Mish Mash of Stuff

I've been busy writing and reading and living and breathing politics as of late but that doesn't mean other things aren't going on in my life.

First and most important, my husband's birthday is coming up next week and you'd think after 26 years of marriage shopping for him would be easy but not so. If we were wealthy like Warren Buffet or Bill Gates, it would be no problem. Unfortunately we are not. Right now I've just got a DVD on the life of Nikola Tesla. I need something else to go with it, though. Ah well, will figure something out.

I also have some Criminal Intent info. I'm sure all fans have heard by now - I've been too busy to be online much today so I'm just catching up. A blogger took some photos of them filming. Credit where credit is due: Michael Norwood Photography.

Julianne Nicholson and Jeff Goldblum filming on LOCI

Eric Bogosian filming LOCI

Thanks to Mr. Norwood for posting these photos. Makes me even more excited for the new season to begin!

No offense to Mr. Goldblum or Ms. Nicholson, but please someone find Vincent D'Onofrio and Kathryn Erbe on set photos please! So far we only got a blurry glimpse of VDO in a deli when he was apparently not working. Please help feed my addiction. ;-)

Before discussing the presidential campaign and the dark overtones of the McPain campaign, here's another Bush problem. You know, I've always said he's stepping on the rights of AMERICAN citizens. Now here's proof all the eavesdropping hasn't been exclusively on terrorists suspects. ABC news had this item that had me fuming. And here I thought we were all done with Bush. Looks like there's going to be proof of wrong-doing by his administration for years to come. It's infuriating and if you still don't think there's anything wrong with eavesdropping on private conversations between ordinary American citizens who had nothing to do with terrorists, then you deserve the loss of all your rights.

Just when I think they can't be any more annoying, the Republicans at FIX or Faux News are bitching about how Newsweek Magazine made Sarah Palin look bad. They apparently didn't airbrush her trace of a mustache or hide her blemishes or other little flaws.

HEY, DUMBASSES, GET A CLUE! It's not Vogue or Elle. This is Newsweek. She's not a supermodel, she's supposed to be a REAL person, right? Do you think Joe Sixpack looks that good? STFU and go back to the racist, scare mongering tactics you excel at and leave the whining to someone else. You sound like a bunch of ridiculous babies when you do. You know, like Republicans who said they changed their mind about the bailout the first time around because Nancy Pelosi said mean things to them. Grow the fuck up and stop acting like children.

Palin in her mustachioed glory?

Once again, just like they have in the past, the Republicans are rearing their ugly racist heads again. They play on the xenophobia of their base. [For any stupid people who are part of that evangelical, neo con movement, xenophobia is a fear of foreigners, not a fear of Xena the Warrior Princess] Here's another Maureen Dowd piece that addresses this and a brief history of the Republican smear tactics. It's entitled Mud Pies for 'That One' and recalls the similar tactics used in the past. Here's an excerpt:

John McCain has long been torn between wanting to succeed and serving a higher cause. Right now, the drive to succeed is trumping any loftier aspirations. He cynically picked a running mate with less care than theater directors give to picking a leading actor’s understudy. And he has been running a seamy campaign originally designed by the bad seed of conservative politics, Lee Atwater.

It was adapted in 2000 in Atwater’s home state of South Carolina by Atwater acolytes in W.’s camp to harpoon McCain with rumors that he had fathered out of wedlock a black baby (as opposed to adopting a Bangladeshi infant girl in wedlock). Sulfurous Atwater-style rumor-mongering by Bush supporters — that McCain had come home from a Hanoi tiger cage with snakes in his head — aimed to stop him during that primary after he had zoomed in New Hampshire.

Atwater relished teaching rich, white Republicans to feign a connection to the common man so they could get in office and economically undermine the common man. In the 1988 campaign, the Machiavellian ran to help George Bush Sr. defeat Michael Dukakis with this unholy quintet of charges:

The Democrat was a ’60s-style liberal who would raise taxes and take away guns. He was weak and would not protect the country militarily. He was a member of the elite “Harvard Yard’s boutique.” He had a foreign-sounding name and was not on “the American side.” He was on the side of the Scary Black Man.

Sound familiar?

If you haven't already, I encourage you to check out all of Ms. Dowd's commentaries.

And finally, George F. Will - who is an actual thinking Republican, whether or not you agree with his views or not - has an op-ed out in The Washington Post asking "Are you going to get any better or is this it?" of the McPain campaign. Seems he's not impressed by the direction they're taking either.


[NP: The Pretenders - Tatooed Love Boys]