The intro sums it up: “With 573 newly discovered ballots roiling the second recount in the race for governor of Washington, the Republican Party went to court Thursday seeking a restraining order that would halt the counting of those votes.” Ah, the shadiness knows no bounds.
Month: December 2004
Preying on (Social) Insecurity.
Dubya starts the hard sell on his plan for privatizing Social Security, claiming such a move will reassure financial markets. “Mr. Bush never mentioned the near certainty that without raising taxes, which he has ruled out, any plan to add personal investment accounts to Social Security and improve its financial condition would include a reduction in the guaranteed retirement benefit.” Hmmm…that doesn’t sound very reassuring.
We’re all in it together.
After a long and tortuous road, including some last-minute GOP balking, Dubya signed the intelligence bill into law today. “The new law, which grew out of last summer’s report of the national commission that investigated the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, brings together the 15 separate intelligence agencies into a single command structure, legislates creation of a National Counter Terrorism Center, increases border security and establishes a civil liberties board to serve as a check on excesses in the war on terrorism.” Sounds good…now let’s get that bastard Buttle.
Running from Rummy.
It’s a pile-on. GOP Senators Trent Lott (who knows how these things work) and Susan Collins join John McCain, Evan Bayh, Bill Kristol, and Chuck Hagel in calling for Rumsfeld’s removal. (Naturally, this White House is responding by hugging him ever closer.) Update: Dubya praises Rummy’s ‘really fine job.’ In comparison to yours, perhaps…)
Speed kills.
Coming right off the disappointing Blade: Trinity, David Goyer has been chosen to write, produce, and direct The Flash. The third Blade notwithstanding, Goyer is probably a good choice for this — he’s definitely an avid comic book guy, which could mean anything from the Cosmic Treadmill to Reverse-Flash
New Test Leper.
This land is your land, this land is my land…but the Land belongs to Revelstone Entertainment. Apparently, they’ve optioned The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, to be scribed by Band of Brothers writer John Orloff. I seem to remember my brother fantasy-casting John Malkovich as Covenant a decade ago…that might still work.
Farewell, Iorek.
About a Boy helmer Chris Weitz is off His Dark Materials, apparently on his own cognizance. “It will be an extraordinary film, but at this point in my life I am not the right director to bring it to pass…the technical challenges of making such an epic are more than I can undertake at this point.” If so, bully for him for realizing it…but let’s hope hack directors of the Ratner-W.S. Anderson mold are kept well away from Pullman’s trilogy.
Seein’ all the angles.
By way of Lots of Co (and Triptych Cryptic), and in honor of the new no late fee policy at Blockbuster, here’s the Online Film Critics Society’s “Top 100 Overlooked Films of the 1990s“. I have no clue how Mystery Men, Sneakers or The Ref snuck on here, but any list that puts Miller’s Crossing at #1 is alright by me.
Blame the Children.
Just as Tom Ridge did in his own resignation a few weeks ago, NASA administrator Sean O’Keefe steps down by citing his need to make more money to put his kids through college. “‘It is this [the president’s] very commitment to family that draws me to conclude that I must depart public service,’ O’Keefe wrote. ‘The first of three children will begin college next fall…I owe them the same opportunity my parents provided for me to pursue higher education without the crushing burden of debt thereafter.’” Am I missing something? I know tuition costs have skyrocketed, but is $158,000-a-year really too little money to send a child to college these days? C’mon, now.
Distance Learning.
By way of Cliopatria, Google announces an agreement to digitize the holdings of many of the world’s great libraries, including those of Harvard, Oxford, Michigan, Stanford, and the NYPL. My, that should be enormously useful for researchers the world over once they get it up and running. That noise you heard in the background was millions of historians’ frequent flier miles suddenly crying out in terror and then suddenly silenced.