Watching Clinton's interview on 60 Minutes last night made me realize how little has changed the last four years, at least in terms of political spin. With the Big Dog, it was trying to parse the meaning of the word "is" before the Starr Inquest, over the critical issue of whether he was involved with an intern. Now, it's a new crowd trying to salvage some measure of dignity before the country by claiming that, at the very least, Saddam had "connections", or "ties" to Al Qaeda, as opposed to the two parties actually collaborating together in the trenches before 9-11. Just as Prime Minister Blair was able to change the subject from his government's reckless use of false claims about Iraq's WMD's by attacking the BBC's use of the term, "sexing up", so too are Cheney and the Bushies by asserting that what matters most is not that the Iraqi government was working hand-in-glove with Bin Laden, but that they had at least a tangential relationship with Al Qaeda.

Somehow, I don't think the American people would have backed a war with Iraq if they had known that Hussein's people had spoken with OBL's on a couple occasions, but had not collaborated on terrorist attacks against the U.S.; in fact, by that standard, it could be argued that Al Qaeda had much stronger "connections" to the Bush Administration than it did to Saddam, since the President was friendly with the Bin Laden family, and the U.S. provided much of the funding received by the Mujhadeen in the '80's. Certainly, as far as real "ties" with Al Qaeda are concerned, there was a far greater circumstantial case to be made against the "friendly" governments of Pakistan or Saudi Arabia, but we didn't go to war with those countries.

The whole point of the war, according to the Bushies, was that Saddam was an imminent threat, and that he was an ally of the people who attacked us on September 11. The war was sold to the American People has a front in the larger war against terrorism. But now we're hearing that the war was really about something else, like changing the political dynamic of the Middle East, or "liberating" the Iraqi people, or, now, that Saddam, or one of his Ba'athist associates, had met on occasion with representatives of Bin Laden. If our spy services were doing their job, I would hope that we would have also met with representatives of Bin Laden on occasion, if only to gather intel or suborn a potential asset. I'm sure Jenkins' Foot or the assasination of the Archduke will factor in at some point with these people, but for now, the rationalization of hundreds of American(and thousands of Iraqi) deaths because of a few low-level meetings between Iraq and Al Qaeda seems like a cruel joke.

I think this is the jesuitical destinction Cheney was trying to make.

Let the recriminations start....

The next week is going to drive the wingnuts crazy. Next week's publication of Bill Clinton's memoirs, concurrent with the release of two much-hyped movies on recent times ("The Hunting of the President" and "Fahrenheit 9/11"), is going to create a Perfect Storm of Republican Circlef--kery. If there has been one thing that has motivated the Far Right the last three years, it has been its desire to undo everything that the American People loved about the Big Dog, to pretend the eight brutal years of peace and prosperity never happened. Al Gore "lost" the 2000 election, in large part because he believed that spin, and perceived an hostility to Clinton that the public didn't share. It is safe to say that the public has become rather resistant to those efforts, or at least that percentage of the public that isn't waiting for the Assumption to occur the day after the election. The best thing for Kerry to do the next week (come to think of it, this is always good advice) is to lay back, let the wind take his sails, and ride on Bubba's coattails.

The one mark on Clinton's record, of course, was his impeachment by the House Republicans. His lies under oath may not have technically met the legal standard for perjury, but they reflected a character flaw in the man, a belief that he could talk his way out of (and into) anything. His subsequent fine in the Paula Jones case, together with his disbarment in Arkansas, were appropriate punishments for his civil transgressions. Yet the public still backed him, creating a firewall that prevented the Senate from taking the charges seriously, and he easily beat back the coup attempt. That victory was the high mark of his Administration, as much a defining moment for the country as September 11: after that, we would judge public figures by what they could do, not what kind of person they were.

In the end, given a choice between Clinton and his critics on the right and left, they chose Clinton, not because he was a saint, but because they knew he was better than his adversaries. Clinton liked people, didn't pretend to possess any divine authority, and the people, at first grudgingly, but by the end enthusiastically (when he left office, he, not Reagan, had the highest approval ratings of any President), liked him back.

I have oil rigs !!

Detroit 100, Lakers 87: That was truly an asswhupping. Anyway, a hearty and sincere congrats to Elden Campbell, an underrated player who was a media whipping boy when he played for the Lakers, for finally getting an overdue ring, and a tip of the cap to my many pals and booze buddies from Michigan on their good fortune, as well as for their patience the last three years when our hockey and college football teams seemed to be dominating them in big games.

And here's a scary thought: in routing the Lakers, the Pistons had to carry a piece of dead weight on their bench named Darko Milicic, the "Human Victory Cigar", whom they drafted with the second pick in last year's NBA Draft. En route to the championship, the only point he scored in the playoffs was in the first round, against Milwaukee. The player chosen right after Milicic, by the Denver Nuggets, was Carmelo Anthony, who scored almost as many points in a single game (41) as Milicic did the entire season (48). Think Larry Brown could have found a way for Anthony to fit into his team?

Sometime after midnight Eastern time tomorrow, the city of Detroit will begin celebrating a well-deserved NBA championship (and last night's game was the coup de grace; it was easily the best Laker performance of the Finals, with Shaq being unstoppable for most of the game, and Payton finally starting to show signs of his rumored All-Star form, and it still wasn't enough). Whether the ensuing party in the Motor City will vindicate Jimmy Kimmel's humorous (if cliched) comments remains to be seen, but the controversy that followed from his remarks at halftime of Game 2 reveals a remarkable double standard, and points out one of the aspects of life in Los Angeles that I absolutely cherish: our ability to take a joke, even if it's about the Lakers.

Kimmel, as you may have heard by now, went on the ABC halftime show and paid tribute to Detroit, in effect remarking that should the Pistons win the title, their fans would be well-advised not to pattern their celebration after the annual "Hell Night" (as they did after the Tigers' World Series win in 1984), since the city wasn't worth it. Ouch. As Kimmel himself later noted, Laker fans have quite a margin on the rest of the country when it comes to turning over cars following championships this century. In addition, Kimmel is a comedian, and the whole point of his late-night show is to make people laugh, sometimes uncomfortably.

Of course, the thick-skinned people of Detroit had a fit, with the local ABC affiliate protesting, the network itself pulling his show off the air that night, and angry denunciations filled the local papers. The sports pages, which only a week earlier had noted the sudden bandwagoning for the Pistons taking place in "HockeyTown, U.S.A.", took offense.

