Humbling Quote of the Day

"Seeing all those people out there, the enormity of it all really struck me. For the first time I realized what it really means to be President of the United States--seeing all those people out there, counting on you."

-Howard Dean, reacting to the 15,000 people who showed up to rally for his Presidential Campaign in Seattle last weekend.

You're Going To Hell

"Your" Going To Hell
I still am not completely convinced this is real, but it's certainly amusing for those of you who are not of the more fundamentalist bent. I'm actually fascinated by the fact that this person spent this much time on the site but registered an incorrectly spelled URL. At any rate, the most bizarre part of the site (other than the Hellraiser-like images) is the fact that really bad MIDI versions of popular songs such as Prodigy's "Firestarter" and Nine Inch Nails' "Closer" play while you find out how to save yourself from the fiery pit.
Be healed, my children.

Electoral College Calculator - version 2.2

College Scores
Here's a nifty little online tool that let's you calculate Presidential election results based on what states you expect your candidate to win. Let the speculation commence.....

I prefer the term "Volunteer" shops, myself
Demonstrating his commitment to cheap labor, the President has outsourced fundraising for his campaign to India.

Where to begin.....

Til Death Do Us Part
As processor speed in computers increase, silicon chips will become more and more obsolete because they'll melt under the increasing heat. So various scientists around the world are working on chips made of studier substances.

Like diamonds.

In fact, according to this Wired article, there are at least two American companies that have successfully grown synthetic 3 carat yellow diamonds in a lab for $100 a pop or less.

And the people at DeBeers are not happy. Not happy at all.

Favorite quote from the son of one of these diamond farmers: "my father's research was a good way to get a bullet in the head".

Red Meat for the Party Regulars
Since Gallup and Zogby aren't a broad enough cross section of the public to truly gage support for the California Recall, Taco Bell has decided to take polling into their own hands.

Let me repeat that: Taco Bell is conducting a poll for the California Recall, based around what kind of tacos sell the most between now and October 7th.

Is there anything I even COULD say about this?

Political Dis of the Day

"We're still focused on defeating question one on the ballot. Question two has become a sideshow with one less clown."

- a spokesman for California Governor Gray Davis, responding to the news that 2002 Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon had dropped out of the recall election.

Ain't Gettin' Any
While recently completing a course of study at Harvard (demonstrating once again why the Crimson can at best hope for a tie with Old Nassau in U.S. News & World Report), Al Franken wrote the letter, linked above, to John Ashcroft. In it, Franken asked the Attorney General to give his first hand accounts of sexual abstinence for Franken's alleged new book, entitled "Savin' It".

Priceless.

Unbecoming Conduct
The inspiration for, at least, the name of the fallen Spirit of America in Micah Wright's Stormwatch: Team Achilles, this site his a clearinghouse for vets, disgruntled soldiers, and their troubled loved ones back home as they try to mobilize in defense of their family and against the flawed plans of the Pentagon. Definitely worth a look-sie.

The Golden State's Forbidden Fruit
I've lived in California for exactly 4 years, as of next week, and I just saw my first orange grove this month. There was a time that millions of crates bearing California fruit where shipped all over the country, marked with a signature style of labels like the ones shown here, with slogans like "Don't Worry", or "Dainty Maid", or, my personal favorite, "Hustler".


Of course, our latest export, political anarchy, might be coming to a polling place near you, so get in on the new vogue. Buy some classic Ah-nold gear at the link abovee and show your support for the new regime.

Quote of the Day

"I'll probably be found dead in the woods."

-British WMD scientist David Kelley, in response to a question posed by an acquaintance in private, regarding the consequences if Iraq was invaded, even after Kelley had personally assured Iraqi officials that they would be safe as long as they complied with UN weapons inspectors.

Six months later, Kelley went missing after walking his dog, days after being fingered as the potential BBC informant who's suggested that Tony Blair's government had exaggerated the Iraq threat.

His body was eventually found with his wrists slashed, in a wooded area near his home.

Burning Bush Quote of the Day

"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image...."

