We get the truth from Comedy Central and comedy from Fox News
I love when Jon Stewart gets semi-serious in an interview. Here he skewers Bill Bennett on the marriage question.

Wednesday Beatle Blogging

Much love for George's outfit! XD

FAFBLOG LIVES!
"The world hasn't ended!" says Giblets eatin our last piece a world. "It just happens to be going through a naturally-recurring cycle of world and not-world!"
"I dunno Giblets," says me. "The scientific consensus on the world seems to be that world-endification is caused by human activity like burnin fossil fuels an deforestation an that time we blew up the world."

Rejoice here.

This is violently stupid
My dad said today, "I don't think there is any principled argument in favor of the repeal of the estate tax." That's all I need to say about that.

Speaking of lack of principled arguements, this marriage amendment business is really, really lame. It's such blatant election-year pandering. It exploits and enforces bigotry. Many of the people promoting it are not in successful heterosexual marriages themselves (*cough*O'Reilly*cough*). It is clearly meant in part to distract us from more immediately relevant problems. Plus, Congress already voted on it and it failed!

I love this bit from Garrison Keillor on Salon:
Meanwhile, the Current Occupant goes on impersonating a president....and one of the basic assumptions of American culture is falling apart: the competence of Republicans.

You might not have always liked Republicans, but you could count on them to manage the bank. They might be lousy tippers, act snooty, talk through their noses, wear spats and splash mud on you as they race their Pierce-Arrows through the village, but you knew they could do the math. To see them produce a ninny and then follow him loyally into the swamp for five years is disconcerting, like seeing the Rolling Stones take up lite jazz. So here we are at an uneasy point in our history, mired in a costly war and getting nowhere, a supine Congress granting absolute power to a president who seems to get smaller and dimmer, and the best the Republicans can offer is San Franciscophobia? This is beyond pitiful. This is violently stupid.

I love how he calls Bush "the Current Occupant." I think I should compile a list of apt nicknames for him. Just today a comment on Huffington Post referred to him as "Chimpy McFlightsuit", which I think is the best one ever. Then there's his own statement,"I'm The Decider," which Jon Stewart so cleverly spoofed last month. I've also heard him called "Smirking Chimp," "Bubbleboy," "Commander Codpiece," and "The Unelected Fraud."

An Inconvenient Truth
Mood:  bright
I was very impressed with Al Gore's global warming documentary. It is essential viewing for anyone remotely open to the possibilty (read: truth) that global warming is happening, caused by humans, and a very serious problem indeed.

In a sense, I had already seen the bulk of An Inconvenient Truth before, when Gore came to Yale to present the slide show he has been delilvering across the world. This was in 2004, before Hurricane Katrina so devastatingly underscored the dangers of climate change. It struck me then that this new Gore (let's call him activist!Gore) was much more animated than his previous incarnation, candidate!Gore, who met an untimely end in 2000. No doubt about it, Truth is activist!Gore's show. He is in his own element: smart and clear and even witty. He jokes, and not only at his own expense. More than that, he really puts his heart and soul into communicating his message to us. I'm not the only one who has noticed activist!Gore would, unlike candidate!Gore, make a great presidential candidate. It is startling to compare him not only to his 2000 public self, but also to John Kerry, whose blustery Senatespeak made for some great quasi-motivational sound bytes but could probably not carry a documentary like Gore does here. In Truth, Gore's voice pervades every scene, vascillating smoothly between the folksy echoes of the deep south and, when appropriate, Senatorial gravitas. I never got bored of it.

However, the inconvenient truth we all have to face is that Gore is not going to run for President. Before I watched the film, I had held out hope that he would change his mind and be the comeback kid who returned from his exile in the wilderness to set things right. But after seeing how deeply devoted he is to his new mission, it is clear that he's not going to put on those shoes again. The fact is that activist!Gore is not candidate!Gore, and that is precisely what makes him so appealing. For this liberated Al Gore to have to squeeze his newfound energy back into the cramped confines of candidacy would be tragic if not impossible. Sorry, America. You had your chance.

Go see the movie! Even if you think you know everything there is to know about global warming, you will get inspired by this highly important film.

The biggest story no one wants you to read
Mood:  not sure
Now Playing: "Into the Void," NIN
Rolling Stone has printed RFK Jr.'s assertion that the GOP stole the 2004 election. It's long, comprehensive, and compelling. My impression while reading it, although I had heard many of the facts and arguments in it before, was that the evidence is so abundant and so well documented that it can no longer be labeled a crackpot theory. I believe it. I just hope something comes of this article. One misconception it cleared up for me was the idea that they might have gotten away with throwing the election because it was so close. It wasn't close. It was only close because it was rigged. So many separate groups of would-be voters were disenfranchised by so many different methods, that if all of them had gotten to vote for Kerry it would have been the overwhelming victory the exit polls indicated and then some.

This is not water under the bridge. Obviously, Bush is president and there's nothing we can do about that. But if this information is true, then our democracy is nothing but a facade. Who are we to talk about exporting democracy to Iraq when we don't even practice it ourselves?

The silver lining is that if that many people were voting for Kerry, then our country isn't as full of morons as I thought.

Can you raed tihs?
Olny 13344 plopee can. i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs rpsoet it.

The random news that caught my eye
Mood:  lazy
Justice dispensed: Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling of Enron were finally found guilty. Of what, pray tell? For Lay, no fewer than six counts of fraud and conspiracy. Skilling did him one (13?) better, found guilty of fraud and conspiracy in addition to one count of insider trading: 19 counts in all. But he's really not as bad as they said -- see, he was acquitted of the nine remaining insider trading charges! Lay faces a maximum of 165 years in prison; Skilling, 185. So even if advances in medicine grant us the lifespans of Biblical patriarchs, these guys will still be in jail.

In other news, ANWR is on the chopping block again, though the consensus is that the Senate won't give in.

Cate Blanchett has filled some difficult shoes in her acting career, including Elizabeth I, Katherine Hepburn, and Galadriel. Now, she will be playing Bob Dylan. Really.

And, on a completely inconsequential note, this is pretty cool. These must be the same folks working on the human-animal hybrids Bush brought up in the State of the Union.

Wednesday Beatle Blogging: The boys of summer

Another beachy pic to go with the continuing summer weather. John's hat rules.

Spread the word
Mood:  a-ok
Tell all your liberal friends (if you can get conservative ones to go, even better) to go see Al Gore's new film, "An Incovenient Truth," about global climate change. Here's why. It opens on May 24 in select areas and in wide release June 2.