In a strange moment of candor, Wolfowitz tells Vanity Fair that the WMD argument for overthrowing Saddam was chosen "for bureaucratic reasons," since "it was the one reason everyone could agree on." (He also lends credence to the argument advanced in this Fred Kaplan article that removing troops from Saudi Arabia was one of the central purposes of the Iraq war.) Meanwhile, in the same AP story, the head of US Marines in Iraq says of the WMDs, "they're simply not there." Looks like the Bushies have some explaining to do...If they follow the usual pattern, I suspect they'll answer any tough question with a flurry of 9/11-esque horror stories.
Surprise, surprise. Dubya and the GOP's new tax cut leaves out an increased child tax credit for the nation's poorest Americans. After all, gotta keep the priorities straight...Some families out there might want a second SUV.
Can't say I was rooting for the Spurs last night, but it was kinda heartwarming to see Steve Kerr get in a final three-ball spree. Now this should actually make for an interesting Finals, as the Spurs are worse than last year's Lakers and the Nets are better than they were last year. Here's hoping Jason Kidd leads the East to glory.
Oh what to do? I am sad and blue. If only that I knew, that he would take The Precious! He had better flee, for I am thin and mean, and my eyes have seen, that he did take The Precious! Because the world demanded it (or somebody did, I guess), 2005 will witness the opening of the Lord of the Rings stage musicial in London (flash-heavy official site here.) Oh my, this sounds grisly. Will Troy McClure be in it?
"For years, black ballplayers were stereotyped as not being interested in playing defense. When black players became very good at defense and began to dominate the league on the defensive end, the NBA loaded the dice. And this is precisely where the Euro players stepped in." Dan McGraw talks about race and the foreign invasion of basketball in the Village Voice. I'm not sure I buy the zone defense conspiracy theory being promulgated, but there's some interesting food for thought here nonetheless. And it is pretty sad to see how far the league will go to pander to white people -- For example, the Frank Sinatra ad mentioned, or the ridiculous soft-focus Finals ads ("This is old school basketball.") on ABC right now.
"Bipartisanship is another name for date rape." Ah, the wit and wisdom of a GOP flak...On what planet would that not be offensive? Republican strategist Grover Norquist also revels in the increasing acrimony within state legislatures. "We are trying to change the tones in the state capitals - and turn them toward bitter nastiness and partisanship." I guess he's a divider, not a uniter. (Via Medley.)
"Like actors, however, humanities graduate students have to realize that — except for a few jackpot cases — there is no market for their product. When you choose a career path with no market, you have to love it enough to do it for free." Breaching the Web passes along a rude awakening for the academy-minded. Statistics like these are always a bit disappointing...still, I think a PhD can be helpful in other career tracks besides academia, and particularly in a field like History or English that lends itself to a lot of overlap with the "real" world. The numbers are grim, but most fellow graduate students I encounter seem to know the score.
More fuel for the Matrix debate: A fanboy site posts the Niobe and Oracle conversation from Enter the Matrix. It might explain a few things, or it might not.
In related news, the Green party contemplates folding in with the Dems for the next election cycle. Hmmm...although the candidates may currently be tacking left, I seriously doubt it's going to happen, given the type of garbage the DLC is spouting at its left flank these days.
Resembling nothing so much as the guy who takes out a $10000 credit card advance and suddenly feels flush, the GOP contemplates an era of political dominance. (In fact, the administration is feeling so sure of itself these days that they're bringing old Iran-Contra hacks like Elliot Abrams out of the woodwork.) Sorry, y'all, but the "young college Hipublican" vote only goes so far...most of these kids will drop you faster than a Linear Algebra class once their parents' portfolios finish taking the Dubya tumble. As for the purported hepcats in this pic, I guess it all depends on your definition of "hip." I can't say I'm too plugged into the youth zeitgeist these days, but I do live and work at a university...and somehow I doubt these five Bushies are the leading lights of campus. They just look like five angry and self-satisfied white people to me, and there's plenty of those to go around.
Now that was a tough long weekend. I spent all of the past few days (and I do mean all of the past few days) finishing up the copy for a history textbook website. But it's done now, so updates should get more frequent around here...
