Shoot the gas tank

Conditions: Warm. No, I don't get it either.


American Empire poses great danger, to America

America, you might have noticed, is under a bit of strain lately. The policies of the last few years have failed so completely, that the enthusiastic patriotic jingoism that so saturated everything is bright tones of red, white and blue are starting to fade alarmingly. Only a short while ago, people would be attacked for disagreeing with the president, or expressing concern over his policies, whereas now such things are commonplace. The new candidates for the next election have made such sport of kicking the president that it's become a cliche. So, now that the public disagrees so completely with it's leaders, what happens now? From alternet.com:

Even though large numbers of voters vaguely suspect that the failings of the political system itself led the country into its current crisis, most evidently expect the system to perform a course correction more or less automatically. As Adam Nagourney of the New York Times reported, by the end of March 2007, at least 280,000 American citizens had already contributed some $113.6 million to the presidential campaigns of Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards, Mitt Romney, Rudolph Giuliani, or John McCain.

If these people actually believe a presidential election a year-and-a-half from now will significantly alter how the country is run, they have almost surely wasted their money. As Andrew Bacevich, author of The New American Militarism, puts it:
"None of the Democrats vying to replace President Bush is doing so with the promise of reviving the system of check and balances.... The aim of the party out of power is not to cut the presidency down to size but to seize it, not to reduce the prerogatives of the executive branch but to regain them."

So is the system, the great experiment that is the U.S. of A capable of fixing itself? Or have the tools required for Americans to know (and care) about what is done in their name simply not working anymore?

Without question, the administration's catastrophic war in Iraq is the single overarching issue that has convinced a large majority of Americans that the country is "heading in the wrong direction." But the war itself is the outcome of an imperial presidency and the abject failure of Congress to perform its Constitutional duty of oversight. Had the government been working as the authors of the Constitution intended, the war could not have occurred. Even now, the Democratic majority remains reluctant to use its power of the purse to cut off funding for the war, thereby ending the American occupation of Iraq and starting to curtail the ever-growing power of the military-industrial complex.

One major problem of the American social and political system is the failure of the press, especially television news, to inform the public about the true breadth of the unconstitutional activities of the executive branch. As Frederick A. O. Schwarz and Aziz Z. Huq, the authors of Unchecked and Unbalanced: Presidential Power in a Time of Terror, observe, "For the public to play its proper checking role at the ballot box, citizens must know what is done by the government in their names."

Instead of uncovering administration lies and manipulations, the media actively promoted them. Yet the first amendment to the Constitution protects the press precisely so it can penetrate the secrecy that is the bureaucrat's most powerful, self-protective weapon. As a result of this failure, democratic oversight of the government by an actively engaged citizenry did not -- and could not -- occur. The people of the United States became mere spectators as an array of ideological extremists, vested interests, and foreign operatives -- including domestic neoconservatives, Ahmed Chalabi and his Iraqi exiles, the Israeli Lobby, the petroleum and automobile industries, warmongers and profiteers allied with the military-industrial complex, and the entrenched interests of the professional military establishment -- essentially hijacked the government.

Some respected professional journalists do not see these failings as the mere result of personal turpitude but rather as deep structural and cultural problems within the American system as it exists today.

Click http://www.alternet.org/story/51975/ for the rest of the article.


Democrats wander the desert

So, in the senate the Democrats are trying to get the troops out of Iraq. It's essentially the promise they made that got them elected last year. And so they've tried to tie a withdrawal into the funding bills that the army needs to keep going. And each time, the President has vetoed it, because setting a date is a capitulation to the terrorists, a point I suspect is true. So with the army needing that funding bill, a game of chicken has been taking place, with the Democrats trying to put a timetable in, and the President vetoing anything that sets a date. Considering the huge groundswell of public opinion in America that is now strongly against the President, one would think said game of chicken would have the President riding a bike, and the democrats piloting a tank. But even still, the democrats have flinched first.

WASHINGTON — Bowing to President Bush, the Democratic-controlled House reluctantly approved fresh billions for the Iraq war on Thursday, minus the troop withdrawal timeline that drew his earlier veto.
chron.com

Yes, the Democrats now have abandoned the idea of setting a date, and instead have proposed a bill that sets a series of checkpoints (crackdown on militias, troop training, etc) that the Iraqi leadership must meet. Any failure in meeting these checkpoints by the Iraqi govt results in withdrawal of American aid.

Republicans claim victory, saying they forced Democrats to move away from a dangerous course that would have harmed U.S. troops and threatened the defense of Iraq from al-Qaida.

"We simply cannot and will not strengthen the hands of terrorists who have made the destruction of America their number one priority," said Congressman David Dreier. "We cannot and will not abandon the Iraqis to be butchered by these terrorists in their midst. And we cannot and will not abandon our mission just as real progress is starting to be made."

