Grok-ing Gozdecki: Gozblog March 2004 archives

In vaguely related news, the wicked witch of the west, Condi Rice, will be giving public testimony under oath to the 9/11 commission soon. (It's related, of course, because the Bushies couldn't tell the difference between Afghanistan and Iraq, between Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, and between militant Islam and totalitarian oppression -- in each of these, of course, only the former term was a threat to us, as we'll all communicate to these bozos come November.)

This reversal by the Bush administration gives the AP a golden opportunity to deliver to us a concise overview of Bush flip-flops. (Yeah, that's Bush who flips and flops like a gymnast, not John Kerry.)

31 March 2004: The more we ignore him, the closer he gets

It's beginning to look as if his seven-year layoff from recording will be paying substantial dividends for a certain Steven Patrick Morrissey, who is playing five-night stands in both L.A. and New York as he tours behind the soon-to-be-released You Are The Quarry.

Brilliant career move, Moz: remove the supply, and watch the demand increase. No doubt the youth of today consider him a legend, even. Some prophesies are more self-fulfilling than others....

31 March 2004: The Evil-er Empire

With the Yankees losing yesterday, I actually had a friend at work ask me what was wrong with them this year. Which brought out my hackneyed (but ever-so-true) reply of "Every baseball team is going to lose at least a third of its games and every team is going to win at least a third of its games, and this was just a day where the Yankees did the former and the Devil Rays did the latter."

And right now as I type this, the Yankees are winning 12-1 in the 8th inning. So I guess the statement du jour is, "The Yankees are back."

30 March 2004: Geezer rock

So just a week ago I'd never actually heard Ted Leo's music, and now it's totally imprinted in my head. At least, a few of the brilliant tunes from his Heart of Oak album seem to be shuffling through the random setting on the all-powerful iPod in my brain.

This has been a great month for me where seeing live music is concerned, as I've attended three great shows by acts that are part of the "30+" demographic without sounding a bit like -- or being -- Sheryl Crow or Sting. Excellent venues, too. The Logan Square Auditorium, where I saw the Wrens and Ted Leo play in shows presented by the grand people at the Empty Bottle, is a wonderful old room with 30-foot-high ceilings and actual, genuine windows. The high ceilings mean the smoke doesn't kill you, while the windows keep you aware that there's a world outside and helps prevent claustrophobia from setting in.

But the best show of the month was American Music Club last Friday at the Old Town School of Folk Music. It's quite embarrassing -- I've lived mere blocks from the Old Town School for nearly two years, but had never attended a performance there until last week. The performance space is shockingly nice, with wide, padded seats and no bar (bevs are available outside) or smoking -- and every seat is within 45 feet of the stage. (Click here for photos, etc.)

The Logan Square Auditorium and the Old Town School: just two more reasons why Chicago rocks -- sometimes hard, sometimes gently.

30 March 2004: Outsource this!

Writing for the Philadelphia Inquirer, Jeff Brown takes a tongue-in-cheek look at outsourcing that makes some serious points. Excellent piece -- go read it.

30 March 2004: That's some bad baseball

I knew that the American League Central -- the baseball division that includes my Chicago White Sox -- was bad, but didn't realize just *how bad* it was until the ever-so-clever Aaron Gleeman (a nice guy, for a Twins fan) broke it down.

The article doesn't lend itself to parsing, so if you're interested, just go take a look.

30 March 2004: Rooting for the Evil Empire

Like most correct-thinking Americans, I hate Duke Univeristy's basketball team.

Actually, I don't, though it seems to be quite the thing to do. I know next to nothing about college basketball, though like many folk I filled out brackets for the NCAA tournament this month, as I do most years.

But unlike every other year, this year I have a chance to win it all after putting in my mandatory half hour of research while filling my brackets outs. Here are the various scenarios as Final Four play kicks off this weekend:

If Duke beats Ga Tech, then Steve wins with 434 points. Anne is second with 386.
If Duke beats Okla State, then Steve wins with 434 points. Ken is second with 415.
If Connecticut beats Ga. Tech, then Maryann wins with 389 points. Steve is second with 379.
If Conn beats Okla State, then MaryAnn wins with 414. Steve second with 379.
If Ga Tech beats Duke, then Steve wins with 404. Andrei is second with 370.
If Ga Tech beats Conn, then MaryAnn wins with 389. Steve second with 379
If Okla State beats Duke, then MaryAnn wins with 419. Steve second with 404.
If Okla State beats UConn, then Maryann with with 444. Steve second with 379.

So under three of the eight possible outcomes, I win. Nice, but this MaryAnn person wins under the other five possible scenarios. This is happening by dint of my picking Kentucky to meet Duke in an all-southern final, only to see the overhyped Wildcats fall in a second-round upset to University of Alabama-Birmingham.

All I can say is, go Duke!

30 March 2004: Musical careers in the era of the 24-hour news cycle

Among the absurdities of our age is that critics are often rather rightfully accused of being bandwagon jumpers for (over)hyping bands that don't even have a full album out (think Yeah Yeah Yeahs or The Strokes) -- a tendency that seems perhaps to have crept across the Atlantic from the U.K. here in the Internet era.

But even more ridiculous is that some critics feel that they're late to the game if they don't hear a band until their debut album comes out, ala the lede from this review by the excellent Aaron over on Almost Cool:

TV On The Radio is yet another group that I was a little late on in terms of jumping on the wagon. I'd read a great deal of press about their debut Young Liars EP, but didn't even hear it until after I'd heard this, their newest [?] full length.

Like I said, it strikes me as nuts that anyone, even a critic, should feel guilty or negligent for not being there for Year Zero of a band's career. Most record labels get a lot of well-deserved flak these days for not letting new acts develop, but I think critics may also be playing a role in this process.

Better, faster, stronger? One out of three isn't bad.

30 March 2004: Brace Yourself for a Massive Attack

Looks like Massive Attack -- who failed to deliver on their promise to release two albums last year -- is at least working on the follow-up to last year's 100th Window.

29 March 2004: Robert Novak, "A douche bag for liberty"

Frequent readers may have noticed that lately, I haven't taken any shots at columnist Robert "Prince of Darkness" Novak. The reason for this is simple: between he, Tucker Carlson, and James Carville, I got burned out on Crossfire and stopped TiVo-ing it more than a month ago. (Paul Begala is still an excellent commentator IMHO.)

Anyway, just now on The Daily Show Jon Stewart played a particularly brilliant clip in which Novak asks my congressman, Rahm Emanuel (who has a mighty firm handshake)...well, let's go to the transcript:

NOVAK: Congressman, do you believe, you're a sophisticated guy, do you believe watching these hearings that Dick Clarke has a problem with this African-American woman Condoleezza Rice?

EMANUEL: Say that again?

NOVAK: Do you believe that Dick Clarke has a problem with this African-American woman Condoleezza Rice?

EMANUEL: No, no. Bob, give me a break. No. No.

As Stewart quipped, "who knew this issue had a race card?" Then, citing Novak's opposition to civil rights and his outing of undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame a few months ago (wonder how Ashcroft's probe into that leak is going), Stewart labeled Novak "A douche bag for liberty."

Which, it seems to me, is very unfair to douche bags.

29 March 2004: Music soothes the savage beast

Crappy day, at least by my standards. And since most of my days are pretty good, the bad ones stand out.

