FREE THE IMPALER!

Looks like The Man has a problem with certain denizens of the night exercising their political rights.

Self-described vampire and Minnesota gubernatorial candidate Jonathan "The Impaler" Sharkey has been arrested on Indiana charges of stalking and escape.

Sharkey is wanted in Indianapolis on the charges on which bond has been set at $100,000, the Princeton (Minn.) Union-Eagle reported.

Princeton police said their search discovered the May 2005 warrants that led to Sharkey's arrest Monday.

Sharkey, 41, a native of Elizabethtown, N.J., has lived in Princeton since October.

Sharkey gained the limelight earlier this month with his Friday the 13th announcement of his candidacy for Minnesota governor under the Vampires, Witches and Pagans Party banner.

Among his proposals was one that would use impalement to execute murderers, rapists and terrorists.

Friends, we all know that "stalking" and "escape" (usually with "biting" and "suck" in between) are central to a vampire's identity. This sort of blatant prejudice against nosferatu belongs back in the Old Country.

I expect Raoul Vega will have something to say about this.

THE MAGICAL WORLD OF FRED BARNES

Via Andrew Sullivan, Fred Barnes on the Diane Rehm show:

DR: What about the president's own service in the military?

FB: Well, he didn't shirk. He joined the national guard. At one time, it's reported--I don't know whether--I have not myself personally confirmed this--that he volunteered for Vietnam and was turned down. He volunteered--

DR: Turned down?

FB: He was a flier. Well, he wasn't in a unit that would get him over there or something. It's been, it's been widely reported--

DR: Fred, where'd that come from? I've never heard that before.

FB: Oh sure. What? That he'd--

DR: That he volunteered to go to Vietnam.

FB: He volunteered for Vietnam duty and didn't get there. I don't think I'm making this up.

DR: Can you cite me some evidence on that?

FB: I thought it was quite widely known.

DR: Never heard that one before.

FB: Really? Well, I've heard it many, many times.

Of course, every time it was from Karl Rove...

DELIVER US FROM ADAMS

Haven't these people suffered enough?

Canadian pop star Bryan Adams is performing in Pakistan's port city of Karachi to raise money for survivors of last October's earthquake.

It is the first concert by a Western pop star in the country since the 11 September terror attacks in the US.

FLOYD W/ ZAPPA

I just had to post this, sent to me by El Stu: Frank Zappa sitting in with Pink Floyd on an extended version of Interstellar Overdrive. Enjoy. I certainly did.

PALESTINIAN DEMOCRACY

Most of what I've read and those I've spoken to strongly confirms that the Palestinian vote was first and foremost a rejection of the corruption and incompetence of Fatah. Money has poured in from various sources; millions of dollars have disappeared into the pockets of various bureaucrats and party good old boys. Jobs, international aid and scolarships have been doled out by Fatah members to their own families and friends. Conservative estimates put unemployment at around 40%. So they threw the bums out.

The big questions are whether Hamas will prove competent at governing, and, more significantly, whether the realities of governing will cool Hamas out. As to the first, I think probably. Hamas has proven well-organized and capable of picking up much of the social services-slack left by Fatah, so I'd be surprised if their move into governance wasn't more or less smooth. As to the second, I really don't know. We don't have to look very far in the region to see examples of terrorists who were rehabilitated as politicians, and I think Hamas is probably a more ideologically diverse organization than is recognized, but the fact remains that their charter calls for the destruction of Israel, and this is a major problem, not least in that it provides Israeli hardliners the perfect excuse to continue to refuse talks as they consolidate the large settlement blocs in the West Bank. There's no downplaying this element of Hamas's program. History has clearly shown that eliminationist rhetoric must be taken seriously.

Many have argued that a good way to deal with Islamist parties is to allow them into the democratic process, that the practice of conventional politicking will moderate them, or at least produce moderate factions within them. Palestine will be a test of this idea, though once again we can't ignore that it's taking place within the context of a military occupation. It's my strong feeling that true peace and security will never be achieved while the Israeli occupation persists, and that the constant delay of final status negotiations on borders, refugees and Jerusalem, has only benefited hardliners on both sides.

