Every rose garden has its thorn

In a Rose Garden press conference, President Bush told the American people that he knows exactly who is to blame for the economic mess we're in: Congress. Congressional leaders shot back saying that they know exactly who is to blame for our current economic woes: President Bush. The biggest problem with Team Bush's proposals for dealing with the energy crisis is that even if it were enacted in toto, it still would require years before any tangible change would occur in fuel costs. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi came back with three proposals of her own. And since Bush can't get his bills passed and since Congressional Democrats can't muster enough votes to override a presidential veto, don't expect more than bluster as the economy continues to burn during this presidential season. As for that soon to arrive Team Bush economic stimulus check, expect that to go right into the gas tank.

Same old song and dance

Here we go again. It seems every few years, some young, innocent female starlet takes the time honored Hollywood rite of passage into adulthood. This time it’s 15-year-old Miley Cyrus. She says she’s embarrassed and blames photographer Annie Leibovitz. Disney declared its disappointment. And Madam Leibovitz came out and defended her photo shoot. And every time we fall for this manufactured controversy that produces the kind of advertising for everyone involved that you simply can’t buy.

Further, one has to wonder who is advising these starlets to do this sort of thing. The ostensible argument is that it provides a transformation for the ingénue to more mature roles. That sort of thing certainly did wonders for Elizabeth Berkley’s career. At least one career-destroyer has decided to take control over how she’s being exploited. And it’s only women that seem to get suckered into this kind of exploitation. When are they, and we, ever going to learn?

It ain't rocket science

In a story with a post "updated 5:22 p.m. EDT, Sat April 26, 2008" about the candidates and the space race and how America is getting left behind, Mr. Tom Foreman didn't bother to double check a name and it got past his fact-checkers. It was posted Saturday, so CNN must have given their copy editors the weekend off.


It's Robert Zubrin. He's the guy who has advocated the "Mars Direct" plan and got a "cameo" in The Mars Race by Gregory Benford. Remember, it's n before g, except when the g doesn't belong there. Let's see how long it takes for CNN to fix it.

How do measure an existence?

150,000 years ago in Africa, humans almost had kissing cousins: BBC

70,000 years ago, humans almost became extinct: CNN

After 22 years, the consequences of Chernobyl are still unfolding: US News

In ten years, U.S. census may end in a miscount: Time

But can the candidates play basketball?

The Indiana primary will pit two formidable opponents against one another: the voters vs. the political machine. The voters seem to stand behind Obama. The political machine seems to be backing Clinton. This can only end in tears and bitter recriminations. But at least Time Magazine's coverage seemed informed. The New York Times seemed anything but. Two dozen in a town of 46,000 does not a representative sample make. And Kokomo is no more representative of the Hoosier state than, say, Bloomington or Muncie. Kokomo seems to have been selected to confirm the New York Time's readership's bias about a flyover state they could no more locate on a map than, say, West Virginia or Montana. But with only two weeks before this primary, it's safe to say that the Hoosier state will get less attention than Pennsylvania did and that the attention will be less than illuminating.

Is it over yet?

Victory only matters if it puts you ahead of your opponent. There's been a lot of chatter about the Pennsylvania primary. Clinton won the primary by ten percentage points (or 9.5 depending on the source), but she still lags behind in the delegate count. Her latest victory couldn't put her ahead of Obama. Obama lost another primary and can't seem to win the big states. But he's still ahead and is up in fundraising. So now it's up to Indiana and North Carolina on May 6. Until May 13, when it'll be up to West Virginia. And again on May 20 when it'll be up to Kentucky and Oregon to decide the race. Then finally June 3, when it'll be decided by Montana and South Dakota and the primaries actually end. And the end just can't get here soon enough.

You do the math

The New York Times provided readers with a really nifty piece of software that lets you figure out what Hillary Rodham Clinton needs to win the nomination. Just slide the pointer and you'll get a good look. It allows you to choose from her best to her worst performance numbers in the campaign to date, and anywhere in between. The reality it shows is that it's a grim numbers game. And if Barack Obama shows up to the nominating convention with a higher number of delegates pledged through the primary process than Clinton does, it's rather unlikely that those superdelegates who remain on the fence will be willing to contravine the will of the voting public. No matter how much bloviating there is about winning, it still remains all about the numbers.

Worst act of stunt casting ever

While Iraq and the economy burn, the Gaffer-in-Chief will be putting in a video cameo appearance on a special 2 hour Deal or No Deal event.