Anyway, I'm well aware just how petty the nature of my litany is. Still, here's why my day sucked:

I didn't make the progress I'd hoped to make on my current projects at work
I found out that, at least with some utilities, you can't establish new service until the current tenants cancels theirs (re: my May 1 move)
The "book fair" in my downtown office building was a major letdown, especially since it seemed like for every Michael Moore book, they had two by Ann-thrax Coulter-geist
I made a fantasy baseball trade offer to the one guy in my league who tends not to ever get back to you when you make him an offer
I came to the conclusion that Pitchfork's 2003 music annual is a waste of money and time, since 90+ percent of the material comes from the site. Of course, since it took them until mid-March to get the darn thing out after I ordered it in December, I'd forgotten most of what was in it anyway....
I realized that I'd made a bunch of careless mistakes on the website for my fantasy baseball league's homepage
For the first time in my neumu tenure, I was asked to do a complete rewrite of a story, much to my chagrin
I stayed late at the office putting in more than two hours on the do-over, and didn't get back to my neighborhood until after 8
My favorite local record store was selling Broken Social Scene's You Forgot It in People for three bucks more than Amazon, plus tax -- but I bought it anyway

But then I put the headphones on while walking home, and the humongous guitars of "Randy Described Eternity," the lead track from Built to Spill's Perfect From Now On (quite possibly the best major-label debut ever by an indie band, and yes, I'm including the Pixies and Replacements) calmed me down nicely.

And on the positive side, I'm doing quite well in my NCAA basketball tourney brackets, with a chance to win a pool for the first time ever.

26 March 2004: Chicago says no go to Wal-Mart

Thank goodness:

Wal-Mart's $20 million entry into the Chicago market suffered a serious -- and perhaps fatal --setback Thursday, when organized labor flexed its muscle against a company it calls "public enemy No. 1" and derailed a West Side zoning change.

In siding with the Chicago Federation of Labor over Wal-Mart and Ald. Emma Mitts (37th), the Zoning Committee broke with the longstanding City Council tradition of deferring to the local alderman on zoning issues.

And thus, my city remains closed to Wal-Mart. We do, however, have several lurvely Target stores, including a snazzy new two-story location that has one of those cool shopping-cart escalators....

Wouldn't it be nice if, say, five years from now Wal-Mart wasn't the dominant force in U.S. retailing? Yes it would.

Why? Well, there's....

The incredibly low employee pay (them low prices have to come about somehow), which leads to the government subsidizing many Wal-Mart employees, who receive assistance via food stamps and other low-income programs to offset their poverty-level wage
Its supply chain and procurement practices, which are a major force in the most recent waves of U.S. manufacturing going overseas, as suppliers "must" meet Wal-Mart's pricing demands
The manner in which it moved into rural areas across the U.S. heartland and single-handedly decimated many a downtown's small businesses through the appeal of low, low prices
The fact that it undercuts the concept of the free market by not stocking albums, books, DVDs, and magazines that it considers "offensive." In many communities, this amounts to censorship, as Wal-Mart is the sole source of these goods in a substantial number of towns
Its staunchly anti-union stance

Also, I have always instantly felt as if I'd been whisked away by a tornado and plopped down in Arkansas whenever I entered a Wal-Mart. As a liberal elitist (ha!) that makes me uncomfortable.

26 March 2004: Clarke's book

Again I link to Slate -- where they seem to have grown weary of their post-9/11, "must repeat the administration's spin as facts" stance -- for this piece, which offers an overview of Clarke's book, specifically breaking it down into what the current and previous presidents have done right and wrong in the war on terror.

Is it pretty damning stuff? Oh yes.

25 March 2004: Richard Clarke

Just caught a great overview of Richard Clarke's testimony before the 9/11 commission on the Daily Show. It was a perfect example of what Jon Stewart and company do best -- let people hang themselves to comedic effect. Seeing Clarke pants former Illinois Governor Big Jim Thompson was priceless.

Also priceless is the fact that, unlike anyone currently working in the Bush administration, Clarke actually acknowledged that our government failed the victims of 9/11. A golden moment of truth.

For a sober look at this and other parts of Clarke's testimony, read this column by the always-excellent Fred Kaplan on Slate.

25 March 2004: Would that they had just stayed away

Courtesy of the Observer's monthly music mag, OMM, comes the 10 worst rock reunions.

Priceless line re: the Sex Pistols 1996 tour: "[Singer Johnny "Rotten"] Lydon, dressed in tartan and silver and looking like a plump, gay Bart Simpson, was enough to prompt bottlings in Scandinavia and bored yawns in Britain."

25 March 2004: The concept of "we" versus me

Today, while at lunch with two co-workers, I was made aware of what a complete freak I am.

In the course of our rambling conversation, I mentioned that I'm in first place in the NCAA basketball pool that I'm in. Considering that I don't think I've ever even finished in the top quartile, this is an accomplishment.

As is often the case, the person who wins this pool will be receiving a bit of cash. Not enough to buy a new automobile, but more than enough to buy new wheel covers for the passenger side of my car, which has shed both of them since Thanksgiving.

Anyway, I said something about how my big dilemma with this pool will hit me tomorrow night, when Illinois (from whence I got my degree) plays Duke. Why? Because I picked Duke to win the whole tournament, meaning that I need them to beat my alma mater in order to keep me in the running for the prize. And, showing my freakiness, I said that my hope is that Duke will win, since the money will make me happier than having "my" team win.

This in turn led to me noting that it's the same approach I take in fantasy baseball (a game where you make teams of real baseball players, then track their statistics throughout the season to determine who had the "best" team) -- if there's money to be won, I favor my imaginary team over my real-life team, the White Sox. My female co-worker seemed fairly non-plussed about this, but my male co-worker called me "the greediest person alive." I didn't really dispute this notion, though I should have.

Why? Because, thinking about it hours later, it hits me that the reason I'd be happier to have my fantasy team rather than the genuine team that I root for win has much more to do with the sense of personal accomplishment I would get. If the White Sox win, I'm pretty gruntled, but frankly, I have nothing to do with it. (Literally, since I've blown at least $500/year on Sox games each of the past five or six years and been "rewarded" with a franchise that is run on the cheap, geared toward turning a profit rather than trying to maximize the talent it puts on the field.)

On the other hand, when my fantasy baseball team wins, it's a product of my effort in drafting and acquiring the best possible talent. It's the result of the hours I put into reading about, listening to, and watching the game. It's something I've personally done, not just something I've been a spectator to.

Is it still a vicarious thrill? Without a doubt. But it's still closer, I think, to genuine accomplishment than the one that I get simply for cheering a team on.

Is that so freaky?

24 March 2004: My Gingersol record review...

...is waiting for your eyes over on neumu.

24 March 2004: Props to Stylus for an inventive list

*Yawn,* another list of the Top 100 albums of all time.

No, it's not.

Instead, Stylus did things a little differently, as explained in this article's introduction:

The one saving grace of lists, the thing they actually are useful for, is reminding us of the quality of things we may have either forgotten or else never known. And the parts of lists that do this most effectively are usually the dregs, the arse-ends, the bottoms and the afterthoughts. The second fifty of a Top 100 is almost always more intriguing and worth looking into than the first fifty, and with this in mind we decided to go one further, bypassing the scores of predictable choices that always end up topping these lists in favour of the ones we might not automatically think of, but which deserve attention and affection just as much, if not more. And so we did away with the first 100 altogether. After all, if you�re looking for a list of the Top 100 Albums Ever all you need to do is tap the phrase into a search engine and hey presto; 1,000,000 different variations on the hundred-club canon are at your fingertips.