What makes this controversy so silly is that what Kimmel said is comparatively banal when juxtaposed with the standard insults made about Los Angeles, its residents and its fans. Over the years, local residents have come to accept such a national outpouring of hate with a degree of sang froid. In fact, most Angelenos take pride in certain parts of the stereotype, such as our studied desire to leave games early, which we view as a testament to our knowledge of when a game is truly "over", as well as to the high standards we demand from our entertainment. Other parts of the stereotype are much more troublesome, such as the conflation of our local culture with that of "Hollywood"; the loaded terms that are used to describe us in East Coast newspapers would not have been out-of-place in the Volkischer Beobachter seventy years ago, with barely a wink and a nudge necessary. Of course, actors and rappers make up a small but noticeable percentage of fans, but why Jack Nicholson or Dyan Cannon are not considered to be "real" sports fans, while veeps of automobile companies and corporate lawyers in Detroit are, is a mystery few out here can fathom.

Perhaps the one part of the Laker fan stereotype that most amuses and bemuses me is the notion that somehow we are all "fair weather fans". Whether Angelenos would continue to support the Lakers should the team put together a string of losing seasons is a potentiality not yet tested under laboratory conditions, but we do know from the attendance of both the Dodgers, Angels and Kings that local fans are pretty loyal, win or lose. I mean, how many years do the Dodgers have to draw three million paying customers without making the playoffs before we conclude that maybe someone out here does pay allegiance to the home team? And the only way to explain why the Raiders remain so popular locally, even after Al Davis deserted us after the Northridge Earthquake, is the notion (one which I don't happen to share) that our loyalty is not something to be given lightly, or given up lightly.

And, as I said before, we take the insults in stride, and why not. Earthquakes, traffic jams, ridiculous housing prices, and the occasional urban unpleasantness aside, we live in Paradise, and we know it. The Lakers are one of the few unifying factors in this area, perhaps the only thing that cuts across racial, ethnic, sexual, class and occupational boundaries, but they are Los Angeles. Anyone who is a sports fan in these parts will concur: the Dodgers, Angels, Kings, Clippers and Ducks all have their local followings, but it's the Lakers that define what being an Angeleno is. The other teams you follow because you come from these parts, but the Lakers are the team you root for in order to become part of our community; in much the same way an immigrant learns the English language as the first step towards becoming an American, someone who moves to Los Angeles pays allegiance to the Lakers. And regardless of what happens tomorrow, I ain't leaving.

Ralph Wiley, a prolific writer and fixture on ESPN and Sports Illustrated, died suddenly today at 52. In one of his last columns, he became one of the only writers in America to predict the pending Detriot upset in the NBA Finals; ironically, he died at home watching the player intros to last night's decisive Game 4.

Detroit 88, Lakers 80: Unless we see a collapse unlike any before in the history of the NBA, the Pistons will be the next NBA champions. The Lakers actually played a pretty tough game tonight, particularly Payton, who finally showed up in four games into the series, but a combination of some questionable fourth quarter calls (incl. a phantom foul on GP at the six minute mark, with the Pistons up by six) and some cold outside shooting doomed the Lakers to an insurmountable deficit.

Detroit 88, Lakers 68: If the Lakers were a stock, this would be the perfect time to buy. In one week, they have gone from being prohibitive favorites to washed-up prima donnas, and they are still one game away from snatching back the home court advantage. Two one-sided losses, including the debacle on Thursday, will do much to diminish one's standing with the public. Yet this has been a fairly routine part of their season. It's hard to believe now, but the Lakers looked even worse in their two losses to San Antonio, and their collective effort in the two defeats in Minnesota was equally atrocious. Each time, they came back inspired, just as they did in Game 2 of this series.

If the series somehow does head back to L.A., fans might harken back to one of the bleaker moments in Laker history, when the team lost in seven to Boston in 1984. In that series, the Lakers went in as the underdog, then pulled away late to win Game 1 in Boston. After being outplayed for most of Game 2, they made a late run to take a lead, and seemingly had the series in the bag, especially after 85% free throw shooter Kevin McHale missed a pair with less than twenty seconds left and the Celtics down by two. But after a timeout, James Worthy threw a dreadful pass that was picked off by Gerald Henderson, who hit a lay-up to tie. The Lakers had the ball for the final shot, but their star, Magic Johnson, inexplicably dribbled out the clock, and they went on to lose in overtime.

And of course, in Game 3, the Lakers blew out the Celtics, and had seemingly regained control of the series, only to have McHale cheapshot Kurt Rambis in Game 4, and change the entire tone of the rivalry. In any event, the Pistons should win this series, especially with the Mailman and the Fisher King hurt, but the Lakers have already overcome enough self-inflicted adversity to get to the Finals. Anything less than two more complete defensive efforts by Detroit, and the Lakers will give Jackson his ninth title.

After a week of relentless hagiography, and genuinely classless and buffoonish antics by the media and my fellow citizens, I would be remiss if I didn't point out how genuinely moving the private ceremony at the Reagan Library was this evening. I had managed to avoid most of the remembrances the past week, busy as I was with work and Finals, but I did catch the sunset memorial. Anyone who has ever lost a family member or friend (and I would assume that would encompass almost everyone reading this post) can appreciate the dignity and charm the Reagan children revealed in their eulogies for their father. I delivered the eulogy for my late father, and it was one of the most difficult "performances" of my life; drafting and rehearsing the speech took a lot out of me, and knowing that I helped other people get a sense of who my dad really was still fills me with a sense of accomplishment. Hearing the recollections, and sharing the grief, of those who actually knew the man as a father and family member, rather than some stock political character, enables those of us who didn't share his views an opportunity to pay our respects as well.

Lakers 99, Detriot 91 [O.T.]: In defending Tom Lasorda from second-guessing following his decision to pitch to Jack Clark rather than Andy Van Slyke in Game 6 of the 1985 NLCS, Bill James once wrote that it is always easier to take the test after you know the answers. This morning, Larry Brown's decision to not foul any of the Lakers in the final fifteen seconds has raised hackles in every newspaper, radio show and barstool in the country, and the criticism is equally unfair.

The reasoning of Brown's attackers goes something like this: fouling a player immediately sends him to the line to shoot two, and the Pistons maintain the lead for at least two possessions. Much has been said about the supposed "unwritten rule" that teams never intentionally foul a player when that team is ahead by more than two points at the end of the game. What that obscures is the context of that decision. Even for a great player like Kobe Bryant, the likelihood of hitting a trey is ordinarily close to 33%; during the playoffs, when the opposing defense is, almost by definition, tougher, that percentage dips into the mid-to-high twenties.