Tim Burton is tapped for the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory remake. I'm not sure if a remake is really necessary, but, if you're going to do one, I suppose Burton is the man to helm it. And in other directing news, Darren "Requiem for a Dream" Aronofsky wil be helming Lone Wolf and Cub. Does this mean Batman: Year One is dead?
The networks stay mum on media consolidation as the Powell FCC prepares to lift cross-ownership caps in local and regional markets. Not surprisingly, it looks like the FCC vote will be party-line, with the three Republicans voting as a bloc to facilitate Rupert Murdoch's ambitions and enlist free-market ideology in order to kill free-thinking media outlets. We'll always have the web, I guess.
Fred Kaplan of Slate reexamines the lingering question of Kennedy and Vietnam in light of Robert Dallek's new biography.
Investigators try to ascertain exactly what happened at Yale Law School yesterday. At first I figured it might have been some disgruntled Kaczynski type. But now that it turns out the alleged bomb exploded in a classroom rather than the mailroom, my guess is some bored Elis were testing out their copy of The Anarchist's Cookbook. Either way, two random classrooms in New Haven seem an unlikely target for Al-Qaeda.
As it turns out, Dubya's profligate ways have forced Congress to increase the federal debt limit (so as to avoid a government default) in the very week they mull over his (now Voinovich-friendly) tax giveaway for the rich. Coincidence? I think not.
In LOTR news this morning, the new official magazine offers some moderate spoilers about ROTK and TTT:EE, including what's in, what's out, and what Shelob will look like (don't read if you haven't read the books.) In related news, was Frodo in fact trying to obtain a PhD?
I weep for Sacramento, but so what? It was like betting on a three-legged horse. Dr. Thompson checks in from the NBA finals.
The House and Senate GOP agree on a compromise bill that cuts the tax rates on dividends to 15%. (Don't worry, Mr. Burns - the wealthy also get their fix in the form of a capital gains rate cut to 15%.) But, problems for the dividend debacle remain...particularly in that the $383 billion package goes over the $350 billion cap established by GOP moderate George Voinovich. Can the Dems mount a last stand?
Martin Scorsese signs on to create a Bob Dylan documentary not unlike The Last Waltz. Cool...I assume this'll be Marty's next project after The Aviator.
If I'd known we were gonna cast our feelings into words, I'd've memorized the Song of Solomon. After far too long a wait, Miller's Crossing finally arrived on DVD this morning. Lebowski might be funnier, and Fargo might get all the best press, but Miller's Crossing is still far and away my favorite Coen movie. Nothing more foolish than a man chasin' his hat...
Apparently, I'm currently a growth stock over at Blogshares. Get in while the going's good.
In suspending their recent convoluted ruling on McCain-Feingold today until the Supreme Court has a go, the DC District Court once again puts a halt to soft money fundraising for the time-being. No word yet if this stay will accelerate the timetable for the Supremes hearing the case.
James Fallows examines the controversy surrounding the death of child martyr Mohammed al-Dura. Between the vitriol spewed on both sides and the Oliver Stone-like conspiracy theories being thrown about, it sounds like the exact circumstances of Al-Dura's death have entered the realm of the unknowable.
First-time writer-director Kerry Conran tries to go the Lucas route and digitize full environments in The World of Tomorrow, a forthcoming film described in Player-speak as "Flash Gordon meets Indiana Jones." I dunno...hopefully Gwyneth and Jude are better blue-screen actors than Samuel L. Jackson and Natalie Portman.
The press corps breathes a sigh of relief as Ari Fleischer announces he's leaving the White House in July. I haven't seen Scott McClellan, his potential replacement, at work behind the podium, but it'd be hard for him to be much worse.
Cheney breaks the tie as the Senate GOP pass the third-largest tax cut in history, one that includes a three-year moratorium on dividend taxes. Dems Zell Miller and Ben Nelson (and eventually Evan Bayh) joined the Republicans in passing the cut. (Republicans McCain, Chafee, and Snowe were opposed.) Of course, this tax giveaway for the rich does nothing to address the largest budget deficit in history...but that's a problem for Dubya's successors, isn't it? And children don't vote anyway.
