Al Franken's reaction to the SOTU

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"Have a listen":http://feralboy.com/muzak/franken_sotu.mp3. I think he does a much better job than "Michael Moore":http://www.michaelmoore.com/ of getting his point across. I think sometimes MM is so shrill and annoying that he winds up doing himself a disservice. Rumor has it that Franken is talking about doing a "political run":http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20031109-092405-5383r.htm in his home state of Minnesota. That would be great, IMHO. And hey, if he wanted to run for "president too":http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0385334540/, that's fine by me.

"Just underneath my skin, I'm screaming"

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People navigate through a 6-acre patriotic maze in a corn field Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2003, in Corona, Calif. The maze pays tribute to U.S. troops with a soldier saluting and an American flag in the background. It was created by the land owner to unify dairy farmers in the area like himself with the new urban neighbors from the new housing tracts that are displacing some area farms. The farm also offers hayrides, a pumpkin patch, a petting zoo and other activities through October.

White House Email

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To all White House Staff: We were informed last evening by the Department of Justice that it has opened an investigation into possible unauthorized disclosures concerning the identity of an undercover CIA employee. We have been directed to aid in the investigation, and the president wants to wholly cooperate with this shift in policy, and help the investigation in any way possible. This is a reminder to retain all potential records; do not shred any documents, do not delete any emails. Above all, we expect you to fully cooperate with the investigation, and you will get to return to some sense of normalcy once the firestorm has died down.

Sincerely, Associate Counsel Ted Ullyot

Fair and Balanced

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While reading a very funny story about how Tucker Carlson gave out Fox News Channel's number instead of his own while on CNN, and FNC "returned the favor by posting his HOME number":http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=34789 (Can't these ultra-conservative wags get along?), I wanted to check out the FNC site to see if I could find the story in question. I got distracted when I saw this headline and photo on the "homepage":http://www.foxnews.com/:

h4. "GOP Adds Muscle to Arnold's Campaign":http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,98369,00.html

!http://feralboy.com/images/fnc_arnie.jpg!

Have a closer look at that picture. Notice what a horrible "Photoshop":http://64.81.51.213/fpm/ hack job that is? Clearly those three men never actually stood on a stage together. However, I don't doubt that Ah-nold was probably getting a "plo-job":http://www.gawker.com/archives/008157.html at the time.

This is not nearly as bad as suggesting visual links with story graphics like "CNN might do":http://www.wattfarm.com/blog/archives/000042.html. This isn't even nearly as bad as the LA Times photographer that was fired for "subtly":http://faculty.cua.edu/johnsong/hsct102/pages/alteredphoto.html "altering a photo":http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=28082. This is using a visual image that simply "did not happen":http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article2842.htm in order to "further your own agenda":http://www.meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2003c.html#t20030708.

"Fair and balanced"? Fuck you.

The root of all Middle East problems?

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"!http://feralboy.com/images/saruman1.jpg! ":http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030924/pl_nm/mideast_bush_hamas_dc_1 !http://feralboy.com/images/saruman2.jpg! "Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin emerged from hiding and denounced President Bush's speech to the United Nations as a declaration of war on Islam. Yassin also said that if he gets his hands on The One Ring, Israel is really gonna get it."

Filesharing

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"Edith Frost(Edith Frost, Roller-skating enthusiast)":http://edithfrost.com/ made a "very interesting post(Edith Frost - Some sort of statement)":http://www.edithfrost.com/archive/2003/08/01-some_sort_of_state.html on her site concerning her feelings about filesharing. Pretty much everyone has "weighed in(Boy on a Bike - RIAA)":http://www.anklebiter.net/log/archives/000128.html on it, so I'll just briefly state what I think. I own a lot of CDs. A LOT. I went on a bit of a buying spree at some point, so I now have a decent sized collection to show for it. Consider that they each cost a minimum of $14, and I probably have purchased at least 500 total, and that's around $7,000 that I've spent on CDs alone (I won't even bother to think about tapes). How much of that music did the actual artists get? "Not much":http://www.negativland.com/albini.html, apparently. Nevermind the fact that CDs cost about $1 to make en masse and the price for CDs is outrageous. So, at this point I don't feel bad at all about downloading music to see if I'm interested in it. If I like it, I'll go see the artist on tour (or buy CDs directly from them, if possible), in order to support them as much as possible, since they are truly exploited by major labels for in many cases doing what they love.

I don't like the idea of supporting labels that are forcing their musical tastes on people. Just because it's on MTV "doesn't mean it's good(My rant about MTV and selective video playing)":http://www.plastic.com/comments.html;sid=01/08/06/1635210;pid=2;cid=6. Find music you like, "avoid the RIAA(RIAA Radar on MetaFilter)":http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/27125 if possible, and support the artists as best you can.

