Tristero

Saturday, March 06, 2004

Seraphiel's Daily Cartoon Roundup  

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 6:04 PM

Bush Is A Fool To Wrap Himself In 9/11  

Why Bush would want to associate himself with 9/11 is beyond me:

One Bush aide, who insisted on anonymity before discussing strategy, said the controversy helped the campaign frame the race around its preferred subject.

'We have started the campaign the way we wanted to and on the issues we intended, and the conversation around the water cooler is about September 11th again,' the official said. 'We fundamentally need people to remember September 11th and everything it has caused in everyone's life.'

One of the most important facts about September 11th is that the most deadly attack on US soil since the Civil War occurred on George Bush's watch. It succeeded because he stupidly re-focused American intelligence on non-existent threats and let surveillance of bin Laden slip.

The Democrats should welcome any attempt by Bush to focus on September 11th because it gives them the perfect opportunity to tell the country exactly how incompetent his administration has been.
posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 7:27 AM

Friday, March 05, 2004

Who Sez Irony Is Dead?  

You can't make this stuff up:

United States Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia will deliver the keynote address at a seminar focusing on "Judicial Independence and Accountability." The program, co-sponsored by Tulane University Law School and the Judicial Excellence Foundation will be held on March 9, 2004 at the Audubon Tea Room in New Orleans. Justice Scalia's keynote address begins at 5:15 p.m.

Quack.
posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 5:49 PM

Afghanistan  

Taliban rampant:

Across the southern third of Afghanistan, the Taliban is regrouping and waiting for the spring to launch attacks against the central government and its U.S.-led allies. About 70% of Zabol province is completely lawless or is controlled by the Taliban or its supporters.

On the main road linking the province to Kabul, the Taliban sets up roadblocks and scrutinizes vehicles for potential targets to kill or kidnap. Four engineers working on the main road have been kidnapped, and 15 Afghans working for the central government have been killed in the last three months. Foreigners no longer venture to the province; aid workers fled long ago.

Officials said about 700 armed Taliban fighters are members of Afghanistan's ethnic Pushtuns, have crossed from the Pakistani cities of Peshawar and Quetta, where they are trained and funded. The Taliban is offering a motorbike, AK-47 and satellite telephone to anyone willing to steal, rob or bomb a government target. A successful hit is worth $200, and killing an enemy has an added incentive of a $900 bonus.

The strategy appears to be making it difficult to work in Zabol, creating anger among the local population and turning support away from central government to the Taliban.

posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 5:45 PM

Joss Stone  

JG tipped me off to the very talented Joss Stone. If you listen to her, you simply won't believe she's a white 16 year old from Britain, but she is. She sounds like pure r&b from the 60's/70's. If she doesn't flame out and she finds something special to say, she has the potential to be a major voice in pop, not in the cultural sense which is nothing I am capable of judging, but musically.

But here's the question: has reverb been banned from pop music? My goodness, her first cd Soul Sessions is dry as a bone. Finally, I couldn't take it anymore and I added a small amount of verb from my trusty Lexicon PCM 80 (Vocal Hall). Whew! It finally started to gel and sound much better. But what's impossible to fix is the awful overuse of bigtime compression on the overall mix but especially on her voice. When she takes a breath, the breathing ends up louder than her moans and wails. In addition, I think they overused an APHEX Aural Exciter or similar gadget: her vocal track especially sounds harsh and processed.

This isn't the only place I've noticed it. On Let It Be... Naked, there are the exact same problems. It sounds unpleasantly dry throughout and so compressed that Ringo's drums get softer during his crescendos.

I don't listen to enough pop (or care that much about American pop music) to know if this is the production style for most new releases but if it is, it is no wonder that the record industry is in the tank. The music sounds so terrible, it's nearly impossible to judge the quality.
posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 4:30 PM

Howling At The Pa$$ion Of The Chri$t  

To say the least, I admire Bob Somerby's Daily Howler. Sometimes he goes after someone that I wish he would leave alone, like Russell Baker, but even then, I have to admit I agree with him. However, when it comes to Mel's latest movie, he totally missed the point.

He takes one reviewer to task for comparing Mel's splatter pornfest to Dario Argento's. Since Bob hasn't heard of Argento, this strikes him as pompous. To explain:

Argento was, maybe still is, a master of the splatter film genre, so-called because of the enormous amount of fake blood and gory prostheses deployed (Suspiria is considered his masterpiece). You may never have heard of him but I wouldn't necessarily call Argento a snooty reference or a particularly esoteric one for people of a certain age or for film freaks who like horror.