"Great engines crawled across the field; and in the midst was a huge ram,
great as a forest-tree a hundred feet in length, swinging on mighty chains...Grond they named it, in the memory of the Hammer of the Underworld of old." At long last, some new Return of the King images (via E3) have made it online. Looks like Gandalf the White will have his work cut out for him on the ramparts of Minas Tirith. Update: The official site releases a slew of pics too, including Aragorn in battle regalia and Sam with the light of Earendil.
The Lakers fall to the Spurs in six. (Woohoo!) But, amid the rejoicing (outside of LA, of course), let's take a moment to remember Dave DeBusschere, one of the all-time Knick greats.
If you can judge a man by his enemies, then Howard Dean picked up a key endorsement last week. Via Scully by e-mail, Al From's Democratic Leadership Council - one of Al Gore's main water-carriers in 2000 and an organization which counts Joe Lieberman and Bob Graham among its members - decides to attack Howard Dean as an "elitist." What garbage...The DLC is going to have find a better way of dealing with their left flank than simply casting old GOP insults their way. It's exactly this type of Republican-lite thinking endlessly promoted by From's organization that made Ralph Nader the spoiler in 2000. Don't think it couldn't happen again. Update: Perhaps Clinton will straighten 'em out, although it sounds like he's just reading from the Lieberman-Graham playbook instead. Update 2: Independent James Jeffords criticizes the DLC remarks, calling it "incredible to hear such charges coming from Democrats." Not as incredible as it once was, I'm afraid.
So after two viewings of The Matrix: Reloaded, I have to say I liked it quite a bit better than some of the early negativity had suggested (although I'm glad I lowered my expectations.) [BIG SPOILERS TO FOLLOW.] To be sure, the first forty minutes of the film, including everything that takes place in Zion, is almost unwatchable. We're talking Attack of the Clones bad. What with the ponderous soap opera interludes (especially the Jada Pinkett Smith love triangle, the fresh-faced kid recruit, and Link's worried homefront wife...please), the big, goofy Bacardi Silver commercial ("Your night just got a lot more interesting"), and the mere sight of Councillor Anthony "Straight to Video" Zerbe strolling around in Federation hand-me-downs (why didn't they just let Cornel West handle that part?), I could understand why Joey Pants (Cypher) decided to pull a Benedict Arnold in the first film. If I had a choice (which, given half of the lecturing in this film, is an open question, I guess) between wearing my sunglasses at night and styling in the Matrix or being forced to join the Matthew McConaughey memorial drum circle every Friday evening at Zion central, I might just cut a deal with the Man too.
But, right about the time Neo gets a call from the Oracle and reenters the Matrix in Chinatown (right under the hard-to-miss Heineken sign), the film finally starts to find its rhythm. Sure, there's still a lot of overwrought "check out the big brains on us" grandstanding by the Wachowskis [we get philosophy lessons along the way from both a sleazy French existentialist (the Merovingian) and a perfectionist Freud-like (God)father figure (the Architect)], but if you don't like a little pop psychology with your kick-ass kung-fu, then why exactly are you in line to see a sequel to The Matrix? Alas, Neo and Trinity still don't really work as an onscreen couple, but most of the action setpieces are breathtaking (particularly the highway chase and truck fight...in the midst of all the new characters showing up, it's nice to see the Agents still getting their due.) And as expected, Hugo Weaving is just wicked good fun as Agents Smith...they steal every scene they're in. Finally, though it took me a second viewing to catch everything that was going on, the final meeting with the Architect made for a nice end-of-film twist that's more inventive than where I'd originally feared they were going with the storyline (i.e., the "real world" is also part of the Matrix, just like every Freddy Krueger/David Lynch movie you've ever seen.) So, despite the egregious first act, I have to say I came out of Reloaded with a smile on my face, and am looking forward to seeing what November's Revolutions has to offer, starting with this special trailer from the Enter the Matrix game. Hopefully, the third film will see a lot less of As the Zion Turns and a little more of the lovely Monica Bellucci....Silly Neo, don't you know an upgrade when you see one?