As they face criticism for dropping withdrawal language, Democratic leaders claim their own victory, citing President Bush's agreement to have the bill include political and economic benchmarks that the government of Iraq must achieve.

The president, who has said he will sign the legislation, spoke at the White House:

"These benchmarks provide both the Iraqi government and the American people with a clear road map on the way forward," said Mr. Bush. "Meeting these benchmarks will be difficult. It's going to be hard work for this young government."
voa.com

If you squint hard enough, you can almost see the outline of a compromise being worked out between the 'let's get the hell out of here' guys and the 'we can't just abandon our mission' guys.


After Bush

So, we're all agreed that America isn't exactly held as the shiny happy friend that we all thought we knew and trusted, right? So how do the people feel about the fact that they're no longer held in such high regard by the world in general? Are they humbled by their mistakes, willing to knuckle down and try to re-earn their respect by becoming again a responsible member of this planet, rather than the ruler of it? Fat chance. From the Guardian:

Some pessimism persists in high places about how long it will take the US, and thus Britain on its coat-tails, to extricate itself from Iraq after the 2009 inauguration. Yet I am heartened by a memory from the past. Flying out of Saigon on the April day in 1975 when the city fell to the communists, I remember wondering whether it would take the US one decade or two to recover from that ghastly trauma. Yet just 14 months later, when I was in New York to report on America's bicentennial celebrations, I found it awesome to behold the manner in which the country had shrugged off its Vietnam humiliation. "For this one day," the great CBS commentator Walter Kronkite told the nation's television viewers, "let us be sunshine patriots."

To be sure, many shadows lingered after Indochina, but America's deep residual self-confidence reasserted itself. It is the country's weakness to remember little about the past, but its huge strength to shake off bad history, and get on with the next thing.

Yes, like some kind of demented junkie, focused like a laser on his next hit, the strength of America is that no matter how large the puddle is it falls into, it can still get up, walk on and not even complain that its feet are wet.

The last 20 months of Bush will seem interminable. As my diplomat friend in Washington said, the world must just muddle through them as best it can, noses held and teeth clenched. What follows American withdrawal from Iraq is likely to be horrible. But if a new president acts swiftly, we may be surprised by how soon the US recovers from its self-inflicted wounds. Then, if we are fortunate, it can begin to restore its shattered moral authority abroad.

So in other words, there may be death and destruction in our wake, but as long as we don't turn around we don't have to feel bad about it. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!! USA! USA! USA!


Edwards wants a draft?

Recently John Edwards made the following statement regarding the 'burden of service' the nation's army is struggling under, with soldiers serving extended tours and whatnot. From the Washington post:

"One of the things we ought to be thinking about is some level of mandatory service to our country, so that everybody in America _ not just the poor kids who get sent to war _ are serving this country," he said.

Now this is a reasonably dangerous thing for a presidential candidate to say. Not that he's wrong, far from it. Both the army as it now stands, and America's disaffected and undisciplined youth could do with some mandatory national service, in my opinion. The key is that no-one wants to have to send their kids off to war, so they're not about to vote for a guy who wants to do that. Essentially, this is probably political suicide, from a guy who, with an ailing wife, probably doesn't have much to lose.


Bush to use bin Laden info to defend Iraq war policy

From CNN.com:

During a commencement address at the Coast Guard Academy, the president mentioned declassified intelligence that said bin Laden discussed sending a top lieutenant in 2005 to Iraq to set up a base from which to launch attacks in the United States.

"There's a reason bin Laden sent one of his most experienced paramilitary leaders to Iraq," Bush said. "He believes that if al Qaeda can drive us out, they can establish Iraq as a new terrorist sanctuary."

The president acknowledged that critics "question whether the fight in Iraq is part of the war on terror."

He said "the best way to protect our people is to take the fight to the enemy ... so we do not have to face them at home."

Normal bullshit, right? Well, what sticks in my craw is that Bush is now trying to sell the occupation of Iraq as the only way to keep Al Queda out of it (this a few years after Bush himself said Bin Laden was "irrelevant") even though when Saddam was in charge, he didn't tolerate any terrorist groups setting up camps in his country!


New Demotivators



A new batch of special messages designed to ruefully remind you of how the world really works have been cooked up. Enjoy!

http://www.hosthumor.com/media/3738/Demotivators_5/


I've forgotten where we are dining tonight.

Those of you who watched the film "United 93" must have been as frustrated as I with the point that no matter how bravely they fought, the passengers on that plane were doomed. But hark, another film recently also portrayed a group of doomed people who still fought to the last. If only there was some way to mash the 300 brave Spartans with the passengers on United93...

Spartans on a Plane...


Stickman sniper

The great war against the stick men has seen many battlefronts, many casualties, many arenas of pain and blood. Sometimes they have prevailed, other times we have fought them back. Today we fight them in an urban setting, with a sniper rifle, as they make their corrupt little deals. Shoot them down mercilessly.

