Madman and Izzy talk trash about television. This week: crash survivors and colonials confront unknowable enemies in an unforgiving universe. Lost and Battlestar Galactica -- it's all about war.

I spent a wonderful morning enjoying the new exhibit of Degas' Sculptures at the Milwaukee Art Museum recently. I learned some things about Degas' work that I didn't know from an exhibit and audio guide that allowed me the opportunity to experience beauty through fresh eyes. I'd like to share some of what I learned, and some thoughts about art, art as criticism and criticism as vital TO art and society.
source of photo Milwaukee Art Museum Store

^{Photo by Reuters}

An exclusive report from Nikko News Network correspondent and hentai expert Emily Gale.

WASHINGTON, DC: In a surprise announcement at The Pentagon this afternoon, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld joined forces with Marvel™ superheroes Spiderman and Captain America in a yet another blatant, testosterone-fueled display of pro-American aggression.

The agreed rules for this particular meme: Take out your iPod or other musical device. Put it in "random" mode. Hit "play." Write down the first ten tracks that come up--and no fair putting in ones you think will make you look cool, or omitting ones that make you look like a total dork.

But since we here at Unbossed don't suffer rules graciously, I'm adding some of my own. Instead of just listing the tracks, I'm going to try to provide comments on the pieces. So here are mine for today, with associated comments:

Cross-posted from Musing's musings.

"A big wet kiss to the far right." That's how Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) properly described the pseudo-compromise offered yesterday by the majority leader in the ongoing controversy over the alleged crisis in judicial nominations. I would further characterize the position of Senator Frist (R-Clueless) as "much ado about nothing" or, better yet, "a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."

Tonight, it's their legislature, having upheld Gov. Kathleen Sebelius' veto of legislation that would have imposed stringent regulations on clinics that perform abortions.

This is one of the new fronts on the abortion wars, and a pretty smart one at that. In addition to Kansas, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia legislatures are considering legislation that will add on any number of regulations on abortion clinics, all in the name of patient safety.

More on the flip.

Come ye, Brothers and Sisters of the Order of Saint Howard. Relieve your Earthly moralistic burdens and elitist solipsism. Be free!

Enter the Liberal Confessional and confess your political sins.

The IRS collects and maintains a lot of very private information about taxpayers their dependents, and their businesses. Maintaining the security of that information now stands in the balance. In 2004, Congress rammed through legislation that turns over the collection of IRS debt to private bounty hunters. There was never a vote on the merits of this law. Instead, it was was added to an unrelated corporate tax bill.

Under this law, private debt collectors are given a bounty of up to 25% of the money they collect. There is no requirement that they do their work in the United States.

The IRS is now gearing up to hire those private tax collectors and give them private taxpayer information.

What’s so bad about that you may ask? The track record of private contractors for the IRS for keeping taxpayer information private and obeying the law is atrocious.

Sometime last week I started receiving a large amount of hits from Nick Lewis to my post about CNN's new schedule.  Today Nick has posted, CNN Guerrillas in the Midst: A Viral Marketing Campaign Exposed (your recommended reading of the day) which clears up my confusion.

I have been a victim!

Last week, CNN attempted an unusual marketing campaign in the blogosphere. The campaign combined blackhat search engine optimization techniques, viral marketing tactics, and guerrilla comment spam. Unlike the majority of comment spam, this spam appears to only target blogs that have discussed CNN in the past 3 months. So far, 13 separate instances of the spam have been found. Most alarmingly, CNN may have also left malicious keywords at least 3 out of 13 with the intent of using google's keyword stuffing detectors to censor them.

The comment spam that appeared on my post is still available, though I've deleted the keywords at the bottom.  This is how Nick thinks the marketing guys at CNN came up with the idea:

Marketer two: So, instead of trying to reach the small number of bloggers who will be motivated to say good things about us, why not – like water – take the easiest path, and encourage them to criticize CNN Prime Time, and in the process help us create a buzz about CNN prime time?

I'm surprised they didn't spam my CNN Sucks post.  In any event, yes, I do hate Nancy Grace and her flared nostrils.  Though I hope one day to be a sucky enough lawyer that I will be forced to leave the practice and become a legal analyst for CNN.

Dan Baum, a staff writer for The New Yorker, spoke recently in Boulder on the impact of the Iraq War on the U.S. Army.

His wide-ranging comments noted:

the subtext that the US Army hates the Iraq War, the suffering and costs that are unknown to most Americans, and their visceral disdain for Rumsfeld and the Pentagon's usurption of diplomacy and foreign policy responsibilities as an imperialistic shadowy fourth branch of the government;

the history of and current debate over embedding reporters in war zones;

the Orwellian National Defense Strategy authored by Feith and Rumsfeld

the race and class implications of the military

The most fascinating and disturbing aspect of his remarks featured the psychological effects of war on combat soldiers.

The spoils system in the current administration is truly a many-tentacled thing.