But music writers are a fickle and crafty bunch: tell them to choose their favourite 101-200 albums ever and they�ll choose tactically, gerrymandering the topography of their own tastes in the belief that they�ll squeeze a personal favourite in or somehow exclude a common choice that they particularly dislike for whatever reason. So how did we go about getting them to vote honestly? We lied to them. Barefaced. We told them to pick their favourite 100 albums ever and we told them it was for a feature on their 100 favourite albums ever, intending all along to discount the first 99+1 past the post in favour of the stragglers, lames and under appreciated. Sure, it meant more work for us, having to tot-up the votes for hundreds upon hundreds of records knowing full well that the ones with most votes (which take the longest to add up!) are only going to be ignored and chucked in the bin once we�re done. But we�re quite pleased with our efforts, and we hope you are too. We�ve come up with a list of 100 records that you wont find on everyone else�s favourite hundred ever, because they�re not even our favourite 100 ever.

Now, go forth and read the list!

24 March 2004: Richard? No, he's definitely a Dick.

As you may or may not know, Dick Morris is a whore among whores in the Washington, DC scene. Whoreias Maximus, even. And a real Dick to boot.

A few years back, the political strategist was more than happy to take Bill Clinton's money. Heck, he appeared on the cover of Time magazine with Bill, for a story on his brilliant effectiveness in helping Clinton win the '96 campaign.

But as a free agent, Dick follows the money, and he has since hopped over the fence to do the GOP's dirty work. Whatever -- that's certainly his right.

But just remember: when someone switches sides, you should always question whether his or her "newfound wisdom" is in fact wise (or, in Morris' case, newfound, since he worked for the GOP pre-Clinton). This applies equally to characters like David Brock (author of Blinded by the Right), Arianna Huffington or Howard Stern (righties gone lefty) as it does to Dennis Miller, Christopher Hitchens or Zell Miller (recent converts to the right).

Anyway, last month Morris wrote a column in The Hill entitled "Memo to Bush: Define Kerry now, before he does." In it, he sums up the situation and offers some advice to Bush:

The early Democratic primaries have front-loaded not just their nominating process but the entire election cycle. Voters will have largely formulated their opinion of the Democratic nominee two months from now. Bush must seize this narrow window of opportunity by running national negative ads starting right now.

And what has Morris written on in his latest column in The New York Post? Well, here's the lede:

THE [negative] Bush ads are working: Two weeks ago, the Washington Post poll showed Sen. John Kerry ahead of President Bush by 11 points, and the Gallup Poll had him up by 8, while more recent polls reflect a dead heat between the two.

Take a bow, Dick. Yep, per your advice, Bush went negative on Kerry. (Surprise! Like this administration has a positive message to promote?)

And then shut up, you self-congratulatory gasbag. Remember that just last month, Morris was fretting up a storm:

The Battle of Bush is now largely over. The 43rd president, despite a record of prodigious success, has managed only a job approval rating hovering around the same 48 to 50 percent level he got in the 2000 election.

His administration has made no converts. As galling as this bad news must be for a president who has made us safe for the past two and a half years, led the way to 8 percent economic growth, transformed the federal role in education, and passed a Medicare drug benefit, it is the grim but necessary conclusion we must draw from the polling data at hand.

Now, he makes this claim in his Post column:

I have doubted the conventional wisdom that this election would be close. If Bush continues to stay on the offensive and Kerry's responses remain as inept as they've been, the Massachusetts Democrat will go downhill faster than he is now doing on his skiing vacation.

Doubted it when? Perhaps as you typed this latest column, which supports your new version of reality and sweeps away last month's hand-wringing?

While it may be true that consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds, tiny walnut-sized brains like Morris' change their story on a weekly basis to keep you impressed with their "insights." It's akin to asking a weatherman whether it will rain yesterday, or asking a historian whether we can defeat the Germans in World War II.

24 March 2004: Clowning clowns and the balloon animals they twist and shape

Over at The Daily Howler, Bob Somerby is on fire today in his role as America's savviest press critic.

Check this entry:

ICON CONDI'S CLOWNING CLOWNISTRY: What can we learn from Richard Clarke's book? Nothing at all, absent careful analysis. But clowning clowns were out quite early trashing Clarke after 60 Minutes. Case in point: On Monday morning, Condoleezza Rice showed up on the clowning "news" program, Fox & Friends. If you enjoy being laughed at by Big Major Pols, you must check out Condi's performance.

Needless to say, store-bought Steve Doocy knew his role-he had to trash the infidel, Clarke. In his initial query, Doocy displayed the clowning Fox style, referring to a claim that is made "in this new book that this guy is trying to sell today." All questions of integrity safely put aside, Doocy popped the question to Rice: Had she ever heard of al Qaeda before her initial briefing by Clarke? Rice laughed in the face of every Fox viewer when she offered this clowning reply:

RICE: That's ridiculous. Of course we all heard of al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden. We had of course heard that in 1998, when Dick Clarke was the counter-terrorism czar, al Qaeda had bombed United States embassies. We of course heard that al Qaeda was suspected of bombing the Cole in 2000 when Dick Clarke was counter-terrorism czar. And we understood that plots against the United States had been hatching since the 1990s, when Dick Clarke was counter-terrorism czar. So yeah, I think we had a clear picture of what was going on.

"We had a clear picture of what was going on," Condi said. And her meaning was perfectly clear: Condi and the rest of the team had a clear picture that Clarke was a loser. But Doocy avoided the obvious question: Why then was this same Dick Clarke held on as Rice's counter-terrorism czar? A six-year-old child would have known to ask. But Doocy is paid not to ask.

In this utterly foolish exchange, we get a clear picture of our modern discourse. A store-bought shill rolls over and dies. And the president's national security chief is allowed to insult your intelligence. But then, Icon Condi is a press corps untouchable. To this day, no one has ever dared to ask about her most amazing statement-the claim that no one could have imagined using planes as missiles (see THE DAILY HOWLER, 8/4/03). Your press corps' social judgments come first. Your national discourse always comes second, deep-sixed by store-bought losers like Doocy, and by the rest of a simpering class that has made Icon Condi their star.

They had a clear picture that Clarke was a loser. But they kept him on as counter-terrorism czar! It's good enough for the fools at Fox. And it makes a rank joke of your discourse.

Our discourse? A rank joke? Oh, yes.

24 March 2004: We have come not to praise them, but to bury them

Chris Ott, writing for Pitchfork:

Guns N' Roses earned a place in rock history as the hair metal band good enough to excuse their indulgent stupidity, and exposed the effeminate commerciality that had neutered rock music, extracting the dying medium's last breath. All of that was accomplished with Appetite for Destruction, the biggest-selling debut of the 1980s, to this day a venerable slab of obnoxious rock and roll. Aiming to promote their interests with this limp catalog sampler, Geffen have shamelessly betrayed the band's legacy and diluted their best material, associating it with some of Guns N' Roses' biggest flops, both in commercial ("Civil War", "Yesterdays") and artistic terms. Ammunition for their myriad enemies, Greatest Hits reminds us that, for the brilliance of their debut album, Guns N' Roses recorded nearly as many covers as originals, and in the wake of their success, faltered mightily.

24 March 2004: Ringing ears

Went to see Ted Leo and the Pharmacists last night. Unfortunately, opening act Electrelane -- who never heard a song they couldn't nick in order to make a worse new one -- shredded my hearing early in the eve, and my ears are still ringing.

As for Mr. Leo and his band, I'd honestly never heard their music before despite all the hype that last year's effort, Hearts of Oak, was met with. After last night's show, I have to say that the hype is justified -- the boy writes some great songs.

Kind of ironic -- I went to see the Pharmacists, and now my ears are ringing. Like, you know, Rush Limbaugh's oxycontin-damaged hearing....