- The Book of Exodus, Chapter 20, Verse 4, King James Bible

One can only hope that Alabama Judge Roy Moore is as committed to the spirit of God's law as he has been to this Ten Commandment monument he had built to display in his courtroom in a blatant violation of the Constitution.

Irony abounds.

The New Republic
There are two very different experiments in direct democracy happening in this country right now.

The first, more hyped, more ill-conceived of the two is the Grand Guignol of Politics we call the California Recall Election, which came into being after paid volunteers worked day and night to get 2% percent of the population to over turn an election that was decided by 8 million voters. Now, 135 candidates have 8 weeks before they appear on a punch card ballot that could be up to 4 pages long and, on that date, even if 49% of the voters support Gov. Davis, a he can be replaced by anyone who's fortunate enough to get just one more vote than his nearest opponent. No majority needed and no run-offs in place. Our new governor could have a mandate from a whopping 5% of the electorate before trying to undo an $8 Billion dollar budget deficit in a legislature that requires a 2/3 majority to raise ANY new taxes.

Alot of numbers, I know. The short answer: a guy with very little political clout could be replaced by a guy with NO political clout or expertise in the midsts of a legislative crisis. And, if Davis is kicked out and replaced by The Terminator or, god forbid, Bill Simon, does anyone think that the Democrats will waste one second to stage their own recall?

The other exercise in direct democracy is Howard Dean's asymetrical political campaign.

As Dean campaign manager Joe Trippi describes in this interview, Meetup.com and Dean's Blog For America have created an environment where a politician can have a direct line of communication with his consituents, and where both Dean and his supporters assume responsibility for his campaign.

Case in point: one of the ideas yours truly suggested on Blog for America was a series of Dean tailgate parties. If you assume that the vast majority of the population isn't interested in the politics that effects their daily lives, then what are they interested in? Well, sports, for one. So, my idea was to make a showing at some sporting events. Don't be annoying and pester people about politics. Go there for the game, but were your Dean colors as a group. Eventually people will come talk to you.
Well, here's a recent posting on Dean's Blog:

Politics is not a Spectator Sport -- Baseball for America



Yesterday I asked Gray to find examples of Dean supporters using the Get Local website to rally at baseball games. Here are just a few:

Phillies Game, September 6, 7 PM, Veterans Stadium
Join us for one of the final baseball games at the Vet! We need 25 people or more to get the Philly4Dean.com up on the marque! If we get 40 or more people we get a deeper discount on tickets, so invite all your friends and neighbors to see the Vet one last time.

Dean Visibility at Fenway Park, Friday, Aug. 29.
Politics is not a spectator sport. Join in on a large visibility at, around, and in Fenway Park. Spread the word about Dean while greeting all the Fenway faithful (35,000 fans!) as the Red Sox face the Yankees on Friday, August 29th. Wear your Dean shirt, red socks, and bring your friends, family, and flyers.

The community impacts the candidate and each other. Can you imagine, just for a moment, what a White House Blog would be like? What kind of impact that could have?

I were my Dean button daily these days, and I generally get two responses. Most women say "I love Howard Dean! I think he's great!" and that's it. Most men say, "I love what Dean has to say, but he doesn't have a chance in Hell of winning." To which, my response is this:

If people who think he's great but can't win actually voted for Dean, he just might win.

Voting your conscience might actually elect a President this time around. Imagine that.

Now, I've spoken at length in the past about this issue of electibility, but I'd just like to consider one thing: if so many people think Dean is great, who do they think are the people who will vote for Bush? More importantly, WHY do they think these people will vote for Bush?

Anyway, keeping in line with the activism of the campaign, Dean is compiling a petition calling for a scaling back of the USA Patriot Act and opposition to it's successor, The Victory Act, which seeks to let John Ashcroft creep even further inside your business. Check the link above and sign up.

leaving the children behind.....
Princeton University's motto is "In The Nation's Service". Wendy Kopp, who graduated from my alma mater in 1989 took that idea to heart when she founded Teach for America in 1990 as a way to provide higher quality teachers in some of the most disadvantaged neigborhoods in the county. TFA would provide college scholarships to students who committed to teaching in inner city schools for 2 years after graduation. Over the last decade, TFA has helped over 9000 students through college, who then, in turn, helped educate over 1.25 million kids across the country.