In the Executive Branch, we have George Bush, Dick Cheney and their close (or now not so close) relationship to Ken Lay and the Enronistas. Dick Cheney and his relationship (or is it a non-relationship?) to Halliburton, KBR, and their many, many subsidiaries. This administration’s appointees have been given fox-access to hen houses all over America, handing over our educational system, environmental health, health care system, and economy to the administration’s supporters.

In the Legislative Branch, Bill Frist and HCA and Tom Delay – a man who needs his own set of octopi, there are so many tentacles – lead the charge for the lootocracy.

And in the Judiciary, Antonin Scalia roots for the kleptocracy. It’s not just the blatant impropriety of the duck hunting trip taken with Vice President Dick Cheney to a private luxury camp in southern Louisiana while the Supreme Court had a case pending before it over Cheney's clandestine and chummy handling of the administration's energy task force. Scalia never did recuse himself for this blatant appearance of impropriety, if not impropriety itself.

Originally posted Feb., 2005

I'm not positive, but I think we're missing a word in the English language. This is the question that I've been asking -- if the excessive desire for food is called gluttony, and the excessive desire for material wealth is called greed, what is the excessive desire for power called?

Now I know you're probably all flying to the comments right now with suggestions -- avaricious! voracious! cupidity! -- but bear with me a moment. Hear me out. I've got lots of time on my hands and have given a lot of thought to this.

I am posting this in response to the discussion below on political action - Tools For Future Politics

    Now much less than two years till the next national elections, elections that can determine the makeup of Congress, we need to keep the public thinking seriously about the process of voting.

    I spent election day doing election protection in Detroit, and, I swear, it changed my life. It opened my eyes. And it makes me impatient with people who are opining without having taken the time to do the homework. It's one of those things you just can't understand until you've been there.

Here's a piece sent to us by Sue Clancy, who "lives in Red State Oklahoma where she daily tries to raise conciousness with her political cartoons, fine art, and handmade artist books." Go Sue!

Recently, a friend of mine lost his Naturalization Certificate, the document that proves that a person has legally become a citizen of the United States. This is one of the most coveted documents a new citizen can have, in that it grants that person the irrevocable right to call herself an American. As my friend contacted the Department of Homeland Security, which now houses the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) (previously the INS), his request for a new Naturalization Certificate was denied pending a "biometric analysis." By this, they meant fingerprinting along with a retinal scan. The notification from USCIS included local sites that perform such biometric analysis for a fee.

As an American-born citizen of Mexican descent, I would like to think that if I were to lose my passport (which like the Naturalization Certificate serves to prove that I am a citizen), I would not be submited to a retinal scan. But then again, I am not Muslim, and my friend is.

Offline, some of us have had some discussion about what sorts of tools would be good for future campaigns and political tools. We thought we'd open it up online here for more discussion.

Here are some of the ideas to discuss:

^{image courtesy of Bush Trash}

What's on your mind?

CINCINNATI, OH -- The first Ohio Poll conducted since President Bush's inauguration reports an approval rating of 49 percent. Governor Bob Taft's approval rating has dropped to 34 percent, the lowest gubernatorial approval rating since 1983. Taft's disapproval rating (55%) is the highest of any governor since the Ohio Poll began conducting surveys in 1981 exceeding his then record-breaking 50% disapproval rating in April 2003.

But it gets even better for our caped crusaders...

Come with me, my friends, to the Reality-Based World™ in the cozy little subdivision of Mathville...

Well, Auntie Em & Marisacat, along with others I respect, were smarter than me, your humble Madman.

Democratic Party Leadership and the Iraq Quagmire

Howard Dean recently stated regarding Iraq, "Now that we're there, we're there and we can't get out." While Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) honors and respects Governor Dean's effort to expand, empower, and energize the Democratic Party grassroots base, and further respects his engagement of small contributors and individual activists, we take strong exception to Governor Dean's statements on Iraq.

We do not believe his statements reflect the will or the wisdom of the majority of the American people who oppose the Bush administration's ongoing disastrous and immoral war policies. The Democratic Party National Platform for America states, "Promoting human rights is a basic value of our foreign policy." Our foreign policy regarding Iraq has failed to live up to this promise.

The agreed rules for this particular meme: Take out your iPod or other musical device. Put it in "random" mode. Hit "play." Write down the first ten tracks that come up--and no fair putting in ones you think will make you look cool, or omitting ones that make you look like a total dork.

But since we here at Unbossed don't suffer rules graciously, I'm adding some of my own. Instead of just listing the tracks, I'm going to try to provide comments on the pieces. So here are mine for today, with associated comments:

Washington, DC -- President Bush used the occasion of Earth Day to announce a new Sparkly-Clean Water Initiative that he said would "preserve and protect the American people's water" and achieve "a fair balance between the environment and the economy."

Like Bush's Healthy Forests Initiative, the Sparkly-Clean Water Initiative leverages the work of businesses to attack an environmental danger. "We were worried about forest fires," Bush reminded his handpicked Earth Day audience. "So what did we do? We asked the logging companies to cut more trees, so there wouldn't be so many trees around to catch fire. Now, that's good for the forests, and it's good for our economy -- so, heck, I'd say it's good for America, wouldn't you?"

