeply pessimistic mood of a state that once defined optimism and almost unlimited potential for the rest of the nation. Even union members, the backbone of the Democratic Party organization here and elsewhere, abandoned Davis in large numbers."

Big all-night celebration party in Graz.

THIS IS WHY I'M A SQUIRREL EXPERT
Stuff like this, really.

[We need to track these events more closely. In my mind the state's rough handling of innocent idealists and seekers is its defining characteristic. At least they found these folks - many people are not so lucky. - MoF]

Floral Basket Alert:

Yasser Arafat Sends Floral Basket to Kim Jong IL II.

This can't be good.

Meanwhile, in Seattle, GOP unable to convince credible candidate to run for Governor

Thought I'd share.

[That didn't stop them in California... - CCPC]

TIME TO WALK THE WALK

I say 2004 is the year we do this!

MY CHOICE FOR GOVERNOR

Wanted to write him in, but it's too close. There's a very good article here on improving ballot design.

POINDEXTER'S PROGNOSTICATION MARKET IS BACK

Of course I have to read ESPN to learn about this. Research from Iowa proves it's not a bad idea.

RE: FOX WATCHER 20 TIMES MORE DELUDED THAN NPR LISTENERS

How confused are readers of PIPA polls, pals?

"Asked "Has the US found clear evidence Saddam Hussein was working closely with al-Qaeda"? 68 percent of Bush supporters replied affirmatively. By contrast, two of every three Democrat-backers said no. "

Help me out here, but if two-thirds of the Democrat-backers disagree, isn't that 67% versus 68% of Bush supporters? I guess that's a contrast, but it ain't stark.

[I think that it's saying that 68% of Bush supporters are confused, whereas only 33% of Democrat-backers are ("said no" == not confused). -CCPC]

MOUNTAINEERS DISCOVER MOUNTAINEERING IS VERY DANGEROUS

This is the first article I've seen that admits it, questions the sanity of climbers who have families. Mortality rate in the Himalaya runs 2-5% per expedition. At 5% your cumulative probability of survival falls below 50% on your 14th trip.

[I'd give you 25% on your first trip... -CCPC]

[Mock on, mock on. I've already lined up Captain Morgan Spiced Rum as my sponsor for my attempt of K-2's Magic Line as part of the next Go Fast Games, and will celebrate with the product at the summit. It'll be on satellite video - be sure to tune in. -MoF]

I'D ALWAYS WONDERED ABOUT THAT

Golden Gate jumpers often regret their decision in mid-air. One survivor says: “I instantly realized that everything in my life that I’d thought was unfixable was totally fixable—except for having just jumped.”

Eisengeiste Leak to Alaska Ear Investigation Opened

If you'll notice this Sheila Toomey Ear piece, it closely follows my recent email about Val Plame. Coincidence? Okay, it was in the New York Times, but is still rather similiar, although somehow leaves out the Camero detail.

Who spilled?

Please, think of the Kittens

Fox Watchers 20 Times More Deluded Than NPR Listeners
We have Solid Evidence

Fan Tip"

It's slightly easier to hear the SeaHawks lose on the radio

And How Would You Rate Your Eternal Damnation?

Dante's Inferno Test

NEW CONTEST! LEAST SURPRISING HEADLINES

"Courtney Love booked, treated for overdose after alleged window smashing incident"
"Future of Siegfried & Roy Show in Doubt" No kidding

BEST MOVIE LINE OF THE DECADE, SO FAR

"I serve society by rocking." Just when I'd given up on Hollywood ever making a good comedy again. Ebert digs it. The Chronicle's little man is jumping out of his seat.

JAPANESE MAKE CHEAP HYBRIDS, THEY SELL LIKE HOTCAKES

Apparently, the devils still have a few tricks up their sleeve.

Mongolia Update

Headlines and News from Mongolia:

(The opportunities to make billions of togrogs are unlimited)

Management for Sustainable Water Management

From cement floor to food for families

Feel felt (international art exposition)

Beware of Candy Deflation
The prices of foodstuff group which of meat and meat products decreased by 19.4 percent, milk and dairy products by 8.8 percent, sugar, candy, tea, fruits by 6.5 percent and potato and vegetables by 4.8 percent.




http://www.mongolmessenger.mn/last.htm

NEWS PLUS: How could he think that?

