a blogroll in verse

not, of course, by any means complete. poeted by the Google Poetry Generator in None, Hippie, Beatnik, Shakespeare and Swedish Chef.

Note that nowhere does the word (sob) skippy appear.

Oh, and I have to have surgery on my damn foot.

Me, me, it's all about me. Le tout, c'est moi. Sounds like mwah. Also sounds like Luh Toot.

Don't all that much like him, but Go Robert Byrd, btw.

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Also this is funny.

This too.

grrr

from Administration Spokespaper the Washington Post:

Two Fights Could Produce a Big Winner
By Dana Milbank, Page A23
Americans could be forgiven for thinking that the White House and Congress are wasting their time this fall with a pair of arcane squabbles, one about work rules in the proposed Homeland Security Department

also from the Washington Post, in reference to the easily misunderstood Homeland Security issue:

Obscure Labor Issues Block Homeland Security Agency

Dana Milbanks forgives you.

Today, lucky us, is a Dana Milbanks twofer (keeping in mind that this is the same 'reporter' who despite being on the record as despising Gore too much personally based on his visceral impression of Gore's attitude to be able to stomach covering him nonetheless continued to lead the Post's coverage of Gore during the 2000 elections):

Analysis
With Congress Aboard, Bush Targets a Doubtful Public
By Dana Milbank, Page A21
The White House billed last night's speech by President Bush as a chance for him to explain to average Americans why it is necessary to disarm and replace Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. The speech didn't come a moment too soon.

Duuude. Cliffhanger. The, like, people, were gonna slow Bush down on his way to, like, sending a bunch of them to die.

Guess we nipped that in the bud.

I guess this sort of illustrates the concerns expressed on Sunday by the Post's Ombudsman, who acknowledged that the Post has allowed its editorial support of a war against Iraq to push genuine news stories off its pages if they would tend not to support that war.

That's something any decent paper should feel deeply disgraced by.

This expresses their current angle on the news nicely, I think:

Bush Talks, But Networks Speechless
By Lisa de Moraes, Page C01
If the president of the United States gives a speech but the broadcast networks do not carry it live for their tens of millions of viewers to see, did the president actually give the speech?

from Lloyd Grove, whose gossip column and CNN wankfest provide such media analysis as is available from the Post, on Susan Sarandon's antiwar activism:

"I'm basically giving it a little bit of a push, because a celebrity's name on something gives it more leverage," said Sarandon, who appears briefly in the movie stressing the importance of protecting civil liberties in this post-9/11 period of security alerts and secret detentions. "I'm frightened, I'm scared, I'm terrified most of all that the America that I love and cherish, that this democracy is at risk," Sarandon told us in between opening up "piles of mail" stacked up in her kitchen in Lower Manhattan. "That if you question the current push toward war, you're looked upon as anti-American. The world is against this idea of a unilateral attack, yet we don't hear anybody criticize it."

With the possible exception of Sarandon, who approvingly quoted to us from a European newspaper editorial accusing President Bush and his cohort of trying to execute "a blueprint for American global domination." When we inadvertently giggled, she scolded, "I don't see what's so funny about that."

See, this is what I read the news for. Because I don't feel enough in touch with the visceral reactions and existential doubts and personal prejudices and flatout lack of maturity of Washington Post reporters. It's probably as close as I'll ever get to being invited to sit at their table in the cafeteria.

William and Nackey Loeb are looking fondly up at this, I'm sure.

OK, can't resist

also from the egregious Mr. Grove:

We're not shocked that former Florida secretary of state Katherine Harris -- who received her 15 minutes of fame and then some during the voting debacle of the last presidential campaign -- has written a book. But we're a little surprised that she's out there promoting it in the midst of her race for a House seat from Sarasota.

"I didn't write it for my campaign," said Harris, the heavy favorite in her contest with Democratic candidate Jan Schneider. "Believe me, we begged the publisher not to bring it out right now, hoping it would come out after the election," the Republican candidate added, referring to Thomas Nelson Books of Nashville, which has just released "Center of the Storm," Harris's memoir of her crucible in the election recounts pitting Al Gore against George W. Bush. "But they wouldn't change their plans. After all, this is the only book that was written by somebody who was actually there in the middle of everything."

The 45-year-old Harris -- a former state senator who was vilified as Cruella De Vil during the recount for, among other things, her liberal use of cosmetics -- said: "Writing this book saved me thousands of dollars in therapy bills. It also allowed me to address certain media myths and urban legends. For instance, I don't wear eye shadow. If I did, it would smudge on my clothes. The last time I wore eye shadow was when I was in the Girl Scouts, in seventh grade."



Woman got far too much sun the summer after sixth grade, is all I'm saying.

another Son Of feels the pain

Mr. Hoffa Jr, of the Teamsters, lonely union supporters of the Bush administration, is no doubt unhappy to hear that his great and good friend the President is requesting a court order to reopen the docks until after Christmas.

The politically charged decision, which Bush planned to announce later Tuesday barring a last-minute breakthrough in negotiations, would mark the first presidential effort in a quarter-century to end a work stoppage under the Taft-Hartley Act.

Bush decided to order the Justice Department to seek the injunction after a board of inquiry hand-picked by the White House reported that the two-week-old labor standoff has no chance of ending soon, said two administration officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. They held out the barest hope that Bush's decision to intervene might produce an eleventh-hour settlement.

Does anyone think labor would have gone this far down the road if their leaders didn't think they had reason to believe that before the election they'd have Bush on board?

"Because I'm a scorpion" explained the President,

"Blub" added Mr. Hoffa.

Interesting to see how the Teamsters' Republican get out the vote activities play out.

second-hand news

so, why are most americans who are hearing about last night's speech hearing about it from Andrew Sullivan et al?

Because the three major networks were not asked to cover it by the White House (which is standard procedure for coverage of a presidential speech).

Ari Fleischer, the White House press secretary, said the administration did not ask for network time because it did not want to mistakenly telegraph to the broadcasters, or the news media at large, that the president was to announce war plans.

"No matter how we did our best to create reasonable expectations, a rumor mill would have grown suggesting that military action was imminent," Mr. Fleischer said. "When the White House asks for time, it is because it's paramount. If we don't ask for time, we're using good discretion."

Other White House officials said privately that if they had asked for coverage, that would have unduly heightened expectations for a speech that had no particularly new or dramatic details. Still, some White House officials indicated that they had hoped the networks would cover the address anyway.

As it turned out, only Fox decided to carry it. But NBC's and Fox's affiliated cable outlets, MSNBC and Fox News Channel, also carried the speech.

What a coincidence. Who'd've thought circumstances would work out so that most of America would hear what the usual suspects have to say about the Bush speech, all cleaned up, rather than hearing the Bush speech for themselves?

How too cool is this?

Google searches that maybe weren't quite narrow enough.

And the Claude goes to...

The Claude Rains Memorial Gambling Awareness Award Goes to...


Claude Rains

Tonight, on TCM, Casablanca.

War, cynicism and the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Or be square.