A Comedy About The Apocalypse and Other Entertainment News

This should be interesting. The folks who brought you Superbad are working on a comedy about the end of the world:

The end days are near for Seth Rogen and Jay Baruchel. The pair will star in the action comedy "Jay and Seth vs. the Apocalypse" for Mandate Pictures.

The film is based on a comedy short from "Superbad" scribes Rogen and Evan Goldberg, which in turn was based on a story by Goldberg and Jason Stone. Rogen and Goldberg will write and produce the feature.

Several production companies vied for the rights to the comedy, which revolves, as the title implies, around two guys dealing with the apocalypse. Last summer, the project caused a stir in the blogosphere when a trailer for the short appeared on YouTube.

And speaking of shows about the end of the world, I've got some good news and some bad news about "Battlestar Galactica." The bad news is that there will be no more new episodes until 2009. Here is the good news:

According to well-informed sources, it’s almost certain that at least one “Battlestar Galactica” TV movie will be made this year.

Here’s even better news: The last-ever episode of “Battlestar” will run three hours, which means that final part of Season 4 will be 11 hours long.

You heard that right: The last leg of the show’s final season will expand to 11 hours, instead of the originally planned 10 hours.

As he discussed here, the show’s executive producer, Ronald D. Moore, wrote "Battlestar's" final episode, which, as written, is three hours long (a wild guess here: Sci Fi probably wouldn’t air the whole thing in one night). Mary McDonnell described her reaction to the script this way: It filled her with "an incredible feeling of adrenaline,” she told Ain't It Cool News. “It made me understand the entire saga, and made me excited for all of you.”

A Sci Fi spokesman said Friday, "As written by Ron, the phenomenal finale script extends beyond the time alotted for the episode. We're exploring how to shoot the extra footage as Ron has envisioned and written it."

And here you go, Dan: The classic 60s British television series The Prisoner is getting an update. Ain't It Cool News is reporting that the new Prisoner miniseries is set to begin shooting this August in Africa and will star Ian McKellen (Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings trilogy) as Number Two and Jim Caviezel (Christ in Jesus Chainsaw Massacre) as Number Six.

The reason I mentioned Dan is because, a couple of years ago, I convinced him to watch the first few episodes of the old series, but he didn't really like it. He said it was "too dated" but he did appreciate how it explained an episode of The Simpsons. Maybe the updated version will be more to his liking.

Why Impeach Now?

This is from an Indiana newspaper editorial titled Never Too Late To Impeach:

In the face of the most lawless administration in U.S. history, what are we to make of a House that refuses its duty to impeach? Just a decade ago, fire-breathing Republicans impeached Bill Clinton for lying under oath about an affair. Now, manipulating intelligence to go to war and illegal surveillance of U.S. citizens rate not even the lift of an eyebrow in the House. Maybe that’s because the House is complicit in those crimes. * * *

Well, I used to want the Democrats to impeach Bush -- and maybe it isn't too late to impeach -- but I think it is the last thing the Democrats should do at this point.

George W. Bush is the most unpopular president in a generation, and is probably the worst president we've ever had. Why screw around with that now? All an impeachment would do at this point is (1) perhaps make people feel sorry for Bush, and (2) distract from the fact the John McCain wants to serve out a third Bush term.

I say let's just let Bush be Bush for the next five months or so. If Pelosi and company want to impeach that sonofabitch after November 4th, then I'm OK with that. But one of the best things the Democrats have going for them during the run-up to the General Election is the fact that George W. Bush is currently the President of the United States.

McMurdo Base, Antarctica: The Place To Be This Summer

From Reuters:

One of the last shipments to a U.S. research base in Antarctica before the onset of winter darkness was a year's supply of condoms, a New Zealand newspaper reported on Monday.

Bill Henriksen, the manager of the McMurdo base station, said nearly 16,500 condoms were delivered last month and would be made available, free of charge, to staff throughout the year to avoid the potential embarrassment of having to buy them.

The base only has a skeleton staff through the long winter.

"Since everybody knows everyone, it becomes a little bit uncomfortable," Henriksen told the Southland Times newspaper.

About 125 scientists and staff are stationed at McMurdo base, the largest community in Antarctica, during the winter months when there is constant darkness. * * *

Fish Photo

Danimal and I drove over to a southeastern Oregon lake last Saturday for some trout fishing and had a good day. We limited out on 14-18 inch rainbow, with the biggest fish weighing in at about 2 1/4 pounds.




At left is a picture of two of the biggest ones we landed (click photo to enlarge). We caught all of our fish off the bank.

Well, At Least One Country Had A Successful Iraq Policy

From McClatchy:

Defense Department counterintelligence investigators suspected that Iranian exiles who provided dubious intelligence on Iraq and Iran to a small group of Pentagon officials might have "been used as agents of a foreign intelligence service ... to reach into and influence the highest levels of the U.S. government," a Senate Intelligence Committee report said Thursday.

A top aide to then-secretary of defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, however, shut down the 2003 investigation into the Pentagon officials' activities after only a month, and the Defense Department's top brass never followed up on the investigators' recommendation for a more thorough investigation, the Senate report said.

The revelation raises questions about whether Iran may have used a small cabal of officials in the Pentagon and in Vice President Dick Cheney's office to feed bogus intelligence on Iraq and Iran to senior policymakers in the Bush administration who were eager to oust the Iraqi dictator.

Iran, which was a mortal enemy of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and fought a bloody eight-year war with Iraq during his reign, has been the primary beneficiary of U.S. policy in Iraq, where Iranian-backed groups now run much of the government and the security forces. * * *

So it turns out that Dick Cheney and the rest of the Bush Regime were Iranian pawns. I hope the Obama Camp is paying attention to this story.

Enough Already

God I hate these racist assholes:

"I came here for the vote of every American, and our Democratic Party threw us down the tubes," New Yorker Harriet Christian said after yesterday's meeting of the Democratic Party's Rules and Bylaws Committee.

Senator Clinton is the "best nominee possible" for President, said Ms. Christian, "and the Democrats are throwing the election away. For what? An inadequate black male who would not have been running had it not been a white woman that was running for President! And I'm not going to shut my mouth anymore!" * * *

"I'm tired of it," Floridian Sharon Clark said yesterday. "I want to go and vote and know my vote is going to count."

"The right thing to do is to seat all the delegates," added delegate Beverly Battelle Weeks. "Anything less is not democratic."

"I can be called white, but you can't be called black," Christian charged. "That's not my America. It's equality for all of us; it's about time we all stood up for it.

"I'm no second-class citizen. And God damn the Democrats!"

"And they think we won't turn and vote for McCain," Christian added. She closed: "Well, I've got news for all of you: McCain will be the next President of the United States!"

Where to begin: First of all, as Martin points out so well in this excellent post, "there is no right to vote for a party nominee" and "your vote [in a primary] counts for nothing more than a suggestion." The primary process is simply the method that the political parties decided upon to choose their candidates, and Florida and Michigan violated the rules laid out by the Democratic Party. Deal with it.

And what's all this crap about Hillary Clinton being the best nominee? Are you fucking kidding me? There is a reason Rush Limbaugh and the Extreme Right wanted Hillary to get the nomination, and that is because she is the most polarizing political figure in America right now. The neo-fascists know that their only hope to win in November would be if she secured the Democratic nomination because Republicans would come out in droves just to vote against her.

Does anyone out there really believe that John McCain is going to excite Republicans enough to get them to the polls? The only people who seem excited to vote for McCain right now are the aforementioned Harriet Christian, Sharon Clark, and all the other Hillary supporters who simply cannot accept that Ms. Clinton ran a shitty campaign and deserved to lose a nomination that everyone thought she had sewn up last year. Do folks like Ms. Clark and Ms. Christian really want such an incompetent campaigner to carry the Democrats' standard into the Fall campaign?

Obama, on the other hand, ran an excellent campaign and deserves the nomination. Indeed, Obama secured the nomination by basically running a clean, straight-forward campaign. Hillary ran a dirty, race-baiting, gimmicky campaign and got her backside handed to her down the stretch.

Hillary continues to claim that she is better able to confront McCain in the Fall. Well, maybe her point would have been better taken had she not voted for the Iraq Debacle in 2002, but she did, and she has yet to apologize for such a monumental act of political cowardice.