A large part of why Teach for America was so successful was because it received substantial grants as a part of President Clinton's AmeriCorps initiative. Which is why many people breathed a sigh of relief last year when President Bush praised TFA as a model of the kind of civic volunteerism he envisioned for the whole country.

That is, of course, before Bush cut the funding to AmeriCorps and dropped Teach for America from the program completely. Over 3000 college students who'd been accepted into Teach for America this year are suddenly finding themselves without their scholarships just before the new school year and just as state universities across the country are increasing tuition by as much 40%. Let alone the kids who won't have the value of a young, dedicated teacher through the program.

This is the true face of Bush's fiscal policy. Don't forget it.

I'm still bigger than you, girlie-man!
Ah-nold has not made life easier for El Presidente. He can get so touchy if it's not all about him, you know.

The Truth You Can't Handle
Yours truly is an aberration. I'm one of the few men in my family who has never done military service. Partly because my father recognized that my talents lay elsewhere and pushed me as such (I think Dad is still coming to terms with the fact that he'll probably never be able to call me "Dr. Young"). And Partly because I knew I was really, really not going to do well in a place that required following orders without question. At heart, I'm a scientist. I'll ALWAYS ask questions. I'd make a much better CIA analyst than a soldier any day.

However, I've been around enough soldiers to know that this country wouldn't even exist today if it wasn't for some very, very bad MFs in BDUs. People like my cousin, an ex-drill sargeant who gets practically orgasmic at the thought of making a new recruit do push-ups until he cries.

Which is why this essay by blood-n-guts WWII & Vietnam combat vet turned correspondent David Hackworth is so riveting. Here, he details a trip to a Basic Training base to see what a decade of political correctness and a good economy did to recruitment & training, and what it means now that our fearless leader has fully embroiled us in a brand spanking new quagmire.

Personally, I have mixed feelings about this. The military needs to reflect the values of the society, otherwise our values are meaningless. Therefore, we have to admit EVERYONE. And you have to train them equally, too. If the standard is 200 push-ups, and you're a woman who can't do 200 push-ups, you shouldn't be in the army. Period. On the other hand, you cannot stick a bunch of 19-year-old men and women together in close quarters in a physically intense environment and not expect them to bone like they're trying to repopulate the planet.

Government Issue
So those American soldiers that get shot at on a daily basis in Iraq are about to get a pay cut because the Pentagon says they can't afford it.

I'd like to say two things:

"Tax cuts" and "unilateralism".

That's all.

Death Rays
Those of you who know your comic book history know that The Incredible Hulk was born when scientist Bruce Banner was caught in an explosion from a gamma bomb, or a bomb that emitted gamma radiation.

Well, today, munitions scientists are within striking distance of developing the real thing, through the use of the available high energy states, or nuclear isomers, of certain heavy elements, such as hafnium.

Using the technique described in this New Scientist article, a single gram of this stuff could be more explosive than 50 kilograms of TNT. And they would not necessarily be subject to the nuclear test ban treaty.

Failing Upwards
Conan O'Brian, distinguished alum of the 3rd best undergraduate school in America (following, of course, the imminently glorious Princeton University and Deep Springs College), gave a great commencement speech on the Hah-vahd Yahd back in 2000 on the value of risk & failure.

Laugh out loud funny.

FireStorm
Well, since civilization as we know it is on the brink of collapse here in California, I've decided to take the Emperor Nero approach. Rather than lamenting that Mr. Universe is about to be handed the reigns of the 5th largest economy in the world (because, hey, how can you not like "Hercules In New York", right?), I'm just going to whistle past the Golden State's grave and give a review of a comic book.

Of course, that's not entirely true, is it?

This week's top pick is Stormwatch:Team Achilles #14, written by progressive gadfly and former Special Forces soldier Micah Wright.