Urban Stickman Sniper


Film Review: Zodiac

Zodiac is a long, exhausting story about the long exhausting hunt for a serial killer who terrorized California in the late 60's and 70's. The problem is that it's never been proven just who did the murders, and exactly which murders were his, and which he just took credit for. So we're left with a story that cannot have a definitive ending. Instead, it winds itself slowly downward into an unsatisfying conclusion regarding our main characters, an obsessed newspaper cartoonist and a weary detective.

Since the killer is unknown, the film focuses on the people trying to figure out who he is. The detective is frustrated because the killings take place in multiple states, requiring inter-jurisdictional cooperation and a level of organization that doesn't really come together. The cartoonist gradually becomes more and more obsessed with the case, especially after the police give up on it, to the exclusion of his own life, family and career. These threads are interrupted by various killings and abductions, staged so that you can't see who the bad guy is.

This isn't a bad movie, David Fincher is a talented director and he crafts some good performances out of some good actors here. But the story is essentially three hours of people talking. I don't mean to be shallow, but it's certainly not the most exciting thing I've ever seen. I suspect this would have made a far better multi-part documentary series than trying to interpret and compress it as a feature film. Two and a half random stabbings out of five.


End transmission

Seeing through it all

Conditions: Warm and sunny.


Officers in Menezes shooting get off

Police officers who followed and shot dead a Brazilian electrician mistakenly identified as a suspected suicide bomber were told yesterday they will not face misconduct tribunals.

telegraph.co.uk

-----------

The decision by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) drew immediate and angry condemnation from the family of Mr Menezes who said the police had, in effect, been "allowed to get away with murder".

They insisted there were grounds to support gross negligence manslaughter criminal charges against the four senior officers.

The IPCC said no decision has been taken on four more senior officers involved in the shooting.

Independant.co.uk

This is an outrage. That in our modern age, in one of the most modern cities in the world, that some innocent kid can get gunned down so ruthlessly, dangerously, and totally incorrectly, BY THE AUTHORITIES, and the people responsible just get to take a walk, totally undermines any faith I have in the system. What kind of a message is this, that police officers can just shoot twenty bullets into some stranger, not because he's acting weird or even has a weapon, but because someone else told them to, based on mistaken intel. They're meant to keep the peace, not act like the high executioner at the drop of a hat! I am incoherent on this one, these assholes get away with a cold blooded execution. Bah!



Billions in Oil Missing in Iraq, US Study Finds

So, how goes the blossoming Iraqi oil industry, the only real resource the ravaged country has left? Well...

Between 100,000 and 300,000 barrels a day of Iraq's declared oil production over the past four years is unaccounted for and could have been siphoned off through corruption or smuggling, according to a draft American government report.

Using an average of $50 a barrel, the report said the discrepancy was valued at $5 million to $15 million daily.

The report does not give a final conclusion on what happened to the missing fraction of the roughly two million barrels pumped by Iraq each day, but the findings are sure to reinforce longstanding suspicions that smugglers, insurgents and corrupt officials control significant parts of the country's oil industry.

truthout.org

Just in case you thought the oil industry in Iraq was the only thing still operating


Gagging Order as Two Are Jailed for Leaking Blair-Bush Memo

An Old Bailey judge yesterday imposed gagging orders on the media after jailing a civil servant and a Labour MP's researcher for disclosing the minutes of a meeting between Tony Blair and George Bush about Iraq.
[...]

The judge also ordered Keogh to pay £5,000 of the £35,000 prosecution costs. He told him: "You decided that you did not like what you saw. Without consulting anyone, you decided on your own that it was in the best interest of the UK that this letter should be disclosed. Your reckless and irresponsible action in disclosing this letter when you had no right to could have cost the lives of British citizens. This disclosure was a gross breach of trust of your position as a crown servant."

After the sentencing, Keogh's solicitor, Stuart Jeffery, said: "He took a moral stance on something that he found shocking and has to accept the decision of the court as far as his guilt is concerned. It was never his intention to put lives at risk. He would state rather that it was his intention to save innocent lives." Mr Jeffery said he would be looking at avenues of appeal."

truthout.org

This is why people get so disillusioned, when the big crimes are ignored and instead the petty crimes by the ones who try to find and point out the actual big crimes are prosecuted.



Transparent computer screens.




Here's an idea you might find a little see-through... It seems a little thin to me... You know what they say, seeing is believing... I'll stop now.

http://pileofphotos.com/view/104/Transparent-computer-screens



One more time to the well

Since it seems increasingly obvious the Star Wars saga was really just an elaborate exercise in selling toys to kids, the folks at mcmorran.org decided to pitch a few new ideas for squeezing out some more bucks from the franchise. Is it just a box of rocks, or the Planet Alderaan playset?
Behold! New Star Wars toys!