I know that a lot of people are claiming that Iraq won't be much of an issue in the Fall given how crappy the Bush/McCain economy is right now, but I think such a view is misguided because John McCain himself is apparently planning to make a big issue out of Iraq during the run-up to the General Election, and Obama -- who opposed the war from the start -- is simply going to have a field day against McCain on this issue, given that the decision to invade Iraq is probably the biggest foreign policy blunder in American history.

Hillary can be critical all she wants with regard to Iraq now, but the bottom line is that she voted to authorize the invasion. Last year, when it looked like Hillary was going to easily secure the nomination, I couldn't believe that the Democrats were actually going to nominate a candidate who voted for Bush's Folly in Iraq. Well, it looks like that isn't going to happen.

God Damn the Democrats you say? Well, I say God Bless the Democrats because it looks like they've actually managed to pull their heads out of their asses this time around.

This Is How Obama Should Respond To McCain's Demand That Obama Go To Iraq

From the Seattle Times:

Sen. Barack Obama is considering a visit to Iraq this summer, his first since becoming a presidential candidate.

Republican rival John McCain has criticized him for failing to visit Iraq since 2006. Obama also declined McCain's invitation for a joint trip, saying he didn't want "to be involved in a political stunt," according to a report Wednesday on The New York Times Web site.

Obama's response to McCain's criticism practically writes itself. Obama should simply say that he is planning to go to Iraq this summer, but not to engage in some fact-finding politcal stunt, because everybody knows that Iraq is a clusterfuck and that George Bush and John McCain's decision to invade Iraq was the biggest foreign policy blunder in American history.

Obama should then say that he is going to Iraq to meet with the troops and assure them that, if he is elected president, then he would get them the hell out of there and would then do everything in his power to ensure that nothing like the Iraq Debacle ever happens again.

Oh, and by the way, although Obama got away with running a pretty clean primary campaign, I really think he needs to start viciously attacking McCain immediately.

Oops

McCain said this in 2000:

"Well, in 2004, I expect to be campaigning for the reelection of President George W. Bush, and by 2008, I think I might be ready to go down to the old soldiers home and await the cavalry charge there."

Hagee's Hitler Hilarity

I laughed out loud when I read this:

The controversy surrounding John Hagee's endorsement has finally gotten to John McCain. In the wake of new quotes being circulated by the Huffington Post in which Hagee called Hitler an instrument of God's will, McCain has now rejected Hagee's support.

"Obviously, I find these remarks and others deeply offensive and indefensible, and I repudiate them," McCain told CNN in a statement. "I did not know of them before Reverend Hagee's endorsement, and I feel I must reject his endorsement as well."

That matter aside, McCain was sure to bring this back to Barack Obama, insisting that his active effort to get Hagee's support originally was not nearly as bad as Obama's associations with Jeremiah Wright.

"I have said I do not believe Senator Obama shares Reverend Wright's extreme views. But let me also be clear, Reverend Hagee was not and is not my pastor or spiritual advisor, and I did not attend his church for twenty years. I have denounced statements he made immediately upon learning of them, as I do again today."

This is going to be one ugly General Election, but it looks like it'll be good for a few laughs as well.

This Hagee guy kills me. It's as if he just sits around all the time trying to figure out what would be the absolute worst fucking thing for him to say, and when he figures it out, he then goes forth and says it.

Big Victory For Democrats Last Night

And no, I'm not referring to Hillary's totally expected (and totally meaningless) win in West Virginia -- I'm referring to this:

Democrat Travis Childers wins a U.S. House seat in Mississippi's deeply Republican 1st Congressional District.

Childers defeated Republican Greg Davis in a special election to fill the final few months of a two-year term in Congress. The seat was vacated when Roger Wicker was appointed to the U.S. Senate after Trent Lott resigned.

The win allows Democrats to add to their 235-199 majority in Congress — if only for a few months until November's general elections.

Childers, Davis and two other candidates face off again in November's general election.

This is the third time this year that a Democrat has defeated a Republican in a special election for a House seat that should have gone to the GOP candidate. Back in 2004, Bush claimed 63% in Mississippi's 1st Congressional District. The Republicans spent a fortune trying to keep this seat, and ran attack ads featuring Rev. Wright and his connection with Obama. Those ads did not work.

This is very good for the Democrats, as was the fact that Obama was actually able to argue against the gas tax holiday and not be hurt by taking such a position.

Interesting Battlestar Galactica Interview

Edward James Olmos ("Admiral Adama") had some intriguing things to say in a recent interview about the final season of Battlestar Galactica (minor spoilers ahead):

Q. I'm not sure there's ever been a show on TV that's so relentlessly dark. Is it bleak on the set?

A. It is. I mean, we really do take it to heart. It is bleak. And it is getting darker. This last season has gotten to the point where we end up crying a lot. Emotional breakdowns. It's human drama. And when you perform in it, you're inside of it. A lot of people are dead. I'm not going to say who, because why ruin it for people, but a lot of us die.

Q. This season?

A. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. [Laughs.] Not very many of us are going make it to wherever it is that they're taking us. So we just mope along. We open the script just like the viewer. We're all taking the journey. Not only is it difficult because you lose the person inside the story, but you also realize that person is no longer going to be on the set. It's over. Unless they're a Cylon.

Q. That leads me to Starbuck's apparent death . . .

A. Oh, it was so sad. Because they didn't tell us that she was coming back. I was angry.

Q. You were snookered like everybody else?

A. Of course, I was snookered. All we know is just what we're being fed. She died, and then she was gone for awhile, and then she came back. And that was so scary because we have no idea why and how she came back.

Q. So you as an actor don't know?

A. Well, we've filmed something that started to explain it. And it's not an uplifting understanding. [Laughs.] I will say that. It's as dark as everything else. You sit there and you go, "Oh my God, you guys are sick!" They're pushing the envelope. And the network is allowing it.

Q. Has there been anything you know of that the network has not allowed?

A. In the first or second season, the whole idea of suicides was really tough for them to take. I put it in one of my programs that I directed. The idea that people aboard ships were committing suicide. Why wouldn't they? Are you kidding me? Suicide rates would have gone right through the roof.

Q. Right, because what are they living for? And the living conditions aren't pleasant.

A. Terrible. Terrible. We're eating green algae. We've been eating green algae now for almost two years.

Q. And now, it seems that anyone could be a Cylon.

A. We're back to that.

Q. If you know who the final Cylon model is, I'm sure you can't tell me . . .

A. I don't know, either. And no one knew when [the other four were revealed.] You should have seen what happened. There was anger. Real anger. The main one was Michael Hogan [who plays Colonel Tigh.] He just couldn't get past it. He said, "I didn't sign up for this kind of stuff." He was so hurt he was a Cylon.

Q. It does pull the rug out -

A. Right from under him. It changes everything. You see the way [the actors] dealt with it. The confusion, the anger that Colonel Tigh handles it with is true.

Q. Back to "Star Trek" and probably before, science fiction has had diverse, expansive casting. Is that because of the nature of the genre, or the kind of creative people who go into it?

A. I think both. One, the window is open and they allow it. And two, it's the imagination of the people that are developing it. They don't get tied down thinking about who would sell this the best. They say, "This is a reality that I'd like to explore."

One of the great things about the show is how the producers aren't afraid to take it in unexpected directions (like the Cylon occupation of New Caprica), and it certainly sounds like we're in for a wild ride for this final season.

Oops

From the New York Times:

[Arianna] Huffington, the liberal blogger, said she had heard Mr. McCain say at a Los Angeles dinner party shortly after the 2000 election that he had not voted for the president he has now publicly embraced in his own quest for the White House. The McCain campaign swiftly quashed the account and said Ms. Huffington had a book to promote and would make anything up.

“She’s a flake and a poser and an attention-seeking diva,” Mark Salter, one of Mr. McCain’s closest aides, told The Washington Post.

Now two other guests at the same dinner, given by the actress Candice Bergen, at her home in Beverly Hills, say they heard much the same thing as Ms. Huffington. * * *

It doesn't surprise me that McCain would say this back in 2000, given all the crap BushCo pulled against McCain during the primaries that year. But this could spell trouble for McCain in this year's election, particularly if more people from that dinner party corroborate Huffington and the other two witnesses. Bush, after all, still maintains a 28% approval rating.

