An artist is going around the Silver Lake and marking gentrified bars with monuments memorializing their past lives as Latino gay bars. The link is to a story by Adolfo Guzman-Lopez (the man with the best name in public radio).
You don't need to accept governmental sanctioned landmark plaques, just like you don't need to swallow the AFI's ridiculously lillified top 100 film list as Ken Burns Hates Mexican reminds us.
"The past is not dead. In fact, it's not even past" (dude)
Unlike other domestic animals, which were tamed by people, cats probably domesticated themselves, which could account for the haughty independence of their descendants. “The cats were adapting themselves to a new environment, so the push for domestication came from the cat side, not the human side,” Dr. Driscoll said.
At the same time, the Iraq policy debate—the Washington-based battle over war strategy—generated only 1% of last week’s coverage and failed to make the top-10 story list. Those findings are indicative of a trend in recent weeks in which coverage of the political debate over the war has diminished substantially.
For the first three months of this year, PEJ found that the policy debate was the leading news subject by a large margin, accounting for 12% of all the coverage. (The next biggest story was the 2008 campaign at 7%.) But on May 24, after a lengthy political showdown, Congress approved war funding without including troop withdrawal timetables. Since then—in the period from May 27-June 22—the policy debate has been the sixth-biggest story attracting 3% of the coverage. This suggests that the May 24 vote was viewed as a major victory for President Bush over the Democratic-led Congress that, temporarily, brought some kind of resolution to the policy fight.
It's a good thing the Dems folded and agreed September, SEPTEMBER, SEPTEMBER would be when they'll do something about that endless, pointless war. Apparently it's not like anyone cares. You know, except all those dead people. And the people those dead people knew. No one except them!
You've probably already seen this by now, but what is the deal with this???
The obvious implication to me seems to be Hillary is Tony, is that what her campaign is going for? Also, I don't want Hillary "watching out" for me by ordering carrots instead of onion rings when I met her at a diner, I want her to do it by not invading and occupying other nations and actually reading intelligence reports! It is good to see Johnny Sac is doing slightly better.
Meanwhile Bill O'Reilly says reporting on the death and destruction in Iraq and Afghanistan is pointless while telling his viewers about the things that "really affect their lives", like bears and Playboy spreads. Seriously.
On Friday I met LW at the Formosa at happy hour for a drink. A guy there waiting for his cab asked us (but mainly me) where we're "from", and not from but FROM. After that he told us he was in town to premiere his film at a Tom Tancredo fundraiser at the Nixon library, he had smoked weed in SFO during the 60s, one day we'll think we had fallen asleep and will wake up old, and that he's good friends with the owner of Geno's Chessesteaks in Philadelphia. Maybe you know about Tancredo and his run for the GOP nomination solely on the issue of the horrors of illegal immigration (if you think I'm overstating this, check out his website), but don't know anything about Geno's in Philadelphia. They made some headlines last year when they started an "English-only when ordering" policy. Headlines on Fox News at least.
I was really bothered about this guy a bit later: I should have told him off. I don't know what I should have said, but it bugged me that someone would ask someone like me, out of the blue, where I'm from, and then go on brag about knowing nativist politicians and ignorant restaurant owners. I just doesn't make sense, what do you expect to hear? "Yeah, I can't stand all these illegal too, let's go harass the busy boy here and then call INS on the cab driver taking your drunk at 5pm ass home!"
The California Republican Party has decided no American is qualified to take one of its most crucial positions -- state deputy political director -- and has hired a Canadian for the job through a coveted H-1B visa, a program favored by Silicon Valley tech firms that is under fire for displacing skilled American workers.
That's right, apparently in the entire state of California there is no one qualified to hold the position of state deputy political director in the state's Republican Party offices. They can hire whoever they want, but its a bit confusing considering their party's position on immigration as a whole. What about all the homegrown political hacks? Maybe the wages are too low so no self-respecting American would work in that job?
I was going to make a larger joke about there being something about Canadians being not as scary and bloodthirsty as the Aztec nation to the south, but I think this about sums it up. Yeah, its not very funny.
Am I the last person here to have seen this video of Edwards combing his hair?
The music is funny. As a political object its kind of unfair, but it does literalize the GOP's major argument against Edwards: he's gay.
