Mustang Bobby had a good QOTD over at BBWW. However, I decided to branch off from that and ask what few loyal readers I have to name what they think are the best movies about magic/magicians.

Two recent ones come to mind for me: The Illusionist and The Prestige.

Bark Bark Woof Woof

Friday Blogaround
Eleven days to go... Here's how the the LC is wrapping it up.

- A Blog Around The Clock: political roundup of the week.
- All Facts and Opinions: the waiting is the hardest part.
- archy: the global war on Christmas has begun.
- Bark Bark Woof Woof: they're not serious.
- Bloggg: voting booth advice.
- Collective Sigh: on Ted Stevens and stupidity.
- Dohiyi Mir: single party rule.
- Echidne Of The Snakes continues her series on her emergence as a feminist.
- Florida Progressive Coalition Blog: citizen interviews on Amendment 2 (the same-sex marriage ban) in Florida
- Iddybud Journal: James Taylor.
- Left Is Right: bits and pieces.
- Lefty Side of the Dial: wined and dined.
- Musing's musings: polling by signs.
- Pen-Elayne on the Web... from the Left Coast.
- Rook's Rant: one vote counts.
- rubber hose: on and off the SOFA.
- Scrutiny Hooligans: anvil time.
- SoonerThought: Joe McCain and traffic.
- Speedkill: Pat Buchanan on Colin Powell.
- Steve Bates, The Yellow Doggerel Democrat: clothes fake the man.
- Stupid Enough Unexplanation: hateful stuff.
- The Fulcrum: constitutional primer.
- The Invisible Library: writing software.
- WTF Is It Now?? OMFG.
- ...You Are A Tree: tough times and best wishes.

If your state does it, consider early voting.

Better late than never.

New York Times

Paul Krugman, a professor at Princeton University and an Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times, was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences on Monday.

Hey, would you look at that! And he's a blogger too!

Mustang Bobby has his usual question of the day, which happens to be up my alley:

What films from the current era (including the last twenty-five years or so) would you add to the list?

Here are my answers.

• Raiders Of The Lost Ark
• Rain Man
• Unforgiven (Eastwood's movie)
• The Princess Bride
• The Usual Suspects
• The Bourne Movies (all three together make the Bond movies look childish and amateurish)
• Sneakers (like wine, it gets better with age and also, considering today's warrantless wiretapping in the computer age, very prophetic)
• The Sixth Sense
• The Matrix
• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
• Body Heat
• The Fugitive
• Spider Man (and also Spider Man 2)

I have more, but they start to fade from the all time classic plateau into great movie range.
Rook | Homepage | 07.14.08 - 12:35 pm | #

Sean Paul Kelly, over at The Agonist has a post up asking you to share your favorite Science Fiction book.

What's this? I am linking to a second post of Atrios in as many days? I really must be sick. Anyway, he's once again made a relevant point.

The Savaging of Scott McClellan continues. But it is not just the right that is tearing him apart. Several of our own progressive members of Blogstonia appear to be piling on just as righteously. Over at TPM, there are continued posts of Scott's past statements that, by his own recent admission, were misleading and lies. And yet, despite his admissions, he is being ridiculed, mocked, and smeared.

Was David Brock, a man most of us know to have been instrumental in the defamation, and eventual impeachment of Bill Clinton, held to this level of scorn and ridicule? Obviously not, considering his website, Media Matters, is the go-to site for all things propaganda.

Over the last 6 plus years, since the run up to the invasion of Iraq, a nation obviously not capable of mounting any type of attack against us, we have been demanding that the administration acknowledge it's propaganda agenda. Time and again, on blogs and websites across the progressive spectrum, there has been anger and disgust at the lack of honesty and forthrightness.

Now, finally, Scott McClellan steps forward, announces quite loudly, and convincingly, that the Bush administration used propaganda in the run up to the invasion, and what does he receive? Our derision and scorn.

"Where the hell were you back in 2002? Why the hell did you not resign in protest back then?" Here are some links: CampusProgress, The Register-Guardian, MetaFilter, Oliver Willis, All Spin Zone.