So, for starters, here's a little background on the title:
In this fictional universe, superpowered beings (SPBs) are everywhere, and they think they own the place. Some think they're heroes, others just don't give a hoot, but, on the whole, they're making a mess of things. So, the United Nations created Stormwatch, an elite military force made up of a bunch of former covert ops specialists and a handful of SPBs on the UN payroll designed to police these supermen. And, considering that most superheroes just know how to hit each other really hard, they really don't stand a chance against a team with military tactical skills.

But, the story gets more interesting because the United States government views superhumans as the next arms race, and doesn't like the UN interfering. So Stormwatch has effectively found itself engaged in a secret war with the right wing reactionary forces in our government. So far, the US has tried to assassinate members of the general assembly, while Stormwatch has kidnapped a racist American senator and replaced him with a shape-shifting SPB who's using all of his floor votes to dump billions of taxpayer dollars onto HBCs and the United Negro College Fund. Crazy stuff.

This issue, the best so far in the series, introduces Citizen Soldier, a thinly veiled Captain America analogue, who is so dedicated to the American Dream that he's decided to completely destroy the country to protect it.



Check the preview of the first 6 pages, then check it out at your local comic shop, where you can also get the trade paperback that collects the 1st six issues of the series in one volume.

Man of Action
You knew it was only a matter of time. Blue Box Toys, a company that proudly promotes its enormous manufacturing plants in China, has created a G.W. Bush action figure, dressed up as a fighter pilot, a la his "The War Is Over" announcement on that aircraft carrier back in May. You can get one for yourself in K&B Toys.

Personally, I'm hoping it's just a matter of time before this thing shows up in a Democratic campaign ad, beating up Destro & Cobra Commander.

Beware His Power
You know the story: A spacecraft carrying the last survivor of an alien race crash lands in the heartland of the United States, where he's found and raised in the good clean values of a simple, childless farming couple to become a champion of Truth, Justice, and the American Way.

Nice fairy tale.

But in the real world, the U.S. government would have had their special ops teams and black helicopters on that farmhouse's doorstep within hours. No way Uncle Sam would let a couple of farmers keep living proof of extraterrestrial life as their favorite son. And what about that spaceship anyway?

This is the premise for my favorite new comic this week, "Supreme Power", written by J. Michael Straczynski, whom many of you may know as the creator of Babylon 5. DEFINITELY worth checking out at your local comic shop.

Lies. Lies. Lies. Yea-ah.
Speaking at NYU this week on behalf of liberal activist group Moveon.org, Al Gore stops just short of telling The President that his pants are on fire.

Babel
There are about to be some VERY angry people in Saudi Arabia.

In this Newsweek article, a German historian (who's using a pseudonym to avoid joining Salman Rushdie in exile) contends that the Quran has been mistranslated. For centuries, people believed that it was dictated to Mohammed by Allah in Arabic. But, historically speaking, Arabic as a language didn't appear on the scene until 150 years AFTER Mohammed's death. Which means that the document was more likely written in the language of the time, Aramaic.

What does this mean? Well, for starters, the section that promises 70 "virgins with swelling breasts" in the afterlife for those who die in Jihad would actually be "white raisins with juicy fruits".

Excuse me while I laugh my you-know-what off.

The All Seeing Eye Blinks

The All Seeing Eye Blinks
John Poindexter, the definitive "shady character" who was convicted of lying about both Iran-Contra (later overturned on a technicality) and fed misinformation about Libya to the American press, is no longer head of the Information Awareness Office.
After coming up with the latest brilliant idea of creating a futures market for terror, even surly-eff-what-you-think Rumsfeld had to admit that the guy had to go.
This is what amuses me about the far right--they are often guilty of the naivete that they accuse the far left of. It is true that markets are very efficient ways of obtaining information since they reflect the knowledge of all the participants. But looking for a financial scam is one thing. Setting up a create-your-own-bounty system is insane.
Of course, anyone who would choose the pyramid and all-seeing-eye favored by conspiracy theorists and dystopian authors and game designers for decades as the logo of their secret spy-on-the-public agency isn't too bright to start with.

