Archive for January, 2007

(Tonight’s selections are brought to you courtesy of the Rescue Rangers. SusanG)

Tonight's first 3 diarists engage their readers with original writing and storytelling at its best (--BentLiberal):

• In A girl I know, first-time diarist David R tells a compelling story about the trap of low-income health insurance. (paragraph)
• KAMuston shares some lighthearted speculation on the coming Apocalypse in Doomsday Will Be A Little Early This Year. (paragraph)
• kay dubconfesses in "This is all my fault!" to having been the reason for many lost causes. (ybruti)

If you're a fan of factual, well-written and politically relevant diaries, feast upon these: I know I did.

• NNadir continues to challenge our perception of radioactive things with Profile of "A Dangerous Nuclear Waste:" Cesium Part 2. This is a series worth trying to get your head around. (Unitary Moonbat)
• Daveparts brings up the subject of overpopulation in his thoughtful diary The More Inconvenient Truth. (ybruti)
• Chalmers Johnson on 'Empire v. Democracy' by Rockridge describes the effect of imperial ambitions (like 737 bases in 130 counties) on the U.S. itself. (ybruti)
• PaulVa shines a light on the hypocrisy of executive contracts in Waging Class Warfare Through Double Standards. (nyc in exile)

These next two are no less than informational epics - thoroughly researched and impeccably written.

• eOz walks us through recent political history, from the cruelty of the Regan years to the tyrannical corporatism of the current administration, in his ongoing series Countdown To No Confidence: T-50 Days. (nyc in exile)
• GreyHawk shows GW who really gets to decide in "From the Consent of the Governed." (nyc in exile)

Finally...Carnacki picks up where GreyHawk left off concerning "who serves whom" followed up by excellent takes on Libertarianism, the recent peace marches, the GAO and the profit motive.

• Carnacki is angry about the Imperial Vice Presidency, and is demanding some answers while reminding us of just who works for who in our ostensibly-democratic arrangement. (Unitary Moonbat)
• First-time diarist Dharmajim has A Libertarian Perspective to tell you about Ð you may not agree with all the author's arguments, but you will have your thoughts provoked. (Unitary Moonbat)
• Another first-timer: astor column presents a nice compilation of links regarding CPL Josh Sparling: Pics of him at the Demo w/Freepers, and proceeds to spit Michelle Malkin's latest cause for rabid indignation back in her face. (Unitary Moonbat)
• In GAO provides critical oversight questions in Iraq Security Report the Governmental Accountability Office (GAO) has recently put a number on the cost of the Iraq War, as well as issued a statement that "Future Iraq Costs are Likely to be Condiderable". phreephallin believes that these costs predict disaster for the President's surge plan.(vcmvo2)
• Robert Feinman ponders a 21st century less dependent on the profit motive in Goal 16: Develop Non-material Life Goals. Intriguing enough that I may have to go back and read the whole series of goals, despite my B- in economics. (Erika)

Tonight's Rescue Rangers were paragraph, Unitary Moonbat, ybruti, nyc in exile, vcmvo2 and Erika, with BentLiberal as editor.

sardonyx has tonight's Top Comments diary.

Add your favorite diaries from the past 24 hours and use as an open thread.

There was no misquote.

Biden said of the Observer piece: "I believe I was quoted accurately but they weren't meant to take shots."

So much for trying to find a formulation of the quote that didn't make Biden look so terrible.

According to the Boston Globe, Marty Meehan (MA-05) is considering taking a position as chancellor of the University of Massachusetts at Lowell.

The opportunity to become chancellor, however, could pose a difficult choice for Meehan, with Democrats in control of the US House and Senate after a dozen years of Republican rule. Meehan, as the new chairman of the House Armed Services Committee's subcommittee on oversight and investigations, is hiring a new staff and laying the groundwork for investigations and hearings into fraud and abuse in the spending of Iraq reconstruction funds. He is scheduled to lead a delegation of its members to Iraq in mid-February.

On the other hand, Meehan, who leads most other incumbent congressmen with a $4.9 million campaign war chest, saw one of his political ambitions fade last week, when John F. Kerry dropped out of the 2008 presidential race and announced he would seek reelection to his Senate seat, which many members of the delegation had hoped to pursue. There has not been a US Senate vacancy in Massachusetts since 1984.

It seems incomprehensible that someone would leave an important House subcommittee chairship to be chancellor of UMass-Lowell,  but, well, what if?

Remember that Meehan was one of the notable misers of the House back before the elections, when we were trying to get members of Congress without meaningful opponents to give some of their campaign funds to the DCCC so that it could support more candidates and get more Democrats elected to Congress.  At the time he was presumed to be saving his money for a Senate run should Kerry run for president, but that didn't stop Barney Frank, who was believed to have the same ambition and had less cash on hand, from giving 30% of what he did have.