Stop. It. Seriously. Stop it right now.

Scott McClellan has stepped forward, just like David Brock, just like Paul O'Neill, just like Richard Clarke. Now, when those three stepped forward, did it make a difference? Did Paul O"Neill's account of the fiasco that is the Bush administration's handling of the economy make things change? Doh! Of course not. Did David Brock's admission of being instrumental in the propaganda machine -- The Mighty Wurlitzer -- of the conservative right result in the failure of the propaganda machine? Do I need to type Doh! again? And do I really need to point out the lack of serious security despite Richard Clarke's admissions? Yeah, I thought not.

Okay, maybe Scott could have done the honorable thing and bowed out earlier. In the end, it would not have mattered one iota. They simply would have filled his position with another mouth piece. Gee, in fact, they've done it twice since he's left.

So, how about instead of bitching about what he didn't do, because it doesn't really matter, and take comfort in what he has done. Because, unlike David, Paul, and Richard, Scott's book, and it's timing, might actually prevent the invasion of Iran. He has become an ally to our cause. How about we accept him?

Besides, if you really want to bitch about someone doing the right thing and preventing this mess, how about you bitch about this. Because, in the end, having a different man as president would have been the only way to prevent the failure that is the Bush administration.

Army Of Dude on Memorial Day.

I've come across some interesting responses from several members of Progressive Blogstonia in regards to Scott McClellan's pending book release. For the most part it's a combination of too little to late, or why believe you now when you lied earlier.

Me? I am of the thought better late then never. What little that has been quoted from his book appears to reinforce what we have been saying since 2000. That a high level member of the "Texas Family" has, for all intent and purpose, defected and validated our point is a big deal. Just because the timing doesn't meet with our approval doesn't mean we shouldn't still be glad Scott actually came out and agreed with us.

And I have to disagree with Mustang Bobby about this story blowing away in a week. I suspect Scott's book will be hanging around for quite some time. And it may have an impact on the moderate Republicans, a particularly disenfranchised segment of the electorate of late.

There are also some who wonder why Scott didn't say something earlier. You know, resign in protest. But having worked in a dysfunctional company in the past, I guess I can understand why it took so long for him to finally come out and speak his mind. When you are neck deep in the chaos, you lose perspective. No doubt there were all sorts of innuendos and implicit messages being bandied about that cloud rational judgment. Not to mention the various resignations to spend more time with family that reinforced the innuendos and implicit messages.

So, while the rest of the arm chair political pundits weigh in with their opinions, I am going to give Scott the benefit of the doubt with his confession.

Now, if you will all excuse me, I am going to get out of my arm chair and hit the shower. I've got to go to work.

Hugo nominations.

Congratulations to Elizabeth Bear and Patrick Nielsen Hayden, both of who I am familiar with by way of Blogstonia.

By way of Fixer's post over at Alternate Brain, I stumbled upon this. And then came across this. It's going to be one of those days.

Oh. I am never going to eat a cucumber from my fridge ever again.

I am Steve Benen!

Balloon Juice

Everything.

I am not sure if he qualifies as a modern conservative. At least, not after this post.

My God! They end up everywhere.

 

Hat Tip Ellroon for this video of Neal Gladstone; Liberal.

New York Times

Of the many landmarks along a journalist's career, two are among those that stand out: winning an award and making the government back down. Last week, Joshua Micah Marshall achieved both.

On Tuesday, it was announced that he had won a George Polk Award for legal reporting for coverage of the firing of eight United States attorneys, critics charged under political circumstances. The "tenacious investigative reporting sparked interest by the traditional news media and led to the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales," the citation read.

Also last week, the Justice Department put him back on its mailing list for reporters with credentials after removing him last year.

Mr. Marshall does not belong to any traditional news organization. Instead, he is creating his own. His Web site, Talking Points Memo (www.talkingpointsmemo.com), is the first Internet-only news operation to receive the Polk (though in 2003, an award for Internet reporting was given to the Center for Public Integrity), and certainly one of the most influential political blogs in the country.