On the other hand, Bryant is an 85% free throw shooter, so sending him to the line is a likely two-point gift. In order to have fouled Bryant before he was in the act of shooting would have required Rip Hamilton to have been almost on top of him by the time he got the ball, so the probable result in that situation would have been to stop the clock with about nine seconds to play (any hesitation on Hamilton's part in getting over to Bryant would have resulted in a shot attempt, sending Kobe to the line for three frees and a chance to tie, or even a chance for a four-point play). If he makes both free throws, the lead is one, Pistons' ball, but plenty of time to foul or cause a turnover. The Lakers still get another chance to tie or win the game. And that assumes Kobe makes both shots; if he misses the second, the Lakers happen to have the most dominant inside player in the game poised to get an offensive board and put-back, and you're looking at the same situation all over again.

And that, of course, assumes that Bryant gets fouled before he can get off a shot. But what if the Pistons had fouled O'Neal when he caught the in-bounds pass, twenty feet from the basket. Shaq gave up the ball almost immediately, so any attempt at playing Hack-a-Shaq would have been risky; if he had been fouled a millisecond after passing the ball to Walton, the Pistons would have been called for an intentional foul, sending Shaq to the line and giving the Lakers the ball out of bounds. Even with the Lakers' star's proclivity for inept free throw shooting, that would not have been a worthwhile risk for the Pistons.

So under the circumstances, Brown made the right call. The clock is the greatest ally for the team that's ahead in that situation. Each additional possession increases the chances for disaster, so the last thing a coach wants to do is stop the clock. Ten days ago, the Lakers had turned a nine-point deficit in Minnesota into a two-point deficit in the final ten seconds, using a maddening diet of threes and time outs. Playing for their lives, it is safe to say that the Lakers would have pulled out all the stops again in the final seconds, even with no timeouts remaining, had Detroit chosen to foul early. Only seconds earlier, when the Lakers were down by six, Bryant had bricked a wide-open three, and his fourth quarter shooting percentage from outside during the playoffs was mediocre, to say the least. By contesting Bryant but not fouling him, the odds were heavily in the Pistons' favor that he would miss, and the game (and series) would be over. It just didn't work out that way.

The first poll to be released since the death of former President Reagan shows John Kerry moving out to a six-point lead over George Bush. According to Gallup, perhaps the most surprising aspect is that Kerry is within four points of Bush in the so-called "Red States", ie., states that the President won last time by more than five points. [link via Atrios]

The first draft of history: Juan Cole has an excellent recounting of Ronald Reagan's legacy, here. For all the talk of how Reagan, unlike the current occupant of the White House, was an optimist who could unite the public, not enough has been said this weekend about what a small, narrowminded hack he could be at times. His civil rights record, in particular, was dreadful; not only did he oppose the major legislation Congress passed during the 1960's, he infamously fought the extension of the Voting Rights Act during his Presidency, and attempted to extend tax breaks to segregated colleges such as Bob Jones U. His campaign for the Presidency in 1976 was based largely on attacking a fictitious "welfare queen" (wink, wink), an issue which encapsulated wedge politics during that era. The riots that ensued from the Rodney King trial in 1992 were an indirect result of Reagan's policies.

Perhaps his most significant political legacy was that the Republican Party became an unapologetically white movement during his administration, a triumph of Kevin Phillips' "Southern Strategy". When asked about the perception among many African-Americans that he was a bigot, he would defensively reply that, far from being a racist, he had always been a supporter of civil rights: in fact, back in the day when he recreated baseball games in Iowa, he claimed that he frequently pontificated against the color line from the broadcasting booth. It was perhaps a symptom of how obsequious the media was during that period that no one believed him, yet no one called him on that laughable assertion. He deserves enormous credit for joining with Gorbachev to end the Cold War; by treating the Soviet leader as a man that the West could do business with, he went against his own party, as well as many of the neo-conservatives that now dominate the current regime. But his domestic policies damaged the country irreparably, leading to the divisions that afflict us today.

Detroit 87, Lakers 75: I have a feeling that the Lakers might need a couple of games to wake up in this series. Maybe Kobe needs to be falsely accused of murder....

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.

What he said.

Conservative pundit Rich Lowry has some choice words for those who believe that Abu Ghraib is merely an aberration: take a look at our own prisons. [link via Cecile duBois] And Jonathan Last of the Weekly Standard writes that using the flip-flop issue against John Kerry is a case of the pot calling the kettle black.

Lots of bloggers talk about the Geneva Conventions, but no one ever links to them (and that's Conventions, plural; they encompass about a half-dozen different treaties and protocols enacted over the last 150 years, starting in 1864). Here's a good primer from two years ago on the history of international law, the development of the concept of "war crimes" and how they apply to the post-9/11 world, in Slate. Originally proposed by the International Red Cross and the Red Crescent in the mid-19th Century, and enacted by the U.S. Senate in the aftermath of the Civil War, its essence is empathatic: we treat enemy combatants in a manner we would demand that our own be treated, no matter how just our cause or how wicked our adversary. Unfortunately, the Geneva Conventions have always seemed to be adhered to only in the aftermath of war, and forgotten when the next conflict starts up. That may be an inevitable outcome of battle, but it is one that we should always keep in mind before the next war starts.

SMYTHE'S WORLD SCOOP: Apple Blythe?!?
UPDATE: At least we know where the name came from.
UPDATE [2]: Turns out I scooped the rest of the media by some ten hours on this story. I rule.

Works for me....

The Very Ugly American: Apparently the ability to craft the hackneyed conventions of chop-socky and spaghetti-western dross into cinematic gold has not gone to the lanternine head of Quentin Tarantino, or at least not in such a way so that he would feel the need to show that he actually thinks before opening his mouth. Apparently threatened by the articulate actress seated next to him on the dais, he used the occasion of a press conference at the opening of the Cannes Film Festival to slight the British film industry. To wit,

Tarantino, set on edge at a press conference by (Tilda) Swinton's cut-glass accent - she graduated from Cambridge in political sciences before making Wittgenstein with the late Derek Jarman - hit back acidly.

Why if Hollywood was such a "bad boy" monster, he wondered, did British actors "get the hell out of there" and head for Beverly Hills once they hit fame?