As for Mel's masterpiece, it may be a good film. It may be bad. That is entirely besides the point, as it is for most movies.

What is central to film, always, is money, moolah, coin of the realm, simoleons. The rest, as Hitchcock once said, is just "blah blah blah."

Now Mel spent a fistload of his own bread and he's no fool. Priority one: recoup! But there was a major problem: "Passion" had all the hallmarks of, to use the technical term, a box office turkey. It was just a vanity project disguised as a "serious" film, pretentiously enacted in Aramaic and Latin (Latin, by the way, is historically wrong, and points out the foolishness of his pretenses; he could have substituted early Finnish and had as much verisimilitude and artiness). His movie's subject -religion- was, in recent years, a killer at the box office.

In simple English: Gibson stood to lose about 25 million dollars from his little indulgence. Now, that's a real problem. Even Bettin' Bill Bennett would have trouble floating that level of loss past his wife.

So, Mel embarked on a spectacularly cynical pr campaign, deliberately whipping up a fake controversy (the adl and others gladly, if perhaps unwittingly, helped) when normally there isn't enough interest in a Christ film for anyone to care very much. Suddenly, this movie, as opposed to other religious movies released around the same time, became a cause celebre.

And what does Gibson do? Does he invite an honest dialogue about the film? Hell, no. He closes screenings to all but the most likely of supporters and, just in case, he demands that everyone who sees a preview sign a confidentiality agreement which forbids anyone from speaking ill of the movie. On the other hand, if you liked the movie, well, hell... Mel had no problem with you telling everyone how much you adored it, how much it changed your life, how important it was to see it!

That's Hollywood hoohah, boy-o, that ain't no discourse. Now, many intelligent folks strongly objected to what Gibson did - and these are your basic, ordinary, smart people who care passionately about movies and/or care passionately about religion, not academic dweebs sniveling in a corner. They objected for some bloody damn good reasons, too. Gibson pandered both to virulent anti-Semitic feelings in the world (and they are quite alive among evangelicals and Catholics, unfortunately) and to the dangerously grandiose self-image of fundamentalist and evangelical "christians." He pandered to these feelings, and gave them a hefty boost in visibility, merely to flack a film and rake in a heap o' dough.

That is outrageous. That is obscene.

Is the film good or bad? It doesn't matter. It's made, what?, $175 million so far. That's what matters.

I'll take Dario Argento any day of the week. He may be no less perverted than Gibson when it comes to showing violence but at least he has the common decency not to fellate the religious right or whack the Jews when he wants to make a buck.

[Note: This is a revised version of a letter sent to the Howler.]
posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 3:53 PM

Agog Again  

From a transcript on the official White House website, entitled Economy Continues to Get Stronger -- President Bush Visits California, a brief excerpt. Bush is talking to a small business owner:

THE PRESIDENT: Thanks for coming. How many -- any chances of hiring anybody this year?

MR. DENHERDER: We're probably going to hire two to three people this year.

THE PRESIDENT: That's good. See, and you've got how many now?

MR. DENHERDER: We've got 14 now.

THE PRESIDENT: There are a lot of companies, a lot in America, with 20 or fewer employees. And when he says he's going to hire two more, that's really good news. A lot of people are feeling confident and optimistic about our future so they can say, I'm going to hire two more. They can sit here and tell the President in front of all the cameras, I'm going to hire two more people. (Laughter.) That's confidence. (Applause.)

via Cursor
posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 2:22 PM

Jeralyn For US Senate  

I heartily second Roger Ailes's great idea to urge Jeralyn Merritt, proprietor of the indispensable TalkLeft to consider running for the US Senate from Colorado! Anyone who's read her blog knows Jeralyn would fight tooth and nail for the people of Colorado. Go Jer, go!
posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 10:33 AM

OK House Proves Evolution Is Wrong  

The folks who added this monstrosity at the last minute to a bill that was otherwise innocuous are prima facie evidence for de-volution:

he Oklahoma House passed a bill Monday that would require public school textbooks that discuss evolution to include a disclaimer stating that it is a controversial theory and not fact.

Rep. Bill Graves successfully included the language in House Bill 2194, a measure that originally changed the format for Braille versions of instructional materials.

