Garcia Labor Faces Federal Indictment

A federal 40-count indictment was presented Tuesday for the Morristown, TN and Ohio based Garcia Labor Company, accused of employing 1,000 illegal immigrants for contract work between Dec. 1999 and November 2005.

Also named in the indictment were the company's president Maximino Garcia, his sister Dominga Carroll and H.R. director Gina Luciano, who have all pled not guilty.

According to a report in the Knoxville News Sentinel:

"All are charged with one count of conspiracy to induce illegal aliens to live in the United States, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. Garcia faces another 16 counts of inducing illegal aliens to live in the country, and 19 counts of harboring illegal aliens.

Luciano is charged with 14 counts of inducing illegal aliens to live in the country, three counts of transporting illegal aliens, and three counts of harboring illegal aliens.

Each of the immigration charges carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The money laundering charges carry a maximum 20 years in prison and a $500,000 fine.

Prosecutors also want Garcia to forfeit $12 million - what the company earned from one year of its contracts with ABX - and property where the workers were housed in Wilmington, 42 miles east of Cincinnati."

The timing on this was most interesting, as I have had some conversations with a Texas-based newspaper reporter about immigration and illegal immigration and the impact it's had on East Tennessee. It's a truly thorny issue as the majority of manufacturing firms here in Morristown are foreign owned, which means the atmosphere in business circles is very friendly to foreign investments and recruting while local residents shutdowns of textile industrial companies which left the US and put thousands out of work.

One constant question has been why firms that recruit and hire illegals aren't prosecuted. In this case, they are - and at the federal level. Are more companies under scrutiny?

Incumbents Breathe Sigh of Relief

While talk often drubs Incumbents, trends in voting show that it's more likely for Incumbents to keep being, well, Incumbent.

From the Washington Monthly blog, statistics show that Incumbents are far more likely now than ever to keep being re-elected, up from a 90 percent chance to a 98 percent chance.

Why?

One reason presented is "self-segregation":

"That is, liberals tend to move to liberal places and conservatives tend to move to conservative places. This has an obvious self-gerrymandering effect, but also has the less obvious effect of making people more partisan. When you spend time only with people you agree with, your views tend to become more extreme. This is good for incumbents since extreme voters are less likely to defect to the opposition."

I would also add my own reason, which is that voter apathy has been growing due to belief that the voter has less might than ever, that big money contributors have increased their controls and the individual has even less. And it seems that more than ever, politics is a lifetime career and a family legacy as well. Other reasons are put forth in the full post here.

A related post today from VOLuntarily Conservative citing numbers from early voting says voter turnout this year may be one of the lowest ever in a primary. But in addition to a primary, that would also mean voting for local government candidates is also very low.

The lack of participation and the tendency to return Incumbents to office sends a clear message - everything is fine, no reason to change the policies of failure, no reason to restrict the impact of big dollar contributors. Does this also indicate the chatter of bloggers and pundits add to the disinterest?

University Aims To Censor Public Meetings

Efforts to limit public information about government business remains a constant and sadly few local residents even know - a sure sign the plan to restrict access works. Walters State Community College has decided to not only abandon civic duty, their plan to limit airtime for Hamblen County Government meetings also reduces efforts to educate the population on policies and procedures.

The broadcasts of these meetings has zero importance to City Government as well, who have successfully avoided airing their own meetings despite designating a local cable channel for Government and Education in the mid-1990s. They won't expend one penny for responsible government, not one penny for public education on governmental workings, and they insure more roadblocks to an educated community.

Oddly, the city did approve of a nearly $20 million expenditure in a public bond to finance the local electric utility's venture into the cable and internet business.

As for Walters State, they totally control the channel and offer endless self promotion clips and short educational videos from decades long, long past.

The problem is that WSCC will only allow for two hours of air time for a meeting, for a total of four per week. Meanwhile local cable providers consistently offer their services to residents. Comcast Cable will continue to present the meetings uncensored and in their entirety. While Charter Communications worked with county government to provide equipment to record the meetings, the city quietly handed off their control of the channel to WSCC - and WSCC just snips the broadcast off after two hours, whether the meeting is over or not.

If the university only wants to allow for four hours per week for civic broadcasts, then why not place the meetings on a single day, capturing all that happens?

County Commissioner Linda Noe has more info on her blog about the county likewise approving a plan to cut the broadcasts to fit in the time allotted, though they did mention an effort to convince the university to fulfill their obligation to education by not censoring broadcasts.

This unified effort by city officials, who have steadfastly refused to televise their meetings, and by WSCC, has a single result - a poorly educated and informed public. Keeping citizens in the dark, keeping the community's business hidden appears to be the goal.

Their is an opportunity to not only provide civic education, but also provide training for high school or college students who yearn for careers in television broadcasting. Some straightforward communication between the city, the university and the county, as well as the county's education system could benefit everyone.

Limiting access to public information appears to be the pattern officials endorse.

The Tesla Roadster Unveiled

The electric car is a reality from Tesla Motors as they unveiled their new sportscar, all electric, this weekend in Santa Monica. The company showed off their new car to press and even Gov. Schwarzenegger took a spin.

Since the auto company take's the Tesla name, it's worth noting the vast achievements of the scientist and inventor, like the creation of created alternating current, making it possible for electricity to travel immense distances and many other enginreering feats like radio transmission. A hefty collection of his work is here.

Tesla Motors homepage has loads of information. Based in the US and in the UK, with affiliations to Lotus, the car should be available for purchase in early 2007. It has a range of 250 miles on a charge and can reach 60 mph in 4 seconds with a top speed of 130. And check out the video for the new car.

Crashing Marriage and Awful Lyrics

It's not a good sign when the marriage proposal culminates with an airplane crash and a response to the proposal given during the ambulance ride. But that's what happened.

What's the worst song lyrics you ever heard? This paper has a list of 32 bad ones, including:

"THE SONG: America, "A Horse With No Name"
THE LYRIC: "There were plants and birds and rocks and things"
THE VERDICT: What, did he get tired? Rocks and things?"

And I have to agreee with the following as well - it's my personal choice for worst in a long long time:

"THE SONG: Black Eyed Peas, "My Humps"
THE LYRIC: “My hump, my hump, my hump, my hump, my hump,
My hump, my hump, my hump, my lovely lady lumps.”

Yeah, that's bad. Ah, for the days when cryptic lyrics prompted an FBI investigation.

And finally, the lowest-viewed week of broadcast television ever. Welcome to 2006.

Oh, and my personal fave quote from this week can be found at Atomic Tumor:

"Local racetrack is a dumb idea unless you're interested in boosting the mullet ratio in Oak Ridge."

A Musical Interlude

I'll take the cue here tonite from the pages of Newscoma, who posted this fine entry via YouTube tonite.

This is a video from a concert by Frank Zappa, a master musician and guitar god. This song is from one of my favorite albums, "One Size Fits All." The tune here is called "Florentine Pogen" and presents a perfect example of all the things about Frank I love and that I miss so much.

The music and arrangement is intricate and off the wall, like holding out for that duck call solo. The lyrics are a rock and roll example of "Jabberwocky" - tight rhymes and goofy wordplay which singer Napoleon Murphy Brock belts out as if he were telling you an incredible tale of heartbreak. And Frank simply wails on the guitar. And look at that band - George Duke on keyboards and the incredible Ruth Underwood on vibraphone and percussion (and duck call) - they are having a fantastic time.

I know only a select few of us can find the groove for Zappa. But that's ok. Try it. You may like it.

Crank it up for the next 10 minutes, wait for that guitar solo. And Chester's go-rilla (he go 'moo').


A partial examination of the lyrics can be found here, not that it really matters.