A look at Jitneys on Plastic

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Nice writeup on Plastic, with a link to a good article about the Pittsburgh phenomenon of unlicensed cabs, the jitenys. I think that one of the major contributing causes of PGH's "youth flight" is the lack of straight bars open downtown, and the fact that you can't get anywhere easily without a car (The fact that they're going to cut back on bus service doesn't help, either). I've called for a Yellow Cab, waited 45 minutes, and had it not show up before. Jitneys fill a need, but it's still not enough.

Allll we are saaaaaying, is aaah-nevermind!

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Protesters rattle rush hour I happened to catch the tail end of the march. It's nice to see some level of activism in such a blue-collar town, but I decided yesterday that regardless of my ambivalence about the war on Iraq, that I really don't like people that are irrationally deep on either side; from pro-war rallies by ClearChannel (need a war to help your ratings, perhaps?), to pacifists that would be content to do nothing until it was already far too late. I just think of Lili Taylor's fantastic character on Six Feet Under sitting on the floor of her kitchen, pleading with the ants that have invaded her home to "please leave." Just a little bit of moderation and understanding on both sides, people... is that so hard?

War (deja vu)

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War has started, and it all feels strangely familiar. I remember when the US-led coalition attack on Iraqi forces in Kuwait started. I was downstairs at Ryan's house, sitting on the floor with Ryan and his folks around the tv watching the news. We had just launched about 300 Tomahawks, and the air raids began in earnest the next day; 3000 sorties a day, if I remember correctly. Looks like we'll be doing the same thing all over again, for good or ill. I think that if the "decapitation strike" from last night had actually worked, everyone would be awfully happy today, but now we're left to see just how crazy Saddam is, and how willing he will be to use Baghdad's citizens and his 50,000 or so loyal soldiers to stand between himself and the incoming storm. I hate to draw parallels between Saddam and Hitler, but it would be quite helpful if there was an assasination attempt that actually worked. Might save many thousands of innocent lives.

lowbrow (or, *not* elevating the level of discourse)

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well, don't i feel like a classless mouth-breather; my friends are having a very high-level discussion about bush's new tax plan, weighing pros and cons, and here i am talking about joe millionaire. blech. ok, i'll just drag out a few simpsons quotes relating to taxes: Homer: Woo-hoo! A perfect day. Zero bears and one big fat hairy paycheck. [opens it up] Hey! How come my pay is so low? ... Bear patrol tax! This is an outrage! It's the biggest tax increase in history! Lisa: Actually, Dad, it's the smallest tax increase in history. Homer: Let the bears pay the bear tax. I pay the Homer tax. Lisa: That's home-_owner_ tax. Homer: Well, anyway, I'm still outraged. -- "much apu about nothing"

Todd: Daddy, what do taxes pay for? Ned: Oh, why, everything! Policemen, trees, sunshine! And lets not forget the folks who just don't feel like working, God bless 'em!

joe mommas (or, who wants to marry a, uh, a $20k-ionaire)

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the women (and freak) of 'joe millionaire' i got to watch the first episode of "joe millionaire" last night on tivo. i don't watch any reality shows (as he says with a trace of smug self-righteousness), but this one seemed so base, so horrible, so "downfall-of-modern-society" that i just had to check it out.

it did not dissapoint. i don't like how good looking the guy is; it would have been much more entertaining for him to be just an average-looking guy, and to hear the golddiggers rationalize how "interesting" or "striking" he was. oh well, i guess the fact that he's flat-broke will suffice. nothing too exciting happened in the first episode, but you could tell they were already setting up the stronger personalities to scratch and claw like bums fighting over a baloney sandwich. they kicked off 8 of the 20 girls almost right away, and i was sort of upset to see that they didn't tell them as they were leaving about his lack o' cash. it would have been interesting to see the reactions, as a few of them got all weepy when they were dismissed, even though they had only known him for a few hours.

thanks to pat for the picture above, which was inspired by me sending him the accompanying pictures for this article on wired.

angelina and billy bob no more

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oh, i've been waiting for this. those two were so insane.. buying each other's burial plots, the whole vials of blood thing, and bringing knives into their sex life; you had to wonder just how long it was going to last. it gives me just a tiny twinge of pleasure when one of these nutty hollywood couples talks about how this relationship is going to be the one, the union that's going to last through time eternal, and then the inevitable breakup. i just look at julia roberts marrying a cameraman, rosie marrying her bodyguard, j-lo and her backup dancer, and i just chuckle. but, in happier news... it's the return of ren and stimpy! the show completely took a dump when they booted kricfalusi after the original episodes. the show certainly is his magnum opus, so i'm hoping he can bring that creativity that's been missing back.