Despite the protestations from the usual suspects, I don't think the vote for Hamas represents a vote for war. All reliable poll information that I know of shows that a majority of Palestinians still believe in a two-state solution, they just don't believe anymore that Fatah is capable of delivering it. They watched throughout the 90s, saw the handshakes on the White House lawn, saw partial sovereignty granted, saw Arafat's celebratory return to Gaza, even as they saw the settlements grow, the checkpoints proliferate, and the occupation intensify. Here in the U.S. Israel's apologists can pretend the occupation doesn’t exist, but for Palestinians this is not an option. To live under occupation is to live in a kind of purgatory; its various inhumanities attend their daily lives in countless ways. Frankly, I think it's a miracle that the Palestinians should have any faith whatsoever in democracy at this point, but they do. It's clear, though, that one element of the Hamas victory is that they are seen as being willing to fight back against Israel in a war that is being waged against the Palestinians every day. A final question is whether they'll be willing or able to transform this credibility into tangible steps toward ending the occupation, achieving Palestinian sovereignty, and creating a stable state without revanchist ambitions.

DR. CRANE, DR. MCCOY

As an X-Men fan and collector from waaaaay back, I'd just like to say that Kelsey Grammar as Dr. Hank McCoy is an inspired bit of casting.

And I'm just all giddy about Colossus being in the movie for more than ten seconds this time.

And yes, I stopped collecting comics the same summer I kissed a girl for the first time, but I reject the idea that the two had anything to do with each other.

YOU SAY CIRCUMVENT, I SAY DODGED, GOT AROUND, AVOIDED...

This is classic.

Q Mr. President...the FISA law was implemented in 1978 in part because of revelations that the National Security Agency was spying domestically. What is wrong with that law if you feel you have to circumvent it and, as you just admitted, expand presidential power?

THE PRESIDENT: May I -- if I might, you said that I have to circumvent it. There -- wait a minute. That's a -- there's something -- it's like saying, you know, you're breaking the law. I'm not. See, that's what you've got to understand. I am upholding my duty, and at the same time, doing so under the law and with the Constitution behind me. That's just very important for you to understand.

Secondly, the FISA law was written in 1978. We're having this discussion in 2006. It's a different world. And FISA is still an important tool. It's an important tool. And we still use that tool. But also -- and we -- look -- I said, look, is it possible to conduct this program under the old law? And people said, it doesn't work in order to be able to do the job we expect us to do.

And so that's why I made the decision I made. And you know, "circumventing" is a loaded word, and I refuse to accept it, because I believe what I'm doing is legally right.

And now, a short play.

A cherry tree lies on the stage next to a stump. A small boy stands nearby with a hatchet.

MR WASHINGTON
George! What happened to the cherry tree?

YOUNG GEORGE
I cannot tell a lie.

MR WASHINGTON
Why did you chop down the cherry tree, George?

YOUNG GEORGE
May I--if I might, you said that I chopped the tree down. There-- wait a minute. It's like saying, you know, that I did something wrong. What I did was take this hatchet, and repeatedly strike the sharp edge of it against the tree trunk. And then the top part of the tree eventually broke off and fell over. And that's why I made the decision I made. And you know, "chop" is a loaded word, and I refuse to accept it.

fin

JUST CONFESS

Joe Sacco reports on detainee abuse.

TELLING PRETTY NEAR THE OPPOSITE OF THE TRUTH ABOUT WARRANTS

Attorney General Gonzales was interviewed on NPR yesterday, defending the president's authority to conduct wiretaps without a court warrant. It was another lost opportunity to find out why, if the president thought he had the authority to conduct wiretaps without a court warrant, he felt he had to lie, err, mislead about having gotten court warrants for those wiretaps?

DYNASTICISM

Josh Marshall makes an interesting point regarding a Hillary candidacy.

Though I wrote five years ago that I find the whole idea of a Hillary presidential bid wildly improbable, I say the following as an admirer and supporter of Sen. Clinton. (She's my senator now, after all.)

But here's a reason for not supporting her candidacy that I don't hear often enough: political dynasticism.

...

George H. W. Bush left office to be followed by two terms of Bill Clinton. He in turn was followed by two terms of Bush's son. If those two terms of the son are followed by the election of Clinton's wife, I don't see where that's a good thing for this country. It ceases to be a fluke and grows into a pattern. It's dynasticism.

Agreed that dynasticism is something be avoided, but in a way this is unfair to Hillary. Unlike George W., who has no apparent aptitude for policy or governance and who very likely never would have gotten involved in politics were it not for the doors his family name opened, it was clear that Hillary had some skeelz before getting together with Bill Clinton. Looking into my crystal ball, which, it turns out, is actually a cantaloupe, it doesn't seem unlikely that Hillary would have gotten into politics on her own, and succeeded.