Will Ferrell Rocks Knox

Today's edition of the Knoxville News Sentinel chronicles the arrival, the performance, the crowd and the charitable fundraising efforts of comedian Will Ferrell as he promoted "Talledaga Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby" to aid a children's charity group..

Some fans recalled the wild days of Frank the Tank in "Old School", and as the KNS article reports, Will gladly played along:

"After the screening we're going to run naked through Borders," he proclaimed to an enthusiastic response. "It's gonna get crazy."

Variety - The Children's Charity of Eastern Tennessee sold 1,000 tickets to the event, the fifth such benefit the group has hosted with Regal. The lure of Ferrell and "Talladega Nights" raised $260,000, besting last year's "Dukes of Hazzard" premiere with Johnny Knoxville, Jessica Simpson and Seann William Scott by about $31,000."

I admit to much hysterical laughter watching Ferrell's work on Saturday Night Live and in many movies. I'll happily stop to watch again and again as he evokes explosive good cheer in "Elf" or as the Anchorman's Anchorman as Ron Burgundy. His humor is not just infectious - it's overwhelming, like a Saint Bernard jumping on top of you and licking your face

Kudos to all who helped raised the money for the charity.

Camera Obscura - Clerks, Comics and the Comic-Con

The 2006 Comic-Con in San Diego brings out some big names in comics and in movies, and it may well be the Year of the Comic Book since the Post Office will issue a superhero stamp set on Friday. Projects of all types, from graphic novels to new movies and games much more are offered to fans this weekend in a kind of approval-hunt from the real board of directors - the fans who buy and read and often imitate the products offered.

A full list of the weekend's events are offered a IGN.com which includes a public debate/discussion between Depak Chopra and Grant Morrison on the Seven Spiritual Laws of Superheroes. This weird collision of corporate and private minds is seldom dull and has expanded to include just about any product imaginable. This is a bona-fide cultural stew of ideas and arguments about whether Batman could off Superman or if Halo could off them both.

The super-powered vigilante has been a constant in American culture for more than 60 years, survivng a blistering Congressional investigation in the 1950s, the campy inventions of television in the 1960s and 70s and arrives in the 21st Century with the appropriate computerized effects to tackle issues like the Patriot Act. Comics often stand today as the philosophical musings of the American mind. Often the main characters are there to save us from ourselves or face the wrath of a public who sees them as a menace.

I'd bet cash money many of those who attend will also leave the convention to take in director kevin Smith's newest movie, "Clerks 2." Smith is a major fanboy and a major player in all the creative realms visible at the convention. Smith has created his own universe of characters and events which run all through his productions (well, maybe not "Jersey Girl"). His View Askew production company has had a large presence on the Web via Movie Poop Shoot and his My Boring Ass Life blog.

A fascinating glimpse of how fanatical the fans and the corporate world following Smith's career have become were documented in "An Evening With Kevin Smith." This 224-minute documentary offers Smith in a very relaxed tour of college campuses talking about the minor details of his movies, the high-profile productions that came his way after his cult fame developed and shows his storytelling skills in a very watchable movie. Once I started watching and listening, it simply became impossible to stop. His recounting of the bland and the bizarre events fame provided is a must-see.

Pop culture myth-making is a goal for another filmmaker, M. Night Shyamalan, and it's a goal he seldom reaches. One of the most overrated and undertalented writer/directors I've had the awful chore of experiencing may be getting a stiff rebuke this weekend as his movie "Lady In The Water" is released.

Honestly, one OK movie (Sixth Sense) and some truly awful ones (Unbreakable, The Village) has led Night (who names their kid Night?) to this new faux mystery film with a story about "narfs" and "scrunts" and features himself as a Great Misunderstood Writer. I'll pass.

OTHER NEWS

Some years ago I reluctantly attended a screening of the movie "Road House" with Patrick Swayze as the Ultimate Bouncer. Five young women in the audience screamed like swooning banshees throughout the movie, and I admit that the movie was so awful I kinda liked it. Now thanks to the Mike Nelson of Mystery Science Theatre 3000 fame, you can watch the movie and listen to Nelson's commentary via a new web site called RiffTrax. "We don't make movies, we make fun of them" boasts the advertising. It would be great to see more unauthorized movie commentaries shredding your favorite or least favorite film.

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Writer/director Danny Boyle expands his catalog into science-fiction in a movie called "Sunshine," about a last-ditch effort to repair the failing Sun, is currently in production. Boyle has been running throgh the genres of film in movies like "Trainspotting" to "A Life Less Ordinary" to "28 Days Later". A behind the scenes and making of collection of clips available here.

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"Night of the Living Dead in 3-D"??? Yes, it's shambling to life.

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"Adventures of Brisco County Jr" arrives on DVD as does star Bruce Campbell's other short-lived TV series, "Jack of All Trades."

Quick, Hide The Inflatable Sheep!!

Sorry to detract from your apocalyptic day-mares about the End of The World or the Start of World War 12, but let's be honest. Just what exactly do you think you can do to stop civil war in the Middle East as you peck away at a keyboard or surf across the internet tubes??

I myself am more than annoyed by the fact that certain religious/military groups constantly want to drag the 21st Century into their Thousands of Years of Warfare and Hatred. Other than new weapons technologies supplied by outside countries, (or new innocents to kill) nothing much new is here. The Lust for natural resources has most national attentions pinned like a butterfly in a glass box as refugees run hither and yon. So if you feel like justifying the actions on one group versus another group, then have at it my friend.

As for me, my attention tends to wander about like a drunken sailor on the docks, heading for the buildings where singing can be heard, or maybe for that little place where the incredible aromas of freshly-made food drifts away on invisible breezes.

And here on the internet tubes in the ever-expanding world of blogging writers and readers, the newest study says the average writer/reader is a 14 year old girl posting OMG!!! and other horrible shorthands and misspellings as they unravel the mysteries of the latest American Idol machinatons or the problematic nature of cell phones and downloading ringtones. Or maybe you're just a political hack preaching the victories of Your Candidate/Pundit and the evils of The Other Candidate/Pundit.

And then there are those bloggers whose activities defy categories.

Which brings you and me to the point of this post:

Some thieves have hauled off a 14-foot inflatable sheep and the authorities say they can't find it:

"I can't figure out what someone would do with a 14-foot sheep," Sather said. "It can't go in your basement and if it's in your back yard, your neighbor will notice. If it's target practice, it only lasts once.'

All the thief or thieves left was a handwritten note at the scene of the crime that read: "For the sheep, bring peace to the earth."


I'm done. Are you still reading? Well, stop. And leave your comments

A Peaceful Arrival

Today marks the 37th anniversary of humanity's first step onto another world.

"During a pause in experiments, Neil suggested we proceed with the flag. It took both of us to set it up and it was nearly a disaster. Public Relations obviously needs practice just as everything else does. A small telescoping arm was attached to the flagpole to keep the flag extended and perpendicular. As hard as we tried, the telescope wouldn't fully extend. Thus the flags which should have been flat, had its own unique permanent wave. Then to our dismay the staff of the pole wouldn't go far enough into the lunar surface to support itself in an upright position. After much struggling we finally coaxed it to remain upright, but in a most precarious position. I dreaded the possibility of the American flag collapsing into the lunar dust in front of the television camera."

Details of the event and the thoughts of those involved are all available here.

A few years later, a Mars landing occured. Video here.

And thanks to DH for the reminder.

Explain This One

Someone will have to explain this one to me.

Throwing away frozen embryos created within the process of operating a fertility clinic is Good and Moral. Using those to-be-discarded, laboratory-grown embryos for stem cell research is Murder and Immoral. So, yes, someone needs to explain that one to me. It is an argument with no basis in the real world.

As I mentioned earlier today, it is unfortunate that tax-funded research sets the marching tone for medical research in general. Given the blindingly high costs of every single level of medical care in the nation, to see that the funds available for research need taxpayer supports also perturbs me.