You can't possibly make this stuff up.

Conflicts of interest

The New York Times has run a story about military analysts and put forward a damning case that they have manipulated the coverage of the war on behalf of the Pentagon and Team Bush. On the one hand, this has brought on the usual shock and outrage by the media and denials by the analysts (former military generals) themselves. And on the other, the response may just as easily "well duh." They're still former generals. Those apples don't fall very far from the tree.

But what hasn't been noted is the real disconnect between these two cultures, how they are trained to see the world and how their values fit into that world. What they share in common is a desire to support and defend the republic. They sharply diverge after that. The Pentagon sees the media as an extension of its battlespace. It's fighting the new wars on what it perceives to be the new front: 24-hour media and the Internet. This is referred to as Information Operations. It includes strategically deployed mis- and disinformation to ensure that the enemy only has the information the Pentagon wants it to have in order to possess strategic and tactical advantage. And like many other industries in the U.S., it perceives that its enemies have an advantage because the media industries in foreign countries are government run and information can be more strictly controlled. China is a case in point. Edwin L. Armistead gives a good overview of the mindset of military strategists in this field. Even one of the analysts interviewed in the Times story noted that this has "amounted to a sophisticated information operation."

Journalists, on the other hand, are in the business of liberating information. For journalists the phrase "all information wants to be free" is a bit more than just a cliche. While journalists are not in the business of hazarding the republic in time of war, there are truths that have to be reported that may not exactly help our cause, like reporting on conditions at GITMO. Journalists open up information so citizens can make informed decisions on the war. The Pentagon constricts, regulates and monitors information flows to fight the war. These are almost mutually exclusive points of view.

It's easy to be "shocked, shocked" that the administration has been manipulating the public on the subject of the war. It is doubtful that anything Team Bush does could surprise anyone anymore. But there are other issues to consider in a case like this as well. The conflicts between these two highly defensive cultures and the extent to which they misunderstand and mistrust each other's methods and motives will always remain in the equation.

Forbidden Narnia

Imagine that "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe" had been based on a classic of Chinese culture rather than on Greco-Roman mythology. And imagine that instead of communicating Christian principles, it communicated Taoist and Buddhist ones instead. To oversimplify, that movie would be "The Forbidden Kingdom." "The Forbidden Kingdom" is inspired by the Chinese classic "Journey to the West," and the central character is Monkey. In this movie Jet Li plays the part of Monkey with relish. Jet Li also plays the part of a Buddhist monk and the fight between him and the Drunken Immortal, played by Jackie Chan is priceless. They come out evenly matched, as it should be.

It can be watched as a martial arts action/fantasy and many will see it thus. But it's really more than that. And one thing that is clear is that while the Buddhist monk and the Taoist Immortal initially do not get along (especially it the desert when the Taoist master is prevailed upon to make it rain, that's a real hoot), they are willing to journey and work together. They certainly live together a lot better than the dysfunctional Children of Abraham do. And the fact that this action movie still manages to communicate some very basic ideas of both ways -- rather than trying to put one over the other -- in an undogmatic way is rather refreshing. It also offers a very different mythology that until recently has only been glimpsed in the West.

The end of the movie leaves open the possiblity for a sequel. And while the movie isn't a masterpiece, neither was "Wardrobe." And "Kingdom" was more fun too.

The Final Ed Word

Well now. If John Edwards had offered the performance on the campaign trail that he put in on "The Colbert Report" Thursday night, he might still be in the race, and up a jet ski. He did pretty well and "The EdWord" was pretty funny. Indeed, the final episode in Philadelphia as a whole was a tour de force (or tour de farce if you will). Hillary Clinton got the first word and Barach Obama the last (on a video screen Clinton fixed in the opening). But the highlight really was "The EdWord." He made a lot of interesting points in his few minutes on what would be required of a candidate to win his backing. The most important of which is that he should be made a spy. Maybe Edwards still has a place in this race after all. On the back of a jet ski.

I want it to be watchable

After a long hiatus and a disappointing series finale, The X-Files is returning this July 25 with a second full-length feature film. It's titled The X-Files: I Want to Believe. The show was really good up until about the end of the third season, the high mark being an episode called Jose Chung's From Outer Space. And while there were a few later high points like X-Cops, it fizzled out. With the appearance of the Doctor Who francise's Torchwood (and the oh so almost borderline silly The Sarah Jane Adventures), a new X-Files movie almost seems irrelevant. Let's hope that Chris Carter, who seemed strangely absent during the Bush years, can prove us wrong.