Bush makes a big stink about the date that Social Security will go into deficit. His point is that it will then be a huge drain on the government's budget.  This is the whole reason he's been going to the Treasury and talking about the "IOU's" in the file cabinet.  He's focusing on the date that Social Security goes into deficit, in 2017, and how it put our national budget at risk.

Let's just see what that "drain" will look like, compared to Bush's other spending habits. This should prove just how dishonest Bush is in his argument. Here's the projected Social Security deficit, compared to our projected overall budget deficit, as a percentage of GDP:

...the Republicans actually got something right. Of course, that happened around a century and a half ago (their recent record is a whole other kettle of, uh, fish).

The National Association of Broadcasters is meeting in Las Vegas this week (subscription). Still reeling from Janet Jackson's scarily hardware-clad nipple, Bono's potty mouth, Howard Stern doing whatever it is that Howard Stern does, and pixelated "Married by America" honeymoon hijinks, the NAB is in a quandry. They're talking tougher standards, more time delays, "delaying selective broadcasts, and even having paralegals monitor some shows." (Huh? Paralegals? They have special indecency sensors?)

Meanwhile, Congress wants to boost fines that can be levied by the FCC to $500,000 per incident. House Judiciary Chair James Sensenbrenner, apparently because the House Judiciary Committee doesn't have anything more important to do, has suggested that criminal prosecutions would be an efficient way to enforce indecency regulations. Yup, that's reasonable. Not over-reacting here at all.

The culture wars are getting me down. There's a serious disconnect in this country between what is truly indecent, and what gets a core constituency of the extremist Right Wing leadership in the country all frothed up. I have to say that I'm a lot more concerned about the indecencies that can't be controlled with an "off" button.

What indecencies? Follow me in extended for some thoughts.

Debt, n. An ingenious substitute for the chain and whip of the slavedriver.
- Ambrose Gwinett Bierce (1843-1914)
The Devil's Dictionary, 1911

The one good thing about this whole Bankruptcy Bill mess is that people are finally starting to talk about the depredations of the credit and finance industries. This discussion is long overdue and it's my opinion that these industries are in dire need of a good, public flogging.

The next time you call the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) with a question, the person answering your call will be a contract worker with about as much training as the person taking your fast food order. Two weeks of training and these call center workers will be the public face of this country’s most important anti-discrimination agency.

There there, my dears.

Did Pope Rotteweiler IX scare you?

GM's $1.1 BILLION first-quarter loss (Jesus, Mary and Joseph!) got you thinking about a neo-Luddite lifestyle in a one-room Idaho shack to share with some chickens, a grizzly bear named Ben, and your iPod?

Blue that, once again, you were skunked by scalpers and can't get U2 tickets without mortgaging the farm? Hmmm, maybe if I move to Idaho.... ?

Tell Auntie Em your troubles.

Crossposted at dailykosdiaries

The NYTimes has a very interesting article discussing the new multimillion dollar Lincoln museum in Springfield, Illinois, which takes a very different approach to portraying popular history:

Is this a sound way of teaching popular history? Is it just another form of mythmaking? How does this differ from the Stephen Ambrose/Ken Burns style approach? Does it matter?

Some thoughts on the flip.

originally appeared in www.latinosforamerica.com

The establishment of the Minuteman Project, a group of volunteers that has set up camp along the Arizona border to patrol and report on the movement of people illegally entering the country, is nothing more than a sign of our collective misunderstanding of the issues surrounding mass migration from Mexico and other poor countries.

To be sure, not all Minuteman Project volunteers are “vigilantes,” as George W. Bush has categorized them; but it is difficult to believe that the masses of confederate flag-waving volunteers lack racist objectives. On national television, MM Project organizer Jim Gilcrest was quoted as saying that there are supremacists of all colors: “don’t just pick on the white ones,” he complained to talk radio personality Alan Colmes.

crossposted at dailykos diaries.

Today Howard Kurtz addresses the issue of blog criticism of the Media:

Now, I have levelled a great deal of criticism at the Media, particularly at Mr. Kurtz himself. But not knowing if Mr. Kurtz is honest or what motivations he might have, I stick to his work - to wit, I attack his competence. For Mr. Kurtz and the Media to now use the "they're mean" dodge to avoid addressing the substance of our complaints it simply typical of their unfounded arrogance.

More on the flip.

As I was taking a last peek at news headlines before heading off to bed, a quick glance at Iraq Car Bomb Kills American Activist struck me instantly with a very queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach.

It was her. Marla Ruzicka.

^{(AP Photo / Scott Nelson, World Picture News)}

Sometimes, with all the talk of strategy, party line votes and Senate rules, one might wonder just what we're arguing about, and for, here on the left and in the Democratic Party. To listen to our elected officials and party leaders (and many pundits and bloggers on the left) it would be hard for someone not already involved in the discussion to have any idea what we fight for.

