Apologies and Updates

Yes, I know, I know, there hasn't been anything up for the last week, and the top of the blog has been an unabashed plug for Looney Tunes: Back in Action, not exactly a fate-of-the-world topic. Still, it's not always easy to keep up with the constant outrages of the administration, especially when it is at the same time a recursive loop: rampant cronyism, creeping fascism, and sheer incompetence.

The energy bill, of course, gets top marks for all of the above. If you're an outrageous polluter, system-gaming corporation, or just plain gouger, this bill's for you. For the rest of us, as always, Molly Ivins has the scoop:

This is an amazing energy bill because it does not: A) reduce our dependence on foreign oil, B) provide significant new energy sources, C) create many jobs, D) improve the grid system so we won't have more blackouts, E) promote energy efficiency or conservation or F) do anything about global warming.

BUT, it will cost at least $20 billion in subsides to fossil fuel companies. Those poor li'l oil, gas, coal and nuclear companies like Exxon/Mobil and General Electric need our help -- this is compassionate conservatism.

Then, of course, there's Medicare "reform." Of course, by reform, they mean "ways to bilk taxpayers, cheat the needy, and feed bloated megacorps." And by "they," of course, I mean Republicans. But you knew that.

From the very same article by Ms. Ivins:

The Health Reform Program of Boston University estimates that of the bill's $400 billion price tag, $139 billion will go to increase drug-company profits over eight years, a 38 percent increase in what is already the world's most profitable industry.

Personally, I find the revolt among AARP rank-and-file members over this behemoth the most interesting aspect of the Medicare controversy. Officially, the AARP backs this bill. Thousands of members are leaving the group, however, and many more are expressing their outrage. This may even result in a widespread power struggle within the enormous organization:

Card-burnings and protests were also reported in such places as Washington, D.C., Webster Groves, Mo., and San Francisco.

"We don't think AARP in the least represents seniors on this issue," said Bruce Livingston, executive director of Senior Action Network in the San Francisco area. "We're going to encourage people to quit. This is just the beginning."

Oh, and November has been the bloodiest month of the Iraq war, with Italy and Spain both taking significant casualties and reconsidering their participation. And the long, ugly stream of dead among Americans and Iraqis continues.

But who cares? Michael Jackson's been arrested! Bush spent two hours in Baghdad in absolute secrecy! Now that's news!

As an aside, I feel compelled to note that child molestation is a horrific crime, and if Jackson is in fact guilty he should spend a long time in a small cage, preferably with a big hairy cellmate. Oh, and unlike many of my fellow bloggers, I feel no particular need to excoriate Dubya for sane security precautions taken while actually doing something decent, even if it was a naked ploy to film a campaign commercial.

Fact, however, is a far more stubborn thing than mere news. If we don't convince the latter to cover the former, the facts are going to become unpleasant indeed. We had better start dealing with these facts soon, since our Dear Leaders seem so unwilling to do so.

(/) Roland X
Perhaps Dubya thinks that the facts are just "testing our will."

Did you Tune out Revolutions? Get Back In Action

Yes, I know that this blog has been almost exclusively political, but this is good enough that I want to share with everyone. 8^)

Unlike most other fans I've heard and/or read, I won't utterly pan Revolutions. It was good in respectable chunks. However, I found it disappointing at times, on several levels. At other times, it was very depressing.

As a result, I was trying to keep my expectations manageable for other movies, like Looney Tunes: Back in Action, which was next on our list. (Due to finances, we've got to pick and choose when it comes to movies, though our situation could easily be far worse.) The trailer was drop-dead hilarious, however, so I figured that those laughs alone were worth the price of admission.

To paraphrase the Comic Book Guy: Funniest...movie...ever. And I say that as a HUGE fan of "Who Framed Roger Rabbit."

I saw it Friday, for opening day. I saw it again today. This movie is sheer comic genius from start to finish, as Daffy Duck grabs this movie and strolls away with it in a fashion that makes Hugo Weaving's brilliant theft of Matrix Revolutions as the delightfully evil Agent Smith look positively ham-handed. I have to imagine that, if these characters really did exist in our own world, Daffy (if he could ever have really been jealous of Bugs) would be thoroughly cured of any envy. Of course, the daffy Daffy is fantastically abetted by Brendan Fraser, who shows us what a phenomenal actor he is simply by keeping up with the little black duck. Together, they craft the most clever, outrageous, and surprisingly human "buddy flick" duo in ages.