“I think so many of the textbooks make it appear that evolution is a scientific fact and it’s not,” said Graves, R-Oklahoma City. “Even the U.S. Supreme Court says it’s a theory, so I was just trying to make that clear.

“I think it’s very important for children to know,” Graves said. “If they just believe that they came from some slime in a swamp that’s a whole lot different from being created in the image of God.”

Well, we know that at least one OK Representative never evolved very far away from being swamp slime.
posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 10:22 AM

Homeland Security Rates A C+  

Get your PDF of the analysis of Homeland Security fromThe Century Foundation.
posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 10:08 AM

Seraphiel's Daily Cartoon Roundup  

1
2
3
4
posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 7:21 AM

Thursday, March 04, 2004

The Shadow Cabinet  

Pandagon has a brilliant idea: Release the names of a shadow cabinet that will forcefully critique Bush admin actions. Here are his choices:

President: John Kerry
Vice-President: Bill Richardson
Sec. of State: Sam Nunn
Sec. of Defense: Wesley Clark
Sec. of Homeland Security: Gary Hart
National Security Advisor: Rand Beers
Sec. of Veterans Affairs: Max Cleland
Attorney General: John Edwards
Sec. of Labor: Dick Gephardt

With something coordinated like this going on to counter the garbage coming from the White House and the Bush cabinet, Bush stands a better than even chance of being history in November. Oh, be still, my beating heart...

[UPDATE] Heh, heh. Pandagon scooped the Times by a day. In this morning's op-ed, someone suggested the very same idea.
posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 6:38 PM

The Passion of the Christ: Blooper Reel  

Gibson's great masterpiece is the most transcendent religious experience you're likely to find at the cinema since Tom Cruise took delivery of a pile of Lamborghinis at the beginning of Rain Man. Here's a transcript of one of the outtakes from The Passion Of The Christ:

Christ, shackled to a stone, is being scourged by Roman soldiers. Blood runs down his gory back. His pain is palpable.

Jesus: [writhes in pain, hands shaking]

[Cell phone rings.]

Jesus: [hands shake furiously]

[Cell phone rings. Caviezel looks up, sheepish.]

Roman soldier: Jim? That you?

Jesus: Yeah.

[Cell phone rings.]

Soldier: Want me to get it?

Jesus: Yeah.

[Roman soldier gingerly reaches into Caviezel’s blood-soaked loincloth, pulls out phone and opens it, then holds the phone to Caviezel’s ear.]

Off Camera: [laughter]

Jesus: Hey, Mom.

[UPDATE:] Uh oh...The only critic that matters weighs in and He's furious:

After watching Mel Gibson's The Passion Of The Christ Monday, Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ announced that He will demand creative control over the next film based on His life...

"I never should have given Mel Gibson so much license," said Christ, the Son of God. "I don't like to criticize a member of the flock, but that close-up of the nails being pounded into My wrists—that was just bad."

...Christ said He considered returning to the physical world to make an accurate film depiction of His life for years, but seeing The Passion prompted Him to finally descend from heaven, meet with His agent Ronald Thatcher, and demand that He be attached as a producer on any future projects.


"Ron has a history of telling Me that the filmmakers 'totally understand' the Word Of God, and that the project is going to be 'fabulous,'" Christ said. "But when it comes out, it's all wrong, and Ron claims everything fell apart in post-production. At that point, there's nothing left for Me to do but say, 'Okay, fine. I forgive you all.' Well, next time, I'll be shepherding the project through from casting to final edit to marketing."


Describing one of His biggest complaints, Christ said that no film about His life has ever "made the apostles pop."

posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 4:11 PM

Tickling The Dragon's Tail  

Shorter GOP Kerry strategy:

Kerry, bin Laden, al Qaeda, Democrats. What's the difference?

I'll bet you think I'm exaggerating but read on.

There's a new contretemps brewing over Tom Cole's (R-OK) hare'em scare 'em political hate speech. Josh Marshall has the transcript:

I promise you this, if George Bush loses the election, Osama bin Laden wins the election, it's that simple. It will be interpreted that way by enemies of the United States around the world."

What do you think Hitler would have thought if Roosevelt would've lost the election in 1944? He would have thought American resolve was [weakening]."

What would the confederacy have thought if Lincoln would have lost the election of 186[4]?