Their Holinesses

Wearing white and what could be best described as a pair of bright red Italian clogs, the Patriarch of the West, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI (nee Joseph Alois Ratzinger) arrived at Edwards Air Force Base Tuesday where he was greeted by and shook hands with the Bushes, and had his ring kissed by a bunch of black clad cardinals. He'll be here for six days and has a full schedule. He's here at the same time as the saffron clad Fourteenth Dalai Lama and other world religious leaders wrap up a five-day visit to the University of Washington in Seattle. There was an interesting protest against the Dalai Lama. More than the 200 anticipated protesters showed up singing in Mandarin. Most of them were Chinese. Go figure. All of this is happening at the same time the presidential candidates are busy making Americans blue by compiling and illustrating their own The Bitter Battle Book over faith (and guns, and shots of whiskey). And while this week promises to be colorful, expect the more opportunistic colors of black and white than nuanced shades of gray.

The wheel goes round and round

Because sometimes hacking is a good thing: CNN

Policing the urban jungle: ChiTrib

Cutters Win! Wired

One hand taketh away, the other hand giveth back: Reuters

Hoosier Hysteria

It only took 40 years, but Indiana is finally being visited by the presidential candidates. Obama took on the Gentleman from Arizona during his visit to Roosevelt High School in Gary, Ind., and discussed his experiences with laid off mill workers. He noted that a withdrawal from Iraq would take about 16 months and last into 2010. Obama told a crowd at that "I'm going to need a big turnout in Northwest Indiana to win this primary." The prospect of that must terrify Indiana's Democratic Party. The primary is held in May specifically to prevent a big turnout at the polls. Obama's visit is the first time in 40 years since a presidential candidate has stumped in Gary. The last one to do so was Robert Kennedy in 1969. Hillary Clinton, who is being supported by Sen. Evan Bayh, is set to make her second stop in da' Region on Saturday with a visit to Valparaiso, Ind. She has tellingly stepped around Gary. Remarkably, Indiana is a toss up in this primary. So far the national media have been busy elsewhere, namely Pennsylvania. It took 40 years for Indiana to become relevant to the presidential race. Let's hope it doesn't have to wait another 40 before the candidates and the national media have to take notice.

Inching ever closer to the Cylon uprising

One German restaurant is dispensing with wait staff by automating the entire process. It has created a touchpad ordering system that sends your order to a still human chef who sends the entree, using a tracked Rube Goldberg system, to your table. In Japan two different itches are being scratched. The first is by its working women who are now willing to shell out anywhere between $1,000 to $50,000 for a new breed of "working men" (otoko geishas) who are paid to only provide them with undivided attention. In the meantime, Japan is expecting a 16 percent reduction in its workforce by 2030 and is looking to bridge the gap with robots. But wait, David Levy, in his book "Love and Sex with Robots: The Evolution of Human-Robot Relationships" says we should expect to see these two things conjoined in a tidy robotic package within our lifetime. So if you happen to see an "American, petite, very pretty brunette, 5 feet 5 inches and 105 pounds" Number 6 model available for $4,300 at your local Wal-Mart in the near future, think very carefully before activating its imprinting protocol.

Pause and consider

Army Gen. David H. Petraeus went before the Senate Armed Services Committee today and told them that when military forces in Iraq drop to pre-surge levels in July, that he'll need a 45 day pause in the withdrawal. Describing progress as "significant but uneven" Petraeus outlined the ongoing challenges in Iraq. U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Ryan C. Crocker went about the business of stating the blindingly obvious, that we'll still be in Iraq into next year. Petraeus pointed a finger at Syria and Iran for supporting insurgents and special groups even as he had to joust with presidential candidates John McCain and Hillary Clinton. On Thursday, President Bush is expected to make a speech about the war. With this being the end of his presidency and after Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr cancelled his million man march on Baghdad neither Petraeus nor America should expect much from the commander-in-chief.

On any given Sunday

Benedict XVI is set to put in his first appearance in the U.S. next week with stops in New York and Washington, D.C., ostensibly to mark 200th anniversary of America's oldest parishes. He may also be trying to sell himself to American Catholics. Unfortunately he doesn't have a very good track record in this regard. This pope set off a row with Muslims in a widely misinterpreted speech to theologians. Then came the declaration that Catholicism was the one true way of Christianity, stating that all others are defective. Then he rattled the Jewish cage with a revision of the Good Friday Latin rite. At least he's willing to talk about the church sexual abuse scandal. About time and just in time for all those other sex scandals that have plagued us of late.