Hillary Won Indiana Last Night Thanks To Rush Limbaugh (With Update)

From Sam Stein at The Huffington Post:

Did Rush Limbaugh actually impact the Democratic primary?

The loud-mouthed radio talk show host has been encouraging Republicans to vote for Sen. Hillary Clinton to continue the "chaos" in the Democratic race. And a sampling of some key exit poll information suggests he may, to a certain extent, be having an effect.

Thirty-six percent of primary voters said that Clinton does not share their values. And yet, among that total, one out of every five (20 percent) nevertheless voted for her in the Indiana election. Moreover, of the 10 percent of Hoosiers who said "neither candidate" shared their values, 75 percent cast their ballots for Clinton.

These are not small numbers. By comparison, of the 33 percent of voters who said Sen. Barack Obama does not share their values, only seven percent cast their ballots in his favor. Basically, more people who don't relate to Clinton are, for one reason or another, still voting for her. These are not likely to be loyal supporters. * * *

I've been complaining about this for a while -- not because I think what Mr. Oxycontin is doing is evil (getting mad at Rush Limbaugh for being evil is like getting mad at a shark for biting your arm off) -- but because of all the factors regarding electability that the uncommitted superdelegates should be looking at, this is a big one in my book.

Given all that has gone down in the last several weeks -- the Rev. Wright controversy, Obama's bitter remark, etc. -- Hillary was still only able to win Indiana by two points, and she won it because the Idiot Limbaugh told his dittoheads to cross party lines and vote for her.

For the first time in this campaign, I heard the talking heads on television last night extensively discussing this "Limbaugh Effect." Even Sen. John Kerry mentioned it on MSNBC during an interview (and check this out). Hopefully all this will sink into the uncommitted superdelgates' heads over the next few days.

In the meantime, I think Obama should shift gears and start going after McCain, not necessarily with attack ads, but with ads that point out the differences between him and McCain. Obama will eventually have to go on the attack, though, because if you thought the Democratic primary fight was brutal, you ain't seen nothing yet.

UPDATE: The Extreme Right is finally starting to realize where the bear goes though the buckwheat on all this. Right-wing blowhard and Oxycontin-aficionado Rush Limbaugh said this on his radio program earlier today:

I am tempted to tell the superdelegates to pick Obama because I now believe that he would be the weakest of the Democrat nominees.

Nice flip-flop there, Rush. What are you going to do next, hang a "Mission Accomplished" banner in your studio? Why don't you instead move on to your next project, which is to convince all your listeners that you really wanted John McCain to be the Republican nominee all along.

Cartoonist Jim Morin

More Political Cowardice From Hillary Clinton

I've long believed that Hillary Clinton's vote to authorize the invasion of Iraq was an act of political cowardice. Well, her political yellow streak is once again on display:

Hillary Clinton is calling for a holiday on the 18.4-cent gasoline tax, and she says she'd make up the funding from that (which funds transportation infrastructure) by taxing oil company's "windfall" profits.

Forget the fact that, as the above-linked article points out, Hillary actually "OPPOSED efforts to cut or repeal gas taxes during her 2000 Senate contest against Rick Lazio." Senator Clinton doesn't care about stuff like that. Forget the fact that this gas tax holiday will only save the average American family about $28 over the course of the summer driving season. That pesky fact doesn't matter to her.

What matters is that this gas tax issue is something she can use against Obama. She's even running an anti-Obama ad which criticizes Obama for not supporting this proposal. Thankfully, many pundits are calling bullshit on this whole scheme:

[A]mong pundits, her proposal (and McCain's similar plan) is getting laughed out of the room. The normally sympathetic Paul Krugman calls Clinton's plan "pointless" and McCain's "evil," while his colleague Thomas Friedman denounces the plan as "money laundering: we borrow money from China and ship it to Saudi Arabia and take a little cut for ourselves as it goes through our gas tanks." Still, it's the kind of pander that could work, no matter how transparent or absurd. If voters associate Clinton with cheap gas, mission accomplished.

I think that what is driving Hillary to do this is the same thing that drove her to vote for Bush's Iraq Debacle, namely, it was the politically expedient thing to do. But I think it is the cowardly thing to do.

Thanks, Senator Clinton, for once again living up to all my expectations.

Five Year Ago Today

If you have the stomach for it, here is a video of Bush landing on the carrier deck and prancing around in his flight suit.


This would be hilarious stuff if it wasn't for the fact that 4064 American troops have died so far as a result of the Bush Regime's colossal fuck-up in Iraq.

Here's what White House Press Secretary Dana Perino had to say yesterday about all this:

"[W]e have certainly paid a price for not being more specific on that banner."

God help us.

And, by the way, check this out:

A new poll suggests that George W. Bush is the most unpopular president in modern American history.

A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Thursday indicates that 71 percent of the American public disapprove of how Bush his handling his job as president.

"No president has ever had a higher disapproval rating in any CNN or Gallup poll; in fact, this is the first time that any president's disapproval rating has cracked the 70 percent mark," said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.

"Bush's approval rating, which stands at 28 percent in our new poll, remains better than the all-time lows set by Harry Truman and Richard Nixon (22 percent and 24 percent, respectively) but even those two presidents never got a disapproval rating in the 70s," Holland added. "The previous all-time record in CNN or Gallup polling was set by Truman, 66 percent disapproval in January 1952."

What I find most amazing isn't the record-low disapproval rating, but the fact that 28% of Americans actually approve of the job Bush is doing. That's nearly one-third of the country.

Bad News For McCain and Hillary

Via Think Progress:

A new USA Today/Gallup poll found that 63 percent of Americans say “the United States made a mistake in sending troops to Iraq, a new high mark by one percentage point.” Gallup notes that “majority opposition to the Iraq war is basically cemented.”

McCain's going to have an uphill fight convincing Americans that the Iraq Invasion and occupation was/is a good thing. Good luck with that, Senator.

And this is interesting:

Talk show host Rush Limbaugh is sparking controversy again after he made comments calling for riots in Denver during the Democratic National Convention this summer.

He said the riots would ensure a Democrat is not elected as president, and his listeners have a responsibility to make sure it happens.

"Riots in Denver, the Democrat Convention would see to it that we don't elect Democrats," Limbaugh said during Wednesday's radio broadcast. He then went on to say that's the best thing that could happen to the country.

My advice to Limbaugh is that he should reduce his daily drug intake down to just a single shoe box full of Oxycontin, because I'm pretty sure that inciting a riot is still a crime in this country.

Vegas Trip 2008: Oh The Humanity

"Vegas is getting more difficult for me every year. When I first visited that town about 15 years ago, I had no problem staying up most of the night and operating on four hours of sleep a day. Not anymore."

Harold's Blog, Vegas Trip 2006, November 22, 2006.

I guess that I had forgotten how difficult it is for me to party in Las Vegas like I used to, but the trip I just got back from was the hardest one for me yet.

Don't get me wrong -- the trip was an absolute blast, and the stretch from Thursday night to Friday evening was one of the most enjoyable 24-hour periods I've spent in that town.

Dan and I arrived in Las Vegas at about 9:00 pm on Thursday evening (Dan rented a town car for the trip from the airport, something I highly recommend because it enabled us to stop at a grocery store and load up for the weekend). We met Ray at the suite at about 10:00, and then proceeded to drink and gamble until about 6:00 am on Friday morning, then got three hours of sleep, and then started partying again at about 9:00 am.

After breakfast, we hung out in the pool for a couple hours drinking beer into the early afternoon (the temperature hit the mid-80s each day we were there), then went to the cigar bar at Caesar's for a good smoke and a few mojitos, then followed that with delicious deli sandwiches at Stage Deli, and then went to Fat Tuesdays and each drank one of their really strong drinks -- you know, the ones they serve to men who want to get drunk fast.

After resting up back at the hotel for a bit, we had a great craps run over at Casino Royale -- the shooter held the dice for about a half hour before sevening out -- and then closed out Friday evening by going back to the cigar bar to celebrate our craps victory with another cigar and a few more mojitos.

It was a killer day, but it completely wasted me and Dan for Saturday. Ray somehow managed to rally on Saturday morning -- he hung out at the Flamingo's adult pool for several hours, but Dan and I really didn't get going until later that afternoon/evening, when Dan had a winning poker session, I had a winning craps session (I actually managed to put together a decent roll, hitting eight numbers or so before I rolled a seven), and then the three of us went to the dinner buffet at Bellagio, which was gluttonous and great.