(snip)

Then, getting into his stride, he argued that despite all the money, direction, acting and scriptwriting that went into a film, the reality was that audiences "showed up" for one reason: to see "the stars". They paid for tickets to watch actors they knew and were comfortable with.

He said that this was why America, India and Hong Kong - and not Britain - managed to sustain a flourishing domestic film industry.

Swinton, noted for art films such as The Deep End, said that she was not especially anxious to disagree with the jury president, but the "Hollywood product" was not the only one on the cinematic map.

"I speak as someone who comes from a country, which like so many others, is experiencing the loud voice of the multiplexes, which outnumber art cinemas, ten to one. It is jolly difficult for audiences looking for another kind of cinema, and very difficult for filmmakers and critics to have the confidence to look for another kind of cinema, and have the confidence to make another cinema.

First, lets give Tarantino his props for correctly observing that three of the largest film industries in the world are in China, India, and the US, although it shouldn't surprise anyone that the three most populous countries in the world, each with different primary languages, and with long cinematic traditions, have profitable film industries. That Great Britain does not have a film industry to rival the U.S. or, for that matter, two nations with over a billion people, is not much of a shock.

Second, there is another rather obvious reason the U.K. lags behind the U.S. in filmmaking: both countries speak the same language. No matter how much of a movie geek you are, going to see a foreign language film can be disconcerting, and the barrier imposed does not provide the optimum filmgoing experience. It's one thing for America to export films to China and India, where English is spoken, if at all, as an elite language. It's another to export them to a country where the mother tongue is the same; it's much easier to draw the casual filmgoer into the multiplex if he knows he's not going to have to look at sub-titles for two hours.

The competition, therefore, isn't between Hollywood and "Bollywood" or Hong Kong; each territory is pretty much exclusive and is run as a de facto monopoly by the local studios. It's between the U.S. and any other English-speaking country, and when it comes to corporations, our economies of scale kick theirs in the ass every day of the week. At least Great Britain still generates some home-grown product (ie., "Bend It Like Beckham", "Calendar Girls", and "28 Days Later", all of which were released in the U.S. within the last year), and keeps some of their stars at home; in entertainment terms, Australia has pretty much become the San Pedro de Macoris of the American film industry, and New Zealand, South Africa and Canada, while producing plenty of talent, pretty much exist only as location shoots for American movies, as far as the "Industry" is concerned. As the corporations running the studios become larger and more multi-national, the power of this oligopoly will only increase.

So inevitably, then, British "stars" are going to go where the money is, and if they want to make the money that comes from appearing in movies, it means appearing in films made and distributed by American companies; that was as true eighty years ago as it is today. If they don't, they can always work on TV or the stage, both of which are vibrant and healthy in Great Britain, or appear in the odd British flic, and not need "get the hell out of there", to use Tarantino's unfortunate line. That choice has nothing to do with greed, any more then the recent decisions by Kevin Spacey and Gwyneth Paltrow to relocate to London in order to pursue stage careers is motivated by greed.

Swinton's point, then, is dead-on correct. The near-monopoly that Hollywood studios possess in the English-language film market is going to have consequences down the line, in the same way that American fast-food chains have, or WalMart has. Crowding out smaller businesses means limiting the options people have, and thus restricts our imagination of alternatives; the same is true in the cinema. Tarantino would be wise to show greater consideration of that point, since there is no reason that the same stranglehold can't be applied to choke off creativity in other parts of the world as well.

I have redesigned the blog, but it may be a few days until I can figure out how to return some of the links to the side. In the meantime, if you visit any of the random archive pages, the old blogroll is still listed.

The Spurs really don't have much game in the second half, do they?

Truth be told, one of the reasons why Abu Ghraib has already become such a dark page in American history is that public sentiment had already begun to turn against the war, in particular the question as to whether the U.S. was justified in starting this adventure. If Americans no longer overwhelmingly believed in The Cause, it stands to reason that actions which are the inevitable by-product of a war (including the abuse and dehumanization of the enemy) would be less tolerated. Still, the belief by some that the captives at Abu Ghraib represented the most malignant of the former allies of Saddam has been used to rationalize the behavior of their guards; surely, no one would weep if G.I.'s had treated captured members of the S.S. the same way after WW2, or if Bin Laden and friends were similarly humiliated.

That's why this story is all the more important. Between 70 and 80% of all Iraqis captured during the war were arrested by mistake, according to the Red Cross' report, and were treated in a manner that violated the Geneva Convention. The pictures we are now seeing have shown Americans an ugly side to our nature, a side that believes that because we are more powerful than our adversaries our actions must, inevitably, be morally correct. Abu Ghraib was only the tip of that iceberg; considering the way in which we treated Native Americans and the descendents of slaves, it is the flip side to an American exceptionalism which characterizes so much of the foulest aspects of our political culture.

Pulitzer Watch: The Los Angeles Times is reporting that actor Corbin Bernson [L.A. Law, (1986-93); Celebrity Mole (2004)] and his wife, Amanda Pays [some movie with Rob Lowe twenty years ago] have remodeled their home, and intend to put it on the market for $1.5 million. Natch...Brian and Laurie Czamecki of Troop Real Estate have the listing. The same article hints that LA Dodger middle reliever Tom Martin and his wife may soon lease a townhome in Manhatten Beach, thanks to the efforts of Phyllis Cohen-Edwards of Shorewood Realtors.

The chickenhawks reap the whirlwind:

From tomorrow's Washington Post:

Tolerance of the situation in Iraq also appears to be declining within the U.S. military. Especially among career Army officers, an extraordinary anger is building at Rumsfeld and his top advisers. "Like a lot of senior Army guys, I'm quite angry" with Rumsfeld and the rest of the Bush administration, the young general said. He listed two reasons. "One is, I think they are going to break the Army." But what really incites him, he said, is, "I don't think they care." Jeff Smith, a former general counsel of the CIA who has close ties to many senior officers, said, "Some of my friends in the military are exceedingly angry." In the Army, he said, "It's pretty bitter."

"The people in the military are mad as hell," said retired Army Col. Robert Killebrew, a frequent Pentagon consultant. He said that the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, should be fired. A spokesman for Myers declined to comment. A Special Forces officer aimed higher, saying that, "Rumsfeld needs to go, as does Wolfowitz."