Hysterical claims are made by some that stem cell research is bogus, that adult cells can provide identical opportunities -- the plain unvarnished truth is the science itself is so new that no one can say with authority one way or the other. (Yes, Science is held in contempt by the current administration, and by the so-called religous political movement, as if it were the central spear on Satan's flaming trident. I suppose we should all be glad that there haven't been public burnings and drownings of scientists.)

The veto of the president today makes no logical sense, and truly appears to me to be sheer political football at everyone else's expense.

And that seems to be a behavioral trend for the Bush presidency.

"The Garden" Has Room For You

There's just too much good stuff on DVD and even television to talk about, so here we are on a Wednesday talking movies -- and yes, this is another journey into Hollywood's Dark Heart, the Horror Movie.

Apologies first for this delayed review of "The Garden," which I've had ready for a week. And much thanks to the folks at Anchor Bay and M-80 for the chance to screen this little apocalyptic gem.

I love the atmosphere and the skillful camera and editing that make "The Garden" work. The psychological background here is dense and layered, as a dream-filled childhood mind intersects with the evil machinations of .... could that be Satan? Or is it just the gravel-voiced performance of actor Lance Henriksen? The churning mind of a troubled child may threaten all the world.

The story follows an alcoholic dad and his son, who are injured in a car crash and find themselves on an eerie farm and their host is an even more eerie farmer named Ben (Henriksen). The fevered and fearful dreams of young Sam seem to be capable of manifesting in reality, which is bad enough. But what if the farm where he seeks refuge is actually The Garden of Eden? Apocalypse is approaching, or is it all just more dreaming?

The cinematography and Henriksen's abilities carry the day. While the story may seem predictable to hard-core fans, the less initiated will like this un-rated foray into dimensional shifts and Twilight Zone-ish twists.

Check out the trailer here at the official website. This DVD offers extras from behind the scenes as well as director's commentary. And as always, the excellent catalog from Anchor Bay presents this movie and a host of others to pick from. Well worth your time to explore, many excellent genre entries are here.

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Back tonight for week two on TNT is Stephen King's "Nightmares and Dreamscapes" (Hey, a common theme! Deadly Dreams!!). Last week's debut of this four-week miniseries was just plain fantastic. Two more entries arrive tonight, each a one-hour adaptation of King's creepy tales, and this week again boasting some top-name talents.

First, William H. Macy stars in a dual role as writer and the writer's creation, a hard-boiled detective in an episode titled "Umney's Last Case." The writer seeks the help of his tough-as-nails fictional detective, an act that blends the real and the imagined into one. This episode is co-directed by X-Files alum Rob Bowman.

The second hour features actors Henry Thomas and Ron Livingston as they recount what may be the end of one life or perhaps the end of all life in "The End of the Whole Mess."

The official web-site, loaded with interviews and details is here. And if week two is as good as the first one was, we have a minor classic in the making.

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One of the constant questions from email and comments concerns the little horror movie with the legendary status which was filmed just a few miles from where I sit here in Morristown. That movie is "The Evil Dead" and director Sam Raimi's 1980s classic and the undefeatable hero named Ash is now headed to the world of musical theatre.

Yes, I said musical.

Reports say:

"The show is to debut in New York in October, having already been worked on in Toronto and Montreal.

The men responsible for this unlikely transfer from screen to stage are George Reinblatt, Frank Cipolla and Christopher Bond. The show won't be directed by Sam Raimi, perhaps obviously; instead, Hinton Battle - known to fans of the Buffy The Vampire Slayer television show as the all-singing devil Sweet - will co-direct.

The musical will follow the fortunes of a group of friends (rather than focusing on Ash only) after they unleash the You Know What in a secluded woodland cabin. The first few rows will be called the 'Splatter Zone'. I'm sure we needn't elaborate on that, at all. All performances will begin at the adults-only hour of 11pm, Friday and Saturday nights."

Singing and dancing zombies who aren't politicians. Now that's entertainment!

Fear of a Gay Planet

Twisting the state and the national constitution into a banning mechanism regarding sexual preference is deeply dangerous, for reasons obvious to most adults.

Barring further court actions, the state will present to Tennessee voters a proposal to change our constitution and ban certain consting adults from marrying. I'll vote no on that. I hope you do too. Efforts to alter the national constitution in the same way are also underway.

This is idiocy on so many levels, wasteful too. If you don't see that - nothing I say could open your sealed-shut eyes.

More on this topic via KnoxViews and Congressman Lincoln Davis' comments are here. And with all due respect to Congressman Davis - satire and lampoonery in speeches on the House floor are sometimes difficult to discern. But yeah, I get it. This is ridiculous legislation.

Mike Silence offers some more on the issue here. More comments and discussion are at NiT.

Being afraid of rights between consenting adults based on their sexual behavior says far more about you than you know.

These proposed ammendments stick the government's nose so far under the bedroom sheets we should see this as a perverted invasion of privacy.

I have just a two words to Americans who want to empower a Nanny Government to dictate every molecule of human behavior - Stop it.

UPDATE: Another viewpoint which express it better than I do here.

Medical Research Rebuke

Justifying warfare is easy for the President. Justifying research is not.

"White House press secretary Tony Snow explained yesterday, "The president believes strongly that for the purpose of research it's inappropriate for the federal government to finance something that many people consider murder; he's one of them." That the embryos would be discarded anyway "is a tragedy," Mr. Snow added, "but the president is not going to get on the slippery slope of taking something that is living and making it dead for the purpose of research."

On the one hand, I am amazed to see this president actually threatening to veto something which is releated to federal spending. On the other hand, the research holds so much promise to save many lives that to block funding seems specious.

If the justification for warfare across the globe is to protect life, then stem-cell research should also be seen in the same light.

Shuffle Like You Mean It

Is it hotter than seven hells where you are?

Worried that we might be in World War III (or is it IV or even V or VI)?

Is your favorite political candidate chased by chickens?

Did someone leave the microphone on and everyone heard you say a baaaad word?

Can't afford gasoline?

Is your phone/internet under surveillance?

Were you not invited to Avril Lavigne's wedding?

Maybe you're mourning the death of Mickey Spillane --- so

Just soak your eyes in the following video (thanks to Squirrels on Snark for the link to the Tennessee edition of the Global Shuffle), wade out into the closest kiddie pool, or just stroll over to your favorite tourist location and dance, fool, dance!!

D Is For Donut-Hole

The Part D of Medicare has a huge coverage gap which gets this cute little nickname of "donut-hole" which maligns the goodness of donuts and implies the gap isn't that bad. It is bad for the elderly and the sickest and the poorest.

The problematic legislation, which Congress created with much help from pharmaceutical companies, prevents the government from negotiating for lower prices and requires that premiums be paid for coverage even while the individual has no coverage.

Congress needs to review this, but they won't. Elderly, disable, sick or dying Americans seldom get the chance to take a congressman or senator to dinner.

Good coverage on this problem is here, and here is an excerpt:

"This colossal gap in coverage (which, you may notice, is larger than the initial coverage itself) is popularly known as “the doughnut hole.” Even worse, those who have fallen into the doughnut hole must still pay their monthly premiums, even though they are paying every last cent of their drug costs during this period out of their own pockets. Talk about adding insult to injury.

It’s hard to say for sure how many people will fall out into the doughnut hole. The best guess available comes from the Kaiser Family Foundation, whose conservative estimate is that almost 7 million people will reach the gap in 2006. Out of these, many will never be able to spend the $2,850 required to get out of it. And the doughnut hole is getting bigger every year: The law is written in such a way that the actual amount of money that people will have to spend to get out of the hole is going to increase annually."