Politics isn't chess, though many treat it as though it is. It's about people's lives, and which people have the opportunities to make the most out of their lives, and which ones don't.

Does this party fight for basic civil and human rights, or doesn't it?

Science Fiction, that is.

When I as 8, my mother sat me down and ordered me to read a story by Cyril Kornbluth that was called The Ugly Little Boy. I was hooked.

Nowadays, I am so busy there is no time to read everything I should just for work and to be a good citizen. But sometimes I just need some "comfort reading" - and I turn to SF. Oddly enough, there is nothing really comforting about what I like. But they let me fully enter another world and help me think about this one. So I want to go back again and again for another hit.

So here are a couple authors I like and am impatiently waiting for more.

Type fast, you pajama-clad revolutionaries, the end is at hand!

From today's BBC: Horrific scenes greeted British troops as they entered Bergen-Belsen concentration camp on 15 April 1945. They were accompanied by the BBC's Richard Dimbleby who recorded his first impressions for radio.

Please know that the images contained in the slideshow are very graphic. scenes of liberation

The agreed rules for this particular meme: Take out your iPod or other musical device. Put it in "random" mode. Hit "play." Write down the first ten tracks that come up--and no fair putting in ones you think will make you look cool, or omitting ones that make you look like a total dork.

But since we here at Unbossed don't suffer rules graciously, I'm adding some of my own. Instead of just listing the tracks, I'm going to try to provide comments on the pieces. So here are mine for today, with associated comments:

I keep hearing this, and it's increasingly pissing me off. I just caught the rerun of last night's The Daily Show with guest John Avlon, columnist for The New York Sun and former staffer for both Guiliani and Clinton. He was on promoting his book, Independent Nation: How the Vital Center Is Changing American Politics. All fine and good. We like moderates, particularly in comparison to the wingers that have been in control for the last four years. What is that pissed me off so much? That he could say, in all seriousness, that the far left is in control of the Democratic party.

WTF? That Harry Reid, he's a wild one, he is. All out there promoting that free love, legalized marijuana, gay marriage and flag burning in our public schools. Again, all I can say is WTF?

So I decide to go do some exploring on Mr. Avlon's Web site, the one he set up to sell his book. Check below the fold for what I find out from the introduction.

It's about time our government did something about the horrific abuse of power by the medical establishment which excludes our religious brethren from living up to their values. I am, of course, referring to the barbaric practice of forcing pharmacists to fill prescriptions they don't believe in.

Of course they should live by their values! Why should they be excluded from this field for refusing to participate in the sinful practices of the patients? In less enlightened times, we have fired these people outright and it is high-time our legislators stepped in to stop this violation of rights.

Since I'm usually running around wild-eyed warning of impending doom, I thought I'd drop notice of some good news, just to throw you all off first thing in the morning:

Pharmacist rebuked
He refused to refill birth control prescription

Posted: April 13, 2005
Madison - The state Pharmacy Examining Board on Wednesday reprimanded and limited the license of a pharmacist who refused to refill a young woman's prescription for oral contraceptives.

The seven-member board acted on a recommendation made in February by an administrative law judge who reviewed the case. Pharmacist Neil T. Noesen, 31, was punished for rejecting the young woman's refill request and failing to refer her to another pharmacy where she could get her prescription filled.

Good news ... but still some worrying undercurrents here in Wisconsin, once the wellspring of Progressivism in the United States. More on that on the flipside:

    In Robert Charles Wilson, The Chronoliths (2001), gigantic monuments, each of which  glorifies a series of military victories of Kuin begin appearing around the world. But each victory will not take place for another 20 years and 3 months. The technology that creates the Chronoliths, let alone permitting them to be erected in the past, is a mystery. Many appear in large cities, killing inhabitants and destroying the infrastructure with the cold and shock waves they send out.

    As each Chronolith is planted city by city, terror gives way to factions that decide the only solution is to side with Kuin. Kuin obviously is / will be invincible. People of the past begin inventing tales of Kuin, mythologies about his policies. Kuinists plot to overthrow governments.

    One theory, the most plausible in the book, is that the whole point of the Chronoliths is the change reality. Their purpose is to make Kuin every more invincible in his present, by making him appear invincible in the past. If follows, then, that finding a way to destroy the Chronoliths will destroy the myth of the invincible Kuin and lead to the defeat of Kuin.

Maryland’s General Assembly has passed a bill that would force Wal-Mart to pay more for its employees’ healthcare; now, its supporters are trying to make sure they have enough votes to override Governor Ehrlich’s veto. From WaPo:

[Health] benefits remain a focus of unwelcome attention for Wal-Mart. Organized labor and unionized retailers argue that because the discount chain covers less than half of its employees, companies across the economy are being forced to cut benefits to compete, dragging down workers' standard of living.