In a cover story for TIME, Joe Klein gives his take on the Democratic field. I don't agree with everything he has to say (for example, giving Dubya a pass on Iraq), but it's worth reading nonetheless.
The Bureau of Engraving and Printing finally unveils the long-awaited new twenty. If you had given me twenty guesses as to the new color, I don't think I could have come up with "subtle shades of peach and blue."
Republicans inadvertently stall the Dubya tax cut by putting the wrong number on the bill, thus blunting the force of the President's arm-twisting US tour. It's the little things that get ya.
Less than 48 hours until The Matrix: Reloaded, and several SPOILER-filled negative reviews are popping up online. So, it looks like some diminished expectations are in order for Wednesday evening. I kinda feared this would be the case after X2 turned out so swimmingly.
In keeping with his right-on-terror campaign strategy, Senator Bob Graham accuses Dubya of a 9/11 coverup. While I don't particularly care for Graham's brand of fear-mongering, he's got a point this time around...that congressional report should be made public, and particularly if the centerpiece of Dubya's re-election campaign will involve waving the bloody shirt as planned.
Doh! I'd been planning for a couple of weeks to take part in The May Day Project, but when the day finally came around, I'd completely forgotten. As it turned out, though, I took some pictures that evening in the midst of my summer debearding (a la Richie Tenenbaum), and I suppose they'll have to do.
Mike Fratello notwithstanding, it appears that TNT continues to be the best place for basketball coaches to spend time between gigs. A week after Danny Ainge joined the Celtics, the cellar-dweller Cleveland Cavaliers ask New York if they can speak to Jeff Van Gundy. Hiring Van Gundy would be a great move for Cleveland, but I'd think he'd want a more high-profile and talent-laden club. (Of course, they might always get LeBron...) Ah well. I still wish Van Gundy had never left the Knicks. (As for playoff news, Chris Webber's injury has greatly depressed me, but I'll stick with my earlier picks for now.)
Historian Sean Wilentz delves into the segregationist past of Charles Pickering, who is currently Dubya and Senator Cat-killer's judicial nominee of choice.
So last Thursday at the Film Forum, I caught Spellbound, the new documentary that follows eight young contestants through the National Spelling Bee. It was gripping in its own way (although some of the tension was dispelled by the fact that I'd improbably seen this particular spelling bee on ESPN during my DC days, and thus knew who ended up winning), but also very, very hard to watch at times. Most of these kids (particularly the girls from Texas and Pennsylvania) had their hearts in the right place, but some of them were at such a socially awkward point in their development that everything they do on screen ends up being cringeworthy. Then, of course, there's all the blatant stage parenting going on, which runs the gamut from supportive to smothering, if not downright disturbing (For example, one poor kid has 5000 starving Indians weighing on his conscience - if he doesn't win, they don't eat.) Perhaps my biggest problem with the documentary is that, though it's emphatically a crowdpleaser, it also clearly encourages us more often than not to laugh at these people rather than empathize with them. There was just something a bit off-putting about watching a theater of would-be New York sophisticates guffaw at the often clueless-seeming small-town parents and teachers that populate the film. Other than the first contestant's father, who illegally immigrated to Texas from Mexico to find a better way of life, most of the adults are used solely as comic relief. It might have been more interesting in the end to pare down the number of contestants followed to five or six and then give us a more multi-faceted look at their daily lives. But, like I said, Spellbound is still strangely compelling at times (C-O-M-P...), and might be worth a look if you catch it on IFC one day.
The NYT surveys the Kerry-Dean primary battlefield, and allows Dean to sound off on his grumpy debate performance.
The President and his cabinet take the Dubya dividend debacle dog-and-pony show on the road. But be careful if they come to your town - as per usual when Dubya and the economy are mentioned in the same sentence, you may just find yourself working overtime. Update: Proving once again the power of the Big Lie, Dubya accuses tax cut critics of "class warfare." And in a joint statement, Montgomery Burns, Scrooge McDuck, and the Monopoly Guy asked, "Can't we all just get along?"