But could she win? It's true that Hillary arouses more visceral, personal hatred amongst her enemies than probably any other single American politician, but I tend to think that the people who hate Hillary so are extremely unlikely to vote for any Democrat, no matter how Republican-lite they try to make themselves. And I still think that a Hillary win is the only thing that could begin to redeem eight years of W., because I'm not just looking for a win here, I'm looking for a repudiation.

INCOMPETENCE

Harold Meyerson:

Incompetence is not one of the seven deadly sins, and it's hardly the worst attribute that can be ascribed to George W. Bush. But it is this president's defining attribute. Historians, looking back at the hash that his administration has made of his war in Iraq, his response to Hurricane Katrina and his Medicare drug plan, will have to grapple with how one president could so cosmically botch so many big things -- particularly when most of them were the president's own initiatives.

...

How could a president get these things so wrong? Incompetence may describe this presidency, but it doesn't explain it. For that, historians may need to turn to the seven deadly sins: to greed, in understanding why Bush entrusted his new drug entitlement to a financial mainstay of modern Republicanism. To sloth, in understanding why Incurious George has repeatedly ignored the work of experts whose advice runs counter to his desires.

Indeed.

EXCELLENT

Charges against Orhan Pamuk dropped.

JUMPING THE SHARK WITH ONE SKI

I'm sad to see that NBC has cancelled The West Wing. In its best moments (most of which were pre-Aaron Sorkin's departure) it was the most unashamedly pointy-headed show on TV. In its worst it at least allowed us liberals to live, if only for an hour, in a country where our president was not an intellectual homunculus.

Following up on this post by Lance, I wonder if it's possible for half a show to jump the shark? Because that's pretty much what The West Wing did when it made C.J. Cregg President Bartlet's Chief of Staff. Allison Janney is an excellent actress, and C.J. is a great character, but her overnight transformation into a savvy political power player has been one of the least convincing story lines since the Harlem Globetrotters landed on Gilligan's Island. On the other hand, the presidential campaign story, first the primaries and now the general between Vinick (Alan Alda) and Santos (Jimmy Smits), has been one I've found consistently interesting.

Any way, sad to see it go.

LEGACY PROTECTION

Dennis Ross:

For the past two years, Sharon has been the driver of developments between Israelis and Palestinians. It was Sharon who first announced a policy of disengagement from the Palestinians. It was Sharon who then took this principle and carried out Israel's subsequent withdrawal from Gaza and the dismantling of settlements there. Finally, it was Sharon who left Likud, which he helped found, and set the stage for elections as the head of a new centrist party, Kadima.

Unmentioned by Ross, of course, is the fact that it was Sharon decided to scuttle negotiations with the Palestinians, insisting that there was "no partner for peace," a particularly preposterous assertion from a man who spent almost his whole political life undermining any peaceful overture to the Palestinians, and who was the number-one political advocate for the creation of the illegal settlements which are now, and have been, the single biggest obstacle to a two-state solution. Framing the story within the span of two years allows Ross to peddle the story of Sharon the innovator with a straight face, but the story begins to fall apart if we look back two more years, and utterly evaporates when we examine Sharon's career in its entirety.

With Hamas poised to dominate Palestinian elections I suspect Israel's leaders are looking back somewhat fondly on the good old days of Arafat. It's important to recognize, too, how Hamas got its start, as an Israeli-supported Islamist alternative to the secular nationalist PLO. Smell that? That's blowback.

OF INTEREST

Review of two new books tracking the conflict between creationism and evolution, and an interview with Daniel Dennett.