Notice that he doesn't quite say "a vote against Bush is a vote for bin Laden" or "bin Laden [heart] Kerry" or that Kerry really is bin Laden, unshaved. But that is precisely what we're supposed to hear. Cole is seeing how close he can associate Kerry with al Qaeda without quite calling him a card-carrying Muslim extremist. That, my friends, is a prime example of tickling the dragon's tail, political style, seeing how close you can get to a meltdown without getting hurt.

Now in June, a fellow in National Review also implied that Democrats are coordinating political strategy with bin Laden:

We are vulnerable, and any new attacks [from al Qaeda] will be designed to do two things. First, they will be planned to interfere with Mr. Bush's reelection. That means the terrorists will attempt to cause very large numbers of casualties again, or a land a huge blow on our economy, or both. The most recent warnings that al Qaeda may be able to use WMD against us in the continental U.S. is simply a recognition of reality.

If such an attack succeeds, the Democrats have been positioning themselves to benefit from it. All the talk of inadequate funding for homeland security — as if pouring money on Rainbow Tom Ridge will solve anything — is a predicate to their strategy. Bush will be blamed for protecting us inadequately. If the damage is sufficiently severe, and the economy tanks, they may even try to impeach him. If you think they can't do that, think again.

Same technique. The writer is tickling the dragon's tail again, implying that Democrats are to al Qaeda as Sinn Fein was to the IRA. He doesn't quite say that Democrats are hoping for a second attack. No, of course not. But what other meaning can there be if they are "positioning themselves to benefit" from one?

[Update:]By the way, the GOP will claim, of course, that they never said a vote for Kerry is a vote for bin Laden. Just like they said that they never claimed that Saddam posed an imminent threat. Same technique at work.
posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 3:10 PM

FactCheck.Org Has A Major Problem With Bush Ads  

That's because there aren't too many genuine facts to check:

All were positive, none named Kerry or any Democrat, and all spoke in high-sounding general terms. They were nearly devoid of factual claims for us to check.

Nevertheless:

This ad got one fact wrong when it showed Bush taking the oath of office January 20, 2001 and said that in that month a challenge facing Bush was “an economy in recession.” It’s true that the long economic boom of the Clinton years had run out of steam before Bush took office and that the nation’s economic output was flat. It grew at a weak 2.1 percent in the last three months of 2000 and then fell two-tenths of one percent in the three-month period of January, February and March 2001, according to the US Bureau of Economic Analysis . But the economy didn’t actually enter recession until March of that year, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, an association of academic economists whose Business Cycle Dating Committee is the generally accepted arbiter of when business booms and busts begin and end. So to be perfectly accurate the Bush ad should have said, “An economy nearing recession.”

posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 1:02 PM

Venezuela  

Jeanne d'Arc has many links about the situation in Venezuela. Now that Aristide has been removed, probably at gunpoint, we can expect something similar with Chavez.

Oh wait. It's quite possible that Bush has already instigated one coup in Venezuela but failed. I have very little idea how good or bad Chavez is, but I do know he was elected fair and square, unlike my own president. The US has no right to intervene in the internal affairs of Venezuela simply because they don't like Chavez's communist/socialist politics.
posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 9:25 AM

Seraphiel's Daily Cartoon Roundup  

1
2
3
4
posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 7:39 AM

The FMA Done Right  

A friend passed this on.

What's a marriage?

The Presidential Prayer Team is currently urging us to: "Pray for the President as he seeks wisdom on how to legally codify the definition of marriage. Pray that it will be according to Biblical principles. With many forces insisting on variant definitions of marriage, pray that 'God's Word' and His standards will be honored by our government."

 

Any good religious person believes prayer should be balanced by action. So here, in support of the Prayer Team's admirable goals, is a proposed Constitutional Amendment codifying a definition of marriage based entirely upon Biblical principles:

A. Marriage in the United States shall consist of a union between one man and one or more women. (Gen 29:17-28; II Sam 3:2-5.)