I remember when Josh was simply a lone blogger. Way to go Josh! Congratulations on establishing an on line News Media Company. So, is a Pulitzer on the way?

The Daily Brew
February 21, 2008

Suppose, hypothetically, that sometime in the middle of next summer there is a major terrorist attack in the United States. Not on the scale of September 11, but somewhat larger in scale than the attacks in London and Barcelona. Suppose, for example, that on Friday, the Fourth of July, 2008, explosives simultaneously destroy ten subway trains packed with people on their way to the firework shows in New York City and Washington DC, killing 800 people, and injuring 1200 more. What would be the political fallout?

We all know what would happen. It would take perhaps three seconds before the Republican megaphone on AM radio and Fox News blamed the Democrats. The Republicans would immediately point to the Democrat's failure to renew FISA this past week as the reason the attacks were not stopped. The Democrats would then pee in their pants and form a circular firing squad, simultaneously blaming each other for not giving Bush the unfettered power to declare who should live and who should die, and debating whether the fall elections should just be delayed, or canceled entirely. Assuming that the ballot somehow went forward, John McCain would be elected president and the Republicans would re-take both houses of Congress.

The simple, undeniable truth is that the Republicans now have a tremendous amount to gain if America is attacked, and even more to lose if we are not. So put on your tinfoil hats with me and ask yourself if Cheney would let it happen.

I realize that among respectable progressives one is not allowed to even hint that the Republicans are capable of such evil. There is no more certain way to poop in the punchbowl of the comments section any of my favorite blogs than to suggest that you don't buy the official explanation of September 11. Virtually all of the self appointed consignetti of the left-wing commentariat will either ban you outright or mock you for even bringing the topic up. Despite how much we have in common on virtually every other political issue, I have to admit that I regard these people as idiots.

How much evidence do we need to see that the main difference between Republicans and Democrats is that Republicans aren't shy about using violence, including violence against Americans, as a means to an end?  What do the Republicans have to do to prove they are capable of doing damn near anything to further their power?

The head of the Klu Klux Klan has been quoted as publicly predicting that Barrack Obama will be assassinated. No one believes for a minute that if he is elected President, some racist Republican won't try. The anthrax spores that were mailed to then majority leader Tom Daschle were created in a US government facility, yet no one has ever been charged with the crime. Osama bin Laden is blamed for killing three thousand American citizens. At six foot four, he is the most recognized man in the Arab world. He is also disabled, as he is in need of periodic kidney dialysis. Despite that, he has never been caught. The Bush administration deliberately lied to the American public to start an illegal war of choice that has killed thousands of American servicemen, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. They tortured people, some to death, in detention centers in Iraq and Cuba. They paid your tax dollars to hire private corporate mercenary armies to operate outside of the jurisdiction of any sovereign power, while knowing that male employees of these mercenary armies were raping female American citizens who worked for them, with no consequences whatsoever.

Call me a conspiracy nut, but given this track record I don't think it is unreasonable to suggest that the Republicans are capable of doing whatever is necessary to stay in power. Quite the contrary, I would suggest that anyone who thinks they would not is hopelessly naive.
__________________________________________________________________
The Daily Brew is an editorial/opinion column delivered to a select group of political junkies who occasionally forward them along to their colleagues.

If someone sent you this, you should consider it an invitation to join, and sign up to receive future editions by entering your email address here:

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Friday Blogaround
First, a big thanks to Pen-Elayne for keeping her blogroll off BlogRolling so I could use her site as the source for this week's Liberal Coalition blogaround.

So, better late than never...