To say that Bugs is in fine form is to say that things fall when you drop them, but his droll wit contrasts magnificently both with longtime partner Daffy as well as with Bugs' human co-star, Jenna Elfman. Ms. Elfman is a magnificent straight woman to humans and toons alike. Her slightly goofy chemistry with Fraser is perfect for Action, but for Bugs' brand of humor she proves an ideal foil, which is even more vital for a Looney Tunes movie. She even gets the better of the rabbit once (sort of) by hitting the rabbit's soft spot for a distressed dame.

Cameos abound, of course, for the denizens of the WB Looniverse -- but that's not all, folks. It seems that Director Joe Dante is a real film buff, and packs this comic masterpiece with references to film genres ranging from spy flicks to pulp adventure to cheesy 50s sci-fi to the Hollywood world itself. Steve Martin has a blast playing the over-the-top Mr. Chairman, who will never endanger Judge Doom as the most menacing villain of the cartoon cosmos, but he easily out-funnies the genuinely disturbing Judge. You never take Mr. Chairman seriously -- but you're not supposed to (though I found myself wondering with a chuckle how Marvin Acme's company had fallen so low). Rounding out the major human cast members are Heather Locklear as Bond Girl Dusty Tails, now playing in the majors (spy-wise, that is), Joan Cusack as the wacky "Mother," top genius of the nebulous spy agency at the center of the good guys' efforts, and Timothy Dalton playing himself playing James Bond playing himself. All three turn out excellent performances, particularly Dalton, who displays a surprisingly deft comic talent (I would have liked to see more of him).

There is literally too much good stuff in this movie to explain it all without providing a blow-by-blow account of the film, which wouldn't do its manic genius justice. The closest I can come is to say that it is drop-dead funny without detracting from any of the lesser plot lines at work in the movie, which are (in descending order of importance) the character interaction between DJ (Fraser), Kate (Elfman), Bugs, and Daffy; the action-adventure (which is surprisingly well-done); and the goofy-yet-wonderful romance between DJ and Kate, which could have easily felt (and become) pro forma yet didn't.

If you can't figure out why people think a rabbit and a duck are so funny, avoid this film like the plague. On the other hand, if you have ever laughed at a Looney Tunes short, go see this movie. You'll thank me, if you can stop laughing long enough for it.

(/) Roland X
An enormous fan of the little black duck who is not angry, fat, or living in a basement, and can't wait for the DVD.

Lying Liars

I try to avoid engaging in blog wars, but Instapundit is the Big Dog of not only conservatarian pundits, but the blogosphere in general. And he has this to say about the nutjobs on both sides:

I've drawn the distinction repeatedly, but the fact is that the real energy in the antiwar movement comes from people who don't like America. A.N.S.W.E.R. is central to the movement. Nobody else can organize the protests or turn out the bodies. It's as if the religious right relied on Fred Phelps to do their organization, then tried to claim that they weren't like him. But they've been very careful to distance themselves from guys like him. I don't see similar care from the antiwar movement -- I see happy solidarity until someone makes an issue, followed by righteous indignation when this stuff is pointed out.

This is clear, utter, total and obvious bull.

Orcinus provides us with a few examples in a post on neofascism that probably has nothing to do -- directly -- with Instapundit's absurd bloviating:

This is not mere hyperbole; it is an exercise in eliminationism. As Buzzflash recently observed, talk like this is part of an increasing trend in conservative rhetoric: Pat Robertson wishing to "nuke" the State Department, Bill O'Reilly saying Peter Arnett should be shot, Coulter wishing Tim McVeigh had set off his bomb at the New York Times Building, John Derbyshire wishing for Chelsea Clinton's demise. Unsurprisingly, the same kind of talk is now heard on the "street" level, and it often pops up on talk radio. As we learned in Oklahoma City, eventually this kind of "hot talk" translates into all-too-real tragedy.

The religious right has mainstream leadership like Pat Robertson, Jerry Fallwell and Franklin Graham. The top neocon pundits are hitmen (and women) like Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly. And then we have the "with us or against us" nutcases in the administration, which includes men like David "read the Bible for PMS" Hager , John "what Bill of Rights" Ashcroft, and the man himself, Dick "we don't need no steenkin' facts" Cheney.

And the best Instapundit can come up with is ANSWER? Yeah, we all know how much pull ANSWER has with the Democratic party...

(/) Roland X
They really do just make crap up

Never Mess With The Spooks

The Calpundit has the slam dunk on this one:

* If the CIA report was circulated early this month, it was surely being written early last month. Reports like this take at least a few weeks to prepare.

* The report is incredibly bleak, and since facts on the ground don't change on a dime that means the situation in Iraq must have already seemed pretty dicey in early October.