Asked about such antagonism, Wolfowitz said, "I wish they'd have the -- whatever it takes -- to come tell me to my face."[emphasis added]

I dunno, Paul, it may have something to do with the fact that they're over there fighting, while you sit comfortably behind a desk.

Idiot son update: After spending his first eight months with Serie A also-ran Perugia on the bench, including a three-month stint in the doghouse for failing a drug test, Saadi Ghadafi, son of the Libyan strongman and U.S. ally in the War on Terror, finally made his debut in Italian soccer, playing 15 minutes as a substitute in his team's 1-0 upset victory over Juventus. His coach, Serse Cosmi, explained later that "Gaddafi came on because he is a player and not because any one of us wanted to go into history as the one who first played the son of a head of state in the Italian championship".

I've never been one to compare Bush with Hitler, but his apologists continued use of the line that "if Bush had known about what was happening at Abu Ghraib, he would have stopped it", is really starting to creep me out.

Gore's worst decision:

In his questioning of the panel, Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman contrasted the U.S. response to the abuse scandal and terrorist responses to acts perpetrated against Americans. He noted that American leaders apologized to the Iraqi people for the outrages in Abu Ghraib, but he hasn't heard anyone apologize for the 3,000 Americans killed in the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, or an apology for the hundreds of Americans killed in liberating Iraq or an apology for the killing and desecration of four security persons in Fallujah.

Perhaps he should take that issue up with the President; certainly, the blood of any American killed in Iraq is as much on Lieberman as anyone else in our government. In the meantime, we have to find a primary challenger (or better yet, an independent), who will challenge this asshole in '06.

In the hagiography of Pat Tillman, one of the aspects to the story that the media has focused on is that he enlisted in the Rangers "in the wake of 9/11"; once The Towers fell, he had an epiphany about the relative lack of importance of playing football, and decided to immediately fight for Uncle Sam. Actually, what is much more interesting is that he didn't enlist immediately. Lots of people rallied round the flag after that fateful Tuesday, sang "God Bless America" and put the Stars and Stripes on their car antennas. Tillman, rather than abandoning his teammates, played out the 2001 season, starting every game, and by turning in another quality season, made himself more marketable as a football player. He didn't actually enlist until May, 2002, when he had nine months to think about the ramifications of what he was doing. His was not an emotional decision, but a reasoned one, and in my view a more patriotic act because of it.

Giving credit where it's due: Andrew Sullivan takes on the rightists' attempts to excommunicate John Kerry from the Catholic Church. Unlike my April 24 post on the same subject, which dealt with the anticipated political fallout, his article focuses on those attempting to lobby the Church, and the unsound religious position they put forward.

Beating and torturing prisoners is not "the America he knows"? Didn't Bush used to be the governor of Texas? Also, good move not going on Al Jazeera; the last thing you want to do is appear on an independent Arab-language station that people actually watch. Those who get suckered by a politician's faux-religiosity are already going to vote for Bush, so why bother with this P.R. stunt if you aren't going to make an appeal to at least some of the people turned off by the revelations of the past week.

What Chalabi Wrought:

In the popular political imagination we're familiar with the neocons as conniving militarists, masters of intrigue and cabals, graspers for the oil supplies of the world, and all the rest. But here we have them in what I suspect is the truest light: as college kid rubes who head out for a weekend in Vegas, get scammed out of their money by a two-bit hustler on the first night and then get played for fools by a couple hookers who leave them naked and handcuffed to their hotel beds. [link mine]

--Joshua Marshall

NaziPundit grows tired of the 14th Amendment, waxes poetically on the benefits of racial profiling. [link via Media Matter] I suppose this story would warm Ilsa's heart, though.

For the duration of the de facto NBA Finals, Matt Yglesias' smug, toxic Lakerphobic site is banned from my blogroll, to be replaced by the wise, sensible analysis of Roger L. Simon. Kobe Akbar !!

Two important stories of note: Josh Marshall, on the increasingly suspicious role that Ahmed Chalabi is playing in the alleged "Oil-for-Food" scandal, and this L.A. Times scoop, on Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds' purchase of a new home in a gated Beverly Hills community. No word yet on who brokered the sale.

Another perspective on the maltreatment of Iraqi POW's, by Sgt. Stryker. Regarding the excuse made by the staff sergeant in charge of the prison, he writes:

[H]e says that he and the others received no formal Geneva Convention training, which would've instructed them that stacking a bunch of naked men in a pyramid and posing for a trophy picture are inappropriate. I mean, until I was trained in LOAC, I thought I could just walk around shooting people at random if the whim caught me. Without that invaluable training, I'd have no idea that there indeed exist basic standards of human decency. Who knew?

Link via Matt Welch

When any war goes out of control, stories like this one, from the Guardian, are inevitable:

Graphic photographs showing the torture and sexual abuse of Iraqi prisoners in a US-run prison outside Baghdad emerged yesterday from a military inquiry which has left six soldiers facing a possible court martial and a general under investigation. The scandal has also brought to light the growing and largely unregulated role of private contractors in the interrogation of detainees. According to lawyers for some of the soldiers, they claimed to be acting in part under the instruction of mercenary interrogators hired by the Pentagon.

(snip)

The US army confirmed that the general in charge of Abu Ghraib jail is facing disciplinary measures and that six low-ranking soldiers have been charged with abusing and sexually humiliating detainees. Lawyers for the soldiers argue they are being made scapegoats for a rogue military prison system in which mercenaries give orders without legal accountability.

A military report into the Abu Ghraib case - parts of which were made available to the Guardian - makes it clear that private contractors were supervising interrogations in the prison, which was notorious for torture and executions under Saddam Hussein. One civilian contractor was accused of raping a young male prisoner but has not been charged because military law has no jurisdiction over him.

It should also be noted that the Senate today approved the nomination of former death squad enabler John Negroponte as Ambassador to Iraq.

I wish I could write like Tina Brown:

There was a surreal moment at a serious Manhattan dinner party Tuesday night when 12 power players who had all been talking at once about the mess in Iraq suddenly fell silent to listen to the waiter. He dove in shortly after he had served the coconut cake with lemon dessert -- perhaps to give moral support to the only Republican present, who was beginning to flag. Or perhaps he just thought it might be helpful for the guests to hear from one of the Ordinary Americans whose unhappiness with the status quo they are in the habit of earnestly invoking.

"I'm from the suburbs," he announced, "and I'm voting for Bush."

Nothing captures the atmosphere of a "serious Manhattan dinner party" like an anecdote about "Coconut cake with lemon dessert".

