drat fink
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spy me to the moon
why does this spy museum suddenly seem less kitschykool?
blimey
c-spans enron coverage. noticed a hitchens-sullivan washington journal roundtable among the many links.
reserve power
"Last week, 52 Israeli army reservists placed an open letter in the weekend papers stating their refusal to serve in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The reservists believe the Israel Defense Force's "mission of occupation and repression" doesn't serve the defense of the state of Israel, and they consider the IDF's actions there to be designed to "expel, starve, and humiliate an entire people." By Monday, the Jerusalem Post reported that the number of refuseniks had grown to 150."
notes from the underfrowned
weirdest superbowl moment: paul mccartney and terry bradshaw hamming it up at halftime when singing 'hard days night." mccartney may soon rival guiliani for most tv headshots at major sporting events. (bring back george!)
from the department of mixed messages: fox wrapped the superbowl in the flag with live staged remotes from kandahar and other patriotic nonsense. meanwhile, U2 assembled their heart shaped stage and wore butterflies on t-shirts but certainly were not hired as a protest band. at least they werent accompanied by 'up with america' style pagentry just mtv-like consumerism. (dont forget your glow sticks!)
oh yeah. didnt bet on new england but i didnt think st louis would cover the 14 point spread. now if i only had put down a bet, i would have more money to lose elsewhere.
dreamworking
Darth Vader's theme signals the scene change to Burns' office.
Burns: I don't know what's happening. It seems our profits have dropped 37%.
Smithers: I'm afraid we have a bad image, Sir. Market research shows people see you as something of an ogre.
Burns: I ought to club them and eat their bones!
Smithers: Heh heh, well, maybe this film festival could help us. A film biography might let them get to know the real you: virtuous, heroic, nubile...
Burns: [menacing] You left out pleasant! [clubs Smithers with a newspaper] But I like that film biography idea: a slick Hollywood picture to gloss over my evil rise to power like "Bugsy" or "Working Girl". -- Melanie Griffith: newly notorious?, "A Star is Burns"
Burns: Get me Steven Spielberg!
Smithers: He's unavailable.
Burns: Then get me his non-union Mexican equivalent!
[later] Listen, Senor Spielbergo, I want you to do for me what Spielberg did for Oskar Schindler.
Spielbergo: Er, Schindler es bueno, Senor Burns es el diablo.
Burns: Listen, Spielbergo, Schindler and I are like peas in a pod: we're both factory owners, we both made shells for the Nazis, but mine worked, dammit! Now go out there and win me that festival!
-- Burns puts his foot down, "A Star is Burns"
deficit spending
"$2.3 trillion — that's $8,000 for every man, woman and child in America. To understand how the Pentagon can lose track of trillions, consider the case of one military accountant who tried to find out what happened to a mere $300 million."
frienemies
"But one complaint not mentioned by the administration may be evidence suggesting that Tehran may have helped senior Taliban and al Qaeda members escape from Afghanistan. An adviser to Heart warlord Ismail Khan told TIME that shortly before the U.S. bombing campaign began in October, a high-ranking Iranian official connected to the hard-line supreme leader Ayatollah Khameini had been dispatched to Kabul to offer secret sanctuary to Taliban and al Qaeda fugitives. The Iranian official was apparently trapped in Kabul during the bombing, and remained there until the Northern Alliance took control of the city. Although the Iranians despised the Taliban for their persecution of Shiite Muslims in Afghanistan, their hatred for the U.S. may have run deeper."
influence lost
ken set to lay some major eggs on congress.