B. Marriage shall not impede a man's right to take concubines in addition to his wife or wives. (II Sam 5:13; I Kings 11:3; II Chron 11:21)

C. A marriage shall be considered valid only if the wife is a virgin. If the wife is not a virgin, she shall be executed. (Deut 22:13- 21)

D. Marriage between a believer and a nonbeliever shall be forbidden. (Gen24:3; Num 25:1-9; Ezra 9:12; Neh 10:30)

E. Since marriage is for life, neither this Constitution nor the Constitution of any State, nor any state or federal law, shall be construed to permit divorce. (Deut 22:19; Mark 10:9)

F. If a married man dies without children, his brother shall marry the widow. If he refuses to marry his brother's widow or deliberately does not give her children, he shall pay a fine of one shoe and be otherwise punished in a manner to be determined by law. (Gen. 38:6-10; Deut25:5-10)
posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 7:30 AM

Wednesday, March 03, 2004

Seraphiel's Daily Cartoon Roundup  

1
2
3
posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 2:35 PM

Bush Popularity at New Low  

But nowhere near low enough:

Bush's overall job approval rating has fallen to 50 percent, a career low. His rating for honesty and trustworthiness is likewise at a new low.

For the first time, fewer than half of Americans now say the war with Iraq was worth fighting. Fifty-seven percent disapprove of Bush's performance in terms of job creation. And John Kerry leads him in a head-to-head match-up, 51 percent to 43 percent, although the Massachusetts senator's support is noticeably softer.

As the article implies, this could change in a heartbeat.
posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 10:59 AM

Recent Hearings, Readings, and Viewings  

Haydn: The Creation. Seen live with Maazel conducting the NY Phil. Yes, the portrayal of chaos as the work starts is one of the more amazing pieces of high classical music. On the whole, the piece is quite exciting, even if some of the better fugal textures are cribbed from Handel oratorios. And towards the end, there's a trio which sounds like something from Il Nozze di Figaro, but somehow stripped of its naughtiness, humor, and eroticism-quite a trick. Imho, Haydn's most amazing music is found in the quartets, the piano sonatas and trios, and the symphonies. Regarding the latter, I confess I've only heard about 30 of the 104+ symphonies he composed, but every one I have heard is exceptional, paradoxically in a kind of easygoing, natural way that Mozart and Beethoven were rarely able to achieve.

PJ Harvey: Dry. Quite simply one of the best composed (and performed) rock and roll albums I've heard, up there with Velvet Underground & Nico , Safe As Milk , and Horses. If Robert Ellis, PJ's drummer, ever needs a place to stay, he can crash with us for as long as he wants, provided he brings his drumkit and plays for us three times a day. He's in the pantheon, as far as I'm concerned, up there with Ginger Baker and Keith Moon, and nearly at the John French level in terms of originality. And PJ's songs - wow. The mind boggling opening of "Oh, My Lover" the first song, sets the tone for everything to come. It is a solo bass pattern which seems simple enough, but is nearly impossible to count until the drums come in for orientation. And the intro to "Dress"- PJ overlays two different tempos related by an extended syncopation - is one of the strangest and most effective uses of polytempos I've heard outside of Carter and Nancarrow.

Ryu Murakami: Almost Transparent Blue. A horror story with no story and no suspense, a love story with no discernible tenderness, a grim, obscene portrayal of nihilistic Japanese punks that is also achingly beautiful. No wonder it won the the famous Atukagawa Prize. The narrator, named Ryu, graphically describes daily life as a 19 year old lost soul, shooting heroin, participating in omnisexual, multi-racial orgies. Murakami describes it all in a seemingly affectless, disembodied voice but by the time you get to the halfway point in this very short book, you are deeply drawn into Ryu's world and end up in love with his characters and their unsentimental lives, which are more intertwined, loving and caring than they appear to be to the straights. Not a single excess word, not a single false step, emotionally. No wonder he's one of Japan's most famous novelists. But something tells me that he won't be winning any Nobel Prizes. He seems to enjoy describing bodily fluids too much.

I also read his brilliant new book, In the Miso Soup in which a young tourist guide in Tokyo gets a client who may or may not be a brain damaged American serial killer. At least in translation, it consciously apes the literary style of writers like Jim Thompsom and James M. Cain, but, as with Almost Transparent Blue, the plot, such as it is, is disposable. Disguised as a splatter novel, In the Miso Soup is in fact a deeply moral book that deliberately inverts our moral stereotypes. For Murakami, evil is the opposite of human lust and desires. In this book, it is the secular world, with all its filth, stoned prostitutes, and compromise that acts as a moral anchor. "Frank", the American client ignorant of Tokyo's sexual underground, is described in terms of supernatural awe; he is a supremely transcendent creature, really a spiritual force, and irredeemably evil. It is an extraordinary novel.