White Flight
Now, I've been a fan of Evan Byah, the Democratic Senator from Indiana, for quite some time. His thoughtful, soft-spoken style was always a refreshing change from the frothy, vein-bulging rhetoric that seems to increasingly be the norm in Washington.

Which is why it's so disappointing that, as the current chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council, he has become the public face of a faction in the Democratic party that is trying to undermine Howard Dean's campaign as "unelectable", even though they have yet to identify an alternative, more palatable candidate.

Now, as the good (yet slightly shrill) folks at Black Commentator have pointed out, this is merely the most current iteration of conservative White male Democrats deciding to take their ball and go home, and it usually revolves around issues of race & class. The most recent instance was when Strom Thurmond and his Dixiecrat buddies tried to run against Truman as segregationist insurgents before deciding to take up residence in the GOP. And, of course, the original move involved southern Democrats leaving the entire freakin' country, and taking half the states with them during the Secession crisis that led to the Civil War.

What's particularly interesting to me about the DLC in comparison to the Dixicrats and the Confederates is that, at least the old guys were acting on principle. Yes, the integrity of slavery and "whites only" water fountains are inherently whack principles, but it was something to which they were deeply committed.

The DLC, on the other hand, doesn't seem to stand for anything except getting elected and staying in power, by any means necessary. As a group, their long stated goal has always been to find the best way to get Democrats into elected office, as opposed to developing a vision for the country and trying to lead America by a set of values & principles. I would suggest that part of the reason why Al Gore and most Dems in 2002 lost is because the party has this image that its candidates will say anything to get into office. The Republicans, on the other hand, seem to be bulletproof - they can say anything and people respect them for the strength of their convictions. Like Bubba Clinton said, "Strong and wrong beats weak and right every time." A DLC-tailored candidate cannot win because they embody everything that the public hates about politicians.

Lock and Load
I read alot of web verbage on a daily basis. And it's extremely rare that I read something that makes me want to stand up and shout like the "Amen Corner" in Second Baptist Church, but this is one of those sites.

This guy has compiled a manifesto on how to describe, confront, and reject 40 years of reactionary, right-wing, conservative ideology and boiled it down into a single perjorative phrase:

"Cheap-labor Conservatives"

My Hallelujah moment came when he talks about the ulterior motive behind running a massive Federal deficit. And I quote:
"Wealthy cheap-labor conservatives like say, George W. Bush, buy the bonds and then earn tax free interest on the money they lend the government.[Check out Dubya's financial disclosures. The son of a bitch is a big holder of the T-bills that finance the deficit he is helping to expand.] The deficit created by cheap-labor conservatives while they posture as being "fiscally conservative" – may count as the biggest con job in American history."

Read, and arm yourselves to do battle with the Stormtroopers of Compassion.

Eight-Pound Gorilla

Eight Pound Gorilla (but it knows Judo)
For all you progressive types. It is easy to be intimidated by the pseudo-scientific and often plausibly rational arguments of the right. Conceptual Guerilla takes the tack of meeting right-wing arguments head on, using the same logical patterns, historical facts, and trends casually employed by your favorite conservative talk show hosts to draw different conclusions. As always, draw your own conclusions and beliefs, but this is potentially powerful ammo for your next political debate. At the least, it shows that just because the right can talk a good game doesn't mean that they know any more than you do.
And when you get done there, be sure to check this awesome call-to-arms for the progressive/liberal side of the house. I'm a bit to the right of both of these groups, I'll freely state. However, they have a very real point. If the progressive idealists don't start fighting in the trenches, idea for idea, blow for blow, then the terrorists have already won. And I don't mean Al-Qaeda.

Thumb Wars
Since, I clearly need to invent new and improved ways to generate text.

I love comic books. But, unlike my other great love, film, there aren't NEARLY enough places to read reviews of comics. I suppose I got hooked on comic reviews thanks to the now-defunct Warren Ellis Forum, and I struggled to get my fix on forums for writers Mark Millar & Micah Wright, but, quite frankly, the people on those lists weren't reading enough of the same things I read, so it wasn't really as enjoyable. This week has been particularly frustrating, since Millar's forum seems temporarily dead, and Micah is too busy worrying about how President Bush is taking this country to Hell in a handbasket (see below for more details). And this week's haul was particularly good.