And even after Part D was crafted, big pharma still increased their prices to make sure you hit that hole quicker.

Nostalgia For The Music of the '90s

The post I am pointing you too is just too good to pass up. Fresh perspectives from L.A. on a musical reunion tour featuring En Vogue and Bobby Brown and much more, plus the humble narrator takes us through her own DJ past.

I hate to admit that I did tune in to the Bobby Brown/Whitney Houston "reality" show, which was like a slow-motion celebrity meltdown.

But Valley Grrrl's review of The Bobby is just too funny:

"At one point he had a roadie tie his shoes (he went to stage left, put his right foot up on the speaker and a roadie came out and tied it while Bobby continued to let us sing - then he strutted over to stage right and repeated the process with his left foot). He brought a LARGE sistah up on stage and dry humped her while "singing" his classic "Tenderoni" But perhaps the most disturbing moment was when he laid a crisp white towel on the stage. He knelt down in back of the towel and spread it out all neat. I thought maybe he had converted to Muslim and was about to perform his evening prayers. Instead, he proceeded to mount the towel and simulate his love for his wife right there on stage for all to see. I would like to think that the 12 year old girl sitting a few rows in front of me really believed her dad when he told her that Bobby was just doing some push ups. ICK."


Read the whole post.

Forcing A False Debate

Warmakers are having a field day with the newest battles in the Middle East and see it as an "opportunity". I went on rant yesterday in comments on Newscoma's blog (sorry about that) about the disgraced ex-House Majority leader, Newt Gingrich, who wants to push the U.S, our allies and the rest of the world into a Brand New World War, in order to generate enough fear in the U.S. that voters won't review the Republican record of failure in Congress and the Senate. His fear really isn't a world war the U.S. won't win - it's a change in the majority in Congress.

This is beyond foolish, and very nearly suicidal. Fanning the flames of war into a worldwide inferno seems to be the goal. Gingrich and others want to make this an argument about a "we must win" scenario, ignoring the number of lives such a battle would claim. and sees it as a Public Relations battle where using certain key words and phrases will induce enough Fear in the American public to embolden the U.S. into attacking more nations.

Is it a coincidence this Lust for Worldwide War arrives just as the major corporate contracts for military support in Iraq and Afghanistan are winding down?

Opportunity for more contracts, for more military action to seize natural resources, for spreading political instability, which will then be used to justify more military responses in an ever increasing cycle of war.

The mistake in this logic is that it removes the focus from resolving the current warfare in Iraq and Afghanistan and undermines efforts to make resolution possible. It confuses our allies as to our goals and our committments, as they witness a lack of urgency to resolve these conflicts and a desire to spread out into a larger war. I have to wonder if this wasn't a long-developing desire.

Yes, Islamic terrorists want to fight, not talk. Yet, for us to see enemies everywhere means more soldiers are needed and more and more money. And bringing the US into a worldwide conflict is precisely the goal of those who attacked on September 11, 2001.

I'm waiting for the medical analogy to be used - sometimes you have to get sicker in order to get better.

This defeatist and self-serving line of thought will only insure spreading sickness, spreading disaster.

Sadly, the facts are so distorted and lost and the Fear is so great, I doubt the voters will respond with clarity. More and more our policies are all Reaction and not Action and any voices calling for anything else are held in contempt.

Gingrich may just get what he wants: forcing the language of war into everyone's minds.

Who benefits most from this? Perhaps the campaign to put Gingrich in the White House.

Make Up Your Own Funny White House Job-Title

One Congressman gets the point about the so-called Director Lessons Learned job at the White House - which is that it's a bullshit job.

"WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Representative Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) released the following statement in advance of delivery on the House floor:

"Mr. Speaker, yesterday the President said we continue to be wise about how we spend the people's money.

"Then why are we paying over $100,000 for a 'White House Director of Lessons Learned'?

"Maybe I can save the taxpayers $100,000 by running through a few of the lessons this White House should have learned by now.

"Lesson 1: When the Army Chief of Staff and the Secretary of State say you are going to war without enough troops, you're going to war without enough troops.

"Lesson 2: When 8.8 billion dollars of reconstruction funding disappears from Iraq, and 2 billion dollars disappears from Katrina relief, it's time to demand a little accountability.

"Lesson 3: When you've 'turned the corner' in Iraq more times than Danica Patrick at the Indy 500, it means you are going in circles.

"Lesson 4: When the national weather service tells you a category 5 hurricane is heading for New Orleans, a category 5 hurricane is heading to New Orleans.

"I would also ask the President why we're paying for two 'Ethics Advisors' and a 'Director of Fact Checking.'

"They must be the only people in Washington who get more vacation time than the President.

"Maybe the White House could consolidate these positions into a Director of Irony."

The link to the orginal is here.

Saturday Web Walk - Or All Down The Tubes

The GOP shines in a hit and run incident as a man in a chicken suit speeds away in his Volvo in order to protect his secret identity. Are they trying to make sure that Democrat Harold Ford Jr's description of the GOP trio of candidates as The Three Stooges gets even more national attention??

Via the Chattanoogan:

"He said afterwards he decided to follow the chicken back to his car to get a picture of him with his cell phone camera when the chicken took his suit off at his car. The 6'3" Shannon said the chicken saw him following him and started to run. He said he kept up with him and then stood in front of his car with the camera ready. He said the man never took off the top of the chicken suit as he revved up the car.

He said the man bumped him with the car, then drove it forward with more force, causing him to fall against the front of the Volvo.

He said the chicken then backed up and started to speed away, hitting him on his left side as he did. He said he was thrown against the passenger side of the front windshield, shattering it."

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Child-molesting teacher Pamela Rogers will take her "sex addiction" to jail, says the judge. Wonder if any of the bidders for her action figure will share some cell time with her?

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SInce we're 'going down the tubes' why not tune in the Rave Re-Mix version of Sen. Ted Stevens explaining his view of the internets as a "series of tubes"?

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Picture of the Week -- or as Brittney said "I've found a Leaker!" Add your own caption! Let the kids join in!! (pic origin is here)


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911 operators heard a call for a Love Emergency in Oregon this week, as a woman called the emergency dispatch to send that "cutie pie" deputy back to her house. She was arrested and her Love Emergency remains unsatisfied.

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This Just In!! -- The media follows the New Start of a war between Israel and Hezbollah, now in it's 25th year! Time to ramp up those energy fees!

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Cartoon of the Week - Or "Earn Your Vote!"

Camera Obscura - Making Movie Memories

Movies are as much about You as they are about what's on the screen, they way we first saw a movie dictates our memory of it, or perhaps who was with us when we watched. A simple for instance - I saw the dubious "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" while in vacation in Florida in 1977, and the eerie poster of an nameless and unlit roadway disappearing into the distance was much like driving on I-75 in Tennessee and Georgia in the wee hours of the night as our family made the trek to the Fabled Florida. The theatre I saw that movie in was also the same theatre I watched "Saturday Night Fever" in a day or two later. So those movies are oddly linked in my Watcher's Mind.

A journey of movie memory and movie magic, of odd connections and into Hollywood's past and present are expertly captured and expressed in the book "Comfort and Joi" by writer Joseph Dougherty. The book, subtitled I Spent A Weekend With A Hollywood Starlet, examines the career of actress Joi Lansing and the memories of the Narrator in a weekend of remembrance.

I knew Joi, though it wasn't until I read the book that I realized I knew her. She is there in the shadows in the most talked-about and longest single-tracking shot in a movie, "A Touch of Evil" by Orson Welles. She is a passenger in the car which the audience, but not her, sees a bomb being placed, the car driving through ill-lit streets to the border with Mexico. Her lines "I hear this ticking!" are barely spoken before the car explodes offscreen and Joi disappears from the movie.