The comic book takeover of Hollywood continues with the first picture of Ron Perlman as Guillermo del Toro's Hellboy. Looks decent enough.
My sister's summer season at the Met has now begun, and is running through June 28th. (Go here for tickets.) If you're looking for an evening's entertainment in NYC this summer, it's hard to do better than American Ballet Theatre.
Karl Rove, alleged architect of the Iraq war (and recently exposed as an Eric Foner fan in Nicholas Lemann's New Yorker piece this week) steps out from behind the curtain to revel in the adulation of New Hampshire. If he only had a heart.
The new trailer for The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is now online. Given how well X2 turned out, my money's now on this one to be the big Tomb Raider-esque stinker of the 2003 summer. It's a pity...I like Stephen Norrington (Blade was solid B-movie fun), but this project had Terry Gilliam or Tim Burton written all over it.
Must be election season...Despite the desires of the NRA, Dubya plans to support a continued ban on assault weapons. I'm sure he can just have Ashcroft vacate it later.
With conservatives chomping at the bit to reduce capital gains taxes, the Senate GOP craft a compromise bill that appeases moderate holdouts like Senator Snowe. As I've said before, any tax cut given the current state of the economy and our budget deficits is a bad idea. And given how much of the heavy lifting Senator Snowe has already done, I'm surprised more Dems aren't kicking up a fuss right now.
Neil LaBute talks a little about his forthcoming remake of The Wicker Man. Americanizing it sounds like a terrible idea, as does casting Nicholas Cage in the Edward Woodward role, but I suppose I'll give LaBute the benefit of the doubt for now.
After months of relative silence, finally some movement on the LOTR tip. Regarding the Two Towers extended edition, some possible scenes with Boromir and Faramir leak out (I'd heard these were filmed, but, this report still reads like wishful thinking.) Also, it appears a WETA statue of Gollum will replace the Argonath in the mega-special edition. As for Return of the King, the rough cut of the film is purportedly four hours and twenty minutes long and staying that way. (Again, this seems like wishful thinking, but given how much ground in TTT still needs to be covered, I'd think ROTK would have to clock in at least four.) Morover, new Sam and Frodo toys reveal a sequence I thought for sure they'd cut, and finally one other random (and possibly dubious) source mentioned this exchange at TORN: The Mistress has had a very interesting chat with a source at Miramax, who says that Cold Mountain will be pushed back to 2004. The official reason will be that "the climate is not right" for a movie whose central character is a deserter. Unofficially, Harvey Weinstein has seen a rough cut of Return of the King (he is an Executive Producer) and says that it is "unstoppable" as a Best Picture winner. Unstoppable...I like the sound of that. Update: More TTT-EE and ROTK spoilers from Movie Insider Magazine, including confirmation of Boromir in TTT, talk of a longer Frodo-Sam Osgiliath fight scene and some ruminations on the Grey Havens. Don't read this if you haven't read the books. Update 2: TORN.Net kills the 4hr-20min. rumor, but softens the blow by offering up MAJOR spoilers about Saruman, Sauron, and Grima and a pic of Frodo in the lair of...um, you know.
Grad students and history lovers take note: Plight of the Reluctant has devised the altogether fiendish Robert Caro drinking game. "Drink once if Caro describes Lyndon Johnson's stride...Drink once if LBJ's weight or face is mentioned," etc., etc. Thank goodness I was unaware of this amusement while slogging through The Power Broker.
Exhibiting yet again the Dubya administration's flair for hypocrisy, recent documents reveal that Dubya's top three fundraisers in 2000 were made Ambassadors of Switzerland, the Slovak Republic, and France respectively. Well, as long as they didn't take tea in the Lincoln bedroom, I'm sure everything checks out.