Although the legislation before the General Assembly does not name Wal-Mart, it appears to be the only company affected by it. The bill would require organizations with more than 10,000 employees to spend at least 8 percent of their payroll on health benefits -- or put the money directly into the state's health program for the poor.

Day of Silence is a day held that protests the hatred of homosexuals in schools across America. Throughout the day, students go without talking the entire day, which draws attention to harassment gay students experience in school. It is grew from a local project in 1996 to a nation-wide project it is today. Everyone agrees that harassment of gay students should stop, right? Wrong. Guess who opposes this day?

Yep, you guessed correctly. It's the religious right-wingers. The right continues to show that is is without shame:

I stated in Part I of this series the argument that the Democratic Party MUST take a strong pro-women's health stand in order to offer a real challenge to the Republican Party in coming elections. I hope to convince you that it is just the first step toward making the Democratic Party a party with a real progressive agenda again.

Undermining women's access to safe and legal abortions is only part of the right's assault on women's rights, and only part of what they hope to accomplish. While the Democratic Party offers DINOs like Tim Roehmer as values "spokesmen", and others champion anti-choice candidates like Bob Casey Jr, the Democratic Party continues to fail to stand up for the rights of individuals to determine their own destiny.

This is a recipe for continued irrelevance as a political party, and enables the Republicans and their theocratic base to continue to drag this country dangerously to the right. Roe v Wade is just one step along their desired path. As we run to the right, our party continues to leave a majority of Americans behind, with no political representation fighting for their right to be left alone.

Are we still Democrats? Do we believe that this is the basis on which a resurgent Democratic Party must be built?

In 1944, President Franklin Roosevelt asked Congress to implement an Economic Bill of Rights and argued that it was “definitely the responsibility of the Congress to do so.”

It is past time for the Democratic Party to have a real discussion about what this party stands for. Is it merely to oppose the Republican Party, moon to its sun, reflecting its light? Is it enough to hold office, to maintain its position as a brake on the worst impulses of the right? What are we a party FOR?

The basic unit of our civic society, of the very idea of the American Republic, is the individual, inviolate. We didn't start this country that way, with women not even on the political map, African Americans counted as mere three fifths of a person (in order to give their owners greater representation) and Native Americans not counted at all. The right of an individual to control their own destiny must be the FIRST priority of this party, and must be the way we connect the modern Democratic Party our road from those early, imperfect days of our union and with the history of progressive principles.

The first principle for a resurgent Democratic Party, and a progressive party, is to fight for Choice and women's health.

This weekend I had the fascinating experience of spending a considerable amount of time with a couple of pretty high profile right-wing bloggers. Just to keep this discussion more general and abstract, I'm not going to share who they are, but rest assured they weren't the lying shills of Powerline or the extremely frightening crazies at Little Green Footballs. Rather, they are principled, highly partisan, very intelligent guys (of course they were guys since testosterone is as rampant in the conservative blogosphere as in an NBA locker-room). Except, of course, they were completely wrong on almost all of the issues.

Coming out of this, I am struck most by how much like them I am, and I suspect many of you are. Essentially, political junkies are political junkies. I found that, at my core, I had more in common with these guys in career experience, academic and intellecutal interests, and approach to politics than with anyone at my workplace or in my general group of friends. It was a little like a fun-house mirror--my essence was there but the form was all distorted.

Cross-posted from Musing's musings.

Although I already did this once without being tapped, I just can't say no when a lady asks me politely to help out: and andante of Collective Sigh counts as a lady in my book. She's passed me the virtual baton again in the latest meme craze sweeping the blogs, and I'm happy to oblige.

But in the spirit of liberalism and free choice and all that goody stuff, I'm exercising my right to change my answers from last time. (Not that that's likely to be a problem for my legions dozens several faithful readers, natch.)

They are the most basic of human emotions and are the most powerful of motivators. They can serve as catalysts for good works and for more divisive actions that cause us to forgo our human interconnectedness to gratify a selfish, immediate desire.

Karl Rove has perfected the exploitation of the holy trinity of emotional manipulation for political gain. While we, rightfully, celebrate the insights of the Ivins, Podestas, Hershs, and Krugmans, Democrats continue to play the game at a JV level.

Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, founder and proprietor of Daily Kos is the featured guest of C-SPAN Q&A this evening (8pm EST, 11pm EST, 6am EST).

So how could I resist posting a meta-post about a meta-broadcast about meta-blogging in the grand dKos tradition bestowed to the Olympus-like gods with UIDs hovering just a wee bit above 1000? Heh.

Question of the Day: How much meta-wood could a meta-woodchuck chuck if meta-woodchuck could meta-chuck meta-wood?

An exclusive Unbossed.com report from Nikko News Network society page and race relations reporter Emily Gale.
COXSACKIE, NY: Inspired by the brilliant Michigan entrepreneur and humanitarian Gary Gray, the local chapter of the Women of the Ku Klux Klan will be hosting a "White Power Bake Sale" on May 14 at the Coxsackie Roll & Bowl.