Teachers stage fake gunman attack

MURFREESBORO, Tennessee (AP) -- Staff members of an elementary school staged a fictitious gun attack on students during a class trip, telling them it was not a drill as the children cried and hid under tables.
[...]

"The children were in that room in the dark, begging for their lives, because they thought there was someone with a gun after them," said Brandy Cole, whose son went on the trip.

Cnn.com

Ok. When I was a kid they used to have fire drills at my school. And sometimes they wouldn't say it was a fire drill, the bell would just go off. - It could be because the authorities had decided to take a little time out of their day and jerk us around a little (more), or it could be because the WW1-era furnace had finally exploded, and half of F-block was a raging inferno. The important thing was to stay calm and organised, and quietly exit the building. It was a good learning experience. Nowadays kids face a few more dangers, from idiot skateboarders, to RSI of the thumb, to gun-toting assholes on the rampage. So I think it's actually quite important to get the kids comfortable with the idea that they could be executed At Any Moment. Give the little bastards something to think about in school.



Soldiers on both sides in Iraq don't care about civilians

As if things weren't bad enough, a recent survey found that 41% of American soldiers in Iraq condoned the idea of using torture on Iraqi's if it could save the lives of their buddies. This is pretty awful. I understand that they're in danger and under attack from the insurgents, but that shouldn't be an excuse for ignoring simple things like the Geneva convention. The Americans are supposed to be bringing Democracy to Iraq, not learning to be terrorists from the insurgents. It makes me crazy that this is actually happening, and not some elaborate play.

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=80&ItemID=12810

U.S General wants troops to Just Say No. To Torture.
http://www.army.mil/-news/2007/05/14/3134-gen-petraeus-urges-troops-to-adhere-to-ethical-standards/



Nudists are recruiting

Article at Huffpost.com

Suffering from dropping numbers, nudist camps are trying to recruit newer, younger people with lower sign up fees. But there's a problem.

When you think 'nudist camp' in today's world, you're not thinking about hot cute naked girls... playing volleyball. [...] Sorry, I drifted for a moment there. What was I? Oh yeah, no, you're not thinking of anything good when you think 'nudist camp', in fact you're thinking about fat old people who aren't wearing any clothes. It's like being smacked in the face with your own mortality, and nobody wants to see that, not even the fat old people themselves. The people who run these camps want to emphasize that it's about nature, and relaxing, and accepting people for who they really are, but I think that's a crock. If these camps really want to appeal to the younger crowd they're simply going to have to use the same tool that everyone else uses - hot young girls. And, oddly, this should be the easiest thing to sell since, well, ever.



Iraq parliament about to vote America out

On Tuesday, without note in the U.S. media, more than half of the members of Iraq's parliament rejected the continuing occupation of their country. 144 lawmakers signed onto a legislative petition calling on the United States to set a timetable for withdrawal, according to Nassar Al-Rubaie, a spokesman for the Al Sadr movement, the nationalist Shia group that sponsored the petition.

It's a hugely significant development. Lawmakers demanding an end to the occupation now have the upper hand in the Iraqi legislature for the first time
[...]

For at least two years, poll after poll has shown that large majorities of Iraqis of all ethnicities and sects want the United States to set a timeline for withdrawal, even though (in the case of Baghdad residents), they expect the security situation to deteriorate in the short term as a result.
[...]

The administration, along with their allies in Big Oil, has pressed the Iraqi government to adopt an oil law that would give foreign multinationals a much higher rate of return than they enjoy in other major oil producing countries and would lock in their control over what George Bush called Iraq's "patrimony" for decades.

Al-Shammari said this week: "We're afraid the U.S. will make us pass this new oil law through intimidation and threatening. We don't want it to pass, and we know it'll make things worse, but we're afraid to rise up and block it, because we don't want to be bombed and arrested the next day."

alternet.org

I hate the idea of the country falling into civil war, and I find it hard to believe the people of Iraq are prepared to risk it in order to be rid of the Americans. Is this an indication of how much they hate the occupation of their country?


On patrol in Iraq

So, what's it like to be in a convoy driving through Baghdad and suddenly get attacked? A short animated film at LiveLeak demonstrates what it feels like through the eyes of an American soldier.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=391_1178060828&p=1




Peace out.

Counting slowly

Conditions: Overcast, cool.


Tony Blair

I suppose it is a shame that Blair's reign will only really be remembered for his decision to join Bush in the wrong-in-so-many-ways war in Iraq. By all accounts he is an intelligent and even wise man, who made many good decisions on other things. But in Iraq is where Blair failed in the eyes of history. He had a chance, a few chances actually, to stop the war from happening, to stand with the U.N, to convince Bush publicly, and especially privately, that the invasion wasn't going to work, that it would actually make things worse. In the end, if Bush couldn't have been persuaded (and I suspect he could not have been), Blair could have made a stand like so many other leaders did, but he did worse, he joined in. And for that his legacy too is tainted. Bella gerant alii - Let others wage war.



