While the baseball world copes with Sammy’s corked bat, basketball fans prepare to gather around the telly for the start of the NBA finals tonight. I expect the Spurs will take it, but I want to root for New Jersey, so I’ll go out on a limb and say Nets in 6. JKidd, this is your hour.
Month: June 2003
Credit Denied.
Despite growing GOP support in the Senate, Tom De Lay refuses to consider an increased low-income child tax credit in the House unless it includes more schwag for the filthy rich, such as an estate tax repeal. Speaking of which, new analyses of the Dubya debacle suggest that the middle class will end up footing the bill while the wealthy frolic. So much for “trickle-down.”
These Days.
The LA Times checks in with REM as they gear up for a fall tour, pay their respects to Dylan, and talk about what songs they’ll never play again. “Shiny Happy People” is no surprise, but I always kinda liked “Pop Song 89.”
Bragging Right.
Medley‘s been birddogging some interesting GOP quotes lately, and she’s found another in this article on Matt Labash, senior writer for The Weekly Standard. Says Labash of his fellow cronies in the conservative media, “We’ve created this cottage industry in which it pays to be un-objective…. It’s a great way to have your cake and eat it too. Criticize other people for not being objective. Be as subjective as you want. It’s a great little racket.” Sounds like conservative flaks are suffering from what Robert Wiebe called “the illusion of fulfillment.” As with the Norquist piece last week and as this Tom Paine article notes, it’s exactly this kind of public wink-and-a-smirk about their own fraudulent gimmicks that’ll (hopefully) help bring their “racket” to an early end.
The Mercenary.
With NBA coach firings coming fast and furious, Slate takes a moment to burst the Larry Brown bubble. I have to say I’m inclined to agree. Given both his own coaching tour and his often inexplicable trades every year, it seems Brown’s got a terminal case of basketball ADD. Is he really the right guy to take Detroit over the hump?
Grand Slam, Eggs Rummy.
“Now is not the time or the place to talk. It’s the time to order, and that’s exactly what we’re doing.” Donald Rumsfeld orders breakfast at Denny’s.
Spiders and Bots.
Two stories from the Welcome to the Future dept: NASA and the European Space Agency send dueling rovers to Mars in search of life, while scientists perfect gecko tape technology to create real-life “Spiderman” gloves. There’s a few origin stories in here somewhere.
The Powell Rules.
On a party line vote, the FCC eases ownership rules, paving the way for another wave of media consolidation over the nation’s airwaves. With Chairman Michael Powell now playing kingmaker for the likes of Rupert Murdoch, the Commission has come a long way from low power FM in two short years.
Visions of Arda.
In the spirit of the custom FOTR covers blogged almost a year ago, Adam Koebel has now designed several beautiful Two Towers DVD covers for the second installment. As before, some of these are really nice.
Hell hath no fury.
AICN gets their grubby hands on publicity stills of Hellboy and Abe Sapien. To be honest, I’m not very familiar with the comic, but Ron Perlman looks like every Mike Mignola sketch of the character I’ve ever seen. Good to see the art of make-up is still alive and well in the era of CGI characters.