It's just a freaking phone!

Conditions: Raining. So, warmer.


Bush: I too are above the law!

Proving that there's no depth Cheney will go to that Bush won't follow along obediently behind:

The White House said Friday that, like Vice President Dick Cheney's office, President Bush's office is not allowing an independent federal watchdog to oversee its handling of classified national security information.

An executive order that Bush issued in March 2003 — amending an existing order — requires all government agencies that are part of the executive branch to submit to oversight. Although it doesn't specifically say so, Bush's order was not meant to apply to the vice president's office or the president's office, a White House spokesman said. - LATimes

I could've sworn there was a part in the Constitution that laid out what had to be done when the leaders became corrupt, tyrannical, and couldn't be trusted anymore. Or has that been erased too?


Angler: Cheney Up Close

So who is Dick Cheney, really? And what does he do, really? Well in an attempt to throw a flaming torch down the darkened mineshaft that is the Vice President, the Washington Post is running a four-part series that threatens to pry into just who this man, this myth, this ...guy, is.



Read it here.




Blair walks out proudly?

You know, if you think about it, Tony Blair should be walking around with his jacket over his head. He has taken part in one of the biggest political gambles ever, and lost, at the cost of over half a million lives, and has forever diminished his other achievements by being seen to be Bush's lapdog. But instead of any kind of shame or apologetic resignation, Blair has gone out on a final farewell tour of the world, where he got to have many photographs taken of him happily saying goodbye to a whole bunch of important people. And the Pope. The hell?

Even if he was not culpable of deception, as he insists he was not, even if he only ever did what he thought was right, he was guilty of the grossest misjudgment - one that has led to the deaths of at least 118 British service personnel, along with as many as 655,000 Iraqis. For that mistake alone, even if it was an honest one, he should have paid with his job. It is a badge of shame for the parliamentary Labour party and the cabinet (and indeed his successor), who between them could have driven Blair from office, that they did not do so earlier. But it also reflects a moral failure by Blair that he leaves today believing himself to be a star, going out on a high.

His expected appointment as the Middle East envoy of the international community suggests he's pulled it off, winning instant rehabilitation, at least from the club of world leaders. The likeliest outcome is that he will not succeed in the job, if only because the circumstances are so utterly unconducive to progress. Indeed, the role could be a painful reminder of the most unhappy aspects of his premiership, as he encounters Arab suspicion that he is merely a lackey of George Bush, and Arab anger over Iraq and the Lebanon war of 2006. If he was to defy those odds, and achieve success, providing the dogged, daily application of pressure and pursuit of detail that the Israel-Palestine conflict requires (and which he demonstrated in Northern Ireland), then he will deserve enormous credit. Indeed, he will have gone a large way towards redeeming his reputation. Maybe that's why he's so keen to do it.
- The Guardian

Well, I suppose I hope he does try to succeed in his new ventures, but it's telling how powerful the spin is when the facts of an event are out shined by the perception of that event.



Can you hear me now?

Yes. Speaking of spin. At the end of this week, Apple are going to launch their new iPhone. And lo, the people hath rejoiced, and are queuing already - which means they're going to be queuing for a week. Standing line. For a week. On a sidewalk. For a phone. A PHONE! For Pete's sake. I want walk down the queue, to shake these people, yell at them for being so shallow, and so stupid. And can you imagine the champagne parties the Apple executives must be having as they watch these poor saps stand out in the rain for a week for the honour of buying their phone? Just imagine that for a second. Just close your eyes and imagine a lush boardroom filled with execs sipping drinks while the huge table is laden with food and more drink. And in the corner the enormous TV screen is tuned in to a camera trained on these idiots standing patiently cow-like out on the sidewalk. For them. Imagining it? Yeah.

On Tuesday, Rodriguez became the fourth person to line up outside Apple Inc.'s Fifth Avenue store in New York. The 24-year-old college student wants to get a belated birthday gift for her sister as soon as the iPhone starts selling Friday evening. - Seattlepi.nwsource.com

You know, I actually take a little heart that as of Tuesday there was only four of them. You're standing in line to buy a phone! Don't you understand that?! And get the tourist who was walking past, saw the line and decided to join in. Oy.


Update:
Proving that the net is the alpha and the omega, or the Ford and the Holden, here's a link to a blog being written by a guy, in fact that tourist guy, who's at the head of the queue, and the various adventures he's having, standing in line, for a week, for a... for a phone.

Sample entry:

This morning, I woke with a start at around 5am to find a spotlight from a news camera shining on my face. It was CBS or some such local affiliate looking for a story. I was up until nearly 4 with my fellow linemates.

It's getting ridiculous. I'm trying to sleep and I have cameras trained at me at every second. My body is starting to shut down. Can you understand why I would want a break?

And if you'll excuse me, I think I need to lie down for a moment.




Car Update

Surprisingly, the car seems to have finally been repaired. The trick, apparently, is not to take old(er) cars to today's mechanics. Mechanics today do not know, nor care, how to repair anything made before 1993. Instead, find some old guys who front an auto electricians shop and plead for help. So now the battery charges properly, and all is right with the world again.



Film Review: Fantastic Four 2

Well. I will say that this is a movie that is very well marketed. Instead of the film you thought you were going to watch, you get a 90 minute movie full of colour and flashy things and Jessica Alba. Seriously, that's why she was cast. The plot is nonsensical. The characters are even shallower than they were in the last film, quite the feat there. And the action sequences look easy, and safe. You can't have drama when the characters seem unable to be harmed at all.

Comic book movies have to take themselves seriously in order to work. A character must wear their darkside like a cape in order to get the audience over the whole 'spandex and super-powers' issue. It has to be 'well, he can punch through a wall, which is stupid, but he's very tormented about it, so it's good'. These FF guys have, or are allowed, nothing in this department. They're all shiny happy superheroes, and the whole things comes across shallow. Real shallow. I think this film is really aimed squarely at kids, which is fine if they'd put that in the trailer. As it is, it's not enough for those of us who've seen an X-Men film or two. Half a giant hole out of five.


Summer super season blockbuster deathcount score: 1/4




Peace out.