Earth's secret places



Hey you! Yes, you! Do you feel like traveling the world, seeking out strange phenomena? Perhaps while accompanied by a great soundtrack? Well too late, they've all already been found. See for yourself, thanks to the folks @ Google Earth:

The Secret Places of the Earth



Spider-man to swing on, and on. And on.

In the light of the big freaking pile of money the latest Spiderman movie has made on opening, the studio has been quick to confirm they want to make much more money in the future as well. What a shock!

Sony Pictures chief executive Michael Lynton told the BBC: "Everybody has every intention of making a fourth, a fifth and a sixth and on and on."

There would be "as many as we can make good stories for", he pledged.

bbc.co.uk

HA! Ha Ha HA! That must be Hollywoodese for 'We'll keep vacuuming the money from peoples pockets for as long as they'll keep standing around with their jackets open.'



Boom in space

WASHINGTON — A massive exploding faraway star _ the brightest supernova astronomers have ever seen _ has scientists wondering whether a similar celestial fireworks show may light up the sky much closer to Earth sometime soon.

The discovery, announced Monday by NASA, drew oohs and aahs for months from the handful of astronomers who peered through telescopes to see the fuzzy remnants of the spectacular explosion after it was first spotted last fall.

Huffpost

I have nothing to add, I just thought it was neat. You're sipping a coffee, thinking about Paris Hilton, and somewhere in space a titanic star blows up. Cool.



Oil in Iraq

Truthout.org

So, Bush invaded Iraq to secure the oil supply that keeps America big and strong. But he totally underestimated just what would be needed to settle the country. Now the emerging power in the country is organizing itself around the only real asset they have, could America be for the high-jump? Recently American authorities have tried to introduce a bill into Iraqi parliament that will help give them control of the oil.

When the "Draft Hydrocarbon Law" was finally delivered to the Iraqi Parliament on February 18, 2007, key provisions had already been leaked and immediately denounced by the full spectrum of the Iraqi opposition. Taking turns registering dismay were the majority of the Parliament, a wide range of government officials, the leadership of major Sunni political parties, the union of oil workers, the Sadrists - the most powerful Shia grouping - and the visible leadership of the insurgency.
[...]

The petrochemical law is hardly assured of successful passage, and - even if passed - is in no way assured of successful implementation. Resistance to it, spread as it is throughout Iraqi society, has already shown itself to be a formidable opponent to the dwindling power of the American occupation.

Everyone from the parliament to the armed insurgents are against this bill, and unless Bush wants to try and fight the war all over again, it looks like even the evil 'realpolitik' reasons for the war may be defeated.


Tenet comes clean

Speaking of which, remember how the accepted reasons for war with Iraq were total bullshit? Well the ex-CIA director at the time, George 'Medal of freedom?' Tenet, has written a book in which he reveals what really happened in the Bush White House in the run up to the war.

Truthout.org:

Team Feith’s [Feith, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, Cheny] main task was to create and maintain the fiction of a connection between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden when no solid evidence supported that assertion. The intelligence unit Feith headed set about discrediting the conclusions of every other intelligence operation while cherry-picking evidence to support the invasion of Iraq as a logical response to 9/11. Tenet’s high crime—and it is just that—was that he knew of this treachery from the start, yet never exposed it to Congress or the public.

Take Tenet’s description of the briefing, provided by Feith’s office throughout the higher reaches of government, entitled “Iraq and al-Qaa’ida—Making the Case.” As Tenet notes, Feith’s briefer, Tina Shelton, “started out by saying that there should be ‘no more debate’ on the Iraq-al Qaeda relationship. ‘It is an open-and-shut case,’ she said. ‘No further analysis is required.’ This statement instantly got my attention. I knew we had trouble on our hands.”

Shelton ran through a series of fraudulent claims, including one that lead hijacker Mohamed Atta had met with an Iraqi agent in Prague, which the CIA had previously investigated but found to be fraudulent. Tenet then adds: “I listened for a few more minutes trying to be polite, before saying, ‘that’s very interesting.’ This was one of my rare moments of trying to be subtle. What I was really thinking was, this is complete crap, and I want this to end right now.”

But he didn’t say it. And the “complete crap” of Team Feith carried the day with the Bush administration, from Bush on down, not because they had facts or logic on their side, but because their intellectual bullying served the political agenda of the Karl Rove juggernaut. The bullying was effective only because Congress and the media were traumatized by 9/11 and because those who knew better, most prominently Tenet, failed to speak out. In the end, Tenet betrayed the bedrock freedom of representative democracy—the right of the people to be informed—and failed, when it mattered most, his sworn duty to honestly inform the government about issues of vital importance to its security.

"Pity that it took a $4-million book contract for Tenet to come clean."