She was also there in the deeply strange and odd "Queen of Outer Space", but her lengthy movie career starts in an uncredited part in "Singin' In The Rain" and ends in the 1970 movie "Bigfoot", with many TV stops along the way, including playing the wife of Lester Flatt in several episodes of "The Beverly Hillbillies" and was even famous enough to appear as herself in the "I Love Lucy" series.

To say Dougherty's book is exhaustive is an understatement, but it's also a quick and fast read thru Hollywood history. Dougherty is a producer/writer/director and actor with credits from "thirtysomething" and "Judging Amy".

His book, he says follows his "low-grade obsession" and "obsessions sneak up on you, like snowdrifts." Not exactly a star, though certainly a witness to Hollywood history - from MGM to the Rat Pack to the Nashville adventures of "Hillbillys In A Haunted House."

I highly recommend the book. The official web site is here, and you can order the book directly here. A movie fan will utterly identify with the Narrator's weekend survey of his movie soul. My thanks to Joe for sending me a copy - be sure to get one for yourself!

"NightWatch"
A gritty and broken future battle between Good and Evil based on a science-fiction/fantasy trilogy by Russian writer Sergei Lukyanenko, "Night Watch" is also the first of three movies, the second is nearing release and the third film will be shot in English rather than Russian. Think "Harry Potter" in the Third World and you'll be close to tone of this movie which shattered box-office records in Russia.

A decidedly low-tech "Matrix" of magic and vampirism, the movie is frenetic and at times nearly incomprehensible. Too Hollywood said some, too weird say others. I found myself needing subtitles for the dubbed version -- however I was never bored. It's nothing like the contemplative science fiction films by Andrei Tarkosvky like "Stalker" and "Solaris".

The superhuman "others" of the Good side are the Night Watch and the Evil others are the Day Watch. Oh and there are vampires and shapeshifters and a Potter-ish Owl-Lady. The world is jagged and broken and locked into this conflict, a perspective on modern day Russia, yes. As a movie -- from the Vaderish Father Syndrome and The Other Who Will Tip The Balance -- much of this is very familiar as a story -- the visuals, however, are striking and compelling and I'll follow it to the sequel before I can say whether or not the Trilogy is worth the effort.

Quick Takes
"A Scanner Darkly" is in Knoxville at the Downtown West -- sorry AT. It may run two weeks at best, one at worst.

"True Blood" comes to HBO, the new series from "Six Feet Under" creator Alan Ball and based on Charlaine Harris' novels of vampires in Louisiana. (Hat tip to Reel Fanatic for this info.) Alan Ball says in a BBC interview:

"..the vampires "decide to make their presence known, hire PR firms, and sort of ... come out of the coffin. A lot of churches are horribly against them, but they are very wealthy, and contribute a lot of money to Republican politicians so that they can legitimise their holdings." He had fun with subtexts: "Vampires are a great metaphor for minority groups that struggle for rights and recognition, but also for Republicans, in that theyÂ’re vicious and bloodthirsty and will destroy anything that gets in their way."

Sounds like I'm keeping HBO.

On Wednesday of this week I watched the first of four weeks of Stephen King's "Nightmares and Dreamscapes" on TNT. It was fantastic stuff, worthy of comparison to classic "Twilight Zone." Especially the first entry, "Battleground."

It was a wordless script - though there were some commando howls - as a cool and efficient hitman (William Hurt) becomes the victim of a special delivery of a foot locker full of toy green Army men who blast their way through his calm and his apartment to exact revenge for killing a toy company CEO. This was simply brilliant on every level. (plus it had that reference to the little doll from the original "Trilogy of Terror" TV movie by Richard Matheson since his boy scripted "Battleground.") I am eager to see the next Wednesday night installment of two episodes (and "Trilogy of Terror" hits DVD this week).

For the most and best roundup of everything on the horror movie market, it's hard to beat DVD Stalk for accounts of the new, the ancient and the just plain cheesy and bad movies in stores or theatres near you.

Next week a special report on "The Garden" and the other horror releases from Anchor Bay.

Go make some movie memories until then. I will.

Last Night's GOP Debate

Blame Mr Silence for this, He noted I should Update Readers as to my thoughts on last night's GOP candidates for Senate debate, even though I announced a preference yesterday.

First - Knox Sheriff Hutchison was a last minute no-show for his debate. Simple question follows: why does he get elected? I've heard and read so many scandals about him, he should either get the boot or go for a higher office as his political machine seems unstoppable. And isn't it time the legislature got off their butts and actually draft some regulations and requirements for someone to be Sheriff in Tennessee other than having a high school education? Or taking a training class after they are already elected?

The GOP debate was pretty predictable on all counts - no one emerged as a winner. Since there is no Democrat primary for this seat and Harold Ford Jr is a lock-in, then the real campaign issue is "How many Democrats will vote in the GOP primary and who will they pick?"

The questions were so lame - either fringe dweller issues like abortion, or loopy softball questions like "pick just one word to describe what your term as senator will be". Then there was the gross-out love-and-hugs promotion for WIVK, the Lame Talker. And all candidates continued to blast away at the current GOP-led Congress and Adminstration as unable to perform on immigration, energy policies, taxation, and national security. If the GOP's own think that their leadership is taking the nation in the wrong direction, then what do you think voters in general will think? Yep - time to vote Democrat.

If I were a non-committed voter reviewing possible candidates the answers from Hilleary were funny but not to any advantage, Bryant stumbled and fumbled over every word and the only smooth and polished performance came from Corker. The fact, as he noted, they all gang up on him indicates he is the one most likely to win.

As that non-committed voter, I would hardly be encouraged to vote after watching. Just take Van's comment of "I will do what I can for you" -- not a yes or a no, just a political brush-off.

Perhaps it would be wise for the Dems voting in the GOP primary to cast a ballot for Van, since he is least likely to win state-wide. Or maybe for Corker, since they think no honest-to-pete Conservative will vote for him.

Tennessee's Next Senator

Tonight the GOP candidates for the state's Senate race are supposed to gather for a debate on WBIR. Part of my brain gets scrambled wondering why Robin Wilhoit will question the hopefuls - maybe they asked for her or that was part of the WBIR deal. She's a fine person, but just not who I think of first in the world of political reporting in Tennessee.

I'll watch it - for as long as I can though - despite the fact that I am voting for someone else.

I seldom if ever come right out and suggest anyone follow my lead on who to vote for, but this year is different. This year, I'm voting for the one candidate who won't make some crazy stand on nonsense or even on sensical issues.

He promises not to be there. But he does promise tourists from TN to act as a personal guide to some of the sights in D.C.

In 2006, we have a man who's the right man for his time and his place, and that man ... well, sometimes there's a man ...sometimes there's a man ... ah hell, what's the rest of that speech from "The Big Lebowski?"

Well, anyway, I'm making a write-in vote for Rex.

The Mule Day Terror Target

A small ripple made by the report on the national database of potential terror targets has folks understandably puzzled. Petting zoos and Mule Day and the fleamarket in Sweetwater somehow don't make the cut for some tactical observers.

Then again, do we expect any benefit from an actual list of critical centers of commerce and government and energy facilities? Judging from the constant computer thefts, why provide would-be evildoers with a actual list of places that could hurt the nation as a whole? Better to make a database of places and events where it would be more likely that local residents would approach Islamofascist-types with a baseball bat as soon as they are seen in public.

In terms of keeping the public panic-filled attention, the list can provide tax dollars for security programs and encourage voters who feel their local needs are a priority.

In some ways, it explains the enormous security presence in Morristown last month at an immigration reform rally -- it justifies dollars being spent and it connects voter anxiety to immigration issues which have been front and center in the campaign for Tennessee's Senate race.

The labyrinth design of diverting dollars has many dead-ends.