23 March 2004: The fuzziest math yet

We know, we know: Democrats are spend-happy fools who want to grow government and impoverish all Americans by raising taxes so high that no one will be encouraged to work, invest, etc. We know this because political ads and right-wing talk show hosts alike constantly drill this into our heads, right?

And just this past weekend, Beloved Leader told us -- or at least the crowd at one of his rallies in Florida -- that John Kerry has voted to raise taxes 350 times during his career in Congress.

Or did he? Slate's Michael Kinsley took a look at the numbers that the Bush campaign cites in making this claim and finds that they don't add up. That they don't come close to adding up, even:

The documentation on the GOP Web site about Kerry's supposed 350 votes to increase taxes actually lists only 67 votes "for higher taxes." Most of these are votes against a tax cut, not in favor of a tax increase. The 67 include nine votes listed twice, three listed three times, and two listed four times. The logic seems to be that if a bill contains more than one item (as almost all bills do), it counts as separate votes for or against each item. The Bush list also includes several series of sequentially numbered votes, which are procedural twists on the same bill. And there are votes on the identical issue in different years. The only actual tax increase on Bush's list (counted twice, but hey ... ) is Kerry's support for Clinton's 1993 deficit-reduction plan. That's the one that raised rates in the top bracket and led to a decade of such fabulous prosperity that even its most affluent victims ended up better off.

The best way to see the absurdity of saying that John Kerry voted for higher taxes 350 times is to apply Bush's madcap logic to Bush himself. Every year, in the president's budget, there is a table called "Effect of Proposals on Receipts." It lists the president's proposed changes in the tax rules and how they will affect government revenues for various periods up to 15 years. Most of Bush's proposals will cost revenues, obviously. But in the four fiscal years 2002-2005, Bush has proposed 63 actual "revenue enhancers," as his father used to call them. This doesn't include, as Bush includes for Kerry, his opposition to any tax cuts (and there have been some, such as Democratic proposals to reduce the payroll tax). Nor does the list seem to include any "supply-side" revenue enhancement by magic or growth. These are actual proposals to take more money out of people's pockets and give it to the government.

At Bush's current rate of 16 "tax increases" a year, he'd have 320 under his belt if he could stay in the White House for 20 years. Depending on how you figure-but without wandering beyond Bush himself into the jungles of absurd logic-this is as many as eight times the number that Bush has managed to pin on Kerry. But isn't it unfair to call, for example, more efficient administration at the IRS a tax increase? And isn't it simply ridiculous to suggest that George W. Bush is more complacent about higher taxes than John Kerry? Yes, it's unfair. It's ridiculous. That's the point.

What Kinsley said. Faux-shizzle.

22 March 2004: Like Fear, except it appears they're sincere

If you're of a certain age and era, you may recall a punk rock band called Fear. They performed songs like "Let's Have a War," taunted the crowd by calling them all "faggots" and such, and generally said the things that most Reagan-ites thought but left unsaid.

You may also recall that just over a decade ago, the New York Times ran an article about "grunge fashion and lingo" or something like that, in which someone from Sub Pop Records punked the reporter by making up imaginary grunge slang, like "wack slacks" (ripped jeans), "cob nobbler" (loser) and "lamestain" (an uncool person).

Anyway, this story that ran yesterday had me hoping that the Times had been punked by the musical alterna-culture again. But unfortunately, in the words of Johnny Rotten, "[They] mean it, man."

Fortunately, though, "By their own admission, conservative punks constitute a small percentage of their particular subculture." What's one percent of one-half a percent again?

22 March 2004: Terror and the markets, etc.: just questions, no answers

I'm a bit confused about something. The U.S. stock markets were down once again today, with "security fears" cited as the reason by Yahoo! finance.

The specific fear mentioned is that the Israelis' killing of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin will in turn lead to reprisals against Israel and its allies, chiefly we Americans.

Yet the markets were up a few days ago when it looked like the big dramatic standoff in Pakistan was going to result in the capture of Al-Qaeda's number-two man. Conveniently ignored by the market was the idea that maybe, just maybe, Al-Qaeda would choose to attack in such a case to show that just because you cut one of its heads off, that doesn't mean it has been defeated. Maybe this has to do with the fact that Hamas is slightly more above-ground than Al-Qaeda -- I don't know, I'm just a speculator.

This in turn leads me to wonder just how malleable our storylines are, especially related to terror. For example, some on the left feel that the GOP will exploit terror in this year's presidential election no matter what the situation is this fall.

That is, if there are no more attacks on U.S. soil this year, then the line the GOP will express will be that Bush's war on terror is succeeding, so he should be re-elected. On the other hand, if there is an attack, many will say that we must line up behind Dubya in a time of crisis.

I suppose it's the old "have your cake and eat it too" fantasy. (Ignoring, for a moment, the "reasoning" of dimwits like Sean Hannity, who has promoted the suspension of this year's election in the event of another terror attack, as if martial law is the answer in a country that held elections during World Wars I and II and the Civil War.)

Anyway, this is just a question or two. As always, I welcome your thoughts.

22 March 2004: A bit of time away

Dearest reader,

Methinks a bit of time away from one another will do us both some good.

Ergo, posting on my site will be extremely sporadic from now until, say, early May. I've got a lot going on right now -- from ridiculous things like preparing for three fantasy baseball drafts to more serious projects like working on several major writing pieces at the day job to moving house on 01 May -- and unfortunately, the blog has to move down on my list of priorities for a spell.

Besides, spring is springing up all around us and we should all make more of an effort to spend time outdoors -- especially while our air is still breathable and stuff.

Cheers,

Steve

PS -- Really, I meant to do this. I just haven't gotten around to blogging less. Maybe I'll do so when I get some time not to blog. : )

19 March 2004: Dissed like a roach

Claire Zulkey of zulkey.com solicited anecdotes in which someone ended a conversation with you without warning and/or rather harshly. Naturally, I had one to share (scroll ~1/2 way down the page).

18 March 2004: Unhappy anniversary

So, in addition to being St. Patrick's Day (woo hoo, green beer!), yesterday was also the one-year anniversary of the U.S.'s invasion of Iraq.

The freed Iraqis, of course, got a little out of control with their celebrations yesterday and blew up a hotel in Baghdad, and continued to commemorate the occasion by setting off another car bomb in Basra today. They also launched some mortar shells, killing two U.S. soldiers.

Over on Eschaton, one of Atrios' readers sends along the text of Bush's speech from 17 March 2003, helpfully bolding the parts where Bush discusses the rationale for the invasion.

17 March 2004: It's Barack Obama!

Barck Obama handily defeated his challengers in the Democratic primary here in Illinois for the US Senate seat being vacated by Peter Fitzgerald.

It's a good day to be a progressive -- especially since Obama should have a relatively easy time defeating his Republican challenger, Jack Ryan.

Even my mama likes Obama! (No really, she does -- and she's voted for more than her share of Republicans over the years.)

16 March 2004: AMC's new compilation

I was a little surprised to see that anyone would review the new American Music Club compilation, since it's only available online or at their shows, and has a super-limited press run. But Stylus' Dave McGonigle gamely soldiered on and wrote one anyone, asking the question I myself was certainly wondering:

I�m at a loss as to who it�s aimed at: if it�s a formal introduction to the band for newcomers, why issue it only through your website? If it�s a �thank you� to old fans, why not go the whole hog and round up all of those stray AMC tracks that appeared on currently out-of-print compilations?

Read the rest of his review here.