We had huge plans to gamble on Saturday evening, but I ended up going to bed early as did Ray. Dan stayed up a little later and watched poker on television, which I thought was hysterical because we were in Las Vegas and there was probably 1000 active poker tables within a 1/2 mile of us, but at least he was doing something. I was asleep.

Ray had to catch a flight on Sunday morning, but Dan and I had a later flight so we hit the craps tables at Casino Royale and got crushed. We then limped over to the poker room at the Flamingo and I managed to win some money -- and Dan broke even -- before we had to go to the airport.

It was a super fun trip, and none of us lost a lot of money overall at the tables and I even won about $300 or so for the trip. But I am so tired today that I can barely stand. I've said this before and I'll say it again: I'm convinced that the best way to do Vegas would be to do four nights and three full days, with the middle full day simply being a day of rest (i.e., no drinking, lots of hot-tubbing, eating well, relaxing by the pool, very little gambling, that kind of a day).

Anyway, that's my plan for next year. Of course, another way to approach Vegas would be to simply get a good night's sleep on the first night, but I've never been able to do that. I've always stayed up all night on that first evening, and I don't think that will ever change.

Debate Aftermath

I did not watch the Hillary/Obama debate last night, and from what I'm reading on the internets, I picked a good debate to miss.

But I did watch some excerpts from it, and then read some analysis, and this piece by Michael Grunwald of TIME Magazine is particularly good because Grunwald presents his debate analysis in the context of Obama's risky campaign approach, namely, his gamble that Americans are tired of manufactured issues (e.g., Dukakis in a tank, Kerry eating swiss cheese, George HW Bush looking at his watch during a debate etc.) being the driving force in our politics when the problems we are currently facing as a country are so horrendous:

Last night at the National Constitution Center, at a Democratic debate that was hyped by ABC as a discussion of serious constitutional issues, America got to see exactly what Obama was complaining about. At a time of foreign wars, economic collapse and environmental peril, the cringe-worthy first half of the debate focused on such crucial matters as Senator Obama's comments about rural bitterness, his former pastor, an obscure sixties radical with whom he was allegedly "friendly," and the burning constitutional question of why he doesn't wear an American flag pin on his lapel — with a single detour into Senator Hillary Clinton's yarn about sniper fire in Tuzla. Apparently, Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos ran out of time before they could ask Obama why he's such a lousy bowler.

Grunwald also mentions the hysterical story about Obama's aide trying to stop Barack from asking for dijon mustard at TJI Fridays (I wonder if Obama ordered Freedom Fries with that burger?).

The moderators of last night's debate (who, by the way, were reportedly booed by the audience) are still living in the era where it matters what type of condiment politicians use on their hamburgers, and so are Bill and Hillary Clinton. Obama's trying to rise above that. I guess time will tell if his strategy will succeed, but I do think things are so bad right now that people will respond to this message. Indeed, the fact that Obama hasn't really been hurt by the Rev. Wright "scandal" or the "bitter" scandal seems to indicate that his campaign strategy might actually be working.

Well, enough of this political talk -- I'm off to Vegas for three days of craps, poker, and laying around by the pool.

Most People Already Know This . . .

. . . but it is still interesting:

President Bush often argues that history will vindicate him. So he can't be pleased with an informal survey of 109 professional historians conducted by the History News Network. It found that 98 percent of them believe that Bush's presidency has been a failure, while only about 2 percent see it as a success. Not only that, more than 61 percent of the historians say the current presidency is the worst in American history. In 2004, only 11.6 percent of the historians rated Bush's presidency in last place. Among the reasons given for his low ratings: invading Iraq, "tax breaks for the rich," and alienating many nations around the world. Bush supporters counter that professional historians today tend to be liberal and that it's too early to assess how his policies will turn out.

So it is the position of these Bush supporters that 98% of historians are liberal? Wow.

Dead Time For Gonzo

I guess he told one too many lies under oath:

Alberto R. Gonzales, like many others recently unemployed, has discovered how difficult it can be to find a new job. Mr. Gonzales, the former attorney general, who was forced to resign last year, has been unable to interest law firms in adding his name to their roster, Washington lawyers and his associates said in recent interviews.

He has, through friends, put out inquiries, they said, and has not found any takers. What makes Mr. Gonzales’s case extraordinary is that former attorneys general, the government’s chief lawyer, are typically highly sought. * * *

Quote Of The Week

"[Obama] is doing everything he can to win in Pennsylvania. And if he doesn't win, it will be a significant defeat for him."

Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson, quoted in the Chicago Tribune (Hillary used to have a huge lead in Pennsylvania, but now her lead has shrunk to single digits).

Works For Me

This is fitting:

Looking to honor the forty-third President of the United States of America, George W. Bush, the recently formed Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco is looking to change the name of the Oceanside Wastewater Treatment Facility. It seems the group would like to rename the SF Zoo adjacent facility to the "George W Bush Sewage Plant."

Obama Closing The Gap In Pennsylvania (With Update)

From Talking Points Memo:

Rasmussen is just out with its latest poll, showing Hillary's lead in Pennsylvania is down to 5 points.

In the same poll a week ago, it was a 10-point spread.

Late Update: SurveyUSA also has new Pennsylvania poll out, showing Hillary with a still-healthy 12-point lead, although that, too, is down, from 19 points in the last poll.

UPDATE: Check out this Gallup survey:

The survey was conducted March 24-27, interviewing a nationally representative sample of 1,005 Gallup Panel members. Democrats were asked whether Clinton or Obama has the better chance of defeating McCain in November: 59% say Obama does; 30% say Clinton. Republicans were asked whether McCain has a better chance of defeating Clinton or Obama on Election Day. Sixty-four percent say McCain has a better chance of beating Clinton, compared with only 22% choosing Obama, meaning Republicans view Obama as the more formidable candidate.

It's no wonder right-wing assholes like Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh want Hillary to get the Democratic nomination.

Bill Maher Nailed It This Weekend

If you have HBO, check out this week's episode of Real Time With Bill Maher (it's usually replayed several times over the week). I especially liked his opening monologue, which poked fun at Hillary's false claim that she came under sniper fire in Bosnia:

Hillary warned this week that the economy is headed toward a Japan-style depression and she said she did not help raise the flag on Iwo Jima to let that happen here in America.

But the economy is kind of in the shitter, is it not? I mean, consumer confidence they said this week is at the lowest level in 16 years -- no one wants to spend any money. In fact, this week, Eliot Spitzer had sex with his wife!

Maher also introduced an ultra-violent new video game called Hillary Clinton's 3 AM Call of Duty: Mission Bosnia ("Sinbad's down! Sinbad's down!!").

By the way, anyone who doesn't think that the GOP would have a field day with Hillary's Bosnia fabrication is living in Fantasyland.

Condi "Worst National Security Adviser Evaah" Rice Considering VP Slot

From Newsmax:

Despite saying she wants to return to Stanford University, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has let it be known in Republican circles that she would consider running for vice president if asked.

One source told Newsmax that she expressed interest in the possibility when Rudy Giuliani was running for president. Another source said she has more recently let her interest be known discreetly within top Republican circles, presumably including John McCain’s camp.

I think whether this actually happens will depend on what occurs in Iraq over the next few months. And right now, things aren't going so great:

Anti-American Shiite militia leader Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his followers Saturday to defy government orders to surrender their weapons, as U.S. jets struck Shiite extremists near Basra to bolster a faltering Iraqi offensive against gunmen in the city.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki acknowledged he may have miscalculated by failing to foresee the strong backlash that his offensive, which began Tuesday, provoked in areas of Baghdad and other cities where Shiite militias wield power. * * *

Yeah, I too am stunned that merely launching an attack on al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army would cause such a strong backlash. I totally expected them to roll over.

Well, At Least It's Something

From CNN:

Former White House adviser Lewis “Scooter” Libby, convicted last year for lying to a grand jury and federal agents probing the leak of a CIA agent’s identity, was disbarred from practicing law in the nation’s capital on Thursday.

