Graffiti Quote of the Day

"Repent - The End Is Extremely Fucking Nigh"


- scrawled in blood on the walls of a church in an ominously deserted London, in "28 Days Later", the latest film from Danny Boyle (director of "Trainspotting") and screenwriter Alex Garland (who wrote the far-superior novel version of "The Beach").

This is the scariest English-language horror film I've seen in YEARS.

And I see alot of horror films.

The Japanese film "Ringu" is still, far and away, the scariest movie I've ever seen, but "28 Days Later" is definitely in the ballpark. Moreover, unlike "Ringu" (which was just remade for American audiences as "The Ring"), this film wants to do a little more than just scare you.

Can I also say, it also features Naomi Harris as the most ruthless, ass-kicking sista I think I've ever seen on film. I mean, there is a scene with her and a machete that has to be seen to be believed.

Go see it.

Right now.

"You've Got The Power!"
Howard Dean's presidential candidacy announcement speech from this past Monday. Good stuff.

I find myself reminded of a line from JFK: "This is not the America I was born in, and it's certainly not the America I want to die in." Now, to be perfectly honest, I grew up during Reaganomics, so, sadly, this really is the America I was born in, but for eight years, I had a glimpse of a better one. Dean seems to at least have the conviction to bring that one back.

In Darkest Night
Many of you may not know who Alan Moore is. But, if you've seen either the movie "From Hell" or plan to seeSean Connery's "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen", you've seen the remnants of his handiwork. Starting with "Swamp Thing" back in the mid 80's, Moore is one of the most prolific and influential comic book writers in the world, including books like "V for Vendetta", "Promethea", the vastly superior original graphic novels for the two movies listed above, and, of course, his definitive work, "Watchmen".

At the height of his Watchmen-spawne popularity, Moore pitched the attached story idea to DC Comics as a sort of Ragnarok for the Justice League of America, and it was promptly rejected, contributing, in part, to his long estrangement from the publisher. While it probably would have been a little too intense 17 years ago, it makes for a great read today. If you don't know much about comic book continuity, just remember one thing as you read it: Martians are shape shifters and they're afraid of fire.

Enjoy.

The Capitalist versus The Aristocrat
Slate magazine caught this really interesting speech that Senator John Edwards gave last week. In it, Edwards says that, by seeking to eliminate virtually all taxes on so-called "unearned" income, like capital gains, dividends, and inheritance, President Bush has demonstrated that he feels the burden of running the country (demonstrated by paying taxes) should only be shouldered by those who actually work. In other words, there is a threshold of wealth that, once you surpass it, you are no longer responsible or accountable for providing for the nation, you only need reap the benefits. To Edwards, this is not conservativism, or even capitalism, but a cleverly disguised form of radicalism that has the potential to create an economic caste system in this country.

Edwards is, in essence, calling Bush a feudalist.

Incindiary stuff.

Deals With The Devil
According to the Asian Times, as the anti-American guerilla war has escalated in Afghanistan, coalition forces have quietly begun a dialogue with The Taliban-

Excuse me. Let me say that again.

The United States of of America
is negotiating
with
The Taliban.

-to give them a hand in maintaining and restoring order. And, not surprisingly, Mullah Omar and the boys are playing hard to get.

See, this is what happens when you're willing to do anything to achieve your ends: You end up in bed with anybody.

Revisionist History
Remember former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney? The official story is that she accused President Bush on the floor of the House of Representatives of having prior knowledge of the 9/11 attacks and doing nothing to stop them so he could enrich his corporate masters. Rep. McKinney was lambasted in the press for being a conspiracy nut and she was promptly defeated for re-election in 2002.

The problem with this story, according to Greg Palast, is that there is no evidence of any such statement by Rep. McKinney in the Congressional Record. Anywhere.

What she DID ask, however, was why had the White House discouraged the FBI from investigating links between the Saudi royal family and an Islamic youth group that was suspected of being a front for Al Qaeda in the months BEFORE September 11, 2001? Rep. McKinney had also been poking around into the particulars of race-based election fraud during the 2000 Presidential Race. She'd also been asking questions regarding George H.W. Bush's business dealings.

Check the article. It just gets better and better.

Fading Light
So, The American Film Institute is my most recent alma mater ("Old Nassau" and the Gilman School notwithstanding). And, as much affection that I have and as much gratitude as I feel towards that institution, I must agree with this commentary from Patrick Goldstein in the L.A. Times that AFI does seem to have lost it's way in recent years. By losing it's tether to the National Endowment for the Arts, AFI seems really to be in danger of losing itself in the blinding light of celebrity worship instead of fulfilling its stated mission of promoting and celebrating the art of moviemaking in America.

Storytelling matters.

Not just who tells those stories, but HOW those stories are told, and WHY they are told. This is why we need places like AFI. Someone needs to make a point of remembering "how" and "why" for civilization to move forward. Otherwise, we simply undergo the same lessons over and over and over again.