16 March 2004: High-speed internet hookups over power lines

Who knew? And how do I sign up??

16 March 2004: If only Ted Williams had known about this....

Why waste money on cryogenics when we've already developed the technology to freeze live lobsters and then bring them back to life?

15 March 2004: Give a man seven years, and he may be able to write 12 amusingly titled songs

The NME brings us the track listing for Morrissey's forthcoming album, You Are the Quarry.

Also in Smiths-related news, it looks like Johnny Marr's band, the Healers, may lose drummer Zak Starkey (yes, Ringo's kid) to those monobrowed lads in Oasis.

15 March 2004: New blog alert

My friend who teaches high school here in the city has launched a blog. Take a look at these "random thoughts of one girl who did not quite make genius on the Fox IQ test."

14 March 2004: 564

By my reckoning, after this weekend's bombings in Iraq that killed six U.S. soldiers, we've now suffered 564 troop deaths in Iraq since invading the country last March.

Remember this come November.

14 March 2004: Isn't it telling that they naturally assume that he was, in fact, referring to Bush?

Il presidente was in the Cleveland area this past Wednesday. As part of the security shutdown, highway entrance ramps were blocked off to keep people off the road that his motorcade would be traveling on.

And one of those people doing the blocking may have lost his job for sharing his opinion re: Bush.

Take it away, AP:

A maintenance worker was suspended for displaying a sign with the word "traitor" on his state snowplow while helping provide security for President Bush's motorcade, officials said.

Michael Gerstenslager was asked to park a snowplow on an entrance ramp to block access to a highway the president's motorcade used to travel from Cleveland Hopkins International Airport into downtown Cleveland on Wednesday.

A state trooper in the president's motorcade saw the sign and reported it to the Ohio Department of Transportation, the agency's spokeswoman, Lora Hummer, said.

14 March 2004: Bands Reunited

Spent some time this weekend watching four episodes of VH-1's Bands Reunited on the TiVo. Surprisingly interesting stuff, at least if you liked (or were intrigued by) any of these bands the first time around.

The Squeeze episode was the least interesting of the four I watched, while A Flock of Seagulls, Berlin, and Frankie Goes to Hollywood all brought some good real-life drama to the screen. Sadly, Frankie said "no go" to playing their songs after singer Holly Johnson decided against it. Squeeze also declined to even meet up, so they got relegated to a half-hour instead of the full-hour treatment of the other episodes I've seen.

Flock of Seagulls singer Mike Score probably fares the worst both in terms of looks (bloated and hiding something [or no hair] under an omnipresent cap) and his voice (which is kinda funny, since he's the only member who still performs regularly), while Terri Nunn from Berlin looks fiiiiine with a capital F in her early 40s.

Pics from the series are available here.

14 March 2004: Bargain of the weekend

I found the Chameleons best-of, Return of the Roughnecks, in near mint condition for $8.99 at this local gem last night. As a bonus, it includes the legendary "Tony Fletcher Walked on Water" EP. I looooove a good bargain.

Also saw the new David Mamet flick, the so-so Spartan. It was only $7.50, darn cheap for a first-run flick at the Davis Theatre, but not all that much of a bargain 'cuz, well, it was more good than great.

14 March 2004: Measure Magazine

A wrap-up of the year in music 2003, Measure Magazine, should be hitting the newsstands soon. I believe it includes my review of the Buzzcocks' most recent album.

13 March 2004: Wrens

I went to see the Wrens play last night, and the main thing I have to report is that the band is a lot more spastic and, well, obnoxious than you'd expect, at least based on The Meadowlands.

I can't say the show swayed me much one way or another -- I still think the Wrens are solid, but a bit over hyped. For a more positive evaluation of their live show, check this report from my neumu colleague Nicole Cohen.

12 March 2004: Reasons not to reply to anti-fan mail

A few days past I posted some diseased rambling someone had sent my way in reply to my review of the second Electric Soft Parade album that was published on neumu a few months back as a kind of "ha ha, can this person be for real?" thing.

Well, s/he apparently is.

I sent her/him the following tongue-in-cheek reply:

Holly,

While you are, of course, 100 percent correct about my lameness and ESP's greatness, let it be known that I am *not* an Oasis fan. Nor am I "consumer-driven."

Now, carry on to amazon.co.uk and insult the minions there who also found The American Adventure to be neither American nor adventurous. Surely all this ranting must be highly therapeutic for you.

Toodles,

SG

Then, "Alex" (that's the name on the return email -- hence my confusion about this person's gender) replied with this:

Hello!! Thank you for your reply BUT.........................You say "The American Adventure to be neither American nor adventurous. " Oh dear oh dear this proves your Colossal lack of knowelege with regards to this album! First of all you simple-minded ,Insignificant little man listen up..Though the album may be called 'The American Adventure' it in fact has nothing whatsoever to do with America...The title comes from a Theme Park in the North of England ! And as for it not being adventures tut tut again you are mistaken!! You have either never bothered to listen to the first album 'Holes in wall' or you are you somewhat mentally challenged ?. They have grown so much from the first album they branched out so very much with their musical styling on this record. They have drawn more from their influences. This album was recorded on analog so it does suffer from the as I stated before overproduction they occurred on the first album. Alone the title song which actually sound like four different songs it completely adventurous . When dissected this song to be blunt lows some of the drab music that graces the music charts today out of water!! The only thing I can say is actually listen to an album rather than just reading the press release you crazy fool!!

Anyway, I don't plan to comment on this any further -- just finding the whole thing rather amusing. And not just because there's something funny about being labelled "mentally challenged" by someone who can neither spell nor express her/his thoughts with even a smidgen of clarity....

12 March 2004: A plague of cicadas

Quote of the day: "Out in the Midwest is where things get really hairy," [entomologist Greg] Hoover said. "Missouri, Illinois, Indiana have combinations of 17-year-brooded individuals and 13-year-brooded individuals, and they can have overlap."

The topic? Periodical cicadas, insects that lie dormant under the earth for many years, then come out to raise Hell. Or at least make a lot of noise, and freak out non-outdoorsy folk like me with their big evil-looking selves.

Over Memorial Day weekend 1998 I went on a camping trip to Shawnee National Forest, and a full-fledged hatching was going on all around us. Freaked me out bad enough that I've sworn never to camp again, the final straw coming the night it poured rain and dozens of the critters decided that the space between my tent's vented top and the tarp overlaying it would make a perfect place to stay dry.

Anyway, this will be a cicada summer in parts of the U.S. -- cnn.com has more.

12 March 2004: The final chapter on About Schmidt

Helpful reader Seamus Hayes sent along some very useful skinny re: adapting About Schmidt for the screen -- here it is:

Your bit on About Schmidt piqued my interest -- the film is actually based on aspects of the Louis Begley book and an Alexander Payne [director of About Schmidt] screenplay called The Coward that he developed when he was in film school. The location of the story was shifted to Nebraska to reflect Payne's strong Midwestern sensibility. The same thing happened with the adaptation of the NJ-set book that Election was based on, and his debut Citizen Ruth (an original screenplay, I believe) was set there as well.

I read an interview with Begley (awhile ago, I wish I could remember the particulars) where he discusses adapting his novel and claims that whilst he initially reluctant to the changes, he claimed "when (I) heard Jack Nicholson was on board I was putty in their hands" and said he was very happy with the results.

I think About Schmidt the film works -- it's not really meant to be a straightforward adaptation. I think stands on its merits like other film adaptations that have taken a strand of a novel and shaped it into something else, like The English Patient.