China will always have Paris

Third time was a charm as protesters helped put out the Olympic torch in Paris on its way to China. Protesters also scaled the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco as well. This follows a tumultuous day previously in London. The athletes themselves are coming under greater pressure to take a stand against China's human rights record and its (admittedly abusive) relationship to Tibet. The torch's route through the world has become a gathering storm for all of the dragon's enemies, uniting a diverse group of bedfellows. Sadly, China, not being a democracy, is not going to bend to world public opinion. Until the mandate of heaven is withdrawn from the Communist party, the red hot spotlight probably will not bring freedom or justice to Tibet and its people. But one could hope.

Either you're in or you're out

While executive compensation keeps going up, so does the unemployment rate. Both of these issues have landed on Congress' doorstep. The labor sector has shed 232,000 jobs in three months and that's setting off the kind recession alarms that both the deaf and unemployed can hear. House Speaker wants to do something about it, thank you very much. She's asking Team Bush to work with them on another stimulus package, which will almost certainly lead to the preprogrammed Team Bush response: Make our tax cuts permanent. The bright spot in this mess is that if you filed your taxes before April 15 and had direct electronic deposit done, your End of the Bush Presidency Rebate should land in your account between May 2 and 16, providing you still have a bank account, or a bank for that matter.

Oh, by the way, while people were losing their homes in the subprime meltdown, Merrill Lynch can-exed E. Stanley O'Neal and replaced him with John A. Thain who apparently got a whopping $83.8 million in compensation. Imagine that.

Letting the NRA president go

The great Charlton Heston passed away Saturday at the age of 84. Known for his motion picture roles as Moses in "The Ten Commandments" and as Judah Ben-Hur in movie "Ben Hur", he starred in "The Planet of the Apes" -- and had a cameo in the sub-par remake by Tim Burton -- and was "The Omega Man." He was also known for his political causes. He served as president and spokesman of the National Rifle Association from 1998 until 2003 when he resigned for health reasons. While the cause of death has not been disclosed, in 2002 he announced that he symptoms consistent with Alzheimer's disease. With more than 100 roles, he leaves behind a substantial body of work.

Who wants to be a pirate?

Because cheese-eating surrender monkeys go abroad too: CNN

Forget Big Brother. Worry about Big Business: WashPost

Blessed are they who are poor and strike: NYTimes

Arabian coins found in the land of the ice and snow: BBC

What does he know, when will we know it

It was Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke's turn to visit Capitol Hill today. Possible stagnation, contraction and growth was the cycle to expect through 2009 that he laid out to the Joint Economic Committee. He remains unwilling to declare that the U.S. has entered a recession and defended the rescue of Bear Stearns. He does see strains in the credit markets as being a problem but sees a rosy future for the economy.

Unfortunately, Bernanke's pronunciations from on high, as usual, are divorced from the reality that voters live in. One of the great stresses on the economy is the cost of fuel, and the cost of food, sectors that get bracketed out of economic models because of their volatility. It's also hurt by the relatively low value of the dollar (good for exports, bad for imports) and wage stagnation. None of these things seems to have come up. Until these matters are addressed in a meaningful way, the economy will remain priority one, and the candidates can't afford to remain stupid about it.

All hail the Colbert Nation

Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi is Number 1! CNN

No! Wait! Stephen Colbert's Number 1! Peabody

The bad luck of the Irish NYTimes

Why do 7-year-olds do anything? USA Today

April Fuels

For Americans who find themselves working for gas, the Oil-lords were called to Capitol Hill to account for the tax-breaks they are lobbying for in a time (for them) of breathtaking profits, more than $123 billion in 2007. The oil companies and Team Bush, unsurprisingly, argue that they need the tax breaks to remain competitive with state-run oil companies overseas and that their profit margin, in the 9 percent range, is comparatively normal. This is the third time since November 2005 they've been called into account. The House has twice passed legislation to turn off the tax break tap, but it hasn't gotten through the Senate and Bush (yes he's still allegedly the president) has vowed to veto any said legislation. The dog-and-pony show goes to the Senate on Thursday. Legislators are trapped between the voters and their donors on this one. Place your bets on how it'll end.