An inspiring story about living the San Fernando Valley dream.

The world's stupidest flag design...c'mon, powder blue and gold?

Smythe Jumps the Shark: Since I started my blog, I've tried to steer my own course, for the most part staying away from issues that I had little interest in, and/or had little in the way of expertise. Since I'm not a reporter by profession, I tend not to be obsessed with the political bias, whether it be right or left, of the media. I don't "fisk" other writers, since that is so 9/12, and I have another blog where I can discuss sports, if I wanted to. My opinion on Iraq is simple: the Administration (particularly the Veep) exaggerated the threat from Saddam, didn't have the slightest idea what we were getting into, and hundreds of American soldiers (and, no doubt, thousands of Iraqi civilians) are now dead. Also, Saddam was a bad man, it was a good idea to keep a close watch on him, regardless of whether we went to war, and it is going to benefit the Iraqi people in the long run to be rid of him.

There are only so many ways you can write those opinions before you glaze over the eyes of your readers, and it's so much easier to troll your views elsewhere, where they will be read by a larger audience. Some things, though, I am compelled by reputation to expound on, regardless of the general interest my readers may have. For example, I will always post about any halfway interesting night at Joxer Daly's; Smythe's World, in fact, is the de facto website for the bar, even though I'm not a regular there anymore. Political polling fascinates me, so any shift in the horse race numbers will receive my attention. Jose Offerman has been my favorite athlete since he was making several dozen errors a year at Albuquerque (I've always had a soft spot for despised athletes, like Sonny Liston and Ryan Leaf, but Offy is special, since he has always handled the malice from sportwriters and fans alike with class and dignity), so any news stories involving him will surely get noticed. And naturally, if something happens in the area of law I practice, bankruptcy, I will avail myself of the opportunity to rant.

And of course, there's Phoebe Nicholls. Ms. Nicholls, for those of you who do not have intimate knowledge of the British theatrical scene, is a mid-fiftyish English character actress. She was quite beautiful during her ingenue period back in the day, and even today she's not hard on the eyes, but her uniqueness derives from the spellbinding effect her voice has on an audience. Quite simply, it is the most captivating voice possessed by an actor since the late George Sanders; today, only John Malkovich is comparable. And like those actors, she invariably portrays rather elegant characters who deserve to be taken down a peg or two (that is, when she's not portraying another specialty of hers, that of "bereaving mother". It's safe to say that the former are a heck of a lot more fun to watch).

Almost all of her work is done on British television or on stage, and she's only acted in a handful of films (none released since 1997), so Americans rarely have the chance to see her perform. I've followed her career since her disembodied voice concluded The Elephant Man in 1980, and her most famous role was that of the youngest sister of Sebastian Flyte in Brideshead Revisited the following year. The sheer fact that she has worked regularly (and, for the most part, reviewed favorably) since then, without becoming a household name even in her home country, is a testament to a quality I generally admire in a person, a commitment to craft beyond any pecuniary benefits that may arise out of it.

Which brings me to Prime Suspect 6 [part two], which ran on your local PBS station last night. She had only two brief scenes, playing the frumpishly malevolent spook who attempts to shut down Inspector Tennison's investigation into the Serbian war criminal she's protecting. She played the part perfectly, creating one of the most sinister TV characters since The Cigarette Man, conveying more with a resigned shrug than Gwyneth Paltrow does with one of her patented line-readings. In particular, her final scene conveyed a sense of power and contempt even after she had been out-smarted by the heroine, all without uttering a word. It gets replayed again on PBS next weekend, so watch out for it if you missed it the first time. And by all means, remember the name; it wouldn't surprise me in the least if she turns out to be another Judi Dench, an actress whose fame and notoriety in this country are achieved after middle age.

UPDATE: Jose Offerman has now been cut by three teams in the last two years, and spent the entire 2006 season with the New York Mets AAA team in Tidewater. In August, 2007, he was charged with assault after he charged the mound in a minor league game with a baseball bat (he subsequently plead guilty, and agreed to probation), and was suspended indefinitely. Showing up two years later managing in the Dominican Winter League, Offerman proved the early incident was no fluke by meriting a lifetime suspension for attempting to punch an umpire.

Phoebe Nicholls has rebooted her career in recent years by excelling on the West End, starring in a number of well-received plays and winning some long-overdue awards.

*However, her American fans were recently victimized by a cruel hoax when the IMDB website listed her as performing in the TV series CSI: Miami. In fact, the producers of the show merely created a character named "Phoebe Nichols" (with only one "l", so the audience wouldn't be confused with the real-life actress), a Britney Spearsian singer who is thought to have exploded in flames at the beginning of the show, only for the deceased to have been a doppleganger. I hope my blogmuse was well-paid for the indignity.

Religion of Peace? One of the dittohead talk radio hosts has called for the extermination of all Muslims, proving that rancid bigotry and skinhead sentiments are not simply the preserve of LGF.

Is there anything more idiotic for the GOP to do than to question John Kerry's war record? Last week, they demanded that he release his full war record, which he did, revealing a man of courage and bravery. Now, they are bringing up his anti-war positions after he came back, probably not the wisest course of action considering that a) 30 years after the fact, Vietnam is a not a popular cause, even in Red America, and b) the similarities between Vietnam in 1971 and the Middle East, 2004 become more and more acute. Even the dispute concerning whether or not he ever claimed to have discarded his combat medals in 1971 (the interview in question is unclear as to whether he was referring to his medals or the medals of other soldiers) only reminds the public that he won medals in the first place, at a time when most of his adversaries had "other priorities". Kerry should do whatever he can to ensure that this story stays on the front page for as long as he can, even if it means dissembling, stonewalling, prevaricating, or just plain flip-flopping; the comparison between the brave patrician warrior and the president for whom truth is a flexible concept can only benefit the challenger.

UPDATE: The ABC news producer who broke the story, Chris Vlasto, is well-known for his far-right connections. In 1994, he acted as an emissary from Ken Starr to lobby both James and Susan McDougal to cooperate with his inquisition. In 1995, he produced a report on ABC that accused Hillary Clinton of perjury, based largely on a doctored video clip of the First Lady. In 1998, he threw a celebratory party for Paula Jones and her attorneys after Bill Clinton was forced to testify before the Lewinsky Grand Jury. In October, 2001, he produced a report that claimed a connection between Saddam and the anthrax attacks on Senator Daschle, et al., as well as being one of the first journalists to detail a link between Muhammed Atta and the government of Iraq; both allegations were subsequently discredited. More recently, Vlasto ran a misleading report suggesting that Howard Dean had covered-up incidents of alleged domestic abuse by one of the state troopers protecting him; it was repudiated as "slime" and denounced by those denizens of the far left, Andrew Sullivan and John Ellis. And now comes word that the tape itself was made by the Nixon Administration, which viewed Kerry as an "enemy". Despicable.