No doubt that the film works -- though both versions leave you a bit uneasy, and strain credulity (the movie because we can't easily discard Nicholson's history of playing the cool guy, the novel because all the ladies wanna get wit' Schmidtie) -- better than the novel. Because so much of the book takes place inside Schmidt's head, a literal adaptation would've been nearly impossible to pull off.

Still, keeping the title and just the barest of plot elements to make a film with the same name feels somewhat of a cheat -- but at least now I have a better understanding of why the filmmaker did so.

11 March 2004: Spain

I have very little to say about this. As someone with very strong pacifist leanings, I'm opposed to violent terrorism and unilateral war equally. You can't really build anything with bombs.

9/11, followed two and a half years later by 3/11. Not sure if this means anything -- my mind just kinda works with numbers naturally. Not sure I can really put any meaningful thoughts together regarding the situation.

11 March 2004: Flippy McFlop-alot

So, you buying the line about what a notorious flip-flopper John Kerry is? Me neither -- especially considering the source of these accusations, Dubya and his acolytes.

The Daily Kos offers a tip-of-the-iceberg list of Bush's switcharoos -- take a gander.

11 March 2004: The most powerful man in the world

He isn't even president yet, but already John Kerry is controlling the White House!

At least, that's my flippant take on this AP story: "Bush Nominee Withdraws After Kerry Remark." (Update: Headline changed after posting.)

11 March 2004: Here it comes

Air America Radio will be launching come 31 March. Since I work in a concrete-and-glass high rise, I won't be able to listen to it, of course. Unless they broadcast over that Internet thing....

11 March 2004: No Sox for Stevie

Breaking a five-year tradition, I won't be going to the 2004 Chicago White Sox home opener. They're still my team, but you can only be taken advantage of by a team's ownership group for so long. Until this team buys into the time-proven dictate that you have to spend money to make money, they'll be getting a lot less of my dough.

This year, rather than the dozen or so games I typically go to, I'm doing a small handful and trying to make it more of an event (only going to see the best teams, paying for choice seats, etc.).

11 March 2004: Left Behind

Courtesy of The Corsair comes an assessment of who in the media and pseudo-political scene will and will not be left behind.

Among the better ones:

Rupert Murdoch: Left behind to do play defense for the anti-christ. Waiting for Verbrecherwelt.
Donald Trump: Left behind. serves on the boards of director's of several of the Antichrist's companies. Has several lucrative subcontracting gigs with Iblis. Reciting elegiacal couplets.
Marty Peretz: Left Behind. When God Himself wrote a letter to TNR to explain the decision, Peretz heavily edited it.
Christopher Hitchens: Surprisingly whisked away, leaving behind a tumbler full of Johnny Walker Black.
Eric Alterman: Surprising everyone, he is Left Behind.
Ralph Nader: Left Behind; Nader retaliates by running for God in 2008.
Martha Stewart: Surprisingly whisked away at the end of her prison term after finding Jesus at Club Fed. Offers splendid tips on the beautification of Heaven and cleaning the pearly gates.
Dennis Miller: Oh, God, Left Behind. In the Divine Plan, his show, in primetime, will serve as punishment for the perverse nature of fallen man left behind.
Bill Kristol: Left behind to search for wepons of mass destruction.
Chris Matthews: Surprisingly whisked away, only to get on the nerves of FDR, asking endless Brian Lambish questions the second he gets up there.
Michael Musto: Whisked to heaven, where he was fitted with a fab pair of wings.
Jon Stewart: Left behind to head up the resistance in the media to the antichrist, then whisked up angelically before the Rapture.
Bill Mahar: Surprisingly whisked away to heaven, but is still bitter that it occurred just as his HBO show was a critical hit.
Geraldo Rivera: Left behind, but makes the best of his time and ambition, chasing the antichrist for an exclusive.

Check out the whole list here.

btw, if you want to get any of the Left Behind books, they all seem to be available used on Amazon for like a nickel each. Devout xtians my arse. Or maybe, just maybe, people who know that you can't take it with you....

10 March 2004: "Lump my dear, can Ben Crenshaw stay the night?"

Remember the 2000 presidential election, when George Bush made this crack to smear Gore and Clinton?: "I believe they've moved that sign, `The buck stops here,' from the Oval Office desk to `The buck stops here' on the Lincoln Bedroom. And that's not good for the country."

He was referring to the ages-old tradition of the president allowing friends and/or donors (they're usually the same people, of course) to spend the night in the Lincoln Bedroom while visiting the White House.

And, what with it being an ages-old tradition, Bush, too, has allowed his friends/donors to spend the night there as well. Oh the shock, to learn that Dubya's words and actions don't match up!

As this AP article notes, "At least nine of Bush's biggest fund-raisers appear on the latest list of White House overnight guests, covering June 2002 through December 2003, and-or on the Camp David list, which covers last year."

More than 540 guests have enjoyed an overnight stay at either the White House or Camp David under Dubya to date. Man, talk about your presidential privilege....

Should this be an issue? Not really. Is it an issue? Yes. Why? Because Dubya, "the great Warshington outsider" (who stocked his cabinet with his dad and Reagan's old "outsider" cronies), made it one.

10 March 2004: About Schmidt, redux

The blonde weighs in with a little bit of her mad furious behind-the-curtains showbiz knowledge....

i think there's another element at work: the studios. they buy stuff all the time, then works just bounce around (and around) sometimes only saved by whatever executive pressed to buy the dramatic rights to the book in the first place. if that person gets canned or leaves or whatever, the project might stay, but it's more vulnerable to the vagarities of whatever next exec picks it up.

10 March 2004: About Schmidt and the art of adaptation

So I've been reading Louis Begley's novel About Schmidt the last few days, more than a year after seeing the film version.

And I'm struck by the fact that, through almost two-thirds of the novel, the two works have absolutely nothing to do with one another. I mean, they both concern a cantankerous recent widower who doesn't much care for the man his only child intends to wed, but beyond that the two stories are completely different in settings, backgrounds, characters, etc.

I'm not really up on adaptation theory, it being nearly a decade since I stepped into a classroom, but I do recall that one of the reasons for adapting books into films is the "prestige" that comes from borrowing a well-respected title. I imagine that once a studio options a novel, and manages to wrest all creative control from the original author, they're damn well gonna develop the screenplay no matter how little it has to do with the source material.

And yet, what little that remains from an adaptation like About Schmidt suggests that it would be far easier and cheaper to just commission an original screenplay, wouldn't it? I can't imagine that Begley would've had any kind of case for plagiarism if About Schmidt the film had been released under a different name, since every detail from the book has been changed in the film. And I don't think it was one of those "hot" books lots of people read that had a guaranteed built-in audience, was it?

It makes me appreciate the way John Irving's spectacular novel A Prayer for Owen Meany became the mediocre film Simon Birch during the adaptation process, as the concerned parties realized that they had gone way astray from Irving's novel. Yet, for all the differences between the source and the adaptation, the Irving novel more closely resembles the film than the Begley novel does. (Heck, the film of About Schmidt is almost closer to Irving's book than Begley's.)

At a certain point, you stray so far from the source material that keeping the title pretty much seems a mistake. Except, perhaps, for the author, who will see a boost in book sales after the film comes out. Hmmmm, maybe that's the ticket....

09 March 2004: The Hessian audience

We knew he fractured his funny bone back when he did those M&M commercials a few years back, but who expected that it would come to this for Dennis Miller?