But mostly it seems that keeping the folks at Mule Day and in the Mideast terror camps convinced they are Vital is the also the key to keeping funding and panic at the highest levels.

Quick, We Need 9 Odd Web Sites!!

If you find it too darn difficult to surf, Yahoo! has done it for you.

Their site collects funny, weird, "hot" topics, and assorted video clips and web sites for a collection they call "The 9."

I suppose we're all so fast and busy, we don't even have time to review a Top 10 list.

No - wait -- it says here on the page that the goal is to "quickly bundle it all together into a neat, fast-paced, and work-friendly package and try to get it up by about 9 a.m." --- appears they even make the jokes for you too.

Today's list includes one or two entries I enjoyed, such as the video of people imitating the notorious World Soccer Head-Butting of Zidane (shouldn't he be called ZeeFrench?), plus a video of those wacky Japanese TV programmers who've made a story about a massive "domino demonstration" in a house using only household objects, and a web site of enormously fluffy bunnies.

Your host for this perky morning web blast is Maria Sansone, who hosted her own TV sports show at age 11 and actually was there to see Tonya Harding smack up Nancy Kerrigan. She also hosts a preview show for Comcast. As one MetaFilter commenter said "Think Rocketboom with a tan."

Bush Sr, Officials Praise The Late Great Ken Lay

Perhaps the elected officials and business tycoons who praised the late and the convicted criminal Ken Lay have the courage, at least, to admit they admire Lay's level of fraud.

Not only did the Enron chief build a company that led him into the consulting rooms of policymakers at the local, state and national levels, not only did he goad employees and friends into buying a plummeting stock, not only did he erase the retirement and investments of thousands of people -- ultimately he escaped jail and his ill-gotten fortune will elude the grasp of law enforcement, and he is now the Victim of an American Tragedy.

"Ken Lay was neither black nor poor, but he was a victim of a lynching,'' Rev. William Lawson, a Houston civil rights leader, said today at the service in Houston."

Yes, it's true - he was white and rich and pampered for all but a few months of trial and media scrutiny, and for a rich white guy, that must be the equal of being lynched.

Others in attendance included Guests among the several hundred mourners included former President George H.W. Bush and his wife Barbara, former U.S. Secretary of State James A. Baker III, ex-Secretary of Commerce Robert Mosbacher Sr., former Enron President John M. Seidl, heart surgeon Denton Cooley, Lay's defense lawyer Mike Ramsey and Drayton McLane Jr., owner of the Houston Astros baseball team.

A woman who conducts tours based on the collapse and fraud of Enron says she considers this more of a Greek Tragedy.

Update on Bush Monarchy

More proof of the major conflict in Constitutional authority was presented yesterday by Justice Dept. attorney Steve Bradbury who informed a congressional committee " the President is always right."

Video here via Think Progress.

The events of the last few weeks reminds me of the 2004 reports that the President truly believes he is on a 'misson from God'.and that people in the 'reality-based' community cannot and should not be trusted. Article is here.

Is it simply wacky wingnut worries that a Monarchy has been made?

The "New Paradigm" Creates Monarchy

A series of judicial defeats is highlighting the constitutional conflict that President's Bush's commander-in-chief claims have created. Much of the president's position was laid out by legal aides from Vice-President Cheney's staff, namely David Addington, the Chief-of-Staff.

A comprehensive look at the problems with the president's stand were laid out in a July 3rd article in the New Yorker, which details the "new paradigm" plan - a plan that has the president essentially avoiding any and all oversight or check and balances to the Executive Branch as mandated by the Constitution.

From the article:

"Bruce Fein, a Republican legal activist, who voted for Bush in both Presidential elections, and who served as associate deputy attorney general in the Reagan Justice Department, said that Addington and other Presidential legal advisers had '“staked out powers that are a universe beyond any other Administration. This President has made claims that are really quite alarming. He'’s said that there are no restraints on his ability, as he sees it, to collect intelligence, to open mail, to commit torture, and to use electronic surveillance. If you used the President'’s reasoning, you could shut down Congress for leaking too much. His war powers allow him to declare anyone an illegal combatant. All the world'’s a battlefield—. According to this view, he could kill someone in Lafayette Park if he wants! It'’s got the sense of Louis XIV: '‘I am the State.'"

The President certainly has rights to interpret the Constitutional authority of his office. Guided by his vice-president, however, he has steered into dangerous waters.

Read the entire article - it's worth the time and explains what is about to shape much debate for a massive political battle as the fall elections get closer.

The Worst Writing Winners

When does bad writing become good writing? It happens every year at the Bulwer-Lytton Contest as writers earnestly strive to create the worst opening sentence for a novel. In addition to an overall winner, there are also various category winners and "dishonorable mentions".

Overall winning worst sentence:

"Detective Bart Lasiter was in his office studying the light from his one small window falling on his super burrito when the door swung open to reveal a woman whose body said you've had your last burrito for a while, whose face said angels did exist, and whose eyes said she could make you dig your own grave and lick the shovel clean."

Oh yeah, that's fine, especially that last part about the shovel. It's creator is Jim Guigli, who sent in 60 entries for this year's contest.

This entry is from a writer in Atlanta, GA:

"Todd languished there, neck deep in the pumpkin-hued Amargosa Desert sand like a long forgotten cupcake in an Easy Bake Oven gone hellishly amok, and it finally made sense . . . "ooohhhh, DEATH Valley."

An entry from Quebec:

"Her angry accusations burned Clyde like that first bite of a double cheese pizza, when the toppings slide off and sear that small elevation of the oral mucosa, just behind the front teeth, known as the incisive papilla, which is linked to the discriminatory function of the taste buds except, where Clyde was concerned, when it came to women."

The winner in the Romance Category hails from Alabama and writes:

"Despite the vast differences it their ages, ethnicity, and religious upbringing, the sexual chemistry between Roberto and Heather was the most amazing he had ever experienced; and for the entirety of the Labor Day weekend they had sex like monkeys on espresso, not those monkeys in the zoo that fling their feces at you, but more like the monkeys in the wild that have those giant red butts, and access to an espresso machine."

All the winners and dishonorable mentions are here.

Bulwer-Lytton was a very popular novelist, and created the phrase "the pen is mightier than the sword." No definitive word on any reaction to a legacy as the titular head of a bad writing contest.

Has This Country Gone Completely Insane?

I knew I wasn't the only person who noticed some horrible changes.

Read why the answer to this question might just be YES.

Blogging Capital of Tennessee

Mr. Silence has issued a proclamation that bears repeating:

"Is it just me? Or isn't it clear that East Tennessee is the capital of blogging in the state?
Not that I'm trying to start anything ...."

The always perceptive Brittney replies:

"Not Going to Let Any Mountain Dwellers Take Our Title" and adds: "Trying or not, it's on."

Woo hoo!

Personally, I depend on the RTB, No Silence Here and Nashville Is Talking like an addict hits the meth. I get tons of news and information and I also get readers here from all three sites, which makes this blogging all the better - I don't want to be completely like Steve Martin said - "I don't need YOU! I can do this act ALONE! I often DO!"

One of the best things about Tennessee is we loves to talk about everything, and our state is a crucible for all the hottest topics in politics and lifestyles and much more. We're at the very center of the national debate on any topic you can name. And from the Civil Rights Museum in the west, to the legislative heart in Nashville, to the start of all American music in Bristol - we provide presidents and vice presidents and you can't get much of anywhere at all without going thru here.

I live just off the one highway named for the one and only person to have ever served in every non-judicial elected position in American politics, even defeating impeachment and then returning to the Senate. The state has as many conflicting opinions as people and we do talk a heap about it.
I know the Insty-Boy gets loads of press, and I confess his is the one blog I never read. I did a few times and just found it not to my tastes.