* Even so, the White House went ahead with push back.

* No one is stupid enough to mount a PR campaign like this if they know that the facts on the ground are likely to make them look like idiots within a few short weeks. So the White House didn't know.

...

The problem is that trying to blame this kind of stuff on the CIA is getting less and less credible with every passing day: after all, if it really is the CIA's fault, their incompetence has now endangered the interests of the United States and badly embarrassed the president so many times that it's simply beyond belief that there haven't been wholesale firings in Langley.

Which also explains some of the sheer outrage from current and former members of the intelligence community: they're being trashed by an administration that's trying to find an excuse for the mess it's in, when they wouldn't be in this mess if they had just listened to the people they're trashing in the first place.

You know, I'd be a little peeved too. Come to think of it, I am peeved, and I'm just one of the folks watching this idiocy unfold.

You know it's bad when you're a liberal and you miss Poppy. A lot.

(/) Roland X
Too disgusted to .sig

Potential Military Installations

It's getting harder to tell the parody from the real thing:

Afterward, attack helicopters cruised throughout the day over Saddam's hometown, swooping low over villages and farms as rescuers picked through the charred wreckage of the aircraft.

Late Friday, U.S. troops fired mortars and a U.S. jets dropped at least three 500-pound bombs around the crash site, rattling windows over a wide area in an apparent show of force. Other U.S. jets streaked over Tikrit after sundown.

As opposed to:

NUMBER TWO: I have declared war on the next continent.
FORD: Declared war? But there's no one even living there.
NUMBER TWO: Yes, but there will be one day. So we've left a sort of open-ended ultimatum.
FORD: What?
NUMBER TWO: And blown up some military installations.
CAPTAIN: Military instillations, Number Two?
NUMBER TWO: Yes, sir. Well, potential military installations. (pause) All right. Trees. And we interrogated a gazelle.

Still, Billmon has the best comparison of the hour:

In retaliation, American troops backed by Bradley fighting vehicles swept through Iraqi neighborhoods before dawn Saturday, blasting houses suspected of being insurgent hideouts with machine guns and heavy weapons fire.

"This is to remind the town that we have teeth and claws and we will use them," said Lt. Col. Steven Russell, commander of the 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment...

Compared to:

Captain Carpenter: We've been on red alert for three days sir, and still have no sign of Mr. Neutron.

General: Have we bombed anywhere? Have we shown 'em we got teeth?

Captain Carpenter: Oh yeah, sir. We've bombed a lot of places flat, sir.

The latter quote from the "Mr. Neutron" sketch from Monty Python's Flying Circus. Only the joke and the real thing are virtually indistinguishable.

Aside from the fact that real people are dead, that is.

Billmon, of course, has more.

(/) Roland X
"It's all hoo-hoo, yuck-yuck, and then BAM WHAM BLAM!" --Daffy Duck, "Looney Tunes, Back In Action"

And So It Begins

Tom DeLay has all but declared open war on debate:

House Democrats will get no projects for their home districts in a huge education and health spending bill because none of them voted for an initial version of the measure last summer, majority Republicans say.

...

"We're doing business as usual," House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, said Friday. "If you don't support a bill, you have no right to say what's in the bill."

The Republicans, of course, insist there's precedent for this. If they cited any, the article fails to mention it.

This is a really big deal, as appropriations are typically handled in a relatively bipartisan manner. The majority party gets the largest chunk of money, of course -- but not every penny. The message is unsubtle: Democratic districts -- actually, dissenting districts (the nine Republicans and one Independent who voted against are also frozen out) -- won't get federal funding. Period.

I have found comparisons to pre-Civil War America chilling, but premature. Things hardly seemed that bad yet, especially with September 11th still looming in America's recent history. No more. The Republican leadership is out to crush all opposition, and is rapidly proving that they don't care how they do it. The Democrats have clearly had enough.

War has been declared. The only question remaining is whether it can be ended before the guns come out.

(/) Roland X
Still Giving Peace A Chance...for now.

Scheer Says It All

...in a nutshell:

Some pundits and politicians, even those who may have been skeptical about the war to begin with, now argue that we must "finish the job," even if it means increasing our commitment of troops or ruling Iraq indefinitely. This is, however, exactly the kind of stubborn and mushy thinking that led us into the hell of the Vietnam War and the deaths of 58,000 Americans and more than 2 million Vietnamese and Cambodians.

We must help the Iraqis rebuild their nation, both financially and politically. There is no question of that. However, the occupation is proving more convincingly with each passing day that a military solution to this problem...is no solution at all.

(/) Roland X
And that isn't even starting on Afghanistan.