“When a member of the Bar is convicted of an offense involving moral turpitude, disbarment is mandatory,” the District of Columbia Court of Appeals wrote in its opinion, which is posted on its Web site.

Last July, a court sentenced Libby, once Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, to a 30-month prison term. President Bush later commuted Libby’s sentence, calling it “excessive.” The president stopped short of an outright pardon, noting that “our entire system of justice relies on people telling the truth.”

Meanwhile, the rats continue to flee:

Rep. Thomas Reynolds, a once-powerful lawmaker who saw his fortunes fall with those of the House Republicans, will announce Thursday he is retiring from Congress, The Associated Press has learned.

The 57-year-old lawmaker from Clarence, N.Y. will announce he will not seek another term at a news conference scheduled for noon Thursday in his western New York district, according to a person familiar with Reynolds' decision. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the announcement hadn't yet been made.

Before Thursday, 28 House Republican incumbents had indicated they would not run again, giving Democrats an opportunity to expand their majority this fall.* * *

Is OxyContin Rush Affecting National Polls?

Here is a good piece from NBC Political Director Chuck Todd (thanks for the link, JB) with regard to the superdelegate issue and how the media are trying to keep Hillary's campaign alive and are treating her as the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination even though she isn't.

But this part of Todd's piece really caught my attention:

On Monday, a Gallup poll showed that in a potential match-up, Clinton would best John McCain 51 percent to 46 percent. Obama would lead 49 percent to 47 percent. Surely, these numbers are giving Team Obama some serious heartburn.

Although I know that Gallup has, in the past, demonstrated a GOP bias when it comes to the people it contacts for these polls, there may be something more going on here.

As everyone knows by now, drug aficionado Rush Limbaugh has been telling his listeners to vote for Hillary in the primaries, and it is hard to dismiss the effect that this would have with regard to national polling. After all, thanks to Limbaugh's efforts, 130,000 Republicans voted for Hillary in the Texas Democratic primary, and 100,000 Republicans voted for her in the Ohio Democratic primary.

Limbaugh may be a walking and talking piece of fecal matter, but you can't dismiss his ability to sway ignorant people. I was sitting in the doctor's office the other day, and some folks sitting nearby were talking politics. I could tell they were Republicans because pretty much everything they said was complete bullshit, but they were talking about Rush Limbaugh a lot ("Rush said this . . .," "Rush said that . . . "), and they were speaking about him as if he was Jesus Christ Himself and were commenting as if everything this Limbaugh Idiot said was the gospel truth.

What would stop devoted Limbaugh listeners who receive calls from Gallup to simply say they'd vote for Hillary over McCain? I mean, if 100,000 Ohio Republicans and 130,000 Texas Republicans and 38,000 Mississippi Republicans were willing to get off their asses to vote in Democratic primaries, how hard would it be for these morons to pick up the phone and lie when Gallup calls?

If I Were Obama . . .

. . . I'd run television ads featuring this:

For a party that loves to hate the Clintons, Republican voters have cast an awful lot of ballots lately for Senator Hillary Clinton: About 100,000 GOP loyalists voted for her in Ohio, 119,000 in Texas, and about 38,000 in Mississippi, exit polls show.

A sudden change of heart? Hardly.

Since Senator John McCain effectively sewed up the GOP nomination last month, Republicans have begun participating in Democratic primaries specifically to vote for Clinton, a tactic that some voters and local Republican activists think will help their party in November. With every delegate important in the tight Democratic race, this trend could help shape the outcome if it continues in the remaining Democratic primaries open to all voters.

Spurred by conservative talk radio, GOP voters who say they would never back Clinton in a general election are voting for her now for strategic reasons: Some want to prolong her bitter nomination battle with Barack Obama, others believe she would be easier to beat than Obama in the fall, or they simply want to register objections to Obama.

"It's as simple as, I don't think McCain can beat Obama if Obama is the Democratic choice," said Kyle Britt, 49, a Republican-leaning independent from Huntsville, Texas, who voted for Clinton in the March 4 primary. "I do believe Hillary can mobilize enough [anti-Clinton] people to keep her out of office." * * *

Obama's ad practically writes itself. You'd start with a segment on the history of the right wing's hatred for all-things-Clinton, then cite the above-referenced numbers showing how many Republicans voted for Hillary in Ohio, Texas, and Mississippi, then conclude the ad by stating the obvious, namely, the only reason rabid Clinton haters are voting for Hillary in droves is because they know that they can beat her in a general election and they know they can't beat Obama.

By the way, here is the quote of the day:

"I think the only 'red-phone' moment was: 'Do we eat here or at the next place.'"

Comedian Sinbad said this in response to Hillary Clinton's claim that her trip to Bosnia in 1996 was something she did to prepare her to be Commander-In-Chief. Although one of Hillary's supporters described it as a "serious trip under serious circumstances," it is worth noting that accompanying Hillary and Sinbad on this very dangerous, harrowing adventure were singer Sheryl Crow and a 16-year-old Chelsea Clinton.

So you took a sixteen-year-old kid into a war zone, Hillary -- nicely done.

There They Go Again

God I'm tired of these people:

Hoping to capitalize on consumer concern about gasoline prices, Alaska's two Republican senators introduced legislation Thursday that would allow oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge if the price of oil hits $125 a barrel.

With oil hovering near $110 a barrel and gasoline expected to reach $4 a gallon, Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Ted Stevens said that they hoped the continuing price spiral would spark consumer clamor and overcome opposition to opening the wildlife refuge to drilling.

"This has got to come from the ground up," Murkowski said. "From the constituents, from the American consumer saying 'Enough, Congress.' This is the No. 1 issue domestically in the country right now, what is happening with the price of energy."

It would take about a decade before they'd be able to pump anything out of ANWR.

And btw, wasn't Ted Stevens supposed to be indicted on something?

Toles!

Admiral Fallon Gets The Shinseki Treatment

Defense Secretary Gates just announced that Admiral William Fallon, commander of Centcom, is "resigning." From MSNBC:

Adm. William Fallon is stepping down as head of the U.S. Central Command, which oversees military matters in the Middle East, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced Tuesday.

Gates said Fallon took the decision because of recent statements attributed to him that Fallon felt had created a misperception about his goals and those of President Bush.

Gates said Fallon had asked Gates for permission to retire and that Gates agreed.

Fallon was the subject of an article published last week in Esquire magazine that portrayed him as opposed to Bush’s Iran policy. It described Fallon as a lone voice against taking military action to stop the Iranian nuclear program.

Fallon is also famous for being critical of "the Surge" strategy as well as for calling General David Petraeus "an ass-kissing little chickenshit." In any event, it now looks like military action against Iran is inevitable.

By the way, I wonder what ass-kissing little chickenshit will be chosen to replace Fallon.

A Question I'd Love To Hear Somebody Ask Hillary

Q. Senator Clinton, you've made "commander-in-chief readiness" a major theme in your campaign, and you've taken the position that Senator Obama does not have sufficient experience to be an effective commander-in-chief. George W. Bush has been president for over seven years now -- that's seven full years of on-the-job experience. Do you think George W. Bush is an effective commander-in-chief right now?

Client 9: Spitzer Pulls A Vitter

The talking heads at MSNBC and CNN are spinning madly over this one:

Gov. Eliot Spitzer has been caught on a federal wiretap arranging to meet with a high-priced prostitute at a Washington hotel last month, according to a person briefed on the federal investigation.

The wiretap recording, made during an investigation of a prostitution ring called Emperors Club VIP, captured a man identified as Client 9 on a telephone call confirming plans to have a woman travel from New York to Washington, where he had reserved a room. The person briefed on the case identified Mr. Spitzer as Client 9.

The big story here, in my opinion, is that the governor of New York is referred to as "Client 9." I'm dying to find out who Clients 1-8 were.

FauxNews is reporting that Spitzer will resign. My response -- what politician in his right mind would resign over something like this in the post-Vitter Age? Senator David Vitter confessed to having been with the DC madam, and then found Jesus; and after he found The Lord, all was forgiven.

My advice to Spitzer? It's time to Jesus-up. Getting some drug and/or alcohol treatment probably wouldn't hurt either.

It's Hard To Argue With This

"[P]robably the worst national security adviser since the office was created."

David Kay, former head of the Iraq Survey Group and a weapons inspector in Iraq after the 2003 U.S. invasion, on Condi Rice (quote from Bob Woodward's "State of Denial").