AT sent this from the Made blog (home to dorks making weird shit worldwide). Its pretty amazing how long it is even with time-elapse photography. Still, the music here is LAME!
Here's Bush on the failed immigration billed (which one commentator referred to as "the death of his domestic presidency"), Peter Pace's aborted renomination, and the impending no-confidence vote on his boy Alberto:
“It’s an interesting comment about Congress, isn’t it, that, on the one hand, they say that a good general shouldn’t be reconfirmed, and on the other hand, they say that my Attorney General shouldn’t stay,” he said today. “And I find it interesting. I guess it reflects the political atmosphere of Washington.”
1. Congress didn't say the general shouldn't be reconfirmed, you didn't want to deal with uncomfortable questions like: WHEN THE HELL IS THIS F-IN WAR GOING TO END?! 2. They are saying your AG (who you don't refer as "good") shouldn't stay because he probably broke the law and doesn't seem to remember places, events, times, policy decisions, personal, law, etc. 3. How often is this guy going to hide behind the world "politics" as if its a horrible thing that immeditately indicates the opposition is evil. Dude, you're a politician! And how do you think that immigration bill is going to pass? With the brilliant strategic thinking you showed with working Putin? Um...homeboy worked YOU! Actually that's grammatically incorrect: homeboy had, has been, and will continue to work you!
Anyway, maybe he's right about the atmosphere in DC being fucked up. Here's Glenn Greenwald ripping into Joe Klein for saying (seriously) Paris Hilton going to jail is for the good of the nation, but Lewis Libby serving time for "obstruction of justice" makes baby Jesus cry. No, seriously.
Why does LeBron get more pressing questions about passing the ball or scoring in the last seconds than our political class about the logic behind its decisions?
And Wii-less, I just got around to watching Children of Men, I'd say I'm still a few months from see The Lives of Others. Also, you know what's a great double feature, Children of Men followed by Knocked Up. It will BLOW YOUR MIND DUDE!
Just like I've been telling you Fahrenheit 451 was about television!
The ascension of King James (in your face haters!) into the LAST NBA playoff series means one major thing: no more television till September. No basketball, soon no Sopranos, another confounding Lost finale, and the President saying don't worry about Iraq till the fall? While that last one is a joke, what the hell am I supposed to do? Watch movies? As one student seem to be arguing this quarter: movies are only about sex and violence and they appeal to the lowest common denominator. Plus, Transformers isn't coming out for another month.
I guess I could get religion, or more precisely a radical humanist, neo-Marxist, anti-fascist form of Hinduism as expressed through blog posts.
Or maybe watch You Tube clips, like this Huell Howser puppet tour of the LA River:
Or this trailer for Godfather IV (which has been kind of beaten to the ground, but still funny?):
Religion or the Internet or television. That's it, no other choices!
It might seem like I'm just piling on LeBron sometimes, especially in his self-stated quest to become a "global icon". But just so you know: I'm not the only one.
Athletic. Amazing. Powerful. Phenomenal.
America's airwaves are jammed with superlatives to describe basketball star LeBron James, who began his first semifinal playoff series this week. No matter how Mr. James's Cleveland Cavaliers fare in their matchup against the Detroit Pistons, however, I've got my own description for his off-court decisions.
The concepts call for a reduction in forces that could lower troop levels by the midst of the 2008 presidential election to roughly 100,000, from about 146,000, the latest available figure, which the military reported on May 1. They would also greatly scale back the mission that President Bush set for the American military when he ordered it in January to win back control of Baghdad and Anbar Province.
It is hard to think what is most annoying about this story. It's so hard let's make a quick list!
1. It contains NO on-the-record Washington sources. Not a single fucking one. In fact, the only named quotes are from a Sec. Gates press conference and a US general in Iraq who disagrees with the feasiblity of the entire supposed/possible/made up plan!
2. The entire story sounds like a planted leak from inside the White House to make it seem like the administration gets it has to plan to draw down troops even though just one day before the President was openly hostile to the SAME idea.
3. The article itself acknowledges this!
Still, there is no indication that Mr. Bush is preparing to call an early end to the current troop increase, and one reason officials are talking about their long-range strategy may be to blunt pressure from members of Congress, including some Republicans, who are pushing for a more rapid troop reduction.