Dan Brown: The Da Vinci Code. The worst book I've read in years. Brown makes John Grisham seem like Henry James and David Baldacci the heir to Shakespeare. Some very smart people recommended this book to me if I wanted an intelligent mystery/thriller. Don't bother. The mystery at the heart of it is not worth the journey, the characters are sticks, the clues blatantly obvious, and the premise idiotic. There is more joy and humanity in the earwax of Murakami's damned and damaged characters than there is in any part of Brown's seemingly more "normal" heros.
posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 8:47 AM

Tuesday, March 02, 2004

Agog Again  

Y'know, my jaw's dropped to the floor so many times since the Bush Administration took over the government that the bottom of my chin is permanently deformed. Take this amazing quote:

"If the Democratic policies had been pursued over the last two or three years, the kind of tax increases that both Kerry and Edwards have talked about, we would not have had the kind of job growth that we've had," Cheney said.

Um, um, um, Dick, you godamm lying son of a bitch! You know full well that about 2.9 million jobs have been lost since Bush took over:



Chart available here.
posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 6:27 PM

Bob Somerby Asks The Question All America Should Ask  

And it's a doozy:

What have we ever done as a people to call down this plague of journalistic inanity? A Dirty Little Secret was revealed once again: The people who steward your discourse just aren’t very sharp. Really fast, “is God on our side?” If Bumiller takes a look in the mirror she will get a hint of an answer. Our question: What did we ever do to call forth this plague under which we all suffer?

THE MORNING AFTER: Here are four of Bumiller’s last five questions, spread out over roughly two-thirds of the debate:

1. Are you a liberal? No, are you a liberal?
2. Should President Bush go to soldiers’ funerals?
3. [To Kerry] What have you learned about likeability from Edwards?
4. Is God on our side?

posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 6:13 PM

An Invitation To George Bush  

This arrived in the mail today, forwarded by a friend. The author is the ceo of a very well known and successful company on the West Coast

February 24, 2004
President George W. Bush
The White House
Washington, D.C.

Dear Mr. President,

I could not avoid you tonight as your support for a federal constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage blared throughout the airport lounge via CNN. As I listened to your confusing messages about family and values and politics, I shared sadness with my fellow travelers about your continuing fear-driven approach to leadership. Your defense of traditional marriage rang hollow; rather, it was a poor endorsement for discrimination, ignorance and your conservative political base.

Uncharacteristically, I decided not to be angry, offended or cynical. Rather, I desperately want to understand you and your allies on this issue, and take the high road in that engagement.

So I invite you, Laura and your daughters to spend a day with my family and explain why you are championing such a cause.

Spend a day with my life partner of 24 years who is one of the most remarkable human beings you'll ever have the privilege of meeting. A public school teacher, Bob has spent his life inspiring students and parents alike with his commitment to a values-laden and creative approach to learning, serving as a strong life-changing role model for countless young at-risk city kids over the years.

Spend a day with our energetic and cheerful seven year-old son Ben. Ben will treat you to an active day full of homework, piano lessons, lego projects, friends, chores, soccer and baseball. Fully steeped in the values of love, sharing, friendship and learning, Ben is immensely proud of his two adoring and engaged parents, and wonderfully enriched by a diverse and supportive neighborhood.

Spend a day with our extraordinary community of friends and neighbors, who reflect the America of today and the future - mixed in race, language, background, family structures and ideas - but united in their deep commitment to our children, to creating a better future, to loving our country and to enjoying the richness of life.
Spend a day with our extended family that has supported us with unconditional love through good times and bad. Our parents, aunts, uncles, siblings, cousins, nieces and nephews spread around the country form the foundation of our world. Over the years we have celebrated countless joyous holidays and celebrations together, as well as helping them in endless ways through illnesses, financial problems, divorces, and other family dramas.

Spend a day with us as we engage in our community as a family and as individuals, as we actively volunteer at Ben's school, as we have headed up the local United Way, and as we have worked tirelessly with many community organizations to improve the lives of our less-fortunate neighbors. Come join us as we sing and pray in church together.
Spend the day with me as the CEO of a fast-growing global digital media company who understands the economic interests of supporting stable communities and families, who must create a vibrant 21st century inclusive workforce through rigorous recruiting and non-discriminatory practices, and who is forever seeking that elusive family-life-work balance.

Spend the day with us as we explain to our son, his friends and cousins, why the world can be a fragile place where people do bad things out of ignorance and fear, where people hate people for silly reasons, where leaders abuse power for political gain at the expense of innocent folks, and where people waste enormous emotion and energy on side issues when domestic and child abuse, poverty, racism, divorce and inadequate health care - the issues truly threatening the American family - go unattended.