You've Just Lost My Vote, Hillary

Actually, that's not entirely true, because Hillary basically lost me in 2002 when she casted her very cowardly vote in support of the Iraq War.

But now I won't even vote for her in the General Election should she get the nomination. Indeed, I'm may actively campaign against her given all the bullshit that went down today.

Where to begin. This is as good of a place as any I guess:

In a Cabinet-style setting, surrounded by retired military leaders, Sen. Hillary Clinton said the public should ask whether Democratic presidential rival Barack Obama has met the criteria needed to become the nation’s commander in chief.

“I think that since we now know Sen. (John) McCain will be the nominee for the Republican Party, national security will be front and center in this election. We all know that. And I think it’s imperative that each of us be able to demonstrate we can cross the commander-in-chief threshold,” the New York senator told reporters crowded into an infant’s bedroom-sized hotel conference room in Washington.

“I believe that I’ve done that. Certainly, Sen. McCain has done that and you’ll have to ask Sen. Obama with respect to his candidacy,” she said.

What the fuck? For Christ's Sake, Hillary, maybe you and McCain should get a room. And what exact experience do you have that demonstrates you've crossed the commander-in-chief threshold, Hillary?

And speaking of sex and politics, check this out:

An aide to Hillary Clinton likened Democratic presidential rival Barack Obama to independent prosecutor Ken Starr on Thursday, comparing criticism of her to the 1998 probe that led to President Bill Clinton's impeachment.

Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson criticized Obama's promise to take a more aggressive stance with the New York senator after she won three of four states on Tuesday in their hard-fought battle for the Democratic nomination to face Republican John McCain in November's election.

"I for one do not believe that imitating Ken Starr is the way to win a Democratic primary election for president, but perhaps that theory will be tested," Wolfson told reporters. * * *

Obama, an Illinois senator, said on Wednesday he planned to step up his criticism of Hillary Clinton and raise more questions about her national security credentials and issues like her refusal so far to release her recent personal tax returns.

Was Wolfson referring to the Ken Starr, that Republican sex maniac who presided over the Clinton PenisGate Scandal (i.e., the scandal which revealed that Hillary's husband was being blown by Monica Lewinski)? Does the Hillary Campaign really want to bring all that up at this particular moment in history?

And why don't you want to release your tax returns, Hillary? After all, wasn't it you who criticized your opponent for Senate a few years back when he didn't release his tax returns?

Eight years ago, when Hillary parachuted into NY to become our Senator, she and Howard Wolfson became completely obsessed with opponent Rick Lazio's tax returns, which he did not release until the end of August..

They talked about them at every opportunity. In early July, Hillary called it "frankly disturbing." A guy in an Uncle Sam outfit was dispatched to be a nuisance at various Lazio events in August. Howard himself showed up once to try to rattle Lazio by offering him a copy of some Chappaqua property tax receipt after Lazio said he'd release his state returns as soon as Hillary released hers (which didn't exist, because she had just moved up here).

And do you remember last week when someone in Obama's camp was accused of contacting the Canadians to explain that Obama really wasn't going to do anything to hurt NAFTA? Well, check this out:

A storm of reports in the Canadian media say that the Nafta-gate flap last week involving Barack Obama was started by a key aide to Canada's prime minister - who told journalists that Hillary Clinton's campaign - not Obama's - had contacted the Canadian government to play down its Nafta-bashing.

The Canadian Press wire service - the equivalent to AP - reports that Ian Brodie, chief of staff to Stephen Harper, was talking to journalists last week: "Brodie was asked about remarks aimed by the Democratic candidates at Ohio's anti-Nafta voters that carried economic implications for Canada." It quotes a witness who reported Brodie's remarks: "He said someone from (Hillary) Clinton's campaign is telling the embassy to take it with a grain of salt ... That someone called us and told us not to worry."

Excuse me? Hillary undoubtedly got people to vote for her as a result of the original story, but now it turns out that it was Hillary's campaign that made those reassuring remarks to the Canadians.

Anyway, I wouldn't vote for Hillary now even if you held a gun to my head, particularly given that she seems to have no problem praising John McCain while at the same time attacking Obama. And something tells me that I may not be the only progressive-leaning person in this country who feels that way.

In fact, the only thing that would piss me off more at this point is if Obama doesn't go nuclear against Hillary given all that went down today.

Toles

Here Is An Ad That Obama Needs To Run

OK, so Hillary goes negative and it keeps her in the race. I think we can expect more of the same from her in the coming weeks. That means that Obama needs to go on the attack, not merely counter-attack when he gets attacked. Here's an ad I think he should run:

[The ad begins with images of the Trade Towers burning, people jumping 80 stories to their deaths, the towers collapsing, etc.]

[VOICE-OVER]: "September 11, 2001 -- nearly 3000 Americans were murdered when terrorists based in Afghanistan -- and supported by the Taliban -- attacked the United States. So we attacked them back."

[Show images of U.S. troops heroically going into Afghanistan]

[VOICE-OVER]: "But then something tragic happened -- George Bush, John McCain, and Hillary Clinton decided to take their eyes off of Afghanistan and instead direct the bulk of our Army's combat forces against Iraq, a secular Muslim country that had nothing to do with the 9-11 attacks."

[Show films of McCain and Hillary speaking in the Senate in favor of the Iraq War resolution].

[VOICE-OVER]: "Well, we all know how that turned out -- 4000 American troops killed with another 30,000 suffering life changing injuries, a half a million Iraqis dead, a trillion of your tax dollars spent, and no end in sight."

[Show a montage of images of brutal combat in Iraq, the charred bodies of American contractors hanging from a bridge, electrodes stuck to a hooded Iraqi prisoner, flag-draped coffins being loaded on planes, an IED going off on an Iraqi street, a headline showing that oil is now over $100 a barrel, and finish the montage with footage of McCain claiming that we'll be in Iraq for a hundred years followed by an image of McCain and Hillary together at some event, like the image at the bottom of this post].

[VOICE-OVER]: "In fact, security experts agree that the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq has actually made America less safe. And if that isn't bad enough, our enemies in Afghanistan -- the same ones that killed 3000 of our fellow citizens on 9-11 -- are now strong again."

[Show headline reading something like "TALIBAN RESURGENT -- U.S. MISSION IN AFGHANISTAN IN JEOPARDY," like this one].

[Cut to image of Barack speaking at a podium with American flags waiving patriotically behind him and patriotic music crescendo-ing].

[VOICE-OVER]: "Barack Obama had the courage and wisdom to oppose Bush's Iraq invasion from the start. Unfortunately, John McCain and Hillary Clinton did not feel that way, and America is now paying the price for their incompetence. If you are truly concerned about the safety and security of your loved ones, shouldn't you vote for the candidate who doesn't have an enemy identification problem?"

The end needs a little work, but you get the idea. I don't think Barack should go on an all-out attack -- that's just not his style -- but he should run a few ads with the tone of the one set out above, and the key to such ads will be to always mention McCain and Hillary together. This would be a fair tactic to use, given that Hillary recently praised McCain's security credentials while at the same time attacking Obama's, which was despicable in my opinion.

Also, if fear is going to be the dominant theme in this year's election, then Obama needs to really hit the one big truth of this campaign, namely, the Republicans want Hillary to get the nomination because they know that she is beatable.

Obama's people should produce an ad featuring Rush Limbaugh telling Republicans to "cross over" and vote for Hillary in the Democratic primaries. The voice-over for such an ad could simply say, "Why is Rush Limbaugh of all people encouraging Republicans to vote for Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries? Because he can read the polls and he knows that McCain would beat Hillary in a general election."

Obama might also want to consider running a humorous ad against Hillary with regard to Iraq. One such ad could start with the question, "What would have Hillary done in response to the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941?" The ad would then cut to a scene where President Hillary Clinton (her back to the camera) is informed on December 7, 1941 of the Pearl Harbor attack. The ad then depicts her responding to the attack by ordering an invasion of Mexico.

I Knew It!

The first four words of this article pretty much say it all:

High on Mount Sinai, Moses was on psychedelic drugs when he heard God deliver the Ten Commandments, an Israeli researcher claimed in a study published this week.