UPDATE [2]: The speed by which the Kerry campaign was able to shift the focus off of the medal controversy and back onto the missing Bush TANG records was breathtaking, almost Clintonian in its subtle political skillfulness. He might just win this election yet....

Busy, busy day. Got up early, went to a "book festival" at UCLA sponsored by the local paper of record, found out more about the cultural importance of Las Vegas than I needed to know (also, that Kelly Lange looks "younger" now than she did when I was in high school, thanks to plastic surgery), received a tip about either firing a gun (or lighting a joint[?]) whenever I had writer's block when drafting a screenplay, then checked out the second half of the Laker game...Kobe Akbar !!!

I can't imagine Cardinal Arinze's edict being anything other than a huge political break for John Kerry, and a non-starter for the Roman Catholic Church. In his passionate defense of the Church, Why I Am a Catholic, Garry Wills notes that for much of American history, the Roman Catholic Church officially opposed the Constitutional doctrine of the separation of church and state; instead, the Church held that it was the only true religion of state, that "error had no rights" and that toleration of Protestantism or Judaism was not permitted in Catholic dogma. This lasted until the late-50's, when John F. Kennedy's nascent campaign for the Presidency brought to the forefront the internal debates within the Church about its proper role in the modern, democratic world.

Kennedy, remembering the anti-Catholic bigotry that sank Al Smith's Presidential campaign in 1928, took great pains to disavow any notion that he would be the Pope's servant in the White House, and in a famous speech in Houston, shamed the Protestant majority into acknowledging the patriotism of American Roman Catholics. Kennedy shrewdly realized that his independence from the Church was not only necessary to winning the Presidency, it was a stance that had no downside with rank-and-file Catholic laity, who had grown increasingly distant from the reactionary policies of Rome. Not wanting to torpedo JFK's candidacy, the Church was forced to accept the doctrine of church-state separation, and the assumption of John XXIII to the papacy further accelerated efforts at reform which culminated in the Second Vatican Council in 1962 (Wills, pp. 214-221).

Now, a second JFK is being challenged to restate his position on the separation of church and state. Cardinal Arinze's trial balloon has no official standing as Church dogma, so American bishoprics will continue to remain divided on permitting dissenters to receive the Eucharist. Any further action to impose sanctions on pro-choice Catholic politicians will prove to be ineffectual, and may do more than a thousand attack-ads to reverse the perception that Kerry's views are malleable. A candidate who would seemingly risk excommunication in order to remain true to his principles would certainly be viewed as a formidable political force, one not to be underestimated, and certainly not one whose toughness to deal with terrorists could be challenged. So if Rome wants to press this issue further, I say, "Bring it on !!"

Dr. J gives Friends the warm, loving tribute it deserves.

The tinfoil-hat-wearing brigade, when they aren't making dark allusions to John Kerry "faking" his injuries during the Vietnam War, are now obsessed with the so-called "oil for food" scandal involving the U.N. While it does seem obvious that Saddam profited rather handsomely from the foreign aid that trickled into Iraq after the first Gulf War (surprise, surprise), conspiracy theorists who see the U.N. as a satanic front are using documents "uncovered" within the Iraqi Oil Ministry as evidence that the entire Security Council (save the U.S. and U.K.) was on the take. I suppose I would take this "scandal" more seriously if I didn't see the fingerprints of the Iraqi Governing Council and Ahmed Chalabi all over this. Forged documents implicating the enemy de jour have been abundant since we pulled the statue of Saddam down last year, and it's not as if baksheesh is all that unusual in the Middle East. I mean, when was the last time a Likud Prime Minister wasn't on the take?

In short, the "oil for food scandal" is a desperate attempt to shift the blame for the debacle now occurring in Iraq from the incompetents who started the war to those countries that refused to buy into our rationale. It isn't France's fault that Paul Wolfowitz is a clueless putz, and Russia is not to blame for the chickenhawk's great adventure into oblivion.

Pat Tillman, R.I.P. No one can say that he was just a cheering from the sidelines.

The person whom Meryl Streep says she patterned her character after in the upcoming remake of The Manchurian Candidate, Peggy "the Dolphin Queen" Noonan, has written another one of her fellative tributes to God's Holy Warrior. I guess it's one thing to feign surprise that Bush's approval ratings did not immediately plunge as a result of the setbacks at home and abroad the past two weeks; after all, Jimmy Carter's approval ratings soared after the hostages were taken in Tehran in 1979, and again after the failed rescue attempt in the desert in 1980. The immediate instinct of the public is to rally behind the leader when bad news hits. It's quite another to claim that President Bush is a "popular" president, liked and admired by "the people". His approval ratings are between 47 and 52 percent, hardly the marks of a beloved leader (and about ten points below Bill Clinton's the day he was impeached), and the most recent polling shows him anywhere from five points up to four points down against Kerry. He might still win reelection, but "the people" barely tolerate him.

A new poll in the LA Times shows Kerry with a commanding 12-point lead over the President in California. Since Gore defeated Bush by 13 points in this state last time out, the Times poll is in line with national polling that shows a dead-even race. After everything that has happened the last three years, the political dynamic doesn't seem to have changed a whole lot.

The "Sakharov of Israel", Mordechai Vanunu, was released from prison this morning, eighteen years after he had been kidnapped in Rome by the Israeli Secret Service. Vanunu, who spent much of his time in prison being held in solitary confinement, was convicted of "treason" in 1985 in a secret trial for detailing that nation's nuclear secrets (and lack of security over same) to the Times of London. Upon release, Vanunu immediately defied the gag order that had been imposed on him as a condition of his release (another condition, btw, forbids him from accessing the internet, so don't hold your breath waiting for the VanunuBlog), renewing his attack on Israel's nuclear program. Mazel tov !!

Nothing says "freedom" in Iraq like the Second Amendment.

The Bush Serenity Prayer, as told by Neal Pollack:

Heavenly Father, give me the power to try to change what I cannot, and to not change what I can. Give me the strength to believe what is obviously false. And grant me the lack of wisdom not to know the difference.