DENNIS MILLER SHOW

Reply to: tickets4tv@yahoo.com
Date: 2004-03-09, 3:27PM PST

Audience work, one hour tape time, cash pay at end of show. Tapes 3/10, 3/11, and 3/12(1:45pm). Reply to tickets4tv@yahoo.com, incude contact number, nationality, and age or age range(submit photo if possible). Thanks Brandon @ SRO

Compensation: $15 FLAT RATE
This is a part-time job.
OK for recruiters to contact this job poster.
Please, no phone calls about this job!
Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.
Reposting this message elsewhere is OK.
this is in or around BURBANK

26082055

Hey, does this mean Bush's job-creation initiatives are working? I mean, $15 isn't much for a few hours of whoring, but sometimes you have to take what you can get....

09 March 2004: When good pranks go bad

I found this story funny....

08 March 2004: The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about

Below is the result of your feedback form. It was submitted by Holly (psychohosebeast@hotmail.com) on Monday, March 01, 2004 at 07:17:24
-----------------------------------------------

feedback: To Steve Gozdecki ( Review of The ESP'S. American Adventure!!)

I have never read a more unfair and untrue piece of piss! The American adventure may not be your cup of tea but to write such an unfounded critical review of something you know nothing about is pointless!! You futile little man you mean nothing to the music industry!! I'm not even going to go to the effort and insult you! But I will, just a little you fucking Amateur!!!!!!!! Oh and by the way they are signed to BMG you gimp! If you had even the slightest knowledge about music you would know that this album cast a massive shadow over the overproduced �Holes in the Wall�. The American Adventure incorporated an area of different influences and sound to make something quite brilliant! Now listen up, go off and dream about being a real journalist!! I bet you are the type of townie gimp that thinks Oasis make really deep music! You mindless consumer driven waste of space!!!

Um, yeah.

08 March 2004: The Prince of Darkness sings!

Via other, better bloggers come a link to this AP account of last weekend's Gridiron dinner in DC.

All three of my regular readers may wonder why I begin foaming at the mouth at the mere mention of right-wing hack Bob Novak, aka The Prince of Darkness, Bob No Facts, etc.

Well, here's a fine example of why from the Gridiron dinner:

In the most unusual turn of this year's satirical script, syndicated columnist Robert Novak - who sparked a federal investigation by printing the name of an undercover CIA officer - was taking the stage as that CIA officer's disgruntled husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson.

Dressed as Wilson in top hat and cutaway coat, Novak sings of himself: "Novak had a secret source ... so he outed a girl spy the way princes of darkness do. ... Now John Ashcroft asks Bob who and how, could be headed to the old hoosegow."

A federal grand jury is probing whether someone in the Bush administration leaked the CIA officer's identity, possibly a felony. Novak hasn't commented on the investigation - until the Gridiron, in song.

Of course, were there any teeth behind the investigation into the Plame affair, Novak would be singing like a canary to federal prosecutors right now.

This same article also notes that Dubya couldn't make it -- not because he was at his brother Neil's wedding (he wasn't), but because he was hosting Mexican President Vicente Fox.

Man, that's one harsh diss on Neil, sorta like when we normal folks are invited out for a special occasion weeks in advance and reply with "No, I think we might have dinner with the next-door neighbor that night."

08 March 2004: This would kinda suck...

According to today's Sun-Times, the Double Door (a rock club in the Wicker Park neighborhood) may be forced out of business by the club's landlord, who apparently wants to quadruple rent there.

Especially harsh is that the club's operators have poured more than a quarter-million dollars into upgrading the 500-capacity club, which used to be a run-of-the-mill tavern.

08 March 2004: Crummy news

Spalding Grey's body has been found. RIP.

07 March 2004: New film based on John Irving's work

So I did a Google search today with the goal of finding out whether John Irving would be publishing a new novel this year (his last came out in 2001), and instead found out about an oft-shelved project based on a chunk of A Widow for One Year. The film, The Door in the Floor, covers the first 180-something pages of Widow and stars Jeff Bridges and Kim Basinger as Ted and Marion Cole, parents of Irving's titular widow. The flick is currently slated for a late June release.

07 March 2004: Bush family values

Yeah, it's kind of an ad hominem attack, but did you notice that George "Family Values" Bush didn't make it to his brother Neil's wedding? Babs was there -- she must have missed her darling boy something terrible.

07 March 2004: A very simple question, straight from the heart

At this point, why would anyone support George W. Bush for re-election?

Okay, if you're in the top 10 percent of income earners and you fear a Democratic president will raise your taxes, that's kind of understandable. Selfish, but understandable, because you never can have too many things. But the alternative is what -- continued massive budget deficits that we didn't have four years ago? Deficits that would be much smaller if we simply repealed Bush's tax cuts?

Otherwise...what rationale is there for this man's re-election? Consider....

The War on Terror -- wow, you mean there hasn't been a major terrorist attack on U.S. soil since 9/11? Well, were there any before 9/11?
America's standing in the world community -- on 9/11, there was an enormous outpouring of support toward the U.S. I mean, Yassar Freakin' Arafat donated blood to the Red Cross afterwards! France's leading daily ran a headline that, translated, read "Today, we are all Americans." Two and a half years later, the very resource we need most to stop terrorists -- international intelligence -- is well nigh unattainable from anyone but the British.
The economy -- job growth continues to be non-existent. Of the whopping 21,000 jobs added to the U.S. economy last month, all were in the government sector, not the private sector. And while I'm all for some sort of WPA-ish program to help pull us out of our doldrums, I don't think that's the story behind these hirings
Corporate governance -- let's see, has anyone gone to jail yet from Enron, Tyco, MCI Worldcom, etc.? And here's a sweet one: even as Kraft Foods plans to lay off some 6,000 employees, five executives collectively pocketed $10 million late last year.

William Saletan -- who had been writing like a Republican these past few years -- tries to explain away Dubya's failings in a highly damning column published Thursday. The gist? Bush is so certain in his principles, he completely fails to acknowledge reality. Something tells me that many of his supporters remain in the same sinking boat.

05 March 2004: Them punk rock Mekons

My review of the most recent release by The Mekons, Punk Rock, is up at neumu. Enjoy!

04 March 2004: The Neumu Top 20 of 2003

Continuing a proud two-year tradition, I did some fuzzy math and compiled a master list of the Top 20 Albums of 2003 according to me and my fellow neumu staffers. Click here to take a look.

04 March 2004: Tough on terror?

Via msnbc.com comes this story about the Bush administration's refusal to deal pre-emptively with Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab Zarqawi, widely believed to be the leader of an al-Qaida-related group responsible for more than 700 killings in Iraq post-Saddam. As early as June 2002 the Pentagon drew up plans to attack Zarqawi's camp -- plans that were vetoed by the National Security Council as it was working on its own plans to attack Saddam Hussein.

Take it away, msnbc:

"Here we had targets, we had opportunities, we had a country willing to support casualties, or risk casualties after 9/11 and we still didn't do it," said Michael O'Hanlon, military analyst with the Brookings Institution.

Four months later, intelligence showed Zarqawi was planning to use ricin in terrorist attacks in Europe.

The Pentagon drew up a second strike plan, and the White House again killed it. By then the administration had set its course for war with Iraq.

"People were more obsessed with developing the coalition to overthrow Saddam than to execute the president's policy of preemption against terrorists," according to terrorism expert and former National Security Council member Roger Cressey.

In January 2003, the threat turned real. Police in London arrested six terror suspects and discovered a ricin lab connected to the camp in Iraq.

The Pentagon drew up still another attack plan, and for the third time, the National Security Council killed it.

Military officials insist their case for attacking Zarqawi's operation was airtight, but the administration feared destroying the terrorist camp in Iraq could undercut its case for war against Saddam.