And Brittney and the staff at WKRN have opened up their news coverage to video bloggers and I hope more TV and radio stations do likewise. As I've told Brittney, being a guest blogger there just rocks.

One major complaint in the blog world of TN I do have is that damn few residents and non-bloggers from Hamblen and points east seldom if ever bother to comment on local events and topics. I know they lurk and read, but even then their numbers seem small. I often think the surrounding counties do not have enough easily accessible internet connections, but that is changing -- I hope, anyway.

And when I do read through other writers pages in other states, Tennessee has the most easily readable and aggregated collections. Other states don't come close -- yet. But that is changing too as the other states model themselves on us. And again personally, I receive about equal amounts of readers from Europe and Asia as I do from the U.S.

As odd as it sounds, I find much unity in the state through all the wide range of opinions and also just the relation of day to day events that so many people share. We are home to some fantastic writers and without the South, and Tennessee, the American Voice would just be bi-coastal extremes.

Having been a resident of both middle and east (and I depend on Newscoma and some others to keep me up to speed on the west as well as her posts on events and topics nationally) I can testify there are major differences and similarities. There's only two things I've never seen in Tennessee - the ocean or an iceberg, though geology suggests we've had those too.

And just for the record, most of us in the east are in the Valley, not the Mountains - and trust me, no one really wants to get them folk riled up.

Where is the Blogging Capital in Tennessee? You tell me.

UPDATE: KnoxViews weighs in with some numbers on the blog question. And Les Jones remarks on the Time Zone quotient - er, Les was that a pic of The Hoff in a Hoff Speedo??

The state's Democrat Party has taken notice of both the RTB and KnoxViews in their latest emailing - though let's be honest, the GOP is a major force in state politics. Again that underscores what I said above - we are in the forefront of national debates on politics.

Truth be told, after some months reading blogs, it was South Knox Bubba who first prompted me to actually leave a comment, and the bug bit deep enough to create this constantly brewing Cup of Joe.

And while I may not read the InstyBoy, I utterly appreciate that he helped arrange for a sneak preview screening to Joss Whedon's "Serenity" which was worth gold to me.

Other bloggers chime in - C.E. here and High Country here.

Stephen King Takes Over Summer TV

The summer TV season, once the empty space populated by the repeats of shows already seen now offers a new segment for original programming. On Wednesday a collection of short stories by master storyteller Stephen King, bows with two episodes in "Nightmares and Dreamscapes." The first episode, "Battleground" airs commercial free and will be followed by "Crouch End". 8 episodes over 4 weeks brings out top talent for TNT's mini-series.

"Battleground" stars William Hurt as a cold-blooded killer, a professional hitman who takes out the CEO for a toy company and steals a favorite toy from the desk of the CEO as a souvenir. Supernatural Karma brings a toy army to provide justice. This episode is scripted by Richard Christian Matheson and is directed by Brian Henson.

The "Crouch End" episode is a tale of an American couple visiting a friend in England and find out their old friend may be far Older and Not From Here at all. It's a near Lovecraft story.

King's power as prolific writer and, more than that, constant moneymaker, has finally over the last few years provided far more control over projects that wind up on television. The recent ABC "Desperation" was a first-rate adaptation. Also, given the success of Showtime's Masters of Horror, fans of King and of the uncanny have much to celebrate.

A Twilight Zone style anthology of King's stories is long overdue and this first effort has more than a small chance of success, and will add some fine storytelling to the summer season.

The official web-site is here, and a breakdown of all the actors and directors (including the "X-Files" Rob Bowman) are all here. And via Stephen's own website is a link-filled listing of all episodes and when they air.

The Failure Campaign

Listening to the propaganda that passes for information supplied by candidates and/or commentators is always instructive - at least in learning what is being promoted or demoted.

For a few weeks the only GOP ad for US Senate available in East Tennessee was Bob Corker's mom saying he was a good boy. I'm glad he at least got that endorsement as the primary voting approaches. Now they have added two more spots, one where he says he went with a church group to help build houses and another where a group of unidentified Chattanooga residents express their belief that he was the best mayor they ever had.

Oddly absent from TV despite a decent campaign chest is Van Hilleary -- odd because back when the districts were reorganized in the 90s, Hamblen somehow became part of the 4th District and helped get Van into congress. (Now we're back in the 1st District again.) Yet, apart from a few signs on the roadways, there's not much Van Visibility here.
(NOTE: He just started an ad this afternoon - and like the rest of this post shows, he too joins the battle cry against the current GOP's failure to "secure borders", adds that he will stop their deficit spending, and most strangely adds he will "battle Hillary Clinton every step of the way." How lame to continue to try and trade on the Clinton name, which he does twice in this ad. Though I know there are some Conservatives in this town who place her on the Axis of Evil.)

Ed Bryant has started his TV ads recently, and he echoes the comments he made several years back when he appeared on my radio show - chiefly, that his proudest moment as a congressman was presenting the Clinton impeachment papers to the Senate from the House.

There's been so much more presence on the internet, via all their respective campaign blogs. You can read large amounts of nitpicking and name-calling and you can watch their game of King of the Conservative Hill as it happens. I wonder how many average votes bother with any of that? Seems more the playing field for the Already Committed or the Commentators.

I do find it most amusing they all three proclaim they'll secure our borders from terrorists. Doesn't that mean their fellow Conservative GOP office holders have failed at that job?

It isn't a surprise to hear the Democrat challenger for the Senate, Harold Ford Jr, claim that the current officeholders have failed - that's what I expect from the Other Side.

Borders and immigration are definitely The Issue in this county, judging by the late-June rally that brought out a massive armed law enforcement brigade. (Pics and posts here) And all the attention and actions reinforce this belief that the current officeholders are letting bajillions of anti-American immigrants take over from Texas to Canada.

I often read the Volunteer Voters site or Knox Views to keep up with an ever-growing list of who's endorsing who for what, and again, it looks like right now the battlefield is a binary one.

There are so many GOP and Democrat choices in the upcoming primary for the 1st Congressional District, that it is pretty much a county by county kind of race. One Democrat hopeful is current Morristown City Councilman Rick Trent. Since no Dems have held the 1st District since the 1800s, I doubt there will be anything other than a token opposition to whoever wins the GOP race. It's getting name recognition outside of one county that will determine the winner.

Rick writes on his promo flier: "It's not hard to see that our country is going in the wrong direction. Escalating national debt, the Iraq War, high energy costs and the loss of American jobs are just a few of the issues I would like to tackle as your representative in Washington. If you feel like I do, then together we can get America back on track."

On the GOP side, as I said, the most prominent issue in campaign statements is Broken Borders, Broken Borders, and Broken Borders.

So what I'm hearing loud and clear from both parties is it's time to end the Failure of Current Policies. That claim can be a campaign constant no matter the year, or the race, or the location. But admitting Failure within the GOP seems a tactic that the Democrats should be using to their advantage in 2006.

But since polls rate approval of Congress lower than a bug's belly, then that must mean all parties are running on a Anyone Would Be Better Than What We Got bandwagon.

From The Internet Tubes

Since the last post was a peek into the oddities stashed and stored in huge-antical Web Tubes (1), I happened to have the time to collect some more news and videos which tend to create a unique mixture of surprise and dread.

First, GoldenAppleCorp (of AT) wagged a finger at me warning me away for dissing David Hasselhoff, and today I just happened to find the newest video from The Hoff, a remake of a 1975 tune called "Jump In My Car." Is it just me, or does the international fame and resilience of this guy portend a future political career? The video features him wearing a T-Shirt declaring Don't Hassel the Hoff, but it was the dancing that gave me the heebie-jeebies. View the Hoff's latest here.

