CNN is reporting that Ronald Reagan passed away this morning. Having lost a grandfather to Alzheimer's, I can only express my sympathy to his family and loved ones at the travail they have gone through, and hope that his end came peacefully. There will be plenty of time later to discuss his legacy.

Remember when a number of pundits predicted that l'affaire Plame was so "over" after her photograph was published in Vanity Fair? If the President has to hire an outside counsel, it's gotten serious.

Some interesting factoids about Jennifer Hawkins, the newly-crowned Miss Universe 2004:

1. Last year, she finished third in the prestigious Bartercard Miss Indy 2003 pageant. If, for whatever reason, Bartercard Miss Indy 2003 and the first runner-up are unable to fulfill their obligations, Miss Hawkins would become the first woman in history to hold both titles simultaneously;
2. She was only selected to be "Miss Australia" last month by a Sydney modeling agency, thereby beating out last night, among others, Miss U.S.A., who was forced to compete in various pageants since last summer to earn her trip to Quito, Ecuador;
3. Her "original costume" was denounced by her hometown media as "unpatriotic", "boring", panicky and "universally, a disaster". Despite those props from her homies, she finished third in that segment, propelling her to the upset win;
4. By winning the crown, she became the first contestant outside of Latin America to win since 2000, and the first Miss Universe since 2002 to prevail without telling Miss Spain that she looked fat in her swimsuit just before she went on camera;
5. The new Miss Universe (on the right) has been quoted as saying that her ideal man is a bald, shlubby, 40-something left-of-center attorney who likes to down "a pint or two".

Accountability, then and now: GA Cerny has an apt post about how a different Republican leader acted sixty years ago.

A post about nothing: You ever had one of those days, when you set your mind to work on some big project, only to have your efforts come up completely empty. I spent yesterday chasing down a story that turned out to built on gossamer and string, concerning a throwaway remark made during the early panel at the AFI Saturday night, the one that involved the "Industry".

Allegedly, according to the panelists, a favorite film director of mine had worked "non-union" on one of his films, which, ironically, was a film about union organizing. I didn't get there until afterwards, so I had no way of knowing the context of what was said, and since the only person blogging that panel to have quoted that remark was either unable or unwilling to assist me when questioned, I decided to do my own factchecking. I had some free post-holiday time, and a jones to do some real, honest-to-goodness "journalism", like my hero, Matt Welch, so I dug into the story.

As the various journalism scandals of the past decade have taught us, from Judith Miller and Jeffrey Gerth to Jack Kelley and Jayson Blair, from the NY Times of coverage of Whitewater and Wen Ho Lee to the fictional stories about Al Gore claiming to have invented the Internet, people make s*** up all the time, and if you get suckered into believing something because someone in a position of authority says its true, you deserve everything else that happens. Gossip is fun to read, but it is often enough untrue (as this scathing piece, written by the "John Kerry Intern", attests), so it's always good to have a circumstantial basis for your story, as well as an eyewitness or three.

Since the person involved was, as I mentioned earlier, a film director, there would be one easy way to determine whether he was using non-union personnel on the shoot in question. I checked IMDB.com, and examined the various credits to find someone whose lack of experience prior to the movie would indicate that the crew member did not have a union card. No luck: each of the people I checked had extensive backgrounds at their positions. A newspaper column made mention of the same director's use of non-union personnel on a later film, but the context was different, it alluded to an interview over fifteen years old (which the article paraphrased from), and there was no explanation as to what his transgression was. I found no other websites that had even a tangential reference to the allegation, nor did I uncover any usenet groups that had bandied about the subject. If this was a Hollywood scandal, it doesn't appear to have generated much heat.

Finally, I asked my brother, who when he isn't running the hippest music club in town, is a Teamster organizer, whether the director in question had a bad rep when it came to such things. He pointed out that while it wouldn't surprise him to learn that an independent filmmaker, working on a tight budget, had been allowed to skirt union requirements, sometimes even with the tacit consent of the union, he really didn't know the answer (he wasn't involved with craft unions), but that if I really wanted to know, all I had to do was check for any grievances the affected unions would have filed back then. QED, if there were no grievances filed, then the parties probably had a pre-existing arrangement that allowed the director in question to skirt the rules.

That sounds like it might be hard work and heavy research, SO SCREW THAT. I'm not a journalist; I don't even have a library card, much less a subscription to NEXIS, so others will have to do the heavy lifting if they want the truth. Since I couldn't discredit the story after a thorough review of Google, and a ten-minute chat with my brother, each of the above subjects, from the director involved to the gossips who spread the story, shall remain nameless, but anyone who wants to uncover the details can easily do so. I'm a blogger, and not really a very good one at that, but at least I have enough self-respect not to gossip, nor to blindly post something based solely on how well I know my source. But if you ever want to know what I write about when I have absolutely nothing to write about, feel free to permalink this story.