The United States did attack the camp at Kirma at the beginning of the war, but it was too late - Zarqawi and many of his followers were gone. "Here's a case where they waited, they waited too long and now we're suffering as a result inside Iraq," Cressey added.

And despite the Bush administration's tough talk about hitting the terrorists before they strike, Zarqawi's killing streak continues today.

I can already hear the squeaky wheels turning in the heads of the "blame Clinton" crowd as they compare this to Clinton's inability to deal pre-emptively with Osama bin Laden.

But remember: no one ever said "The USS Cole bombing changed everything" the way we hear that 9/11 did. Post-9/11, there's no excuse for this kind of cynical political maneuvering, but this type of action constitutes the bulk of "the war on terror," which is working about as well as the war on drugs....

03 March 2004: Kerry's race to lose?

Eric Alterman ran a letter today that linked to an interesting blog that was new to me, The Big Picture. Specifically, he linked to the blogger's discussion and analysis of a Zogby poll assessing which states Kerry and Bush seem fairly certain to win this year's election, as well as the states considered to be "in play."

The good news from my side of the fence is that Kerry leads 226-176 according to Zogby's projections. That leaves 136 electoral votes from states that could still go either way, including Minnesota, Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin, which all went for Gore in 2000 and collectively represent 38 votes -- which would give Kerry 264 electoral votes, just short of the 270 he would need to win.

As with last time, Florida will be crucial with its 27 votes, but who knows what new stink Jeb is concocting for mom's favorite? Ohio's 20 votes also seem to be within the Dem's grasp.

Only eight more months 'til the end of our long national nightmare will indeed be in sight!

03 March 2004: Campaign donations

An old friend from my U of IL days shares his strategy re: giving to John Kerry's presidential campaign...

He wasn't my first choice for the nomination (or my 2nd, 3rd , or 4th), but John Kerry is the de facto nominee now and Bush is planning a big ad campaign. Issue has been joined. I went to Kerry's website today and contributed money.

I know that there are a lot of organizations doing this kind of thing, but I still feel the need to harness my cyber-political power this way and urge everyone I know who feels that Bush has to go to give money, too. I gave less then I could, with the idea that I will give more over the course of what will be a long campaign, because it will probably be needed.

A little contribution should be fine; I'm of the theory that more money brings you diminishing returns after a while, but Kerry needs to compete on a threshold level with Bush's millions and Dean showed that a lot of little contributions can really add up to a lot of money (although not necessaily a victory!)

Sorry if I'm preaching to the converted here, but this is my current obsession. Good giving, everyone!

Good giving, indeed.

Me, I have to wait until after my May move to give, and the $500+ that I'm gonna end up giving to my mechanic this evening is also dampening my spirit of giving, but this will be the year I give to a political candidate for the first time.

03 March 2004: Iraq's 9/11?

Boy wonder Josh Marshall makes the sobering point that proportionately, yesterday's bombings in Iraq that killed 170+ may impact the Iraqi people's national psyche to the same severe extent that 9/11 did ours.

03 March 2004: It's Kerry

So, my fourth-favorite of the Dem contenders, John Kerry, has all but wrapped up the Democratic party's nomination for president. Now, the fun begins -- what lines of slime will the GOP blast-fax to the press, and which lies will they fall for?

Think I'm being a partisan cynic? Then take a look at, for instance, this piece by Slate's Fred Kaplan, which examines Kerry's voting record regarding military expenditures very closely and counters the recent widely reported meme that Senator Kerry has routinely opposed any and all bills that called for increases in our military budget. But ask any man on the street -- or a reporter at the salon -- and you're likely to hear that Kerry is anti-military.

On the very positive side, a lot of potential smears against Kerry reflect even worse on Bush. Born rich? Check. Beholden to corporate donors? Check. War hero? Er, Bush did keep Texan skies safe during Viet Nam, even if he had a bit of a problem defending Alabama.

Godspeed to the White House, John Kerry.

03 March 2004: Beasties

According to Pitchfork, it looks as if the Beastie Boys will soon be ending their latest long hiatus and dropping some new science our way. Let's just hope that last year's internet-only song "In a World Gone Mad" was not a preview of their current direction....

01 March 2004: Haiti

It sounds like there's something rotten on the island nation of Haiti:

Former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide said Monday he was forced to leave Haiti in a "coup d'etat" by the United States.

"I was told that to avoid bloodshed I'd better leave," he said in an interview on CNN.

Earlier, the Bush administration vigorously denied that Aristide was kidnapped by U.S. troops, which is what two U.S. members of Congress said the deposed Haitian president told them in telephone calls.

[Snip]

[Presidential spokesman Scott] McClellan said the United States took steps to protect Aristide and his family as they left Haiti, but denied that U.S. forces took him from his home to the airport.

"The military presence we had at the time was at the embassy," McClellan said. "[Aristide] went with his own personal security."

But Rep. Charles Rangel, D-New York, and Rep. Maxine Waters, D-California, said Aristide told them a very different story.

Waters said Mildred Aristide, the ex-president's wife, called the congresswoman at her home at 6:30 a.m. (9:30 a.m. ET) Monday, and told her "the coup d'etat has been completed," and then handed the phone to her husband.

Waters said that Aristide told her the chief of staff of the U.S. Embassy in Haiti came to his home, told him that he would be killed "and a lot of Haitians would be killed" if he did not leave and said he "has to go now."

Now let's be honest here -- if this was a man who had been rescued, would he be spinning a tale like this?

Love this Colin Powell quote: "[Aristide is] a man who was democratically elected, but he did not democratically govern or govern well. Now we are there to give the Haitian people another chance." Unlike, of course, our own American president, who wasn't democratically elected and certainly has not governed democratically -- or well. But we have to wait until November to get "another chance."

01 March 2004: Alan Greenspan, master dissembler

Calpundit offers a look at Alan Greenspan's "evolving" (to put it mildly) position on Social Security, including this neat little historical overview:

I hadn't remembered that Greenspan was part of the 1983 Social Security commission that raised payroll taxes. (It's one of several Ronald Reagan tax increases that his fans conveniently forget about when they're extolling the virtues of supply side economics.) Here's the Greenspan timeline:

1983: Recommended raising payroll taxes far above the amount required to fund Social Security. Since payroll taxes are capped (at $87,000 currently), this was, by definition, an increase that primarily hit the poor and middle class.

2001: Enthusiastically endorsed a tax cut aimed primarily at people who earn over $200,000.

2003: Ditto.

2004: Told Congress that due to persistent deficits Social Security benefits need to be cut.

So: raise payroll taxes on the middle class to create a surplus, then cut taxes on the rich to wipe out the surplus and create a deficit, and then sorrowfully announce that the resulting deficits mean that the Social Security benefits already paid for by the middle class need to be cut.

01 March 2004: I was wrong -- very wrong

The Passion of the Christ is proving to be more popular than I expected. Far, far more popular. I still question its longer term viability (I expect that the word of mouth on it won't be that positive, what with the blood and the guts and the torture), but I could be wrong there too.

Why? Well, let's go to the emailbag, with something a friend who teaches high school sent me:

So I was readin' yer blog about [The Passion of the Christ] and I thought I would tell you the south side kid perspective:

BEST MOVIE EVER!!

I am not even kidding. These kids love the movie, and the ones that haven't seen it are planning on going this weekend. They keep asking if I am going to see it and are surprised when I say no. I bet by the time I am back to school on Tuesday every single one of them will have seen it.

I tell ya, these kids today....

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Last updated: 12/13/2008