Indeed. If there was any justice, the money would be confiscated and used for Iraqi refugees. Perhaps his medal of freedom could be melted down and turned into ingots.



Related: The Ongoing Iraq Intel Fraud
"Almost five years and perhaps half a million deaths too late, it's finally the accepted wisdom in Washington that the intelligence that George W. Bush used to justify invading Iraq was garbage. But the pattern of twisting the truth about Iraq continues unabated and the President is still rarely called on it." - Truthout.org



Paris Hilton to jail

I didn't really want to address it, but like it or not, she is a part of our popular culture. Boy, our popular culture really sucks right now, uh? Anyway, for the rock-dwelling lifeforms on Mars, Paris recently was sentenced to 45 days in jail for multiple violations of her parole agreement re: driving her car. And for seemingly not caring about the parole agreement she signed. Of course everyone's in a tizzy, because it's Paris freaking Hilton. I think this is great news, for a few reasons. First: she deserves it. She had already been caught driving after being banned, and was let go with a warning. The last time she was stopped, she was on a motorway at night without her headlights on. An example needs to be made, and she needs to learn that she is only a human being, with the same responsibilities and rules as the rest of us peasants. And frankly, I think we need a break from her, and possibly she needs a break from herself - 45 days of her just sitting around, no pursuing pack of paparazzi, no adoring 'fans', no lifestyles of the rich and stupid. It might just be the bestest vacation ever.

Fat chance. The media will be all over this like a rash. There'll be interviews with everyone she knows, and any visitors to her jail will probably go on Oprah, or Leno, or whatever the hell they go on these days. Magazine articles will be written, and when she gets out we'll never hear the end of it. Not to mention the likely book and film adaptation down the road. So, it never ends, and she'll never learn. Life goes on, Indy.


Dancing about Architecture

Edgar Write is a clever guy who wrote and directed Hot Fuzz, and Shaun of the Dead. Shane Black is a cool dude who wrote Lethal Weapon, Last Kiss Goodnight, and Last Boy Scout. They decided to meet and talk about movies. The conversation was archived for the ages:

esquire.com



New Classical Music?

I was watching TV last night, and while channel surfing I caught the tail end of a piece of music that sounded so haunting that it stilled my very soul.

When you think of rock music, you're thinking of three guitars and a drum. And the same really goes for pop, funk, rap, hip hop, what have you. three guitars and a drum. Maybe a synthesizer every now and then. But why is this so? If you listen to classical music you find some wonderful sounds, but these sounds are not let into the divisions of 'current' music. Except for one category - the category that's hard to classify. It's the trip-hop-dance-club category. Anything goes here, and because of that you sometimes can get something that really works. And the occasional army of dancing bunnies. Anyway, Wax Tailor has combined together something that makes so much sense it makes you slap your forehead and think 'why didn't I think of that?' He's combined the haunting strings of a cello with the heartbeat-like rhythm employed in dance music. The result is really something.

Hypnosis Theme by Wax Tailor, on youtube.

Profile of Wax.




Film Review: Spider-man 3

Spiderman movies aren't like normal movies, or even normal comic-book movies. They're kinda goofy, oddball, and containing a lot of swoopy action but somehow avoiding the inherent violence or consequences that should follow. Two characters can fight, and the fight can seem very exciting, but the punches are pulled somehow. The violence of, say, falling through a window, or being thrown through a building, or falling 100 feet or so onto concrete, is softened somehow. The problem for me, at least, is that consequently, it doesn't seem real. Or even painful. Spidey 3 has more problems than that, though: The relationships between the characters are too simplified, with no real depth evident between anyone. Which is especially noticeable as the film has a distinct focus on the characters, rather than the action. That's okay, if a little surprising, as long as those relationships crackle across the screen. They do not. Instead, people seem to just veer wildly from one emotion to the other like bumper cars. It's very odd, based on the perceived strengths of this franchise overall. Did everyone stop caring? And I know it's par for the course, but the suspension of disbelief here is massive. Science is completely thrown out the window, followed closely by logic and common sense. Things happen simply because they'd look cool, or will help the story along, rather than actually make any sense at all.

Truly then, this is a film for kids. It must be, for I cannot imagine adults reacting to this with any real value. Spidey is a silly hero, who slings around New York one minute, and bumbles around it the next. He's a dork, and he revels in it. Good for him. In fact Tobey Maguire is probably the only one who can get out of this film with any real praise. Most disapointingly, his girlfriend is literally a damsel in distress, with no more character development than a prop. And the bad guys aren't really all that bad, so that everything can then work out in the end. There's always an Important Lesson, that must rain down like a shower of anvils throughout, and this time it's about arrogance causing one to become isolated, or something. That's fine. It's probably a great kids movie, but it didn't work for me.

