Dubya kicks off his first post-indictment week by throwing chum to the right-wing fundies and nominating Samuel A. Alito, Jr. to the Supreme Court. So far, he sounds more John Roberts than Harriet Miers, but “[u]nlike Roberts, he has opined from the bench on abortion rights, church-state separation and gender discrimination to the pleasure of conservatives and displeasure of liberals.” Well, if the White House wants a battle to shore up its right flank, it looks like they’re going to get it.
My little green friend.
“You must feel the Force around you, here; between you, me, the treat, the squirrel, everywhere!…yes, even between the land and the frisbee.” Ok, I know this is wrong on a lot of levels, and I’ve even gone on record (4/9) as being opposed to dressing up animals like Star Wars characters in the past. (Caped crusaders, tho’, are another matter.) Nevertheless, my sister‘s boyfriend Ethan saw this particular outfit and thought it screamed Berkeley, and, well, he does look ready to lay a Jedi-by-way-of-Wookie smackdown, doesn’t he? At any rate, happy halloween out there, y’all, and be safe.
Update: In barely related news, Yoda channels Honey Daniels.
The aspens have turned.
But how deep go the roots? As you know by now, Vice-Presidential Chief of Staff Lewis “Scooter” Libby (a.k.a. “Cheney’s Cheney“) has been indicted on five counts of perjury, obstruction of justice, and making false statements. (So much for “restoring honor and dignity to the White House.”) As for the other rumored indictment, it seems Karl Rove has slipped off the hook for the time being, but the investigation continues…
Tehran talks terror.
As if the revelations of Syria’s role in the Hariri assassination weren’t disturbing enough, now the recently-elected president of Iran, a state with nuclear ambitions, is making nightmarish and freakshow statements reasserting the goal of Israel’s destruction. With rhetoric escalating and five years of Dubya’s “with-us-or-against-us” diplomacy helping to shore up hardliners across the Middle East, it seems Iraq may soon be the least of our problems in the region.
A Slight DeLay.
In something of a preemptive strike, Boss DeLay admits he underreported contributions to his legal defense fund in 2000. “It was not an ethical lapse, it was a bookkeeping lapse. I did not review the reports thoroughly enough,” says Brent Perry, trustee of the fund. Too little, too late, Boss Delay. This piddling and delinquent admission won’t help you in Texas, or dissuade the Abramoff investigation at your door.
It’s so, Joe.
A hearty congrats to the Chicago White Sox on sweeping the Astros last night and reversing their own curse (but no more throwing games, ok?) Between this and the Red Sox last year, one has to wonder: Will next year be all about the Cubs?
Fitz of Impatience.
For Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, the White House, and all of Washington, the waiting is the hardest part. But, word is we’ll know the results of Fitzgerald’s Plamegate inquiry tomorrow, and not a moment too soon.
Forthright Danforth.
“I think that the Republican Party fairly recently has been taken over by the Christian conservatives, by the Christian right. I don’t think that this is a permanent condition, but I think this has happened, and that it’s divisive for the country.” So says former GOP Senator John Danforth, himself an Episcopal priest, in keeping with his recent editorials on the subject. Kudos to you, Senator, for saying aloud what needs to be said. By the way, I have a book recommendation for you…
Miers gets the hook.
Rather lamely citing a potential dispute over executive privilege (a.k.a. the Krauthammer option), the White House removes Harriet Miers from Court consideration. Obviously, this isn’t a big surprise after the recent right-wing uprising, but it does mean that Dubya’s next choice will undoubtedly veer closer to the fundie side of the fence. With that in mind, who’s next? Update: Washington reacts.
Civilization (and its discontents).
Joyous news for both my dissertation research and my circadian rhythms (but ill tidings for Abe Lincoln of Minas Tirith): I picked up Civilization IV yesterday, but it has an as-yet-unfixed conflict with ATI video cards and won’t run on my PC. So the unhealthy 36-hour gaming-binges that usually accompany a new Civ-iteration will have to wait another week or two. Speaking of which, I haven’t written up a game update here in awhile. So, in brief:
“The enemy? His sense of duty was no less than yours, I deem. You wonder what his name is…where he came from. And if he was really evil at heart. What lies and threats led him on his long march from home. If he would not rather have stayed there…in peace. War will make corpses of us all.” Alas, as Faramir predicted, Battle for Middle Earth (which I borrowed from my sister at the end of summer) is somewhat disappointing. A Warcraft-style strategy game based on Tolkien lore, it makes great use of Howard Shore’s score, and admittedly there’s something viscerally satisfying about watching your own contingent of Rohirrim cavalry cut a swath through some lowly orc footsoldiers. But, frankly, too much of the game is a grind. Most of the levels very quickly turn into wars of attrition, where you’re just building units to send them to oblivion, over and over again, until you slowly but surely conquer the map. There’s very little strategy involved, and, as such, even despite the fidelity to Tolkien (by way of PJ), I lost interest in the game relatively early on. Then again, Boromir was always the soldier.
F.E.A.R., recommended by my brother, is basically a Half-Life 2-ish FPS that’s taken its cue from the recent wave of Japanese horror: The Big Bad is a ghostly little girl that for all intent and purposes could have materialized right out of The Ring. To its credit, F.E.A.R. displays impressive A.I. and includes a really fun slow-mo option for Matrixy melees. That being said, much of the (relatively easy) single-player game is standard FPS, whereby you face identical squads of enemies several times over. Frankly, F.E.A.R. could have used more Splinter Cell-type stealth missions or, better yet, some Infocom problem-solving and “lurking grue” caprice. The game starts out frightening, but pretty soon one figures out the only way to die is the usual manner: health to zero. And, ultimately, even despite the supernatural backdrop, that’s rather mundane.
NBA 2K6 is the latest installment in the 2K sports series, which, to my mind, eclipsed the more popular EA NBA Live line several years ago in terms of gameplay and simulation. This one’s a definite improvement over last year’s ESPN 2K5, most notably in handle and free-throw shooting — both are much more intuitive, and now, 85% free-throw shooters can actually hit 85% of the time, rather than 33% as before. If you’re into building out your crib a la NFL2K5, as some friends of mine are, that’s now an option here as well. And, whatever happens to the Knickerbockers this year, I gotta say, they turned out to be an offensively-lethal video game team — Stephon has put up career numbers (although waiving Allan Houston has killed my 3-ball percentage.)
To EA’s credit, tho’, I’m not usually one for car-racing games — They’re often boring, repetitive, and nothing like driving, IMHO — but Burnout 3 and now Burnout: Revenge are far and away the best racing games I’ve ever played (well, aside from the broader-themed Grand Thefts Auto.) True, most of the angst-rock, punk-lite soundtrack gets irritating after only a few minutes, Franz Ferdinand notwithstanding. But, aside from that, both Burnouts have a sense of speed and a visceral crunch to ’em that you don’t find in a lot of Pole Position‘s descendants. Burnout 3, only $20 these days, is worth checking out if you’re of the XBox nation.