The Hate That Hate Made
Hamas is a terrorist organization.

And, regardless of what you may think of the policies of the Israeli government, it doesn't change the fact that Hamas is directly responsible for the murder of hundreds if innocent Israeli civilians and has done more than their share to propagate a culture of death in the Middle East by recruiting, arming, supporting, and celebrating suicide bombers.

However, comparisons between Hamas and Al Qaeda are extremely limited. for one thing, Al Qaeda doesn't run any schools. They don't feed the hungry or give shelter to the homeless. In many ways, Hamas is a twisted, nightmare version of what the Black Panther Party could have become if things had gone down only slightly differently here in the United States. Which makes them a particularly nasty obstacle to peace in the region. After all they've done for the people, they probably have more legitimacy than Abbas and the Palestinian Authority in many circles. And Hamas has stated repeatedly that their mission isn't complete until they've pushed the Israelis completely off their land and into the Mediterranean, if necessary.

Originally, I was for the idea of sending in US troops or UN peacekeepers or somebody with a little more muscle than the Palestinian Authority to deal with Hamas, but, in retrospect, that could turn into the Tet Offensive overnight. Now, I'm not sure. Which, I suppose, puts me in good company.

Here's something from the International Herald Tribune that expounds upon the schizoid history of Hamas.

Next In Line?
Grant did it. Ike did it. Can Wesley Clark, former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO & Rhodes Scholar, follow in their footsteps to the White House? Frankly, if this guy runs, he's instantly a threat to the President because NO ONE can trump his foreign policy credentials. He's someone who can speak with authority about what Bush is not doing to keep this country safe.

So, for those of you keeping score, the candidates to watch, IMHO, are Dean, Edwards, and, if he gets into it, Clark.

And these people keep talking about the junior senator from New York. They need to let it go. If you think Bush/Gore was divisive, Clinton/Bush II would be a bloodbath. It would literally rip the country in half. She's not that stupid. There are better ways for her to undermine the Bush agenda.

Ghosts of Impeachments Past
A guy who's no stranger to Presidential malfeasance, former Nixon staffer John Dean suggests that, if Clinton can get impeached for lying about some illicit fellatio, and Tricky Dick can nearly get impeached for lying about election tampering, then maybe, just maybe, lying to justify invading and conquering a sovereign nation might be worth a look.

The problem with this, of course, is that none of Bush's statements were made under oath. And lying to the American people, while bad, probably isn't illegal, strictly speaking. If, on the other hand, someone could demonstrate that there was some sort of illicit link between the corporations that got free contracts in Iraq and Bush's drive to war, then we might be on to something.

Like Father, Like Son
In what has to be a first in modern American history, President Bush has managed to steer the economy into the highest rate of unemployment since his father was in office, pretty much erasing all the jobs that Bill Clinton helped to create during the intervening decade.

Way to go, W.

"Bastards!!!"
Hans Blix curses the Pentagon for sullying his good name in the march to war. You tell 'em, Sweden!

Unloaded
The national censorship board in Egypt has banned The Matrix Reloaded for fear that it's quasi-religious explorations into the nature of creation, existance, and free will may, in their words, "cause a crisis" in the public. They apparently don't seem to realize that the people who may have their fragile grip on reality shattered by the Wachowski's flick will only see this act of censorship as control put in place by malevolent sentient programs designed to keep the populace docile while leaching off their bioelectric energy. Some people.

Picking Up The Pieces
So, imagine for a moment, that Todd Beamer & Co. had failed in their bid to crash United Airlines Flight 93 into a deserted field on the morning of September 11, 2001. Reports differ on whether the intended target was the White House or The Capitol Building.

Well, my well-known bias against the current Chief Executive aside, crashing into the Capitol would be far, far more damaging to this country. Consider this: Assuming the President & Vice President were cooling their heels, kicking back a few pretzels in the Oval Office mere seconds before being vaporized by a divebombing jumbo jet, the Constitution is designed so that a new Commander-in-Chief can be quickly sworn in and put in charge ("welcome to the White House, President Hastert."). Quick and easy.

If, however, fire from the sky reduced the Senate & the House of Representatives to a pile of ashes, who replaces them? The Senate seats can be filled by an appointment from the governors of their respective states, but there is no such provision for the House. Special elections will take months to establish, and the Constitution, while vague on what actually constitutes a quorum, requires that one exist before the House can act. Did I mention that Congress is the only Federal body that can declare war, let alone appropriate money and pass laws?

Chaos, my friends. And heaven forbid somebody nukes an inauguration, decapitating the entire Federal government.

Here's an essay from The Atlantic Monthly on some folks who are trying to cover our collective rear ends in the event of a Congressional slaughter.