SAWYER ON SILVERMAN

In a somewhat overwrought essay on Sarah Silverman (via Andrew Sullivan), Terry Sawyer beautifully captures the basic cowardice of Ann Coulter's schtick:

Silverman's champions should acknowledge that the surface-level of her performance dovetails nicely with the right-wing brand of performative bigotry whose message is more along the lines of: "We all know that black people are lazy and feminists are ugly lezzies, so I'm going to be the only person brave enough to say it." Irony can easily get deployed as a responsibility dodging device. Ann Coulter buttresses comments such as "When contemplating college liberals, you really regret once again that John Walker is not getting the death penalty. We need to execute people like John Walker in order to physically intimidate liberals, by making them realize that they can be killed, too. Otherwise, they will turn out to be outright traitors," with claims that liberals have no sense of humor about the threat of being mass murdered, even though part of her larger intellectual project has been to pathologize liberalism and make its claims synonymous with "Anti-Americanism". In this instance, irony is used to keep the argument about the ability of the attacked to "take a joke", even while the pernicious core of the argument seeps into popular discourse in a slightly less extreme form. Both the impolitic and the "politically incorrect" are themselves market norms; so common that everyone from Dennis Miller to Coulter can envision themselves heavyweight shadow boxers with the ghost of political correctness. Sarah Silverman is not Ann Coulter by any unsavory stretch of the imagination, but both of them spill outrageous sentiments into discourse only to cower back into suspicious explanatory coves of irony, sarcasm, or theoretical hide-and-seek.

Indeed.

MATCH POINT

The first thing that I noticed about Match Point was how neatly Woody Allen lifts right out of New York and into London. ("And, playing the Hudson River, the Thames.") There's a slightly different flavor to the proceedings, but the familiar pieces are there, the well-observed verbal slights, the bourgeois fatuousness, and of course the deeply pathetic quality of the scheming, infatuated man, who I haven't seen portrayed this well since Michael Caine in Hannah and Her Sisters.

The plot's similiarity to Crimes and Misdemeanors, one of Allen's greatest films, has been commented on a lot, but I think it's a significant change that both the husband and the other woman are written as outsiders this time around. Nola and Chris are both users, in a sense, but Chris is better at it, or has been more lucky. The mother (the excellent Penelope Wilton, last seen as Shaun's mom in Shaun of the Dead) approves of him. As a male, the fact that Chris is a relentless, if studiously passive-aggressive, social climber is not a liability for him the way it is for Nola. It's also significant that Chris never really seems to struggle too deeply with the question of whether to commit murder the way that Martin Landau's Judah did in C&M. Once it becomes clear to Chris that his lifestyle is threatened by Nola, it's more just a question of when and how.

Allen sneaks some deft little gags into the film, which announce his presence both more subtly and effectively than any Hitchcockian cameo could have. The sequence where Chris fumbles to assemble the shotgun in the neighbor's apartment is a minor masterpiece of comic logic, and such an unmistakably Woody Allen moment that I could almost hear Benny Goodman's "Sing Sing Sing" playing off a scratchy phonograph in the background. (Also, from the moment it first becomes apparent that Chris intends to use a shotgun, of all things, I kept thinking of Orwell's Decline of the English Murder.)

Jonathan Rhys Myers and Emily Mortimer are both first-rate. James Nesbitt and Ewan Bremner as the murder investigators almost steal the movie with all of five minutes of screen time. At first I couldn't figure out whether Scarlett Johannsen was just doing a bad job acting, or doing a good job playing a woman doing a bad job fronting. Her performance didn't really gel until her post-audition drink with Chris, at which point she seemed to relax into the role, which makes sense given that 1) the character had had a few drinks and 2) could let her guard down as she confided in a fellow climber.

Anyway, I thought it was great work, if not exactly a return to form, from one of our greatest artists.

Scott Lemieux has a good review over at LGM.

LARRY FRANKLIN

Gets 12 years:

A former Defense Department analyst was sentenced to more than 12 years in prison yesterday for passing government secrets to two employees of a pro-Israel lobbying group and to an Israeli government official in Washington.

U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III said Lawrence A. Franklin did not intend to harm the United States when he gave the classified data to the employees of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, one of Washington's most influential lobbying organizations. When he pleaded guilty, Franklin, an Iran specialist, said he was frustrated with the direction of U.S. policy and thought he could influence it through "back channels."

"Back channels," yes. A Defense Department analyst felt he could more easily influence U.S. policy by working through an Israeli lobbying organization than within his own chain of command. That's just great

ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES HAZIM A VERY DULL BOY

Hamas Children's TV. I submit to you that the photos (one of the mom and son watching TV, one of the dad partying with furries) could be from what looks like a pretty good Palestinian remake of The Shining.

FRANKLIN'S 300TH

Today would have been Ben Franklin's 300th birthday, if only the inventor (and scientist, journalist, printer, politician, economist, ambassador, volunteer firefighter, musician, and philosopher) had invented some sort of life-extending device. But he didn't, the lazy bum.