While Meehan is a Democrat and would almost certainly be replaced by a Democrat, therefore, what kind of Democrat he's replaced by could be interesting.  (And hey, special elections are always mid-cycle fun for us junkies, right?)

She was 62.

She was a hell of a lady and this loss is gonna hurt.

Thank you for everything, Molly.  Your words will resonate for years and years.

Use this thread to pay your respects.

Update: Jmonch posted this Texas Observer tribute.  What a smile.

Update 2: Here's the AP story

The following blog post was written between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. …

Like most of America, many of us on the Electronics team love the Fox show "24". Sure, the storylines are over the top and it’s really impossible to believe that so much can happen in the span of a single day. But, Jack Bauer rules. Seriously. The dude is awesome.

Gadget freaks have probably noticed that Jack has some sweet gadgets at his disposal. Turns out many of them are not Hollywood creations, but actual stuff that you can buy.

The good folks at Uncrate recently posted a lengthy feature highlighting a lot of Bauer’s favorite tools of the trade.

Sadly, the PDA with the remote trigger detonation button is not included.

~Chris B., Amazon Current

Sources say that the sex scenes between Sienna and Hayden Christiensen in Factory Girl are so authentic because he’s really putting it in her . No acting here!

“It’s not simulated,” an insider tells us. “They’re really doing it.”

“They spent about a month hanging out,” says one pal of Christensen. “But then she decided she didn’t want a relationship. Hayden was devastated. He really fell for her.”

When it came time to shoot the love scene, word is the former lovers dispensed with the flesh-colored socks and pads favored by actors on less familiar terms. And, once the cameras were rolling, the two 25-year-olds fell into old habits.

Sexy! Even director George Hickenlooper isn’t denying it. At the premiere, he said “no comment” and instructed the reporter to “ask Sienna.” That’s nice. They must have been really going for it. Because I’ve seen Hayden Christiensen act. He can’t. So I doubt he can actually simulate anything. Except a reason for why prequels should never be made.

Filed under: Independent, Sundance, DIY/Filmmaking, Cinematical Indie

The third and final Cinematical video roundtable from the 2007 Sundance Film Festival is more than just a wrap-up of this year’s movies; it’s a pretty rollicking discusion of the Sundance state of the union, with myself as your host, Cinematical Indie Managing Editor Kim Voynar, Rotten Tomatoes Editor Jennifer Yamato and Chicago Tribune Film Critic Michael Phillps; here’s the second installment …

… and the third.

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Filed under: Comedy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Deals, Newsstand, Dreamworks

Just when you thought they had run out of time traveling ideas, comes word that DreamWorks has picked up the sci-fi comedy spec script Gullible’s Travels, written by Open Season scribes Ron Friedman and Steve Bencich. While Marty and Doc used a DeLorian and Bill and Ted accessed the past through a magical phone booth, the main character in Gullible’s Travels — supposedly, the world’s most gullible man — will travel through time via a portable toilet. (Better make sure there’s enough toilet paper, because I’m pretty positive there was none of that extra fluffy stuff back in 1868.)

Story follows our hero as he hops between the future and the past in search of the woman he loves … only just when he thinks he’s found her, he realizes that it’s not his lover, but distant relatives of the woman he’s seeking. On the surface, the plot seems a bit odd — did his girlfriend venture off to take care of business, then suddenly disappear (literally) when she flushed the toilet? And, is he now making it his quest to find her? Why a portable toilet? Are they supposed to be funny … because every portable toilet I’ve encountered has left me with the need to take back-to-back-to-back showers in order to wash the stench of death from off my body?

Friedman and Bencich made a name for themselves by penning animated scripts for Open Season, as well as Brother Bear and Chicken Little, though Gullible’s Travels appears to be heading in the live action direction. And that about wraps it up … for some reason I really need to go to the bathroom right now. Cheers!

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(INF)

Scrub-A-Dub is not feeling Brit’s divorce settlement offer . And he’s blaming it on the kids. Lies.

Kevin Federline turned down a $25 million divorce settlement from the “Oops, I Did It Again” singer, according to Star.

At one point, Federline was reportedly looking for $50 million from his estranged wife and the mother of two of his children — but the source insists it’s not greed — but love of their kids.

“Kevin says that Britney offered him $10 million to walk away from their marriage and to relinquish custody of their kids, but he just laughed. Then she came back with $20 million which he turned down too,” a source told the tab “Now he says she’s offering a whopping $25 million, and that’s her final offer. He told her to take a hike! He loves his two little boys, and there’s no way he’s going to disappear from their lives.”

Call me cynical but I’m sensing it has more to do with a payday then the two trailer chitlins. I mean, how else is this guy going to earn money? Dressing up as a taco and handing out flyers? Stealing car radios?