(Wash. Post 10-2)

...At the same time, administration allies outside the White House stepped up a counteroffensive that seeks to discredit the administration's main accuser, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, whose wife was named as a CIA operative. Republican National Committee (news - web sites) Chairman Ed Gillespie gave a string of television interviews with the three-part message that the Justice Department is investigating, that the White House is fully cooperating and that Wilson has a political agenda and has made "rash statements."

"He is someone, given his politics, who is obviously prone to think the worst of this White House," Gillespie said by telephone.

PLUS. "Sheer ingratitude. His wife is now free, with the right kind of personal security, to pursue a rewarding career in Hotel-Motel Management."

Let's Review!

Limbaugh resigns from ESPN, faces illegal drug use charges.

Report of 1200 inspectors fails to find any actual WMDs.

Arlen Spector indicates desire for special counsel in Wilson probe;

81% of public believe Wilson Affair a serious matter.

Bush at lowest recorded ratings.

Arnold gropes to explain groping.

America's Most Hilarious Cover Sheets


(Washington Post)

The White House cover sheet of yesterday's Scott McClellan briefing:

Leak allegations -- Page 1-22

Osama bin Laden -- Page 22

The Spy Who Came in From Cold, Cold Muldoon OR
Know anyone who dated her in high school?

(NYT)...People close to Ms. Plame said on Wednesday that she was born in Anchorage while her father, Lt. Col. Sam Plame of the Air Force, was stationed there. (!)

Colonel Plame and his wife, Diane, also had a son, Robert, who is older than Valerie Plame and lives in Oregon.

Colonel Plame and his family moved to the lower 48 in time for Ms. Plame to graduate from Lower Moreland High School in Huntingdon Valley, Pa., near Philadelphia.

--- She's 40, So that means Bartlett High School, circa 1980?

MORE MORE MORE

Slate: "But the WHLs [White House Leakers] were sadly mistaken if they thought a nepotism accusation would discredit Wilson. Their most obvious oversight was that they work for George W. Bush, who didn't exactly pull himself up by his bootstraps."

Minneapolis Star-Tribune: "What does it take to get Bush fired up and ready to take names and kick backsides? Blowing the cover of a CIA agent apparently doesn't meet that test."

Boston Globe: "Whether it was intended as payback, or as a warning to others who might question administration policies in public, or had some other motive, the naming of an undercover agent is a reprehensible, dangerous, and disloyal crime."

Good article here on the debate over Novak's decision. Journalists tending to side with Novak.

VOTERS CLEAR THROATS

The results of The Post-ABC poll found a high degree of suspicion directed toward the administration over the allegations. Seventy-two percent thought it likely that someone in the White House leaked the operative's name. And, in what could be a politically significant finding, only 29 percent said the investigation should be handled by the Justice Department, while 69 percent favored a special counsel with autonomy from the administration.

SORRY I'LL MISS THIS

I'm sure Rush Limbaugh will be given a friendly reception from the good people of Philadelphia following his disparaging racial comments about their quarterback.

10/2 Update: Don't let the door hit your butt on the way out. This is an interesting take on it all from one of the 23 black sports columnists in America.

NEWS PLUS: White House won't rule out lie-detector tests

CNN: The White House pledged full cooperation Wednesday with a Justice Department probe into the leak of a CIA operative's name. Asked if full cooperation meant sitting for lie-detector tests, spokesman Scott McClellan said, "Full cooperation is full cooperation."

PLUS: Ordinary lie detectors have proven ineffective in comparable circumstances,
McClellan added. "This subject group will necessitate the use of the Superconducting Gargantua-Lie 6000."

Your Weekly Word Match Up

Match the Word on the Left to the Appropriate Name on the Right

Traitor Rove
Betrayer Karl
Felon Rove
Criminal Karl
Malefactor Rove
Beee-Atch Karl
Slug Rove
Lamb Stew Karl
Catalyst Rove
Toast (French) Karl

While stifling a good gloat,

please use the following phrase as often as possible:

Unnamed Traitors in the White House
Unnamed Traitors in the White House
Unnamed Traitors in the White House
Unnamed Traitors in the White House

A WHOLE LOTTA BANJO

Great page of banjo MP3 files. Nice to see Steve Martin can still bust it out. My friend Jim recommends Adams' "Rocket Man".