- A Blog Around The Clock: Darwin thanks the lowly worm.
- archy on James Dobson's hissy-fit.
- Bark Bark Woof Woof on the theory of stupid design.
- Bloggg: where are the Republicans on autism?
- Collective Sigh: more Medicare woes.
- Dohiyi Mir: fast NTodd.
- Echidne Of The Snakes: read this and this.
- Left Is Right: Bush administration says no to mental health benefits for veterans.
- Lefty Side of the Dial has three questions each day this week.
- Liberty Street has moved. Please update your blogroll...if it's working.
- Musing's musings compares the two.
- Pen-Elayne on the Web on life during wartime.
- Rook's Rant wraps up SuperDuperTuesday.
- rubber hose says goodbye to Mitt.
- Scrutiny Hooligans: help the Super Tuesday tornado victims.
- SoonerThought: Warren Buffett on bank woes: "poetic justice."
- Speedkill on harassing Andy Rooney.
- Steve Bates, The Yellow Doggerel Democrat on making his choice for the primary.
- Stupid Enough Unexplanation on Rush on McCain not hating liberals enough.
- T. Rex's Guide to Life: a flag lapel pin should not be the deciding factor.
- The Invisible Library: Keith tells why he supports Obama.
- WTF Is It Now?? - Constabulary notes.
- ...You Are A Tree on greeting cards for unusual events.

If you're in South Florida this weekend, there's a car show on Miracle Mile in Coral Gables this Sunday, February 10, from 10 to 4. I'll be there.

Labels: Friday Blogaround

I hate Blogrolling.com too. Always unreliable. But it's free, and the only link manager service around with no intrusive requirements.

Whew! That took quite a bit of time. But, it is done. I know have several blog rolls back on the site. Of course, The Liberal Coalition is prominently displayed at the very top left of the site; most fitting, I think. Down farther in the left side you will find a Minnesota Media roll. All Minnesota blogs all the time. On the right, down a bit you will find The Big Roll. It ought be on the left as well, but due to my nature of maintaining some type of visual balance, it is on the right. I know it ain't blog shui, but it will suffice.

Well, skippy, that great coinage blogger has a post up about Blogroll Amnesty. I have to admit, I've been without a blogroll myself for quite some time. Well, today I've done something about that. I have re-instituted a Blogrolling.com account and am now in the process of populating those rolls with links.

It will take a while. Once apon a time I had over 500 links. Many of them were dead enders, others were long dormant. It was a hassle to weed them out. I had been in the process of dealing with the hassle when I was forced to abandon my rolls completely after updating to MT 4.

You see, I had switched from Blogrolling.com to a MT Plugin called MTBlogRoll. I then unthinkingly deleted all my rolls from Blogrolling.com, after having exported/imported all the rolls. When MT 4 rolled along, it turned out MTBlogRoll was not compatible. Then I lost my data base for MTBlogRoll. So, I lost all my rolls. Hence, the rebuilding process.

So, I am asking for Amnesty while I rebuild my links.

they must need bears

Any internet conversation has reached its useful end when the issue of Mac vs. PC is raised.

Sounds like a memenic shift for Blogstonia to me.

It seems Kenny was born before hair was invented. Kenny is not amused.

Oh, extra points if anyone gets the reference.

Damn near forgot about this.

Friday Blogaround
Here's the weekly round-up of what the Liberal Coalition finds interesting.

- A Blog Around The Clock: a scary headline indeed!
- archy: Cheney shows the flag.
- Bark Bark Woof Woof: of Al-Qaeda, the Axis, Hummers, and donkey carts.
- Bloggg: the best snark of the debate.
- Collective Sigh: your "medical home."
- Dohiyi Mir: NTodd shares a story.
- Echidne Of The Snakes: skip the deli and live longer.
- Iddybud Journal reviews Lions for Lambs.
- Left Is Right: think the Nigerian e-mails are disgusting?
- Lefty Side of the Dial: Six Degrees from Mrs. Lefty.
- Liberty Street welcomes John Cole back from the Dark Side.
- Make me a Commentator!!! continues the analysis of the candidates.
- Musing's musings: Michael is not unhappy about what happened to Fred Phelps.
- Pen-Elayne on the Web: who's cuter, Elayne or Datsa? Tough call...
- Rook's Rant on the color of crockery.
- rubber hose: all Hitler all the time.
- Scrutiny Hooligans: the diplomats speak: Hell no, we won't go.
- SoonerThought: a challenge to Sen. Imhofe.
- Speedkill: what is Forward Montana?
- Steve Bates, The Yellow Doggerel Democrat, has links I might have missed.
- T. Rex's Guide to Life wraps up the Florida Democratic Convention.
- The Invisible Library and library technology for the ages.
- WTF Is It Now?? and the best debate answer to Tim Russert.
- ...You Are A Tree: catching up.