Such mind-altering substances formed an integral part of the religious rites of Israelites in biblical times, Benny Shanon, a professor of cognitive psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem wrote in the Time and Mind journal of philosophy.

"As far Moses on Mount Sinai is concerned, it was either a supernatural cosmic event, which I don't believe, or a legend, which I don't believe either, or finally, and this is very probable, an event that joined Moses and the people of Israel under the effect of narcotics," Shanon told Israeli public radio on Tuesday.

Moses was probably also on drugs when he saw the "burning bush," suggested Shanon, who said he himself has dabbled with such substances.

"The Bible says people see sounds, and that is a classic phenomenon," he said citing the example of religious ceremonies in the Amazon in which drugs are used that induce people to "see music."

He mentioned his own experience when he used ayahuasca, a powerful psychotropic plant, during a religious ceremony in Brazil's Amazon forest in 1991. "I experienced visions that had spiritual-religious connotations," Shanon said.

He said the psychedelic effects of ayahuasca were comparable to those produced by concoctions based on bark of the acacia tree, that is frequently mentioned in the Bible.

The Danger Of Asking A Stupid Question

The biggest drunk driving case in history was argued yesterday when Exxon Mobil appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court to explain why it should not be required to pay $2.5 billion in punitive damages for causing the largest oil spill in American history. Chief Justice Roberts was clearly concerned about the amount of the award, even though (1) the punitive damages award had already been cut in half by a lower court, and (2) Exxon Mobil earned a record $40 billion in profits in 2006:

"So what can a corporation do to protect itself against punitive-damages awards such as this?" Roberts asked in court.

The lawyer arguing for the Alaska fishermen affected by the spill, Jeffrey Fisher, had an idea. "Well," he said, "it can hire fit and competent people."

The rare sound of laughter rippled through the august chamber. The chief justice did not look amused.

I guess Roberts should have read the briefs before asking such an idiotic question.

The bottom line here, of course, is that Exxon Mobil has already won because it has invested the amount of the award during the pendency of these appeals and has undoubtedly made far more off of its investments than it has lost in accumulated interest on the judgment.

The Pitfalls Of Being A Bush Apologist

Here is the quote of the day:

"That was certainly one of my less astute observations. He has been less flexible in the past year than I expected after the 2006 election, and I think he continues to pay a price for his rigidity. On the S-CHIP program, for one example."

David Broder, repudiating his statement from a year ago when he argued that President Bush was poised to make "a political comeback."

Why The GOP's Attempt To Swift-Boat Obama Will Fail

It looks like the radical right is gearing up its "Swift-Boat" attack machine for use against Obama (thanks for the link, JB):

Opponents of Sen. John Kerry proved in the 2004 election that voters are sensitive to suggestions that a candidate is not sufficiently patriotic. The Democratic presidential nominee's campaign was torpedoed by critics of his Vietnam War record called the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, even though he won multiple military honors and was lauded by his superiors.

The Swift Boat campaign started as a relatively small television ad buy that exploded into an issue that dogged Kerry for months. The Massachusetts senator has conceded since losing to President Bush that the campaign and his lackluster response to unsubstantiated allegations he considered unworthy of a reaction likely cost him the election. And the term even became part of the campaign lexicon -- swift boating.

Obama already is the subject of a shadowy smear campaign based on the Internet that falsely suggests he's a Muslim intent on destroying the United States. Obama is a Christian and has been fighting the e-mail hoax, which also claims he doesn't put his hand over his heart during the Pledge of Allegiance, and he's been trying to correct the misinformation.

"Whenever I'm in the United States Senate, I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America," Obama frequently tells voters.

"I've been going to the same church for 20 years, praising Jesus," he adds.

The reason I don't think this will work against Obama is that Obama has not exactly held himself out as being particularly patriotic, and Swift-Boating works best when you take a strength of your opponent and lie about it in order to turn this strength into a weakness.

When it came to John Kerry, operatives working for Karl Rove were able to turn John Kerry -- a legitimate war hero -- into a lying traitor, and Rove did the same thing to John McCain during the 2000 GOP primaries when he spread the word -- through push polling -- that McCain had fathered an illegitimate black child. McCain and his wife had actually adopted a Bangladeshi-born child, but Rove was able to turn this very positive act by the McCains into something negative. As the Nazis used to say -- the bigger the lie, the more people will believe it.

That's the nature of Swift-Boating -- you take a strength of an opponent and you turn it against him. But as I mentioned above, Obama hasn't exactly held himself out as a hyper-patriotic person, so I just don't think the GOP's swift-boating attempt will work against him.

I Knew Bush Was Unpopular . . .

. . . but even I found these numbers shockingly low:

George W. Bush's overall job approval rating has dropped to a new low in American Research Group polling as 78% of Americans say that the national economy is getting worse according to the latest survey from the American Research Group.

Among all Americans, 19% approve of the way Bush is handling his job as president and 77% disapprove. When it comes to Bush's handling of the economy, 14% approve and 79% disapprove.

Among Americans registered to vote, 18% approve of the way Bush is handling his job as president and 78% disapprove. When it comes to the way Bush is handling the economy, 15% of registered voters approve of the way Bush is handling the economy and 79% disapprove.

Meanwhile, John McCain's campaign gets a big boost with this story (and I'm completely serious here -- this story only helps him).

Here We Go

Swift-Boating, Hillary style:

ABC News has learned that a group of Democratic politicos have set up a new independent 527 organization called the American Leadership Project (ALP) with the express purpose of helping Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, beat Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, in Ohio, and possibly Texas and Pennsylvania as well.

Free from campaign finance rules, ALP will not be legally permitted to coordinate with the Clinton campaign, but it is clearly intended to help her. * * *

ALP has developed three ads aimed at pushing the idea that Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, is a talker and not a doer -- the ads are called “If speeches could solve problems" -- and they will contrast Obama and Clinton on issues of importance to middle class voters, such as the economy, health care, and the mortgage crisis.

This is a classic Republican tactic. You take the strength of your opponent -- in this case, it would be Obama's speaking ability (with John Kerry, it was his status as a decorated war hero) -- and attempt to turn it against him. I don't think it will work, though, because Democrats just aren't any good at this stuff. At least they haven't been up to now.

And by the way, doesn't Obama have plans to deal with health care, the economy, and the mortgage crisis? I mean, Hillary has long been attacking Obama's health care plan on the grounds that it leaves something like 15 million people uninsured, but he still has a plan, doesn't he? If Hillary's line of attack is really going to be that Obama is all speech and no substance, how does such a tactic succeed when Obama's campaign actually does have substantive positions on all of these issues?

Why Obama vs. McCain Is Far Better Than Hillary vs. McCain

One word -- Iraq:

Speaking to reporters in Richmond, VA last night, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) attacked “anyone” who points out that he is “fine” with keeping U.S. troops in Iraq for 100 or more years. “Anyone who worries about how long we’re in Iraq does not understand the military and does not understand war,” said McCain.

He then added that it is “really almost insulting to one’s intelligence” to question “how long we’re in Iraq” because he believes the current “strategy” is “succeeding.”

McCain has also recently stated that he is the "expert" on Iraq. These words will really come back to bite McCain in the ass if his opponent in the general election is Obama, who opposed the Iraq Invasion.

This is a big deal, so big in fact that Hillary has Joe Wilson of PlameGate fame going after Obama's anti-war credentials:

In an aggressive essay targeting Barack Obama's qualifications for the presidency, Joseph Wilson, the former-ambassador-turned-war-critic married to outed CIA agent Valerie Plame, endorsed Hillary Clinton's bid for the White House.

Wilson's endorsement comes as Clinton finds herself 0-and-8 in February primary contests, and Obama's campaign gaining momentum headed into Wisconsin and Hawaii next week. The retired diplomat, who spoke out against Bush's characterization of Iraq's WMD program, said Obama's record opposing the war is too flimsy because he was just a state senator at the time "representing the most liberal district in Illinois."

"Senator Obama claims superior judgment on the war in Iraq ... and in so doing impugns the integrity of those who were part of the debate on the national scene," Wilson writes in the Baltimore Sun and at Huffington Post. "In mischaracterizing the debate on the Authorization for the Use of Military Force as a declaration of war, he implicitly blames Democrats for George Bush's war of choice. Obama's negative attack line does not conform to the facts. Nothing could be farther from the truth."