Apollo Creed. Clubber Lang. Ivan Drago. Tommy Gunn. Suge Knight?!?!?!?!?
People forget that Sylvester Stallone has an Oscar. I was a little surprised myself to learn that he wrote the original "Rocky" and took home the little gold man for that achievement. I guess amnesia from the moviegoing public is to be expected after "Rocky V", huh?

But, I am EXTREMELY impressed to hear that he's now getting back into the director's chair to make a film that explores the myriad of stories to be told behind the murders of 2Pac and the Notorious B.I.G. Stallone will play real-life L.A.P.D. Detective Russell Poole and use his character in much the same manner that Oliver Stone used New Orleans D.A. Jim Garrison to tell multiple perspectives of the Kennedy assassination in JFK.

Rumor has it that Sly is even talking to Suge Knight about playing himself in the movie.

What stones. I hope it actually sees the light of day.

Wankstas
This great article from the Village Voice talks about the relationship between gangster rap and the realities of disenfranchised Black men. Here, the author points out that, at least during the heyday of NWA and Co., there was a legitimate crack epidemic and commensurate warfare between rival dealers who saw drug dealing as their only means of achieving the materialist American Dream. But, 10 years later, true crackheads are few & far between, and most disenfranchised brothers are more likely to be dodging child support then bullets. But deadbeat dads are harder to sell to rich white teens who dream of being Black & Cool then the drug dealing cowboy descendents of Nino Brown. Hence, 50 Cent's emergence as the vanguard of the Neo-Gangstas, shrink-wrapped and presold to the MTV audience as the "real thing", while probably outnumbering their real-world counterparts.

On a side note, this also reminds me how much these terms have lost their meaning over the years. "Thug" and "Gangster" used to be a way of indicating that someone had made certain choices in their lives in terms of criminal activities, ruthlessness, social rejection. Today, when bubbble-gum rappers like Ja Rule and Fabulous can call themselves thugs with a straight face, these terms have now devolved into ghetto pronouns, the santized moral equivalent of "nigga" and "ho".

And, ignoring cultural hegemony for just a second, as a writer, I desperately miss the King's English. Maybe one day it will all come full-circle.

A picture's worth a thousand words.

I just don't know what this one is saying.

The Opposite of Bush
Did I mention that my enthusiasm for Howard Dean as a Democratic Presidential candidate grows on a daily basis? Here's another article, this time from New York magazine, that gives some insight into the fomer Vermont Governor's home life. Note the oddly parallel, yet divergent path his life has followed relative to George W. Bush.
Good patrician vs. bad patrician.

Governor Dean (or, "Dr. Dean", if you prefer) will formally announce his candidacy and outline his vision for the country on June 23rd.

For his sake, I hope he talks alot about foreign policy. These days, the majority of the country doesn't seem to really care about anything else.

"Here's ANOTHER fine mess you've gotten me into!!!"
Step One: Assign Blame.

Now that it's becoming more and more apparent that President Bush & Co. manipulated and exaggerated intelligence reports to justify conquering Iraq, the neo-cons have turned to their favorite whipping boy, William Jefferson Clinton, to get them out of this fix. In this article from the L.A. Times, Pentagon officials are now saying that they were simply following the intelligence laid out by Slick Willy's administration.

OK, beyond the fact that this is inching dangerously close to the Nuremberg defense, riddle me this, Batman: Why would anyone start a war over intelligence briefings that are at least two years old from a different President? Is that just bureaucratic laziness?

"It's The Oil, Stupid!"
You know what I love about The Right? They're usually so arrogant that, even when they try to hide the whack things that they've done, they just can't help but brag about it in public.

In the latest case of "Bond Villain Syndrome" from the Bush Administration, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz basically admits that US invaded Iraq and not North Korea because Iraq is "swimming in oil". In a press conference, no less.

Kill The Messenger
In the beginning of the year, when Colin Powell went to the UN to present the case for invading Iraq, I remember thinking several things. The first, how can government officials from various Security Council member nations look at identical intelligence briefings and come up with wildly different conclusions? The fact that this intelligence seems so open to interpretation in and of itself calls it's usefulness as a justification for war into question. Then, I thought, if the US has better info that they're letting on, what possible reason could they have for sitting on it? And lastly, as a tuned in briefly to what Powell was actually saying, I thought "God, isn't he using evidence that was gathered from Iraq ten years ago, before the first batch of UN inspectors went in?"

Well, now it sounds like the Pentagon (i.e. Don Rumsfeld) pushed him to use even shakier intelligence to support the case for war. The fact that Powell merely laments this after the fact brings me back to that whole Harry Belafonte debate from last fall. If you believe in certain things, how can you be a willing participant in the propagation of lies that will cost American and Iraqi lives? Personally, the fact that Powell is Secretary of State matters less to me as time goes on and he demonstrates the content of his character through his association with Bush.

"Role model"? Don't make me laugh.