Mr. President, please come spend a day with us. And then, over our evening family meal, after we have given our nightly thanks to our loving and hate-free God, explain to this same-sex household just what family values you are defending for the future of America.
posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 10:12 AM

Seraphiel's Daily Cartoon Roundup  

1
2
posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 9:50 AM

Anti-Gay Activist Thinks Gay Sex Is The Hottest Sex  

Dr. Paul Cameron is one of the most virulent anti-gay activists around, but here he makes the most persuasive case I've ever read for gay sex:

“If you isolate sexuality as something solely for one’s own personal amusement, and all you want is the most satisfying orgasm you can get- and that is what homosexuality seems to be-then homosexuality seems too powerful to resist. The evidence is that men do a better job on men and women on women, if all you are looking for is orgasm.” So powerful is the allure of gays, Cameron believes, that if society approves that gay people, more and more heterosexuals will be inexorably drawn into homosexuality. “I’m convinced that lesbians are particularly good seducers,” says Cameron. “People in homosexuality are incredibly evangelical,” he adds, sounding evangelical himself. “It’s pure sexuality. It’s almost like pure heroin. It’s such a rush. They are committed in almost a religious way. And they’ll take enormous risks, do anything.” He says that for married men and women, gay sex would be irresistible. “Martial sex tends toward the boring end,” he points out. “Generally, it doesn’t deliver the kind of sheer sexual pleasure that homosexual sex does” So, Cameron believes, within a few generations homosexuality would be come the dominant form of sexual behavior.

Sounds like the good doctor is gonna need lots of this stuff soon.

via Atrios.
posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 9:33 AM

Put A New $20 Bill In A Microwave And...  

watch the sawbuck blow up. Turns out that there's a teensy weensy computer chip stuck on each bill, in the right eye of Andrew Jackson:

Dave and I have brainstormed the fact that most items can be 'microwaved' to fry the 'rfid' chip, thus elimination of tracking by our government.

So we chose to 'microwave' our cash, over $1000 in twenties in a stack, not spread out on a carasoul. Do you know what exploded on American money?? The right eye of Andrew Jackson on the new twenty, every bill was uniform in it's burning... Isnt that interesting?

via Slashdot
posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 4:23 AM

One More US Soldier Killed In Baghdad  

I thought the killings were supposed to stop on March 1.
posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 4:07 AM

The Mother Of All Deals  

Seymour Hersh in The New Yorker on how to succeed in the nuclear blackmarket, get caught, and never get brought to justice:

Musharraf, who seized power in a coup d’état in 1999, has been a major ally of the Bush Administration in the war on terrorism. According to past and present military and intelligence officials, however, Washington’s support for the pardon of Khan was predicated on what Musharraf has agreed to do next: look the other way as the U.S. hunts for Osama bin Laden in a tribal area of northwest Pakistan dominated by the forbidding Hindu Kush mountain range, where he is believed to be operating. American commanders have been eager for permission to conduct major sweeps in the Hindu Kush for some time, and Musharraf has repeatedly refused them. Now, with Musharraf’s agreement, the Administration has authorized a major spring offensive that will involve the movement of thousands of American troops.

UPDATE: The Agonist has posted excerpts from a Stratfor report with details complementing Hersh's article.
posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 3:29 AM

Greenspan's Betrayal  

Krugman:

Mr. Greenspan pushed through an increase in taxes on working Americans, generating a Social Security surplus. Then he used that surplus to argue for tax cuts that deliver very little relief to most people, but are worth a lot to those making more than $300,000 a year. And now that those tax cuts have contributed to a soaring deficit, he wants to cut Social Security benefits.

The point, of course, is that if anyone had tried to sell this package honestly — "Let's raise taxes and cut benefits for working families so we can give big tax cuts to the rich!" — voters would have been outraged. So the class warriors of the right engaged in bait-and-switch.

And Krugman ends up with this:

By using his office to promote a partisan agenda, he has betrayed his institution, and the nation.  

Wow.
posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 3:19 AM

Monday, March 01, 2004

Maxine Waters Talks To Amy Goodman  

More bizarre details:

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! I’m Amy Goodman. Congress member Waters, can you tell us about the conversation you just had with Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide?