This being Memorial Day and all, I have a question that probably has relevance only to my fellow SoCals: are Dodger Dogs still sold at supermarkets? I'm quite sure that none of the local (ie., Sherman Oaks/Woodland Hills) stores have them...please let me know !!!

"Armed Liberal" has a new nom de guerre....

The American Cinema Foundation hosted its annual blogger panel at the AFI last night, affirming the notion that Los Angeles is to the blogosphere what Tobacco Road is to college basketball. Ninety minutes spent listening to the views and brainfarts of Matt Welch, Mickey Kaus, Charles Johnson, Roger Simon, "Moxie", and Kevin Drum, before a packed but non-violent crowd of my fellow pundit wannabees, trolls and derelicts, is always a great way to spend a Saturday night, especially with the Lakers tanking the way they did. More politically diverse than last year's panel, ranging from center-left to "little green-eyed monsters", but (sadly) with less input from those non-political sites that I feel represent the future of this medium, the focus was on the motivation of the panelists in using the blogging format to get out their message. Since each of the bloggers used a different path to get where they are, it served only to reinforce the point that if you want a lot of hits, you need to spend a lot of free time before a computer terminal. Local Mean Girl "Cecile" blogged the festivities in real time with exceeding precocity. Others attending included Cathy Seipp, Luke Ford, Emmanuelle Richard, Martin Devon, "Boi from Troy" and Amy Alkon.

Then afterwards, no blogapalooza could be complete without the after-party salon at the home of the eminent voice of Reason, Mr. Welch, and his lovely wife. The gorgeous "Moxie" enthralled the guests well into the wee hours with her wit and beauty, although she seemed to go out of her way to skewer a hypothetical loser as being the "bald, fat guy from high school". I guess I'm not her type; it's amazing how a woman can intuit that without ever visiting this site.

Mr. Samgrass to the defense: Christopher Hitchens continues the saddest descent into irrelevance since Ramsey Clark by defending Ahmad Chalabi. None of this would be happening if Rickey Ray Rector was still alive !! [link via GA Cerny]

French actress Julie Delpy is profiled in this week's LA City Beat. She is a gorgeous woman who can't act worth crap, sort of like a Gallic version of Kate Beckinsale, but she did star in two of the most unintentionally hilarious movies of the late 20th Century, "Beatrice" and "Killing Zoe". She's also identified as a "writer-director" in the article, no doubt covering herself for that time five years from now when the date on her birth certificate unofficially ends her acting career.

UPDATE: As it turns out, Mlle. Delpy may have a very interesting career ahead of her, if this script is any indication. Following in the footsteps of Orson Welles, Woody Allen, Clint Eastwood, and Jon Favreau, she is slated to write, direct and star in this film, based on the life of Countess Erzebet Bathory, a beautiful sixteenth century Hungarian noblewoman whose hobby was torturing and eviscerating the bodies of young virgins, supposedly in a desperate attempt to remain eternally beautiful (it's a true story, and I'm already kicking myself for not including her in this article).

The film's producer insists that this won't just be another horror film out of the Hammer Film genre: "Usually they've linked (Bathory) to vampirism and all sorts of nonsense. Julie has written a serious movie that tells this in both historical and political terms." One way in which the blonde auteur addresses the "historical and political" significance of the infamous Countess, who is thought to have murdered over 600 young women, is through exploring the deeply spiritual ends she was pursuing, such as the ambivalence she feels as she prays to the Virgin Mary:

"Am I doing the right thing? Perhaps the blood is not helping my skin so much. I have been having rashes of late. Probably some unclean blood. But still I feel something is missing in my life."

What woman couldn't relate? I am so there on opening night !!

If there's any validity to this story, the only question left to decide in Eagle, Colorado will be how much money the taxpayers have to fork over to Kobe Bean Bryant for his pain and suffering. Prosecutors should not be in the business of bringing criminal charges to prove a point, or to show they can.

It shouldn't surprise anyone, but the latest Field Poll has Kerry beating Bush in California by 15 points. The poll also finds that Kerry has built a 40-point lead among Latinos, while the candidates are essentially even amongst everyone else (see this post for the paramount significance of the Latino vote for Democratic candidates). Kerry not only is blowing out the President in liberal strongholds like San Francisco and LA Counties, he also a significant lead in the Republican-leaning Central Valley, and a tiny lead in Orange and San Diego Counties(!)

The person elected President by the American people speaks:

George W. Bush promised us a foreign policy with humility. Instead, he has brought us humiliation in the eyes of the world.

He promised to "restore honor and integrity to the White House." Instead, he has brought deep dishonor to our country and built a durable reputation as the most dishonest President since Richard Nixon.

Honor? He decided not to honor the Geneva Convention. Just as he would not honor the United Nations, international treaties, the opinions of our allies, the role of Congress and the courts, or what Jefferson described as "a decent respect for the opinion of mankind." He did not honor the advice, experience and judgment of our military leaders in designing his invasion of Iraq. And now he will not honor our fallen dead by attending any funerals or even by permitting photos of their flag-draped coffins.