Madman and Izzy talk trash about television. This week: hoopleheads and hucksters, cocksuckers and coochie dancers, HBO's Deadwood and
Carnivale take us to different worlds and give us a new look at American history.

First, let me just say greetings to all the Unbossed from my world of chaos on the west coast. I've been following along on the email threads for the last week or so, but have been so busy I haven't even had time to think, much less write! However, with that said, it's Friday and I swore that even if it took an act of Congress (Republican controlled, no less), I'd post something.

brinnnng, brinnnnng, knock, knock "Let me see, I have here a, umm, yes, a virtual bouquet for a Ms. Emdash. Just sign the receipt here." scribble "Have a good day, Ms." door shut - paper rip "Oooh, pretty."

Although we here at Unbossed are generally not in favor of rules (except for those we make ourselves), there are a few for this little game and it's probably better that we play along. But this wouldn't be Unbossed if we didn't bend them or twist them a little, so I'm going to add a few comments here each week, instead of just a bare listing of what happens to be playing in my ears at the moment when I write this.

The agreed rules: Take out your iPod or other musical device. Put it in "random" mode. Hit "play." Write down the first ten tracks that come up--and no fair putting in ones you think will make you look cool, or omitting ones that make you look like a total dork.

Without further ado, here are mine for today, with associated comments:

1. Tom Lehrer, "I Wanna Go Back to Dixie" (The Remains of Tom Lehrer, disc 2). I've been a Lehrer fanatic since I was in college and one of the altos in the choir brought along a mix tape of his songs to pass the time on the bus when we went on tour that spring. This little ditty isn't among my favorites, but it's still good.
2. Encina, Fatal la parte (The King's Singers' Madrigal History Tour). Did I mention that I sang in choir in college? Two choirs, actually: the regular choir that was open to anyone, and the Collegium Musicum, for which one had to audition, and which did more a capella works, lots of madrigals, and tougher pieces. Hence my love of madrigals.
3. Devonshire (Sense and Sensibility soundtrack album). I credit my love of Jane Austen to Gwyneth Paltrow and Jeremy Northam, since it was only after watching their version of Emma that I was able to overcome my instinctive prejudice against anything that smacked of classical English literature. But when Emma Thompson came out with Sense and Sensibility, I was hooked. And although I very rarely buy soundtrack albums, I snapped this one up to get Patrick Doyle's two songs, "Weep You No More Sad Fountains" and "The Dreame," which open and close the movie, respectively. Well worth it.
4. Erasure, "Yahoo!" (The Innocents). This has to be one of my all-time favorite Erasure cuts. An exuberant beat, an even more exuberant chorus, and some of Andy Bell's best vocals.
5. Asia, "Suspicion" (Astra). Ah, Asia. My first-ever "pop" album purchase, in my young college days. I was a bit of a classical geek (OK, snob) when I was young, and considered Top 40 stuff well beneath my dignity. But a guy I had a crush on in college loved Asia's first album, and after hearing him play it a few times, it began to grow on me. I have all three of the original group's albums, though I think Astra is the weakest of the three. But this track is a good one, if you like '80s-style glam rock. (Which I do.)
6. Gaelic Storm, "Piña Colada in a Pint Glass" (How Are We Getting Home?). I fell in love with Gaelic Storm in part despite and in part because of their gig in Titanic as the steerage-class "party band." I've gone to see them in concert several times when they've been in the area, and have autographed copies of two of their five albums--and I did ask Patrick Murphy about the time he brought the Paris Métro to a screeching halt--and he told me the story. This song is one of my favorite cuts off their most recent album.
7. J. S. Bach, Variatio 15: Canone alla Quinta (Ton Koopman, Goldberg Variations). I love Bach, and I particularly love the Goldberg Variations. I just don't understand why anybody thinks they should be played on the piano. They sound infinitely better on harpsichord, and Ton Koopman does a magnificent job with them.
8. Claudio Monteverdi, Sfogava con le stelle (Monteverdi, Il quarto libro dei madrigali). My liking for Monteverdi is another outgrowth of my years singing his works in college.
9. The Capitol Steps, "The Magic Reagan" (Shamlet: A Political Comedy of Errors). I don't remember who introduced me to the Steps, or when, but I've loved them forever. Seen them live a couple of times. And while I haven't bought a CD of theirs in a while, I have quite a number of them--and I enjoy following them on NPR each year. And since they got their start as staffers for Sen. Charles Percy of Illinois, there's a bit of a local connection as well.
10. David Haas, "At Evening" (You Are Mine: The Best of David Haas, vol. 2). David is one of the most prolific (and, in my admittedly biased opinion, the best) Catholic composers now working. I've sung a ton of his stuff over the years, and have had the pleasure of performing with him on one occasion.

Hey all, some of you might be interested in this - I just put the finishing touches on an alpha version of a Social Security graphing tool - it allows you to visualize the Social Security budget using parameters you choose.

Here's an example graph, showing the budget surplus from '98 to '08, using '05 projections, with a line of comparison to the old '03 projection:

Want to try it out to make a different graph?