MAXINE WATERS: I most certainly can and he’s anxious for me to get the message out so people will understand. He is in the Central Republic of Africa at a place called the Palace of the Renaissance, and he’s not sure if that’s a house or a hotel or what it is and he is surrounded by military. It’s like in jail, he said. He said that he was kidnapped; he said that he was forced to leave Haiti. He said that the American embassy sent the diplomats; he referred to them as, to his home where they was lead by Mr. Moreno. And I believe that Mr. Moreno is a deputy chief of staff at the embassy in Haiti and other diplomats, and they ordered him to leave. They said you must go NOW. He said that they said that Guy Phillipe and U.S. Marines were coming to Port Au Prince; he will be killed, many Haitians will be killed, that they would not stop until they did what they wanted to do. He was there with his wife Mildred and his brother-in-law and two of his security people, and somebody from the Steel Foundation, and they’re all, there’s five of them that are there. They took them where-- they did stop in Antigua then they stopped at a military base, then they were in the air for hours and then they arrived at this place and they were met by five ministers of government. It’s a Francophone country, they speak French. And they were then taken to this place called the Palace of the Renaissance where they are being held and they are surrounded by military people. They are not free to do whatever they want to do. Then the phone clicked off after we had talked for about five--we talked maybe fifteen minutes and then the phone clicked off. But he, some of it was muffled in the beginning, at times it was clear. But one thing that was very clear and he said it over and over again, that he was kidnapped, that the coup was completed by the Americans that they forced him out. They had also disabled his American security force that he had around him for months now; they did not allow them to extend their numbers. To begin with they wanted them to bring in more people to provide security they prevented them from doing that and then they finally forced them out of the country. So that’s where his is and I said to him that I would do everything I could to get the word out. …that I heard it directly from him I heard it directly from his wife that they were kidnapped, they were forced to leave, they did not want to leave, their lives were threatened and the lives of many Haitians were threatened. And I said that we would be in touch with the State Department, with the President today and if at all possible we would try to get to him. We don’t know whether or not he is going to be moved. We will try and find that information out today.

posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 1:54 PM

Curiouser And Curiouser  

More news about the Aristide departure

A man who said he was a caretaker for the now exiled president told France's RTL radio station the troops forced Aristide out.

"The American army came to take him away at two in the morning," the man said.

"The Americans forced him out with weapons.

"It was American soldiers. They came with a helicopter and they took the security guards.

"(Aristide) was not happy. He did not want to be taken away. He did not want to leave. He was not able to fight against the Americans."

The RTL journalist who carried out the interview described the man as a "frightened old man, crouched in a corner" who said he was the "caretaker of the residence".

Aristide fled Haiti today in the face of an armed revolt. The United States has ordered Marines to the Caribbean state to help restore order.

posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 1:52 PM

WTF???? Aristide Kidnapped By US Marines?  

Now we're abducting presidents?

On Monday, African-American activist Randall Robinson said Aristide had called him on a smuggled cell phone and told him that he did not leave office voluntarily. Robinson said Aristide told him he was 'abducted' by U.S. soldiers in 'full battle gear' early Sunday and was being held 'incommunicado' in the Central African Republic.


The kidnapping accusation also was reported Monday by the office of Rep. Maxine Waters, D-California, and Aristide's attorney, Ira Kurzman. Waters' office said she also had spoken with Aristide by phone and Kurzman said the story originated with groundskeepers and housekeepers at Aristide's Haiti home.


'The State Department refused to put me in contact with my client,' Kurzman said. 'I have found out today everything that was my worst nightmare. Today I have learned that the president of the Republic of Haiti was kidnapped by U.S. Marines, taken forcibly from his home, put on an American aircraft,' he said.


The White House issued a statement denying the claim. 'I'm afraid that version of events is not based on fact,' the statement said. 'The fact is, he resigned. He signed a letter of resignation.'


An Associated Press report filed early Monday from Central African Republic included no mention of U.S. troops accompanying Aristide and his wife during their arrival in Bangui. (Full story)


The communications minister of the Central African Republic said the abduction claim is 'absolutely false.' The minister, Parfait Mbaye, said Aristide had been granted permission to land in the country after Aristide himself -- as well as the U.S. and French governments -- requested it.

via atrios.
posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 1:47 PM

Another Opinion On The Big Issue Of The Day  

from The New Yorker. Yes, The New Yorker.
posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 8:45 AM

Seraphiel's Daily Cartoon Roundup  

1
2
3
posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 8:30 AM