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.

The Highest Stakes
OK, this time they've gone too far.

John Poindexter, the man who brought you Iran-Contra and Total Information Awareness (remember the "All-Seeing Eye" post from a few months ago), is at it again. This time, his organization, DARPA, which is sounding more and more like Marvel Comics' A.I.M. every day, has developed the Policy Analysis Market, a futures market where investors can buy contracts to predict the likelihood of events like a terrorist attack, assassination, or a military coup in the Middle East. The argument is that futures markets are good predictive instruments and it would be a way by which they could act preemptively.

Needless to say, members of Congress share my disgust.

New Power Generation

New Power Generation

In this month's issue of Discover magazine, Bill Gross, inventor and founder of Idealab, talks about a new method of solar power generation. Instead of using photovoltaics like the flat panels we are used to, it uses a relatively simple combination of mirrors that focus heat on an engine in the center containing pistons powered by the heated air. The mirrors track the sun throughout the day, ensuring a constant power level. The real beauty of the invention is that they have nearly reached their goal efficiency cost of one dollar per watt, at which point the quarter kilowatt device can actually be cost-effective for businesses and homes that want to reduce costs or add power to the grid. Unfortunately, the Discover article isn't available on-line, but the web site of the Idealab spinoff, Energy Innovations is. Discover does have several links to more information about the underlying technology. If this radical and inexpensive approach bears out, this device could radically alter our approach to power generation, especially in power-hungry yet sunny areas like southern California.

Dollar for Dollar
Monday, Vice-President Cheney is expected to raise roughly a quarter of a million dollars for Bush/Cheney 2004 after a bunch of folks in South Carolina pay $2,000 per head to eat lunch in the same room with him.

Starting last night, Howard Dean is challenging his supporters to match that through the same small contributions they've been making all along. They're hoping to match the Cheney luncheon, dollar for dollar, by Monday at midnight.

At the moment I'm making this post (see the timestamp), they've already raised over $110,000 in less than 12 hours. So, feel free to jump on the bandwagon by clicking the link above.

And, in case you're still undecided, check out this post from Gov. Dean's blog, where he outlines in gory details everything that I said in "The King's English" post below: Bush's actual policies are the exact opposite of what he says to the public in speeches and press conferences.

The Plumbers would be proud
Man, the hits just keep on coming today.

So, Joseph Wilson was the last American ambassador to Iraq and lauded as a war hero by Bush 1.0 after the Gulf War. Apparently, he was recruited to investigate the claims about Iraq's desire for Niger's yellowcake. He recently came forward to proclaim as much and to say that he debunked this evidence for the U.S. months before the war.

Days after this revelation, unnamed White House officials revealed to Robert Novak that Wilson's wife is an undercover CIA agent, which he then proceeds to report, including her full name, in his syndicated column.

Now, Mr. & Mrs. Wilson will neither confirm nor deny this, but, if it's true, the White House blew the cover of one of their own intelligence operatives. You've all seen Mission: Impossible. You know how bad it is when someone named on the Non-Official Cover, or NOC, list is exposed. This woman's life could be in danger.

Is this incompetance? Payback? Or are they making examples of them?

Incidentally, I'd just like to say that the only reason why I know about this is because I read it on Howard Dean's blog.

The Royal Flush
There are at least two senior Iraqi officials who voluntarily surrendered to coalition forces at the end of the war, namely Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz and scientist Amir Saadi. One would think that these two guys would know where the Iraqi WMDs are hidden, or, at least, whether they had them or not.

They want to cooperate. They want to talk.

So why is the coalition keeping them on ice in the make-shift prison at the Bagdad Airport?

Unless Bush & Co. don't like they story they're telling....

Most Terrifyingly Appropriate TV Quote of the Day


"It's happening...... again."


- The mysterious Giant, warning FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper that a new murder, reminiscent of previous killings, had just occured in Twin Peaks.

Dr. David Kelly, a former UN weapons inspector who may or may not have been a source for the BBC on reports that Tony Blair's government had "sexed up" reports of Iraq's WMD capabilities, was just found dead three days after testifying in front of a Foreign Affairs committee. The committee had given him five days to consider his next round of testimony. No cause of death has been determined.

Irony abounds. Just last night, I watched a little indie thriller called Interview With The Assassin, about a old man who claims to be the 2nd shooter on the grassy knoll who actually killed Kennedy. The DVD details all the people associated with the assassination who died under mysterious circumstances in the following decade.

Word of advice to George Tenet: try not to end up like your predecessor, William Casey, did during the Iran-Contra Affair.

The Last of the First
It's occurred to me that the Bush family is, in many ways, kind of a Bizarro-version of The Kennedy family. Of course, All egalitarian, political families of all persuasions scare me a little. Remember, this is America: aristocracy = bad. However, I'd be lying if I said that I didn't think JFK, RFK, and, finally Ted Kennedy, didn't have something real to say about how to make this country better. But, then again, the other problem with dynasties: Too much power leads to corruption, hatred, and death. Especially if the next guy is more ruthless.

Anyway, let me get off my allegorical soapbox. The elder statesman of the Left stll has some gas in his tank. And he's dousing the President with it. Enjoy.