Since the 2004 presidential primary debaucle, I have completely given up on Corporate Controlled Media™ for information about politics, world events, or local happenings. I get my news from blogs, foreign press, documentary film, and more independent sources, like The New Yorker. And, frankly, I'm much happier, less stressed, and better informed for it.

But, even I, li'l "Miss Liberal Indignation 2005" had a "what the fuck?" moment today over this...

Several months ago, a school board in a small city of Pennsylvania called Dover became famous (or infamous) for approving legislation that would allow alternatives to evolution to be taught to America's biology classes. Almost immediately, Dover became the laughing stock of the scientific community.

But in a few months, the entire state of Pennsylvania may join Dover in being a complete disgrace. Some state representatives in Pennsylvania have recently introduced a bill that would allow any biology teacher in the state to teach intelligent design. If you're not pissed off already, you will be in a few moments.

You have been invited to be on the planning committee for our gala unbossed virtual film festival. Yes, fabulous you!

The theme for our first UVFF will be the films that explain our times. We have received two nominations:

1. The Ruling Class - nominated especially for the final scenes in which the values of the ruling class are revealed. Probably this is what goes on in those White House cabinet meetings.

2. Total Recall - nominated for its revelations about the relationship of corporate "persons" to real "persons". When annoyed with the masses on Mars, they simply shut off their air. Effective crowd control. As it turns out [warning - the end is revealed ahead], we learn that Mars has abundant oxygen - or would if the corporations weren't hiding the switch to turn it on.

So, send in your nominations for the UVFF, Dahlings.

Couldn't have happened to a more deserving shill. Howie the Shill decided that he trusted Powerline MORE than fucking Mike Allen of his own newspaper, and ran with the ridiculous "fake GOP Schiavo Talking Points" 'story' - which turned out to be as bogus as a 3 dollar bill. A sample of Howie's Shilling Shame:

Of course, in tommorow's Post, Allen says it was a GOP memo.

Nice work Howie. More on the flip.

or is Chafee hoping to get some kind of quid pro quo from his party:

GOP Senator May Oppose UN Choice

One of the most hate filled blogs in existence - prominent practioners of the New McCarthyism - and, lest we forget, Time's Blog of the Year, Powerline, through the master practitioner of hate, Hindrocket, has the chutzpah to complain about the Pulitzer Prize winning editorial cartoons of Nick Anderson:

Uh, I can think of at least one Mr. "Jimmy Carter is a Traitor." You got to hand it to these guys, they are truly shameless. DeLay, Cornyn, THEM, and they still show not a spot of red on their faces as they unleash their attacks. Truly remarkable levels of chutzpah.

NOTE: Also posted as a diary at dailykos.

Since I'm pretty vocal in my support of liberal causes, argue with everybody about liberal issues, and even write down these arguments and post them on the internet for everybody and their uncle to read, I've started feeling a bit guilty about certain feelings I have. More precisely, certain feelings I don't have.

In any case, I'm feeling a distinct need to make a confession -- I just can't seem to make myself get all whipped up about nature and the environment.

and I mean you em dash. Madame Dictator Wannabe.

I'll write about what I want. I'll be ALL Clark ALL the time if I want.

I'll write what I want when I want. I'll be ALL DLC ALL the time if I want.

I'll write what I want when I want. I'll be ALL FREE TRADE ALL THE TIME if I want.

I'LL WRITE ALL CAPS IF I WANT WHEN I WANT.

I'll put up Open Threads when I want to.

So happens, I don't want to write about anything right now. And you can't make me. So there.

Anyway, I know you never said I could not do all those things but I just wanted to be clear - I am UNBOSSED!

Fernando

P.S.

You can delete this if you want, but it is MY decision that you can.

P.P.S.

Consider this an Open Thread to tell the would be dictator that we will not be bossed.

All that nattering about allegations of liberal bias in academic circles? Fuhgeddaboudit. The Mighty Eagle is soaring to the rescue.

That's right. I read in this week's issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education:

Former Attorney General John Ashcroft will join Regent University ...as a part-time professor this spring. Mr. Ashcroft will teach a short-term course on leadership during times of crisis in April, and again in the summer, fall, and next spring.

Please put Meteor Blades and his family in your thoughts and prayers today.
Prayers for Meteor Blades' Family at Daily Kos

I want to ask you to come walk with me to a quiet place, a place away from all the argument over beginning and end of life battles Ten Commandments on public ground. I want to tell you about my daughter, Simone.

Today is the 37th anniversary of Martin Luther King's death. And even though his gravesite is just a few miles from the Atlanta Journal Constitution's offices, they couldn't find the space to include a mention in their paper. Disgraceful. What is also disagraceful is that this man, this leader who changed history does not have a memorial in Washington, DC. Help build the dream.