The Top Tier: I'd have to say it's still a three-man race for my vote right now among Kerry, Dean, and Edwards. I personally thought Edwards came off the best, although he benefited greatly from being the first Dem to step "above" the Kerry-Dean fracas. As per the rap on him, Kerry seemed somewhat bored and remote, while Dean - who usually says the right things on paper - appeared pugnacious and self-satisfied. To my dismay, Dean seemed even less personable on the telly than Tsongas did back in the day. So, of the three, I thought Edwards seemed like he had the best chance of not being pigeonholed as a Standard-Issue Out-Of-It Liberal in a debate with Dubya, and he seemed much more comfortable using populist rhetoric than Gore ever did. To my mind, Edwards wins Round 1, although obviously we have quite a few more rounds to go.The Rest: If I had to pick a fourth choice, it'd probably be Moseley-Braun, who got in the best line of the evening with her Florida recount gag. ("People said that the black vote would decide the election of 2000, and it did...Clarence Thomas's.") Gephardt seemed a bit weary of primary shenanigans, Lieberman (who inexplicably is getting the best post-debate press) is in the wrong primary, and Bob "Live in Fear" Graham, Al Sharpton, and Dennis Kucinich were too busy playing Orrin Hatch, Alan Keyes, and Gary Bauer respectively. Didn't much care for Stephanopoulos as self-proclaimed Kingmaker either (although I guess ABC had to use someone in their stable, and he was the most likely candidate), and I found his "I speak for the electorate about your foibles" routine in Pt. III to be wildly unproductive, if not downright insulting. While his characterizations of the candidates' flaws might have occasionally been on the money (although occasionally they weren't...who says Lieberman is too nice to be the Democratic candidate? Too theocratic, perhaps - too Republican, for sure - but too nice? That softball was a gift.), more time spent on issues and less on inside baseball would surely have been in order for the first debate.
Sacramento v. Dallas: Dallas may have saved Nelly's job with their fourth quarter showing in Game 7 on Sunday, but the Blazers still exposed them as soft and suspect. The Kings have trouble closing teams out, so I'll give Dallas two wins...but that's generous. Sacramento in six.
Boston v. New Jersey: I have to admit, Paul Pierce was much more dominant in the Indiana series than I thought he'd be - usually he has a tendency to disappear in games. But, as with the Kings, I'll stick with my original pick and take the Nets. Sooner or later, the threeball offense will collapse on you. New Jersey in six.
"His anger, let us go so far as to say, was precious to him. He had lived his way into it - in Burma and Paris and London and on the road to Wigan pier, and in Spain, being shot at, and eventually wounded, by fascists - he had invested blood, pain and hard labour to earn his anger, and was as attached to it as any capitalist to his capital." The Guardian excerpts Thomas Pynchon's forthcoming intro to 1984. (Via Random Walks.)
I know I haven't been posting much about them here, but trust me - I've been watching the NBA playoffs religiously, and will post my revised second round predictions in short order. Right now, I'm 5 for 6 on my original first round picks (Boston played better - and Indiana played much worse - than I had expected), and I'm feeling much happier about calling Portland over Dallas in 7 than I was when the Blazers were down 3-0. Then again, Portland deserved some karmic recompense after Coach Mo Cheeks' star-spangled save before Game 3.
"In the mountains of New Hampshire," wrote Daniel Webster, "God Almighty has hung out a sign to show that there He makes men." No longer -
In a grievous blow to the state's iconography (including the state quarter), New Hampshire's Old Man of the Mountain fell apart last night. That's a shame.
The first Democratic debate is set for tonight at 9pm (although you probably have a better chance of catching it on C-Span tomorrow.) And, if nothing else, the 90-minute forum will offer long-suffering South Carolina progressives (or, at least, those of us not in exile) a chance to influence the Democratic primary as never before. Should be fun.
As it turns out, the new GOP-spawned hybrid tax bill mentioned yesterday offers even more to the wealthy (and less to the poor) than Dubya's dividend debacle. Why am I not surprised? If the Republicans keep prostrating themselves before the filthy rich like this, that giant sucking sound you hear will be the GOP moderates defecting en masse a la James Jeffords, who's now comfortably ensconced in the Democratic leadership.
In the longest and most complicated opinion in its history, the US District Court for DC struck down some of the McCain-Feingold bill yesterday, while still upholding some of its key legal premises. While this convoluted decision opens the door for the rapacious campaign days of yore, it also sets the stage for a definitive Supreme Court decision in the Spring. Looks like Rehnquist and co. will get a chance to atone at least partially for Bush v. Gore.