I'm still grinning from the Red Sox win.

Okay, my thievery is complete for the week.

I couldn't agree more! However, I refuse to say that blogging is better than sex. For one thing, it's not. There really is nothing better than sex, despite the many claims otherwise. Although, hitting one's head on a brick wall does come in a close second.

Oh, okay, it doesn't. I am just being silly. And since it's my blog I can be silly if I damn well want. And I damn well want, even when I don't damn well want. But I am human, which means I damn well want all the time. Something to do with the damn sex drive, I figure.

By way of Norwegianity:

Yup, that's me, hip to the bone.

Yup. In an unhealthy fit of exuberance, I acquiesced to taking Andante's place in the Pharyngula mutating genre meme. I seriously need to learn to control my impulsiveness. It gets me into more trouble. I could tell you about this one time, up in Canada, on the west coast, but due to National Security, I've been sworn to secrecy.

Well, actually, it was during a black out, and I don't recall a thing. And how the Russian consulate's daughter came into play... Even she didn't know. I guess it was a shared black out. Or it was an alien abduction. Though, I don't believe I was probed. As to the Russian consulate's daughter, she wouldn't say.

Anyway, I've allowed myself to get tagged into another blogger's meme tag thingy,,,, whatever. So, here are the instructions, as copied and pasted from Bryan's post.

There are a set of questions below that are all of the form, “The best [subgenre] [medium] in [genre] is…”. Copy the questions, and before answering them, you may modify them in a limited way, carrying out no more than two of these operations:

• You can leave them exactly as is.
• You can delete any one question.
• You can mutate either the genre, medium, or subgenre of any one question. For instance, you could change “The best time travel novel in SF/Fantasy is…” to “The best time travel novel in Westerns is…”, or “The best time travel movie in SF/Fantasy is…”, or “The best romance novel in SF/Fantasy is…”.
• You can add a completely new question of your choice to the end of the list, as long as it is still in the form “The best [subgenre] [medium] in [genre] is…”.
• You must have at least one question in your set, or you’ve gone extinct, and you must be able to answer it yourself, or you’re not viable.

Then answer your possibly mutant set of questions. Please do include a link back to the blog you got them from, to simplify tracing the ancestry, and include these instructions.

So, here goes:

My great-great-great-great-grandparent is Pharyngula.
My great-great-great-grandparent Metamagician and the Hellfire Club.
My great-great-grandparent is Flying Trilobite.
My great-grandparent is A Blog Around the Clock.
My grandparent is archy.
My parent is Why Now?

The best alien invasion novel in SF/Fantasy is: The Aluminum Man by G. C. Edmondson

The best “bad” movie in SF/Fantasy is: Big Trouble in Little China

The best sexy song in pop is: “Sex” as performed by Berlin.

Now, as to propagating this mutating meme blogger's tag:

• Let's start with that foul-mouthed quaker over at Dohiyi Mir. Hmmm. Foul-mouthed quaker. That seems to be an oxymoron. Well, I guess it fits, since we are talking about NTodd.
• Then there's poor, deranged PSoTD, who's YouTube addiction has reached depths of depravity that would make chronic bar flies cringe in disgust.

Then there are these two whom have, in fact, both tagged me in other, unrelated blogger's tag memes. Unfortunately, it was just before the unfortunate upgrade to MT 4 mishap*, resulting in the lose of my posts produced all those many years prior. However, I am undaunted. I hold my head up high, reach out with moral authority, and tag the following two bloggers without guilt or shame:

• Blue Girl, Red State. Oh, and that's right, no tag backs. Thought I'd forgotten, didn't you?
• Lab Kat. Because, damn it, I think that cat on her page is cute. However, she's not posted since August, so this might be a Tag In Memorial. But I'd rather hope to see a post.

* Oh, alright. It was not a mishap, it was a dumb-ass, bone-headed, rookie move on my part in failing to back up my posts before upgrading.