Cleaning Out the Tubes

Senator Ted Stevens is under investigation by the FBI and IRS.  (Timeline.)  If you’re having a hard time keeping up with corrupt Republican politicians like I am, he’s the one he warned us about how our internet-tubes were horribly clogged.  He also made sure that your tax dollars went to build the infamous “bridge to nowhere.”

Anti-Showmanship

I’m re-reading D. C. Berman’s Actual Air. From “Cassette County”:

I suppose a broken window is not symbolic
unless symbolic means broken, which I think it sorta does,
and when the phone jangles
what’s more radical, the snow or the tires,
and what does the Bible say about metal fatigue
and why do mothers carry big scratched-up sunglasses
in their purses.

Ars brevis, Vita brevis

Bitter Old Punk on music and taste as you approach the high watermark of 40.

S’true.

But we’ll always have The Evens. And I swear I have no Norah Jones discs hidden under my coffee table.

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

So it’s going to happen — Alan Moore’s 1986 triumph Watchmen is going to be made into a film. Zack Snyder is directing (Dawn of the Dead remake, which was great, and 300, which I haven’t seen, but it sounded pretty bad). Billy Crudup is slated to play Dr. Manhattan, which bodes well. Here’s a pic of Rorschach, the highly dysfunctional, ultra-violent, yet problematic moral center of the series, as envisioned by Snyder.

My comics-fu has degraded since high school, but I hope Snyder can do justice to the original material. Further, it’ll be interesting to see how the politics of the original graphic novel (a Republican-ruled distopia where Nixon is still president, the Cold War was never allowed to end, and super heroes are forced to register and work as government-backed assassins) jibe with Snyder’s willingness to bring Frank Miller’s “Clash of Civilizations,” post-9/11 outlook to the screen in 300.

Imitation vs. Sincerity vs. Flattery

Beatallica is a band. You can hear some of their songs here (myspace, forgive me).

Milwaukee remains the coolest place in the world that I have yet to visit.

Bad Girls

L-Lo gets busted, again.

The only thing left now is the sex tape.  I give it six months.

In Case of Rapture

Dick Cheney was officially president today while Bush was put under for a routine medical procedure.

I was wearing a helmet myself.

Gender Trouble

Digby on Hillary’s cleavage.

Honestly, it’s the perfect meme for the “liberal” mainstream media to run with coming up to November 2008.  Because on the one hand, it reminds the troglodytes that yes, indeed, she’s a woman, and we’ve never had one of those strange, mythical creatures as president.  On the other hand, expect plenty of reminders of how positively mannish she is — eschewing a large family for having something as radical as a career in law and politics.

Remember when the Washington Post used to be a real newspaper?

Generation Chickenhawk

Max Blumenthal goes to a College Republican meeting across the street from Arlington Cemetery.

These aren’t middle-aged (but still draft eligible) pundits.  And they still think they’re too good to serve in what they consider to be the most important conflict ever.

Cruelty

So,  Michael Vick likes to train dogs to kill one another.

I’m hardly an activist when it comes to treating animals decently, but stuff like this just boggles the mind of anyone with even the slightest conscience.  People stood around and watched these animals tear each other apart?  Even worse, great care was taken to raise them in the cruelest, most vile of conditions to turn them into killers?

Hopefully the NFL will ban him for at least a season, if not longer.  If anything, he needs some serious psychological help.  Jail-time wouldn’t hurt either.