All over the press this Saturday morning: moral exemplar William Bennett is a high-roller, losing over $8 million in the past ten years at various casinos. I play a biweekly poker game and have been known to throw down some money in Vegas, so I'd be the first to argue that gambling within limits is a minor vice at worst. But then again, I haven't made a living peddling sanctimonious garbage like The Book of Virtues or The Moral Compass either. Yes, this is gotcha journalism making entirely too much out of a mildly disreputable pastime - it's not like Bennett is a child molester or anything. But that doesn't mean I won't enjoy watching Mr. Virtue squirm on the petard of his own hypermoralism. Mr. Bennett, is schadenfreude a forgivable vice in this instance? Update: Mrs. Bennett drops the hammer. Update 2: Mike Kinsley weighs in, also invoking the schadenfreude angle.
After three-some-odd years of beta testing, my FPS of choice, Day of Defeat 1.0, is now available for download. There went my weekend.
In case it doesn't feel like summer yet, Dark Horizons points the way to yet another Hulk trailer (Mr. Trailer is annoying, but the green guy's look keeps growing on me) and another spoiler-heavy Matrix: Reloaded ad (although not as egregious as last time.)
Via Cheesedip and the Daily Show, President Dubya debates Governor Dubya on Iraq. Hmm...never thought I'd agree with Dubya on this issue, but there you have it. A must-watch.
Two links stolen from Genehack to give you a creepy feeling in the pit of your stomach: 1) Dubya declared yesterday "Loyalty Day." 2) The State Department thinks Canada cares too much about civil liberties. A connection, perhaps?
Conceding defeat on the full dividend debacle (while still planning evasive maneuvers to make sure it's as large as possible), the Congressional GOP now shift their focus to another Republican shibboleth: a capital gains cut. One way or another, it seems, the GOP are hell-bent on ensuring that the wealthiest Americans catch some kind of break from the Dubya dip.
Apparently, Bush gave a campaign speech on the USS Abraham Lincoln yesterday, but I couldn't hear it over all the saber-rattling. Something to do with Iraq being about September 11 or somesuch. At any rate, you have to wonder if any of the officers on the Lincoln wondered when they saw Dubya show up in aviator gear if he was coming to make up for the year he spent AWOL and on the lam from military drug tests. The election of 2004 will be won or lost on the Bush record, but nevertheless - push the Mr. Military campaign tack too far and people might just start taking a closer look at Dubya's year-long holiday.
I'm not sure how it'll play to people who didn't grow up on the comic, but last night's midnight showing of X2 was much better than I had anticipated. Offhand, I can think of three setpieces (Nightcrawler at the White House, the assault on the mansion, and Magneto's escape) that were the closest thing to fanboy pr0n I've seen in ages (LOTR notwithstanding), and that's not counting all the great little flourishes and knowing winks throughout. In fact, to a person, everyone returning from X-Men (which I was lukewarm about) seemed more comfortable this time around -- even Halle Berry, although she's still miscast. And both Alan Cumming (Nightcrawler) and Brian Cox (Striker, the bad guy) fit in nicely. Sure, the film drags a bit in the last twenty-five minutes or so (as they set up X3), but overall Singer & co. hit this one out of the park...a very auspicious way to kick off the summer of Hulk and the Matrices. (Of course, the crowd helped too - when in the first five minutes Wolvie is backpacking in Canada, and the guy at the end of the row said something like, "Why doesn't he call in Sasquatch or Puck for back-up?," I knew I was with my people.)
And now the terrible Orcs invade Balin's tomb. Let's be clear about a few things here. The Orcs are fighting a war of self-defense against the invading Fellowship. They basically busted in on the Orcs' place here...One would think that if the Orcs were as bad as the corrupt Man-Elf coalition says, they would be a lot better at fighting. Via a friend of mine in the department, it's the lost Fellowship of the Ring commentary track by Noah Chomsky and Howard Zinn. Touché.