Nice try, Joe -- and I really do respect the sacrifices you and your wife made for the sake of truth -- but geesus. I've said this before, and I'll say it again: if that Iraq War resolution really wasn't such a big deal as you claim, why the hell did 23 Senators vote against it?

The reason Ambassador Wilson's argument fails is that people remember the debates that occurred prior to the vote on the Iraq War Resolution. People remember watching Senator Robert Byrd going on and on about how bad of a thing this resolution was. People know how much of a disaster our occupation of Afghanistan has become thanks to the stupid decision to invade Iraq. And while 23 Senators did oppose the Iraq War Resolution, three-quarters of the U.S. Senate supported it, including Hillary Clinton and John McCain.

I'm sorry Ambassador, but when a politician makes a bad decision, there should be consequences.

And with regard to Obama being the better candidate against McCain, stuff like this -- from the latest Evans-Novak Political Report -- doesn't hurt either (via Political Wire):

"Adding to the dark mood among Republicans is the increasing prospect that they will not be able to bolster their morale by running against the detested Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.). Her unification of Republicans has been one of the few GOP assets going into the campaign. It will take time and effort to work up a passion against the likable Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) no matter how leftist he really is."

Oops

From CNN:

Thirteen miles from Dulles International Airport, the Huckabee press van carrying reporters from Washington D.C. to the airport for a flight to Little Rock, Arkansas ground to a halt on the side of the highway, out of gas.

The driver turned the key over and over, desperately hoping that the gas needle firmly set on ‘E’ was wrong. The staffer in charge of wrangling the press called ahead to let the campaign know what had happened, as the press in the back of the van pondered whether there were any metaphorical implications. * * *

Was It BushCo Idiocy Or Simply Part Of The Plan?

Here is a great piece from TPM Muckraker (thanks for the link, JB). It's all about the study the RAND Corporation did for the U.S. Army to help figure out why the Iraq War was such a disaster. I found this excerpt from the RAND Report particularly interesting:

“Building public support for any pre-emptive or preventative war is inherently challenging, since by definition, action is being taken before the threat has fully manifested itself,” it said. “Any serious discussion of the costs and challenges of reconstruction might undermine efforts to build that support.”

In other words, the lack of post-invasion planning wasn't an oversight, but merely part of the plan. BushCo knew that any talk of post-war difficulty could adversely affect their chances of getting congressional (and public) support for the invasion.

I've said this before, but it bears repeating: from a PNAC perspective, the "Iraq Debacle" really did go according to plan. Indeed, even the parts that look totally idiotic in hindsight really weren't idiotic at all because the main goals of the Neo-Con Iraq policy was (1) for the U.S. to get a foothold in Iraq, and (2) to do it in such a way as to ensure that we'd have to maintain a presence there for decades. None of the small stuff (e.g., post-invasion planning, the need to prevent Iraq from turning into the Mother of All Terrorist Training grounds, etc.) mattered to Rumsfeld and the rest of the Neo-Cons. All that mattered was the big picture.

Hell, they undoubtedly like it that terrorists are in Iraq now, because they can use that fact to argue the need for a continued U.S. presence (and it allows people like Mitt Romney to argue that pulling out of Iraq would essentially be a declaration of defeat). It's all pretty ingenious.

I'm So Tired Of This Bullshit (With Update)

Via Think Progress:

During his withdrawal speech at CPAC today, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney claimed that an electoral victory by either Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) or Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) “would mean attacks on America” because he says they would “retreat, declare defeat.” “About this, I have no doubt,” added Romney. * * *

Romney’s parting shot is reminescent of Vice President Dick Cheney’s claim in 2004 that America would “get hit again” if voters made “the wrong choice” and elected Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) president.

First of all, good riddance. Romney's quest to become president really didn't take off because (1) he's an asshole, and (2) he's a member of a cult. Sorry Mitt, but no amount of money was going to change those two things.

But I'm not writing this post to state obvious shit like that. I'm writing it because I'm tired of these GOP idiots -- who don't know their asses from a hole in the ground -- claiming that they can fight terrorism better than Democrats when it was the Republicans who totally fucked things up in the first place.

With regard to the 9-11 attacks, Israeli intelligence warned the U.S. in August 2001 that major terror attacks on U.S. soil were imminent, yet these warnings were apparently ignored by our Republican administration. Other countries reportedly gave similar warnings to the U.S. during the run-up to September 11.

Condi Rice's incredible post-9-11 statement that "I don't think anybody could have predicted ... that [terrorists] would try to use an airplane as a missile" has, of course, been thoroughly discredited. And Jesus, Mary and Joseph -- on September 11, 2001, then-National Security Adviser Rice was going to deliver a speech on the topic of national security in which there would be no mention at all of Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda or Islamic fundamentalist groups. But she never got a chance to deliver that speech because . . . well, an Islamic fundamentalist group known as al Qaeda (the leader of which was a guy named Osama bin Laden) decided to attack us on that day. Way to go, Condi.

In fact, it is very clear that the Bush Regime, i.e., Republicans, screwed up big time during the run-up to 9-11, and then decided that the best way to ultimately respond to the 9-11 attacks was to (1) let bin Laden escape from Tora Bora and then (2) invade and occupy a country that had nothing to do with the attacks on September 11, 2001 (which of course caused the needless deaths of thousands of American troops and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, and also caused the U.S. to take its eyes off of Afghanistan, which in turn led to the clusterfuck that is currently taking place in that country).

And these Republicans claim that a Democrat would screw things up if one was to win the presidency in 2008? Give me a fucking break.

UPDATE: Dick Cheney said this today at CPAC:

“Guiding this nation through a time of peril is a very tough job, and the right man is in it,’’ the vice president said. “The absence of another 9/11 is not an accident. It is an achievement.’’

The crowd rose to its feet cheering Cheney on this.

So what's your point, Dick? You guys had your heads up your asses during the run-up to the 9-11 attacks -- and 3000 Americans died as a result -- so you basically want us all to give you a pat on the back now that you've shut the barn door after the horses have escaped? And speaking of escapes, where the hell is bin Laden?

Hillary Wept (Again)

Her campaign must think she's in trouble (from The Swamp):

Sen. Hillary Clinton teared up this morning at an event at the Yale Child Study Center, where she worked while in law school in the early 1970s.

Penn Rhodeen, who was introducing Clinton, began to choke up, leading Clinton's eyes to fill with tears, which she wiped out of her left eye. At the time, Rhodeen was saying how proud he was that the sheepskin-coat, bell-bottom-wearing young woman he met in 1972 was now running for president.

"Well, I said I would not tear up; already we're not exactly on the path," Clinton said with emotion after the introduction.

I'm Not Sure I Believe This Poll

I was under the impression that Hillary's lead in California was insurmountable, but a recent Zogby poll says otherwise:

A new Zogby poll in California — a state that may well decide the direction of the Democratic race — shows Barack Obama taking a small lead over Hillary Clinton, within the margin of error. Obama has 45% to Clinton's 41%, with Obama's 20-point lead among men making up for Hillary's 11-point lead with women. * * *

I know that poll results haven't been all that reliable this season, but this is an interesting development.

Meanwhile, it looks like Giuliani wasn't getting much bang for his buck during his disastrous run for the Republican nomination (from Josh Marshall):

Over $50 million for a single delegate.

As the LA Times notes, that's the worst dollar for delegate record in American presidential history. The previous winner was John Connally who spent $11 million for a single delegate in 1980.

And at that rate Rudy would have needed $60 billion to win the nomination.

On the other hand, 9/11 did change everything.

This Has No Chance . . .

. . . but I like it:

Fed up that Washington hasn’t done more to end the war, a group of Vermont lawmakers said Tuesday that the president no longer has the authority to use Guard troops in Iraq.

State Rep. Michael Fisher, D-Lincoln, said the authority to call up Guard members for Iraq duty has expired because that country no longer poses a threat to U.S. national security.

“The mission authorized in 2002 does not exist,” said Fisher, who plans to introduce a bill backed by 30 colleagues Wednesday that calls on Gov. Jim Douglas to join the effort. “Unless Congress grants a new authorization, the Vermont Guard should revert back to state control.” * * *

Iraq, of course, never did pose a threat to the United States, but that's ancient [non]history, right? Other states -- namely, Maine, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island -- are considering similar proposals.