4. Given all of the above (and pretty much the last six years), this story is still the paper's top story.
5. Oh yeah, that whole wrong math thing.
As we go into this holiday weekend meant to reflect on the ultimate sacrifices of the dead in the name of the nation, we should ask ourselves why our leaders, all of them, political, military, civilian, are unable to face the cultural equivalant of a paper cut to stop this mindless, horrible war.
Keeping with that, and this blog's long record of stealing from Crooks and Liars and questionable sports/politics connections, watch this video.
We play to win the game = we vote to stop this war
UPDATE: Greenwald says pretty much the same thing about the Times article that I do here, but with, you know, facts and shit.
I have not honked my car horn since September 11 as a gesture of respect to all of them. 9/11 also gave me a whole new insight into my Dad and why he left school in the 10th grade to enlist after Pearl Harbor.
Given what happened on The Sopranos Sunday night and the attention its been given, it's even odder not much was made of the end of last week's Lost with its ending involving one the main characters shot in the gut, bleeding to death, on top of a pile of roting corpses. Obviously, the show has "lost" lots of its audience for lots of reasons. The main one though seems to be the sinking feeling the writers have no idea where they are going. Sure, its cool to check out the Lostpedia, get links to sites trying to figure out why Richard doesn't seem to age, and read in detail about the weird black light writing on the hatch blast door that is cutting of Locke's leg, but if it doesn't really MEAN anything, what's the point? I have felt for most of this season, especially with the lame Juliet (come on, she's so lame!) and all the Others hand wringing (maybe they aren't so bad???), the only reason I've still been watching is simply the amount of time I have ALREADY watched. All the while, the feeling paying this close attention actually adds value to individual episodes or the larger, overarching themes and concerns, like in film (gasp!) and on shows like The Sopranos, The Wire, and BSG, has been slowly dripping away.
I mean, thinking of Season One and Two, Locke wants to get in that mysterious hatch, he is willing to sacrifice the lives of the other survivors to get in the hatch, the hatch is the answer. What's in the hatch then? Okay, not an answer, but this machine that is supposedly saving the world one B.F. Skinner experiment at a time. And then so on: one mystery after another "solved"....with another mystery! That all being said, the last few episodes have been great, and I'm totally sucked back in. We here at The Crackpot Times have been saying if this season continues on the lame Juliet-lined path it has been on for the last few months, that's it. (come on, fertility issues on the Island??? Why would you want to have a baby on that crazy Island? Maybe this can be the first issue for the Grey's Anatomy spinoff.) Especially with the last episode, it seems the Others won't be redeemed by the shows creators (with something along the lines "oh, your murderous, violent behavior was cause you really loved us!"). And, for me, the callous, horrific elimination of the Dharma Initiative and its hopeful anti-VC-like campaign returns the show to what has always been its central focus: mass catastrophe, dystopia, and the group/individual responses to shared trauma.
So these next three episodes are kind of important. Frankly, I'm more about less creepy Jacob stuff and more answers. And not "answers" like interviews without transcripts or oaths, but ANSWERS like live televised sworn testimony. Cause if we can't get it from scripted television, there's always the sports and government corruption that weirdly mimics The Godfather.
By the way, this is funny and related (for grad students...):
So the Utah/GS series is going back to totally racially sensitive Salt Lake City with the Jazz up 3-1. Much to say about that, but I just wanted to do some reporting! Actually, more like "reporting". After the game they started showing the highlights, and they were for Game 2 where Fisher came back in Utah! Barkley was the first to catch it, while Kenny Smith and Ernie said he was crazy and then realized he REALLY was paying attention. Barkley really has been on top of his game, realizing this obvious mistake AND having an interview in the New Republic about his political views. Seriously!
It is hard though to do live television stuff. There was this (great) recent mistake on the BBC that was up for a few minutes:
“Just as my first act as Chancellor of the Exchequer was to give away power to the Bank of England to restore trust in economic policy, so one of my first acts as Prime Minister would be to restore power to Parliament in order to build the trust of the British people in our democracy. Government must be more open and more accountable to Parliament — for example, in decisions about peace and war.”
Powerful stuff, Government must be open to Parliament, which runs Government. I'm waiting for his controversial stand on how voters should vote for candidates for Parliament, and that they in turn be open to choosing their respective party leader as Prime Minister.
And what is up with this photo along side the NY Times article? Is their campaign running with Guy Ritchies's support on the Lock Stock ticket?