Two new polls are out showing Ralph Nader with between 4-6% of the vote if the election were held today, turning a dead-even race into a Bush win. I don't pretend to be an insider, but I'm quite sure that almost nobody believes he will attain that level, particularly since he got only 2.7% of the vote last time, when he was on the ballot in almost every state, running at the head of a legitimate (albeit minor) political party, and still possessing a positive reputation with the public. Frankly, I'd be surprised if he topped one percent in November (Pat Buchanan, who was on the ballot in every state in 2000, got less than half a percent), and any pollster that continues to treat him seriously is committing malpractice.

As Prof. J. reminds us, this will not be the first Presidential election at risk from the threat of terrorist thugs....

George Bush got a lot of mileage in the mid-term elections by attacking Democrats who opposed his version of the legislation creating the Dept. of Homeland Security because it didn't contain labor protections for employees of the new department. It was a cynical maneuver; as we have learned from the Kean Commission, the mistakes that led to 9/11 resulted from policy neglect, particularly from the Bush Administration, and not because of lax overtime standards in the Defense Department. As a matter of policy, though, it was also a shortsighted attack, since it is precisely those occupations where organized labor is still strong, such as the police, that often have the best view as to our vulnerabilities to a terrorist attack.

One particularly important union in any effort to stop terrorism is the ILWU, representing longshoremen and maritime workers. While the attack on September 11 has us increasingly focused on attacks from the sky, it is no less important that we be vigilant elsewhere, especially in our nation's ports. This letter, sent last month from ILWU President James Spinosa to the Director of Port Security for the D.H.S., chillingly details the complete failure of port operators to implement basic security measures mandated by the government. Even more disturbing has been the lack of response by the DHS; apparently, trying to enforce regulations against private companies violates the political credo of this administration, while bashing unions remains par for the course.

The long-awaited return of Prime Suspect will air tomorrow on your local PBS affiliate, going head-to-head with The Sopranos, Alias, 24 (preempted Tuesday because of Bush's press conference), and State of Play (on BBC America). And they all start at 9:00 p.m. !! This may be the Greatest Single Night in the history of the boobtube (ironically, it is also the start of TV Turn-Off Week), and it would take two TIVO subscriptions to capture it all. Her appearance, however, will not be until next week's episode.

I think we can safely say that Kobe has been forgiven for Sunday.

Mention "Nagano" to an American hockey fan, and they will as likely as not refer to a team that pillaged through the Olympic village en route to ignominy. Say the word to a Canadian, and they will sadly remember the Gretzky/Sakic/Roy-led Dream Team that came home without a medal. But if you say the word to a Czech fan, will they think, "opera"? Matt Welch informs us over at Hit & Run that a production based on the Czech Republic's gold medal winning team has debuted recently in Prague, to the delight and consternation of high, middle and low-brow alike. LA Kings fans might be interested that the protagonist of the piece is "Milan Hnilicka", whose real-life counterpart currently tends goal for the team's minor league affiliate.

Hard to believe the next football season is only five months away....

Just two weeks after its debut, Air America has been pulled from the airwaves in L.A. and Chicago due to a legal dispute with its radio "landlord" (actually, the company which allows it to use its spectrum). Listeners in sunny California who tuned in this morning expecting to hear Al Franken's take on last night's press conference instead got something akin to Spanish language Christian radio. Anyways, Air America Radio has filed for a temporary restraining order, here.

I don't care what political views you hold or what party you belong to, anyone who was not thoroughly depressed by the stumbling, incoherent performance of the President tonight is missing a heart. His pre-9/11 actions have been in the spotlight recently, but this evening's almost surreal outing in prime-time showed that he's still the same clueless hack that he was when he took office. It was the most embarassing effort by a political figure since Dan Quayle debated Lloyd Bentsen.

But tonight there was a feeling of melancholia, a sense that he was just going through the motions. Regardless of how one might feel about the 2000 election or about George Bush as a person, I'm sure there was a time, possibly on the day he was sworn in, when he dreamed of greatness, that he could be another Lincoln, another FDR, someone who would make a difference in the lives of his countryman in a positive way. It's safe to say that's not going to happen, and he knows it. He has spent a large chunk of money in the last two months, against an opponent who has either been convalescing or on vacation, and he has barely nudged the polls. His wartime stewardship has come under question, his lackadaisacal approach to terrorism before 9/11 (something that we can all plead guilty to, by the way) is under withering assault, and now the press and public can barely contain their laughter at the fact that he can't go before his own commission without having his Vice President hold his hand.

The obvious historical analogy is with Warren Harding. Also a late bloomer, with modest political aspirations at first, Harding could be a little prick, too, but he also had this almost puppy-dog desire to be "one of the boys". Like Bush, he didn't have the heart to fire any of the incompetents in his retinue, and it drove him to an early grave.

After tonight, it wouldn't surprise me if Bush decided he didn't want any of this anymore; that the "war on terror" took precedent over his own ambitions, and that rather than face the distraction of having to campaign for reelection while all hell is breaking loose in the Middle East, he would focus his energy on "staying the course" in Iraq, and not seek a second term. He would look statesmanlike, could hand-pick the GOP nominee before the convention, and the election could be a referendum on his policies without the distortion of his contentious personality. Then he could retire to his "ranch", and hope that, in time, the American people would look back and remember what it was they liked about him, and perhaps forget his ineptitude in dealing with the economy, the runaway deficits, the ineffectual strikes against Al Qaeda, and the ongoing debacle in Iraq. Even now, he can still do some good.

The Day After: Bush's reaction to the August 6 briefing.

Now that Barry Bonds has caught him on the all-time home run list, I thought now would be as good a time as any to post this tribute to the Say-Hey Kid, by the late actress and raconteur, Tallulah Bankhead.

Local legend Marc Cooper has started a blog, and he has an hilarious yet smug take on the official website of Our Favorite Shiite, the Ayatollah Sistani. This type of snark is a key reason the left gets wiped out in that half of the country that still believes in creationism, et al., and it's probably not a good idea to send insulting e-mail to one of our only remaining friends in Iraq, but still...if I have to give up certain practices because they are Makrooh, then the terrorists will have won.

Howard Owens has a nice encapsulation of what-I-did-last-night, here. Little to add, except that the League Fathers of arena football might consider adding a little defense to the sport; it was easier to score than at an SC sorority mixer.