And the ultimate standoff between Parker and his best friend, who thinks he killed his father, - the whole 'Big Thing' the movie is meant to be about? Dealt with in about three minutes. Likely in order that we can have more C.G shots of sand. The film is either far too short to properly deal with it's contents, or far too packed with things that are unnecessary to telling it's story. Two bombs out of five.


Summer Super Action Blockbuster Season Deathcount Score: 0/1



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Born to be kings

Conditions: Sunny, cool.


The other Guantanamo

Article from the New Republic spotlights a detention facility in Afghanistan that perhaps is even more grisly that the one in Cuba, but unlike that one has managed to stay under the radar:

From the start, the processing of prisoners entailed some grisly practices. When Captain Carolyn Wood assumed control of the prison in the summer of 2002--she ran it until taking over Abu Ghraib a year later--interrogation tactics came to include beatings, anal violation with sharp objects, blows to the genitals, and "peroneal" strikes (an incapacitating blow to the leg with a baton, a knee, or a shin). We know about these tactics because an internal Army investigation into two prisoner deaths was obtained by The New York Times. These detainees--a 22-year-old taxi driver and the brother of a Taliban commander--were found dead and hanging from the wrists by shackles. A coroner's report said the two men died after being subjected to dozens of peroneal strikes. According to the coroner's report, the "pulpified" legs of one of the corpses looked as if they had "been run over by a bus."
[...]

the Pentagon has implicitly conceded that the prison no longer serves its initial short-term purpose, changing its name from Bagram Collection Point to the Bagram Theater Internment Facility.

During this transformation, some of the worst abuses at Bagram, such as anal violations and beatings, have been curbed, according to former detainees, the Afghan Human Rights Commission, and Human Rights Watch.
[...]

But, for all these changes, the growing detainee population still lives in overcrowded cages. Prisoners don't even have the limited access to lawyers available to prisoners in Guantánamo. Nor do they have the right to Combatant Status Review Tribunals, which Guantánamo detainees won in the 2004 Supreme Court ruling in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld. Instead, if a combat commander chooses, he can convene an Enemy Combatant Review Board (ecrb), at which the detainee has no right to a personal advocate, no chance to speak in his own defense, and no opportunity to review the evidence against him. The detainee isn't even allowed to attend. And, thanks to such limited access to justice, many former detainees say they have no idea why they were either detained or released.

God debate

Finally, the existence of God is to be proven on Wednesday next week, at least according to actor Kirk Cameron and author Ray Comfort, who are taking part in an online debate at ABC.com against two atheists. Article here.

Comfort, who says he can prove God exists scientifically, said ABC originally offered him four minutes to present his case. After conferring with Cameron and the atheists, the time was raised to 13 minutes.

I can't wait to see what the proof is. Maybe Kirk will blindfold himself and throw 13 bibles at Ray's head, baseball style. Who's on first?!



The Quickening!!

Believe it or not, but the giant summer movie action boom! blockbuster go movie, er, season is upon us. So let's use the time remaining to anticipate what treats, or horrors, are about to descend upon us.

SpiderMan 3
Amid the controversy over the 300+ million dollar budget rumours, which if true is going to be seriously difficult for James 'King of the World' Cameron to top in a few years when he returns, the word is the film is more talky than audiences were expecting. Personally I've no time for Spiderman, he's an annoying introverted adolescent who flits around New York like, well, Superman. And look how well that turned out. Too much whining, not enough drama. Too much drama, not enough action. Too much CGI, not enough humans.


Pirates of the Caribbean 3
I remember reading years ago about how they were shooting both this film and Pirates 2 at the same time in order to keep costs down, despite the semi-important point that they didn't yet have a script for Pirates 3. Word is now that the thing is over three hours long. I just can't see how they can drag out a story with these characters for that length of time and still make it interesting. I thought the first film was good, the second not so much (too long and muddled), and I'm sort of dreading the third at this point, though at least Geoffrey Rush is back "on board." Har.


Shrek 3
Oy. Here's a really good idea for a film, that's now been dragged out round the block way too many times. I loathed the second film. It was awful. All the adventure, style and snark of the first film were gone, replaced by a desperate need to pad out the running time with musicals, real-world references and special guests. Shrek only worked because it was a quite brilliant re-interpretation of a fairy tale. This new one is apparently about inheriting the crown and dealing with coups. What fun.


Ocean's 13
Oy again. All we have are sequels to disapointing sequels. Ocean's 12 sucked. Everything that worked in the first film was discarded for the second - the actual heist is done somewhere else entirely, the finale relies on a really bad in-joke, and it turns out everyone is in on it execpt the audience. Gotcha? How about 'screw this'? So far it's really difficult to know what the plot of the new one is, although it looks like Andy Garcia is now part of the team, and Al Pacino's the bad guy. Yeah. Well there's no denying the cast they have for these films, at least.