With all of that in mind, I'm going to point my critical pen away from the President for a little bit and towards the four-colored world from time to time. Hopefully, both the fan and nonfan alike will get what I think is cool and not cool about the various titles on my list (althought the not cool doesn't stay there for vary long). So, with out further ado:

Empire, vol 2., No. 1
This comic, from writer Mark Waid & artist Barry Kitson, posits this question: what would happen if a supervillain actually succeeds in conquering the world? In this series, the main character is Golgoth, a paranoid, bloodthirsty tyrant in a suit of high tech armor who, after a decade, has succeeded in placing the entire world under his thumb. There are no superheroes here, unless you could the zombi-fied one Golgoth keeps chained up in his basement, draining his blood and feeding it to his inner circle as a performance enhancement drug. But, as they say, heavy is the head that wears the crown. When you conquer the world by kicking everyone else's ass, you can't help but lose sleep every night worrying about who's sharpening the knives to stab you in the back. Everybody's bad here, which makes for great, wicked fun. Besides which, I've seen two instances of implied oral sex in three printed issues of this title. Definitely a keeper.

Global Frequency #10 (of 12)
The latest from the previously mentioned Mr. Ellis tells the story of a "smart mob" super-emergency response team. All 1,001 people on the Global Frequency are regular human beings with specialized talents, all connected with the highest-tech wireless technology who can draw on the collective knowledge of the entire agency with the push of a button. Some are scientists & technicians, others are ex-spies & soldiers, and all are dedicated to protecting the world from the left-over mistakes of 20th century warfare run amok.
Each issue is self-contained, with a different artist each month, chosen by Warren to suit the given story, although all the exquisite covers are done by Brian Wood.
In this issue, a terrorist/martial artist, trained in biofeedback techniques (i.e. a mental discipline to "re-route" pain sensations in his brain so that he can continue to function at optimal physical levels despite horrific injuries), is sent in to kill everyone at a bioweapons facility. A single agent on the Frequency, a French martial artist also trained in biofeedback, is sent to stop him. This whole issue is just a single fight between these two men, that just escalates in violence and brutality until the final image which is something so grotesque that I really had to laugh. Great stuff.

The Ultimates #11
So, in the regular universe of Marvel Comics, each superhero really represents a part of New York City in the 1960's. Daredevil is the paton saint of Hell's Kitchen. Spider-Man is the stereotypical teenage smart-aleck from Queens, The Fantastic Four are a family of rich Midtown celebrities, etc. Which would make the Avengers, a huge government-sanctioned team of superheroes lead by Captain America and including members like Iron Man, the Russian spy Black Widow, Slavic gypsie siblings Quicksilver & Scarlet Witch, and Thor, the Norse God of Thunder, Marvel's answer to the United Nations. Recently, Marvel decided to re-imagine their whole line as if they were born out of a 21st Century New York instead. With that in mind, Mark Millar took the concept of The Avengers and turned them into The Ultimates. It's still Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, and others, but all with a modern slant. Captain America, instead of a speech-ifying Uncle Sam poster, is closer to a suped up version of modern-day American Special Forces. Iron Man is like an American Richard Branson who only straps on his armor when he's good and drunk. Quicksilver & Scarlet Witch are probably into some serious consenual incestuous behavior, and Thor could be a New Age crackpot with a big-ass hammer who just suffered a nervous breakdown and now THINKS he's a god. All of these folks are now in the employ of SHIELD, Marvel's version of the Defense Intelligence Agency, designed to stop superhuman threats against National Security. It was all going good until they, along with 20,000 covert ops troops, all got blown up by a tactical nuke on a little island in Micronesia while staging a raid on a site that may or may not have been a staging area for an extraterrestial invasion by giant shapeshifting lizards. This might be the best comic on the stands right now.

Long winded, I know. But all of these are worth checking out at your local comic shop.