(snip)

There was then, there is now and there would have been regardless of what Bush did, a threat of terrorism that we would have to deal with. But instead of making it better, he has made it infinitely worse. We are less safe because of his policies. He has created more anger and righteous indignation against us as Americans than any leader of our country in the 228 years of our existence as a nation -- because of his attitude of contempt for any person, institution or nation who disagrees with him.

He has exposed Americans abroad and Americans in every U.S. town and city to a greater danger of attack by terrorists because of his arrogance, willfulness, and bungling at stirring up hornet's nests that pose no threat whatsoever to us. And by then insulting the religion and culture and tradition of people in other countries. And by pursuing policies that have resulted in the deaths of thousands of innocent men, women and children, all of it done in our name.

President Bush said in his speech Monday night that the war in Iraq is "the central front in the war on terror." It's not the central front in the war on terror, but it has unfortunately become the central recruiting office for terrorists. [Dick Cheney said, "This war may last the rest of our lives.] The unpleasant truth is that President Bush's utter incompetence has made the world a far more dangerous place and dramatically increased the threat of terrorism against the United States.

--Al Gore, 5-26-2004

Solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant: Morgue records from Baghdad and three outlying provinces indicate that over 5,500 Iraqi civilians have been killed since President Bush declared major hostilities at an end last May. That figure does not include deaths from areas such as Fallujah and Najaf, nor does it encompass the vast majority of insurgent deaths, which typically do not get handled by the morgue, and it constitutes a dramatic increase from the pre-war statistics.

It is becoming quite evident that the electorate needs to send a loud and conclusive message to the people who have gotten us into this mess. Ultimately, responsibility must rest with the moron who was entrusted with supreme power in this country, but failed to exercise it with any sense of discretion or accountability. The news this week that Ahmad Chalabi, the man who was the focus of our post-war Iraqi policy, was in fact little more than a grifter in bed with the Iranian mullahcracy, is even more depressing when one realizes that the President will hold no one accountable for that fiasco, just as he has held no one accountable for Abu Ghraib, for the non-existence of WMD's, and for the inattention to planning for the post-Saddam era in Iraq.

These people must not simply be defeated in the polling booth this November; they must be thoroughly and eternally discredited. As Rome did to Carthage twenty-two centuries ago, salt must sown into the decrepit remains of neo-conservatism, so that no one from this Administration can ever obtain gainful employment in the corridors of power again. The Republican Party must be forced to purge this ideology forthwith, or face the consequences of being in the political wilderness for the next three decades.

Manchester Utd. 3, Millwall 0: Tim Howard became the first American ever to play for the winning side in the world's oldest soccer tournament, England's F.A. Cup, when he started in goal this afternoon for Man U. If I might use the logic of Quentin Tarantino, this means that all sports in the United States are a joke, since great soccer players always "get the hell out of the country" once they become stars.

Yet another high school classmate of mine does something noteworthy. Steven Brindle, then an exchange student who graduated with the rest of us in 1981, and now an historian employed by English Heritage, recently discovered a hitherto forgotten iron bridge over the Thames, encased within a rather shabby cement and brick overpass that was about to be demolished. As a result, a one-of-a-kind design by legendary engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel (well, if you are really into 19th Century English architecture, he would be legendary) was preserved, and has been transported to a new location for restoration. Or to put it another way, it would be similar to one of Shakespeare's better plays being forgotten for several centuries, only to turn up in the back of some long-deceased Oxford don's linen closet. The BBC report on Dr. Brindle and the detective work leading up to his discovery, which is fascinating in its own right, can be found here.

Sherry Palmer, requiescat in pacem....

I guess three years of mediocre ratings weren't enough to keep Alias on ABC's schedule next year. The fourth season will be deferred until January, 2005, so next week's season finale will have to tide us over for awhile.

For your amusement, the ten worst album covers of all time...numbers 5 and 6, in particular, would make a perfect X-mas purchase via E-Bay. [link via The Hamster]

From today's Kausfiles: "I guess Kerry really is writing off the South!... Hello? Do Americans want a first daughter who parades around in a dress Paris Hilton would be embarrassed to wear ? And shouldn't she have, you know, thought of that? Even if she looks good in it."

Short answer: Yes !!!!! Has Kaus completely lost his mind? Why do I have the impression that his screensaver is a fish tank or a da Vinci drawing? If seeing Alexandra Kerry for the next four years is the price we have to pay, then screw the crackers. As well as any other NASCAR-loving, Iraqi-torturing, "Left Behind"-reading, sponging-off-the-Blue-State-taxpayer-while-whining-about-federal-government-spending, Toby Keith-and-The Judds-listening redneck. If we allow some special interest or regional bloc to determine whether a Presidential candidate is allowed to have an attractive daughter, then the terrorists will have won.