In other music news, this comment about a new album from Justin Timberlake indicates, as a friend told me, a train wreck is ahead:

"The first single from the upcoming Justin Timberlake album, "SexyBack," features a pounding bass beat and electronic sounds, and does not include the falsetto singing that has become Timberlake's trademark. He said, however, that "The best way I can describe that song is say David Bowie and David Byrne decided to do a cover of James Brown's Sex Machine," Timberlake told reporters."

To which I say - Ewwwww! Clean-up on Aisle 12!!!!

To mark the 60th b-day for Our President, the Nintendo company gave him an early gift - a new Nintendo DS Lite, including a copy of the game Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day. The letter from Nintendo accompanying the gift emphasizes the Decider need not be an expert gamer to give it a go.

The advertising giant that is NASCAR found a new client. True, the sponsorship is only on the local track circuit, but who would have ever have foreseen a combo between Scientology and NASCAR? Yes, the Dianetics Racing Team has arrived.

Never, ever, EVER underestimate what is possible in the Web. I said NEVER. One intrepid seeker has successfully traded One Red Paper Clip for a house.


Footnotes
1. I feel like David Foster Wallace making a footnote, but this is for those who missed Alaska Senator Ted Stevens explanation of the internet, here 'tis -- "I just the other day got, an internet was sent by my staff at 10 oÂ’clock in the morning on Friday and I just got it yesterday. Why? Because it got tangled up with all these things going on the internet commercially. They want to deliver vast amounts of information over the internet. And again, the internet is not something you just dump something on. It'’s not a truck. It'’s a series of tubes."

Visual representations are here. See also, "The Coot-Off".

Is That A Hattori Hanzo Sword?

So what would happen when a 9 mm bullet meets a samurai sword?

This happens.

That Darn Coulter!

A post today at KnoxViews from R. Neal about Ann Coulter makes some of the same points to ponder which I too think most people just don't quite get.

Yes, I'm sticking to my guns about what I said here and here.

The comments on Neal's post mention, as most debates about Coulter do, that Michael Moore is the Left version of Coulter's Right field rants. (Some other Lefties get mentioned too)

But I have yet to hear or read where Moore makes death threats. Coulter does.

Her dangerous fringe followers seem to shovel cash at her like addicts hit meth - both are dead ends.

SayUncle and Les Jones are weighing in with their views too in the comments, and what pops out most quickly is that the range of opinions are expressed without any of the insanely pointless and hate-filled threats of Coulter.

That's all - a good read I just wanted to point out.

Oh, and maybe enough rational humans on the Right or Left or Center or Anywhere Else will express a desire to remove even the tiniest molecule of credibiltiy within a thousand miles of Coulter. Sure she has a right to her opinion, but to provide it more weight than a fart is a critical error.

Camera Obscura - Pirates, Hills Have Eyes, UltraViolet, A Scanner Darkly

I know it seems like an incredible, star-filled lifestyle to write and report on the movies and the often-unseen traps that surround celebrity. And it is. But there is also the seamy, dank underbelly of cinema, the hours and months spent in dark rooms watching movies that no one liked and no one should have made. Someone eventually has to come into the emptied-out palaces to clean up the leavings from "champagne wishes and caviar dreams". Makes for some nasty, crusty cleanup.

Reality shifts are commonplace, most critics or writers get lost in the media mazes and never find their way out. A good example is The Pickle at the Knox News Sentinel - she drools so much over Johnny Depp she taints any objective review of the sequel to "Pirates of the Caribbean" and simply drowns. The paper is soggy.

Will the average moviegoer swim alongside the continuing piratey adventures? Yeah, likely. But whether or not you'll like the movie depends on the skills of the swimmer to keep up with the roiling seas of plots and romance.

Here in this weekly roundup. I track the castaways, the shipwrecks, and attempt to chart the murky movie waters for fellow travelers who seek forgotten treasures or ghost ships and sail outside the shipping lanes. Some movies survive with spectacular skill, some smash against the waves and founder with spectacular doom.

Enough introductions - we're already underway.

I was pleasantly surprised at how well the remake of Wes Craven's 1977 horror classic "The Hills Have Eyes" sailed into an alternate reality of the mutated nuclear family which takes revenge on the "normals" by feasting on flesh. The original ultra low-budget thriller almost seems like a seedy newsreel, with some tedious time ticking past until the mutant family forces brutal retaliation for a lost tourist family. The remake gets you there quicker, and also ramps up the blood and violence with terrific style. As in the original, Pacificism is manipulated by horror and fear and turns to primal rage.

Unlike most remakes, filmmaker Alexander Aja, born the year after the original came out, actually gets it right. He transfers intact all the ideas of the original and adds new details and has stunning make-up and effects work so the mutant cannibal family looks as real as the rocky barren landscape. DVD extras show the brilliant and somewhat hi-tech work the KNB EFX group did and will likely help inspire the next generation of movie magicians.

And a big hint here - note the movie is about the attack by mutant cannibals - that sound like a kid's movie to you? It isn't.

Some other news Horror fans will like - Eli Roth is at work on a sequel to "Hostel" and has been signed to direct Stephen King's recent zombie thriller "Cell".

Given the opening sea-going metaphors, the easiest and most cynical review I could provide for the DVD release of the science-fiction thriller "UltraViolet" starring model/actress Milla Jovovich is -- wait for it -- "Thar she blows!!!"

Writer/director Kurt Wimmer showed great technical skill in the highly derivative sci-fi "Equilibrium", and he really pushes the tech edge in "UltraViolet". Shot with high-def Sony cameras, coating the existing backgrounds of modern-day Shanghai with green screens, the movie is jaw-dropping eye candy.

The plot is inconsequential as the opening nearly 10 minute exposition by Jovovich tries to explain that somehow in the future a disease makes people into semi-vampires and she's a widow and the future is weird. Yeah, that takes about ten minutes for her to say. For true gut-crunching surreal nonsense, try watching the movie with her full-length commentary.

The violent killer that is usually referred to simply as "V" by her pals, poses with swords and guns which she has nanotechnologically loaded into infinity on her clothes. All kinds of throwaway tech is here, and the movie grabs bits of anime and goth and comics and blurs it all together in a day-glo Uber-Revlon Para Para commercial for .... I don't know what.

Wimmer has tech skill, no doubt. Now all he needs is a writer. And some actors.

Lost at sea now, mired in a strange silent fogbank we see on the horizon that the adaptation of Phillip K. Dick's "A Scanner Darkly" opens this weekend in limited release and should be in a theater near you in coming weeks.

The movie is fully faithful to the drug-zapped madness of Dick's book. Bob Arctor (Keanu Reeves) is an undercover narcotics agent on the trail of a new drug, Substance D, and wears a constantly shifting visual exterior body mask while on the job. Off the job, he's a fellow drug addict with his friends (superb casting of Robert Downey Jr and Woody Harrelson). Then he gets assigned to track a new suspect - himself. He lives his undercover life and then goes to work and watches himself.

Director Richard Linklater has made the movie in a new rotoscoping animation, which adds to the cognitive dissonance of the story and the addictions and a world hidden within a world. There is no romantic vision of the addict onboard this ghost ship. There is despair and deep black comedy as all slowly sink into the abyss.

As critic J. Hoberman noted in his review, fellow sci-fi writer Stanislaw Lem said of Dick - he was a writer who "does not so much play the part of a guide through his phantasmagoric worlds as he gives the impression of one lost in their labyrinth."

Fractured time and space and reality are hallmarks of his work. In the novel "Time Out of Joint," the lead character literally sees through the fake world he is in when the Ice Cream Stand at a local park dwindles to a piece of paper with the words "Ice Cream Stand" written on it.

Our voyage is not over, but we've reached a windless beach. The Cap'n says we'll sail again soon.