"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

I can't say that I was always a Democratic activist. In fact, I don't think of myself as one now. I worked with non-profit organizations for the past eight years. I adopted highways. I dished out meals. I built houses. I donated to the United Way. In general, I felt like I made a difference in my world. I didn't, however, vote. The road of my life has drifted over the past eight years, but where I stood yesterday was no where I ever envisioned I'd be. That journey was important, and I think it's one many of you are taking as well. In several ways, my journey ended Saturday morning with a Senate candidate sleeping on my couch, but a new one is about to begin. I'd like to share with you

On the recommendation of a friend, I picked up Blindness by Nobel winner José Saramago.
He hadn’t read the book, but thought it was something I’d enjoy.
The plot, that of individuals going blind by some mysterious illness
and then being interned by the government, sounded intriguing, so I
picked it up and quickly read through it yesterday morning.

It was disturbing, horrifying, sick and yet a bit hopeful about the promise of humanity.

The basic plot line is that one man goes blind, a white
blindness.  No matter whether his eyes or open or closed, his
vision is nothing but a milky white sea.  Every person he comes in
contact with eventually falls to the ‘white sickness’ and so on with
the persons they come into contact with.  Within a day or so,
these individuals are rounded up by the government and housed into a
mental asylum.  It starts with six, but eventually numbers over
three hundred.  An ophthalmologist’s wife is the only one who does
not go blind, but pretends to be blind in order to accompany her
husband to the internment.

A few weeks ago, I attended a talk by Kristen Grimm, founder and president of the communications company Spitfire Strategies and mastermind behind SeaWeb’s successful “Give Swordfish a Break” campaign. Her talk was engaging and informative, but I left it with mixed feelings. On one hand, I was glad to hear that environmental groups can increase their impact if they improve their communications strategies; on the other hand, I wasn’t sure that these strategies can stop global warming.

An exclusive report from our Nikko News Network correspondent.
JACKSON HOLE, WY: Visitors to the Wyoming Center for the Performing Arts received the thrill of a lifetime with a special performance art event by Vice President Dick Cheney. The piece entitled, "Gaze Upon the Wonder of Freedom," presented the Vice President sitting nude in a small grey room for one hour without moving. Many patrons of the museum were moved to tears by the intensity of the patriotic expression and personal sacrifice exhibited by the wartime Vice President. Gift shop sales were reportedly brisk.

As if there were any possible remaining doubt that G. Dumbya Bush has no respect for the laws of the land or the Constitution he has twice sworn to "preserve, protect, and defend," it should have vanished when he used recess appointments to name a panel to consider military base closings. The panel apparently has a May 16 deadline to get recommendations for base closures or consolidations from the secretary of defense, although no reason for that particular date was given.

Here we are, at the beginning of the 21st Century (in a calender based on the birth of a religious figure) looking down the barrel of a media and a vocal minority that wants to drag us back to the dark ages.

To paraphrase Pink: "200 channels of religious shit on the TV to choose from."

Even on all of the internets, you can't get away from it.

So, as my fellow Americans dance in grief around the tube like animists around a sacrificial pyre, what's a secular boy to do?

Shout into the flames, of course.

Since the issues surrounding Theresa Marie Shiavo exploded onto the national scene, there really hasn't been any escaping it. Everybody I know has a grasp of the basic outline of the situation -- the young, married woman was in a vegetative state for 15 years, kept alive by a feeding tube. Her husband and parents disagreed on whether or not to remove the feeding tube. The case wound its way through the courts and, after all the appeals had run out, politicians entered the fray.

So we've all heard about this and we've all formed opinions. We have opinions on what the politicians are up to. We have opinions on the legalities. We have opinions on the medical evidence, opinions on which side of the family is acting appropriately, and opinions on what is the best course of action that would have served the interests of Terri Schiavo.

And there is much disagreement even among folks who firmly stand together on one side or the other. After all, we're all entitled to our opinions, right? I don't think so.

Update: The Chair of Peter is vacant. At 9:37 p.m. (Rome time; 2:37 p.m. Central) today, Saturday, 2 April, Pope John Paul II was gathered to his everlasting reward after a long illness.

Update: 12:59 p.m. CST. The Associated Press reports that the Vatican is denying Italian media reports stating that the pope was dead. His breathing is shallow and his kidneys are said to be failing. Multiple sources have reported that he has lost consciousness, but it appears that he has not yet died.

Update: 12:27 p.m. CST. CNN has just reported that Pope John Paul II has died. They're quoting a Reuters report quoting Italian wire sources, but no official word has yet been received from a Vatican source. Nor can I find a source online to confirm this report.

I will be cross-posting this to my own blog, Musing's musings. And since this is my first post here since we went live, I suppose a few words of introduction are in order. My name is Michael, I'm 41 years old, I'm gay, and I'm a practicing Catholic. One of the things I'll be blogging on here is the area of religion and spirituality, and this is the first such post.

I have academic degrees in chemistry, in classics (Greek), and in library science. I'm working on another one in modern European history, so that's also something you're likely to hear from me about. As my Unbossed biography notes, I'm always in earnest and rarely in doubt.