drat fink

immigrant song

the allen street mall is the median strip that runs down the center of allen st. usually it is peopled by members of the underclass who are without homes but today there are five rows of crisp white chairs and a makeshift dais replete with backdrop and microphone. professional looking types mill around as microphone tests are performed.

a sign is pinned to the backdrop. it says Avenue of Immigrants. my local representative who ive only known through mailers at election time is speaking now about the sacrifice that immigrants are making for their country. so this whole thing is a pointless naming ceremony. yawn. so nice of them to come earlier this week to spruce up the corridor for the local dignitaries. actually, the speaker just said theyve put in a $15 million request with the lower manhattan redevelopment corp to upgrade the allen and pike street malls. "streetscapes" is the buzzword.

fakebook

"But sin is crucial to Christianity. To be born again, a seeker must painfully acknowledge his or her innate sinfulness, and then turn away from it completely. And though today Bush is sober, he does not live and govern like a man who “walks” with God, using the Bible as a moral compass for his decision making. Twice in the past year -- once during an April press conference and most recently at a presidential debate -- the president was unable to name any mistake he has made during his term. His steadfast unwillingness to fess up to a single error betrays a strikingly un-Christian lack of attention to the importance of self-criticism, the pervasiveness of sin, and the centrality of humility, repentance, and redemption. Indeed, it is impossible to imagine George W. Bush delivering an address like Jimmy Carter’s legendary “malaise” speech (in which he did not actually say the word “malaise”) in 1979. Carter sermonized to a dispirited nation in the language of confession, sacrifice, and spiritual restoration. Though it didn’t do him a lick of good politically, it was consonant with a Christian theology of atonement: Carter admitted his mistakes to make right with God and the American people, politics be damned. Bush, for whom politics is everything, can’t even admit that he’s done anything wrong."

two in the bush

you know a nation is in trouble when pornstars have greater moral authority than presidents.

shark bites

jon stewart rrrrips into carlson and begala on crossfire and their culture of hackery as entertainment. as a devoted republican spinmeister ill be sure to focus my outrage on stewarts gratuitous sartorial attacks.

reporting for duty

as has been noted elsewhere, jay rosens post about the nature of the sinclair beast is well worth reading.

cigars anyone?

couldnt have happened to a nicer guy.

about to oil

"Fortunately, Michael Klare, our preeminent expert on "resource wars," has come out with his new book, Blood and Oil, The Dangers and Consequences of America's Growing Dependency on Imported Petroleum, in the nick of time. If you want to grasp the geopolitics of oil, or the future oil wars we're heading for, or what reaching American oil "autonomy" (Klare's more modest term for it) and unwinding ourselves from despotic regimes like the Saudis might actually involve, don't miss this indispensable book. Below he describes how, under the pressure of Bush administration energy geopolitics (and under the guise of anti-terrorism), the U.S. military is being remolded into an oil-protection force."

(re)gifting

i bought someone a canvasser for their birthday.

vote or die

to call certain rethugs shameless would be a gross understatement. their efforts to subvert our democratic process are breathtaking. so a hale and hearty fuck you to our infantile breatheren. im really starting to hope there is a hell. my only concern is that we already may be there.

paternity leave

just watching the yankees - redsox game now. another tivo success story. had to comment on the "whos your daddy?" chant reverberating through the bronx which i thought was clever (yaknow, for yankee fans. could it turn my stomach more to see pataki at ringside?). its a reference to a pedro martinez quote where he laments his recent performances versus the yankees. pedro wasnt pitching tonight but it was apt nonetheless. me, im rooting for boston. but i think part of the allure of boston is that theyre forever coming up just short. if they win, theyll just be a bunch of guys paid to represent a city that is known for its chowder and for a very expensive hole in the ground.