Transformers.
Aka the little engine that could. Michael Bay's Pearl Harbour wasn't great, it was a bit too-long and a bit too overly-melodramatic, but The Island was pretty good. In fact, against all odds Bay seems to be improving as a filmmaker with every film he makes, calming down his shots and getting more meat out of the stories, while still making the exciting parts very, very exciting. And then word came down that he was helming the big-budget Transformers movie. Initial reaction was along the lines of 'I guess he doesn't care anymore', but damn me if the trailers so far have actually looked really good. Of course we all know judging a film by a trailer is stupid, but I'm surprised to find myself actually looking forward to this, what should be a numbingly stupid kids movie about robots fighting.


Die Hard 3
Or, Hell Freezes Over. This one is all over the place. The script was about computer hackers trying to take down Washington. That's bad. Then Len 'Underworld' Wiseman was tapped to direct. That's good. Then they teamed Willis with some kid as his sidekick. That's bad. Then they released the teaser, which is full of things exploding really nicely. That's good. Now there's a rumour the film will be cut for a PG rating. That's bad. Awfully bad. Terribly bad. Crimes against humanity bad.


Evan Almighty
I only mention this because at $175 million, it's the most expensive comedy ever made. The sequel to Bruce Almighty, it stars Steve Carell, who has to build an ark because God (Morgan Freeman again) tells him another flood is on the way.


The Bourne Ultimatum
As with all the Bourne films, this one looks good. Matt Damon has really found a great role for himself. But as with the last Bourne film, director Paul Greengrass will likely spoil the excellent action scenes by shaking the camera around so much that the audience can't tell what's happening on screen. Most. Frustrating. Thing. Ever.


Ratatouille
You should never dismiss Pixar, even if the pitch is about a rat who wants to be a chef and so travels to France and gets chased around snooty French kitchens. But it's Pixar. Who knew a film about a fish trying to find his son could end up being the feel-good film of the year?


Fantastic Four 2
The first film feels weak to me. It's superhero lite, as opposed to Batman or Blade, or X-Men or even (sigh) Spiderman. The promise is that the second ups the ante, increases the amount of bad guys running around, makes everything more exciting. But I am skeptical. I mean, the bad guy is some silver dude who comes from space and swoops around on a surfboard? The hell?



The Simpsons Movie.
Yes, well, assuming everyone is intrigued enough to leave their televisions and actually pay to see the Simpsons, I actually have a good feeling about this. The plot apparently revolves around the Simpson patriarch being forced to save the world from a disaster he unwittingly created. So no surprises there, but the trailer makes it look good. - Which are famous last words. But these guys have been working on this for like 13 years, I have to think they're going to have this cranked up as fast and as punchy as the Simpsons used to be.



That's enough. As one can see, it's sequel city. But I suspect the Hollywood accountants may be in for a bit of a shock once the dust settles. A lot of these new sequels are actually sequels to movies I think weren't very good. Because while a bad sequel might still make a LOT of money due to people liking the first film so much, a sequel to a bad sequel will make much LESS money than it should because of how bad the first sequel was. It's a 'sins visited upon the son' kind of thing.



Roadkill

I came this close to killing some one the other day. With my car, of all things. Some idiot decides to cross the road in front of me while I'm looking the other way at an intersection. I turn back in time to see a blur go past the right front corner. Here's a tip: If I can't see you, I DON'T KNOW WHERE YOU ARE. I'm not psychic, and you're not bulletproof, so stay off the freaking road.



Film Review: Shooter

I think we can agree that Mark Whalberg is a pretty talented actor. Furthermore, I think we can agree that Antoine Fuqua is a pretty talented director. Therefore I find it difficult to understand how a film with a cracking premise, a fine actor, and a good director, can be as inactive and lifeless as this. The trailer, if you saw it, promised an intense exciting thriller. Surprisingly, this is not so. All the ingredients are there, a plot about a sniper who gets set up by bad guys to take the fall for a political assassination. Of course he escapes and has to figure out what's going on. But the mix is severely lacking in spice. It's essentially an undercooked Commando, played serious instead of the enjoyable over-the-top.

Here's how distracted I became by watching this: I actually started thinking about what Arnold Schwarzenegger would have brought to this film. A larger than life character can make even the dreariest dialogue-heavy scene spring to life. Sadly, this is a something Whalberg does not do. His character, "Jack", is a quiet, softly spoken kind of guy who doesn't say much, and rarely speaks. Also, he's not much for the talking. Perhaps this deficit is taken up by a humourous sidekick, or a scene-eating, moustache-twirling bad guy? No. The sidekick is played as a guy who's having his first day on the job, and the bad guy (Danny Glover!) hardly does anything at all. He stands around and talks. Quietly. The big finale is oddly paced, and somewhat unsatisfying, and then the movie ends. They're trying for a 'power corrupts, and politicians suck' kind of deal, but we already knew that. Sam deserved better. Two bullet holes out of five.



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